Citizens Union today unveiled on its website, www.citizensunion.org, its City Council Lulu Watch, a tracking tool reporting on what each of the 51 members of the City Council is doing with his or her council stipend, or “lulu.”

Since Citizens Union released its Council Rules Reform Report Card on January 17th making the elimination of council stipends a key issue in its effort to further reform the operation of the City Council, a total of eleven members of the Council have either refused or donated their stipend to charity—something not seen ever before on this scale in the City Council..

Citizens Union in 2005 and 2009 evaluated candidates for City Council in the Primary and General Elections, asking their positions on several areas of government reform. Our candidate questionnaires for these races included a question about their positions on eliminating stipends or “lulus” for committee chairs. While 20 current members of the Council indicated to Citizens Union that they support the elimination of stipends, the majority of those members still went ahead and accepted their stipends for this year.

We congratulate Councilmembers Dan Garodnick and Brad Lander for refusing their stipends, and commend another nine who are donating their stipends to charity: Councilmembers Gale Brewer, Mathieu Eugene, Stephen Levin, Ydanis Rodriguez, Eric Ulrich, Jimmy Van Bramer, Mark Weprin, James Vacca, and Jumaane Williams.

One Councilmember, Diana Reyna, reversed her 2005 position and now supports the elimination of committee stipends, but strangely, still took hers.

We are extremely disappointed, however, that several Councilmembers have reversed their 2005 positions on lulus to now oppose their elimination: Inez Dickens, Vincent Gentile and Jessica Lappin. One councilmember, Leroy Comrie, indicated that he supported eliminating lulus on his signed 2009 questionnaire, but he retracted his support during his candidate interview with Citizens Union.

Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, said, “The City Council could save taxpayers a quick $500,000 if it eliminated stipends. Stipends are but one way the Speaker buys the loyalty of individual councilmembers instead of trying to win support for issues on the merits. Stipends also are a reason why there are a large number of unnecessary committees. Of the 51 members, 46 either serve as chairs or hold leadership positions and thereby are entitled to extra cash. The Council would function more efficiently if the number of committees were cut in half.”

Ignoring the recommendation of the 2006 Quadrennial Commission on Compensation to eliminate stipends in conjunction with a pay increase, the Council has failed to address the broader issue of elected official compensation reform.

In launching its Council Lulu Watch, Citizens Union now calls for the following actions to occur:

1. The 12 members of the City Council – Fernando Cabrera, Margaret Chin, Daniel Dromm, Julissa Ferreras, Helen Foster, Sara Gonzalez, Letitia James, Karen Koslowitz, Darlene Mealy, Rosie Mendez, Diana Reyna, and Deborah Rose – who told Citizens Union they oppose stipends should be true to their promises and return the money.
2. The 3 members who flipped-flopped on their position from 2005 to 2009 – Inez Dickens, Vincent Gentile and Jessica Lappin – should tell their constituents why they changed their mind and return the money.
3. All other members of the City Council who are receiving stipends but do not support their elimination should rethink their position and return their stipends to the city’s cash-strapped treasury.
4. All Councilmembers should press the speaker’s office to eliminate the practice of awarding lulus and work toward greater compensation reform.