Beneficiaries of Bloomberg’s Donations Hope Mayor Is Eligible for Another Term

Several New York City charities that are supported privately by Michael R. Bloomberg, the city’s mayor, testified in October in favor of a bill before the City Council that might allow the billionaire to serve a third term.

The bill, which was slated for a vote late last week, would allow elected officials citywide and council members to serve 12 years rather than eight. The day before the vote, 18 council members said they supported the bill, 23 opposed it, and 10 were undecided, according to a survey by NY1 News, a Web site focused on New York news.

The New York Times reported that the mayor’s office contacted many of the charities that receive gifts from Mr. Bloomberg and urged them to testify. But executives at four of the five charities mentioned in the Times article as receiving “significant contributions” from Mr. Bloomberg said in interviews with The Chronicle that they testified because they believe in the mayor and want to see him serve a third term. All four insisted that they had not been asked to testify by the mayor’s office.

Geoffrey Canada, head of Harlem Children’s Zone, a charity that serves poor children in New York, said he chose to testify because he has been a longtime supporter of the mayor. “He’s a terrific executive,” Mr. Canada said.

Top executives at the Doe Fund, the Public Art Fund, and the St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation also said they had received no pressure to testify from the mayor’s office. The fifth charity mentioned in the Times article, the Alliance of Resident Theaters, did not immediately respond to phone calls.

“We encourage support for this bill, like we do for all bills the administration supports, but we do it appropriately,” said Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor’s office. “Any claims of pressure are untrue.”

Mr. Post said the mayor’s office may have reached out to some heads of charities who receive money from the city or Mr. Bloomberg, but only because they are among a group of civically active New Yorkers who would be likely to support a term-limits extension.

“We reached out to large groups of New Yorkers — no one was contacted simply because they receive donations from anyone,” he said.

‘Appearance Is Bad’

Gene Russianoff, a lawyer at the New York Public Interest Research Group, said that he was at the hearings and talked to a few of the nonprofit leaders who testified. They told him, he said, that they had been solicited by the mayor’s office. He said such behavior would probably not violate city ethics rules, but that it is wrong just the same.

“The appearance is bad and it doesn’t pass the smell test,” Mr. Russianoff said. “It looks like a quid pro quo.”

Mr. Bloomberg routes his personal gifts to many New York charities through “technically anonymous” donations to the Carnegie Corporation, according to the Times story. None of the five organizations that testified before the City Council disclosed the private gifts their charities receive from Mr. Bloomberg in their testimony, the Times said.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Canada declined to confirm the size of Mr. Bloomberg’s gifts to Harlem Children’s Zone, which the Times put at more than $500,000. But Mr. Canada said that even giving at that level would not put Mr. Bloomberg among the charity’s top 20 donors. Harlem Children’s Zone raises about $40-million in private support each year, Mr. Canada said.

“If I had thought that the people were really interested in this, I would have led off my testimony by saying there’s some possibility that some of our money came from the mayor,” Mr. Canada said. “I didn’t think that was relevant in this situation.”

The Times article quotes an official at a social-services charity that receives gifts from Mr. Bloomberg who said a deputy mayor had urged the official to make calls to council members.

Michael F. Rochford, executive director of the St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation, says he testified for the bill because the city operates with “a sense of openness and fairness” under Mr. Bloomberg and appears more committed to helping low-income people. The article listed the charity as a recipient of gifts from Mr. Bloomberg, but Mr. Rochford said that as far as he knew, the charity had not received gifts from Mr. Bloomberg, even indirectly.

The Times article said that George McDonald, founder and president of the Doe Fund, a New York charity that helps homeless people find permanent jobs and housing, testified at the request of the mayor. The fund has received $150,000 from Mr. Bloomberg since he took office, according to the Times.

But in a statement provided to The Chronicle, Mr. McDonald denied being “influenced to testify” and said he did so because he feels passionate about Mr. Bloomberg’s leadership.

“During these economically perilous times, I believe that he is the best-qualified person to continue leading us as mayor,” Mr. McDonald said in the statement.

Susan G. Freedman, president of the Public Art Fund, a charity that organizes highly visible art projects in public spaces, said she had not received any pressure from the mayor’s office. She declined to comment on any gifts the charity may have received from Mr. Bloomberg, but the Times article put his total donations to the group at more than $500,000.

“There’s been extraordinary support for public arts during this administration,” Ms. Freedman said. “Do you think you would need to twist my arm to have me want this kind of leadership continue?”