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February 12, 2012
Mayor-bid $ecrets
New York Post
By David Seifman
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s campaign didn’t report the true number of contributions raised for his mayoral campaign by Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner.
De Blasio’s filing last month with the Campaign Finance Board showed Ratner took in $4,000 from three individuals with ties to the construction industry — Michael Kaleda, Joseph Posillico and Lloyd Sokoloff — in what turned out to be a record $1 million six-month fund-raising period for the Democratic mayoral contender.
Following inquiries by The Post, de Blasio aides conceded that another $4,500 from construction executives Anthony Mann, Richard Minieri and Vincent Sciullo wasn’t reported as linked to Ratner, which is required by law.
...
At a time when local activists were attacking the Atlantic Yards project, de Blasio — a progressive with close ties to the Working Families Party — was coming out in support by citing the jobs and affordable housing that would be created.
De Blasio aides said they plan to file an amended intermediary form with the CFB correcting all the errors, a move that should take care of any legal issues.
While they’re at it they might want to add employer information for five of the six construction executives who somehow didn’t list that information, making it difficult to spot their connections to Ratner without a scorecard.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Post: Ratner bundled contributions for de Blasio, but both made efforts to downplay it
New York Post Inside City Hall columnist David Seifman reports, in Mayor-bid $ecrets: Ratner pals’ mystery cash, that mayoral candidate and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio reported $4,000 from three individuals via developer Bruce Ratner as intermediary, but failed to report another $4,500 from three more construction executives.
That's a relative pittance, given de Blasio's $1 millon haul, but it looks kind of fishy. Beyond that, Ratner's not supposed to be listed as the “intermediary,” since the total was actually solicited by FCR construction executive Bob Sanna, Seifman was told.
Seifman writes:
In that case, why change the name of the intermediary from Ratner to Sanna?
There’s no way Sanna would do any of this without direction from Ratner, who has made no secret of his support for de Blasio. In December 2010, Ratner wrote a check for $4,950 to help close out debts from de Blasio’s 2009 campaign for the public-advocate job. Last year, Ratner hosted a birthday party/fund-raiser for de Blasio.
One political insider speculated that the developer wanted to play down his role so as not to antagonize other candidates.
Added reason for raised eyebrows: on de Blasio's filing, Ratner is listed as "Forrest City Ratnor Companies CEO."
That's a double spelling error, since it should be Forest City Ratner. Are those filing so dumb they don't know how to spell? Or so Mickey Mouse they think that misspelling the firm's name, as well as the last name of the CEO, could stymie those doing keyword searches?
Posted by steve at February 12, 2012 5:28 PM