News » Executive Director Michael Zisser Featured in NYTimes Article About New Changes in City ContractsIn a recent New York Times article regarding upcoming changes in City contracts, University Settlement Executive Director Michael Zisser was asked to comment on the current contracting process. See below for an excerpt from the article and click the link to read the full text.  Nonprofit Groups Hopeful but Wary as City Aims to Cut Red Tape By DAVID W. CHEN April 18, 2010 From day care centers to food pantries to senior centers, thousands of nonprofit groups that depend on New York City for their livelihood are bracing for the most ambitious change in a generation as the Bloomberg administration prepares to dismantle the way it awards $4 billion in contracts every year. The proposal overhauls a contracting system long criticized for being the epitome of red tape, fraught with inexplicable delays and demanding reams of paperwork and imposing different rules for different agencies. Some nonprofit groups have had to take out loans because payments from the city take so long. Some say they assign one worker to do little else but deal with the city. When asked about the contracting process, Michael Zisser, the executive director of University Settlement on the Lower East Side, said, "Have you read Kafka?" Mr. Zisser, whose organization has about two dozen contracts for child care, literary programs and mental health assistance, added, "It's almost amusing, except that it takes so much time." In response, the Bloomberg administration is planning to replace the hodgepodge of agencies dealing with competitive contracts with a centralized office, potentially saving nonprofit groups hundreds of millions of dollars a year in administrative expenses... |
