NYC comptroller Brad Lander laughs over Eric Adams’ vow to not ‘hide the cost’ of migrant tent city

Comptroller Brad Lander couldn’t contain his laughter when a video clip was played on NY1 Monday night showing Mayor Eric Adams vow not to “hide the cost” of the tent city he’d built for migrants before abruptly scrapping the plan.

Lander’s reaction was ostensibly sparked by Adams having pegged the cost at around $650,000 — despite a report from the city’s Independent Budget Office that estimated the cost of building and operating the tent city at $16 million.

Lander last week called the tent city a “debacle” and his appearance on “Inside City Hall” came after Adams lashed out at him for demanding a detailed breakdown of the spending.

“The job of the comptroller is to hold City Hall accountable and also to work together, and we try really hard to do both those things,” Lander said.

“Look, we want to know what the cost was of setting the tents up,  first at Orchard Beach — where people had said it was going to flood, and they set it up and then they took it down — then they set it up at Randall’s Island when a lot of folks said it would make more sense to rent hotels, which could be used for shelter in the long term.”

Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol has said the city spent a total of about $325,000 building the Randall’s Island facility and the same amount building and then demobilizing” the earlier one, which was never occupied.

City Hall has refused to reveal any other costs but the IBO estimated Sunday that $16 million has or will be spent on the Randall’s Island tent city, a migrant “Navigation Resource Center” in Midtown Manhattan and translation services at homeless shelters.

On Tuesday, The Post saw workers in the process of dismantling the Randall’s Island tents, with one saying the city had clearly spent “millions” of dollars on the ill-fated project.

“Gassing up all these generators multiple times every day, septic guys hauling away the waste three or four times a day — they’ll hit $10 million by the time they’re done, no sweat!” the worker said.

Matthew McDermott

Matthew McDermott

Matthew McDermott

Trailers brought to the site are already being hauled away “and I hear the tents start getting broken down tomorrow morning,” the worker said.

“I don’t know if everyone’s union. I know we are,” he added.

On Monday, Adams blasted Lander for sending him a Friday letter about the cost of the tent cities “and then he’s talking about it like he sent the letter a week ago and we didn’t give him the information.”

“Let’s work together, Brad. Listen, you sent a letter on Friday. Give us days to respond to your letter. We’re not going to hide the cost of anything,” he said during an unrelated news conference at City Hall.

Adams also defended his spending, saying the tent construction showed the city was prepared to deal with crises.

“I am just really baffled by those that don’t realize the successful execution of a plan,” Adams said.

In addition, the mayor said neither President Biden nor Gov. Kathy Hochul had offered to provide the city with emergency aid because “no one wanted to talk about it” ahead of last week’s midterm elections.

“I talked about funding in the midst of the campaign season but it seemed like people would be more focused on running around from one location to the next,” he said.

As of Saturday, more than 24,600 migrants have arrived in the Big Apple and more than 17,900 were being housed in 58 emergency shelters and four processing facilities, including the tent city, according to City Hall.

On Randall’s Island, several migrant residents said Tuesday that they were eager to be moved to the Watson Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where the city has opened a replacement facility.

“I am very happy to go because it is very cold here. My hands are the coldest! I am wearing three layers of clothes to bed and I still shake at night,” said Abraham Moises, 20, from Venezuela.

Julio Caesar, 33, from Ecuador, also complained about the conditions.

“It’s cold here and there are no women. Each is bad but more bad together!” he said.

The Post also saw a group of migrants board an MTA bus and travel to the Watson Hotel, where they got out and were escorted into the lobby by two National Guard members in military uniforms.

The bus then returned to Randall’s Island and picked up another group of migrants.

Additional reporting by Desheania Andrews