NEW YORK — A city ethics board ordered former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday to pay $475,000 and found that he embezzled public funds from a police security detail during his failed presidential bid.
The hefty fine is the largest ever imposed by New York’s Conflicts of Interest Board, capping a year-long investigation into the two-term mayor’s use of taxpayer dollars to cover officers’ travel costs. of the New York Police Department who accompanied him on campaign stops across the country.
Under the ruling, which he vowed to appeal, de Blasio, a Democrat, will be forced to reimburse the city for $320,000 spent on officers’ flights, hotels, meals and rental cars during the four-month campaign. He will also have to pay a $25,000 fine for each of the security detail’s 31 out-of-state trips, which comes to $155,000.
The order was issued by Conflict of Interest Board Chairman Milton Williams, who found that de Blasio “clearly violated” the city’s ban on using public resources to further a political campaign. De Blasio was informed of this rule before his campaign, but “disregarded the advice of the Board,” Williams wrote in his ruling.
In a statement, a lawyer for de Blasio, Andrew G. Celli Jr., described the ruling as “reckless and arbitrary,” arguing that recent acts of political violence underscored the security needs of public servants.
“After the January 6 insurrection, the shootings of Congressmen Giffords and Scalise, and the almost daily threats directed at local leaders across the country, the action of the COIB (Conflict of Interest Board), which seeks to charge to elected officials with security costs that the city has adequately borne for decades: it is dangerous, beyond the reach of their powers and illegal,” he wrote.
De Blasio has faced previous accusations of misusing his security team. Months before he left office in 2021, a report from the city’s Department of Investigation found that he treated officers like a “concierge service,” using them to move his daughter into an apartment and put his son through college.
De Blasio consulted with the Conflict of Interest Board about the costs of his security before announcing his presidential campaign in May 2019. He was told that the salaries of NYPD officers would be covered, but that all other costs associated with his trip would not be, the board said.
During interviews with investigators, de Blasio said he “did not have a 100% clear understanding” of the guidance and “suggested it was a problem for others to resolve,” according to Kevin Casey, an administrative law judge who recommended the fine for the Conflicts of Interest Board.
Casey accused de Blasio of showing “deliberate disregard” for the city’s ethics board and later blamed his own employees for the mistake.
“It is concerning that during his interview with the DOI (Department of Investigation) the respondent repeatedly attempted to place the blame on his lawyers and campaign staff, without acknowledging his personal responsibility to comply with the law,” Casey wrote.
In an interview with New York Magazine published earlier this week, de Blasio described his White House bid as a mistake.
“I think my values were the right values, and I think I had something to offer, but it wasn’t right on a variety of levels,” he said. “I think I entered a place of extreme stubbornness and tunnel vision.”
