Dear New Yorkers,
 
It's hard to believe the new year is only two weeks old. It hasn’t been an easy one already for so many families struggling to balance health, work, childcare, and economic stability amid a resurgent virus. We’re watching the data, and hopeful that with caution, boosters, and increased testing capacity we can soon turn the corner on the most recent wave of the pandemic.
 
As Comptroller, my office will have a key role in ensuring a fair and just recovery, and we are doing everything we can to hit the ground running. While Omicron has dampened our ability to gather in person, we are fully embracing hybrid meetings and new technologies to ensure we can collaborate safely to get the work done.

A quick snapshot of some of what we’ve done in our first two weeks:

• We appointed our leadership team: which includes a diverse mix of returning and new Deputy and Assistant Comptrollers, all of whom bring deep expertise in city government and in their respective fields. This is a smart and compassionate group of people, who I’m already learning so much from as we dig into the wide-ranging work of the Comptroller’s office.
• I joined Brian Lehrer to talk about a new survey from CUNY that found affordability and housing at the top of New Yorkers’ concerns about quality of life in their city. I am committed to taking a collaborative approach to my role as Chief Accountability Officer, by creating opportunities like this survey for New Yorkers to take part in the process of evaluating the policies and services of City government. You can read some of the key findings here.
• We hosted a virtual townhall on Good Cause Eviction Protections with Senator Julia Salazar and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams to unpack how this urgently needed policy can provide long-term stability for tenants and families. With the pandemic eviction moratorium set to expire this week, we are facing an unprecedented housing crisis and need both federal aid and state action to keep families in their homes. I’ll continue to fight for housing justice and bring the tools of this office—from budget analysis and policy reports to targeted investments—to that work.
• And we spoke up about increasing school testing to keep kids and teachers safe, joined calls to defend our democracy, and are digging in on the numbers to advocate for smart investments in our city’s infrastructure.

My office is here to help make government work better for you, New Yorkers. We’re getting started on that through analysis, audits, and budget oversight and I look forward to sharing more in the coming weeks and months. If you have questions, whether about policy initiatives or filing claims, or getting your pension benefits, please check out our website at comptroller.nyc.gov or call the Community Action Center at 212-669-3916.
 
There is so much critical work to be done in the days ahead, but I just wanted to take a moment to say that we are all in this together. If you are looking for COVID-19 resources, please visit our COVID-19 recovery center on our website. In order to get where we want to go it’s going to take a beautiful mess of people all rowing in the same direction—and I promise to you that you will always have an honest and transparent partner in government with my office.

Take care,

Comptroller Brad Lander