Two City Council members who attended Tom Cruise’s fund-raiser for a controversial 9/11 “detoxification project” didn’t pay the $6,250-a-ticket entry fee, but officials said they acted within the ethics rules.
City Council members Joe Addabbo (D-Queens) and Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) both turned up at the glitzy Manhattan affair Thursday night for the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, co-founded by Cruise and linked to Scientology.
Addabbo is chairman of the council’s Civil Service and Labor Committee. Emergency responders who underwent the detox treatment, as well as managers of the detox program, testified this week before Addabbo’s committee seeking public funds.
Monserrate said he didn’t pay because he was going in his official capacity to deliver a council proclamation honoring Cruise for his “outstanding service to the city, state and nation” and for his “contributions to the health of our city.”
“I had a club soda with lemon,” recalled Monserrate. “It was a little late. In the interest of full disclosure, I tasted a little bit of the dinner.”
Maria Alvarado, a spokeswoman for Council Speaker Christine Quinn, said ethics rules permit elected officials to attend such events under specific conditions.
“It’s fine as long as it came from the sponsoring organization,” she said.
Addabbo told The Post that he decided, in an excess of caution, to pay $500 for the value of the meals he and his wife consumed.