Ethics Cloud Hangs Over de Blasio as He Weighs Presidential Run

The board’s five members are appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council. Four of the five current members were appointed or reappointed by Mr. de Blasio. One of them, Fernando A. Bohorquez, a lawyer, contributed $2,675 to the mayor’s election campaign in 2013.

After Mr. de Blasio won that election, he named Mr. Bohorquez to his inaugural committee, a ceremonial position conferred on many other donors, including two who have since pleaded guilty to using contributions to bribe or seek favors from the mayor.

Mr. Bohorquez and a fellow member, Erika Thomas, are lawyers at Baker & Hostetler, a firm that has additional ties to the mayor. Ms. Thomas was appointed by Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and remains on the board as a holdover even though her term expired in 2016. That means that she serves essentially at the discretion of Mr. de Blasio, who could replace her at any time.

Employees of Baker & Hostetler have given Mr. de Blasio contributions totaling $17,515 during his two mayoral races, according to city records. Campaign finance records also show that the law firm was involved in two fund-raising events for Mr. de Blasio while he campaigned for mayor in 2013, both apparently held at its Rockefeller Center offices and organized with the help of Mr. Bohorquez.

The board’s monthly meetings are frequently held in a conference room at the Baker & Hostetler offices as well.

Mr. Bohorquez said in an email that “the law does not require a public servant to be recused from matters involving an elected official to whose campaign that public servant has donated.” He refused to say if he had recused himself from the mayor’s case, “because doing so would disclose that such a case exists, in violation of the strict confidentiality restrictions in the city’s conflicts of interest law.”

Ms. Thomas did not respond to phone and email messages.

Ritchie Torres, a Bronx councilman who leads the Council Committee on Oversight and Investigations, took issue with Mr. Bohorquez’s position on the conflicts board.