The city's Conflicts Board fined former City Councilman Kendall Stewart $1,250 for hiring his chief of staff's daughter—and letting his chief of staff supervise her. According to the NY Times, Asquith "Reid’s daughter Sharon worked as a constituent liaison in Mr. Stewart’s district office from 2002 to 2008" and "earned about $30,000 in 2008." (Asquith Reid, who pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $200,000 of Council funds, was fined $2,500.) Jumaane Williams, who took Stewart's seat, said, "I don’t want to say that you should never hire your relatives, because that doesn’t make sense. But they have to have the best skills, and you have to make sure they are not unsupervised, so there are some barriers of accountability." more ›

Two former aides of City Councilman Kendall Stewart will plead guilty to fraud charges related to embezzling nearly $200,000 of Council funds. Asquith Reid, Stewart's former chief of staff, and Joycinth Anderson, a former staffer, were indicted after an investigation revealed that money, which Stewart directed to three community groups (controlled by Reid and Anderson), was being used for cash or wired to relatives; the scheme was discovered during a probe of the Council's slush fund practices. Councilman Stewart (pictured) told the Times, "I hope they will not be serving any time. With all honesty, I don’t think they have done anything wrong. I think they are being punished for not keeping correct paperwork." But Jumaane Williams, who is challenging Stewart for his Council seat, said Stewart should resign, "At the worst, Mr. Stewart had to have been complicit and known what was going on. At the minimum, he signed off on things without reading it and wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in his office. Either one is very bad." more ›

Two former staffers under City Council member Kendall Stewart were "arrested and charged on mail fraud and money laundering charges" from the U.S. Attorney's office, according to WNBC. more ›