Mayor De Blasio To City Hall Staff: Keep My Name Out Your Mouths (Until After Election Day)

One of the few small pleasures of being the Mayor of New York City is being able to take credit for the good things you do while you are mayor. For Bill de Blasio, that means universal pre-K, overseeing a continued reduction in crime, or presiding over a rent-freeze for rent-stabilized tenants. But until November 8, 2017, City Hall employees are not to use the mayor’s name or his picture in any “ordinary” communications to New Yorkers.

According to an email sent yesterday to staffers in the Mayor’s Office from the mayor’s deputy communications director, Dan Gross, de Blasio’s “name and likeness will not appear” on any “ordinary” communications. Instead, staffers are directed to use “the generic NYC bubble and ‘Office of the Mayor.’”

Chapter 49 of the City Charter prohibits public servants running for office from appearing in government-sponsored communications or using public funds and resources to transmit "an electioneering message," but Section 1136.1 exempts "ordinary communications between public servants and members of the public," from elections laws, as well as "ordinary communications between elected officials and their constituents."

Gross acknowledges this in the email, but nevertheless, "The Mayor has determined to limit the exceptions to the maximum extent possible and, specifically, on “ordinary” communications, his name and likeness will not appear," he writes.

Read more: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/mayor-de-blasio-to-city-hall-staff-keep-my-name-out-your-mouths-until-after-election-day-9735379