Maria Alvarado

At a press conference in Brooklyn yesterday, I asked Christine Quinn about the Daily News story saying the City Council improperly funneled money to illegitimate charities using “conduit groups.”

At the time, Quinn said the practice was legal, practical, and ongoing for a number of years.

Quinn also said there were a number of inaccuracies in that story. So, after the event I emailed her spokeswoman, Maria Alvarado, to ask specifically what they thought the inaccuracies were.

Alvarado emailed me a point-by-point response later, which rests on the notion the council wasn't trying to hide the practice. Also, they say that city law doesn't require groups receiving taxpayer money to be registered as 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

Here's the email, with the News passages in quotes:  read more »

Last week, Christine Quinn gave her first State of the City speech, which was generally well received and sparked even more talk about her mayoral prospects. But who exactly wrote it?

According to Council spokesperson Maria Alvarado, it came from outside City Hall.

"The speech was written by Eric Shuffler, who's done speech writing for Corzine, Codey and Coscia. The Council paid for it."

Shuffler, who lives in New York, was counselor to former New Jersey Governors Jim McGreevey and Richard Codey, and worked for former Senator Bob Torricelli before that. He's now a lobbyist.

In the past the Council has had speechwriters on staff. This time, the Council put out a bid for the speech. Shuffler got the job.

-- Azi Paybarah