Restler questions retroactive registration and delayed payment to MWBEs

I guess it should probably get me to start asking you questions about how 65% of...

MWB contracts leave vendors working at risk and doing work before contracts are registered and they're actually getting paid.

So it will also show that we're not doing a very good job of actually paying these firms that are often smaller firms that can't afford to wait for months or years to get paid

and that too many of our agencies don't have their act together and are delaying payment.

So it may also tell a story that's not all that pretty for the city.

Is that right?

Well, it's my understanding that this administration is taking that very seriously.

Is also my understanding that there has been a procurement reform committee that has been established to look at the time that it's taken to award contracts and the time that it's taken to pay

vendors and contractors.

I welcome the Mumdani administration's kind of earnest focus on how to make government work better.

I know that the intentions are there.

This stuff is hard.

Administration after administration has struggled with these issues.

These are evergreen challenges that, frankly, have not improved sufficiently over a long period.

period of time, despite many mayors saying this is a priority and that they're going to fix it.

And I just want to highlight 35% of MWB contracts have not been registered for more than a month after the start date.

So when we're looking more closely at when people are actually getting paid, we're going to see that we're not doing a very good job of paying these folks.

And, and

If we want these smaller MWB firms that are receiving smaller city contracts to continue to grow and to get larger and larger contracts in the city, which I know is our shared priority here, we need to pay them.

Right?

And we can't put them in untenable situations where they're waiting for months or years to get paid for the work that they've already done.

So I...

I think I'll complain to other people on another day about our failure to pay people on time.