BIG SPENDER: Councilman Larry Seabrook filed a $177 receipt for a bagel and Snapple. (
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No more public piggy bank for indicted City Councilman Larry Seabrook.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn is yanking Seabrook’s discretionary funds in the upcoming budget as the beleaguered Bronx politician gears up for a second federal trial on charges of extortion, money-laundering and fraud, The Post has learned.
“Council Member Seabrook and I have come to a mutual agreement that this year’s funding to his district will be determined by the Speaker’s Office and the Bronx delegation chair,” Quinn said in a prepared statement, reversing her position on the issue from several months ago.
“All allocations will undergo the appropriate review and vetting process, including by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and city agencies,” she said.
In February 2010, federal prosecutors alleged that from 2002 through 2009, Seabrook funneled more than $1 million in council member items — also known as pork — to nonprofits he controlled, with about half that money lining the pockets of his girlfriend and family members.
He even got reimbursed from a political club he controlled for a bogus $177 receipt for a bagel and a bottle of Snapple.
A trial last fall ended in a hung jury. He will be tried again in June.
A spokeswoman for Seabrook said she was unaware of the speaker’s decision. Seabrook did not return a call seeking comment.
In January, Quinn said Seabrook would be allowed to distribute “member items” — funds controlled by each council member for nonprofits in their districts — because she had strengthened the process so much in recent years that such rampant fraud would be unlikely.
An aide to Quinn — a likely candidate for mayor next year — said she changed her mind about allowing Seabrook the funds as the Fiscal Year 2013 budget, which takes effect July 1, nears.
Last year, Seabrook was given $340,464 in pork to spend on projects — one of the lowest amounts of any council member, Quinn’s office said.
The council’s budget included $16.6 million in pork Quinn doles out, $18.8 million for individual member items, $13.2 million for seniors and youth projects selected by individual members, $1 million for boroughwide projects, and $96 million for broader citywide initiatives.
Quinn revamped the process of dishing out member items to add multiple layers of checks from city agencies after news broke in 2008 that her office and previous speakers had earmarked money to phantom nonprofits, only to be later doled out for political favors.
Quinn has been cleared in that federal probe, but the feds have branched out to individual cases of corruption, such as Seabrook’s. Former Manhattan Councilman Miguel Martinez is in prison for misusing the funds.