I Hope Meeks’ Staff Asked for the Day Off

Rep. Gregory Meeks has put a handful of his congressional staffers to work trying to keep his handpicked candidate from being knocked off the ballot in the hotly contested City Council race in southern Queens, The Post has learned.

A Post reporter who visited the Queens Board of Elections Wednesday spotted Meeks’ crew scrutinizing petitions in the special election for the 28th District, despite a law blocking congressional staffers from political work while on the government clock.

Meeks is promoting political novice Nicole Paultre Bell, fiancée of police-shooting victim Sean Bell and one of six candidates in the special election to replace Councilman Tom White, who died on Aug. 27.

Paultre Bell’s nominating petitions are being challenged on the grounds that she didn’t secure the minimum 899 valid signatures required.

“We’re all volunteers here,” one of the Meeks staffers announced when the reporter asked if any of a half-dozen individuals checking voter signatures worked for the congressman.

An individual later identified as Jason Hilliard, Meeks’ deputy chief of staff, tried to mislead the reporter by insisting he was there on other matters.

“We aren’t checking for that election,” Hilliard claimed.

When the reporter pointed out that the document Hilliard was examining had Paultre Bell’s name on it, he quickly ‘fessed up by saying, “Oh, I made a mistake.”

He then insisted, “No one here works for Congressman Meeks.”

Read more: (C.J. Sullivan and David Seifman, “Meeks’ House Staff Invades Council Race,” New York Post, 10/11/2010)