Former high Metropolis Corridor officers can be barred from lobbying any municipal businesses for 2 years beneath a invoice handed by the Metropolis Council on Thursday, sending the measure to Mayor Adams, who declined to right away say whether or not he would signal it into legislation.
Underneath present legislation, senior Metropolis Corridor officers, like deputy mayors and chiefs of employees, are barred from lobbying the mayor’s workplace for a yr after leaving public service. They will foyer different metropolis businesses in addition to the mayor’s workplace instantly upon departing beneath current rules.
The brand new invoice, which handed the Council in a 39-9 vote Thursday afternoon, would beef up the legislation so ex-senior Metropolis Corridor officers can’t foyer any metropolis businesses for 2 years after departing. It will additionally topic a number of positions to the ban that at present aren’t coated by it, together with Metropolis Corridor’s chief counsel, press secretary, communications director and intergovernmental affairs director.
In a press release, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy didn’t say whether or not the mayor will let the invoice turn into legislation or use his veto pen to attempt to block it. Levy did lament that the laws doesn’t topic senior Council staffers to the identical lobbying restrictions that high mayoral officers would face.
“From the start, we negotiated in good faith, agreeing to the Council’s changes for senior leaders in our administration. All we asked in return was for the powerful leadership staff at the Council to not be able to lobby with impunity and for citywide elected officials to hold themselves to the same standards as our administration,” Levy stated.
“Oddly, that request was rejected, and this bill does not do enough to improve transparency.”
The invoice will routinely lapse into legislation after 30 days until Adams vetoes it.
The invoice’s writer, Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, stated he noticed the necessity for the tightened restrictions after Frank Carone, Adams’ first chief of employees and longtime political confidant, began a consulting agency upon leaving Metropolis Corridor in late 2022 after which registered as a lobbyist as quickly as his one-year ban handed. His agency, Oaktree Options, has a number of lobbying purchasers with enterprise earlier than Adams’ administration.
Lincoln Restler. (Shawn Inglima for New York Each day Information)
Carone’s transfer into the personal sector sparked concern from ethics watchdogs, who argued it uncovered a loophole in metropolis ethics legislation that paves the way in which for pay-to-play in metropolis authorities.
“He was the most powerful person in the Adams administration, involved in the hiring of every key official, involved in the policy-making, the budget decisions, the management of city government and every critical term — and the day he left city government with his new lobbying practice, he was legally permitted to lobby 99% of mayoral agencies, 99% of mayoral staff, 99% of city government,” Restler instructed reporters earlier than Thursday’s vote.
“Our legislation today slams the door shut on the revolving door that allows the most powerful people in the mayor’s office to lobby their former colleagues the very next day,” added Restler, a frequent Adams critic whose laws has internally within the Council turn into often called the “Carone bill,” based on sources.
An earlier model of Restler’s invoice did embrace a provision proposing to impose the restrictions on “high-level employees” of the Council in addition to the roughly 3,000 managerial employees throughout metropolis authorities who’re on the so-called Substantial Coverage Discretion listing.
However Restler stated he minimize that element out after authorities watchdog teams prompt such a ban can be “too broad.”
“All the good government groups gave sharp feedback that they thought it was too broad, that it was better to target the most powerful people in city government, the senior staff in the mayor’s office that have direct oversight of the 300,000 person mayoral executive branch of city government,” he stated.
Frank Carone in December 2022. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Pictures)
Carone, who stays considered one of Adams’ high political advisers and is predicted to assist lead his reelection effort this yr, declined to touch upon the invoice’s passage.
He has stated he isn’t personally engaged in direct lobbying, and that his staff deal with that.
The invoice’s passage comes at a time of heightened concern about metropolis authorities ethics within the wake of Adams’ federal corruption indictment. Adams, who pleaded not responsible in September and is predicted to face trial in April, has additionally seen quite a lot of high advisers resign from his administration in current months after being ensnared in their very own corruption probes.
Initially Revealed: January 23, 2025 at 4:00 PM EST
