With Eric Adams In Albania, Nyc Ethics Organization Mulls More Travel Disclosure Regs

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams was just on a trip to Albania. A city ethics board wants to know more about how he got there.

The New York City Conflicts of Interest Board is proposing tighter disclosure rules for elected officials who accept travel perks from special interest groups or foreign governments. In part, the new regulations were inspired by public concern over trips like Adams’ jaunts abroad during his time in office.

In practice, however, the new rules would affect whoever emerges victorious from the November general election currently being dominated by Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

The prospect of international travel has come up repeatedly on the campaign trail. During a debate during the Democratic primary, Andrew Cuomo said that if elected his first trip would be to Israel. Mamdani, who’s consistently led Cuomo by double digits in polls, did not rule out leaving the country if elected when asked by POLITICO this week. But unlike Cuomo, he hasn’t committed to any specific trips while on the stump.

"My focus is going to be on this city,” he said when asked about Adams’ Albanian adventure and his own plans should he win office. “I was asked where my first trip will be, and I was saying it's going to be across the five boroughs.”

Either way, the conflicts board rules would be waiting for him.

Elected officials are already required to report third-party reimbursements for official travel topping $1,000. The threshold for agencies to report gifts to the board, however, has long been $5,000.

The board is now proposing to lower the agency threshold to $1,000 — bringing it in line with individual disclosures — while clarifying that travel reimbursements count as gifts and requiring agency heads to approve travel in writing.

“This more robust reporting would provide further transparency for the acceptance of travel-related expenses, a topic about which the media and the public have expressed concern,” COIB Deputy General Counsel Christopher Hammer wrote in a memo summarizing the proposal.

The board held a public hearing about the proposed changes last month and is mulling whether to incorporate feedback into its final draft.

One ethics watchdog group that submitted testimony said COIB’s changes could deter city officials from pursuing unnecessary travel — but that the board needs to go much further if it actually wants to curb graft and win over suspicious New Yorkers.

“What the COIB is trying to do is respond to some of the public outcry and at least make reporting more clear and consistent,” said Rachael Fauss, senior policy adviser for Reinvent Albany. “It will make officials think twice and put some more daylight on the subject — but I don’t think it will necessarily change the outcomes dramatically.”

Because of the allure of international travel for leisure, foreign trips by city officials have long generated heightened scrutiny from taxpayers and the press. That’s why Fauss said the board should simply ban officials from accepting travel-related gifts to eliminate the appearance of foreign influence on local government — a topic that has recently captured the attention of federal prosecutors. Adams himself was indicted on federal bribery charges related to favor trading with the Turkish government, accusations he denied before the case was dismissed at the behest of President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice.

“Why open yourself up to these conflicts and risks?” Fauss asked. “If a trip is truly of interest to the city, then the city should pay for it.”

While international diplomacy is officially within the purview of the federal government, New York City mayors and their deputies have historically taken trips abroad on account of sizable immigrant communities in the five boroughs.

Adams, who recently dropped his reelection bid, has eagerly embraced that precedent and, even before becoming mayor, took a liberal view of a parochial politician’s role in geopolitics and transcontinental trade.

City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus said Adams’ Albanian trip was partially paid for by Albania’s government, while taxpayers picked up the rest of the tab. She added that the journey was designed to foster economic ties between the Balkan nation and the city, home to a large Albanian diaspora.

“Over the past few days, Mayor Adams has been in Albania meeting with the prime minister as well as business and tech leaders, touring factories, and discussing new opportunities to boost economic activity and tourism to New York City," she said in a statement.

While travel paid for by foreign governments and taxpayers should eventually appear in public records, the mayor has also practiced a murkier brand of globetrotting that involves paying his own freight — a practice Reinvent Albany said contributes to public skepticism about elected officials going abroad.

No trip generated more intrigue than a 2022 trip to Qatar, his first as mayor. Previously unreported public records obtained by POLITICO muddle the circumstances around that trip even further.

In December 2022, the mayor told reporters he was traveling to Qatar — by way of Greece — to study the logistics of hosting the World Cup soccer tournament, which was held in and around Doha, Qatar’s capital city.

But records obtained via a Freedom of Information Law request indicate City Hall was planning a mayoral trip to Qatar before New York and New Jersey were even announced as hosts of the 2026 World Cup, undercutting Adams’ public justification.

Specifically, public schedules for Edward Mermelstein, the former Mayor’s Office of International Affairs commissioner, contained two key entries in May 2022: The first was a request from the Qatari consul general for a meeting with Adams, and the second was an item that read: “Mayor trip to Qatar.”

New York and New Jersey were not announced as hosts until the following month.

Mamelak Altus said the entry in Mermelstein’s schedule was to discuss a potential trip to Qatar — but not the trip Adams ultimately took in December 2022 — and that the city was confident its bid to host the sporting event would be successful.

The mystery surrounding the journey was further compounded when Adams refused to provide a basic summary of what he did there. He told reporters before setting off that, because he paid for part of the trip himself, he did not have to disclose what he was doing.

“When I do my dime, I can do my time — and I don’t want to hear anyone whine,” he said at the time.

Indeed, the full extent of the administration’s travels is unknown, and even the new COIB rules would do little to unearth how often city officials leave the country.

For instance, Adams’ Chief Technology Officer Matt Fraser took a trip to Greece in 2022, according to two people with knowledge of the excursion. Yet the administration has released none of Fraser’s schedules from the last three years, nor has it provided copies of Fraser’s travel receipts and requests for reimbursement that POLITICO has sought.

The trip to Greece was confirmed by City Hall, which said the administration signed a sister city agreement with Athens and that officials including Fraser and representatives from the Department of Sanitation went there to exchange information on technology, trash collection and public safety.

Mamelak Altus noted past administrations did not proactively disclose international travel by aides and that the current administration always discloses the mayor’s trips abroad.

Much of the Adams administration’s interactions with foreign officials flows through the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, a small division of City Hall that operates out of a high rise opposite the United Nations complex in Midtown. The unit acts as a liaison to the diplomatic and international community in New York City and, until July, was helmed by Edward Mermelstein, who had experience as a real estate developer and attorney plugged into the world of Russian oligarchs when he was tapped for the role in 2022.

Mermelstein’s schedules show much of his work involved routine interactions with a wide range of foreign liaisons in New York City and that he took several trips abroad to places like France and Korea in addition to previously reported jaunts to countries including Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Detailed itineraries provided by City Hall, in addition to the schedules, show Mermelstein met with a parade of foreign government officials, business owners and investors on his foreign trips — interactions the city characterized as part of the office’s mission to foster cultural and economic ties with countries across the globe. In Paris, for example, Mermelstein attended a conference devoted to emerging technology called VivaTech.

Mermelstein’s schedules also encapsulate Adams administration’s approach to international relations, which included an early and particular interest in the Middle East.

Mermelstein met with dignitaries from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates more than 40 times between January 2022 and October 2023, according to a review of his schedules, the only records provided by the administration in response to numerous records requests. Mermelstein also traveled to those countries on a 10-day tour in 2023, the full extent of which has not been previously reported.

Mermelstein spoke at a conference in Dubai called the World Government Summit and sat down with various government officials and executives of foreign wealth funds, according to his schedules and City Hall. The World Government Summit paid for Mermelstein’s trip to Dubai, his accommodations, his in-city travel and the conference, according to Mamelak Altus. The commissioner paid for the rest of the trip himself, according to City Hall.

Mamelak Altus said Mermelstein’s office welcomes opportunities to build relationships with governments around the world and that the former commissioner’s focus on the Middle Eastern countries — along with Korea, Turkey and Azerbaijan — was a result of those nations approaching City Hall.

James Parrott, an economist who serves as director of economic and fiscal policies at The New School, said it behooves New York City officials to make connections with potential business partners abroad, owing to the city’s large foreign workforce and its welcoming attitude toward countries looking to invest here. And meeting people in the flesh is one of the best ways to make the case about why the city is an attractive place to do business.

“That can’t be gleaned from the printed page. It’s a result of direct human connection,” he said. “That’s why business leaders thrive on in-person meetings — almost no big business deal gets consummated without a face-to-face meeting between the principals.”

That sentiment comes with a caveat, though — that the administration must be transparent about its dealings abroad.

“They have no right to secrecy,” Parrott said, “even if they are paying their own way.”

Jeff Coltin contributed to this report.