Cell Phone Bills of City Council Members

Ooh, there's nothing like finding out that your City Council member has a worse cell phone plan than you. And there's nothing like learning that means their cell phone bills are over $2,000. The NY Post details some cellphone bills, as well as other expenditures from City Council members. Democrat Maria Baez had one cellphone bill that cost $1,948.50 for one month!

Baez made and received 1,748 calls on her cellphone last December, an average of 56 a day, and clocked 7,385 minutes of talk time.

Unfortunately for taxpayers - who footed the bill - Baez had signed up for a $79.99-a-month Verizon plan that included only 1,350 "free minutes."

As a result, she had to pay 35 cents for each of the 4,269 extra minutes. That added $1,494.15 in charges - for a total of $1,948.50....

...A simple switch, say, to a plan that offers 6,000 minutes for $199.99 a month could have saved the public hundreds of dollars.

Sherman Browne, Baez's chief-of-staff, said that's what she has done. "After we found out, we changed," he said.

We wonder if Baez's staff was able to get some money back, for making the change - we were once able to do that ages ago. City Council members Vincent Gentile and John Liu also had cell phone bills in the $1300 and $2000 area respectively - Gentile's office says that there were two lines, plus a switch in service issue while Liu says there are nine cellphones for his staff, and his bill was for a few months (he's paying late fees?). As it happens, the other expenses the Post notes are only from Democratic City Council members - "One lawmaker, Mike McMahon (D-S.I.), shelled out $3,650 for folders embossed with the council seal and his name. The council's majority leader, Joel Rivera (D-Bronx), paid $2,275.00 for bilingual banners bearing his name to be used at parades." - but we have to imagine that even a Republican City Council members bought sundry items like those this past fiscal year.