Sunday, October 28, 2012

Quinn Politicises City Council Meetings, When She Has Them

Last week, The New York Times published the healthcare horror stories of two women, who work in Corona, Queens, and who are suffering because New York City Council Christine Quinn continues to block paid a sick leave bill.

Meanwhile, as Hurricane Sandy began to head toward New York, Speaker Quinn was trying to schedule a full City Council meeting in order to meet the statutory requirement to have two full City Council meetings per month. Seeing as how she politicises the council's agenda, tries to stall issues, and even resorts to sometimes locking out the community from City Council meetings, the fact that Speaker Quinn was having to resort to an emergency City Council meeting on a Sunday even as Gov. Andrew Cuomo was declaring a state of emergency demonstrates how the City Council Speaker manipulates the City Council calendar. So that she would not get in trouble with legal requirements, Speaker Quinn was planning to just "gavel in and gavel out," and discuss no business. But now it turns out that today's emergency City Council meeting has been deferred.

Speaker Quinn can gather all the City Councilmembers and hold an empty and meaningless City Council meeting ? For all that time that she continues to delay or thwart important business, like paid sick leave, but yet stack the deck to promote zone-busting real estate projects like Chelsea Market, even on the eve of Hurricane Sandy, how can this not be suspect ?

How can a large storm that was forecast days in advance to be heading our way can catch the City Council Speaker off guard ?

The New York Times article about the two women, who endure healthcare emergencies but have no sick days, risk getting fired if they call in sick. Their situation will continue, with no relief in sight, so long as Speaker Quinn continues to manipulate the City Council agenda for political expediency.

2012-10-28 New York City Council Meeting Deferred - Christine Quinn 2012-10-28 New York City Council Agenda - Gavel In Gavel Out - Christine Quinn

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