Lawmaker drafting bill to block City Hall staffers from deals involving former employers

Brooklyn Council Member Lincoln Restler (D–Boerum Hill) wants to close a loophole in New York City ethics law, which he says permits powerful government staffers to work on projects related to their former private sector employers. 

Restler is now drafting a reform bill prompted by the I-Team’s investigation into Nathan Bliss, a Chief of Staff under Mayor Eric Adams, who continues to have a financial relationship with his former employer, real estate developer Taconic Partners.

Shortly after Bliss left Taconic in 2022 and took a job as the Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Taconic was officially selected for a deal to take over city-owned property that currently houses New York City’s public health laboratory. Restler said the timing and the financial relationship, first revealed by the I-Team, are troubling.

“In a situation where somebody had been working for a development company and now that development company is getting a sweetheart deal to re-develop public property, it raises a lot of questions,” Restler said. “Based on your reporting, it’s clear that we urgently need to close that loophole.”

Restler said he would seek to introduce the reform legislation in the Spring.

“The intent of our legislation that we are drafting right now is to prohibit somebody who is entering city government from being able to work with their former employer, whether that be a real estate company or an entity that’s contracting with the city on technology issues, or other things, or is a lobbyist,” Restler explained.

In the meantime, city lawmakers are examining Nathan Bliss’s response to a recent joint inquiry from the Council Oversight Committee and the Council Economic Development Committee.

Last month, those committees asked Bliss to report which New York City properties make up a Taconic real estate investment fund in which Bliss reported having a financial stake. Bliss declined to name which properties are in the fund – but did confirm four of the six addresses lie within the borders of Manhattan. The City Hall staffer insisted he has no financial interest in the city laboratory project known as “Innovation East.”  Last year Taconic listed Bliss, a former employee of the firm, as a target of its lobbying efforts related to “Innovation East” and at least six other development projects. 

“[T]he project known as Innovation East at 455 First Avenue is not one of the properties in the Fund,” Bliss wrote.    “I understand that I was listed, along with many other ‘targets,’ in a lobbying disclosure document filed by a Taconic lobbyist, but I can find no record, nor do I recall any discussion or meeting regarding this or any other Taconic project.”

The I-Team asked a spokesperson for Taconic Partners whether the company ever contacted Bliss about any matter during his time in City Hall. That rep, Andy Merrill, confirmed the company has reached out to its former employee, but declined to say which projects or properties had been discussed. He also declined to specify which properties are in the Taconic investment fund.

“Since Nate Bliss returned to work for the City of New York, Taconic has never sought or suggested that Mr. Bliss approve or influence the approval of any project involving Taconic in any way,” Merrill wrote to the I-Team.  “Rather, the limited contacts between Taconic and Mr. Bliss regarding City related matters have been sporadic informational requests.”

Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams, also declined to say which properties Bliss discussed with his former employer, but she confirmed the Chief of Staff has now formally distanced himself from Taconic.

“He will be recusing himself from any Taconic project, including any New York Land Development Corporation (NYLDC) actions,” Garcia wrote.

Mayor Adams appointed Bliss to lead the NYLDC, an entity which must approve transactions to hand public property over to private interests. 

According to Bliss’s response to the Oversight Committee, an attorney at the City’s Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) advised him in 2022 “that a general conflict did not exist and that no formal recusal was necessary” relating to his financial relationship with Taconic. But Bliss also wrote there was “a miscommunication with COIB concerning the nature of my interest in the Fund.” He did not explain what that miscommunication was.

After the I-Team report last month revealed Bliss’s relationship with his former employer, he wrote that he sought a second round of guidance from COIB, and this time he was told that he should formally recuse himself from any involvement in any Taconic project.

Carolyn Miller, the Executive Director of the Conflicts of Interest Board, told the I-Team she is prohibited from discussing the matter – and could not say whether her staff referred the case to the NYC Department of Investigation (DOI). When asked if there was an active investigation into Bliss’s ties to Taconic, a rep for DOI also declined comment.

Thursday, the City Council voted 48-0, approving Taconic’s bid to turn the publicly-owned health lab in to private, commercial lab space. Construction on the property across the street from Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan would begin after the city-owned laboratory moves into a more modern facility in Harlem.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D –Jamaica) said the vote to approve the Taconic project had only to do with the technical merits of the land-use application, which is separate from the ongoing City Council probe into how the deal came about.

“The reports of a potential conflict of interest regarding a contract are being taken very seriously,” Speaker Adams said.  “I’m not going to offer an opinion one way or another, but am very happy to see the investigation go forward.”