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Speaker Christine Quinn Says City Wasted Cash in Snow Cleanup

By DNAinfo Staff on February 16, 2011 6:36am

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN — City Council Speaker Christine Quinn accused the city Tuesday of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire laborers to clear snow from city bus shelters, even though a private company had already been contracted to do the job.

The Sanitation Department refuted the accusation, saying the laborers were hired for other work.

Quinn called for more aggressive oversight of the city's 17,000 private contracts during her annual State of the City address at the CUNY Graduate Center Tuesday. The private contracts have grown to include everything from security guards to computer consultants, costing the city approximately $10 billion a year, she said.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn displays a copy of the city's lengthy contract with Cemusa during her State of the City address Feb. 15.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn displays a copy of the city's lengthy contract with Cemusa during her State of the City address Feb. 15.
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DNAinfo/Jill Colvin

To illustrate her argument that the city is unaware of exactly what it’s getting for its money, Quinn held up a copy of a 1,500-page contract with CEMUSA, the company that oversees most bus shelters and street furniture in the city. As part of the agreement, CEMUSA is required to clear snow and ice from in and around its shelters.

But Quinn charged that instead of relying on the company's workers, the Sanitation Department spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire people to do the work that Cemusa was already required to do.

The city has hired more than 5,000 thousand day laborers this winter to help to shovel snow from bus stops and walkways, Sanitation Department Spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins said.

But, according to Dawkins, the laborers were hired only to clear snow from bus stops that don’t have shelters, which CEMUSA is not responsible for.

Dawkins declined to say whether the company actually fulfilled its obligation or whether city-hired workers had to pitch in.

"They are supposed to do them," she said.

City Council Finance Chair Domenic Recchia, Jr. from Brooklyn and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca, from the Bronx, both told the the Daily News last month that they had seen city workers clearing sheltered bus stops in their districts instead of CEMUSA employees.

A CEMUSA spokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

The Sanitation Department is already reportedly nearly $40 million over its annual snow-removal budget thanks to a series of major snowfalls that have pummeled the city. Of that, $1.2 million has been spent on day laborers, the Daily News reported.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation, which oversees the contract, said that DOT was in contact with the company throughout the recent snow storms "to make sure these shelters were cleared and stayed clear."

"CEMUSA assured us they will not stop working until the shelters are cleared," he said.