Ex-Adams aide Carone’s firm registers to lobby city officials
Frank Carone, Mayor Adams’ former chief of staff and political confidant, has together with a dozen employees at his consulting firm registered to lobby city and state officials on behalf of powerful private interests, new filings show.
The previously unreported registrations started being filed in late January — just over a month after Carone’s one-year ban on lobbying the mayor’s office expired.
However, Carone told the Daily News this week he has no plans to personally lobby Adams or his office. Rather, Carone said he registered as a lobbyist for 13 clients of Oaktree Solutions, the consulting firm he launched upon resigning as Adams’ chief of staff in January 2023, because he wants “to be transparent” about his firm’s activities.
Though he pledged to not personally target Adams’ office, Carone didn’t rule out eventually lobbying other members of the mayor’s administration, such as agency commissioners, on behalf of the 13 clients, who operate in the real estate, entertainment and health care fields, among other industries.
“I do not plan on lobbying other governmental bodies and/or agencies at the moment, but will not foreclose the possibility that may change,” Carone said.
Twelve other Oaktree employees, including Adams’ ex-Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins, registered as lobbyists for the same 13 clients, records show.
None of the other Oaktree employees have committed to not lobby Adams’ administration, though Jenkins is by law barred until next year from lobbying his former agency, the Department of Social Services.
In addition to running Oaktree, Carone is expected to be chairman of Adams’ reelection campaign, a role that comes with substantial influence over fundraising operations.
The revolving door of city officials entering the lobbying field after leaving public service has long concerned government watchdogs, who say it creates a system incentivizing influence trading and pay-to-play politics.
Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, a Democrat who has introduced a bill that would place a mandatory two-year lobbying ban on all senior city officials after they leave public service, said Carone’s dual role — at Oaktree and at Adams’ campaign — is especially problematic.
“It is inappropriate that someone can chair the mayor’s reelection campaign, raise gobs of money for him and lobby him on behalf of corporate and special interests at the same time,” said Restler. “This is why so few New Yorkers have faith that the government has their best interest in mind.”
Asked whether City Hall will adopt specific protocols about interactions with Oaktree, Adams spokesman Charles Lutvak said: “We always expect all our employees to adhere to the strictest ethical guidelines and follow the law.”
Though many details, like specific officials expected to be lobbied, aren’t spelled out in Oaktree’s freshly signed contracts, they stand to benefit powerful players with major business interests in the city.
One of them is Slate Property Group, a real estate developer that’ll pay Oaktree $10,000 a month to lobby state and city officials on “municipal land use” and “real estate development issues,” records show. Adams has supported Slate developments before, including as Brooklyn borough president, when he backed a 2018 zoning change in downtown Brooklyn that allowed the firm to build a 40-story tower opposed by the local community board.
Another client is Amida Care, a health insurance company, whose executives, including CEO Douglas Wirth, are listed in the city government’s Doing Business database. Amida will pay Oaktree $5,000 a month to lobby state and city officials on “health care issues,” records show.
Yet another client is Public Records, a Brooklyn nightclub. The only stated purpose of that $5,000 a month contract is lobbying city and state officials on “liquor license” issues.