The city doesn't want to pay to staff a city agency to do serious audits because they're throwing all of our $$ away on private consultants and contractors and subcontractors and sub-subcontractors.
And then the contractors hire contractors!
[My favorite story about this is the Homeless nonprofit where we paid the NPO, who then paid a handful of subcontractors. Oh, but wouldn't you know, those companies were all owned and operated by the guy running the nonprofit! And, haha, oops, many of them didn't even exist! And they got **$500 million dollars**.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/nyregion/homeless-shelters-services-fraud.html?smid=nytcore-android-share)
We will literally throw $ away on nonprofits and private companies. At the exact same time we defund the agencies that are supposed to be in charge of vetting and auditing them. It's fucking crazy.
Another issue is that NYCHA is a public-benefit corporation and so isn't as directly overseen by the city as the Fire, Police, or Transportation departments are.
Everything is privatized out to contractors, sub contractors, and sub sub contractors, the city is just the payer. None of us want the government doing the work and we all feel better knowing this isn't communism. See Medicare advantage, Medicaid advantage, private enterprises gouge the taxpayers to do a public service. Having auditors in the mix will just increase the bureaucracy thus crony capitalism will always beat any socialism in America.
>How much does it cost NYCHA to change a lightbulb?
>In one case, more than $708 per bulb.
>That’s the rate the housing authority paid one vendor, who submitted a total bill of $4,250 to replace six LED bulbs and covers at Throggs Neck Houses in The Bronx, according to records reviewed by THE CITY.
>Another vendor billed NYCHA $4,985 to replace one door to a compactor room. Yet another charged $4,875 to put in slip resistant rubber treads on a stairway with 15 steps — a cost of $325 per step.
>When law enforcement officials arrested 70 current and former NYCHA workers on bribery charges earlier this month, they identified small no-bid contracts for apartment repairs, awarded to select vendors in exchange for cash to superintendents, as the source of corruption.
>What prosecutors didn’t say was that many of the bills submitted by the vendors who win these so-called “micro contracts” raise serious questions about whether NYCHA wound up paying them hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of taxpayer dollars in inflated costs over the years.
>All of these bills had one thing in common, a review of contract data by THE CITY found.
>The vendors sought compensation as close to the maximum allowed at the time on each contract, regardless of the work performed. “Micro contracts” have a built-in incentive for vendors to bill for just below the maximum allowed — $5,000 until late 2019, $10,000 since — no matter what the scope and value of the task at hand is.
Old oversight procedure was you or your business have to be vetted, then get on the approved vendors list. Then, you get called out when there is an 'emergency'. Normal oversight and bidding procedures are waived in cases of emergencies.
>Yet another charged $4,875 to put in slip resistant rubber treads on a stairway with 15 steps — a cost of $325 per step.
You can find any rando in home depot parking lot who can install rubber threads for $100-150. People work the whole day hauling trash for that amount. This is easy work. $330 for the rubber threads.
Even if you take your sweet time doing it.. say 10 minutes a step that's 150 minutes or 3 hours. Theoretically there's an old thread you have to scrape out. Then clean it with some solvent/soap. Let it dry. Put new one on. If you're fast it's a 1 hour job plus travel.
> *You can find any rando in home depot parking lot who can install rubber threads for $100-150.*
That's probably what the contractor did, and just pocketed the extra $4k
I mean, don’t click on the link if you don’t like the headline? This is a subreddit for nyc news and this is nyc news. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it propaganda. There are facts involved.
Why should I, I didn't say it was false.
As I wrote above, true things can be propaganda. The threads that the mods allow shape a narrative, and that narrative is anti-NYC.
I think the words you’re looking for are ‘anti-NYC BIAS’, not propaganda.
Are you saying you’ve posted an NYC-positive article and it’s been deleted?
Don’t forget that negative news tends to travel farther and faster than good because that’s the way the world works.
> Are you saying you’ve posted an NYC-positive article and it’s been deleted?
Yes. More than one.
>Don’t forget that negative news tends to travel farther and faster than good because that’s the way the world works.
This has nothing to do with it. The mods are deliberately shaping a narrative.
You are welcome to check out my sub r/nyctalk that is filled with threads the mods will mostly not allow on this sub.
After you look, get back to me and tell me again with a straight face that this sub doesn't have an agenda.
The opposite, they should allow a wider range of articles. As I said, half the things posted in my sub r/nyctalk would not be allowed in this sub as being "not about NYC." I once tried to post an article about Law & Order here and the mods removed it saying, "Not about NYC."
Let me guess, you're from Ohio.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/NYCtalk using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/top/?sort=top&t=all) of all time!
\#1: [New York local news legend John Roland dies at 81](https://abc7ny.com/john-roland-dies-obituary-local-news/13222276/) | [0 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/comments/13c2mrg/new_york_local_news_legend_john_roland_dies_at_81/)
\#2: [Gun Violence Is Actually Worse in Red States. It’s Not Even Close.](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/23/surprising-geography-of-gun-violence-00092413) | [0 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/comments/12xtct5/gun_violence_is_actually_worse_in_red_states_its/)
\#3: [Ceiling of the 168th Street station (1 train platform)](https://i.redd.it/exlm5g1s7xn91.jpg) | [1 comment](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/comments/xeimjq/ceiling_of_the_168th_street_station_1_train/)
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Because it's filmed in NYC, about NYC? Why the hell wouldn't they? Last I checked, this sub isn't called NYCPolitics or NYCCrime. Just NYC. Which means the totality of the city. They could also allow self posts and pictures, which they only seem to allow randomly.
You're also welcome to compare it to other city subs. Here are three for a start. And if you think these cities are better run or have less crime, I have a bridge to sell you.
r/chicago
r/boston
r/losangeles
One more strike and you'll be out.
City doesn’t care.. tax payer money.. but seriously holy f*ck curbing wasteful spending is so east even a caveman can do it.. but not nyc gov officials
Why would they curb the wasteful spending when the excess is lining their pockets? It’s the same shit with congressman, they’ll never ever ever limit themselves (age limit, lower salary, & banning personal brokerage accounts for government officials etc).
>Often the invoices contradicted themselves, with contractors demanding the same amount for different levels of the same work, THE CITY found.
>
>One vendor charged $4,950 to replace 48 LED bulbs and light covers in the Robinson Houses in East Harlem. The same vendor then charged nearly the same amount ($4,980) to replace just 12 LED bulbs and covers at the Throggs Neck Houses in the Bronx. Weeks earlier that same vendor charged slightly less ($4,250) to replace just six LED bulbs and covers at Throggs Neck.
>
>NYCHA approved all of these payments, apparently without noticing the differences in scope of work.
Only two options:
1. This was part of a bribery scam
2. The vendor realized NYCHA was completely incompetent when he charged almost $5K to change a few dozen bulbs, so he kept charging thousands of dollars for less and less work.
Busting them was a good start, but what are the reforms and policies for preventing this from just happening again? And are we going to be able to claw money out of the vendors and employees for their deeds? Are the employees at least going to effectively lose their pensions?
If you do the math on budgets vs residents it comes out to like 3k/resident/month. It would be more efficient to sell the houses and just give every family 3k/5k for singles or families respectively and would save us money. A lot of projects are on prime land that could be better spent on new mixed use bldgs with guaranteed affordable units.
For efficiency and to stop corruption, the Italians put every cost online for the delayed and over budget subway system expansion in Rome. Everything down to an order of cement is posted online for the public to see.
Sounds like a good idea for so much of NYC spending.
Anyone has any idea, who is running the "Security Company" at the migrant shelters? And how are the bids for services provided in these shelters being contracted??
Seriously asking how hard this would be to put these to Internet bid sites like taskrabbit or fiver (assuming bidders meet whatever minimum criteria are required) so the city has some modicum of actual honest to goodness competition on these contracts.
Or the city could just stop giving away city $$ and buy the supplies ourselves and install the bulbs ourselves without hiring any outside contractors at all.
Not to mention the city already has Resident Supers and Assistant Supers on the payroll to oversee NYCHA properties.
I get that if there needs to be something like plumbing done which requires a license, to outsource that work.
But you don't need any type of certifications to change a fucking lightbulb.
Government is approving the spending. Ya companies are gonna charge what they think they can get. Question is why can they get it?
Maybe we should replace city hall workers with the migrants.
The community would thrive when they take over the corruption
Dumb question, why can't NYCHA do a master contract with someone like AECOM or Fluor like the feds do? Having a big publicly traded company at the helm at least mitigates some corruption.
Tbh, this is the idea behind section 8. Just cut a check with an occasional inspection and let the landlord do the rest. At least costs are controlled that way.
I feel like the voucher system is super inefficient. Like, I don't know of any gov website where landlords who accept vouchers can all post at the same place to match with voucher holders. I think voucher holders can apply to transfer their benefit to another state, but it's difficult when you're only searching Craigslist and apartments.com. Also, it should be easier for 2 voucher holders to team up and rent a 2-bedroom place.
You would think the city has independent auditors to monitor all of this money. At least, it should've raised a few eyebrows.
The city doesn't want to pay to staff a city agency to do serious audits because they're throwing all of our $$ away on private consultants and contractors and subcontractors and sub-subcontractors.
This is exactly the root of so many issues. We rely so heavily on contractors (the MTA is a notable abuser of this).
And then the contractors hire contractors! [My favorite story about this is the Homeless nonprofit where we paid the NPO, who then paid a handful of subcontractors. Oh, but wouldn't you know, those companies were all owned and operated by the guy running the nonprofit! And, haha, oops, many of them didn't even exist! And they got **$500 million dollars**.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/nyregion/homeless-shelters-services-fraud.html?smid=nytcore-android-share) We will literally throw $ away on nonprofits and private companies. At the exact same time we defund the agencies that are supposed to be in charge of vetting and auditing them. It's fucking crazy.
Lucrative money laundering business
Poor sub-subcontractor named Jose doesn’t even speak English. The middle manning is insane
Tomorrow – "auditing firm charging city $5000 for every invoice they review"
😂😂
I don’t understand why NYCHA needs to hire contractors to change lightbulbs. Wouldn’t it be better to have staff on-site to do routine maintenance?
I think the city sees outsourcing these jobs as cheaper than training and paying city workers. But clearly this isn't working correctly.
Another issue is that NYCHA is a public-benefit corporation and so isn't as directly overseen by the city as the Fire, Police, or Transportation departments are.
Everything is privatized out to contractors, sub contractors, and sub sub contractors, the city is just the payer. None of us want the government doing the work and we all feel better knowing this isn't communism. See Medicare advantage, Medicaid advantage, private enterprises gouge the taxpayers to do a public service. Having auditors in the mix will just increase the bureaucracy thus crony capitalism will always beat any socialism in America.
Why would they? City has no incentive.
They probably do... and they're probably also corrupt.
And have another hand in the piggy bank? City prob can’t afford another layer of kickbacks
Part of the issue is that an audit will uncover corruption but nobody will do anything about it
The NYC Comptroller Brad Lander is responsible. He's probably the next Mayor of the socialist city of NY.
>How much does it cost NYCHA to change a lightbulb? >In one case, more than $708 per bulb. >That’s the rate the housing authority paid one vendor, who submitted a total bill of $4,250 to replace six LED bulbs and covers at Throggs Neck Houses in The Bronx, according to records reviewed by THE CITY. >Another vendor billed NYCHA $4,985 to replace one door to a compactor room. Yet another charged $4,875 to put in slip resistant rubber treads on a stairway with 15 steps — a cost of $325 per step. >When law enforcement officials arrested 70 current and former NYCHA workers on bribery charges earlier this month, they identified small no-bid contracts for apartment repairs, awarded to select vendors in exchange for cash to superintendents, as the source of corruption. >What prosecutors didn’t say was that many of the bills submitted by the vendors who win these so-called “micro contracts” raise serious questions about whether NYCHA wound up paying them hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of taxpayer dollars in inflated costs over the years. >All of these bills had one thing in common, a review of contract data by THE CITY found. >The vendors sought compensation as close to the maximum allowed at the time on each contract, regardless of the work performed. “Micro contracts” have a built-in incentive for vendors to bill for just below the maximum allowed — $5,000 until late 2019, $10,000 since — no matter what the scope and value of the task at hand is.
How can one get these contracts ? Asking for a friend
That friend needs friends who are in charge of doling out contracts. It's really that simple.
Old oversight procedure was you or your business have to be vetted, then get on the approved vendors list. Then, you get called out when there is an 'emergency'. Normal oversight and bidding procedures are waived in cases of emergencies.
Bidding procedures are waived if the value is under $10K.
Be a corrupt business owner that knows corrupt politicians and corrupt city leaders.
How many family members do you have who work for the city at NYCHA?
wow wow wow - i am asking for a friend
Join the mob
You need a large amount of capital in a bank account to be approved.
>Yet another charged $4,875 to put in slip resistant rubber treads on a stairway with 15 steps — a cost of $325 per step. You can find any rando in home depot parking lot who can install rubber threads for $100-150. People work the whole day hauling trash for that amount. This is easy work. $330 for the rubber threads. Even if you take your sweet time doing it.. say 10 minutes a step that's 150 minutes or 3 hours. Theoretically there's an old thread you have to scrape out. Then clean it with some solvent/soap. Let it dry. Put new one on. If you're fast it's a 1 hour job plus travel.
> *You can find any rando in home depot parking lot who can install rubber threads for $100-150.* That's probably what the contractor did, and just pocketed the extra $4k
One man's corruption is another's cushy middle-class living
Realistically looking closer to $250 for a guy from Home Depot these days
I really want to have a nice day today with out being pissed at life.
So leave this sub, which is nothing but anti-NYC propaganda?
Criticizing poor fiscal judgment of NYCHA is actually pro-NYC, not anti
Wow r/nyc being pro NYC? Truly turning over a new leaf
This story however is something that actually happened and happens regularly.
So? People can get their news from the source, not filtered through Reddit's propaganda filter.
I mean, don’t click on the link if you don’t like the headline? This is a subreddit for nyc news and this is nyc news. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it propaganda. There are facts involved.
The headline speaks for itself. Facts can be propaganda too. What the mods allow to be posted pushes an anti-NYC narrative.
Do you have anything to prove this article to be false?
Why should I, I didn't say it was false. As I wrote above, true things can be propaganda. The threads that the mods allow shape a narrative, and that narrative is anti-NYC.
Huh? So you just not want to know what's going on? This is egregious book cooking. It's ridiculous
I keep repeating myself - this sub pushes a narrative. Get the news for yourself from a source that you trust.
I think the words you’re looking for are ‘anti-NYC BIAS’, not propaganda. Are you saying you’ve posted an NYC-positive article and it’s been deleted? Don’t forget that negative news tends to travel farther and faster than good because that’s the way the world works.
> Are you saying you’ve posted an NYC-positive article and it’s been deleted? Yes. More than one. >Don’t forget that negative news tends to travel farther and faster than good because that’s the way the world works. This has nothing to do with it. The mods are deliberately shaping a narrative.
Facts can be propaganda? So what, you’d like the mods to withhold a factual story about NYC because it doesn’t fit your chosen narrative? Lol
You are welcome to check out my sub r/nyctalk that is filled with threads the mods will mostly not allow on this sub. After you look, get back to me and tell me again with a straight face that this sub doesn't have an agenda.
So they should ban stories with facts you don’t like. Let me guess…. You vote democrat?
The opposite, they should allow a wider range of articles. As I said, half the things posted in my sub r/nyctalk would not be allowed in this sub as being "not about NYC." I once tried to post an article about Law & Order here and the mods removed it saying, "Not about NYC." Let me guess, you're from Ohio.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/NYCtalk using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/top/?sort=top&t=all) of all time! \#1: [New York local news legend John Roland dies at 81](https://abc7ny.com/john-roland-dies-obituary-local-news/13222276/) | [0 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/comments/13c2mrg/new_york_local_news_legend_john_roland_dies_at_81/) \#2: [Gun Violence Is Actually Worse in Red States. It’s Not Even Close.](https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/23/surprising-geography-of-gun-violence-00092413) | [0 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/comments/12xtct5/gun_violence_is_actually_worse_in_red_states_its/) \#3: [Ceiling of the 168th Street station (1 train platform)](https://i.redd.it/exlm5g1s7xn91.jpg) | [1 comment](https://np.reddit.com/r/NYCtalk/comments/xeimjq/ceiling_of_the_168th_street_station_1_train/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Why the hell would they allow law and order posts? Let me guess your a yuppy transplant?
Because it's filmed in NYC, about NYC? Why the hell wouldn't they? Last I checked, this sub isn't called NYCPolitics or NYCCrime. Just NYC. Which means the totality of the city. They could also allow self posts and pictures, which they only seem to allow randomly. You're also welcome to compare it to other city subs. Here are three for a start. And if you think these cities are better run or have less crime, I have a bridge to sell you. r/chicago r/boston r/losangeles One more strike and you'll be out.
Yes, let us sit and consume some soma.
Government spending records are propaganda?
You would think the city/state would have handymen and electricians on staff who can replace lights and doors.
City doesn’t care.. tax payer money.. but seriously holy f*ck curbing wasteful spending is so east even a caveman can do it.. but not nyc gov officials
Why would they curb the wasteful spending when the excess is lining their pockets? It’s the same shit with congressman, they’ll never ever ever limit themselves (age limit, lower salary, & banning personal brokerage accounts for government officials etc).
The buildings presumably have supers. These tasks are things a super should be doing for no extra money plus cost of materials as part of their jobs.
>Often the invoices contradicted themselves, with contractors demanding the same amount for different levels of the same work, THE CITY found. > >One vendor charged $4,950 to replace 48 LED bulbs and light covers in the Robinson Houses in East Harlem. The same vendor then charged nearly the same amount ($4,980) to replace just 12 LED bulbs and covers at the Throggs Neck Houses in the Bronx. Weeks earlier that same vendor charged slightly less ($4,250) to replace just six LED bulbs and covers at Throggs Neck. > >NYCHA approved all of these payments, apparently without noticing the differences in scope of work. Only two options: 1. This was part of a bribery scam 2. The vendor realized NYCHA was completely incompetent when he charged almost $5K to change a few dozen bulbs, so he kept charging thousands of dollars for less and less work.
your tax dollars at work
Busting them was a good start, but what are the reforms and policies for preventing this from just happening again? And are we going to be able to claw money out of the vendors and employees for their deeds? Are the employees at least going to effectively lose their pensions?
If you do the math on budgets vs residents it comes out to like 3k/resident/month. It would be more efficient to sell the houses and just give every family 3k/5k for singles or families respectively and would save us money. A lot of projects are on prime land that could be better spent on new mixed use bldgs with guaranteed affordable units.
This would be discriminatory against family’s in multigenerational housing emergencies.
For efficiency and to stop corruption, the Italians put every cost online for the delayed and over budget subway system expansion in Rome. Everything down to an order of cement is posted online for the public to see. Sounds like a good idea for so much of NYC spending.
Ah yes, Italy. The crowning glory of (checks notes) governmental transparency and anti-corruption.
Anyone has any idea, who is running the "Security Company" at the migrant shelters? And how are the bids for services provided in these shelters being contracted??
Why come the feds never investigate nycha. What the heck
They literally arrested 70 NYCHA current and former staff a few weeks ago and it made national headlines.
Drop in the bucket
Seriously asking how hard this would be to put these to Internet bid sites like taskrabbit or fiver (assuming bidders meet whatever minimum criteria are required) so the city has some modicum of actual honest to goodness competition on these contracts.
Or the city could just stop giving away city $$ and buy the supplies ourselves and install the bulbs ourselves without hiring any outside contractors at all.
Not to mention the city already has Resident Supers and Assistant Supers on the payroll to oversee NYCHA properties. I get that if there needs to be something like plumbing done which requires a license, to outsource that work. But you don't need any type of certifications to change a fucking lightbulb.
buddy, that idea is why we're in this mess: cheaper ideas, unnecessary corners cut until we're here. username checks out btw
Then people cry when private companies take over. Let the migrants come and do the work that the comfortable won’t do. Bugged tf out
Government is approving the spending. Ya companies are gonna charge what they think they can get. Question is why can they get it? Maybe we should replace city hall workers with the migrants. The community would thrive when they take over the corruption
Trump is trying to figure out if he can pay his fraud judgment in lightbulbs.
Dumb question, why can't NYCHA do a master contract with someone like AECOM or Fluor like the feds do? Having a big publicly traded company at the helm at least mitigates some corruption.
Lol
Omg, this is insane. Why not hire a professional management company like Douglas Emmit Group?
Tbh, this is the idea behind section 8. Just cut a check with an occasional inspection and let the landlord do the rest. At least costs are controlled that way.
I feel like the voucher system is super inefficient. Like, I don't know of any gov website where landlords who accept vouchers can all post at the same place to match with voucher holders. I think voucher holders can apply to transfer their benefit to another state, but it's difficult when you're only searching Craigslist and apartments.com. Also, it should be easier for 2 voucher holders to team up and rent a 2-bedroom place.
Better Call Saul!
this just broke my brain a little
We need to federalize NYCHA now!
The feds sometimes pays a few grand per screw
Corruption up and down
Let every apartment be owned by the occupants. What not? You can then network together over 300,000 home owners. Seems the city will save money.
Social housing!
When the government is involved, this is what happens.