Lulu's
Mar 23, 2009
The city council is considering a bill, proposed by Tony Avella, D-Queens, that would ban stipends (or lulu's) that council members receive for heading up committees, which can range from $4,000-$18,000 a year.
Avella also proposed bills that would ban council members from making any sort of outside income, among other things.
Leaving that aside for a moment, the issue of lulu's is an interesting one. Since the council speaker doles out committee chairmanships, a cynic could argue that members who often vote along with the council speaker are rewarded with appointments to chair committees, and thus more money.
In fact, according to a recent Daily News article, Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave six members who generally follow her lead in voting this month new, more desirable (and lucrative)committee assignments.
I think this might be an issue we can draft an official position on and send to council members. Please let me know what you think.
by daniel , Apr 5, 2009
The average New Yorker does not know how much of tax payers money the city council wastes in a given budget. There is so much that can be cut out of the budget, but unfortunately, there isn't an opposition force in the council to combat all the waste. Many of those who get elected run for office for the single reason in that it is a job that pays well.
New York City could save the tax payers a fortune by removing stipends or reforming the process. The "lulus" are what needs to go. In addition to lulus, the council should reform the Campaign Finance rules and eliminate or drastically reduce the matching-funds formula. When it was proposed and passed originally, it was a 1-to-1 matching funds formula. Now it is 6-to-1. It's thievery.
Lastly, there is so much bureaucracy in city government (and it has expanded under the current mayor) that the left pinky can't see what the right big toe is doing. Simply go to www.nyc.gov, on the left sidebar, there's a pulldown menu that jumps to a city agency website. Scroll through it and you'll see there are too many.
You are right, i agree with everything you mentioned in your comment!
Michele
Best portal for major US cities
http://cityinfopages.net
:)
