Mayor Bloomberg has given public money to City Council members and at least one borough president to fund organizations and programs, much like the council speaker does with member items on the other side of City Hall.

During the current budget year, Mr. Bloomberg has handed out $4.5 million to eight council members and to the president of Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, according to a memo sent to Mr. Bloomberg yesterday by Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler.

The funds went to council members Erik Martin Dilan of Brooklyn, Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, Vincent Ignizio of Staten Island, James Oddo of Staten Island, Domenic Recchia of Brooklyn, Helen Sears of Queens, James Vacca of Queens, and Peter Vallone Jr. of Queens.

Mr. Felder pulled in the most money from the mayor, collecting more than $1.9 million for 19 organizations. Mr. Markowitz was awarded $900,000 to fund two concert series.

Mr. Skyler wrote that a lack of transparency around this process “can create the mistaken impression that the Mayor’s Office is funding its own ‘Member Items.’ This should be rectified.”

The city’s budget practices are coming under close scrutiny after a disclosure last month that the council hid millions of dollars behind fictitious groups in the budget to create a slush fund for the speaker. Two council aides have been indicted on embezzlement charges and the U.S. attorney’s office and Department of Investigation are probing the council’s finances.

The executive director of Citizens Union, Richard Dadey, said the memo was an effort to disclose the mayor’s relationship with discretionary items in the council “in the interest of the reforms that have been announced over the past few weeks.”

“I did not know about his involvement or the practice, but there is a lot that is unknown about the budget,” he said. “It was not a particularly significant part of the budget, but in light of the disclosure about discretionary items, it is appropriate for the mayor to come forward and disclose his relationship to the practice.”

Mr. Skyler’s memo outlines changes to the city’s oversight of discretionary funding, including a closer vetting of organizations receiving taxpayer dollars. Organizations will be required to disclose any financial interest an official may have in the organization he or she is seeking funding for or any benefit he or she could receive as a result of the funding going through.

“A materially false statement made willfully or fraudulently on this disclosure form would subject the signer to potential criminal liability,” the memo states.

It also indicates that public funding for nonprofit groups and other organizations that employ relatives of council members may be held up as the city awaits guidance from the Conflicts of Interest Board about how to handle “difficult potential conflict issues.”

A council member of Brooklyn, Bill de Blasio, called on Mr. Bloomberg to release a full list of discretionary grants made by the administration this year and in past years.

“Mayor Bloomberg needs to go further,” he said in a statement.

Mayor Directed Millions to Council Members