Investing In Our Infrastructure

+ Overhaul the City’s capital projects management to save time and money.

a. Establish a dedicated capital projects audit team to root out waste, identify best practices, and push ambitious internal reforms. As Comptroller, Brad will establish a dedicated team within the Comptroller’s Audit and Engineering Bureaus to focus on the capital projects management reform the City desperately needs to get the most out of our capital dollars and ensure projects are completed on-budget and on-schedule. These audits will assess agency performance, identify challenges, and make recommendations to reduce costs, improve management and oversight, improve the City’s internal evaluation systems, reduce change orders, increase coordination among City agencies, speed project completion, support innovation in the design and construction sectors, contract with more MWBE businesses, and simplify the capital construction process for cultural organizations, libraries, and other non-profits that depend on City capital funds to serve New Yorkers.

b. Significantly increase transparency around and doggedly monitor the City’s capital program to hold the poorest performing agencies accountable. When Brad created the first Capital Projects Tracker for his Council District, City agencies would take months to provide accurate updates—only to share that projects were years behind schedule and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars over-budget. Some sat in bureaucratic limbo. Others never even got off the ground. Thanks to legislation spearheaded by Brad, the City will now be required to create a comprehensive citywide Capital Projects Tracker which will represent a critical first step toward increasing accountability and efficiency in how the City spends billions in taxpayer dollars. In addition, Brad will facilitate more transparency through the Comptroller’s Checkbook website and annual reports on Capital Debt and Obligations, integrating data on capital project delays and cost overruns into the office’s ongoing oversight and annual reporting activities. As Comptroller, Brad will aggressively use that data to monitor the City’s progress on capital projects, identifying problems, delays, and funding gaps early, and communicating with agencies often. Using the bully pulpit of the Comptroller’s office, Brad will hold the City accountable when agencies fail to keep projects on-budget and on-time and advocate to expand best practices, like DDC’s front-end planning reforms, where they are found to be effective.

c. Speed project completion, reduce overall costs, and fast-track payments to contractors through better coordination with City agencies: The Comptroller is the last stop in a months-long contract registration process, which can cause serious delays when the Comptroller identifies vendor or contract issues that should have been caught and fixed earlier. An analysis by the Comptroller’s office found that 81 percent of contracts were sent to the Comptroller’s office after the contract’s start date and that 43 percent of those were more than 6 months late. The Expanded Work Allowance Pilot of the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) and the Comptroller’s office has enabled faster payments to contractors so that projects can continue unabated when common but unanticipated new costs crop up. As Comptroller, Brad will expand this pilot, and work to include the Comptroller’s office more broadly in the City’s digital procurement system (PASSPort) to reduce delays. Brad is an early sponsor of Intro. 1627 which would also provide a transparent, public, online tracking system as contracts move from bid award to registration.

d. Support the implementation of “design/build” and other alternative construction methods that responsibly streamline project delivery and improve the quality of new infrastructure: As Comptroller, Brad will support the implementation of alternative delivery methods such as design/build and other models that can help significantly expedite project schedules and improve the quality of new infrastructure. Now that New York City has design/build authority on many projects, Brad will support its implementation where appropriate by ensuring that design/build projects move smoothly through the contract registration process. In addition, Brad will advocate for New York State legislative reforms to allow the City to use “best value contracting,” “construction manager-at-risk (CMAR),” and “progressive design/build” (which allows the design and construction teams to collaborate during the earliest stages of project development, but gives the contractors more flexibility with respect to price-setting to prevent inflated cost estimates). These reforms would likely also help attract a more diverse pool of high-quality bidders, supporting a more competitive bid market and discouraging contractors from inflating cost estimates, which would help reduce the City’s capital project costs over time.

e. Advocate for a Deputy Mayor for Infrastructure and explore structural changes to the City’s capital project management for improved accountability: No single person, aside from the Mayor, is responsible for the City’s infrastructure, undermining the City’s ability to identify challenges and propose solutions to keep NYC’s capital projects on-budget and on-time. Despite an important reform proposed in 2019, NYC’s capital projects are still managed across a huge number of City agencies with little coordinated oversight. The City’s schools, public housing, and economic development projects sit outside the purview of the City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) and DDC-managed projects continue to suffer from significant delays in part due to its legally-mandated and burdensome business and procurement rules.

As Comptroller, Brad will push for the creation of a new Deputy Mayor for Infrastructure, who would: establish a vision for the future of NYC’s infrastructure; coordinate investments across all levels of government to eliminate redundancies; establish better practices and standardize processes for streamlined results on projects, including requiring front-end planning to inform scope and reduce delays prior to committing to any capital projects; advocate for necessary state and federal policy to provide funding and improved efficiency on projects; and share skills and tools across the many City agencies that manage our infrastructure. A Deputy Mayor would be uniquely positioned to recommend solutions that are responsive to particular agency challenges. In the case of road reconstruction, for instance, a transfer of design and construction responsibilities to DOT could more effectively deliver the life-saving street safety infrastructure we desperately need -- while the City’s library and cultural capital projects could benefit significantly from internal changes at DDC for a simplified prequalification and design review process among other reforms proposed by the Center for an Urban Future.

+ Convert the city’s haphazard capital budgeting process into a Long Term Infrastructure Plan, grounded in an real analysis of our aging infrastructure and comprehensive planning for the future, and then track progress against that plan.

a. Conduct a more thorough and accurate Physical Needs Assessment of our infrastructure: The City’s current Asset Information Management Systems (AIMS) Report provides a woefully incomplete picture of the City’s infrastructure status. The document fails to provide detailed information about the conditions of infrastructure and the urgency of repair needs (e.g. which water mains are most likely to break), omits critical systems (e.g. HVAC and plumbing systems in many City buildings), and lacks neighborhood-level analysis. As a result, the AIMS report is useless either for prioritizing capital budget decisions or for establishing how much we actually need to invest to achieve “state of good repair” (as far back as 1998, a study by the Comptroller’s Office found that it would cost almost twice as much as the City was then planning to spend). Good infrastructure planning must begin with a robust, thorough, accurate assessment. The NYC School Construction Authority’s Building Conditions Assessment Survey -- which inspects every school building every year -- is a model for this work. It should be expanded into an annual Physical Needs Assessment that covers the rest of the City’s infrastructure, including performance data and climate resiliency assessments to better inform the City’s capital planning process.

b. Align the City’s infrastructure priorities with plans for our future needs through comprehensive land use planning with communities: The City’s capital budget currently fails to reflect the City’s long-term plans for growth and adaptation -- because the City currently fails to do any meaningful long-term planning. The City’s approach to updating the Zoning Resolution on a project-by-project, neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, usually driven by individual proposals from developers, leaves us without a clear, coordinated citywide planning vision for addressing climate change, affordability, inequality, economic growth, the needs of communities, or long-term threats. In the absence of that vision, City capital dollars are spent based on mayoral pet projects, individual agency priorities, or state and federal mandates, rather than to advance citywide goals of sustainability, resilience, economic growth, or equity or address long-standing investment needs in our neighborhoods. A lack of coordination between the City’s land use and rezoning decisions and its capital infrastructure planning has caused serious problems for New Yorkers over the years, including overcrowded classrooms, overwhelmed sewers, and lack of desperately needed open space among other issues.

Comprehensive planning is a best practice that almost every other major city in the world uses to center shared goals and values in a full range of budget, land use, and policy tools to build a long-term vision for the City’s infrastructure, growth, and development. For years, Brad has worked alongside the Thriving Communities Coalition and Council Member Antonio Reynoso to champion the Council’s ”Planning Together” framework, which seeks to better integrate citywide and neighborhood infrastructure planning with the City’s land use and policy priorities. By engaging every neighborhood in proactive planning, the City would develop a shared vision for the City in partnership with communities to prioritize citywide needs, while simultaneously addressing neighborhood-specific ones. As Comptroller, Brad will continue to fight hard for comprehensive planning in partnership with communities, grounded in values of sustainability, equity, shared growth, and thriving neighborhoods. Brad will use the powers of the Comptroller’s office to demonstrate how an up-front investment in thoughtful planning rooted in objective data and informed by public input will better support shared and sustainable economic growth, prioritize scarce City resources to fund the most urgent needs and critically important infrastructure, and prepare us to face long-term risks.

c. Turn the City’s Ten-Year Capital Strategy into a Long-Term Infrastructure Plan & measure annual capital budget against them: With a new thorough assessment of the City’s existing infrastructure and a comprehensive plan for the City’s future growth, the City would then be positioned to significantly reform its Ten-Year Capital Strategy (TYCS), Capital Commitment Plan, and other annual budget documents to more usefully set priorities and track annual spending against those priorities in the short- and long-term. Today, the TYCS sets broad citywide goals but fails to meaningfully connect those goals to its long laundry list of agency spending plans. Because the TYCS does not usefully set long-term priorities, annual budget documents like the Capital Commitment Plan essentially regurgitate what’s in the TYCS, making it difficult to track or measure the City’s spending against citywide goals. The TYCS should be reimagined as a long-term plan for capital needs to keep our existing infrastructure in a state of good repair and build the new infrastructure we need to advance equity and combat the climate crisis. Annual budget documents including the Capital Commitment Plan and Asset Information Management Systems report could then be reformed to effectively prioritize those needs within the constraints of the City’s annual budget and ensure City agencies have the capital funds they require to address the City’s most urgent maintenance needs.

These reforms would significantly increase transparency and accountability in the City’s budget process, and would help ensure the City’s capital program is doing everything it can to advance our broader policy and land use priorities. As Comptroller, Brad will leverage the tools of the office to enhance the City’s long-term resilience planning, convening experts to identify and cost-out the benefits and risks associated with making (or not making) resilience improvements to our current and future infrastructure, develop cost-effective strategies for mitigating that risk, and developing new financing mechanisms to pay for that work in the long-term.

+ Make sure our capital investments match our values for the future of our city.

a. Prioritize green procurement in the City’s capital program: To help combat the climate crisis and facilitate wider adoption of sustainable business practices in the construction industry, Brad will use the tools of the Comptroller’s office to facilitate more effective green procurement in the City’s capital program. Green procurement prioritizes sustainability and resilience across all phases of the construction process, from project design to the sourcing, transportation, and disposal of construction materials. Green procurement on capital projects would not only improve the resiliency of our City’s infrastructure and reduce our City’s carbon footprint—it can also save the City money on reduced energy, maintenance, and operational costs in the long-term.

As Comptroller, Brad will support green procurement in the City’s capital program through the office’s role in the contract registration and responsibility determination process to ensure the City is prioritizing the green building practices that will mitigate the City’s long-term vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, reduce our City’s carbon footprint, and save the City money on on-going energy, maintenance, and repair costs. In addition, as proposed in Brad’s climate platform Accounting for our Future: Confronting the Climate Crisis, Brad will create a dedicated Sustainability and Environmental Justice Audits team to work in coordination with the Capital Project Audits team to identify and expand best practices for Green Procurement across the key City agencies implementing NYC’s capital program.

b. Grow MWBE business capacity by ensuring contractors are paid on-time and advocating for the expansion of support and mentorship programs: The City’s construction contracts and subcontracts hold enormous opportunities for the City’s MWBE businesses. The City has made meaningful progress on expanding MWBE contracting over the last few years. But notoriously delayed payments to contractors significantly discourages MWBEs – who already face enormous barriers to accessing capital – from doing business with the City. The City’s late payments and burdensome contracting requirements are especially challenging for smaller, less-resourced MWBEs (who are far less likely to contract with the City than larger, better capitalized MWBEs), undermining the City’s efforts to help grow and develop MWBE business capacity citywide. Brad will work to ensure that contracts and change orders are registered in a timely fashion, which will help ensure the City’s construction contractors – and especially the City’s MWBEs – are paid on-time. Brad will support the significant expansion of MWBE support initiatives, including the MWBE mentorship program now authorized by State law to better support and develop smaller, entrepreneurial MBWE businesses. Finally, Brad will explore the creation of new programs that reduce barriers to emerging M/WBE contractors, including making fidelity bonds more accessible.

c. Expand and strengthen the City’s local and community hiring and workforce development initiatives to ensure the high-quality, high-paying construction jobs created by City capital dollars are accessible to New Yorkers: Capital construction can create thousands of jobs, but the City must do more to ensure these jobs are truly accessible to the New Yorkers hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis and struggling to make ends meet. As Comptroller, Brad will continue to support efforts by the City and Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC) to prioritize low-income New Yorkers and NYCHA residents for construction jobs through Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). In addition, Brad will advocate to strengthen the City’s local hiring programs and support the dramatic expansion of apprenticeship programs and other workforce development initiatives that provide New Yorkers with the training and skills they need for these high-quality, high-paying jobs. As Comptroller, Brad will evaluate these programs to measure and assess performance and make recommendations for improvements to help ensure the City is achieving its promised hiring goals.

d. Increase public participation by expanding Participatory Budgeting citywide: Brad helped bring participatory budgeting to the New York City Council, giving millions of New Yorkers, regardless of age or immigration status, a chance to be a part of the process of deciding how to invest public dollars in their neighborhoods. And in 2018, Brad helped lead the effort to expand Participatory Budgeting citywide through the creation of a new Civic Engagement Commission for NYC. Brad will continue to fight for the expansion of citywide Participatory Budgeting, to give all New Yorkers more voice in how the City spends billions of dollars each year on infrastructure improvements, to ensure the City is investing in the infrastructure that will have the greatest impact on New Yorkers’ lived experiences to build a better, more equal, and more just New York City. As Comptroller, his office will provide resources and information to Participatory Budgeting delegates and stakeholders to support and expand the process.

+ Bring more resources to the infrastructure table so we can invest in a just and durable recovery.

a. Empower a first-rate public finance team to get the best deals for the city’s infrastructure financing. The Comptroller’s Bureau of Public Finance manages the issuance of long-term, tax-exempt and taxable municipal bonds that pay for the city’s infrastructure needs. With interest rates at historic lows, and the federal government finally posed to invest in infrastructure, New York City should maximize the resources we can invest in our infrastructure. As Comptroller, Brad will empower the Bureau of Public Finance to make sure that New York City gets the best deals possible, that we take advantage of low interest rates both for refinancing and future investments, and that we keep the highest possible bond rating. A Comptroller, Brad will help ensure that the City does not seek to irresponsibly maximize short-term savings at the expense of future debt service obligations; that means preventing the mayor from using budget gimmicks to save in the short-term, while increasing costs in the long-term.

b. Implement a “Green Bond” program for New York City: If elected Comptroller, Brad will work to implement a Green Bond program for New York City (as proposed by Comptroller Stringer in 2014). With Green Bonds, the City would borrow from a growing set of institutional and individual investors funding “green” infrastructure—projects that specifically mitigate the impacts of climate change, advance renewable energy technologies and efficiency, enable more efficient and less polluting transportation, or furnish clean water, all while generating quality returns. A Green Bond program would set New York City on a path toward a more sustainable and resilient capital program, by encouraging City agencies to identify, track, and prioritize resiliency infrastructure projects that qualify for Green Bond funds. And as one of the largest issuers of municipal debt in the country, a Green Bond program would help New York City tap into new investor pools, lowering borrowing costs to save New York City money on this critical infrastructure over time. As Comptroller, Brad will fight for the implementation of a Green Bond program in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as explore opportunities for further reaching “ESG” (environmental, social, and governance) focused investors.

c. Advocate for more private sector capital improvements that help advance public policy goals: Through the Gowanus Neighborhood Rezoning, Brad is helping to push forward innovative new tools for incentivizing and requiring private developers to build new public infrastructure -- subway elevator and stairwell improvements, new schools, resilient waterfront open space, green infrastructure for stormwater retention, and rooftop wind and solar. As Comptroller, Brad will use his position on the Franchise and Concession Review Committee to push for the private infrastructure improvements needed to build a more sustainable and equitable City. In reviewing and approving franchise and concession agreements, Brad will push to ensure that the City’s private sector partners do their part in building out the City’s 21st century infrastructure, such as electric vehicle charging stations, broadband internet, and clean energy production and storage, all while creating high-quality, accessible jobs for New Yorkers. In addition, Brad will work with private sector actors and City agencies to identify new ways to leverage our City-owned assets like sidewalks, lamp posts, and City streets to meet our public policy goals. Brad will explore new kinds of partnerships with private sector entities to provide New Yorkers with more affordable and secure bike parking, free wi-fi, and other new technologies and infrastructure, with rigorous oversight to ensure these private actors are acting responsibly and meeting all New Yorkers’ needs.

d. With increased efficiencies, expand the City’s capital program to invest in a just recovery for NYC: With these measures in place to reduce costs, speed project delivery, thoroughly assess maintenance needs, and set our spending priorities in line with our City’s shared values, New York City would be positioned to expand its capital program and increase spending. As outlined in Brad’s June 2020 paper A Capital Mistake for NYC, the City is currently spending 12% of its operating budget on debt service for municipal bonds, well below the threshold for fiscal stability -- leaving us room to increase our annual capital program by several billion dollars annually, while still keeping our interest payments affordable. Increased capital investments in affordable housing, infrastructure, and economic development would create jobs, M/WBE opportunities, and provide the stimulus New York City needs to support a just recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Expanding our City’s capital budget along with the reforms outlined in this platform would enable the City to preserve our strong bond rating, get far more out of our City’s capital program, and strengthen New York City’s economy for the long-term.