No third term for Christine Quinn

'Where are the watch dogs? Where are the accountability and the transparency?' -- Bloomberg Newzzz

In 2008, Christine Quinn backed Mayor Michael Bloomberg on a controversial bill that overturned voter-approved term limits and allowed for the Mayor, City Councilmembers (including Quinn herself), and Borough Presidents to run for third terms, reversing the results of two successive public referenda. The Public Advocate and Comptroller both denounced this move; neither will seek a third term.

In June 2009, the Public Advocate's Office sustained a 40% budget cut for the fiscal year commencing July 1. No other elected office received a cut greater than 6%.

In April 2008, Quinn became embroiled in a scandal over phantom budget allocations to non-existent community groups. In fiscal year 2007-08 alone, $4.5 million had been set aside for thirty different phantom groups.

Quinn was investigated on these slush funds and stated that while she knew some money was being held, she had only recently found out the groups were fake. She also said she told her staff to stop funneling money to the fake groups, but they didn't.

"I was kind of sick over the fact that there were things listed in the budget that were not accurate and that my instructions to the staff were disregarded." Quinn says she turned over information to city and state authorities.

*** The above text information was excerpted/quoted from Wikipedia as of 25-July-2009. ***