Chief Investigator Touts ‘Independence’ in Probes of Adams’ City Hall

DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber on Thursday made clear that while she is an appointee of Mayor Eric Adams, her mission is to investigate without fear or favor as an independent “conscience of the city” — including probes of senior officials in the Adams’ administration.

“I think I’m going to go with the conscience of the city and the institution rather than the protector of the mayor or any other city official,” she said during remarks at a New York Law School breakfast.

Strauber, whom Adams appointed in February 2022, acknowledged that DOI is “currently involved in investigations of senior city officials and employees, the kinds of investigations we have always done.”

“For obvious reasons I won’t discuss details of those inquiries today, but I want to be clear that those investigations are among our most important responsibilities,” Strauber said. “While a mayoral agency that is part of city government, DOI is also simultaneously independent of city government. That independence is critical to our ability to fulfill our mandate.”

She added: “I do not report on interim findings and other developments in DOI investigations whether administrative or criminal to City Hall or the relevant agencies.”

She declined to name names or provide details, but DOI has acknowledged it is investigating Timothy Pearson, a top aide and longtime pal of Mayor Adams, over allegations that he assaulted a security guard at a migrant shelter. DOI is also looking into accusations that Winnie Greco , the mayor’s liaison to the Asian community, forced an underling to perform personal tasks for her .

On Wednesday, DOI confirmed it is also investigating the social media posts of several senior NYPD brass that have launched personal attacks on elected officials and journalists. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and the Legal Aid Society requested such an investigation after Chief of Patrol John Chell went after Councilmember Tiffany Cabán (D-Queens), an NYPD critic, urging the public to be “involved” against Cabán.

“In light of the requests, DOI has begun an investigation of the relevant social media use and exchanges, as well as applicable City policies,” DOI spokesperson Diane Struzzi said.

In her remarks, Strauber revealed DOI is considering expanding its investigation into smaller city contracts, called micro purchases, that are subject to corruption and were the centerpiece of a recent massive takedown of 70 current and former NYCHA employees on federal bribery charges.

The February sweep — the biggest single-day arrest takedown in U.S. Department of Justice history — charged that dozens of low-level NYCHA staffers pocketed more than $2 million in bribes in exchange for awarding multiple small contracts worth less than $5,000 (later $10,000) to a select number of favored contractors.

NYCHA has a long-standing practice of awarding these “micro purchases” to speed up repairs by evading the usual competitive bidding protocols in place to combat corruption and ensure taxpayers get the biggest bang for their bucks.

Asked during a question-and-answer session Thursday whether DOI was considering taking a look at micro-contracts awarded by other city agencies, Strauber said the agency was doing just that.

“In terms of citywide application, I would say absolutely it is something that we are thinking about,” she said. “If we had more resources, we could set up a team to look at this across the city. And it is something we would like to do and it is certainly something we are thinking about. Whether we’re going to be able to do it we’ll have to see.”

Under the mayor’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget, set to begin in July, DOI will take a 20% cut from its current budget of $57.1 million.

THE CITY first reported on the corruption vulnerabilities of NYCHA’s reliance on micro-purchase contracts in the fall of 2019, and in 2020 and 2021 law enforcement charged a small number of contractors with paying bribes to NYCHA staff.

After the 2021 arrests, DOI made five recommendations to NYCHA to tighten up oversight of these contracts, including moving responsibility for awarding them from development-level staff to a central office where all awards could be carefully monitored. At the time, then-NYCHA Chair Gregory Russ rejected that suggestion and three others.

Noting that the mass arrests in February exposed a long-standing pattern of bribery over micro-contracts, Strauber said NYCHA’s ill-fated decision to reject DOI’s 2021 recommendations made clear “the dangers of declining to adopt our recommendations.”

After the February takedown, DOI repeated its recommendation to move the awarding of small-purchase contracts to a central office, along with 13 other anti-corruption measures.

NYCHA, Strauber noted, has agreed to embrace every one of them.

THE CITY is a nonprofit newsroom that serves the people of New York. Sign up for our SCOOP newsletter and get exclusive stories, helpful tips, a guide to low-cost events, and everything you need to know to be a well-informed New Yorker. DONATE to THE CITY

The post Chief Investigator Touts ‘Independence’ in Probes of Adams’ City Hall appeared first on THE CITY - NYC News .