First Lady Chirlane McCray took a taxpayer-funded trip to Iowa this week for what was supposed to be meetings on mental health — and then spent one of her two days stumping for local Democratic candidates.
City Hall officials said they cleared the political work with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board last week. But they didn’t announce the political events in the key election state until hours before they happened.
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As a result, a rare Q&A with McCray scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday had to be canceled when not a single reporter showed up.
Asked Thursday why city taxpayers should fund his wife’s trip, Mayor de Blasio said she was trying to change federal policies that could impact New York City.
“The idea of this is really straightforward: We’re trying to build a consensus on mental health, Democrat and Republican, that can lead to the changes in Washington that would benefit this city,” he said at an unrelated press conference in Manhattan.
“In Iowa right now, this issue is hugely important. A lot of the leadership there wanted to meet with her — folks who are doing mental-health work there. She’s doing other activities, as well.”
The initial cost of the trip for McCray and two aides was estimated at $3,000, according to City Hall. But officials said the political events will likely lower the cost for taxpayers, since the mayor’s national political-action committee, Fairness PAC, would pick up some of the tab.
De Blasio has previously hunted for official excuses to justify out-of-state political travels.
When he realized a trip he was planning in September 2015 had no city-business justification, he instructed aides to find one.
“We need at least one good hit to build the trip around. One important govt mtg or one speaking opportunity or presser,” he wrote in an e-mail at the time.
McCray has taken at least 30 business trips out of state since May 2015, many taxpayer-funded, as she weighs a run for office.
Mary Jane Cobb, director of the Iowa State Education Association, said her group had asked McCray to discuss her ThriveNYC mental-health initiative at a school in Johnston, Iowa, on Thursday.
“In looking around the country and even into Canada and other places, the city’s Thrive coalition came into light as an opportunity,” Cobb explained.
Cobb said her group, whose Des Moines headquarters de Blasio spoke at in April 2015, connected McCray to local Democratic candidates after the trip was planned.
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