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| Former Mayor Bill De Blasio |
From Editor Betsy Combier:
"A 2021 probe by another city watchdog already concluded that de Blasio had misused the NYPD during his campaign—and also by getting police to help his daughter move apartments and drive his son to and from college...."
That is just a part of the story.
What about the scandal involving his wife?
Where has $850m gone? Bill de Blasio's wife can't account for staggering amount of taxpayer money that the NY Mayor gave her for mental health projectjust sayin'........
Betsy Combier
Nick Garber, Crains New York Business, June 15, 2023
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio must pay a $155,000 fine and repay more than $319,000 in taxpayer money for improperly using city police as his security detail during his ill-fated presidential run, a watchdog agency ruled Thursday.
The order—the largest ever issued by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board—stems from de Blasio’s four-month-long run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, during which he made 31 out-of-state trips from May to September 2019. An NYPD detail accompanied him and his wife, First Lady Chirlane McCray.
Bringing the detail on those trips cost the city $319,794 in travel expenses—not including salary and overtime, the board found. That “plainly” violates a city law barring officials from using city resources for private purposes, the board wrote.
“There is no city purpose in paying for the extra expenses incurred by that NYPD security detail to travel at a distance from the city to accompany the mayor or his family on trips for his campaign for President of the United States,” the board wrote in its order. “The board advised [de Blasio] to this effect prior to his campaign; [de Blasio] disregarded the board’s advice.”
The board said de Blasio must pay the combined $474,794 within 30 days, though he could appeal the decision in state court.
Attorneys for de Blasio immediately said they had filed a lawsuit to block the decision, arguing it would put elected officials at risk.
“In a time of unprecedented threats of political violence, the COIB’s reckless and arbitrary ruling threatens the safety and security of our democratically-elected public servants,” Andrew G. Celli, Jr., an attorney at the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, said in a statement posted on Twitter.
A 2021 probe by another city watchdog already concluded that de Blasio had misused the NYPD during his campaign—and also by getting police to help his daughter move apartments and drive his son to and from college. But de Blasio’s attorneys said he would appeal any ruling that he owed the city money.
In an interview published this week in New York magazine, de Blasio was frank about the failure of his campaign, which he terminated before entering a single primary contest.
“It was a mistake,” he said. “I think my values were the right values, and I think I had something to offer, but it was not right on a variety of levels. And I think I got into a place of just extreme stubbornness and tunnel vision.”
De Blasio was knocked several times for ethical infractions during his eight years as mayor, including for soliciting donations from people with business before the city, and for circumventing donation limits by routing money through two separate political action committees during his presidential run. Meanwhile, a Queens restaurant owner admitted to trying to bribe de Blasio by hosting free fundraisers for his mayoral campaign, though de Blasio called the claims made-up.
