NY Mayor Eric Adams Criticized For Alleged Pay-To-Play Scheme

A Queens waste hauling company won a series of licenses from the Adams administration following donations made by employees and owners of the company to his 2021 mayoral campaign.

After a Queens waste hauling company won a series of licenses from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration following donations made by owners of the company to his 2021 mayoral campaign, some are accusing the administration of running a pay-to-play scheme.

According to The Gothamist, five employees of Royal Waste Services (RWS) allegedly donated a total of $10,800 to the Adams campaign on June 7, 2021. One employee donated $4,000, double the limit allowed by New York campaign law. As a result, half of this sum was returned to the employee by the Adams campaign.

Earlier in 2024, RWS was one of 18 waste management services that received a contract to pick up trash from businesses, part of a larger initiative to streamline the city’s commercial waste management system. As it relates to the donations, the company was flagged when Adams’ 2021 election fund was audited by the Campaign Finance Board.

The board is now demanding that the Adams administration explain how the money was raised and whether or not the company’s donations were bundled as a way to get around the legal limits imposed on campaign donations.

According to the sanitation department’s spokesperson Joshua Goodman, RWS received no special treatment in relation to its donation. “The ethical standards set forth in the contracts are above and beyond what many advocates expected, and we are not afraid to enforce them,” Goodman told The Gothamist.

However, according to Rachel Fauss, a policy advisor with Reinvent Albany, groups or companies suspected of bundling donations are subject to scrutiny because they could be using New York City’s matching funds program to illegally use taxpayer money to fund a campaign.

“It’s definitely a way of increasing the amount of influence you want to show if you’re gathering donations from a bunch of people,” Fauss told The Gothamist. “It’s a way of amplifying your standing with a campaign in a way you can’t do on your own because you are subject to limits.”

Council member Sandy Nurse, who chaired the city’s sanitation department until 2024, seems to believe that the Adams administration is not acting appropriately.

“It seems like based on the investigations surrounding different people both in the administration and potentially with the mayor, pay-to-play is standard operating procedure for this administration,” Nurse told the outlet. “I’m not surprised, but it is disappointing.”

Prior to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s overhaul of the commercial sanitation system, it was the focus of several protests from labor groups accusing the private companies of employee mistreatment.

Thus, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards supported the reforms and expressed hope to The Gothamist that the reformed system would allow for watchdogs to keep a close eye on companies like RWS.

“One of the reasons we did waste zones obviously was to make sure that we could narrow the companies down, that we can really see some signs of accountability when it comes to worker safety, when it comes to pollution when it comes to garbage in our neighborhoods. We’ll be watching with a keen eye to make sure that if Royal does not adhere and do better by the community that they’re held accountable.”