In response to increasing calls from councilmembers and city politicians alike, the Bloomberg Administration launched on Monday the Sandy Funding Tracker website, just prior to a City Council hearing to call for greater detail on how Sandy-related expenditures are reported.
City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton), who sponsored the “Sandy Tracker Bill,” designed to create an online database of expenditures of Hurricane Sandy recovery and rebuilding funds coming to the city, hailed the site’s launch as a victory.
“I am elated that New York City has finally launched a website that openly tracks where dollars are going to rebuild devastated communities from the Rockaways to Staten Island,” said Richards, whose own district includes Laurelton, Rosedale and Far Rockaway.
The councilman added that government “has an obligation to be transparent and to be held accountable to the taxpayers who are footing this bill to help families get back in their homes.”
A hearing was held Monday on legislation that would create a database of Hurricane Sandy recovery expenditures. File Photo
In Queens, the Sandy bill had strong support which included Council members Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) and Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans).
“I think this tracker website is a very good idea,” said Koslowitz, who attended Monday’s hearing on greater detail related to expenditure reporting for Sandy funding.
At the hearing on Monday, council members asked for reporting that will spotlight the number of jobs created by each new city contract awarded through Sandy funding in addition to encouraging contractors to hire locally, preferably in the storm affected areas which are being rebuilt.
“I hope that if you’re giving contractors taxpayer money then they will be paying prevailing wages,” Richards told Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway.
Mike Flowers, the city’s director of analytics who helped design and develop the site, explained how the site will help to assist both homeowners and landlords with data broken down by borough and individual applicants.
“The site will give New Yorkers clear and granular detail on how Sandy funds are being spent,” Flowers said at the hearing.
Other issues discussed at the hearing included privacy concerns on not disclosing too much information about the more than 26,000 New Yorkers who have applied for some type of Sandy aid in addition to “specific jobs data,” on how many jobs the Sandy aid is creating across the city.
Deputy City Mayor Cas Holloway said current plans are for the site’s expenditures to be updated quarterly and for new rebuilding program details to be updated monthly.
The push to monitor the funds comes in the wake of Sandy victims often having to wait long amounts of time to access funding to help them rebuild – and many have not seen any of the money they expected to come their way. Richards has stressed that the bill would also help to ensure that contractors who accept public money from the federal or state government would have to report the wages they are paying workers – as well as if their employees are being hired locally.
The misuse of funds meant for Sandy victims has come into question numerous times following last October’s storm, and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a report over the summer that said at least $238 million of the more than $575 million that was raised for Sandy relief had not been spent as of last April. The report also raised questions as to whether some of the funds reportedly spent on Sandy relief were actually used for organizational overhead or other non-Sandy related purposes.
Richards’s revised Sandy Tracker legislation is expected to pass the Council in December to ensure that the de Blasio administration keeps the site’s momentum going through the transition.
For more information or to view the Sandy Tracker website, visit: www1.nyc.gov/sandytracker.
By Alan Krawitz
