Update - The May 12, 2026 NYCERS Trustees Meeting - Admin Budget for FY-2027 - the Phantom Legacy Replacement Project

FY-2027 NYCERS Administrative Budget

At the May 12, 2026 NYCERS Board meeting, the trustees adopted the administrative budget for FY-2027 without any discussion.

After the adoption of the budget, there was a short comment made by the Comptroller's representative about line item "903".

For the general public that is the non-payroll budget component for "Technology - Modernization and Implementation". That is where the costs for the Legacy Replacement Project (LRP) are buried.

The comment was that the trustees should keep any eye on the costs to see that they go down over time.

Reference to "903" is a clear sign of the new found avoidance of mentioning the LRP problems in public session of the Board meeting.

Background on "903"

In the table below you can see annual growth in line item "903" alomg with "902" which reflect the costs for non-mainframe tech work.

I don't have the FY-2027 data yet. I will update when I receive the public budget from NYCERS.

Details on the FY-2027 Budget

I just got the FY-2027 budget figures and you can see from the bottom of the chart that there are major reductions in "903" and "902" going foward.

The trouble is there is no explanation why the costs have gone down. The trustees have taken some action but there is no analysis of what has happened to the LRP project.

This is the only reference to the LRP project in the budget executive summary along the vague 2030 completion date:

NYCERS’ current five-year Strategic Plan, known as Vision 2027, was set to complete at the end of FY 2026, including initial plans for the Legacy Replacement Project (LRP). As of February 1, 2026, NYCERS has completed approximately 70% of the Vision 2027 Strategic Plan, and expects to be 100% complete by the end of Fiscal Year 2026, except for the Legacy Replacement Project, which is now shifting to FY 2030.

The only specific information on the project is that the LRP contract with Accenture was increased from $10.8M in FY-2026 to $ $17.7M in FY-2027.

There is no reference to the promised "revised" scope of the contract.

There is also a question about the cost of the Penfax software license which Accenture is using to build the LRP project.

It is part of the "903" budget code and it has an ongoing annual costcost of $4.0M.

It is projected to disappear in FY-2030 which would collapse the work done on the LRP project.

Conclusion

NYCERS and the trustees do not want the public to know how bad this problem is.

Why in heaven's name did the trustees appoint Reyes as the executive director since she has been in charge of the LRP fiasco since 2015.

NYCERS Admin Budget for "903" amd "902"

Fiscal Year	"903" Amounts	"902" Amounts
2019	$18.7M	$5.6M
2020	$18.4M	$9.0M
2021	$19.8M	$11.2M
2022	$55.1M	$11.2M
2023	$56.9M	$13.2M
2024	$61.0M	$15.0M
2025	$54.8M	$19.9M
2026	$43.1M	$24.7M
Projected as of 2025
2027	$60.2M	$33.1M
2028	$41.7M	$34.1M
2029	$35.7M	$35.1M
2030	$17.6M	$36.2M
Adoptef Budget for FY-2027
2027	$37.5M	$24.0M
Projected as of 2026
2028	$28.4M	$24.7M
2029	$36.8M	$25.4M
2030	$3.0M	$26.2M
2031	$0.0M	$26.9M

Executive Session

Earlier in the meeting and prior to entering executive seesion to deal with disability cases, the executive director asked to have the admin budget added to the items to be discussed in executive session. The trustees agreed.

There is a question, however, of whetehr the budget is a legal item for discussion in executive session. See reference below to the Open Meetings Law.

We can conclude, however, that in the executive session there were discussions about the budget and the LRP issues based on the comment made by the Comptrollers"s representative in open session.

As of today there is no official public notice of the LRP problems, its causes, corrective plan and revised costs for the project. We do have a previous mention of an alleged September 2030 completion date but no new budgeted costs.

There is also so action on how to correct the previous failures or to prevent them in the future.

NYS Open Meetings Law

OPEN MEETINGS LAW

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW, ARTICLE 7

§100. Legislative declaration.
§101. Short title.
§102. Definitions.
§103. Open meetings and executive sessions.
§ 103-a. Videoconferencing by public bodies [Expires and deemed repealed July 1, 2026].
§104. Public notice.
§105. Conduct of executive sessions.
§106. Minutes.
§107. Enforcement.
§108. Exemptions.
§109. Committee on open government.
§110. Construction with other laws.
§111. Severability.

§105. Conduct of executive sessions.

1. Upon a majority vote of its total membership, taken in an open meeting pursuant to a motion identifying the general area or areas of the subject or subjects to be considered, a public body may conduct an executive session for the below enumerated purposes only, provided, however, that no action by formal vote shall be taken to appropriate public moneys:

• a. matters which will imperil the public safety if disclosed;
• b. any matter which may disclose the identity of a law enforcement agent or informer;
• c. information relating to current or future investigation or prosecution of a criminal offense which would imperil effective law enforcement if disclosed;
• d. discussions regarding proposed, pending or current litigation;
• e. collective negotiations pursuant to article fourteen of the civil service law;
• f. the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation;
• g. the preparation, grading or administration of examinations; and
• h. the proposed acquisition, sale or lease of real property or the proposed acquisition of securities, or sale or exchange of securities held by such public body, but only when publicity would substantially affect the value thereof.

2. Attendance at an executive session shall be permitted to any member of the public body and any other persons authorized by the public body