Who is the governor meeting with? How much time does she spend fundraising for reelection?
When Kathy Hochul ran for a first full term in 2022, it was somewhat possible to answer those questions. Like her predecessor Andrew Cuomo, Governor Hochul released her schedule of meetings on a rolling basis, usually several months after they occurred.
The schedules indicated that Hochul’s record-breaking campaign fundraising was fueled by constant meetings with donors — and that on several occasions, she’d improperly billed taxpayers for trips on state aircraft that included campaign activity.
As Hochul runs for a second full term this year, the public no longer has that view into how she’s spending her time. That’s because the most recent schedules her office has released are from September 2024 — more than 15 months ago.
Paul Wolf, an attorney and president emeritus of the New York Coalition for Open Government, called it “truly incredible that Governor Hochul, who promised a new era of transparency, is 15 months behind in making her schedule available to the public.”
Hochul’s office declined to answer questions from New York Focus.
Meanwhile, Hochul’s office refuses to release the more comprehensive calendar that she actually uses. When New York Focus has requested those calendars under the Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, the office shared only the schedules it posts online — which not only are long out of date but also don’t indicate whether and to what degree information has been redacted.
In response to a 2024 request, the office asserted that Hochul’s Outlook calendar is exempt from FOIL because it’s “subject to change” — making it a privileged internal record — and contains private information and confidential attorney-client communications. Rather than black out portions of the documents and release the rest, Hochul’s office withheld the documents entirely.
In Wolf’s view, there is “no reason that a redacted calendar cannot be released, which is how calendars for other state officials are done.”
Indeed, in at least three instances, the Hochul administration has treated the calendars of public officials differently.
In response to FOIL requests from THE CITY, Hochul’s office released the redacted Outlook calendars of Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia and of former Dormitory Authority President and CEO Reuben McDaniel. McDaniel’s calendar provided a detailed accounting of his meetings and informed reporting on how a private equity firm benefited from marijuana legalization.
Hochul’s office was particularly generous when it came to a political opponent. Last May, the office shared Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado’s Outlook calendar with David Lombardo, host of the public radio program The Capitol Pressroom. Lombardo had only requested one year of records, but Hochul’s office gave him close to three years of the calendar. (The two officials were in the middle of a very public falling out, and Delgado is now running against Hochul in the Democratic primary for governor.)
Cuomo’s administration, too, released a portion of the Outlook calendar of former Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.
The Hochul administration refuses to provide the same type of documents documenting the governor’s activities.
The Committee on Open Government, a state entity charged with issuing opinions about the FOIL law, found in 2014 that such documents should be released. In a 2014 formal opinion, the body’s executive director wrote that schedules showing details of Cuomo’s campaign fundraising events were “factual data” relating to his public duties and should be subject to public disclosure.
The schedules Hochul does release are in some respects less transparent than her predecessor’s. Cuomo’s schedules specified when and where he was holding campaign fundraisers, though not who was throwing them. Hochul’s, by contrast, are littered with unspecific “private events” and don’t make clear whether a specific event involved campaign fundraising. The most recently released schedule, covering September 2024, lists 48 such private events.
The schedules do include details about Hochul’s meetings with staff and, at times, people outside government. The schedule for September 2024, for instance, shows meetings with then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Disney CEO Bob Iger, real estate executives, labor leaders, and journalists.
Hochul’s strong campaign fundraising has continued. Despite a state law now imposing significantly lower caps on campaign contributions, she raised $5.4 million between July and January, leaving her campaign with more than $20 million on hand.
This campaign disclosure offers fresh information about who has thrown Hochul campaign fundraisers. Over the six-month period, according to the disclosure filings, people who paid for a portion of Hochul campaign event expenses included Greenberg Traurig lobbyist Sam NeJame, Colorado-based lobbyist Douglas Friednash, the upstate building contractor LaBella Associates, the chief of staff for Westchester Medical Center Health Network, and the gaming interests FanDuel and the Sports Betting Alliance.
Did Hochul take any meetings with those donors in advance of the fundraisers, or after? At the current pace of disclosure, the earliest we might know will be after the November election.