One of the buildings designated by the Department of Finance as a primarily residential Class 1 property. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller

The audit report reveals that the misclassification of 140 properties has deprived the City of $1.7 million annually in lost property tax revenue. On February 18, 2016, the Office of the NYC Comptroller publicized the results from its audit of the New York City Department of Finance.  The audit sought to investigate whether the Department of Finance had implemented procedures that adequately safeguard against the misclassification of Brooklyn property sites. The Comptroller’s Office and DOF ultimately seem to differ on the definition of “adequate.”

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NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller

Audit determined the Department of Finance improperly gave abatements to condos and co-ops owned by corporations over a four-year period.  On January 28, 2016 the Office of the City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report of an audit conducted of the Department of Finance.  In the final report, the Comptroller’s Office found the Department of Finance wrongly gave out over $10 million worth of property tax abatements to corporate-owned condominums, co-ops, indoor parking spaces, and cabanas between fiscal years 2013 and 2016.

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NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller

The report predicts that almost 50,000 residents of the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods would be priced out of neighborhood.  On December 3, 2015, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer issued a report—Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and the East New York Rezoning: An Analysis—on the proposed East New York rezoning plan’s effect on housing affordability in the East New York and Cypress Hills neighborhoods of Brooklyn.  The report claims while supply of housing units in the rezoned areas would go up significantly, less than thirty percent would be affordable to existing East New York and Cypress Hills residents, failing to meet goals of mitigating resident displacement. (read more…)

NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller

Audit shows weaknesses in Health Department’s ability to regulate health code inspections at restaurants. On June 30, 2015, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released an audit report that examined how effectively the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s restaurant inspection program was working to resolve outstanding health code violations. The report examined the process by which DOHMH conducts its restaurant inspection program. The program consists of initial unannounced inspections where public health inspectors note any health code violations. If an establishment receives 14 or more points, a follow-up inspection by DOHMH is required to ensure the violations were resolved. Additionally, supervisors in the inspection program are required to conduct field inspections of restaurants previously inspected by health inspectors under their supervision.

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Task force proposed a framework for negotiating future Community Benefit Agreements related to publicly assisted development projects. A Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) is a private agreement negotiated between developers and community groups in order to garner support for real estate development projects. In exchange for community support, a developer may agree to provide amenities, such as infrastructure improvements or wage guarantees which are not required by the City’s land use review process. Since 2005, CBAs have been negotiated in connection with several large projects in the City, including the Atlantic Yards project, the new Yankee Stadium, and Columbia University’s campus expansion in Manhattanville

While the City Council cannot be a party to a CBA, the lack of an agreement deemed suitable by the local community contributed to the Council’s decision to deny the Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory redevelopment project. 6 CityLand 167 (Dec. 2009). There currently is no formalized framework for developing CBAs, and a recent report from the City Bar Association expressed concerns about the transparency and enforceability of these agreements. The report recommended that the City either refuse to consider CBAs during the land use review process or only consider CBAs that conform to uniform standards. (read more…)