Special Counsel Robert Mueller isn’t the only government prober who’s job is in jeopardy from a resentful pol, according to a Bronx lawmaker who wants to protect the city’s chief investigator from being fired by Mayor de Blasio.
Democratic Councilman Ritchie Torres says he will call Monday for a new law requiring council approval before the mayor can oust the commissioner of the Department of Investigation.
“Expressing disdain for good-government, law enforcement and investigative journalism, as the president has done nationally, and as the mayor has done locally, represents a profound disservice to the public,” according to a copy of the speech Torres plans to deliver.
“Here at home, we, too, have fallen short: we have seen an insidious assault on the independence of DOI and local investigative journalists. I have been troubled by both public and private attempts at discrediting the DOI commissioner, as well as investigative journalists, who have drawn the ire, and therefore the political disfavor, of City Hall.”
Torres’ proposal would have the Charter Revision Commission being convened by the council amend current law governing the DOI.
He plans to formally introduce the idea during a DOI budget hearing before the Council’s Oversight and Investigations Committee, which he chairs.
Torres — who predicted support for the measure— said it was based on a New York Post report that in November revealed how de Blasio was itching to fire DOI Commissioner Mark Peters for exposing a slew of administration screw-ups, including the blockbuster that New York City Housing Authority boss Shola Olatoye falsely told the feds 55,000 apartments had been checked for lead-paint hazards.
At the time, sources said the only thing holding back de Blasio was an obscure provision in the City Charter — which applies only to the head of DOI — that would require de Blasio to explain his reasons for firing Peters in writing to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
If he did that, Peters would still be able to fight his firing by demanding a public hearing at which he could make his case for keeping his job.
However, the charter fails to address hearing oversight or who has final say. This little-known provision has never been put to test in DOI’s 145-year history, officials said.
“The article itself exposes a loophole in the structure of government, one too glaring to overlook,” Torres said.1 “The Charter contains no structural protection for the independence of DOI from political retaliation.”
Peters’ critical NYCHA report followed others that ripped the Administration for Children’s Services over the slaying of several kids, and faulted the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and others for letting a Lower East Side nursing home at 45 Rivington St. get turned into luxury condos.
Mueller has been investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election — and possible ties to the Trump campaign — since being appointed in May 2017 following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recused himself from the probe because he had been a campaign advisor.
Earlier this month, since-resigned Trump lawyer John Dowd called for the Justice Department to end Mueller’s probe.
Peters’ aggressive pursuit of official malfeasance has surprised many observers who expected him to be more of a lapdog than a watchdog after serving as de Blasio’s campaign treasurer during the 2013 mayoral race.
But the former state prosecutor and civil-rights lawyer established his independence despite having established a friendship with de Blasio when they both served on a Brooklyn school board in Park Slope during the late 1990s.
The mayor’s office declined comment.
