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| By Jeff Coltin, Nick Reisman and Emily Ngo |
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With help from Jason Beeferman
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Mayor Eric Adams' administration is moving forward with a plan to delete the emails of tens of thousands of lower-level former employees. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office |
Mayor Eric Adams has been rolling back transparency measures since taking office. He hasn’t released his internal daily schedules in more than a year, curtailed press conferences and ended a lobbying disclosure practice. Now, his administration is enacting a plan to delete the emails of tens of thousands of lower-level former employees, as it moves digital storage from mainframe computers to a cloud-based service. The standard records retention protocol ensures emails from non-policymakers are saved for eight years. This plan would allow some emails to be deleted after fewer than four years. “Emails of governmental (employees) are public records and they should not be destroyed after only three years,” New York Coalition for Open Government President Paul Wolf told Playbook. Emails from designated “policymakers” and those under “litigation holds” classified by agency lawyers will continue to be saved. But messages from “non-policymakers” who left city government before 2020 will be deleted, and therefore permanently removed from city archives. Agency officials were alerted in recent weeks to the new practice through a Department of Records and Information Services email obtained by POLITICO. The policy was crafted in consultation with the Office of Technology and Innovation. “The project will avoid the cost of transferring this email to the cloud and will save city government more than $1 million,” DORIS Commissioner Pauline Toole wrote in the blast message titled: “DORIS and OTI Project to dispose of obsolete email.” That savings in storage costs amounts to less than one one-thousandth of 1 percent of the city’s $110 billion expense budget, but OTI spokesperson Ray Legendre said the decision was made during the prior administration and was divorced from financial considerations. The change comes as federal authorities probe Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign’s potential ties to Turkey. “If nothing else, it’s a terrible look for him to do it right now,” quipped one City Council staffer. And while the policy does not extend to current city employees, it would apply to certain staffers who worked for Adams when he was Brooklyn borough president — though his successor is promising to keep those emails. “Borough Hall staff will not actively be deleting any emails from the past administration or otherwise,” Kristina Naplatarski, communications director for Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, told Playbook. (Reynoso, a progressive Democrat, is weighing a run for mayor himself.) City Hall pushed back on the idea that anything untoward is afoot. “Nothing sensitive is being deleted. We’re following federal guidelines, continuing a process that was put in place in 2017, and saving the city money,” Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said in an email. “Please don’t try to connect dots that aren’t there.” – Jeff Coltin IT’S THURSDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
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| A message from Tax Equity Now New York: New York City's property tax system is broken. For decades, political leaders and independent analysts have agreed that the City’s property tax system disproportionately burdens lower-income and minority neighborhoods and imposes higher taxes on the lowest-valued properties and owners. Learn more about the problem and what we’re doing to ensure NYC has the best and fairest property tax structure in the state and country by visiting TaxEquityNow.nyc. |
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WHERE’S KATHY? In New York City with no public schedule. WHERE’S ERIC? Making a sanitation and winter storm preparedness-related announcement, hosting a roundtable with leaders of New York City’s Sikh community and speaking at Teaching a Generation’s end-of-year event. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "This is a move toward greater NYPD transparency, to accommodate many MORE reporters from MORE outlets that want to cover us on a regular basis.” — The NYPD on why they decided to move the storied, decades-old press offices within NYPD headquarters to a trailer just outside the building.
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 | ABOVE THE FOLD | |
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 Mayor Eric Adams' legal defense fund is now accepting donations, but those wishing to donate must fall within a certain set of restrictions. | Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office |
GIVING TIME OF THE YEAR: Are you an employee of New York City? Have business before the city? A foreign national? An LLC? You won’t be able to give to Eric Adams’ Legal Defense Trust. The legal defense fund set up by Adams soon after it was revealed his campaign is under federal investigation is now actively seeking contributions. But there is a long list of restrictions as to who can donate. A contribution statement for the fund obtained by Playbook lists the prohibited donors, which include people who are “an agent of a foreign principal” as well as money from limited liability corporations. Nevertheless, a wide net has been cast to help raise money. A person familiar with the effort told Playbook the contribution disclosure form has been sent to a variety of donors and lobbyists who have contributed to Adams in the past. Cash contributions of more than $100 are not allowed, and people cannot give in the aggregate more than $5,000. The fund was created last month to help Adams’ cover legal bills as his campaign faces a federal investigation into whether it colluded with the Turkish government and received illegal donations through straw donations. No one, including the mayor, has been accused of any wrongdoing. But FBI officials raided the home of Adams’ political fundraiser and seized his electronic devices for several days. Vito Pitta, whose firm filed the paperwork to create the fund, said in an interview the restrictions follow the Conflict of Interest Board’s rules for donations to legal defense funds. Donors must complete an accompanying form attesting they are not prohibited from giving. Conflict of Interest Board Executive Director Carolyn Miller in an email confirmed the signed disclosure statement is required for donations to a legal defense fund under the law. — Nick Reisman
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| WHAT CITY HALL IS READING | |
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A new PSA entitled "Will We Still Love New York?" from advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless. The video warns that homeless encampments will proliferate throughout New York City's streets if the city's right to shelter provision is revoked. | Coalition for the Homeless |
WARNING VIA PSA: A new TV ad campaign, voiced by actor Richard Gere, imagines New York City filled with thousands living in tents if Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul succeed in their push to modify the decades-old right to shelter consent decree. “Without right to shelter protections, New York City’s streets and public spaces will soon be lined with tents and shanties like so many other U.S. cities today,” Gere warns in the spot from the Coalition for the Homeless, which is challenging the Adams administration in court. Adams has said he wants migrants exempted from the mandate. He seeks relief as the responsibility to shelter those in need, including tens of thousands of newcomers, overwhelms city resources. His administration has been limiting shelter stays to 30 and 60 days to create room for arriving migrants. — Emily Ngo HITTING ECONOMIC GOALS: The mayor and the city will tout progress today on the one-year anniversary of their “New” New York blueprint for equity in the region’s recovery post-Covid. Nearly 1 million recovered jobs, increased subway ridership and more New Yorkers returning to the office point to signs of a resurgence, they are expected to say. The Democrats’ “Making New York Work for Everyone” plan includes revamping business districts, improving commutes and employment hubs and fewer barriers in economic mobility. Adams in a statement acknowledged that not all the city’s economic problems were solved in the past year, but “we have started to shape a ‘new’ city.” — Emily Ngo More from the city: — DC 37, the huge public sector union that backed Adams’ election, sued the mayor over nixing union jobs as part of budget cuts. (POLITICO) — The Civilian Complaint Review Board is suspending several categories of investigations into police misconduct — including allegations of officers making false statements — due to mandated budget cuts. (POLITICO) — New York City is paying tens of thousands of dollars a month for meals that are supposed to go to feed migrants but are instead getting thrown away. (New York Times)
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| A message from Tax Equity Now New York:   |
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| WHAT ALBANY'S READING | |
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Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected the idea that a proposed amendment to the state constitution set to appear on the ballot in 2024 was a maneuver to increase Democratic voter turnout. | Hans Pennink/AP |
DON’T BE SO CYNICAL: Hochul on Wednesday dismissed the idea that a referendum for a proposed amendment to the state constitution enshrining a broad array of rights was meant to juice Democratic turnout. “That’s pretty cynical,” Hochul said on CNN. Regardless of intent, Democrats do expect the ballot referendum for the amendment will help spur people to the polls in 2024 as issues like abortion rights remain potent, even in New York, as the party hopes to win back the House. Hochul, however, pointed to the practical application of the amendment of ensuring rights for LGBTQ people as well as people with disabilities in addition to abortion rights. “We’re enshrining all the rights that could be jeopardized by future governors,” she said. “It's time for places like New York to stand up.” — Nick Reisman CUOMO’S RETURN: Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo made his first trip back to Albany since his 2021 resignation to help raise money for a scholarship fund created in honor of the late Letizia Tagliafierro. The fundraiser held at the Albany Hilton earlier this week raised more than $50,000 for a scholarship fund to benefit SUNY Albany students. Tagliafierro, a former state inspector general who died earlier this year after a battle with cancer, was a SUNY Albany graduate. The school will match the donations raised. About 150 people attended the event, including former administration officials and members of Tagliafierro’s family. — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — Horses will no longer be slaughtered for food under a law signed by Hochul. (Times Union) — Advocates are making a final push to have the state ban a pesticide they have contributed to ecological destruction. (Spectrum News) — New Yorkers’ medical debt will no longer be reported to credit rating agencies. (LoHud)
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| FROM THE DELEGATION | |
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All Democrats in New York City’s House delegation support a local measure to further limit solitary confinement in city jails. | John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit |
TOGETHER ON SOLITARY: All 11 Democrats in New York City’s House delegation want City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to pass a law before the end of the year further limiting solitary confinement in city jails. “In New York City’s jails, as in jurisdictions across the nation, solitary confinement is known to impose severe suffering and deterioration on an individual’s mental and physical well-being,” read an open letter published Wednesday. Rep. Adriano Espaillat led the effort. A bill that would strictly limit the amount of time someone could be held alone in a cell was presumed to be dead due to public opposition from Mayor Adams, but The City reported this week that the Council and City Hall may reach a deal in time for the last meeting of the year on Dec. 20. — Jeff Coltin More from the delegation: — Five changes Democrats could make to the Congressional maps if they want to swing for the fences. (POLITICO)
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| A message from Tax Equity Now New York: New York City's property tax system is fundamentally flawed and over-taxes lower-income and minority residents. The current model unfairly shifts the tax burden onto those less able to bear it. This results in higher taxes for poorer and minority New Yorkers compared to wealthier condo, co-op, and homeowners in more affluent areas.
For over two decades, political leaders have talked about how NYC's property tax system is unfair and inequitable, but they’ve done nothing. Learn more about the problem and what we’re doing to ensure NYC has the best and fairest property tax structure in the state and country by visiting TaxEquityNow.nyc. |
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| AROUND NEW YORK | |
— A Long Island family visited the White House to plead with President Joe Biden to help with the release of their son held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. (Newsday) — The City of Yonkers’ mayor and city council members will receive massive pay raises in a measure approved Tuesday. (LoHud) — Rochester’s police accountability board wants to unionize, but it may end up joining a union that represents many of the police personnel it's tasked with holding accountable. (NY Focus)
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| SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | |
NEW SOM CITY: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in town to appear on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, huddled in a midtown Manhattan office Wednesday morning with political fixtures to pitch his Campaign for Democracy super PAC, tout President Joe Biden as a 2024 surrogate and get a little facetime of his own. Attendees included P.R. exec. Ken Sunshine, major Democratic donor Dennis Mehiel, former New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Peter Ragone, the longtime Newsom confidant and former Bill de Blasio adviser who has made a career on both coasts. — Christopher Cadelago MAKING MOVES — Benjamin Stanislawski is now communications director for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). He previously was communications director for Will Jawando’s Maryland Senate campaign. … Matthew Nguyen is leaving his role as a senior adviser to the House Select Committee on China, returning to his former life trading commodities in New York. … Giulia Balentine has joined J Strategies as a vice president on the public affairs team. She was previously a senior associate at SKDK. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: former FBI Director James Comey … Assembly candidate Eli Northup … Raffi Williams … CNN’s Abigail Crutchfield … Kirsten Powers … Norbert Funke … Fernando Elizondo Junco … Ryan Hagen … Schuyler Ebersol (WAS WEDNESDAY): Noam Bramson ... David Eisner ... Jeff Greenblatt ... Suzi Oppenheimer
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| Real Estate | |
— Condo sales in New York are poised to make a comeback to pre-pandemic levels. (The Real Deal) — As church congregation sizes dwindle, developers in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy see their buildings as real estate opportunities. (Crain’s New York Business) |
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