New York, NY – September 30, 2024 — Today, the New York City Council’s Committee on Technology, chaired by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, held a critical oversight hearing on the MyCity Portal, a major initiative from the Adams administration designed to streamline access to city services. The hearing focused on concerns surrounding delays in the portal’s rollout, its current performance, and the lack of a clear future roadmap. This hearing marks the first public examination of this crucial city infrastructure.

Records reveal that the City has registered 97 contracts across 32 different vendors. OTI representatives were unable to provide a detailed breakdown, despite committing over $60 million to these contracts to date. The Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) indicated that the next steps for the MyCity Portal are still in the assessment phase. While the portal currently supports childcare subsidies and job services, OTI explained they have been focusing capacity on building the “Common Services” platform, which will unify identification for people, places, and businesses across the city, laying the foundation for an integrated benefits system. OTI revealed that they conducted a citywide survey of agency contracts over $2 million to identify areas for consolidation under the MyCity framework. The timeline for completing these developments remains unclear, though OTI committed to providing a full roadmap by the end of the year.

Chair Gutiérrez raised concerns about inconsistencies in OTI’s communication around the MyCity Wallet component of the platform. Commissioner Fraser failed to mention the MyCity Wallet during his initial response on the roadmap but later called it a “critical part” of the portal that confirmed will be included in future iterations of MyCity with full confidence. Further, Fraser claimed that no contracts were in place beyond the assessment phase, yet the Chair highlighted a $5 million no-bid demonstration project with MoCaFi to complete the services, a financial technology company whose founder has ties to Mayor Adams.

Over ten advocacy groups spoke about the risk and serious concerns around the exposure of data and data sharing and highlighted the serious issues that have emerged across the country resulting from predictive decision-making – a service that the Commissioner affirmed would be a part of the MyCity platform.  Concerns were also raised about the MyCity Act in the State Assembly and Senate, which the administration is pushing, noting that certain provisions could weaken privacy protections, particularly with the NYPD’s growing role in other agencies. 

The committee will continue monitoring the MyCity Portal’s progress and advocate for increased transparency in the City’s technology procurement process.

You can read the members full opening statement here, and watch the full hearing here.