War chest – or pol’s piggy bank?
‘Shady’ expenses
An elected official in Brooklyn whose position is so low-level that it doesn’t come with a salary is living large by using his campaign funds to make car payments, buy perfume and cigars, and even attend sporting events, records show.
District leader Jacob Gold (inset) spent $132,432 between 2007 through 2017, according to the state Board of Elections, and more than $41,000 went for items that raised questions by at least one government watchdog.
The list includes: $16,652 in monthly payments of $347 or $352 made to American Honda from January 2008 to January 2013; $2,876 on clothing; $536 at a Bensonhurst perfume retailer; more than $15,000 on meals and $102 for cigars.
Gold’s district covers Park Slope, Ditmas Park and other nearby neighborhoods, but on Oct. 11, 2017, he ran up a bill of $320.84 at Catch NY in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.
Loose elections rules allow spending on any “campaign-related” expenses, including vehicles used to attend political meetings and functions or visits with constituents. But it’s rare to see an elected official shopping at a clothing store with campaign funds — as Gold did when he plunked down $627.81 on Nov. 3, 2017, at JoS. A. Bank on lower Broadway. Spending on personal expenses is banned.
Gold also dropped $471 on March 9, 2017, for what was listed as “NY Cosmos,” the pro-soccer club that plays in Coney Island.
Former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, executive director of the good-government group Citizens Union, said Gold’s spending “should be investigated” by the Elections Board.
“You’ve uncovered some really bad stuff here,” she said. “Why would he be spending campaign money for things like perfume, car payments and clothes? Why is he really raising money? Is it to fund his lifestyle?
“I really feel this level of government sometimes gets lost, but it is very key.”
Gold, a real-estate agent and former schoolteacher, is facing opposition in this year’s Democratic primary from a political newcomer, Park Slopebased lawyer Douglas Schneider, who declined to comment.
As of January, Gold had $64,422 left in his campaign coffers, while Schneider had yet to document any campaign spending with the Elections Board.
District leaders, or state committee persons, are unpaid and face reelection every two years.
Gold, who has held his post since 1975, defended the questionable spending by accusing The Post of “sensationalizing a nothing story about what amounts to” an average of “less than $4,000 a year over an 11year period.”