EXCERPT April 5, 2008 -- Friends and co-workers of two former City Council staffers accused of disobeying orders to scrap a phantom budget system fumed yesterday that they're being scapegoated. The two, Michael Keogh and Staci Emanuel, left after Council Speaker Christine Quinn said they ignored instructions to stop reserving millions of taxpayer dollars under the names of fictional organizations so the funds could be dispersed later to genuine nonprofit groups.
On Thursday, Quinn told reporters she issued orders in the spring of 2007 "to stop using holding codes in the budget," and was distressed to learn a few months later that her orders hadn't been followed. "All I can say is that my instruction was to terminate this practice for the fiscal year we are now in," Quinn said. "That's all I can say, that I was very clear on numerous occasions that this practice should be terminated."
Keogh ended up working at the lobbying firm of Bolton-St. Johns, where a Quinn pal, Democratic activist Emily Giske, is a principal. Emanuel is still without a fulltime job. A spokesman for Quinn said yesterday she wouldn't comment on personnel matters.
Insiders said a reserve fund for the council was first established decades ago as a means for correcting small errors in the annual list of some 2,500 "member items" the council disperses each year to community groups and nonprofit organizations. "We did it to deal with the reality of the budget process," said one former city official. In 2001, the secret set-aside was $100,000. By last year it had ballooned to $4.5 million, bringing the total to more than $17 million over the years. http://www.nypost.com/seven/04052008/news/regionalnews/scapegoats_twisting_in_the_quinn_105049.htm
What is the NYC budget now? 45 billion? More? We’d probably go mad for knowing where the money goes.