Pol’s friend with benefits
City job, nonprofit help from Jumaane
It pays to be the pal of City Councilman Jumaane Williams.
Williams hired his friend Kristofer Bain — a part-time rapper known as K Bain — to work on his 2009 bid for City Council and, after winning, gave him a taxpayerfunded job in his office.
Then Bain went to work for a nonprofit that Williams has supported with more than $60,000 in city cash.
Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat who narrowly lost a primary race for lieutenant governor in September, is now running for New York City public advocate.
Williams and Bain became friends as undergrads at Brooklyn College and attended the same master’s program in urban policy there. Bain once described their friendship as a “brotherhood” and even registered to vote in 1997 using Williams’ Brooklyn address.
They were partners in Earth Tonez Cafe, a failed vegetarian restaurant that closed in 2008 — and still has an unpaid tax bill with the state for $10,347.
When Williams ran for City Council in 2009, he paid Bain $2,000 to work on the race, campaign finance records show.
After winning, Bain became an aide to Williams.
He worked in the councilman’s office from 2010 to 2015, earning as much as $54,858 a year, public records show.
Bain has described his job duties as director of legislation and budget affairs for Williams.
He also received $200 for Election Day operations in 2013 and a $400 bonus later that month, according to campaign finance records.
After Bain left government employ, he went to work for the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, a nonprofit where he is now a community development advisor, according to the group’s Web site.
Williams has sent $66,500 in City Council discretionary funds to the group beginning in the 2011 fiscal year through the current one.
Bain and Divine Pryor, the head of the nonprofit, did not return requests for comment.
“Councilmember Williams should avoid giving discretionary funding to nonprofits that employ his former staff because it can create a perception of favoritism,” said Alex Camarda, senior policy advisor at watchdog group Reinvent Albany.
A spokesman for Williams defended Bain’s employment, saying “as legislative director, K was instrumental in passing difficult legislation such as the Community Safety Act and in launching the Crisis Management System to combat violence, which has contributed to New York City reaching its safest levels in six decades.
“He then took that expertise into the field, and has continued to work for positive change in the community ever since. His track record of service speaks for itself,” the spokesman said.