Brooklyn City Council Member Justin Brannan is pitching a plan to crack down on corruption in city government as part of his comptroller bid, following the multiple scandals that engulfed Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, amNewYork has learned.
Brannan’s plan — shared exclusively with amNewYork ahead of its release — promises to begin publishing a list of “bad actor” city contractors, strengthen oversight of the city’s contracting process to root out conflicts of interest, and expand the office’s investigative power over city agencies.
“I’ve always believed that public service is a public trust, and our government should work for the people and not the well-connected. I have zero tolerance for corruption,” Brannan said in an interview. “I think fighting for tougher ethics laws and real accountability and transparency at every level of government is extremely important for the comptroller, whose main responsibility is ensuring that people’s hard-earned tax dollars are spent efficiently and wisely.”
Brannan is in a heated race against Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine in the June 24 primary.
Corruption watchlist, contracting
Under the plan, Brannan wants to roll out a watchlist for the 25 worst actors among city contractors and vendors. According to Brannan’s campaign, companies could make the list for having outstanding fines owed to city or state agencies, violating labor laws, opening corruption or fraud investigations, failing to deliver on city contracts, and having conflicts of interest or unethical business practices.
Brannan said the city should no longer do business with vendors that end up on the list and instead prioritize companies that have traditionally been shut out of its contracting process, such as Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs).
“There’s a lot of vendors and companies out there that if people found out that the city was doing business with them, they would be appalled,” Brannan said. “I think knowledge is power in these situations, and people need to know that we’re only doing business with vendors and companies that are above board.”
The council member pointed to the controversial medical services company turned migrant shelter provider, DocGo, getting awarded lucrative contracts under Mayor Adams, while more community-level nonprofits were passed over.
Brannan’s plan also floats reforming the city’s contracting process by requiring vendors to disclose campaign contributions and subcontractors, as well as establishing an “independent contract review board.” He said beefing up oversight and transparency in the city contracting process could help prevent some of the alleged corruption schemes that landed several former Adams administration officials under federal investigation.
“We saw a bunch of resignations from City Hall that were around issues like this, where there were friends and family who were getting sweetheart deals,” Brannan said.
Other parts of Brannan’s plan call for passing legislation to expand the comptroller’s office’s investigative power. Currently, the office has audit and subpoena power.
Brannan wants to set up a “public integrity unit” that could carry out independent corruption investigations into city agencies. He also aims to create a confidential whistleblower system for city employees and contractors to report corruption and conduct annual “anti-corruption audits” of city agencies with the biggest budgets and contract loads.
