Adams aide hit in fund-raising flap, but keeps job
The head of the city Department of Veterans’ Services won’t lose his job for violating a local fund-raising law, a spokeswoman for Mayor Adams said Wednesday.
James Hendon, an Army veteran who has served as the department’s commissioner since 2019, was found by the city Conflicts of Interest Board on Wednesday to have inappropriately solicited a $100,000 donation from a software company executive who had business before his agency in 2020.
The donation was steered by Hendon to the Mayor’s Fund, a nonprofit that brokers public-private partnerships across 50 municipal agencies, COIB concluded in a letter. The violation could’ve warranted a $25,000 fine and “other penalties,” according to COIB, but the agency said it would let Hendon off with a warning because “this is the board’s first enforcement action for a violation” in this area of the law.
The reprimand also won’t impact Hendon’s post at the Department of Veterans’ Services, Adams spokeswoman Ivette Davila-Richards said.
“Commissioner Hendon is a combat veteran and dedicated public servant who fights for New York City’s veterans every day,” she said. “The commissioner has been transparent about this situation and we trust him to serve New York City’s veteran community with integrity and dedication.”
Hendon (photo) is among a handful of commissioners appointed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio who have been allowed to stay on since Adams took office.
The city’s conflicts of interest laws bar public officials like Hendon from soliciting political or civic donations from individuals or companies that have a particular matter pending before their agencies — the thinking being that such transactions could foster a pay-to-play culture in government.
COIB’s letter did not specify which software company Hendon solicited for a donation to the Mayor’s Fund.
But it does spell out that he asked the unnamed executive for the contribution “while negotiations were ongoing” for the Department of Veterans’ Services to offer a contract to the company for software related to an employment initiative launched by the agency.