Good Morning, New York! Another Eric Adams aide has disappeared, the FAA bans drones over parts of New York, and Jessica Ramos has her matching funds claims denied. This is your Tammany Times AM Briefing for Friday, December 20th, 2024.

WHERE’S ERIC: Attending the 10th-anniversary memorial service of NYPD Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael L. Ramos and appearing on “PIX on Politics.”

WHERE’S KATHY: In New York City and Albany.

TIPS? Email me: [email protected]

Front Pages

Hall Monitors

— Another top Eric Adams aide has reportedly “disappeared” from NYC, and could be cooperating with the feds against the Mayor and his cabinet. Winnie Greco, who once served as the Asian Affairs advisor, has raised hundreds of thousands for Adams’ campaigns and has had her own properties raided by the FBI. She resigned in October. (NY Post)

— Multiple arrests were made during the Amazon Teamsters strike in Queens, reportedly for obstructing traffic. The strikes comes as the Teamsters are hitting out against the company right at their most vulnerable time: the holiday season. They are hoping for Amazon to come to the table and negotiate a new deal. (The City)

— The City Council will authorize small religious and private schools of over 150 students to hire private security guards on taxpayer dollars amidst a surge in threats towards educational institutions. The program already existed for schools larger than 300 students, and this move will roughly double the number of eligible schools, and the total cost to $40 million. (NY Post)

Capitol Gains

— Following all of the drone commotion over previous weeks, the F.A.A. has made the decision to ban all drone flights over key sites in New York. Gov. Hochul said these included “critical infrastructure,” including sections of Long Island, Brooklyn, and Queens. Gov. Hochul clarified that there was no immediate threat to any of these sites, and that the move was made as a precaution. (NY Times)

— The Capital District Transportation Authority has named Michael Collins as its interim CEO, stepping up from his current role as vice president of finance and administration. It is a crucial moment of turnover for the CDTA, whose current CEO Carm Basile has served as CEO for 15 years. (Times Union)

— Civic groups in Albany gave testimony yesterday arguing in favor of preserving video conferencing in the state legislature. The program, which began during COVID, has been extended a number of times and is set to expire in July 2026 unless further action is taken. The groups argued mostly in support of the public and non-elected bodies being allowed to call in remotely, saying that it would result in greater accessibility. (State of Politics)

Trail Mix

— Advisors to President-elect Trump are indicating that they no longer plan to eliminate the SALT tax deduction cap, but rather plan to double it to $20,000. This could cause an issue for New York Republican representatives in the house, many of whom campaigned on ending the SALT cap. (The City)

— Mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos had 51% of her matching funds claims denied by the Campaign Finance Board, higher than Eric Adams’ 50%. Ramos was not outright denied future matching funds, and instead blamed the issue on their web services provider NationBuilder. Ramos had not yet the fundraising threshold for matching funds regardless, so the announcement only served as a few bad headlines for the campaign. (NY Daily News)

— Andrew Cuomo is planning to sue his accuser Charlotte Bennett for defamation after she dropped her federal lawsuit against him last week. Ms. Bennett’s lawyers have made it clear that they think there is no merit to the defamation claims, and stand by the fact that she dropped her previous lawsuit out of fears of this exact kind of continued harassment. (NY Times)