Chair Hudson questions DHS on security contractor conflicts and oversight
Hudson reads an email from a city employee alleging discrepancies in reporting and a security contractor retained despite a DHS recommendation not to renew. Fellini says DHS investigates impropriety and may refer to DOI.
I would like to share.
an email that I received, and I'm going to do my best to redact lots of the information.
There were some specifics that were provided in an attempt to protect this person's identity, but
they have, they are a New York City employee who has elevated several security concerns with a single shelter provider, including one matter that they believed warranted referral to DOI
after they identified discrepancies between what was reported to DHS and what they were able to observe through records.
And DHS security personnel had provided, had recommended that the provider not renew with the same security contractor due to ongoing concerns.
And though that recommendation was known to staff, the contractor was still retained.
And so I'm wondering, broadly speaking, what type of oversight structure and safeguards exist to prevent conflicts of interest, preferential treatment, or inappropriate relationships
with contracted providers and city leadership?
And, you know, we've...
Been through
a lot of this in the last mayoral administration.
And so just want to make sure we have some real transparency around processes that you all have in place to identify inappropriate, you know, instances like this.
Thank you.
These are serious allegations.
So if I heard you correctly, there were discrepancies in the records and things reported to DHS as well as concerns about the security contractor.
Correct.
That were raised to DHS.
Yeah.
When we are made aware, either directly through an incident, through a complaint, through an anonymous source of any impropriety, we investigate.
So we will do some due diligence within DHS before making sure that we get that right over to DSS Legal, to the Office of Regulatory Compliance, to our ACCO, to do the legal and contractual steps that they do.
Okay.
Which may also result in a referral to DOI.
Right.
Okay.
It's possible, I don't know with certainty, but it's possible that this may have already been referred to DOI, but I suppose you and I will both find out in due time.
Yeah, and we certainly welcome working with DOI.
It's a resource to us to take investigations to a further place.
I don't want to belabor the point, but is it worth an X?
explanation of the ways in which our providers contract with subcontractors and our role in that?
Yeah, I think that's, now would be an appropriate time.