Mayor de Blasio personally met with six registered lobbyists in his first three months in office — half of whom were his supporters in last year’s mayoral race, The Post has learned.
Records provided by the Mayor’s Office show that de Blasio huddled with Vincent Pitta — who was representing Long Island College Hospital and health-care workers in Local 1199 of SEIU — the same day he declared the rescue of the struggling hospital as “truly historic.”
A series of subsequent setbacks for the hospital have risked making the Feb. 22 celebration Hizzoner’s “Mission Accomplished” moment.
Pitta had given $400 to de Blasio’s mayoral campaign, and his firm — Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin — was a paid adviser for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s election campaign.
The mayor strongly backed Mark-Viverito’s campaign to become council speaker.
De Blasio also met with the Real Estate Board’s Steve Spinola in mid-February, at a session with other board members that was on the mayor’s public schedule but was closed to the media.
It was at that meeting that de Blasio expressed a willingness to build taller buildings in exchange for more affordable housing units.
Other registered lobbyists on the mayor’s list included teachers-union chief Michael Mulgrew, who was in the middle of contract talks; Bob Master and Chris Shelton of the Communications Workers of America; and Tony Marx of the New York Public Library, which was mulling a major renovation of its 42nd Street main location.
The information was provided by the Mayor’s Office after numerous requests by The Post, and in advance of a mayoral policy to publicly post his direct meetings with lobbyists
“It’s a first iteration of a policy we are still developing,” said de Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell.
Public records show lobbyists who backed de Blasio have started cashing in, with taxi-industry lobbyist Michael Woloz landing a $6,000-a-month retainer to represent the Success Academy charter schools.
“It was very simply an attempt to see if there was common ground to be had between Success and the Mayor’s Office,” Woloz, who raised $237,000 for de Blasio, said of his meetings with City Hall officials.
“I made some inquiries and had some conversations, but the result is that it wasn’t a productive relationship.”