By Tim Balk and Chris Sommerfeldt | New York Daily News (TNS)
New York — A lawyer for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration filed court documents late Tuesday condemning aspects of the Adams administration’s handling of the deepening migrant crisis, offering an unvarnished analysis that described a shaky and slow-footed City Hall response.
The 12-page filing, issued in response to litigation over the state’s right-to-shelter responsibilities, defended the state, and asserted that the city has been sluggish in providing reimbursement documentation, inconsistent in its communication and sloppy in its handling of funds. The state’s lawyer, Faith Gay, wrote that the state has assisted the city despite “substantial questions” about the city’s primary contractor and failure to use hundreds of vacant shelter beds as migrants languished for days outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown this summer.
The state’s lawyer also said that the city has failed to take advantage of opportunities to use state property, and that it did not prioritize an effort to secure work permits for arrivals, potentially depriving thousands of migrants the swift opportunity to begin to work.
A city program that has bused some migrants upstate and invited a storm of litigation also drew the state’s criticism. The filing said the city had embarked upon the program with “little or no notice” or coordination with the Hochul administration and upstate counties.
“The city has not made timely requests for regulatory changes, has not always promptly shared necessary information with the state, has not implemented programs in a timely manner, and has not consulted the state before taking certain actions,” said the filing, adding that the city “can and should do more to act in a proactive and collaborative manner with the state.”
Though Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul immediately downplayed their differences, the document appeared to surface private fissures and frustration in…
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