NYC Mayor Adams gets waiver to hire his brother — but can only pay him $1: ‘It was never about the money’
The city’s government ethics watchdog informed Mayor Adams this week that he can only hire his brother for a job in his administration as long as the post is effectively unpaid — and Hizzoner claimed that’s fine with him.
“It was never about the money,” Adams told the Daily News on Thursday after the Conflicts of Interest Board granted him a waiver to appoint his brother, Bernard Adams, as a senior adviser for mayoral security on the condition that he only receive a $1 annual salary.
“Bernard never wanted the money. Bernard wanted to protect his older brother because I protected him when he was a little boy. Now, he’s a grown man.”
Adams’ willingness to forgo a wage for his brother, a retired NYPD sergeant, came after he initially tried to tap the sibling for high-ranking Police Department positions with six-figure salaries.
But the COIB waiver, which was obtained by The News via a Freedom of Information Law request, concluded it was only permissible for Adams to hire his kin as long as his employment was “effectively uncompensated.”
The “nominal” $1 wage, COIB added, is important since it formalizes the younger Adams’ employment, subjecting him to “the same integrity safeguards as other public servants,” including annual financial disclosures.
The mayor at first wanted his brother to be in charge of his security, but the COIB waiver affirms Bernard Adams’ role can only be “advisory” and “does not involve the supervision of public servants or any command authority over NYPD personnel.” The mayor will also be recused from any decisions regarding the terms of his brother’s employment, COIB said.
Despite the COIB opinion, Adams signaled he considers his brother his personal bodyguard.
“I have a unique way of doing security. I don’t walk the streets with a lot of people around me because I want to stay close to New Yorkers,” he said. “And so the type of security I have is (for) a unique person to give me the protection that I need in the dangerous environment that we are experiencing. And I can’t think of anyone more unique than a young man named Bernard Adams, my baby brother, and I’m happy he’s with me.”
The waiver was first reported by Gothamist.
The clearance from COIB caps off a firestorm of controversy over whether the mayor’s attempt to give his brother a job would violate city ethics laws barring government officials from providing any form of financial gain for relatives.
As reported by The News earlier this month, Adams first wanted to install his sibling as a deputy NYPD commissioner, a powerful post that comes with a $240,000 salary.
After that plan sparked outrage from government watchdogs, Adams moved to appoint his brother executive director of mayoral security, another post within the NYPD that would earn him a $210,000 salary and put him in charge of the mayor’s security detail.
But a City Hall official said Thursday that Bernard Adams “proactively offered” to take an unpaid post after an initial discussion with COIB.
“Bernard Adams is uniquely qualified for this job, and in order to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, he offered to serve for the nominal salary of $1,” said Max Young, the mayor’s communications director. “We made this proposal to the Conflicts of Interest Board and they’ve agreed, and we’re grateful to Bernard for being willing to serve the city for no salary.”
Since his advisory post will be unpaid, Bernard Adams will continue to receive his NYPD pension and health care benefits, according to a City Hall official.
The new post will not give Bernard Adams power to oversee his brother’s security detail.
Rather, he will “provide advice and guidance” to the NYPD officials in charge of the detail, according to the City Hall aide. He will also “advise the mayor and his staff on all manners of mayoral security and community engagement,” the aide said.
The compromise with COIB comes after the mayor spent weeks defending his intra-family appointment.
Less than two weeks after being sworn in as mayor, Adams said he wanted his brother in charge of his security because he “understands me.”
As ethical concerns swirled, Adams claimed he was only facing pushback for the appointment because his brother comes from a working-class background.
“It’s very fascinating to me: When other mayors hired their law partners, they hired people they knew from school that they came up through the ranks with, there was nothing to say about it,” Adams said on Jan. 14. “But I had the audacity to hire blue-collar people, everyday folks who are union members, retired members — it’s like, ‘Who do you think you are?’”
Previous mayors, including Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg, also gave relatives jobs in their administrations. However, despite Adams’ claim of a double standard, those appointments were all unpaid.
