About Those Former Quinn Staffers...

Since the story about her aides channeling money into fake organizations broke, Christine Quinn has stressed that said aides were under direct orders for her not to do so. (She also says she knew about the practice of putting money aside, but not about the phantom organizations).

In her initial press conference on the subject, Quinn said only that two members of her finance department no longer work for the council.

She declined to name them, but it has now been reported that one of those staffers is Staci Emanuel, who reporters haven't had much luck tracking down. The other is Michael Keogh.

When Keogh left the City Council, he landed a job at Bolton St. Johns. The powerful lobbying firm (it's ranked #2 in the city by revenue) is also home to Emily Giske, a noted friend of the speaker. (Early in her term, Quinn was obliged to say publicly that her friendship with Giske did not affect her legislative agenda when she pushed for tighter regulations on pedicab drivers, who are seen as being in direct competition with taxicabs, an industry represented by Bolton St. Johns, though not specifically by Giske.)

There are a number of possible explanations for this, and this could all be perfectly coincidental. Giske has lots of friends. And Keogh certainly has been around long enough, and has a good enough reputation, to be prefectly capable of landing a lobbying job on his own. But it's a question of timing, and an explanation from any of the involved parties about whether or not it had anything to do with when Quinn became aware the investigations into the Council's financial practices would be welcome.

So far, Keogh, Giske and Norman Adler, founder of Bolton St. Johns, have not responded to requests for comment. Quinn’s office, which previously said they would not discuss personnel issues, also declined to comment on the matter.