Oversightless

The NY Times is reporting that the city council will hold an oversight hearing into the snafus over at the NYC Board of Elections:

"In the wake of a protracted and contentious vote count in last month’s Democratic Congressional primary in northern Manhattan and the Bronx, the City Council on Thursday announced it will hold an oversight hearing in an effort to determine what went wrong in the ballot-counting process."

And the ever vigilant council speaker is all over it-not wanting to allow anything to taint the democratic process:

"The Board of Elections’ inability to accurately tally and report the results of last month’s Congressional primary in a timely manner threatens the credibility of the democratic process,” Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, said in a statement. “New Yorkers must be able to trust that when they cast a valid ballot, their vote will be counted accurately.”

Here, here-let's all raise a glass to Quinn for her vigilance-but isn't it strange that the speaker has remained mute over an even worse scandal, one that isn't hypothetical? We're talking, of course, about the city's illegal lobbying campaign-the one that tarnished the entire ULURP process over the development at Willets Point.

We know for certain that Claire Shulman lied directly to the city council when she was asked about the amount of city funds that EDC had given her group to lobby-illegally, as it turned out. Perhaps the speaker's muteness is a result of her longstanding friendship with the dowager borough president?

Whatever it is it speaks once again to the fact that for the last eight years-at least when it comes to economic development-Christine Quinn has been little more than a water carrier. And the only time she went against the mayor was over the Kingsbridge Armory when the Bronx delegation dragged her kicking and screaming into the opposition-all because her speakership was hanging in the balance.

What this means for us-and for all New Yorkers-is that Quinn, should she somehow manage to get elected mayor, will not be a voice for the small businesses and neighborhoods that stand in the path of mega-development. She has come a long way from the days when she was a stalwart community organizer in Chelsea fighting box stores. Perhaps, as Chuck Schumer has said about NY's junior senator, she has, "evolved."