DeB OK with jail ‘breaks’
Car-misuse commish’s ‘intent’ good
I believe fundamentally that he thought he was following proper guidance. Mayor de Blasio, defending Correction boss Joseph Ponte (left), who’s under fire for using a city-owned car for his many out-of-state getaways
His jails boss spent 90 days out of the city last year — including workdays — and misused his official vehicle to do so, but Mayor de Blasio said Thursday he’s sure he didn’t do anything wrong because his intentions were not nefarious.
“I have talked to [Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte] directly,” the mayor said after an unrelated press conference in Queens.
“I believe 100 percent he thought he was doing what . . . staff guided him to do. He thought he was doing the right thing. He never intended to do anything wrong.”
The mayor said he was unaware who gave the commissioner such bad advice.
Ponte was the subject of a scathing Department of Investigation report last week that found he had used his cityowned vehicle to log 18,500 miles of out-of-state travel over 90 days, mostly for trips to his home state of Maine. Thirty-five days fell during the workweek.
Although the mayor continues to stand by his appointee, many other lower-level city workers have lost their jobs after committing similar but lesser offenses.
Asked about potential litigation, de Blasio refused to compare Ponte’s case to others who were fired or reprimanded for doing what he did.
“I can’t speak to any previous situations,” he said. “I am not a lawyer, so I am not going to talk about litigation. So I don’t have a view on that.
“I have a view on Joe Ponte and how he runs his agency and what he’s done for New York City, and I believe fundamentally that he thought he was following proper guidance.
“This is the first time he worked in New York City,” added de Blasio. “Every jurisdiction is different. I don’t think it is a given that people automatically . . . would understand all the nuances of the rules, especially if they are in the uniformed-services field, which has different rules.”
The mayor declined to comment on whether the Conflicts of Interest Board, the city’s ethics panel, should penalize Ponte as it has other city workers.
After describing Ponte as “a person of absolute integrity” who is “here to do good,” Hizzoner made a bizarre comparison. He suggested Ponte spending so many work days out of state was similar to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg taking weekends in Bermuda.
“Again, I remind you guys, we had a mayor who would go to Bermuda on Friday and come back on Sunday,” de Blasio said. “He still managed to run the city from Bermuda. I’m not sure I would have done that, but he managed to do that. “
Bloomberg usually left for Bermuda on Friday nights and was back by Monday.
His five-day workweeks were fully packed and usually started before 8 a.m., while de Blasio frequently doesn’t get to City Hall before 10 a.m., following his visit to his gym in Park Slope, Brooklyn.