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State District Attorneys Association Targeted as Roadblock to Reform


city council justice preli budget

District Attorneys (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


Advocates who are pushing to reform the criminal justice system by focusing on the powerful role that district attorneys play as enforcers of the law often cite Larry Krasner as a model. Krasner was elected the district attorney of Philadelphia in 2017 on a comprehensive reform platform and in November last year, just 11 months into his first term, he pulled out of the statewide Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. Krasner blamed the association for holding back much-needed reform and advocating for overly harsh prosecutorial policies.

Reformers and advocates in New York hailed Krasner’s withdrawal as an example to follow. They’ve long argued that the District Attorney’s Association of the State of New York (DAASNY) is one of the biggest roadblocks to criminal justice reform making its way through the state Legislature. DAASNY essentially acts as a lobbying group for prosecutors, critics say, and attempts to water down legislation to maintain the already significant discretionary authority that individual district attorneys enjoy.

“Ultimately this is about power not wanting to lose power,” said Erin George, statewide Criminal Justice Campaigns Director for Citizen Action of New York. “The DA’s association is set against reforms that would threaten the unbridled power they have in the current pretrial system to railroad New Yorkers and drive the case outcomes and convictions that they’re looking to secure.”

It’s a harsh assessment backed by years of seeing DAASNY oppose efforts to change New York’s drug sentencing laws, early release policies, criminal charges for gravity knife possession, and a commission to investigate prosecutorial misconduct. This year, with Democrats in full control of the Legislature, advocates are again seeing the largely invisible hand of DAASNY guiding legislation to reform the state’s discovery, bail, and speedy trial laws. George said the association’s “fear mongering narratives and dog whistle tactics” become “the political narrative that has to be responded to and the issues sort of avalanche.”

Last month, a coalition of advocacy groups including Citizen Action, VOCAL-NY, New York Communities for Change, and JustLeadershipUSA formally sent letters calling on several sitting district attorneys who call themselves progressives to step down from DAASNY, publicly disavow the association and support reform legislation in Albany. The letters were sent to Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez, Manhattan DA Cy Vance, Erie County DA John Flynn, Suffolk County DA Timothy Sini, and Nassau County DA Madeline Singas.

“DAASNY is once again, the primary opposition to passing legislative changes that would advance justice, equity and an end to mass incarceration in New York State,” the letter reads. Early last month, Citizen Action also sent a similar letter directly to Albany DA David Soares, a Democrat and the current president of DAASNY.

Soares was elected as a reformer himself but has since disappointed activists who say he has acted more in DAASNY’s interests than in the interests of justice. But he rejects their criticism.

“There is an unfortunate misperception that DAASNY is opposed to reform. This is far from the truth," Soares said in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “For decades DAASNY has been at the forefront of alternatives to incarceration programs. We supported legislation to allow the sealing of past criminal convictions and to help convicted offenders obtain a second chance.”

He said that DAASNY supports both discovery and bail reform but does not support “discovery measures that threaten the safety of victims and witnesses” or “bail reform measures that undermine the safety of domestic violence and sexual assault victims.” Soares was among 15 prosecutors who recently wrote to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to profess support for ending cash bail and overhauling the state’s bail system. “The only people who should be detained pretrial are those who a judge finds pose a specific, clear and credible threat to the physical safety of the community, or who are a risk of intentionally evading their court dates,” they wrote.

For advocates like George, the issue at hand is DAASNY’s “unbridled power, unequal power” in Albany. Just as individual DA’s leverage their authority to win favorable pleas, even if it means withholding evidence that could be beneficial to defendants until just before trial, they say DAASNY leverages its authority to impact bills that have been moved through grassroots efforts.

Nick Malinowski, civil rights campaign director of VOCAL-NY, said DAASNY’s role has become all that more apparent this year. In past years, Republicans held the state Senate and were more often than not opposed to the types of progressive bills being championed by Democratic legislators and advocacy groups. Yet, DAASNY has continued to push back against reform. “What we’re seeing is the impact of DAASNY, which traditionally had been influencing Republicans. It’s having a similar influence even with a Democratically-controlled Senate,” Malinowski said. “They’re doing the same type of fear-mongering.”

Malinowski cited outright misinformation being put out by the association. For instance, in an op-ed in the Times Herald Record, Orange County DA David Hoovler, the vice president of DAASNY, argued that the governor’s discovery reform proposal being considered in Albany would open up witnesses to intimidation and threat since it would make their addresses public. “That’s not actually what’s in the bill and these guys know that,” Malinowski pointed out, noting that the bill allows prosecutors to provide “adequate alternative contact information” of witnesses instead of addresses. That could include an email or phone number, Malinowski said. Bills introduced in the state Legislature similarly contain witness protections.

“DAASNY, which is a lobbying group for prosecutors, like any other advocacy group, they are in Albany lobbying legislators to increase the power and influence of their constituents, which are prosecutors,” he added. “Their constituency is not crime victims, it’s not voters, it’s not the public. It’s prosecutors.”

While DAASNY does influence legislation and the legislative process, its leaders are not registered lobbyists. Soares opposes use of the term lobbyist group, instead calling DAASNY a trade organization.

Vance’s office declined to comment for this story. The Albany Times Union reported that he and others targeted by the coalition of advocates did not plan to leave DAASNY.

Advocates are hoping to make membership in DAASNY a litmus test for progressives, as is evident in Queens. Seven candidates are hoping to secure the Democratic primary nomination for Queens DA June 25 as DA Richard Brown, who has been in office for nearly three decades, is retiring as of June 1. His term ends this year. In the mix are several candidates trying to out-progressive each other. Most, if not all, have said they will reform the office, which has jurisdiction over the city’s most diverse and second-largest borough.

Two of the candidates, City Council Member Rory Lancman and public defender Tiffany Cabán, have pledged that they will not join DAASNY. Lancman has said he has seen DAASNY’s obstructive efforts firsthand when he was a member of the state Assembly. “I'm not joining DAASNY. And I plan on having a *robust* legislative affairs office to lobby for real reform in Albany & NYC (and Washington where necessary),” he tweeted in October last year. “If you're an elected official fighting for reform, I'm going to have your back.”

Similarly, Cabán called out DAASNY in a tweet last month for lobbying against the open discovery bill. “The DA Association of the State of New York is wrong to oppose it, which is why I will exit DAASNY & work instead with DAs who share our values,” she wrote.

Soares did not seem to take kindly to those pledges. “My advice to those District Attorney candidates who are pledging to not join DAASNY as part of their campaign tactic is this: Rejecting DAASNY may make you a political darling amongst a small segment of supporters, but it won't make you a better prosecutor.”

The other candidates in Queens haven’t been as willing to shun DAASNY, even as they say they disagree with the association’s positions on certain reforms. Among them are former State Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, former prosecutors Mina Malik and Betty Lugo, and Jose Nieves, a former senior prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA’s office. (Emma Whitford reported for Gotham Gazette that Lugo and Nieves intended to join DAASNY, even though both have expressed reservations about the association’s position on discovery reform).

Lasak said in a statement that he intends to implement or advocate for several reforms after joining DAASNY, including creating a Conviction Integrity Unit, expanding diversion programs, and ending cash bail on low-level, non-violent offenses. “I’ve always believed that the best way to change an organization is from within,” he said. “It’s easy to throw stones from the outside but it won’t effect [sic] real change.”

Malik, similarly, argued that it would be “misguided” to leave Queens’ 2.4 million residents “without a voice in the room” even as she said she disagrees with DAASNY on bail and discovery reform. “My role with DAASNY would be to advocate for Queens and to organize from within to empower progressive DAs. I would keep all options on the table, including withdrawal, if membership in DAASNY proves fruitless to those aims,” she said in a statement.

Katz said she intended to “export” the progressive policies she implements in the Queens DA’s office to the association’s other members. “You can’t be heard if you’re not at the table,” she said in a phone interview. “I think you can institute the policies that we care deeply about here, like no cash bail, like discovery reform...I can do all of that without legislation in Albany. I’m strong enough to believe that should I be sitting on an organization that has the other DAs on it, that I can help move them in that direction too.”

Advocates, however, are hoping their collective clamor will make DAASNY a pro.minent enough issue for voters who are increasingly beginning to pay attention to how district attorneys wield their power. Malinowski issued a simple warning. “You can’t say that you’re a progressive prosecutor and then at the same time be part of a lobbying group that is trying to kill every piece of progressive legislation.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Note - This article has been updated to clarify a quote from Erin George of Citizen Action 

New York Nurses Threaten Major Strike Over ‘Understaffing’


 nynurses

(photo: @nynurses)


During one night shift at the children’s hospital where she worked as a nurse, Nicolette Mabeza‘s unit filled up with intubated children. She and the other nurses were frantic.

“It was just the entire floor running around,” said Mabeza, who worked in the intensive care unit at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in Washington Heights. “Some nurses had two intubated patients and they weren’t even right next to each other.”

Nurses stretched to the limit by understaffing would regularly cry on the job, she said.

“Not only does it make you feel that you’re being a terrible nurse,” said Mabeza. “You also wonder, why should patients come here if nurses can’t give the adequate care that they deserve?”

Feeling that she could no longer do her job in good conscience, she quit last April after less than a year at the hospital.

After years of complaints, understaffing has become a major point of conflict between the nurses union and private hospitals in New York City.

Around 13,000 nurses could strike this month if negotiations fail between the New York State Nurses Association and a group of three major hospital systems, union leaders say.

Nurses from Montefiore, Mount Sinai, St. Luke's-Mount Sinai West, and New York-Presbyterian hospitals authorized a strike last week and announced a rally for safe staffing on Monday, March 18 at Mount Sinai Hospital in East Harlem.

“We’re saying enough is enough,” said Carl Ginsburg, a spokesperson for the union, which represents 37,000 nurses. “No sooner do we make a deal than we drift back into this danger zone.”

He said contract negotiations have slowed to a crawl with the New York City Hospital Alliance, an informal bargaining group of private hospitals that includes Montefiore, New York-Presbyterian, and Mount Sinai hospitals.

On the bargaining table is an increase in nurse-to-patient ratios in emergency rooms and intensive care units. Staffing levels have reached dangerously low levels, putting the safety of both nurses and patients at risk, Ginsburg said.

“Sometimes where a nurse should be caring for five patients, she’s caring for eight or 10,” said Ginsburg. “Make no mistake – it’s dangerous.”

In 2018, more than 12,000 nurses signed “Protest of Assignment” forms to complain about unsafe conditions at Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and New York Presbyterian.

A spokesperson for the NYC Hospital Alliance said that hospitals are financially stretched because of state Medicaid cuts. He added that the recent “Protest of Assignment” forms account for a negligible portion of the total number of nurse shifts.

Understaffing at hospitals forces nurses to make tough choices, said Anthony Ciampa, a nurse at New York Presbyterian for the last 14 years.

“I had to make the decision whether to hang blood or to help an elderly patient eat,” said Ciampa. “No nurse should be forced to make these types of decisions.”

The elderly patient sat in front of the food – unable to eat – while Ciampa took care of the blood transfusion, he said. By the time Ciampa was able to help, the patient’s food tray had been removed, untouched.

“I’m still upset about that,” said Ciampa, who is currently representing the union in contract negotiations. “It was like torture to sit there with the meal in front of you and not be able to eat it.”

Outside Brooklyn Hospital Center last month, nurses were reluctant to talk about staffing conditions, fearing retaliation from their employers.

“Everybody’s understaffed,” said a medical assistant who requested anonymity and said she has worked at the hospital for more than 20 years. “The patients are not getting adequate care.”

But the NYC Hospital Alliance denied reports that understaffing is leading to unsafe conditions, and said that enforced staffing ratios would be costly and ineffective.

“The reality is that the union’s rigid, mandated staffing ratios would lower the quality of patient care by overriding the professional judgment of nurses and healthcare professionals and crowding out other members of the care team,” said Linden Zakula, a spokesperson for the group.

Zakula said that state budget cuts to Medicaid have resulted in a loss of $240 million in expected funding for the three hospital groups combined.

“Alliance hospitals respect our nurses and are committed to bargaining in good faith,” said Zakula. “We are doing everything we can to reach an agreement that is fair, reasonable, and responsible for all parties.”

In the last few years, several New York City Council members have shown support for more staffing regulation at hospitals.

“Nurses are some of the most important people in the hospital,” said New York City Council Member Carlina Rivera. “It’s important that they feel they have the resources they need to be supported in some of the most stressful environments.”

Rivera, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Hospitals, cosponsored a resolution in 2018 that called on the state Legislature to pass the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act.

The bill would set specific nurse-to-patient ratios by hospital unit, and would ensure that nurses can’t be assigned to more patients than specified.  Hospitals that break the law would be fined.

But there is no vote in sight for either the Council resolution or the state bill, which are both stuck in committee.

For many years, safe staffing legislation was met with resistance from Republicans who controlled the New York Senate.

Last week, New York Assemblymember Karines Reyes said she was confident that the Senate’s new Democratic majority would bolster the bill’s chances of passing.

“Apart from the Republican Senate’s pushback in past years, the primary obstacle posed to the legislation stems from the conflicting opinions of hospital administrators,” said Reyes, who is also a registered nurse in the Oncology Department at Montefiore Einstein Hospital. “These points of view fail to acknowledge that safe staffing is about saving lives. The legislation is paramount to the safety and outcomes of patients while not only providing adequate staffing to nurses, but to ancillary staff as well.”

While several states have laws that address nurse staffing, California is the only state that requires hospital units to maintain a minimum nurse-to-patient ratio.

Under that law – in effect since 2004 – critical care units in California must have at least one nurse for every two patients. The required nurse-to-patient ratio varies by department, with 1-to-4 for labor and delivery units and 1-to-6 for psychiatric units.

A 2010 study published by the National Institutes of Health found that mandated nurse-to-patient ratios resulted in fewer patient deaths and better morale for nurses compared to other states without similar legislation.

***
Gaspard Le Dem is a freelance journalist. On Twitter @GLD_Live.
@GothamGazette

Note: this story has been updated to change $300 million to $240 million based on corrected information provided by Zakula of NYC Hospital Alliance.

One-House Budgets in Albany, NYCHA Hearings, & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, March 11


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

Monday marks exactly three weeks until the April 1 start of the new state fiscal year, by which time a new state budget is due. Negotiations among the two houses of the Legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo have already heated up, with key policy and funding issues outstanding, and the two Democratic legislative majorities set to introduce their one-house budget resolutions on Monday.

There are four legislative session days again this week in Albany, so there will be public and private negotiations, posturing, and such. Key issues that need to be worked out include a variety of funding levels, including for local education aid, as well as marijuana legalization, congestion pricing, environmental policy, criminal justice and campaign finance reforms, and more. Most of those issues could be kicked to after the budget and continued in negotiations as the legislative session proceeds toward its June finish. Rent regulations are another issue that is likely to be left till after the budget. Mayor control of New York City schools and the cap on charter schools could be dealt with in the budget or after as well, not to mention a number of other policies like sports gambling.

This week we’re also waiting to see when exactly Jumaane Williams officially becomes New York City Public Advocate and how he starts his tenure in the citywide role.

The budget for the office is one smaller aspect of overall city budget negotiations. The City Council will continue this week its hearings on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $92.2 billion preliminary budget plan. And the 2019 charter revision commission will continue its public hearings -- the commission is looking at the city’s budget process, the role of the public advocate, and much more.

De Blasio is due back on Monday from South Carolina, where he spent the weekend exploring a run for president, flying there after an appearance in Albany Friday, where he talked with Cuomo and legislators about top city priorities for the state budget and spoke at the kickoff reception for Somos weekend.

There's a lot happening this week - see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Monday in Albany.

The New York State Board of Regents will meet on Monday and Tuesday in Albany.

"On Monday, Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza will meet with students from P.S. 130 during their lunch period...Immediately after, the Mayor and Chancellor will host a press conference to make an announcement on school meals. This event is open press. There will be Q-and-A. Later, the Mayor will ride the subway from Chambers Street to 14th Street Station to talk with riders about congestion pricing and MTA reform. In the evening, the Mayor will appear live on NY1’s Inside City Hall."

The following City Council committees will hold preliminary budget hearings on Monday:
--Cultural Affairs at 10 a.m., regarding libraries and the Department of Cultural Affairs.
--Youth Services at 2 p.m., regarding the Department of Youth and Community Development.

Also at the City Council on Monday: the Committee on Public Housing will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing “examining NYCHA’s new agreement with HUD.”

“Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), joined by immigration advocates, will hold a press conference and community event on Monday, March 11th at 10:00 a.m. to speak out against the recent incident by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents that were spotted parked outside of a Washington Heights school and in violation of sensitive locations parameters.”

At 10 a.m. Monday at City Hall, “The New York Alliance Against the Legalization of Prostitution — a coalition of women’s rights organizations, direct service providers, faith-based community leaders, sex trade survivors, and concerned New Yorkers — will hold a press conference and rally to voice opposition to proposed legislation sponsored by New York State Senators Julia Salazar, Jessica Ramos and Brad Hoylman, and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried to decriminalize prostitution, including pimping and sex buying. The Alliance will discuss evidence that prostitution is not a victimless crime by looking at the inherent harms of the sex trade and the lifelong trauma and medical injuries it causes the people it exploits for profit. They will also present the effects of legalized/decriminalized prostitution in other jurisdictions and highlight what can happen if New York state gives the sex trade a green light to flourish. The group will present a progressive alternative to the legislators’ proposal and to current New York State prostitution laws: decriminalize only the people who are prostituted (partial decriminalization) and provide them with comprehensive services, including housing, medical care, trauma-informed counseling, education, job training, and a way to exit the sex trade should they wish to do so.”

At 11 a.m. Monday in Albany, "The Chairs of both the Senate and Assembly Environmental Conservation Committees – Senator Todd Kaminsky and Assemblymember Steve Englebright – and the We Love New York coalition will hold a press conference...to respond to the disastrous potential precedent of an 2019-2020 Executive Budget proposal that would allow agencies to offload staffing costs onto the Environmental Protection Funding (EPF)."

At 11 a.m. Monday, “Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with community leaders and criminal justice experts, will make a major announcement.”

At 6 p.m. Monday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will hold its third “issues forum” at the Borough of Manhattan Community College to discuss potential charter revisions. This forum will focus on the city’s budgeting processes.

At 6 p.m. Monday, the state’s Census commission will hold the second of six public hearings to discuss the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census and the myriad related issues. The hearing will take place at Hostos Community College in the Bronx.

Tuesday
The following City Council committees will hold preliminary budget hearings on Tuesday:
--Governmental Operations at 10 a.m., regarding the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Law Department, the Board of Elections, the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, and community boards.
--Aging at 10 a.m., regarding the Department for the Aging.

The New York State Legislature will be in session on Tuesday in Albany.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the New York City Board of Correction will hold a public meeting at 125 Worth Street.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, there will be a debate among the seven candidates for Queens District Attorney at CUNY Law School. Gotham Gazette’s Ben Max and law professor Zephyr Teachout will moderate the debate, which is being co-sponsored by a long list of advocacy and community groups. [Read: 'We're in a New Era’: Inside the Crowded Race to Elect the Next Queens District Attorney and Reset the Borough’s Prosecutorial Agenda]

Wednesday
The City Council will hold a stated meeting on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. Council Speaker Corey Johnson will host the usual pre-stated press conference at 12:30 p.m.

The New York State Legislature will be in session on Wednesday in Albany.

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting at 120 Broadway.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy program will air on WBAI radio, and will feature an interview with state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, and a discussion of criminal justice reform issues with Tina Luongo, chief defender of the criminal practice at Legal Aid Society.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the MTA will host the second of four open houses for community members regarding the “revised” L-train project. This hearing will take place at the Williamsburg Northside School.

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Civilian Complaint Review Board will hold a public board meeting at the Van Dyke Community Center in Brownsville.

Thursday
The following City Council committees will hold preliminary budget hearings on Thursday:
--Transportation at 9:30 a.m., regarding the MTA and New York City Transit, the Department of Transportation, and the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
--Criminal Justice at 10 a.m., regarding the Department of Probation, the Department of Correction, and the Board of Correction.
--Veterans at 2:30 p.m., regarding the Department of Veterans’ Services.

Also at the City Council on Thursday
--The Committees on Public Housing and Oversight will meet jointly at 11 a.m. for an oversight hearing “examining the DOI report on NYCHA mismanagement at the Throggs Neck Houses,” as well as to discuss proposed laws requiring agency heads to disclose false statements made in an official capacity by their agency and for DOI to report to the council on NYCHA employee overtime. The committees will also discuss a resolution calling on the state to pass a law requiring NYCHA to “conduct annual evaluations of agency property employees.”

The New York State Legislature will be in session on Thursday in Albany.

At 10 a.m. Thursday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a board meeting at 100 Church Street.

The latest episode of the What’s The [Data] Point? podcast from Gotham Gazette and Citizens Budget Commission will tape and publish on Thursday, and will feature Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute discussing transit-related issues, including her evaluation of New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s recently-unveiled proposals for city takeover of the subways, a five-year “master plan for city streets,” and more, as well as her own recent study of congestion in the city. Find What’s The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, or look for it posted at the Gotham Gazette website on Thursday afternoon.

At 6 p.m. Monday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will hold its fourth “issues forum” at the Borough of Manhattan Community College to discuss potential charter revisions.

Friday and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10 a.m. Friday.

The following City Council committees will hold preliminary budget hearings on Friday:
--Economic Development at 10 a.m., regarding the Economic Development Corporation.
--Consumer Affairs at 11 a.m., regarding the Department of Consumer Affairs.
--Small Business at 1 p.m., regarding the Department of Small Business Services.

At 10 a.m. Friday, the Senate Standing Committee on New York City Education will meet at 250 Broadway in Manhattan for a public hearing regarding mayoral control of public schools.

At 2 p.m. Friday, the Senate Standing Committees on Corporations and Transportation and the Assembly Standing Committee on Transportation will meet jointly at Buffalo City Hall for a public hearing regarding the effectiveness of the state’s transit network in Buffalo.

At 2 p.m. Friday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will host a joint legislative hearing at Brooklyn Borough Hall to “examine NYC’s homeownership housing crisis.” He will be joined by Senators Velmanette Montgomery, Brad Hoylman, Kevin Parker, Robert Jackson, and Brian Benjamin, and Assemblymembers Tremaine Wright and Al Taylor.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

Speaker Says Assembly No Longer Supports Public Campaign Financing, Downplays Other Reforms


heastie carl nys assembly speaker 9.62

(photo: Buck Ennis/Crain's)


Though Democrats have for years blamed Republican intransigence for the failure of key campaign finance and ethics reforms in Albany, those measures still appear stalled even as their party controls the entire state Legislature and governor’s office. On Friday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that the votes are not there in his chamber to approve a public-matching campaign finance system, despite the fact that the Assembly has repeatedly passed such a measure in the past when Republicans controlled the Senate.

Heastie appeared at a Crain’s New York Business forum at the New York Athletic Club, where he gave remarks about the Assembly’s accomplishments and priorities, then took questions from Erik Engquist of Crain’s and Errol Louis of NY1, before also speaking with other reporters after the event.

With a new state budget due April 1, Heastie said it appeared unlikely that the Assembly would approve public campaign financing before or within that deal, though it is a long-held Democratic goal espoused not only by Assembly Democrats but also the new state Senate Democratic majority and Governor Andrew Cuomo.

“I think the members want to discuss it but I’d say right now what the concerns are on IEs [independent expenditures], problems with [New York City’s] campaign finance system, also with a shortage of [state] money, I think they want to have the discussion but I’d say right now there’s not 76 members who want to move forward with it in the next three weeks in the budget,” Heastie said in response to a question from Gotham Gazette, and referring to the minimum number of votes needed to advance a bill in the 150-seat chamber.

The speaker later tweeted to add to his comments from the morning, writing that the Assembly does want to consider a small-dollar matching program, but one that does not use public money.

Heastie also threw cold water on a state Senate-approved bill to limit campaign contributions from entities seeking state contracts and downplayed the need for additional government ethics reforms, saying that law enforcement entities catch bad actors and he is “still waiting for the idea of the bill that will really fix people’s morality.”

Asked about it by the moderators, Heastie expressed concerns that a bill passed on Tuesday by the state Senate could end up hurting the party in power. The bill, S3167, prohibits companies bidding for state contracts from contributing to “officeholders with authority over procuring entities” within a specific window of time, therefore applying largely to the executive branch, namely the governor.

Though Heastie’s conference has advanced similar bills in previous years, he hesitated to endorse that measure, which was sponsored by new state Senator Zellnor Myrie from Brooklyn.

“On the premise of it, it sounds great. Yeah, anybody who wants to bid on a contract, yeah they shouldn’t have the opportunity to make contributions to the governing entity because there could be the appearance that somebody’s trying to grease the skids,” Heastie said. “But the way that the legislation is drafted...it just covers such a vast number of people so that one company who...bids on a contract, their lobbyist, and it doesn’t just stop there, every other company that that lobbyist is responsible for is now radioactive.”

The bill would also put the State Democratic Party and Governor Andrew Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, “in a bind,” he said, because it would exclude them from raising funds from entities who would be able to donate to Republicans who don’t hold the same authority in state government. The bill includes a prohibition on contributions “indirectly or directly, to political committees operationally controlled by officeholders with authority over state governmental entities” that receive and review bids and issue contracts. “So I guess that on the surface the bill sounds like a great idea, but it really does put the governor and the Democratic Party at a huge disadvantage as compared to the Republican Party,” he said.

Asked about Heastie's comments, Jonathan Timm, a spokesperson for Senator Myrie, said in a statement, "The history of corruption in New York State government demonstrates that inaction is not an option. As with any other legislation, this bill will be subject to negotiation with the Assembly, and the Senator looks forward to working with them to clean up state government in the best way possible."

Speaking to reporters after Friday's event, Heastie then tempered expectations about public campaign financing, which appeared for months as though it would be a crowning achievement of the new Democratic era in Albany.

His comments weren’t taken lightly by a variety of advocates, including the Fair Elections for New York coalition, which has been pushing the state to adopt a small-donor matching system similar to the one in place in New York City, among other reforms.

“Historically, the Assembly Democrats have supported people-powered elections anchored with a small-donor matching system,” the coalition pointed out in a Friday statement, responding to Heastie’s comments as initially reported by Gotham Gazette.

“‘Fair elections’ is the policy that will really shake up the status quo, and thus the real test of the new Albany,” continued the coalition statement, referring to the Fair Elections Act that the Democratic Assembly has passed in previous sessions and that Senate Democrats have supported in the minority. “Passing this legislation now, in the budget, is the best chance for New York to once again lead the nation by having a campaign finance system that gives everyday New Yorkers as loud a voice as the wealthiest donors.”

The coalition is made up of more than 200 groups, including labor unions such as 32BJ, tenant organizers such as New York Communities for Change, immigrant advocates like the New York Immigration Coalition, environmental and racial justice groups such as the Sunrise Movement and VOCAL-NY, good government advocates like Reinvent Albany and more.

Urging the governor and legislative leaders to reject a budget that does not include public campaign financing, the coalition offered solutions for Heastie’s concerns. It said a public financing system should not include spending limits, therefore mitigating the effect of outside independent expenditure campaigns; suggested that New York follow Connecticut’s public matching program, which gives assistance to candidates in using small dollar contributions, compared to New York City’s program that many have called too punitive; and pointed out that the total budget ramifications of public financing were between $40-60 million, which wouldn’t even be apparent in the short term and could hardly affect a $175 billion state budget. The annual costs, the coalition estimated, would be less than $3 annually for every New Yorker.

Asked to comment on Heastie’s statements, neither the office of Senator Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins nor that of Governor Cuomo responded.

After seeing the blowback to his comments, Heastie issued another statement on Twitter Friday afternoon, writing, "I want to be clear – the Assembly Majority is supportive of limiting the influence of money in our elections through consideration of a small dollar donor matching system that does not rely on scarce public funds. Our members are not ready to support the NYC model for the entire state, but we will continue to have discussions in order to reach our goals."

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Ben Max contributed to this story.

This story has been updated.

Note - This article has been updated with comment from a spokesperson for Senator Zellnor Myrie. 

Max & Murphy Podcast: State Senator David Carlucci


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Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


March 6, 2019 - Max & Murphy Podcast: State Senator David Carlucci

dav carlucci senateState Senator David Carlucci represents a Rockland and Westchester district that has a significant stake in the MTA, congestion pricing, and other key transit discussions, not to mention the overall state budget and other state policies. Carlucci joined the show to discuss his priorities and his take on the congestion pricing debate (and more) as Albany lawmakers look to make an agreement before a budget is due April 1.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts, under "Max & Murphy," and listen to Max & Murphy live on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org

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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

'We're in a New Era’: Inside the Crowded Race to Elect the Next Queens District Attorney and Reset the Borough’s Prosecutorial Agenda


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Queens Borough President Katz swears-in community board members (photo: @QueensBPKatz)


Uncontested for seven terms spanning more than a quarter-century, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown has hung back while his counterparts in Brooklyn and Manhattan join a growing national conversation about criminal justice reform and the power of prosecutors to decarcerate jails. While the retiring Brown is a “dear friend,” former New York Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman told Gotham Gazette recently, “it’s time for a new prosecutor with new, up-to-date modern views.”

Answering that call, six of seven announced candidates in the upcoming Democratic primary are campaigning as the best progressive reformer for the job. Even the exception, self-described “middle of the road” attorney Betty Lugo, has aligned herself with the pack in promising fewer low-level prosecutions and condemning a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests outside Queens courts.

The June 25 election will almost certainly determine Brown’s successor and reset the prosecutorial tone in a vast, diverse borough of more than two million residents. “We’re really looking for someone who works with the community and understands that we’re in a new era. We’re no longer in a tough-on-crime, war on drugs era,” said 18-year-old Andrea Colon, a member of the Rockaway Youth Task Force, one of several criminal justice and immigrant rights groups demanding change in the office.

But Queens is an ideological patchwork. “It's an older voter, especially out east where it's more suburban,” said one party insider, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely. “They don't like people who jump turnstiles. They don’t want people smoking [marijuana] on the streets.” Former Queens Supreme Court judge and county prosecutor Greg Lasak, who’s pitching himself as the only candidate who can properly balance public safety with reform, has endorsements and donations from a number of law enforcement unions, including court clerks and officers. He's leading in funds raised for this race, with more than $800,000 to date, but trails Borough President Melinda Katz and City Council Member Rory Lancman in money available given their resources from prior campaign accounts.

Conversations with each candidate -- prosecutors Jose Nieves and Mina Malik and public defender Tiffany Cabán round out the field -- reveal real differences: on prosecutorial priorities and experience, as well as how they view the scope of the job. Now that the term progressive has wide application, says Steve Zeidman, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at CUNY School of Law, “we have to push and get into the fine print.”

Prosecutorial Differences
Katz and Lancman are both established politicians with law degrees, strong name recognition in the borough, and early fundraising success. Both formerly served in the state Assembly. “I think there needs to be a change in focus in the DA’s Office,” Katz told Gotham Gazette, outlining her plan for new bureaus focused on immigrant rights, housing fraud, and worker rights.

But Katz -- who recently won the endorsement of the Queens County Democratic Party -- has proposed narrower prosecutorial reforms than most of the pack, pledging along with Lasak only to decline to prosecute marijuana possession cases. By contrast Lancman, Cabán, Malik, and Nieves have all outlined do-not-prosecute lists including fare evasion, drug possession, and prostitution -- in the style of recently-elected reform district attorneys like Larry Krasner in Philadelphia and Rachael Rollins Boston.

Judge Lippman told Gotham Gazette that though he doesn’t typically endorse candidates, Lancman, the first candidate to enter the race, “was always the first one to be there to generate support for a new view for criminal justice.” But the City Council member has lots of company now. He, Cabán, and Nieves have all pledged to never request cash bail, on the grounds that it perpetuates racial- and class-based inequities.

Four of the candidates -- Malik, Nieves, Lasak, and Lugo -- tout their prosecutorial experience. Malik, who is originally from Queens, served most recently as a deputy for the District of Columbia Attorney General. She also helped the late Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson implement a policy for fewer marijuana prosecutions. Like Lasak, she’s served in the very office she’s running to lead. “Queens deserves someone who can come into the DA’s office, know from day one how it operates,” Malik told Gotham Gazette.

Nieves, meanwhile, emphasizes his recent experience prosecuting police officers at the state attorney general’s office and holding “the system itself accountable.”

Cabán’s status as the only public defender in the race, most recently with New York County Defender Services, has won her endorsements from ascendant groups on the left. “Her ultimate responsibility is to the public and that's what it's always been,” said Zohran Mamdani, an electoral organizer with the Queens branch of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Addressing a crowd of supporters in Jackson Heights this month, Cabán said she’ll fight for defendants, not convictions. As a queer Latina from a low-income family, she relates to the challenges her clients face. “For me, my decision to run in this race very much so feels like the natural progression of my advocacy for my clients,” she said.

How the candidates approach the prosecution of violent crimes, from murder to burglary, is another useful differentiator. Most say that fewer misdemeanor cases will free up resources to prosecute violent crimes. In endorsing Lasak, Glen Damato, president of the New York State Court Clerks Association, praised “his work putting away Queens’ most violent criminals and his compassion in exonerating the wrongfully convicted.”

When Katz was a child, a drunk driver struck and killed her mother. She said that if she’s elected district attorney cases involving intoxicated driving are going to be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law, in my administration.” She said life sentences can be justified “on a case by case basis” while Lancman, Nieves, and Cabán say they’ll never request such a sentence.

Cabán has been most vocal about a less punitive approach to violent crime. She says her father, a retired elevator mechanic, has struggled with alcoholism and that her grandfather, a veteran with PTSD, was abusive. Incarcerating people for repeat violent behavior “is not changing the behavior,” Cabán said, calling for a shift in funding towards alternatives such as mental health services. "Sometimes that means showing compassion for someone who does harm."

Race Strategy
Increasingly, district attorney candidates are expected to weigh in on political debates outside the courtroom. Lancman and Cabán, for example, have promised not to join the statewide district attorney association, which has recently lobbied against pretrial reforms currently up for consideration in Albany, like open file discovery and the elimination of cash bail.

Everyone but Lasak, who declined to weigh in, told Gotham Gazette they support the city’s commitment to close the jails on Rikers Island. Cabán and Nieves have taken this a step further, saying they oppose replacing them with new or revamped jails across the city. “I don't think we need 40-story super structures to house more people,” Nevies said. “I think we need less people incarcerated.”

Cabán is also refusing corporate donations: a position that aligns her with other DSA-endorsed New York candidates like Congressional Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cynthia Nixon, who ran an unsuccessful 2018 Democratic primary challenge to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Doing so, Cabán says, will reassure Queens residents that she’s not afraid to prosecute landlords or employers accused of wage theft.

Lancman is dismissive of the stance. “I am not bringing a knife to this gun fight,” he scoffed. “I am not in this race to lose but claim a moral victory and then see black and brown people terrorized.”

Voters are also considering candidates’ proximity to the Queens County Democratic Party. Its endorsement of Katz is bad optics for both, according to Jesse Rose, founder of the New Queens Democrats, a progressive civic engagement group that has endorsed Cabán. “It was just absurd to me,” he said. “They didn’t have a forum. They didn’t have a vetting process. They didn’t ensure that there was transparency in any way.” (The party did not respond to a request for comment, but has defended its process to the Queens Daily Eagle.)

The dynamic isn’t a major concern for Lugo. A singer by hobby, she says she even performed the traditional Irish ballad Danny Boy at a recent county party dinner. “I think had they interviewed me they would have found me the most qualified, but it is what it is,” she said.

But Katz, who has won two borough-wide elections, seems to be downplaying her endorsement. She plans to implement a grassroots strategy with “a volunteer army knocking on doors,” according to Doug Forand, a campaign advisor with Red Horse Strategies. “She'll be reaching out broadly, and engaging the newer voters who are bringing new energy into Democratic primaries, and we look forward to earning their support."

The groups already rallying around Cabán have proven formidable in this realm, knocking on doors for Ocasio-Cortez and, more recently, protesting the ill-fated Amazon campus in Queens. “I wouldn’t be surprised if their activity [and] endorsement means something considerable, even in Queens, which still has conservative areas,” said Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio.

Regardless of who wins in June, advocates are hopeful that this election will increase awareness across the borough that district attorneys are powerful, and elected by their constituents.

“This not about winning an election,” explained Alyssa Aguilera, co-executive director of VOCAL-NY, a nonprofit that works on criminal justice reform, among other issues. “It's about, how do you get into the public narrative and get people in Queens talking about criminal justice reform, the power of prosecutors, and how you hold them accountable?”

Gotham Gazette is cosponsoring a candidate debate on March 12 at 6 p.m. RSVP here.

Note: soon after this article was published, DA Brown announced that due to health issues he would be stepping down as district attorney effective June 1. His chief assistant, John M. Ryan, will run the office in his absence.

***
by Emma Whitford, Gotham Gazette
@emma_a_whitford

Read more by this writer.

Correction: this article has been updated to clarify that Lasak leads in funds raised for this race, though he does trail Katz and Lancman in funds available.

Johnson's State of the City, Heastie's State of Play, Council Budget Hearings & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, March 4


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

As the week begins, school is closed in New York City and much of the city and state will be focused on the Sunday-into-Monday snowstorm that is expected, and the government response to it. Keep in mind that some if not all Monday events may be canceled.

We’re less than a month from the date, April 1, when a new state budget is due. As the State Legislature looks to continue moving bills over the next few weeks on issues like criminal justice reform, budget negotiations will begin to heat up as the two Democratic majorities in the Senate and Assembly look to get on the same page and work with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration on a budget deal that will not only come to spending agreements on key issues like local school aid, but also on controversial policies like marijuana legalization and congestion pricing for New York City. 

There are four days of legislative session this week in Albany. They come after the Legislature and Governor were unable to agree on a revenue forecast to use for budget negotiations, meaning the state comptroller’s office will set the number. Also at hand are issues like bail reform that appear to have hit a roadblock in negotiations. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will make a public appearance on Friday morning to discuss his chamber's priorities and where things stand in Albany.

Also this week: City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will give his first State of the City address. Johnson has said a main focus of the speech will be a new, detailed plan for city control of the subways and buses -- otherwise known as the MTA’s New York City Transit division. Expect other new proposals and plans from Johnson, who has not yet set out his own policy vision since taking over Council leadership a little more than a year ago. Johnson has advanced a variety of priorities for himself and his colleagues, and has taken a clear interest in transit issues, but the speech will be the first time he fully lays out an agenda of his own.

Johnson’s City Council will start its month of hearings this week on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s preliminary budget plan -- see below for details.

The speaker continues to be the Acting Public Advocate until Public Advocate-Elect Jumaane Williams is sworn in. Williams said he expects that to happen this week, though we don't yet have a day.

And we’re continuing to watch the next steps in the Amazon saga and the L-train repair work saga. City and state Census preparations are also on the agenda this week.

There's a lot to be aware of this week -- see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
NOTE: New York City schools are closed on Monday and some of the events below may be canceled.

The New York State Legislature will be in session on Monday in Albany.

Also at the Legislature on Monday: At 11 a.m. the Senate Standing Committees on Banks and Consumer Protection will hold a joint public hearing in Albany regarding “the proposed Student Loan Consumer Assistance Program.”

At 8 a.m. Monday, Senator Chuck Schumer and Regional Plan President Tom Wright will give speeches on infrastructure, specifically the Gateway Tunnel project. The event, which will take place at the Mezzanine at 55 Broadway, is co-sponsored by the Association for a Better New York, the Regional Plan Association, and the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management.

At the City Council on Monday:
--The Committee on Health will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “accessing the state’s medical marijuana program and its intersection with a recreational marijuana program,” as well as to discuss two resolutions calling on the state to expand the state’s legal medicinal marijuana program and to pass legislation “rectifying any conflicts between the state's medical marijuana regulations and recreational marijuana regulations.”
--The Committees on Public Housing and Oversight & Investigations will meet jointly at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing “examining the DOI report on NYCHA mismanagement at the Throggs Neck Houses,” as well as to discuss two proposed laws requiring agency heads to publicly disclose false statements made by their agency in an official capacity and requiring the Department of Investigation to report bimonthly to the Council on NYCHA employee overtime. The committees will also discuss a resolution calling on the state to pass a law requiring NYCHA “conduct annual evaluations of agency property employees.”
--The Committees on General Welfare and Hospitals will meet jointly at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding the “impact of marijuana policies on child welfare,” as well as to discuss laws requiring ACS to report additional information on allegations in child abuse cases and requiring ACS to report on investigations initiated by the city for positive drug screenings. The committee will also discuss two resolutions calling on ACS to stop classifying the possession of marijuana as creating an imminent risk to children and calling on the state to create “clear and fair regulations” for hospitals to inform pregnant patients of their rights before drug testing.
--The Committee on Housing and Buildings will meet at 2 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding loft laws, and to discuss a resolution calling on the state to pass an expansion of the loft law.

At 11:30 a.m. Monday, the Center for an Urban Future will host “Preparing New York State’s Workforce for Automation,” discussing what officials and policymakers should be doing to prepare for the changes to come with automation, at the Hilton Albany. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will deliver keynote remarks. After, there will be a panel discussion consisting of Assemblymember Marcos Crespo; Lois Johnson, Director of Workforce Strategies at the Workforce Development Institute; Annmarie Lanesey, CEO of Albany Can Code; Melinda Mack, Executive Director of NYATEP; and Todd Mack, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at Monroe Community College.

At 1 p.m. Monday, "Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner O’Neill will hold a media availability on crime statistics." At 4 p.m., "the Mayor will sign Intro.1004-A which will establish the basement apartment legalization pilot in East New York." In the evening, "the Mayor will deliver remarks at the Legion of Honor Medal Ceremony for Charles Cohen." And in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours, "the Mayor will appear on NY1’s Inside City Hall."

At 1 p.m. "Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul Kicks Off Women's History Month with Elected Officials and NYS Women's Suffrage Commission Members" at the state Capitol in Albany. At 5:15 p.m., "Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul Attends the NYS Farm Bureau's 2019 Taste of New York Reception."

At 2 p.m. Monday, the state’s Census commission will hold the first of six public hearings to discuss the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census and the myriad related issues. The hearing will take place at Rochester City Hall.

Tuesday
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Tuesday in Albany.

At noon Tuesday, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will deliver his State of the City address at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City.

At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the New York City Board of Elections will hold a commissioners’ meeting.

Wednesday
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Wednesday in Albany.

Wednesday marks the beginning of the City Council’s preliminary budget hearing season. The first hearing is on the mayor’s preliminary budget in general, with the Committee on Finance and Subcommittee on the Capital Budget, jointly at 10 a.m., and featuring testimony from the Office of Management and Budget, Comptroller Scott Stringer, and the Independent Budget Office.

Also at the City Council on Wednesday:
--The Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet at 9:30 a.m.
--The Subcommittee on Landmarks will meet at noon.
--The Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions, and Concessions will meet at 1 p.m.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dare to Run will host “#WomenLead: How to Diversify the Pipeline of Women Leaders in New York” at the University Settlement House on the Lower East Side, featuring a panel of women who have run for office in New York discussing their experiences. Panelists will include City Council Members Carlina Rivera and Helen Rosenthal, recent Public Advocate candidate Nomiki Konst, former Assembly candidate Ashley Zanatta, former Senate candidate Jasi Robinson, State Democratic Party women’s vote director Ny Whitaker, and attorney Monique Cardial.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, City Council Member Eric Ulrich will hold a town hall meeting to discuss the issue of property taxes at the Knights of Columbus’ Rockaway location.

Thursday
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Thursday in Albany.

The following City Council committees will hold preliminary budget hearings on Thursday:
--Fire and Emergency Management at 10 a.m., regarding fire/emergency medical service and the Office of Emergency Management.
--Higher Education at 10 a.m., regarding CUNY.
--Land Use at 1 p.m., regarding the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Department of City Planning.
--Technology and Land Use jointly at 3 p.m., regarding DoITT.

Also at the City Council on Thursday: the Committee on Land Use will meet at 11 a.m.

At 2 p.m. Thursday, New York City Census Director Julie Menin will appear at the Newmark School of Journalism with professor and NY1 anchor Errol Louis for a Q&A session on her office’s work to ensure all New Yorkers are counted in the 2020 Census. The event is hosted specifically by the journalism school’s Center for Community and Ethnic Media.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will hold its second of six “issues forums” at City Hall to discuss potential charter revisions. This forum will focus on revisions regarding police accountability.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the MTA will host the first of four open houses for community members regarding the “revised” L-train project. The first of these will take place at Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Bernard Church in the West Village.

Friday and the weekend
At 8 a.m. Friday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will join Crain’s for a “Business Breakfast Forum” at the New York Athletic Club, discussing “the state budget, other pressing topics facing lawmakers and his long-term goals for the newly constituted legislature.”

Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10 a.m. Friday.

The following City Council committees will hold preliminary budget hearings on Friday:
--Environmental Protection at 10 a.m., regarding the Department of Environmental Protection.
--Sanitation at 2 p.m., regarding the Department of Sanitation and the Business Integrity Commission.
--Parks & Recreation and Capital Budget jointly at 2 p.m., regarding the Department of Parks & Recreation.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

Public Advocate Election, Busy Legislatures & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, Feb. 25


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

The Public Advocate special election is Tuesday!

The election is open to all registered voters across the city. Very low turnout is expected. Make a plan and be ready to vote!
-Find all of Gotham Gazette's coverage of the election here.
-Watch one/some/all of the 15-minute interviews our Ben Max did with 14 of the candidates.
-Use the City Limits voter guide.
-Check your polling place.

The Public Advocate is one of just three citywide elected positions and while its annual budget is relatively small at about $3.5 million, it comes with a lot of responsibility and opportunity. The last two public advocates are now New York City mayor and New York State attorney general.

Speaking of former Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, the mayor was in Iowa this weekend, stoking talk of a possible run for president, of which he has repeatedly said he’s “not ruling it out.” De Blasio sought to promote his brand of progressive politics and outlining how he believes Democrats can better appeal to voters, intermittently criticizing the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign for not speaking enough to the needs of “working people.”

We’ll see what this week brings in terms of how de Blasio talks about 2020.

We’re also watching for the next steps in the fallout over the Amazon-to-Queens deal collapsing and how it has led to fighting between Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state Senate Democrats. Though is spokespeople had already done so in various formats, Cuomo took to the radio airwaves on Friday and launched a blistering attack against Senate Democrats for allowing one of their own, Senator Michael Gianaris, to throw up such a significant roadblock to the deal that the company changed its mind. The two sides have been publicly arguing since the deal fell apart, with Cuomo saying the Senate Democrats committed a grave error in governmental judgement, letting down the entire state, and Senate Democrats saying that the governor should not have orchestrated a secretive, flawed deal.

After its usual mid-February week off, the City Council and State Legislature are back in session this week; the Council has very busy week of hearings. As for the state, the clock is ticking for a new budget, which is due by April 1.

There's a lot on the calendar already for this week - see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
At 9 a.m. Monday, “The day before the Public Advocate special election, Let NY Vote advocates, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and others will rally against the NYC Board of Elections' (NYCBOE) recent lawsuit preventing city interpreters from being inside polling locations. The City will be providing expanded interpretation services at poll sites with the largest numbers of Limited English proficient voters for the special election on Tuesday. The NYCBOE sued the City on Friday to prevent the interpreters from entering poll site locations, once again standing in the way of making voting easier for New Yorkers. The hearing on the lawsuit will take place after the rally at 9:30am at Kings County Supreme Court.”

At the City Council on Monday:
--The Committee on Environmental Protection will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “sustainability and resilience of New York City wastewater treatment plants,” as well as to discuss two proposed laws requiring solidly enclosed containers for the transport of sewage sludge and requiring an “air quality monitoring program” for wastewater treatment plants.
--The Committees on Women, Cultural Affairs, and Parks & Recreation will meet jointly at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “improving the gender and cultural diversity of monuments located in city parks,” as well as to discuss the creation of a task force to study the city’s statues, monuments, and public art installations, and to discuss a proposed law requiring 50 percent of newly erected monuments, statues, and public art depict women.
--The Committees on Public Safety and Justice System will meet jointly at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “family separation in criminal cases,” as well as to discuss proposed laws creating a task force to study and make recommendations regarding the “obstacles faced by children of incarcerated children” and to require the NYPD to implement “child sensitive arrest policies.”
--The Committee on Health will meet at 1 p.m. to discuss several proposed laws relating to sugar, including requiring signage at restaurants on the dangers of sugar, require beverages served with children’s meals to not contain added sugar, requiring sugar content be displayed on menus, and requiring the health department to report on the incidence of diabetes and how to reduce it.
--The Committee on Hospitals will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “access to specialty care at NYC’s Health + Hospitals.”
--The Committee on Education will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “DOE’s provision of special education services,” as well as to discuss proposed laws requiring DOE to provide data on school-level IEP compliance rates, report on its provision of special education services, tuition-payment requests for special ed, and preschool special ed, and to discuss a resolution for DOE to establish a “czar position” to ensure compliance with IEPs.
--The Committee on Governmental Operations will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “community board operations and needs,” as well as to discuss a proposed law requiring “notification of expiration of variances and special permits granted by the board of standards and appeals.”

At 8:30 a.m. Monday, the New York City Bar Association will host “New York State Environmental Year in Review,” discussing “the past year’s most significant developments in New York State and New York City environmental law.” Amy Turner of the NYC Climate Action Alliance will moderate a panel consisting of Adriana Espinoza, New York City program director for NYLCV; Patrick Foster, regional attorney for region 2 for the state Department of Environmental Conservation; attorney Scott Fein; Columbia law professor Michael Gerrard; and St. John’s Law professor Philip Weinberg.

At 11 a.m. Monday, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance will rally at the Broadway Junction station to bring attention to the transit crisis as a racial and economic justice issue, and call on Albany to pass congestion pricing. Elected officials in attendance will include State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymembers Felix Ortiz, Robert Rodriguez, and Michael Blake, who is a candidate for public advocate. Also in attendance will be public advocate candidates Melissa Mark-Viverito and Dawn Smalls.

At 3 p.m. Monday, City Council Members Margaret Chin and Mark Levine, State Senator Brad Hoylman, and Assemblymember Deborah Glick will rally at the City Hall steps in support of Chin’s and Levine’s resolution calling for the implementation of a pied-a-terre tax in New York City, which would need to be passed at the state level and has the support of a variety of other elected officials.

On Monday at 3 p.m. in Washington, D.C., U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, along with “9/11 first responders, survivors, and their families will join with Jon Stewart” and several other elected officials from New York and elsewhere “to introduce the bipartisan Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act and call for its swift passage. The bipartisan legislation would ensure that all 9/11 first responders and survivors who have been injured by the toxins at Ground Zero and have certified 9/11 illnesses would receive their full compensation through the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) now and into the future as more become ill with 9/11 cancers. The bill would also close the funding gap recently announced by the VCF Special Master.”

At 6 p.m. Monday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will meet in the City Council Chambers at City Hall for an “issues forum” discussing instant runoff voting and other electoral reforms, the redistricting process, the structure of the Campaign Finance Board, and “alternative campaign finance mechanisms.” (This hearing was originally scheduled for Wednesday, February 20, but was rescheduled due to inclement weather.)

At 6:30 p.m. Monday, State Senators Alessandra Biaggi, Andrew Gounardes, Jessica Ramos, and Julia Salazar will join the Tri-State Transportation Campaign at its February happy hour at the Black Door in Chelsea, discussing congestion pricing.

Mayor de Blasio will appear Monday evening on NY1's Inside City Hall with Errol Louis in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

Tuesday
The special election for Public Advocate will be held on Tuesday. Polls will open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.

The New York State Legislature will be in session on Tuesday in Albany.

At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics will hold a meeting in Albany.

At the City Council on Tuesday:
--The Committee on Housing and Buildings will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss proposed laws allowing DOB to issue stop work orders along with “notices to revoke work permits,” allowing HPD “discretion” in choosing whether to work with a community land trust, and allowing individuals to sign up for email updates for whenever construction status changes on specific projects.
--The Committee on Criminal Justice will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “Department of Correction programming,” as well as to discuss proposed laws requiring DOC to conduct an annual survey of inmates at city jails regarding quality of life and treatment by corrections officers and requiring DOC to maintain libraries for inmates in city jails.
--The Committee on Land Use will meet at 11 a.m.
--The Committees on Mental Health and Veterans will meet jointly at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “veteran suicide and mental health.”
--The Committee on Fire and Emergency Management will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “protecting EMS workers from job related violence.”

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg will moderate a debate on whether to implement congestion pricing to address issues with transit, hosted by the Century Foundation and NYU Wagner at the Puck Building on Houston St. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Nicole Gelinas will argue in favor of congestion pricing, and former Assemblymember Richard Brodsky will argue against.

Wednesday
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Wednesday in Albany.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the MTA will hold a board meeting.

Starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Vocal-NY will hold a lobbying day in Albany to call on state legislators to end mass incarceration.

On Wednesday at noon at the state Capitol, the FREEnewyork Campaign will rally and meet with legislators “to demand the speedy passage of urgent reforms to the criminal legal system” including “three separate bills – S1716 (Open Discovery), S2101 (End Money Bail), S1738 (Speedy Trial).” Members of the coalition include “Citizen Action New York, JustLeadershipUSA, New York Communities for Change, New York Civil Liberties Union, Legal Aid Society, VOCAL-NY, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State, Religious leaders and more.”

At the City Council on Wednesday:
--The Committees on Justice System, Civil and Human Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Public Safety will meet jointly at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding the potential for marijuana legalization in New York, specifically on “equity and justice.” The committees will discuss proposed laws banning the Department of Probation from conducting drug tests for marijuana and ban employers from requiring employees to submit to tests for THC as a condition of employment. The committees will also discuss several resolutions, including ones calling for legalization of marijuana at the state and federal levels, calling for the expungement of all misdemeanor marijuana offenses, calling for the reinvestment of revenues from marijuana in communities most impacted by the war on drugs, calling for those with marijuana convictions to be prioritized in both the issuance of licenses for selling and in hiring in the marijuana industry, and encouraging small business growth in the industry, among others.
--The Committee on Aging will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “senior center model food budgets.”
--The Committee on Sanitation will meet at noon to discuss proposed laws requiring the Business Integrity Commission establish standards for union registration in the private carting industry, require the BIC to post workers’ rights information on its website, require private carters to provide workers’ rights information to employees, and for the BIC to hand over labor and wage violation cases to state or federal authorities.
--The Committee on Mental Health will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding a three-year update on ThriveNYC.

This week's Max & Murphy on WBAI radio will air at 5 p.m. Wednesday and will break down the results of the Public Advocate special election and more. Listen at 99.5FM or wbai.org.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Panel for Educational Policy will hold a public meeting at MS 131 in Chinatown.

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, BRIC TV will host a “#BHeard Town Hall” on economic inequality in New York City. Panelists will include Deputy Mayor J. Phillip Thompson, Student Debt Crisis Executive Director Natalia Abrams, NYU sociology professor Guillermina Jasso, former SEIU Chair Toni Lewis, Washington Post journalist Helaine Olen, and Fiscal Policy Institute chief economist Jonas Shaende.

Thursday
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Thursday in Albany.

The City Council will hold a stated meeting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Speaker Corey Johnson will host the usual pre-Stated press conference at 12:30 p.m.

Also at the City Council on Thursday: the Committee on Finance will meet at 9:30 a.m.

At 11:30 a.m. Thursday, City & State will hold a reception for its “NYC Power 100,” its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the city. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will deliver keynote remarks.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, Citizens Budget Commission will hold its 87th annual awards dinner at the Pierre Hotel on the Upper East Side. Awards will be presented to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, investor Stanley Shuman, and the City of New York for its Vision Zero initiative, and there will also be a special tribute to recently retired CBC President Carol Kellermann.

Friday and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday at 10 a.m.

At 3 p.m. Friday, the Senate Standing Committees on Transportation and Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions will meet jointly at the Nassau County Legislative Building in Mineola for a public oversight hearing regarding the LIRR.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

Campaign Finance Reform May Come with Mandatory Debates for Statewide Elections


cr cuomo

2014 NY gubernatorial debate (photo: C-SPAN)


With Democrats in charge of the state Legislature, there’s broad optimism that New York may finally create a state-level public financing system for electoral campaigns modelled after the program in place in New York City, including mandatory debates for candidates for statewide offices who receive public campaign funds.

In his executive budget released last month, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a voluntary public campaign financing program that would provide a 6-to-1 match for the first $175 of each contribution. The proposal also requires that statewide candidates, though not those running for State Senate or Assembly, participate in official debates before each primary and general election if they receive public funds, unless a candidate does not have an opponent.

Debates at the state level, particularly in gubernatorial contests, have been a thorny issue in previous elections. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, is notoriously averse to debating his opponents and has often limited the number of debates he agrees to participate in, and he almost always attempts to strictly dictate the terms of those debates.

In 2014, Cuomo refused to debate primary opponent Zephyr Teachout and would only partake in a general election debate open to all candidates, something he also insisted on in 2010, instead of any one-on-one with his Republican challenger, Rob Astorino. Cuomo used the messy 2010 debate to justify his lack of participation in debates. “I’ve been in many debates that I think were a disservice to democracy,” he told the New York Times in 2014. “So anyone who says debates are always a service to democracy hasn’t watched all the debates that I’ve been in.”

Last year, Cuomo did agree to one debate with his primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, who nevertheless hammered the governor for only agreeing to one, a scenario that played out quite similarly for the general election when Cuomo participated in one debate with Republican Marc Molinaro. The governor’s insistence on a low room temperature at the primary debate venue even triggered a discussion about sexism in the workplace.

Incumbent state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli participated in two televised general election debates last year after facing no primary challenger. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul similarly debated her opponent, City Council Member Jumaane Williams, twice before the primary though only one of the debates was televised. In an attorney general race with no incumbent, eventual winner Letitia James participated in a series of debates and forums in the Democratic primary, then agreed to just one general election debate against Republican Keith Wofford.

In New York City, the Campaign Finance Board, which administers the public matching funds program, organizes two official debates before each primary and general election for the three citywide offices of mayor, comptroller, and public advocate. Participation is determined based on financial thresholds for initial debates and additional nonpartisan criteria for subsequent ones. Participation is mandatory for any candidate receiving public matching funds.

Notably, the governor’s proposal only includes statewide candidates, which is more limited than the Fair Elections Act, versions of which have been introduced in the past in both the state Senate, by now-Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and in the Assembly by Speaker Carl Heastie. Both those public financing proposals included provisions for mandatory debates for all candidates who participate in the public campaign finance program.

But neither Stewart-Cousins nor Heastie have reintroduced the Fair Elections Act and it’s unclear if they intend to do so, indicating that Cuomo’s proposal may form the basis for negotiations with the Legislature. Asked about the Fair Elections Act and the governor’s proposal, a spokesperson for the Senate majority, Mike Murphy, simply said by email, “It is being discussed and we look forward to moving forward.” Heastie’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Jonathan Timm, a spokesperson for Senator Zellnor Myrie, who chairs the elections committee, said Myrie is working with other senators to improve on the governor’s budget proposal but had yet to finalize their plans. “The Senator is a strong supporter of public financing...and he is working with all parties to see how we can get to best system possible. Everything is on the table, including, possibly, debate requirements,” Timm said in an email.

Though a mandatory debate program is a desirable element for any public financing proposal, it’s not a top priority for advocates. “We don’t want the excuse of something not being perfect as a justification for not doing anything, which happens all too often in Albany,” said Alex Camarda, senior advisor at Reinvent Albany, a government reform group that is part of the Fair Elections for New York coalition.

What’s more important, he said, “is establishing the foundation for a public matching funds program in New York State and following the city model of improving it over time.”

He also said that though debates are important in informing the public and for allowing candidates to contrast their policy platforms, they tend to be more essential for elections that aren’t as high profile. For instance, the public advocate special election in New York City, which has 17 candidates, many of whom with little name recognition, running for a seat that many New Yorkers are unaware about. That’s the “poster child for the importance of debates,” Camarda said. Qualifying candidates in that field have now participated in two official, televised debates ahead of the February 26 vote.

At the statewide level, where the stakes are higher, voters tend to be more engaged. “In an era of social media and the 24/7 news cycle, debates are certainly not as critical as they once were,” Camarda said.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

E-Scooter Companies Ramp Up Lobbying for State and City Authorization


birdride inc

(photo: @BirdRide)


With Governor Andrew Cuomo proposing the legalization of electric bikes and scooters in New York and the New York City Council considering several bills to achieve that goal, the two prominent e-scooter firms looking to do business in the state are ramping up efforts to lobby lawmakers and other officials.

Bird and Lime are barnstorming New York with lobbyists as they seek to expand into what could be a massively profitable market. The e-scooter companies have already established a presence in hundreds of cities across the United States and the globe, presenting their products as affordable “micro mobility” alternatives that get people around while reducing carbon emissions and traffic congestion.

It’s an appealing argument that has been embraced as part of the broader public transit conversation by many elected officials and transit and street safety advocates, particularly in New York City with its crumbling subway system, slow buses, and crowded streets. And that argument is being spread widely through hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on lobbying.

At the state level, Cuomo has proposed giving municipalities the authority to legalize both e-bikes and e-scooters, which many, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, argue would need to happen first if the city is to act.

“Authorizing these transportation alternatives in a sensible and safety conscious manner will provide cheaper and more environmentally friendly transit options to New Yorkers and visitors who can use these options for work or leisure,” said Jason Conwall, a spokesman for Governor Cuomo, in a statement. The proposal includes mandates for the use of helmets, reflective gear, a bell or horn, and a maximum speed limit.

“It will also attract new businesses and generate job opportunities for New Yorkers, and align the state with many other states and cities that have successfully brought this technology to their residents,” Conwall added.

De Blasio has seemed open to legalizing e-scooters, though he has emphasized that public safety must be the first priority. “If I can see something that will create safety in this city and allow people to use e-bikes or e-scooters, I’m very open to that,” he said at an unrelated news conference in November. But while he is in favor of pedal-assist e-bikes, he has strongly opposed legalizing e-bikes with throttles, citing safety concerns, though without evidence.

At de Blasio’s behest, the NYPD has been cracking down and confiscating e-bikes, which are often used by immigrant delivery workers, and fining individuals and businesses (most of the fines are levied against individuals, as reported by Gothamist in January, contrary to de Blasio’s professed plan to target businesses). Meanwhile, the city launched a pilot dockless-bike program last year in July -- in partnership with Lime, CitiBike, and Jump -- which allowed pedal-assist bikes, which are similar to throttle bikes but run at slower speeds.

Scott Gastel, a city Department of Transportation spokesperson, said the de Blasio administration is reviewing the governor’s proposal. “If the State takes action to provide a local path to legalization, there will be a conversation about what makes sense for New York City,” he said in an email.

The City Council is already pushing that conversation, however, through four bills that were debated at a transportation committee hearing last month where Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg raised concerns about the “unregulated, illegal nature” of e-bikes and “particularly their speeds and irresponsible use by some.”

The bills in question -- sponsored by Council Members Fernando Cabrera and Rafael Espinal -- would remove restrictions against e-scooter and e-bike use, create a program to help throttle-bike owners to convert them to pedal-assist bikes, and create a pilot scooter-sharing program.

“Legalizing electric scooters and throttle electric bikes may seem like distinct issues, but they share a common theme: transit equity,” said Espinal, in a statement, “the principle that all people – particularly marginalized communities – deserve affordable, accessible, and safe transit options that get them where they need to go, whether that be for a job, a social engagement, or anything else.”

For certain City Council members, lobbying by e-scooter firms has presented a golden opportunity to attach e-bikes to the conversation, providing what they say is much-needed justice for immigrant delivery workers who have suffered under de Blasio’s crackdown.

“There’s no doubt that the reason that we’re talking about e-bikes today again is because of the money and the power that has been wielded by these tech companies, these e-scooter companies,” said Council Member Carlos Menchaca, in a brief interview outside City Hall. Menchaca has been among the most vocal critics of the mayor’s enforcement policy on e-bikes, calling the crackdown “discriminatory.”

Over the last year, Bird Rides Inc. has hired several firms to represent its interests including Blue Suit Strategies, Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz, the Mirram Group, Dickinson Avella Vidal, and Tusk Strategies, which has close ties to Council Speaker Johnson and is known for its successful effort in helping the ride-hailing service Uber avoid new regulations in New York City in 2015 (those regulations did pass in 2018).

David Estrada, Bird’s chief legal officer, is among several Bird employees who have also registered as lobbyists in New York. By the end of 2018, Bird had spent about $142,000 on its lobbying effort, according to city and state lobbying records.

Those efforts are ongoing and Bird signed retainer agreements with several of firms to work throughout this year. Blue Suit, for instance, signed an agreement to be paid $3,000 each month through March 2019 to lobby before city officials. Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz signed on for a $6,500 monthly retainer through the end of the year. The Mirram Group’s contract, which extends till August, is expected to cost $10,000 per month. Ostroff Associates is expected to receive $5,000 each month till the end of July. And Tusk Strategies’ contract was the costliest, at $25,000 per month for the full year.

Neutron Holdings, Lime’s parent company, similarly hired James F. Capalino & Associates, Urban Strategies, and Yoswein New York to lobby local and state officials for both e-scooter legislation and for expanding its dockless bike share service into New York.

“We are working with both state and city officials to improve transportation options for all New Yorkers,” said Phil Jones, Lime’s senior director of East Coast Government Relations & Strategic Development, in a statement. “Shared dock-free scooters can make transportation reliable and affordable for all New Yorkers—especially underserved communities that do not have easy access to mass transit.”

The company had already spent about $146,000 by the end of last year and plans more. Capalino & Associates’ contract runs through the end of 2019 with a $10,000 monthly retainer. Urban Strategies was retained to work for the company through the end of May for $5,000 each month.

Menchaca is adamant that e-scooter legalization should only happen along with e-bikes, and the e-scooter firms also seem on board since it advances their interests. “I was very clear from the beginning...that we’re not even talking about e-scooters till we figure out what’s going on with the e-bikes and fix that problem,” he said. “They understood that so they’re gonna play...They’re savvy. We’ll do it together.”

And he seemed to partly excuse the de Blasio administration, even as he criticized the “discriminatory focus from the NYPD” on immigrant workers. “We can’t move that much because of the state, the state needs to move to unlock our ability to legislate this,” he said. “So I wouldn’t say that the administration’s not listening.”

Does the mayor really care? “I think we’re gonna make the mayor care,” Menchaca said.

Council Member Antonio Reynoso sees the issue as indicative of a larger de Blasio problem. “The way we’re thinking about it is we’re gonna leverage the lobbying effort made by the e-scooters to make sure that we get justice for the e-bike folks,” he said in a brief interview in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

“I think it’s less about whether or not the mayor cares about lobbyists and immigrants and more about the mayor just being bad on transportation policy,” he added. “Let’s put it in perspective. Who it affects, how it affects them is kind of second to the mayor not understanding that he’s a proponent of car culture in a significant way. So whether it’s e-scooters or e-bikes, I think to him, who’s advocating for it is second to just bad policy.”

De Blasio finds himself increasingly isolated in his position. E-scooters and e-bikes are one of those rare issues where the interests of transit and street safety advocates on the ground line up with those of large firms with a profit incentive.

“It is indeed disturbing to continue to see Mayor de Blasio...continuing to criminalize the use of an e-bike which is an efficient, sustainable mode of transportation,” said Marco Conner, deputy director of Transportation Alternatives, in a phone interview he gave while riding a CitiBike, the bike-sharing program that de Blasio has expanded and which started to offer pedal-assist bikes as part of the city’s L-train shutdown mitigation plans. “Meanwhile, he’s en route to inviting e-scooter-share companies and has also legalized pedal assist e-bikes.”

Conner said the mayor’s argument that e-bikes are illegal and so the NYPD must enforce the law doesn’t hold water, particularly considering the mayor’s rhetoric about making New York the “fairest big city in America” with strong “sanctuary city” protections. The crackdown, he noted, exposes low-wage immigrants to the criminal justice system, opening them up to potential interactions with immigration authorities. “Every New Yorker jaywalks daily. Police officers jaywalk daily,” Conner said. “That’s illegal under local statute but you don’t see that kind of targeted crackdown.”

He also suggested that the city should institute a buy-back program for e-bike owners, similar to the NYPD’s regular gun buy-backs that take guns off the streets.

Conner did have concerns, however, about the governor’s legalization proposal, particularly the helmet and reflective clothing requirements, which he said are “well-intended” but would discourage the use of e-bikes and e-scooters. It would also harm the existing CitiBike program, which doesn’t require either, he pointed out.

“Helmet sharing is not a thing and will never be a thing,” he said, while the reflective clothing rule is “a recipe for subjective and racially disparate enforcement.” The governor’s proposal also gives motor vehicles the right of way over e-bike and e-scooter riders, which Conner said should be reversed.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Amazon Fallout, State Transit Hearing, Second Public Advocate Debate & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, Feb. 18


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

This week we're watching several storylines, even as it is a quiet week in city and state government in terms of action at the City Council and State Legislature, with both bodies largely on the annual mid-February break.

One is the continued fallout over the end of the deal to bring a massive Amazon campus to Queens. There will also be continued dissection of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 30-day amendments to his executive budget plan, which were released at the end of this past week and will help set the stage for the legislative and budget negotiations are set to heat up as the April 1 deadline for a new state budget fast approaches. Those negotiations are now also going to be influenced by what happened with the Amazon deal, including the fact that Cuomo is attempting to sow division in within the Senate Democratic conference, which he has blamed for sabotaging the deal based on the opposition of Senator Michael Gianaris.

Another key storyline this week is the special election for Public Advocate, which will enter its final week. The vote is set for February 26, one week from Tuesday, and there will be the second official televised debate on Wednesday night this week, with seven "leading contenders."

As always, there are several events to be aware of this week - see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
Monday is the Presidents Day holiday.

At 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will give remarks at the Association of Towns 2019 Annual Meeting, in Manhattan.

At 11 a.m., City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will host "#BreakThePatent Rally with Council Member Carlina Rivera, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, Former State Senator Tom Duane, PrEP4All Collaboration (#BreakThePatent Campaign) and Advocates" at the New York City AIDS Memorial in Manhattan.

Mayor de Blasio will appear on NY1's Inside City Hall on Monday in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

Tuesday
Tuesday marks one week until the special election for Public Advocate.

At noon on Tuesday in Brooklyn, "Mayor de Blasio will make an announcement about Vision Zero." "After, the Mayor will attend the wake of Detective Brian Simonsen." "Later, the Mayor and First Lady McCray will host a Black History Month Celebration where they will honor Me Too Founder Tarana Burke."

At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks at the New York Immigration Coalition Policy and Legislative Breakfast in Manhattan. At 6:30 p.m., Stringer will hosts a Lunar New Year Celebration in Flushing.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the State Senate will hold the first of five public oversight hearings on the “effectiveness of New York’s transit networks.” The hearing will take place at 250 Broadway in Manhattan.

On Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. at Lincoln Center, "11:45 AM Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and Secretary to the Governor and Chair of the New York State Council on Women and Girls Melissa DeRosa Unveil the 2019 Women's Justice Agenda."

Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. will be U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat’s State of the District event, at Our Children’s Foundation in upper Manhattan. Several other elected officials will attend.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Comptroller Scott Stringer will host a Lunar New Year celebration at Flushing Town Hall. Stringer will honor State Senator John Liu, the Korean American Family Service Center, and Sun Yup Kim, President of the Korean American Business Council of New York.

Wednesday
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy will air on WBAI radio -- 99.5FM and wbai.org -- and feature interviews with public advocate candidates Jumaane Williams and Ydanis Rodriguez.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will meet in the City Council Chambers at City Hall for an “issues forum” discussing instant runoff voting and other electoral reforms, the redistricting process, the structure of the Campaign Finance Board, and “alternative campaign finance mechanisms.”

At 7 p.m. Wednesday will be the second official televised debate in the special election for Public Advocate, airing on NY1 television and the NY1.com website, among other places. The “leading contenders” debate will feature seven candidates seeking the position. The vote is set for Tuesday, February 26.

Thursday
At 8 a.m. Thursday, James Patchett, President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, will join Crain’s for a “Business Breakfast Forum” at the New York Athletic Club, discussing “the Amazon deal, EDC’s biggest projects and the de Blasio administration’s economic-development agenda.”

At 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will deliver his State of the Borough address at Samuel Gompers High School in the South Bronx.

Friday and the weekend
Mayor Bill de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10 a.m. Friday.

Friday is the deadline for members of the public to apply to serve on the city’s new Civic Engagement Commission.

At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, U.S. Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, and State Senators Michael Gianaris, Brian Benjamin, and Robert Jackson will host a “Town Hall for Democracy,” discussing opportunities to get money out of politics and reform New York’s election system. The town hall will take place at Washington Irving High School, near Union Square.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will hold her annual State of the Borough event at the NYU Skirball Center.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette



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