THE MAYORAL WARS:
NY TIMES
Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, denied... that she had used the power of her office to avenge grievances with elected officials who disagreed with her.
But hours later, two council members said that was not the case, describing episodes when they believed Ms. Quinn, who as speaker controls the Council’s financial accounts, had cut financing from programs in their districts after a political altercation.
Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., a Queens Democrat, said that Ms. Quinn, had slashed city contributions to his district and allowed cuts to a college scholarship fund named for his father after the younger Mr. Vallone opposed a proposal by Ms. Quinn to name the Queensboro Bridge for former Mayor Edward I. Koch.
“It was made clear to me in no uncertain terms that there would be retribution for my vote,” Mr. Vallone said in an interview. “No one should ever be punished for representing the voices of the people who elected them.”
Councilwoman Elizabeth S. Crowley, another Queens Democrat, said Ms. Quinn cut financing for youth programs and senior centers in her district in 2010 after her office issued a news release about local firehouses, before budget negotiations were finished, that failed to credit the speaker.
“It was so brazenly vindictive, I don’t know what else to call it,” Ms. Crowley said. The councilwoman acknowledged that she had erred by sending out a premature and unauthorized news
release, but said Ms. Quinn’s response was inappropriate.
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[A second article (below) in the NY TIMES added this : Asked about the episode last week, Ms. Quinn said that Ms. Crowley had committed “a completely inappropriate, attention-grabbing act” and violated Council protocol. “She was told it was not acceptable, and I did not mince words in telling her that,” she said.
release, but said Ms. Quinn’s response was inappropriate.
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[A second article (below) in the NY TIMES added this : Asked about the episode last week, Ms. Quinn said that Ms. Crowley had committed “a completely inappropriate, attention-grabbing act” and violated Council protocol. “She was told it was not acceptable, and I did not mince words in telling her that,” she said.
Did Ms. Crowley have her funding cut as a punishment? “It is what happened that year,” Ms. Quinn replied.
Pressed on whether the move was an act of retaliation, Ms. Quinn just smiled: “It is what happened that year,” she said again, signaling that the matter was closed. ]
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Ms. Quinn, as speaker, has wide discretion to distribute an annual pot of Council funds — worth nearly $400 million last year, according to the Independent Budget Office — among the 51 council members. The ability of legislative leaders to reward allies and punish critics is not unique to the Council speaker; powerful lawmakers in Albany and Washington have long used their positions to withhold any number of perks, like grant-making power, office space and committee assignments, to maintain discipline.
Ms. Quinn’s spokesman, Jamie McShane, denied that the speaker had punished Mr. Vallone, saying there were other council members who opposed the bridge renaming but did not see changes in their district funding.
Ms. Quinn, in [a] television interview, said her toughness was an asset in managing a Council that, before her speakership, had been seen as unruly.
“I’ve tried very hard to bring discipline to the City Council, which was for many, many years kind of known as an undisciplined body, without focus,” said Ms. Quinn, who was elected speaker in 2006. She described steps she had taken to bring more order to the Council, including scheduling regular caucus meetings and “asking people to comment when they are supposed to comment, not comment when they are not supposed to comment.”
NY TIMES
A session of the New York City Council had descended into chaos, and lawmakers were openly questioning her leadership. Ms. Quinn, the Council speaker, decided there was one person to blame: Betsy Gotbaum, then the city’s public advocate, who had been presiding.
The response was sudden and fierce. Ms. Quinn summoned Ms. Gotbaum to an office nearby and, with little warning, began shouting at her in increasingly angry tones about appearing weak in front of other lawmakers.
You were like Bambi in there!” Ms. Quinn exclaimed, slamming her hand on a table for emphasis, according to Ms. Gotbaum, who was on crutches at the time.
Ms. Gotbaum was stunned. “I didn’t merit that kind of unprofessional behavior,” she said recently.
As she pursues a high-profile bid for mayor, Ms. Quinn, a Democrat, has proudly promoted her boisterous personality, hoping that voters will embrace her blend of brashness and personal charm.
But in private, friends and colleagues say, another Ms. Quinn can emerge: controlling, temperamental and surprisingly volatile, with a habit of hair-trigger eruptions of unchecked, face-to-face wrath.
She has threatened, repeatedly, to slice off the private parts of those who cross her.
She is sensitive to slights: When a Queens councilwoman neglected to credit Ms. Quinn in a news release, the speaker retaliated by cutting money for programs in her district.
Ms. Quinn’s staff, concerned that angry tirades could be overheard by outsiders, added soundproofing to her City Hall office. Wary of her temper, they are known to ask one another: “Did she throw up on you today?”
Ms. Quinn is by no means the first hotheaded politician in New York — Fiorello H. La Guardia and Rudolph W. Giuliani, both former mayors, were famed for their outbursts.
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In an interview last week, Ms. Quinn readily acknowledged her angry moments.
“I don’t think being pushy or bitchy or tough, or however you want to characterize it, is a bad thing,” she said. “New Yorkers want somebody who’s going to get things done.”
“Sometimes I yell, sometimes I raise my voice,” she added. “I am trying to do it less, because it’s not always attractive. It’s not always the right thing to do.”
A former housing activist, Ms. Quinn is an adept practitioner of the arts of municipal power, unrelenting in her negotiations and not afraid to intimidate. Her supporters say she has brought much-needed discipline to a Council once dismissed as ungovernable, hammering out useful legislation and calming relations with the mayor.
More than two dozen current and former city officials, lobbyists and political operatives recounted being berated by Ms. Quinn, but few would speak for the record, citing a fear of retaliation. They offered nearly identical accounts of their altercations, describing a rapid escalation of voice and vitriol, occasionally laced with vulgarity.
“Her eyes get really wide, she points her fingers,” one official said. “She gets really close to you. It’s really in your face.”
A former campaign donor who had been called to Ms. Quinn’s office to discuss a legislative proposal said: “She screamed at me for 10 minutes, uninterrupted, and used the ‘F’-word at least 20 times. I was just so startled, I didn’t know what to do.”
On telephone calls, Ms. Quinn can begin unexpected diatribes, her voice growing so loud that callers often have to hold their phones away from their ears.
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Ms. Quinn, who often publicly pokes fun at her own brassiness, is fully aware of her aggressive tendencies, once bragging in an interview that she could “open up the bitch tap and let the water run.” In an e-mail exchange with advocates, Ms. Quinn once offered a wry self-description: “control freak! Lol.”
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In caucus meetings, Ms. Quinn is perceived by lawmakers as aloof and dismissive, rarely looking up from her BlackBerry and loudly cutting off council members who try to raise concerns about pending bills.
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In caucus meetings, Ms. Quinn is perceived by lawmakers as aloof and dismissive, rarely looking up from her BlackBerry and loudly cutting off council members who try to raise concerns about pending bills.
At the end of meetings, Ms. Quinn asks, “Any other issues?” She does not wait for the answer before ducking out of the room, adding, “Bye!”
Even those subjected to a Quinn dressing-down say that, in happier times, the speaker is also unusually adept at turning on the charm. Her anger can be followed by bursts of ingratiating sweetness.
Colleagues recall telephone calls on birthdays and cheek-kisses at public functions, only days after a high-decibel shouting session. And the members of her staff are strikingly loyal, with close advisers staying by her side for years.
The yo-yo effect, colleagues and advocates say, is disconcerting, leading them to wonder if Ms. Quinn’s tantrums are a calculated tool to maintain order, or the byproduct of a stormy temperament that even her staff is helpless to soothe.