U.S. Open are deadbeat renters

THE CITY
 

Visitors are already starting to descend on Queens to attend the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which holds court in Flushing Meadows Corona Park next week.

Last year, a record of nearly 830,000 spectators passed through the United States Tennis Association’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

But according to a new audit by city Comptroller Scott Stringer, the USTA has not been playing fair with the city.

The comptroller’s probe found that from 2014 to 2017, the USTA failed to report $31 million in revenue, which would mean it owes more than $311,000 in additional rent to the city. In 2016 and 2017, USTA paid $6.6 million each year in rent to the city.

The audit finds USTA underreported benefits received from other companies and fees and took inappropriate deductions.

The USTA may also owe an additional $82,000 because of discrepancies in financial reports, Stringer’s office found.

The comptroller’s review also determined the lease’s restrictions on access to records hinders closer city oversight of the USTA’s finances.

“Any corporate entity leasing land from the city must pay its fair share of rent – no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The Tennis Center collects more than $300 million annually, and yet, it shortchanges city taxpayers,” Stringer said in a statement. “This arrangement should be a win-win, not just ‘advantage’ USTA.”

Some Queens residents said that the park doesn’t feel like theirs during the U S. Open, calling the Grand Slam tournament a complete takeover of the 1,255-acre park.

David Pastor, 29, a member of grassroots group Queens Neighborhoods United, said that the park is usually a safe haven for immigrant families and contended that this community character gets “overridden” around tournament time.

“I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve never even thought to go. It’s super expensive,” Pastor said. “You have to question who it’s for.”

Stringer subpoenas NYCHA

From CBS 2:

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer is putting NYCHA’s feet to the fire, alleging the city housing agency is stonewalling efforts to investigate why so many residents have been left without heat or hot water.

Stringer’s office announced that a second subpoena was issued to NYCHA on Friday, demanding they turn over information about multiple outages last winter. On Saturday, the comptroller said the city housing authority had “purposely done everything they can” to delay a year-long audit into the embattled agency.

Shocking news: Parks Dept lacks oversight of contractors

From the Queens Tribune:

A lack of sufficient oversight of construction managers has cost the city millions of dollars and led to long-delayed projects—including several in Queens, according to an audit by the city comptroller’s office.

Comptroller Scott Stringer’s audit found that inadequate oversight by the Parks Department cost the city nearly $5 million and that approximately 40 percent of construction projects managed by private firms were completed late, resulting in delays of up to three years.

Additionally, the city paid an extra 35 percent in management fees for late projects.

State made unnecessary Medicaid payouts

From Crain's:

Thanks to a lack of oversight, the state Health Department doled out $1.3 billion in six years in Medicaid premiums for people who were already enrolled in other comprehensive health plans, according to a new report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

The report found that the state Health Department is not quick enough to disenroll people when they sign up for coverage with another insurer. The overwhelming majority of those funds—about $1.2 billion—are not recoverable.

"Glitches in the state Department of Health's payment system and other problems led to over a billion dollars in unnecessary spending," DiNapoli said. "The department needs to improve its procedures and stop this waste of taxpayer money."

Elevator inspections are lax

From PIX11:

Subcontractors paid by New York City’s Department of Buildings are — in thousands of cases — not properly inspecting elevators, a report by the New York State Comptroller’s office alleges.

The City Department of Buildings is responsible for inspecting 71,000 elevators every year. To do this, an army of subcontractors are hired. In some cases lack of data suggests inspections mights not be happening at all.

A multi-year audit by the Comptroller said there is no data for thousands of inspections assigned to those sub-contractors. In 2016, more than 6,700 inspections may have been skipped. In 2015, 8,800 inspections were possibly ignored.

Audit reveals that BOE is a mess

From the Times Ledger:

A report from city Comptroller Scott Stringer exposed massive dysfunction within the Board of Elections in a report which audited its performance over the course of three elections in 2016.

The city, which has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the nation, has disenfranchised the public through dumped voter rolls and widespread inefficiency at over 53 percent of the poll sites reviewed where state and federal election laws were broken, according to the audit promised by Stringer in April 2016.

The report revealed that out of 156 polling sites, 14 percent had mishandled affidavit ballots for people eligible to vote but who may not on the rolls. One site failed to inform voters of the option to vote via affidavit, a violation of federal law, and thus “disenfranc­hising” individuals.

Up to 10 percent of poll sites showed many voters went unassisted when issues arose. One example given by the report said a scanner had rejected a ballot and the distracted poll site worker did not notice until the person had already left. Staff at the site were forced to void the ballot and the person’s vote was not counted.

City to shelter providers: "Name your price"

From the NY Times:

Under pressure to shelter close to 58,000 homeless people on a daily basis, New York City has been paying widely varying rates to shelter providers and, until recently, had no set procedure for determining how much to pay, according to a new audit.

The state comptroller’s office could not determine whether the city is paying reasonable rates for nearly 750 shelters that have cost the city more than $1.1 billion annually, according to the audit, which looked at a sampling of contracts over a four-year period.

Examining 23 new contracts for shelters, auditors concluded that shelter providers named their own prices with little pushback from the Department of Homeless Services. The rates charged by two comparable shelters might differ by as much as $225 per person per day, according to the audit.

Construction noise complaints on the rise

From NY1:

Developers are apparently giving New Yorkers headaches, according to a rise in noise complaints filed with the city.

A report from the state comptroller says the number of complaints logged with 311 more than doubled since 2010.

For example, at the Chapin School on the Upper East Side, residents have called and complained more than 100 times about the ongoing construction.

Many of the complaints come before or after normal construction work hours, which are between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Special permits from the buildings department allows work after hours, but the comptroller says those permits are not being given out responsibly.

Nightlife noise complaints are way up

From AM-NY:

City nightlife is bringing the noise — and the headaches, according to a report released last week.

An audit by the state comptroller’s office found the number of 311 noise complaints related to bars, clubs and other nightlife establishments soared from 38,000 in 2010, to more than 93,000 in 2015.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli called on the state Liquor Authority to take action against repeat violators.

“Establishments with hundreds of complaints lodged against them faced little or no repercussions. For the sake of city residents, more action must be taken to address noisy clubs and bars,” he said.
The report showed 277 businesses each received 100 or more complaints.

DiNapoli said the state doesn’t access 311 data readily and can’t adequately assess the complaints. He recommended the state Liquor Authority design and formalize a process to go over the data themselves.

Public is subsidizing apartments for the well off

From the Daily News:

When David Sans applied for a $722-a-month two-bedroom in a luxury Manhattan apartment tower that includes taxpayer-subsidized affordable units, he claimed a full-time salary of $24,745.

At the time, however, records Sans filed as a registered stockbroker listed him working full-time for securities firms as an investment banker specializing in health care companies.

When he came up for recertification to continue living in his ninth floor low-rent aerie, he now provided a 2012 tax form showing his income had suddenly jumped to $238,000.

The next year, Sans — who added a second job as a top executive at Mount Sinai Hospital three months after snagging his low-income apartment — reported an income of $456,502.

Sans’ sweet housing deal surfaced in an audit released last week by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli that looked at how tenants with six-figure incomes are able to obtain “affordable” apartments subsidized by the public.

DiNapoli found that as of December 2015, 160 tenants living in affordable units in New York City were making $100,000 or more, with eight making $250,000 or more.

Public places not always public

From AM-NY:

A new audit by Comptroller Scott Stringer found that half of all privately owned public spaces (POPS) restrict access to the public, fail to provide promised amenities, or have commercialized the areas by turning them into restaurants.

Of the 333 POPS surveyed, 275 had not been inspected by the Department of Buildings in at least four years — and 41 of 58 locations that had been inspected within the last four years were not in compliance. Only 18 violations to 10 of those locations were issued, despite widespread non-compliance, according to the audit.

The findings prove what gadflies have long suspected: Developers allowed to build higher and given generous zoning exemptions flagrantly broke the promises they made to provide communities with plazas, atriums, seating and resting areas, bike racks, and water fountains.

Homeless costs through the roof

From NY1:

A new report from the City Comptroller's office says the cost to use hotels rooms as homeless shelters is soaring.

Scott Stringer says the city is spending nearly $130,000 more per day to keep the homeless in hotels. The report also finds that the number of homeless people being placed in hotels shot up around 33 percent between October and February.

De Blasio 2013 campaign audit still not done

From the NY Post:

They’ve had three years, but auditors for the city’s Campaign Finance Board still haven’t completed a review of Mayor de Blasio’s 2013 campaign.

Dick Dadey, president of Citizens Union, said that’s “unacceptable.”

“That they have not done this yet indicates there are unresolved issues and problems with the campaign’s spending of taxpayer dollars,” Dadey said.

“The public needs to know what, if any, issues there were with the campaign’s handling of its finances.”

Audits are supposed to be completed within 18 months.

But campaigns often request — and are granted — extensions.

The CFB declined to say whether de Blasio 2013 asked for such and extension and the campaign didn’t respond to an email.

Records show de Blasio’s campaign received $3.9 million in public matching funds in 2013.

City falsified lead testing records

From the Daily News:

City workers falsified records to claim day care centers had tested for lead in drinking water when no tests were actually performed, a city controller audit released Friday found.

Starting in 2008, the city was supposed to make sure all day care centers tested drinking water for lead. But Controller Scott Stringer's auditors found that by 2011, the city Department of Health & Mental Hygiene had dropped the ball.

DOHMH — the agency that's required to inspect all 11,000 child care centers in New York City annually — had more or less given up on the task.

"We have supervisors who told employees to falsify these tests and they never bothered for four years to go back and do the testing," Stringer said. "This is outrageous. Neglecting this lead test is a gamble on the health and safety of our kids."

At first, Stringer found, the city tried to enforce the lead test requirement. But by 2011, inspectors were finding the providers weren't keeping up with the testing requirement.

Soon DOHMH supervisors were instructing underlings to simply mark "tested" at sites that had not be tested. This allowed the city to renew or approve a new license for day care providers without actually testing for lead in drinking water at their sites.

Under pressure to keep child care centers open, the agency's bureau of child care management directed staff to claim that the agency had received lead water test results, regardless of whether such tests had been received.

Audit finds lots of misclassified buildings

From the Forum:

Nearly 100 mixed-use borough buildings have been improperly assessed by the Department of Finance and therefore taxed at an incorrect, lower rate, according to an audit released this week by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Prompted by the report’s findings, Finance has already begun to correct the tax status of the 97 buildings in Queens that auditors determined were misclassified.

According to Stringer, properties in New York City are given one of four tax classes: Class 1 are one- to three-unit buildings, primarily used for residential purposes; Class 2 are all other residential properties; Class 3 are properties owned by utilities and special franchises; and Class 4 are all other properties not in Class 1, 2, or 3. The audit examined whether Class 1 mixed-use buildings in Queens were properly assessed and taxed by the Department of Finance as of May 2015.

Auditors identified 97 buildings that were misclassified as Tax Class 1 mixed-use buildings, and taxed at a lower rate than they should have been. DOF agreed that 78 properties should be taxed at 45 percent of market value, instead of the residential rate of six percent at which they had been taxed, and that 19 properties required additional interior inspection, Stringer noted.

In total, Stringer’s office estimated that, after the changes are made, the City will bring in an additional $1.28 million in taxes over the next five years.

Auditors also found that 33 of the misclassified buildings in Queens had been inspected by DOF assessors within the last three years – raising questions about the agency’s training and inspection process.

City bans 2 engineers

From Crains:

The city banned two construction engineers who submitted falsified plans to the Department of Buildings and signed off on unsafe blueprints—sometimes without even reviewing them—officials announced Tuesday.

"These individuals abused their privileges as licensed engineers, and put expediency and profit ahead of work-site safety," said Rick Chandler, commissioner of the department, in a statement.

Since last year, the Buildings Department has been cracking down on shady construction professionals. Its efforts have led to actions against 59 individuals. Stricter rules for construction sites were also implemented, including quadrupling fines for serious safety violations.

In this case, the two engineers, Yaakov Stern and Ashraf Ali, were caught in departmental audits and have had their filing privileges revoked.

Subway service sucks even more than before

From NY1:

Grab a seat, check your phone, get comfortable - the wait for a train could be long.

"They've been having a lot of track, signal problems and stuff like that. So I find that the timing is off," said one subway rider.

So does a new audit from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. It says riders are enduring longer waits for trains on three quarters of the MTA's 21 major lines.

"Service has deteriorated. I don't think it's any big surprise to most of the riders waiting on the platform for a train that hasn't arrived yet," said Matt Sweeney, a spokesperson for the state comptroller's office.

The audit examined wait times, the MTA's targets for the number of minutes between trains.

The comptroller says in the first half of 2015, the MTA met those targets systemwide 78.4 percent of the time, a falloff from the previous year.

But DiNapoli says the MTA's measurement may make subway performance appear better than it is because the agency tallies each line’s average performance, treating puny shuttle service the same as longer lines like the A train.

"When they average in shuttles with something as major as the Lexington Avenue line, it raises the performance of the Lexington Avenue line," Sweeney said.

In all, 16 major lines saw an increase in wait times last year. Just five lines saw an improvement.

Getting building classification correct gets city more money

From the Daily News:

The city risks losing out on $2 million in property tax money because of mistakes by the Finance Department in classifying buildings, an audit by city Controller Scott Stringer charges.

The audit found that 197 buildings in Brooklyn were wrongly classified as residential when most of their space was used for commercial purposes — so most of them should have been taxed at a higher rate.

If the buildings aren’t reclassified, the city will miss out on $2.09 million in potential tax earnings over five years, Stringer claims.

Next go after the 2-family homes rented as 3 or more units.

DOB asked to audit Bayside's attached McMansion

You may recall Bayside's attached McMansion

Notation at bottom of Schedule "A" says ONE-FAMILY DWELLING

Zoning Diagram says Dwelling Units: 3

Now there's a call for an audit by DOB from Senator Avella.

Removing garbage cans doesn't reduce garbage in subway

From Crains:

A state comptroller's audit is critical of a Metropolitan Transportation Authority pilot program that removed trash cans from 39 subway stations to reduce garbage and rats.

The report is critical of how the MTA measured the program's success and says there's no clear sign the four-year experiment is working.

The MTA says it disagrees. It says the trash can removal produced less trash, thus leading to a reduction in the rat population at those stations.

It says it will continue the program but has no plans to expand it.