From Donald Trump to Eliot Spitzer: Still Battling Over a Wasteful Law
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For churning up long-lost files, dusty tchotchkes and fading personal memories, nothing beats packing up your belongings for a big move. So I was reminded recently as I sorted through books, papers, photographs and other debris accumulated over more than two decades of working at this newspaper’s West 43rd Street office in Manhattan. The editorial board’s departure for The Times’s brand new headquarters two blocks away, on Eighth Avenue, was just days away. What should have been a two- to three-hour packing job, max, turned into a daylong sentimental journey as I communed with some of the old items I unearthed, trying to decide whether to toss them into one of the bright orange crates coming with me to the new digs. In addition to lingering over grade-school pictures of my children, I hereby confess to spending more than an hour perusing the contents of three thick, red accordion-style folders bulging with yellowed newspaper clippings and other material pertaining to a string of editorials I had collaborated on starting back in the mid-1980s. These editorials called, unsuccessfully, for the repeal of a costly New York boondoggle known as the Wicks Law. Ah, yes, the Wicks Law. Enacted in 1921, and subsequently named for a state senator from upstate, Arthur Wicks, this arcane statute requires local governments undertaking new building projects or renovations costing more than $50,000 to hire four separate contractors by low bid — for general construction, plumbing, electrical and heating and ventilation work — rather than retaining a single general contractor who hires and supervises all subcontractors. Although originally intended to increase competition and reduce construction costs, the law actually does the opposite, saddling localities with coordination duties for which they lack personnel and expertise, and promulgating conflicts and delays that scare off responsible bidders, and foster shoddy work and litigation. In all, studies have found, the Wicks Law can add anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent to the cost of building a fire station, school building or other public projects. Yet, sporadic efforts over the years by governors of both parties to persuade the State Legislature to end, or at least lessen the law’s costly burden, have been met with only minimal success, thanks to tenacious opposition by the plumbers, electricians and other influential craft unions. I think of the Wicks Law as the ridiculous state mandate that helped make Donald Trump something of an urban hero. This was in 1986, long before “The Apprentice.” At the time, the city had bungled the job of renovating Central Park’s Wollman Rink for six years, largely owing to coordination and quality problems traceable to the senseless multiple contracting requirement. The city said it would need another two years to correct the mistakes and complete the job. Enter Mr. Trump. In an act of civic generosity and ingenious public relations — and to the eternal annoyance of Mayor Edward Koch — the real estate developer offered to take over. He completed the job in just five months, easily in time for the next winter skating season. That was a major coup Mr. Trump triumphantly detailed the next year in his book, “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” I decided against hauling the book to the new office, but my files on the Wicks Law were a different matter. Suddenly, the issue is current again, with Gov. Eliot Spitzer pushing hard for reform legislation that would exempt localities outside of New York City from having to seek separate contracts for public works costing less than $1 million. The new threshold for New York City projects would be $2 million, except for new school construction, which won an exemption, since extended, in 1988. His measure also includes provisions to ensure fair treatment and compensation of subcontractors, and to expand the use of so-called project labor agreements, and the ability of localities to make one general contractor responsible for a job. Mr. Spitzer’s proposal stops short of repealing the Wicks Law, which is what should happen. But as his immediate predecessors, George Pataki and Mario Cuomo, discovered, winning any relief from the arcane contracting rules is tough. The little girl escorting her little brother to school in one of my office photos graduated from college two weeks ago. My son starts college in September. When it comes to the Wicks Law, not much has changed. Not yet. More : nytimes.com |