Quantcast

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

Former Bloomberg Spokeswoman Fined for Violating Conflict of Interest Rules

By Katie Honan | March 11, 2015 4:04pm
 Kyle Kimball from the EDC, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and former city spokeswoman Julie Wood during a visit to Kickstarter, which violated the City Charter.
Kyle Kimball from the EDC, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and former city spokeswoman Julie Wood during a visit to Kickstarter, which violated the City Charter.
View Full Caption
Twitter/DMAliciaGlen

NEW YORK CITY — A former spokeswoman under Mayor Michael Bloomberg violated the city's Conflict of Interest Board rules for engaging with her old employer, investigators ruled.

Julie Wood, who worked in City Hall from 2011 to November 2013, left her job as First Deputy Press Secretary to work as a spokeswoman at Kickstarter, according to the disposition from the COIB released on Wednesday.

Under the terms of the City Charter, all civil servants are forbidden from engaging with their former office for a year after leaving their post.

But just six months after stepping down from her post — on April 8, 2014 — Wood represented the technology company at a meeting hosted by Deputy Mayor Alica Glen and the Economic Development Corporation at City Hall about the tech industry in the five boroughs, according to the COIB.

And in June, Wood, who was also a former spokeswoman for the EDC, gave Glen and EDC employees, including president Kyle Kimball, a tour of the Kickstarter offices.

Glen tweeted her thanks to Wood, and included a photo from the company's offices that included EDC President Kyle Kimball.

 

Wood said in her own defense that she "was not engaged in business dealings with the city," but added that she now understands that her behavior broke the rules.

"While I did not intend to violate any provision of the City Charter, I now acknowledge that, by communicating with the Deputy Mayor, and thereby the Mayor's Office," on behalf of Kickstarter, I violated those terms, Wood said in a disposition by COIB released by the board.

Wood declined to comment. Kickstarter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

She settled with the city on Feb. 12 and will pay a $2,000 fine, according to COIB. 

A spokesman for the mayor's office, Wiley Norvell, said the ruling "is an instance of the COIB system functioning as it should."