Considered a long-shot in the process of selecting the next City Council Speaker, Bronx Councilman Jimmy Vacca not only made sense – as the most moderate of the bunch – but also issued a strong case for himself and the City Council, at a candidate forum in the Bronx Monday night.

“I don’t want to do anything that weakens the New York City Council,” declared Councilman Vacca, one of six candidates who attended the forum, as the candidates sparred over the potential impact of initiated rule reforms that would significantly rein in the speaker’s powers and the City Council. “We have instituted more transparency about who allocates what to where, and that’s important, as you know. However, I have to caution you to tell you the truth, we can institute all the controls that you want, if you’re a crook, you’re a crook!”

According to reports by those who attended the forum (this reporter was not in attendance), Vacca firmly stated his belief that Council members’ discretionary funds should be distributed based on the merits of the programs being funded, setting him apart of the remaining candidates, who suggested the discretionary funds be divided up either equally among members or according to a formula based on districts’ economic needs.

“We have to make sure that the Council operates as a cohesive body, and that nothing that the speaker does diminishes the role of the New York City Council,” Vacca said.

His contenders, East Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, the front-runner in the race, and Mark Weprin, argued the changes would, in fact, strengthen the council by empowering individual members.

I support the rules reforms and I don’t think it necessarily weakens the City Council. As a matter of fact, sometimes the best way to gain power is to give it away,” Mr. Weprin said. To which Ms. Mark-Viverito agreed to: “I am not threatened as a leader to be able to say that my colleagues in government, my colleagues in the City Council are gonna be co-partners with me as your leader. It is a progressive way of governing It is inclusive.”

East Side Councilman Dan Garodnick, seen as a strong compromised contender, also proposed creating an independent bill drafting office. “There should be no circumstance in which somebody’s putting forth a good idea which simply gets bottled up because of political problems with the speaker,” he said.

Speaking to reporters after the forum, Vacca proclaimed that he was one of the “major contenders” for speaker, and proceeded to list his qualifications: ”I can be a leader, but I’m also very collegial, I’m very inclusive, I think I represent the right mindset to be speaker, I certainly have the work ethic, and I believe in the body as an institution”—as if trying to impress for a job interview.”

Vacca, who’s well like among his colleagues, asserted himself as a man of the people. “The reality on the streets is quite different than the theoretical reality from some penthouse somewhere,” Vacca said. “I don’t represent the cocktail circuit, I represent these people and I have all my life.”

Vacca doubled down on the message he so passionately displayed during the forum about government morality, saying he worried that, if the proposed reform rules were enacted, the next council might look like the national Republican party, where House Speaker John Boehner has faced difficulty getting his members in line.

“I don’t want to be John Boehner who, when he goes in to see Obama, Obama says, ‘I can’t negotiate with you because you don’t represent your body. I gotta go see Harry Reid.’ … I want to be a speaker that when I sit down with the mayor, he will know that I consulted my colleagues and that I represent the will of the body and that he and I have to have discussion.”

“If you weaken the speaker, you weaken the body,” he added.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)