NEW YORK—Many members of the New York City Council are spending thousands of dollars a year in city funds on congratulatory messages and self-promotional advertisements according to a report issued this month by a local watchdog group, The Citizens Union.
The report found: "The nature of these ads is varied; some of them clearly provide the public with important information about city services or public meetings and hearings, but the great majority of them is congratulatory and self-promotional, and arguably do not provide an important public benefit or serve the public interest other than to raise the profile of the council member."
During the four-year period from July 2002 to June 2006 members of the City Council spent $782,491 on such advertisements. That's an average of $3,685 per Council member each year.
The highest spending council member in office during that entire four year span was Michael Nelson (Brooklyn), who spent an average of $20,525 per year, and the lowest spending council members were Tracy Boyland (Brooklyn), Helen Foster (Bronx) and John Liu (Queens), who all spent zero.
Attesting to the non-practical and frivolous nature of the ads, the report pointed out that there were sharp increases in ad quantity during three months of the year, June, September, and December, coinciding with ethnic parades, neighborhood events, and graduations in the spring; the Labor Day, Jewish holidays, and return to school in the fall; and the December holiday season at the end of the year.
There were also sharp increases in ad quantity during election years, despite the fact that New York City law prohibits the use of city funds for this purpose.
To add insult to injury, many council members make large salaries outside of their work in the council and could, in theory, pay for their own self-promotional materials. To name a few, as reported by NY1 News, Council Member Domenic Recchia (Brooklyn) made between $100,000 and $250,000 as a lawyer last year and between $15,000 and $105,000 renting property. Council Member Inez Dickens (Manhattan) owns at least $2 million worth of real estate.
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