A development firm that inked a $12 million deal with the city donated $25,000 to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s nonprofit — after receiving a phone call from Hizzoner himself, according to newly released details.
A less-redacted version of the 15-page Department of Investigation report released last month gives a closer look into de Blasio’s fundraising tactics.
Though many details remain secret, the identities of four development companies that donated to de Blasio’s now-defunct nonprofit Campaign for One New York were revealed.
They included Douglaston Development LLC, which got approved for more than $12 million in taxpayer funds, as well as a transfer of city-owned property in the Bronx, for its mixed-use project “Crossroads Plaza” in December 2014, the report said.
On Feb. 15, de Blasio called the developer, who was not identified, for a 10-minute chat mostly about “city politics,” according to the documents.
“Near the end of the conversation, Mayor de Blasio mentioned CONY and informed [redacted] that he would receive a follow-up call” from mayoral fundraiser Ross Offinger.
Offinger called shortly after, the developer told DOI, though he “could not recall whether Mayor de Blasio explicitly asked for a donation to CONY during this call, or whether Offinger was the first to solicit a donation.”
De Blasio told DOI that he couldn’t recall his phone call to the developer.
CONY disbanded in 2016.
DOI investigators reported they “substantiated” reports the “Mayor solicited contributions from any individual who had, or whose organization had, a matter pending or about to be pending before any executive branch of the City.”
But details of the agency’s other conclusions in the report remain redacted.
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