Mayor de Blasio blew off the Lower East Side nursing-home scandal Wednesday, sarcastically quipping that scrutiny of the controversial land deal is “probably bigger than Watergate.”
“It’s ridiculous,” he said at a Politico forum at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
“This is so overheated and so off the mark . . . We’re very, very clear about the fact that in everything we’ve done, we put the public interest first.”
Even as multiple investigations swirl around his administration, de Blasio claimed he was elected to provide progressive change and honest government.
“Central to that vision is running a clean and appropriate government, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said.
De Blasio’s remarks came a day after his Department of Investigation accused his Law Department of trying to cover up City Hall’s involvement in a shady deal that allowed a nonprofit nursing home on Rivington Street to be sold for luxury apartments.
DOI said Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter agreed to turn over documents he had earlier redacted only when threatened with legal action. On Wednesday, the Law Department fired back, accusing DOI of lying — escalating an unprecedented public war between two city agencies.
The Law Department said it delivered two critical documents when they were requested and any claims to the contrary “are false.”
“We fully expect that the review of the un-redacted documents will clearly establish that the Law Department followed all standard legal procedures,” the agency said.
But DOI spokeswoman Diane Struzzi challenged both the Law Department’s conclusion and its timeline.
She noted that the two documents in question were only initially provided in redacted form.
“DOI then obtained the contents of those documents from alternate sources and made follow-up demands of the Law Department,” she said. “Only then did the Law Department meet its legal obligation to produce those specific documents.”
De Blasio sided with Carter, the Law Department chief, even though DOI is run by Mark Peters, his former campaign finance chairman.
“I have tremendous respect for him,” the mayor said of Carter.
“He made a set of decisions on what was the right way to handle that. And I thought he was right. I didn’t get into the weeds of it. But I thought his essential approach was right.”
The mayor argued that his agencies “found a way” to resolve their issues, even though DOI said it took the threat of a lawsuit to get the Law Department to budge.
The mayor’s reassurances didn’t stop critics from demanding Carter’s resignation.
“He should step down,” said Republican strategist Jessica Proud. “The sale itself is the scandal, and I think they realize that. They just got caught trying to cover their tracks.”
John Kaehny, co-chairman of the NYC Transparency Working Group, described the Law Department’s failure to initially supply documents as a ploy to cover up the truth.
“What’s going on here was an attempt to avoid political embarrassment, which created more political embarrassment as a cover up,” he said. “This is an attempt to protect the mayor’s reputation.”
De Blasio’s “Watergate” remark further angered Lower East Siders who blame him for the loss of a longtime community facility.
“De Blasio won’t help. He doesn’t care about the people,” said Margaret Jawalski, 64. “None of these politicians do. They only care about the money. It’s all about money.”
Jennifer Pearson, 31, slammed Hizzoner’s quip as “a really disgusting thing to say.”
“You’re supposed to be a representative of this city,” said Pearson, who lives near the shuttered nursing home.
“You’re supposed to lead people and advocate for them, for people who don’t have a voice — and instead you shuffle them around like chess pieces for economic profit? Come on now.”
The scandal also didn’t go unnoticed by elected officials attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Outgoing Rep. Charles Rangel complained he couldn’t offer any insider information about the land deal because “I don’t know anybody that knows the damn mayor to explain any of these things.”
“And I have been around for a long time,” said the Harlem congressman. “Whatever is happening I’d like to be able to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, can I help? What the hell is going on?’ I don’t know anybody to call.”
The controversy over Rivington House became public in March when city Comptroller Scott Stringer revealed he was investigating why the city lifted a deed restriction, which led to the property’s eventual sale to a luxury condo developer.
The first buyer, the Allure Group, first said it was going to keep operating a nursing home and then flipped the property for a $72 million profit.