Mayor Eric Adams’ appointment of Phil Banks, an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the NYPD’s largest bribery scandals, to deputy mayor is not yet above board, The Post has learned.
Banks, once next in line to run the police department before his abrupt resignation in 2014, currently collects an annual six-figure pension from his time as a cop, so he would need a waiver to be eligible for the $252,000 salary that comes with the City Hall title.
But 20 days after Banks announced his own appointment — not Adams — to oversee public safety in the Big Apple, the administration has yet to request permission for him to take the job.
The revelation Thursday, made through public records requests, is the latest misstep for Adams in appointing friends and family to his administration.
It comes just hours after the mayor’s brother was approved to take a job as an advisor by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board only because Bernard Adams agreed to take an annual salary of a single dollar.
The younger Adams told The Post previously he was appointed to deputy police commissioner handling government affairs before being demoted days later to executive director of mayoral security with a $210,000 salary.
Eric Adams’ administration only reached out to the conflicts board after The Post made public his brother would join the administration in such a prestigious role.
Banks first revealed his long-expected role in the city government on Jan. 7 in an op-ed in which he apologized for his connection to the two men at the center of the police bribery scandal.
But the appointment has still not gone through.
The Adams administration still must seek approval from State Civil Service Commission under New York State law since Banks is under 65 and collects $134,064 yearly pension, according to records obtained by The Post.
A spokesman for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services confirmed Thursday there was no waiver on file.
As part of the law, City Hall needs to get a 211 waiver in which it must make the case that the retiree is “properly certified” and they “prepared a detailed recruitment plan” for the role.
They also must show there was an urgent need for the person because an “unplanned, unpredictable and unexpected vacancy” left the city without time to recruit a candidate or “extensive recruitment efforts” found there were “no available non-retired persons qualified to perform the duties of such position.”
When asked Thursday about how Banks was still collecting a pension and city salary without a waiver, almost a month into his tenure, a City Hall spokesman said the former chief has yet to be paid.
“The deputy mayor has not yet received a salary, while he evaluates the waiver process,” Maxwell Young told The Post.
Banks referred questions to City Hall.
Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks
Published on: Article source
