JCOPE Announces Settlements ‘Related to Donations to Campaign for One New York’

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), the state’s ethics and lobbying regulator, announced today that it has reached settlement agreements with two lobbying organizations and individual lobbyists regarding alleged Lobbying Act violations related to donations made by them to the Campaign for One New York (CONY).

According to JCOPE’s announcement:

“These settlements arose out of an investigation opened in 2015 in which the Commission learned of lobbyists and clients of lobbyists who, while actively lobbying New York City officials, including the mayor, donated to CONY at the request of either the Mayor or Offinger. Following the March 2017 announcement by the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York that it had completed its investigation into fundraising by and on behalf of the Mayor (including CONY’s activities) and would not be filing criminal charges, the Commission resumed investigating these matters under its mandate to regulate the activities of lobbyists and their clients in New York State.”

In the first matter, lobbyist James Capalino contributed $10,000 to the non-profit and bundled an additional $90,000 in contributions from nine of his lobbying clients. Shortly after the contributions were made, Capalino coordinated with a de Blasio fundraiser to hold a meeting with Capalino and his clients that had made contributions. He acknowledged no wrongdoing, but will pay a $40,000 fine. (Read the settlement here.)

In the second matter, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets was an advocacy group that was established to ban horse carriages in New York City. The group’s founder and a board member each made $50,000 contributions to CONY.  But the group agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for their failure to file bi-monthly lobbying disclosures from January to July 2014. (Read the settlement here.)

JCOPE’s announcement also indicates that “The Commission’s investigation relating to donations to CONY is continuing.”

Read news coverage from Capitol Confidential, State of Politics, the NY Post and (behind its paywall) Politico NY.