Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum was once so friendly with disgraced city and state Comptroller Alan Hevesi that she hired three people close to him — including one of his kids and his top aide’s daughter, The Post has learned.
The hires came before Hevesi was the focus of a 2006 probe into an alleged pay-for-play scandal at the state Comptroller’s Office, but came after Gotbaum was forced by city funding cuts to reduce staffing at the Public Advocate’s Office by 25 percent.
Gotbaum’s chief of staff, Mark Benoit, strongly denied any suggestions of political favoritism in hiring Andrew Hevesi, son of the comptroller, and Alexandra Chartier, the daughter of top Alan Hevesi aide Jack Chartier, who has been linked to the massive pay-to-play scandal.
“There’s no issue here,” said Benoit. “There were open positions that needed to be filled.
“They went through the interview process, and they were good employees.”
But political watchers said it created a poor appearance.
“The last thing New York City can afford is to import Albany ethics into our government,” said strategist Dan Gerstein.
Arlene Vinci, the third staffer hired by Gotbaum, was a longtime city comptroller employee who needed one more week to fill out her pension. Gotbaum put her on her own payroll for exactly that time period in 2006, sources said.
Benoit couldn’t immediately comment on Vinci’s hiring. Gotbaum hired Andrew Hevesi as community-affairs director for three months, from February through mid-May 2005, at an annual $65,000 salary, just before he ran for and won a state Assembly seat in Queens in a May special election.
Alexandra Chartier began in March 2006 and is still in the office on “part-time status,” with an annual salary of $21,632, working in the ombudsman division, records show.
Jack Chartier, who worked for Hevesi for years, including at the city Comptroller’s Office, has reportedly been linked to the pay-to-play scandal that ensnared the former comptroller’s political adviser, Hank Morris, and others.
A major investment-firm head with state pension business allegedly steered $90,000 to the girlfriend of a top Hevesi aide, believed to be Chartier, who was dating former “Mod Squad” stunner Peggy Lipton at the time.
Benoit couldn’t immediately comment on the Vinci hiring. The two others, he insisted, were interviewed, deemed qualified and performed well at their jobs.