Blasio’s $2M hires amid layoff threat
Mayor de Blasio has threatened to lay off frontline workers because of the budget crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic — but in the last several weeks, he’s made nearly $2 million in new hires or promotions.
“The unfettered spending and deception from the de Blasio administration never stops, even during a financial crisis,” fumed Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens).
“While Office of Management and Budget Director Melanie Hartzog claims that the city is in a hiring freeze, we see nothing but high-paying hirings and promotions as the mayor talks about potentially laying off or furloughing essential workers,” he added. “This is a disgrace.”
Hartzog said in a City Council budget hearing last week there is an exception for hires related to COVID-19, health or safety.
On Monday, the mayor announced a new position: senior adviser for small-business COVID-19 recovery. The $227,786-a-year post will go to Gregg Bishop, the current commissioner of Small Business Services.
Jonnel Doris, who’d been making $204,106 as head of the city’s Office of Minority & Women-owned Business Enterprises, will take over SBS, where he, too, will make $227,786.
Additional hires include City Hall’s $160,000-a-year chief content officer, Ashley Ross-Teel, who started on March 16; $115,000-a-year Rapid Response Director Mitch Schwartz, who began on April 6; and former Hillary Clinton staffer Peter Kauffmann, who’s been raking in $17,000 a month as a senior COVID-19 adviser since April 8. Kauffmann’s appointment is temporary.
The mayor also created a new job for his longtime chief of staff, Emma Wolfe, on March 22 when he appointed her deputy mayor for administration to oversee the city’s coronavirus response. Her promotion came with a salary hike from $243,853 to $252,000.
Former ThriveNYC spokesman Joshua Goodman apparently did such a good job defending the embattled project that he won a $45,000 pay bump and promotion to assistant commissioner for public affairs at the Sanitation Department earlier this month. He now makes $175,000 a year.
The Department of Citywide Administrative
Services promoted three people: Carmine Rivetti to chief of staff, Nick Benson to communications director and Janae Ferreira to director of The City Record. Rivetti’s pay increased from $183,000 to $205,000, Benson’s went from $129,000 to $140,000 and Ferreira’s from $97,000 to $140,000.
De Blasio said earlier this month he’ll have to start furloughing or laying off essential municipal employees if the city doesn’t receive federal stimulus funds to fill budget gaps caused by the virus.
“How are we going to support these people who we need if we don’t have any money?” he asked on CNN.
City Hall spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said all of the moves not related to the coronavirus were executed before the pandemic hit.
“Many of these public servants were hired to do essential work well before the crisis began and much of their work has shifted to focus on COVID-19,” Goldstein said.
Still, Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) said they could have been put on hold: “Many of these hirings or promotions are unnecessary given the circumstances,” he said.