Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

STATE

State

Legislature MIA on Oversight of Covid in State Psychiatric Hospitals


The New York State Senate (photo: NYS Senate Media Services)


As with every wave, the Omicron variant stirred a swell of infections and death in New York State's psychiatric hospitals, where some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers are living in congregate settings that heighten the risk of COVID-19.

The state's 24 facilities, run by the Office of Mental Health (OMH), house roughly 4,400 patients. At least 55 patients and 12 employees have died of COVID-19 since the virus was first detected in New York, a relatively high patient covid fatality rate. Two patients died and hundreds more were infected across the state's inpatient system as recently as January. Four others had died previously during the Delta wave last year.

But since the start of the pandemic, the State Legislature – one of the few entities empowered with oversight of New York’s psychiatric institutions – has held no public hearings to examine conditions inside those facilities nor sought testimony from the officials in charge. The lack of oversight is unique in comparison to hearings held to examine the state’s handling of COVID-19 in other types of settings.

Little is known to the public about the experiences of committed psychiatric patients during the pandemic. The lack of oversight and limited reporting in the news media are driven, in part, by the isolated nature of the facilities and restrictions on visitation for family members and lawyers during covid surges. Advocates for patients say a lack of transparency has plagued the State Office of Mental Health, which runs the psychiatric hospitals, and hindered efforts to address unsafe conditions.

The patient covid mortality rate at state psychiatric hospitals is close to ten times that of state prisoners, another involuntary setting under state control. The thousands of patients at state psychiatric facilities include hundreds of people who entered through the criminal legal system and many with severe mental illness like schizophrenia or depression. Patients can be resistant to or unaware of infection control measures creating an ongoing struggle for administrators and staff. They are more likely to have underlying conditions than the general population and skew older than people in state prisons, where civil rights activists have called attention to poor covid safety and inhumane conditions.

OMH officials say the state is taking precautions but new questions about the efficacy of these measures arise with each wave.

This January, while many New Yorkers sighed with relief as covid infection rates fell across the state, including in most psychiatric hospitals, the virus continued to spread in some facilities. A new outbreak in Buffalo Psychiatric Center that began in mid-February and infected dozens of patients took weeks to subside, only subsiding this week. Smaller outbreaks persist in several other facilities, like Capital District Psychiatric Center in Albany, where cases have been ticking up slowly for weeks, according to available state data.

OMH has developed a number of covid safety protocols since the chaotic first months of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, including disinfection and hygiene regimens, distributing PPE, and some covid screening measures. Psychiatric patients were one of the first groups to become eligible for the vaccine in New York and the state has made it available to patients who want it. Hospitals have increased testing of staff but questions remain about the frequency of swabbing patients.

Last April, the state took the unusual step of authorizing OMH to vaccinate patients against COVID-19 over their objections, raising concerns among patient advocates. In June, OMH officials said no patient had been involuntarily vaccinated though one facility had moved to do so before withdrawing the order.

The pandemic also compounded long-standing due process concerns for patients, who can be held indefinitely at the discretion of a judge once they are committed. In the first year of the pandemic, patients were rushed into institutions at higher rates than prior years in order to free up regular hospital space for covid patients and the average length of stay increased.

Some of the policies compound the isolation, according to patients and staff, like limiting visitation, outings, group therapies, and in some cases communal dining. In South Beach Psychiatric Center, for one example, employees have complained of staffing shortages and exhaustion after two years under the virus.

When reached for comment last month about the January surge, the chair of the New York State Assembly mental health committee, Aileen Gunther, a Sullivan County Democrat, expressed concern over conditions in facilities and the need for rigorous covid safety protocols.

"The most important thing that you can do is infection control precautions. You have to really have due diligence," she told Gotham Gazette in a phone interview.

When asked, Gunther lauded the idea of an oversight hearing – where the state's top mental health official, OMH Commissioner Ann Marie Sullivan, would be asked to answer questions about psychiatric hospitals – though it seemed to be occurring for the first time to the Assembly member who could call such a hearing.

"I don't really think that we have had that but it's actually a good suggestion. I think that sometimes what happens is that we do it afterward," Gunther said, referring to the typical end of an incident or crisis. "Because I guess this isn't our first rodeo here, it seems that this is not going away and it keeps mutating."

"It's actually a great idea and I will bring that up to the commissioner," she added, of the idea of holding an oversight hearing.

Sullivan came before the Senate and Assembly mental health and finance committees in a joint legislative budget hearing two weeks later, on February 14, but faced no questions from lawmakers about covid safety in state psychiatric hospitals.

Gunther's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article about a lack of oversight of state psychiatric facilities with regard to COVID-19.

Frank Sainato, a spokesperson for State Senate Mental Health Chair Samra Brouk, a Rochester Democrat, said the senator’s office "has continued to work with the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to monitor and improve conditions in state psychiatric centers."

"OMH has confirmed with our office that protective actions—such as employee vaccination, regular testing and the use of personal protective equipment—are being taken," he wrote in an email. "We remain committed to protecting the health and wellbeing of those patients living in state psychiatric centers."

Sainato did not respond to questions about what the Senator saw as going well, felt needed improvement, or was concerned about, if anything.

James Plastiras, a spokesperson for OMH, said the agency has come before the State Legislature and discussed covid-related procedures.

“OMH has participated in Legislative Hearings, responded to questions from members of the Legislature and shared information and data regarding our infection control policies and protocols," he wrote in an email.

Plastiras pointed to an Assembly oversight hearing in September 2020, focused broadly on the state's mental health system. Commissioner Sullivan's presentation had only a single slide on psychiatric centers and no lawmakers asked about the subject of covid in the facilities during her hour before the committee.

"OMH’s top priority throughout the pandemic has been to protect patients, clients and staff from COVID infection; And although the winter surge and more contagious variants of COVID increased infection rates in communities across the State, the infection control measures implemented by OMH have helped us protect our employees and the 11,861 patients served in our psychiatric centers since March of 2020,” Plastiras wrote.

'Uniquely Insular Settings'
Congregate settings like nursing homes, prisons, and homeless shelters have gotten significant attention from officials and the media because of the virus's propensity to surge in close living quarters and among the populations housed there – the elderly, people with medical conditions, special needs, and people experiencing the social factors associated with poverty and discrimination that lead to worse covid outcomes.

State Senate, Assembly, and/or New York City Council committees have held oversight hearings on COVID-19's impact on nursing homes, residential healthcare facilities, residential facilities for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, state prisons, and local jails.

A report published by the New York State Bar Association in June 2021, found a "complete lack of public reporting" of COVID-19 infections and deaths in facilities operated and licensed by OMH and the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities at the time.

"Data transparency, in particular demographic data with respect to individuals living in long term care settings and the staff employed in these settings, is essential for syndemic analysis on public health and must be assured by New York State agencies going forward," the report reads.

At some point after the first wave, OMH began publishing daily snapshots of infections and cumulative covid-related deaths among patients and staff in psychiatric hospitals. The data is refreshed most days making it difficult to track trends in infection.

According to the Bar Association, four entities beyond the State Legislature have legal oversight authority of state-run psychiatric hospitals. Two are within state government – Mental Hygiene Legal Services, a branch of the state court system that represents most committed patients, and the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, which investigates allegations of abuse and neglect. Also empowered with investigative functions is the Board of Visitors and Disability Rights New York, a federally-funded advocacy organization.

Mental Hygiene Legal Services would not comment for this article about covid safety or the lack of legislative oversight.

Marc Fliedner, the director of protection and advocacy for people with mental illness at Disability Rights New York's, said the recent outbreaks in psychiatric hospitals should be raising alarms.

"It's particularly concerning after two long years when advocates have been unable to regularly access the facilities and observe daily conditions," he wrote in an email. "These are, after all, uniquely insular settings, where those detained are cut off from those support systems that would otherwise insure their safety."

"The fact is that, 50 years after Willowbrook, those who are forced to reside in these psychiatric facilities are exposed to daily harms that the rest of us who live in our chosen communities simply are not," Fliedner wrote, referring to the landmark disability rights case that led to the closure of the notorious Willowbrook State School in 1987.

"DRNY urges continued review and oversight of these facilities by state policymakers to insure that the state does better," he wrote.

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

The Question Hanging Over the New York GOP Convention: Who Can Win in November?


NY GOP gubernatorial candidates Lee Zeldin, Andrew Giuliani, Harry Wilson, and Rob Astorino (l-r)


Optimism reigned at the recent New York Republican Party state convention on Long Island, but tempering the bravado was the fact that this year marks the twentieth anniversary of the last statewide Republican win in the Empire State.

That drought was widely acknowledged and inspired the remarks of the four major Republican candidates for Governor this year, with each taking the stage at the Garden City Hotel in Nassau County to convince party leaders, members of the media, and others of their electability. While frontrunner Lee Zeldin, the Long Island congressional representative who far outpaced the others in becoming the party’s official designee for the June primary, focused his speech largely on his platform and attacks on Democrats, the other three explicitly made the case that they should be supported in the primary precisely because they can win the general election. 

Ultimately, each of the four — Zeldin, Andrew Giuliani, Harry Wilson, and Rob Astorino — made his case for how he is uniquely qualified to be the first Republican to win statewide since Governor George Pataki won a third and final term in 2002.

Even as that task has become harder given the state’s increasing Democratic voter enrollment advantage and population concentration in liberal New York City, Republicans are optimistic that this could be their year given recent local and national wins, the absence of Andrew Cuomo from the race, and other factors like recent crime increases in cities across the state, dissatisfaction with Democratic covid policies, and more.

Based on his dominance at the convention, Zeldin is the only GOP gubernatorial candidate guaranteed a spot on the June primary ballot, but Wilson, Astorino, and Giuliani all appear determined to get the voter petition signatures required to join him there and make it a competitive contest to see who will face the Democratic nominee in the general. On that side of the aisle, Governor Kathy Hochul likewise dominated her party’s recent convention, while New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Congressional Representative Tom Suozzi of Long Island are also in the running.

The Republican candidates acknowledged the difficult task they are trying to accomplish, and that winning statewide in the fall will require getting votes from Republicans, independents, and Democrats, including essential success in the suburbs of New York City like Long Island and Westchester, as well as a solid showing in the five boroughs themselves.

Here’s how each of the four Republican candidates for Governor made their electability pitch at the state convention on Tuesday, March 1:

Lee Zeldin
Zeldin argued that New Yorkers have reached a “breaking point,” and began his speech by telling a story about a visit with the Bellmore Republican Club. He spoke about a “big guy, he’s wearing a camouflage hat, maybe a veteran, maybe a first responder, I’m not sure, he said ‘this isn’t a regular campaign, this is a rescue mission, it’s a rescue mission to save our state.’”

“Save Our State” made its way onto all kinds of promotional materials at the Garden City convention, and it’s been a rallying cry for Zeldin’s campaign since it began in April 2021. Zeldin had locked up significant party support early on in the race, and he has continued to accrue endorsements from county party leaders and other Republican officials. State GOP Chair Nick Langworthy began calling Zeldin the presumptive nominee as early as June, and the congressman recently got the backing of the New York Conservative Party.

Zeldin has visited all 62 counties in New York at least twice, he’s said, and he gave a rousing convention speech touting the strength of his campaign, with an air of inevitability around both the support he would receive at the convention and eventually becoming the party nominee. While he locked up the former, the latter could be more of a challenge given the other three major candidates in the race.

Zeldin emphasized the grassroots nature of his campaign, especially small-dollar donations he’s received, and rattled off many of his campaign talking points to date. He cited last month’s fundraising report that boasted 34,000 donations.

Throughout his convention speech, Zeldin emphasized and re-emphasized what appear to be the top issues for the Republican Party: supporting police, countering outmigration, and relaxing covid protections and mandates, especially for children, saying toddlers should never be forced to wear a mask: “that’s child abuse, Kathy Hochul.”

“It’s not just about getting past covid, it's about restoring New York to glory, it's about backing the blue unapologetically,” Zeldin said, “…repealing cashless bail, firing district attorneys who refuse to enforce the law."

Harry Wilson
“Talk is cheap but proven success is absolutely critical,” said businessman Harry Wilson in his convention speech. Wilson, who entered the race only one week before the convention, has indicated he will spend more than $10 million of his own money on the race, and he has already begun a TV ad blitz.

Wilson has never held elected office but did run a strong campaign for State Comptroller against Democratic incumbent Tom DiNapoli in 2010. Wilson came within five percentage points in that race, winning 46.3% of the statewide vote, and touted that relative success during his convention speech, noting firmly that “in 20 years only one Republican, only one, has come close to winning statewide, and that was me. In 2010, in my first and only campaign, at the beginning I had no idea what I was doing, we almost beat a very popular Democratic incumbent, Tom DiNapoli. No one else has come within 30 points of him. And in all statewide races in the last 20 years, no one else has come within 13 points of winning.”

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Wilson has spent much of his 30-year career in business at firms like Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, and Silver Point Capital, where he was a partner. Wilson served as one of President Obama’s advisors on the automotive task force, facilitating General Motors’ bankruptcy and restructuring.

Wilson began his speech with two rhetorical questions: “First, who, if elected, will be the transformational governor we need to fix our state? Second, who has the best shot at winning? Everything else is academic. Now I've spent my entire career fixing failing organizations, big complicated messes that others said simply couldn't be saved, does that sound familiar? That's the state we live in.”

Wilson billed himself as an “outsider,” saying that he has “no interest in being in politics, no interest in being governor, but I have a deep, deep interest in fixing this state, in transforming this state back into the land of freedom, opportunity and safety.”

“I will not sit idly by,” Wilson said, “while career politicians destroy our state. If anyone else in the field could do it, I would gladly stay home, but I know I have the skills, the experience, and frankly the guts to fix it.”

Doubling down on his finance background, he vowed if successful  to go “through every dollar” in the state budget he inherits with the question “does this make the lives of New Yorkers better at a reasonable cost.”

Rob Astorino
Rob Astorino, the former two-term Westchester County Executive and 2014 Republican nominee for Governor, said of the 2022 election, “this game will be played and won in my backyard.” Calling Westchester “deep, deep blue,” Astorino touted at the state convention that he won twice “as an unabashed pro-life conservative” who cut the size of government and lowered taxes.

Of Republicans’ three gubernatorial election losses to Andrew Cuomo, Astorino ran the closest, winning 40% of the vote to Cuomo’s 54% in that 2014 contest, “then at the height of [Cuomo’s] popularity,” Astorino said.

“Too many Republicans were intimidated by him or cut deals with him including, as we know, some people in this hotel who have already had their chance to govern in Albany, and yes some went as far as to float a Cuomo presidency — not me,” Astorino said. “I went nose-to-nose with Cuomo, I knew who he was from the beginning, I knew what he represented, and I called out his corruption at every opportunity.”

He also mentioned that he won 46 out of 62 counties “in a year that was supposed to be a coronation for [Cuomo],” and that he won New York state outside the city by three percentage points. 

Astorino recalled in his speech a Republican Camelot where 16 years prior in the very ballroom where he was speaking, George Pataki was Governor, Michael Bloomberg was Mayor of New York City, and George W. Bush was President — “boy how things have changed,” Astorino said. Republicans are currently completely out of power in the federal government, New York state government, and New York City government.

Astorino’s references to his success in Westchester, undoubtedly a key battleground in New York’s 2022 elections, are undercut by facts he did not mention: his losses in more recent races there, including his 2017 county executive reelection bid and a State Senate campaign in 2020.

With his serious political pitch Astorino also sprinkled in crass jibes that were met with applause, saying taxes were not always “Hunter Biden high” and that in the season of Lent, “when Christians around the world will be doing a lot of soul searching, maybe Andrew Cuomo will even find one.”

In addition to selling himself as the candidate who had come closest to governor since George Pataki, he said, in Spanish, that he was the only Spanish speaking candidate in the race and that he could “attract and win the support of Latinos, African-Americans, immigrants, independents, and Democrats.”

Andrew Giuliani
Andrew Giuliani spoke about his relationship to the Republican Party vis-à-vis high-profile elected officials and GOP lore. He said he was honored to address the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Reagan, Pataki, Donald Trump, and his own father, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

As a prelude to his speech, he said he wanted to address the convention “as a son first and foremost,”  saying that people come up to him to laud the elder Giuliani’s tenure as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and mayor.

“There are a lot of people that come up to me and talk about how proud they are of Rudy Giuliani for his work in overturning the five families of the mob, probably might have cost him the 1989 election because for some reason the Italian vote didn’t come out the way we thought in 1989,” Giuliani said. “Who were proud of what he did in New York City turning around the rotten apple into the safest city in the country, who are obviously proud of his heroic effort on September 11th leading our NYPD, our FDNY our Port Authority police and all the heroes who gave their lives in sacrifice. But I, as his son, am more proud of him today than I have ever been because he recently took on a battle that was not popularly backed by the media, but was right, and we knew would sacrifice his reputation in those circles that believed it was more important to stay silent than it was to stand up for the good of our democracy. Well Rudy Giuliani stood up for the good of his democracy, stood up for the United States of America, and it’s why I, as his son, am more proud of him today than I have ever been.”

In his speech, he characterized his candidacy as exceptional on account of these relationships and his own stamina, claiming that he was the only candidate to travel to all 62 counties within the first month of his campaign. 

“I must tell you, this is going to be a 62-county effort that is going to get us over the finish line on November 8. And kick crime wave Kathy, by the way, chairman, if you want to give her the pink slip, you’re welcome to give her the pink slip right there, I might have to fight with you for Mayor Giuliani on that one but I am happy to give her her pink slip on November 8.”

He blamed grievances with Albany on government red tape, invoking President Trump’s campaign promise that for each regulatory measure he signed, he would cut two; Giuliani said that by the end of Trump’s term, that ratio was 1:8. He said that Trump’s deregulatory measures and tax cuts were responsible for low unemployment and a strong economy in 2020. 

Giuliani fused promises of Trump-style deregulation and economic fervor with an exceptionalist recap of the state’s history. 

“That’s the kind of economic change we can bring to New York ladies and gentlemen, it’s the same kind of dream that the Dutch West Indies company had when they developed a small trading post on the southern tip of Long Island, it’s the same idea that DeWitt Clinton had when he said and built the impossible Erie Canal connecting the United States to the rest of the world. Where? Not through Florida, not through Texas, but right here through the Empire State,” Giuliani said.

In a closing pitch, Giuliani asked the convention to consider the 2.9 million registered New York Republicans not in the ballroom. He cited high poll numbers implying that despite a practically guaranteed Zeldin convention victory, that he maintained an upper hand based on his sheer popularity.

June Primary
New York’s 2.9 million registered Republicans will ultimately decide the official party nomination for Governor and other races via the June primary election. The party convention results, where Zeldin got 85% of the weighted delegate vote, guarantee him a spot on the ballot, while Wilson, Astorino, and Giuliani will now have to collect 15,000 signatures from registered Republicans across the state in order to secure a ballot line.

As for whatever comes out of the primary on June 28, Giuliani said in his convention speech that he and the other candidates “will all certainly hug on June 29.”

***
by John Besche, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

Max Politics Podcast: Asian-American New Yorkers Fight To Be Seen


Jo-Ann Yoo of the Asian American Federation (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


March 2, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Asian-American New Yorkers Fight To Be Seen

Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the Asian American Federation, joined the show to discuss how Asian-American New Yorkers are dealign with a spate of hate crimes and violence, how that trend can be stopped, a broader agenda for supporting and empowering Asian-American New Yorkers, what she recently asked of Mayor Eric Adams, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Read more: Max Politics Podcast: Asian-American New Yorkers Fight To Be Seen

‘A Fundamental Shift’: New York’s Clean Energy Plans Move Ahead


NYSERDA's Doreen Harris with Gov. Hochul (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)


New York is well on its way to meeting its ambitious clean energy goals, according to one of the top state officials charged with implementation, and there are several major projects in the offing essential to moving from fossil fuels to a combination of wind, water, and solar power.

Doreen Harris, the president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA), recently joined Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast to discuss the state’s clean energy goals and the path to meeting them, including some of the largest opportunities and challenges in the way.

NYSERDA and the rest of state government, in partnership with local and federal governments and the private sector, must meet the goals laid out in New York’s landmark 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Per the CLCPA, New York must achieve a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and a 85% greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2050, both relative to 1990 levels; and 100% zero-emission electricity across the state by 2040, with 70% renewable energy use by 2030.

“It sets a level of ambition that necessitates us to really think about every aspect of our economy very differently for the good,” Harris told podcast host Ben Max, editor of Gotham Gazette, of the CLCPA. “Both for our health, our climate and also our economy. It comes down to a fundamental shift in a lot of ways that we live and work.”

Harris explained in some detail what it means to green “the grid,” how New York is working to green its overall energy infrastructure, as well as reduce carbon emissions from the two major emitting sectors of buildings and transportation, several key renewable energy projects in the works, obstacles in New York’s road to a clean energy future, and more.

First asked to shed some light on NYSERDA, a public benefit corporation under the direction of the Governor, Harris explained that it has been a part of the state’s energy ecosystem since the 1970s, originally focused on innovation, and has expanded dramatically over the last decade into a leading force behind New York’s climate and clean energy goals. NYSERDA, Harris explained, is the state’s energy office, required to follow certain regulations and charged not only with planning ahead for New York’s energy future but also implementation, including funding and contracting major projects.

Together with State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos, Harris is also co-chair of the New York Climate Action Council, the new body tasked directly with charting the path to meet the goals laid out in the CLCPA, much of which runs through NYSERDA and/or DEC.

“The good news is that the benefits from jobs, health, greenhouse gas perspectives and beyond, far surpass the costs,” Harris said when asked about whether the state will have enough funding to make the necessary transitions.

The private sector is a major player on the field, Harris explained, including via off-shore wind and other clean energy projects, like two planned pipeline projects that will bring clean energy from Upstate New York or Canada to the New York City area.

“The governor’s agenda for this year is very notable because of its investments, including a legislative agenda and regulation to get from here to there. We’re in a moment where we have a huge opportunity for federal leverage and we intend to take maximum benefit from that,” Harris said of Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who in January presented her policy agenda for the year as well as her Executive Budget plan.

According to Harris, New York is currently getting 27% of its electricity from renewable sources, especially from Upstate wind and solar farms, and based only on contracts NYSERDA has already inked, is on track to reach 63% by 2030. “We’re actually well on our way. We see a future where our grid is powered by the sun and powered by water and powered by wind. We have a very significant pipeline of projects ready to deliver that objective,” said Harris.

Harris noted several key projects and factors in New York meeting its objectives, including that the state’s transportation sector is already relatively energy efficient given the size and scope of the New York City subway system, and she touted efforts to green buildings, in part through appliances. The governor is also looking to replicate statewide a ban on new gas hook-ups that New York City recently passed and goes into effect in the coming years.

“The near-term options that we have available to reduce gas utilization, most notably, would be to electrify,” Harris explained. “To electrify our cars, to electrify our homes, to electrify our buildings, etc. And so, if you are going to rely, in the near-term, on electrification, you need a grid that is clean and renewable to deliver those attributes to, as I said, homes and businesses and beyond.”

In roughly two decades, Harris noted, NYSERDA’s analysis shows that New York’s peak energy demand is likely to double. While the present peak lies in the summer— during the hottest months in which air conditioning use is extremely high — NYSERDA estimates that the peak is slowly shifting to the winter months for heating, more so than now. The key to moving ahead on the state’s clean energy goals while accounting for increased energy use is the major projects in the works and creating a more resilient energy grid powered with several types of renewable energy.

Asked about taking the impacts of climate change into account in planning for using renewable energy sources that depend on the climate and weather, Harris acknowledged there are risks, but said that NYSERDA and others have studied how reliable wind, solar, and hydro power will be, and that there is high confidence in their long-term dependability.

“We need to plan accordingly, and not only from a study perspective but also a design perspective. We need a resilient grid,” said Harris, who stressed the importance of a balance of approaches, from Canadian hydro-power to Upstate solar power to wind power from off the coast of Long Island.

Harris noted “one huge challenge for New York in achieving our objectives” is that New York City’s electricity grid and the Upstate grid function differently. While the city’s energy primarily consists of fossil fuels, upstate uses more renewable and nuclear energy.

Still, the Indian Point nuclear power plant was permanently shut down last year after 59 years of operation, following decades of protests over safety concerns but the immediate impact of making the city rely more on dirty energy. On the podcast, Harris defended the decision on safety grounds, but declined to discuss the Indian Point shutdown decision, which was driven by former Governor Andrew Cuomo and activists like Riverkeeper, at any length.

Harris was much more eager to discuss the fall "Climate Week" announcements made by Governor Hochul of awards for the Clean Path New York Project and Champlain Hudson Power Express Project. The projects will be build new clean energy transmission lines into the New York City area, delivering hydro and wind power from Upstate New York and Canada. Harris also touted plans for a large offshore wind farm off the coast of Long Island, with federal permits coming through for that. All together, Harris predicts this will eventually account for a third of New York’s energy supply.

Permits and other pieces of the puzzle are yet to come, from relevant New York and Canadian entities, but Harris expressed optimism. “It’s a really big deal,” Harris said. “The situation is bolstered by New York City’s strong commitment to actually purchase a portion of those projects [so as] to power their own operations via renewables as well.”

[LISTEN: Max Politics Podcast: New York's Clean Energy Vision, with Doreen Harris of NYSERDA]

Legislators Introduce Bill to Extend and Expand NYC Freelancer Protections Across New York State


freelance photography photo dca

Freelance photography (photo: NYC Department of Consumer & Worker Protection)


In 2017, New York City’s “Freelance Isn’t Free” legislation took effect, giving gig workers crucial protections against exploitation and wage theft. State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Harry Bronson are now attempting to replicate the law state-wide with a new bill they introduced on Thursday that would expand state labor law protections to freelancers.

The bill from Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Bronson, a Rochester Democrat, would amend state law to give freelancers guaranteed protections including the right to a written contract, timely payment for their work, freedom from retaliation for asserting their rights under the law, and a redressal process that allows workers to file civil complaints against employers who fail to pay them. The law would also establish criminal penalties for employers who do not comply.

“It's really taking on the success of the city model and trying to expand it statewide so that all freelance workers get this protection,” Gounardes said in a phone interview.

The new legislation is in fact stronger than the city’s law. New York City’s law establishes that any contract worth $800 or more, including one that covers $800 worth of services over any 120-day period, must be in writing. Under the bill, the state threshold would be lower, set at $250 or an aggregate of $250 over four months. Also unlike the city’s law, the statewide bill can also potentially lead to criminal action against employers. Otherwise it would impose similar civil penalties including a statutory $250 penalty on employers who are found in violation after they are sued in court, along with double damages, attorney’s fees, and up to $25,000 in fines if they engage in a pattern of violating the law.

Gounardes said that creating a statewide law would strongly enhance enforcement, “which I think will help go a long way to fixing this problem.” He pointed to data from a report released by the de Blasio administration in September 2019, which found that 1.3 million New York City residents had freelanced in the previous year – 29% said they freelanced full-time, 50% said part-time, and 20% said they did gig work to supplement their income. In all, the economic impact was estimated at $31.4 billion in annual earnings.

In New York City, the media and entertainment sectors account for the majority of freelance work, according to that report, including 68% of journalism and digital media workers, 67% of music and performing arts workers, 60% of marketing or advertising workers, 52% of film or television workers, and 54% of publishing workers.

In the report, about 73% of freelancers in total said they had experienced nonpayment or late payment for their work. For many, that means uncertainty about their income and meeting their basic needs and responsibilities like rent. “If you're not getting paid on time, the financial insecurity that creates that instability is just really terrible,” Gounardes said. “So we’re really trying to get to the core of that problem and say that, ‘Just because someone is a freelance worker does not mean that they work for free.’”

The bill has also become all the more urgent because of how the nature of work and workplaces has changed in New York State in recent years, Gounardes said. The pandemic, in particular, has fueled worker-led movements and organizing efforts. “I think this really fits into the narrative of worker empowerment that we've seen kind of take hold across the country during the pandemic,” Gounardes said. “I really do view this as another front in that battle or that war to help support workers.”

Assemblymember Bronson, a labor attorney by training, said in a phone interview that freelance workers “are some of the most exposed workers in our state when it comes to wage theft and with little ways to redress it under current law. What this bill does is it rectifies that.”

Bronson is optimistic about the bill’s passage in the Assembly, noting that similar legislation passed the chamber in 2011 and again in 2013, though it failed in the Senate, which was then under Republican control. Both chambers of the Legislature now have Democratic supermajorities, along with Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.

“It's a common sense approach to end the economic discrimination faced by freelancers, and through this legislation, we're truly recognizing their value and contributions to our economy,” Bronson said.

“Certainly with COVID, we have identified even more so that these freelance workers are becoming more prevalent and they deserve to have the value of their work recognized and they deserve to be able to enforce their wage payments,” he added.

At the state Capitol in Albany on Thursday, Gounardes and Bronson rallied for the bill with fellow Democratic legislators including State Senator Jessica Ramos, Assemblymembers Latoya Joyner and Nathalia Fernandez, members of the Freelancers Union, and gig workers and advocates.

The introduction of the bill comes relatively early in the 2022 state legislative session, which runs until early June. The bill is being introduced before the respective labor committees in the two legislative chambers – the Senate committee is chaired by Senator Ramos and the Assembly committee is chaired by Assemblymember Joyner – and its enforcement would fall to the state Department of Labor.

In New York City, the Freelance Isn’t Free act has been successful in recouping millions of dollars in payments for freelancers. It went into effect on March 15, 2017 and, in the first year of its implementation, the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs – since renamed the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection – received 264 complaints from freelancers, 98% of which were for payment violations including non-payment and late payment. The Department helped freelancers recover $254,866 in lost payments in that time. By December 2021, the DCWP had received 2,024 freelancer complaints from freelancers and helped recover $2,144,198 in payments.

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

Read more by this writer.

Max Politics Podcast: Cryptocurrency Grows in New York


foxtime c board

A representation of cryptocurrency (photo: www.forextime.com)


February 15, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Understanding Cryptocurrency in New York

Lule Demmissie, CEO of eToro USA, and Eric Soufer, head of the crypto and fintech practice at Tusk Strategies, joined the show to discuss the growth of cryptocurrency and the opportunities and challenges for New York as the digital currency industry expands, faces government regulation, gets a big boost from Mayor Eric Adams, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Read more: Max Politics Podcast: Cryptocurrency Grows in New York

State Aims to Reinstate Hundreds of Psychiatric Beds Shifted During Pandemic


(photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

Medical evaluation (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


New York State is looking to reinstate all of the roughly 400 beds in the state's inpatient psychiatric system that were converted to medical beds at the start of the pandemic two years ago. But there is a long road to restore them despite mounting pressure from elected officials, representatives of the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) told lawmakers at a joint state legislative budget hearing Monday.

"Across the state there have been hundreds of beds that closed or migrated due to covid," OMH Commissioner Anne Marie Sullivan told members of the State Assembly and Senate. "We are looking to reopen all those beds," she said, adding that her agency was also looking for services "that could make the difference."

"We are really pushing to make sure those beds come back on line," she said.

But the ongoing pandemic continues to put stress on hospitals, particularly in upstate New York, making the timeline for reinstituting the psychiatric beds unclear. The beds allow for long-term commitment, whether voluntary or involuntary, for psychiatric treatment for the most severe mental illnesses, like schizophrenia.

"It's critical that those beds come back up and that they are available for individuals. Now many of the hospitals are saying they will be putting them back up but the time lag is significant," Sullivan told members of the Legislature's finance and mental health committees at the virtual hearing, one of the series of annual budget hearings being conducted by lawmakers.

The pandemic shift was part of a punctuated leap in a decades' long reduction in psychiatric beds due to the deinstitutionalization movement, low Medicaid reimbursement rates that discourage private providers from maintaining them, and shrinking state funding for state-run wards.

Inpatient psychiatric beds are a key part of the debate over calls for greater state intervention in the lives of people with the most serious mental illnesses, especially those who may become a danger to themselves or others. Also in focus is Kendra's Law, which allows courts to mandate supervised mental health care, known as assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), or commit an individual temporarily to an inpatient psychiatric center, if they cannot manage their care on their own and exhibit violent behavior.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul, and a bipartisan cadre of state lawmakers are pushing for an extension and expansion of the law in response to recent spikes in violent crimes and a spate of high-profile killings by New Yorkers with alleged mental illness. The latest occurred Sunday, when Christina Yuna Lee, a Chinatown resident, was stabbed to death in her home by an intruder, just four weeks after Michelle Go was fatally pushed in front of a subway train in Times Square.

The Hochul administration is calling for a five-year extension of Kendra's Law, which has been renewed continuously since it was enacted in 1999, Sullivan said. Hochul also wants to make it easier for judges to assign AOT for individuals with past involvement in the system, and expanded video conferencing to expedite doctors' testimony in court cases. "A major issue with making Kendra's Law timely for individuals is physician availability," Sullivan told lawmakers on Monday.

OMH also wants to make it easier for individuals in AOT to get records of their hospitalization, a process currently bogged down by HIPPA rules that can be streamlined in state statute, Sullivan said. Doing so would improve the continuity of care, she said.

Adams has also called for strengthening Kendra's Law and for judges to utilize the current tool more frequently, though 88% of petitions for AOT filed between February 2021 and 2022 were granted by a judge.

Lawmakers like State Senator Diane Savino, a Staten Island Democrat, and Senator George Borello, a Republican from Western New York, want to see the dangerousness criteria for AOT expanded and increase the period of mandatory commitment if someone fails to comply with the requirements of AOT.

"The flaw is in the definition under [New York State] Mental Hygiene Law that allows a hospital to retain a patient," Savino said at Monday’s hearing. "It's a deliberately vague statute that only applies at that time" of a mental health crisis or violent episode.

While the law has been praised by many experts, including Sullivan, as a way to improve outcomes for some people with severe mental illness and potential violent behavior, and often without inpatient commitment, some mental health advocates say it can be used punitively and infringe the civil rights of patients.

Sullivan expressed the need for "caution" around changes to state laws relating to involuntary commitments. "Expanding the statute, I know there's a lot of discussion about it, I think has to be very, very thoughtful and careful because of the issue of civil rights, which I know you appreciate," Sullivan said.

Regardless of the scope of the law, implementation hinges on the availability of psychiatric beds and workers to staff them. According to a 2019 white paper from the New York State Nurses Association, the number of certified inpatient psychiatric beds fell an estimated 636 between 2000 and 2018, from 6,055 to 5,419 beds across the state. More than two-thirds of those lost beds – 459 – came from New York City.

One of Adams' top asks to legislators at his budget testimony on February 9 was state funding for more psychiatric beds and staffing as a way to address what he calls "the sea of gun violence." "That is why it is urgent that we request the state’s immediate assistance in expanding the number of beds for those in critical need of mental health care, and funding for the medical and support staff they require," he testified.

In Kingston, the removal of psychiatric beds at the height of the pandemic left the city with virtually no local inpatient care, according to Senator Michelle Hinchey, a Democrat who represents the area. "It should not be on the community to figure out how to backfill the beds," she said Monday about the ongoing gap.

Lawmakers over the coming weeks will debate the proposed expansion of Kendra's Law as state budget negotiations unfold ahead of the April 1 start of the new fiscal year. That debate will be closely watched, "but unless we actually have beds for people to go to when they are diagnosed as needing to be in a psychiatric institution it doesn't matter," said Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of the Senate finance committee, on Monday.

"I think the first step is to reopen the beds that were closed during covid," Sullivan said. A majority of those beds are in upstate regions. New York City has only lost 24 active psychiatric beds in the last four years, Sullivan said, and the city currently has over 1,000.

Governor Kathy Hochul's proposed $216 billion executive budget includes $3.9 billion for OMH, an increase of $577 million, or 17%, from the current fiscal year 2022 budget. The new funding will go towards expanding the OMH workforce, rate changes for rehab services, services for children and families, and a crisis response system.

Lawmakers discussed a number of other topics at the hearing Monday, including the state's new Safe Option Support teams for homelessness outreach, especially in the New York City subway system; mental health supports for children in schools; and incentives to grow the mental health workforce in the state.

Not mentioned was the toll of COVID-19 in state-run psychiatric centers, where at least 55 patients have died since the pandemic began. Earlier this month, Assemblymember Aileen Gunther and Senator Samra Brouk said they planned to raise concerns over conditions in the centers with Sullivan after Gotham Gazette reported the deaths of two more patients in January and the infection of hundreds more. Both were present at Monday's hearing but neither broached the subject.

[Read: After Subway Shoving, Officials Look to Expand State Laws on Mandatory Treatment for Mental Illness]

[Listen: Max Politics Podcast: Addressing the Crisis of Untreated Severe Mental Illness in New York]

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

After Subway Shoving, Officials Look to Expand State Laws on Mandatory Treatment for Mental Illness


dem seek expand

Subway outreach (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


In January 1999, Kendra Webdale, a 32-year-old writer, was pushed to her death into the path of an oncoming N train by a schizophrenic man. Webdale’s death prompted the passage of the eponymously named Kendra’s Law, which allows courts to order a person to receive supervised mental health treatment, also known as assisted outpatient treatment, failing which they can be temporarily committed to a hospital.

Twenty-three years later, the killing of 40-year-old Michelle Go in eerily similar circumstances is now prompting calls from elected officials to strengthen the law.

Go was fatally struck by an A train after being shoved onto the tracks at the Times Square subway station by Martial Simon, 61, who has a long history of dealing with schizophrenia. Doctors attempted in 2009 to require Simon to participate in assisted outpatient treatment, The New York Times reported.

In the weeks since Go’s death, Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed an extension and expansion of Kendra’s Law in her executive budget proposal. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has similarly advocated for strengthening it and called on judges to utilize it more often, though that typically relies on them being petitioned by an eligible stakeholder.

Many experts, advocates and elected officials say a stronger implementation of Kendra’s Law must also be accompanied by greater resources for inpatient treatment, a reinvestment in mental health beds, and, chiefly, an expansion of the mental health statute that determines whether a person suffering from mental illness is a danger to themselves and requires more intensive treatment. There are, however, some experts who disagree with one or more of those proposals, arguing that what is really needed is more investment in community-based services and solutions.

Currently under Kendra’s Law, individuals are required to participate in Assisted Outpatient Treatment if they are deemed to be unable to survive in the community without supervision. There are several criteria that the patient must meet including a history of not complying with required treatment leading to hospitalization at least twice in the previous 36 months and serious violent behavior or physical harm towards themselves or others, among other guidelines.

In such cases, a petitioner – a roommate, adult family member, hospital official, mental health profession, parole or probation officer – can approach the courts to require the individual to participate in an Assisted Outpatient Treatment program. Once ordered into AOT under Kendra’s Law, if a physician determines that an individual either has failed to comply or refused to participate in treatment and may need to be involuntarily admitted, they can be held in a hospital for 72 hours for observation and treatment. If they are stabilized, the patient is then released back into AOT.

Studies have found that the application of Kendra’s Law is successful in driving down deaths, suicides, homelessness, incarceration, and repeated hospitalizations of those suffering with severe mental illness, the most common forms of which are schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. AOT programs aim to ensure that patients receive the medication they require, retain access to it, and continue to take it as prescribed, among other services.

“All these preventable negative outcomes that we're working to address, Kendra's law has addressed,” said Matthew Shapiro, associate director of public affairs at the New York chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. According to the latest state data from 2019, of the 832,509 patients treated in the state mental health system run by the Office of Mental Health, 125,031 were diagnosed with schizophrenia. As mental health experts often point out, even people with serious mental illnesses are rarely ever violent, and data shows they are more often victims of violence themselves.   

But concerns have still been raised that there is insufficient funding for the treatment programs and that the law is not used as often as it should be — as of February 11, there were 1,475 people in New York City under active court orders to receive AOT. It is unclear what the potential total population eligible for and in need of such programming might be. Some critics also say that Kendra’s Law tends to be disproportionately applied to people of color, which speaks to other systemic issues including racism and unequal access to mental health services, housing, and more.

State Senator Diane Savino, a Democrat whose district spans parts of Staten Island and South Brooklyn, is preparing to introduce legislation to expand the scope of Kendra’s Law. Most significantly, Savino wants the law to allow longer hospital stays for people who fail to follow their treatment and require involuntary, temporary commitment to a hospital.

“People need more intensive treatment, not permanently,” she said. “But no one's restored to sanity in 72 hours.” For instance, Savino and others have pointed to homeless people with mental illness who may be released after such an involuntary hold but are at severe risk of cycling through the system again without the necessary support they need.

Assisted outpatient treatment in such cases is “sorely lacking,” Savino said in a phone interview. “We're forcing people back into the street and quite honestly, it's cruel. Cruel and inhuman.”

Kendra’s Law “is usually imposed when a person is coming out of the hospital, that is when they are stable, and is designed to help them from falling back into that situation,” said Brian Stettin, policy director of Treatment Advocacy Center, who drafted Kendra’s Law as a former New York State assistant attorney general.

AOT entails a community-based treatment program, ideally involving close coordination between treatment providers and the courts and constant evaluation to monitor a patient’s progress. Court orders are issued for one year and can be subsequently renewed for up to one year. The programs are overseen by program coordinators at the county level.

Stettin has called for state and city officials to reexamine how and when Kendra’s Law is applied. Martial Simon, for instance, clearly met the standard for supervised treatment under the law, they say. “So many of the recent tragedies have involved folks who clearly met the criteria for AOT because they had had those recent contacts with the system and were not adhering to their prescribed treatment, but somehow were not in the program,” said Stettin.

Since Kendra’s Law went into effect in 1999, county AOT coordinators have conducted 45,281 total investigations of an individual’s eligibility for treatment, including 22,106 in New York City, according to the latest data updated December 15 by the state Office of Mental Health.

In that same time, 31,344 petitions were filed with courts and 29,914 or 95% were granted. That includes 19,470 filed in the city and 18,655 or 96% granted.

In New York City, in the last 12 months between February 8, 2021 to February 7, 2022, 837 such petitions were filed and 735, or 88%, granted. As of February 8, there were 3,425 people under active court orders to receive treatment, including 1,474 in the city.

Not everyone agrees with Kendra’s law. Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, said in a recent appearance on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast that his organization has opposed the law since its inception. “We oppose it because we shouldn't have to rely on the courts and the cops to provide people with the care that they need and even people who are seen as non-responsive to care.”

“Coercion is really not the answer to this, but the quick formulation is: violent, mentally ill in the subway, we've got to round them up, force them into treatment, and get them off the street,” he added. Rosenthal did acknowledge that in certain situations in the here and now, it may be applicable and necessary, but that it signals larger failures every time it is used.

Shapiro from NAMY-NYS said that is a common misconception about Kendra’s Law. “It isn't forced treatment…because when someone says something is forced, it makes it sound like there's a punitive outcome if they don't comply. And that's not the case with Kendra’s Law,” he said. “It's not designed to punish people or force people. It's really designed to help people, and it has provided that help for countless New Yorkers.”

Kendra’s Law is only part of the equation for the state’s mental health crisis, according to Senator Savino, who is also focused on expanding the standard for involuntary inpatient treatment of individuals with severe mental illness, committing them to dedicated care in a hospital setting.

“If we simply just look at expanding access to outpatient treatment, we lose the bigger fight,” she said. “When Kendra’s Law works, it works, but it requires a patient who has enough self-awareness to participate.”

Under existing mental hygiene law, a person can be involuntarily committed if their illness prevents them from understanding that they need care and if they pose a substantial threat of harm to themselves and others. But in New York State, the assessment of whether a person is a danger to themselves is currently limited, for instance, to when a person is suicidal or otherwise endangering themselves.

“That’s the flaw in mental health law,” Savino said. She wants to enshrine into the law a broader standard that is followed by most other states, that a person can be considered a danger to themselves if their mental illness makes them unable to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, or health care.

“Her bill does something very important, which is to make it clear that there are multiple ways for a person to be dangerous to themselves,” said Stettin. “To add language to New York law that explicitly recognizes that a person is a danger to themselves if they cannot meet their basic survival needs would be game-changing, bringing New York law into line with just about every other state.”

State Senator George Borrello, a Republican from Western New York, personally knew Kendra Webdale and went to high school with her in their shared hometown of Fredonia. For him, Go’s death in January was a stark reminder of the incident and added urgency to his efforts to strengthen the mental health system. “I just don't want to ever see this happen again,” he said. “I know what the Webdale family went through and I can't imagine what Michelle Go’s family’s going through.”

Last year, Borrello, along with then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, had sought to do what Savino is attempting this year, expanding both Kendra’s Law and the standard for inpatient treatment. But Borrello’s and Cuomo’s proposals failed in the face of opposition from Assembly Democrats who feared that the expansion could infringe on individual civil liberties. “When I spoke on the floor last year on this, I said that we are probably going to see more tragedies as a result of not strengthening Kendra's Law and here we are a year later... So this is absolutely a must this time around,” he said.

Borrello said he also supports Savino’s proposal to increase the period of mandatory commitment for someone who fails to comply with treatment under Kendra’s Law. “There is no easy fix to any of this. There's no magic pill that you can take,” he said. “Even folks that are successful, there's often long periods of time of having to adjust medications…and that cannot be done in the 72-hour period.”

Stephen Eide, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who researches and writes on these issues, echoed what activists and elected officials have said, that Kendra’s Law is successful but isn’t being used where necessary. “I think basically what you're talking about is finding more people who are out there in the community who would benefit from the program, who are not currently in it,” he said.

He pointed out that the law is usually invoked for people leaving hospitals. “Maybe there are people who are in the jail system or in the shelters who would also benefit from Kendra’s Law, but we're not doing any sort of outreach or inreach to those systems to identify people who would benefit from it,” he said.

There are practical challenges to implementing Savino’s proposals. Systematic deinstitutionalization – shifting from inpatient to outpatient treatment – in New York State has meant the loss of hundreds of mental health hospital beds over several decades. A 2019 white paper from the New York State Nurses Association estimated that the number of certified inpatient psychiatric beds fell from 6,055 in 2000 to 5,419 in 2018, a 12% decrease (on top of more drastic drops in prior years). New York City accounted for 72% of the decline, about 459 beds. Low reimbursement rates for mental health service-providers under the state’s Medicaid program have also disincentivized those services, Savino said.

Savino also wants more family involvement in the application of Kendra’s Law. “We want to take the confrontation with the police out of the situation, because all too often people encounter the mental health system through the court system, through the criminal justice system,” she said. “Again, it’s cruel and inhuman.”

“We know this isn't working,” Savino said. “So we need the ability to petition the court directly. We need the potential to have an involuntary commitment for a longer period of time. We need more mental health beds. And we need family involvement.”

Savino could not say how much more funding would be required to implement her provisions. But she said it is necessary. When Mayor Adams, a close ally of Savino, testified before the State Legislature on February 9, one of his headline asks from the upcoming state budget, due by April 1, was funding for more mental health beds and services.

Savino has also called for more supportive housing to accompany the measure. “It won't be cheap, but the alternative is worse,” she said. “It's either we're shifting the burden of mental health services to the criminal justice system or to the shelter system, and circling around and around, and then there's a concomitant cost to other people who may be victimized by someone who's suffering a mental health crisis. So investing the money where it should properly be spent makes the most sense.”

Stettin said the fiscal impact could be limited. In other states with the broader standard for inpatient treatment, hospitalizations don’t rise dramatically, he said. “​​It allows the same people who are going to wind up in the hospital or in jail eventually anyway, to get hospitalized when they're less acutely ill,” he said. “I think it’ll have a positive fiscal impact because people will need less time in the hospital to become stable and it’s also helping people avoid the criminal justice system.”

Both Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams have spoken in favor of broadening Kendra’s Law.

“Governor Hochul has made the development of a comprehensive behavioral health crisis system in New York State one of her administration's key priorities, and she proposed not only extending Kendra’s Law by five years but expanding and strengthening the law. We will work with the legislature this session on how best to keep New Yorkers safe,” said Hazel Crampton-Hays, a Hochul spokesperson, in an email.

Hochul’s executive budget proposal includes an extension of the current Kendra’s Law till 2027 (it has been repeatedly extended since it was first passed and is due to expire on June 30, 2022) and changes to the legislation that include additional criteria for eligibility under Kendra’s Law. The proposal would make an individual eligible if a previous outpatient treatment court order has expired in the previous six months and if they have experienced a “substantial increase in symptoms of mental illness,” according to the Governor’s office.

In a press briefing the day that Go was killed, Adams called for greater judicial intervention to help the city aid severely mentally ill New Yorkers. “We need help from the outside as well. There is a law called Kendra’s Law. Far too often, judges are reluctant to institute that law,” he said, though the data undercuts his statement. It was an echo of his remarks from May 2021 (and other times on the campaign trail), when he called for strengthening the law after a spate of violent incidents on the subway system that involved people with mental illness. 

On February 17, Adams reiterated his call for expanding Kendra's law in the wake of the murder of a 35-year-old woman in Chinatown this week by a man who was out on supervised release after being arrested and charged with other crimes. Questions have been raised about whether the man, 25-year-old Assamad Nash, should have been treated for possible mental illness. "We need to really reexamine how we are dealing with individuals who are showing imminent danger to themselves and others," Adams said Thursday. "That is what I'm asking my team to look at, and to speak with Albany so that we can ensure that in areas where we must compel people to get the necessary care, that we're able to do so."

The State Legislature has also sought to make Kendra’s Law permanent. The State Senate passed a measure to do so in 2018 but it wasn’t taken up by the Assembly.

[Listen: Max Politics Podcast: Addressing the Crisis of Untreated Severe Mental Illness (Part 1)]

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

Read more by this writer.

Construction Deaths in New York Increased During First Year of Pandemic, Report Shows


(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


The construction industry was more deadly to workers in New York in the first year of the pandemic than in the two years prior, reversing a multiyear decline in the statewide fatality rate, a new report shows.

Forty-one workers were killed on construction sites in New York in 2020, including 13 in New York City, according to a report published Thursday by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), part of an annual analysis previewed by Gotham Gazette. While that is fewer overall deaths than in 2019, the fatality rate among construction workers increased by 9% statewide as construction projects slowed and jobs shrunk, according to NYCOSH. New York City, however, saw that rate fall by a stunning 40%, in part speaking to conditions when the city was the epicenter of the pandemic.

At the same time, federal regulators conducted the lowest ever number of inspections in New York State in 2020, a 53% decline from 2019, the report found. It's another data point indicative of how much of an anomaly the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was.

"As is the case for every single year that we've put out this report, construction remains in New York much more dangerous than it is in other parts of the country," said Charlene Obernauer, executive director of NYCOSH, an association of workers rights advocates, labor unions, and community-based organizations.

"One of the biggest disappointments is that OSHA conducted it's fewest number of inspections in the history of the agency," she said, referring to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), part of the U.S. Department of Labor. In 97% of cases where a worker died, employers had existing OSHA violations, according to the report. OSHA violations can range from failure to provide fall safeties or respiratory protection to misuse of scaffolding to having untrained workers, among others.

OSHA did not provide a comment in response to Gotham Gazette inquiries.

The report shows a vast majority of construction workers killed on the job in New York in 2020 were not unionized and a disproportionate number of workers killed across all sectors were Latino, continuing trends from years past. Latino New Yorkers are overrepresented in worker deaths across all industries, making up 10% of the state’s workforce but accounting for 18% of workplace casualties.

Labor advocates blame the construction deaths in New York on gaps in union representation, exploitation of immigrant workers, and a system that does little to penalize contractors for unsafe working conditions. Other reasons advocates point to are the sheer size of New York City and the collective height of its buildings (the NYCOSH report's title, "Deadly Skyline," pays homage to this).

"Obviously falls from heights are a huge cause of fatalities," Obernauer said. "It's a big city and I think that definitely comes into play."

But at the root of most workplace deaths is a lack of precautions and protections for workers. Four out of five fatalities investigated by OSHA on private construction sites in 2020 occurred on jobs where workers were not unionized. In New York City, every site OSHA investigated was non-union. (Deaths outside the city were evenly spread throughout the state, according to NYCOSH.)

Unionized workers tend to have more training, often through years of apprenticeship, Obernauer said. They also have clearer channels to report violations and an organization to back them against employer retaliation if they do.

Only 17% of New York City's construction workforce and 23% of the state's is unionized, according to an analysis of 2019-2020 U.S. Census data from the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Both are still higher than the national average of 13%.

Immigrant workers, especially people who are undocumented, often have even fewer avenues for recourse and support.

"I think particularly the fact that some Latinx workers are undocumented and are taken advantage of because they are afraid of losing their jobs, they're afarid of potentially being reported for their lack of immigration status," Obernauer said.

Latino construction workers are also less likely to be unionized.

"There is no question that the nonunion construction workforce, in NY and nationally, has a much greater representation of Latinos (mostly immigrants) than the unionized construction workforce," wrote Dr. Ruth Milkman, a sociologist and co-author of the CUNY study, in an email.

A study from the Economic Policy Institute, a national non-profit think tank, found Hispanic workers held nearly half of all nonunion construction jobs over the ten-year period from 2006-2015, but less than a third of union jobs.

"It's painful, personally, because I feel as an Andean woman that our men are so often seen as disposable," said State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Democrat and chair of the Senate's labor committee who represents a heavily Latino district in Queens.

"These are people who are risking their lives to build luxury apartments. Whose wages are very often stolen. Who ride back on the 7 train covered in asbestos that they were asked to remove with little to no protection," she said.

Ramos sponsors a bill that would prohibit employers from using a federal electronic background check known as "E-Verify" to see the immigration status of workers, which she said forces undocumented New Yorkers to take less safe, non-union jobs. "That's the only reason that undocumented workers cannot join construction union," she said.

New York State does not require employers to use the E-Verify system but municipalities may opt to mandate it. The legislation could be challenged in court if enacted, Ramos said.

NYCOSH and Ramos also want to see worker protections built into government subsidies. For NYCOSH, that means an end to subsidies for developers who break safety standards given the large number of fatal worksites that also have OSHA violations. For Ramos, that means scrapping the state’s property tax abatement program formerly known as 421-A, a controversial affordable housing subsidy that critics say has little public benefit. Governor Kathy Hochul has released a modestly reformed version of what was 421-A, now known as Affordable New York, as part of her 2022 agenda, but it will be the subject of debate with the Legislature.

"I cannot support any measure that does not establish serious wage requirements and protections and of course that includes a reasonable threshold to ensure that more projects are built union," Ramos told Gotham Gazette, the first time she laid out her criteria for what might come next. The program will be the subject of heated budget negotiations ahead of the April 1 start of the state fiscal year, by which time a new state budget is due.

Advocates also want to see state lawmakers expand other protections for construction workers and enforce existing guardrails.

"It’s critical that decision makers continue to advance measures that bring the operation of all construction sites in line with the safety standards and protocols required at union construction sites," said Gary LaBarbera, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, a labor union coalition, in a statement.

That includes statewide requirements for worker training, in line with a 2017 New York City law that mandates every construction worker receive 40 hours of safety and other training – something that can even the playing field across the unionized and non-unionized workforce.

NYCOSH is also pushing for the passage of Carlos' Law, which establishes new crimes for endangering workers and would raise penalties for employers, contractors, and other corporate entities when a worker is injured or killed on the job as a result.

The average fine issued by OSHA in New York State in 2020 was approximately $45,000, a 39% increase from $33,000 in 2019, the NYCOSH report showed. But for projects backed by many developers, that can be part of the cost of doing business. Even the number of press releases OSHA has issued related to construction site safety violations – a simple, cost-effective tool to discourage other offenders – have decreased, according to NYCOSH.

"In some cases unfortunately it's a part of their calculation," Obernauer said. "That they know that the fines will be less expensive than the cost of doing a job properly, most safely, without cutting corners."

Carlos' Law passed the State Assembly in 2021 but did not pass the Senate, where it first needs to go through Ramos' committee. "I cannot stress how important it is that we pass Carlos' Law in New York as soon as possible, it's literally a matter of life and death," Ramos told Gotham Gazette. She said the bill's Senate sponsor, Senator James Sanders, Jr., another Queens Democrat, "needs to make it a priority."

“Carlos’ Law is a priority bill for me this session. I look forward to working with Senator Ramos in getting this legislation passed,” Sanders said in a statement to Gotham Gazette.

A spokesperson for Ramos said a public registry of construction fatality data created by legislation she sponsored in 2020 would be opened this month.

The NYCOSH report does not make any conclusions about why the construction fatality rate in the city decreased so dramatically in 2020. The report states: "This data may suggest that New York City’s steps to reduce injuries and fatalities in New York City are making an impact, or that the decrease in the number of workers in the field also led to a decrease in rates. More, long-term data is needed to observe a trend."

The decrease coincided with a dramatic dip in new housing construction in New York City, though it's unclear what impact this had on construction worker fatalities.

Obernauer said the new Adams administration should explore the possibility of suspending or revoking licenses and construction permits for contractors with repeated OSHA violations. Another key move will be in who Mayor Eric Adams appoints to lead the city's Department of Buildings, one of the most significant vacant commissioners seats remaining.

"I'm really curious to see if a worker advocate will be appointed to that role in the DOB like Melanie was," Obernauer said, referring to former DOB Commissioner Melanie La Rocca, who is now Adams’ chief efficiency officer. "I think it's really important to have somebody with that vision at the helm of the agency."

The district attorneys who prosecute workplace safety violations also have a significant role to play – especially in addressing the disparity in Latino deaths.

"There needs to be more trust established between district attorneys' offices and immigrant communities," Obernauer said. "Every district attorney should proactively be thinking about…how they can increase the reporting of unsafe working conditions."

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Max Politics Podcast: Addressing the Crisis of Untreated Severe Mental Illness


Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Mental health first aid training (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


February 8, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Addressing the Crisis of Untreated Severe Mental Illness

Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS), joined the show to discuss how New York City and State should address the crisis of untreated severe mental illness among New Yorkers.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Read more: Max Politics Podcast: Addressing the Crisis of Untreated Severe Mental Illness



Print Friendly and PDF

Editor's Choice


Gotham Gazette: New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
New York Voters Approve $4.2 Billion Environmental Bond Act
Gotham Gazette: 
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
New York City Voters Approve Racial Justice Ballot Measures
Gotham Gazette: 
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Housing Development in New York City Slows to a Crawl as Officials Debate Tax Incentives
Gotham Gazette: 
City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years City Council Examines Low Voter Turnout, Moving Local Elections to Even Years