In a continued discussion over city contract payment issues, NYLAG President & CEO Lisa Rivera joined fellow legal service organization leaders—Legal Aid Society Chief Operating Officer Lauren Siciliano, TakeRoot Justice Interim Executive Director Keriann Pauls, and Legal Services NYC Chief Financial Officer Greg Klemm—in testifying before the before the New York City Council’s Committee on Contracts:
City agencies start the year with their funding and routinely receive additional allocations for the new collective bargaining agreements, healthcare cost increases, and utility and space cost increases. Non-profits like us do not. We are constantly waiting for our funding to be confirmed or for payment for work that has been completed.
And perhaps most egregiously, when we then cannot spend all of the money in our contract because it was never confirmed for us in the first place, or we did not receive it in time, the City takes it back, effectively cutting our funding, Taken together, these issues mean that we cannot access the funding in our contracts or funding intended for us, threatening the ability for non-profits like us to operate and implement critical city initiatives that support the New Yorkers who need us most.
Systemic contracting and payment exacerbate these fundamental issues. In an increasingly challenging financial context, we’re here today to talk about a few examples of the critical issues with City contracting and payment that endanger our ability to make payroll, pay vendors, experts, and rent, and to continue doing this work.
