ALBANY — A security company posted an ad with Craigslist in search of a “dedicated and vigilant” credentialed security officer, who will “play a crucial role in maintaining a safe and secure environment for our clients and their properties.”
The top benefit? A “competitive salary” of $22.20 per hour working for the Bronx-based A&H Security Services.
Anyone who secured an interview could potentially land a job patrolling hotels where migrants have been sheltering for months under the oversight of DocGo — the publicly traded company that secured a no-bid $432 million contract with New York City in May.
The catch? DocGo can bill New York City $50 an hour for security guards, according to a copy of the contract obtained by the Times Union through a Freedom of Information Law request.
The low wages and high billing rate is part of a pattern for DocGo under its contract with New York City to oversee thousands of migrants upstate and in the New York City area. DocGo often bills the city twice what it pays employees, according to a review of job postings as well as interviews with both current and former employees and immigration advocates familiar with the company’s work.
The discrepancies raise additional questions about whether the city, and by extension the state, are getting a good value for taxpayers at a time when budget officials have called for either cuts or freezes in future spending — as a result of extraordinary public expenditures resulting from the immigration crisis.
Government contracts with nonprofits do not typically involve a 100 percent markup for services, even when accounting for insurance and other additional costs. But DocGo is a not a nonprofit, even though it’s doing the type of work normally handled by that sector.
If the contract was competitively bid, and not awarded on an emergency basis, the markup for services would be heavily scrutinized by a comptroller, said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a good government group.
Kaehny, who previously specialized in contract procurement, lamented about the dynamic in place instead, which has proliferated since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Both the governor and the mayor still have extensive powers to enter into contracts without basically any review,” Kaehny said. “And DocGo is a classic example of why that’s a bad thing.”
Mike Garcia, with A&H Security Services, declined to comment on Friday. Typically, companies contracted to work with DocGo agree not to speak negatively about the company as a condition of being their subcontractor.
A DocGo spokesman, Michael Padovano, described the analysis as “overly simplistic” and said it “does not accurately reflect the services being provided throughout New York.”
“It does not address the myriad of complexities associated with an effort of this size and scale — from overhead costs, technology systems and rapid deployment expenses to the nuances of regional market rates and the assumption of risk for future uncertainties,” said Padovano, who is contracted by DocGo and works for the public relations firm 5WPR.
Padovano said that the rates “reflect reflect both the operational demands and unique challenges of this ongoing humanitarian crisis, including the urgency, scale, and continuous 24/7/365 service delivery.”
The DocGo spokesman did not dispute the pay rates for employees.
DocGo is hiring a field supervisor in Schenectady for $25 to $28 an hour, which is far less than the $83 an hour it can bill under its contract for supervisors. DocGo’s subsidiary, Rapid Reliable Testing, was hiring a licensed practical nurse for $37 an hour in Albany, when it can bill for $90 an hour. Caseworkers working for a subcontractor, Platinum Community Care, are making between $24 and $28 an hour, according to a person familiar with the matter; DocGo can bill $75 an hour for caseworkers.
Good government groups, alongside state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, have called for additional oversight into contracts. Legislation that could require the posting of all contracts approved without a comptroller’s review passed both Democrat-controlled houses in Albany and is awaiting the governor’s approval, which is due by the end of the year.
Officials with New York City did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The DocGo spokesman did not dispute the pay rates for employees.
DocGo is hiring a field supervisor in Schenectady for $25 to $28 an hour, which is far less than the $83 an hour it can bill under its contract for supervisors. DocGo’s subsidiary, Rapid Reliable Testing, was hiring a licensed practical nurse for $37 an hour in Albany, when it can bill for $90 an hour. Caseworkers working for a subcontractor, Platinum Community Care, are making between $24 and $28 an hour, according to a person familiar with the matter; DocGo can bill $75 an hour for caseworkers.
Good government groups, alongside state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, have called for additional oversight into contracts. Legislation that could require the posting of all contracts approved without a comptroller’s review passed both Democrat-controlled houses in Albany and is awaiting the governor’s approval, which is due by the end of the year.
Officials with New York City did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘Five-star hotel’
The administrations of Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams often point to the fiscal fallout on why the migrant crisis is so severe for a city that has cast itself as a refuge for the needy.
The city is bound by a court-ordered right to shelter decree with the Legal Aid Society, a mandate that has led to the fiscal stress and shortfall of resources. Adams has pegged caring for migrants as a multi-billion dollar cost; this week, he went to the southern border to dissuade immigrants in Mexico from coming to New York and who may be led by false promises.
“We’re going to tell them that coming to New York doesn’t mean you’re going to stay in a five-star hotel,” Adams told reporters this week.
In addition to lodging, there are expenses for laundry, food, shuttle service, security, case work, supervisors, a program director, a “hotel relationship manager” and health care that are not included in the $170 nightly rate under the city’s contract with DocGo.
Not directly included in the city’s costs: staff specifically focused on helping immigrants apply for work authorization so that they can get a legal job that will, ideally, pay them enough to live on their own.
Legal work is an additional service that both parties need to agree to provide, according to the contract. A city spokesman declined to specify whether the city has asked DocGo to provide legal services as part of the contract. The contract does not specify what that legal work could entail.
Legal experts who have independently reviewed the contract not the scope of work is incredibly vague and riddled with inconsistencies, particularly for a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“The scope of work is very broad, which, as a contract attorney, makes me queasy,” said Ryan J. McCall, a senior associate with Tully Rinckey, which has an office in Albany. “If you throw it together, you’re asking yourself for litigation.”
Hochul and Adams announced this week an additional $38 million to support legal services to assist Venezuelans eligible under the recent federal expansion of Temporary Protected Status to apply for work authorization.
An additional 150 National Guard troops have been deployed to New York City to help with that effort. Similarly, the Biden administration last month sent 50 federal Department of Homeland Security officials to New York to assist with educating migrants on their work eligibility.
Any assistance for thousands of migrants staying in upstate hotels has been less clear.
