NYC to keep $25M in contracts with landscaper sentenced in bribery, bid-rigging schemes: ‘Betrayal of public trust'
New York City has no plans to mow down the multi-million-dollar contracts it has with the owner of a landscaping company who was just convicted in a $2.4 million bribery scheme and a separate bid-rigging con.
Glenn Griffin, who owns Westchester County-based Griffin's Landscaping, will get to keep the tree planting contracts he secured with the Parks Department — which total about $25 million — despite more than two dozen Big Apple councilmembers and other officials demanding that the city cut off its relationship with the landscaper.
Griffin, 56, was sentenced to two years in prison last Wednesday after he bribed a Town of Cortlandt employee to illegally dump truckloads of 'harmful' concrete, soil and other unauthorized materials on public property, federal officials said.
Glenn Griffin was sentenced to two years in prison last Wednesday after he bribed a town employee in Westchester County, federal officials said.
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He was also sentenced last week for conning the nearby village of Croton-on-Hudson by making 'sham, non-competitive, and inflated bids' for entities that he didn't work for to ensure he would be the lowest bidder each time, the feds added.
Still, Griffin's Landscaping will be hired to help the Parks Department meet its goal of filling 'every available' street tree planting location in less than a decade, with about 18,000 trees added each year.
The company has been one of the department's highest-performing contractors since 2017. A Parks Department representative told The Post that the pool of qualified vendors for the work fulfilled by Griffin's Landscaping is limited compared to other types of contracts.
The representative also defended the decision to keep the tree planting contracts with Griffin and his company, stating that it was 'appropriate within the procurement rules and in the best interest of New Yorkers' — as long as the operations continue to be overseen by the city's Department of Investigation.
Griffin bribed a former town foreman for him and his workers to access Arlo Lane, a Town of Cortlandt facility, and dump 'hundreds of large truckloads' of materials.
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Meanwhile, other allegations against Griffin and at least one associated company include Fair Labor Standards Act violations and non-payment of overtime wages to workers, according to councilmember Shekar Krishnan.
'Glenn Griffin's indictment is just another example in a long list of corruption that Griffin and his Westchester landscaping company are involved in,' Krishnan said in a statement.
'In light of his two-year prison sentence, NYC Parks must end all contracts with Griffin's.'
Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson blasted the relationship with Griffin as 'unacceptable.'
'Glenn Griffin's actions represent a deep betrayal of public trust, and it is unacceptable that Griffin's Landscaping still holds millions in active city contracts,' she said.
'We have a responsibility to uphold integrity, protect workers, and ensure public dollars are spent with accountability and transparency.'
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