The Washington Sentinel
By
It’s time for a serious investigation.
Mayor Bill de Blasio donor scored huge $120 million in city COVID-19 contracts, and board seats.
“This raises big and bad questions about pay to play. It smells bad,” said John Kaehny, executive director of the good government group Reinvent Albany.
Corruption in plain sight. https://t.co/eJll9MntS5
— ??Lionel?? (@LionelMedia) August 21, 2020
Give to Bill and ye shall receive.
A big-bucks donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political campaigns not only scored $120 million in no-bid coronavirus contracts — he also won seats on two influential city boards.
Manhattan resident Charles Tebele, who owns the New Jersey-based computer business Digital Gadgets, has showered Hizzoner with at least $22,750 in political contributions since 2016 including $12,800 to de Blasio’s failed 2020 presidential bid, records show.
Those contributions to de Blasio were Tebele’s first to a federally regulated campaign since he gave to 2012 Connecticut congressional candidate, Dan Roberti, who lost the Democratic primary that year.
The technology entrepreneur garnered his first city contract through an emergency, no-bid procurement system set up by the mayor during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $19.8 million deal for N95 masks and surgical face coverings was made in March — a week before the mayor appointed Tebele to the board of the city Economic Development Corporation.
The EDC is a powerful public-private corporation that secured $2 billion in contracts from the city’s Department of Small Business Services last year and grants subsidies to real estate and other industries for major development projects like the botched bid to lure Amazon to build a headquarters in Long Island City, Queens. More
Bill de Blasio can forget all about his presidential aspirations.
— Alicia F. Luke (@AliciaFixLuke) August 21, 2020