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Want to make banker money without stepping foot on Wall Street? Try plumbing for the New York City Housing Authority.
From July 2024 through June 2025, NYCHA plumber supervisor Jakub Markowski earned $465,000, including $332,000 for nearly 2,600 hours in overtime — more than the mayor and City Council speaker make combined.
While he collected these checks, Markowski also operated two private plumbing companies.
The Buildings Department is now investigating him.
As the city’s ascendant socialist left pushes for more housing in public or nonprofit hands, NYCHA’s history presents a sordid tale of dysfunction and corruption, with Markowski the latest apparent example.
Lest we forget, Shola Olatoye, NYCHA’s chairwoman under Mayor Bill de Blasio, lied for years under oath to the federal government about nonexistent lead-paint inspections and other safety failures.
As part of the feds’ settlement with the city, since January 2019, an independent monitor has been in place to oversee NYCHA’s compliance.
Yet federal oversight has not stopped the rot. In 2024, Damien Williams, the Biden-appointed US attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged 70 NYCHA current and former employees with bribery and extortion.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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John Ketcham is a legal policy fellow and director of Cities at the Manhattan Institute.