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<H1>De Blasio's Shadow Transition Team Advised Rahm Emanuel</H1></DIV>
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<P><EM>Above: Bill de Blasio in AP Photo by Carolyn Kaster</EM></P>
<P><EM>Doubts were rising about mayor-elect Bill de Blasio when he picked
a police commissioner with a history of racially based stops and frisks
when he was the police chief of Los Angeles as well as one who promised he
would have removed the Occupy encampment more quickly. Now doubts
are being raised higher as it has come out that de Blasio has an
unannounced, shadow transition team made up of traditional consultants
with ties to big business interests. The consultants, Civic
Consulting USA, also advised right wing, neoliberal Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In
Chicago the involvement of the firms working on the transition resulted in
no-bid contracts that were questioned by many. De Blasio is looking
less like the change he promised every day. We hope activists in New
York are organizing and mobilizing to put significant pressure on the
incoming mayor as it is evident he will not do the people’s bidding
without substantial pressure from the people. Thus far he has been
allying his administration with the security state and big business
interests.</EM></P>
<P>Bill de Blasio has two transition teams.</P>
<P>There’s the public one, announced in late November. It’s a <A
href="http://politicker.com/2013/11/bill-de-blasio-announces-60-names-for-transition-team/"
target=_blank>diverse, 60-person assortment</A> of nonprofit leaders,
political types, educators, rabbis, Cynthia Nixon. <A
href="http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20131120/BLOGS04/131129980"
target=_blank>More than half of its members </A>are de Blasio
donors.</P>
<P>Then there’s another team, a nonprofit group whose participation in the
process has never been announced, but which has been playing a substantial
role in organizing the transition.</P>
<P>According to a source involved with the transition, this involved
entity—Civic Consulting USA—has “embedded” into the process a team drawn
from the “creme de la creme of the big New York consultants.” This group
has shaped the process by organizing the original transition team into a
number of topic-specific committees and then bringing in an even greater
number of other people onto those committees to participate in the search
for future administration members.</P>
<P><SPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5em">The involvement of those new people,
like the role of the consultants, was never announced.</SPAN></P>
<P>In response to an inquiry by Capital, de Blasio spokeswoman Lis Smith
confirmed the group’s involvement, but described it in a strictly
supporting role.</P>
<P>“Transition co-chairs Carl Weisbrod and Jennifer Jones Austin, along
with Transition Executive Director Laura Santucci and Deputy Executive
Director Ursulina Ramirez are running the transition,” she said. “The core
committee is providing the transition with important advice and counsel.
Civic Consulting USA is also helping the transition on a pro-bono basis.
They are one piece of the great team we’ve put together to build the next
administration and recruit great talent to serve the people of New York
City.”</P>
<P>Smith declined to go into more specifics about the group’s
participation, and declined to comment on the existence of the newly
formed subcommittees.</P>
<P>The head of the consulting group also confirmed its participation in
the process, and also stressed its supporting role.</P>
<P>“We’re very proud to be playing a supporting role to the transition
chairs and staff for Mayor elect de Blasio,” said Alexander Shermansong,
Civic Consulting USA’s C.E.O., in an email. “The leadership of the
committee has been outstanding in their efforts and should be
commended.”</P>
<P>According to the transition source, Civic Consulting USA was suggested
to de Blasio’s aides during <A
href="http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/11/8535392/de-blasio-meets-rahm-emanuel"
target=_blank>a November meeting </A>between de Blasio and Chicago
mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel’s staff suggested that de Blasio’s transition
team enlist the help of the group, whose mission is to pair government
clients with partners in the private and nonprofit sector.</P>
<P>Civic Consulting USA president Michael Hickey told Capital the group
was “inspired by the pioneering work done by the Civic Consulting Alliance
in Chicago.”</P>
<P>For its part, the Civic Consulting Alliance in Chicago paired
management consultants from companies like Deloitte, Bain & Company,
Accenture and McKinsey & Company with Emanuel to <A
href="http://www.ccachicago.org/project/mayoral-transition-plan"
target=_blank>help guide his own transition into office</A>.</P>
<P>The transition cannot accept corporate contributions, so Civic
Consulting is working for the transition team via an agreement with the
city, according to Smith.</P>
<P>The consultant arrangement may come as a surprise to some supporters of
de Blasio, who regularly, proudly champions the virtues of public-sector
experience.</P>
<P>(“I think people who understand government run government
best,” <A
href="http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/11/8535401/bill-de-blasio-versus-bloombergs-problem-solvers-theory"
target=_blank>he told the Times recently</A>.)</P>
<P>But the apparent embrace of private-sector expertise is nothing new in
New York City.</P>
<P>Outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg has routinely talked of the benefits
that non-bureaucrats can bring to city governance, and in fact Civic
Consulting USA <A
href="http://civicconsultingusa.org/who/leadership/funders/"
target=_blank>lists Bloomberg Philanthropies as one of its
funders</A>.</P>
<P>And, in Bloombergian fashion, <A
href="http://civicconsultingusa.org/what/" target=_blank> its
website</A> touts the benefits that non-governmental expertise can
bring to “government clients”: ”We bring together teams who are
better coordinated, longer term, and more talented than they could afford,
attract, or manage otherwise—at no cost to the taxpayer.”</P>
<P>What does the private partner get?</P>
<P>“Loaned professionals return energized with a renewed commitment to
their companies” and they develop new skills. Also, “positive PR.”</P>
<P>Its board includes Neil Kleiman, the director of Innovation Labs at NYU
Wagner, Sean Monahan, a partner at management consultant firm A.T.
Kearney, and Michael Schmidtberger, a partner at the law firm Sidley
Austin.</P>
<P>Emanuel’s relationship with the Civic Consulting Alliance generated
significant attention in Chicago, not all of it positive.</P>
<P>“The alliance was a key player in Emanuel’s 2011 transition to office,”
reported the <A
href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-25/news/ct-met-cps-consultants-school-closings-20121225_1_commission-on-school-utilization-school-closings-barbara-byrd-bennett"
target=_blank>Chicago Tribune </A>last December. “As part of its
role, the group brought in Accenture, one of the world’s largest financial
consulting firms, to provide free advice to the new administration. The
company subsequently received a no-bid contract from the Emanuel
administration that pays it a percentage of every dollar saved on other
City Hall contracts.”</P>
<P>A spokesman for Emanuel had no
comment.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>