Mayor de Blasio received a low grade Wednesday from Comptroller Scott Stringer for his poor record of hiring women-and minority-owned businesses.
Stringer — a potential 2017 mayoral candidate — gave the administration a grade of D+ in a report that found only 20 percent of the 4,100 vendors registered with the city as “minority and women businesses” were awarded contracts last year. That was a step up from the previous grade of D.
Stringer’s report came just days after the administration boasted it had awarded a record $1.6 billion in contracts to businesses owned by women or minorities.
But Stringer said that figure was a projection.
“We don’t grade on aspirational goals. We grade on actual spending,” he said. “Until we see these firms in the spend category, we’re not going to grade you on aspiration and hope.”
De Blasio spokeswoman Ishanee Parikh acknowledged that “there’s more work to be done,” but blamed the state for the city’s performance.
“We continue to seek state legislation to expand our legal authority to increase M/WBE participation,” she said.