Ignizio Ally Sues, Ron Kuby Cheers
On his Curtis and Kuby radio show this morning, liberal attorney Ron Kuby said the lawsuit filed against City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to force her to swear in Republican Councilman-elect Vinny Ignizio "seems like a meritorious case."
The lawsuit from outspoken political activist Frank Morano, who works at Kuby's radio show, claims that residents in Ignizio's districts are unjustly unrepresented now because of issues surrounding the results of a different City Council election held in Brooklyn on the same day, Feb. 20. (That other election was won by Mathieu Eugene, who has been dealing with a residency issue.)
Kuby, who you can hear over here, explained:
"I think Staten Island would just like to have representation since they're paying taxes. It would be nice if their elected Council member can actually, and the only reason he's not being sworn in is because there is a disputed election with respect to a Brooklyn Council person as to his residency. It has nothing to do with Vinny Ignizio. Vinny Ignizio won an overwhelming margin."
UPDATE: A spokeswoman for Speaker Quinn points to an earlier statement explaining that they're waiting for the election results to be certified, and that the timetable has nothing to do with that Mathieu Eugene.
Spokeswoman Maria Alvarado said:
"Our hope is that residents of the 51st Council District will have their elected representative in place as soon as possible. We are waiting for the official certification of the election results from the Board of Elections, which we hope to receive in the coming days.
"Our decision to wait on swearing in Council Member-elect Ignizio is due solely to our decision to only swear in new Council Members after the Board of Elections has officially certified the election results. For any elections in the future, we will not act until every vote is counted and the Board of Elections has officially certified the results and declared a winner. It's the right action to take in any and all cases."
-- Azi Paybarah
Kuby is just wrong. The Council was wrong in the past to swear in new Councilmembers before their victories were certified. The present Speaker became aware of the because of the controversy surrounding Dr. Eugene. They have now instituted a new and correct policy to wait until certification.
This is all a Quinn coverup to try to solve Eugene residency problem
Nobody wants to insult the new congresswoman or the growing-in-importance hatian community of Brooklyn, so the Speaker moves slowly. But Ignizio was elected fair in square and the 51st district does not have a representative while Majority Democrats try to coordinate a nice way to clean up another Brooklyn Democratic mess! Bifurcate the races and install Ignizio post haste!!
Jerry you have it half right. Quinn did this to Ignizio in order not to give him the pay raise for Councilmembers. You needed to be a councilmember before March 1st in order to receive the raise.
Huh? What salary where Ignizio & anyone elected from now own receive? Is there now a 2 tiered system of salary based on seniority?
no such thing as two tiers. His pay will be back dated until his certification. Until then nothing is official. Ignizio has to deal with it.
Ignizio shouldn't have resigned from his Assembly seat so fast....he'd at least draw a state salary and do assemblyman work. Who is the GOP candidate for his seat anyway?
The GOP hasn't named a candidate yet. The name most often mentioned is John Antoniello, but another potential candidate is none other than Frank Morano homself.
So the post about Ignizio not getting the salary increase was just wrong?
What how Quinn shuts up Ignizio which she looks for a way to seat Dr. Eugene