The Organizer
She calls it open government. Some members call it political maneuvering. Christine Quinn navigates a new take on the job of Council speaker.
By Edward-Isaac Dovere
People notice when Christine Quinn walks into a room.
She has a strong presence, with her natural Irish politician's sense of the power of personal contact and a laugh that often rings through whichever room she is in, no matter how large.
But even if she did not, she would turn heads. Not only is she winning praise around the city for her work as Council speaker, but she is the first woman to hold that job, and the highest-ranking openly gay official in New York's history. The sleek bob of bright red hair helps, too.
She has traveled quite a distance since first coming to City Hall as a housing activist in the late 1980s. In those days, she grew adept at lobbying city officials, whether this meant cornering them in hallways or protesting outside their homes.
Then she was on the outside. Now, within her office just off the lobby of City Hall, she is very much on the inside.
But, she said, she has always stayed true to her roots.
"I have always thought and will always think of myself as a political organizer. And a political organizer's job is to accomplish whatever the campaign is, to move the agenda forward," she said. "It's the perfect experience for this job, because this job is to be an organizer, to organize my colleagues, to organize this institution, to organize New Yorkers."
Quinn has organized and reorganized the Council in the past 15 months, from shuffling the chamber's seating arrangement to putting an electronic lock on the gate in front of the Council's inner sanctum in an effort to prevent lobbyists from wandering around unchecked.
She has won fans locally and nationwide, perhaps most notably Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R). She has been called a role model for women and a hero of the LGBT community.
And she is regularly being called a serious contender for the 2009 mayor's race, with former Mayor Ed Koch (D) and what can seem like every political consultant in the city singing her praises.
She hired a fundraiser in January, and political events, on which she put an effective moratorium during her initial months as speaker, have slowly begun reappearing on her schedule.
Like any skilled politician, she says she is focused on her current job.
"You've got to plan, be ready for opportunities that open up," she said. "But really, I'm spending the vast majority of my time and more doing this job and trying to do it well, and to hopefully do it better than I did it the first 12 months."
But also like any skilled politician, she seems to have a specific opportunity in mind. And a plan
Housing, health, safety, education. If she does run to succeed Bloomberg, the slogans could almost write themselves.
As speaker, Quinn has a different take on her office than either of her predecessors. After the charter revisions which took effect in 1993, Peter Vallone, Sr. (D-Queens) needed to establish the office and the whole Council as an equal branch of government, a task which proved daunting with Rudolph Giuliani (R) as mayor. Gifford Miller (D-Manhattan) came into office in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and faced a difficult struggle to get the city up on its feet.
Plus, Miller was the only Council leader in recent history to run against the mayor he served alongside, and they sparred throughout Bloomberg's first term. Budget negotiations were scathing. Disputes over legislation were common, and intense.
Quinn arrived in economic boom times, paired with a mayor who not only will never be her opponent in an election, but is term-limited and has to date dismissed any discussion of further political plans. That gives her more freedom to collaborate with the mayor.
While the race for speaker was going on, Bloomberg's preference for Quinn was an open secret. Once she won, he welcomed her with open arms.
Together with the mayor, the Council has enacted strict reforms on lobbyists—so strict, say some lobbyists, that they feel now like pariahs, effectively exiled to the steps outside. She has joined with him in an ongoing effort to enhance campaign finance reform provisions. She has scheduled budget meetings throughout the year, both to assess current budgeting and plan for the future, and she has made the process as a whole more public, forcing members to attach their names to requests.
That has left good government groups giddy.
"She's done a better job than I thought she might be able to do. It's not that I didn't think she could do it, but rather that the various interests at play would keep her from doing it," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union. "She clearly presented herself as a consensus builder with a commitment to being a reformer, and established a very strong record on both of those accounts."
As she weighs her future, doing what appeals to a city electorate increasingly accustomed to the emphasis on clean government will help. That it puts her on the right side of a wildly popular mayor likely will, too.
The open, reformer image is the one Quinn likes to promote, though it is not the one which some of her members say they see.
To become speaker, Quinn had to make deals with individual members and the county leaders, each of whom largely controlled the bloc of votes from his borough. Critics say that because she is still making good on these, Quinn is largely controlled by the various power players.
But living up to compromises made en route to positions of power is nothing strange in politics.
Nor is strategizing in the service of future ambitions, as critics charge she is doing with the Council, using the whole body as a political force for her own benefit.
Quinn will be one of 35 members of the City Council forced out by term limits at the end of 2009. Most are plotting runs for comptroller, public advocate and the various borough presidents and district attorneys, or for spots in the state Legislature or Congress in 2008. They are, not surprisingly, increasingly concerned with their individual interests, and may look to the term-limited mayor, rather than the speaker, to get things done.
"She's done a better job than I thought she might be able to do. It's not that I didn't think she could do it, but rather that the various interests at play would keep her from doing it."
— Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union.
As for how Quinn is balancing these competing interests, some Council members spoke openly. Some, fearing retribution for saying things which contrast with Quinn's preferred version of her leadership style, were granted anonymity to be more frank about the inner workings of the Council.
But Council Member Tony Avella (D-Queens) had no reservations in discussing what he sees as a massive spike in politicking since the new session of the Council began last January.
"Things are getting worse," he said. "The way the Council is operating, there is less independence of thought, less freedom of action and more politics."
Avella has already declared his own interest in running for mayor, and knows that his criticisms of a woman expected to be his opponent in that race will be taken with a grain of salt. He insists that even had he not declared his interest in Gracie Mansion, his independence would have put him with odds with Quinn.
"There's a clear message that has been sent: if you go along with the leadership and you don't make waves, you'll have favorable legislation passed and you'll do well in the budget process," he said, referring to members' ability to win grants of city money for projects in their districts. "The opposite message is also being sent."
Bills of members on the outs with the speaker have been replaced with similar bills sponsored by other members which move forward. No bill goes on the agenda without the approval of the speaker, usually the result of an intense vetting process by members of Quinn's staff.
If problematic passages are not removed, the bills are stalled.
Many Council members seem to disagree with Avella, citing Quinn's emphasis on the twice-monthly Democratic caucus meetings which she says are meant "to equalize the playing field for members, to give members the same type of access."
Some Council members expressed confusion about the actual purpose of these meetings. But to others, the caucuses are a laudable hallmark of her leadership style.
There is increased communication and coordination between the speaker's office and the committee chairs, who no longer function as independently as they once did. In a departure from the past, more power and control now rests with the central staff. These people, rather than the speaker herself, often deliver ultimatums to the chairs about which items will be added to their agendas, which will be reworked and which stricken entirely.
"She is very much a micromanager," said James Oddo (Staten Island), the Council's Republican leader and a man who has worked with Quinn since they both first arrived as staffers in the early 1990s. He said this as a compliment, praising what Quinn's attention to detail has done to the workings of the Council.
Oddo said that when Quinn chaired the Health Committee, she had a reputation for being the most prepared, the most focused on specifics and particulars of every line of every bill.
Others say that her staff suffers from this intensity. Stories of her tendency to finish aides' sentences are just the tip of the iceberg, some Council members say. They suggest Quinn's determination to get other Council members to follow her lead causes what have sometimes been very tense relations between her staff and those working for other Council members.
When the speaker does meet personally with committee chairs, one Council member explained, she tends to do so at a later stage than her predecessors did.
Several chairs said political motivations sometimes seem to be at play. By taking such an active role, Quinn can both dictate precisely what the Council does and ensure that she gets at least part of the credit for everything any individual Council member accomplishes.
This gets some of his colleagues grumbling. But Peter Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens) said that while Quinn has been forceful about propelling bills through his Public Safety Committee, he has largely been able to integrate these into his agenda. Importantly, Vallone added, when resulting legislation has gotten attention, Quinn has "gone out of her way to share credit."
And Quinn has kept the focus narrow: public safety, education and health were the themes of most major legislation the Council passed during her first year as speaker. Already in her second, the former housing activist has set her sights on the real estate market. Her budget response was built around four proposals: allocating capital funds for rehabilitating existing affordable housing, providing funds to help middle-income families pay closing costs on new homes, creating a program to educate New Yorkers about mortgages in the hopes of preventing foreclosures, and a $300 credit to renters.
"There's a clear message that has been sent: if you go along with the leadership and you don't make waves, you'll have favorable legislation passed and you'll do well in the budget process."
—City Council Member Tony Avella.
Not surprisingly, there are complaints about Quinn's determination to keep all 51 of her members—or at least the 48 Democrats—on message.
Housing, health, safety, education. If she does run to succeed Bloomberg, the slogans could almost write themselves.
People with other agendas are quickly and efficiently squeezed, their budget items threatened, their relationship with the speaker put on the line, said one Council member, and most cave quickly. Those who do not are put out in the wilderness—and Quinn has a reputation for carrying long grudges.
When there are disagreements, Quinn said, she deals with people immediately and equally.
"I will always call people and tell them what I'm going to do before they get a call from reporters," she said. "I think that's an appropriate courtesy for people to demonstrate with each other."
Many Council members rave about her accessibility, saying they can see her whenever and for however long they like. Others, who know they are on the outs with Quinn, say that face-to-face meetings could come only after much pleading and would need to concern something of dire consequence.
Others say they do not get in at all. One Council member, who claimed almost a year had passed since speaking to Quinn directly, said, "You don't cross her in any way, shape or form," and laughed when read her statement about calling people directly.
When he was read Quinn's statement about calling people, Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) smiled and said, "I don't know that that is necessarily the case."
Monserrate feels this is representative of the greater change.
"The Council is not as free and open as it was before," he said. "We should all be working towards an environment where members feel they can have real opportunities to bring diverse opinions."
Though he characterized this as the "general atmosphere" around City Hall, when asked if he felt that this was emanating from Quinn, Monserrate held out his hands, indicating, "Who else?"
Quinn acknowledges that there have been problems. Even with all the openness, "does that mean each one of my colleagues is happy all the time with the things that we've done? No," she said. "But we've tried I think to make the place more open and more democratic. Doesn't mean it's perfect. We're going to try and make it even better."
She has overcome some past disagreements. Council Member Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) had trouble for a year after backing fellow Brooklyn Democrat Bill de Blasio in the speaker's race. All now seems forgiven. Quinn recently named James the new chair of the Contracts Committee, and James was eager to shower Quinn with praise for creating a Council which she called "much more responsive, much more empowering."
Quinn says she is not comfortable in the spotlight.
"I don't know why one would be," she said.
On the contrary, she says she sometimes forgets her significance to New Yorkers, though the letters which pour into her office remind her. Just a few weeks ago, a lesbian auxiliary police officer wrote to tell Quinn of the pride of seeing another open lesbian standing next to the mayor after the March auxiliary police shootings in the West Village. Speaking of the note, the speaker chokes up, and pauses momentarily before recounting the rest of the story.
People remain skeptical of whether voters will see being speaker as adequate preparation for being mayor, but Quinn will likely appeal to New Yorkers like the officer if she runs. Add them into a base of support as a woman and as a member of the LGBT community, and she will have a strong base.
In the meantime, she will have to keep whipping the ever-less-willing Council members into shape.
Now she has leverage on them, with her budget authority the most effective tool to whip them into line. They, of course, have power over her, too: no matter how many trips she makes beyond her home district, if she runs citywide, they are the ones who would best be able to rally what could prove crucial support from their communities in a crowded primary field.
But the clock is ticking. The 2007 budget process is already underway, and there are two more to go. Many Council members already feel forced to focus more on their own political futures than on obtaining small grants for their districts. With each passing month, Quinn and her members will have less and less to hold over each other's heads.
And if term limits remain in place, expect June 30, 2009 to be the last day to find anyone in the chamber, said veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.
"Once that budget is done, no one will know there's a City Council," he said. "They will be on the road in all the boroughs doing politics."
The tension between governing and politics will intensify almost daily as Election Day 2009 draws closer. Soon enough, Sheinkopf said, politics will win.
To Sheinkopf, the message will be simple: "Every person for himself."
