Former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s attempt to skip out on paying nearly $500,000 in restitution and fines for sticking taxpayers with the bill for his NYPD detail during his failed 2020 presidential run was struck down Tuesday by a state Supreme Court judge.
Judge Shahabuddeen Abid Ally tossed out de Blasio’s suit, calling his claims that mayors are exempt from the city’s charter laws and that he was not responsible for security decisions “meritless.”
The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board ruled in June 2023 that de Blasio would have to pay back $319,794.20 – and a $155,000 fine – for travel, meal and lodging expenses for his police detail, who traveled with him and his family as soon as he announced his bid for the White House in May 2019.
De Blasio consulted with COIB to see if taxpayers could foot the bill for his security detail, and the board ruled in a confidential memo that while the city could pay the salaries and overtime of the officers, it couldn’t pay for their out-of-city travel costs.
He traveled to Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina with them anyway.
After the fine was announced, de Blasio filed a lawsuit against the board, arguing that he was exempt from the city’s conflicts of interest rules and that it was the police department’s decision, and not his, to travel with his protective detail.
In his 81-page ruling, Judge Ally repeatedly disagreed with de Blasio’s defense that the board’s ruling and reasoning was “irrational.”
Judge Ally agreed with the board’s findings that having taxpayers pay for police protection on the campaign trail violated rules that prohibit the use of city resources for non-city purposes and that de Blasio was abusing his official position for his own personal advantage and financial gain.
He ruled that the city “demonstrated that petitioner’s claims that respondents acted arbitrarily and capriciously and in violation of law are meritless.”
De Blasio did not respond to a phone call and text message seeking comment.
