There are scores of New York agencies that are manned by bureaucrats who often fall far short of job expectations.
Take, for example, the MTA’s recent failure to prevent a major ceiling leak in the Queens Midtown Tunnel.
The gushing water that flooded the tunnel’s roadway did not come from a broken pipe, but from the East River. The hole in the tunnel was created by a drilling rig that was operated by a crew working on a city infrastructure project.
Plans to build an esplanade along the East River required sampling the soil 50 feet below the river before driving piles into the bedrock. The engineer in charge had no idea that a critical transportation artery was directly beneath it. The result: a flood which spilled more water than the tunnel drainage system could handle.
Fortunately, no toll payers driving through the tunnel were injured or killed. Nevertheless, my question is how could this have happened?
It appears that MTA engineers and city engineers do not consult one another on infrastructure plans that could impact each other’s domains. How ridiculous is that?
However, I’m not at all surprised by this phenomenon. State and city agencies often look upon each other as enemies. I learned that during my tenure as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Here are a few more examples of bureaucratic incompetence.
In October, State Controller Tom DiNapoli released an audit that concluded New York City’s Housing Voucher Program is “plagued with problems.”
The report noted that “inadequate oversight of a New York City rental assistance program is leading to delays in finding permanent housing for homeless people and those at risk of homelessness.”
Apparently, the city’s Department of Social Services does not have appropriate policies or procedures to administer, guide or monitor the work required to fulfill its mission.
The report also concluded that DSS lacks adequate oversight “to ensure that housing units are managed efficiently and effectively … [and] meet safety and habitability standards.”
Then there’s the comptroller’s recent audit of the New York State Division of Human Rights. It reveals the agency “failed to properly investigate dozens of housing discrimination cases, undermining its mission to eliminate injustices and promote equal opportunity….”
DHR failed to properly investigate complaints, violated state law by taking too long to investigate cases and improperly prioritized cases. The agency also “failed to include sufficient evidence of their efforts to reach out to complainants in their cases as required by HUD…. As a result, the thoroughness of these investigations comes into question and discrimination may have continued or gone unaddressed,” the audit said.
There’s space for one more example of incompetence – and it’s a beaut.
New York City is spending more money annually on homeless shelters than any other municipality in the nation. This year it will expend over $4 billion to house approximately 85,000 people. Expenditures for the housing program are up about 40% since 2022 due to the huge increase in illegal migrants.
To provide homeless services, the city farms out the work to nearly 90 non-profit groups. And a Department of Investigation analysis of the non-profits revealed there is “widespread mismanagement, self-dealing and nepotism.”
DOI determined that there are numerous conflicts-of-interest violations. In some cases, shelter executives “simultaneously held employment as a private entity, such as a security company, that was hired to provide services at a city-funded shelter.”
DOI discovered that top shelter executives—who rake in between $500,000 and $700,000 a year—”have employed immediate family members of senior executives and board members in apparent violation of their city contracts.”
And shelter providers have been failing to comply with city-mandated competitive bidding rules when obtaining goods and services with city money. The DOI “identified multiple instances where shelter providers awarded multimillion-dollar building maintenance service contracts to companies affiliated with building landlords.”
What I find most galling: most elected officials have not expressed outrage over the incompetence and corruption that bona fide investigators and auditors have been uncovering.
No heads have rolled. The governor and the mayor have been silent.
Worse yet, the State Pay Commission recommended this month that the annual pay of 40 agency commissioners be increased by 20%. Salaries will rise from $220,000 to $245,000.
Incompetent managers will be rewarded for failure and, as usual, the taxpayers will be stuck picking up the tab.
