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This weekend’s high-profile wedding for Christine Quinn and her longtime partner, Kim Catullo, will be a cheap affair for scores of lobbyists, City Council employees and people who make money off the city.
Quinn, the City Council speaker and Democratic mayoral hopeful, is enforcing a gift ban for some guests because of strict city limits on presents and donations to elected officials, campaign spokesman Josh Isay said.
She and Catullo will vet the presents and return any from the restricted parties — although they are refusing to divulge the list of gifts, Isay said.
The couple will even return any questionable donations made to Memorial Sloan-Kettering for a fund they set up for work on curing breast cancer, Isay said.
Isay initially told The Post all wedding invitees received an e-mail alerting them to the gift restrictions. After The Post could not find anyone who received the e-mail, he changed his response, saying the invitation has a generic line directing any inquiries to a wedding e-mail account. Those who e-mail about gift registries are told of the restrictions.
City law bars public servants from accepting gifts worth $50 or more from a person or firm doing business with the city.
The rule says, “Any gift may create an appearance of impropriety, and accepting a gift, no matter how innocently, may send the wrong signals to the gift-giver and in some cases may violate the law.”
But Quinn did get one early present yesterday that she won’t have to return — Mayor Bloomberg, who will attend Saturday’s affair in Chelsea, gave a thumbs-up to her mayoral campaign.
“Chris Quinn is very competent and would be a very good mayor,” Bloomberg said in response to a question about whether his feelings about her have changed since the council passed a spate of bills he opposes.
“She’s one voice in the City Council. I’ve always thought that Chris Quinn has done a very good job as the speaker,” he said.
He cautioned that he was not making an endorsement, though he clearly favors her among the field of Democratic hopefuls.
“It’s not for me to take sides — certainly not now — in a race where I don’t even know who’s going to be running,” he said.
It’s unclear whether Bloomberg’s support is a gift for Quinn, who has struggled with the perception that she is too close to him on many controversial issues.
Additional reporting by David Seifman