City Comptroller Won't Appoint Watchdog For NYCHA

NEW YORK, NY — City Comptroller Scott Stringer will not appoint a state-mandated watchdog to rescue the New York City Housing Authority despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo telling him to do so, he said Thursday evening.

Cuomo ordered Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and the head of the Citywide Council of Presidents, a NYCHA tenants group, to choose by June 1 an independent emergency manager who would create a sweeping plan to repair the housing authority's myriad problems using state and city funds.

Cuomo's April 2 executive order said Stringer would take on the task if the triad misses Friday's deadline, which seems likely. But the comptroller's office said he is legally barred from making the pick because it would compromise his independence as an auditor of NYCHA.

"The job and the law require me to be independent. That means first and foremost, I cannot audit my own decisions, including the performance of a manager I select," Stringer said in a statement Thursday.

Stringer's office cited a section of the City Charter requiring the comptroller to follow auditing guidelines set by the federal Government Accountability Office, which has warned auditors not to make management decisions for any entity they have to audit.

Stringer, who has published several audits critical of the housing authority, said he remains "fully supportive of the Governor and Mayor’s efforts to improve the deplorable conditions NYCHA residents are enduring and the widespread organizational dysfunction our audits have uncovered."

It's unclear to whom the task of picking the state-ordered manager will now fall once the deadline officially passes.

Stringer appeared with Cuomo when he declared a state of emergency for NYCHA last month, praising his aggressive effort to fix the city's struggling public housing. The governor likewise thanked Stringer for wanting "to make sure it happens and it happens fast."

"We believe the new monitor will ensure rules and regulations are followed," Stringer said last month.

But Stringer's office had told the governor's office before the executive order was issued that Stringer couldn't legally fulfill the role the order laid out for him, a spokeswoman for the comptroller's office said.

"The New York City Charter is law. It could not be any clearer," comptroller's office spokeswoman Lena Bell said in a statement. "The governor's office knew that this error was in their executive order and issued it anyway."

Cuomo's press secretary, Dani Lever, castigated Stringer Thursday, contesting his stance that he can't legally handle the task assigned to him.

"There is no merit to the Comptroller's claim that he is legally barred from picking a monitor but we do understand that politically the Comptroller doesn’t want the responsibility and accountability, and there are many options for us to consider," Lever said in a statement.

Lever did not respond to questions about the assertion that the governor's office knew Stringer couldn't take on the role.

Stringer's decision came as the selection of the state-ordered manager had taken a back seat to negotiations between city officials and federal prosecutors who may install their own monitor.

Representatives for the parties tasked with picking a manager had met just twice in the past two months. Those meetings had not produced substantive criteria or candidates for the post, said Elie Hecht, an attorney with the nonprofit At-Risk Community Services representing the Citywide Council of Presidents.

"We’ve exhausted every avenue to try to negotiate with them in good faith," Hecht said Thursday afternoon.

Asked about the status of the talks Thursday, de Blasio said the city is focused on wrapping up "very productive discussions" with the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York's Southern District, which launched what was said to be a wide-ranging investigation of NYCHA in 2015.

"That to me is the way to address some of the longstanding challenges at NYCHA, and that’s where our focus is," de Blasio said at an unreleated news conference.

De Blasio did not disclose any details of the forthcoming federal settlement. But Politico New York reported Wednesday that it would force the city to spend $1 billion over the next four years to address lead paint, mold, vermin and boiler problems, with a federal monitor overseeing the spending.

Systemic heating failures affecting thousands of residents and revelations that NYCHA officials falsely told federal authorities they had inspected apartments for lead have increased scrutiny of the city's public housing. The Citywide Council of Presidents filed a lawsuit in February accusing NYCHA of ignoring what it called "appalling" conditions.

City officials have reportedly expressed concerns that Cuomo's order would force the city to foot the bill for wide-reaching fixes for NYCHA. It says the emergency manager's repair plan would be funded with state money as well as "any unspent New York City funds or funds to be provided by New York City."

The mayor's office and the Council had sought to limit the manager's purview to the roughly $550 million in state funding that Cuomo has committed to NYCHA, Hecht said, a request tenant representatives rejected.

De Blasio said a federal monitor would "(change) the entire discussion," suggesting the person would have primacy over the manager ordered by Cuomo, his fellow Democrat and political nemesis who has taken a keen interest in NYCHA as he seeks re-election this year.

"What we saw with the state executive order was a different executive order than what we’ve seen previously with other agencies," de Blasio said. "But most importantly, this has to be resolved by the federal government for all the other pieces to make sense, and that’s why we’re focused on it."

The initial Friday deadline for appointing the state manager is the same day Stanley Brezenoff is set to take over as NYCHA's interim chairman. His predecessor, Shola Olatoye, stepped down at the end of April.

With Stringer out of the picture, Hecht said he's not overly concerned about the state-ordered process moving forward despite the uncertainty about what happens next.

"This isn’t the first time in the world that somebody declined to be a part of something," Hecht said. "There’s always somebody next in line."

(Lead image: Comptroller Scott Stringer is pictured in 2014. Photo by Anna Webber/Getty Images for V-Day)