Scott M. Stringer, Comptroller, explains his Sandy Oversight Unit and close look at city's Build It Back Program

April 18, 2014, 10:32 am

By Comptroller Stringer

This week, I announced the formation of a Sandy Oversight Unit that will leverage the power of my office’s Audit, Contracts, Budget, and Policy bureaus to hold government accountable as we rebuild New York City in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. My audit staff will also take a comprehensive look at the ‘Build it Back’ program to determine whether the Housing Recovery Office has set goals and timetables for the delivery of services and established procedures to reduce the backlog of applications.

In addition, I will be holding town halls throughout the five boroughs beginning on April 30th in Breezy Point, followed by the Rockaways, Staten Island, and Coney Island, to meet with those affected by the storm to discuss upcoming Sandy audits.  In order for our audits of the City’s response to Sandy to be effective, we must listen to New Yorkers and hear their stories, ideas and recommendations about what has worked and what hasn’t.

The fact is, Superstorm Sandy changed the lives of millions of New Yorkers and we are still grappling with the consequences today. I met with Patricia Andre this week in her home in the Rockaways and saw the devastation that still remains in her community, eighteen months after the storm.

New Yorkers are rightly frustrated by the timetable they’re facing with the ‘Build it Back’ program which has broken ground on only 9 homes nearly 18 months after Hurricane Sandy devastated our shore-side communities. We won’t allow the victims of Sandy to get hit twice, once by the storm and then again by bureaucracy and inefficiency.

My Sandy Oversight Unit will focus on:

• Reviewing how federal aid was spent on recovery and resiliency programs;
• Identifying areas where controls can be strengthened to improve performance and service delivery to protect taxpayers from fraud, waste, and abuse;
• Monitoring the budget, milestones and status of Sandy projects and
• Proposing policy recommendations to help the City enhance its emergency preparedness capacity and streamline recovery efforts.

As Comptroller, I believe it is critical that we take account of how government has responded to this event and think about what we can do to better prepare for the future. In order to do that, we must be in the community listening to residents. For town halls in your area, see below:

• April 30th in Breezy Point, NY from 6-8 PM
  Bay House, 500 Bayside Drive, Breezy Point, NY

• May 6th in Coney Island from 6-8 PM
  Coney Island Hospital, 2601 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY

• May 20th in the Rockaways from 6-8 PM
  Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, 348 Beach 71st Street, Arverne, NY

• May 28th in Staten Island from 6-8 PM
  Olympia Activity Center (OAC), 1126 Olympia Blvd. Staten Island, New York

We will be posting information about future town halls in June. Please visit my website for updates on this and and more at comptroller.nyc.gov.

Scott M. Stringer
Comptroller of the City of New York