Regret my deal with feds: chief
The interim chairman of the city Housing Authority has buyer’s remorse over his agreement to bring in a federal monitor to oversee NYCHA.
At a Citizens Budget Commission breakfast Wednesday, Stanley Brezenoff expressed regret about signing off on a consent decree in June to appoint an independent overseer to make sure NYCHA follows all the rules on keeping apartments safe and habitable.
“I have some trouble with the proposed monitor because it’s much more actively constructed where there’s more of a management role,” Brezenoff said. “I think it’s a prescription for difficulty, if not disaster.”
On June 11, Brezenoff signed the decree along with Mayor de Blasio and Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, with all sides agreeing to the hiring of a monitor. He now says that since then, he’s seen indications that the overseer’s role will be broader than he expected.
“As I look at the dynamic, I have concerns what could be a creeping monitorship that’s more in the operational mode as opposed to a monitor who monitors,” he said. “When I signed it, I saw it more as a monitorship, and in some of the interactions that are going on (since), I see the possibility that others have a different view.”
The agreement calls for Berman to pick a monitor in consultation with the mayor, Gov. Cuomo and a tenant leadership group. The candidate would then have to be approved by Manhattan Federal Judge William Pauley, who is presiding over the decree.
Since the agreement was signed in June, the U.S. attorney’s Civil Division has charged that NYCHA is already in violation of the deal by failing to live up to its promises on properly inspecting and cleaning up lead paint.