BLAZ’S SECRET DONOR DEAL
Hid lobbyist sitdown with 10 who gave $100G Meeting held in basement of restaurant
MAYOR DE BLASIO held a hushhush meeting with the city’s biggest lobbyist and nine of his clients, who had raised $100,000 for him in the months leading up to the summit, the state ethics commission found.
The session took place in September 2015 – a month when the mayor said there was “no lobbying activity.”
ON THE LIST Mayor de Blasio distributes to the public that he says shows all his interactions with lobbyists, he stated there was “NO LOBBYING ACTIVITY” in the month of September 2015.
He apparently forgot about the meeting he held that month in the basement of a downtown restaurant with the city’s biggest lobbyist and nine of his clients.
And the mayor didn’t reveal that meeting on his public schedule, either, which lists him beginning his day at 11:30 a.m. at City Hall.
He also neglected to mention that the lobbyist and his clients had raised $100,000 for Hizzoner in the months leading up to the secret basement meeting.
A report released Monday by the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics revealed the existence of the exclusive sitdown between the mayor, lobbyist James Capalino and deep-pocket donor clients seeking favors from City Hall.
The report didn’t spell out details, but sources told the Daily News the breakfast meeting was held Sept. 28 in a private dining room in the basement of the nowdefunct City Hall restaurant on Duane St.
The ethics commission states the meeting took place after de Blasio personally approached Capalino, who at the time was the city’s biggest lobbyist, and solicited support for his nonprofit Campaign for One New York.
De Blasio told Capalino his longtime campaign aide Ross Offinger, who was then treasurer of the Campaign for One New York, would reach out with more details.
Offinger contacted Capalino and asked him for a donation and to get others to donate, the ethics commission states.
Over the next few months, Capalino did just that — arranging for nine of his clients to write $10,000 checks each to the Campaign for One New York. Capalino also gave $10,000.
The donors included several developers and property owners seeking tax breaks, including builder Robert Levine, who was seeking city support for two residential towers he wanted to build inside Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Other clients who donated included restaurant owners the Cipriani family and JDS Construction Group, which was looking into several proposed developments in Brooklyn that needed City Hall help.
After checks totaling $100,000 were written to the Campaign for One New York, Capalino made a point of providing Offinger with a list of the donors, then worked with Offinger to arrange a meeting between the client/donors and the mayor.
Capalino told the clients it was a “kitchen cabinet” meeting with the mayor.
On NY1 on Monday night, the mayor wouldn’t discuss what was said at this sitdown, but implied that he didn’t report it because no actual lobbying took place.
“A lobbyist talks to me about politics or the Mets or something else, that’s not lobbying on behalf of a client. But if they lobby, I absolutely disclose it, and that’s my consistent approach throughout,” he said.
De Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein declined to describe the purpose of the breakfast meeting, provide a list of who was there or say how many other lobbyists the mayor personally asked for donations.
The mayor’s solicitation of Capalino came as the lobbyist was pressing a city agency to grant a deed waiver on a Lower East Side nursing home for one of his clients.
In January 2015, the agency incorporated language Capalino had drafted into a memo justifying the waiver. The client, the Allure Group, later sold the building to a luxury condo developer.
In March 2017, the Manhattan U.S. attorney and Manhattan district attorney announced they’d closed investigations into de Blasio’s fund-raising tactics without bringing charges.
Federal prosecutors, however, noted that they’d found de Blasio had intervened on behalf of donors, and the DA said de Blasio violated the “spirit” of campaign finance laws.
On Monday, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics revealed it began its probe in 2015 before the feds and the DA came along, after it “learned of lobbyists and clients of lobbyists who, while actively lobbying New York City officials, including the mayor, donated to (the Campaign for One New York) at the request of either the mayor or Offinger.”
An ethics commission spokesman said Monday the investigation is ongoing. He wouldn’t say whether de Blasio’s solicitation of donations from registered lobbyists was referred to the city Conflicts of Interest Board.