Council Members Rake In Outside Income

In addition to their six-figure salaries, many City Council members are earning tens of thousands of dollars from jobs they hold on the side.Top earners who collected more than $100,000 in extra income from a second or third job in 2006 are lawyers, an investment banker, and the executive director of an alcohol and substance abuse center. (See a ranking of earners here.)Council Member Lewis Fidler of Brooklyn appeared to lead the council pack in earnings from outside jobs, collecting between $140,000 and $345,000 for legal work, according to filings with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. Council Member David Weprin of Queens pulled in between $100,000 and $250,000 as an investment banker and between $5,000 and $35,000 as an attorney, his report shows.A senior attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group, Gene Russianoff, said there should be restrictions against council members earning anything more than a small percentage of their council salary on the side.“It always struck us that it would be a better situation if they served largely full-time,” he said. “It’s hard to do the job unless you are really devoting your full time. The tug on your time and attention of an outside job competes with your service to your constituents.”Mr. Fidler said he is unaware of any constituent complaining that he is falling short on his duties. “I don’t think anyone would say that I don’t put in more than a 40-hour week as a councilman,” he said. “Having an exposure to the world outside, I think, has been helpful.”A spokesman for Speaker Christine Quinn, Anthony Hogrebe, said in a statement that every member of the council works more than a full-time job, and those who want to work even more have that option.“However, the speaker has said previously that the council will formally consider the issue of council members holding part-time positions, and we remain committed to reviewing that issue,” he said.In addition to disclosing the outside income earned by the technically part-time members, the 2006 reports released yesterday by the board list any property members own in addition to their primary residences, and includes the stocks they hold, the debt they owe, and other sources of income.Council Member Daniel Garodnick of the East Side of Manhattan owns between $506,000 and just more than $1.25 million in a variety of stocks, including between $100,000 to $250,000 in Microsoft, between $60,000 and $100,000 in Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and more than $35,000 in Motorola, according to the report. He reported having between $10,000 and $70,000 in mutual funds.Mr. Garodnick, a former litigator at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, did not earn extra income through a second job in 2006, according to his filing.The reports show that the president of the Bronx, Adolfo Carrion, had debt totaling between $20,000 and $140,000 on a MasterCard, two Visa cards, and a Discover card last year.The president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, reported between $551,000 and $670,000 in assets in 2006, in addition to owning a deferred compensation plan worth between $60,000 and $100,000.Council Member Oliver Koppell of the Bronx, who earned extra income as a lawyer last year, had between $175,000 and $455,000 in debt on five credit cards in 2006, according to the report.Council Member Inez Dickens, who represents parts of Harlem and Morningside Heights, is a partial owner of four residential apartment buildings that she inherited. They are worth more than $500,000 each, according to the report.

Council Members Rake In Outside Income

Council Members Rake In Outside Income

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