Mayor Adams aide under NYC Council probe didn't recuse from ex-employer dealings due to ‘miscommunication'

Yahoo

06-02-2025

Nate Bliss, a senior aide to Mayor Adams, didn't recuse himself for years from city government business dealings with his ex-employer — and is now blaming the slipup on a 'miscommunication' with the city's ethics agency, the Daily News has learned.
Bliss, who's facing a City Council probe over his ties to his ex-employer, Taconic Partners, wrote in a letter to Council investigators last Friday that four days before he left Taconic to join Adams' administration on Jan. 24, 2022, he contacted the Conflicts of Interest Board.
Bliss, chief of staff to First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, wrote his conversation focused on whether he needed to recuse himself from engaging in his government capacity with Taconic, which has significant city government business interests. Specifically, he wrote he disclosed to COIB he planned to while at City Hall continue holding stake in a Taconic-managed real estate investment fund.
'I was advised that a general conflict did not exist and that no formal recusal was necessary,' he wrote in the letter obtained by The News.
But Bliss wrote he now believes 'there was a miscommunication with COIB' in 2022 about 'the nature' of his fund stake because he got different advice when he reached back out last month — after NBC4 first reported on it.
'[I] was advised that I should formally recuse myself from any involvement in any Taconic project,' he wrote of a Jan. 22 exchange with COIB. 'I have and will continue to heed that guidance.'
Bliss didn't elaborate on the alleged 2022 miscommunication, and Adams' office wouldn't comment. COIB Executive Director Carolyn Miller declined to comment specifically on Bliss, citing confidentiality rules.
As first reported by The News, the Council Oversight and Economic Development Committees launched the Bliss probe last week after it emerged that his jump from Taconic to City Hall happened less than three months before Adams' administration picked Taconic to execute 'Innovation East,' a major redevelopment of the city's Manhattan public health lab.
In an initial Jan. 27 request, the committees asked Bliss to, among other matters, furnish records about which properties the Taconic investment fund is invested in and how much money Bliss has been paid by it since joining the administration.
Besides disclosing the recusal matter, Bliss wrote in Friday's letter he hasn't received money from the fund since 2022 because his 'carried interest' in it is part of a Taconic 'compensation package' that only generates a return upon liquidation. He said he doesn't know when that may happen.
He wrote the fund has invested in six properties — four in Manhattan, one in Westchester County and one in New Jersey — but didn't identify them. He did say the lab Taconic's set to redevelop isn't one of them.
Council Oversight Committee Chairwoman Gale Brewer told The News Wednesday she appreciated Bliss' quick response, but said he left questions unanswered.
'We need to know what these other properties are,' Brewer said of the six buildings.
Brewer also called it 'strange' Bliss was first told to not recuse. 'We need to know if there was a change in the type of information he was providing [to COIB],' she said.
Under local law, city officials are barred from working on issues related to private entities they hold financial interest in. Miller, the COIB executive director, also said officials must by law recuse themselves — not take meetings, receive documents or be copied on emails — about issues involving companies they have financial relationships with, and COIB can levy fines for violations.
Bliss' letter says he has had 'no involvement while at City Hall with any project involving' Taconic.
Taconic, though, listed Bliss in filings as a lobbying 'target' last year as it sought to secure permits from Adams' administration for Innovation East, which would turn the First Ave. lab into a 500,000 square-foot 'life sciences hub.'
Referring to the lobbying disclosure, Bliss wrote he 'can find no record, nor do I recall any discussion or meeting regarding this or any other Taconic project.'
The entity that officially picked Taconic for Innovation East was the Economic Development Corporation, which Bliss helps oversee as chief of staff. The EDC said last week Bliss didn't participate in that selection.
Besides being chief of staff, Adams appointed Bliss in 2022 to chair the Land Development Corporation, an entity that must ultimately sign off on the Innovation East project.
Adams spokeswoman Liz Garcia said Bliss' recusal will cover any LDC action on Innovation East.
All but one of LDC's other four members work at the EDC or under Torres-Springer, with several of them reporting to Bliss. Garcia wouldn't say if those members will need recusals.
Before any LDC moves, the Council needs to approve a zoning application undergirding Innovation East, and a vote's expected next week.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams' office said the Council can by law only consider 'land use merits' of Innovation East as part of next week's vote and that any 'conflicts of interest concerns' must be handled by committees.