With federal charges staring him in the face, just-resigned City Councilman Miguel Martinez fled the city to avoid the media while Mayor Bloomberg’s immigration chief stepped down so he could run for the vacant seat yesterday.
Guillermo Linares left his post as commissioner of the city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs so he could run for the council seat he held in the 1990s. Martinez (D-Manhattan) stepped down from that seat on Tuesday.
Martinez — now believed to be somewhere in New Jersey — is expected to be charged today in Manhattan federal court in a scandal involving misuse of money by a nonprofit group he funded with taxpayer dollars — the Upper Manhattan Council Assisting Neighbors. It was part of a broader scandal surrounding council slush funds for pet projects.
Martinez’s lawyer did not return calls yesterday.
A three-person committee, set up by Martinez to collect petition signatures for the election ballot, continued the drive right up until he resigned. That committee backs Linares and can transfer the signatures toward his campaign.