Not Unprecedented Or Unique Or Anything

And perhaps as banal as contemplating the subtle differences between “engaging in politics” and “advancing an agenda”:

These consultants helped guide Mr. de Blasio’s campaign for mayor in 2013, and they have remained at his side as a kind of privately funded brain trust, offering strategic advice and helping to shape the message that comes from City Hall. Their involvement also poses conflict-of-interest concerns; some of their firms have clients that do business with the city.

For their place in the mayor’s orbit, these consultants have been well compensated: In the first year and a half of his term, their firms have collected nearly $2.3 million in payments. Most of the money has come from a nonprofit organization, the Campaign for One New York, that was created by political professionals from his mayoral campaign as a vehicle to push his initiatives, and whose donors have included real estate developers and unions.

Through the middle of this year, 77 percent of the group’s spending went to several consulting firms that also worked for Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 campaign.

The mayor’s reliance on private consultants seems to run contrary to the image he has cultivated. As mayor, he has criticized the role that the “consultant class” played in politics; in his previous elective office, as the city’s public advocate, he assailed the influence of political donors hiding behind “political committees that masquerade as tax-exempt nonprofits.”

Yet a review by The New York Times of hundreds of pages of the mayor’s daily schedules, as well as email correspondence and other records, shows the central role that private consultants have played in his administration. The correspondence highlights how some consultants have almost unfiltered access to City Hall, with the dialogue conveying a casual atmosphere.

[. . .]

As public advocate, Mr. de Blasio condemned the growing role of “shadowy” nonprofit groups, calling them “a threat to our democracy.”

But as mayor, Mr. de Blasio has embraced the Campaign for One New York, the nonprofit group that has provided steady income for several consulting firms he relies on.

The campaign was started in December 2013, just after Mr. de Blasio was elected. Bill Hyers, who had been his campaign manager, serves as its chairman. The group has supported the mayor’s agenda, advocating, for instance, the expansion of prekindergarten that was the signature issue of the de Blasio campaign. It has also retained a lineup of consultants who are close to the mayor.

Ms. Hinton said the nonprofit’s involvement did not contradict the mayor’s previous stances because of its mission, and because it disclosed its donors and expenses. She said the group “does not engage in politics” but “exists solely to advance the administration’s agenda,” and she called its creation “not unprecedented or unique or anything.”

Mr. de Blasio has been active in helping to raise money for the Campaign for One New York, which can accept unlimited donations. By doing so, he has bypassed the city’s campaign finance laws that would ban or strictly limit certain contributions, including those from corporations and limited liability companies and from people who have business dealings with the city. The nonprofit has received a number of six-figure donations, including $350,000 from the American Federation of Teachers and a pair of $250,000 contributions from 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East.

People and companies that do business with the city have also given money. Two Trees Management Company, for example, gave $100,000 this year, a year after reaching a deal with the city to redevelop the Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn. The lobbying firm Capalino & Company gave $10,000; a day after the contribution, James F. Capalino, the firm’s chief executive, met with the mayor on behalf of a client.