Timothy Pearson stands behind Mayor Eric Adams as he's sworn into workplace in Instances Sq. on January 1, 2022, following the New Years Eve ball drop.
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A prime public security adviser to Mayor Eric Adams signed paperwork acknowledging he was barred from outdoors employment earlier than spending not less than two months concurrently working for a Queens on line casino looking for a profitable license to broaden its operations, paperwork obtained by The Submit present.
Timothy Pearson signed paperwork in March 2022 as he accomplished the primary spherical of paperwork to hitch the city-controlled Financial Growth Company as a prime aide to Adams, who has made combating crime the centerpiece of his administration.
On the time, Pearson was nonetheless the safety chief on the Resorts World slots operation that's connected to the Aqueduct Raceway. He “parted methods” with the agency in August after exposés have been printed by The New York Instances and The Submit.
The doc signed by Pearson explicitly bars outdoors employment with out receiving prior written authorization, strictly regulates part-time employment and volunteering (moonlighting) and imposes limits on looking for employment after metropolis service.
“Public servants could not have a job with any agency that they know or ought to know does enterprise with the Metropolis or that receives a license, allow, grant, or profit from the Metropolis,” the doc reads. “[P]ublic servants could, with the written authorization of the pinnacle of their Metropolis company, search permission from the Board to have a job with a agency that does enterprise with the Metropolis or to personal some or all of a enterprise that does enterprise with the Metropolis.”
Pearson signed the doc on March 3, 2022.
Pearson additionally signed a second doc that very same day that detailed EDC’s “Requirements of Conduct,” which not solely reiterated that metropolis battle of curiosity guidelines apply, it added that: “All staff (excluding interns) should receive approval for secondary employment.”
Nevertheless, no paperwork supplied in response to The Submit’s Freedom of Data Request that was despatched late Friday night signifies that such authorization was ever supplied.
The paperwork additionally present that Pearson is making $243,000 a 12 months within the place and is scheduled to work 35 hours every week.
The foundations — enforced by the Battle of Curiosity Board — have been a part of sweeping reforms geared toward decreasing corruption and the looks of impropriety in metropolis authorities after the Large Apple’s monetary collapse within the Seventies and a string of high-profile corruption scandals within the Nineteen Eighties that bedeviled then-Mayor Ed Koch.
The paperwork additionally increase new questions on Pearson’s function within the administration and when it started.
They present that Pearson signed the preliminary paperwork on battle of curiosity guidelines, a confidentiality settlement and requirements of habits on March 3.
He then signed one other letter — an “Acknowledgement and Acceptance of Provide of Employment” — on March 5.
Nevertheless, the formal letter dictating the phrases of the place was dated greater than a month afterward April 11.
Officers stated in an announcement that accompanied the paperwork that Pearson began work greater than a month afterward Might 31.
Metropolis Corridor reiterated its longstanding declare late Friday that Pearson spent the spring volunteering his providers to the administration, however declined to elucidate why he had signed paperwork seemingly formalizing a paid place.
“New Yorkers are fortunate to have such a educated and skilled particular person conform to serve and produce his experience to the best metropolis on the earth, particularly after he did the job with out being paid a single greenback for months,” stated Metropolis Corridor press secretary Fabien Levy.
Adams has vociferously defended his rent of Pearson up to now.
“He’s a 9/11 hero,” Adams informed reporters in The Bronx after he was pressed on permitting Pearson to keep up twin employment. “When the [World Trade Center] buildings collapsed, he was inside one of many buildings and led individuals to security.”
“We have to elevate up our 9/11 heroes,” the mayor added.
This job was held within the de Blasio administration by former NYPD Chief of Division Terence Monahan.
Adams and Pearson are longtime buddies who served collectively within the NYPD.
The mayor left the pressure to enter politics and was elected to the state Senate, whereas Pearson retired and was subsequently employed as the highest safety officer on the Resorts World slots operation on the Aqueduct Race Observe.
Resorts World’s mother or father firm is certainly one of a slew of companies looking for certainly one of three downstate on line casino licenses — every estimated to be value not less than $500 million — which are set to be issued by state playing regulators.
The brand new license would permit Resorts World to vastly broaden its operation and embody profitable gaming tables along with the slots it at present operates.
Any on line casino licenses issued in New York Metropolis should even be authorised by a sitings board that features a member appointed by Mayor Eric Adams, in keeping with the state regulation.
Moreover, good authorities consultants say that Pearson’s function at EDC additionally presents a battle of curiosity because the company might play a big function in growth initiatives surrounding any new on line casino.
“It’s completely inappropriate, it’s a direct battle of curiosity,” stated John Kaehny, the chief director of presidency watchdog group Reinvent Albany, informed The Submit on the time.
“What already occurred was a battle of curiosity. And now having Mr. Pearson at EDC, which shall be concerned with any metropolis discussions about casinos, he shall be ready to affect the dialogue of casinos,” Kaehny added.
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