REMARKS
Council Member Restler's concluding remarks on CFB's authority and responsibility
0:58:26
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73 sec
Council Member Restler summarizes his perspective on the CFB's authority and responsibility regarding candidates who fail to respond to requests for information, with specific reference to Eric Adams' campaign.
- Restler asserts that the Campaign Finance Act and CFB rules clearly state that candidates who repeatedly fail to respond to CFB requests are not eligible for additional public funding
- He emphasizes that the board has full authority to withhold all funds from such candidates
- Restler suggests that the funding should have been stopped or slowed during the 2021 campaign when the candidate (implying Eric Adams) stopped responding to the CFB
- He urges that no further funds should be provided until all CFB requests have been answered and the extent of alleged fraud has been determined
- Restler concludes by stating that the committee, the council, and New Yorkers will be watching the board's actions on December 16th
Lincoln Restler
0:58:26
I I will just wrap up this section, by synthesizing my perspective, which is the Campaign Finance Act and the Campaign Finance Board rules make eminently clear that candidates, candidates like Eric Adams, who failed to respond to requests for information from the CFP, repeatedly failed to respond to requests for informations from the CFP are not eligible for additional public funding.
0:58:51
The board has the full authority to withhold all funds from such candidates as you've testified today.
0:58:56
Ideally, the funding spigot would have been stopped or slowed in the middle of the 2021 campaign when the candidate stopped responding to the CFB.
0:59:04
But at a minimum, this candidate who has ignored and stonewalled the CFB for years should not receive another dime until his campaign has answered answered all CFB requests for information, and the CFB has determined the extent of the fraud that has allegedly been committed.
0:59:19
I hope that you, Paul and mister Ryan, will encourage the board to take the appropriate and necessary action on 16th.
0:59:27
This committee, the council New Yorkers will certainly be watching.
0:59:32
I want to invite colleagues to ask questions, and then I'll come back.
0:59:35
So we'll do council members Brewer, then Schulman, then Menon, then Karr, then Hanif, in that order.
