NYCHA Plumber’s $465K Payday Sparks Probe Into Outside Work

A New York City public housing plumber who out-earned nearly every municipal employee last year is under investigation after records show he logged thousands of overtime hours while apparently running two private plumbing businesses on the side.

Jakub Markowski, a plumber supervisor with the New York City Housing Authority, earned more than $465,000 during the city’s 2025 fiscal year after racking up nearly 2,560 hours of overtime, the highest total of any city employee, the New York Times reported. The city’s Department of Buildings is investigating whether his outside work violated licensing rules.

Markowski, a licensed master plumber, worked in NYCHA’s fire safety division while also being listed on permits tied to more than 70 private plumbing jobs in neighborhoods including the Upper East Side and Brooklyn Heights during the same period. The projects were handled through two companies, Super Plumbers Corp. NYC and Dynamic Blue Water Mechanical.

According to the Times, Markowski received a waiver in 2019 allowing him to maintain a private plumbing business while working for the city. But NYCHA said he failed to obtain a new waiver after being promoted to a supervisory role in 2024, raising questions about whether his outside work remained authorized.

The Buildings Department is also examining Markowski’s relationship with Robert Tarnawa, who is tied to one of the plumbing companies but is not a licensed master plumber. Under city law, plumbing work involving licensed activities must be performed either by a licensed master plumber or under that person’s direct supervision.

NYCHA referred questions about its own review to the city’s Department of Investigation, which declined to comment because the matter remains active.

NYCHA has faced repeated scrutiny over its practices in recent years. Federal prosecutors charged dozens of NYCHA employees in a sweeping bribery and extortion case in 2024. The authority previously fired at least 18 workers following an overtime fraud investigation.

The scrutiny comes at an awkward moment for NYCHA, which has struggled for years with deteriorating buildings, chronic underfunding and a string of corruption scandals.

The authority estimates it needs tens of billions of dollars in capital repairs across its portfolio, where roughly 300,000 New Yorkers live. Those conditions have made overtime commonplace for skilled tradespeople tasked with keeping aging developments operational, but Markowski’s workload appeared to stand apart, even by NYCHA standards.

— Holden Walter-Warner