Liu addresses 'embarrassing' questions, says he's sure his old records are 'being looked at very carefully'
John Liu at the Center for New York City Law. Dan Rosenblum
11:55 am Nov. 18, 20111
Months ago, when John Liu booked his early morning speech at the Center for New York City Law in Manhattan, he couldn’t have expected he’d be embroiled in a career-threatening controversy over a campaign bundling scheme.
In recent days, an internal inquiry into Liu’s campaign finances has yielded to a federal probe and prominent Liu fund-raiser was arrested. Headlines and editorials about the comptroller have been accordingly scathing, from the implacably hostile New York Post (whose front-page headline yesterday was “BIGGEST LIU-SER” to the New York Times, whose reporting uncovered the finance irregularities now at issue. In an editorial today entitled “John Liu’s credibility,” which includes the dreaded words “If he is to survive this scandal,” the Times calls on Liu to drop his mayoral aspirations and focus on cleaning up his operation.
But those concerns seemed barely to register for the comptroller as he slowly made his way up to the front of the room, shaking hands with everyone he passed on his way to the front table. At 8:30 this morning, a standing-room crowd filled the school’s second floor “events center” to hear Liu talk about the role of his office.
After some brief remarks by the center’s director, Ross Sandler, Liu spoke to the audience of about 60 people about some of the general duties and goals of his office: auditing contracts, increasing standards of public accountability and monitoring labor violations.
But the semi-announced mayoral candidate only briefly touched on the recent news of the federal probe before taking questions.
“This was set up a long time ago,” Liu said. “In the last couple of days there have been some questions about what I’m doing, what I have been doing. There are questions about my campaign finances and admittedly it’s quite embarrassing as the chief financial officer of the city to have these kinds of questions. But the people of New York deserve a full accounting of my campaign finances. And they certainly will get that from me.”
He took questions on the potential use of his website to take suggestions for companies to audit, and on whether he shouldn’t take a fresh look at the Board of Education. Only one of four questions he got was directly related to the recent charges.
Robert Carroll, a second-year student of New York Law School and vice president of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, asked Liu whether people looking at his previous campaign filings would find inconsistencies.
“Well, I haven’t looked at those filings for some time, but I’m sure they’re being looked at very carefully,” Liu said as the crowd laughed. “I don’t think there’s any material change in the way we’ve done the campaign financing or the disclosures thereof.”
The speech was the first of at least three scheduled public events for the comptroller today. At noon he’s scheduled to speak with Senior Association for Taiwanese Christians and then later at he’s planning to appear at a dinner at the Brooklyn Chinese Improvement Association. Before he left, Sandler handed him a copy of Wiki Government, a book about how technology can make government more transparent.
Liu spoke briefly with reporters afterward in the Law School lobby, in front of a sign-up table for students wishing to participate in a mock trial.
Asked about the arrest of Xing Wu Pan, a bundler who allegedly proposed to funnel a $16,000 contribution to Liu’s campaign through the use of “straw donors,” Liu said, repeating his remarks from yesterday, “I was very saddened to have read the news.”
He said the conduct of the bundler was wrong, but that he had not been told the truth about what was going on.
He also said, “This is a campaign fund-raising matter. People do have a right to a full accounting and I certainly will provide that.”
Asked more specifically how New Yorkers would get that accounting, Liu said, “We will work with the Campaign Finance Board. We are also fully cooperating with an investigation that’s going on right now and at the end of the day, the people of New York will certainly get a full accounting.”
Liu would not provide a time-frame for disclosing the names of his other bundlers.
“Many things don’t happen as quickly as I would like,” Liu said. “There are some speed bumps that were beyond my control, but nonetheless we will get a full accounting.”
Liu declined to answer any more questions and hurried out of the school’s glass lobby, led by two spokespeople.
After the event, Carroll, of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, said that his group’s 150 members had officially supported the comptroller in the past, but that he personally would no longer do so, based on what he described as Liu’s subversion of the city’s campaign finance system.
“It’s a great program and it’s a program that should be an example for the rest of the country and our federal elections, and someone like Mr. Liu has completely taken advantage of it and duped the residents of the city of New York,” he said.
Carroll also said, “I was presuming that we would endorse him for mayor in 2013, but this is unconscionable, what he has done and it’s reprehensible. I’m just completely frustrated.”
C'mon students!!! You had a great shot to ask him some of the tough questions he needs to be asked! Only 3 out of the 4 questions centered on the scandal? You bLiu it!