Migrant Contract Delayed For New York City Mayor’s Friend

NEW YORK — Last summer, Mayor Eric Adams found himself under pressure to rein in the runaway price tag of sheltering tens of thousands of migrants arriving in the city. So he instructed agency heads to take measures that would curtail costs.

As part of a previously unreported process, city officials began huddling to vet vendors for a sprawling tent facility that was set to be constructed on a decommissioned federal military base in Brooklyn. Where they saw an opportunity to save money, one top adviser saw a chance to get a longtime friend of the mayor’s in on the work.

Tim Pearson, an enigmatic but powerful figure within City Hall, delayed the opening of the migrant facility at Floyd Bennett Field, according to interviews with three people involved in or familiar with the process. Two of those people — along with two others familiar with the matter — said Pearson was working to ensure a security contract for Bo Dietl, a former NYPD detective who raised money for Adams’ mayoral run. POLITICO granted the five people anonymity to freely discuss a private and sensitive matter.

Pearson’s attempt to steer a lucrative job opportunity toward Dietl, who runs a Manhattan-based security and private investigation firm, ultimately failed. Yet the effort underscores the administration’s penchant for turning to longtime allies and campaign surrogates to perform important governmental tasks.

In the case of Dietl, the ties run deep.

Dietl's ties to Adams

Dietl, the one-time independent mayoral candidate and outspoken political commentator, who has worked for Fox News’ Roger Ailes and Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon, has supported Adams since the mayor’s days in the New York state Senate and has known him even longer.

In 2021, days after Adams won the Democratic primary for mayor, Dietl and the nominee were spotted supping at Rao’s, the exclusive uptown red sauce joint where the “One Tough Cop” author is a regular.

In September of that year, Dietl threw a fundraiser for Adams on the lower Manhattan rooftop at Pier 17 that netted the campaign $13,850, according to campaign finance records obtained by POLITICO through a state Freedom of Information Law request.

“We get rid of crime, real estate will go up, people will come back! Eric Adams, he will get it done — don’t listen to any bullshit!” he reportedly told donors at the event.

Since Adams has been in office, Dietl has met with Schools Chancellor David Banks, and records obtained by POLITICO show he sat down with Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks in June 2022.

In an interview, Dietl said he heard rumblings of a contracting opportunity last year and began preparing his company, Beau Dietl & Associates, to be ready in case it got picked. He purchased additional weapon scanners, accepted new job applicants and brought in a business partner who would help the company qualify for contracts geared toward minority and women-owned firms.

At one point, after telling the mayor about his company’s bona fides, he said Adams replied that the firm seemed to “check all the boxes.”

“That was the last I heard,” he said.

Dietl argued his friendship with the mayor should not cloud any opportunities to work with the administration.

“[That] shouldn’t be the criteria. The criteria should be the best security company with the best reputation and the longevity,” he said, noting his firm works with Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the UBS Arena on Long Island and the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center. “We have a really well-recognized security company and it shouldn’t hurt being friends with the mayor — but it also didn't help because I didn’t get anything.”

City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak declined to answer questions about the consideration of Dietl’s firm. But she said the city has worked with and considered proposals from hundreds of companies over the course of the migrant crisis. To date, more than 178,000 asylum-seekers have entered the city and roughly 65,000 remain in its care.

“Engagement with all these contractors puts us in a position to negotiate better prices and provide the best services possible to migrants in our care,” she said in a statement. “It’s also a large reason why we’ve been able to effectively manage this crisis while we continue to advocate for additional support from our federal and state partners. It has not impacted the opening of sites like Floyd Bennett Field.”

The backstory

The saga of Floyd Bennett Field began last May, when Gov. Kathy Hochul stepped up pressure on the Biden administration to allow use of the airstrip to relieve pressure on the city’s shelter system, which was being strained to the breaking point by a steady stream of asylum-seekers from the U.S.-Mexico border.

As complex negotiations about use of the site between the city, state and federal government began taking shape over the summer, the city began a bidding process with the goal of cutting costs. On Sept. 12, around 30 people interested in the opportunity attended a walk-through of the site alongside officials from the city and the National Park Service, according to two people with knowledge of the event.

Officials began zeroing in on a Houston-based firm called Industrial Tent Systems, which appeared on track to win the bidding process. On Sept. 25, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services reached out to the city’s Law Department and the city comptroller’s office to request emergency contract authorization for ITS at Floyd Bennett Field, according to a person familiar with the exchange who was granted anonymity to discuss the query.

However, Pearson held up that contract as he sought work for Dietl and eyed a separate New York-based tent and event company, according to three people.

On Oct. 3, the request to have ITS contract at Floyd Bennett Field was canceled without explanation, the person familiar with the exchange said in an interview. And the city later selected another Texas-based firm, Garner Environmental Services, for the job, while a company called Arrow Security was picked to be the security subcontractor at the site.

“Now we're losing weeks. Tim won't approve it. And then at the last minute they're like, ‘OK, just go back and use Garner again,’” one of the people familiar with the timeline said.

City Hall did not say why Dietl’s firm was passed over. And Mamelak said Garner was selected because the firm already had a contract with the city and ensured prices below those being offered by ITS.

Representatives from Garner and ITS did not respond to requests for comment.

Pearson's role

Pearson’s ability to hold up the contracting process reveals the amount of leeway he enjoys in the administration, a station that comes from his long relationship with Adams dating back to their days in the NYPD.

“Tim is one of my knights of the roundtable,” Adams said during a December press briefing. “I've seen him over 40 years now navigate challenging times.”

The administration has repeatedly declined to elaborate on Pearson’s role in the administration, and the full scope of his job duties remain a mystery to even some of his colleagues. As of last year, he was earning $242,600 as a senior adviser for public safety.

Adams has characterized his longtime friend as focused on cutting costs and finding efficiencies throughout city government — especially when it comes to migrant spending. As part of that process, Pearson approves asylum-seeker contracts along with a handful of other top administration aides, including Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom.

“We're looking everywhere to see how we can bring down the [cost] of the asylum-seekers,” Adams said during an August press briefing. “And Tim Pearson has been playing a role with Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom and the chief of staff.”

A recent report from City Comptroller Brad Lander, however, found the city was vastly overpaying for migrant services, including in a separate contract with Garner.

Pearson also leads a shadowy unit called the Mayor’s Office of Municipal Services Assessment that has been conducting surprise inspections at migrant facilities, including one in October that resulted in a scuffle between Pearson and staff from Arrow Security — the same firm now working at Floyd Bennett Field. Charges against security staff were dropped, while Pearson’s involvement is currently being eyed by the Department of Investigation, per a spokesperson.

Despite the opportunity falling through, Dietl said he would still like to work with the administration, and would be particularly well suited to maintaining security checkpoints for migrant facilities.

“I’m standing by. I’m ready to go,” he said. “I want to help the city.”