Actually, Mayor Bill de Blasio has proved willing to go to great lengths to help one class of businessfolk — those who shower him with money.
Restaurateur Harendra Singh is back in the news thanks to the release of a Department of Investigation report on the mayor’s extraordinary attention to his needs.
An early donor to de Blasio’s 2013 campaign, Singh was embroiled in a dispute with the city over millions he owed in back rent for his eatery, Water’s Edge. The mayor not only heard his cries for help, he moved heaven and Earth to pull strings.
That included a de Blasio call to Commissioner of Citywide Administrative Services Stacey Cumberbatch to demand action — which she says is the only time the mayor ever called her directly.
The DOI memo outlined other “unprecedented” ways that City Hall intervened on Singh’s half. For example, top de Blasio aides told DCAS staffers to “resolve this matter” because Singh was “a friend of the mayor.”
And the investigation uncovered another problem: De Blasio used his private email account for city business at least 1,850 times. Top aides also using personal accounts included Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Emma Wolfe, Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris, Shorris’ chief of staff Dominic Williams, and special counsel Henry Berger.
As Hillary Clinton can tell you, doing public business via private email is a major no-no, not least because it can conceal material from Freedom of Information laws.
During all the probes of his pay-to-play scandals, de Blasio insisted he and his team always behaved “appropriately.” What a weird definition of that word he must have in mind.