'This is about life and death': NYC Comptroller on probe into Mayor de Blasio's COVID-19 response

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced he has launched a probe into Mayor Bill de Blasio’s coronavirus response. Scott Stringer joins Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel to discuss.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: I want to talk about COVID and coronavirus from a political standpoint. And we're going to invite into the stream Scott Stringer. He is New York city's comptroller, and he is launching a probe into the Mayor of New York City Bill DE Blasio's coronavirus response. Scott, it's good to see you here. I got to ask you though-- we'll learn things from your study, but it's after the fact. Honestly, what good does it do to launch this kind of probe?

SCOTT STRINGER: Well, first of all-- and it's great to be back with all of you. But the purpose of my job is to monitor city agencies, make sure that in real time, they are meeting their obligations to the people in the city. And there is no more important look at how we are dealing with this coronavirus and how it relates to the economy. I want to know what we knew, when we knew it, and what did we do about it at the beginning of the virus, because it's important going forward to understand the protocols that are in place and also what we're not doing-- so that if we have to deal with this long-term, and we may, it's important for us to be nimble and make sure we hold agencies accountable. And the mayor is no exception.

JULIE HYMAN: So Scott, it's Julie here. So is this a fairly standard thing that is done after various crises in the city-- after Hurricane Sandy, for example? And if so, what were some of the lessons learned from past crises that maybe weren't put into play this time or were put into play? I don't now.

SCOTT STRINGER: Well, it's a great question. And actually Hurricane Sandy is a perfect example, because I became comptroller. And the first thing our office literally did was initiate an investigation as to the government's response on Sandy. We held hearings in every borough. We talked to hundreds and hundreds of people who were victimized-- people who lost their home. And then we found that the contractors and the outside consultants that were put in place did people real harm, losing paperwork, setting back that recovery.

And so it's appropriate, certainly the way I function in the last seven years as comptroller, to once again turn attention to what we knew and when we knew it, but also what are we doing. There's a lot of controversy today of the mayor engaging contact tracing, moving it from the health department to Health Hospitals Corporation. That is something that we have to watch very closely to see we are actually in the health realm and we're not getting caught up the bureaucracy There seems to be a real political turmoil within city hall, between the police department and the health commissioner.

And I'll tell you something-- I've got no time for this. We have got to get our arms around testing, if we're going to bring back this economy. Many of you talk about how it's going to open-- a V or a U. I worry about whether we can fight the virus and also slowly turn on our economy, but we have to walk and chew gum at the same time. We've got to get this right. So this is something I care about.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Scott. You know, you are the city's chief financial officer. And we had a report from the National League of Cities just yesterday that said New York and all of the major cities in the country could lose up to $360 billion-- that's with a "B"-- $360 billion worth of revenue through 2022. You haven't announced that you're running for mayor, but you know the finances. This city-- what does New York do? The mayor's announced cuts. You've been critical about the proposed cuts. Does New York City and do the other major cities in this country need to have some kind of tax convention and rework their tax codes going forward?

SCOTT STRINGER: Well, the job of the mayor and the government is to confront the budget crisis head on. This city didn't save in a good time. We didn't put away enough money in the rainy day fund for something like this. We could not have totally seen the health crisis. But there's enough in our city's history going back to 9/11, the city's fiscal crisis in the '70s, that said we should save more.

Now, going forward, we have to ask our agencies to look at inefficiencies, capture those dollars, so we don't have to put more people on the street, hurt social services. The mayor has to come up with a real economic plan both for 2020 and 2021-- has to happen. And one of the things that we've got to do with the city-- and we've done this before-- is we go to go to Washington and demand a stimulus package that has is going to aid states and localities, because without it we are not going to be able to come back.

Think about this. There's been close to 190,000 corona cases. And New York City gets $9,000 per corona case from the federal government. Montana, which has had a few hundred corona cases, gets $2.7 million from the federal government. So you could see the politics at play. But this time, it's not just about back and forth presidential politics. This is about life and death. And I'm very concerned that we are not getting the stimulus that we need. Hopefully this package will be better than the last.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's stay on the topic of politics, because I think I heard you say in the beginning that you want to look into this. This isn't about a political issue. But the friction from the city and state level has been pretty well documented in New York, whether it's Mayor Bill de Blasio or Governor Cuomo. I'm curious if you feel comfortable that that has been smoothed over and the communication for reopening here in the state-- I mean, has that improved over the last two months? And do you feel like it is going smoothly enough to be able to rule out the reopening eventually New York City?

SCOTT STRINGER: I think Governor Cuomo has spent a lot of time thinking about this reopening. Obviously we're going to start this beyond New York City in upstate communities. Look, the mayor has to work with the governor. This is a health emergency. That politics now has to turn to absolute cooperation. And while I have been critical of the mayor's response on so many levels, I also want to tell people that I've got to work with city hall.

We have to work together with the mayor's office to find common ground. Look, I said we should be prepared to put air conditioners in some of our public housing developments for our seniors. The mayor said, yes, let's do that today. So even though we do have a back and forth, which I do think is healthy, we also work collaboratively behind the scenes to do what's best for the people. And I'm going to support the mayor and the governor in getting us to open safely and with a long range financial plan. And also we have to re-imagine what New York City is going to be about.

How do we open up our restaurants, our cultural institutions? I've got skin in the game, and I know Julie does. What are we going to do about school? And how are going to make sure our kids get the education they need? I feel so bad for these kids who worked so hard and are now sidelined. And the heroes are teachers-- are doing everything they can. But we also have to lead in the city in terms of educating our children.

DAN ROBERTS: Scott, Dan Roberts here. Just briefly, you mentioned that the probe is going to find out what we knew, when we knew it, how good of a job we did. And you mentioned that there is controversy. I'm not sure if we got just straight up your opinion before you get the results of this probe. How do you think New York did through all this?

SCOTT STRINGER: I think right now we have to gather information, we have to talk to health experts, we have to talk to people on the ground. I do know this. This virus discriminates. It went for people who are most vulnerable to people with pre-existing health conditions, hit people in communities of color in a way that hurt and will leave a lasting mark in our city. The question is what was the government response to helping those communities pre-virus and what have we done, if anything, to make sure those communities are going to be protected going forward.

So that's one area that we have spoken out about. We've talked about frontline workers, the fact that people of color are the ones who are delivering food and taking care of our family members and the like. So there is a lot that will go into this. It is not a probe to do a probe. It's a probe to make government better-- to make sure that as we confront this virus in the months and maybe years ahead, that we have the best set of protocols in place. Nothing is more important right now. And my job is to ask the tough questions.

Mayors are never happy with their comptrollers. It's just the way it is. That doesn't concern me. What concerns me is how do we build a city government, both in terms of emergency workers and emergency response. When did we start to realize it? Did we have the best response? Were we overly influenced by Trump? There's so many questions that go into it. And we're going to do this in the most-- you know, in a sensitive way, because we're still fighting the pandemic.