QUESTION
Council Member Brooks Powers Asks About Timely Payments for MWBE Subcontractors
1:12:45
·
4 min
Council Member Brooks Powers asks about ensuring timely payments for Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) subcontractors in city contracts. The discussion includes the Department of Transportation's policies to prioritize payment to MWBE subs, challenges with accurate billing by primes, and possible reforms. Michael Garner discusses adopting an IT platform to facilitate MWA payments verification, highlighting current inter-agency efforts and identifying agencies involved in construction mentor improvement initiatives.
Speaker 1
1:12:45
And just in line with that, I'll just go back up around to the sub contractor question now because it did have that also queued up.
1:12:55
How is the administration working to ensure that MWE subcontractors receive on time payments.
1:13:02
MWEs can be extremely vulnerable when they are not made hole in terms of their work in a timely manner.
1:13:10
We've seen a number of cases in terms of city contracts, broadly speaking, where you would have a sub that's not getting their payment on time from the prime, but the city is protected because the contract was not between them and this sub.
1:13:25
So I'm interested in understanding what the administration is doing ensure that these subcontractors do receive their payment on time and making sure that they have metrics in place where we're seeing this on the front end as opposed to when the work has been completed and they're still not being paid as well.
Speaker 13
1:13:47
Council member, if I may, I can talk about the DOT perspective because it that's an excellent question.
1:13:53
We at DOT actually require that whenever we make a payment to the prime, the first folks who get paid out are the MWD subs.
1:14:01
So that is a policy change that we're doing.
1:14:03
Meaning, when we when this prime gives us a bill and there's subcontracting in place, we actually require that the that the payment goes first to the MWD's on the project.
1:14:13
But but you you raised an excellent point that it's actually a lot of the times is on the primes to submit the billing on time and correctly.
1:14:21
I think chief Gardner made made an excellent point that accurate billing is sometimes the reason of the delays.
1:14:26
It's not cutting the checks.
1:14:28
The checks, we can cut very easily, but it's the accurate billing, and that's usually on the prime.
1:14:32
So we work a lot with a hand in hand with the primes of these large contracts to make sure they're giving us the bills correctly so that we don't have to go back and forth.
1:14:42
Sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes it can take months, And then we also require that they pay out the MWD vendors first before they pay themselves or any other subs that are non MWDs.
Speaker 1
1:14:53
Now while my follow-up question to that is not necessarily infrastructure related, and it's for you, Mister Garner, in terms of other MWA contracts with the city, when you think of, for example, Mach j, is I know that that does not apply.
1:15:09
To them.
1:15:09
Is this a space where you see some reform to that process being possible?
Speaker 5
1:15:15
Yes.
1:15:16
Absolutely.
1:15:16
So we we had we were fortunate enough to hire Dwight Flynn, who works for the Cuomo and the Hoco administrations, and he was in charge of MWA contract compliance.
1:15:30
One of his duties and responsibilities was was to create a information technology platform in which all 97 of those state agencies were required to use.
1:15:41
We are having internal discussions right now of adopting an information technology platform, and and I will walk you through in 30 seconds.
1:15:51
So in the terms and conditions of a contract when the contract is awarded to a 3rd party contractor consultant.
1:15:58
There's language in there that says that by the Timothy month, the contractor consultant must pay or must enter their MWA payments in a portal.
1:16:11
And so by 10th each month, that 3rd party contractor is required to do that.
1:16:17
And then the same portal the MWA firm has the ability to go to the portal and verify the payment.
1:16:24
And so we are exploring conversations as we have right now in coming up with an information technology platform.
Speaker 1
1:16:35
Thank you for that.
Speaker 5
1:16:36
I can give you the names of all those agencies in a centralized construction mentor improvement if you like.
Speaker 1
1:16:40
I'm ready.
Speaker 5
1:16:41
Okay.
1:16:42
Decast, Nitra, HPD, Health And Hospitals, DOE, Parks, EDC, DEP, and DOT.
Speaker 1
1:16:51
Hold on.
1:16:52
I think I have extra.
1:16:53
So I have Nitro EDC, Hilton Hospitals, DEPDOT, Parks.
1:17:00
Sanitation, decast, HPD, and DOE?
Speaker 5
1:17:04
Scratch Scratch sanitation.
Speaker 1
1:17:06
Okay.
1:17:08
Perfect.
Speaker 5
1:17:09
And so there's there's 9.
1:17:10
And once again, DCAS, Nitro, HPD, Health And Hospitals, DOE, Parks, EDC, DEP, and DOT.
Speaker 1
1:17:20
Perfect.
1:17:20
And we've been joined by council member, Rivera.
1:17:25
Wanting to just pivot to the DDC strategic blueprint.