In response to NYC Comptroller Lander’s analysis on Mayor Adam’s Ethnic and Community Media Office ad spending here, New York City Hall has provided the following statement.
“Statement: Comptroller Lander is once again showing he lacks a basic understanding of how the law works and how to do simple math, questioning his ability to even maintain the current job he has. While Local Law 83 does not require the city to allocate half of our advertising budget to ethnic and community media outlets, the Adams administration does exactly that. In fact, in Fiscal Year 2024, 51 percent of our advertising budget was spent on ethnic and community media — a percentage that has grown every year since we took office.
“The Adams administration has also increased access for our ethnic and community media partners to the Mayor’s Office through weekly roundtables and interviews, as well as providing them with seats in City Hall’s Room 9, which was previously reserved for legacy media outlets. Mayor Adams remains focused — and undeterred — on providing equitable access to community papers that have long been ignored by politicians like Brad Lander.
“On background:
- LL83 is not a requirement, it is a goal for City agencies to reach 50% ECM spending. Regardless, ECM percentage compliance went up each fiscal year.
- NY1 and 1010Wins (included as ECM in FY24) only account for roughly 2% in ECM compliance. They were not included to “boost” our compliance as the comptroller incorrectly stated.
- The comptroller’s letter compares the amount of FY22 ECM spend with the amount of FY24 ECM spend, which is misleading as all city spending (including advertising) was reduced due to fiscal responsibilities. Specifically, millions of additional spending was made as a result of federal CoViD-19 emergency funds provided by the federal government. Those dollars have since been removed (under the Biden administration).
- Despite these financial constraints, city agencies have continued to consistently increase the usage of ECM outlets. (FY22 – 18% compliance / FY24 – 51% compliance).
- Please see graphs below, which are publicly available.”
Kayla Mamelak Altus
Press Secretary
Office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams
The Comptroller’s Office was not immediately available to comment as of the time of publication.
Featured image credit: DepositPhotos.com
