Bill de Blasio is having to answer allegations that staffers babysat his children while he served on the City Council. Credit: Bill de Blasio for Mayor
Mayoral candidate Bill De Blasio had staff members watch his two children for him when he was a member of the City Council, The New York Post has reported.
De Blasio, who was in the Brooklyn council office from 2002 to 2009, would ask employees to watch his two kids in the office after school let out and sometimes asked them to pick them up, sources told The Post.
“I remember a couple of times I would have to go to the house to watch them,” said one source.
“Sometimes staff would get a heads-up a day in advance or when they would get a scheduling meeting. He would say, ‘Well, I have this meeting. The kids are going to need a pickup.'”
The pickups would happen several times a month during work hours, according to the source.
Staff members would also be asked to watch his kids at evening events while De Blasio worked, another source said.
De Blasio’s two children, Dante and Chiara, are now 15 and 18 years old.
When asked about sources’ claims, De Blasio said he always watched his kids himself when they were in the office or at an event. He said only one staffer picked up his kids from school and it was when she was no longer employed at the office.
He said, however, that there may have been “a couple times” in an emergency when a staff member stepped in to help out.
The de Blasio campaign put the Post in contact with seven former staffers who said that they were never asked to watch his kids.
“I never saw staff asked to babysit, pick up or take care of the de Blasio children,” said Josh Wallack, legislative director from 2002 through 2006.
“To the contrary, I remember many days when Bill carefully arranged his schedule in order to pick them up himself and take care of them himself.”
