Through a web of charitable donations, backdoor payments and private bonuses, Mayor Bloomberg has created a shadow government that caters to his whims and caulks over budget cuts.
A Post analysis found that over the past two years the nation’s richest mayor lavished at least $99.1 million through his family’s philanthropy and his private company on nonprofits. In turn, those organizations wind up hiring Bloomberg loyalists from his administration, and are often tapped to lend a hand on city projects.
While Bloomberg’s generosity serves as a tangible example of his commitment to the city, the “revolving door” between City Hall and Bloomberg-backed nonprofits is cause for concern, said NYU public-policy professor Rogan Kersh.
“It is worrisome that, at one level, efforts that can’t win public financing because they don’t get approval or aren’t going to be popular still wind up getting financed,” he said.
But “it’s hard to be completely critical when Mayor Bloomberg has donated a billion dollars that’s gone into doing good works for the city, and that’s to be appreciated,” he said.
Over the years, several high-ranking mayoral staffers shifted into spots in Bloomberg’s private world, like former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who now heads up Bloomberg LP.
Others, like current Deputy Mayor Patti Harris, have special waivers from the Conflicts of Interest Board to work for City Hall and Bloomberg’s charitable foundations.
Harris, among other City Hall staffers, is also on the board of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit run out of City Hall that spearheads local projects important to Bloomberg.
A mayoral spokesman declined to enumerate the number of donations from Bloomberg’s charities to the Mayor’s Fund over the years, but confirmed he is a benefactor.
One of the city projects that benefited from Bloomberg’s largess is PlaNYC — the mayor’s sweeping blueprint for how the city should look by 2030. According to tax records, PlaNYC got over $6 million from the Mayor’s Fund in 2009, and was the second-largest recipient of fund money that year.
The MillionTreesNYC initiative has also benefited from Bloomberg bucks. In 2008, he committed $5 million to the New York Restoration Project for the initiative. The Restoration Project is a nonprofit that partners with the city and the Parks Department to fulfill the mayor’s verdant vision.
The billionaire quietly bankrolls his crusades — healthier eating, curbing smoking, overhauling schools — and it falls to his trusted foot soldiers in government and nonprofits to carry out his goals.
Individuals and groups that earn Bloomberg’s trust and are lucky enough to move in his orbit can benefit in many ways:
* The Prospect Park Alliance — where Hizzoner’s daughter Emma is a board member — received a $250,000 gift from his company and $5,000 from Emma’s charity, and was awarded hundreds of thousands in consulting contracts from the taxpayer-funded Parks Department.
* “Waiting for ‘Superman” charter star Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone got as much as $50,000 from Bloomberg, according to the school’s 2008-09 annual report.
* The Bloomberg Sisters Foundation gave $30,000 to the Robin Hood Foundation — Emma sits on that board, too — which in turn poured millions into charter schools.
* Bloomberg LP, the mayor’s vast media empire, steered $50,000 to the Fund for Public Schools, which pays $200,000 in salaries for retired city educators Sally Jenkins Stevens and Karen Ludwig to continue to work for the Department of Education as consultants.
* Irma Zardoya, a retired Bronx superintendent, also consults for the Fund for Public Schools. She collects a $135,680 annual city pension, yet last month was named head of the NYC Leadership Academy. Bloomberg showered the academy, which trains many city principals, with $7 million in “anonymous” donations.
* The city’s park conservancies and support groups rake in Bloomberg money; the Central Park Conservancy received up to $1 million from Bloomberg LP.
* Bloomberg-supported nonprofits fluffed the salaries of Parks Department employees like Aimee Boden, who earns $123,302 a year from the city and pulls in $37,000 from the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation. The mayor gave that group $100,000.
* Parks Deputy Director of Historic Houses Meredith Sorin gets an extra $2,000 a year from the Historic House Trust. Bloomberg contributed $50,000 to that group.
* The mayor has “anonymously” given hundreds of millions to the Carnegie Foundation, which divvies up cash among various city cultural groups. He just stopped the controversial gifting, which went to over 1,000 city nonprofits.
* This year, Bloomberg Philanthropies, headed by Deputy Mayor Harris, will disburse $32 million in grants to 250 city institutions instead.
* In 2010, Bloomberg’s longtime accountant set up Manhattan West LLC to pay some city employees over $100,000 each to work for his charity. Allison Jaffin, Irene Pistorino and Karen Greene worked for both the city and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. Greene is the only one still working for the foundation, according to the Mayor’s Office.
Bloomberg put over $500 million of his fortune into nonprofits in 2009 and 2010. He’s spent hundreds of millions of those dollars combating tobacco use. The World Lung Foundation, based in New York City, received over $56 million.
While much of his money funds global initiatives, the extra money flowing into the city helps the metropolis move ahead.
“With budgets tighter than ever and New Yorkers unable to afford a tax increase, most New Yorkers agree that the more private philanthropy can do to help, the better,” said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser.
But others feel that the overlapping city government and nonprofit roles, gifts and waivers — which less wealthy future mayors will not enjoy — definitely allows Bloomberg to “nudge” his agenda ahead of everything else.
“It’s basically a 21st-century version of patronage politics. We’ve passed laws to prevent people in control from sticking a bunch of friends and associates in office, so to remove it by one level still smacks of a form of patronage,” said Kersh, the political science professor.
When Bloomberg closes out his third — and last — term in 2013, his generosity may continue to pull the strings of city government.
“The next mayor, whoever that might be, will still have to deal with this, because his money isn’t going away,” a city government source said.