Troubled NYC Housing Authority Chief Gets $515,000 Salary – More Than Mayor and Governor Combined

While public housing residents suffer from a plethora of issues, the chief of New York City’s troubled Housing Authority made more than half a million dollars last year — more than the mayor and governor combined.

The $515,000 paid to Vito Mustaciuolo, general manager and chief operating officer of NYCHA, was more than any other municipal employee, news outlet The City reported.

NYCHA residents face serious problems in their apartments and buildings, from elevators that are chronically broken, to heat and hot water that disappear for days or weeks, to bug infestations, to mold infestations, and toxic lead that have spurred lawsuits and a federal monitor to oversee the agency.

Mustaciuolo collected the huge sum because he was allowed to cash in more than double the limit for unused vacation days, The City reported.

When Mayor bill de Blasio asked Mustaciuolo to serve as general manager of NYCHA in 2018, Mustaciuolo said he would only leave his position as a top official with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development if he could take with him 662 unused vacation days he’d accrued over 39 years on the city payroll.

While the department only allows employees to cash in 261 unused vacation days, and NYCHA normally would only accept a transfer of 54 days, they made an exception and allowed Mustaciuolo to cash in twice the limit.

In the 2021 fiscal year that ended June 30, Mustaciulo collected a $258,000 salary, with another $257,000 for accrued time off.

Taxpayers are being milked twice: first by having their taxed pumped into a public housing system that only gets worse and secondly by funding huge paychecks for the bureaucrats who do nothing to improve it.

The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.