Diss’ll fix you
Gov inks a plan to aid NYCHA, undermine Bill
GOV. CUOMO signed an executive order Monday creating a new independent emergency manager who will oversee much-needed upgrades of public housing.
The monitor will be picked by the City Council and public housing tenant leaders in consultation with Mayor de Blasio.
The announcement is yet another shot at the mayor and the current NYCHA management, two of Cuomo’s favorite targets in the last few weeks for what he says is a history of inaction and mismanagement.
Cuomo signed the order at the Johnson Houses in East Harlem where, in 2015, de Blasio announced his NextGen NYCHA plan to reverse public housing’s steady deterioration.
De Blasio was not invited to Monday’s event.
Top city leaders, including Public Advocate Letitia James, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and city Controller Scott Stringer, were there backing a plan that implicitly highlights the mayor’s failure to right NYCHA’s listing ship.
In an interview with NY1, de Blasio questioned whether the new monitor will actually slow things down, stating, “We don’t know if that’s going to add another layer of bureaucracy.”
“I just fear it will be a slower process,” he said.
The monitor must be selected within 60 days. If the stakeholders can’t agree, the controller steps in and has two weeks to make the appointment.
The order requires the city to pay for the monitor and staff, and gives the monitor the broader task of examining “issues related to the governance, management and maintenance” of NYCHA apartments.
The monitor then has 30 days to hire a contractor to do the work under an expedited designbuild schedule — NYCHA can have no role in the selection. The contractor will also get financial incentives to speed up completion.
The monitor will oversee spending of $550 million the state has steered to NYCHA since 2015, including $250 million approved Friday. It will also oversee the spending of any unspent city funds set aside for NYCHA, which includes $200 million de Blasio recently promised for boiler repairs.
The order said a state of emergency existed because the city has failed to remedy dangerous conditions cited in a state Health Department report. The Health Department will continue checking NYCHA apartments.
Cuomo made clear that the monitor will be doing a job that NYCHA has failed to do.
“Delivering money to NYCHA is like throwing money out the window,” Cuomo said. “I’m not going to hand money over to an agency that can’t spend the money” quickly.