NYC NOW - July 17, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams confirms Edward Caban as the NYPD Commissioner. In other news, the Whitney Museum of American Art celebrates the 141st birthday of painter Edward Hopper. Furthermore, New York State braces for potential weather disruptions after yesterday’s intense rainfall. Finally, an internal integrity issue emerges within the New York City Campaign Finance Board following its executive director’s departure, a situation unveiled by WNYC’s Brigid Bergin who further discusses her findings with WNYC’s Michael Hill.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, July 17th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. New York City has a new top cop. Acting Commissioner Edward Caban will succeed Kishon-Soul as NYPD Commissioner. Mayor Adams says support for Caban is wide-ranging and far-reaching. All I kept hearing was Edward Caban, Edward Caban. that he was the right person to be the first deputy commissioner

and to ascend to the position of being the police commissioner of the city of New York. Gabon was first deputy commissioner under Seoul. She resigned last month. Caban will become the first Latino police commissioner. He's a third generation Puerto Rican. His grandparents came from the city of Ponce, but Caban was raised in Parkchester in the Bronx. The Whitting Museum of American Art is throwing a 141st birthday birthday

a party for the iconic painter, Edward Hopper. It's this Saturday, July 22nd. Who's invited? Well, everyone. Hopper spent his entire mature career working in New York City. The Whitney holds more than 3,000 of his works in its collection, including some on view right now. Visitors 18 and Younger can take part in Hopper-related art projects from 11 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, and the Whitney's organizing a 60-mile round-trip bike ride to the Edward Hoppin Museum. and Study Center in NIAC, where even more celebrations will take place. New York State faces another day of weather concerns today. After intense rain pummeled the region yesterday,

today's hot sun is expected to drive things out, but the Department of Environmental Conservation has issued air quality alerts for much of the region. Upstate counties are expected to face more fine particulate matter from Canada's wildfire smoke. The city on Long Island will face that. plus increased ozone levels. The DEC says air quality will reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups. Those alerts come as some residents are still recovering from Sunday's weather, which closed roads,

flooded basements, and canceled hundreds of flights from LaGuardia, Newark, and JFK. Your forecast now, 86 and sunny right now with haze. Today's sunny and hot all the way up to 90. Night widespread haze, partly cloudy in 75, and then tomorrow afternoon showers and thunderstorms. likely hazy, partly sunny in 88, with nighttime showers and thunderstorms as well. Again, 86 and sunny. When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the indictments of six people in a straw donor scheme related to Mayor Adams' campaign, he talked about the importance of the campaign finance board to the city's democracy. When the integrity of that program is corrupted, Alvin Bragg said in a statement, all New Yorkers suffer. But the agent

see that prides itself on accountability and transparency is facing an internal integrity dilemma of its own making. It's connected to the recent departure of its executive director. That's according to documents obtained by WNIC's Bridget Bergen through a Freedom of Information Act request in interviews with more than 10 current and former staff there. She joins me now to talk about what she found and why it matters for the city's voters and taxpayers. Bridget, let's tackle an important question up front. For people who don't follow local politics, why should they care about the city's campaign finance board? Well, because what we're really talking about is your money and how it's being spent by an agency founded in response to government corruption. It's also

considered the gold standard for the nation for how taxpayer dollars can be used for campaigns. The agency goes back more than 35 years to scandals during mayor-caut. administration, the city passed a series of ethics reforms, including establishing the New York City Campaign Finance Board with the aim of reducing the influence of big money and politics by creating a public matching program for small donations. Now, it sits apart from the mayor's office. It's overseen by a five-member board with appointments from the mayor and city council speaker. And the staff there, they are sticklers for the rules for candidates and campaigns, because integrity with public money is at the heart of their work.

So, Bridget, what prompted your recent investigation? So back in May, the agency put out a statement saying its most recent executive director, Beth Rotman, was resigning to take care of an ailing family member. She'd only been there about seven months, which is a really short time, especially at the CFB. They've only had two previous executive directors, one who served for 18 years and another who served for 16. So after my story ran, Michael, several staff members reached out to tell me that the agency statement was not telling the whole story.

So I submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests to find out what was really going on. And Bridget, what did you learn? Well, first, Rotman did not resign voluntarily. The board asked her to step aside over concerns about her management. They also signed a separation agreement with her, keeping her on as a special assistant at her. $250,000 salary through just last Friday, July 14th. And then this, Michael, that's the sound of the files. Those are all the receipts, invoices, internal memos, emails, and credit card statements that they sent me, which I'd love to look through with you now. There is a lot here. What

jumped out at you? Well, let's, we'll start with the furniture. Rotman spent about $40,000 during her short time at the agency. What? And a lot, yeah, on high-end office furniture to overhaul her office and create a co-working staff lounge.

If you want to take a look at some of these receipts with me. I see a designer egg chair, an executive chair, a wireless Dyson vacuum. Yeah,

which the agency says it can't currently locate, by the way. Rotman did not respond to my question about the vacuum. She said that she worked with an organizational psychologist on the lounge. It was part of her focus to create a more unified culture at the CFB. But these purchases were made, Michael, at a time when most staff were still working from home and when other city agencies were being asked to slash their spending.

So these purchases did not sit well internally. Bridget, I also say this memo for meals and others. what seemed like personal items, that can't be allowed. Yeah, and it isn't exactly, Michael. In March, her deputy director of operations, Mario Rokeville, sent her a memo about 40 receipts totaling $2,600 that she was seeking reimbursements for. One of them was a receipt for lunch at the Odeon.

So I took my colleagues, John Campbell and Liz Kim there to check it out. Barada and Mordidella sandwich. It's a hotspot for city government movers and shakers. For city employees and even agency heads, the rules around meal reimbursements are pretty strict. You need to provide clear details of who you were eating way that can't just be another city employee and why. Roepville only approved a handful of these expenses. He rejected a dozen others, and then he asked for detailed justification memos for the rest of them. And not long after that, he...

made his own big move. What did he do? Well, according to the resignation letters they provided to me in the FOIL request, he resigned. But he was not alone in making a decision to leave the CFB. The agency's general counsel, Bethany Persky, who had been there for 12 years, also resigned citing Rotman's leadership. I contacted both Rockville and Persky to ask if they had anything additional to say, and they both declined to comment for the story. Bridget, I have to ask, what has Rodman said to all this? So I made many attempts to reach her. I called and left messages, emailed a long list of questions.

She started to respond via text, and then in two emailed statements, one of which she recorded for me as a voice memo. She says she's committed to ensuring people trust systems of our local democracy, and she has denied any wrongdoing. And then she said this. The people who drive real change take risks, challenge the entrenched norms and outdated practices that hinder progress and start trying to move mountains. That's what I was doing at the CFB, an agency that needs internal transformation to serve New York City residents as they deserved.

I'm curious, what has the board said about all this? No one from the board would actually speak on tape, but after asking for Rotman's resignation and keeping her on the payroll for two months, I did receive a statement where they said they have adopted new procedures to limit the spending authority of the next executive director. They also say they plan to institute clearer procedures that would alert the board about future internal complaints regarding an executive director's conduct. And at this point, they just want to move forward in a search for a new leader. WNYC's Bridget Bergen getting to the truth about the campaign finance board. Bridget, thank you. Thank you, Michael.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.