New Yorkers, like all Americans, tend to stock up when any crisis is about to hit: We fill up our gas tanks, empty the bread and egg shelves at grocery stores and buy enough toilet paper to last for months.
It’s human nature — and for far too long, New York City’s government has been behaving the very same way.
But City Hall’s panic reaction is far worse, and does far more damage.
In recent emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the asylum-seeker influx, city government kept on “crisis buying” for more than a year, without ever comparing prices or rooting out contractor abuse, fraud and waste.
It’s time for drastic change: We must reform the city’s out-of-control emergency procurement practices and add vital checks and balances.
Currently, when the mayor declares a state of emergency, the city’s comptroller and corporation counsel suspend their ordinary oversight regarding contracts and procurement.
In theory, this allows City Hall to respond quickly and obtain necessary goods and services to alleviate the crisis.
In practice, it means the city can award no-bid contracts for up to one year — contracts that, having bypassed the competitive bidding that’s normally required, can be rife with waste and abuse.
Imagine purchasing a car or searching for your next apartment without competitively price-shopping for those big-ticket items. That’s what City Hall does whenever the mayor declares an emergency.
City agencies aren’t even required to send “emergency” contracts to the comptroller for auditing before laying out taxpayer cash. In fact, 84% of such contracts filed between January 2022 and September 2023 were submitted more than 31 days after the contract start date.
Both Mayor Eric Adams and former Mayor Bill de Blasio spent billions of dollars on the asylum-seeker and COVID crises, respectively, drawing multiple allegations of corruption and pay-to-play politics.
This uncontrolled spending was especially acute during the pandemic, as de Blasio extended “emergency” contracts a whopping 100-plus times and spent nearly $7 billion on emergency supplies with no oversight or limiting guardrails.
In the private sector, affordability is a prime factor when choosing bids on contracts. The city’s emergency procurement process throws such considerations to the wind, leading to reckless overspending.
During COVID, City Hall paid top dollar for ventilators and N95 masks it never received — and in one case, paid an absurd $7.50 apiece for cloth masks.
Its fire sale of nearly $224 million worth of COVID-era surplus items, from ventilators to face shields, only recouped $500,000, a downright outrage.
The current administration is no better, awarding a $432 million emergency contract for asylum-seeker services to an untested company called DocGo.
Its dreadful performance — with problems like chronic food waste, moldy hotel rooms, unlicensed security guards and an uncredentialed CEO who was forced to resign — resulted in an investigation by the state attorney general.
Even in non-emergency circumstances, the city has never reined in city contractors who utilize loopholes to enrich themselves.
Take the company owned by David Levitan, listed as one of New York City’s worst landlords.
For over a quarter century, the city has repeatedly used Levitan’s properties as homeless shelters — buildings with rotted floors, broken elevators, rat infestations and peeling lead paint.
Levitan has even required some of the nonprofits operating shelters within his buildings to subcontract with his own maintenance or extermination companies to service the properties — reaping even more revenue from our tax dollars.
It’s time for reform, top to bottom.
Emergencies, by their very definition, are short in duration. Accordingly, they should necessitate a strictly time-limited use of no-bid contracts, for instances when competitive bidding will truly hinder the city’s response.
That’s why I am introducing two bills in the New York City Council this week to update our lackadaisical, irresponsible procurement processes.
These bills will limit all emergency contracts to 30 days, unless both the comptroller and corporation counsel approve of an extension.
If passed, the laws will require all contracts be sent to the comptroller for auditing within 15 days of signing, and will increase subcontractor transparency with fines of up to $100,000 for not disclosing to the city any conflicts of interest or competing contractual obligations.
New York’s broken contracting system has price-gouged our taxpayers for far too long — and recent mayoral administrations have shown no appetite to follow good-government procurement practices.
It’s up to the City Council to advance this vital legislation, saving precious fiscal resources, restoring responsibility and rooting out corruption.
City Council Member Julie Menin (D) represents the East Side of Manhattan and chairs the Consumer and Worker Protection Committee.