Vallone Welcomes New Vetting for Member Items

Peter Vallone, Jr., who said his colleagues “universally panned” Christine Quinn’s proposed budget reform, is welcoming the new vetting process for member items announced earlier today by Bill Thompson.

In a telephone interview just now, Vallone said, “We’re working to reform the system on our end. And I’m glad the mayor and comptroller are working on their end, because the job of overseeing not-for-profits to ensure that those agencies spend the money properly is theirs.”

“Everybody forgets that part,” he said. “If an not-for-profit is misusing the money, that’s the fault of the oversight agency, such as the mayoral agency that handed out the contract. It’s those agencies that are supposed to root out those problems. The Council does not have those resources.”

Vallone said he submitted a letter to Quinn this morning outlining additional changes he’d like to see the Council take with respect to member items.

“We should be rehiring investigative staff that had been disbanded and have them do random audits of groups receiving member items,” Vallone said. “And no member should be allowed to give money to groups [when that member's] family members, staffers, or former staffers” have “any paid role.”

“I don’t do that. No one else should do that.”