7 Top Aides Are Appointed to City Council by Speaker
\nNew York Times
\nBy SEWELL CHAN<\/p>\n
Published: February 23, 2014<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, appointed seven top aides yesterday, moving quickly to fill some of the vacancies created when she suddenly dismissed 61 employees, nearly one-fifth of the Council’s staff, on Friday.<\/p>\n
The number and timing of the firings by Ms. Quinn, who was elected speaker last month by her colleagues, took some council members and employees by surprise. Yesterday morning, 16 members of the Council’s caucus of black, Hispanic and Asian-American lawmakers met to discuss the firings.<\/p>\n
Councilman Robert Jackson, a Manhattan Democrat who is co-chairman of the 25-member caucus, said the members were mostly satisfied by Ms. Quinn’s insistence that there had been no reduction in minority representation on the Council’s staff. “All of us clearly understand that every central staff member at the City Council serves at the pleasure of the speaker,” he said.<\/p>\n
Of the 61 fired employees, 46 percent were members of racial minorities and 43 percent were women, according to Ms. Quinn’s office. Before the dismissals, members of racial minorities made up 43 percent of the Council’s staff and women made up 45 percent.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Ms. Quinn named three deputy chiefs of staff, as well as a general counsel, a legislative director, a policy director and a press secretary.<\/p>\n
The new deputy chiefs of staff are Maura Keaney, formerly the New York State director for Unite Here, the union of garment and hotel workers; Ululy Rafael Martinez, formerly a lawyer in the office of Assemblyman Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Rivera; and Kevin Wardally, who has been the Council’s director of member services.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth R. Fine, a lawyer at Spence Chapin Services to Families and Children, an adoption agency, was named the Council’s general counsel. Lucy Mayo, an official in the democracy program at Demos, a policy research organization, was named the Council’s policy director.<\/p>\n
Ms. Quinn also promoted two council employees: Robert J. Newman, a lawyer for the Council, to legislative director, and Maria Alvarado, a deputy press secretary, to press secretary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
7 Top Aides Are Appointed to City Council by Speaker New York Times By SEWELL CHAN Published: February 23, 2014 The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, appointed seven top aides yesterday, moving quickly to fill some of the vacancies created when she suddenly dismissed 61 employees, nearly one-fifth of the Council’s staff, on Friday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n