On January 9, 2002 the new City Council must elect the new Speaker of the
City Council. Under Peter Vallone, who has held the position since 1989, the
Speaker has controlled nearly everything at the City Council. He has hired
the central staff, appointed the chairs of committees, and set the schedule
and agenda. The Speaker, along with the finance committee, worked with the
mayor's budget. And unlike most legislative bodies, the Speaker has been the
only member who could bring a bill up for a vote on the floor.
In the past, the Speaker was selected by the party leaders from each district
who would then get each member of the council from each borough to vote
as a bloc. With term limits, much in the council has changed , including
how the Speaker is chosen. On December 5, the Fresh Democracy Council,
a group of 17 newly elected members sponsored a public forum to hear
what the candidates for Speaker had to say. "This brings the process out of
the smoke-filled back room where three men with cigars made the
decisions," said David Weprin who is a member of the coalition and is also
running for Speaker.
Below is a partial transcript of the forum. The seven council members seeking
the position who attended were Angel Rodriguez, David Weprin, Bill Perkins,
Phil Reed, Al Vann, Melinda Katz, and Gifford Miller.
- Opening Statements
- What are your visions of the economy?
- What your priorities for education and
how will you fund them?
- Would you post council voting records and
attendance on the council web site?
Angel Rodriguez
First let me thank the Fresh Democracy Council for holding
this forum. Before I begin my opening statement, I want to dispel
some rumors that have been floating around in the city for a while.
The first rumor is that I am unsupportive of unions and union
issues. This is totally untrue. As a son of a union member, as
someone who has supported labor his whole life, I consider myself
a part of the union movement and I think it is unfair for me to
be characterized that way. In my last campaign I was proud to
receive the support of many, many unions including D.C.37, UFT,
1199 and many other unions. I recently found out that I had a
100 percent voting record with D.C.37. And that is who the true
Angel Rodriguez is, a person that goes out there and votes on
the issues and doesn't worry about what the record is whether
it's 100 percent or 95 percent, but just votes on the issues.
The other rumor that I've been hearing is that I'm going to bring
back certain staff members. That's incorrect; I will not bring
back any staff members. I just want to make that clear and for
the record.
I'd like to lay out my vision for the City Council and for New York City. We
face trying times in New York City. These times are such that we have to make
sure the next Speaker of the City Council understands those issues. We have
to redevelop downtown Manhattan. We have to make sure that the issues of
public education, issues that were important before September 11th, are
issues that are still there, when we come to these decisions. It is my
understanding that we cannot allow a speaker to take office that doesn't
understand those issues. Who doesn't deal with making sure we have quality
health insurance, who understands that we need affordable housing for our
people, who understands that labor and management has to come together to
make this city better when we redevelop New York City. Now my statement is
going to be cut short because I'm out of time but I can't cut short before I
say these things. We're facing a $3.5 billion dollar gap and we have to be
sure that our city is prepared to deal with that gap.
David Weprin
Good evening. I want to thank Fresh Democracy
Council for hosting this historic event tonight. I am running
for Speaker of the City Council Because I feel I have the right
combination of business and financial background and prior government
service to be a strong voice for the City Council. In the 1970's
I served as a legislative aide in Albany, I served as a congressional
intern in Washington. During the Cuomo administration, I served
as deputy superintendent of banking for New York State and Secretary
for the New York Banking Board and I served 13 years as a vice
president and managing director in municipal finance on Wall Street.
I was also unanimously elected by my peers as chairman of the
Securities Industries Association which is the trade group for
Wall Street. I've also been a Democratic District Leader for the
last eight years.
On July first we'll be facing a projected $3.5 billion gap followed by
another gap the following year of $3.9 billion. These are very tough fiscal
times. The challenge facing New York City must be answered by a coalition to
create a sensible means of meeting financial obligations. Together with you,
I would like to move with the united City Council, with the labor movement
and the private sector to restore the New York City Commuter tax which will
generate close to $500 million in revenue each year. I will fight for the
City Council confirmation of commissioners and mayoral judicial appointments,
which I'm proud to say is now an official part of the FDC suggested rule
changes. I learned from my father who was speaker of the New York State
Assembly in the early 1990's the absolute necessity for the speaker to
maintain an open door to all his members. He was preceded by three very
powerful speakers who at times were criticized for being inaccessible to his
members. Under his policy, his members who needed to meet with the speaker
could do so that day between openings in the calendar. He was accessible and
in doing so he created a strong and responsible working relationship. When he
met with the members, it was not to sell them a package worked out in
conjunction with the governor and majority leader but it was to craft the
legislative agenda with them.
Bill Perkins
Thank you very much. I want to also join my
colleagues in commending the Fresh Democracy Council for its leadership
in responding to changing times. I believe that the type of speaker
we are looking for is the type who will be an enabler, one who
will recognize the entrepreneurial spirit of a council member
and support that spirit provide that member with the type of opportunities
to express himself, represent his community and at the same time
be there accessible, available and open to kinds of changes. There
are those who might suggest that the Speaker is someone who requires
dictatorial type leadership in order to be effective. I believe
the stronger we make each individual member--and especially in
terms of our committees--the stronger the institution will be
and the stronger the speaker will be in terms of representing
all the members and all the communities in the city. In that regard
I believe we will be more effective especially as we begin to
address the fact that our city is bleeding in terms of its economy,
in terms of its fiscal health, in terms of its safety net. We
need a speaker who is part of a team of people who feel strong
and feel able to express themselves and I believe that type of
leadership is the type of leadership that we will have under my
leadership as a speaker. Thank you.
Phil Reed
I also want to congratulate all of my colleagues
who were elected. I know the process and feel like I'm going through
it again. And I know we have a great deal of things on our mind.
You've all been given staff and have a great deal of responsibilities
already, but I would also like to take ten seconds of my time
to also welcome the returning members of City Council. I think
they deserve a round of applause.
We really aren't that old. There are many issues that are facing us in this
city and the council has been selected by the individual districts to
represent them, to give them a clear and honest voice in the hard answers
that we will have to come up with over these next couple of years. Certainly
in the next six months, we have an unprecedented amount of work to do and we
have to gain the knowledge to do that. In order to do that I think that
whoever the speaker is has to try immediately to reduce whatever level of
suspicion or intrigue that has been left over perhaps by this process or the
legacy people have perceived of the council. That is something that I pledge
to do. I pledge as your council leader to try and make our decisions as
transparent as possible, certainly at all times to the membership and with
all due respect, although we will need to debate and dialogue with ourselves
we should also make sure that the public is able to participate. There are
several issues that are key to the Fresh Democracy Council, as well as to
those of us who are returning and we are fascinated to engage in that in a
fair and honest way. But at the end of this process we must come together
quickly and move forward to make sure that our city stays stable and safe and
we work together as one. Thank you.
Al Vann
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to
thank my colleagues in the council who attended this evening.
I'm a fresh delegate. I'm completing my 27th year in the New York
State legislature and upstate assembly. For the last 20 years
I've served in leadership positions in Albany. In January I'll
be a freshman in the City council with my colleagues. I envision
a city council that will be bold, will be compassionate, will
be a deliberate legislative body, will be a body that will be
in power to carry out and fulfill the charter mandate that will
give us the power to govern this great city as a co-pilot with
the mayor. Of course there is an unprecedented crisis of which
we're all aware, and I believe, that will bring Herculean challenge
to all of us: all of us in the city, all of us on the council,
and of course the speaker.
The next Speaker of City Council must be a person who has legislative and
government experience and has had proven leadership, because he must gain
the confidence of the people of the city, the stakeholders in the city, and
of course all those with whom he must confer and make decisions. The next
speaker must be committed to empowerment, individual members, empowering to
committee chairs. Transparency in government. There must be inclusion in all
the decision making of our budgetary and legislative process. The next
speaker has to be encouraged to maximize the power they are given by the
council and the charter because they have to be able to present and preserve
the interests and the priorities of the people they say they represent. The
next speaker must be strong enough to lead by consensus. The next speaker has
to be strong enough and big enough to be respected by federal and state. And
I believe he must be balanced enough, strong enough to maintain the delicate
balance between the competing interests, all the systems and all the people
of New York.
Gifford Miller
I want to thank FDC for hosting this forum
and say that there was a lot of concern about the turmoil, the
turbulence that this was going to create. I think that anybody
who was concerned about that can put their minds at rest, given
the commitment, passion and competence of the members of the new
class of Council Members who have come into the council and already
before they have taken office articulated an agenda forcing the
race for the speaker out into the open and I look forward to working
with you in January regardless of what happens in the speakership
race.
I think the City Council is by definition a people's voice and we're blessed
with a council that has members from diverse walks of life, diverse
experiences: educators, community leaders, activists, former legislators,
police officers and I feel confident the next council will well represent
the people of the city. But the first task that we have to undertake is to
elect a leader who will work hand in hand with all of those on the council,
and maximize the potential in this room. We need somebody who will empower
other members to articulate agendas like the ones we're hearing about today,
and many others, in order to address the needs of the people in the city. I'm
running for speaker of the city council because my experience over the past
six years which I've found to be both energizing and frustrating. Energizing
in the sense that in the last six years I've had the opportunity to write the
most progressive municipal voter registration laws in the country, to create
the first family planning program in the city of New York, to negotiate a
deal to get disabled accessible liberty service for all New Yorkers. These
are opportunities we all have, but it's been frustrating because I've felt
there's been so much more that I could have accomplished if I'd had the
opportunity to do so. The choice that we have is to draw up a leadership team
that will draw upon all the energies on this panel and create a structure and
a format for the council to accomplish great things for New Yorkers. Thank
you.
Melinda Katz
I would like to thank everyone in this room
for being here. As someone who had the privilege and the honor
of serving in the assembly with councilman-elect Vann and I got
there after Oliver Koppell. I think this is a terrific forum that
we have here and everyone in this room certainly should be congratulated
for joining us today and taking an interest in the future of our
democracy and the future of our city. We're entering a very exciting
and challenging time in the city of New York and I think the speaker
should be able to handle the issues we are now facing, which of
course because of the last few months would boggle the minds of
any city in the entire United States of America. But New York
City has to deal with it and I think we are strong enough to deal
with it, as case in point: the last few months. But to do that
the speaker is going to have to bring this council together to
speak with one voice when appropriate. He or she will also have
to be able to draw upon the expertise of each of our council members.
Now that means together we need to make sure that we are able
to get the money from Albany that we so sorely rely on. We rely
on a lot of money from them and as part of the assembly before
I would hope that I'd be able to bring some of that to the council
in getting that money. We're going to have to do job creations
together. We're going to have to be able to speak as one voice
as we rebuild New York City, as we rebuild lower Manhattan. But
we also need to remember that each and every one of my colleagues
in the New York City Council got elected to represent their district
and as we represent the City of New York and as we worry about
rebuilding downtown Manhattan and really rebuilding the entire
city by creating jobs and creating the economy and doing economic
development, in the city of New York, that each of these council
members has to bring money and finances back to their districts.
We need to continue to worry about public hospitals, we need to
continue to worry about the Board of Education, we need to continue
to worry about child safety in our school system, and to make
sure we're getting health care for all our kids. So it's a twofold
process. Together we speak as one voice for the City of New York,
but the speaker has to draw on the expertise of each and every
council member. Thank you very much.
Q: What is your vision of the future
of New York City's economy including all five boroughs?
Reed: I think that your question speaks to what's on all
of our minds and it's interesting because certainly all of the
new council members, if there's any hope, those of us that were
here in two years will have a chance to run for reelection. I
guess that means I'd like to see us change term limits [you can
applaud]. And the fact of the matter is the overwhelming majority
of your energy, as well as all of ours as council members, is
going to be spent in our districts over the next two years. And
while it is im portant that we establish some rules of engagement
while we are at City Hall, what we're here to make sure is to
bring back to our district some substance, some realities of the
promise that we were just about to achieve. That vision I have
of what we do economically speaks to all the people that are here.
I know so many people who are advocates of this movement who I've become
friends with and known, know that for instance we've got a terrific staff at
City Hall right now. I just wanted to have the opportunity to say that
because the advocates out here can not shake their heads in a negative
fashion. Many times they have gone to our staff for the advice and the
council about how to get their programs sustained. I don't think anybody in
here wants to see a wholesale change of that staff. That is going to impact
our economy in the city. How we balance the proposal for a tax reduction how
we go to Albany and tell them 'goddamn it give us back the commuter tax.' We
perhaps are able to establish a fund that gives us at some future date an
opportunity to say there's a rainy day we should have had that in place. I
want to make sure that all of us come together, every single person in this
room is going to have to look at living with less. But I assure you that East
Harlem isn't going to live with any less then your community does or that the
far Rockaway do. We will have to balance those needs and find new engines of
economic recovery that we put all of our faith in that stock industry is now
coming to us to be proved to be short-sighted. So there we industries we
ignored that need to be reestablished.
Vann: I think the first thing that I would do is there must be a coordinating
strategy for New York City using our congressional leader to demand
the maximum resources that we deserve and to expedite those resources
relative to the World Trade Center disaster. Victims, heroes,
families, they all need to be paid for their pain and suffering
for their economic loss. We have to reemploy the people who have
been unemployed as a result of that. But the first thing we do
is make sure we maximize our dollars from the Federal Government.
Then we must use our relationships and friendships in the state
so they will maximize their aid to New York City. That will take
pressure off of our city budget. If we have to extend our budget
to cover those expenses it should readily be federal and state
and we have a more serious deficit than we are being estimated
at this point in time. If we're able to do those things our deficit
will be manageable and we will be able to, working together, in
concert be able to manage the 1.3,whatever that deficit may be
that we will determine because we represent the people in our
districts and in our city. We will hold some things without harm,
like education, economic development, and service issues that
affect people most directly. I think it's very important that
we get those dollars coming from the Federal and State government
so we will have an opportunity to manage the necessary deficit
we will have and move to a point because we must have a budget
that's in balance. We must have a balanced budget so we have to
hit the ground running. And it's the Mayor who will estimate the
revenue. It's true that we have the mandate of power to develop
a budget but it is his power alone to determine what the revenue
level will be. We will work with the Mayor.
Miller: It's a good question. I think we have to acknowledge
that the first challenge facing the city and it's not gonna be
one we'll be able to address in a short period of time is rebuilding
our financial sector and the hole in the ground we have in the
Wall Street area. The Wall Street area does drive the economy
it doesn't just provide employment just to one borough. It provides
employment to all five boroughs. In fact it's a regional issue
it's not just a Manhattan issue. We need to have a very close
eye on the city's role and the council's role and the redevelopment
commission and be sensitive Alan Guerstin wherever you are, to
the fact that the financial district is also a residential district
and we need to ensure to address those issues as well. As part
of our economic development.
But I think the second challenge we have is converting Federal and State
dollars--and getting Federal and State dollars--to expand our infrastructure.
I think we have an opportunity sad though it may seem in this time of crisis
to get dollars. I don't just mean infrastructure serving the Wall Street area
but in terms of linking all of our boroughs. I know that Chuck Schumer's
group the 35 did a very thoughtful report on economic development. They
showed that 80 percent of added employment was office sector employment, so
we need to be focused on that. And we have an even lesser supply now as a
result of this terrible tragedy. Some of that can be addressed through
looking at other parts of our boroughs and converting and zoning to support
commercial office development. At the same time as we have also recognized
that we have a manufacturing sector in this town. We've used our land use
policies to support the manufacturing sector. A great example is the garment
industry, where we use land use policies to make sure that we preserve those
manufacturing jobs. The final thing I'll say in my final 15 seconds is I
think it's a disgrace hasn't had a health care policy for the last eight
years. Does anyone in this room have any idea what the city's health care
policy is? The health care industry is a major, major industry in this city.
It kept the city alive during the past recession. If it wasn't for the health
care growth in the '89, '90, whatever's recession we would have been on
death's doorstep, so I think we need to focus on that issue as well.
Katz: This is obviously an issue we need to look into in much greater
detail than a two-hour debate. I think we need to rebuild lower
Manhattan with Alan Gerson certainly being a part of that. We
need to rebuild it while respecting the lives of those we have
lost there. I think there is a way to get a balance on that. We
need to create jobs in the City of New York which will help every
borough with the trickle down effect, there is no doubt about
that. We are losing 93,000 jobs according to Comptroller Hevesi
in this year's budget. In next year's budget we need to make sure
that we create those jobs. We need to have incentives. We're losing
businesses to New Jersey. We're losing businesses to Long Island.
We need to make sure that our businesses are staying here in the
City of New York. Let's bring them out to Queens, let's bring
them out to The Bronx, let's bring them out to Brooklyn. That's
three boroughs right? Of course in Staten Island.
We need to make sure we create jobs. I think it would be great if we could
refinance our debt. We've never talked about that before. There are some
rules now about refinancing debt. Our hands are tied but some of that would
save the City of New York money with a lower interest rate. I would love to
see the City of New York get more money from the federal government. Right
now the federal government is not giving us one dime for building of our
school system. We should be getting half from the federal government. We are
educating every child who comes into the City of New York, as we should be,
but we also have to make sure we have the facilities here to house them. I
know many of the senators and many of the congressmen have bills in Congress
to make sure we get funds that we deserve to rebuild our schools. And we
should be getting money from the State of New York on the expense budget for
education. A Judge ruled with a decision that said New York City is not
getting its fair share of spending. That decision has been appealed. We
deserve our fair share of spending in the City of New York. We certainly have
a lot of the children in our school system. What are the other boroughs? We
need a permanent way of getting rid of our garbage. There you go, so we can
save money on that. But with all due respect to all my council members,
obviously creating jobs and doing economic development in the City of New
York is important to bring back to our districts.
Rodriguez: In trying times, we have tremendous opportunities, the redevelopment
of downtown Manhattan is a tremendous opportunity for our city,
but as you go into the other boroughs you have to think. What's
worked and what hasn't worked? I chair the subcommittee on small
business, retail and merchant technologies. And as a result of
that we have had eight digital divide districts in New York City.
One is in the district of DUMBO and as you're aware, DUMBO has
become an area in which great job growth has come as a result
of the high technology industry. That has been done as a result
of the work that was done in my committee and as a result of digital
divides districts in that area. We have to look at that and see
how we can expand that and do other things. We have an opportunity
with biotechnology. We have more teaching hospitals than anywhere
else in the country, but we haven't taken the opportunity to explore
the biotechnology sector. We have to look at the freight rail.
How do we get the freight rail toned up.
As we go through this process we have to reach out to all the people in all
the communities. Education is the most important thing for someone to get so
they can get a job. The current [budget] modification, just so you can know
what's expected, $3.5 million was taken away from CUNY, for the scholarship
program. That's wrong, That stuff we can not do. We have to make sure that
this council stands up to those types of cuts and figures out other ways to
get the budget gap done and the economy going. I think it is important to
understand that education is the key to making sure that each and every one
of us has a fair opportunity. I am here today because of the public education
this city provided me and I will make sure that 15 or 20 or 10 years from now
another young person is sitting here doing the same thing that I'm doing.
Thank you.
Weprin: I think we have to look at this year with our upcoming $3.5
billion deficit and the following year a predicted $3.9 billion
deficit. This is a major fiscal crisis. We have to compare it
to 1975 which is the only measure we can really compare it to
in our history. Back in 1975 we had a coalition of labor, private
sector and government working together and it was that coalition
that basically bailed out New York City. I think we have to think
out of the box about ways to reach out to the private sector.
I come from the securities industry and there's a lot of untapped
resources in the industry. We've been a disproportionate amount
of the employment and the taxes, the last year or so has been
a tough year although I understand today was a good day at the
market. Economic development is crucial throughout the five boroughs.
I've been involved for the last fifteen years with the Greater
Jamaica development corporation, sitting on their board and we've
done a lot of economic development in the whole area. And I served
on the Urban Development Board as an ex-officio member when I
was a deputy in the banking department. The number 1 immediate
priority is to rebuild downtown, but we also have to look at the
ripple effect. We've been hurting throughout the five boroughs.
We have to look at it as a fiscal crisis and we have to build
the type of coalition we had in 1975 with labor and with the private
sector and if we all work together we can solve these problems.
Perkins: In the short term the economy of New York doesn't
look good, obviously. We are bleeding, as I pointed out earlier,
in terms of our budget, we have big holes in our budget that have
to be filled. If we don't fill them, our city will be taken over
by the emergency financial control board and that in itself will
not be good. In the long term we want to look at exactly what
exactly is going on at the World Trade Center. There's $20 billion
that's promised to our city, substantial amounts of that money
are going to be used down there. Employment opportunities, entrepreneurial
opportunities, training opportunities that are going to be available
to all the boroughs, all the citizens of New York are going to
come out of that. That's not a short term project, that's a long
term project. It's going to have a ripple effect in all the boroughs.
But there's a problem with what's going on there now. I'd like
to take a moment to plug a hearing that I'm having tomorrow. The
contracting that's going on downtown at the World Trade Center
and how it is threatening to not only violate the rules of government
in this city but is also denying New Yorkers jobs and is denying
New Yorkers contracts, something that is very important not just
for people in Manhattan but for people throughout the city. So
I think that we have an opportunity to fix our budget. (It's going
to be difficult to avoid being taken over by the Emergency Financial
Control Board.) So that then we can begin to find other creative
ways of improving our economy. I'd like to also echo the point
that my colleague Angel Rodriguez made about our public education.
I think that it's very important, in terms of our economy that
our public schools are top notch schools.
Question: Tell us specifically
your priorities for education, and then tell us how you will ensure
funding for education and those priorities?
Vann: I think that's one of the most important questions
that's been asked tonight because I think we all agree on the
significance of education in ensuring our survival and providing
hope and opportunity for our children and our grandchildren and
beyond. I support the traditional responses about education. Yes
we must retain our teachers our teachers from going to the outlying
areas by providing adequate salaries. Yes we must have reduced
class size so that correct instruction can occur and we can retain
the learning atmosphere. Yes, we must have more school buildings
and we need help from our federal government to build our school
system. And we also need that which is not getting the funding
it should be, the proper funding for the school based initiative.
That is the involvement of parents and community in making decisions
about what happens in the classroom. We recognize the we have
a tremendous deficit and we may not be able to fund all of the
municipal services to which we have become accustomed, but I believe
and I hope that our council will see that education should be
held accountable. We need to fund it at the appropriate level
because not to do this is to ask for other social ills. If we
do not educate we incarcerate at a much higher cost to society
and to our fiscal bill as well. So I think those are my priorities
on education and I stress that studies have shown that decision
making closer to the children is where you have the better schools.
So I would ask that we provide the assistance as well as the resources
to prepare our parents and communities to participate with our
teachers and administrators to provide the best education possible.
Miller: Well first off let's admit that we have tremendous
challenges in front of us. As I recall three fourths of 8th graders
failed the state math test, two-thirds of 8th graders failed the
reading exam. We have tremendous challenges ahead of us. The first
thing we have to acknowledge is that we have to get rid of the
board of education. The notion that the board of education removes
politics from the process-- which was the reason which was the
reason for it being put in in the first place--is just absurd.
And we have to get away from the point where people can point
fingers at everybody except themselves. I want to see a department
of education that is responsible to the mayor and to the council
and give us the actual opportunity to follow through on all the
promises that we'd like to be able to make.
Secondly, absolutely no school vouchers. I don't want to see one dime taken
out of our educational system. That's non-negotiable for me and I think for
most of our colleagues as well. Third, what do we need to do that? Once we've
got control of the educational system the answers are not mysterious. We need
to retain teachers by paying them decent salaries, by giving them the
opportunity to do the teaching in the classroom that they want to do. We need
to reduce class size. This is not rocket science. I know there've been lots
of studies that show smaller class size improves outcome. But hey, I can't
believe we had to study this. Of course it improves outcome.
And how do we pay for it? First off, the state needs to pay its fair share.
And if they don't I'm going to sick Robert Jackson on them again. We also
need to recognize that this is a long term problem. We have a short term
budget problem over the next couple years, but it's a long term problem and
we need to take a long term approach to it and find funding as a matter of
priority over the next several years.
Katz: With an $11 billion educational bond in the budget,
we just cut about $100 million from the budget. The council's
going to have to vote on that in the next 30 days, I believe.
With that cut was about $1 million to place extra teachers in
overcrowded classrooms, $2 million for safety, $20 million for
maintenance of the buildings and these are important issues. One
of the things we need to do is to make sure that we spend the
appropriate amount of money on education. Now everyone says to
me, 'Well we're running a bad budget this year, we might not be
able to afford it.' The fact of the matter is in order to educate
our children in the right way we're going to have to spend the
money. They do it on Long Island. They do it upstate and unfortunately
it may not be that popular but in order to do it right, we're
gonna have to. We gonna have to get the money from the federal
government to help build our schools. We are not building them
fast enough. If we start building them now, our five year capital
project will still be far behind. We need to get our fair share
from Albany. We need to make sure we're doing that. When we were
up in Albany the City of New York Assembly members consistently
fought and screamed and yelled and argued that we are not getting
our fair share in the City of New York. We have very special needs
in the city; it's important that we do get that money for our
children.
We also need to look at leasing space. If we're not able to build our schools
fast enough. We're going to have to lease space from the private sector, from
wherever we can, to make sure we have seats for our children. Smaller
classrooms are obviously a priority. A lot of things are a priority to me as
well that we may not talk about as much, but I think are very important. I
grew up in a very cultural family, my father was the conductor of the Queens
Symphony Orchestra. I think arts in education is imperative for our children.
Kids learn things from after-school programs, from the arts curriculum, from
physical education programs, from music programs that they think they have
learned in regular classrooms, and those things are just as important to the
well-being of our children.
Rodriguez: Let me first tell you something about Angel Rodriguez, I
am a product of New York City's public schools P.S. 196, Junior
High School 126, Norman Thomas High School, and CUNY. I have two
children in public schools. I understand that in order for my
children to have the opportunity that I have been given by this
great country, they have to have the same educational opportunities
that I had and they don't right now. When I was growing up, you
could go to college for free, but they can't right now. The budget
that we're looking at for modification right now removes some
of the scholarships that city council put in. We have to fight
that. So we can go through the list of things we have to do, but
when we end this process, the commitment to ensure that we expend
the money and that we get the money. 'Get the money' means that
we get Robert Jackson... 'Get the money' means going to the federal
government and saying 'We need money for schools, we need money
for buildings.' But the bottom line is we have to understand that
one of the commitments that I made is no school vouchers. Why?
Because that will take money out of my children's schools and
I am not willing to do that.
I insist and we lease more space so that we have new school space. I insist
that we get the money from the federal government, from the state government,
or whatever we have to do to make sure the teachers get paid a fair salary,
not a high salary, a fair salary, so we don't have brain-drain and all the
great teachers leave our city and go to the suburbs. So when you look at me
you look at someone who understands that our educational system has to be the
best in the country so we can produce people who can do the jobs in the
future. When I was talking about biotechnology, when I was talking about
computers, those are the jobs of the future and our children need to be
prepared and the only way to be prepared is for them to have the ability to
get the proper education.
Weprin: A number of my colleagues have brought it up but I can't stress
it enough: the most important part of the educational system is
to have good teachers and keep the class sizes down, No one goes
into teaching ’§ì and I know, my mother was a teacher for 40 years--for
the money. They go in because they want to be good teachers. However,
when the suburbs are paying 25-30 percent more to also teach and
to teach with smaller class size, you have to look at it like
a business and it's really impossible to compete. We have to pay
our teachers more, without a doubt. We have to find the money
and we have to keep class size down. I am optimistic that Robert
Jackson's lawsuit for fiscal equity, that we've heard so much
about, will succeed at the appellate level and we will have that
additional money. We can use some of that to subsidize some of
the existing system.
I too am strongly opposed to vouchers. I'll even go further, I am also
opposed to charter schools. We don't have the luxury of exploring the
academic experiment with charter schools when we have a major crisis n our
own school system. We don't want to take away from the resources of that
system. We have to look at ways of subsidizing the traditional funding for
the school system and one of the ways to do that is to reach out to the
private sector. I come from an industry from Wall Street where computer
technology becomes outdated within a year. There's lots of very good computer
technology, computers that can be donated by Wall Street, if we reach out to
them. I think we have to look at ways of bringing in the private sector in
order to help solve our crisis in the public schools.
Perkins: In addition to agreeing with my colleagues about not supporting
vouchers, I also want to state that I am against the privatization
of our public schools by private management companies....I think
that we have to command more money from Albany for our schools,
our percentage of the budget reflecting our percentage of students.
I think, obviously, that we need to improve schools and, reduce
class size. And again another source for funding could come from
public-private partnerships. I've seen some ways in which those
types of collaborations can be helpful to our children. I think
that the place where our children can be most successful is when
their parents are involved with the schools. So I very strongly
support the school- based government proposals and making sure
it gets funding for those parents to have access to those schools.
I think finally that the federal government has to come in and
provide us with the kind of resources necessary to build some
more schools and to provide our teachers with the kind of salaries
that they need.
Reed: Virtually all of us spent the last two working days
down at Baruch college...It was exciting, the rainbow that is
there, that is our city in those schools. I am absolutely dedicated
to finding every opportunity we can through the city Council to
sustain that energy that we saw from the first grade on through
that. I think as the council speaker, however, I think it is appropriate
that I respond and say I am opposed to vouchers. But you're asking
me what it is I would do as the Council Speaker. I certainly think
that for the education committee and the higher education committee
it is critical and essential that they do the proper oversight
because so much of what we do in the council unfortunately is
reacting. I'd like to make sure that that committee as well as
the other committees will be proactive and put initiatives forward.
Q: Would you be willing to make the
operations of the council public by putting attendance records
and voting records on the council web site?
Katz: Yes. And I also support each council member holding
town hall meetings in our own districts. I think it's extremely
important that the agencies show up in the districts and understand
that they have to work hand in hand with the council members.
As an elected official before we did that. We got agencies to
come into our districts and talk about the different issues that
were relevant to each council member's area. Thank you.
Rodriguez: I work for 150,000 people and they have a right
to know what I'm doing. So yes I would agree for my record to
be up. If my record were up there maybe there wouldn't be some
rumors flying around about me. Yes, I think the community reports
should be up, because the reality is each and every one of us
has a responsibility to those 150,000 people to let them know
what it is we're doing. What is it we're doing? What is our record?
What are the things we're sitting there and working on. I think
that as we go t hrough this process we have to understand that
our responsibility is to the people of the City of New York, our
individual responsibility is also to the individual districts
we represent. And they have every right to know what you're doing
on City Council. Thank you.
Weprin: I would also support the opening of the web site
for voting records and attendance. I think the New York City Council
is probably more open than most legislative bodies in the country,
but I think we should continue that tradition and strengthen it.
There's something called room nine and I think there are some
members of room nine here today. Room nine of course is the press
corps and the press corps does a very good and effective job advertising
what we do with the city council. There's also something on cable
TV where they actually broadcast the proceedings of the City Council.
That is controversial in a lot of other legislatures, but I think
it's important to do and I commend the City Council and the TV
stations that do do this. You have an opportunity to observe the
workings of City Council. I also am a very strong advocate of
having town hall meetings and I signed on very early to that proposal
group to try and get everyone to commit to having town hall meetings
and the appropriate newsletters. Thank you.
Perkins: Of course I would agree to posting committee
reports and the voting records. I think it's very very important
for accountability and letting the public know what we're doing
individually. I think also we've been fortunate, in that Crosswalks
the cable program alluded to by Councilmember-Elect Weprin. And
even New York One had focused a lot more attention on the deliberations
of the City Council. I would like to see perhaps the City Council
have town hall meetings or meetings in the various boroughs so
that the public can see us in action. I don't know exactly and
mechanically how we would do it but it would seem to me that we
might be able to go on the road with our show every once in a
while to give a sense of accessibility to the council.
Reed: Yes to all of what you've asked. It would also be
the initiative that I would let the chairs have. We have done
that. I have brought several of the committees I serve on, that
I wasn't even a chair, to the community but if you were the chair
of a committee and wanted to do that I'd certainly provide you
with resources and the opportunity at least twice a year. The
problem with that is you've got to get all of your colleagues
to want to go with you. .That's part of the problem the demands
that many people have , and that's the practical side of so much
of what we really need to look at; I've found myself sometimes
having two committees that I serve on meeting simultaneously and
one day I had three committees that I was serving on. I would
lastly suggest that as a council member I've found Crosswalks
extremely useful, because sometimes I just couldn't be at a hearing
that was important to me and the opportunity to take a look at
what my colleagues were talking about or reexamine the issue quietly
was very useful. Thank you.
Vann: Yes, I support the proposals. In addition to that
what we really talked about establishing a healthy democracy where
people are involved in making decisions about their life. So I
am also on record wanting to support the electoral process and
voter participation. And I support as well as bringing town meetings
to our voting communities, I think it's important that our budgetary
process become more transparent so people understand what's involved
in making these decisions. I think we should expand the City Council
Internship program and get young people from around the city to
come in and work with us and get an understanding of how we work.
We have to improve inter-group relations in our city because we
are many people but one city.
Miller: As my colleagues said before the answer to that
question is yes. This is actually not going to be very hard. It's
amazing but true that there is actually an on-line legislative
tracking system for the City Council that City Council members
do not currently have access to. You have to be a member of central
staff if you want to find out what a bill is you don't have access
to it; you have to be a member of the staff in order to have access
to what they call LegiStar. Not only should City Council members
and their staffs have access to this but the public should have
access to this. Anybody at a computer terminal, at a Public Library,
wherever, could be able to get online, get a copy of a bill, see
whether there was a hearing whether there's been a second hearing,
whether there are amendments to the bill, what the amendments
were. This is not rocket science. It's easy. In fact it's already
been done we just have to give the public and council members
access to it. Thank you.