2023-06-15 19:32:00
Bill de Blasio, former Mayor of New York (2014-2022), must pay a fine of $474,794.20 Dollars for the use of police (NYPD) personnel while traveling in the 2019 Democratic Party presidential primary, absenting himself from his duties without resigning the position.
This was determined today by the ethics watchdog of the New York City government, being the largest fine ever imposed by that agency so far, highlighted Daily News.
The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board penalty, which de Blasio’s lawyer immediately vowed to challenge in court, culminates a four-year investigation into the then-mayor’s decision that his safety of the NYC police accompanied him on 31 trips out of New York State.
In a three-page decision, Board Chairman Milton Williams noted that city ethics laws prohibit public servants from “using city resources for any non-city purpose.”
“The conduct [de De Blasio] It clearly violates this prohibition,” Williams wrote of the NYPD-protected campaign trips. “While there is a city purpose in paying for an NYPD security detail for the mayor, including the salary and overtime of the security detail, there is no purpose of the city in paying the additional expenses incurred by that NYPD security detail to travel out of the city to accompany the mayor or his family on campaign trips for president of the United States.”
Williams said that he was warned before he embarked on his campaign trips through the country. But “[De Blasio] disregarded the board’s advice,” Williams added.
The Conflicts of Interest Board determined that de Blasio’s campaign-related travel accompanied by NYPD officers cost city taxpayers $319,794.20. In assessing the fine, Williams said de Blasio should pay that amount plus $155,000 for 31 ethics law violations he committed, one during each trip, for a total sum of $474,794.20.
De Blasio you must pay the full amount within 30 dayssaid Williams, who described the verdict as “the largest fine in the history of the Board.”
Andrew Celli, an attorney for the former mayor, criticized the board’s ruling as “reckless” and announced that de Blasio sued to overturn it shortly after the ruling was finalized.
Ironically, During his tenure, De Blasio maintained tense relations with the NYPD. In 2013 he won the mayoralty even though only 3% of the total registered voters in the Democratic party in NYC voted for him in the primaries of that year. And in 2017 he was more easily re-elected, without competition from his party.
In his brief presidential aspiration in 2019, he was always far behind in the polls. Finally the then former president Joe Biden achieved the nomination, he was elected in November 2020 and returned to the White House in January 2021.
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