Real estate firm to pay fine for Skelos/Silver involvement

From the Daily News:

A real estate firm that played a key role in the corruption charges against disgraced ex-legislative leaders Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos must pay a $200,000 fine for violating New York lobbying laws.

Glenwood Management, which is owned by political powerbroker Leonard Litwin, agreed to the fine as part of a settlement with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

Judge orders de Blasio to comply with ethics probe

From the NY Times:

A judge in Albany has ordered Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political nonprofit to comply with a subpoena from a state ethics panel, putting a damper on the mayor’s widening effort to prevent the disclosure of certain communications that he deems privileged.

The decision by Justice Denise A. Hartman of State Supreme Court involved an investigation by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics into whether the nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, violated state regulations by failing to register in 2015 as a lobbyist.

The two parties argued their positions in court in July, the first public court battle to emerge from various state and federal investigations into the mayor’s fund-raising and political activities.

The ruling, issued last week but not received by the parties until Monday, comes as Mr. de Blasio is also fighting in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to keep emails and text messages between City Hall and a small number of outside advisers — some of whom played central roles in the political nonprofit before it closed down this year — from being disclosed to reporters.

JCOPE goes to court to force de Blasio to cooperate

From the Daily News:

The state’s top ethics enforcement agency went to court Monday to force Mayor de Blasio’s now-defunct Committee for One New York to cooperate with its probe, the Daily News has learned.

Attorneys for the Joint Commission on Public Ethics filed a motion in state Supreme Court in Albany seeking to have the nonprofit created to push de Blasio’s agenda comply with a “lawfully issued subpoena” seeking information about the group’s lobbying activities, a source with knowledge of the motion said. A JCOPE spokesman declined to comment.

The motion comes after an attorney for the nonprofit, Laurence Laufer, sent a scathing letter to JCOPE last week declaring that it would no longer cooperate with the investigation, calling it a “blatantly political exercise.”

DeBlasio says state probe is biased

From CBS 2:

It’s the wrath of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Under pressure from numerous corruption investigations, the mayor sought out a friendly audience, the Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, to blame his troubles on his politics enemies, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reports.

“Now, brothers and sisters, guess what… when you do something different, opposition emerges. The voices of the status quo find many, many ways to undermine progress to stand in the way of progress,” he said.

The mayor apparently thinks Governor Andrew Cuomo is one of those standing in the way of progress. He had his lawyer, Laurence Laufer, send a scathing letter to the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics saying team de Blasio will no longer cooperate with its probe into the mayor’s non-profit and fundraising arm, the campaign for One New York. Laufer implies Cuomo is somehow pulling the strings.

He's under investigation by the Manhattan D.A. and U.S. Attorney, but the state investigation is a witch hunt. Okay...

Silver failed to disclose all his income

From the Daily News:

Already facing federal corruption charges, former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is now being fined for violating state ethics laws for not properly disclosing all his outside income.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics — the state’s top ethics watchdog agency —notified Silver that he faces up to $120,000 in fines for filing inadequate financial disclosure statements in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

AG candidate wants Parkside Group investigated

From the Daily News:

Ramon Jimenez, a Bronx lawyer and Green Party candidate for Attorney General, called on the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate the actions of a lobbying firm representing FreshDirect in its bid to move to the Bronx.

In the complaint, filed Friday, Jimenez accuses the lobbyist, The Parkside Group, of contacting Mayor de Blasio’s office on behalf of the online grocer and not properly disclosing its activities to the ethics commission.

“We want the law followed as far as them having to record all contact they have with officials,” Jiminez told The News Friday. “It’s a concern for the people of New York, and especially to everyone in the South Bronx.”

A Parkside representative said the group was well within the boundaries of New York’s lobbying laws, and chalked up the complaint as a campaign tactic.

“We are proud to be working on a project that is creating thousands of good paying jobs in the poorest Congressional district in America, and we have always complied with all requirements of city and state lobbying laws,” said Evan Stavisky, a Parkside Group spokesman. “This is just another last-ditch political stunt.”

Isn't it interesting that a political leader who purports to represent part of Queens is actively lobbying to move jobs out of the borough?