Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering appointing an independent monitor to oversee the city’s public housing department, after the head of NYCHA was accused earlier this week of falsifying lead inspection documents, a spokesperson for the governor said.
“We have continuously expressed concerns with NYCHA’s operational failures and these latest allegations — and potential legal violations — that the agency knowingly committed by exposing New Yorkers to lead paint are particularly disturbing,” he said through spokeswoman Abbey Fashouer.
The governor did not take kindly to those who knowingly lied to an agency he once ran, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
NYCHA Chairwoman Shola Olatoye knowingly signed one of many false documents sent to federal officials since 2013, according to a bombshell report released by the Department of Investigation earlier this week. The documents claimed the city agency completed mandatory lead testing and was in compliance with federal laws, despite the fact that the tests had not been performed.
Responding to a request by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Cuomo appeared open to stepping in and appointing an independent monitor for NYCHA.
“We will be reviewing it with our fellow state partners, the attorney general and the state comptroller,” Fashouer said.
When Diaz called on Cuomo and other state leaders to intervene Thursday, he blasted the city’s failures and said the federal government has an “apparent distaste for public housing.”
“Only the state has the ability to appoint a credible monitor to examine NYCHA at this time,” Diaz said in a statement released Thursday. “More than 400,000 New Yorkers call our city’s public housing developments their home. The families who call our city’s public housing developments home deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. It is now plainly clear that a state-appointed monitor is the only way to make that happen.”