New York City Council Budgeted Millions of Dollars for Fake Community Groups

Christine C. Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council, announced on Thursday that the council has appropriated about $17.4-million to dozens of fake community groups since 2001, reports The New York Times

The newspaper says the money was budgeted for fictitious groups like the Coalition of Informed Individuals and Senior Citizens for Equality so that council members could spend money on real community programs they supported without obtaining mayoral approval.

The United States attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation have inquiries under way, but Ms. Quinn said she believed that the money allocated to fictitious groups was ultimately spent on legitimate groups.

According to Ms. Quinn, who has been speaker since 2006, the practice took place during the tenures of the two previous speakers, Peter F. Vallone Sr. and Gifford Miller.

Mr. Vallone defended the practice. “If the money is used for necessary things to help the people of the city, like for police overtime, or like to fund six-day library service, if it’s used for that purpose, that’s great,” he said.

Ms. Quinn, however, said at a news conference on Thursday that “it’s something I believe is completely inappropriate and should not have gone on, and will no longer go on.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)