According to a column in today's New York Times [1] and a visit to the New York City Business Integrity Commission's (BIC) website [2], the BIC provides three easy lessons in how not to run an oversight commission. The BIC has jurisdiction over the private waste carting industry, businesses operating in the city's public wholesale markets, and the shipboard gambling industry. Its goal is to "preserve a healthy and competitive environment in [these] industries in NYC through a unique and comprehensive merger of law enforcement tactics and regulatory oversight."

In his column, Michael Powell asserts that, although the BIC is meant to create a competitive environment in the industries it oversees, at the BIC itself "no-bid, zero-transparency contracts seem distressingly common." According to the most recent former BIC administrator, there is “no requirement at the commission that [a contract] go out for competitive bid. There’s an internal review process.”

Lesson 1:  Don't let department and agency heads sit on an oversight commission. They don't provide sufficient oversight. They're worried about their own departments. The commission consists of the Commissioners of the New York City Police Department, the New York City Department of Investigation, the New York City Department of Sanitation, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, and the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

Lesson 2:  Make oversight agencies subject to all city procurement laws and to ethics commission oversight. It is important that oversight agencies be independent, but independence does not mean that procurement laws don't apply or that the agency's board and employees should not be subject to independent ethics oversight. With independence comes responsibility, not disdain for ethics and procurement rules.

Lesson 3:  Look at an oversight commission's website. It provides an excellent look at the commission's level of transparency. If you see rules and regulations, and none of them apply to the commission, there is something wrong. If there are no meeting agendas or minutes, there is something wrong. If there is no list of employees and no e-mail addresses, there is something wrong. If there is no procurement section, where bids are made available and a list of contractors can be reviewed, so that the commission can be alerted about problems with them, there is something wrong. If there is criticism of the commission, like today's column, and it's not to be found among the press materials (even the BIC's press release responding to the criticism is not there), there is something wrong.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research, City Ethics

203-230-2548