A discussion at the January 27 meeting of the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) board aired concerns about the wages paid to security guards, and whether they meet standards set by the Cuomo administration, which controls the Authority.
Benjamin Jones, the BPCA’s vice president for administration, began the discussion by asking the board to approve an extension to an existing contract for Summit Security Services, the firm that provides guards for the Community Center at Stuyvesant High School. Mr. Jones explained that the BPCA, as a State agency, uses a contract pre-negotiated by the State’s Office of General Services (OGS). BPCA board member Donald Capoccia asked, “do you know what the hourly wage is that they pay the security guards?”
Mr. Jones replied, “I don’t have that off the top of my head. They were procured through a State-wide contract and they were the selected bidder.” He estimated that the BPCA is billed between “$20 and $25 per hour” by Summit Security, and that the guards, “get between $12 and $15.”
Mr. Capoccia observed, “I think it’s a good idea for us to know with clear transparency how much the actual workers are being paid.” And Mr. Jones said, “we can get that information from the State, from the OGS office.” This information is publicly available on the OGS website. Mr. Jones was roughly correct about the rate at which Summit bills the BPCA, but significantly underestimated what those guards are paid. Under the contract negotiated by OGS, guards at the Stuyvesant High School Community Center (and at other State-facilities in New York City) are paid $19.51 per hour, which Summit Security marks up by 25.41 percent, and bills to the BPCA at the rate of $24.47 per hour.
“The governor has made it very clear what the appropriate wage is,” Mr. Capoccia continued — “not less than $15 per hour.” This was a reference to a series of recent initiatives by Governor Andrew Cuomo to institute the highest minimum wage in the nation for all residents of New York. He has used executive orders to implement this plan for some subsets of workers (e.g., those employed in fast food restaurants, and staff at the State University of New York), and has called for legislation to make it universal for all public- and private-sector employees. Summit Security appears to be in compliance with this directive.
Dennis Mehiel
BPCA chairman and chief executive officer Dennis Mehiel noted of the Authority’s use of the OGS contract, “we have elected to participate in this because it’s available. In the unlikely event, let’s say we found out that the State is doing all this stuff and it just doesn’t meet with our value system, there’s nothing that blocks us from saying, ‘okay, thanks, we’re going to do our own thing,’ and then impose the kind of standards that we see fit.”
The BPCA recently decided to do exactly that, but with a result nearly the opposite of what Mr. Mehiel envisioned. At the close of 2015, the Authority hired a second security firm, AlliedBarton, to replace the Parks Enforcement Patrol officers who have safeguarded the neighborhood for decades. The BPCA’s contract with AlliedBarton calls for that firm to pay its guards $12.50 per hour, which is 16 percent below what Governor Cuomo has repeatedly said is the minimum that every worker in the State should be paid. It is also 35 percent less than the hourly wage earned by the Summit guards at the Stuyvesant Community Center. It was not immediately clear why the BPCA, an agency directly controlled by Governor Cuomo, is violating the wage policy backed by the administration it works for. At the January 27 meeting, BPCA board member Hector Batista voiced the concern that, “we could get beat up for being in compliance.”
Ironically, AlliedBarton is an additional approved vendor under the contract for security services negotiated by the OGS. State agencies that use this contract in the Albany region (where the cost of living is theoretically lower than in New York City) are required to pay AlliedBarton guards $15.93 per hour, which is slightly higher than the minimum mandated by the Cuomo administration. Why the same company is paying significantly less to employees who do the same work in New York City (where the cost of living is higher than in Albany) remains an open question.