Jessica Ariel-Wamala told representatives from New York City’s government that she’s used to sitting in traffic. She typically rises early and rushes to feed her daughter breakfast before driving to a Brooklyn preschool, but they always end up waiting in the same jam.
The 30-something said it’s because a crowd of her neighbors must line up at their local civic office each morning, spilling into the street as they wait to prove their SNAP eligibility.
The city recorded tens of thousands of cases last year in which missed calls or incorrect contact information caused a family to lose access to SNAP — a situation that is sometimes best rectified with in-person meetings. “Sitting in traffic has become a monument to this inefficiency every single day,” Ariel-Wamala told NYC’s new Commission on Government Efficiency. Ariel-Wamala argued that administrative issues like this, which she believes can be prevented by AI, are causing people to go hungry.
In a Brooklyn Law School lecture hall, she was among about four dozen New Yorkers gathered at one of the hearings that COGE — which Mayor Zohran Mamdani created last month to reduce the city’s “outdated bureaucratic barriers”— is hosting across the five boroughs. Forums like this have become a signature of the Mamdani administration, with the mayor also encouraging tenants to testify at “Rental Ripoff” and housing authority “In Your Neighborhood” hearings.
The commission asked attendees their opinions on government operations and how the city should be spending its money. Those attendees, living in a place where childcare costs rival rent payments and affordability is a top concern, wanted to know their tax dollars are being allocated thoughtfully — and efficiently.
New Yorkers spoke lots about efficiency, less about cuts
In three-minute testimonies, Brooklynites of all ages told COGE leaders their thoughts on AI, the job market, the budget, land use, and wasteful spending. Many took notes and nodded along as others spoke. A few suggested streamlining the city’s contract process with private companies, spoke about ways to improve local elections. There were AI evangelists, skeptics, and naysayers.
One attendee said the city should be fully running its own websites and digital infrastructure: “Every licensing fee paid to an external software company is a dollar diverted from more critical services,” she said. Another said that some of the police department’s funding should be diverted to harm reduction and rehabilitation programs, adding that “My neighbors and I deserve to be able to call for medical help without fearing a misunderstanding by the police.”
A third said the government should only hire for positions that directly fit into five-year policy goals — which might look like “title combination reforms and hiring process and management reforms.”
Mamdani doesn’t want people to confuse COGE with DOGE, the White House’s now-defunct efficiency effort that sparked widespread firings and funding cancellations across the federal government. Leader Elon Musk “used that as a justification to simply slash and burn so many of the city services that Americans rely on,” he said. Earlier this year, the Mayor’s Office asked all city departments to appoint savings officers and suggest concrete ways to cut costs. Agencies suggested downsizing office space, reevaluating leases, and upgrading outdated technology.
Savings so far are a drop in the bucket for a city with an annual operating budget of over $116 billion. But Mamdani hopes that — aside from dollar savings — an efficiency push in NYC will give residents stronger faith in their government.
At Thursday’s three-hour hearing, a handful of the speakers were policy advocates or government employees. But most were completely outside politics. They were parents, small business owners, college students, teachers, and artists who care about NYC.
“I’m inspired that you are as excited about a chapter of the city charter as some of us are about the Knicks,” a commission leader joked after one testimony. “It’s a really cool thing.”
Still, despite dozens of passionate testimonies from residents about everything from AI applications to benefit access, one hallmark of efficiency (and the DOGE mission) was noticeably missing. There wasn’t much talk about actually slashing spending — a point one of the last speakers clocked.
“We won’t have COGE unless we talk about cuts,” the man said. He spoke for just two minutes. “In the spirit of efficiency, I will yield my time.”
