Conflict of Interests Board: de Blasio improperly raised funds from Ratner in 2014, then gave the money back. He continued improper fundraising.

The New York Times on 12/8/21 published De Blasio Fought for 2 Years to Keep Ethics Warning Secret. Here’s Why., with the subheading" Mayor Bill de Blasio was warned that he created an “appearance of coercion and improper access” by directly contacting donors who had business before the city."

The lead:

When Bill de Blasio first took office as mayor of New York in 2014, he called two powerful real estate developers who had active projects in the city, and asked them to donate money to a nonprofit organization that he had created to advance his political agenda. 

The request to help his nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, seemed to violate the city’s ethics law, and a ban against asking for contributions from people who had business pending with the city. Within months of his solicitations, Mr. de Blasio was formally warned by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board [COIB] — in a previously undisclosed letter — not to repeat the behavior. 

But even after that warning, the mayor continued to hit up well-connected donors for money, according to documents that the city has now released after years of an extraordinary legal campaign by the de Blasio administration to keep the documents secret. 

The article goes on to cite episodes mentioned in the September 2018 letter, including calls to developers Jeffrey Levine of Douglaston Development and David Von Spreckelsen of Toll Brothers, plus lobbyist James Capalino.

The Ratner angle

But the Times doesn't name the two people called in 2014, who are cited in July 2014 letter, posted by The City as part of its coverage, headlined De Blasio Violated Fundraising Ethics Rules Even After Warning — Yet Mayor Faced No Penalty.

From that letter:

On January 21, 2014, you spoke by telephone to Bruce Ratner, Chairman of Forest City Enterprises, Inc.. and asked for contribution of $50,000 for UPKNYC; sometime thereafter, Mr. Ratner's brother-in-law sent a check to UPKNYC in the amount of $25,000, which was returned. Forest City Enterprises is the developer of the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn. among other projects.

That solicitation came after de Blasio was told by the COIB not to raise money from people with matters pending before the city. Nearly all the Atlantic Yards residential buildout awaited, with affordable housing subject to discretionary city subsidies, and Ratner surely wanted city support for the pending investment by Shanghai-based Greenland USA.

(In May 2019, Politico reported that Ratner was involved in a controversial solicitation, but without the detail from the COIB.)

There was no penalty because the money was returned. As noted below, I raised questions on Twitter as to whether it was his brother-in-law, or brother.

Chairman of Cleve.-based Forest City Enterprises but rather its NY-based subsidiary, Forest City Ratner
as to "brother-in-law," if BR's then-wife had a brother, maybe.
But he had in past seen contributions from his brother, the eminent radical lawyer https://t.co/ss85cyKBuS 2/2

— Norman Oder (@AYReport) December 9, 2021