Mayor Adams emergency spending is out of control now NYC must hit the brakes

New Yorkers, like all Americans, tend to stock up when any crisis is about to hit: We fill up our gas tanks, empty the bread and egg shelves at grocery stores and buy enough toilet paper to last for months.It’s human nature — and for far too long, New York City’s government has been behaving the very same way.But City Hall’s panic reaction is far worse, and does far more damage.In recent emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the asylum-seeker influx, city government kept on “crisis buying” for more than a year, without ever comparing prices or rooting out contractor abuse, fraud and waste.It’s time for drastic change: We must reform the city’s out-of-control emergency procurement practices and add vital checks and balances.Currently, when the mayor declares a state of emergency, the city’s comptroller and corporation counsel suspend their ordinary oversight regarding contracts and procurement.In theory, this allows City Hall to respond quickly and obtain necessary goods and services to alleviate the crisis.In practice, it means the city can award no-bid contracts for up to one year — contracts that, having bypassed the competitive bidding that’s normally required, can be rife with waste and abuse.Imagine purchasing a car or searching for your next apartment without competitively price-shopping for those big-ticket items.That’s what City Hall does whenever the mayor declares an emergency.City agencies aren’t even required to send “emergency” contracts to the comptroller for auditing before laying out taxpayer cash.

In fact, 84% of such contracts filed between January 2022 and September 2023 were submitted more than 31 days after the contract start date.Both Mayor Eric Adams and former Mayor Bill de Blasio spent billions of dollars on the asylum-seeker and COVID crises, respectively, drawing multiple allegations of corruption and pay-to-play politics.This uncontrolled spending was especially acute during the pandemic, as de Blasio ...