Liberal use of city $$

Blas’ wasted effort at lefty glory

Mayor de Blasio used taxpayer resources to push his national political agenda — even asking his staff to come up with a governmental excuse to justify a political trip to Washington, DC, e-mails show.

In September 2015, the mayor was trying to build a coalition of labor and elected officials to support his Progressive Agenda, spending hours each week peddling his income-inequality platform.

De Blasio was scheduled to meet with prospective supporters in the nation’s capital on Sept. 24, 2015, when he realized a few days before the trip that he didn’t have a city-related justification for the taxpayer-paid jaunt.

“We need at least one good hit to build the trip around. One important govt mtg or one speaking opportunity or presser,” he wrote in an e-mail to staffers and outside consultants.

“Something weighty that relates to my immediate governmental duties. The rest can be [The Progressive Agenda]-related mtgs.”

When his staffers couldn’t conjure up a government event in time, the trip was delayed a day until a meeting of national mayors could be used to cover the political jaunt. The scam was first reported by PoliticoNY.

The e-mails show that City Hall’s research arm was also tapped to help build support for the mayor’s political platform — at de Blasio’s request.

On July 24, 2015, mayoral chief of staff Tom Snyder connected Hilltop Public Solutions staffer Hayley Prim — who had worked for the de Blasio administration through April 2015 before handling The Progressive Agenda account — with City Hall’s head of research, Mahen Gunaratna.

“Hi Mahen – the mayor has asked that you and Hayley Prim coordinate on some research needs related to policy. Hayley will be contacting you,” Snyder wrote.

The research needs included creating dossiers on 70 mayors that de Blasio hoped to convince to sign on to his platform.

On Sept. 3, 2015, Prim e-mailed Gunaratna about compiling five dossiers per week.

“Hi Mahen! I wanted to see if I could engage you some more on putting together profiles on Mayors that we want to target for TPA,” she wrote.

Mahen responded, “Think so – always happy to help.” He later added, “This may take some time, but we’ll get working on it.”

Hizzoner’s bid to raise his national profile with The Progressive Agenda flopped spectacularly when a presidential candidates forum he hoped to host in Iowa in December 2015 was canceled for lack of interest.

City Hall officials didn’t respond when asked why taxpayer resources had been used for a political endeavor.

We need at least one good hit to build the trip around. One important govt mtg or one speaking opportunity or presser. .

— de Blasio e-mail to staffers and outside consultants