City Council Member Justin Brannan said he plans to create a public list of the worst-performing contractors and vendors to root out conflicts of interest and stop the city from doing business with bad business owners.
Brannan, who is running for city Comptroller, said he wants to save tax payer dollars and hold the city government accountable by rolling out a Top 25 Bad Actors List, he announced on social media Thursday.
The list would identify businesses that have outstanding fines owed to city or state agencies; labor law violations (e.g., wage theft, unsafe working conditions); open corruption or fraud investigations; repeated failure to deliver on city contracts; and conflicts of interest or unethical business practices.
"I've seen the backroom deals, the shady contracts, the sketchy vendors, the fraud, the waste, the abuse," he said in the video announcement. "I've had enough."
Once a business makes the list, they would be barred from receiving future city contracts, according to Brannan's plan.
The Brooklyn Council Member also said he would change the contracting process to eliminate pay-to-play scenarios and prevent politically-connected firms from gaming the system by requiring full disclosure of campaign contributions from contractors and vendors seeking city contracts; establishing an independent contract review board to prevent political influence in the awarding of city contracts; and requiring vendors to publicly disclose any subcontractors and their payment terms to ensure fair labor practices and prevent shell companies from hiding behind contracts.
In addition, Brannan said he would seek to impose a three-year ban on lobbying for former city officials and ban lobbyists from taking city government jobs unless they’ve been out of the industry for at least three years, and prohibit former officials from working for companies they awarded contracts to for three years after leaving office.
"New Yorkers deserve a government that works for them — not for corrupt insiders and politically connected contractors," he said.
