Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Lauren Siciliano, Chief Operating Officer of Legal Aid Society
1:43:53
ยท
139 sec
Lauren Siciliano, COO of Legal Aid Society, testifies about the challenges faced by nonprofit legal service providers due to chronic underfunding and contract payment delays from the city. She highlights how these issues jeopardize their ability to provide essential services to low-income New Yorkers and retain staff.
- Despite recent positive changes like COLA initiatives, systemic contracting and payment delays continue to threaten nonprofits' operations.
- Nonprofits start at a disadvantage compared to government agencies in terms of wages, benefits, and funding certainty.
- Late payments and funding uncertainties make it difficult for nonprofits to manage their finances, potentially endangering their ability to make payroll and continue operations.
Lauren Siciliano
1:43:53
Sure.
1:43:53
Wonderful.
1:43:54
Good afternoon, chair one and members of the council.
1:43:57
My name is Lauren Ciciliano, and I'm the chief operating officer of the Legal Aid Society.
1:44:02
Along with my colleagues, I am here today as part of a coalition of public defender and civil legal services nonprofits who provide constitutionally and legally mandated representation to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers each year.
1:44:15
We defend people against incarceration, deportation, and eviction.
1:44:19
We connect people to life saving benefits, housing, and substance and mental health support.
1:44:23
We are a lifeline for low income New Yorkers in need.
1:44:27
The services we provide are funded by city contracts and initiatives.
1:44:31
While recent changes from the city such as the allowance clause amendments and the three year COLA initiative have been a step in the right direction, despite these changes, chronic underfunding and mounting contract and payment delays jeopardize our ability to operate, to provide essential services for the New Yorkers who need us most, to hire and retain staff, and to provide and respond to ever increasing needs.
1:44:54
Late payments wreak havoc on nonprofits and the communities we serve.
1:44:59
Nonprofits like us start at an extraordinary disadvantage.
1:45:03
Not only are our wages lower than those of our government counterparts, especially in experienced positions, but our staff also do not benefit from a government pension.
1:45:12
While city agencies start the year with their funding and routinely receive additional allocations for new collective bargaining agreements, health care cost increases, and utility in space cost increases, nonprofits like us do not.
1:45:26
We are constantly waiting for our funding to be confirmed or for payment for work that has been completed.
1:45:32
And perhaps most egregiously, when we then cannot spend all of the money in our contract because it was never confirmed in the first place or we did not receive it in time, the city takes it back effectively cutting our funding.
1:45:44
Systemic contracting and payment delays exacerbate these fundamental issues at every point in the process.
1:45:51
In an increasingly challenging financial context, we're here today to talk about just a few examples of the absolutely critical issues with city contracting and payment that endanger our ability to make payroll, pay vendors, experts, and rent, and to fundamentally continue doing this work.
1:46:07
We're grateful for the council's focus on this issue, and I will now turn this over to my colleagues.