New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler\u2019s wife, Anna Poe-Kest, recently started working on the other side of City Hall as the chief of staff to Sherif Soliman, director of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Management and Budget.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s news to some of his fellow council members, who told City & State they didn\u2019t know. And their jobs put them at opposite ends of a contentious multibillion dollar city budget process, with each on one end of the negotiations between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Speaker Julie Menin.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing inherently unethical or illegal about the set-up \u2013 people in politics often date and marry other people in politics. But it can raise complex dynamics, often bringing with it the need for greater scrutiny than a situation in which a teacher married a fellow teacher or a scientist married a scientist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Restler contended that he and Poe-Kest have taken steps to create appropriate distance. When he has questions relevant to OMB, he reaches out to other people at the agency. At home, they maintain \u201ca firewall\u201d around the sensitive work they do. \u201cI am incredibly proud of my wife, she is exceptionally talented,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a city, we\u2019re lucky to have somebody who is as capable and ethical and effective as she is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Poe-Kest has long been in politics, and was previously a senior advisor at WorkMoney and a principal at New Deal Strategies. She also worked in a variety of roles across the de Blasio administration, including chief of staff at the Mayor\u2019s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and chief of staff at the Mayor\u2019s Office of Appointments.<\/p>\n
Under the direction of Mamdani and Soliman, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Management and Budget plays a central role in shaping how the city spends its money. Beyond developing and implementing the city\u2019s revenue, expense and capital budgets, it\u2019s the agency\u2019s job to negotiate with the City Council, which plays an oversight role and proposes its own spending plan.<\/a> The process is typically long, complex and contentious. As chief of staff to Soliman, Poe-Kest plays an influential role on the mayor\u2019s side. Restler, a progressive Brooklyn Democrat, isn\u2019t part of the team<\/a> handpicked by Menin that is most directly involved in conversations with OMB about the city\u2019s $127 billion budget. He is however a member of the council\u2019s Finance Committee. He\u2019s also the chair of the Committee on Contracts, which largely deals with the Mayor\u2019s Office of Contract Services, not OMB.\u00a0<\/p>\n One Democratic council member who requested anonymity to speak freely said they think Restler should be more open with his fellow council members about Poe-Kest\u2019s position at OMB. \u201cAt least during budget-related conversations he should have at least made a good faith effort to make sure that some of us knew about this,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Another Democratic council member who requested anonymity to speak freely argued that Restler\u2019s connection to Poe-Kest is a potential conflict of interest that should be disclosed to the public \u2013 especially after he and two other council members<\/a> spoke at a rally last month calling on Mamdani to veto a controversial bill directing the<\/a> NYPD to create a plan to implement a protest \u201cbuffer zone\u201d outside of schools. They also pointed to a March City Council hearing in which Restler told Soliman that while<\/a> he doesn\u2019t think the city should raid the city\u2019s rainy day fund \u2013 a possibility the Mamdani administration raised that the City Council opposed<\/a> \u2013 he understands the need to present a balanced budget.<\/p>\n Restler is a member of the progressive caucus, and is generally more politically aligned with the mayor than with Menin, but Restler\u2019s comment still rubbed a colleague the wrong way.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s sort of like, why are you going so hard for the mayor against the City Council’s institutional interest?\u201d they said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to vote against the bill, which he certainly has a right to do, but to rub it in your face I think speaks to a level of partiality and alliance he has on the admin side, which can make it feel as if he’s a little compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n Restler said he reached out to the Conflict of Interest Board to see if there were any potential issues before Poe-Kest began working at OMB. He\u2019d been told that there was nothing that would prevent her from taking it and that opportunities for conflict of interest between the two of them would likely be \u201cfew and far between.\u201d To avoid problems, the agency advised Restler to recuse himself from any of her communications with the City Council that involved himself and to disclose their relationship while voting on the budget, which sets Poe-Kest\u2019s salary. City & State reviewed this exchange. Restler said he will adhere to the guidance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI speak my mind,\u201d Restler said, rejecting the idea that his participation at the anti-buffer zone bill had anything to do with his wife\u2019s position. \u201cI will often agree with this mayor and I will disagree with this mayor, and I’m not going to be shy about saying it publicly or privately when I do.\u201d<\/p>\n Jack Lobel, a spokesperson for the speaker\u2019s office, said that Menin doesn\u2019t see an issue and that she\u2019s confident Restler will do \u201crobust, independent oversight in his role.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Rachael Fauss, a senior policy adviser at good government group Reinvent Albany, said that it\u2019s always important for an elected official to disclose the connections they have to other people working in government \u2013 doing so allows the public to ask the right questions. Ultimately though, she doesn\u2019t see an issue as long as the right steps are in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf some appropriate firewalls are put in place to make sure the council\u2019s interests and OMB\u2019s interests are protected, I think the risk is much lower,\u201d Fauss said, adding that she\u2019d see a far more opportunity for conflict if Poe-Kest worked at a private company trying to do business with the city. \u201cThese agencies should be working together anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n