S 7870: Requires the commissioner of the New York city parks and recreation development to establish an application process for sole-source concession agreements; provides for enforcement of such agreements.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7870 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE May 12, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Cities 1 AN ACT to require the commissioner of the parks and recreation depart- ment in New York city to create a formal publicly-available applica- tion process for sole-source concession agreements The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Sole-source concession agreements. 1. (a) Within six months 2 of the effective date of this act, the commissioner of parks and recre- 3 ation in the city of New York shall establish a formal publicly-availa- 4 ble application process for sole-source concession agreements and shall 5 receive inquiries to initiate such sole-source concession negotiations. 6 (b) Within 120 days of an application, the city shall respond to any 7 application to detail the parameters of a negotiation or deny the appli- 8 cation with cause that may be appealed. 9 (c) In the initial application response to detail six-month benchmarks 10 along the three-year timeline for various components of the concession 11 agreement to be negotiated. 12 (d) Within three years of the date that a response was provided to a 13 not-for-profit organization, the city shall complete any sole-source 14 concession negotiations. 15 2. Enforcement. (a) If the city fails to respond to an application 16 within 180 days, independent arbitration is authorized to generate a 17 sole-source concession agreement within six months. The city shall 18 adhere to the determination of the arbitrator. 19 (b) If the city fails to generate a sole-source concession agreement 20 within the three-year timeline established pursuant to paragraph (d) of 21 subdivision one of this act, independent arbitration is authorized to 22 generate a sole-source concession agreement within six months post-dead- 23 line. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD11963-01-5 
 S. 7870 2 1 (c) The city parks, revenue and community outreach and partnership 2 development divisions shall oversee such sole-source concession agree- 3 ments. 4 (d) The franchise concession review committee shall grant approval of 5 any sole-source concession agreement. 6 3. Insurance. Any sole-source concessionaire which receives an agree- 7 ment with the city shall hold insurance and shall indemnify the city. 8 4. Definitions. For the purposes of this act, the following terms 9 shall have the following meanings: 10 1. "Sole-source concession agreement" means: (a) a document issued to 11 organizations which offer free and fee-based programming including but 12 not limited to museums, nature centers, recreational, educational and 13 environmental programs, urban agriculture initiatives, markets, special 14 events, weddings, restaurants/snack bar/wine; 15 (b) a system which combines features of a not-for-profit license 16 agreement with a concession agreement; and 17 (c) a system which is not a competitive process, however, not-for-pro- 18 fit organizations and the department of parks and recreation shall 19 justify to the franchise and concession review committee (FCRC) why such 20 services of such not-for-profit organization are so unique and valuable 21 to the department of parks and recreation that a different selection 22 procedure may be used. 23 2. "City" means the city of New York. 24 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.