Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Group picked up mayor’s tab on Israel visit
Execs have interests before administration
NEW YORK — Two top executives at a philanthropic organization that bankrolled Mayor Eric Adams’ recent trip to Israel have business and lobbying interests before his administration, according to a New York Daily News review of city records.
The matter involves Marc Rowan and Eric Goldstein, respectively the chairman and CEO of the United Jewish Appeal-federation of New York, which picked up the tab for Adams’ stay in Israel between this past Sunday and Thursday.
UJA spokeswoman Emily Kutner told The News on Thursday that the group spent $4,857 on Adams’ airfare, lodging, food and other expenses related to his Israel visit.
The group shelled out the same amount per person on six Adams administration officials who traveled with him, totaling $33,999, including the mayor’s expenses, Kutner said. Among the officials who had their costs covered by UJA were Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy, senior adviser Joel Eisdorfer and First Deputy NYPD Commissioner Tania Kinsella.
Despite its optics, the Adams entourage’s trip does not appear to have broken any city ethics laws as they allow for public officials to accept free trips from third parties. There is a law prohibiting public officials from accepting anything of value, including travel, from companies or individuals with business dealings before the city, though that ban does not apply if there is a government “purpose” for the freebie.
Still, John Kaehny, head of the Reinvent Albany watchdog group, deemed the financial arrangement of Adams’ Israel trip an “obvious” conflict of interest and a “big, big loophole” because Rowan and Goldstein’s ties to city government. Those ties include Goldstein lobbying top members of Adams’ administration for city funding, and Rowan being the head of a major private equity firm charged with managing hundreds of millions of dollars in public pension funds for the city, records show.
The loophole, Kaehny said, should be addressed by lawmakers.
“This is exactly why mayors should be legally banned from having their trips or expenses paid for by outside entities, because the potential for conflicts of interest is just too high,” said Kaehny. “It’s all completely legal — it just shouldn’t be. It can be a way for special interests to facilitate pay to play, and influence the mayor’s official actions by giving things of value.”
Kaehny acknowledged that trips like Adams’ Israel visit can have a lot of value in providing perspective for promulgating policy and running city government.
“But if it is a worthwhile trip for government purposes, then the taxpayers should be paying for it,” he said. “If it’s private players paying for it, then the question always becomes: What are they expecting in return?”
Levy, Adams’ deputy mayor, said the mayor’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, signed off on all funding details for the trip beforehand “to ensure full transparency of the costs and compliance with ethics rules.”
“It’s surprising that the Daily News is advocating for spending taxpayer dollars when we found a cost-effective and fully-transparent way to visit a country that so many New Yorkers have a connection to and were eager to see the mayor visit,” Levy said in a statement.
Kutner said UJA’S counsel also preemptively approved the funding of the mayor’s travels.
“We are proud to have organized this educational trip to Israel for the mayor — which follows a longstanding tradition of New York City mayors and other elected officials traveling to Israel,” she said.