City Comptroller Bill Thompson yesterday accused the City Council of hoodwinking the public by creating phantom organizations and announced that he will review every nonprofit contract awarded by legislators from now on.
Thompson’s action – in a letter to Council Speaker Christine Quinn – comes a week after The Post detailed how her office hid millions of taxpayer dollars by allocating them to made-up groups as a way of holding on to funds for use later in the year after the budget had been passed.
Sources said the money, amounting to more than $17 million during the past six years, was doled out as political favors to groups affiliated with lawmakers who had been loyal to the speaker’s agenda. But Quinn (D-Manhattan) insisted it was used to correct mistakes in the budget, funding groups that fell through the cracks.
“It remains clear, however, that the council’s process was conceived and used to deflect legitimate inquiry into how our tax dollars are being allocated,” Thompson wrote.
Thompson, a possible mayoral contender against Quinn next year, also wants to have the firm of Deloitte & Touche audit council spending and asked Quinn to specifically detail all “discretionary” expenses, which have never been disclosed in full. The comptroller’s salvo “could be perceived to be the opening shot of the 2009 mayoral race,” said Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College.
Thompson denied politics was at play.
“I’m taking the action because I’m the comptroller,” he said, adding that he still has faith “in the integrity of the speaker.”
But, he added, “the public’s confidence in the budget process has been shaken, and we need to make sure that every dollar can be traced and accounted for.”
Quinn said she hadn’t seen his letter, but had discussed with Thompson the possibility of outside auditors.
“We began conversations with the comptroller’s office earlier this week about the idea of the City Council retaining outside experts who could help not just review this practice but look at all of the practices in the budget,” Quinn said.
“So we could really develop the best practices possible so obviously we welcome any and all assistance.”
Meanwhile, former Council Speaker Gifford Miller – under whom the practice of allocating funds to bogus groups began, according to Quinn – declined to explain what he knew.
With additional reporting by Tim Perone