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Say this for Mayor de Blasio’s pay-to-play scandals: At least they follow a regular pattern.
The latest dirt comes from a former deputy commissioner — winner of an ethics-in-government award! — who intends to sue the city, saying he was fired because he objected in two cases where City Hall helped grease the bureaucratic skids for fat-cat donors.
Ricardo Morales says he got the ax after objecting to Team de Blasio’s “lack of truthfulness” in lifting a deed restriction, letting the owners of a Lower East Side nursing home reap a $72 million profit.
He also cites City Hall’s objections to his efforts to collect $747,000 in back rent owed by a well-heeled restaurant owner, Harendra Singh, who also got top-level help on a deal to save him millions more.
As we noted back in March, Morales makes a pretty good case that his firing (after 22 years in city government) was meant as a warning to other whistleblowers.
The moment he took office, de Blasio started doing favors for donors that go far beyond what regular New Yorkers can expect.
Like Roberta Kaplan, who maxed out as a de Blasio contributor and got super-fast service (just 24 hours) after a water-main break knocked out her utilities.
Or Joseph Dussich, who after eight years of trying suddenly got City Hall business once he gave $100,000 to de Blasio’s now-defunct Campaign for One New York.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for that long-promised list from City Hall of big-bucks donors who didn’t get favors.
De Blasio’s right about there being two New Yorks — but it’s one for his well-heeled benefactors and another for everyone else.
