Statement from New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer

Out of an abundance of caution, and in an effort to maintain the health and safety of our employees, effective Friday, March 13, 2020 all Comptroller’s Office staff are to work from home until further notice. Additional information regarding telecommuting will be provided to all Comptroller’s Office employees via email. All functions of the office will continue.

Changes to Services:

• In light of Executive Order 202.38 tolling the period for filing legal notice until July 6, 2020, the service windows for the New York City Office of the Comptroller located at 1 Centre Street, New York, New York 10007 are closed.
  During this period we will:
• For Notices of Claim:
  • • Continue to process notices of claim through our electronic filing system at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/claims/e-filing/.
    • Accept notices of claim by registered or certified mail. These notices of claim will be considered filed as of the date they are received by the post office, but these notices of claim will not begin to be processed until at least June 6, 2020. Please note, General Municipal Law requires that notices of claim filed by registered or certified mail must be notarized. At this time, we recommend electronic filing which will continue to be processed normally during this period and does not require notarization.
    • As a temporary alternative to personal service, during this public health emergency, we will accept documents in PDF format at a newly established email address BLAmail@comptroller.nyc.gov through June 6, 2020. Please note, that at this time our system is only capable of accepting PDF documents.
• For Labor Law Claims:
  • • Continue to accept complaints sent by email to laborlaw@comptroller.nyc.gov.
    • Continue to accept written complaints sent by mail to the Office of the NYC Comptroller, Bureau of Labor Law, One Centre Street, Room 651, New York NY  10007. These complaints will be considered filed as of the date they are received by the post office.
    • All complaints filed on March 20, 2020 through July 6, 2020 shall deemed to have been filed on March 19, 2020, for purposes of the wage and benefit compliance period.

• General Municipal Law Section 50-g Prior Written Notice Records
  Please be advised that Comptroller employees are working remotely until further notice because of COVID-19. Therefore, prior notice indices are not available for review in the office at this time. Please submit a FOIL request on the Comptroller’s website at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/freedom-of-information-law-foil-requests/submit-online/ . Please indicate that your request is pursuant to GML Section 50-g.

• Although all functions of the Comptroller’s Office are continuing, there may be delays in completing our response to your FOIL request, especially if your request seeks records maintained in hard-copy form only.  As required by N.Y.S. Public Officers Law 89(3)(a), within five business days of receiving your FOIL request, we will provide you with an acknowledgement of your FOIL request that provides an approximate date by which we expect to complete our response to your FOIL request. Additionally, please note that until further notice all administrative appeals of responses to FOIL requests should be submitted electronically to foil@comptroller.nyc.gov.(https://comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/freedom-of-information-law-foil-requests/overview/)
• The New York City Office of the Comptroller may have limited ability to accept paper contract submissions through the Central Image Facility (CIF). CIF will be closed for receipt of contract documents until further notice. Please continue to check this site for updates.

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