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The Risks of De Blasio’s Interview with Federal Prosecutors


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Mayor de Blasio gives his State of the City speech (photo: The Mayor's Office)


Mayor Bill de Blasio met with federal prosecutors on Friday, the latest step in the ongoing investigations into the mayor and his associates. In the face of multiple probes, the mayor maintains that he and his government and campaign teams acted appropriately; that no government action was promised or given for donations; and that everything done was within the bounds of local, state, and federal laws.

We’ll soon see if that’s true. But, de Blasio’s decision to talk with investigators and prosecutors -- both federal agents on Friday and, previously, representatives of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office looking a separate matter -- comes with risk and potential reward for the mayor, who expressed confidence that his cooperation will help lead to the exoneration of all involved.

Leading up to Friday’s interview, the mayor’s office declared that de Blasio himself was not the subject of the investigation into whether government favors were promised or provided to donors to the mayor’s 2013 campaign or The Campaign for One New York, his now-defunct nonprofit that took in hundreds of thousands of dollars from entities with city business.

The four-hour interview Friday, conducted at his lawyers’ midtown office, was part of “the process of getting all the information out,” as the mayor said on NY1 Monday evening. “It was fine,” the mayor told anchor Errol Louis. “I was very comfortable going over everything I knew.”

But, it is precisely this kind of interview that could lead to de Blasio becoming a target of the investigation. “Prosecutors typically talk to everyone else - aides, donors, consultants - before they talk to the main target,” said Jeff Smith, a former Missouri state senator who went to prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice charges (Smith’s case stemmed from an unattributed 2004 congressional campaign flier and the fallout as it was traced back to him).

“That gives them the most knowledge going into the interview with the principal to help them trap him or her into a lie,” Smith continued. “That way, if they don’t feel they have a strong enough case on the underlying breach, they may be able to make an obstruction charge stick.”

“It’s very difficult to know at this point if he was smart to talk,” Smith said of de Blasio. “Every case is different.” Smith added that not cooperating would likely irritate prosecutors, but that cooperating clearly has its risks.

“My best guess is that they were searching for inconsistencies between his responses and those of anyone they’ve flipped -- the two big donors we know of, plus, potentially, other donors, campaign staff and consultants, or mayoral aides we don’t know of,” Smith said. When Smith went to prison he had been secretly taped for months by his best friend, who had cut a deal with federal agents.

It is not completely clear who the targets of the investigations are, but it appears that they are top government aides to de Blasio, as well as his chief campaign fundraiser and possibly others involved in de Blasio’s political work, such as The Campaign for One New York and his 2014 effort to help Democrats take control of the state Senate by influencing several swing district races. The New York Times recently reported that federal prosecutors had more than a dozen topics to broach with de Blasio, presumably instances where donors received beneficial action from city government and there is some evidence of communication with the appearance of special treatment. For well more than a year, news outlets have been reporting on examples of donors receiving favorable treatment. De Blasio has insisted that he and those in his administration "make decisions based on the merits."

The outcomes of these investigations -- namely probes by the Manhattan DA and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York -- will have an immense impact on Bill de Blasio’s future, his career and his life in general. The results will significantly influence whether de Blasio wins a second term as Mayor this year, and whether he has any legitimate political aspirations thereafter -- running for U.S. Senate, Governor, or President, for example.

As Smith knows firsthand, de Blasio’s political career is hanging in the balance of the investigations. Smith, who earned a Ph.D. in political science before being elected, became a public policy professor at The New School after serving a year in prison, and wrote a critically-acclaimed book about his prison experience and the criminal justice system. He now helps lead a Missouri non-profit organization that supports people leaving prison.

There are a variety of possible outcomes, of course, and the investigations are living, breathing things, which can take many turns. Investigators may even close a case but can always reopen it given new evidence - as occurred in Smith’s case, when a key figure involved attempted to car-bomb his ex-wife’s divorce lawyer, leading to a raid that produced tapes of the man talking to Smith’s then-best friend.

De Blasio and many others with a stake in these investigations (including potential mayoral candidates eyeing indictments), are hoping for imminent closure, so that the city can be governed with less distraction and the 2017 mayoral race can be contested with more certainty.

Still, if there are charges against de Blasio or people close to him, legal proceedings could stretch throughout 2017 and beyond.

If the results of the investigations are unfavorable to de Blasio -- indictments of top aides, for example -- they could mark a major turn of events in the history of New York City. Or, the investigations could close with a whimper, in which case de Blasio would likely cruise to reelection this year and continue to build his progressive resume. There is a good chance, though, that in one form or another the legal process extends for months more, leaving the cloud hanging over de Blasio, city politics and government.

“The mayor’s career is on the line here,” Smith said. “If he is indicted, his already mediocre approval ratings will take a big hit, his fundraising will suffer, he will draw a strong opponent, and he will almost certainly lose a primary. If his close aides are indicted, his numbers may take a hit, and he may draw a stronger opponent, threatening his re-election bid. If the mayor somehow comes through all of these investigations into all of these matters unscathed, he will rival his one-time patron Bill Clinton as a political Houdini.”

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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
     

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Several Points of Funding Contention for City Budget Negotiation


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Mayor de Blasio presents his budget (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


The city’s annual budget season kicked off on January 25 with the release of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $84.7 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2018, which begins July 1. Starting Thursday, the City Council will hold weeks of hearings to examine the financial plan, listening to testimony from city officials and gauging the needs and allocations of city agencies. As usual, stakeholders across the board -- City Council members, other city elected officials, nonprofit organizations -- are making their budget priorities known, pushing for funding for the next fiscal year. Negotiation will continue until a new budget deal is reached between de Blasio and the Council sometime in June.

As the major areas of contention become clear, some remain from recent years, while others are new, and questions loom over the city budget cycle due to uncertainty in Washington, D.C., state funding shifts being proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and a slowing city economy. Along with a debate over how much the city should be putting aside in savings, additional funding is being sought for initiatives like free universal school lunch, reduced-price MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers, the Parks Department workforce, and more.

After it holds a round of hearings, the City Council will release an official response to the mayor’s preliminary spending plan. Then, the mayor will release his executive budget, kicking off another round of Council hearings before the two sides move to closed-door negotiations and come to a final agreement. All the while, elected officials, advocates, service providers, and others will be lobbying, holding press conferences and rallies, writing op-eds, and seeking to influence the budget process to their desired outcomes.

As with last year’s budget cycle, de Blasio has tried to ensure that city agencies are creating larger savings and reserve funds are being set aside for rainy day spending. The city has strong reserves that have been accrued even as the city budget has expanded rapidly under de Blasio and this City Council, thanks in large part to a booming city economy and strong tax revenues. Still, City Council members, Comptroller Scott Stringer, and fiscal watchdog groups have all called on the mayor to do more, particularly since the city is beginning to feel the effects of a widely predicted economic slowdown and also faces the threat of potential funding cuts from the federal government.

“While the Mayor’s Preliminary Budget increases real programmatic savings, there is room to find additional, lasting savings across all agencies,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, chair of the finance committee, in a joint statement after the mayor released his preliminary budget. Mark-Viverito and Ferreras-Copeland will head the Council’s budget negotiations with the administration.

Stringer, the city’s chief fiscal officer, echoed the call for increased savings. “City agencies must do more to scrub their budgets and operations to identify more savings and efficiencies to help address our risks,” he said when presenting his analysis of the preliminary budget on Feb. 15. He pointed out that agencies have contributed an average of 1 percent to the city’s savings under Mayor de Blasio, as opposed to 2.7 percent before 2014. He also pushed for increasing the city’s budget cushion from the current 10 percent ($8.5 billion) for fiscal year 2018 to anywhere between 12 percent and 18 percent.

The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog, has similarly stated that agencies should “identify agency improvements” to find an additional $500 million in savings which the mayor promised would be included in his executive budget. “Reducing unnecessary spending allows the City to direct resources effectively and build larger reserves as New York City’s economy shows signs of slowing and uncertainty remains around the future of federal funding,” wrote Riley Edwards, CBC research associate, in a blog post.

While the city relies on about $7-8 billion in federal funding annually, it is unclear how President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress will approach upcoming budget negotiations and funding for New York City. Trump has threatened to pursue funding cuts for so-called sanctuary cities, which are those like New York that welcome and protect undocumented immigrants.

The proposed preliminary budget contains $1 billion in new spending, but elected officials and nonprofit groups have identified a number of priorities they would like to see funded in the next fiscal year. Certain budget requests have even persisted from last year, for instance nonprofit human services organizations that contract with the city are calling for increased funding yet again, and Council members are pushing for full funding for the Summer Youth Employment program. A closer look at those and several other points of significant funding debate:

Human Services Nonprofit Funding: City-contracted nonprofits provide a range of human services such as homelessness prevention, mental health care, after-school programming, to mention a few. These organizations and their employees have been facing economic challenges due to funding levels. In the preliminary budget, de Blasio proposed 2 percent annual wage raises for the next three years for 90,000 nonprofit employees. However, these nonprofits have been underfunded for years under prior administrations and are calling on the de Blasio administration to increase their contracts by 12 percent across the board, for a $500 million price tag, to fully cover programmatic and overhead costs.

Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP): Last year, at the urging of Council members, the city baselined $39 million in funding for 60,000 slots for SYEP, which provides six weeks of paid work to people 14- to 24-years-old. This year, the preliminary budget includes another $9.3 million to baseline another 5,000 slots. But Council members are disappointed with that number, particularly since a task force created last year to study the program has not issued its recommendations yet. The members want those findings to have bearing on the final funding in the executive budget, with the ultimate goal of reaching 100,000 slots in the program.

“Fair Fares” Funding: Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, transit advocates, and nonprofit groups are calling on the mayor to fund the “Fair Fares” proposal, which would provide half-price MetroCards to low-income New Yorkers. The proposal would cost about $200 million and affect around 800,000 commuters. The mayor has called it “a good meaningful proposal” but insists that the city cannot afford it and funding must come from Albany since the MTA is a state-run agency.

Universal Free School Lunch: Advocates and elected officials have been pushing Mayor de Blasio to follow through on a 2013 campaign promise and provide universal free lunch for all of the city’s 1.1 million public school children. According to the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), about 47,000 more children would get free lunches if the program became universal, and 92 percent of the cost would be covered by the state and federal governments. Proponents of universal free lunch argue that it would remove the stigma associated with the current program, which gives free lunches to low-income and homeless children.

“I am also deeply disappointed that once again, the Mayor has failed to fulfill his campaign promise to provide universal free lunch,” said Public Advocate Letitia James, in her response to the mayor’s preliminary budget. “No matter how much we do for our schools, if our students aren’t well-fed, they won’t be able to learn. To truly give our children endless opportunities, we must give them the best tools to succeed.”

Liz Accles, executive director of Community Food Advocates, and leader of the Lunch 4 Learning campaign, said in a press release, “Hungry children face great disadvantages academically. By breaking his word and excluding Universal Free School Lunch from the preliminary budget again this year, the Mayor has made it clear that educational equity and economic inequality are not priorities, after all.”

Public Housing Investment: Mayor de Blasio allocated $1 billion in capital funds in his revised capital spending plan towards roof repairs at 729 NYCHA buildings, putting a dent in the $17 billion in capital needs at the public housing authority. However, Council Member Ritchie Torres, who chairs the Council’s public housing committee, and others believe the city should be investing more. “A 10-year $1 billion commitment to public housing might sound substantial but it represents crumbs,” Torres told the The Daily News. “The city should be stepping up. If the city can invest $2 billion in an elaborate street car, surely it can invest more in public housing,” Torres said, referring to the mayor’s BQX streetcar plan.

Expanding Citi Bike: Council members and transit advocates rallied outside City Hall in January calling on the mayor to provide public funds for a citywide expansion of the Citi Bike program. “Though the bike sharing program has been a runaway success in some parts of the city, it has also left the outer boroughs and many low-income neighborhoods significantly underrepresented,” said Council Member Mark Levine, in a press release.

The program, which is currently completely privately funded, is expected to expand to 12,000 bikes by the end of the year, but would need between 70,000 to 80,000 bikes to cover the entire city, according to estimates from the Department of Transportation. Installing 2,000 new bikes costs about $12 million, AM New York reported.

Council Member Rodriguez, chair of the Council’s transportation committee, has called for public investment in Citi Bike, but the mayor has said he has no plans to do so at this time. At a press conference alongside Rodriguez, the mayor did say that budget negotiations are just beginning, though. “It’s a discussion we’re always willing to have with the folks who run Citi Bike,” de Blasio told Gotham Gazette at a recent news conference, “about how we can work with them in terms of their future and allowing it to be strong and hopefully continue to expand, but we have never committed public funds, and we do not have plans to.”

Rodriguez, who was also at the news conference, then said, “I hope that the conversation will continue. I believe that we can look at possibilities at some point to bring the public dollars though. So this is something that the private sector, they had to do more in order to bring Citi bike through the whole five boroughs.”

Expanding Homebuyer Loan Program: Council Member Rafael Espinal has called on the mayor to increase city help for those looking to make a home purchase. Espinal wants the city to double New York City Housing Preservation and Development’s HomeFirst Down Payment Assistance Loan Program and to raise the cap of the loan from $15,000 to $30,000 at minimum. “As property values continue to spike, this program must reflect those increases to actually enable homeownership,” Espinal said in a statement.

Homecare Services Funding: AARP New York and LiveOn NY, two of New York’s largest senior advocacy organizations, were disappointed with the mayor’s preliminary budget for its “status quo” funding of $4.3 million for senior homecare services. These services have been underfunded for years, they say, noting that the waitlists for senior home care increased by 15 percent in the two months after last year’s budget was adopted.

“Homecare services are a win-win for all; they help New Yorkers age with dignity in their own homes - where most want to stay - while helping avoid even more expensive, taxpayer-funded institutional care settings,” said Beth Finkel, state director of AARP New York, in a statement. The two organizations say the $4.3 million should be baselined, and further funding allocated, to ensure adequate services for a senior population that is expected to increase by 40 percent between 2010 and 2040.

Parks Department Funding: Council Member Mark Levine, chair of the Council’s parks committee, criticized the mayor’s preliminary budget for yet again excluding funding for 150 parks workers, pointing out that the Council had to fund these positions in each of the last two years. “A thriving park system isn’t just a luxury in a dense city of 8.5 million people. It’s essential to livability,” Levine said in a statement, noting that these workers are critical for the city’s Park Equity Agenda that aims to improve long-neglected parks in low-to-moderate-income neighborhoods.

Lynn Kelly, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, said in a statement that the mayor should baseline the funding. “Parks are critical pieces of infrastructure, as essential to the health of our city as quality roads, schools and sewers,” Kelly said. “Infrastructure isn’t just bricks and mortar; it’s also the dedicated maintenance staff who keep it up and running.”

Funding Curbside Pickup Program: Last year, the city funded a pilot program in Staten Island, proposed by Council Member Steven Matteo, allowing residents to request curbside pickups of electronic waste for recycling. Matteo pledged on Twitter last month that he would make it a priority this budget season to push for permanent funding for the program.

Veterans Department Funding: The Department of Veterans Services, which was fully established as a standalone agency last year, saw a planned $318,000 reduction in the preliminary budget from $3.95 million to $3.63 million. The reduction came from one-time costs incurred in setting up the department, but veterans advocates and elected officials were nonetheless dissatisfied and called for not only restoring the funding but expanding it further.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Community Group Endorses Four Women of Color for ‘Open’ City Council Seats


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Carlina Rivera, left, & Marjorie Velazquez, center (photo: @CarlinaRivera)


In an effort to promote women’s representation on the City Council, the political arm of one of New York’s largest grassroots immigrant advocacy organizations has endorsed four women of color running for “open” Council seats this year.

Make the Road Action (MRA), the political affiliate of Make the Road New York, a group that represents about 20,000 Latinos in New York City and Long Island, will announce its endorsement on Friday for four progressive City Council candidates - Carlina Rivera, Alicka Ampry-Samuel, Diana Ayala, and Marjorie Velazquez. Each is seeking to fill a seat that is being vacated due to term limits.

“These four powerful women offer the powerful progressive leadership that our communities and our city need,” said Maria Cortes, an MRA member, in a statement. “They stand with working-class people of color like me on issue after issue including preserving and building truly affordable housing, reforming the NYPD, protecting immigrant families, standing up for workers’ rights, and making sure that all people’s voices are heard in our democracy.”

There are only 13 women currently on the 51-seat City Council, down from 18 in 2009, and four of them face term-limits this year, including Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. Council member Inez Dickens recently stepped down after being elected to the state Assembly, and she is being replaced by State Senator Bill Perkins, who just won a special election.

With male candidates overwhelmingly represented in races across the board, there has been a push to ensure the success of women candidates. Mark-Viverito, Council Members Elizabeth Crowley and Margaret Chin, along with good government groups and women’s organizations, recently launched the “21 in ’21” campaign to encourage women to run for City Council and bring the total number of women members to at least 21 through the 2017 and 2021 city election cycles.

“It is shocking that in the most progressive city in the United States, only one quarter of our City Council members are women,” Mark-Viverito said in a statement announcing the initiative. “All New Yorkers suffer when we don’t have equal representation in government and I intend to do everything I can to bring true equity to the Council at long last.”

MRA has identified this issue and intends to mobilize its members, numbering in the thousands, to back women candidates who have shown support for progressive causes. Friday’s announcement is its first wave of endorsements and more are expected to follow in the coming months, leading up to the September primaries when most City Council races are actually decided in Democrat-heavy New York City. (Make The Road New York receives discretionary funding through the City Council and individual Council members, for a variety of community programs and services it performs.)

The group has similarly endorsed progressive candidates in prior elections. In 2013, MRA’s sister PAC, Make the Road Political Action, even spent $27,323 for independent mailings supporting Antonio Reynoso for the District 34 Council seat, and opposing Vito Lopez, Reynoso’s primary competitor. Reynoso was victorious.

The four candidates now being backed by MRA, in statements accompanying the announcement, noted the importance of MRA’s advocacy at a time when immigrant communities face a volatile political climate at the national level.

Carlina Rivera, who is running to replace Council Member Rosie Mendez in Manhattan’s District 2, said she was “honored” to receive MRA’s endorsement. Citing the “despicable and dangerous” policies of the Trump administration, she said, “Make the Road Action has been a leading force in the city’s resistance and through organizing they have built power and self-determination in neighborhoods everywhere. Throughout my career in service, I have strived to achieve these same goals in my own community. The issues we fight for are both important and personal to me.” Rivera, who is Mendez’s legislative director and was endorsed by the Council member, is currently leading the race in fundraising, ahead of five opponents so far, four of whom have no funds to their name.

“In these times of fear and uncertainty for our immigrant communities, the work of MRA is more important than ever,” said Diana Ayala, deputy chief of staff to Mark-Viverito, who is running to replace her boss in District 8, which covers East Harlem and the South Bronx. Mark-Viverito endorsed Ayala last year, writing in a Facebook post, “Diana is a reflection of who I fight for each [and] every day [and] what motivates me to do what I do. There is no better person to represent this district.” Ayala currently has three competitors for the seat, but has far surpassed them in fundraising so far.

In District 13 in the Bronx, a crowded field of candidates has declared a run for Council Member James Vacca’s seat. Marjorie Velazquez, a Democratic district leader, has Vacca’s endorsement but will face an uphill challenge. She is second in fundraising, trailing behind state Assembly Member Mark Gjonaj. Velazquez said she was “proud and humbled” that MRA had endorsed her. “This incredible organization helps give a voice to so many people and provides valuable assistance to New York families in need,” she said, in a statement. “Now, more than ever, their services for immigrants, women, senior citizens, tenants and members of the LGBT community have the potential to make real, positive changes in the lives of millions.”

The race for Council Member Darlene Mealy’s seat in Brooklyn’s District 41 has seen little action so far. Alicka Ampry-Samuel is one of six candidates in that race, and none of them have posted much in the way of campaign fundraising. “In our current national climate, local municipalities must now become the stewards of protection for all people of color; no matter their country of origin,” Ampry-Samuel said. “I will always fight for New York City to remain a safe haven for the freedoms and rights upon which our country was founded.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Related: Candidates for 2017 City Elections

Related: The Early Money Race in ‘Open’ City Council Seats



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