Post primary, one of the biggest questions this fall has been the fate and future of Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
But now, with the pieces starting to settle, many Council members and City Hall insiders agree that despite some dissatisfaction and a few county leaders’ looking to put one of their own in the speaker’s chair, Quinn seems relatively safe.
There was a period just after the primary when this did not seem the case, when Quinn and her aides seemed genuinely nervous that a coup was forming. Quinn has been meeting with returning and incoming members to find out where they stand, and her and her staff has been quick to react, members say, to any suggestion of lost support.
“I don’t think there’s another player coming out,” said Mike Nelson of Brooklyn, a strong Quinn supporter. “I’m sure there will be talk among some of the members but I don’t plan on being one of them. I would say the Vegas odds of Chris remaining speaker are a good 6-5.”
No one has emerged as a consensus replacement, and those who have—including Robert Jackson, Inez Dickens and Lew Fidler—are seen by their colleagues as too close to Quinn to take the plunge. Plus, members and aides say, Quinn’s tenure has shown that being speaker may not be such a good gig, particularly for those that harbor ambitions of higher office. They worry about the tarnish and guilt by association that seems to have come with the gavel for her.
The real questions about Council power seem to be more about whom Quinn will select as the new chairs. There will be openings in Transportation, General Welfare, Zoning and Franchises, and Small Business (Civil Service and Labor remains vacant), but also at the chamber’s two major committees, Finance and Land Use, particularly useful for the attention and campaign cash they inevitably bring with them. In 2002, the last time there were major chairmanships open, county leaders played an outsized role. Many members, though, say things will be different this time, when there are more veteran members who will look to get precedence for their needs and seniority.
“There will be the influence of county leaders, but it will be in the more confined circumstances of a body that has been together for eight years,” said one Council veteran. “It will be hard for county to take a freshman member and jump them over 10 people who have been waiting their turn.”
The short list for either is largely the same, Council insiders say, and includes Fidler, Simcha Felder, Leroy Comrie, Domenic Recchia and Joel Rivera.
For eight years, both committee chairs have been held by members from Queens—a testament to county leader Joe Crowley’s ability to hold his members together and willingness to trade that power for support of Manhattan-based speakers. This time around, Brooklyn has a deeper bench of experienced lawmakers, who are expected to be the recipients of at least one of these chairs, and possibly both.
Council insiders say the distribution of key committee assignments will reveal much about Quinn’s relative strength. If she is seen as needing to placate various interests, then her hold on the speakership is not that strong. If she appoints members she is close with, such as Dan Garodnick and Jessica Lappin, or if she appoints people who share her same agenda—like Melissa Mark Viverito or Diana Reyna— than that will be proof Quinn feels secure.
Also in the mix for the first time is the Working Families Party, which did a better job at electing their candidates in the September primary than the county parties and which may now begin making demands on the Council.
“I foresee the special interests having more of a hold on Council members,” said Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr. “The body has been veering sharply left for sometime now, and the result of the last elections are going to make it easier for special interests to get their way.”
Some, though, say that they expect the WFP’s influence to begin to recede as the Council gets down to the business of governing.
“They are not at a point yet where they can begin to make demands,” said one Council staffer. “Queens and the Bronx and Brooklyn can band together and say we want this clerkship or we want this committee. They can demand things in budget negotiations. Until the next election four years from now, what can Dan Cantor really do for you?” As the horse-trading commences, some wonder if the sought assignments are worth the trouble.
The Finance chair has lost some of its luster since the days when Herb Berman lorded over it; the chairman still plays an outsized role in budget negotiations, but much of the power of the committee has been centralized under the speaker. The Land Use chair will have to worry about recent campaign finance restrictions on people who do business with the city, and might find that there is not much rezoning if they face a third-term administration in a down-turned real estate market over the next four years.
This Council will also be the first time in which minority members form a majority. Although some have charged that this should mean that a minority member ascends to the speakership, Council members say that Quinn has strong ties to many in that caucus.
According to Diana Reyna, the new make-up of the Council will mean that issues of affordable housing and minority hiring—especially in construction and small business development—will rise to the forefront.
“It’s premature to state what the agenda will look like,” she said. “But the ability for us to move an agenda for our communities looks more promising than ever.”
Several high-profile council members are not returning after making a run for higher office. Council members and staffers say that this creates a vacuum that several members could fill, and many named Viverito, Garodnick and Letitia James as members whose profiles could rise regardless of committee assignment.
Complicating the picture will be the dozen or so freshmen who will arrive in January. That group is far from set, as several competitive general elections may pull the Council rightward if a handful of Republicans win. Regardless, several of the new members have their seats thanks to the Working Families Party, and many come from the city’s activist core instead of its political class.
“Right now there is a lot of nervousness,” said one senior staffer. “People do not know what is going to happen with the new members—what their allegiances will be and what they will want.”
But several Council members disagree, saying that whatever the freshmen might think they will be able to do, they will be entering a chamber dominated by senior members.
“It’s like walking into an AP government class in March and everyone else has been in the class since September,” said Fidler. “You can be smart, but you still have some catching up to do.”
dfreedlander@cityhallnews.com
