Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs’ decision to hire a lobbying firm to represent the city at the state Capitol is appropriate only in the sense that it was finalized near the start of baseball season, because the deal has three strikes against it: The contract is a questionable use of the city’s suddenly scant financial resources; it appears to fill a nonexistent need considering the number of people already capable of representing Albany’s interests; and the selection of a firm that did abundant political favors for the Applyrs campaign stinks to high heaven.
As reported last week by the Times Union’s Brendan J. Lyons and Patrick Tine, the mayor on March 3 signed a $4,500-per-month retainer with Brown & Weinraub Advisors to “provide legislative and regulatory representation in New York state.” The agreement, which runs through the June conclusion of the legislative session, was formalized just a week and a half before Ms. Applyrs announced that the city was facing a $15 million deficit that could balloon to $22 million in the next fiscal year; she has instituted a hiring freeze for nonessential roles and asked city agencies to craft budgets that include savings of up to 15%.
Ms. Applyrs’ timeline for when exactly she became aware that the city was in financial peril can be hazy, but here’s a fair summary: While certain budgetary storm clouds were apparent last summer, she says, they darkened during the weeks after her election but only became thunderheads in the weeks that followed her swearing-in. Even taking that explanation in good faith, it is hard to imagine how in early March she thought it was appropriate to shell out an $18,000 retainer to what appears to be the city’s first-ever outside lobbying firm.
Then there is the question of whether the city needs a crew of lobbyists. The last time we checked, the city has several state legislators as well as their staffers already being paid by taxpayers to represent Albany’s interests. Ms. Applyrs could also draw on the talents of Deputy Mayor Christopher Ellis, who previously served as director of state legislative affairs for New York City Mayor Eric Adams before departing for a senior role at, yes, a lobbying firm a few weeks after Mr. Adams was indicted on federal corruption charges in September 2024.
While it is true that these people — elected officials as well as public employees — have other matters they are working on, so do the principals and staff of Brown & Weinraub.
We now come to the fact that the lobbying firm tapped by the mayor includes individuals who, along with their family members, were generous supporters of Ms. Applyrs’ campaign. This support extended to Brown & Weinraub serving as the headquarters of an independent expenditure account dubbed “Albany Forward” (later “New York Forward”) that supported Ms. Applyrs and opposed her Democratic primary opponent, Dan Cerutti. The mayor’s office said the selection of Brown & Weinraub was in no way a conflict of interest and pointed to the procurement process that involved soliciting competing bids from Mr. Ellis’ former employers and a third firm, Ice Miller LLP.
We disagree: Either Ms. Applyrs has failed to recognize the bad optics of this selection, or she thinks the people of Albany are too disinterested to care. While this editorial board endorsed the mayor in her primary run, these antics fall far short of what we and the people who voted for her should expect going forward. We sincerely hope the Brown & Weinraub contract expires in June without renewal, and that this episode isn’t a harbinger of things to come at City Hall.