Latino heat on de Blasio brings "kitchen cabinet" meeting to City Hall (UPDATED)
The combination of the booing of Mayor Bill de Blasio at Sunday’s Dominican Day Parade, ongoing pressure by the Campaign for Fair Latino Representation and the recent tanking Quinnipiac poll numbers have prompted the first meeting of what's being called the de Blasio "Latino kitchen cabinet," sources tell City & State.
The meeting, which includes a select group of Latinos, is scheduled for this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Among those planning to attend are Luis Garden Acosta of El Puente in Brooklyn and Arnie Segarra, who was appointed by the mayor to the city's Commission on Human Rights. A prerequisite for getting invited is loyalty to the mayor. A preliminary list of invitees does not include leaders of the Campaign for Fair Latino Representation, political scientist Angelo Falcón, president of the National Institute for Latino Policy or any of the mayor's Dominican critics.
Some of the people who received calls inviting them to the meeting have not been given details. One of those invited said, "I was told that I would find out what the agenda was at the meeting."
UPDATE: POSTPONED! This afternoon's meeting at City Hall has been called off, for now. The following statement was sent to City & State by de Blasio spokesperson Rosemary Boeglin:
“The Mayor has been working to schedule a meeting with a longtime friend since May. The report of a ‘Latino Kitchen Cabinet’ is false, though of course the Mayor seeks insight from members of all communities across the City. This particular meeting had been pulled off the calendar a number of days ago, since the Mayor is focusing his time on supporting communities affected by the Legionnaires’ outbreak. The meeting will be rescheduled for some future date.”
We thank City Hall for their response. Here's more information not included in the original story.
I spoke to a total of seven sources. Several of these individuals I spoke to on more than two occasions. I also checked with two Latino elected officials representing parts of New York City who, while not invited, did provide additional information or confirmed some of what other sources had told me.
While the de Blasio administration states that the this particular meeting was pulled of the schedule days ago, as of Wednesday at 1 p.m. sources told City & State that the meeting was still on for the reported time and place - which was set for 4:30 Thursday at City Hall. Sources also confirm that calls were still being made and there were even some people who wanted to attend and were being told they couldn't.
At least one de Blasio administration member was making invite calls for the meeting - Roberto Pérez from the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit that is headed by Marcos A. Carrión.
The "Kitchen Cabinet" reference comes directly from this part of a memo sent by Luis O. Reyes to members of the Campaign for Fair Latino Representation on Monday afternoon, which you can view below: