De Blasio Owes City $475,000 for Bringing Police on Presidential Campaign
Shortly before Mr. de Blasio launched his campaign, the board said it told Mr. de Blasio that the city could pay for salary and overtime for his security detail, but that paying for the officers’ travel costs would be a “misuse of city resources.”
But Mr. de Blasio did not heed the board’s guidance, it said. His failure to do so was one of several issues addressed in a 47-page report by the city’s Department of Investigation, which found that Mr. de Blasio misused public resources for both political and personal purposes, including having a police van and officers help move his daughter to Gracie Mansion.
Jocelyn Strauber, the investigations commissioner, said in a statement that the Conflicts of Interest Board’s order backed her department’s report and showed “that public officials — including the most senior — will be held accountable when they violate the rules.”
In addition to ordering Mr. de Blasio to repay the expenses borne by the city, the board fined him $5,000 for each out-of-state trip. The former mayor’s presidential campaign reported having just $1,422.76 on hand in its last filing with the Federal Election Commission, in December 2020. A political action committee associated with Mr. de Blasio, Fairness PAC, last reported having more than $32,000 in debt and less than $3,000 on hand.
Mr. de Blasio, who ran New York City from 2014 through 2021, was plagued by ethics questions during his time in office. He was the subject of a number of investigations into whether his fund-raising methods violated the city’s ethics law, a ban against soliciting contributions from people who had business in front of the city.
Source: The New York Times
