The city’s ethics panel has cleared Comptroller John Liu to move ahead with an audit of the Central Park Boathouse, even though he delivered a blistering attack against the owner at a rally staged by a politically powerful union.
“Mr. Liu’s public statements regarding the Boathouse, made in his capacity as an elected official of the city, do not appear to be a transaction in conflict with the proper discharge of his official duties,” Steve Rosenfeld, chairman of the Conflicts of Interest Board, informed Liu’s office yesterday.
The City Charter, he said, prohibits a public servant from obtaining any “financial gain” or “privilege” from any person or firm associated with the public servant.
In this case, Rosenfeld determined Liu was off the hook on both of those counts.
Even the $4,975 in campaign contributions Liu received from Local 6 of the hotel and restaurant workers union, which staged the massive protest, wouldn’t make a difference since those contributions are allowed under the law.
Rosenfeld added that the board “expresses no view” on whether there might be other reasons for Liu to recuse himself. The ruling sets the stage for an unprecedented confrontation between Liu and Boathouse owner Dean Poll.
Poll is threatening to withhold his books from the comptroller’s auditors, go back to the ethics board or go to court — on the grounds that Liu can’t be objective after participating in the April 21 rally that excoriated Poll as ruthless and uncaring.
“It’s not about not doing an audit,” said Frank Marino, a spokesman for Poll. “It’s about having an independent auditor.”
Mike Loughran, Liu’s spokesman, called Poll’s denunciations a “failed attempt into misleading the public into thinking” Liu has a conflict.
The Boathouse paid $3.1 million in fees to the city in fiscal 2010, making it the highest-paying concessionaire in the Parks Department.
In an unsolicited call to The Post, one development official called it “lunacy” to try to dislodge an operator contributing so much to the public till.
“I don’t think the Four Seasons is paying $3 million a year,” the official said.
