Some call New York the home of rude and arrogant behavior, while New Yorkers call it everyday life.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Emails reveal <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/deBlasio?src=hash">#deBlasio</a> bullies his staffers <a href="https://t.co/UN3cncuhC5">https://t.co/UN3cncuhC5</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/nypmetro">@nypmetro</a></p>— John Burnett (@IamJohnBurnett) <a href="https://twitter.com/IamJohnBurnett/status/895256505116766209">August 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
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However, there is a fine line between being firm and being professional when it comes to one's career, especially political office.
Seemingly that line has been crossed by controversial New York Mayor Bill de Blasio though, with the accusation that he not only bullied his staffers but threatened them if they didn't submit to his demands.
The emails show de Blasio releasing his anguish into nearly a dozen aides for failing to make sure phonetic versions of challenging words were included in his speeches and talking points.
Here are some of the emails he sent to his staffers:
<i>“What do I need to get you guys to follow a direct order? Do you need to experience consequences?”</i>
<i>“I’m not raising this again: fix it, or I will [have] no choice but to find a way to penalize people. Not my preference, but I won’t have my instructions ignored.”</i>
<i>“This is literally the 100th time I am reminding you all that phonetic spellings require one syllable to be capitalized to indicate emphasis in pronunciation.”</i>
<i>“I have no idea why you guys can’t get it. All of the folks in comms, speechwriting and my personal staff who looked at these remarks, it just takes ONE to catch it.”</i>
<i>"How can it be that none of you noticed the absence of the word Jeshurun. Work on quality control pls. Fix these remarks now pls. Example: pho-NET-ic.”</i>
A former campaign staffer to De Blasio said the tone of his emails was a near perfect replication of his verbal tirades in addressing subordinates who he made to feel they were beneath him.
“I used to talk to the guy, and he talked down to me every single time,” the source said. “He would consistently speak to me in a condescending tone that was just offensive.”
De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips insisted his boss ‘is always professional, and is a direct communicator who understandably demands a lot from the city’s public servants’ in an effort to make him seem professional.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Explosive emails show 'corrupt' de Blasio donors had run of City Hall <a href="https://t.co/4r7b3MyN3p">https://t.co/4r7b3MyN3p</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/nypmetro">@nypmetro</a><br>DeBlasio is a wart on New York.😔</p>— Deplorable Gil (@GILMONK1) <a href="https://twitter.com/GILMONK1/status/895297260392775682">August 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Mayor Bill de Blasio is often controversial, and sometimes borderline criminal. Earlier this year the Mayor and his aides dodged federal and state charges against them stemming from their campaign fundraising practices, even though they violated the “intent and spirit” of election law, authorities could not prove they did so “willfully” and de Blasio walked away without charges.
One of de Blasio’s donors, Jona Rechnitz, who pleaded guilty in March to making contributions to extract favorable treatment from government officials, had such a relationship with the corrupt Mayor that he wrote the Mayor directly on April 28th, 2014, asking to ‘serve on your committee’ in order to ‘combat police corruption.’ ”
According to those close to the Mayor Hizzoner allegedly then forwarded the request to the Mayor's top aide Avi Fink, who then sent it on to other officials including the City Hall’s Director of Appointments at the time.
On a different occasion, Rechnitz’s associate, Jeremy Reichberg, asked directly for City Hall to intervene to lower a $650,000 water bill on a building in Borough Park, Brooklyn, with the matter addressed directly to the First Deputy Mayor's Chief of Staff.
Mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips said Friday that the bill was later lowered to $125,304 because of a meter defect in the system, adding that action was normal “in such situations.”
Mayor de Blasio claims he barely knew the men, however, but e-mails released Friday show that two of his major campaign donors who were later accused of corruption were given the run of City Hall and had direct ties to him which contradict the claims of de Blasio.
The new batch of emails was released late Friday in response to a Freedom of Information request. All of the information contained inside directly contradict the Mayor's repeated assertions that campaign donors are never given special access.
They also call into question his claim that he barely knew the two now tainted financial donors.
“It’s not a particularly close relationship,’’ de Blasio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in April of 2016. “I met them first around the time of the general election. I hadn’t known them previously, really haven’t seen them in the last year or more. They supported the effort.”
The emails tell a different story.
They show Rechnitz contacted the mayor directly on matters large and small including inviting the Mayor as a personal guest to his son’s bris, seeking to ‘exchange thoughts on a controversial production at the Metropolitan Opera’, and asking to ‘pop by City Hall to have a Holocaust survivor present Hizzoner with a book’.
On April 1st of 2014, three months into the new Administration, Rechnitz forwarded a friend’s application for the job of buildings commissioner, which Hizzoner gladly accepted.
“I’m all ears, Jona. We’ve actually been looking for additional candidates. I’ve cc’ed my chief of staff Laura Santucci. Pls, send the info to her as well. Thanks,” is what de Blasio responded personally to the email less than an hour after receiving it from a man de Blasio previously claimed he barely knew.
In late November of 2014, Rechnitz once again asked the Mayor’s Office for help with various violations on a building that he owned which was being accused of acting as an illegal hotel.
Later, a top Mayoral aide to de Blasio arranged a personal meeting at City Hall before she knew the details surrounding the situation. It's clear the two not only knew each other but knew each other well enough to meet frequently.
The emails show the Mayor's government doors always opened for Rechnitz in return for him then opening his checkbook for assistance.
He donated a whopping $50,000 to de Blasio’s failed Campaign for One New York nonprofit, and he and his wife also gave de Blasio $9,900 for the 2013 mayoral campaign, which is the maximum allowed.
Rechnitz then kicked in additional $102,300 toward a failed effort which was spearheaded by the corrupt Mayor, to help Democrats win control of the state Senate in late 2014.
His communications with City Hall suggest that he not only expected that financial support would be rewarded with whatever demands he would need, but that those demands were met and met often.
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Again, like a slippery, slimy little fish, de Blasio managed to escape the hook of Justice and defeat the prosecution.
