THE Conflicts of Inter est Board is allowing elected officials to get away with way too much, according to one government watchdog calling for a dramatically higher bar on ethics rulings.
“I think they are a little too generous,” said Susan Lerner, director of Common Cause-NYC.
Lerner cited a recent decision allowing former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff to continue sitting on government boards after he left to become president of Bloomberg LP, the mayor’s information-services company.
“How does that happen?” she asked.
Lerner also questioned why the board is considering allowing elected officials who have security details to travel anywhere they want in their government cars without reimbursing taxpayers.
“This decision is simply mind-boggling, and certainly ill-conceived,” Common Cause said in a tough statement.
That put the organization at odds with at least one other watchdog, NYPIRG, which gave qualified approval to the freebie for the city’s top four elected officials.
Mark Davies, the conflicts board’s executive director, defended its rulings as fair and practical.
For one thing, Davies pointed out its work is confidential, unless the official requesting an opinion decides to release it. And that only happens when the decision favors the official.
“What the public doesn’t see is all the times we say someone is not allowed to do something,” Davies said.
He said it’s not fair to punish the handful of officials required to travel with security at all times.
Otherwise, an official might have to transfer from their government vehicle to their private vehicle to say, drop off dry cleaning, he said.
“You either have a very liberal rule, or you have a rule it’s not possible to obey,” Davies concluded.
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A legislator who secured $200,000 in capital funds for a Brooklyn cultural organization that produces circuses for kids received $7,000 in campaign contributions from three individuals associated with the organization.
Records show City Councilman Mike Nelson (D-Brooklyn) in 2007 received $2,000 from Regina Berenchtein, who runs the New Way Circus; $3,000 from her husband, Alexandre; and $2,000 from her mother, Olga Partigul.
Nelson said he didn’t solicit the funds and discovered only after the fact that Regina had brought some people to one of his fund-raisers.
Nelson insisted he’s never taken an action in the council to get campaign contributions.
“I would be with the developers if that’s what I wanted,” he said.
The funds haven’t been spent and one official said it’s unlikely the circus would be able to meet all the requirements to get them.