Impeach de Blasio

NY Post

A newly-disclosed email exchange between two top de Blasio officials suggests the administration misled the City Council about the ouster of a whistleblower who accused the mayor of corruption.

On March 13, 2017 Lisette Camilo, head of the city’s Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services, testified to the council that Ricardo Morales was forced from his job as a deputy commissioner at her agency for reasons that had “nothing to do with Rivington.”

According to the email thread — which was released as part of Morales’ wrongful termination suit against the city — the comment shocked de Blasio employees who were watching Camilo get grilled.

“Did Lisette really say morales firing wasn’t related to rivington?” asked then de Blasio press secretary Eric Phillips in one of the emails.

“Yes. That’s what we were told she had to say for legal reasons,” replied Jon Paul Lupo, de Blasio’s former director of intergovernmental affairs.

Camilo had been referring in her testimony to Rivington House, a Lower East Side nursing home that was sold to a developer in 2015 resulting in a $72 million profit.

The feds probed the transaction because the city lifted deed restrictions, paving the way for the seller and subsequent buyer—both repped by a major de Blasio donor—to cash in on the site.

Morales has said publicly that he cooperated with the probe and gave “truthful testimony” about alleged wrongdoing by the mayor and other city officials.

However, he was fired the same day the feds interviewed de Blasio in 2017 about the deal.

How de Blasio marketed affordable housing is a joke

From City Limits:

Consider the calculations behind the June 12, 2017 official opening for the 535 Carlton tower in Prospect Heights, the first “100 percent affordable” building in the Pacific Park (formerly Atlantic Yards) project.

The emails show developer Greenland Forest City Partners scripting quotes from a grateful new 535 Carlton resident; a mayoral aide transforming a corporate press release into a governmental statement; and seeming distance from affordable housing advocates who once strongly backed Atlantic Yards, slated to include 2,250 below-market apartments.

Unmentioned: the grateful tenant was hardly representative of a building with 148 of 297 units aimed at middle-income households paying, for example, $2,680 for a one-bedroom apartment or $3,223 for a two-bedroom unit.

As this reporter wrote for City Limits in April 2017, the “real math” behind that building’s housing lottery showed some 67,000 households aiming for the 90 low-income apartments, while only 2,203 made the first cut for the 148 middle-income units. Ismene Speliotis, former ACORN housing head and now Executive Director of MHANY Management, which manages the housing lottery and tenant intake for the project expressed concern, telling City Limits that the limited response for the middle-income units indicated “a disconnect between the population’s need and the apartment distribution.”

BDB used personal email for city business

From CBS 2:

A city document indicated that Mayor Bill de Blasio and four of his aides used personal email accounts for city business, sources said late Tuesday.

Sources told CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer about the use of the personal email accounts, which the New York Times also reported on Tuesday night.

The Department of Investigation discovered the use of the accounts while investigating the mayor’s campaign fundraising last year, sources said.

De Blasio was not charged criminally in connection with the campaign fundraising but, the U.S. Attorney’s office said the mayor intervened on behalf of donors seeking political favors, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said the way the mayor raised money violated the “spirit” of the law.

The mayor used his personal email address at least 1,850 times for conducting city business, sources said. The actions could be in violation of some city guidelines, sources said.

City Hall let lobbyist help run the place

From NY1:

Mayor Bill de Blasio's office has released hundreds of pages of emails between the mayor, his top aides and Jonathan Rosen, a key unofficial adviser who city officials declared to be an "Agent of the City." NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.

Jonathan Rosen's influence extends deep inside City Hall in ways more extensive than previously known.

New emails released by the mayor show Rosen is invited to major policy meetings and included in high-level internal discussions.

But while he may be treated like a top City Hall advisor, he is far from an official one. He runs an influential private consulting firm, BerlinRosen, with clients who have business before the city, including powerful real estate firms. And the state now considers some of the work he does to be lobbying.

But that did not stop City Hall from including Rosen in an August 2014 meeting about the mayor's affordable housing agenda. He was the only non-city employee to attend.

Rosen was also asked to come to Gracie Mansion to discuss the city's strategy in Albany.

Government watchdog groups have criticized Rosen's close ties to the mayor and argued he and other outside consultants are part of a shadow city government.

Not exactly transparent

From NY1:

NY1 and the New York Post have sued the mayor over his refusal to turn over emails between top city officials, including himself, and Rosen.

In this case, though, the city did turn over some e-mails to NY1. But while we received 87 pages of e-mails in all, we learned that when the mayor had something to say, it was often blacked out.

When de Blasio sent a New York Times story about stagnant middle-class incomes to top city advisers, Del Cecato and his wife, Chirlane McCray, his note to the group was redacted.

It was the same with a New Yorker story about Hillary Clinton that he forwarded to his wife and Del Cecato. The mayor's message is blocked.

"These emails show how ridiculous it is to designate these consultants as agents of the city," said Dick Dadey of Citizens Union. "These emails, in particular, are benign. They are talking about political stories and news stories, and for them to be protecting the mayor's comments just shows how ridiculous this whole matter is.

De Blasio's handling of his emails have also raised complaints that he is failing to live up the transparency promises he made as a candidate for City Hall.

DeBlasio: "Nothing to see here"

From NY1:

Critics accuse Mayor de Blasio of setting up a shadow government — comprised of consultants who are not paid by City Hall, but pocket cash from clients, many of whom have business before the city.

The arrangement has long drawn complaints but it is generating a new wave of condemnation, because City Hall is refusing to release emails the consultants exchanged with the mayor and his top aides.

"It's disappointing to see the mayor, whose whole persona in government is about doing it for the people and being transparent about it, and to be relying on a legal analysis from some lawyer about whether this consultant's communications are protected is ridiculous," said Dick Dadey with good government group, Citizens Union. "Just disclose."

More than a year ago, NY1 made an open-records request for emails between a top de Blasio consultant, Jonathan Rosen, and the Mayor and high-ranking administration officials.

The request was denied, even though emails between city officials and people outside government are presumed to be public. In a letter to NY1, a city lawyer referred to Rosen as a consultant to the Mayoralty. He argued the emails were protected by the same exemption that keeps us from seeing many of the e-mails the mayor sends to his City Hall staff only.

They all have something to hide

From the Daily News:

Two top deputies of Mayor de Blasio, who campaigned on creating a new era of government openness, commonly use their personal Gmail accounts to discuss city-related issues, the Daily News has learned.

First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris and director of intergovernmental affairs Emma Wolfe routinely communicate via their private email addresses, according to multiple government insiders.

Good-government groups contend that’s a behind-the-scenes way to dodge oversight and contrary to the open government de Blasio vowed to run as he campaigned for mayor.

“Public officials should use their public emails for public activities,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Through the law, the public can legally access copies of emails sent from official government addresses.

Personal emails from City Hall honchos discussing government issues are also fair play under the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

But reporters and curious members of the public need to know those exact addresses when making a request for information.

What does he have to hide? A lot, apparently

From DNA Info:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a private way of discussing city business — using an email account from his company, Bloomberg L.P.

DNAinfo New York has learned of correspondences between Bloomberg and a deputy mayor in which each uses an @bloomberg.net email address to discuss city-related matters.

The identity of the deputy mayor, the dates of the emails and the content of the correspondences are being withheld by DNAinfo to protect the source.

It isn't clear how often the mayor uses a private email account to communicate with his inner circle. But the discovery of the @bloomberg.net correspondences drew concerns from good government groups who see it as a way of avoiding oversight.

“It’s an end run around public access to public documents,” civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel said.

Like most government employees, Bloomberg and his staff have City Hall-issued email accounts. Under state law, the public has the right to see copies of those emails.

Siegel and Bob Freeman, the executive director of the Committee on Open Government, both said that the public also has the right to officials’ personal emails when the correspondences discuss government matters.

However, the public first needs to know the addresses of those personal accounts, Siegel said.

“I do believe that when public officials do public business using their private emails, those emails are subject to the Freedom of Information Law,” Siegel said. “When people resist giving up that information, it’s an end run around. We should criticize that kind of behavior.”

A search of a Bloomberg L.P. terminal shows that at least nine members of the mayor’s inner circle have @bloomberg.net email accounts.

They are: deputy mayors Patty Harris, Cas Holloway and Robert Steel; chief policy adviser John Feinblatt; director of intergovernmental affairs Haeda Mihaltses, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott; counselor to the mayor Michael Best; senior adviser Shea Fink and mayoral spokesman Marc LaVorgna.

City app for finding parking spaces & paying meters

From CBS New York:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a pilot program Tuesday that will allow drivers to add parking time remotely by using a smartphone app, the internet or by telephone.

Motorists will also receive a text message or email alerting them their time is about to expire. They will then be able to purchase additional time and extend their parking periods.

Drivers will also be able to spend less time hunting for a parking space with the city’s new real-time curbside parking availability map that can be viewed on the Internet, smartphones and tablet devices.

They all knew

From the Wall Street Journal:

Attorneys representing two women in a sexual-harassment dispute against Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez had initially demanded a settlement payment of $1.2 million before agreeing to a fraction of that amount, according to internal email correspondence made public Thursday by the state attorney general's office.

The emails also show that top legal advisers to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli had been briefed on the major terms of the final prelitigation settlement and didn't raise objections to the ultimate payment of more than $100,000 from state coffers.

In an email dated May 29, days before the agreement was inked, the Assembly majority counsel William Collins wrote to counsels for the attorney general and state comptroller offices to brief them on the talks and share with them a draft copy of the terms. "Note the complainants initially sought $1.2 million and reduced their settlement number only once (to $600,000) before we drew a hard-and-fast line," he said in the email.

Lawyers for the two female complainants, represented by Gloria Allred, a prominent sexual-harassment attorney in Los Angeles, and a Manhattan firm, declined to comment on Mr. Collins's email.

The attorney general's office had no official role in the talks, but Mr. Schneiderman's counsel had several discussions with the Assembly's counsel about how the deal was playing out, according to the email.

Mr. Schneiderman's office suggested minor adjustments to the terms but didn't advise against the proposed payout in taxpayer cash of $103,080, the agreed amount for damages and attorney fees. Mr. Lopez paid an additional $32,000 as part of the deal.

The Staten Island DA has been appointed special prosecutor in this case. he's concerned that the highly political nature of it will lead to leaks.

And despite all this, Lopez will cruise to victory this fall.