Doctoroff’s Here to Stay
As the Times reported last week, the Conflicts of Interest Board has cleared former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff to continue work on major development projects he oversaw while working as New York City’s development chief, even though he has gone on to work as president of Bloomberg L.P.
The 10-page waiver letter from the conflicts board grants Doctoroff extraordinarily wide privilege to continue working on his former projects. It permits him to continue serving on the boards of the Hudson River Park Trust and the Governor’s Island corporation, and to continue the work he began negotiating the creation of Moynihan Station. Doctoroff can work as an “unpaid consultant” on Queens West, the 5,000-unit housing development project for the East River waterfront.
Perhaps most stunningly, the former deputy mayor will “provide generalized policy advice and guidance on the implementation of PlaNYC,” the template for the future of New York City’s planning. That’s quite a job description, given that PlaNYC includes such sweeping recommendations as “Reclaim underutilized waterfronts” (”Today, New York City’s 578-mile waterfront offers one of the city’s greatest opportunities for residential development.”) Doctoroff will be involved in policy and land use decisions that open up billions of dollars of new development opportunities and shape the very fabric of the city.
