Executive

Waste of the Day: NYC Mayor’s 293 Special Assistants Cost $24.3 Million

NYC Mayor Eric Adams has an incredible 293 special assistants, which incur $24.3 million in total payroll costs

Published

11 months ago

January 19, 2024

Adam Andrzejewski

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Mayor Eric Adams’ administration had 293 “special assistants” on the payroll during his first full fiscal year in office, even more than his predecessor who was criticized for having too many, the New York Post reported.

“The bloated band of vaguely titled aides, accountable only to Adams, comprised roughly one-third of the Mayor’s Office staff during the yearly period ending June 30 and cost taxpayers $24.3 million,” the Post reported from city payroll records.

Waste of the Day: NYC Mayor's 293 Special Assistants Cost $24.3 Million — Waste of the Day 1.19.24 by Open the Books

Eighty-five of those assistants were paid six-figures in FY 2023 – including 13 who took in more than $200,000.

At one point, Adam’s predecessor, former Mayor Bill De Blasio, had even more special assistants, reaching a high of a high of 339 in FY 2019. De Blasio was criticized for using special assistants to get around civil service rules and give political operatives jobs.

Without civil service rules governing the positions, the mayor can set salaries and raises beyond the normal ranges for comparable positions.

“De Blasio infamously used the special-assistant gigs in part to take care of political operatives biding their time waiting for the next campaign — a kind of publicly funded farm system akin to the ones used by Major League Baseball teams,” The Post wrote.

By FY 2021, de Blasio trimmed his number of special assistants to 243, costing taxpayers $21.1 million, The Post reported.

Adams announced last year that the expected $12 billion cost of helping asylum-seeking migrants necessitated across-the-board 5% cuts at all city agencies, with another 10% cut planned for early this year.

But taxpayer-watchdog group Empire Center for Public Policy Research Director Ken Girardin said Adams’ desire to “bloat” his payroll with almost 300 special assistants “only weakens his case for more federal and state support” to help the city deal with the migrant crisis.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

Adam Andrzejewski

CEO at OpenTheBooks.com | Website | + posts

Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) was the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.

Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.

The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.

Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.

Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.

Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.

Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.

In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.

Andrzejewski passed away in his sleep at his home in in Hinsdale, Illinois, on August 18, 2024. He is survived by his wife Kerry and three daughters. He also served as a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).

Waste of the Day articles published after August 18, 2024 are considered posthumous publications.