Building Congress Event
Espresso with Carlo Featuring NYC SCA President & CEO and NYC DDC Commissioner Lorraine Grillo
Webinar Press
ENR: NYC School Construction Chief Reopens Projects, But Awaits Stimulus Funds
Webinar Transcript
Note this auto-generated transcript is provided as a tool to help our members locate moments in the webinar. Quotes taken from the transcription should always be verified in the actual recording.
Carlo Scissura 00:01
Okay, good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. It's a it's a great pleasure to have our special guest today. I'll talk about her in a minute. But first of all I am have expressed So, Lorraine, I saw you having coffee. But let's see, I'm not... all right, there we are. Cheers on the Expresso!
Lorraine Grillo 00:24
Cheers!
Carlo Scissura 00:24
All right.
Carlo Scissura 00:26
So, you know, it's crazy to think it has been almost eight weeks since many of us started the work from home. I know the building Congress, our last day in the office was Thursday, March 12. With the thought that we take a week or two at home and then come back so it's, it's clearly been challenging. But like many of you, I can tell you, I know I and our staff are busier than ever and I hear that from a lot of people.
Carlo Scissura 01:00
So one of our future espressos with Karla. We'll be talking a little bit about working remotely how that looks, how it feels. And honestly how it's going to look in a couple of months. Because it doesn't seem like we're going to just turn the light switch on and get everything back to normal.
Carlo Scissura 01:20
But one of the things we do want to turn the light switch on and get back to normal is capital construction, building New York, design, architecture, engineering, putting up new schools, fixing schools, DDC projects, you get it.
Carlo Scissura 01:39
And when you think of all of this happening in New York City, you really think about one person and that is Lorraine Grillo - you know, I call her the czar of construction in New York. I know you like that title Lorraine, common! In all seriousness-
Lorraine Grillo 01:58
I like Czarinna!
Carlo Scissura 02:00
Czarinna! Right, Czarinna - that's right!
Carlo Scissura 02:02
Um, look, I think, in all seriousness, if we had to go through something like this, and we had to deal with stopping of construction and trying to figure out next steps, there really is no one more qualified and ready to roll up her sleeves and get us through - not just this phase - but the reopening and the reimagining of how we get back to work that Lorraine Grillo, I think everybody on this call knows Lorraine. I'm not going to read your bio Lorraine, because we all know you, clearly. You know, you you've gotten us through a lot of things in the past. And I know you're going to get us through this.
Carlo Scissura 02:48
So really, let's start by saying first of all, how are you?
Lorraine Grillo 02:53
Well, I'm great. And Carlo, it's so great to see you and good morning to everybody on the call. I'm sure I know everybody there. And it's just really, really terrific to get the organization back. And to see folks that I missed terribly. But we're good here. family's good. Everybody's good.
Carlo Scissura 03:15
Awesome. So I think let's just jump right into it. You know, the question I get all day is, what's happening with my SCA project, what's happening with my DDC project? So maybe you know that there's been a lot of confusion. And now that we're, you know, settled into this quarantine and this pause, tell us where we are with both agencies on the door.
Lorraine Grillo 03:39
Sure, Carlo. Happy to do that. As for DDC, let's start with that. Almost all of our infrastructure projects are ongoing. We really didn't stop because these are things that are essential to the city sewers, water, that sort of thing. roadwork. You know, in a couple of cases, contractors on their own, ask for a pause because they were seeing some illnesses within their own ranks. But I think most every one of them are back to work.
Lorraine Grillo 04:13
The only issue that we face with those projects, oftentimes when we're doing sewer work, you know, we have to shut water down. And we've got a situation right now where our families are home. And we can't leave families without running water, you know, for days at a time. So that's a concern. But otherwise, that work is ongoing.
Lorraine Grillo 04:38
In terms of the public building side of that work is on pause. And I think more than anything, it's really because all of the city's resources right now are going towards health care and all of the COVID issues that we're facing right now.
Lorraine Grillo 05:00
As for SCA, we were on a complete pause for several weeks. We've recently restarted, I think, five of the schools that are scheduled to open this September. We don't want to miss any dates. I always say this. I've been president for 10 years and 10 years, we have not missed an opening day. And I don't intend to start right now. We have a project. Right? We have a few projects on the capital improvement side, that for safety purposes, work continued. But the rest of that is on pause as we speak.
Carlo Scissura 05:44
You know, Lorraine, one of the questions I've gotten from many people, and actually it's a curiosity of mine as well, is given the fact that kids won't be back in school and educators won't be back in school till the end of August at the earliest, wouldn't be the perfect time to get school projects done. There's a lot of pointing that needs to happen window repair, you know, things of that nature. Isn't this like a great time to go work and have so much done?
Lorraine Grillo 06:16
I agree. I couldn't agree more Carlo. But as you know, with the current crisis, there's a cash flow problem in the city. And so, if the federal government would come through with the money that should be, you know, fed into this city to face the crisis, we could do exactly that. So, yeah, I get it. But also, when I ask my contractors to do work, I expect to be able to pay them.
Carlo Scissura 06:48
Right. Yes, we would. We would agree with that.
Carlo Scissura 06:52
In terms of design services, I know there are many people in the design community on the call. How are we how are we looking? Looking at that for things moving forward?
Lorraine Grillo 07:05
Again on both on both sides, those projects right now are on pause. And it really has to do with resources. And it really also has to do with how we are going to move forward as the city and what projects will go forward.
Lorraine Grillo 07:25
One of the things that we're really hoping for is, again, the federal government not only giving us stimulus money, but also passing - finally - passing an infrastructure bill that will allow us to move forward because, you know, infrastructure, while it will spur the economy on, it will also have long term positive effects for the city. So we're really, really hoping that you know, the feds will come through.
Carlo Scissura 07:57
We agree, obviously other than Health and Safety right now, which is number one. I think our biggest priority for the building, Congress, at least, is getting federal infrastructure dollars, right in the hands of New York City and New York State. And I think that's important.
Lorraine Grillo 08:14
Well, we're with you.
Carlo Scissura 08:15
Yeah. How you know, as you start thinking about the future, the pause will be lifted. At some point. We will get back to work, we will go back to designing and building maybe not the way we did before, but there will be some things new projects that have to happen. How is this---
Lorraine Grillo 08:39
I'm sorry, Carlo, you... I can't hear you right now. Sorry. Sorry. Could you repeat that Carlo?
Carlo Scissura 08:52
Yep. Sure. Um, I said as we move forward, and as we lift the pause, and maybe Not all the things like yesterday will happen, but some projects will have to go there will be new schools, new projects, etc. How do we prioritize moving forward both DDC and SCA, what are things that should happen? And what are things that may be could wait a little bit?
Lorraine Grillo 09:20
Well, I can speak to some of the things that we believe should be a priority. For example, the Eastside coastal resiliency project really, to you know, that's another crisis that could come anytime. And we need to protect New York. And that project will do it. And we are moving forward with that. We expect that we will start with a shovel in the ground in the fall, and we're not going to stop something like that, because that has the potential to you know, do real damage to this city. So we have to be really careful.
Lorraine Grillo 10:01
There are other projects, for example, in Southeast Queens, that we are continuing and we need to continue having to do with water and sewers and, and the like. So, so those are all things, you know, our systems are old, they have to be replaced. And so that work needs to go forward. Again on the school side, obviously, we've talked about this, you and I for many decades about what matters and solving that problem many, many years. And we need to face it, we need to deal with it. And we need to finally have great classrooms for every single kid in this city. And so that's one.
Lorraine Grillo 10:47
And also we have a large portion of our schools right now, our buildings that are over 100 years old. So there are going to be ongoing needs there and we have to look at it from lots of different lenses. One of them, for example, is ADA compliance. Another one has to do with resiliency. All of those components have to go into how we move forward.
Carlo Scissura 11:16
Well look, you know, I think you know, the building Congress is your partner in this, and whatever we can do to help move forward. We have some of the greatest talents as part of our membership, both in construction and design, and I think they're ready to help you and now's the time for everyone to come together.
Carlo Scissura 11:36
I think, you know, we, I think it was, I forget it was the posts or the daily news yesterday. The headline was that 70s show, and it was really talking about how we don't want to return to the 70s in New York. And I think when we think about what happened back then it was a lack of investment in the future. I think it's in all of our benefit, and all of our duty to really come together and do whatever we can to invest in the future.
Lorraine Grillo 12:09
I agree, I could not agree more. We don't want to find ourselves in that position again. And as far as the membership of the building Congress, again, most of your members and our members have worked with the SCA and DDC, and we're really excited about that, because we know that, you know, as far as this city is concerned, we have a wealth of talent
Carlo Scissura 12:38
with one of our former art, our immediate past board chair is a former president of SCA and Milo, I know you're on here. Good morning, Milo. And I believe they're Elizabeth Velez, who works very closely with you as well as I'm here. So good morning, Elizabeth. Tell us I know you, you guys did an incredible strategic blueprint at DDC. And the really, the future and we were part of it and had you come speak at our annual meeting last year. Tell us how has the COVID affected that? Or are you still moving forward with that?
Lorraine Grillo 13:18
Well, in the immediate in the immediate time, the blueprint, right now, we've done an update a six month update, and then we did a one year update, but that, unfortunately, is on pause, because of COVID. But the processes that we've laid down, the blueprints are not, we're still moving forward in every area, we have cut down tremendously on a lot of the different components of the process that we went through at DDC. You know, I basically took a lot of the things that I've learned at the SCA, obviously from Milo to make things work better.
Lorraine Grillo 14:05
And we've really, really done an amazing work, taking six months off all of those processes that we've gotten paying people in half the time I'm getting change orders process, you know, things like that, that make life better for our contractors, but also allows us to get these projects done sooner.
Lorraine Grillo 14:31
I'll give you one example. We are working with the library systems to do advanced planning, which was never ever done. Now at SCA we always do building condition assessments every year to see what condition our buildings are in so we know what to focus on in our Capital Planning. that's never been done on the other side. And now we're working with the libraries to look at their buildings. What are going to be their needs in the immediate future? What is going to be the long term needs of these buildings so that we have something to help them make decisions about how we move forward. So it's really, really been very helpful.
Carlo Scissura 15:16
It sounds like that can actually be a blueprint for many agencies across the city as they're looking at, whether it's parks or libraries, or whatever the public "building" is, and I put building in quotes - it would be great to have an assessment across the city have what the needs are. So once again, Lorraine you're ahead of the game on that, so it's good.
Carlo Scissura 15:42
Um, I want to talk a little bit about safety because obviously, that's a big piece of what we're dealing with right now has SCA and or DDC or both, changed your safety protocols and and how people are working. Has that changed much or where you already there?
Lorraine Grillo 16:01
Sure, no, I obviously we are following all the CDC guidelines the DOB guidelines regarding safety. I mean, just to give you an example, um, people at SCA are their temperatures are taken, everybody's wearing a PPE, everybody's social, distancing all of those things that we feel are necessary to protect our people, as well as our contractors on site. I think that there's a checklist that each contractor has to fill out every single day about who's got PPE who's got, you know, the right equipment and the like. So, I think it's really important, their temperatures are taken, if that temperature is over 100.5 I believe they're sent home. They don't come into a job site.
Lorraine Grillo 16:54
So it's, it's really, really important obviously, safety generally is something that we are all have always pay very close attention to. And our safety department at DDC, since we still have so many projects ongoing, they're out every single day, every single day going forward and looking at all of these projects. They've been doing a tremendous job.
Carlo Scissura 17:20
That's great. I want to I want to shift a little bit to recovery on the future. What can the industry, the building industry to do immediately and really long term to help you and SCA and DDC and really the Mayor in the city come back to life in terms of our role in construction and building?
Carlo Scissura 17:43
Because you know, what, one of the I was talking to Fred Dixon who runs NYC and Company A couple of days ago, and and you know, we were chatting about the critical role construction plays in tourism, because if you're not building airports, If you're not fixing train stations, if you're not fixing the MTA and streets and parks, you know, all the great if you're not building cultural institutions, tourism, you know, does not come to New York. So we are tied and I use tourism as one example. But the building industry is tied in everything we do. Even restaurants, as simple as I have people who are opening up restaurants. I, I should not say this, but on Monday, I was on the Upper East Side, looking at a construction site of a new restaurant in a building, and he's blocked. So I just think we aren't so tight and everything.
Carlo Scissura 18:39
But for you, Lorraine, what could we be doing to help you rebuild and open up?
Lorraine Grillo 18:47
Well, that's a really, really good question. And I thank you for that one. As as you were asking the question, I was thinking, obviously, the the key key issue here is getting the federal Governments understand the necessity for infrastructure money. We know that and can't do that alone. And we need the help of the building Congress to do that.
Lorraine Grillo 19:09
But I also think from a very kind of a local point of view, we have to begin to rethink what this city looks like. You talked about restaurants and we need now we're going to need a lot more outdoor restaurant --- in order to stay safe. And this, you know, I think people recognize this virus can come back any time. So we have to prepare ourselves. We have to prepare ourselves with our streets, we have to look at bike lanes, and we have to get used to living with that we have to provide space for pedestrians, we have to have much more outdoor space for people.
Lorraine Grillo 19:51
So what I can say to, to the members of the Building Congress is particularly on the design side, rethink what this should look like to take that and also, on the construction side and also the design side, we now have really, really, really begun to depend on technology. And we have to do that a lot more. We have to, we have to use artificial intelligence and all of those other things that we need, we need to also rethink how we staff our projects, we have to rethink the construction itself. And, and, you know, that's up to the experts in the field. I'm not I am simply always looking at ways that this city can change and grow.
Lorraine Grillo 20:45
You know, I listened to the mayor all the time --- talking about how we should come out of this better, and I really believe that I think we need to we can't go back to business as usual. We have to look at it differently. We have to modernize. And we have to be prepared for change.
Carlo Scissura 21:06
Change is... what's what's the old saying? changes the only constant in life, right? And we will change. And we will come out of this stronger and better.
Lorraine Grillo 21:17
You know, one of the things that struck me when I came to DDC. And believe me, they have a terrific group at DDC. But I would ask questions like, Well, why don't we do it this way? And they say, you know, we get a response. Well, I don't know. We've always done it this way. Right. And we have to stop that. Thank you. We really do
Carlo Scissura 21:39
I agree. I agree. Um, I think one of the questions I'm seeing: While designing construction on pause, will your agencies be addressing administrative challenges, such as CO approval, payment processing, contract approval, does that Work continue at the agencies?
Lorraine Grillo 22:02
Absolutely, absolutely. I will tell you, I am so amazed at how people have adapted to teleworking. And that work the workflow has been in some cases, I will tell you this and you'll appreciate it. One of my road contractors said to me very recently, um, things are really, really good. As a matter of fact, actually, I'm getting paid faster, you know, so, I think there are real, some real benefits on people focused on this stuff. Everybody's actually moving forward with all of those processes.
Carlo Scissura 22:45
We like hearing when contractors and designers get paid that's it, that's a good thing.
Carlo Scissura 22:51
Um, you know, i wanna get back to thinking differently and there are a couple of comments Lorraine to you, which is a thank you for emphasising we thinking how the city looks like. So I think we all agree that that's important.
Carlo Scissura 23:05
But as we do look at what the city looks like, one of the big programs that I know we supported, many people supported, including the council was the jails, the whole the jails. And, you know, there, there's a couple of questions here, about an update on the status of the jails, design, build RPM, etc. But tell us where we are with that.
Lorraine Grillo 23:32
Well, we are the DDC is committed to the jails. We are slightly delayed in the RFP process. I will be honest about that. But we intend to move forward, you know, in the next month or two. And again, all I can tell you is that this time, we are completely and still totally committed to that project.
Carlo Scissura 23:58
Great.
Lorraine Grillo 23:58
That's really the best thing. I can say,
Carlo Scissura 24:01
okay, no, and I think that's fair. And I think it goes back to what we discussed a few minutes ago as we come out of this. And as we think about, you know, July 1, when the next fiscal year begins and capital budgets start again, what are the priorities for the city? And, you know, maybe we can't do everything anymore for a year or two. But we still have some things because, you know, for I, in my time with Marty Markowitz, I ran capital budgets for many years. So there is a difference between the operating and the capital and you have a little more leeway with capital than you do with operating obviously, with bonding and things like that.
Carlo Scissura 24:41
But, again, as we you know, you mentioned coastal resilience, critical no matter why we have to find money to build that. I would argue that issuing RFPs on the five borough jail's plan, also a critical thing for the future of the city. building schools, critically. There are some things that are, what did they say mom and apple pie. And those are clearly mom and apple pies. So by the way, Happy Mother's Day, Lorraine, and to all the mothers.
Lorraine Grillo 25:11
Oh, thank you very much!
Carlo Scissura 25:16
Are there timelines available for doing business with DDC and or SCA, or things just kind of at a stop?
Lorraine Grillo 25:30
Yeah, as I said to earlier, there are a number of projects, the ongoing projects at DDC, the infrastructure projects are still ongoing. We're still in construction. As I said earlier, we are on pause on a lot of our designs our public building side and as far as new projects at SCA but you know, like anything else, this is going to start up the question... I don't know exactly when and I'm not gonna lie to you, but I am To say that, you know, it's we're going to depending upon, you know, what the federal government does and depending upon the the cash flow and the like, we're gonna have to prioritize projects, and then move forward hopefully, slowly and then getting faster and faster and faster.
Carlo Scissura 26:18
Right. That's great. Um, somebody asked about modular construction. Given the changes, are you are you going to start looking at I know you mentioned technology and innovation is modular something about for either agency.
Lorraine Grillo 26:35
You know, on the SCA side, we we actually attempted modular construction A number of years ago on and Milo might remember that because he was president at the time, and you know, there was some real problems with it for us.
Lorraine Grillo 26:52
The idea of modular construction sounds really great. But when you're Building a school and you need double height gym and you need all kinds of, you know, amenities in that school building a modular building may not work. And in my in our history, it was not the best choice. And I remember - and Milo can attest to this - there were a number of modular contractors and companies that were interested in began to do work for us. And before the end of that, that era, all four of them had gone out of business. So we don't want to get stuck into it. But let me give an example where modular might work. Okay, on the DDC side, for example, everybody always talks about comfort stations and parks and things like that, you know, a one story facility, that might work. That's something we should look at. So, you know, there are opportunities out there for modular construction, but you Not really, very successfully when we did them for schools.
Carlo Scissura 28:05
That's fair. Um, one of the questions we have from and this is from a few people in higher education is, with the governor's announcement yesterday of working on this new, big project on reimagining schools and buildings and things. The question how does that affect school construction? Both on a local level and then colleges and universities? Does that change your thinking Lorraine, or are you full steam ahead?
Lorraine Grillo 28:36
Well, again, you know, it's interesting that you're asking that question because I recently got a call from the gentleman who's in charge of capital for DD for Washington, DC. And we talked a bit about putting together a group A throughout the country in large cities where in fact school construction is a big part of the budget.
Lorraine Grillo 29:00
For example, when we reopen, we might want to think about, you know, where do we place hand washing stations? Where do we put social distancing markings and things like that. So we're talking about it from that perspective. And then the governor's press conference, he talked about reimagining, and I have a feeling that a lot of this will have to do with technology and how we use it in the future. So yeah, I mean, right now, we've been always installing computer stations and the like, in the classrooms that might double who knows, you know, we'll, we're going to work very closely with the educators to see what the best way forward would be. So yeah, yeah, we're open to any kind of change.
Carlo Scissura 29:50
Great, great. And I think you know, we are here and actually annual conference called Ascend on innovation and technology and best practices through our innovation Council. And obviously, we won't have an in person conference in June. But we will have several web conferences throughout the year.
Carlo Scissura 30:13
And I think one of the things we should think about is, how can some of our great designers and engineers help SCA and DDC, think about, you know, how do you move forward?
Carlo Scissura 30:25
You know, my mother, as you may remember, was a lunch lady. And well in Brooklyn for over 20 years ps 204, first McKinley, and then ps 204. And I remember her and her friends in the kitchen. And I'm every time I went into a school building when I was on the school board, I always started in the kitchen area, because that's really where things get done. But they always I remember for years saying, you know, we're still serving kids lunch in these cafeterias the way we did when we were in school. Why don't we get to think differently? And you know, you think about it right? Social distancing, and a cafeteria, kids on top of each other. I bet you cafeterias of the future in school buildings will look different. And I think architects have some great talent and ideas on how to make all these changes.
Lorraine Grillo 31:19
It's interesting. That's one of my pet peeves has to do with school kitchens. If you go into a school kitchen now, you will find equipment that hasn't been you used in decades. Yeah. And I actually work really closely with food services. I mean, there is this huge machine, a bread making machine that has been standard in every school kitchen since I can remember. And I don't remember the last time anybody in a school kitchen has actually made bread. So we've been working really closely with food services, kind of re-thinking the way we should go forward?
Carlo Scissura 32:03
Yeah. And and by the way that it's it's not just the cafeteria, right? It's the gym, it's the classroom. It's honestly, the offices, you have buildings where you have four or five secretaries, parent coordinators sitting on top of each other. I mean, we all are gonna have to think differently
Carlo Scissura 32:21
On school sites, does this make SCA think a little bit more about outdoor space as you're building new schools?
Lorraine Grillo 32:30
You know, we'd love to have outdoor space in every single school, as you well know. But there are certainly some communities and neighborhoods where that's almost impossible. So we're always always thinking about if, for example, we do a joint project with a developer, there has to be some outdoor space, sometimes that's rooftop space, because that's the only place you can put that outdoor space. You know, years and years ago. We used to look for sites that were, you know, an acre or two acres. Now we're lucky if we get a site that's 15,000 square feet.
Carlo Scissura 33:08
Wow.
Lorraine Grillo 33:08
So you've got it. You've got to work with what you've got. But we have to include that outdoor space always.
Carlo Scissura 33:17
One of the things I want to move to now is MWB/E. Obviously, I think particularly with SCA, you guys have been on the forefront, innovative. I know you've brought that thinking to and the model to DDC. But you know, one of the one of the most severe issues about cutting design work and RFPs and building new schools or fixing new schools is undealt MWB/E contractors, because you've built it up so great Lorraine. As you cut, they may be the unintended consequences. So maybe let's spend a little time on where you are. Were you thinking how the MWB/E program is going on both agencies and, and what we see the future like for this?
Lorraine Grillo 34:08
Sure, sure. You know, this has been one of the things that, you know, in my 10 years, as President has been always at the forefront of my thinking it's very, very important. And, you know, we we've done extraordinarily well at SCA and last year, FY-19. We had Oh, I'm sorry, this was this was actually a... Yeah, at the end of FY-19 $725 million, went to MWB/E primes. 350 million dollars went to subcontracts for MWB/E. I mean, that is amazing. That's a billion dollars to MWB/E in FY19. We've already, you know, done this year, about $99 million in prime contracts for MWB/E's and another 310 million in sub contracts and we hadn't even hit our bidding season, which is, you know, very upsetting to me because I know we can do really, really well.
Lorraine Grillo 35:22
I am committed 100% committed to the MWB/E world and to, you know, the future for our city. They are the future for our city, and we have to continue to support and have them grow throughout this city. And that's not going to let up as far as I'm concerned.
Lorraine Grillo 35:47
The one area that we really had trouble with, but have now begun to really increase is on the architecture and engineering side. Okay. 18% of our contracts at SCA 13% of our A+E contracts have gone to MWB/E's. We're going to do better, and we're going to continue to do better. But um, this is a, this is really it's making me struggle because to see those all the hard work that has gone into raising up our MWB/E program, and to have this pause, I know they are hurting the most. And we have made particular efforts throughout our pay payment process and change order process to make sure that those contractors are paid as quickly as we possibly can. And and to know that we can keep them secure. It's really, really important.
Lorraine Grillo 36:48
Now, on the DDC side, on the DDC side, we've begun to establish a business development unit that will be able to do things like we do at SCA, which, you know, we're mentoring contractors, we're giving them opportunities that they've never had before. And so that that's a program that we're beginning to. But you know, on the DDC side, even without those programs, the last quarter we were at 32% MWB/E utilization, which is better than any other city.
Carlo Scissura 37:28
Thats amazing. Yeah.
Lorraine Grillo 37:29
So we're really, you know, I think one of the things that's really important for anybody in the city is to have the leadership of any agency or any organization, be committed to this. So that senior staff and and have that information flowed down to the other staff, is everybody's on the same page, and that's what I found at SCA. We're all committed to this. I'm feeling the same thing over DDC as well, which is great.
Carlo Scissura 38:06
That's great. Um, someone's asking about MWB/E supplier utilization. Is that something that DDC and SCA look at?
Lorraine Grillo 38:16
Absolutely. I don't have the numbers in front of me. I'm sorry. But it's certainly something we often look we actually report on once a month on that information.
Carlo Scissura 38:28
Right. Um, someone is asking about new registrations, including change orders that are not happening. Is that also on pause?
Lorraine Grillo 38:39
Yeah. Yeah. Again, we are processing them throughout our agencies. Unfortunately, because of the cash flow those things are not getting registered. They're not getting pushed out as quickly as we would like.
Lorraine Grillo 38:56
But again, you know, I want I would like everybody to Take a breath. And understand we're still with you. We're still working on these things. And I think as soon as we have some opportunity, you know, some cash flow opportunity, those things would get paid, because they're all ready to go.
Carlo Scissura 39:17
Well, we'll come back to you on that in a few weeks.
Lorraine Grillo 39:20
I'm sure!
Carlo Scissura 39:23
You know, it's interesting just to go back to the MWB/E community, I think and really specifically on school construction. Obviously, the the amount of new buildings and work happening both in old buildings and new construction has helped build up an MWB/E contracting community. And again, as we think about the long term plans for New York and prioritization of what happens next, if we want to keep the MWB/E companies strong and not closing their doors, I think we have to look at Where we invest our money and that would seem to be a great opportunity. So I think that's a great,
Lorraine Grillo 40:07
I couldn't agree more.
Carlo Scissura 40:09
Um, someone say asking there of 100% web architecture and interior design firm. How do they get on the DDC small firm design excellent list to receive RFPs?
Lorraine Grillo 40:25
That that's pretty easy. We have a terrific Chief Diversity Officer at DDC, Maggie Austin. And my suggestion would be to have whomever is interested, send Maggie an email and she will be in contact she or her staff will be in contact, and we'll move forward.
Carlo Scissura 40:47
That's great. Good and Maggie is amazing. By the way, your I will say this, both teams both SCA and DDC, you have some of the most stellar people I think working for Lorraine is a prerequisite to do great things in the city. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank
Lorraine Grillo 41:06
You know, one of the things that I often say, if I have any skill at all, it is picking great people to do their to do this work and they've all been terrific. Suzanne Vieira at SCA is a superstar, an absolute superstar.
Carlo Scissura 41:26
Yeah, you I mean, I could I could start rattling off names in both agencies. I won't because I will forget one person and then not saying how come you didn't mention me but you know, I will say I have to give a shout out to Gaile at SCA. Because over the many years of my love for schools, I have bothered you and her many times with school sites and whether it's been a yes or no or maybe we'll see. I can tell you she's always at least followed up with people and You guys are great. So thank you. Thank you,
Lorraine Grillo 42:02
Gale is, terrific.
Carlo Scissura 42:04
It's a labor of love. You know, our people. I really got to know Lorraine when I was first on the school board. And then on the Community Education Council, and I spent almost 10 years of my life doing that in District 20 in Brooklyn, and knowing nothing about public school education, I determined my two goals being in service to public education were one helping parents navigate the system, because I think that was the most important thing we can do. And two building schools because we were so crowded here in Brooklyn and Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst and Sunset Park and, and Lorraine under your leadership and the Presidents that you worked for, and the US president, a lot of great buildings came into being in Brooklyn and they are helping all communities native born immigrant, It's just incredible to see. And it's created jobs. It's put people to work, obviously construction. So thank you for really, for focusing on that.
Lorraine Grillo 43:13
Thank you for your advocacy all these years. But I will tell you my history goes back to being a school board member myself, --- And at the time, I ran the Facilities Committee. So I kind of had a little bit of a sense 30 years ago, that would be my future.
Carlo Scissura 43:33
That's awesome. I bet you're a fellow school boarder. So those were interesting days in New York politics. Well, another coffee talk on school board politics Sunday.
Carlo Scissura 43:47
I - we have a couple of minutes left. I know everyone's busy and doing things. too quickly. Quick two questions that I think are interesting. legislative changes that would allow Asian owned businesses to be counted at DDC. Has that happened? I assume that's for the MWB/E program.
Lorraine Grillo 44:09
Um, I'm not sure I that's the first I've heard a question like that. Let me let me look into it. Okay, follow, I'll use you to get back.
Carlo Scissura 44:20
Perfect. You know, one of the things and this question is, I think on schools I'm seeing, obviously there, there are different labor unions, in terms of schools, there's teachers, there's, you know, DC 37 principles, etc. How have they been working with you in terms of figuring out how schools look like in the future?
Lorraine Grillo 44:48
Again, this is really, as you know, we have an eight week COVID crisis on our hands. We really haven't begun the process, but I know And again, very recently over the last couple of the mayor's briefings every day, he's talked about rethinking of the way the city looks. And it led me to thinking that we have to look at how the schools Look, I've already been in contact with the chancellor and asked him to stop, you know, think about putting a team together, including all of the unions to, to really sit and go through it and figure out what would be the best way forward. So yeah, I mean, I'm totally look, anybody who knows me and knows my history. I'm a union person, and I believe in them and I am a supporter, and I work very closely with building trades unions, and so anything that is inclusive is what I'm looking for.
Carlo Scissura 45:54
That's great. That's great. You know, I want to go back to talking about the teams both SCA and DDC. Obviously, we're going to get back to work, you know, more than just remotely soon. And you have two incredible teams both, as we said, SCA and DDC, I do have to give a shout out to Andrew Hollowick, who used to work for me at the building congress. And we bother him with questions all the time!
Carlo Scissura 46:19
So, but how does it look like moving forward for your staff? Have you started thinking about "How does a city agency adapt to the new the new normal?"
Lorraine Grillo 46:32
That's a really, really interesting question. And you know, first of all, every single person that works for DDC and works for SCA is really really, really important to me. And you know, we've had Unfortunately, some folks who've been affected. We lost a few people and we lost a lot of the the staff members have lost relatives. Parents, and it's been really, really tough.
Lorraine Grillo 47:03
So my goal first is to protect those people and to make sure that they all have jobs and they're all working and they're all moving forward. Will we have to make changes in organization? Perhaps. We'll continually as you know, at DDC, with our blueprint, we've made a lot of changes. For example, we put a committee together of change orders and, and auditors, to sit down to make sure that everybody sits together. And we're not passing the paper from one department to another department. So that a change order takes, you know, six months before it's paid. These people sit together, they discuss it across the desk, and they and they make sure they come to resolution.
Lorraine Grillo 47:51
So, you know, we've got ongoing processes within DDC that are making changes that that makes sense to everybody. At SCA, you know, part of me is, you know, don't don't don't change what's working. But again, I think teleworking will become a large portion of what we do. Safety is premier now it's very, very important, though. Yeah, I think we still have lots more to think about.
Carlo Scissura 48:24
You're getting a compliment here: "The labor law compliance team at the SEC is phenomenal!"
Lorraine Grillo 48:31
They really are!
Carlo Scissura 48:33
The follow up to that is, is there a similar team at DDC?
Lorraine Grillo 48:38
There actually is a similar team, which is just really, really begun. And that's we're done under under Andrew and myself and the rest of the team. We found that, um, you know, it's interesting, we've had inspectors and folks like that at DDC that weren't being used appropriately, we need to know that everybody is paying prevailing wage, we need to know this. And that's what they're doing now. And we're modeling through one of the programs that we have LCMS. We're taking that from SCA and we're modeling it at DDC.
Lorraine Grillo 49:21
So I'm very, very fortunate that these two agencies are in the same building, that we have a lot of the ability to easily bring information back and forth, and to use different processes that SCA has had in place and bring them over to DDC. You know, DDC has always been, you know, it's a city agency. So it goes slow. Well, there's no need for that. And we don't believe that and the people at DDC have stepped up enormously.
Carlo Scissura 49:56
Right. That's wonderful. Two questions - and we have, we have about 10 minutes left. So I wanna get these - two questions:
Carlo Scissura 50:05
On school construction will SCA projects be able to work once the pause is lifted? How do you see that happening? And what do you see the future of the pre K and three k build out?
Lorraine Grillo 50:21
Right, Right. You know, well to get to the pre K and three k right now, pre K is ongoing. Three K is on pause. And I think it really has to do with, you know, budgets, not only construction budgets, but you know, personnel budgets and the like. --- PK has been such a tremendous success. I don't think people will stand for stoppage on...
Carlo Scissura 50:51
My daughter is --- PK right now. It's the most amazing thing.
Lorraine Grillo 50:58
It really is. It's just been amazing to watch these, you know, four year olds going into a classroom and just learning so much. But school construction overall. I mean, look, we've been a successful agency. We've been on budget, we've been on time. So as money becomes available, I believe, and I think we all know the mayor, education is one of his very top priorities. And so I'm really confident that we're going to be able to move forward with a lot of the plans that we've had.
Carlo Scissura 51:42
Great, that's exciting. So you know, I've asked this question of my guests in the past. And we had we had one of your protegees Melanie la Rocca comissioner of DOB, and we both sang your praises i hope it got back to you. But I will say this Melanie learned from the best and she is doing phenomenal work
Lorraine Grillo 52:08
She really is! I'm so proud of her! It's like watching your child grow up and be so tremendously successful. She's wonderful.
Carlo Scissura 52:18
I will also say, you know, Melanie and I share one thing in common, which is, we both serve this chief of staff's to strong, independent minded people. And I think that's been a good training ground for both of us. So it's a good thing.
Carlo Scissura 52:35
But tell us about you. Laureen How have you been spending your pause? Are you cooking? Are you
Lorraine Grillo 52:43
Oh my god.
Carlo Scissura 52:44
is --- doing all the cooking?
Lorraine Grillo 52:47
Yeah, no, I'm cooking. It's, um, well, a couple of things. When when the before the pause, um, you know, part of my life was restaurants. Probably four nights a week, and the other three
Carlo Scissura 53:04
I know the feeling!
Lorraine Grillo 53:05
Right? And the other three basically getting food delivered, you know, and now I'm cooking more than I've cooked in decades, and I'm making the sauce. So you would, you know...
Carlo Scissura 53:18
Yes I've been doing a lot of that.
Lorraine Grillo 53:20
All of that! which is really, really great. Um, you know, you talked earlier about working from home. And it's interesting anybody who ever said working from home, it's easier than going to the office? is crazy. The difference with working from home is there are no boundaries. People will call you at six o'clock in the morning or 10 o'clock at night. After all your home. Why not? You've got nothing else to do! Well, it's been it's been challenging you really has. I'm on the phone, literally eight hours a day. And without a break, because, as I've said, there's no lunch hour. There's no getting away from this or you're just there and you're there to answer. And I'm one of these crazy people who, you know if the phone rings I'm gonna answer it doesn't matter when it is. So it's been a challenge but again, getting to know my husband again and really spending time together. So it's good.
Carlo Scissura 54:28
That's great. Well, for those of you that don't know, I happen to be a big fan, not just of Lorraine but ---eve as well. So I'm interested in question just popped up: Ah, where do you see the future of the mentor program with the SCA and DDC?
Lorraine Grillo 54:44
Oh, absolutely stronger than ever. You know, we're gonna have some catching up to do after this because it's been a lot of unfortunately a pause. But no, this this is my commitment to this city. I intend to make sure that that program is strong and with leadership, like Suzanne, for example. And now Maggie who's actually developing a business development unit, we're going to make sure it works and works well. This is a commitment. That's very, very important to me.
Carlo Scissura 55:18
Great. For those that don't know, Maggie, you should know her because I think she's a leader really in across the city. Final question. I think just as we're all on pause, construction companies, engineers, design architects, what should we be doing to gear up to be ready for when either SCA or DDC says we're back to work, one of the things we should be doing right now?
Lorraine Grillo 55:45
Well, well, as far as I'm concerned, I really think that from on the design side, I really think this is such a great opportunity for them to use their skills to rethink and to use technology in a different way and to and to really think about what the needs of our kids are for the future.
Lorraine Grillo 56:10
On the construction side, all I can say is safety, safety, safety. Make sure that your folks are protected, and that you really are vigilant in making sure that these folks are ready to go to work. And they understand more than anything else. Nothing else is as important as their health. And that's what we want to say.
Carlo Scissura 56:36
Well, I think that's a great place to to end our espresso for today. This has been great, Lorraine, thank you. It was really great for our members to hear from you. Thank you for all you do. Obviously we're in this together. Happy Mother's Day again. Happy Mother's Day to the moms listening in.
Carlo Scissura 56:56
We will be announcing our next guest very shortly. For next week, so stay tuned and have a wonderful day. Stay safe. I say this every week: get out, get some fresh air, wear your mask shop local try and, you know order something here and there buy a gift certificate from a local store. It's important that we have them when we get back.
Lorraine Grillo 57:22
Thank you for everything, Carlo. Really.
Carlo Scissura 57:24
Thanks for watching. Have a great day, everybody. Thank you.
Lorraine Grillo 57:27
Okay.
