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Christine Quinn: Pettiness Personified
Got an interesting letter forwarded to me, and I am told I can run with it. I am hoping I am not stepping on the toes of either of the two good folks in this sad, petty tantrum. Tony Avella and Doris Diether don't deserve this kind of crap. But it is worth showing that Chritine Quinn is willing to stoop so low for such petty reasons. Not sure the full path of this leak, but I Tony Avella does not seem party to it. But at least one key link in the chain has given the go ahead for it.
SO the background is that Doris Diether, a wonderful member of Community Board 2, is having an 80th birthday. Sincere congratulations! May Doris have many more wonderful birthdays! Doris has served on the community board since a little before I was born!
Tony Avella apparently wished to honor this woman with a proclamation on her 80th birthday. This is a fairly common thing in our city government and something that can make people feel pretty good. It is nice when city government recognizes by official proclamation good people and groups. Avella was doing a nice thing here and from all I have heard, Avella generally does nice things.
Enter the grinch of the story.
Christine Quinn, apparently angry that Avella had, in the past, opposed her Majesty, stepped in. Quinn wanted to offer her own proclamation (which is her right) and had a little hissy fit about Avella. Normally under such circumstances, Quinn would merely invite Avella to sign onto her proclamation. Nice, neat, clean. Everyone is happy. But Quinn would have nothing of protocol, custom or diplomacy. Quinn preferred petty tantrums. Not only did she want her proclamation to take precidence (not a problem) but she refused to allow Avella to sign onto her proclamation, which is a clear violation of protocol...not to mention common decency.
Here is a scan of an email I was forwarded regarding Quinn's hissy fit:
Sorry if the image isn't the best. The text reads:
I am writing with some unfortunate news regarding Councilman Avella's proclamation for Ms. Diether on January 10th. It looks like the Councilman will not be able to attend nor present a proclamation. As you may know, Speaker Quinn will be presenting her own proclamation at the event. Normally, City Council protocol allows any interested Councilmember to sign on to the proclamation. However, given the Speaker's political differences with the Councilman, she is not allowing Tony's name to be attached to her proclamation nor is she letting him have his own proclamation. The Councilman is upset and angry over these circumstances and obviously does not want any of this political infighting to affect Ms. Diether's celebration...
So, in other words, Tsarina Quinn is allowing politics to interfere with honoring a valued member of the community. Upon hearing of this, my wife gave one of her usual very insightful comments:
Now we get to see Quinn's gratuitous abuse of power...in addition to her usual abuse of power that financially benefits her friends and allies.
A scan of Tony Avella's reply was also forwarded to me:
Again the image quality isn't the best. The key portion reads:
The nonsense that then ensued from your office defies explanation. It would seem that you wanted to do the proclamation. Without going into detail as to who first requested the proclamation, your refusal to allow me as a Member of the City Council to sign on to your proclamation is an absolute disgrace.
Frankly, your behavior in this regard is both unprofessional and childish. Surely, whatever political we may have can be set aside to celebrate the life and accomplishments of a woman who has dedicated herself to improving the quality of life of her neighborhood.
Remember that Christine Quinn is also the person who either was at the center of, or turned a blind eye to the Slushgate scandal. Then there was the massive insult to voters in reversing the term limits referenda overwhelmingly passed by voters. And now there is the fact that she is just plain a spoiled, pewling brat when you get right down to it.
For those who are sick of Tsarina Quinn, there are two good candidates running against her this year: Yetta Kurland and Maria Passannante Derr. I have heard particularly good things about Yetta, but Maria also seems good.
Our elective officials are
Our elective officials are always taking retribution on those who voice different opinions. Whether they are colleagues or community board members. That's the MO of these Bums. In Brooklyn, when there was a bias crime at Lafayatte HS sometime ago, against a Chinese student , Councilman John Lui stepped in to Right a Wrong & Councilman Domenic Recchia got so bent out shape that he publically admonished Lui for stepping into in his turf (Gravesend, Bensonhurst). This is what we have to deal with. Once they get the grip of power they don't want to reliquish it, hence they voted with the Mayor to extend term limits & F#$K the public.
Whose turf is it, anyway?
In the case of John Liu (note to "gothanonymous reader" -- check spelling), if he went into Recchia's district he should at least have notified Recchia and invited him take a major role. That is standard courtesy. Last February I invited Darlene Mealy to hold a press conference on my block because she had a bill in the Council regarding potholes and there was a beautiful pothole on the street in front of my apartment building where the DOT utterly failed to respond to repeated complaints. Naturally, we invited Eric Gioia, who represents this district, to take part in the press conference (we also got him to cosponsor the bill). If Liu had invited Recchia, and Recchia had declined, then there would have been no cause for complaint, but if Liu never invited Recchia that was a violation of standard protocol.
As regards Quinn/Avella, it appears to be a simple case of the kind of childish tantrum that Herself has thrown in the past. Never mind that Avella is on the outs with several Council Members (I know from personal contact a couple of Council Members who won't even consider signing on to a bill just because Avella introduced it), protocol is still followed, and Chris Quinn violated that protocol. If she really despised the idea of sharing the state with him, she could have stayed out of it.
I think I understand the so-called "slush fund" deal, and frankly I think there's a lot of smoke but no real fire. The money was officially placed in phony accounts in order to satisfy the law that requires all spending to be allocated at the beginning of the fiscal year, regardless of where, or when, it will actually be spent. It was eventually spent on what are generally considered to be perfectly legitimate things. One problem is that many organizations have fiscal years that differ widely from the City's July 1 - June 30 FY. Another is that these organizations often don't know at the beginning of a year what expenses may crop up during the year. In order to accommodate this "real world" situation, these phony funds were set up (under a previous Speaker, I might add) not to cheat the public or hide the spending, but merely to make the spending as legal as possible in a wonky system.
The point of the previous paragraph is that we needn't go after Speaker Quinn based on some pretty weak facts, especially since there is so much that we can attack her on, such as her reversal on term limits, her claims to reform when she is actually making things worse, and her petty abuse of anyone who crosses her. She is very bright and very shrewd, but one has to wonder if she's a fitting Speaker ... or even a decent Council Member.
From my understanding of the
From my understanding of the Liu ( corrected as noted)/ Recchia issue, Recchia didn't want to get involved for other political reasons. He was concentrating on his failed Congressional bid at the time & he WAS informed of the problem, but did NOTHING. But to publically ( and I heard Recchia did this on the floor of the City Council) is quite inappropriate & THUGGISH. This is Mr. Recchia's MO.
Quinn Resign Now!
Quinn has NO business whatsoever holding any position of power. Please, PLEASE, can we get rid of her now!!!!
RESIGN QUINN, YOU IDIOT!
This past Friday , Jan. 6,
This past Friday , Jan. 6, 2009, I attended the 6th Anniversary Dinner Party of the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn. Among the NO Shows at this event, where they honor variuous community people & give out proclamations, was none other than Councilman Domenic Recchia. He didn't even send in a rep.! That goes to show how he has marginalized a whole enthic community.
No Show Recchia
I find it interesting that Recchia is the focus of this discussion since he wasn't involved in the incident mentioned in the diary, however he is indeed an example of how bad the City Council is these days. Recchia himself is largely a puppet of Vito Lopez and developers.
In terms of his not showing, to be, sort of, fair Recchia was a no show at almost every political club in the NY-13 district when he was running for Congress (before being shoved aside by McMahon). In essence, it was as if he assumed the backing of Vito Lopez and developer money was all he needed to win. So he has a general pattern of ignoring actual community members. It might not just be the ethnic community, it is the community in general.
Also, was he the only City Council member to not show? Was it in his district? Just wondering if he deserves singling out on this.
Rosalie : The organization
Rosalie : The organization United Chinese Association of Brooklyn is located in Bensonhurst.
Well
Then it does look worse that he didn't show. Though again, I think he just doesn't give a crap about the community in general, not just ethnic communities.