Garner death chapter closed — ‘Summer of Andrew’ State Fair — First election financing meeting

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After now-former NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo was fired this week for the death of Eric Garner, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared: “Today in our city we ended a chapter that has brought our people so much pain and so much fear over these last five years.”

Many begged to differ: Garner’s family said their fight for justice would continue, as advocates pressed for discipline for other officers on the scene. The police union vowed a fight of a different kind, pressing cops to slow down their approach to arrests in protest. This was not over, both sides agreed.

But the administration has now made it clear they intend to close the book and move on. It was revealed Wednesday that the sergeant hit with disciplinary charges in the case will be allowed to keep her job, as part of a plea deal that docks her 20 vacation days. A public disciplinary trial for the sergeant, Kizzy Adonis, which had been set to take place later this year, has been scrapped. NYPD officials also said they do not plan to bring charges against any of the other officers involved. As far as the department is concerned, the case is over.

The mayor insists the NYPD has changed dramatically since Garner’s death five years ago — but residents of the Staten Island neighborhood where the confrontation happened don’t necessarily see that as a good thing, as the Associated Press reports. “It’s been lawless for five years. Five years people do what they want to do on this block. Five years straight,” one resident told the AP.

For de Blasio, whose fraught relationship with both police and advocates for reform has clouded his tenure as mayor, not to mention his presidential bid, putting the controversy behind him will be difficult. And he may find that the harder he fights to bring closure to the issue now, the more it may become part of his legacy.

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WHERE’S ANDREW? In Albany and New York City, with no announced public schedule.

WHERE’S BILL? In New Hampshire, appearing on WMUR’s “Conversation with the Candidate” and then returning to New York.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If he wants to get $200,000 worth of pizza that’s his business, but he can’t forgive state taxes.” — Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on the New York City mayor’s pizza advocacy.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: New York Playbook will not publish from Monday Aug. 26 through Monday Sept. 2. After the break, we’ll be back on our normal schedule on Tuesday Sept. 3.

WHAT CITY HALL'S READING

“MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO is willing to do anything to save Di Fara from closure after it was seized for failure to pay more than $167,000 in taxes, he said. ‘Di Fara is THE best pizza place in New York City,’ the mayor tweeted Wednesday morning. ‘It MUST be saved.’ The Mayor’s response came one day after the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance seized Di Fara Pizza on Avenue J and East 15th Street for its $167,506.75 debt. The levy, posted on the pizzeria’s front door, states that unless a Tax Department warrant is addressed, the title, interest and property within 1424 Avenue J will be sold.” Patch’s Kathleen Culliton

THE CITY COUNCIL charged Council Member Andy King Wednesday with four counts of violating ethics rules in its second inquiry into the Bronx lawmaker. King was found last year to have paid improper attention to a staffer. This time around, he faces a wider scope of accusations, which Speaker Corey Johnson has called “disturbing.” The Council and an outside attorney conducted a wide-ranging investigation that led the Committee on Standards and Ethics to allege Wednesday, that between 2015 and 2019, King either engaged in, allowed or failed to prevent unethical conduct in his office. “More specifically, the charges are retaliation, disorderly conduct, conflicts of interest violations and harassment,” said Council Member Steven Matteo, who chairs the committee. POLITICO’s Joe Anuta

“THE DRIVER WHOSE caught-on-camera recklessness led to the death of cyclist Jose Alzorriz on Coney Island Avenue earlier this month has been hit with a slew of charges by the NYPD. Mirza Baig, 18, is one of the few killer drivers who is facing prison, thanks to charges that include manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, vehicular assault and reckless endangerment stemming from the Aug. 11 crash when Baig flew down the speedway boulevard and ran a red light at Avenue L, T-boning a minivan that slammed into Alzorriz as the cyclist waited at a red light, cops said. Under pressure from local politicians and activists — including Mayor de Blasio— the NYPD threw the full summons book at Baig, adding charges for assault, reckless driving, disobeying a traffic device, and speeding.” Streetsblog’s Gersh Kunstzman

“FIVE PEOPLE involved in last weekend’s melee with cops at the Marcy Houses housing project in Brooklyn plan to sue the city and the NYPD for a combined $85 million — claiming they were victims of police brutality. Three men and two women — four of them taken into custody during the clash — claim they were roughed up by cops and suffered injuries including a shattered jaw and a whack to the head with a police baton, their lawyers said Wednesday. ‘Not only are they injured … but now they have to face criminal charges when they did nothing wrong,’ said civil rights attorney Sandy Rubenstein, who filed a notices of intent to sue with the city Wednesday morning.” New York Post’s Andrew Denney and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon


WHAT ALBANY'S READING

THE TRAIN WAS RUNNING LATE from Rensselaer and Amtrak officials were getting antsy, but Andrew Cuomo was taking his time. Cuomo, who is not running for anything this year, strolled down the platform at least five minutes past his train’s expected departure time on Wednesday as conductors tried to shuffle everyone aboard. He stopped to admire a new blue wrapping and logo on a special car taking him to the State Fair. “It is going to be a fun trip,” he promised. The governor certainly appears to be having fun during what some Albany observers have playfully dubbed the “Summer of Andrew.” Cuomo said he has been making the rounds upstate in order to show off New York’s allure north of its largest city. POLITICO’s Anna Gronewold

— Capitol region residents looking for day trip to the State Fair might not want to the take the train, despite the new free-entrance-with-ticket promotion. The earliest train from Rensselaer arrives in the Syracuse area around 1 p.m. and the last train home leaves around 3 p.m.

— Despite Cuomo’s announcement that the New York State Fair will go completely renewable and off the grid by 2023, a study on the cost and specific resource mix has not yet been completed by NYSERDA, the Syracuse Post-Standard reports.

— The governor’s choice of Gianelli sausage for the ninth consecutive year has irked some competitors, Wall Street Journal’s Jimmy Vielkind finds.

EIGHT INDIVIDUALS with the power to fundamentally overhaul the way New York’s elections are run gathered in the same room for the first time on Wednesday afternoon in midtown Manhattan. Rhetorical fireworks soon followed. While the first meeting of the Public Financing Commission was largely focused on organizational matters, it did offer a preview of looming battles over the commission’s reach in the area of fusion voting — the practice of letting candidates run on multiple party lines.

[T]he final package will be log-rolled. If one of the commissioners strongly supports campaign finance reform, but is modestly opposed to a separate provision in the package, they’d be forced to acquiesce to the package as a whole or torpedo the entire thing “They just want one ‘big ugly,’ as they refer to it in the Legislature, to vote on,” said state Board of Elections counsel Kimberly Galvin, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb’s pick for the panel. “We don’t necessarily want that to occur here, where we have unlike things jammed together and expect a yea or nay.” POLITICO’s Bill Mahoney

“ALTHOUGH EX-ASSEMBLYMAN DOV HIKIND no longer holds public office, the once-powerful Brooklyn lawmaker continues to spend heavily from his campaign accounts, including paying for trips to Germany and Texas, and covering insurance and lease payments for his personal vehicle. Hikind, who had been one of the Assembly’s most powerful lawmakers before declining to run for reelection in 2018, contends his use of the campaign funds is lawful.” Times Union’s Chris Bragg

#UpstateAmerica: Here’s a list of the “heart-stopping, gut-busting delights” at the state fair.

SOCIAL DATA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Paul Singer is 75 … National Review editor Rich Lowry is 51 ... Jess Allen, an NYU Law student and Obama WH alum, is 3-0 ... Morton Dean is 84 … Luke Russert … Steve Kroft is 74 ... Brittany Baker, special assistant to NEC Director Larry Kudlow ... Steve Kornacki, national political correspondent for NBC and MSNBC, is 4-0 … Robin Wright, New Yorker writer and joint fellow of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Wilson International Center ... Fox Business News producer Natalie Apsell (h/t Steve Brusk) … Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association … Gigi Sharp … Sinclair’s AnnaMaria Di Pietro ... Julia Rothwax … Adrian Slater ...Tom Edsall is 78 ... Alyssa Palisi … (was Wednesday): Sergey Brin (h/t Jewish Insider)

MEDIAWATCH — “CBS This Morning” named Shanta Fripp director, Claudia Milne managing editor and Jon Tower senior broadcast producer. Milne previously was senior editor of video at ProPublica. (h/t POLITICO Playbook) … Shoshannah Buxbaum has left her job as associate producer at NJTV News and producer for “On the Record” and “Reporters Roundtable” with Michael Aron. She is now enrolled in a masters program at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY.

FROM THE DELEGATION

MORE THAN 200 MILES FROM THE NEW YORK CITY district that catapulted Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to progressive superstardom last year, Rep. Anthony Brindisi is straining to hold on to the center. The freshman Democrat from central New York’s sprawling 22nd congressional district won a tight race last year in a district Donald Trump carried by 15 points in 2016, helping his party reclaim the House. But now he’s doing his best to distance himself from the party’s vocal left, Ocasio-Cortez included, and also from the liberals who control all the levers of power in Albany for the first time in years.

It’s a struggle. And Republicans believe the seat can be flipped again next year. Brindisi’s predicament is a reminder that even in liberal bastions like New York, some Democrats are eager to keep it local rather than engage in the issues that animate the party’s left wing. That’s why on a recent summer’s evening in this village of a little over 1,000 people 45 minutes west of Cooperstown, Brindisi focused not on the Green New Deal or “Medicare for All,” but on a litany of complaints from constituents. POLITICO’s Nick NIedzwiadek

... 2020 VISION ...

“WE ALREADY KNEW he was full of hot air — but helium, too? Mayor Bill de Blasio’s live-streamed appearance Wednesday at a campaign event in Iowa turned into an episode of “Alvin and the Chipmunks” thanks to an embarrassing audio snafu. The screw-up distorted de Blasio’s voice as he appeared at the Iowa Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations’ conference on giant projector screens via a video link from Gracie Mansion. ‘Organized labor in Iowa has been fighting a really, really difficult battle but you’ve been doing it in a way that shows so much passion, so much strength,’ the termed-out mayor unwittingly tells the packed room in a high-pitched voice. The 2020 Democratic longshot was supposed to be making his pitch in person but a bout of bad weather canceled his Tuesday night flight to Iowa. Members of the audience can be seen cracking up and glancing at audio technicians in the back of the room.” N.Y. Post’s Nikki Schwab and Lia Eustachewich

“PUT ASIDE the polls. Ignore the fundraising numbers. Forget what you think you know about this 2020 Democratic presidential primary and just imagine what motivates someone to keep running when people are already speculating about what will happen when you suspend your campaign. For New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who spent last weekend campaigning in New Hampshire and returns to the Granite State tonight for more campaigning, there’s no reason to stop believing. And de Blasio fervently believes he has the right message (‘Working People First’) at the right moment, and his accomplishments — or his commitments — here in New York City provide compelling proof.”

“Still, that doesn’t change some uncomfortable facts about de Blasio’s life on the campaign trail. His events draw just a handful of curious onlookers. As he marched at the back of a local parade with just three staffers from the city, throngs of supporters for Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and even Tulsi Gabbard all marched ahead of him.” WNYC’s Brigid Bergin

-- Flushing-based Epos Development got the city’s go-ahead to begin work on a new 20-story hotel shortly after hosting a fundraiser for one of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political action committees in March, reports THE CITY’s Josefa Velasquez.


TRUMP'S NEW YORK

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL Tish James sued the Trump administration Wednesday over a “certificate of completion” it granted to General Electric for the company’s cleanup of the Hudson River. The Environmental Protection Agency says the certificate was legally required after GE completed its dredging of PCBs from the river in accordance with a 2006 agreement, but the long-awaited lawsuit — one that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has spent months calling for — argues that the agency’s decision lets GE off the hook without any clarity of when fish from the river will be safe for everyone to eat. “Trump’s EPA is failing New Yorkers and the environment by putting the priorities of polluters first,” Cuomo said in a statement on the lawsuit. “Since the EPA has failed to hold GE accountable for restoring the river, New York is taking action to demand a full and complete remediation.” POLITICO’s Marie J. French

“WHEN NORMAN ROSENBLUM spent eight years as mayor of the village of Mamaroneck, and tried to become a Westchester County legislator, he ran on the Republican Party line. Not this time. Rosenblum is trying to make a comeback as mayor but said he and his running mates dropped the pursuit and instead created a new party called The Friendly Village Party. Running as a Republican has become a liability around here, he said. “If there’s a repeat of the anti-Trump vote in 2017 and 2018, to tell you truth…I don’t think any Republicans are going to get elected,” said Rosenblum, who isn’t registered to a party. His ticket trying to distance itself from the party is just one small indication of the bruised Republican brand in Westchester County, which is growing bluer each year and seeing Democrats newly energized against the policies of President Donald Trump.” Journal News’ Mark Lungariello

AROUND NEW YORK

— Cuomo signed three bills allowing more crime victims to seek damages from offenders.

— Cuomo’s girlfriend Sandra Lee has slashed the price of the Westchester home they share, which has been up for sale since May, by $300,000.

— Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims will have the opportunity to speak at a court hearing this month, after a judge ordered a final hearing before the case against him is closed after his suicide.

— State lawmakers are admonishing the MTA for failing to follow open meetings laws.

— Long Island Assemblywoman Taylor Raynor has legally changed her last name to “Darling.”

—The state’s Committee on Open Government officially in the market for a new executive director after Bob Freeman was fired in June for alleged sexually inappropriate behavior.

— Every New York City school bus will be equipped with GPS this fall.

— Five people planto sue the city and the NYPD over injuries suffered in clashes with cops at Brooklyn housing projects over the weekend.

— The second-floor women’s bathroom at the Port Authority Bus Terminal it is one of New York’s favorite places to primp.

— NYC eateries are having a tough time giving up their illegal CBD products.

— This train conductor may be the MTA’s happiest subway operator.

— Cardi B posted an Instagram video claiming that the NYPD forced the cancellation of a school supply giveaway organized by her friend Star Brim.

REAL ESTATE

“WHEN MARCUS & MILLICHAP’S CHARLES ‘CHIP’ COLLINS listed a 97-unit Schenectady rental property for just over $10 million in June, he said, he was shocked by the number of investors ‘banging down the doors’ looking for a deal. While Schenectady is more than 130 miles from the South Bronx — which has become a hotbed for multifamily buyers in recent years — the blue-collar upstate city is one of a handful seeing new levels of investor interest. For landlords looking outside the box for returns, the market in upstate New York is becoming increasingly attractive. And a growing number of real estate firms traditionally focused on the five boroughs and New Jersey’s urban cores are searching above and beyond the Hudson Valley.” The Real Deal’s Georgia Kromrei

“MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO is making it easier for New York City’s undocumented immigrants to qualify for scarce city-subsidized affordable housing. New eligibility rules de Blasio unveiled scrap credit-rating, Social Security and taxpayer identification requirements if applicants can show 12 consecutive monthly rent payments. ‘For too long, families without access to credit have faced barriers to the affordable housing they need,’ de Blasio said Wednesday. ‘By allowing New Yorkers to submit rental history instead of credit checks, we are creating a fairer system for all New Yorkers.’ The mayor’s goal of creating or preserving 300,000 units of affordable housing by 2026 has been one of his signature programs, which he’s touted while campaigning for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The city’s 500,000 undocumented immigrants would be able to participate in a lottery that already attracts more than 500 applicants for each available unit, said Bitta Mostofi, commissioner for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.” Bloomberg’s Henry Goldman

THE HOME TEAMS, BY HOWARD MEGDAL

Mets 4, Indians 3: In what has been a magical August, J.D. Davis provided another memory with a walkoff.

Red Bulls 2, DC United 1: Luis. Robles. Is. Underappreciated.

NYCFC 1, Columbus 0: Taty Castellanos continues his rampage with his tenth goal of the season to get NYCFC three points in The Bronx.

The day ahead: Mets go for the sweep of the Indians at Citi Field. The Yankees are in Oakland.