NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY
90 CHURCH STREET » NEW YORK, NY 10007
HOUSING TEL: (212) 306-3000 = http faye govinycha
AUTHORITY
KATHRYN GARCIA
INTERIM CHAIR & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
May 31, 2019
VIA EMAIL
Bart M. Schwartz
NYCHA Federal Monitor
415 Madison Avenue, 11"" Floor
New York, New York 10017
Dear Mr. Schwartz:
Tam confounded by the tone, timing, and content of your May 30, 2019 letter. Our office
has and will continue to fully cooperate with Guidepost’s large team and I have tried to
collaborate with you in order to help improve NYCHA at weekly meetings with the
General Manager and other senior officials. We have made NYCHA staff as well as our
records, data, reports, and other information — available to you and your team. Your
decision to eschew the protocols available to you under our agreement, in favor of an
unexpected and unwarranted public expression of frustration, is unfortunate and
misguided.
At the outset, NYCHA fully acknowledges that it needs to make significant improvements,
with respect to its compliance with the lead-based paint rules. Our agreement with HUD
sets forth an aggressive roadmap to make sure that NYCHA provides its residents with
safe, quality housing. We are working hard to implement the systems and protocols that
will allow us to reach that goal, quickly and effectively,
My testimony at the May 7 Budget Hearing was intended to provide a brief status update
of our progress to date, and my testimony was truthful and forthright. We expect to
continue to provide you, the Council, and other stakeholders with future updates on our
continued efforts to improve our compliance and increase our transparency on these
challenging issues. 1 will address each of your assertions in turn.
First, with respect to your belief that NYCHA can do more to identify children under the
age of 6 living in units with actual or presumed lead paint, NYCHA reviewed annual re-
certifications from our residents that identify the composition of their households. We
recognize, however, that more can always be done to identify children that have not been
disclosed on these official records by our residents. For instance, in January 2019,
NYCHA issued surveys to all residents to obtain additional information about children
under 6 and NYCHA plans to incorporate the results going forward. When we met aboutthis issue on May 22”, you mentioned that we should ask our building superintendents if
they are aware of any undisclosed children residing in the units, We are reviewing the
challenges that this may pose to our residents and employees and we had expected to
continue a detailed dialogue on this issue at our regular meetings. Given the unfortunate
tone of your letter, | instead will assign a team to review and respond to your written
suggestions by June 6,
Second, | fundamentally disagree with your grossly premature assertion that, based on just
‘over a month of data, you believe that NYCHA will be unable to complete its critical XRF
initiative by the end of 2020. AAs with any large initiative, the XRF initiative will ramp up
‘over time, and we fully expect to soon be completing the XRF work at a pace that will
enable us to meet the end of 2020 timeline as we add staff and increase the efficiency of
the process. Moreover, publicly backtracking at the start of an $88 million project docs
nothing more than needlessly reduce NYCHA’s abil
contractors to actually meet the goals we intend to keep. To be productive, we suggest
that we establish a regular meeting with your team and the technical staff overseeing the
project to regularly review the progress and schedule.
Third, | disagree with your characterization of my testimony regarding the deliverables
required by Exhibit A, Paragraph 6, which NYCHA submitted to the United States
Attorney. I simply provided the Council with a status update of an important deliverable
that NYCHA submitted under the Agreement. The publicly-available agreement clearly
establishes a process for HUD and SDNY to review and potentially reject the documents
submitted by NYCHA (See Agreement, Exhibit A, 6). NYCHA is still awaiting HUD's
and SDNY’s response to the technical submission, and when their response is received.
NYCHA will follow the process outlined in the agreement.
Fourth, your statement that “my office had to learn through its own efforts” of lead safe
work rule violations by vendors is specious. As you recognize, the monitoring that
identified these deficiencies is through an ongoing monitoring program designed and
administered by NYCHA"s Compliance Department in partnership with the New York
City Department of Sanitation (DSNY). We have been sharing information with you
about this program for months, including information about vendor non-compliance. For
instance, in an email dated April 8, 2019 to four Guidepost team members, we attached
detailed monitoring reports indicating areas where DSNY had identified lead safe work
practice deficiencies with respect to both NYCHA staff and vendors. Your letter’s failure
to acknowledge your staff's receipt of these reports from NYCHA staff is troubling,
Given that NYCHA has been transparent about this monitoring program - and will
continue to give you access to staff, documents, and data regarding this significant effort
to enhance NYCHA’s compliance culture ~ we are very perplexed by the implication that
we have not disclosed this to you.
Fifth, you state that “perhaps the most frustrating recent development” of our May 22!
meeting, was that “you and your staff were unable to identify for me the person at
NYCHA in charge of and accountable for getting this most urgent work done promptly
and correctly.” NYCHA completely disagrees with your statement. At this meeting, ourGeneral Manager Vito Mustaciuolo informed you personally that he was accountable for
‘overseeing this work—commensurate with the importance NYCHA places upon its
execution. General Manager Mustaciuolo oversees the Operations and Healthy Homes
Departments, which work in coordination to manage the inspection, testing, remediation,
and abatement related to lead paint
We will schedule a meeting with SDNY, HUD, and the Monitor to
our ongoing efforts with respect to lead-based paint
uss your letter and
Further, today, NYCHA is presenting the Monitor. HUD, and SDNY with a corrective
action plan that addresses shortfalls we have identified that prevent the Authority from
certifying full compliance pursuant to paragraph 30 of Exhibit A
We remain hopeful that moving forward ~ starting with the Corrective Action Plan — we
can establish a collaborative r cused on improving the quality of life for
NYCHA residents.
Sincerely,
Interim Chair & Chief Executive Officer
Ce: VIA EMAIL
Dan Brownell, Senior Managing Director, Guidepost Solutions LLC
Vicki Been, Deputy Mayor
Zachary W. Carter, Corporation Counsel, City of New York
Vito Mustaciuolo, General Manager, NYCHA,
Arden Sokolow, Chief of Stal, Office of the Chair, NYCHA,
R. Hunter Kurz, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, HUD
Lynne M. Patton, Regional Administrator, Region Il, HUD.
icofirey S, Berman, United States Attorney, SDNY.
Robert Valen, Assistant United States Attorney, SDNY
Corey Johnson, Speaker, New York City Council
Alicka Ampry-Samuel, Council Member, New York City Council