Eric Adams’ inner circle enmeshed in hotel union battle

Aug 09, 2024

By Jeff Coltin, Nick Reisman and Emily Ngo

Presented by

With help from Rich Mendez

Eric Adams is seen at a a news conference.

Some of Mayor Eric Adams' closest allies are locked in heated legislative battles at City Hall. | Mary Altaffer/AP

NEW YORK MINUTE: New York is bracing for Tropical Storm Debby today, which while weakening is still expected to bring torrential rain and extensive flooding both upstate and downstate.

POLITICAL TRADES COUNCIL: Members of Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle are ensnared in this summer’s hottest legislative battle at City Hall: a bill pushed by labor and reviled by industry to require hotels to be licensed.

Vito Pitta — Adams' campaign attorney — is lobbying for it on behalf of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council.

Frank Carone, one of the mayor’s closest advisers, is working for the union, too, POLITICO’s Janaki Chadha first reported.

Since leaving City Hall to open up his own consulting and lobbying shop, Carone — who opted not to register himself as a lobbyist — has signed the union as a client and called the bill’s lead sponsor, Council Member Julie Menin, about it, according to two informed sources.

Red Horse, the lead consulting firm on Adams’ last campaign, works for HTC.

And Evan Thies, a top Adams adviser, is representing the Hotel Association of New York City, the industry trade group fighting it.

And that’s just part of the intrigue around the bill, pitting what may be the most influential union in the city against its most powerful industry: real estate.

Janaki wrote about all the politics, and the history, behind the fight.

“HTC is the most politically powerful union in the city — especially considering its size, it very much punches above its weight,” said Chris Coffey, a political consultant. “This bill is going to be a test of that. It’s not going to be easy for them, but there’s no one else that’s better positioned.”

Int. 991 would require hotel owners to obtain operating licenses and restrict their use of subcontracted workers. It’s being pitched as a way to address problem hotels that harbor crime, but it’s a labor bill, too. The union had a hand in drafting it, and thinks it will give them leverage over management in upcoming contract negotiations.

The union’s test includes hotel owners’ plans to pool as much as $20 million to fight the measure that an industry representative has described as a “nuclear bomb” for their sector.

Even critics of the bill acknowledge HTC’s influence and say a version of it is likely to pass despite the opposition of hotel owners and real estate interests. The measure has 34 council sponsors, a veto-proof majority, up from about 24 late last week. And it’s picked up support from more unions, including 32BJ, DC37, NYSNA, the PBA and the Central Labor Council.

Mayor Adams hasn’t commented on the bill yet, and rarely says much this early in the process anyway, but that’s not a coalition he would want to pick a fight with before a reelection run.

Meanwhile, some supporters are pushing the bill as a way to stick it to anti-union billionaires — and that’s a winning argument for a large segment of the council.

“I am here for unions building enough power to flex to create solutions and protections for their workers,” socialist Council Member Tiffany Cabán told Playbook. “And if they can do it on an urgent issue quickly, rock on.” — Jeff Coltin and Janaki Chadha

HAPPY FRIDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.

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WHERE’S KATHY? Making a coastal resiliency announcement in Montauk.

WHERE’S ERIC? Delivering remarks and presenting a proclamation at the National Dominican Day Parade Committee’s gala in New Rochelle.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If you end up running and you perform poorly in your own legislative district, that is not a good look for you at all.” — Democratic strategist Trip Yang, speaking to City & State about candidates who may run for Manhattan borough president without giving up their state and city legislative seats.

ABOVE THE FOLD

Activists take part in a protest outside of the Old Ebbitt Grill to call for a full minimum wage with tips for restaurant workers.

Activists fighting to increase the minimum wage are taking their battle to the local level. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

LOCAL WAGE: Left-leaning supporters of increasing the minimum wage want to make their fight a local one and are making a legal gamble that the issue can be taken out of the state’s hands.

Advocates were buoyed this week when Tompkins County legislators approved the first step toward raising the minimum wage on the local level.

Now supporters want to replicate that elsewhere in New York state — targeting areas where child poverty and the cost of living are high. Counties in the Hudson Valley could be next, advocates said.

“In many places around the state there is a very strong desire to increase pay for low-wage workers,” said Michael Kink, the executive director of Strong Economy for All, an advocacy organization. “Both low-wage workers want higher pay and elected officials recognize that’s an important thing to do.”

Increasing the minimum wage for the last 60 years has been the purview of the state government.

And supporters of increasing the base pay on the local level are testing a 1962 law that overrode New York City’s minimum wage law.

Business organizations have yet to muster a push to counteract the current wage drive but have opposed such efforts in the past.

The state minimum wage is currently set at $15 per hour in counties north of Westchester, with the New York City area’s rate at $16 per hour.The wage will reach $16 in upstate counties and $17 in the New York City region by 2026 and will then be tied to the rate of inflation.

But some advocacy organizations — with the backing of labor unions like the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union — have voiced displeasure with the wage agreement reached by Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature last year.

They believe the wage upstate should be higher and that the lower “tipped” wage should be phased out.

The Raise Up NY campaign, with the support of influential labor organizations like 32BJ and the Teamsters, earlier this year backed legislation meant to increase the minimum wage north of Westchester County, but that legislation fizzled in Albany.

With action on the issue unlikely in Albany, they’ve turned their focus on local governments.

“It’s an issue localities across the country are taking into their own hands, and there’s no reason why localities in New York shouldn’t do the same,” Tal Frieden, a spokesperson for the Raise Up NY campaign, told Playbook. — Nick Reisman

Breaking News Briefing: Where Tim Walz Stands on the Issues — The Democratic ticket is set now that Vice President Kamala Harris has named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Join POLITICO Pro on Friday Aug. 9 for a detailed discussion with specialist reporters on what Walz's track record says about the policies he and Harris will embrace in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential campaign. Register for the Briefing

CITY HALL: THE LATEST

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine speaks at podium.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is focusing on his record in his run for comptroller. | Rich Mendez/POLITICO

BOROUGH PACIFIST: Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is taking a nonconfrontational approach to his new run for comptroller.

He appeared at a press conference at the 14th Street Y with Adams and fellow comptroller hopeful Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, where they all spoke about their commitments to public safety.

Rajkumar has no apparent connection to the East Village public safety issue but uses mayoral events far from her Queens district to build her profile.

Levine was asked multiple times by reporters about his chances against Rajkumar in the race for comptroller, but refused to criticize her and instead complimented her on a job well done and called her a friend.

When asked by Playbook when the right time is to begin differentiating himself from her, he said, “In some campaigns, never.”

Time may tell if Levine wants to run a friendly campaign, or if he just doesn’t see Rajkumar as a threat in the race.

“In every campaign I’ve run I’m about telling my story, being proud of my accomplishments and my record and laying out a bold vision,” he told Playbook. “It’s what I’ve done in every race — seems to be working pretty well so far and it’s what I’ll be doing in any race I have in the future.”

Rajkumar also held back criticisms in a statement to Playbook.

“I welcome the challenge because we live in the world’s greatest democracy, one that my immigrant parents left everything for to be a part of. Everyone should be able to run,” she said. — Rich Mendez

More from Albany:

— A ban on convicted felons serving as jurors is likely to end in New York courts. (Spectrum News)

— More than 600 bills remain under consideration for Hochul. (NY1)

— Four major state agencies failed to comply with the state’s emissions reduction law. (POLITICO Pro)

KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION

Nick LaLota speaks during a news conference.

Rep. Nick LaLota got into an X spat with Democrat John Avlon late Thursday. | Patrick Semansky/AP

BAD BLOOD IN NY-01: Rep. Nick LaLota and Democrat John Avlon traded increasingly bitter barbs on X late Thursday, with the Republican posting a 2022 photo of Avlon with his young children in Manhattan to shore up the argument his challenger doesn’t live full-time on Long Island.

“Got anything to say about posting photos of my kids on the internet like a creep?” responded Avlon, a former CNN host who has a home in Suffolk County.

LaLota had blurred their faces and used a photo from Avlon’s public Instagram account.

The freshman House member was highlighting records that show Avlon has been voting absentee in Suffolk County in recent years. The Washington Free Beacon had reported earlier Thursday that Avlon collected a tax credit last year on his Manhattan home as his primary residence last year.

Avlon has told Playbook and other outlets that he has long-standing ties to Long Island, saying he and his family participated in the 2020 Census in Sag Harbor. He’s noted that LaLota still lives just outside his district and can’t vote for himself. LaLota has said he plans to move into the 1st Congressional District, but the boundaries have been in flux as a result of the redistricting process. — Emily Ngo

ON AIR IN NY-04: Meanwhile, to the West, ad spending is beginning to heat up in the Long Island House district abutting New York City. (Downstate contenders typically wait until closer to Election Day to get on the air because it’s more expensive to do so than upstate.)

The NRCC and Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a vulnerable Republican facing Democrat Laura Gillen, started their ads on cable this week and have planned more for next week, according to the ad tracking service, AdImpact.

It is Democrat-aligned groups, however, whose spending in the 4th Congressional District is expected to eclipse that of GOP-allied groups in the long run. The House Majority PAC has placed $5.6 million in ads that will air in the coming months while the Congressional Leadership Fund and the NRCC together have $3.6 million reserved, according to AdImpact. — Emily Ngo

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NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

— Testing has found elevated lead levels in Syracuse drinking water. (Post-Standard)

— Three Columbia University deans who exchanged disparaging text messages that the university president said “touched on ancient antisemitic tropes” are resigning. (New York Times)

— Major sports betting platforms want a new surcharge on winning wagers to offset a tax. (Times Union)

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SOCIAL DATA

Edited by Daniel Lippman

WHAT WALL STREET IS READING — “Billionaire John Paulson, 68, and fiancée Alina de Almeida, 36, are expecting their first baby together,” by Page Six’s Mara Siegler

MAKING MOVES: Joseph Pfeifer has been named acting commissioner of the New York City Fire Department (CBS 2)

MEDIAWATCH: Oliver Darcy is launching his own media news site, Status, and leaving his role as the writer of CNN’s Reliable Sources, per NYT’s Michael Grynbaum. His independent, subscription-based venture will launch next week, while CNN will pause Reliable Sources.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: New Deal’s Rebecca Kirszner Katz … Kasirer’s Lester Marks … BFC Partner’s Melanie La Rocca … former NYC Council Members Andrew Cohen and Ruben Wills … former state Sen. Malcolm Smith … Chris Cuomo … NYT’s Julian Barnes and Ken Vogel … Bill Burton … Chris Cuomo … former Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) … Hoda Kotb … Mercury’s Dan Bank (4-0) … Carla Baranauckas … (WAS THURSDAY:) Matthew Albert (4-0)