Brotherly Love: Mayor Gets Security Aide At $1 Bargain Price

Going once, going twice, sold.

Mayor Adams, who initially tried to install his brother Bernard Adams as a Deputy Police Commissioner at $240,000 a year to coordinate the City Hall security detail, then—after loud protests about nepotism—downgraded his role to safeguard only himself at $210,000, Jan. 27 had to accept a further-reduced role for Bernard at a nominal cost to the city of $1 a year.

Cleared by Conflicts Board

That bargain salary and scaled-down power—the younger Adams will have no subordinates "and no command power" over any NYPD officer—was the price paid to gain a waiver from the city Conflicts of Interest Board to allow Bernard to serve in the title of Senior Advisor for Mayoral Security.

Under the board's ruling, the retired NYPD Sergeant—who left that job in 2006, the same year Eric retired as a city Police Captain after winning a Brooklyn State Senate seat that launched his career in elected office—will be allowed to continue collecting his roughly $64,000-a-year pension. The Mayor had previously said his brother would relinquish his pension payments while in the job at the time that it was expected to pay considerably more.

The older Adams when he first announced Bernard's appointment as Deputy Police Commissioner Jan. 7 had insisted he was uniquely qualified for the assignment because of their close relationship. When that didn't quiet the accusations of nepotism, he said it was particularly important to have someone he implicitly trusted safeguarding him because of concerns about terrorism and "white supremacy."

But he could not make the case that someone whose most-recent job was assistant director of parking at Virginia Commonwealth University would be better-qualified than active NYPD Intelligence Division employees who comprise the Mayor's security detail.

'Doesn't Pass Smell Test'

One former ranking city official, speaking conditioned on anonymity, said Jan. 28 that the appointment, even at the deeply discounted salary, "doesn't pass the smell test," surmising that the Mayor had wanted Bernard to be overseeing security because "he doesn't want anybody to know where he's going and what he's doing."

During the previous administration, there were occasional leaks of information to the media that were thought to be coming from unhappy members of Mayor Bill de Blasio's security detail. A couple of months before he left office, the city Department of Investigation issued a blistering report that accused the then-Mayor of improperly using NYPD Detectives to provide security while he was campaigning for President in other states, to chauffeur his son Dante to and from Yale University while he was a student there, and occasionally transport other friends and associates.

The application that gained a waiver from the Conflicts Board was submitted in a Jan. 25 letter from Brendan McGuire, Chief Counsel to the Mayor.

What Duties Entail

In a responding letter the following day from COIB Chair Jeffrey Friedlander that bore the signatures of three other board members, it was noted that "Bernard Adams would be responsible for advising the Mayor and his staff on security issues, including the security of the Mayor and his family, and would advise on methods of outreach to communities affected by the Mayor's actions and movement in order to ensure security."

It went on to note the section of the City Charter that prohibits public servants "from using or attempting to use his or her City position to obtain any private advantage, direct or indirect, for the public servant or for any person or firm associated with the public servant," including "a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent or sibling..."

Even in cases where an appointee would not receive a salary, the letter noted, a waiver was required in any instance where the job involved was "one of 'power and prestige,' " as was the case with Senior Advisor for Mayoral Security, because holding it would provide "a private advantage for Bernard Adams."

But the letter noted that in addition to the Mayor's claim that his brother holding this position would "enhance the security of the Mayor and his family...Bernard Adams will be subject to the same integrity safeguards as other public servants, including, among other things, the requirements and obligations of the City's conflicts of interest law and annual disclosure law."

'No Command Authority'

"And," Mr. Friedlander's letter added, "the proposed role is advisory and does not involve the supervision of public servants or any command authority over NYPD personnel."

The letter noted that among those mayoral family members for whom waivers were previously granted were Mayor Michael Bloomberg's sister, Marjorie Tiven, who served as the city's uncompensated Commissioner for the United Nations, and his daughter, Emma Bloomberg, who served as "an unpaid administrative assistant in the Mayor's Office."

Bill Cunningham, who served as Mr. Bloomberg's Communications Director for most of his first term before leaving in April 2005 to work on his re-election campaign, said in a phone interview, "Emma was hired as an unpaid intern. She had been in the [2001] campaign and wanted to work around City Hall. Because it was an unpaid position and she had no decision-making authority, the board approved it."

As for Mr. Bloomberg's sister, he continued, "Commissioner Tiven did have some decision-making authority. In Marjorie's case, I think that by working for a dollar a year she was donating her services to the city," which prompted the board to grant the waiver.

Fault of Mayor's Advisers?

Asked why, given those precedents and that of Mr. de Blasio's wife, Chirland McCray, going uncompensated for her work for the city, Eric Adams would not have looked to get his brother positions that paid such high salaries, Mr. Cunningham replied, "It's not a secret what happened in the past. There are people on your staff who are supposed to warn you when there are going to be problems."

He declined to speculate when it was suggested that maybe Mr. Adams had received such a warning and chose to ignore it initially. Whatever the case, Mr. Cunningham said, "The Mayor was put in a bad spot. I guess in baseball this would be called an unforced error."