Council Members :: Speaker's Bio

Biography of Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn
In January 2006, the Members of the City Council overwhelmingly chose Christine C. Quinn to be Speaker.  As the first woman, openly gay, and Irish Speaker, she brings a new perspective to the diverse challenges facing each of New York City's distinct communities. Speaker Quinn has set a proactive agenda for the Council as an incubator of big ideas and an initiator of legislative and policy initiatives that improve people's lives.  In short, she is working to make government more accessible to New Yorkers in all five boroughs.

Speaker Quinn has made reform a top priority.  From limiting lobbyists' influence in City Hall to increasing transparency in government to ending the "budget dance" between the Administration and the Council, she has made significant strides in improving the way the City does business.

In her first 16 months as Speaker, her accomplishments include pushing for laws and policies on such critical issues as public safety, early childhood education, hunger and nutrition and affordable housing. 

Highlights of these accomplishments and ongoing efforts include: 

  • Protecting the lives of New York City's police officers by successfully campaigning for nearly 18,000 new State-of-the-Art bulletproof vests for all our men and women in blue. 

  • Protecting existing housing and creating new affordable units through legislation such as 421 A and the Safer Housing Act.

  • Working with Council Members and the Bloomberg administration on a first-ever garbage solution for New York City that ensures poor and low income communities don't bear the brunt of the City's garbage transportation and disposal issues.

  • Passing laws to control the spread of illegal firearms.

  • Championing full day Pre-kindergarten for 4 year-olds, leading to 2,000 new full day slots in the first year.

  • Promoting Food Today, Healthy Tomorrow, a nutrition and anti-hunger campaign, to make sure low income New Yorkers better access food stamps and have access to healthier options.
  • Protecting libraries, cultural organizations, summer jobs, parks, family day care, trash pick up and the Citizens Complaint Review Board from routinely being targeted for budget cuts in each year's budget by "base-lining" funding.
  • Leading Council efforts to strengthen nightclub safety by creating a package of legislation that includes more rigorous identification checks, installing security cameras at club entrances,  enhancing nightclub staff training, and requiring problem clubs to hire independent monitors at their own expense.
  • Lobbying Albany for tax relief for small businesses and tax relief for renters.
  • Passing a budget that is both fiscally responsible and socially responsive for all New Yorkers.

Since 1999, Speaker Quinn has served as the representative for the 3rd Council District of Manhattan.  She has been a long time pioneer for equal rights, comprehensive health care, improved schools, tenants' rights and affordable housing. Prior to becoming Speaker, she was Chair of the Council's Health Committee and worked vigilantly to pass the ban on smoking in all workplaces, expand access to emergency contraception for rape survivors and other women in need, increase the availability of mammograms citywide, preserve school nurses, and secure millions of dollars for HIV prevention services. 

Before being elected to the City Council, Speaker Quinn served for five years as Chief of Staff to Council Member Thomas K. Duane. She then worked as Executive Director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. During her time with the Anti-Violence Project, Mayor Guiliani appointed her to be a member of the New York City Police/Community Relations Task Force. 

Speaker Quinn has been rated one of the fifty most powerful women in New York City by the New York Post, and one of the most influential New Yorkers by New York Magazine.

She and her partner, Kim Catullo, live in Chelsea with their dogs Andy and Sadie.