JONA’S NO-TELL HOTEL
After big donations to Blaz, city turned blind eye to complaints
IN THE FALL of 2014, the intersection of money and power came together in an extraordinary phone call between Mayor de Blasio and one of his biggest donors.
Developer Jona Rechnitz wanted City Hall to clear up some illegal hotel citations he faced. The mayor wanted some serious money for his bid to return the state Senate to the Democrats.
Both men got what they wanted.
City officials insist Rechnitz was treated like any other constituent, noting that he paid more than $75,000 in fines.
But a Daily News review found that after that payment was made, the complaints about illegal hotel activity at his building continued for nearly a year beginning in February 2015 — but no more sanctions were issued.
The city received 19 complaints that the building was openly being used as an illegal hotel. Tipsters described groups of tourists showing up with suitcases in the early morning hours. They even gave inspectors the numbers of specific rooms where transient guests were staying.
During that entire time, the city said they found no evidence of illegal activity and imposed no further fines.
The saga revolved around a five-story 14-unit townhouse Rechnitz owns at 238 Madison Ave. that in the spring of 2014 had been targeted by the city as an illegal hotel.
For months the Buildings Department had received complaints that tenants were renting out their apartments via Airbnb to tourists. Inspectors hit the place in June and August and issued 13 citations and fines totaling $71,000.
Rechnitz said he’d complained about this to Ross Offinger, the mayor’s top fund-raiser.
Offinger had already solicited Rechnitz to raise $41,000 for de Blasio’s election campaign and write a $50,000 check to the mayor’s nonprofit, Campaign for One New York.
But when Offinger asked again, Rechnitz said he’d had enough.
This money-for-access conversation between Offinger and Rechnitz emerged on Oct. 27 as Rechnitz testified as the government’s star witness in the bribery trial of jails union boss Norman Seabrook (photo, r.). Rechnitz has pleaded guilty to a theft of honest services conspiracy charge and he’s hoping for leniency at sentencing.
Rechnitz said Offinger asked him in Fall 2014 to pony up for the mayor’s then nascent effort to flip the state Senate from Republican to Democratic control.
The mayor was looking for big donations well above the $10,300 individual donation limit and had come up with a way to do that by steering checks to candidates through upstate Democratic committees. The committee limit was $102,300. Rechnitz wasn’t having it. “I told him no, I’m not” giving, Rechnitz testified last month. “I’d been frustrated that we had a lot of requests and issues on the table that weren’t being attended to in a timely fashion.”
He said he told Offinger, “All you do is come here when you need money.”
Rechnitz claimed Offinger then suggested talking to the mayor directly.
“I’m happy to get the mayor on the phone with you,” Offinger said, according to Rechnitz.
“The mayor told me that it would mean a great deal to him,” Rechnitz testified. “It would be very significant to him if I could help out in this campaign.”
During the conversation, according to Rechnitz, de Blasio was even aware of the maximum donation allowed.
“I asked him what’s the maximum I’m allowed to donate to you, Mr. Mayor? He said you can talk to Ross, I think it’s $102,000.”
On Oct. 22, 2014, Rechnitz wrote a check as instructed to the State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee for $102,300. Exactly seven days later he got an email from Linara Davidson, a top official in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
Within days she set up a meeting with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (MOSE), which targets illegal hotels. By Jan. 22, 2015, Rechnitz paid off the $76,500 he owed in fines on the illegal hotel citations and some other miscellaneous code issues.
MOSE spokesman Patrick Gallahue wrote in an email to The News, “Enforcement actions on this building have been aggressive and appropriate and completely in line with actions taken in similar situations. There is zero evidence to suggest otherwise.”
But records show that after the fines were paid, illegal hotel complaints about Rechnitz’s building were just beginning.
In the two inspections prior to Rechnitz making his final payment in January 2015, there were nine complaints and 13 citations.
After the fines were paid, there were 19 more complaints about illegal hotel activity at Rechnitz’s building. Through 2015, there were nine inspections but zero citations, records show.
During this time, the city was often given specific tips on how to catch transient tenants.
“Guests stay for one week and best time to find them is in the morning. New guests come weekly,” one tipster said.
In fact, during a July 10, 2015, inspection, MOSE found evidence that illegal hotel activity continued. Records of that inspection state, “Transient Use Found.”
The transient tenant admitted to inspectors that a “friend” had “made arrangements through Airbnb and he doesn’t have specific information regarding payment.” The inspectors were able to confirm that the room had been booked from Los Angeles via Airbnb, but no citation was issued.
MOSE spokesman Gallahue wrote in an email, “The person interviewed had no direct knowledge of payment, which is a required element of the offense.”
A Feb. 5, 2015, complaint stated the “manager of the building is soliciting tourist(s) to rent a unit in the building. There are offers for per night.” An inspection six days later found “no evidence of transient use, no violations issued,” records show. On Dec. 9, 2015, a tipster told inspectors to check nine specific rooms that were being rented via Airbnb, but when inspectors finally showed up more than a month later on Jan. 12, 2016, they skipped five of the rooms mentioned, records show. They were “unable to determine transient use” in the ones they checked. Responding to
questions by The News, Gallahue wrote, “The building had received multiple inspections and long term tenancy was established in many units, including in many of the units you are asking about. The point is that this building was heavily scrutinized for illegal transient use.”
In three other visits, inspectors failed to gain access and on several other occasions got only partial access.
Gallahue added that “Fines were imposed on Rechnitz and the illegal conduct appears to have been corrected as subsequent inspections did not uncover any illegal transient use.”
De Blasio has denied all of Rechnitz’s claims, although when the mayor was soliciting money from the man, he visited his office and gave him his personal email and cell phone number, Rechnitz testified.
“He told me to call if there’s anything I need, always be in touch,” Rechnitz testified.
And Rechnitz said he made very clear to de Blasio’s key fund-raiser, Offinger, that he expected “lots of access” to City Hall in return for his donations.
After Rechnitz began testifying about his many interactions with the mayor, de Blasio called him a “liar” and a “horrible human being” and denied that Rechnitz or any other donor got favorable treatment.
De Blasio has also had memory lapses regarding specific communications with Rechnitz and has said he would no longer release information about those interactions.
In the end federal prosecutors and the Manhattan District Attorney decided not to charge the mayor. But the Manhattan U.S. Attorney found that de Blasio had intervened on behalf of donors and the DA said the mayor’s actions were “contrary to the intent and spirit of the law.”