Mayor Must Shed Light on Discretionary Spending

Today, I wrote a letter to the Mayor after asking him to address allegations of irregularities in the distribution of discretionary funding from his office.

According to a recent New York Times article, over a period of several years, the Mayor's office routed hundreds of thousands of dollars in discretionary funds to at least two nonprofit groups possibly without following the correct contracting procedures. 

I urge the Mayor to address these allegations immediately and to shed light on his office’s discretionary spending. I am asking him to provide my office with a detailed account of each distribution of discretionary money to the two nonprofits mentioned in the article: Agudath Israel of America Community Services and Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services.

I am also asking that he provide my office with a copy of the internal audit of discretionary spending conducted by the Mayor's office, which has been mentioned in media reports, as well as an itemized list of all discretionary spending since 2002 not addressed in the audit including the name of the recipient organization, the amount allocated, the councilmember or borough president who requested the funding, the date of each request, whether the request was made orally or in writing, and the date your office approved the requested funding.