NYC must hit the brakes on mayor’s wild – Latest News
New Yorkers, like all Americans, are inclined to stock up when any disaster is about to hit: We fill up our fuel tanks, empty the bread and egg cabinets at grocery shops and buy enough toilet paper to final for months.
It’s human nature — and for a lot too long, New York City’s authorities has been behaving the exact same means.
But City Hall’s panic response is way worse, and does far more harm.
In current emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the asylum-seeker inflow, metropolis authorities stored on “crisis buying” for more than a yr, with out ever evaluating costs or rooting out contractor abuse, fraud and waste.
It’s time for drastic change: We must reform the metropolis’s out-of-control emergency procurement practices and add important checks and balances.
Currently, when the mayor declares a state of emergency, the metropolis’s comptroller and company counsel droop their extraordinary oversight relating to contracts and procurement.
In concept, this enables City Hall to reply rapidly and acquire vital items and companies to alleviate the disaster.
In observe, it means the metropolis can award no-bid contracts for up to 1 yr — contracts that, having bypassed the aggressive bidding that’s usually required, could be rife with waste and abuse.
Imagine buying a car or looking for your subsequent condominium with out competitively price-shopping for these big-ticket gadgets. That’s what City Hall does at any time when the mayor declares an emergency.
City businesses aren’t even required to ship “emergency” contracts to the comptroller for auditing earlier than laying out taxpayer money. In reality, 84% of such contracts filed between January 2022 and September 2023 have been submitted more than 31 days after the contract begin date.
Both Mayor Eric Adams and former Mayor Bill de Blasio spent billions of {dollars} on the asylum-seeker and COVID crises, respectively, drawing a number of allegations of corruption and pay-to-play politics.
This uncontrolled spending was particularly acute during the pandemic, as de Blasio prolonged “emergency” contracts a whopping 100-plus occasions and spent almost $7 billion on emergency provides with no oversight or limiting guardrails.
In the personal sector, affordability is a prime issue when selecting bids on contracts. The metropolis’s emergency procurement course of throws such concerns to the wind, resulting in reckless overspending.
During COVID, City Hall paid prime greenback for ventilators and N95 masks it by no means acquired — and in a single case, paid an absurd $7.50 apiece for material masks.
Its fire sale of almost $224 million price of COVID-era surplus gadgets, from ventilators to face shields, solely recouped $500,000, a downright outrage.
The present administration is no higher, awarding a $432 million emergency contract for asylum-seeker companies to an untested company referred to as DocGo.
Its dreadful efficiency — with issues like continual food waste, moldy resort rooms, unlicensed security guards and an uncredentialed CEO who was compelled to resign — resulted in an investigation by the state lawyer normal.
Even in non-emergency circumstances, the metropolis has by no means reined in metropolis contractors who make the most of loopholes to counterpoint themselves.
Take the company owned by David Levitan, listed as one of New York City’s worst landlords.
For over a quarter century, the metropolis has repeatedly used Levitan’s properties as homeless shelters — buildings with rotted flooring, damaged elevators, rat infestations and peeling lead paint.
Levitan has even required some of the nonprofits working shelters within his buildings to subcontract together with his own upkeep or extermination corporations to service the properties — reaping even more income from our tax {dollars}.
It’s time for reform, prime to backside.
Emergencies, by their very definition, are short in period. Accordingly, they need to necessitate a strictly time-limited use of no-bid contracts, for cases when aggressive bidding will really hinder the metropolis’s response.
That’s why I’m introducing two payments in the New York City Council this week to replace our lackadaisical, irresponsible procurement processes.
These payments will restrict all emergency contracts to 30 days, except each the comptroller and company counsel approve of an extension.
If handed, the legal guidelines will require all contracts be despatched to the comptroller for auditing within 15 days of signing, and can increase subcontractor transparency with fines of up to $100,000 for not disclosing to the metropolis any conflicts of curiosity or competing contractual obligations.
New York’s damaged contracting system has price-gouged our taxpayers for a lot too long — and up to date mayoral administrations have proven no urge for food to comply with good-government procurement practices.
It’s up to the City Council to advance this important laws, saving treasured fiscal assets, restoring accountability and rooting out corruption.
City Council Member Julie Menin (D) represents the East Side of Manhattan and chairs the Consumer and Worker Protection Committee.
