Christine Quinn will unveil her new proposal for reforming the City Council's budget practices, at a 1 p.m. press conference in City Hall.

Details of the new plan have been trickling out since she briefed Council members yesterday, but what it basically comes down to is that Quinn is backing off her plan to have Council members' discretionary spending vetted through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process decided on by the mayor’s side of City Hall.

That idea was deeply unpopular with most Council members because, they said, it gutted their main budgetary power.

On Monday evening, Quinn met with the heads of two of the city’s leading good-government watchdogs, Gene Russianoff of N.Y.P.I.R.G. and Dick Dadey of Citizens Union. Both declined to detail Quinn’s proposal in advance of her announcement.