The Dog Ate My Homework. Why Is Mazza Spending $411K?

In 1996 the NYS legislature gave NYCERS the authority to pay its administrative expenses out of the assets of the system independent of the city budget structure. Prior to this law NYCERS was part of the regular budget process applicable to standard city agencies.

In drafting the proposed budget legislation the NYC Law Department particularly included the following provision (S.13-103.c.(5) of the NYC Admin Code)

(5) The provisions of chapter seventeen of the charter shall continue to apply to the retirement system and the retirement system shall constitute an agency for the purposes of such chapter seventeen. The board of trustees shall not obtain any legal services by the retention of employees or by contract unless the corporation counsel shall consent thereto.

You can easily guess why the Law Department wanted this limitation on NYCERS new budgeting authority.

Susan Sanders worked for many years as an attorney in the pension division of the NYC Law Department. At some point after 2005 she left the Law Department for the private sector.

As of FY-2009 NYCERS reported in its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report on page 177 that it had paid Ms. Sanders $104,000 for legal services in 2009. In the same way, NYCERS reported payments to Ms. Sanders for FY-2010, FY-2011, and FY-2012 of $99,750, $100,000, and $107,250, all for legal services. That is a total of $411,000 over four years. I’m sure, if she’s a pensioner, that she has the proper waivers.

On January 11, 2013, in response to my request for a copy of the authorization from the NYC Law Department for Ms. Sanders’ legal services contract with NYCERS, I received the following reply from the NYCERS Records Officer who incidentally works for the director of the NYCERS legal division:

“In response to your inquiry for a copy of the Authorization from the Law Department pertaining to Susan Sanders, please be advised that Susan Sanders does not have a Legal Services Contract with NYCERS. Therefore, there is no information that can be submitted at this time.”

I’m not exactly sure but someone at NYCERS is either grossly incompetent or a pathological liar.

For the record, the director of the NYCERS legal division is Karen Mazza. I wonder if NYCERS has a copy of the authorization from the Law Department for the retention of Mazza as NYCERS general counsel. In 1997 I hired her as an administrative staff analyst, not as a general counsel.

I also wonder if DOI ever finished the perjury investigation involving Mazza and Baksh/Ramsami.