City comptroller discloses NYCHA, capital projects, job creation

The office of city Comptroller Brad Lander has announced that a new committee of public housing residents will help create a “resident-powered audit” of the city’s Housing Authority next year.

The goal of the audit is for NYCHA residents to help guide the comptroller’s oversight of the agency.

“If residents are empowered to say that ‘this is where I think you ought to look,’ there is a lot more chance we can follow up together,” Lander told Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” Monday night.

A new survey released by Lander’s office on Monday shows sanitation, safety and maintenance were among the biggest issues facing NYCHA residents.

The survey came as NYCHA estimates it needs $40 billion to complete capital repairs across its housing portfolio. But the city faces a much larger issue when it comes to capital projects, according to Lander.

“Forty-five percent of current projects are already behind schedule and over budget. Those are the ones that aren’t even completed. If you look at completed projects, 33% of them went over budget and more than half were delayed,” Lander said. “So yeah, we need to get better at executing those capital projects.”

While discussing a new City Council proposal that would ban firing workers without proper cause, Lander briefly addressed reports that he did just that last month by firing two workers in his office, despite his support of the bill.

“I can’t talk about individual employment matters, but what I can say is we work real hard in the office to make sure that there’s feedback for everyone and that we’re building a workforce that’s a great place to work, that gets good feedback and that is accountable to New Yorkers,” Lander said. “Again, I can’t talk about these two. You know, we don’t disclose individual employment matters in public.”

During Monday’s interview, Lander also criticized the city’s new mental health plan that will allow police officers to forcefully hospitalize people and offered his view on whether the U.S. will soon face a recession.