NYCHA’s legal hire NOT legal
Secret vote in big-bucks defense bid
The Housing Authority violated the state’s open meeting law by secretly awarding a huge contract to a private law firm and then hiding the costs from the public for more than two years.
In early 2016, NYCHA’s board met behind closed doors and voted to retain Wilmer Hale, a private sector firm, to represent the nation’s largest public housing authority in ongoing city and federal investigations.
The initial approval set a “not-to-exceed” figure, and was subsequently amended by the board at least two more times in subsequent votes – again behind closed doors.
As of April, Wilmer Hale has racked up $9.7 million in legal bills, according to records obtained by the Daily News and revealed Tuesday.
The Housing Authority released the dollar figures on Wilmer’s bills only after The News threatened to sue, and has yet to release the actual invoices submitted by the law firm to justify their receipt of millions of taxpayer dollars.
The state’s Open Meetings Law allows public boards to discuss matters and even take votes behind closed doors in what’s known as “executive session.” The privacy is meant for topics such as ongoing criminal investigations, collective bargaining or lease transactions — all things that could unfairly alter the outcome of discussions if revealed to the public.
But the law explicitly states “no action by formal vote shall be taken to appropriate” public money.
“A public body can vote in executive session unless it involves an appropriation, in which case they must return to public session and take the vote,” Robert Freeman, director of the state Committee on Open Government, said Tuesday. “Also a record must be maintained of how each member voted.”
Contacted by The News on Tuesday, NYCHA spokeswoman Jasmine Blake admitted the board had made a mistake by voting on Wilmer Hale’s contract in private, and promised to soon release the details of the ballot-casting.
“It’s no secret NYCHA has used outside counsel throughout this process, but the vote of the board to authorize the expenditure of these funds should have been in public,” Blake said. “Therefore, we will post all past votes online in the coming days, and all future votes will be held in the open.”
When questioned by The News on Monday about the law firm’s payments, NYCHA for the first time acknowledged that all approvals of Wilmer Hale’s bills had taken place out of the public view.
The News reported that Wilmer Hale’s bills only run through this April, with millions more taxpayer dollars likely to be spent on the firm’s continued representation of the Housing Authority.
Wilmer Hale has been representing NYCHA in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s investigation that resulted in a consent decree filed in June and the revelation that NYCHA managers have for years lied and covered up their failure to comply with laws and regulations about providing habitable housing to its 400,000 residents.
And that representation will likely continue for a long time. The consent decree is set to last for at least four years and has yet to be approved by a federal judge. Federal prosecutors will soon propose a monitor to oversee the authority going forward. That appointment must also be approved by the judge.