In February 2024, the marketing campaign committee for metropolis Board of Election member Frank Seddio shelled out $5,000 to a Norwalk, Conn. artist for a portrait of Seddio himself now hanging in Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court docket, marketing campaign finance data present. Final month, the committee made a second cost of $4,200.
A number of years earlier than that, in 2018 and 2019, Buddies of Frank Seddio spent $20,300 on elaborate Christmas shows from a Brooklyn firm to brighten the outside of Seddio’s workplace constructing on Flatlands Ave.
The expenditures in query, made between 2012 and 2024, fall into two broad classes – a sequence of particular purchases totaling $94,824.33, both with no listed function or rationalization as required by legislation or imprecise justifications for the expenditure. The second totals $77,576.12 in funds by the Kings County committee through Signature Financial institution that don’t have any listed function or rationalization.
Below New York State Election Regulation Part 14-130, marketing campaign funds “shall not be converted to personal use unrelated to a political campaign or the holding of a public office or party position.” A particular function code and rationalization have to be offered when marketing campaign group spending is reported to state election authorities.
Frank Seddio is pictured at his home at Flatlands Ave. and E. 93rd St. in Brooklyn in 2017. (Debbie Egan-Chin / New York Each day Information)
Susan Lerner, government director of Frequent Trigger New York, known as the expenditures “problematic. “
“These are more than just a random mistake. There seems to be a substantial number of charges that don’t seem to have any business being justified as campaign expenses,” she stated.
“These seem to be personal costs charged to a campaign account. That’s always problematic, but it’s particularly problematic when someone who is doing that is also an election commissioner. It’s the fox guarding the henhouse.”
The portray and its genesis out of marketing campaign funds are additionally intriguing as a result of Seddio served solely a short stint in Surrogate’s Court docket in 2006 and 2007 however as a political energy in Brooklyn has nice affect over the collection of the borough’s judges who he additionally seems in entrance of as a lawyer.
“The biggest question is why should there be a painting of him in Surrogate’s Court at all,” stated Bryan Maygers, a spokesman for the reform-minded New Kings Democrats. “It seems to be making real this idea that he is this looming power over the entire judicial process in Brooklyn. And on the funding itself, that’s not what campaign committee funds should be used for. Someone who is a Board of Election member should certainly know that.”
Barry Williams/New York Each day Information
A portrait of Choose Frank R. Seddio is pictured in a courtroom in Brooklyn Surrogate Court docket. (Barry Williams/New York Each day Information)
In an interview, Seddio insisted the entire bills have been authentic marketing campaign outlays and contributions to charitable organizations.
On the portrait, he stated different judges informed him it was a “perfectly acceptable expense.” “It’s not a personal expense, it’s a public expense,” he stated. “I am a former surrogate of Kings County and I was asked to provide a portrait to hang in the court.”
Seddio described the Christmas decorations as an ordinary marketing campaign promotion. “If I am running in that district, and people see that, that’s a public announcement of my campaign, besides the fact they give thousands of people enjoyment a year,” he stated.
A fixture in Brooklyn politics
Seddio, 78, has lengthy been a fixture of Brooklyn Democratic social gathering politics. He stays a district chief within the borough’s 59th Meeting District.
Seddio rose to chair of the county Democratic social gathering greater than a decade in the past after perennial chief Vito Lopez, an assemblyman, stepped down in August 2012 following a probe that discovered Lopez sexually harassed two staffers.
Seddio, the longtime head of the Thomas Jefferson political membership, the oldest Democratic Get together membership within the state was an assemblyman for six years and later a surrogate courtroom decide for lower than two years.
He give up the bench in 2007 throughout an inquiry by the state Fee on Judicial Conduct which discovered he used $17,500 in marketing campaign funds to renovate the political membership, in response to earlier reviews. His departure ended the inquiry, the reviews stated.
Seddio stepped down from the management of the county committee in 2020 amid questions on funds. The New York Publish reported on the time the group was $226,000 in debt together with $50,000 owed to Seddio. It had simply $40,000 its accounts.
Then earlier this yr, Seddio was tapped by the Metropolis Council’s democratic social gathering members in a unanimous vote for a metropolis Board of Elections slot, data present. His nomination was put ahead by Council Member Amanda Farias Jan. 13.
Seddio’s appointment was strenuously opposed by eight native political and authorities teams who famous in a Dec. 5 letter the State Senate had not too long ago handed a invoice prohibiting election commissioners from being county social gathering chairs. The invoice stays pending.
“Appointing a former party boss without proper vetting and scrutiny, in the face of criticism over patronage and partisanship at the Board, would be a disservice to New York voters,” stated the letter.
Questions on expenditures
Lots of the expenditures which have sparked questions are gadgets for which there is no such thing as a rationalization in official data.
The $9,250 portrait painted by Connecticut artist Peri Pfenninger was paid for in two installments – one for $5,000 February 2024 and a second for $4,200 in June 2025, data present. The justification in marketing campaign finance data was given as “other.”
A portrait of Choose Frank R. Seddio is pictured in a courtroom in Brooklyn Surrogate Court docket in Brooklyn Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (Barry Williams/New York Each day Information)
“It is common practice for portraits of former Kings County Surrogates to be hung in the Kings County Surrogate’s Court,” stated Al Baker, a spokesman for the state Workplace of Court docket Administration.
Seddio has been lengthy know for elaborate Christmas decorations at his workplace and residential. In 2018 and 2019, his marketing campaign committee paid Lou Nasti Mechanical Shows $20,300 to brighten his workplace on Flatlands Ave.
Marketing campaign finance data reveal the justification was “office,” and additional, “Christmas decorations, displays and new displays.”
Nasti, a beloved Brooklyn determine, handed away at age 79 in March and was remembered in a New York Instances obituary. His spouse confirmed the shows cited within the marketing campaign finance data have been for Seddio’s Flatlands workplace.
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Each day Information
Brooklyn Democratic boss Frank Seddio arms out Christmas presents at his Brooklyn workplace in 2015. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Each day Information)
Among the many different questionable expenditures:
Information present the Kings County committee spent $77,576.12 throughout Seddio’s tenure through Signature Financial institution with no function code or rationalization listed.
The Kings County committee made a sequence of funds totaling $27,800 to the Brooklyn Bar Affiliation, together with $500 for “dues” in January 2013, $2,500 for “donation” and $1,200 for caterer” in December 2013 and $2,500 for “dinner tickets” in November 2014.
Seddio was named president of the Bar Affiliation on June 9 2016.
Within the interview, Seddio described bills paid to the Bar Affiliation, the St. John’s Alumni Affiliation, and Knights of Columbus as “payments to charitable organizations for things like advertisements and tables at dinners.”
“All these are groups that are in my district. I promote myself as an elected official in that area,” he stated.
No function code was listed for $2,631.25 paid to the Wythe Resort in Brooklyn in March 2013 or a $241.36 cost to the state courts in July 2016.
The county committee paid the Brooklyn Sports activities Membership $500 in two funds in January 2015. The justification was listed as “other.”
The county committee paid $2,418.54 to Peter Luger Steakhouse in 5 funds from 2013 to 2016. In two situations, the reason was given as “other” with no additional rationalization. Within the different three, the expense code was left clean.
Among the many questionable Buddies of Frank Seddio funds, it paid $1,260.73 to the state Division of Taxation and Finance in October 2016 for a “Brooklyn Bar Association Installation Event.”
Gardiner Anderson for New York Each day Information
Neighborhood residents attend a Christmas gentle ceremony on the workplace of Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Frank Seddio in 2015. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Each day Information)
The marketing campaign committee paid $400 to Knights of Columbus in November 2017 to attend the Lengthy Island Meeting 4th Diploma of Knights of Columbus, an annual gala. It paid one other $1,400 to the Knights of Columbus for ten dinner tickets and an advert in a journal on November 2019.
And the marketing campaign committee paid St. John’s Alumni Affiliation $1,000 for the 2018 annual alumni dinner, the data present.
“It (the material) really underscores the need for a truly professionalized election administration and not to have current or former political officials in charge of our elections,” Lerner stated.
“As the matters cited neither pertain to the time period during which Mr. Seddio served as a Commissioner of the New York City Board of Elections nor fall within the scope of his duties in that role, we respectfully decline to comment,” stated Vincent Ignizio, a spokesman for town Board of Elections.
