Big bucks for fed monitor of NYCHA

The federal monitor firm overseeing the New York City Housing Authority will be paid $12 million for its first year of service, according to its contract with the city, which was publicly released Tuesday.

The deal with monitor Bart Schwartz and his firm Guidepost Solutions will run five years as of February 2019. Included in the $12 million price tag are outside subcontractors.

Under the contract, Schwartz will get $594 an hour, with his pay capped at $350,000 in 2019 only. Executive officers of his firm will be paid $503 an hour and members of the project leadership team will be paid an hourly rate of between $366 and $480. Monitor spokesman Montieth Illingworth described the rate of pay for monitor employees as “deeply discounted.”

“Bart Schwartz’s effective hourly rate will likely be significantly less because his total fee is a fixed amount and he has and continues to devote significant time to the monitorship,” he said. “All the monitorship rates are discounted.”

The city agreed to the monitor after NYCHA was rocked by a series of scandals, including its failure to properly test for poisonous lead in apartments and lying to the federal government about the lapse.

Under the contract, the monitor is required to submit annual budgets to the city.

A NYCHA source said the monitor had been demanding as much as $20 million annually but the city balked at the higher price tag. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said Tuesday that $12 million “seems like way too much money.”

“We need every dollar we can to go towards critical repairs,” he said. “We see already the heating outages that NYCHA residents experience. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had some really cold days, and that’s where I think we need to maximize the money.”

Exactly when the monitor’s spending plan will be released is still uncertain. The NYCHA source said discussions are “ongoing” but would not provide a timeframe. Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio, said the city has made “an historic investment to turn around NYCHA with our federal partners.”

“We are renovating thousands of apartments, installing new boilers and standing up NYCHA’s first-ever compliance department,” she said. “NYCHA’s new leadership team will continue to work closely with the monitor to improve the lives of the 400,000 New Yorkers who call NYCHA home.”