BRONX PARTY BOSS ON YANKEE PAYROLL

Mirram Group

The Yankees paid Mirram Group, a political consulting and lobbying firm run by former Bronx Democratic Party boss and former Assembly
Member Roberto Ramirez, was paid $301,900 in the first quarter of 2006. This was the single largest lobbying fee registered in the city last year.

Ramirez was elected to the state assembly in 1990 and became the first Latino to lead a county political organization in the state when he became chairman of the Bronx Democratic Party in 1994. He is widely credited with reviving a party organization that grew weak amidst the borough’s economic decline.

In 1998 after his terms in Albany, Ramirez founded Mirram Group and the firm quickly became a major player in Democratic politics. It delivered big for the Yankees by securing the support of the state legislature and city council.

Ramirez’s firm was responsible for encouraging city council members to vote for the plan even though terms of the rumored “Community Benefits Agreement” between the Yankees and
Bronx officials had not been made public.