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Q&A
Debate on whether MOCS's challenges are due to management or structural issues needing charter reform
0:54:01
·
4 min
Commissioner Carl Weisbrod engages Michelle Jackson on whether the Mayor's Office of Contract Services (MOCS) already possesses the necessary power under the mayor and if procurement failures are primarily management issues rather than structural ones.
Jackson argues that charter status would grant MOCS more consistent and clear authority across different administrations and mayoral priorities, making it less dependent on individual mayoral directives or inter-agency cooperation for systemic reforms.
She contends that because MOCS oversees billions in city spending, embedding its role in the charter is a crucial structural reform that has not yet been tried.
Carl Weisbrod
0:54:01
Thank you.
0:54:02
Just a follow-up on on those questions.
0:54:06
I mean, doesn't mox have that power today?
0:54:10
I mean, both mox and the procurement board are effectively under the control of the mayor.
0:54:18
Correct?
Michelle Jackson
0:54:19
Well, the procurement policy board is, quasi under the control of the mayor.
0:54:24
Right?
0:54:25
So there's appointees from the mayor's office and the and the from the mayor and the controller.
0:54:29
But mock certainly is, but it only has the authority that the mayor establishes.
0:54:33
Whereas by having it be a charter, a you know, an agency in the charter, it would have clear authority.
0:54:39
And, you know, the next mayor could decide that there's not there shouldn't be a mock.
0:54:42
So So when we think beyond this administration and the administration's path I mean, no mayor has decided that there shouldn't be
Carl Weisbrod
0:54:48
a mox and isn't isn't the failures so far of mox or the lack of exercise of its hours really within the jurisdiction, power, and responsibility of the mayor, whoever the mayor is, to address.
0:55:07
And, I mean, one of my concerns is just looking at the history of procurement, which is a very, as you say, a very sad history in the city going back several mayors.
0:55:21
The more sometimes the more we require, the more problems we create.
Michelle Jackson
0:55:28
So, certainly, I think systems are only good as good as the people behind them.
0:55:32
And so I, in no way, think that establishing moxibin agency is going to be like the sunshine and rainbows of the procurement reform system.
0:55:40
What I would say is, from my own experience, under mayor Bloomberg, deputy mayor Linda Gibbs, the mocks head of mocks, Marla Simpson, they worked very cohesively together and were able to establish HSF Accelerators.
0:55:55
So just speaking in this very one specific way is because they partnered, and they were able to where where the mocks chair did not have authority to compel an agency to change the way they did billing and claiming or procurement.
0:56:06
Deputy mayor Gibbs agreed with the mocks director, and they forced agencies to do that force maybe being a strong word.
0:56:12
Although I was in some of those rooms, maybe not for maybe not strong enough word.
0:56:15
And so this is something that hasn't been tried.
0:56:18
The charter missions have not picked up this as an issue, and so I think it's something that certainly should be tried.
0:56:24
And I think it would create a more authority within mock than, you know, the agency level it has now.
0:56:31
And I don't know that it creates, like, more barriers to success and would certainly allow a mock, you know, director more influence across the different human services agencies.
Carl Weisbrod
0:56:41
I I guess my concern is and you you're sort of making my point, which is it's as good as the people behind it.
0:56:48
And, as you say, under mayor Bloomberg and, when Marla Simpson was the director, Marla's function in a much more much better way.
0:57:00
The problem with creating a charter change is it's not something to try.
0:57:08
It becomes embedded in an effect in the constitution of the city, and it's becomes calcified.
0:57:16
And, and and isn't this principally a management issue as opposed to a structural issue?
Michelle Jackson
0:57:24
Well, I would say it's a structural issue for sure.
0:57:27
I mean, procurement, when we look at the size of the mock budget, when we look at the staff, you know, the staff of the mock team and what they're charged with, all you know, the billion dollars worth of spending that New York City does, not just in human services, but across agencies goes through mock.
0:57:41
That's very structural.
0:57:43
And so the idea of having them outside of the human services issues that I complain about on the daily, having mocks as a chart in our embedded in our constitution would be a great thing for me, not something to just try, but because it is the essence of, like, how we procure goods and services in New York City.
0:57:59
And so in a way, I almost think it's been an error of our charter to not include something like that of all how we do all of the contracting and contracting documents to have it embedded in the way that the city operates on a daily basis.