New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has enlisted a former New York state official to advise on his bid to place a casino next to the Mets’ MetLife Stadium in Queens. Cohen has tapped former New York Budget Director Robert F. Mujica Jr. to provide “strategic advice” on his casino bid.
Cohen, who formerly lobbied Mujica on the project, is paying the official $105,000 over a five-month period for the consulting services.
“Steve Cohen is committed to being transparent which is why we disclosed Mr. Mujica’s consulting engagement,” Karl Rickett, a spokesman for the project, said in a statement, according to the Times Union. “Mr. Mujica is providing services consistent with all government ethics obligations and he is not lobbying nor having conversations with any members of the (Gov. Kathy Hochul) administration on this project. We are lucky to be able to bring Robert’s decades of experience and varied talents to the team.”
Cohen’s group was careful to point out that the agreement does not involve lobbying. State employees are banned from lobbying their former agency for two years after their employment ends; there is a lifetime ban on work related to matters they directly were involved in while working for the state.
Some feel the difference between consulting and lobbying is a murky area. “There’s this gray blob of consulting that exists outside of the lobbying definition,” Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, told the Times Union. “If you know what you’re doing and if you structure it correctly, you can be effectively influencing public policy without having to report it.”
