REMARKS
Commissioner explains DSS policies on conflict of interest and nepotism
1:50:47
·
5 min
Commissioner Molly Wasow Park outlines the actions taken by DSS to address conflict of interest and nepotism concerns in shelter contracts. She explains the implementation of disclosure forms, vendor checks, and a case-by-case assessment policy for nepotism.
- Describes new disclosure forms and vendor checks to identify conflicts of interest
- Explains the nuanced approach to nepotism, including a waiver system
- Highlights limitations on controlling executive compensation due to indirect rate payments
- Emphasizes focus on reducing shelter census and increasing exits to permanent housing
Molly Wasow Park
1:50:47
Thank you, council member.
1:50:49
I was I was taking notes.
1:50:50
Hopefully, I got all the questions.
1:50:51
You'll you'll correct me if I don't.
1:50:54
So let me start first with conflict of interest and and nepotism.
1:50:58
So these are two places where we have taken aggressive action over the last, several years to change how we are are doing business.
1:51:06
With respect to conflict of interest, there are very clear disclosure forms that providers have to submit.
1:51:12
We are also doing, checks, on vendors, subcontracts to make sure that there are no related party entities that includes not only review of those, excuse me, of those disclosure forms, but also, LexisNexis searches, Internet searches as as as commissioner, council member Juan suggested.
1:51:34
Right?
1:51:34
So that we are are following, really digging in to make sure that we are identifying any of those conflicts of interest.
1:51:41
That is our standard practice now and DSS is working with mocks on what will be a policy so that it is even more transparent both for our vendor community and for staff.
1:51:53
On nepotism, and and, you know, a point that I made earlier, I'm not sure if if you were available to hear it is, you you know, nepotism is one of those things that it's a broad term that can encompass things that are deeply problematic as well as things, you know, 2 relatives forming an organization together that's actually, you know, something that maybe we wanna celebrate as opposed to to penalize.
1:52:16
So we we have created a policy.
1:52:18
It started at DSS.
1:52:19
It then became the guidelines for the citywide policy to really do that case by case assessment to understand whether or not relationships between staff people are problematic or or not.
1:52:33
So if there is a relationship between, staff people at an organization, they can apply for a waiver.
1:52:40
That waiver goes first to mocks then to the agency, and we can opt to approve it or disapprove it, put guardrails in place, things like that.
1:52:48
So then with respect to executive compensation, because we, as an agency, do not pay executive compensation directly, that's paid, through the agency's overhead rate, either a de minimis 10% or the level that is approved by the federal government, as their their indirect rate.
1:53:07
Our ability to to manage that, to control that is essentially nonexistent.
1:53:14
We've heard very loud and clear the the council's concerns about executive compensation.
1:53:19
Our our as as my colleague said, our toolbox is quite limited there, but we've heard the concern and are happy to continue to have conversations about that.
1:53:29
With respect to to shelter spending and and accountability there over time, I mean, I think the first thing that we should be doing as we think about shelter spending is trying to reduce the size of the shelter census.
1:53:42
It's not something that's gonna happen overnight, but it is something that I am really deeply committed to.
1:53:46
We've been incredibly focused on shelter exits to permanent housing over the last couple of years.
1:53:53
In a that's a long term focus, but one that we've ratcheted it up since I've been in that this seat.
1:53:59
Last year, we had about 18,500 exits from shelter into permanent housing, which is it's a record breaking number and something that I'm really proud of all of the work that the team did.
1:54:11
Shelter is an important safety net for people in an emergency situation, but it is not the goal for anybody long term.
1:54:19
And I think going into calendar year 2025, one of the things that is gonna be a priority for me and the agency does that mean I should stop talking?
1:54:29
For me and the agency is to make sure that in addition to to this focus on exits, we have to maintain that, but we also need to be thinking about, how we can do better upstream prevention and and how we can focus on our diversion work.
1:54:42
So that's something that we're gonna be looking at.
1:54:45
That being said, I do believe we're gonna continue to need a shelter system for the foreseeable future, and that it should be a strong and accountable shelter system.
1:54:55
You know, we are do live in a city with a very low vacancy rate and a very high number of of rent burdened households.
1:55:01
So that emerge that, you know, people will continue to face emergencies.
1:55:06
I see accountability and and both financial and programmatic as something that needs to underpin everything that the agency does, starting with the staff who are out in the field on a regular basis, who are, interacting with the provider staff, who are, tracking performance metrics like the number of of exits to permanent housing, with our technical staff who do site inspections, then including our office of accountability.
1:55:36
I'm joined here by our chief accountability officer.
1:55:39
They're doing third party audits.
1:55:40
They're, monitoring incident data.
1:55:43
They are running our our agency vendor management committee, a host of other functions.
1:55:49
And then the 3rd leg of that stool is our ACCOs office, making sure that the contracting process itself is done in accordance with the, PPE rules and that organization's responsibility determinations are adequate.
1:56:02
So, it is something that is incredibly important to us.
1:56:05
It is an iterative process that we continue to build on, but it is it is important to us that we are providing services that are that meet the needs not only of our clients, but our community and and, you know, to the extent that there are issues, and and we I will be the first to acknowledge that we can always improve on what we are doing.
1:56:25
We're always happy to engage and and to look at at individual case problem solving.
