Under ordinary circumstances the City may not enter into a contract with a vendor when the City finds that the vendor is not responsible because of tax, criminal, financial, ethical or performance reasons. It may not always be in the City’s interests, however, to refuse to deal with the vendor. One option available to the City that allows the City to continue to do business with such a vendor is an Independent Private Sector Inspector General Agreement, a so-called IPSIG.
Cas Holloway
Cas Holloway, as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, is responsible for protecting the City’s environment. This includes ensuring that clean drinking water from upstate aqueducts reach the City’s 950,000 buildings and that the City’s 14,000 miles of water and sewer mains remain in good working order. The agency also plays a major role in implementing PlaNYC by promoting the use of modern, “green” infrastructure.
Holloway joined the Department of Parks and Recreation under Commissioner Henry J. Stern after graduating from Harvard College in 1996 with a degree in government. After spending a year generating private sponsorships for parks, Stern named Holloway as his chief of staff.
Two years later, Holloway enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School, earning his law degree in 2002. He began his legal career as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and then served as a clerk for Judge Dennis G. Jacobs, now Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Holloway later joined Debevoise & Plimpton where he focused on corporate litigation and regulatory investigations. (more…)
Council held first oversight hearing on criteria established more than twenty years ago to ensure equitable distribution of public facilities. On April 12, 2011, the City Council’s Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses Subcommittee held the Council’s first oversight hearing to review the City’s Charter-mandated rules established to foster the equitable distribution of City facilities. Following the 1989 revision of the City Charter, the City Planning Commission promulgated the “fair share” criteria to encourage community consultation and establish a set of standards that City agencies must consider before siting or substantially changing existing City facilities. The fair share rules only apply when City agencies propose siting facilities that are operated by the City on city-controlled property greater than 750 sq.ft., or used for programs that receive certain levels of funding from City contracts.
Subcommittee Chair Brad Lander acknowledged the challenges of siting essential municipal facilities, such as waste transfer stations and homeless shelters, but noted that twenty years after the creation of the fair share rules, facilities are still concentrated in low-income and minority neighborhoods. Lander argued that in some cases the fair share process served as “window dressing,” or had been circumvented entirely. (more…)
Proposal to negotiate long-term leases for existing garage serving neighboring community district faced local opposition. On October 13, 2010, the Department of Sanitation withdrew a proposal that would have allowed Sanitation to negotiate long-term leases for two privately owned lots that it uses as a maintenance facility in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Sanitation has occupied a one-story garage at 525 Johnson Avenue since 1954 and an open parking lot across the street at 145 Randolph Street since 1987. The properties have been operated under month-to- month license agreements since their leases expired in 2007 and 2006, respectively. The properties are located in Brooklyn Community District 1, but the facility serves Community District 3.
Sanitation intends to relocate the facility to a site located within CD 3 at 56 Nostrand Avenue. The City Council in 2001 approved the relocation, but completion of the new garage facility has stalled due to cuts in Sanitation’s capital budget. According to Sanitation, construction of the Nostrand Avenue facility will take six years from the date that funding is restored. (more…)
Sanitation proposed to reopen marine waste transfer station near Asphalt Green and Bobby Wagner Walk. After the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island closed in 2001, the Department of Sanitation contracted with privately-owned transfer stations, landfills, and waste-to-energy facilities to dispose of residential waste. Sanitation now delivers a large percentage of waste to transfer stations within the City, where tractor- trailers pick up the waste and drive it to landfills in other states.
In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new 20-year solid waste management plan. The City’s marine waste transfer stations would containerize solid waste onsite, and private companies would transport it by barge or rail, thereby reducing truck traffic and long-term costs. The marine waste transfer station at East 91st Street, bounded by the East River to the north and east, Carl Schurz Park to the south, and FDR Drive to the west, would be redeveloped to containerize waste generated in Manhattan. Sanitation trucks would access the transfer station using an elevated ramp that crossed over Asphalt Green, a sports and recreational complex located between York Avenue and FDR Drive. (more…)
