Gothamist In Showdown with New York City Council Over Slush Funds FOIL Request

Is Phil Monaco trying to protect his boss, Christine Quinn ?

Phil Monaco, a staff attorney in the New York City Council general counsel’s office, is warning Councilmembers about an e-mail from a staffer “who works for the Gothamist,” who is following up on a Freedom of Information Law (or FOIL) request.

The FOIL request was being made as part of an investigation by Gothamist into the "finances of City Council members," reported the local news blog Politicker.

Gothamist is investigating how Councilmembers are paid their reimbursable expenses and their standard office expense allowances, but Mr. Monaco is trying to shut down any attempts to investigate City Council payments. In his e-mail to Councilmembers, Mr. Monaco was trying to reassure Councilmembers that he was trying his best to shut down the Gothamist's investigation. "These emails are NOT legitimate FOIL requests. And they do not require a response, as they are not proper requests under the law," Mr. Monaco wrote. "There is nothing your offices need to do at this time."

For years, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was being investigated for the illegal practice of making discretionary budget allocations of taxpayer money to fictitious accounts, so that she could later use those slush funds for political purposes.

In the Politicker report, the publisher and co-founder of Gothamist, Jake Dobkin, confirmed that Gothamist had “about 40 FOILs open right now.”

How much longer before the Gothamist turns up more evidence of how Speaker Quinn has become a total political boss with all the attendant misuse of political power and taxpayer money ?

Does Bill Thompson Need to Drop Out of the Mayor's Race ?

We like @billthompsonnyc, but is he really in the mayoral race to win it ? nyc-mayor-2013.blogspot.com/p/bill-thompso… : Financial reliance on @mikebloomberg

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) February 18, 2013

Let's take a look at how Bill Thompson's wife, Elsie McCabe Thompson, has become all mixed up in depending on tens of millions of dollars in donations from Mayor Mike Bloomberg. (The Village Voice) Hmmmmmmmmm ?

Campaign Slush Fund Reminder

The New York Times Editorial to Christine Quinn : Shut Down Your Slush Fund !

Last week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was hand-picking Christine Quinn to be his heir to the mayoralty of New York City, because Quinn's use of a taxpayer slush fund for political corruption reminded him so much of Bloomberg's three-tiered campaign finance scheme.

Quinn, who is the Speaker of the City Council, is the openly-lesbian politician, around whom many LGBT New Yorkers are rallying around, even though Quinn has had one of her friends diagnose LGBT civil rights activists with ''confusion,'' and this on top of the fact that Quinn has done nothing to investigate the illegal NYPD raid on the Eagle Bar, just some of the many examples of how Quinn has thrown valid LGBT issues under the bus.

Is Christine Quinn going to hold the NYPD accountable for raiding the Eagle on the very night when marriage equality became law ? What kind of an LGBT leader is she, if she does not fight for our LGBT civil rights ? Join our Facebook page : Gays Against Christine Quinn.