Governor David Paterson attended the Citizens Union annual dinner last night at the Waldorf Astoria to present his father, Basil, with an award from the good government group.  read more »

Christine Quinn, who came into the Council speakership as a self-declared reformer, is now coming under fire from one of the oldest good-government organizations in the city, which says it is “disillusioned” with her handling of the term-limits issue.

Citizens Union executive director Dick Dadey  released a statement yesterday criticizing Quinn for announcing her support of a legislative proposal by the mayor to allow elected officials to run for three consecutive four-year terms, up from two—before a single public hearing on the matter was held.

The group is also picking up on a recommendation from one of her most vocal critics, Representative Anthony Weiner, by asking her to hold public hearings across the city, rather than just two next week in City Hall.  read more »

Running out of City Hall this afternoon - where there’s been some chatter by folks lingering in the lobby that there might be a deal on the city budget as early as tomorrow night - I saw Dick Dadey and some good-government activists outlining changes they’d like to city put in place before the elections later this year.

The ideas suggested by Citizens Union, Common Cause and other groups are fairly granular for the most part, but they could, if actually enacted, amount to a significant change in the way things work on Election Day. The proposals include:

1. Increase the number of quality of poll workers by offering comp time for city employees working the polls.  read more »

So, how will today’s revelation affect Christine Quinn's political future?

Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said, “We’re required to give Speaker Quinn the benefit of the doubt, especially since she announced today she was the person who alerted law enforcement to the problem.”

“We don’t know the impact because we don’t know what will occur here," added Sheinkopf, who has worked for likely mayoral candidate Bill Thompson. "The good news is, from a P.R. and political perspective, she got in front of the story. The bad news is that she’s in the story. And only time will tell if she remains in the story.”  read more »

Citizens Union, a group that promotes government openness and transparency, is urging state lawmakers to pass congestion pricing.  read more »

According to that Citizens Union study, one of the City Council’s most prolific advertisers with public money is James Gennaro of Queens.

His spokeswoman, Lee Landor, emailed over this reaction to the report:

"We do not believe that our ads are excessive. Additionally, all of our ads provide our constituents with our district office information so that anyone who has questions or concerns can easily reach us. These ads make us even more accessible to our constituents and assist in making it known that we're here and available to them.

"Also, all political ads are paid for by Councilman Gennaro's campaign committee funds; if there's a political message in an ad, it's an ad paid for by the campaign committee."