The powerful Albany lobbying firm of Nick Spano, brother of Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, has continued to represent private and governmental entities involved in potential or completed business deals with the city of Yonkers, according to an investigative article In New York Focus, a non profit investigative publication.
The investigation of the relationship between Nick Spano’s company, Empire Strategic Planning, and the city found that Nick Spano has interacted with top city officials, attended meetings with the mayor, and sought tax breaks for clients via family connections. The city has also taken actions benefiting both Empire and a real estate brokerage firm where Nick Spano is also employed.
A spokesperson for the mayor dismissed the allegations. “Mayor Spano and the Administration have adhered to all applicable laws and statues and will continue to do so,” communications director Christina Gilmartin said to NY Focus. “There is no further comment at this time.”
Nick Spano also denied wrongdoing.
The NY Focus investigation was based on a review of hundreds of pages of emails and other documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Law.
The previously undisclosed connections between Empire, the real estate companies and the city include lobbying on behalf of Cablevision in 2012, involvement in negotiations with the city’s police unions, numerous potential disclosure violations related to real estate transactions, and lobbying connections with the developer of major movie studio projects going back to 2016.
Mayor Spano and the city have repeatedly denied improper lobbying or real estate dealings involving Spano family members. The Mayor has filed financial disclosure forms stating that his brother doesn’t lobby the city. Two years ago, following a NY Post report on the fraternal lobbying connection, a Yonkers spokesman asserted that Empire had not lobbied the city since the beginning of Spano’s first term in 2012.
The NY Focus article weaves the story of the Spano family as one of a remarkable comeback for Nick Spano, who was convicted of tax fraud and imprisoned for 10-months in 2012.
