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Nicole Gelinas

Opinion

Eric Adams is hiding the cost of the

city’s migrant boondoggle Feel good all fall with the best walking
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Mayor Eric Adams continues to find ways to resolve the influx migrants entering New York.
AP/Benny Polatseck Nicole Gelinas

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check to Mayor Eric Adams to house an unlimited number of deadly: As death toll shows, it's time
migrants, listen to Thursday’s City Council hearing on how to end them
Adams is awarding billions of dollars in contracts for migrant
services.
Cindy Adams
Councilwomen Gale Brewer (Upper West Side) and Julie
Won (western Queens) grilled Adams officials for 3.5 hours Melissa DeRosa, former Cuomo aide
lied to me about her book
on how, exactly, the city is spending taxpayer money for
shelter and other services, costing $11 million each day. See All Columnists
As Comptroller Brad Lander, the city’s independent
watchdog, told questioners, 10 city agencies have signed
194 contracts worth $5.1 billion with private providers to Covers
house, feed, clothe and offer medical care and private
security to more than 100,000 newcomers, including 60,400 Today's Cover
in city shelter.
Front Cover
Flip for back cover
Fifteen months ago, the city suspended its checks-and-
alances processes to control waste and fraud in contracts,
with Adams declaring an “emergency.”

This means the city doesn’t have to follow its procedures of competitive, sealed bids but can just pick the
contractor city officials think is appropriate, with no objective criteria.

As Molly Wasow Park, Adams’ social-services commissioner, informed the council of a $240 million
contract for thousands of hotel rooms across the city, “I don’t know that anybody bid exactly for the same
suite of services. It is a somewhat unusual function.”

Discretion and opacity are never good when handing out billions of dollars.
Browse Covers
But they’re particularly worrisome in this administration.
Trending Now
Adams’ former buildings commissioner is under criminal indictment for on NYPost.com
see also allegedly selling his ability to exercise discretion to award favors.
76,160
And Adams is sanguine even about how things look .

The mayor, in contrast to predecessors, refuses to say who he meets

with, as Politico reminds us.

Last week, his corrections commissioner thought it was a good idea to

Adams’ cuts to NYC take an entire baseball lineup on a weeklong junket to Paris and
services amid migrant
crisis is unserious London. Married Pa. cop arrested for
political theater committing ex to mental facility: DA
So what did we learn from the hearing?
46,742
Adams doesn’t want migrant contractors to be seen in public.

As Won pointed out, the council asked contractor CEOs to testify. But the city told them not to, in violation
of the City Charter.

One CEO, Anthony Capone, resigned last week after reporters found out he had lied about his degree.
His former company, DocGo, still holds a half-billion-dollar no-bid contract for migrant “human services.”
Daughter of woman whose body was
Adams officials won’t say when this “emergency” might end . found dragged by gator says mother's
death is 'unbearable pain'
“Why is the regular arrival of asylum seekers still deemed an unforeseen occurrence?” as Won put it. “It’s
no longer unforeseeable but . . . seeable.” 30,897

Why not return to normal contracting procedures? Officials met this question with silence.

There’s no rationale for which city agency handles which contract.

New York has a homeless-services department, with experience in procuring hotel rooms and other social
services. It also has a health department.
Natalee Holloway murder suspect
But the half-billion-dollar DocGo “human services” contract is with the city’s Housing Preservation and ‘took care of things’ after her
disappearance, email reveals
Development agency.

HPD is an infrastructure agency. It finances and regulates housing. It has nothing to do with human
services.

The Roosevelt Hotel remains a mystery.

The hotel, by Grand Central, is the city’s marquee migrant welcome center and shelter.

But its contract is with the city’s Health and Hospitals Corp.
see also
That distinction matters. As Lander points out, because HHC is a city-
unded nonprofit corporation, not a city agency, it does not have to file
contracts with the comptroller.

This exemption is an “added barrier to transparency.”

What’s in this contract? The Roosevelt is owned by the government of

Work permits won’t
Pakistan, and the best information is from the Pakistani press . magically solve NYC’s
migrant crisis — they’ll
Some of that information is strange. make it worse

As Pakistan’s minster for railways and aviation said in June, “besides

earning handsome revenue for our country’s treasury,” this “contract has also saved” the Roosevelt from
the “big threat” of “being landmarked.”

Pakistan doesn’t want the city to landmark the Roosevelt because it wants to build a taller building there
— but why would our Pakistani friends think that this shelter contract comes with a guarantee against
landmarking?

Even the amount is in question: Pakistan says $220 million; the city’s hospitals corporation says it’s “not to
exceed . . . over the entire term” — three years — $115,195,752.

40 What do you think? Post a comment.

In its next hearing, City Council should ask: Why doesn’t Adams provide the full text of every single
migrant contract on one website?

The council should also ask: Are would-be contractors required to disclose any fees they may have paid
to third parties?

As the Pakistani minister marveled of his deal, “It is really a wonderful contract.”

Maybe not for the rest of us or the migrants.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.

 Filed under brad lander city budget city council contracts eric adams gale brewer
illegal immigrants migrants new york city 9/24/23

Read Next NY Dems' latest bid to snub voters, flout the Constitution...

Conversation 40 Comments 283 Viewing

Share your stance. Please adhere to our guidelines .

Sort by Best

Dr. Alchemy
9 hours ago
Constant crisis mode is the method for total control without scrutiny. But the well has to run
at some point.
Reply 33 Share

tippytoes
11 hours ago
Self-proclaimed (and self-inflicted) emergency or not, Eric Adams needs to account for every
He is spending taxpayer funds and he has to be held accountable.
Reply 40 Share

MM
1 hour ago
Good luck with that Tippy! They couldn’t even get DeBlasios ole lady to say were 890
illion went for mental health! All she said was, ‘Well, treating mental health is very
NYS is like a bad LSD trip!
Reply 5 Share
1 reply

lizzie smith
11 hours ago
All those billions were and are needed for the tens of thousands of LEGAL homeless New
orkers who need food, clothing and shelter. It is utterly outrageous that they are passed over
illegals who jumped over the Rio Grande and are now taking it all - What right has Erica
to do this ? Who ...
See more
Reply 68 Share

Mark Lynch
9 hours ago
The Voters did
Reply 4 Share

Mlt123
8 hours ago
The super-moron democrat voters did.
Reply 16 Share
1 reply
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