Charles Diamond raises procurement concerns about city media buying
Charles Diamond, who worked for the city over eight years with procurement expertise, says the city should be suspicious when an agency gets for free what it normally pays for, that zero-dollar contracts are red flags, and that procurement avenues with selection processes and record keeping were not taken.
All right.
Thank you, Chair.
My name is Charles Diamond.
I worked for the city for over eight years, and as you know, I have a particular expertise in procurement.
I think that's one angle I want to bring to this that hasn't really been talked about, and then quickly back to the citywide policy.
The way that the city buys advertisement, buys media, is a longstanding concern.
The wonderful doctor in her article spoke with Jose.
Bayona, former head of community and ethnic media.
And I worked with Jose when we created that new list in the beginning of the Alas administration.
It was a year.
It was working with DCAS and DOHMH regarding their existing OPAD and Miller contracts in order to figure out a new way to utilize our tools to get the spending the right way.
That's called normal government behavior.
When one person is getting a benefit, we should be very, very, very suspicious when a city agency is getting something for free that they normally pay for.
In fact, it's one of the biggest red flags you can have.
We talk about zero dollar contracts.
Doesn't mean it's not a contract.
In fact, it should make us more suspicious.
So clearly here, there are procurement avenues that should have been taken, that could have been taken.
They chose not to.
What are the benefits of doing that?
A selection process, record keeping, protections against political interference, all of the things that we wanted here today.