Blasio’s staff just got more ‘$pecial’

Mayor de Blasio’s spending on “special assistants” is going in one direction — up.

Records show the bloated band of aides grew 3 percent, from 305 to 314, in the last fiscal year after exploding by 13 percent the previous year.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg had 109 special assistants when he left office in 2013.

De Blasio’s addition of the assistants contributed to the growing budget of the Mayor’s Office, which went from $53.4 million to $58.5 million. In 2016, it was $46 million.

Critics called the added spending a waste of money.

“The subways and New York City Housing Authority are a mess, homelessness is getting worse, and middleclass homeowners just received another tax hike in the mail, but Mayor de Blasio continues to hand out highpaying patronage like a crazed Saudi prince,” said Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-SI), who ran against de Blasio in 2017.

Heading the list of highestearning special assistants is Chief of Staff Emma Wolfe, who earned $223,091.

De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips attributed Wolfe’s “special assistant” status to there being “no [mayoral] chief of staff option in civil service” regulations.

Other top-earning special assistants for fiscal 2018 were Victor Calise, head of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (who made $211,810); Cecile Noel, head of the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Violence ($211,463); Michael Owh, the city’s former chief procurement officer ($198,754); and former senior adviser Andrea Hagelgans ($196,524).

Phillips argued that the special-assistant title “means nothing and has zero [effect] on raises or promotions.”

“Every staff member of City Hall serves at the direction of the mayor, regardless of what their payroll title is,” he added.