The city’s ethics watchdog said on Thursday that it was hitting former Mayor Bill de Blasio with a record-breaking fine and ordering him to repay nearly $320,000 for expenses he incurred for travel costs for his NYPD security detail during his longshot 2020 presidential campaign.
The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board fined the mayor the largest penalty in its history — $155,000 — for violating its guidance ahead of his presidential campaign.
“The Board advised respondent…prior to his campaign; respondent disregarded the board’s advice,” an order released by the COIB on Thursday noted.
Before his presidential campaign launched in May 2019, an attorney for the mayor asked the COIB if the city could pay for the cost of de Blasio’s security detail while traveling for his presidential campaign. The agency offered written guidance explaining that the city could cover the NYPD detail’s salaries, but not their travel expenses.
De Blasio officially announced his presidential bid the day after his team was sent this written guidance, according to the COIB.
During the four months on the campaign trail, the city incurred costs for 31 out-of-state trips de Blasio took with his NYPD security detail to political events. The cost of their travel was $319,794.20. Those costs were found to be a violation of the City Charter for the misuse of city resources.
The COIB’s order released on Thursday is based on the recommendations issued by a judge with the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. Administrative Law Judge Kevin Casey conducted a hearing in December 2022 and issued his recommendations last month.
De Blasio did not testify at that hearing, but two witnesses were called on his behalf: John Miller, who had served as the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism and had overseen de Blasio’s NYPD security detail in 2019; and Henry Berger, an attorney who had served as the mayor’s special counsel from 2014 to 2018.
According…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply