Mayor de Blasio’s rivals hit him hard Sunday over condescending emails he sent to staffers criticizing their efforts to assist him.
Republican mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis said she was “disappointed” with the tone of the emails, adding “it’s important to treat people respectfully, especially when they’re putting in hours and sacrificing time away from their family to serve.”
“I was quite disappointed to see the mayor struck that tone with people that work for him,” said the Staten Island-Brooklyn assemblywoman. “These are people that got involved with government because they want to serve the city.”
In emails exclusively revealed last week by The Post, de Blasio threatened punishment if staffers failed to meet his demands.
“What do I need to get you guys to follow a direct order? Do you need to experience consequences,” he wrote in one 2015 message. “I’m not raising this again: fix it, or I will [have] no choice but to find a way to penalize people. Not my preference, but I won’t have my instructions ignored.”
De Blasio was agitated over his aides’ failure to include the phonetic spellings of tough to pronounce foreign language words in speeches and talking points — a detail Malliotakis took particular glee pointing out Sunday.
“I was kind of surprised to see he needed phonetics for big words,” she said with a chuckle. “I thought that was kind of funny actually.”
She also agreed with former de Blasio staffers, describing him as “condescending.”
“If that’s the way he treats his staff, it explains why so many of his commissioners and senior staff members left,” she said.
More than two dozen high-level staffers have departed the de Blasio administration since he took office in 2014, with more defections rumored to be in the offing.
Democratic mayor challenger Sal Albanese said the emails didn’t surprise him one bit and explained why de Blasio has trouble attracting top talent.
“He is nasty and abusive. It’s one thing being tough. I have no problem with people being tough, but he’s gratuitously mean,” said Albanese, a former councilman, on Sunday. “He’s not going to attract top talent because people don’t like working for him.”
De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips begged to differ.
“The mayor is a direct communicator who understandably demands a lot out of the city’s public servants,” Phillips said. “This criticism is evidence that the fast pace and intensity of City Hall is not for everyone.”
The emails weren’t the only issue de Blasio’s foes attacked him on Sunday. Malliotakis criticized him over talk he’s mulling a presidential run.
“It explains why he’s spent so much time out of the city and country instead of doing his job,” she said. “While Mayor ‘I don’t care’ campaigns for president, our citizens are neglected.”