True News (The Bund): de Blasio One NY PAC Interlocking-directorates Slush Fund, Berlin Rosen, Bill Hyers, Red Horse 827

How True News Investigation Exposed the Campaign for OneNY Interlocking Directories Story

Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government

Sugar Fix: Berlin Rosen an Unregistered Real Estate Lobbyists

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

How Berlin Rosen Comprised Journalism

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

The WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law, Data and Field Arrests

Berlin Rosen's Levitan Directing Ghostwriting Quotes for Puppet Pols and the Media While Making Developer $

Emails reveal de Blasio’s PR team was ghostwriting politicians’ quotes (NYP) Mayor de Blasio’s favorite public-relations firm didn’t just run his 2013 mayoral campaign, it also functioned as a virtual shadow government, ghostwriting press release quotes and letters to the editor, e-mails released by the administration show. In one e-mail string from January 2015, top City Hall staffer Marco Carrion pressed colleagues on rushing out a letter to the editor about luring the Democratic National Convention to Brooklyn — a missive that quickly ended up in the hands of the BerlinRosen p.r. firm. “CM Cumbo will submit a LTE, but for quickest turnaround we need to write it,” Carrion wrote, referring to Brooklyn City Council member Laurie Cumbo. Marti Adams, a de Blasio staffer, responded and cc’ed BerlinRosen senior vice president Dan Levitan, who she said had been “writing letters “all day.” “We can draft,” replied Levitan five minutes later. “Can someone send us what she already wrote?” It’s also one of several exchanges that offers a glimpse inside how City Hall and BerlinRosen worked together to manipulate public perception on Hizzoner’s initiatives. In another e-mail exchange from January 2014, City Hall staffers were tasked with getting members of Congress to sign off on quotes supporting de Blasio’s universal pre-K initiative. In one e-mail, Levitan shared a draft press release with comments — one of which was labeled “unassigned” and included with no attribution. Another quote — which appears actually to have been submitted by Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) — also apparently needed more work. “Do we want to point out to Nydia that her quote is weak and encourage her to join her more courageous colleagues in actually saying something?” wrote Josh Gold, a top consultant on the pre-K initiative. At the time, BerlinRosen was being paid by the mayor’s nonprofit, Campaign for One New York to promote the city to the Democratic National Committee. BerlinRosen co-founder Jonathan Rosen, one of de Blasio’s outside advisers, also enlisted surrogates to unleash attacks over the fight for pre-k funding in Albany. In one January 2014 exchange, he asked top de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe for permission to release an unattributed quote criticizing Gov. Cuomo’s role in funding pre-K. “The money [Cuomo] is proposing is not enough for truly universal, full-day pre-k,” reads the quote.* E-mails released by his administration show New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s favorite public relations firm didn’t just run his 2013 mayoral campaign, it also was ghostwriting press release quotes and letters to the editor, the Post reports.

The Press Allows Berlin Rosen (BR) Levitan to Operate as de Blasio's Spokesperson on Corruption Probe While the Mayor and BR at the Center of the Federal Investigation

Dan Levitan, a spokesman for Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 and 2017 campaigns, said the mayor and his aides acted “ethically and appropriately at all times.” Mr. Levitan said no public money had been spent to defend the 2013 campaign or the mayor’s political nonprofit, Campaign for One New York, which is at the center of some of the investigations. He declined to say how much non-city money had been spent to defend them. “We hope that the investigations, which have now lasted over seven months, will draw to a close,” Mr. Levitan said in an email.

True News Smoking Gun Email Shows How A Shadow Govt Lobbyist (Berlin Rosen) Delivers for Developers Operating Inside de Blasio’s City Hall

What the media describes as a January 29th, 2014 email from Berlin Rosen giving the mayor the phone number of the Brooklyn Sugar Factory Two Trees developer Walentas is actually the SMOKING GUN that shows how shadow govt lobbyists for developers operated inside City Hall. At the time of the January 29^th Berlin Rosen was working for developer Walentas. DNAINFO and other media outlets reported that the mayor’s Friday Thanksgiving email dump showed De Blasio's 'Agent of the City' Berlin Rosen Was Deeply Involved in Policy, “email conversations he tried to keep private, was heavily involved in policy decisions at City Hall, documents released by the city as the result of a Freedom of Information Law Request and lawsuit show.”* De Blasio Defends Letting Private Consultant Sit In On Housing Policy Meetings (NYO)

Berlin Rosen by operating inside of City Hall knew that Planning Commissioner Weisbrod and Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen were pushing Walentas to add more affordable housing to his Sugar Factor development in early 2014. NY Magazine reported that The Jed Walentas cornered de Blasio at a universal-pre-K event at Gracie Mansion, complaining about de Blasio’s emissaries. “They’re overplaying their hand and are going to fuck this up,” he told the mayor. “He just listened,” Walentas recalls. The January 29^th email showed that Berlin Rosen was trying to get around de Blasio top staff with a phone call to Walentas and de Blasio to work out a deal so the $1.5 billion apartment complex can go ahead.

NY Times Knew About Berlin Rosen and the Lobbyist Shadow Govt Operating Inside City Hall During the First Month of the de Blasio Administration

The Feb 26^th NY Times leaked by Jed Walentas reported that Two Trees was balking at de Blasio’s staff request to add affordable housing to his Sugar Factory development. “I’d very much like to work this out with them,” Mr. Walentas said before the final deal was reached. “But what they’re currently asking for is not workable.”

A few days after the Times story a deal was struck that added 40 more affordable housing units to a 2300 unit project. Many say Berlin Rosen and their Client Two Trees go the better of the deal. In addition to the small amounts of additional affordable units Walentas and his firm, Two Trees, receive a zoning change allowing their towers to rise up to 55 stories above the East River, about 20 stories higher than current regulations permit. Mr. Walentas is also be able to charge higher rents for some of the affordable units in the project than he would have previously. While the mayor’s office touted the increase, some sources said the additional affordable units will not change the profitability equation in any significant way for Two Trees, especially since the new terms call for 50,000 square feet of that affordable space to be available to households with “moderate” incomes, rather than lower ones.

Pay to Play

The Walentas Family and employees contributed $32, 575 to the 2013 de Blasio campaign for mayor and $100,000 to the campaign for one NY PAC after the Sugar Factory deal. The CONY PAC nonprofit lies outside of city campaign finance rules and was able to accept unlimited amounts of money from firms and individuals who had business before the city. Top de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe and the mayor's chief fundraiser, Ross Offinger, have both been issued subpoenas. BerlinRosen has also been subpoenaed. Rosen and his firm advised de Blasio on his 2013 run for mayor and are advising him on his re-election campaign. Rosen also helped run de Blasio's political nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating whether donors to the Campaign for One New York received anything in return for their donations.

One email shows Offinger targeting real estate and business executives to hit up for support for de Blasio's pre-K push. In the Jan. 21, 2014 email that Offinger sent to Rosen, First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris, Wolfe and former de Blasio aide Peter Rangone, he says that developer Bruce Ratner, Google founder Eric Schmidt were confirmed participants in the effort. His real estate donor wish list contained the name of DUMBO developer Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management who eventually gave $100,000 to the Campaign for One New York. The list also included hedge fund managers Offinger planned to target and ended with the line: "More to come." Rangone suggested the email was not appropriate, writing: "Can we take this off official thread please."

For months De Blasio refused to release emails from Rosen and four others advisers, dubbing them as "agents of the city whose communications with the mayor "are exempt from disclosure when related solely to City business and not on behalf of any client." Rosen's emails show his influence in City Hall and also how he was deeply involved in city business even as he remained an outside adviser representing clients with business before the city. Now it is up to U. S, Attorney Bharara to connect the final dot showing how the Shadow Govt profited from de Blasio’s pay to play City Hall.

How Berlin Rosen Comprised Journalism

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

The WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law, Data and Field Arrests

DE BLASIO DILEMMA: Both Rivington Nursing Home Deed Change and LICH Hospital converting to luxury apartments...Both Under Fed Investigation . . . Both Involve Lobbyist Capalino

Berlin Rosen Is Not Only Ducking Lobbyists Disclosures . . . Also Failed to Register With the Foreign Agent Act

Two years ago True News broke the story that Berlin Rosen was not a registered lobbyist. CrainsNY's Bragg follow sometime later and last week NY1 reported the same information. Playing fast and lose with the city and state lobbying regulations is not the only thing Berlin Rosen failed to registered for. Berlin Rosen worked the ground breaking event for a government subsided building with Atlantic Yards developer Ratner and a Chinese government funded company called Greenland Group. According to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) enacted in 1938, a persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities. The purpose is to facilitate "evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons." At the least Berlin Rosen activities with the Chinese government company is fueling gentrification pushing the poor and middle class out of the projects surrounding communities.

Foreign Ownership of NYC Real Estate is Increasing At AFast Pace

How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Outof Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers

Campaign Lobbyists Control A Secret Shadow Government

de Blasio Secret Agent Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Bags $$$ From Their Pay to Play Partnership With the Mayor

Firms hired by de Blasio earned at least $10M from campaign and non-profits (NYP) It pays to be an “agent of the city.” The political-consulting firms that helped Mayor de Blasio get elected in 2013 have hauled in at least $10.6 million from the mayor’s campaigns and charities over the past six years, a Post analysis of public records shows. BerlinRosen, which was co-founded by p.r. gurus Valerie Berlin and Jonathan Rosen in 2005, has expanded from five employees in 2007 to more than 100 today. The firm hooked up with de Blasio for his long-shot 2013 mayoral bid — and it apparently paid off. De Blasio’s campaign paid the firm $309,200 in consulting fees and to mail fliers to voters’ homes for his 2013 and 2017 mayoral bids, state campaign filings show.

And his Campaign for One New York charity paid BerlinRosen $530,413 to promote his universal pre-K and housing initiatives since 2014, the charity’s records show. The progressive p.r. firm has billed political candidates a total of $13.4 million since 2009, according to state campaign filings. Federal and city investigators subpoenaed BerlinRosen for records regarding CONY expenses and coordinating with City Hall and Democratic candidates in the 2014 election cycle. Rosen told The Post he is “proud of our growth over the past 11 years into one of the country’s leading public relations, digital strategy and political consulting firms.” De Blasio has refused to release his e-mail communications with Rosen and other advisers, including AKPD media consultant John Del Cecato, and Hilltop Public Solutions political strategists Nicholas Baldick and Bill Hyers, naming them “agents of the city.” Those “agents” have also done well in recent years. Hilltop Public Solutions, a veritable revolving door of former de Blasio staffers, has taken $588,068 from the mayor’s campaign and another $362,732 from his nonprofit. And AKPD, which wrote an ad featuring de Blasio’s son, Dante, that helped the mayor win the primary, billed the mayor $7,603,765 for media buys and

his nonprofit another $1,346,420.

he Most Powerful Man in Politics –Outside City Hall (NY1)

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes OverNYC Government

The Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine

How Berlin Rosen Comprised Journalism

Sugar Fix: Berlin Rosen an Unregistered Real Estate Lobbyists

The WFP Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law,Data and Field Arrests

Media Cover-Up of NYCLASS, Other Citizens United PACs, MayorOne NY PAC

How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and2013 Election

CrainsNY on the Advance Groups Double Dipping

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

Brooklyn Dem Convention

How Berlin Rosen Pay to Play Secret Govt Operated

De Blasio consultant reportedly used City Hall to promote clients (NYP) Jonathan Rosen and staffers of his BerlinRosen firm — which was paid more than $300,000 by de Blasio’s mayoral campaign and more than $530,000 by Hizzoner’s now-defunct Campaign for One New York — routinely name-dropped and touted his clients to city officials in a 1,550-page cache of e-mails released late Wednesday.

Ratner

For instance, in a Jan. 29, 2014, e-mail to de Blasio senior aides, Rosen distributed a transcript of developer and client Bruce Ratner glowingly defending the mayor’s plan to “tax the rich” in an interview with Bloomberg television. The city is one of Ratner’s top tenants of office space.* Orchestrating the grassroots: "agents of the city" document dump shows fevered response to Atlantic Yard Report #DNC2016 op-ed

Two Trees

When Hizzoner was seeking Dumbo developer Jed Walentas’ cellphone number, Rosen supplied it and then wrote in a Jan. 29, 2014 e-mail to mayoral aides, “Will you let me know if they connect? Thanks.” Walentas’ company, Two Tree Management, which does city business, eventually donated $100,000 to the Campaign for One New York.

de Blasio's Lawyers Are Trying to Keep His Secret Agent Lobbyists Using Bloomberg Dumb School Chancellor Black to Block Foil Requests

De Blasio’s lawyers cite ex-schools head case to shield ‘agent’ emails (NYP) de Blasio’s lawyers are citing a 5-year-old court case involving former Schools Chancellor Cathie Black to keep from disclosing secret advice City Hall got from political consultants the administration has notoriously dubbed “agents of the city.” In a 91-page brief filed this week in Manhattan Supreme Court, the mayor’s legal team claimed Black’s case — in which the Bloomberg administration lost the right to shield her e-mails — bolsters its argument that advice given by unpaid consultants isn’t subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law. The Post and NY1 sued the city for access to communications between City Hall and five consultants, leading the administration to dump 1,550 pages of documents on Thanksgiving eve. But it withheld other e-mails it claimed were “deliberative” and not subject to public scrutiny. Mayor Mike Bloomberg had made a similar claim in the case of Black, whom he appointed chancellor in 2011. He argued that she was an “agent of the city” and that her e-mails prior to her appointment were not subject to the FOI law. Bloomberg lost the case. But city lawyers say the decision in that case bolsters their argument that de Blasio’s advisers are protected from disclosure rules. “It is clear the court’s decision — that Black was not an agent or consultant of the mayor — was based on the fact that the communications at issue were not deliberative in nature and that the mayor could not exercise control over Black prior to her appointment,” wrote Assistant Corporation Counsel Thomas Roberts. “Here, in contrast, the communications are unquestionably deliberative.” Robert Freeman, chair of the state Committee on Open Government, said he believes the city’s argument is a “dead” one. “The key word here is ‘retained,’ ” he said. “That means being paid, and the courts have repeatedly ruled consultants must be ‘retained’ if e-mails are to be kept privWe Know About the Probe Into Mayor Bill de Blasio's Fundraising (DNAINFO) The federal investigation has ensnared NYPD brass and key officials in City Hall. ate.” De Blasio has said he is not paying the consultants for advice. In its filing, the city mentions for the first time a sixth outside unpaid adviser: political operative Josh Gold, who provided contracted work for de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York nonprofit. Besides Gold, the others whose e-mails de Blasio wants to shield are Jonathan Rosen of BerlinRosen; Hilltop Public Solutions partners Nicholas Baldick and Bill Hyers; AKPD partner John Del Cecato; and Patrick Gaspard, the US ambassador to South Africa who was a political operative at SEIU Local 1199. BerlinRosen, AKPD and Hilltop were collectively paid nearly $2 million for work on CONY. Rosen has been paid more than $300,000 by de Blasio’s mayoral campaign.* Here's What

Campaign for One NY Under Federal Investigation Was Not the Only Pool of Money That de Blasio Used to High Operatives for His 2017 Re-Election Campaign

A larger stable of political appointees as special assistants, who are available to go through the revolving door of public service and political-campaign service

ggg De Blasio padded City Hall with 264 ‘special assistants’ (NYP) de Blasio padded the city payroll with 264 “special assistants” during the past fiscal year — a more than 140 percent increase over his predecessor, The Post has learned. The bloated band of vaguely titled aides — accountable only to Hizzoner — accounted for 40 percent of the entire Mayor’s Office staff and cost taxpayers $18.7 million, payroll records show. City Hall insiders said de Blasio was using the special-assistant gigs in part to take care of political operatives as they bide their time waiting for the next campaign — a kind of publicly funded farm system akin to the ones used by Major League Baseball teams. “It’s usually given to one of our political guys as a way to bring them on board in the administration without any problems — whether or not they have the job requirements,” a de Blasio administration source admitted. “Many have worked on [the mayor’s campaign], and this job allows them to go back and forth, if needed, on the re-election campaign or campaigns of allies.” The hires contributed to a surge in payouts at City Hall, where the cost of de Blasio’s office was up more than 21 percent since fiscal year 2013, the last one over which former Mayor Michael Bloomberg had complete control. The fact that the jobs aren’t covered by civil-service rules also gives the mayor the latitude to dole out salaries and raises beyond the established ranges for comparable positions. Last month, The Post revealed that de Blasio had slashed the pay of more than a dozen aides held over from the Bloomberg administration, while showering his own appointees with more than $2 million in raises. At least 16 of the people de Blasio has hired as special assistants worked on his 2013 mayoral bid, one of whom, Monica Klein, is among two special assistants now on leave to work for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. One special assistant, Elana Leopold, saw her annual salary skyrocket from $60,000 in 2014 to $85,749 in 2016 before resigning this year to become the finance director for de Blasio’s 2017 re-election bid. The payroll records also show de Blasio reassigned his longtime election lawyer, Henry Berger, from a $187,583-a-year post as assistant corporation counsel to a job as special assistant at the same rate of pay. One of his special assistants, former campaign “high-dollar finance director” Hayley Prim, resigned to join Hilltop Public Solutions, a p.r. firm implicated this year in election-finance violations allegedly spearheaded by the mayor. *

UPDATED: Here's what we know about the probe into MayorBill de Blasio's fundraising (DNAINFO)

The Feds Are Investigating de Blasio's Slush Fund Campaign for One NY Which Caused A Shadow Govt

As for the issues still being scrutinized, several lawyers for subjects of, and witnesses in, the fund-raising inquiry and others with knowledge of it have said the Campaign for One New York has drawn increasing attention. The nonprofit, which could take unlimited contributions because of its legal status, formed shortly before Mr. de Blasio took office, and raised more than $4 million to push his political agenda; much of it came from developers, unions, lobbyists and people and firms with business before the city. Watchdog groups complained that it amounted to a “shadow government,” allowing lobbyists, consultants and others to funnel money to the mayor unfettered by the city’s strict campaign finance laws.The nonprofit shut down in March; Mr. de Blasio said it had served its purpose of pushing for passage of universal prekindergarten and an affordable housing plan. At the time, the group was the subject of an inquiry by the Joint Commission for Public Ethics, a state agency that enforces the lobbying law, and a formal complaint filed with the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Some of the earliest and most generous donors to the Campaign for One New York are among those whose contributions — along with their actions and those of the mayor and members of his administration and campaign staff — are under scrutiny, several people with knowledge of the inquiry said. The first two donations to the group, made on Jan. 24, 2014, just weeks after Mr. de Blasio was sworn in, were for $25,000 each and came from Broadway Stages, the soundstage company seeking to expand, and the company’s president, Gina Argento By then, Ms. Argento and her company were well known to the mayor. She was the second-largest bundler of contributions for his 2013 run — city records show she brought in over $100,000 for the campaign and transition — and even spent $250 to rent the costumes that Mr. de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, wore at a 2014 Halloween party for children at Gracie Mansion. (The company said it also paid for costumes for more than 100 children from homeless shelters who attended the party.) One of Ms. Argento’s companies also gave $10,000 to the Putnam County Democratic Committee in October 2014, when the mayor was urging his donors to support Democratic efforts to wrest control of the State Senate. Broadway Stages also gave $35,000 to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance NYC, a charity that is led by Ms. McCray. Ms. Argento served on the group’s advisory board until July.

de Blasio's Campaign Lobbyists Control A Secret ShadowGovernment

de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund, Berlin Rosen, Bill Hyers, Red Horse

Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

The WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law, Data and Field Arrests

After A Two Year True News Investigation Mayor's Slush Fund Campaign For One NY to Shut Down

PoliticalOrganization Tied to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Is Closing (WSJ) The Campaign for One New York has come under scrutiny for its donors and spending * Mayor de Blasio shuts down his controversial non-profit fundraising arm (NYP) Mayor de Blasio is shutting down his controversial non-profit fundraising arm, less than a month after a good government group called for an investigation into whether it is breaking campaign-finance and conflicts-of-interest laws. Officials overseeing de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York said Thursday that the group has stopped raised funds and is in the process of disbanding. As of Jan. 15, it had taken in $4.3 million, mostly from unions, real estate firms and other companies that do business with the city. City Hall sources said that while the mayor believes the nonprofit has broken no laws, he has grown weary of the constant media scrutiny of the group and did not want it to be a distraction heading into his 2017 re-election campaign. Donors to the mayor’s re-election campaign and other citywide campaigns are limited to giving $4,950 per election cycle – and only $400 if they do business with the city.* Nonprofit Linked to Mayor de Blasio Is Closing (NYT) * Mayor Bill de Blasio and his top aides are winding down the Campaign for One New York, a political organization tied to him that has come under scrutiny for its donors and spending, the Journal writes:

For Two Years True News Has Been Investigation the Campaign for One NY PAC

Campaign for One New York, however, has received at least 22 donations of $50,000 ore more, including nine for $100,000 and up, records show. A Post analysis published two weeks ago found $3.2 million of the $4.3 million donated to the Campaign for One New York came from just 30 individuals or entities. Leading the donor pack were health care workers’ Local 1199 SEIU and left-leaning hedge fund tycoon George Soros’s nonprofit Fund for Policy Reform Inc., which each gave $500,000. De Blasio met with Soros’ son Alexander for lunch in Southhampton in August 2015, even taking time to pose for photos that the scion later posted on social media websites. He also met with Soros’ son Jonathan six months earlier, and the Soros family helped arrange for de Blasio to be keynote speaker at the April 2014 Democratic Alliance Conference in Chicago. De Blasio participated in at least 31 work meetings or phone calls through September with 16 of the 30 major CONY donors — or those directly linked to these donors, records show. The mayor also attended 23 conferences and other gatherings with CONY contributors — plenty of whom shelled out six-figure donations and regularly do business with the city — and many times publicly showered them with compliments at events. De Blasio featured these top CONY donors in at least 17 of his office’s press releases, often praising them and providing them a free platform to gain positive media attention.

Play to Pay de Blasio and His Campaign for One NY PAC to Get Around the Election Laws

True News Has Been Reporting for Over A Year That de Blasio Created the One New York PAC to Operate As A Slush Fund to Get Him Re-Elected

The transactional mayor returns (PoliticalNY) After the 12-year mayoralty of billionaire Mike Bloomberg, whose wealth afforded him level of insulation from campaign donors, a more transactional style of politics has taken hold through an organization Mayor Bill de Blasio set up to promote his policy agenda. Since its inception on Dec. 12, 2013, the operation known as Campaign for One New York has accepted $3.87 million from dozens of real estate developers, unions and others who do business with City Hall. The setup allows the mayor to raise money outside the regulations of the city Campaign Finance Board. The contributors to his group include individuals and firms seeking approvals for their projects, and they often donate through limited liability companies that obscure their identities.

In some cases, donors gave money right before or after getting a city-granted benefit, according to a POLITICO New York review of $1.71 million in individual contributions that poured in during the first six months of 2015. At least 46 of 74 donors listed in the latest six-month filing — 62 percent of them — either had business or labor contracts with City Hall or were trying to secure approval for a project when they contributed, public records show.* As a city councilman in 2007, he voted to change the city’s campaign finance law to reduce the amount of money an individual or corporation with business before the city could give to a citywide candidate to $400. That reform drastically reduced the number of donations from donors who had business with the city, the Campaign Finance Board wrote in a report published in 2009.

Did the Silver and Skelos Arrests Dry Up Real Estate Money for de Blasio's Slush Fund PAC Campaign for One NY?

Just 4 Groups Contributed $485 to the PAC

De Blasio committee raises $485K from just 4 donors (PoliticoNY) The Campaign For One New York, the political advocacy group Mayor Bill de Blasio created in December 2013 to advance his political agenda, has raised $485,009 from just four donors since July of 2015, according to disclosures voluntarily released to reporters. The single largest donor to the group over the last six months was the Fund For Policy Reform, Inc., a nonprofit founded by Democratic mega-donor George Soros. The Campaign for One New York also took in $200,000 from UNITE HERE, a national labor union representing hotel workers and textile industry employees, which made its donation on November 23 of 2015.

Pay to Play Union Gets Deal On the Same Day It Contributes $200,000 to Mayor's Slush Fund

De Blasio nonprofitnets $200K from union on same day as Council boost (NYP) Mayor de Blasio’s nonprofit took in $200,000 from a food-service union on the same day a mayoral ally in the City Council submitted legislation to protect the union workers’ jobs, new financial filings show. Unite Here, a union formerly run by Hizzoner’s cousin that has given more than $900,000 to de Blasio causes, made its latest donation to the nonprofit Campaign for One New York on Nov. 23, 2015. That was the same day Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan) introduced a bill requiring venues such as universities or sports stadiums to retain unionized food-service workers for at least 90 days after ownership changes.

Most of the Contributors In Past Cycles Had Business Before the City

The 501(c)4’s fundraising over the past six month period is dramatically less than during the previous six month period, from January of 2015 to July 2015. During that time period, the Campaign took in $1.71 million from dozens of donors including real estate developers and unions, some of whom had business before City Hall. In contrast to the previous fundraising cycle, when the Campaign took in money from dozens of real estate developers, the nonprofit received just two donations from real estate development companies — $10,000 from DDG Development Partners, LLC and $25,000 from TF Cornerstone Inc., in the last six months. Between January 2015 and July 2015, by contrast, a slew of real estate developersdonated to de Blasio, while they were also

Campaign for One NY Used the Same Law Firm As Advance Group Used for Their Sweet Heart Deal From the CFB

The Campaign For One New York also paid $215,000 in consulting fees to AKPD, the consulting firm that employs one of de Blasio's most trusted outside political advisors, John Del Cecato. The group spent $45,000 on expenses related to "communications consulting" at Berlin Rosen,$86,627 over the six-month period to Kantor Davidoff Mandelker for legal expenses, and $104,705 to Hilltop Public Solutions for "General Consulting and Expenses."

FBI Will Be Looking How Real Estate Funds the Mayor's Campaigns and PACs

The real estate developer behind Mayor Bill de Blasio’saffordable housing plan (LittleSis) Moelis and L+M have raised significant amounts of money for de Blasio, but he appears to prefer routing the contributions through his personal network. Moelis reportedly raised $75,000 for de Blasio’s mayoral campaign. Much of that amount appears to have been raised at an October 2013 fundraiser that L+M hosted alongside another real estate firm, BFC Capital. Attendees included prominent real estate firms such as Brown Harris, Townhouse Properties and Xhema Builders. One of the official co-hosts of the L+M fundraiser, Lisa Gomez, is the firm’s chief operating officer and has been chair of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing since November 2014. She is also a de Blasio bundler, raising $13,850 for his first mayoral campaign and personally contributing $200 to it. In a speech, the mayor called Gomez “a good friend” who he has “turned to for advice and insight for many years.” Other L+M de Blasio donors include David Dishy and Debra Kenyon. Moelis himself did not donate directly to de Blasio’s mayoral campaign, but members of his family did: according to information from the New York City Campaign Finance Board, Moelis’s son Andrew, an associate project manager at L+M, gave $175 to de Blasio, and his daughter Madelyn gave $50; his nephew Jordan, who runs a hedge fund based in Los Angeles, has given $150; and his cousin, Jeffery Moelis, who owns the the property management arm of L+M, gave the mayor $1,000. The smaller amounts, as long as they are given by donors living in New York City, are matched up to six times in accordance with the city’s public financing law.

De Blasio returning $20K in ‘corrupt’ campaign funds (NYP) Mayor de Blasio is returning $20,200 in campaign contributions from a real-estate firm involved in the corruption scandals involving two disgraced Albany legislative leaders — a move that puts Gov. Cuomo in a political jam. De Blasio is the first elected official to heed Post editorials calling for the return of millions in campaign cash from Glenwood Management, a powerhouse developer that figured in the corruption trials of both former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.* Real estate’slove-hate relationship with de Blasio (Real Deal) Two years into his term, the mayor has proven to be far more pro-development than many expected. So why hasn’t he won over more developers?

The FBI Will Be Looking At How Real Estate Firms With Busines Before the City Funded the Mayor's Campaign Team Slush Fund PAC Campaign for 1NY

De Blasio’s donors (Real Deal) Two Trees, Brookfield and Toll Brothers are among the supporters shelling out the most for mayor’s non-profit David and Jed Walentas, the father-and-son duo behind Two Trees Management, may have had some not-so-charitable words for Bill de Blasio in the past — the elder Walentas infamously described the mayor as a “disaster for the city” in a 2014 New York magazine story. But Walentas, who later dialed his comments back, has nonetheless been generous to de Blasio with his wallet. In April 2015 — about a year after reaching a rezoning deal with the administration to redevelop the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg — Two Trees gave $100,000 to the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit de Blasio founded to further his policy initiatives. Although the Two Trees donation was the largest among real estate companies identified by The Real Deal, the company was not alone in giving money to the fund. Between December 2013 and the middle of 2015, the Campaign for One New York accepted a total of roughly $3.9 million in contributions from a wide range of entities, including real estate developers, unions and limited liability companies. Altogether, real estate players gave $1.1 million from Jan. 2014 to June 2015, according to the New York Times. TRD combed through the donor list to see who from the industry dished out the most. While the largest individual donations came from labor groups, the real estate industry and those with ties to it made up the bulk of donors. Many of the real estate firms that donated significant sums to the nonprofit are currently developing large residential projects in New York City. The list includes Toll Brothers, which donated $50,000 and is developing the controversial hotel-condo Pierhouse in Dumbo. The developer has been sued by local residents who argue that Toll built the project higher than legally allowed. Thus far, the city has sided with Toll. Frank McCourt’s MG Properties, which is developing a $3 billion mixed-use tower at 360 10th Avenue, donated $50,000 through an LLC in April 2015. And Park Tower Group, which is partnering with L+M Development on Greenpoint Landing, a megaproject in Brooklyn, donated $50,000 to the fund in March 2015. Unlike the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City — a nonprofit that facilitates public-private partnerships and has existed since 1994 under different mayors — the Campaign for One New York is de Blasio’s baby.* Mayor de Blasio’s Top Political Advisers Got $500,000 in 6Months, Records Say (NYT)* The transactional mayor returns | POLITICO Since its inception on Dec. 12, 2013, the operation known as Campaign for One New York has accepted $3.87 million from dozens of real estate developers, unions and others who do business with City Hall. The setup allows the mayor to raise money outside the regulations of the city Campaign Finance Board. The contributors to his group include individuals and firms seeking approvals for their projects, and they often donate through limited liability companies that obscure their identities.* Lobbyist gave de Blasio $13K donation on same day as concert approval (NYP) * De Blasio's Horse-Drawn Carriage Ban | The American ...

de Blasio Pay to Play Culture TAXI

Bill de BlasioTransition Donors Include Many With Interests Before City (NYO) New and loyal backers pumped more than $2 million into Mr. de Blasio’s transition effort, new campaign finance filings show. And with Mr. de Blasio already elected, it perhaps isn’t surprising that many of those offering last-minute backing have a financial stake in his administration. Among the notable names who maxed out on their giving—in addition to real estate titans like SL Green’s Stephen Green, Alexander Durst from the the Durst organization and the usual smattering of attorneys and finance types—were Hollywood director Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, as well as DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife, Marilyn. Both of the couples contributed the max $9,000 to Mr. de Blasio’s transition efforts. Neither had contributed to his campaign. Then there’s the taxi industry, which according to Capital New York’s tabulations, gave more than $350,000 to Mr. de Blasio over the course of his campaign. They didn’t stop giving. The industry, which battled former Mayor Michael Bloomberg over outer-borough green apple cabs and efforts to standardize the industry, contributed another $45,000 to the mayor’s inauguration and transition efforts, the records show. The sum includes maximum contributions from Jose Altamilano, the president of El Barrios Car Service, Neil Greenbaum and Eldar Guseynov, the manager and COO of All Taxi Management, respectively, as well as many smaller contributions from drivers and medallion owners. Transit advocates have long been puzzled by Mr. de Blasio’s vague opposition to the outer-borough cabs, which appear to have proven popular in the communities they serve, prompting critics to speculate that the contributions could be the motivation. Mr. de Blasio has repeatedly denied this, however.

Developers Fund the Mayor's Shadow Govt

Developers cutting big checks to de Blasio’s “shadowcabinet” (Real Deal) Mayor's political consultants could pose potential conflict of interest. There’s a long history of real estate developers tapping into City Hall, but certain donations in the past year show that they may also have the mayor’s ear through privately funded consulting firms. Since his mayoral campaign in 2013, Mayor Bill de Blasio has depended on several political consultants, who have raked in almost $2.3 million in the past year to help push the administration’s message. A majority of these funds were contributed by the nonprofit group One New York, which received $1.1. million from real estate developers. This was the second highest contribution from January 2014 to June 2015, falling only slightly short of unions, which donated $1.3 million. The mayor’s cadre of consultants represent a possible conflict of interest, the New York Times noted, since many of their clients are major business players in the city.

BerlinRosen, for instance, has overseen communications strategies for One New York, while also counting real estate developers — Forest City Ratner Companies, SL Green Realty and Two Trees Management — among its clients. Two Trees Management, the developer behind the Domino Sugar redevelopment project, donated $100,000 to One New York in the past year. Former Edison Properties boss Stephen Nislick — along with animal activist partner Wendy Neu — donated more than $100,000. What sets the mayor’s relationship with these consultants apart is that he’s met with these advisors more often than some of senior members of his administration, records of de Blasio’s schedule show. The relationship with the “shadow cabinet” is also seemingly out of step with his beliefs before becoming mayor, when he spoke out against the role of “shadowy” nonprofit groups in politics. The mayor’s press secretary, Karen Hinton, told the newspaper that One New York’s involvement with de Blasio doesn’t contradict the mayor’s previous statements, as the organization “does not engage in politics” and “exists solely to advance the administration’s agenda.” [NYT]

How Can the Media Ask the CFB & Conflict Board to Investigate the Mayor’s Slush Fund PAC Campaign for 1NY

When Thoses Board Are Pick By de Blasio and the Council Speaker Who He Elected and the Mayor's PAC Hires His Campaign Consultants

Interlocking-Directorates of the Campaign for 1NY PAC Call For An Investigation

The mayor appoints 50% of the Campaign Finance Board
The Council Speaker appoints 50% of the Campaign Finance Board
Team de Blasio elected Mark- Viverito Speaker
The mayor appoints 50% of the Conflict of Interests Board
The Council Speaker appoints 50% of the Conflict of Interests Board
The Goo Goos and the Media Asked the CFB to Investigate the 1NY PAC
The Goo Goos and the Media Asked the Conflict Bs to Investigate the 1NY PAC
NYCLASS PAC By Attacking Quinn Help Elected the Mayor
The Advance Group Ran the NYCLASS PAC
The Advance Group Worked Illegally to Elect the Council Speaker
The CFB Gave A Small Fine to Advance Even Ordered Speaker to pay them
The Conflict Bd Gave Small Fine to Advance Even Ordered Speaker to pay them
The CFB Covered Up the NYCLASS Scandal
The Conflict Bd Covered Up the NYCLASS Scandal
Berlin Rosen Works for 1NY PAC and as A Campaign Consultant to de Blasio
Hilltop Works for 1NY PAC and as A Campaign Consultant to de Blasio
Hilltop Works for 1NY PAC and as A Campaign Consultant to de Blasio
Red Horse Works for the One NY PAC and 4 out of 5 of the city’s Das
Red Horse Work for Over 40 Council Members as a consultant or UF PAC
NYCLASS PAC By Attacking Quinn Help Elected the Mayor

Effort By the State Board of Elections to Regulate Independent Expenditure

Board of Elections Proposes Independent Expenditure Rules

Chris Bragg reports in the Times Union on the State Board Of Elections effort to regulate independent expenditure committees. “Douglas Kellner, the Democratic co-chair of the Board of Elections, said in an email that he was “not aware of any particular issue of disagreement, but everyone is being careful to reconcile the differences between various models we are looking at, including the federal and New York City regulations, as well as regulations adopted in other states.” The regulations include proposed rules for labor unions and other membership organizations, which are exempt from some aspects of disclosure of spending targeted to their own memberships.”

Goo Goos Join True News In Demanding That the CFB Investigate de Blasio Slush Fund Campaign for One NY PAC

De Blasio Says Unlimited Fundraising Is OK—As Long asIt’s for a Progressive Cause (NYO)

Mayor Bill de Blasio today defended himself from good government group charges that two nonprofits collecting money to promote his agenda had created “a shadow government” and “perpetual campaign”—arguing that both organizations fully disclosed their donors and were promoting worthy liberal causes. Speaking at an unrelated event in Brooklyn, Mr. de Blasio brushed off Common Cause NY’s call for the city Campaign Finance Board and Conflict of Interest Board investigate the fundraising efforts of the Campaign for One New York and United for Affordable NYC. Both nonprofits are registered as 501(c)4s with the Internal Revenue Service, meaning they can raise unlimited funds to lobby and advertise for political causes—specifically, for mayoral initiatives like universal pre-kindergarten and for his sweeping plans to rezone the city to boost below-market housing production.

“There’s a long history of coalitions forming to achieve policy goals,” Mr. de Blasio said today, comparing the two groups’ work to that of organizations that pushed to legalize gay marriage and to increase the minimum wage. “The idea that organizations would come together to fight for things like full-day pre-K for all, or affordable housing programs that could reach hundreds of thousands of people, I think is understandable and makes sense.” Both groups have raised money from developers, unions and other groups with financial interests before the city. Common Cause argued that this creates the possibility of these groups exercising undue influence on important policy decisions. “The mayor’s unprecedented use of 501(c)4 fundraising has spawned a shadow government that raises serious questions about who has influence and access to the policy-making process,” Common Cause said in a statement announcing its complaints. “It has created a perpetual campaign, confusing the role of government and politics, to the detriment of the public interest.” The mayor bitterly rejected a reporter’s comparison of his nonprofits’ fundraising to the conservative political operation that oil magnates Charles and David Koch have set up to benefit Republican candidates and causes. “A lot of what’s going on is very self-interested. Koch brothers are not doing what they’re doing to help kids get pre-K. They’re doing a lot of what they’re doing to help their business,” he said.

Only True News Investigated the Mayor's Corrupt One NY PAC As the Media Ignored

“So I think there are differences.”* Common Cause New York filed a formal complaint with New York City officials against Mayor Bill de Blasio and the outside political groups tied to him, requesting an investigation into whether their fund-raising and spending violated the law.* The Daily News writes that the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board has plenty to consider when it probes de Blasio’s connections to two outside political groups, starting with his streetcar proposal: * The Post writes that an investigation into de Blasio’s outside political groups is long overdue and that it’s time to determine whether he is “breaking the law - or is just a hypocrite”: * Calling out Bill de Blasio’s ‘charity’ slush-fund game (NYP) “it appears the mayor trades his public office for personal political advantage, and makes a mockery of the city’s long-followed public policy behind the campaign-finance laws.” Before becoming mayor, de Blasio was an outspoken hawk on both campaign finance and keeping special interests out of City Hall. But since winning office, he’s been end-running those laws.* De Blasio's 'Dark Money' Needs to be Probed, Good Government Group Says (DNAINFO) The group says the mayor is violating campaign finance laws.

Charmian Neary ‏@CharmianNeary

Charmian Neary Retweeted NYDN Opinion Team

A modern Diogenes, Gary Tilzer @unitedNYblogs has been sounding the alarm on this seemingly forever.

True News Challenges NY1 to A Debate On the Role on the Media Enabling of the Lobbyists Shadow Govt

By law, donors who do city business can’t give more than $400 per election cycle to a candidate for city office. Yet the mayor set up a nonprofit to push his agenda — and that fund can accept unlimited gifts from anyone. Nor need it publicly disclose those contributions, though it does so voluntarily. And it turns out the vast majority of donors — some kicking in six-figure sums — had city business or labor contracts or were trying to get a project approved. Team de Blasio notes that Mayor Michael Bloomberg used a similar fund. But, as Common Cause notes, “We do not accept that dark money is a necessary part of the modern mayoralty.” A formal investigation is long overdue. It’s time to determine whether de Blasio is breaking the law — or is just a hypocrite. * Good Government Group Accuses Mayor of Running 'Shadow Government' Using 'Dark Money' (NY1)* What the Kochbrothers and de Blasio share (AMNY) Those phrases from a complaint by good-government advocate Common Cause weren't directed at the Koch brothers' super PACs, but at nonprofit groups allied with Mayor Bill de Blasio, the clean government progressive who loudly decried Citizens United. The mayor's allies have built a network of nonprofits to support his agenda. Those groups operate outside of the city's campaign finance system, but that's nothing new in the era of big money in government. The Campaign for One New York has employed some of the mayor's advisers and has pushed for some of his most high-profile priorities, from universal pre-k to affordable housing, in addition to championing his national presence. Yet its donors include groups and individuals with wide-ranging business with the City of New York — including the American Federation of Teachers, developer Two Trees Management and supporters of the effort to ban horse carriages in Central Park. Not-for-profit status lets donors to the group circumvent New York City's strict campaign finance laws. Normally, campaigns cannot accept donations over $400 for those with business before the city. In 2014, the AFT gave the group $350,000. The healthcare workers union 1199/SEIU gave $250,000 in 2015. Donations to the mayor should go to his campaign, where they belong. The mayor says that full disclosure is his aim, but the website for United for Affordable NYC, a new nonprofit supporting his housing agenda, doesn't mention that it received some of its funding from the Campaign for One New York, though it lists some mutual "supporters."And the Campaign for One New York itself? It doesn't have a website.

de Blasio One NY PAC Interlocking-directorates Slush Fund, Berlin Rosen, Bill Hyers, Red Horse

How True News Investigation Exposed the Campaign for OneNY Interlocking Directories Story

Media Cover-Up of NYCLASS, Other Citizens United PACs, Mayor One NY PAC

How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and 2013 Election

Who Watchers the Watchman, Lobbyists, Grand Jury, AG - DAs Conflict of Interests With NYPD and Elected Officials

A Tale of Two CFBs: Albanese vs Campaign PAC NYCLASS,UFT's United for the Future

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

The Lobbyist's Shadow Government
The Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine

More on Dark Pool Corrupt Consultant Who Will Have to Register As Lobbyists

Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

Fine No Criminal Investigation Of the NYCLASS Is the Way We Elect Our Representatives Important?
Advance Gets A Slap On the Wrist Fine from CFB, AG and Bd of Ethics On Their Campaign PAC Coordination in the 2013 Election

Political insider fined for playing too many sides of 2013 elections (NYP) A political consultant has agreed to pay $26,000 in penalties after authorities accused him of double dealing in the 2013 municipal elections. Scott Levenson’s The Advance Group played both sides of the fence by advising the political arm of the United Federation of Teachers and the anti-horse carriage group, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, to influence contested city-wide and council races. At the same time, he also represented four candidates: first-term Council members Laurie Cumbo (D-Brooklyn) and Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), Comptroller Scott Stringer and Manhattan borough president candidate Robert Jackson. “Today’s agreement sends a clear message that campaign coordination is unacceptable in New York City and state politics.” The UFT had spent more than $40,000 combined on behalf of TAG clients Cumbo, Levine, Jackson and Stringer. NYCLASS spent $20,000 on the campaigns of Cumbo, Levine and Stringer. TAG presdient Levenson was the political director of NYCLASS and its campaign was run out of his Manhattan office, while at the same time the group spent money to promote the candidacies of two of Levenson’s clients — Levine and Cumbo.

The Interlocking-Directorates of the IDC PAC DSCC, Top Election Lawyers, Ethics Board and de Blasio's One NY PAC

Election Lawyer Martin Connor was paid $45,000 by the IDC Initiative Slush Fund PAC
Election Lawyer Lawrence Mandelker was paid $20,000 by the IDC Initiative Slush Fund PAC
The IDC Initiative donated $10,000 to Tony Avella and Sent Out Mailing for Him. Avella was made ethics chair by the GOP IDC controlled state senate
The Advance Group served as the campaign consultant for Avella in several campaigns
Avella Campaign Lawyer was Martin Connor
Martin Connor was the election lawyer for Parkside’s Evan Stavisky Mom Toby
Martin Connor was the election lawyer for DSCC
The Mayor Picks Have the Members of the Conflict of Interests Board The Council Speaker the Other Half
Electon Lawyer Lawrence Mandelker is the lawyer for de Blasio Campaign Committee and the Mayor’s Slush Fund PAC Campaign for One NY and for WFP’s Data and Fields With Had A Contract for Over $100,000 when de Blasio ran for PA in 2009
The Mayor’s cousin contributed big to NYCLASS which the Advance Group Ran
Mandelker is the lawyer for Advance Group’s Scott Levinson NYCLASS Case

Did the Silver and Skelos Arrests Dry Up Real Estate Money for de Blasio's Slush Fund PAC Campaign for One NY?

Just 4 Groups Contributed $485 to the PAC

Most of the Contributors In Past Cycles Had Business Before the City

Campaign for One NY Used the Same Law Firm As Advance Group Used for Their Sweet Heart Deal From the CFB

The mayor’s group, the Campaign for One New York, spent $1,222,091 in the second half of 2015, more than half of which went toward establishing the Progressive Agenda Committee, the liberal coalition that Mr. de Blasio founded. The mayor, a Democrat, had hoped to hold a presidential forum in Iowa, but the event was canceled because no candidates agreed to attend.

A Tale of Two Cities: de Blasio's Lobbyists and His Contributor Friends the 1%

Two New Yorks: De Blasio’s friends — and everyone else (NYP) Say this much for Mayor de Blasio: He looks out for friends and donors. Stephen Nislick was the force behind the anti-horse-carriage group NYCLASS, which was a huge help in winning de Blasio the Democratic nomination. (The general election was a walk.) Now the deal will move the horses out of their West Side stables, so Nislick can finally acquire that property. Losers include the animal-rights nuts who wanted the industry banned, and the taxpayers who may have to pay some drivers to retire and for the renovation of the stables in the park. This comes on top of Rich Calder’s Post story Tuesday that Team de Blasio has green-lighted plans for a major, multiday music festival on Randall’s Island. Sponsoring the event is AEG Live — which paid Hizzoner’s old pal, Harold Ickes, $150,000 to lobby for it. As part of de Blasio’s transition team, Ickes even played a role in hiring Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver — who OKs permits like the one for AEG’s July 24-26 event. A slam-dunk for AEG. But two other concert promoters — who, like AEG Live, sought to hold multiday festivals — were shut out completely. And while all three applied to use Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, the site was moved to Randall’s Island, even though the AEG event may steal business from another music shindig there slated for a month earlier, Governors Ball. What a sleazy way to do city business — and what an awful message to send to cultural and business groups looking to operate here: If you don’t hire someone with personal ties to the mayor, you’re out of luck. Of course, the mayor can’t always deliver — the City Council’s rejecting his bid to crush Uber. So the taxi industry will have to collect some other favor for its generous donations to de Blasio’s campaign. De Blasio campaigned on the theme of New York’s “tale of two cities.” By treating friends and allies better than everyone else, he’s making that image true+

First Electric Cars Now Moving and Reducing Number of Carriages House in Stables in the Park, Another Idiot Idea Says the Daily News

Buck this bad dealand leave the carriage horses be (NYDN Ed) The odor of a rank sellout — of man and beast — emanates from negotiations between the union representing carriage horse drivers and City Hall. In the process, he would destroy the livelihoods of an undetermined number of drivers and support personnel, sharply cut the number of working horses and invest money in renovating a stable in the park. The Teamsters, who have much other and much larger business with City Hall, should have rejected all of this out of hand. About 220 horses pull 68 carriages. With their services spread out over the course of the day, that enables them to have rest periods. They also get at least five weeks of vacation a year. The new stables would likely accommodate 75 horses, while demand on the industry may well remain unchanged. If a reduced number of horses were to pull the same number of carriages as are operating now — a big if, but a possibility — that would mean at least double the labor for each animal. nd were to get the funds for new Central Park stables? Not from taxpayers, because de Blasio is engaged in a vanity project as payback to NYCLASS, the animal activists who financed advertising that crippled former Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s mayoral bid. Although the complexities are overwhelming, de Blasio and the Council appear to believe they can surmount any obstacle while brushing past sure legal challenges. More likely, their ideas will go into oblivion, just like de Blasio’s scheme to have carriage drivers tool around Central Park in electric Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars..* Sources: City offering to pay for Central Park horse stables (PoliticoNY) Upgrade could cost millions in taxpayer dollars* City Study Thwarts Pols' Accusation That Uber Causes Traffic Congestion (DNAINFO) The report recommends more regulation for the for-hire vehicle industry.

Horse-Carriage Fight Politics
Media Cover-Up of NYCLASS, Other Citizens United PACs, Mayor One NY PAC

How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and 2013 Election
CrainsNY on the Advance Groups Double Dipping

Who Watchers the Watchman, Lobbyists, Grand Jury, AG - DAs Conflict of Interests With NYPD and Elected Officials

A Tale of Two CFBs: Albanese vs Campaign PAC NYCLASS,UFT's United for the Future

True News Pushes NYT Ends the Cover-Up and JCOPE Tries To Make Them Register As A Lobbyists

JCOPE clarifies proposal targeting 'strategic consultants' (Chris Bragg, Times Union) JCOPE first published a draft opinion on the matter in May, and has now updated its proposal. It still must be approved by a majority of JCOPE’s 14 commissioners. Some of New York’s most successful “strategic consulting” firms – such as Manhattan-based BerlinRosen and SKDKnickerbocker – have close relationships with politicians who are their campaign clients, and also represent interests with business before these clients. But their employees hardly ever register as lobbyists. These firms maintain, however, that they do not actually ask those elected officials to make policy decisions benefitting those interests, and focus on public relations enhanced by insight into the thinking of public officials. But JCOPE’s advisory opinion, if eventually passed, would expand the definition of lobbying beyond how its traditionally been interpreted by the industry and regulators. It is intended to cover not just direct lobbying, but consultants that use their connections to powerful officials to grease the wheels for direct lobbying – or for “door opening,” as JCOPE director of lobbying and senior counsel Martin Levine described at a commission meeting on Tuesday. “While the consultant may not make the ultimate argument to the public official, what they’ve done by opening these doors is has made them possible,” Levine said. * State ethics bodymay force communications firms to register as lobbyists (NYDN) A slew of prominent communications firms may be forced to register as lobbyists under a proposal by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which would force firms that have helped craft messages for lobbying efforts to register with the stateThe idea is to cover “people who are not currently registered as lobbyists but are doing what can be considered lobbying activity,” said commission spokesman Walt McClure. Among the groups that could be impacted are SKDKickerbocker, BerlinRosen Public Affairs and Mercury Public Affairs, all of which have been involved in key issues on the state level and have ties to top New York leaders. The Joint Public Commission on Public Ethics is seeking comments through Dec. 4 on its proposal. At some point after that, the commission will decide whether to approve it.* A slew of prominent communications firms may be forced to register as lobbyists under a proposal by the state ethics commission, JCOPE. The plan would force private consulting groups that have helped craft messages for lobbying efforts to register with the state. Until now, their activities have not been considered lobbying.

According to the updated advisory opinion, JCOPE would consider the definition of lobbying to including a consultant’s contact with public officials to enable or facilitate direct advocacy – even if what’s traditionally been thought of as lobbying is done by someone else. A consultant setting up or attending a lobbying meeting with a public official, even if they don’t directly lobby themselves, would appear to be lobbying under the opinion; so it appears would a consultant’s presence on a lobbying phone call with a public official, even if they don’t personally ask for a policy decision to be made. The idea, as Levine described at a commission meeting on Tuesday, is that there can be an unstated influence a powerful consultant can have. “Even observing a consultant’s presence can be meant to influence,” Levine said, adding that this can add an air of “familiarity, legitimacy or prestige.” In order to be forced to register, those covered by these new provisions would still have to hit a $5,000 annual payment threshold for their services, as is the case with all lobbyists.

The advisory opinion also addresses so-called “grassroots lobbying.” Oftentimes, major New York lobbying campaigns now spend less on traditional lobbyists than they do on public persuasion campaigns through mediums such as mailers, radio and television. Under the advisory opinion, to be considered lobbying, grassroots communication would have to take a clear position on an issue such as legislation or a veto – and urge the public to take action, such as contacting a legislator. For a consultant on a grassroots lobbying campaign to considered to be lobbying, they must have a “meaningful” role in “both the content and delivery of the message” of the campaign, according to the proposed opinion. Those such as copy editors, film crews or media buyers that are not involved in the overall strategy and messaging of such a campaign would be exempt.* Political Consulting Firms in NY State May Soon Need toRegister as Lobbyists (NY1) When Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his plan to build more housing for homeless people this week, he did so in the lobby of a residential development that does just that. It's run by a group called Breaking Ground. They are a client of the mayor's favored consulting firm, BerlinRosen, which was co-founded by Jonathan Rosen, a close adviser to the mayor.The relationship between Breaking Ground and the communications firm that also advises de Blasio is not something either party has had to publicly disclose, but that may be changing. The state's ethics commission is preparing to start treating communications consultants like lobbyists.If adopted by the state ethics commission, the regulations could affect de Blasio. He seeks advice regularly from outside consultants. It's a practice that may be called into question if those same advisers are considered lobbyists under the law.

Mayor Says Berlin Rosen Does Not Lobby - Why Do Their Real Estate Clients Pay Them? Good Looks?

Azi ‏@Azi "That’s the point … they don’t lobby” — @BilldeBlasio, when asked about @BerlinRosen, by @gracerauh.

The mayor also defended the work of his political nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York. The group, which boosts his administration’s agenda, has accepted donations as large as $500,000 from individuals, corporations and unions that have business matters before the city. Critics say the nonprofit serves as a slush fund and is at odds with de Blasio’s condemnation of the US Supreme Court decision on Citizens United in 2010, which effectively opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate contributions into politics.

Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

The WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law, Data and Field Arrests

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

The Lobbyist's Shadow Government
The Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine

More on Dark Pool Corrupt Consultant Who Will Have to Register As Lobbyists

Media Cover-Up of NYCLASS, Other Citizens United PACs, MayorOne NY PAC

How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and2013 Election

CrainsNY on the Advance Groups Double Dipping

Roosevelt A Real Progressive for the People, de Blasio Spin Progressive While Shilling for Real Estate, Pushing New Yorkers Out of Their Homes

Because the Campaign for One New York is a nonprofit and isn’t a re-election account tied directly to the mayor, donors aren’t required to follow the city’s campaign-finance laws that limit donations to candidates. Many developers and others in the industry said they were skeptical of Mr. de Blasio at first but have grown increasingly satisfied with his positions, including his work on behalf of 421-a. In 2015, the group’s focus shifted to Mr. de Blasio’s national agenda. Among the expenditures: more than $150,000 to AKPD Media, where Mr. de Blasio’s political consultant John Del Cecato is crafting his national agenda and about $140,000 to Mr. de Blasio’s polling and research firm. About $100,000 went to Hilltop Public Solutions, where de Blasio campaign manager Bill Hyers works. The group also spent more than $60,000 with Berlin Rosen, a firm run by de Blasio ally Jonathan Rosen that also represents real-estate companies. The group has paid for the mayor’s travel to San Francisco, hotel rooms in Milwaukee and travel to Iowa and Washington, D.C. Last week, the Progressive Agenda Committee, a group sponsoring the mayor’s Iowa forum, said it would create another account to collect contributions. The Campaign for One New York can accept donations through limited-liability corporations, which shroud identities. One of the biggest givers, Two Trees Development, gave $100,000 through a limited liability company. Two Trees is developing the Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn and other sites. At least some entities contributed to the Campaign for One New York as they also paid representatives to lobby City Hall, a practice that is legal but also has been criticized by Mr. Horner and others. Toll Brothers spent $32,000 to lobby City Hall, but also gave $25,000 to the Campaign for One New York. In a statement, a spokesman said the firm gave because it supported affordable housing. Property Markets Group, which spent more than $80,000 to lobby City Hall in 2015, gave $5,000 to the Campaign for One New York. One of the firm’s lobbyists, James Capalino, also gave $10,000. He didn’t return a request for comment. Madd Equities, which spent $37,500 in lobbying city council members, gave the Campaign for One New York $10,000. The firm didn’t return a request for comment. Longtime real-estate developer Steven Nislick, who wants to ban horse carriages in New York and has funded the group NYCLASS, gave Mr. de Blasio $50,000. He declined to comment.* When 65% of NYC voters oppose carriage ban, only route for Nyclass is to buy Mayor's support with $50,000via @WSJ

The Lobbyist's Shadow Government
NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists
Foreign Ownership of NYC Real Estate and the Lobbyists Who Work for Them

Speaker SheldonSilver, His Law Firm $$$

Real Estate Developers, Tax Breakes and Politics, 421-a

More About Pitta Bishop and the Other Shadow Government Lobbyists

More on Dark Pool Corrupt Lobbyists

Corrupt lobbyist: Arzt, Mercury, Advance Group, BerlinRosen, Parkside, Schlein. Kasirer, Bolton-St. Johns, D'Amato, Sheinkopf

The Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine
More about Lobbyists Mercury
How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and 2013 Election

The UFT Coup d'é·tat Of NYC Election System and Democracy

UFT Illegal PAC United for the Future

More on the Advance Group

Wayne Barrett Drills Down On the Mayor's Campaign for One NY Slush Fund

Morgan Pehme: Last week there was an article on the cover of the New York Times about several political consultants who are playing a major role advising the mayor, even though they are not on the government employees. The Times investigation which I should note was built in part on some stellar work by True News’s Gary Tilzer and NY1’s Grace Rauh and others. Found over the first 18 months of the de blasio administration there consultants were paid $2.3 million dollars, by the a non-profit organization called Campaign for One New York, that exists to pretty much so to promote the mayor’s agenda and can accept unlimited money from interests groups.(Effective Radio with Bill Samuels)

Wayne Barrett: What is the relationship between this consultant and the mayor?

All it is a cesspool of money for the Mayor, I think it is a complete end run if not violation of the city’s campaign finance laws. I think if we had a more aggressive Campaign Finance Board they might well be perusing this. Look if they spend $2.3 Million on the consultants and they raise this money completely outside the boundaries of campaign finance laws, with contributions like from teachers Union $350,000, which was given right after the mayor signed a new very very expensive contract with the teachers union. They are complete exceeding all boundaries and raising this money and spending it all on consultants. 77% of the money was spent on the consultants, I don’t think they are giving him very good advice - his numbers have plummeted, all the time he is getting all this advice he is getting from is allies . . . We never seen anything like this, I think it’s a new form of It not like a political consultant has never received a nickel between elections from an incumbent mayor, but ever on this on this scale

What is really troubling about this, all of the people on this payroll not only consultants to the mayor through this committee, there are lobbyists who refuse to admit they are lobbyists and refuse to register as lobbyists Berlin Rosen is the largest company has 50 Clients with business before the mayor and they don’t even register as lobbyists, 50 clients with business before the mayor. How can we possible know what goes on when the Times reveal many many that these lobbyists have it the mayor? That these lobbyist who refuse to call themselves lobbyists How can we possible know that those conversations don’t include exchanges that benefit their lobbing clients or their strategic advice clients? The whole appearance of collusion that is extraordinary and repellent Listen to Wayne Barrett Interview

de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund, Berlin Rosen, Bill Hyers,Red Horse

A Tale of Two CFBs: Albanese vs Campaign PAC NYCLASS, UFT's United for the Future
UFT Illegal PAC United for the Future
How the Advance Group Conspired With PACs to Steal the 2009 and 2013 Election

Who Watchers the Watchman, Lobbyists, Grand Jury, AG - DAsConflict of Interests With NYPD and Elected Officials
No Town Hall de Blasio Spins and the NYC Press Defining Journalism Down

The Most Powerful Man in Politics –Outside City Hall (NY1)

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes OverNYC Government

The Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine

How Berlin Rosen Comprised Journalism
Sugar Fix: Berlin Rosen an Unregistered Real Estate Lobbyists

The WFP Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law,Data and Field Arrests

Media Cover-Up of NYCLASS, Other Citizens United PACs, MayorOne NY PAC

How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and2013 Election

CrainsNY on the Advance Groups Double Dipping

Berlin Rosen Helps A Developer Win Approval of Sugar Development From Mayor it Elected and Collects $100,000 For the Mayor's Slush PAC That It Runs

Berlin Rosen who is not for some reason not listed as registered lobbyist work for a lot of real estate developers. Berlin Rosen’s current and recent clients include Two Trees Management Negotiations between Mr. de Blasio’s team and two trees' Walentas’s firm took place over a few days. The two men share a mutual adviser: Jonathan Rosen, one of the mayor’s top political hands and the chief executive of a public affairs firm, Berlin Rosen that counts Mr. Walentas’s company as a client. Berlin Rosen served as a consultant to de Blasio campaign and runs he slush fund PAC NY1 which pushes the mayor’s agenda. The NYT Michael Powell – “A couple last year; "I called the mayor’s press office and asked about Mr. de Blasio’s perhaps too-optimistic cost projections for prekindergarten. Twenty minutes later, I heard from Dan Levitan of Berlin Rosen, which is the “it” P.R. firm of the city’s left and a close adviser to the mayor.” Berlin Rosen worked all the candidates that hired the WFP’s Data and Field in 2009. One of their clients is still being investigated by a SI special prosecutor. Both partners in Berlin Rosen, Jonathan Rosen and Valerie Berlin worked for Schneiderman. Berlin was his chief of staff when he was a NYS Senator.

This is How de Blasio's New York Works

One of the biggest real estate donors was Two Trees Management, which gave $100,000 through various other LLCs. Two Trees, of course, is the well-known Brooklyn developer who reshaped Dumbo and is currently transforming the landmarked Domino sugar refinery in Williamsburg into one of Brooklyn’s largest residential developments. When Mayor de Blasio took office, he pushed for Two Trees to devote more space to affordable housing in its already unusually generous plans for Domino. Ultimately, he won concessions and theplan went through. * BerlinRosen was the top consultant that helped New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio get elected in 2013. It also has helped environmental groups in their anti-hydraulic fracturing campaign in Albany, aided some firms looking to win medical-marijuana licenses and collected $300,000 in campaign funds from candidates since 2010, a review of state records showed. In 2014, the firm received $10,000 from the campaign for former Sen. Ted O’Brien, D-Irondequoit, for Internet ads — a race he lost. In the case of SKDKnickerbocker, it received $1.2 million to help run campaigns since 2010, including more than $155,000 from the Monroe County Democratic Committee, which was then headed by Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit. The firm isn’t registered as a lobbying firm. It is run by Jennifer Cunningham, a former campaign adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the ex-wife of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Cunningham said that she would no longer lobby because of her close ties to both powerful leaders after they were elected to their respective posts in 2010. “SKDKnickerbocker is the only national, full-service strategic communications firm in Albany that does not lobby, and we are very clear with our clients about what we can and can not do,” Morgan Hook, a spokesman for the firm and a former spokesman for then-Gov. David Paterson, said in a statement. Another firm, Mercury Public Affairs, received $1 million last year to run a Jobs for New York campaign funded by New York City business interests to aid Republican state Senate candidates, including upstate and in the Hudson Valley. It also has a prominent lobbying firm, including work for the Committee to Save New York in 2011 and 2012.

Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

The WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law, Data and Field Arrests

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

Moreland Investigation Ends, Media Cover-Up

Only True News Has Reported the Full Story of de Blasio Illegal Campaign Slush Fund

Inside Bill de Blasio’s slush fund (NYP Ed) ‘Show me today’s reformer,” the late Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Meade Esposito once said, “and I’ll show you tomorrow’s hack.” Though Esposito, last of the old-time New York political bosses, delivered that quip three decades ago, he easily could’ve been talking about Mayor de Blasio. We’ve long referred to the Campaign for One New York nonprofit as the mayor’s personal slush fund, raising millions from folks trying to curry political favor. Of the 74 donors in the first six months of 2015 (for $1.71 million in gifts), fully 62 percent either had business or labor contracts with de Blasio’s administration or were trying to get a project OK’d when they donated. But de Blasio used to be the most vocal advocate of limiting the role of “dark” money — especially corporate dough — in politics. Now that he’s mayor, his deposit box is wide open for unlimited donations. Somewhere, Meade Esposito is smiling.

NYP Write That One of the PR Firms That Runs OneNY PAC But Does Not Name Them or Explain Who They Work For

The PR firm that runs the Campaign for One New York enjoys unrivaled insider access at City Hall.

True News: There is Not One PR Firm There Are Three That Works for the OneNY PAC and They are Not Only PR Firms They are the Biggest Unregistered Lobbyists in the City

Berlin Rosen, Hilltop and Red Horse All Joined At the Hip With City Hall

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

de Blasio Campaign Manager Bill Hires' Hilltop Helps Run the OneNY PAC

1. Hires: de Blasio Campaign Manager Who Uses Candidate Fake Arrest to Protest A Closing Hospital As A Prop

2. Once the Hospital is Closed Hires Who Works for the Mayor Slush Fund PAC One NY Uses It to Tell the Community That the Band Aid ER the Developer Agreed to Build is As Good As the Closed Hospital

3. Hires: Sell A Large Development to Replace te Closed to A Community Who Opposes It

4. Is de Blasio Using His 2013 Campaign Account to Pay Hires to Supplement His Pay the Director of His One NY PAC?

The de Blasio Red Horse One New York Connect

The political organization that raises money for Mayor Bill de Blasio's issue-advocacy campaigns has hired longtime political operative Nathan Smith as its director, several sources told Capital. Smith, a founding partner of Red Horse Strategies, will oversee Campaign for One New York, which raised $1.76 million in private funds for the mayor's universal pre-kindergarten program last year. Smith has close ties to the de Blasio administration, having worked with the mayor's intergovernmental affairs director, Emma Wolfe, in winning a Democratic majority in the State Senate in 2008. (PoliticoNY)

Berlin Rosen Helps A Developer Win Approval of Sugar Development From Mayor it Elected and Collects $100,000 For the Mayor's Slush PAC That It Runs

This is How de Blasio's New York Works

Lobbyists BerlinRosen Takes Over NYC Government

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

The WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law, Data and Field Arrests

Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

Moreland Investigation Ends, Media Cover-Up

Blasio Slush fund One NY PACs Full of Fat Cat Money, Like the PACs That Run the Lawmakers Campaigns In Albany

Both Parties in the State Senate and Assembly Have Campaign Committee Stuffed With Fat Cat Money That Runs Campaigns

The fat cats rule at de Blasio’s City Hall (NYP Ed) Since Mayor de Blasio took office, their firms have raked in $2.3 million — much of it via the mayor’s Campaign for One New York slush fund. That fund, in turn, gets cash from deep-pocketed donors (unions and businesses) looking for favors from the city. The favors, as The Post has reported, run from mayoral speeches to special access for special folk to multimillion-dollar deals. BerlinRosen, the PR/lobbying firm that oversees the fund, is virtually a wing of City Hall. Meanwhile, actual top city officials can’t get face time with the mayor. Last year, de Blasio steered $42 million to school-bus firms. Donors with ties to the firms had given nearly $40,000 to his slush fund. Nice return on investment. OK: No one’s accused Hizzoner of breaking any laws (so far). But this isn’t all that different from what ex-Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver and ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos are on trial for this month. lus, de Blasio rose to power blasting the “consultant class” and donors who hide behind “political committees that masquerade as tax-exempt nonprofits.” He also vowed “transparency.” Ha! Never mind how his shadow government mocks the concept; the mayor won’t do a real town-hall meeting, fights Freedom of Information requests and won’t even answer press questions he dislikes. Thursday, Gabe Pressman said on Facebook he’s never seen anything like it in 60 years of covering City Hall. Shadowy consultants; special favors; secretive dealings: That’s “progressive” government.

The NY Obsever Calls One NY A Campaign PAC Yet The CFB Ignores the Coordination With de Blasio 2017 Campaign

De Blasio LamentsCitizens United While His Campaign Nonprofit Benefits From It (NYO) Following increasing criticism over his use of a shadowy nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, to promote his progressive agenda, Mayor Bill de Blasio wished today for Citizens United to be struck down–but implied he was fine with continuing to reap the rewards of the Supreme Court decision. Mr. de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York is a 501 c(4) nonprofit that does not have to conform to the strict limitations on donations and spending imposed by the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Mr. de Blasio voluntarily discloses the five and six-figure donations made to the group several times a year.

Slush Funds de Blasio Main Tool to Govern
To de Blasio Slush Fund PACs Have Become A Work of Art - National Progressive Agenda

A PAC to feed the mayor’s ego — at the public’s expense (NYP) Look at it one way, and the Progressive Agenda Committee is already an impressive outfit: It serves as a monument not just to Mayor de Blasio’s overinflated ego, but also to his easy ethics. Though founded in May, the PAC just began its own fund-raising. Until now, it’s survived on a seed grant from de Blasio’s main political slush fund, the Campaign for One New York. Folks with business before the city have dumped more than $3 million into CONY. It’s near-impossible to see how giving to the new PAC will be any different. The Progressive Agenda Committee “will raise money from those who believe in its mission of combatting inequality,” PAC spokeswoman Rebecca Katz told Politico. Sorry: Progressives looking to donate to a political leader’s advocacy group already have the likes of Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders to support — two pols with an actual say in national policy. And lefties who want to support the broader cause have tons of places to give to, from People for the American Way to The Nation Institute. So when the mayor trots off to Iowa come December for his PAC’s presidential “town hall” forum, he’ll be feeding his ego, not serving his cause. Meanwhile, there’s still no sign he plans to ever show for an open-to-all town hall with actual New Yorkers. Instead, he’ll spend his time chasing his national fantasies and paying for it with gifts from folks looking for favors at the public’s expense*As the deadline passed for presidential candidates to confirm their attendance at an Iowa presidential forum sponsored by the Progressive Agenda Committee, the national advocacy group founded by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, it appears unlikely many candidates will attend, Politico New York reports:

Media Cover-Up of NYCLASS, Other Citizens United PACs, Mayor One NY PAC

Media Cover Up of Citizens United

UFT Illegal PAC United for the Future

The UFT Coup d'é·tat Of NYC Election System and Democracy
How the Advance Group Conspired to Steal the 2009 and 2013 Election

The DA Clark Campaign Has Just Filed A Financial Report But Only $208.77 in Expenses and No Red Horse

True News Has Learned: Red Horse Working for Bronx DA Candidate Darcel Clark and A Queens DA Candidate and Has Worked for the Brooklyn and New York DAs

Red Horse Lobbyist Consultants Who Got Away With Scamming the CFB in 2013 Caught In Petition Fraud in 2015 for A SI DA Candidate

Candidate for StatenIsland DA says opponent collected fraud campaign signatures (WPIX) Joan Illuzzi is running as a Republican for Staten Island District Attorney. Mike McMahon is running as a Democrat and Independent for the same office. Both submitted approximately 4,000 signed petitions to have their names listed on the ballot, but Illuzzi’s campaign has questioned the accuracy of several of the signatures submitted by McMahon’s camp. McMahon’s campaign manager Ashleigh Owens released a statement to PIX 11 Tuesday that read in part, “Mike and our campaign unfortunately appear to have been victimized by a small group of individuals from Red Horse Strategies.” Red Horse Strategies is a firm of political consultants. They were hired to collect petition signatures. Staten Island Acting District Attorney Daniel Master requested a special prosecutor look further into the allegations. McMahon didn't orchestrate or collect the forged signatures himself. He didn't sign off on them. He paid Red Horse Strategies to collect signatures for his Independence Party petitions. The Staten Island Democratic Party paid for the firm to collect signatures on Democratic petitions. The Bronx DA Election Fix Run By A Consultant Red Horse Who Has Fix Other Elections

The Following Were Red Horse Clients and Supported By A UFT PAC That Redhorse Also Worked for

The CFB Fined the Advance Group for Working for Two Council Candidate and the NYCLASS PAC. The CFB Has Ignored Advances, Red Horse and Berlin Rosen Working for Both candidates and the UFT PAC United for the Future Which Funded the Candidates the Consultants Worked For

The UFT paid $252,233 to campaign consultant Red Horse Strategies to Help Run There PAC United for the Future Which Funded The Following City Council Candidates

Councilman James Vacca

Councilwoman Annabel Palma

Councilman Daneek Miller

Councilman Richard Donovan

Councilman Antonio Reynoso
Councilman Richard Torres

UFT Illegal PAC United for the Future

The UFT Coup d'é·tat Of NYC Election System and Democracy

United for the Future Expenses

A Tale of Two CFBs: Albanese vs Campaign PAC NYCLASS, UFT's United for the Future

Red Horse Works for de Blasio One New York PAC Slush Fund

Lobbyist Consultants in the City Council Campaign

Red Horse is Also Working in A Council Campaign in Queens Barry Grodenchik

Queens Democratic Party, Frank Bolz, collected $528 for petitioning expenses

Connective Strategies, a consulting firm run by Tyquana Henderson Ali Najmi

major chunk of Ms. Lynch’s cash has ended up in the pockets of BerlinRosen, a powerful consulting firm known best for helping Mayor Bill de Blasio win his 2013 mayoral race. For campaign mail and staff, Ms. Lynch has paid BerlinRosen about $52,000 Other Red Horse Clients Brooklyn Boro Presidents: Eric Adams, Ruben Diaz Jr., Melinda Katz, Jessica S Lappin, Julie Menin, Daniel L Squadron, Letitia James, Reshma M Saujani, Comptroller Scott Stringer, NYSDSC, Cuomo

Lobbyists Not Pols Attend de Blasio's Fund Raiser

Politicians stay away from de Blasio’s re-election fund-raiser (NYP) Among those notably absent at the Sheraton Times Square Thursday night were city Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James, potential de Blasio rivals in 2017. Sources at de Blasio’s fund-raiser said it was attended by no more than 150 people — most of them lobbyists. The de Blasio campaign put the count at 300 and said it raised $1 million. “There were a lot of lobbyists,” said one person who was there. “I didn’t see one elected official.”

The Lobbyist's Shadow Government
NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists
Foreign Ownership of NYC Real Estate and the Lobbyists Who Work for Them

Only True News Has Reported the Full Story of de Blasio Illegal Campaign Slush Fund

NYP Write That One of the PR Firms That Runs OneNY PAC But Does Not Name Them or Explain Who They Work For

The PR firm that runs the Campaign for One New York enjoys unrivaled insider access at City Hall.

True News: There is Not One PR Firm There Are Three That Works for the OneNY PAC and They are Not Only PR Firms They are the Biggest Unregistered Lobbyists in the City

Berlin Rosen, Hilltop and Red Horse All Joined At the Hip With City Hall

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

de Blasio Campaign Manager Bill Hires' Hilltop Helps Run the OneNY PAC

1. Hires: de Blasio Campaign Manager Who Uses Candidate Fake Arrest to Protest A Closing Hospital As A Prop

3. Hires: Sell A Large Development to Replace te Closed to A Community Who Opposes It

4. Is de Blasio Using His 2013 Campaign Account to Pay Hires to Supplement His Pay the Director of His One NY PAC?

The de Blasio Red Horse One New York Connect

Lobbyists Consultant Murder, Inc Run NY Govt and Campaigns Just As Much As Murder, Inc Ran NY in the 40's

The NYP and CFB Look At Gray Areas of Election Law While Covering-Up Illegal Coordination Between Lobbying Consultant, PACS and Candidates

The worst part of the city campaign-finance system is what’s legal (NYP Ed) News of a probe into Mayor de Blasio’s 2013 campaign finances might offer some great comic relief — if it didn’t also raise troubling questions about the city’s rules. As The Post’s Yoav Gonen reported this week, the Campaign Finance Board began looking into possible Team de Blasio no-nos in 2013, after a magazine reported that the 1199 SEIU union “coordinated with the [then-candidate’s] campaign.” Under the city’s rules, candidates must cover the costs of any “coordinated” activities or list them as donations, which are subject to strict limits. It seems the board focused on whether de Blasio’s folks complied. Thing is, the rules themselves are laughable — as is the entire system. For one thing, if de Blasio did break the rules, then he had an edge in the mayoral race.

Play to Pay de Blasio and His PAC to Get Around the Election Laws

True News Has Been Reporting for Over A Year That de Blasio Created the One New York PAC to Operate As A Slush Fund to Get Him Re-Elected

When de Blasio Was Getting Flack for the Closing of LICH Hospital After He Was Arrested During His Campaign Promising to Keep It Open, He Has One New York Do A Mailing Claiming A Band Aid ER Was Just As Good At the Full Service Hospital

Half the donations to One New York PAC this year came from real estate companies, many of whom contributed as they were engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to persuade de Blasio to protect an existing development tax break known as 421-a. A flurry of builders donated during a fundraiser de Blasio hosted on April 21. In early May, the mayor announced a plan for 421-a that was met with broad approval from the real estate industry.

He agreed to extend the life of the tax break in exchange for mandating more affordable housing from builders who receive it. The deal was announced with the support of the powerful Real Estate Board of New York, to which many of these donors belong, before the state Legislature was briefed on it. Among the real estate donors were Two Trees Management, which gave $100,000 through an LLC, Brookfield Financial Property L.P., which donated $50,000, Douglaston Development, which contributed $25,000, and Alma Realty Corp., which gave $5,000. Alma won approval in 2014 to rezone a site in Astoria for a mixed-use project.

Capalino is A Lobbyists for Many Developments, Including the Former LICH Site

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James Capalino, one of the top lobbyists in New York City who enjoys a close relationship with de Blasio, gave him $10,000 on May 27. The following day, Capalino lobbied de Blasio directly on a plan to eliminate helicopter tours in Manhattan. Capalino represents the tourism industry; de Blasio has yet to take a position on the proposal. Capalino also represents several donors who gave to the Campaign for One New York, including Broadway Stages’ Gina Argento, a prolific Democratic donor, and JDS Construction Group, which is building a mega-tower in Midtown Manhattan. JDS haslocked horns with construction workers for declining to use union labor on his projects. Capalino represented Asphalt Green in 2014 and lobbies on behalf of scores of developers and cultural institutions. James Capalino, who met with Hizzoner three times in the last three months. Capalino hosted two fund-raisers for de Blasio’s successful mayoral run in 2013. Clients who accompanied him to the meetings included Chinese real-estate and movie-theater mogul Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group, and Janno Lieber, a top Silverstein Properties exec who bundled $11,100 for de Blasio two years ago. Capalino most recently met with the mayor on May 28 on behalf of helicopter-tour operators in lower Manhattan — an opportunity that critics of the noisy flights say they haven’t gotten. “It’s very discouraging but not surprising,” said Delia Von Neuschatz, a resident of Battery Park City who founded an advocacy group to halt the tours. The mayor as not taken a position on stopping the helicoper-tours

de Blasio's Biggest Defeat Was for Defending Taxi Bosses That Contributed Bit to the One New York PAC

Last year, Campaign for One New York received donations from several yellow taxi medallion companies with which de Blasio has frequently sided in regulatory battles. He once again took their side this summer by trying to temporarily cap the growth of car-hail company Uber. Before the heated fight, Uber’s supporters tried in vain to curry favor with the mayor byholding their own fundraiser for him in San Francisco in May.

Pay to Play One New York PAC Examples

Andrew Nussbaum, the head of nonprofit group Asphalt Green, which opposed the planned site of an Upper East Side waste transfer station access ramp, contributed $10,000. The group had been protesting the ramp location, as well as blasting it on social media, for more than one year. Six weeks after Nussbaum's donation, de Blasio agreed to move the ramp. * Joseph Dussich, the CEO of JAD Corporation of America, a Queens-based maintenance company, had long tried to market mint-scented, rodent-repellent trash bags he invented. After donating $100,000 to Campaign for One New York, the city has begun doing business with him. That is 20 times more than the $4,950 an individual can give a mayoral candidate in a single election cycle, per Campaign Finance Board rules.

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

de Blasio Using PAC Lobbyists Consultants To Get Around the Elections Law and Control Elections and the Press

de Blasio Keeps Using PAC Lobbyists and Consultants To Get Around the Elections Law and Control the Press

De Blasio-Tied PAC Spends $24K on Former City Hall Staffer’sCouncil Campaign (NYO) Mayor Bill de Blasio may claim he’s not paying attention to a crowded City Council race in eastern Queens, but a political action committee tied to the mayor spent about $24,000 to help his former aide win next week. New Yorkers for Progress spent the cash on campaign mailers for Rebecca Lynch, a former City Hall staffer, according to a filing with the Campaign Finance Board. The treasurer of the group is Sam Nagourney, the finance director of Mr. de Blasio’s campaign committee. Mr. Nagourney is a consultant with Hilltop Public Solutions, the firm that employs Bill Hyers, Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 campaign manager, and Rebecca Katz, a former de Blasio administration staffer. The mailers, which cost a total of $24,690, feature photographs of Ms. Lynch and a quick summary of her campaign platform. New Yorkers for Progress can spend an unlimited amount of money on Ms. Lynch as long as it does not coordinate directly with her campaign. Once an outside group spends $5,000 or more they are required to disclose all contributors who gave $1,000 or more, according to the CFB. New Yorkers for Progress is backed by labor unions who endorsed Ms. Lynch. PAC’s tied to the Hotel Trades Council, 32BJ SEIU and Communication Workers of Americas contributed $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.

De Blasio-Tied PAC Spends $24K on Former City HallStaffer’s Council Campaign (NYO)

Mayor Bill de Blasio may claim he’s not paying attention to a crowded City Council race in eastern Queens, but a political action committee tied to the mayor spent about $24,000 to help his former aide win next week. New Yorkers for Progress spent the cash on campaign mailers for Rebecca Lynch, a former City Hall staffer, according to a filing with the Campaign Finance Board. The treasurer of the group is Sam Nagourney, the finance director of Mr. de Blasio’s campaign committee. Mr. Nagourney is a consultant with Hilltop Public Solutions, the firm that employs Bill Hyers, Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 campaign manager, and Rebecca Katz, a former de Blasio administration staffer.

The mailers, which cost a total of $24,690, feature photographs of Ms. Lynch and a quick summary of her campaign platform. New Yorkers for Progress can spend an unlimited amount of money on Ms. Lynch as long as it does not coordinate directly with her campaign.

Once an outside group spends $5,000 or more they are required to disclose all contributors who gave $1,000 or more, according to the CFB. New Yorkers for Progress is backed by labor unions who endorsed Ms. Lynch. PAC’s tied to the Hotel Trades Council, 32BJ SEIU and Communication Workers of Americas contributed $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.

de Blasio and His Karl Rove Campaign PAC Slush Fund

EXPOSED

Thursday Update: Caught Back-Off

De Blasio cancels roboca ls giving Albany credit for rent freeze (NYP) Mayor de Blasio has backed off plans to use a City Hall nonprofit to help Albany lawmakers take credit for afirst-ever freeze on rent-stabilized apartments — a plan first reported by The Post. Administration officials say the nonprofit Campaign for One New York, a fund-raising group that critics deride as a mayoral slush fund, will no longer pay for robocalls from members of the Assembly touting the freeze. Some political observers said the plan would have been a generous freebie to legislators from a mayor whose agenda took a beating in the latest session in Albany. State lawmakers played no role in the one-year freeze enacted last month by the Rent Guidelines Board, whose members are all appointed by the mayor. * Bill plays fast andloose with money and politics (NYDN) But this time, the PR was slated to come from a de Blasio-created group called Campaign for One New York, a not-for-profit organization that collects contributions from mayoral allies and spends them to amplify his profile. It can do so under the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allows unlimited political spending by independent groups so long as those groups do not coordinate with campaigns. In between elections, even that thin firewall does not apply. And so, although New York City boasts the nation’s most aggressive campaign fund-raising limits and a system of public financing for elections, de Blasio has set up his own political machine freed from those strictures, in a mirror image of operations set up by conservatives like Karl Rove. Players in both the Campaign for One New York and City Hall made a plan that would both boost de Blasio and win friends in the Assembly. * Taxpayers foot the bill for de Blasio’s ‘ego campaign’ (NYP) Bad enough that Mayor de Blasio has been using his personal slush fund, the nonprofit Campaign for One New York, to fund his widening national ambitions. Worse that he’s now using the taxpayers’ dime. As The Post’s Michael Gartland reported Thursday, City Hall is seeking a seasoned political campaign operative to fill a new position: Director of Mayors Organizing. Its purpose: “Overseeing the program to engage mayors from across the country on issues of importance to the administration.” And, the mayor added Thursday, changing “the dynamic in Washington.” Translation: The staffer will organize high-profile recruits for Mayor Bill’s drive to become a national “progressive” leader. And New Yorkers will pay the still-undisclosed salary and likely-lavish travel expenses.

Daily News Says de Blasio Kills Campaign Finance With One NY PAC

Berlin Rosen Elects Dozens of the City's Elected Officials and Does Not Lobby Them For Their Clients? The Daily News Says the 1NY PAC Going Around the Campaign Finance Laws for the Mayor What About the Dozens of Other Candidates it works for?

Progressive Bill deBlasio kills NYC's campaign finance program (NYDN Ed) Let Mayor de Blasio admit this fact: His bear hug of the Fund for One New York, the not-at-all-independent nonprofit advocacy group he created, is hastening the demise of the city’s public campaign finance system. For a quarter century, that system — which limits contributions to candidates, matches small gifts with public dollars and caps spending — has been lauded by progressives, de Blasio included, as leveling the democratic playing field and amplifying the voices of ordinary citizens. “We are the gold standard,” he said last year. Those words take on an ironic double meaning as de Blasio hits up donors for millions, including large contributions that would be banned if made directly to candidates — and the fund works in lockstep to advance his agenda. The Campaign for One New York buys television advertisements; coordinates grassroots organizing campaigns; and employs and coordinates with allies of the mayor, including former staffers. In short, it works as a campaign apparatus in years when there’s no election. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling blew the doors off all previous attempts to limit outside money in government — and made hefty political spending by outside groups inevitable. But it’s no small irony that the man putting the nail in the coffin of the city’s campaign finance caps is Big Bill, progressive friend of the little man.* The state Board of Elections could close the so-called LLC loophole in the campaign finance system, but Democrats say that is unlikely because GOP commissioners do not support it, The Buffalo News reports * Daily News: What About Data and Fields in 2009, NYCLASS and the UFT;s United for A Future PACs in 2013? What About the Real Estate's 71/2 Million Jobs for NY PAC? What About the Millions in Assembly, State Senate and Gov PACs that Go Around the Campaign Finance Laws?

The Media Cover Up of Citizens United

Sugar Fix: Berlin Rosen an Unregistered Real Estate Lobbyists

NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund

Will JCOPE Expose Berlin Rosen

A growing class of New York political consultants who enjoy close ties to elected officials but don’t register as lobbyists may well have to start doing so, in light of a proposed guidance issued by JCOPE. * The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics said consultants who take actions related to lobbying efforts must register as lobbyists, even if they do not directly ask officials to take action on bills,the Times Union reports: * ALBANY’S TOP 10LOBBYISTS: City & State features the top 10 lobbying firms in Albany in 2014, including a summary of each and an introduction to their key players in Albany: * Queens state Sen. Tony Avella, who has been pushing a bill to require more disclosure by political consultants, is praising new guidelines from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the Times Union reports

Has de Blasio Ever Met A Development Deal He Did Not Like? In a policy win for de Blasio, the NYC Council approved a rezoning for a five-block stretch of east Midtown, allowing SL Green Realty Corp. to build an enormous skyscraper near Grand Central Terminal and setting the stage for much bigger changes. More here. * The New York City Council approved SL Green Realty’s plans to build a 63-story office tower near Grand Central Terminal in exchange for making $220 million in transit upgrades, The New York Times reports: In de Blasio's NYC Building In Parks The Brooklyn Bridge Corporation settled a lawsuit brought by a group alleging it improperly modified plans to include affordable housing in two towers and has agreed to amend its application, The New York Times reports:

Sugar Fix: Berlin Rosen an Unregistered Real Estate Lobbyists

Berlin Rosen and de Blasio One NY PAC Slush Fund
NY1 Berlin Rosen and the Wiseguys Lobbyists
The WFP and Berlin Rosen Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Law, Data and Field Arrests
Lobbyists Berlin Rosen Takes Over NYC Government

Moreland Investigation Ends, Media Cover-Up

New director for de Blasio's political arm - Capital New York

www.capitalnewyork.com/article/.../new-director-de-blasios-political-arm

May 8, 2015 - PAC has hired operative Nathan Smith. ... Smith, a founding partner of Red Horse Strategies, will oversee Campaign for One New York, which raised ... The committee is now focusing on de Blasio's affordable-housing plan, ...

Aide's gal pal was paid with private funds before City Hall hire

nypost.com/.../aides-gal-pal-was-paid-with-private-funds-...

New York Post

Aug 23, 2015 - Stephanie Yazgi, Mayor de Blasio's controversial new “immigration ... Campaign for One New York is a political action committee funded by ...

The smell's still growing from the mayor's insider hire | New ...

nypost.com/.../the-smells-still-growing-from-the-mayors-i...

New York Post

Aug 24, 2015 - Yazgi worked for Hilltop Consulting — which was pulling in $103,000 fromde Blasio's political action committee, the Campaign For One New ...

Big city unions bankroll $1.7M to Mayor de Blasio's lobbying ...

www.nydailynews.com/news/.../big-city-unions-bankroll-1-7...

Daily News

Jul 16, 2014 - Big city unions are bankrolling Mayor de Blasio's lobbying arm with $1.7 million. The Campaign for One New York has received a total of $1.7 million in less than ... And NY Progress, a political action committee founded by the ...

Bill de Blasio's Potential Conflict of Interest

freebeacon.com/.../bill-de-blasios-potential-...

The Washington Free Beacon

Jul 17, 2014 - New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's contract negotiations with a teachers ... The nonprofit, Campaign for One New York (CONY), formerly UPKNYC, ... a conflict of interest for Mayor de Blasio to take large Super PAC contributions ..

Before contract, teachers gave to de Blasio charity | Crain's ...

www.crainsnewyork.com/.../before-contract-te...

Crains New York Business

Jul 15, 2014 - In January, NY Progress PAC, another political action committee to which ... Mr. de Blasio's backers contributed heavily to Campaign For One ....

Fortis Hires Firms With de Blasio Connections for LICH Site ...

brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/76077

Aug 13, 2015 - Politico NY reports that Fortis has now hired Hilltop Public Solutions, which ... Keep mind when I talk about One NY, deblasio's PAC, is run and ...

The man behind the horse-carriage fuss - Capital New York

www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city.../man-behind-horse-carriage-fuss

Dec 16, 2014 - Steve Nislick believes his ally de Blasio will deliver. ... battling to ban horse-drawn carriages—the one that helped fund the ads against Quinn. .... both they and NYCLASS funded a PAC called New York City is Not for Sale, ...

www.progressqueens.com/news/.../opaque-fundraising-by-de-blasios-no...

Mar 11, 2015 - Mayor Bill de Blasio is drawing criticisms over his continued reliance ... The Campaign for One New York raises money from big money political ...

Daily News Says de Blasio Kills Campaign Finance With One NY PAC

The Media Cover Up of Citizens United

A spokesman for the campaign, Dan Levitan, said that so far this year the group had been engaged only in “potential public education campaigns” and assisting in Mr. de Blasio’s national efforts.But in some of their materials, including two fund-raising letters obtained by The New York Times, the group has said it will work to ensure that Mr. de Blasio can retain control of the New York City school system, a goal that requires the approval of the State Legislature. In March, a solicitation letter mailed to potential donors stated, “The Campaign for One New York will continue to support the mayor as he works for renewal of mayoral control of schools.” The letter also refers to securing “fair funding for New York City schools,” also a legislative matter, and supporting the mayor’s affordable housing plan, including “approvals at the state level.”Last year, the group, under the name UPKNYC, did register as a lobbyist with Jcope while working to secure passage in Albany of Mr. de Blasio’s universal prekindergarten plan.

Berlin Rosen Played Fast and Loose With the Election Law to Destroy Democracy In NY

Crain’s New York Business reported last month that the group had not yet registered as a lobbyist this year. Mr. de Blasio and his aides have already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the group, mostly from traditional allies like labor unions. Late last month, the mayor spoke at a fund-raiser for the group in Lower Manhattan, hosted by a prominent city lobbying firm, Constantinople & Vallone. Among the attendees were representatives of city-based construction and real estate firms. Although it is primarily funding political activities, the Campaign for One New York is registered as a nonprofit, allowing it to accept unlimited contributions from donors who would otherwise be limited by New York City’s strict campaign finance laws. Still, Mr. Horner conceded that the state’s ethics guidelines were written in ways that could be subject to interpretation. “There’s an incentive for groups to try to play fast and loose, where they might be dancing around the spirit of the law.” “If this group is being organized to help the mayor advance his agenda, the mayor bears some responsibility for what this group does,” Mr. Horner added. “They shouldn’t have to be dragged kicking and screaming to comply with the state lobbying law.”

Daily News Says de Blasio Kills Campaign Finance With One NY PAC

Mayor and Berling Rosen Transparency Not

Mayor Does Not Seem Eager to Discuss Relationship With BerlinRosen Co-Founder(NY1) In the wake of the NY1 report Wednesday night about the web of influence at City Hall that a top advisor to the mayor has woven, there are calls for reform, while Mayor Bill de Blasio does not seem eager to discuss his relationship with Jonathan Rosen, who co-founded the public relations firm BerlinRosen. State Senator Tony Avella, who chairs the Senate's Ethics Committee, said it is time for public relations firms with close ties to government to be regulated much in the same way lobbyists are. As we work to repair public trust in our elected officials," Avella said, "we must no longer tolerate lobbyists in consultants' clothing."

Mayor's PAC 1NY Aims to Control the Media's Coverage of Housing While Renewing 421-a

The Mayor Will Use His Slush Fund PAC Funded By Developers to Push His 421-a Affordable Housing Plan

New director for de Blasio’s political arm (Capital) The political organization that raises money for Mayor Bill de Blasio's issue-advocacy campaigns has hired longtime political operative Nathan Smith as its director, several sources told Capital. Smith, a founding partner of Red Horse Strategies, will oversee Campaign for One New York, which raised $1.76 million in private funds for the mayor's universal pre-kindergarten program last year. Much of that money was spent on lobbying and advertisements. The committee is now focusing on de Blasio's affordable-housing plan, which aims to build 80,000 units and preserve another 120,000 by 2024.
Real Estate Companies Who Will Make Money By Continuing the 421-a Have Contributed to the Mayor's One NY PAC

Four companies giving a total $47,500 to the Mayor One NY PAC as of July 2014


The NYT Left Out The Fact That A Major Promise of the Mayor's Campaign Was to Keep LICH A Full Service Hospital, He Even Got Arrested Protesting the Proposed Closing



Since the city received state funding for prekindergarten, the group has turned to other issues. Recently, it sent a letter  to residents of Brooklyn, defending the outcome of the long legal battle over the closing of Long Island College Hospital, as well as Mr. de Blasio’s role in it.  Some have criticized the mayor for declaring in February that he had “saved” the hospital, after which it effectively closed. It is being sold to a developer to be turned into condominiums; there will be some health care services, including a free-standing emergency room, on the site.  The letter, signed by Gary Reilly of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association, said that, thanks in part to Mr. de Blasio, the outcome was “a lot better than what we had reason to think one year ago.”



True News Wags the NYT Wrote About the UPKNYC Hospital Mailing Last Week




It New Yorkers Face Cheney Like Fake Reality (Brainwashing) and Tammany Hall Corruption




de Blasio Primary: Hospital Not Condos

Mayor's Flack: Condos No Full Hospital 





De Blasio-allied group defends LICH deal to brownstone Brooklyn(Capital)  The outside group that advocated for Mayor Bill de Blasio's pre-K plan is sending out a mailer praising a deal that resulted in a dramatic downsizing of Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill. The Campaign for One New York is the new iteration of UPKNYC, the advocacy group run by the mayor's former campaign aides that spent more than $1 million promoting the mayor's universal pre-K plan. When its name change was announced in May, the group's spokesman, former de Blasio campaign aide Jonathan Rosen, told the Wall Street Journal that it would "build on the grassroots energy of UPKNYC and last fall's  campaign to support the mayor's bold, progressive agenda as it continues to move forward — building the affordable housing we need, fighting inequality, and ensuring that every child receives a great education." The mayor got arrested during his mayoral campaign protesting the prospect of the hospital's closure. * BerlinRosen's current and recent clients include Two Trees Management Negotiations between Mr. de Blasio’s team and Mr. Walentas’s firm took place over the last few days. The two men share a mutual adviser: Jonathan Rosen, one of the mayor’s top political hands and the chief executive of a public affairs firm, Berlin Rosen, that counts Mr. Walentas’s company as a client.

A Lobbyists Who Grew Out of the WFP's Data and Field Swamp is Not Telling New Yorkers How to Think?



LICH had been losing millions of dollars a month.  In February, when the mayor announced a "truly historic" agreement with those community groups, health care unions, and the State University of New York that he hoped would save the hospital, he gave a shout-out to Reilly. Following a messy few months, the state has gone back to negotiating with the partner that it had been talking to in the first place: Fortis Property Group. The deal will not include a full service hospital.The campaign would not disclose how much it spent on the mailer, who its donors are, or how many homes the mailer was sent to. The group's spokesman Dan Levitan said it would disclose its donors in its July 15 filing with the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics. “The Campaign for One New York and many of the activists involved in preserving healthcare at LICH believe it is important that people in the community understand the many critical services that will be still be provided there, including an emergency room, cancer center, HIV/AIDS clinic, as well as urgent, primary, and preventative outpatient services in more than a dozen specialties," he said, in a statement. The mayor's office had no immediate comment. de Blasio Doublespeak   Rent freeze or rent hike? Sources say de Blasioadministration wanted both (Capital) Several members of the board said that a top aide from the de Blasio administration urged them to vote for the increases. (CrainsNY)

How Berlin Rosen Broke the Law and Help Close LICH Hospital

Berlin Rosen Runs the Mayor's PAC One New York Which Mailed to Reduce Its Clients Negatives in Assembly Race

Berlin Rosen who worked for 52AD candidate Sikora and the PAC One NY, use to the PAC to send out to the voters of the district a misleading letter that a developers ER would be a good substitute for the closed LICH. Rosen's assembly candidate was arrested during the 2013 mayor's race along with de Blasio protesting the closing of the LICH Hospital. The Brooklyn Eagle called Berlin Rosen PAC mailing the dark money mailing, claiming the closed LICH hospital developer would build an emergency room that would meet the community’s health care needs. Doctors and community leader have called that claim an outright lie. Carroll Gardens Association - Cover-Up of Members' Dark Money LICH Mailing
Community Leaders Blamed Berlin Rosen Candidate Sikora (de Blasio campaign worker) for de Blasio Not Living Up to His Campaign Promise of Keeping LICH Hospital Open

Bill de Blasio arrested at SUNY protest - NY Daily News (NYDN) New York City Mayoral Candidate Bill DiBlasio and a nurse are arrested at protest outside the State University of New York offices on West 42nd st. Hospital workers were protesting the planned closing Long Island City Hospital in Brooklyn. “We’re going to lose Long Island College Hospital in a matter of weeks if we don’t act now ... People are going to be much sicker in this city if we keep losing hospitals,” de Blasio said as he was led away in handcuffs. “This is about fighting for our hospitals. We have to save them* Mayor de Blasio Is Quietly Soliciting Donations for Future Policy Battles (NYT) Mr. de Blasio and his fund-raising team have quietly solicited large contributions in recent weeks from donors in the mayor’s inner circle, according to three people who requested anonymity to describe moves by the administration that were not yet intended to be public.

While de Blasio Slush Fund One New York Gets Billions the Schools Fund Gets Bupkis

Public Schools Fund, Under de Blasio, Is Struggling to Lure Wealthy Donors (NYT) The fund, which lured wealthy philanthropists under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, raised an average of $29 million a year over the last decade. This fiscal year, it has raised just $18 million.* De Blasio and New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña claimed victory in the city’s local school board elections, as voter turnout and the number of parents participating increased significantly, theDaily News reports: * A report from the New York City’s special commissioner of investigation says complaints of children left unsupervised by New York City school employees jumped from 159 to 279 last year, the Journal reports: * The Fund for Public Schools, the nonprofit organization that former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his schools chancellors built into a fund-raising juggernaut, has struggledto attract donations under de Blasio.* Lawmakers Eager To Take Up Teacher Evaluation Changes (YNN) * NY tests do good job of tracking student achievement: report * Correct to the core: Study confirms that New York's standardized tests are telling hard truths about
student achievement

True News (The Bund)

Friday, May 15, 2015

de Blasio One NY PAC Interlocking-directorates Slush Fund, Berlin Rosen, Bill Hyers, Red Horse 827

New director for de Blasio's political arm - Capital New York

Aide's gal pal was paid with private funds before City Hall hire

The smell's still growing from the mayor's insider hire | New ...

Big city unions bankroll $1.7M to Mayor de Blasio's lobbying ...

Bill de Blasio's Potential Conflict of Interest

Before contract, teachers gave to de Blasio charity | Crain's ...

Fortis Hires Firms With de Blasio Connections for LICH Site ...

The man behind the horse-carriage fuss - Capital New York

It New Yorkers Face Cheney Like Fake Reality (Brainwashing) and Tammany Hall Corruption

de Blasio Primary: Hospital Not Condos
Mayor's Flack: Condos No Full Hospital

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Friday, May 15, 2015

de Blasio One NY PAC Interlocking-directorates Slush Fund, Berlin Rosen, Bill Hyers, Red Horse 827

It New Yorkers Face Cheney Like Fake Reality (Brainwashing) and Tammany Hall Corruption

de Blasio Primary: Hospital Not Condos Mayor's Flack: Condos No Full Hospital

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de Blasio Primary: Hospital Not Condos
Mayor's Flack: Condos No Full Hospital