Mayor Zohran Mamdani says town authorities’s prime lawyer is personally trying into allegations revealed by The Metropolis Reporter that prime officers on the company overseeing metropolis buying and properties repeatedly used private emails and texting to debate official enterprise.
Metropolis staff are required to speak about official enterprise by means of official channels to make sure the discussions are preserved for public disclosure.
However Michelle Gundy, a whistleblower on the Division of Citywide Administrative Providers, alleged in a lawsuit and in discussions with The Metropolis Reporter that during the last 12 months her supervisors routinely saved discussions about delicate subjects together with nepotism and an uncommon lease request off the grid through the use of their private electronic mail, textual content messages and even hand-delivered paperwork. Gundy alleges she was fired after elevating questions on this apply and different points on the company.
Requested about this on Wednesday, the mayor advised The Metropolis Reporter: “That is an space the place the company counsel is himself taking a direct have a look at it and on the subject of any indication of a departure from metropolis apply from full compliance with the regulation, it’s one thing that we take extremely significantly…”
Are you a metropolis worker? Are you aware of metropolis staff utilizing non-public electronic mail and textual content messages to debate metropolis enterprise? Contact reporter Greg B. Smith on Sign at 646-208-1190 or at gsmith@thecityreporter.nyc.
The Metropolis Reporter
“And that’s the case each for the significance of following the regulation but in addition, as you stated, for the significance of creating positive there are metropolis data,” he added.
On Oct. 8, Company Counsel Steven Banks despatched a letter to DCAS advising the division to tell workers to not delete any of the texts and emails the place metropolis enterprise was mentioned. Officers stated the letter was a pro-forma discover the Legislation Division sends out in response to lawsuits; this specific discover was made months after the go well with was filed and per week after The Metropolis Reporter despatched an inventory of inquiries to DCAS over Gundy’s allegations.
Late Thursday DCAS spokesperson Anessa Hodgson stated, “As is customary apply with authorized motion and in compliance with directions from the Metropolis Legislation Division, we issued directions and required subsequent steps to related staff to make sure they’re preserving data.”
Final weekend, in response to the company counsel’s missive, the DCAS common counsel despatched an electronic mail to workers members named within the lawsuit and in The Metropolis Reporter’s Oct. 14 story instructing them to protect private texts and emails.
Gundy alleges she was fired in Might in retaliation for elevating questions on points together with an order instructing her to speak about sure subjects by way of her private cellphone and electronic mail. In a single case, Gundy stated, a prime official advised her to place collectively a written memo a couple of nepotistic rent and hand ship it straight as an alternative of by way of her work cellphone or electronic mail.
Different off-line subjects included dialogue of how a probation commissioner through the Eric Adams administration had pushed DCAS to maneuver her Manhattan-based company to a constructing in Lengthy Island Metropolis as a result of it was close to her residence, and communications about fixing a flaw within the company’s protocol for testing cooling towers for the doubtlessly lethal Legionella micro organism.
The revelations about DCAS observe prior experiences a couple of prime aide to Mamdani coordinating Metropolis Corridor messaging with so-called “influencers” by way of the encrypted app Sign. In a minimum of one case, communications had been set to auto-delete, that means they couldn’t be retained as legally required.
Mamdani’s common counsel stated he instantly instructed workers to not use Sign to debate metropolis enterprise, and the mayor’s chief of workers despatched out a discover reminding staff to make use of metropolis telephones and metropolis emails when discussing official enterprise.
The Division of Investigation, town’s unbiased anti-corruption watchdog, has stated it’s conscious of the allegations of off-site communications. On Thursday Diane Struzzi, a spokesperson for the company, declined to touch upon the “do-not-delete” directions despatched to DCAS workers.
