Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Reporters 'Improperly' Excluded From Mayor-Union Meeting: Investigators

By  Ben Fractenberg and Jeff Mays | November 25, 2014 2:52pm 

 A city investigation found the mayor's office improperly barred reporters from a meeting with union members at a Brooklyn public school in July. Mayor Bill de Blasio called the decision "a mistake we won't make again," at an unrelated press conference in The Bronx on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014.
A city investigation found the mayor's office improperly barred reporters from a meeting with union members at a Brooklyn public school in July. Mayor Bill de Blasio called the decision "a mistake we won't make again," at an unrelated press conference in The Bronx on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Jeff Mays

BROOKLYN — Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office improperly banned members of the press from a union meeting in a Brooklyn public school about a Cablevision labor dispute in July, according to the report released Tuesday. 

Reporters were told they could not attend a July 14 meeting sponsored by CWA and attended by the mayor in the cafeteria of P.S. 66 in Canarsie, Brooklyn, even though it was held in a public school and was supposed to be open to the public and press, the New York City Department of Investigation found in the report.

“Public access to events on public property is the foundation of a democratic society,” DOI commissioner Mark Peters said. “City officials and agencies must educate themselves on the rules and be careful to follow them.” 


The DOI, in part, blamed poor communication between the mayor’s office, CWA and the Department of Education for the improper banning.

The mayor’s office first informed a CWA organizer that the event was closed to the press. The organizer then told a P.S. 66 custodian, “No press. It’s open to the public,” according to the report.

That message was sent through “several DOE intermediaries” to the DOE general counsel as, “They are not expecting press coverage and the event will be open to the public,” the report read.

The general counsel then recommended approval for the event based on that message.

A DOE “clerical error” then kept CWA from receiving a permit for the event, which would have contained a summary of regulations regarding public access to political meetings.

The union then barred New York Post reporters from the meeting, believing they were representatives from Cablevision, with whom CWA was in a labor dispute, according to the DOI.

“Regardless of their affiliation, these persons were members of the public, and should not have been barred from the school,” the report said.  

Fliers for the event also did not include a disclaimer stating it was not a DOE-sponsored or endorsed event, as is required. 

The mayor's office refused to provide investigators with "recordings, transcripts and written accounts" from the meeting, the DOI report said. 

Cablevision called the event a "secret political meeting." 

"The CWA and City Hall barred the public and the press, and then appeared to have not been truthful about it," the company said in a statement. "This is further evidence that [political director] Bob Master and the CWA are attempting to manipulate government in order to further the interests of the CWA union and prevent Cablevision employees from having a voice."

Master, who heads CWA District One, apologized for violating DOE rules and said the union will "be sure to comply with such rules in the future."

We hope that likewise, Cablevision will move expeditiously to comply with federal labor law, which it has repeatedly and flagrantly violated for the last three years."

De Blasio championed transparency in government when he held office as public advocate, and vowed to “be honest with New Yorkers about their government,” during his first state of the city address in February. 

Asked about the report at an unrelated press conference in The Bronx on Tuesday, the mayor quickly admitted that he and his staff were wrong, calling the decision to bar reporters from the meeting a "mistake."

"I think by definition we were in a public building, the media should have been allowed," said the mayor.

"I think that was a mistake by my team and a mistake we won't make again."