Chair Lee Questions Contract Processing Delays for Legal Providers

And then let me just skip because I know we're for contract and payment delays, moving on a little bit.

Um we know that there's um you guys are you know the legal services groups are dealing with an unprecedented attack on um immigrants' rights, and one of the biggest issues that providers expressed during um our round table that we had was the extreme delays in getting paid by the city.

Um one provider explained that the city owes them 15 million, um, and they have now spent thousands of dollars on interest payments uh from private loans just to make payroll, and this is a common sort of theme that we hear amongst our nonprofit providers, and so just wondering um how Moya, if if you can advocate for this administration to dedicate more funding to processing the contracts and talking to Mox, ensuring that providers have timely access to invoicing and reimbursements.

If you want to speak to that.

I can start and then I'll turn it over to my colleague if she has anything more to add.

I mean, this is an area that you all know I care very deeply about.

I did what during my time at the council.

Moya strongly supports continued investment in contract processing capacity and reforms to improve payment timelines for our providers.

We recognize that a lot of our immigrant serving organizations are operating under significant financial pressure.

I think it's important for me to just kind of elevate that last session the council did enact major procurement reforms, including laws establishing advanced payments and quarterly invoice invoicing and stronger accountability.

Those reforms were really an important step forward, but implementation across the agencies is something that's critical.

We're continuing to partner with our agencies and talking to mocks and providers to identify any operational bottlenecks and find out, you know, figure out ways to together how do we improve that consistency and transparency.

And I would just add that at least on the Moya and we have a close partnership with both Mox and the Minor's Office of Nonprofit Services, who are a great resources, uh a great resource for all nonprofits, especially folks that are new to uh you know uh the invoicing or contracting uh process over um, you know, here uh in the city, right?

Uh so we definitely at least want these to get it elevated to us.

We definitely work closely with providers to point them in the right direction.

Okay, great.