Mayor Eric Adams is under fire for a draft audit by a city watchdog that flagged 22 categories of irregularities in records for his 2021 campaign, including $2.3 million in questionable expenses.
A day after Gothamist exclusively reported on the 900-page-long audit, officials in and out of government criticized what they said appeared to be shoddy record-keeping and an inattention to detail with taxpayer money. Former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, who is expected to mount a primary challenge against Adams next year, saw parallels with recent fights over Adams’ proposed budget cuts.
“This has clearly spilled over to the government of New York City because the same problems that we identify in the draft audit are the same problems we’ve identified in the draft city budget and the way the mayor approaches governing,” Stringer said.
The draft audit raised questions about prohibited donations, straw donors, and expenses that lacked proper documentation. Auditors requested further information on whether certain expenses were for legitimate campaign purposes, including more than $10,000 spent on parking tickets and car repairs.
Stringer, a Manhattan Democrat, saw a resistance to transparency in both Adams’ administration and campaign.
“What I think is happening internally is this government is slowly collapsing,” Stringer said.
Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy dismissed the criticism.
“Is he purposefully conflating government and campaign or just doesn’t know the difference between the two?” Levy said.
Other Democrats seeking to challenge Adams in a mayoral primary — city Comptroller Brad Lander and Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie — declined to comment.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler, chair of the committee on government operations, has been pushing to expedite the Campaign Finance Board’s imposition of penalties on campaigns that fail to provide information in a timely fashion. Many of the issues flagged in the draft audit of Adams’ 2021 campaign have been under scrutiny for years.
“Taxpayers pay for New York City’s matching funds programs,” Restler said. “New Yorkers can’t afford to wait three years for campaigns to receive fines for prohibited activity – we need real and immediate accountability to ensure that campaigns don’t receive matching funds if they fail to follow the rules.”
Restler introduced a package of bills earlier this year that would grant the Campaign Finance Board the power to withhold public matching funds from any candidate that does not respond to their information requests within 30 days. The legislation would also require the Campaign Finance Board to verify donors and limit how much people with business before the city can raise on behalf of a candidate.
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, said it’s time for the City Council to add new guardrails to the law governing the city’s campaign finance system. She said there is no mechanism under the current law to force campaigns to provide required documentation.
“There needs to be a change in the law,” said Lerner. “If a campaign does not respond or provide requested information by a certain time frame…there will be a presumption that they do not have the records or they violated the law.”