Gop mayoral contender Joe Lhota yesterday blasted Democratic front-runner Christine Quinn for what he called her poor oversight of how City Council members spend discretionary taxpayer dollars known as member items.
“I actually think Christine has handled member items in a way that’s quite inequitable,” Lhota said as he unveiled a slate of proposed reforms. “You shouldn’t be using taxpayer money and . . . doling it out in favors to friends.”
He added Quinn, the council speaker, should take her cues from one of her predecessors.
“Peter Vallone Sr. is the example of what a speaker should be,” Lhota said, referring to the Democrat who held the position from 1986 to 2002.
Lhota proposed that every council member receive the same amount of cash in member items, which are discretionary grants to be spent on nonprofits of their choosing.
Quinn determines how much each member receives, and Lhota said she uses the nearly $400 million pot to reward friends and punish enemies within the council — something that Quinn has denied.
The speaker’s campaign shot back that, as a deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, Lhota withheld funds from the Brooklyn Museum to threaten it into removing an art display that he found offensive. And sources said Vallone himself used the money to punish foes.
The controversy over member items swirled last week when Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens) was arrested in connection with an Albany corruption scandal — in part for allegedly proposing to misuse $80,000 of his own member items.
Quinn said reforms that she instituted in 2008, following a federal investigation into broad misuse of the funds, would have prevented Halloran’s scheme.
Lhota yesterday also suggested drastically reducing the amount of money that citywide candidates can spend on state and county political party committees to $4,950 — the same as a maximum donation to a citywide candidate.
His GOP rival, John Catsimatidis — who has given tens of thousands of dollars to the Queens Republican Party, which endorsed him earlier this year — snapped, “He must be in dreamland.”
Catsimatidis said he would curtail his contributions only if the law were changed.
Lhota proposed applying term limits to the state and local chairs of political committees.
The Queens Republican Party’s vice chairman, Vince Tabone, was arrested in last week’s corruption scandal along with Bronx GOP Chairman Jay Savino.
Savino resigned, and the Bronx party replaced him with John Greaney, who has worked in several city agencies.