NYC Mayor Adams Needs to Better Track Pandemic Relief, Comptroller Says

(Bloomberg) -- New York City Comptroller Brad Lander called on Mayor Eric Adams's administration to better track and measure how well the city deploys $26 billion of federal pandemic relief. Lander unveiled an online dashboard so citizens can monitor spending.

Lander, the city's financial watchdog, said the city already spent about $11 billion of the federal funds, yet few metrics are available to assess what New Yorkers are getting from this spending. The tracker allows users to download planned and actual spending by agency.

“Spending this funding wisely is critical to securing a recovery that brings our city back to life,” Lander said in a news release Tuesday. “Without clear goals, transparency and accountability, we run the risk of squandering this opportunity.”

Jonah Allon, an Adams spokesperson, said the administration shared the comptroller's commitment to tracking how the city spends federal aid. The city will roll out its own tracker soon, he added.

“The federal stimulus funding New York City received was a needed lifeline, helping to jump-start our recovery and avoid cuts to vital programs that protect the health and wellbeing of people across our city,” Allon said.

School Aid

New York City's schools will receive about $7.7 billion in federal aid through June 30, 2025, the largest category of stimulus funds. However, the city hasn't been clear how it will track the impact of the programs on students' health and academic, social and emotional recovery, Lander said.

The comptroller's tracker shows the city's education department spent $725 million for maintaining safe classrooms but hasn't disclosed how much was spent on ventilation or providing measures of indoor air quality, Lander said.

The school system also spent more than $260 million on addressing “learning loss” but the city hasn't provided data to show what the money was spent on and how it met students' needs, Lander said.

“How many reading coaches were hired? How many devices distributed?” Lander said. “I urge the administration to provide more detailed interim information on the outcomes of this spending so that we can ensure we're getting the most of every dollar.”

Accounting for the billions of federal stimulus money has been hampered because of imprecise budget codes and spending reallocations, Lander said.