Mayor de Blasio’s patronage mill is churning out junk jobs funded with taxpayer money for longtime pals, campaign grunts and acolytes.
In addition to creating a $150,000 post for Stephanie Yazgi — the longtime girlfriend of his top strategist, Emma Wolfe — de Blasio has created positions to amp up his progressive agenda and national profile and spread propaganda touting his “transcendent” accomplishments.
The city’s television station — led by de Blasio buddy Janet Choi — devotes much of its taxpayer-funded $5.7 million budget to broadcasting his ribbon-cuttings, announcements and features about his friends, including his wedding singer.
His $105,000 digital director, Jessica Singleton, shapes his social-media image while his $69,000 media analyst, Mahen Gunaratna, measures the influence of his messages.
But the bulk of his buddies land jobs at City Hall in the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit.
The CAU traditionally had staffers represent the mayor at community-board and civic-group meetings across the city, reporting back to the administration on neighborhood concerns.
“The CAU has now turned into a four-year organizing arm of the de Blasio campaign,” said a former liaison with the unit.
Stephanie Yazgi, Emma Wolfe, Janet Choi and Jessica Singleton
Photo: Facebook ; Rob Bennett for the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio (2) ; Assoc. Commissioner at New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment
The unit now employs Pinny Ringel, a $65,000-a-year liaison to the Jewish community and a former Public Advocate’s Office staffer under de Blasio.
Sarah Sayeed is a liaison who specializes in the Muslim community. And Jonathan Soto is senior community liaison to the Clergy Advisory Council, another de Blasio creation.
Kicy Motley, a de Blasio campaign worker who tweeted “F- -k. The. Police.” in 2012, found a home in the CAU office as $55,000-a-year Brooklyn borough director.
And Rebecca Lynch, a Teamsters union lobbyist who backed de Blasio’s campaign, landed a gig as an $85,000-a-year special assistant in the CAU before taking a leave of absence to launch a bid for City Council in Queens.
De Blasio’s politicized CAU failed him in the Legionnaire’s disease outbreak, when there was a disconnect between City Hall and South Bronx community leaders.
“The CAU is supposed to know everything happening in the boroughs in every community,” said political consultant George Arzt. “There should have been briefings on what is going on and what they hear on the ground.”
