David Schwartz of Gotham Government Relations Reveals What Makes a Great Lobbyist

0:00
Uh, and our first speaker is Mr. David
0:03
Schwarz of Gotham Government Relations. 0:05 Mr. Schwarz, 0:06 thank you very much and thanks to the 0:08 commission. Uh, my name is David 0:10 Schwarz. I'm a practicing lawyer in New 0:13 York. Uh, I I'm a former prosecutor in 0:16 in Brooklyn. I've tried a lot of cases. 0:19 And in back in 2005, 0:22 a a lab in Staten Island called me up 0:25 and they lost all their funding. they 0:27 were doing miracles for children and and 0:30 advances on autism and I knew of the lab 0:33 and they said, "Well, what could you 0:34 do?" And then I said, "Okay, let me let 0:35 me give this a shot." So, I knew a few 0:37 people in Albany. So, I made some phone 0:39 calls. I went up to Albany and uh was 0:43 advocating their case and then um they 0:47 got they got their funding back and then 0:49 I didn't even realize what I was doing. 0:51 I was I was lobbying, right? I was 0:53 committing a lobbying. In fact, I didn't 0:55 even know about this whole registration 0:57 back then. It was JCOPE, right? I 0:59 didn't even understand it. Well, they 1:01 ended up becoming a client of mine and 1:03 then I figured out, oh, you have to 1:04 register and you have to abide by all 1:06 the laws. I think I'm past the statute 1:08 of limitations. It's 2000 21 years ago. 1:10 I don't think you're going to go after 1:11 me for that. But I ended up did I did 1:13 register uh for the for this lab. And 1:17 then that's how I got into this whole1:19 lobbying business. So, I think lobbyists 1:21 are their own worst lobbyists, you know, 1:24 so they they they they they're not able 1:26 to advocate for themselves. I think it's 1:28 a it's an incredible profession to 1:30 represent clients, private clients, uh, 1:33 trade associations, not forprofits, go 1:36 up to Albany. They don't have time to do 1:38 that. I I tell clients all the time, 1:40 it's not rocket science. It's just that 1:42 you don't have the time to do this. And 1:45 and so, we sell our advocacy abilities. 1:47 We make a lot a lot of meetings and I 1:50 must say that uh we register for 1:53 everything at any time even if it's a 1:56 gray area where you're trying to 1:58 influence the government and you're 2:00 being paid for it you have to register 2:02 right and so I want to start off with 2:04 the good news is that you have an 2:06 excellent staff we we speak to your 2:09 staff all the time on a weekly basis 2:11 they are so helpful u so kind and and 2:16 very generous with their time as well. 2:18 So that that's really the good news of 2:21 of my comments today is that it's not my 2:24 comments are not about the staff itself 2:27 because um and they're very reasonable, 2:29 you know, and and you know, when you're 2:32 filing I think we file for about 20 2:34 clients in Albany and I'm still a 2:37 practicing attorney as well. I still try 2:39 cases. I'm still a partner in a law 2:40 firm. This is just another uh business 2:43 that I handle. Um but um you know you're 2:48 you're bound to make mistakes, right? 2:49 Not every tea is I'm not I'm not a2:51 trained accountant, you know, and and 2:54 it's very extensive. And um so we try 2:59 though and I think every registered 3:01 lobbyist in in our position, companies 3:03 like Gotham, we try to do the right 3:05 thing, right? the by virtue of the fact 3:08 that we're even registering, we're 3:10 trying to we we've taken those steps to 3:13 try to do the right thing to try to 3:15 abide by the law. But um the reality is 3:21 that uh you know by doing that by having 3:24 the honor and privilege of being a 3:25 registered lobbyist and and and filing 3:28 and trying to do all that we get audited 3:31 multiple times a year. M multiple times. 3:34 sometimes three audits a year, could be 3:36 four, could be two, it's multiple times 3:38 a year. And um if not, if every te is 3:42 not crossed and every eye is not dotted, 3:45 we could uh be facing a fine even 3:47 though, like I said, I think your 3:49 department has been very reasonable in 3:51 hearing evidence why a fine shouldn't 3:54 happen or why a fine should be lowered. 3:57 So the problem is not with the people, 4:00 it's really um it's it's really with the 4:03 emphasis of the of the commission. So um 4:07 there are people that go up to Albany uh 4:10 during session. Those people are in the 4:12 hallway. I'm I'm back and forth from 4:14 Albany all the time and they've never 4:17 registered ever and they're doing the 4:19 same thing that I'm doing, right? 4:21 They're trying they they have multiple 4:22 meetings in the lob. They have multiple4:24 meetings in the capital. They're trying 4:26 to advocate their points, but they don't 4:28 register. And it's a lot of people. And 4:32 that's the problem that I have is the 4:34 emphasis. Sure. I mean, I once got um I 4:39 think we went back and forth. It wasn't 4:40 a big deal, but I didn't put the comma 4:43 in the name of a I left the comma out. 4:46 Therefore, the name was not a matching 4:48 name because I left out a comma and the 4:50 real name of the company didn't have a 4:53 comma or vice versa. I can't even 4:55 remember. But all right. So, I'm being 4:57 you're you're spending resources on 4:59 making sure that I have a comma in the 5:01 right place. And then Albany is the old 5:04 wild west. There's people running 5:06 around. They call themselves 5:07 consultants. They call themselves PR 5:09 people. They could even call themselves 5:11 lawyers. But if they're trying to 5:13 influence the government in making a 5:15 decision, they have to register. They 5:18 have to, by the way, what you do and 5:21 registering, that's my friend. You 5:24 wouldn't expect that from a lobbyist to 5:26 say that you're my that's my friend. You 5:28 give me cover because now I'm telling 5:31 the world whatever company it is that 5:33 I'm representing. I'm telling the world 5:36 I'm representing them. This is it. I'm 5:38 registering. I'm filing my reports. I'm 5:40 letting And isn't that the whole purpose 5:43 of the lobbying act? Because the public, 5:45 the people of the state of New York 5:47 deserve to know who it is that's getting 5:50 paid and who it is that's trying to 5:53 influence their government. And by the 5:55 way, there's nothing wrong with 5:56 influencing your government, right? You 5:58 just want to know who's doing it and and 6:01 and who's getting paid to do it, right? 6:03 I think every one of my clients has a 6:06 meritorious positions and I I believe in 6:09 every single one of them. I wouldn't 6:11 take them if if I didn't believe in 6:13 their cause, even though they're paying 6:15 me to do that. So, I think it's really 6:17 good work. I think it's important work. 6:19 I think it's work where um we fill the 6:22 gaps. Obviously, the elected officials 6:24 don't have all the expertise in the 6:26 world, but we're a lot of times the 6:28 lobbyists and and their clients are 6:30 subject matter experts and we give them 6:33 the information and certainly they hear 6:35 from all all sides, but um so I think uh 6:39 that that's and that's the purpose of my 6:41 testimony today is is that um I believe 6:44 the registered lobbyists are the 6:47 overwhelming amount of resources you're 6:49 putting in to to audit 6:52 and to make sure that the registered 6:54 lobbyists reports are perfect is 6:57 disproportionate to the amount of money 7:00 and resources you're putting in to find 7:03 the people that are out in the hallways 7:06 of all and it's really not hard to find, 7:09 right? Think about I mean I could I'm a 7:10 former prosecutor. I've dealt I've dealt 7:13 with uh investigators all the time. You 7:15 should be, you know, you should have 7:16 people there to, you know, in the lob. 7:19 You could see who's walking into offices 7:22 and who's And I guarantee you half the 7:24 people if you did these audits, those 7:27 audits, half the people you would find 7:30 aren't even registered lobbyists. Those 7:32 are the people that that should get into 7:34 trouble or be fined or whatever. Not the 7:38 people that are trying to obey the law. 7:41 And I'm not and there's nothing wrong 7:42 with audits. I mean, you should be doing 7:44 audits. I'm not saying don't do audits, 7:46 but and especially those that uh 7:49 lobbyists that lobbying companies that 7:52 after every audit you see that they're 7:54 pretty much doing what they're supposed 7:56 to be doing. Maybe they didn't dot an 7:58 eye or cross a tea, but they're 8:00 certainly reporting the income. They're 8:01 reporting everything. Maybe you should 8:04 do less of that of for those companies 8:07 that have a record of complying with the 8:10 law and doing the right thing and more 8:12 of okay focusing on even those that 8:15 register but they they're they're not 8:18 doing it properly. Maybe there should be 8:21 some emphasis on that. But really the 8:23 emphasis should because it bo it bothers 8:25 me. It bothers me that I'm I'm I spend 8:28 money uh time money to make sure that 8:31 those reports get done right. I have 8:33 somebody in my office that's in charge 8:34 of it. I hire some an outside consultant 8:38 that is an expert at filing and 8:41 registering and doing all that stuff to 8:44 make sure that we're in compliance. And 8:46 it really does bother me that when I go 8:48 there, I see these people and I know 8:51 they're not registered and and I'm not 8:53 here to name names or anything like 8:54 that, but but something should be done 8:57 about that end of the of of the 9:00 business. And I think it wouldn't take 9:02 too many resources to figure it out. 9:05 who's up in Albany that that shouldn't 9:08 that well everyone has a right to be in 9:10 Albany but who's actually lobbying for 9:12 paying clients over the $5,000 threshold 9:15 and and I I I guarantee you would find 9:19 so many people up there doing that. So I 9:21 I really wanted to bring that to your 9:23 attention. Uh that's one of the 9:25 solutions. The other solution is, you 9:28 know, maybe the companies that have a 9:30 track record of complying with the law, 9:33 you know, maybe they shouldn't be 9:34 audited four times a year. Maybe that's 9:37 a little bit too much, but still 9:39 certainly we should be audited. And um 9:42 and uh and certainly the other piece is 9:45 to give the registrants a short period 9:47 of time to correct, which you do anyway. 9:50 So that's really not a problem because 9:52 like I said, you have a terrific staff 9:54 and they're always trying to work with 9:56 us to correct our errors. So I 10:00 appreciate your time. I appreciate the 10:02 fact that you are having this hearing 10:04 and I I hope um in the future that even 10:08 if you brought a few cases against 10:10 people that don't uh register, uh that 10:14 would be a real effective uh thing and 10:17 uh it would send a message to the 10:19 community. Thank you very much. 10:21 Short 10:23 and we have your written testimony as 10:24 well. Thank you.