Bronx Assemblyman Kenny Burgos distributed free COVID-19 assessments that got here with a request for marketing campaign donations by way of a QR code.
J.C. Rice for NY Submit
A Bronx Assemblyman distributed free COVID-19 assessments that got here with a prohibited request for cash.
Democrat Kenny Burgos slapped stickers along with his face on them on the take a look at kits obtainable at his district workplace in Soundview. The stickers had a QR code which supplied hyperlinks to varied web sites together with his marketing campaign’s and one asking for marketing campaign donations.
Below state civil service legislation, state workplaces might not be used for soliciting or amassing any political contributions, in keeping with the state’s Joint Fee on Public Ethics.
“If there are supplies being distributed at a district workplace that hyperlink to a marketing campaign, that definitely is questionable,” mentioned Rachael Fauss, senior analysis analyst for Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group.
Fauss added that the COVID-19 assessments “are clearly paid for with public dollars. I don’t suppose the intent is for them to be distributed for marketing campaign functions by any means.”
The marketing campaign hyperlinks disappeared Friday after The Submit requested about them.
Christian Barbato, a spokesman for Burgos, mentioned the hyperlinks on the QR code “change commonly.”
“The inclusion of campaign-related hyperlinks on the stickers have been restricted and an inadvertent error which has since been rectified,” Barbato mentioned.
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