Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Councilman Wills Arrested Years Ago AND?



Why is the AG Going After A Corrupt Charity First Exposed in 2010? Ruben Wills De

Authorities to probe charity tied to Assemblywoman Cook(NYP) New York’s attorney general is investigating a charity tied to Queens Assemblywoman Vivian Cook, The Post has learned.  The AG’s Office dispatched a team of investigators last week to a parking lot owned by the Rockaway Boulevard Local Development Corp., a source familiar with the investigation told The Post. “I don’t know nothing about the attorney general,” Cook toThe Post last week. The probe comes a week after The Post revealed that the defunct charity, founded by Cook in 1979, is collecting thousands from the rental of the once-empty and derelict lot — purchased with millions in public funds — to construction companies for vehicle storage. Who is pocketing the rental money remains a mystery.
Cook’s charity shut down in 2010 after The Post exposed its wasteful spending.




Judge Does Not Buy CM Wills Scam Witness Sick Daughter Excuse, Warrant Issued for His Arrest 
Judge doesn’t buy ‘scam’ witness’ sick daughter excuse (NYP) The Queens man who bolted from court Tuesday before he could enter a guilty plea expected to implicate City Councilman Ruben Wills in a corruption scheme got an earful Wednesday from an angry judge who didn’t take long to throw him in jail. Jelani Mills didn’t do himself any favors with his lame excuse, either, telling Judge Barry Kron that he’d skipped out because his daughter wasn’t feeling well. “He has a 9-year-old daughter and his daughter had an illness at school,” Mills’ attorney Scott Davis told the judge. “His wife is a schoolteacher who was unable to [help].” But Kron, who issued a fugitive warrant for Mills after he ducked out of court around noon Tuesday, wasn’t buying it. According to two sources, Wills is sick in a hospital and is not expected to return to the City Council for at least two weeks. He did not return calls Wednesday.



Indicted CM Wills Key Witness Disappears and the Media Does Not Ask the Councilman the Speaker WTF? 
A man expected to implicate Queens City Councilman Ruben Wills on corruption charges Tuesday bolted from the courthouse just before proceedings started, and the judge issued an arrest warrant for him

Co-defendant in corrupt councilman case goes missing from court (NYP) A Queens man who was expected to implicate a sitting city councilman on corruption charges Tuesday bolted the courthouse just before the proceeding started — leaving his lawyer in the lurch and the judge fuming. Justice Barry Kron issued an arrest warrant for Jelani Mills, who was in court to plead guilty to crimes that involved his co-defendant, Queens Councilman Ruben Wills, but fled sometime after noon. His blindsided attorney, Scott Davis, had no explanation for Kron on why Mills was a no-show when the case was called in Queens Supreme Court. “It was my understanding that the district attorney is prepared to resolve this case — and it’s not ­going to be resolved,” Kron said, referring to the charges brought by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Mills, 29, and Wills, 44, were charged in scams in which theyallegedly fleeced tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars through nonprofits. In two indictments brought over the past two years, Wills and Mills were charged with a dozen counts that include fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records. They’re accused of defrauding the city Campaign Finance Board by accepting public funds to pay a shell company, Micro Targeting, purportedly to provide campaign-related services for Wills’ losing 2009 race for City Council. Mills allegedly filed the paperwork creating the company and billed Wills’ campaign $11,500 for work that was never performed. nstead, some of the funds allegedly were funneled to a shady nonprofit, New York 4 Life, that was founded by Wills. Wills also is charged with stealing more than $30,000 in other state taxpayer money from New York 4 Life — and using some of the cash for shopping sprees at Macy’s, Nordstrom’s and Century 21 that included the purchase of a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag. Wills received the state funding through a pork-barrel grant obtained by ex-Queens state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was later sentenced to prison in a separate case of public corruption. Wills had served as Huntley’s chief of staff.



Wills Who Was Indicted By the AG Over A Year Ago is Still Doing Pay to Play Deal With His Lobbyists Campaign Manager
TRASHY POL: Indicted Queens Councilman slams proposal that hurts campaign donor (NYDN) An indicted Queens pol with the worst attendance record on the City Council showed up to hearings of a committee he doesn’t sit on to blast proposals that threaten to hurt a campaign donor. Councilman Ruben Wills — a Democrat who has received $3,000 from donors tied to Royal Waste and Regal Recycling — slammed a commercial trash handling proposal that would carve the city into zones, and assign each area to one chosen waste company, at a sanitation committee hearing April 29. Wills has received $3,000 from owners, managers and family members of Royal and Regal, which runs a complex of waste transfer and recycling facilities in southeast Queens outside his district. He also got $750 from the companies directly — which had to be returned because corporate contributions are banned under city rules.  Last year, he had the worst attendance rate of anyone on the 51 member Council — blowing off 27% of the meetings he was supposed to attend.

Wills is facing a slew of corruption charges — including allegations he stole public campaign funds and used them on Louis Vuitton, Nordstrom and other personal purchases; and that he took a state member item for a sham charity but pocketed most of it. A separate indictment this year charged him with filing false statements with the Conflicts of Interest Board. A political consulting firm formerly employed by Wills, Connective Strategies, has been paid $6,000 by Regal to lobby the Council against that bill. “There is no conflict,” said Connective President Tyquana Henderson, who said she has not lobbied Wills on the matter. Lobbyists Henderson Was Wills Campaign Manager  Mr. Wills was arrested as part of a separate case in May and charged in a 12-count indictment with using tens of thousands of dollars in campaign and taxpayer money to enrich himself, buying items such as a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag, authorities said. Candidates Represented by Henderson's Connective Strategies

Lobbyists Henderson Was Wills Campaign Manager 
The arrest of Queens Councilman Ruben Wills is a reality check for those who tout public financing of campaigns as the key to cleaning up Albany. Welcome to the notoriously sleazy Legislature in Albany, where gaming the campaign finance laws is an art form. A see-no-evil Board of Elections, which is party-controlled and paralyzed in the face of runaway lawbreaking. Good money after bad  (NYDN) The arrest of Ruben Wills should give public campaign finance enthusiasts pause. During his first, failed run for the City Council in 2009, Wills collected $139,818 in public money from the CFB — 79% of his total budget. According to the indictment from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Wills then secretly funneled $11,500 of his campaign funds to a nonprofit group he controlled, NY4Life, and glommed the money for strictly personal expenses — such as buying a $750 Louis Vuitton handbag. 

Wills Indicted for A Not-For-Profit Scam Was An Aide for Ex-Senator Huntley Convicted of Another Not-For-Profit Scam
Wills personally submitted a voucher with the state Office of Children and Family Services on behalf of the group in 2010. But Wills declined to answer questions and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights when he was asked about the missing funds by investigators last year. Wills, a former aide to ex-state Sen. Shirley Huntley, who was convicted in another not-for-profit scam.  The councilman is also being probe for steering funds to another non profit group, the Young Leaders Institute. Wills and a relative on his payroll, Jelani Mills, were arrested and being processed at the 112th Pct. in Forest Hills.* New York City Councilman Ruben Wills Charged in Fraud ... (May 7, 2014) * City Councilman Pleads Guilty to 1996 Misdemeanor * Indicted NYC Councilman Ruben Wills has worst attendance record among current members, records show:(NYDN) * Wills accuses AG of bias over use of image in campaign ad(NYP) State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is being accused of unfairly smearing an indicted Queens lawmaker by including him in a TV campaign ad, The Post has learned. City Councilman Ruben Wills is now trying to turn the tables, demanding that Schneiderman be removed as the prosecutor in his case for violating a court rule barring prejudicial pretrial publicity against a defendant. Schneiderman’s 30-second TV commercial shows news footage of Wills — handcuffed from behind — being “perp walked” to a vehicle by two police officers. * Schneiderman, at Columbia,laments the state of politics (Capital) “I’m proud of the fact that in the last three and half years—probably every month or so—we have done something that no one has ever done before,” Schneiderman told the gathering. “We change the way people are doing business and the way that governments are operating.”

Sunday, November 20, 2016

de Blasio Runs Against Trump


I don't Care About Retailers Near Trump Tower Good for His Base Not the City's Tax Base


De Blasio doesn’t care how Trump Tower traffic affects retailers (NYP) Mayor de Blasio said Wednesday that he’s got bigger problems to worry about than how Tiffany and Gucci — world-famous retailers that lure tourists by the truckload and generate millions in taxes for the city — are coping with the security cordon around Trump Tower. “I will not tell you that Gucci and Tiffany are my central concerns in life,” the mayor told reporters. Tiffany, a Trump Tower neighbor, said it was forced to cancel its annual holiday-window unveiling event at its flagship store, although it remains open to shoppers who aren’t deterred by barricades that line Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. Leslie Garrett, director of the Nohra Haime Gallery, directly across from the tower, said de Blasio’s comments are “pretty flippant. “I would expect better from our mayor,” she said.* Taming Trump-lock: De Blasio's dutyto relieve Midtown crush (NYDN Ed) * With Trump victory, @BilldeBlasio gets another shot at national relevance (Politico)

de Blasio Uses NY1 and WNYC to Create Safe Space Weekly Interviews Fishy Attempt to Spin His Scandals










A Real Question Get Through to the Mayor On Fake WNYC's Lehrer About Homeless Shelter and the Mayor Blasts the Caller
De Blasio quarrels with callers critical of Crown Heights homeless shelter (NYDN) Hizzoner treated callers to Brian Lehrer’s show on WNYC a bit like reporters — they were limited to the topic of public health and safety, and he repeatedly challenged the premises of their queries.  The most heated exchange was with a caller who identified herself as Fior, a Crown Heights resident opposed to the building of a homeless shelter who said her area has 1,700 beds already, while the mayor’s Park Slope has just 330.  “I myself have sons and I want the same opportunities that his son Dante had,” the caller said. “And I’m sure the mayor wouldn’t have raised his son around 15 to 19 shelters.”   De Blasio noted there’s a shelter about four blocks from his family home, and that his old neighborhood would get new homeless beds under his plan to house homeless people within their own community board districts.  But communities like Crown Heights have argued they’re already overburdened with social service facilities, and Lehrer asked whether the plan puts more burden on low-income communities with more homelessness.  “If they’re unwanted,” de Blasio said of the shelters, “then that’s a moral question. How can people feel that their very own neighbors and people who grew up and have lived in that community for a long time are quote-unquote unwanted? I reject that.”  The caller argued she’d not seen any data proving the people who’d live in the shelter were from Crown Heights — prompting de Blasio to say she “doesn’t know her facts” and calling the argument, used elsewhere in the city, “a smokescreen.” * I-Team: Same Hotel Room Costs $190 for Homeless, $145 forEveryone Else (WNBC) NYC houses thousands of homeless families in hotels; your tax dollars fund the rooms -- but are taxpayers getting the best price?




After an Angry Tweet From NY1 to True News The Station Covers de Blasio's Legal Crisis Hours Later
Errol Louis‏@errollouis Feb 21  Every week I invite viewers to send questions. Every week, @unitedNYblogs whines, bitches and moans. And contributes nothing.  NY1 Inside City Hall 7PM Fef 22nd
Note: The video was only on the link for the whole program not post on the news blog as an individual site 

Wednesday NY1 Did Report That de Blaso spent most of the day (several hours) at his lawyers Kramer and Levin and that he left in a freight elevator. . .  About de Blasio Proposed Legal Fund, Errol Louis said " "Not to pile on to many Hypotheticals, but donating high price legal services to a mayor by a law firm that does business with the city elsewhere with the city is a Huge no no   . . . It is called a Loan" 


BILL'S BILL: When Bill de Blasio is away from City Hall (usually on Fridays), he's often spending part of his time raising money for his 2017 re-elect campaign - but he's also girding for an interview with officials in U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office, who are looking at donations given to entities controlled by the mayor and his allies. As NY1 reported , de Blasio -- who was conspicuously late in arriving at City Hall yesterday -- spent part of his day huddling with his attorneys. And attorneys are not cheap. Though de Blasio is entitled to use taxpayer dollars to pay for his defense, he is opting not to ask voters he'll face later this year with his legal bills. So, he's raising money for a legal defense fund. As our Laura Nahmias reports , there is an obvious irony in de Blasio's strategy. Nahmias writes: "good government officials and election lawyers say legal defense funds can raise more conflicts of interest than simply spending taxpayer dollars on legal defense, opening the mayor up to the same kinds of questions about donor influence and campaign contribution limits that led to the criminal probes in the first place." * NYC Mayor De Blasio Expected To Meet With Federal ProsecutorsProbing Campaign Fundraising (WCBS) 







Does NY1's Political Director Bob Hardt Think It is All Over for de Blasio? True News Challenges NY1 to Debate About News Coverage
 Retweeted your (True News') Tweet
You such a fake Hardt (your) man could become the first mayor ever arrested in the history of NYC HAVE YOU NO SHAME































True News Challenges NY1 To End the Ban on the Blog So We Can Debate Live on NY1 the Following:
1.  Why Did the Political Director of NY1 Bob Hardt Retweet True News Angry Tweet About NY1's Giving the Mayor A Campaign Commercial Every Week Instead of Asking Him About the Corruption He is Being Invested for by both the U.S. Attorney and the Manhattan DA.  
2. What will de Blasio say in his meeting with Preet Bharara?  
3, What about de Blasio's lawyers Kramer and Levin lobbying contracts?  Is it against NY1 rules to ask the mayor a follow up when he does not answer your question? 









The Mayor's Does Not Respect the Press Corp What Are You Going to do NY1 and WNYC Keep Asking Him Questions That Allows Him to Duck Explaining the Criminal Investigations Against Him
In the Feb 6 Weekly Interview With the Mayor Louis Did Not Even Ask de Blasio About the Corruption Investigation 

Mondays with the Mayor: A Focus on Crime (NY1)
How the Media Cover-Up WFP's Data and Fields Corruption Which If Exposed Would Have End Team de Blasio Schemes to Go Around the Election Law

The mayor’s best hope: more pigs to pardon  (NYP Ed) Somebody’s feeling the heat: Mayor de Blasio stormed out of his own press conference Tuesday after The Post’s Yoav Gonen inquired about Hizzoner’s pending sit-down with US Attorney Preet Bharara and a second reporter followed with another “off-topic” question.  Usually, when journalists defy de Blasio’s rules to limit their queries, the mayor just grumbles “on-topic questions only,” then calls on someone else. This time, he didn’t stick around to try pushing his topic.  Seems he’s no longer in a mood to even hear impertinent questions. t’s been a rough week. The Bharara interview could signify that indictments are (finally) coming down in the federal and state corruption probes of how his team does business — especially with big donors.  Then, too, a state judge is showing skepticism about de Blasio’s effort to dodge the Freedom of Information Law by declaring several top lobbyists “agents of the city” because they also consult for him.  Plus, the Department of Investigation audited a city hearing on that “program” that handed $60 million (above the contracted amount, for no added benefit to the city) to a bus company tied to a prime de Blasio donor.  And little children keep turning up dead despite being on the radar of de Blasio’s Administration for Children’s Services, which DOI just exposed as massively dysfunctional.  Each bit of news pokes another hole in his image as an honest progressive — and makes him seem just another transactional pol who rewards donors and hacks.  The only truly sweet headline the mayor’s been able to win recently came from “pardoning” that Staten Island pig.On Friday's WNYC Brian Lehrer in a 20 minute interview asked one question to de Blasio about the investigation:
WNYC Lehrer: Will You Meet With U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
de Blasio: Yes I Will in the Next Few Weeks I Will
No Follow Up By Lehrer on Questions on the Issue
de Blasio Uses NY1 and WNYC to Create Safe Space WeeklyInterviews Fishy Attempt to Spin His Scandals








NYP Agrees With True News the Mayor's Interviews With NY1 and WNYC Are Controlled They Give Him Cover to Duck Answering Questions on ACS Incompetence and the Federal Investigation Against Him
Can the mayor make a habit of not dodging the press? (NYP)  Say this about Mayor de Blasio as the entire political world awaits news from his much-heralded sitdown with US Attorney Preet Bharara: He’s more than happy to talk about the weather.  And, to be fair, with Niko still raging amid Thursday morning’s press conference, reporters weren’t asking about anything else. 

"de Blasio makes the time for short, fast radio hits — the kind guaranteed not to go off-topic — as well as longer, but controlled, one-on-ones on NY1 plus the WNYC call-in" NY Post



Maybe de Blasio just wanted to focus on accepting the United Federation of Teachers endorsement the same night. Or been more worried that, with the snow not yet falling, the media might be too eager to ask the kind of “off-topic” questions he tries to ban. After all, it was just eight days earlier that he stormed out of a press conference after two reporters in a row dared pose queries on “unapproved” topics. The next day, he refused reporters’ questions up in Albany.  Yet the unprecedented “on-topic” rules have also allowed the mayor to stay mum on the Administration for Children’s Services mess, even after his own DOI slammed “systemic” and “high-level” dysfunction at ACS.



NY1 Stop Asking de Blasio What He Thinks About Going to Meet Bharara Start Asking Questions What New Yorkers Want to Know About What Their Mayor Did!
De Blasio confident about corruption probe before meetingwith U.S. Attorney (NYDN) "We did everything right. My team did everything right. I did everything right to abide by the law and comport ourselves in an ethical fashion," de Blasio said on NY1's Road to City Hall. "I look forward to going in. I'm happy to set the record straight that we did things the right way."  Hizzoner is set to meet with federal prosecutors in the next few weeks, he confirmed Monday night.  "The bottom line is we made a decision based on the needs of the people. That's how I've done things throughout my public life. And I think I'll be able to clarify that for them," he said. "This set of allegations just doesn't comport with who I am or the way my team or I have handled ourselves. And I believe that the discussion with the U.S. Attorney will be clarifying. I look forward to setting the record straight."

What is the Record Bill. NY1?
de Blasio said he’s looking forward to "setting the record straight" when he meets with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office about the corruption probe into his administration.  Bharara is investigating whether City Hall gave favorable treatment to donors to the mayor's now-defunct non-profit, Campaign for One New York. De Blasio denies any such favor-trading took place.

Questions Not Asked de Blasio On NY1 But Bharara Will Ask:
1. Why did Donors to Your Campaign for One NY PAC Like the Rat Bag Guy Get City Contracts?
2. How Many on Your Staff Knew About the Rivington Nursing Home Deed Change Before It Was Done?
3. Why Did Federal Witness Rechnitz Donate 35,000 to the Campaign for One NY?  Why did Reichberg Donate $102,000 to the Campaign for One NY That Was Used Laundered Through A Upstate County Committee to try to change the senate to Democratic Control
4. Why Did Your Cousin Union Contribute A Quarter of A Million to NYCLASS
5. Why Did You Ask Peebles One of the Bidders for LICH Hospital for A Donation for One NY? 
6. You Said You Formed Campaign for One NY to Fight Well Funded Opponents for Universal Pre-Kindergarten. Who Were Those Groups?
7. The Money You Raised to Change the Senate to Democratic Control All Went to Three Candidates Did You Direct the Money to Them and Did Your Lobbyists Like Berlin Rosen Work in Their Campaigns?
8. Why Did the Upstate Campaign Money Go to County Committees?  To Avoid Campaign Limits?
8. Will You Ever Produce A List of the Contributors Who Did Not Get A Pay to Play Contract in Return for Contributing to Your PAC Campaign for One NY?
9 Where Their Straw Donors in Your 2013 Campaign
10. Why Did Developers Contribute to Your Campaign for One NY PAC?
11. The Board of Elections Risa Sugerman Said Your Top Aid Emma Wolfe Violated the Election Law "Willful and Flagrantly" and Warranted "Criminal Prosecution" What Say You?
12. Was Data and Field (2009), NYCLASS (2013) and CONY (2014-2016) An Attempt By Your Team to Go Around the Election Law?







Even the NYT's Says de Blasio Media Attacks Are Ugly and the Opposite of Transparent Do They Know Something About the Federal Investigation?
 Mayor deBlasio’s Media Freeze-Out (NYT Ed)  If Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided that he is going to answer questions only from “real media outlets,” and not The New York Post, why doesn’t he just go all the way? Revoke The Post’s credentials, and bar its reporters from City Hall and make an example of them. Let the other reporters learn not to offend His Honor. And if they don’t learn, he can stop taking all questions. Then the mayor will be free to do his business in peace and quiet, his message unfiltered, his administration shown only in its best light, through news releases and photo ops. That is the absurd logic of Mr. de Blasio’s eruption at a news conference on Thursday. He snapped at reporters’ questions as unfit to be answered. And he refused to respond to Yoav Gonen, City Hall bureau chief of The Post, which he belittled as a “right-wing rag.”




Q. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor —
A. You can keep calling all you want. Go ahead.
Q. Are you going to call on me today? Hey, are you — ?
A. I’m calling on real media outlets.
Spiro de Blasio

This was an extreme reaction for a mayor who is already unusually aloof from the press. His predecessors, notably Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani, took questions nearly every day. Mr. de Blasio deigns to answer reporters’ “off topic” questions — those not related to his chosen issue of the day — generally once a week.  The Post does not hide its anti-de Blasio feelings and is quick to ridicule. It can also be rather vulnerable to ridicule itself. But the article that set off Mr. de Blasio’s meltdown seemed straightforward, if pointed: It was about the hiring by the mayor’s office of 264 “special assistants,” outside the civil service, who looked to the paper like a “farm team” of political appointees. If Mr. de Blasio had specific complaints about the article’s veracity, he did not reveal them at the news conference.  New York has a long tradition of outspoken mayors who have used and abused the media, who have belittled and ranted at reporters, while aides smirked and fawned. But the mayors have always talked. Mr. de Blasio says he is not playing that game, at least not with The Post. But it’s not just The Post — Mr. de Blasio got petulant when pressed by a reporter from Newsday for information about an inquiry into the Administration for Children’s Services and the death of a 6-year-old boy. “Come on — try and ask a real question,” he snapped. Then came this exchange with a Wall Street Journal reporter: Q. I’m just curious — taking questions once a week, and you know, insulting newspapers, media outlets — how do you think it’s helping you? How is it helping you? A. It doesn’t have to help. It doesn’t have to help. It’s the — well, I’m saying what I think is the truth. And by the way, I think the people share a lot of my view.
de Blasio and the NY Times








WNYC Weekly Interview Allows de Blasio To Spin "Fake News" and Avoid A Full Press Conference 
On WNYC the next day, the mayor made the “fake news” charge as he condemned Stringer and The Post for “denigrating the work of all the people at ACS who protect children.”  No, we’re exposing the non-work of people — especially ACS management, which has bloated under de Blasio — who didn’t protect these now-dead kids. And there’s nothing fake about the deaths of children living in unsafe situations and known to the city. The mayor’s also claiming that four of these deaths occurred years earlier — yet ACS confirms the figure of 10 deaths in that period, and in any case Stringer was working from the records that ACS provided. De Blasio also insisted that the six other deaths were unrelated to abuse or neglect — although the records on that are conveniently not open to the public. And, again, Stringer was simply reviewing the files on “high priority” cases of at-risk kids that ACS provided.  Then there’s this: The mayor also bragged on WNYC that “the number of cases that have been substantiated as potential child abuse has gone down steadily” in recent years. That’s great — if it’s actually a drop in abuse, or in false findings.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s claim that reports from the New York City Comptroller’s office, reported by the Post, are “fake news” is part of his effort to mask the basic failings of management at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, the Post writes.  * New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released an elaborate video that was financed with public money to tout his accomplishments in 2016, while ignoring all of his missteps, the Daily News reports.







Its Time to End de Blasio's One on One Spin Weekly Interviews and Let Him Face the Pressure of the Full Press Force 

De Blasio insists Campaign for One New York donors receivedno special treatment (NYDN) de Blasio insisted Monday there is not a single example of donors to his political causes getting preferential treatment from the city.  “The question has been, for those who donated, did they get any particular preference. I’ve said repeatedly no, and no one’s ever produced an example of where such a preference existed,” de Blasio said on NY1. “People are not showing that example of bias or favoritism because it doesn’t exist.”  A number of donors to Blasio’s political non-profit, the Campaign for One New York, ended up getting items they wanted from the city government. The question of whether those were favors given in exchange for the cash, or were simply coincidental as the mayor says, is the subject of a criminal investigation.  As documented in a Daily News investigation, de Blasio announced plans for a streetcar along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront after seven developers with property near the route made donations totaling $245,000.  In another widely publicized case, a businessman hawking rat-repellant garbage bags who had been unsuccessfully seeking city business for years got a city contract after donating $100,000 to CONY.


The One on Ones With the Mayor Allow Him to Spin Back Nonsense That A Full Press Conference Would Not Allow
During Monday night’s weekly NY1 appearance, host Errol Louis pushed de Blasio on the streetcar, known as the BQX, as an example of donors who got something they wanted.  “That’s a huge assumption on your part, respectfully. Why is that donors who got something if it is a mass transit line for...400,000 people?” de Blasio shot back. “Our mission is to create good public policy that serves people, and if we do it, it doesn’t matter who likes it, who doesn’t like it,” he said. “We don’t care who proposed it. If a bunch of non-profits proposed it, I guess you’d be saying this is just pristine public policy.” Two grand juries are hearing testimony in criminal investigations into de Blasio’s fundraising. Hizzoner said Monday that his only aims were to promote universal pre-kindergarten and affordable housing, and flip the state Senate to Democratic control.  “No one was lining their pockets. No one was doing it for personal gain,” he said.









Bharara to Question de Blasio High Stakes Meeting Delusional or Hail Mary? No Immunity No Protection Offer 
US Attorney Preet Bharara will grill Mayor de Blasio as his office investigates potential corruption at City Hall, it was revealed Friday.  Bharara’s office set up the meeting with the mayor, which will be held within the next two weeks without the protection of immunity, NBC New York reported.  A sources told the station de Blasio is convinced he can prove to investigators he did not trade government favors for political donations during his time in office.  The sources said de Blasio believes he can sway them to drop their probe.* Mayor de Blasio Agrees to Talk to Feds in Pay-to-PlayProbe: Sources (WNBC) This comes after de Blasio was questioned by prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office in a separate investigation. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office had asked the mayor to come in and answer questions, and de Blasio has agreed, sources say. He plans to answer the questions without the protection of immunity. * Investigations into Mayor's Administration Will Cost Taxpayers Millions (NY1)












































WNYC Weekly Interview Allows de Blasio To Spin "Fake News" and Avoid A Full Press Conference 
On WNYC the next day, the mayor made the “fake news” charge as he condemned Stringer and The Post for “denigrating the work of all the people at ACS who protect children.”  No, we’re exposing the non-work of people — especially ACS management, which has bloated under de Blasio — who didn’t protect these now-dead kids. And there’s nothing fake about the deaths of children living in unsafe situations and known to the city. The mayor’s also claiming that four of these deaths occurred years earlier — yet ACS confirms the figure of 10 deaths in that period, and in any case Stringer was working from the records that ACS provided. De Blasio also insisted that the six other deaths were unrelated to abuse or neglect — although the records on that are conveniently not open to the public. And, again, Stringer was simply reviewing the files on “high priority” cases of at-risk kids that ACS provided.  Then there’s this: The mayor also bragged on WNYC that “the number of cases that have been substantiated as potential child abuse has gone down steadily” in recent years. That’s great — if it’s actually a drop in abuse, or in false findings.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s claim that reports from the New York City Comptroller’s office, reported by the Post, are “fake news” is part of his effort to mask the basic failings of management at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, the Post writes.  * New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released an elaborate video that was financed with public money to tout his accomplishments in 2016, while ignoring all of his missteps, the Daily News reports.







Its Time to End de Blasio's One on One Spin Weekly Interviews and Let Him Face the Pressure of the Full Press Force 

De Blasio insists Campaign for One New York donors receivedno special treatment (NYDN) de Blasio insisted Monday there is not a single example of donors to his political causes getting preferential treatment from the city.  “The question has been, for those who donated, did they get any particular preference. I’ve said repeatedly no, and no one’s ever produced an example of where such a preference existed,” de Blasio said on NY1. “People are not showing that example of bias or favoritism because it doesn’t exist.”  A number of donors to Blasio’s political non-profit, the Campaign for One New York, ended up getting items they wanted from the city government. The question of whether those were favors given in exchange for the cash, or were simply coincidental as the mayor says, is the subject of a criminal investigation.  As documented in a Daily News investigation, de Blasio announced plans for a streetcar along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront after seven developers with property near the route made donations totaling $245,000.  In another widely publicized case, a businessman hawking rat-repellant garbage bags who had been unsuccessfully seeking city business for years got a city contract after donating $100,000 to CONY.
de Blasio Uses NY1 and WNYC to Create Safe Space Weekly Interviews Fishy Attempt to Spin His Scandals
How Pay to Play Works Inside City Hall 


The One on Ones With the Mayor Allow Him to Spin Back Nonsense That A Full Press Conference Would Not Allow
During Monday night’s weekly NY1 appearance, host Errol Louis pushed de Blasio on the streetcar, known as the BQX, as an example of donors who got something they wanted.  “That’s a huge assumption on your part, respectfully. Why is that donors who got something if it is a mass transit line for...400,000 people?” de Blasio shot back. “Our mission is to create good public policy that serves people, and if we do it, it doesn’t matter who likes it, who doesn’t like it,” he said. “We don’t care who proposed it. If a bunch of non-profits proposed it, I guess you’d be saying this is just pristine public policy.” Two grand juries are hearing testimony in criminal investigations into de Blasio’s fundraising. Hizzoner said Monday that his only aims were to promote universal pre-kindergarten and affordable housing, and flip the state Senate to Democratic control.  “No one was lining their pockets. No one was doing it for personal gain,” he said.



As True News Reported Yesterday the NYP The Mayor's New "Safe Space" Weekly Interviews is Fishy Attempt to Spin the News  

Mayors aren’t supposed to hide in ‘safe spaces’ (NYP)  de Blasio’s deal to do a weekly interview with NY1’s Errol Louis is yet another bid to control his press availability while seeming to be open. Louis is a pro, and we expect he’ll ask some tough questions. But he can’t stand in for the entire, diverse City Hall press corps — which is lucky if the mayor does an open availability once a week. With “Mondays with the Mayor,” Louis joins public radio’s Brian Lehrer as the only journalists Hizzoner opts to speak with regularly. And Lehrer’s task is definitely not asking hard-hitting follow-ups: He’s a host, mainly helping callers “Ask the Mayor.” Nor did de Blasio even start regular call-in shows until we began slamming him on the issue back in May 2015. At the same time, we raised his failure to do town-hall-style public forums — and he still mainly only does fake ones, with tightly controlled audiences primed to ask questions he wants to hear. New York’s 109th mayor still stands as the least accessible in living memory: John Lindsay, Abe Beame, Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg all had their battles with the media, but they were available to the City Hall press corps on a daily basis, or close to it. Yes, running a city of 8 million is a busy job (or should be) — but it’s a tough job to do well if you largely dodge the media and don’t engage broadly with citizens who aren’t drinking your Kool-Aid. Hiding in a chief executive’s version of one of those campus “safe spaces” — where your values, actions and ideology go unquestioned — signals you’re not even trying to be the mayor of the entire city. It’s a betrayal of basic democracy. And spinning a weekly sitdown with Louis as furthering your “efforts to reach New Yorkers directly” is absurd. If de Blasio wants to be truly open, “Monday with the Mayor” won’t cut it. Try “every day with the entire press.” NY Times Spins for the Mayor No Need to Rise at a de Blasio News Conference: He Will Be Sitting, Too.(NYT) The Times analyzes de Blasio’s choice to now sit during press conferences, a move political strategists say he believes puts reporters and people more at ease and makes people standing with him at a podium less uncomfortable about his height. * New York City’s tax collections have declined in recent months and are down about one percent for the same period in 2015, bucking the yearslong trend of growth and raising concerns about a sharply rising budget under de Blasio, The Wall Street Journal reports.  Campaign 2017  De Blasio shrugged off rumblings of discontent from some city unions and said he would have no problem securing support from the majority of labor groups for his re-election, noting his administration’s success in securing contracts, the Daily News reports.



Gearing Up for Re-Election de Blasio Weekly on NY1: Spin City? What About Equal Time for His Opponents and None Supporters? What About U. S. Attorney Bharara Investigation of the Mayor? 
De Blasio adds weekly TV interview to his limited media schedule(NYP) Gearing up for his re-election campaign, Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to hold two regular interviews a week — but under controlled circumstances. For months, the mayor has limited his open-ended Q&As with City Hall reporters to once a week. He also usually appears weekly on WNYC radio, where he fields questions from both host Brian Lehrer and callers. Starting next Monday, the mayor will add a second regular, 15-minute appearance on NY1 with host Errol Louis, the cable station announced. The Democratic primary for mayor is scheduled for September 2017. While gearing up for his re-election campaign, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was slated on Monday to begin making regular, 15-minute appearances on NY1 in addition to his weekly availability on WNYC radio



Why Does the Press Not Hold de Blasio's Feet to the Fire Like They Have Past Mayors?  Instead Print His Press Release Spin  























Even the NYT's Says de Blasio Media Attacks Are Ugly and the Opposite of Transparent Do They Know Something About the Federal Investigation?
 Mayor deBlasio’s Media Freeze-Out (NYT Ed)  If Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided that he is going to answer questions only from “real media outlets,” and not The New York Post, why doesn’t he just go all the way? Revoke The Post’s credentials, and bar its reporters from City Hall and make an example of them. Let the other reporters learn not to offend His Honor. And if they don’t learn, he can stop taking all questions. Then the mayor will be free to do his business in peace and quiet, his message unfiltered, his administration shown only in its best light, through news releases and photo ops. That is the absurd logic of Mr. de Blasio’s eruption at a news conference on Thursday. He snapped at reporters’ questions as unfit to be answered. And he refused to respond to Yoav Gonen, City Hall bureau chief of The Post, which he belittled as a “right-wing rag.”




Q. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor —
A. You can keep calling all you want. Go ahead.
Q. Are you going to call on me today? Hey, are you — ?
A. I’m calling on real media outlets.
Spiro de Blasio

This was an extreme reaction for a mayor who is already unusually aloof from the press. His predecessors, notably Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani, took questions nearly every day. Mr. de Blasio deigns to answer reporters’ “off topic” questions — those not related to his chosen issue of the day — generally once a week.  The Post does not hide its anti-de Blasio feelings and is quick to ridicule. It can also be rather vulnerable to ridicule itself. But the article that set off Mr. de Blasio’s meltdown seemed straightforward, if pointed: It was about the hiring by the mayor’s office of 264 “special assistants,” outside the civil service, who looked to the paper like a “farm team” of political appointees. If Mr. de Blasio had specific complaints about the article’s veracity, he did not reveal them at the news conference.  New York has a long tradition of outspoken mayors who have used and abused the media, who have belittled and ranted at reporters, while aides smirked and fawned. But the mayors have always talked. Mr. de Blasio says he is not playing that game, at least not with The Post. But it’s not just The Post — Mr. de Blasio got petulant when pressed by a reporter from Newsday for information about an inquiry into the Administration for Children’s Services and the death of a 6-year-old boy. “Come on — try and ask a real question,” he snapped. Then came this exchange with a Wall Street Journal reporter: Q. I’m just curious — taking questions once a week, and you know, insulting newspapers, media outlets — how do you think it’s helping you? How is it helping you? A. It doesn’t have to help. It doesn’t have to help. It’s the — well, I’m saying what I think is the truth. And by the way, I think the people share a lot of my view.
de Blasio and the NY Times

The Media Cover Up of Citizens United


de Blasio Paints the Post As Right Wing Exposes His 2017 Campaign Strategy to Gain Progressive and Liberal Votes 
Together With his Black and Orthodox Jewish Base  

De Blasio’s tantrum shows just how thin-skinned he is (NYP)  Awww, does Little Billy need a time out? Mayor de Blasio acted like a colicky infant at a press conference Thursday, refusing to answer questions posed by a New York Post reporter and then saying it’s because the paper is not a “real” media outlet.  “You can keep trying, man. You can talk all you want,” he said, interrupting a question by City Hall bureau Chief Yoav Gonen about a controversial teacher annuity fund that cost taxpayers $1.2 billion last year. As Gonen persisted, de Blasio whined: “I’m calling on real media outlets.” The petulant child’s routine immediately backfired when other reporters, shocked at his behavior, grilled him about why he refused to respond to The Post. “I’m saying what I think is the truth. And by the way, I think the people share a lot of my views,” he told a Wall Street Journal reporter who questioned his antics. “I’ve got no use for a right-wing rag that attacks people who are good public servants and tries to undermine their reputations.” * De Blasio, Frustrated, Chooses to Take His Private Feuds Public, Again (NYT) The mayor condemned The New York Post in a news conference and in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday. Last year, he spoke openly about his divisive relationship with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.* Transcript: Mayor Bill de Blasio on The New York Post (NYT) The mayor discussed his views on the newspaper and his refusal to acknowledge its City Hall bureau chief during a news conference on Thursday.* Crybaby de Blasio spends day hanging out anywhere but City Hall(NYP) A day after he declared The Post was not a “real” media outlet, Hizzoner hardly looked like a real mayor — spending Friday at the gym and then lounging around his old neighborhood without ever going to the office.  De Blasio left Gracie Mansion at about 7:45 a.m. and showed up a short time later at the Y in Park Slope looking like an aging frat boy in an orange T-shirt under a black “Brooklyn” hoodie. “He’s not going to make any comment,” one of his reps said as Hizzoner was shielded by his security detail.  De Blasio then kicked back for hours at his favorite Park Slope haunt, Bar Toto, with an unidentified guest.  De Blasio — who had no scheduled events Friday and was jetting off to Detroit on Sunday to campaign for Hillary Clinton — then vanished, never showing up at City Hall.


The NY Post is Too Dumb to Understand That Team de Blasio by Calling Them Right Wing is Building A Progressive Vote to Get Re-Elected

Mayor de Blasio demands his own ‘safe space’ (NYP) Mayor de Blasio is perfectly free to keep ducking Post reporters’ questions . . . as long as he wants to keep coming off like a peevish toddler. A month ago, we wondered if de Blasio was cracking under pressure when he took out after The Post and our City Hall bureau chief, Yoav Gonen, at a press conference. On Thursday, he had another meltdown — refusing to let Gonen even ask a question, saying that’s for “real media outlets.”  He got snarky with other reporters, too, but saved his special venom for The Post: “I[’ve] got no use for a right-wing rag that tries to attack public servants.” By which he means he has no use for a newspaper that asks (well, tries to ask) uncomfortable questions and exposes City Hall outrages and incompetence. What set the mayor off this time was a Post exposé of how he’s parked 264 political operatives on the public payroll as “special assistants” — at a cost to the taxpayers of $18.7 million.

de Blasio in Panic Mode Lashing Out At Every Question of His Decisions 
De Blasio goes after caller during weekly radio show(NYP) Mayor Bill de Blasio extended his combative streak beyond the press on Friday — going after a caller to his weekly radio show who brought up contributions from the animal rights groups NYCLASS. The caller, identified only as Andrew from Staten Island, asked if the group’s hefty donations influenced Hizzoner’s decision to spend $2 million on a deer sterilization program — despite significant concerns from experts. “You just don’t have your facts straight. We carefully worked through this policy with a host of wildlife experts,” the mayor said on WNYC radio. “But please leave your conspiracy theories at home.” NYCLASS was subpoenaed in April by both the US attorney and the DA in Manhattan in connection with its contributions to the Campaign for One New York, the mayor’s shuttering nonprofit that’s at the center of a number of pay-to-play probes. The mayor also got testy when asked about a mobile text alert about Chelsea terror suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami — who was captured Monday in New Jersey. “That is an absolute misunderstanding by anyone who critiques it. It was very effective, it was very necessary,” de Blasio said. “I really find it the worst of Monday morning quarterbacking for people to critique an approach that actually helped catch a terrorist.” When pressed on the alert’s specific role in Rahami’s capture, the mayor was unable to draw a direct line between the two. ‘Please leave your conspiracy theories at home.’  - De Blasio to caller who asked about contributions from the animal rights groups NYCLASS“I’m convinced this was one of the things that got everyone looking,” he said. “We know that the folks who saw, who were part of the larger process of finding this guy, that one of the ways that they were alerted was through the mobile alert.”* If de Blasio can’t get a handle on his temper, he’s in big trouble (NYP) Well, now we know why Mayor de Blasio waited two years before he started doing radio call-in shows: He just can’t keep his cool when he gets tough questions. On Friday’s Brian Lehrer show, de Blasio lectured one caller, “Please leave your conspiracy theories at home,” and accused another of “the worst of Monday morning quarterbacking.” He also answered some harsh attacks from city Comptroller Scott Stringer with his own cutting remark: “I think it’s breathtaking how little the comptroller understands about this issue.” This, at the end of a week where he’d also slammed a New York Times reporter who dared to pose an insufficiently slavish question — and all in the wake of his now almost-routine sneers at this newspaper when Post reporters ask him something.* Tension Between Mayor and Comptroller Spills Into Public View (NY1) * Mayor de Blasio vows he’ll release the names of hisdonors when feds finish fund-raising probe (nydn) Mayor de Blasio swears he will make good on his oddball promise to release the names of donors who gave to his campaign but didn't get any favors from City Hall — but he's not doing it anytime soon.* Mayor de Blasio vows he’ll release the names of his donors when feds finish fund-raising probe (nydn) Mayor de Blasio swears he will make good on his oddball promise to release the names of donors who gave to his campaign but didn't get any favors from City Hall — but he's not doing it anytime soon. * Bill de Blasio Doesn’t Want to TalkAbout His Donors or His Workout (NYO) * QUOTE OF THE DAY: "What's breathtaking is the mayor's haplessness in solving major problems ... Perhaps we'd be further along in the homelessness crisis if he paid attention to detail and he wouldn't have to rely on personal attacks." -- City Comptroller Scott Stringer to WSJ's Josh Dawsey: 


de Blasio Barks At Press Again And Again to Avoid Answering Questions
De Blasio lashes out after getting questions he doesn’t like (NYP) America’s touchiest mayor doesn’t like to answer tough questions — and lately, he’s blaming the people who get paid to ask them. Mayor de Blasio this week lashed out at journalists from The Post and The New York Times asking him about issues he would rather not answer, at one point chiding a reporter to “stop wasting my time.” On Thursday, he went after The Post for asking why he pushed back a meeting with blind residentsaffected by the Chelsea terror explosion so he could work out in the gym and sip coffee with First Lady Chirlane McCray. “I’m quite aware of what you guys are up to, and again, you are a paper with a clear right-wing agenda,” he raged. “Let’s be real about it. You’re a propaganda rag.” He then tried to justify his leisurely morning by arguing that maintaining his physique is in New Yorkers’ best interests. De Blasio delays visit to Chelsea bombing site to work out Minutes earlier, he cut off a Times reporter for questioning his senior adviser and 2013 campaign-finance co-chairwoman Gabrielle Fialkoff about how shady donors were appointed to his transition committee. The donors, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, are central figures in probes into de Blasio’s fund-raising. At de Blasio’s prompting, Fialkoff clammed up about the pair. A day earlier, the Times asked Hizzoner about a spike in crime over the last fiscal year..De Blasio, who frequently brags about the city’s falling crime rates, branded the reporter a “contrarian.”


 DE BLASIO REDACTSHIS OWN EMAILS -- NY1's Grace Rauh: "Mayor Bill de Blasio likes to share news stories with his so-called 'agents of the city.' After a former aide, Peter Ragone, sent de Blasio an Associated Press story about the mayor's attempt to push the Democratic presidential candidates to the left, the mayor forwarded the article, just before midnight, to two key outside advisers: Jonathan Rosen, who co-founded the political PR firm BerlinRosen, and John Del Cecato, a Democratic strategist. He included a comment with the story as well, but the city redacted it.... "When the mayor had something to say, it was often blacked out. When de Blasio sent a New York Times story about stagnant middle-class incomes to top city advisers, Del Cecato and his wife, Chirlane McCray, his note to the group was redacted. It was the same with a New Yorker story about Hillary Clinton that he forwarded to his wife and Del Cecato. The mayor's message is blocked. 'These emails show how ridiculous it is to designate these consultants as agents of the city,' said Dick Dadey of Citizens Union. 'These emails, in particular, are benign. They are talking about political stories and news stories, and for them to be protecting the mayor's comments just shows how ridiculous this whole matter is."



de Blasio's Transparency, FOILS and Keeping Out the Press



Team de Blasio Crazy Ties to Get His Puppet Council to Boycott the Post With Him
De Blasio’s top lieutenants ordered City Council members not to speak to the Post months ago, even issuing a thinly veiled threat to at least one lawmaker, if he failed to toe the line for the administration
City pol claims de Blasio urged council to stonewall The Post (NYP)  Mayor de Blasio’s top lieutenants ordered City Council members not to speak to The Post months ago — even issuing a thinly veiled threat to at least one lawmaker if he failed to toe the line, the pol told The Post.  “You shouldn’t be talking to The Post when they’re criticizing the mayor,” de Blasio aide Jon Paul Lupo warned, according to the council member, well before Lupo’s tantrum-tossing boss dismissed the paper as a “right-wing rag’’ last week, taking heat from both sides of the political aisle. “We remember who our friends are, and we remember who kicks us when we’re down,’’ Lupo said, according to the Democratic council member he targeted.  The source said mayoral aide Emma Wolfe also issued similar, though “less direct,’’ warnings about talking to The Post.  “Anytime a council member is quoted [in The Post] — even when and especially when they’re right — they’re going to get a call from the Mayor’s Office,” the council source said.




Post's McManus: de Blasio Crazy Attacks on Reporter are About the Federal Investigation, Not His Paper 
Mayor de Blasio’s rant at The Post is good for a laugh (NYP) So New York City has a mayor with feet almost as big as his mouth, a fellow who can’t quite figure out how to get to work on time or what to do when he arrives, whose poll numbers have been underwater since roughly two weeks after he took office — and who’s now having a rant at The New York Post. And I agree that the paper has much for which to answer; name one that doesn’t. But the New York Post hasn’t been under federal, state and local criminal investigation for the past two-plus years, either — which, ahem, is more than can be said of Bill de Blasio.  Which certainly could explain why Hizzoner’s been so testy lately; US Attorney Preet Bharara just dropped the hammer on the Cuomo administration, and maybe the mayor figures he’s next. And for sure it could account for his exasperation with The Post — which regularly hauls out the big type to report on his endless adventures with Bharara, state investigators and the Manhattan district attorney. Plus bums in the streets, chaos in the schools and rip-offs of New York’s sorely pressed taxpayers. He hired an advocate, not an expert, to run the city’s social services. No surprise that Grand Central Terminal is once again up to its scuppers in vagrants and worse.  He padded the topmost echelon of his administration with fellow Service Employees International Union/1199 alumni. No surprise, then, that 1199 is a vector in at least two de Blasio administration scandals — the Rivington House nursing home deed transfer and the Long Island College Hospital land conversion.



de Blasio Limits the Press
De Blasio Imposes Limits On Reporters’ Questions At News Conferences (WCBS)*
* De Blasio appears to have imposed new limits on how many questions reporters can ask at his public news conferences, saying that a question and a follow-up is allowed but that if “everyone’s doing like three-part questions, it becomes a problem,” CBS reports
Bubble Mayor No Town Hall de Blasio Spins and the NYC Press Defining Journalism Down




Mayor Only Allows the Press to Question Him Not the Public at Town Hall Meetings
Meetings with the Public in Iowa Not NYC Boy Does He Hate Us
Since taking office 16 months ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio has not opened himself up to unfiltered questions from constituents via town halls or call-in radio show appearances, as his predecessors did Newsday reports:    “De Blasio, unlike past mayors, avoids public Q&A with New Yorkers: Ed Koch did an average of 15 ‘town hall’ meetings each year, no-holds-barred public forums where New Yorkers could bring their concerns to the mayor face-to-face. Rudy Giuliani did them monthly. Mike Bloomberg did them occasionally. Bill de Blasio doesn’t do them at all. The mayor, who promised in his inauguration speech to be a champion of ‘everyday New Yorkers,’ has declined in the nearly 16 months since to open himself to live, unfiltered questions from constituents at town hall meetings or -- as Bloomberg and Giuliani did -- on regular call-in radio shows. … In 2010, de Blasio, then the city's public advocate, hailed the virtues of town hall forums at such a meeting hosted by Ditchek's association. - “‘My goal is to be out in the community a lot, to have folks from my staff out in the community a lot,’ de Blasio said, according to a video of the event. ‘I would be happy to hear concerns, or take questions from anyone and everyone.’ …“Ed Koch did an average of 15 “town hall” meetings each year, no-holds-barred public forums where New Yorkers could bring their concerns to the mayor face-to-face. Rudy Giuliani did them monthly. Mike Bloomberg did them occasionally. Bill de Blasio doesn’t do them at all.”


From @AP yesterday:"De Blasio made little mention of a national focus during his 2013 mayoral  campaign...."  * After 16 months as mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio seems determined to escape the confines of his day job and to reshape the future of national politics — even as he leaves himself open to criticism that he is not prioritizing problems at home. (Throw in a vacation to Puerto Rico and college visits with his son, and the mayor has spent about a third of April and May on the road.) * Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasts de Blasio’s liberal “contract with American,” for which he was the inspiration.

--“Mayor de Blasio’s Days on the Road Fuel Criticism atHome,” by Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum: “A rally by the steps of the United States Capitol. Fire-up-the-base speeches in Iowa and Wisconsin. Cross-country political trips, paid for by private money, and a Silicon Valley fund-raiser hosted by tech moguls, with tickets going for up to $10,000 apiece. Clinton? Rubio? Bush? Nope. De Blasio. After 16 months as mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio seems determined to escape the confines of his day job and to reshape the future of national politics — even as he leaves himself open to criticism that he is not prioritizing problems at home. ... By the time Mr. de Blasio returns, he will have been traveling outside New York on political trips for at least a portion of 10 of the last 31 days.”* The mayor's Campaign for One New York is paying for histravel to speak at his daughter's college in California: (NYT) * De Blasio says he's been to Staten Island"a number of times." That number is two. 


Dumb and Dumber: Dear NY Post deB is Not About Transparent He is About Building A Progressive Coalition on Your Back
Dear Bill NYP Attack is Not About Free Press It is Because You Cut Out Old Guard Lobbyists Like Arzt for the Berlin Rosen Generation 
He hides behind lawyers rather than even discuss why the Administration for Children’s Services ignored repeated warnings that little Zymere Perkins was being abused.  He designated his campaign consultants “agents of the city” so the public couldn’t scrutinize his communications with them. And he won’t even fulfill his campaign promise to publicly post lobbyist dealings with his  agency heads — then gets testy if anyone asks him about it. Gov. Cuomo is no model of transparency, but at least he doesn’t refuse reporters’ questions. Nor does he hold “on-topic-only” news conferences, either. If de Blasio wants to hide in a protective bubble, fine. We’re not about to tone things down to soothe his hurt feelings. But we doubt New Yorkers are going to have a lot of respect for a mayor who insists on spending all his time in his own version of one of those campus “safe spaces.” The mayor’d be better off recalling Harry Truman’s advice: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”


de Blasio Channels Spiro Agnew
Yet blaming the messenger is rarely a winning approach — particularly when the self-professed “most transparent mayor in history” is having so much trouble being remotely transparent
De Blasio thinks homeless crisis is a case of ‘fear-mongering (NYP) Mayor de Blasio on Monday ripped The Post’s coverage of the homelessness crisis — and touted an estimated drop in the vagrant population based on a single-day census conducted in sub-freezing temperatures.
He also ranted about a New York Post article that revealed how his administration boosted the number of special assistants on his staff to 264 — a 140-percent increase over Mayor Bloomberg — at a $18.7 million cost to tax payers.  Though he didn’t challenge the accuracy of the report, he complained that the Post singled out one of the “public servants,” Office for People with Disabilities Commissioner Victor Calise. “This man is not anything but a change agent, an activist, a man — and go ask people in the disabled community. So I’m not playing that game,” he said.  His meltdown continued as reporters tried to ask him out some of the other scandals engulfing his administration.   He fumed when a Newsday journalist asked about Monday’s death of an abused 6-year-old Harlem boy — and if he would keep his word about releasing details of how ACS let the child’s case slip through the crack despite prior complains against the boy’s mom.  “Don’t even try that, come on, come on . . . try and ask a real question,” he snapped.  When another scribe tried to press the question about the city’s lack of transparency in little Zymere Perkins’ death, the mayor implied the Manhattan DA’s office had asked him not to speak about it and fumed: “I don’t know why you’re not hearing my point. . . You really have to try to listen to what I’m saying.”  The mayor’s media meltdown drew criticism from his former press secretary, Karen Hinton.  “I’ve given him advice before about this very topic,” she told NY1 after the debacle. “Losing your temper with the news media does nothing for you except get you stories about losing your temper, which is I’m afraid what we’re going to see this afternoon and tomorrow.” His office and affiliated non-profit, The Campaign for One New York, are under at least a half-dozen investigations by city, state and federal agencies – including for potential pay-to-play schemes.  



“The next president of the Unites States has gone through more investigations than I can count,” de Blasio said. “And I would remind you, go to the end of the road on all those investigations, you will find positively nothing and she’s about to be the next president of the United States.”