A tip for the would-be mayor

Daily Point

From LI, a cop-advice lesson for Eric Adams

New York City mayoral nominee Eric Adams appeared Thursday at a table with celebrity security consultant Richard "Bo" Dietl, at (where else?) Rao’s restaurant in East Harlem.

Joining them, as captured in a photo that went viral, were billionaire grocer and oil businessman John Catsimatidis alongside Long Island-based publicist Todd Shapiro. Victuals for the group reportedly included veal parmigiana, calamari, fish and lamb chops. Adams, an affirmed vegan, is believed to have stuck to an eggplant dish.

Like Adams, who this week was declared winner of the Democratic primary, Catsimatidis and Dietl have both made their own separate runs for mayor. Unlike Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, the past candidacies of the other two fizzled.

Both Catsimatidis and Shapiro have long had cordial relations with media personality Curtis Sliwa, who will be Adams’ GOP opponent in November, and that can be expected to remain undisturbed by a bit of social non-distancing.

Not so much for Dietl, an ex-NYPD detective and holder of an envied regular table reservation at Rao’s. Back in 2017, with Bill de Blasio en route to an easy reelection, Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder, got into a nasty spat with Dietl, calling him "Bozo Dietl" in assessing his mayoral debate performance. "Bo Dietl is a thug," Sliwa said then. "There’s nothing different between him and someone at Rikers Island."

For his part, ex-NYPD captain Adams, if elected as expected, might wish to stay away from doing business, official or otherwise, with Dietl. It didn’t work out so well for Nassau in the days of County Executive Ed Mangano.

Six years ago, the firm called Beau Dietl & Associates was awarded a $24,000 contract to study the possible merger of the Freeport and Hempstead village police departments into the county force — a proposal that apparently neither department knew about. There were questions of plagiarism. District Attorney Madeline Singas investigated, and later called the report a "cut-and-paste job."

No charges were filed but reforms were suggested. The county didn’t pay the firm. The contract was one of two for the Dietl company from that period in Nassau that happened to come in just below the cost that would have required legislative approval.

The photo from Rao’s was posted on Twitter at 10 p.m. Thursday by city-based journalist David Freedlander. By early Friday afternoon, the posting had received 364 retweets, 778 "quote tweets," 1,732 likes and many snarky comments.

For Adams, a picture might be worth a thousand cautionary words.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison

Talking Point

The more things change ...

Don’t expect the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to be led by its first female chairperson anytime soon.

Multiple sources have told The Point that as of now, there are no plans for the State Senate to convene a special session to approve the separation of the MTA’s chair and chief executive positions, or to confirm Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s nominations to either spot.

Last month, Cuomo nominated current interim New York City Transit chief Sarah Feinberg as the first female MTA chair and current Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber as chief executive. But separating the roles, which are currently held jointly by Pat Foye, would require legislative approval. That effort fell apart as the session came to an end in June.

At that point, the Senate was expected to hold a special session to handle a few outstanding matters from the last session, including separating the MTA jobs — and to confirm Feinberg and Lieber — sometime after the June 22 primary. Since then, however, there’s been silence from the Senate on both the MTA and the Clean Slate bill to expunge criminal records, which the Senate also was supposed to address. While sources said the special session is still being discussed — especially since the legislature is eager to reap an anticipated bonanza from marijuana sales and appointments to the five-member regulatory commission must be made before the retail industry can take root — there's no plan as of now to hold one before Foye’s departure, which is expected at the end of this month.

Meanwhile, union leaders, including Transport Workers Union head John Samuelson, have not been as quiet. Earlier this month, Samuelson raised concerns that Cuomo was going to appoint MTA board member and long-time Cuomo supporter Larry Schwartz to the joint chair/chief executive spot.

Feinberg had come under particular criticism from members of the State Senate and other advocates for her push for more police in the subway system, her critique of how Mayor Bill de Blasio had handled safety and security in the subways, and her close ties to the governor. Part of the State Senate’s reluctance to approve the job separation and its lack of desire to return to session seem to be part of a power shift, a way to avoid giving Cuomo a win.

There’s no indication Foye would stay at the MTA any longer than planned; he’s still expected to leave the agency to become interim president and CEO at Empire State Development. So if the Senate doesn’t reconvene to separate the jobs, it will be up to Cuomo to appoint someone to act as interim chair and chief executive, a nomination that would still require Senate confirmation when it is back in session next year. Sources said it’s possible Lieber would get that nod. It’s unclear whether Feinberg would stay in her current job if that happens.

But if Feinberg doesn’t get the top job, it seems we’ll still be waiting for the end of the long parade of men at the helm of the MTA.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall and Rita Ciolli @ritaciolli

Pencil Point

Tracking our threats

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Final Point

Deadlines for dollars

When the "URGENT DEADLINE" emails start coming in, you know it’s almost campaign finance filing time for political candidates.

"I wouldn’t be reaching out today if it wasn’t urgent," wrote gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin on Friday in a classic of the genre, "but I want to make it clear to this entire movement that the public fundraising deadline we’re facing Sunday is, quite frankly, the most urgent moment of this campaign so far."

That Sunday deadline is the cutoff for transactions that will be included in the periodic report due July 15. Zeldin is right that this campaign finance report is a big deal: It’s the only one he’ll have to file with the state between now and mid-January.

So it’s no surprise he’s hoping to boost his numbers at the last minute, before our one and only mandated 2021 glimpse at his state fundraising finesse.

Mid-July is also deadline time for congressional candidates, including those vying to replace Zeldin if he goes all the way in his attempt to be the GOP standard-bearer for governor. One of those hopefuls — Democratic Suffolk County Legis. Kara Hahn — released some topline numbers from her fundraising already, with a news release saying she brought in over $250,000 in her first month since announcing her congressional bid.

The deadline for full filings from Hahn and other CD1 contenders is also July 15, so we’ll have a more complete look then. But certainly the candidates will be looking to raise big, quickly, given that Zeldin and 2020 Democratic opponent Nancy Goroff spent some $16 million between them over the last cycle.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

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