“Let’s take back our state. Let’s prove that the American Dream is alive and well — right here in New York!” —Joseph Hernandez
I have spent my career building companies and working in finance, managing teams, investors, and public funds where every dollar must be justified and every decision must withstand scrutiny. In the private sector, every public company is audited every quarter. Every number is verified, every discrepancy is investigated, and every leader is held accountable for performance. That transparency is not optional. It is the foundation of trust.
In New York City, which now operates with a $120 billion annual budget, there is no comparable discipline. The largest municipal government in America spends more than forty-five states, yet it is not required to undergo quarterly audits or publish performance-based results. Instead, the city issues quarterly budget updates prepared internally by the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget. These are forecasts and projections, not verified audits. No independent auditor reviews them. No external authority certifies their accuracy.
If a public company tried that, it would have been delisted long ago.
We are not short on money. We are short on accountability.
City Hall spends more per resident than any major city in the nation. It spends over $14,000 per person, compared to $10,000 in Los Angeles and $8,500 in Chicago, yet the outcomes are far worse. The Department of Education consumes $38 billion a year, but only about half of students can read or do math at grade level. The Department of Homeless Services spends $4.3 billion annually, yet the number of people living in shelters continues to grow.
If a public company delivered those kinds of results, investors would revolt. So why should taxpayers accept them?
We have seen what happens when there are no real audits. Earlier this year, federal prosecutors charged seventy New York City Housing Authority employees in the largest bribery and extortion case in the agency’s history. They allegedly demanded cash bribes from contractors in exchange for repair work, betraying public trust inside an agency that houses more than 400,000 residents.
An audit also revealed that the Department of Sanitation handed out a $14 million emergency food contract to a vendor with a criminal record and no experience delivering meals. Food went undelivered, oversight was nonexistent, and taxpayers were left holding the bag.
Five senior employees at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority were charged with claiming vast amounts of overtime, reportedly working “extra” hours while doing other activities, including participating in a bowling league. The highest-paid of them, a Long Island Rail Road manager, earned over $450,000 in a single year, mostly from fraudulent overtime claims. A basic audit of time sheets and access logs could have exposed the fraud immediately.
And the CityTime payroll scandal remains a cautionary tale of what happens when no one is watching. A project budgeted at $63 million ballooned to nearly $700 million through kickbacks and fraudulent billing. It took years of investigations and a $500 million settlement to recover what proper auditing could have prevented in the first place.
At this point, New York City does not need another consultant. It needs an audit. If the city were a company, the Securities and Exchange Commission would already be at the door with calculators and subpoenas.
That is why I am calling on New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to use the full authority of his office to make New York City government more transparent, honest, and efficient. The tools already exist. What is missing is the courage to use them boldly.
I ask you, Comptroller DiNapoli, to implement quarterly, performance-based audits of all major city agencies. These audits should measure outcomes, not just procedures. How many dollars reached the classroom? How many shelter residents found permanent housing? How much did we spend to fill a single pothole?
I also urge you to create a statewide Open Spending Portal where every New Yorker can see exactly how city money is spent. If investors can track their portfolios in real time, taxpayers should be able to track their government’s spending with the same clarity.
The city should also undergo fiscal stress tests every quarter, just like banks. Transparency should not wait for a crisis; it should prevent one.
And perhaps most importantly, the Comptroller’s office should establish a strong whistleblower protection and reward system that encourages city employees, contractors, and vendors to report fraud, waste, and abuse without fear of retaliation. New York has whistleblower laws on paper, but they are fragmented and limited. City employees can report wrongdoing, but contractors and vendors who often see the most remain unprotected and unmotivated to come forward. A unified system that protects and rewards truth-tellers would expose more waste in six months than most audits do in six years.
As someone who has managed public funds and led audited organizations, I know that sunlight fixes more problems than secrecy ever will.
Every wasted dollar is a dollar taken from classrooms, police precincts, and working families. Accountability is not about politics. It is about trust. It is about proving to taxpayers that their government works as hard and as honestly as they do.
Comptroller DiNapoli, the authority is already yours. You can bring New York City into a new era of fiscal responsibility. You can prove that government can be as transparent, as disciplined, and as efficient as any successful business.
New York City does not need another task force. It needs an audit. Think of it as a financial check-up for a $120 billion patient that has been running a fever for too long.
Use your authority, Comptroller DiNapoli, to make New York City better, more honest, and more efficient. The people of this city deserve nothing les
