Sources: Investigators examining MWBE contracts

Tim Pearson’s job at City Hall is slightly ambiguous.

But part of it includes overseeing some emergency city contracts.

NY1 has learned investigators who executed a search warrant against Pearson earlier this month are focusing on MWBE contracting — contracts that go to minority and women-owned businesses.

That scrutiny comes as the program has greatly expanded under the Adams administration.

The intent — to give more business and contracts to typically underrepresented communities.

Some wonder now if the expansion may have led to a lack of oversight.

“The Adams administration is following policy and procedure and the law,” Michael Garner, the city’s chief business diversity officer, said. “This increase threshold was touted by our legislative leaders in Albany and also by the governor.”

He lobbied for the state legislature to lift the cap on contracts with women and minority-owned businesses before they had to be bid out competitively.

“This gives us the tools and the ability to increase contract awards to those firms who have historically been shut out, mainly Black, Hispanic and Asian women,” Garner said.

In the last seven years, the cap on non-competitive contracts for women and minority-owned businesses has increased dramatically. In 2017, it was $150,000, increasing to half a million dollars in 2019. It then doubled at the beginning of the Adams administration to $1 million. Last year, the state legislature approved another increase to $1.5 million, increasing threefold during Adams’s tenure so far.

According to the city comptroller’s office, this means MWBE contracts below that figure do not have to go through a formal RFP process.

It is unclear what contracts investigators from the city Department of Investigation or the U.S. Attorney’s office are looking at specifically.

Garner says Pearson is part of his team.

“We work together as a team and there are numerous people on that team that are driving the Adams administration’s vision and focus,” he said.

An attorney for Pearson would not go into details of the investigation, but said it was centered on bribery and corruption in city government.

According to Pearson’s schedules, obtained through the freedom of information law, he had regular standing meetings on MWBE contracting.

He also met often with Molly Schaeffer, the director of asylum seeker operations.

Schaeffer received a subpoena last week to appear in front of a federal grand jury. It’s unclear if that is directly related to Pearson.

Elsewhere, NY1 has learned the total sum the city has paid for legal bills for Pearson so far related to several lawsuits on sexual harassment and retaliation. The city has already paid $7,190 and another approximately $50,000 in invoices it has yet to pay.