Reinvent Albany Supports Unimpeded Council Oversight of DOE Contracts

Reinvent Albany supports the efforts of the New York City Council to obtain and review contracts awarded by the New York City Department of Education (DOE). We urge the Administration to promptly give the contracts to the Council or make them available for their inspection. We also urge City Hall to make all contracts and contract files (including suspensions and debarments of contractors) available for public inspection, as required by sections 1064 and 334 of the New York City Charter, and to publish them online as done by Florida and Texas.

According to reporting by the New York Times, the Council seeks 579 contracts, including 352 that were awarded without competition. The Department of Education has active contracts worth nearly $13 billion.  

Oversight of agency activity is part of the Council’s function as a coequal branch of government. The DOE should provide the Council with the contracts it requested without excuses about having to redact confidential information from the contracts; its requests for contracts are not subject to the Freedom of Information Law. The Council is a coequal branch of government – not the public – and has the right to see unredacted contracts entered into by the executive branch. The contract-related corruption of the previous Administration and a current investigation into Chancellor Kamar Samuels when he was a superintendent, for dividing contracts so they do not reach competitive bidding thresholds, further highlight the importance of the Council conducting oversight. 

It does not make sense that numerous employees at the DOE have access to unredacted versions of these contracts, but elected members of the City Council are not allowed to see them. We note that not only does the Council have subpoena power, but section 334(b) of the City Charter says any elected official can request contract files, which the Administration must provide within 30 days. Notably, the Charter does not require “adequate protection for information that is confidential” when providing contract files to an elected official, but the Charter explicitly does so for making the same information available to the public in the same section of law.

The public expects their elected leaders to act sensibly and in the public interest. This is a reasonable request by Council, and the DOE needs to give them the records they seek without further delay or obstruction. 

List of Relevant NYC Charter Provisions (emphasis added)

 § 1064. Centralized contract and contractor information. a. The mayor shall maintain, in a central place which is accessible to the public, standard information regarding each city contract and contractor. Such information shall include: (1) a copy of the contract; (2) information regarding the method by which the contract was let; (3) such standard documents as the contractor is required to submit, which documents shall be updated regularly in accordance with rules of the procurement policy board; (4) information regarding the contractor’s qualifications and performance; (5) any evaluations of the contractor and any contractor responses to such evaluations; (6) any audits of the contract and any contractor responses to such audits; and (7) any decisions regarding the suspension or debarment of the contractor.

§  334.  Information on city contracts. a. Agency contract files. Each agency shall maintain files containing information pertaining to the solicitation, award, and management of each contract of the agency in accordance with standard record maintenance requirements established pursuant to section three thousand four of this charter. The agency contract files shall contain copies of each determination, writing or filing required by this chapter pertaining to a contract and such information as is prescribed by rule of the procurement policy board, in such form as is prescribed by the procurement policy board. Agency contract files shall be open to public inspection with adequate protection for information which is confidential.

b. Requests by elected officials for contract documentation. Whenever an elected official of the city requests documentation relating to the solicitation or award of any city contract, the mayor and city agencies shall promptly provide such documentation as is requested or shall promptly respond to the requesting official with reason why such documentation cannot be provided. If the mayor or agency is unable to provide the requested documentation within ten business days of the day the request is received, the mayor or agency shall within such time deliver to the requesting official a statement of the reasons the documentation cannot be promptly provided and shall include in such statement a timetable within which the documentation will be provided, not to exceed thirty days from the date of the original request.

c.  Centralized contract and contractor information. The mayor shall ensure that copies of city contracts and other standard information regarding city contracts and contractors are reasonably available for public inspection in accordance with provisions of section one thousand sixty-four of this charter.

§  29.   Power of investigation and oversight.  a. The council, acting as a committee of the whole, and each standing or special committee of the council, through hearings or otherwise:

 1. may investigate any matters within its jurisdiction relating to the property, affairs, or government of the city or of any county within the city, or to any other powers of the council, or to the effectuation of the purposes or provisions of this charter or any laws relating to the city or to any county within the city.

 2.  shall review on a regular and continuous basis the activities of the agencies of the city, including their service goals and performance and management efficiency. Each unit of appropriation in the adopted budget of the city shall be assigned to a standing committee. Each standing committee of the council shall hold at least one hearing each year relating to the activities of each of the agencies under its jurisdiction.

b.  Any standing or special committee shall have power to require the attendance and examine and take testimony under oath of such persons as it may deem necessary and to require the production of books, accounts, papers and other evidence relative to the inquiry. Copies of all reports or studies received by the council pursuant to section eleven hundred thirty-four and subdivision c of section ninety-three shall be assigned to the appropriate standing committees for review and action, as necessary.