Republican candidates running for city office called on lawmakers to investigate Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, over their $1.25 billion mental health program ThriveNYC after The Post reported the duo quietly renamed the controversial initiative — which critics have called a boondoggle — and made it permanent.
“I don’t see how the program Thrive is helping people in my district,” said Constantin Jean-Pierre, a Republican who is running for City Council to represent the central Brooklyn district that houses Kings County Hospital’s psychiatric unit.
“Where are these people? They’re not helping,” Jean-Pierre said. Jean-Pierre said he’s struggled to find local services for his nephew who struggles with mental illness.
ThriveNYC program came under significant fire and has been the subject of a number of City Council hearings over the years — over allegations de Blasio was using the program to boost his wife’s profile, questions about its spending and effectiveness and lack of information on the overall goals of the program.
Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa, the lead Republican mayoral candidate, called on City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to issue subpoenas to McCray and the mayor for detailed information about how $1.25 billion in taxpayer funds was spent over the past five years and who received services.
A rep for Johnson declined to comment. Queries sent to the mayor’s office and a spokeswoman for his wife also were not immediately answered.
De Blasio quietly signed an executive order Wednesday shifting the program into City Hall and creating the Office of Community Mental Health to house it. The office has the same director, Susan Herman, who led ThriveNYC.
“In the streets we call that trickology — when you have a bad product, you have a bad business, you have a bad restaurant, you have a bad nightclub, you still operate on the same premises you just change the name. But it’s still a bad nightclub, bad restaurant, bad product,” Sliwa said.
Sliwa also called on Johnson to hold an emergency session to undo the mayor’s executive order enshrining ThriveNYC within City Hall.
