Mayor Bill de Blasio got hit with a large bill today from the city's Campaign Finance Board. His 2013 campaign was slapped with a number of violations of the city's campaign finance law. Our Courtney Gross was there and filed this report.
It was a hard-fought campaign that is going to cost hizzoner a little extra — $47,778 to be exact
On Thursday, officials the city's Campaign Finance Board fined the mayor's 2013 campaign almost $48,000 for violating the city's campaign finance law.
"The recommendations in the case of penalties in the case of Mr. de Blasio are adopted," said CFB board chair Rose Gill Hearn.
They say his campaign accepted contributions that were over the city's legal limit and sometimes spent money inappropriately.
And they had examples: For one, take a stay in Santa Clara, California for what the campaign said was "finance prospecting meetings." There were no contributions from California that month.
Mayor de Blasio's daughter attends college in the same town.
Elsewhere, de Blasio's campaign paid for a Delta flight for his son Dante to Washington D.C. to attend a National Action Network event in 2010, claiming the event was campaign-related.
The board didn't buy it.
They looked good, but it was pricey. The campaign paid $550 for the family to get their makeup done on Election Night for quote "television appearances."
The board says spending campaign cash on personal grooming is prohibited.
"These fines are huge," said Dick Dadey with Citizens Union. "The charges are many. And I think it shows an inattentiveness that maybe has carried into city hall and is one of the reasons why there is these investigations into his fundraising practices as mayor."
Clearly these audits take time. We are talking about a campaign that was three years ago and already the mayor is ramping up his campaign for reelection.
In a statement, a spokesman for the de blasio campaign said: "While we strongly disagree with many of the CFB's findings, we are pleased that the 2013 campaign audit is now complete."