The public authority run by Bill Thompson’s longtime deputy hired a litigation lawyer just three weeks after the attorney raised some $30,000 for Thompson’s mayoral campaign, according to campaign finance records and meeting minutes.
The Battery Park City Authority approved a retainer agreement with law firm Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher on July 31, after partner Randy Mastro had bundled $30,450 on July 11, primarily from his colleagues at the firm.
Attorney Randy Mastro sought in 2008 to block a proposed suspension of New York City’s term limits law. AP Photo/ Marc A. Hermann
Mastro, a former deputy mayor in the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, declined to comment. An Authority spokesman said Mastro was doing the work at half of his usual cost, but would not provide a breakdown of fees or an explanation of how Gibson, Dunn was selected.
“To suggest anything untoward is insulting, outrageous and absolutely baseless,” Matthew Monahan, the spokesman, wrote in an email.
The Authority typically pays its attorneys $400 an hour. Records from a recent case show Gibson, Dunn partners charging rates of between $800 and $1,000 an hour.
Authority guidelines recommend using a competitive process when selecting firms to do its work, though it can be bypassed “in the event that legal services or other specialized services are required for which a certain person/firm’s expertise is unique.”
Gene Russianoff, a senior attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said in an interview that nothing about the arrangement struck him as problematic.
But, he added, “it’s significant information for the public to obtain as to who’s financing [campaigns], what the connections are.”
“It’s really up to the public to digest this information and come to their own conclusions,” he said.
In July, the Authority board approved hiring Mastro to work out a contract dispute with Asphalt Green, the nonprofit organization that will be operating a new community recreation center in the neighborhood.
The conflict, much to the consternation of area residents, has delayed the opening of the center by roughly a year.
Thompson, who was chair of the Authority for two years, had left his post last May, before Mastro was hired, to focus on his mayoral run.
But Thompson’s close aide, Gayle Horwitz, remained at the Authority through September, when she left to work at a private investigations firm.
Her connection to Thompson dates back to 1996, when the pair worked together at the Board of Education; from 2002 to 2010, she worked under Thompson in the comptroller’s office.
Neither Horwitz nor the Thompson campaign responded to requests for comment.
In an interview with the New York Post earlier this week, Mastro said that he has known Thompson since they worked together in city government in the 1990s.
In 2008, Mastro served as an attorney for Thompson and other politicians in a federal lawsuit challenging the City Council’s extension of term limits.
Mastro has fundraised for Thompson before, bundling $22,000 in 2004 for the incumbent comptroller’s successful re-election bid. And he has personally donated a total of $5,925 to Thompson’s campaigns since 2001.
Following Mastro’s fundraising efforts in June and July, he recruited an additional $28,000 in donations for Thompson in November and December. In total, including Mastro’s own $3,000 in contributions, he has raised $61,600 for the campaign.
