The Transport Workers Union is calling for an investigation into NYC Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro for his role in awarding a no-bid contract to a veterinarian who has ties to anti-horse carriage advocates and a very questionable financial track record. The Department of Investigations and the Conflict-of-Interest Board should start a probe, if they haven’t already, the TWU says.
As the Daily News reported, Mastro, who has worked as a lawyer for the anti-carriage group NYCLASS, was involved in selecting and hiring veterinarian Kraig Kulikowski to examine carriage horses after the City Council Committee on Health in November voted down a bill that would ban carriage rides. A City Hall spokesperson confirmed to the News that Mastro was involved in selecting Kulikowski for the Health Department contract.
Kulikowski should not be labeled as “independent.” He has been a veterinarian for Susan Wagner, president and founder of Equine Advocates, an upstate horse sanctuary and anti-carriage advocacy group. She has written multiple Op-Eds on the subject, including a few with Elizabeth Forel, co-founder of the Coalition to Ban Horse Carriages. In 2013, Kulikowski spoke at an American Equine conference where Wagner, owner of a large horse sanctuary and farm, described Kulikowski as “our veterinarian.”
Kraig Kulikowski is also friends with NYCLASS director Edita Birnkrant, the public face of the campaign to ban horse carriages.
“This was a malicious ninth-inning attempt by Mastro to do what he couldn’t achieve legislatively: destroy the horse-carriage industry,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said. “It’s outrageous, shameful, and yet another example of abuse of power and corruption in the Adams administration. The Department of Investigations and Conflicts of Interest Board definitely should investigate.”
Randy Mastro is using city tax dollars that support the position of private special interests. Carriage drivers want an immediate investigation into Kulikowski’s possible conflicts of interest to see if he should have been disqualified from being awarded the contract.
Kulikowski was awarded a $20,000 contract to examine 16 horses. The Health Department told Carriage Drivers that it could not guarantee a chain of custody for any blood samples collected. It advised Carriage Drivers that they could decline blood sampling and the trotting of their horses indoors.
In voting against a carriage ban, the Health Committee dismissed NYCLASS’s claims that the horses are mistreated. Members also stated that Carriage Driver jobs are crucial for immigrant workers in the tourism industry; 90% of Carriage Drivers are immigrants who came to NYC in pursuit of the American Dream.
The TWU has long contended that NYCLASS is motivated by real estate interests, not animal welfare. NYCLASS was founded in 2008 by real estate executive Steven Nislick. He remains president. Mastro represented NYCLASS and Nislick in several cases involving alleged campaign contributions and ethics violations, as well as other litigation. NYCLASS paid Mastro’s law firm $225,000 in 2017 alone, financial disclosures show.
As was reported by Politico and other outfits, Nislick pitched real-estate development on Manhattan’s West Side – where the carriage-horse stables are located – to the de Blasio administration. Politico cited this City Hall email stating Steven Nislick ‘believes he has developers interested…” in developing the area.
Kulikowski’s reported financial track record also should have raised red flags about his trustworthiness. Records indicate that he apparently is the subject of court judgments and foreclosure actions totaling about $3 million in California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania. His apparent debts, judgments, and foreclosures raise concerns that his independence and integrity could be vulnerable to outside influences.