Yesterday, the Daily News listed the various ways City Council members cut corners (read: possibly get away with stuff regular citizens can't) and one standout was how Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Queens) has two outstanding arrest warrants on pending criminal charges and owes $27,000 in child support. He told the News yesterday, "There is no excuse...While these events are more than 10 years old, I take full responsibility and I have taken steps to remedy the situation," and today he went to court to face his criminal charges from 1996.
The NY Times explains, "The legal disputes relate to his time as head of R&W Painting and Contracting Company, the construction business he founded in 1992 at age 21. Mr. Wills’s company had been installing sheetrock for the Lower Manhattan store. After a dispute over compensation, Mr. Wills was arrested on charges of trespassing and accused of stealing a fan and other materials from the store." Wills claims he thought that the company had been paid to restitution until an aide told him last fall; "He said that he immediately tried to resolve the matter with the Manhattan district attorney but that he was told there was no rush because the case was more than a decade old." Wills' excuse: "The campaign was in heavy flux. I really just forgot about it."
His lawyer told the News, "As soon as we found out, we contacted the Manhattan district attorney so he could come to court. He's looking to resolve this." The Manhattan DA's office didn't ask for bail, but a prosecutor noted his "long history of failing to appear in court." There's also a Nassau County bench warrant for Wills for allegedly operating a home improvement business without a license.
As for the News' report on how she is about to move into a luxury condo building where she used taxpayer dollars to resolve a conflict with a neighboring building over garbage, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the report was "outrageous": "There is no connection between what happened in this building and the neighborhood issue to an apartment I bought 10 months later. Quite frankly, putting the two together is really just an outrage, inappropriate, and has no bearing to the good work of my office."
As for the other Council Member issues (tax breaks by not claiming their primary residence in their districts, paying rent for offices to themselves or relatives) raised by the News, Quinn said, "I know already that some of the information was flat-out inaccurate and other parts of it were misrepresented but we will obviously follow up with any members and if there is any legitimate wrongdoing we will take action or work with the members on that."
