Mayor Adams accepted between $1,000 and $6,000 price of presents from the Madison Sq. Backyard enterprise empire final 12 months because the leisure large continues to carry important monetary pursuits earlier than his administration, in keeping with new data.
Below native legislation, elected officers can’t settle for presents from company entities engaged in enterprise with town authorities, together with MSG, which holds varied monetary pursuits earlier than town, together with issues associated to tax breaks.
Nonetheless, there’s an exception to that rule underneath which an elected can take freebies like sports activities tickets in the event that they’re accepted in reference to an official motion.
In his disclosure kind, Adams wrote he took the Knicks courtside ticket, listed as having a worth between $1,000 and $5,000, with a view to do “an interview about the Knicks’s importance to the city.” He additionally wrote he took the Billy Joel ticket, valued between $50 and $999, with a view to give Joel a Key to the Metropolis.
Mayor Adams awards a Key to the Metropolis to Billy Joel at MSG on July 25, 2024. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Images Workplace)
Adams’ workplace didn’t return requests for remark Friday on the presents. The Conflicts of Pursuits Board, which enforces metropolis ethics legal guidelines, declined to remark, citing confidentiality protocols.
Authorities ethics professional John Kaehny stated the presents to Adams seem authorized, given the explanations he said for accepting them. Nonetheless, Kaehny argued the legislation ought to be amended to sharply prohibit how elected officers can settle for presents in such eventualities.
“It should have been done away with a long time ago,” he stated. “It’s totally inconsistent with the spirit of the laws.”
Moreover tax break points, MSG depends on town authorities to approve the operational allow it must run its well-known enviornment. That allow is up for renewal in 2028.
Additionally final 12 months, James Dolan, MSG’s high govt, his members of the family and enterprise associates pumped greater than $60,000 into Adams’ reelection marketing campaign coffers and authorized protection belief, which the mayor makes use of to cowl hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in lawyer charges he racked up as a part of his federal corruption indictment.
Simply on Wednesday, Mastro — who says he has obtained an OK from the conflicts board to proceed representing MSG — was in Manhattan Federal Courtroom for a discovery listening to within the Oakley case.
Requested whether or not he wanted to formally clock off metropolis authorities time with a view to attend the listening to in the midst of a workday, Mastro stated: “I am always on the clock and always on call.”
Initially Printed: April 25, 2025 at 7:25 PM EDT
