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New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

Quinn allies hear 500G lulu-by

By FRANK LOMBARDI

DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Thursday, January 19th, 2006

She's the first gay woman to serve as City Council speaker, but Christine Quinn followed the time-honored tradition of her good ol' boy predecessors when it came to doling out committee posts yesterday.

In filling a slew of chairmanships worth nearly $500,000 in extra pay, the Manhattan Democrat rewarded her allies, punished a few enemies and took very good care of Queens Democratic boss Thomas Manton, who brokered her ascent.

Quinn's reorganized Council closely follows the structure that had existed under her predecessor, Gifford Miller, a Manhattan Democrat who was elbowed out by term limits.

The Council reorganization was approved by a 48-to-0 vote, with two members abstaining and one absent because of a death in the family. The reorganization also included new seat assignments, which caused consternation for Council maverick Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn). The former Black Panther, who has said he considers Thomas Jefferson a "slave-owning pedophile," wound up at a front-row desk directly beneath a statue of the Founding Father. It was unclear if the seating assignment was payback for Barron's support of a Quinn rival for speaker, because she also renamed him chairman of the Higher Education Committee at the same $10,000 stipend.

Barron joked of the statue, "I'm gonna fix him - I'm gonna come in with a sledgehammer and knock it down."

Quinn did bounce Councilman James Sanders (D-Queens) as chairman of the Economic Development Committee, which also carries a $10,000 stipend. Sanders had fallen out with Manton's Queens organization, but won reelection over a Manton candidate. He had also backed one of Quinn's rivals.

The chairmanship went to Thomas White, a Manton loyalist who had been recruited to unseat scandal-marred Queens Councilman Allan Jennings. White had served on the Council until ousted by term limits in 2001.

Sanders abstained from voting but protested that "forces outside of this room have more power than they deserve and they have extracted their pound of flesh."

All told, Quinn named all but five of the Council's 51 members as chairmen to various committees, subcommittees, select committees or leadership posts.

All contents © 2006 Daily News, L.P.

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