Gov. Cuomo, Sheldon Silver & Dean Skelos in 2012 (photo via The Governor's Office)
As allegations of sexual harassment and assault against disgraced movie producer and major Democratic political donor Harvey Weinstein piled up earlier this month, women around the world took to social media to share stories of abusive behavior using the hashtag #MeToo.
The light being shone on the predatory behavior of Weinstein and many others resonated at statehouses across the United States, from California to Rhode Island, where women in politics have been speaking out about sexual misconduct they experienced first-hand or witnessed, with victims including legislators, young staffers and interns, lobbyists, and others.
In New York’s capital, the response has been more muted, in part because the Legislature is not currently in session, but also because Albany was recently forced to face its own mishandling of sexual misconduct scandals. As recently as 2014, the aftermath of a debacle around sexual harassment by Assemblymember Vito Lopez, which led to his forced resignation from the Assembly, produced a number of significant reforms to how harassment, misconduct, and discriminatory behavior are addressed in the state Assembly.
Now, three years later and amid a national reckoning with issues related to sexual misconduct, women in state government who spoke to Gotham Gazette noted an improvement in the Albany culture since these reforms, but say that sexist attitudes and behavior continue to plague New York state government.
While several female legislators were hesitant to speak on the record about their own experiences with sexual harassment, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa spoke frankly about her own experiences with sexism in the political sphere at a recent forum organized by Berkeley College in Manhattan. She described one incident, a decade ago, when on a conference call, it was announced that she would take the lead on a project. A man on the line, who is now a national leader in progressive politics, according to DeRosa, joked, “She can take the lead right up to my hotel room,” apparently unaware that DeRosa was on the line.
“These instances have stuck with me, but I'm not kidding myself and neither should you — many women have and still do experience far worse every day, and it's not just actresses you're reading about in the news this week,” she said, according to a transcript distributed by the governor’s office.
Calling for “societal course correction,” DeRosa encouraged young women in all industries to speak out.
The statement was a powerful one coming from DeRosa, who at 34 became the youngest person and first woman to be named Secretary to the Governor, the top aide to the state’s most powerful government official, when she was appointed to the post by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Days after DeRosa’s remarks, a former top official in Cuomo’s administration came forward with allegations that her former boss sexually harassed staffers, saying she was inspired by DeRosa’s remarks, according to The New York Post.
Patricia Gunning, who had recently resigned as the special prosecutor/inspector general of the Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, told The Post that she faced retaliatory violence for calling out her boss for his behavior.
“My hope is that this conversation will be the beginning of a new era in [how] these issues are addressed by employers,” Gunning told The Post.
On Monday, it was revealed that Sam Hoyt, a former assemblyman and Cuomo ally who ran Buffalo area projects for the state's Empire State Development Corporation, had abruptly resigned to take a job in the private sector. By Tuesday afternoon, Hoyt, who was disciplined by the Assembly in 2009 for an affair with 19-year-old intern, was accused by a former state employee of pressuring her into a romantic relationship. She told The Buffalo News that she was paid $50,000 for her silence.
In a statement, Cuomo spokesperson Dani Lever acknowledged that allegations of misconduct had emerged against Hoyt and that an investigation was underway.
"All state employees must act with integrity and respect," the statement read. "When the complainant made these allegations, they were immediately refered to the Governor's Office of Employee Relations (GOER) for an investigation."
After GOER determined there were grounds for further review, the matter was referred to the Inspector General's Office, and later, the Joint Commission of Public Ethics (JCOPE), according to the statement. Hoyt maintains that the relationship was consentual, according to The Buffalo News.
But while to this point there has not been a new public outcry at the New York Legislature, female lawmakers say that the Weinstein scandal and its fallout have struck a chord and sparked private conversations about their early experiences in Albany and how they can best aid young female staff aides and legislators.
One such conversation occurred at a retreat for the Women’s Legislative Caucus in Saratoga two weeks ago, where women shared uncomfortable incidents they had experienced early in their careers and discussed how they could better unify when scandals occur, according to Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes, a Buffalo area lawmaker who chairs the Women’s Caucus. One thing agreed upon, Peoples-Stokes said, was that the Assembly’s sexual harassment enforcement could be enhanced by a mentorship program for incoming members and their aides.
“We wanted to see if there is anything we can do in addition to ensure that we never need to have these experiences again,” said Peoples-Stokes. “It is something that we decided we are going to do as women of the Legislature, and you know, when women decide to do something, we get it done.”
While the Assembly reforms appear to have improved the culture in the 150-seat chamber, Albany’s sexual harassment problem has not disappeared. The Senate and the Assembly have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past two years on outside counsel to investigate sexual harassment complaints. The Assembly’s ethics committee -- which exists solely to enforce policy on sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation -- convened a meeting in executive session on October 12 and is expected to meet again on November 2. The matter at hand is not clear.
Currently reported to be under investigation by JCOPE and the Erie County District Attorney’s office is Senator Marc Panepinto, a Democrat from Buffalo, who announced he would not seek reelection last year amid rumors of sexual harassment. Also last year, the Senate paid out $121,000 for two contracts with Kraus & Zuchlewski LLP “for legal counsel related to U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission matters and investigation of sexual harassment claims.”
Assembly members who spoke with Gotham Gazette acknowledged the body’s embarrassing history of dismissing sexual misconduct claims internally, which has led to a slew of unflattering headlines in 2012 and 2013, but noted that an influx of female legislators to the Assembly in recent years has also helped to reshape the culture. At the Senate, such scandals and its culture of protecting those in power has not drawn the same scrutiny.
Last week, New York’s chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) made an effort to further jumpstart the conversation, calling on women and men who currently or previously work(ed) in government in Albany and throughout the state to speak out about their personal experiences with sexual harassment or assault while on the job, citing the Legislature’s history of quashing sexual harassment complaints.
“Government sets the standard and the policies and the laws that all other industries are asked to uphold,” said Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women - New York, said in a statement. “Given that Albany is a place where lawmakers have abused their power and sexual harassment has gone unchecked in the past, we felt it was important to give women in politics a platform to speak up.”
The women’s advocacy organization has announced the creation of a new, dedicated hotline for individuals in government to report their experiences (people can call 518-362-7857 or submit a story online at nownys.org).
In an interview with Gotham Gazette, Ossorio said the goal is to build on the momentum of the #MeToo movement. The hotline will provide independent counsel and resources to victims while also assessing how effective recent policies have been, she said.
“We immediately thought about the culture that has existed in Albany and we wanted to be able to empower women who work in politics, particularly young women and interns who head to their internships idealistic and wanting to be part of American government and are disillusioned by it,” she said. “We really want to know to what degree the environment of sexual harassment has been uprooted.”
The personal stories tumbling out of statehouses around the nation are eerily familiar to anyone who has closely watched New York state government in recent years. In California, women leaders in government have formed a campaign called “We Said Enough,” sharing stories about how they have endured groping, inappropriate comments about their bodies and abilities, and insults and jokes that diminish them professionally. In some cases, “men have made promises, or threats, about our jobs in exchange for our compliance, or our silence. They have leveraged their power and positions to treat us however they would like,” wrote the group on a website created for women to submit their stories.
An open letter circulated by members of the Illinois Legislature drew a direct comparison between the Weinstein scandal and the coercive situations in which women in government find themselves and had drawn 130 signatures by Tuesday afternoon, the AP reported.
"Every industry has its own version of the casting couch," reads the letter. "Ask any woman who has lobbied the halls of the Capitol, staffed Council Chambers, or slogged through brutal hours on the campaign trail. Misogyny is alive and well in this industry."
Albany, which has historically been referred to as the New York’s own “sin city,” is no stranger to such scandals. Repeatedly, a series of particularly egregious complaints of sexual harassment or rape has led the Legislature to a watershed moment of sorts, producing much-needed reform in how accusers are treated and how their complaints are handled.
A major turning point for the Assembly occurred in 2004, when, roiling from a series of rape accusations against Assemblymember Adam Clayton Powell IV and Michael Boxley, chief counsel to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, its leadership decided to bar members of the Legislature from fraternizing with interns.
In the state Senate, a somewhat similar soul-searching happened, but at the time many of its members were strongly opposed to the idea of an intern-fraternization ban.
In comparison to the 150-seat Assembly, sex scandals in the 63-seat Senate have unfolded more discreetly -- hinted at through money spent on lawyers or a senator or a top aide leaving the job abruptly amid rumors -- and as a result the body’s leadership has not been forced to publicly reckon with its record in the same way, according to Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who was instrumental in compelling the Senate to implement a mandatory sexual harassment training program.
A decade ago, Krueger said she was privy to two incidents involving interns who were molested by older male senators. One incident occurred in a packed elevator and Krueger famously threatened to kick the senator if he touched an intern again. The other time she learned of a sexual assault claim when she found a young staffer crying outside a senator’s office at the Capitol.
After the second incident, Krueger, who is known for her bluntness on the topic, said she urged then-Senate Leader Joe Bruno, a Republican from the Capital Region, to create mandatory sexual harassment training for all senators. When she threatened to hold a press conference naming and shaming the offending senators, Bruno, who later stepped down from the leadership role amid his own public corruption scandal, responded he would hold a competing press conference naming Democratic senators.
The way Krueger tells it, she said, “I didn't tell you [what] party this senator is in. I don't give a damn what party they are. We can do a joint press conference, and we all can name names. I don't give a [expletive].” To which Bruno responded, “OK, OK, we'll do mandatory sexual harassment training,” Krueger told The Albany Times Union.
The training became mandatory for senators and staff members and the regulations were clearly stated in a written document.
It was not the last time Krueger took her colleagues in the Legislature to task over crimes against women. In June 2003, when Boxley was led out of the Capitol in handcuffs, having been accused of rape for the second time, Krueger said she had a very public confrontation with Assemblymember Lopez, who a decade later would be toppled by his own slew of sexual harassment scandals. They were scheduled, coincidentally, to hold a joint press conference in front of the Legislative Correspondents Association office. According to Krueger, the Assembly member fumed, “How dare they come over here and arrest our counsel in our house?”
“I said ‘excuse me, he was tried with rape,’ pause, ‘for the second time,’ pause,” Krueger recalled to Gotham Gazette, “‘It seems to me that if you have anything to say publicly about this, it's let justice be fair and swift. Otherwise, I think you should keep your mouth shut.'”
Lopez’s Assembly colleagues later told her that she had made an enemy for life. “I said, ‘Good. Some enemies are worth having,’” said Krueger of the former Brooklyn Democratic boss, who lost a City Council race in 2013 and died in November 2015.
Still, Krueger acknowledges that the current sexual harassment policy in the Senate does not encourage women to come forward. “I’d like to believe the written policies the Senate came up with and mandatory training might have helped in some small way,” she told Gotham Gazette last week.
In 2014, following a series of sexual misconduct scandals involving Lopez, Assemblymember Micah Kellner, and Assemblymember Dennis Gabryszak, the Assembly officially changed its policy on sexual harassment, which had last been updated in 2009. In the past, sexual harassment complainants would typically report the incidents to the speaker’s office or the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), but it was up to the discretion of the speaker’s counsel whether to investigate the complaints.
When it was revealed that Speaker Silver did not follow protocol and report misconduct allegations by two staff members against Assemblymember Lopez to the ethics body, instead cutting a secret $103,000 settlement with the women, Silver publically apologized for the lapse and announced that the Assembly would review its practices.
To help restructure the chamber’s sexual harassment policy, the Assembly’s ethics committee enlisted CUNY Law School Professor Merrick Rossein, an attorney, law professor, and expert in discrimination litigation. Through interviews with women in the Assembly, Rossein made a series of recommendations to the bipartisan legislative task force that was convened to address deficiencies in the Assembly’s policy.
“There are a number of things in this policy that I’m very proud of that I’d like to see in every sexual harassment policy, including the private sector,” said Rossein, who has since been retained by the Assembly as an outside counsel to investigate complaints against members, in an interview with Gotham Gazette.
Recommendations made by Rossein include the appointment of an outside investigator to look into complaints; a guarantee of confidentiality for accusers; severe consequences for an employer that retaliates against a complainant; and more. Most importantly, a lawmaker accused of harassment is barred from talking to the accuser until a designated time. Additionally, lawmakers were made mandatory reporters, required to inform the ethics committee about sexual misconduct if they see it or hear about it -- a component women say has had a dramatic impact on the culture in Albany. A hotline has been set up for people to submit tips.
The Assembly policy outlines two types of harassment, hostile work environment harassment — which is directed at somebody based on their sex, would be considered offensive by a reasonable person, and is severe or pervasive enough to interfere with one’s work environment — and quid-pro-quo harassment, the type described by victims of Weinstein, in which professional opportunities are offered in exchange for sexual favors.
In response to the barrage of corruption and sexual harassment scandals over the last decade, the Legislature has also dramatically revamped the way it approaches its ethics and sexual harassment training, according to Assemblymember Charles Lavine, a Democrat from Nassau County and former chair of the Assembly’s ethics committee. Not only are class sizes smaller, according to Lavine, but they have gone from obligatory and dry, to dynamic, thought-provoking, and interactive.
“We have gone from the days when it was almost an obligation to provide -- or what seemed to be at the time -- ethics training that was done in large groups of people,” said Lavine in a January interview with Gotham Gazette. “And while it was content-specific and good, it was not nearly so effective as the modern approach, which is to work with smaller groups of individuals in an interactive environment.”
Still, there is undoubtedly more work to be done to rectify inequities for women and in Albany. It likely doesn’t help that those at the top of Albany’s power chain are all men. Many have pushed for Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester County legislator who has led Senate Democrats since 2012 and is the first woman or person of color to lead a legislative conference, to be included at the negotiating table during budget and other high-level talks. Currently, the state’s $150 billion-plus budget is largely hammered out by four men: Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and Senator Jeff Klein, leader of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), which forms a ruling coalition with the Republican conference. Democrats hope that the 2018 state-level elections and an agreement with the IDC will lead to Stewart-Cousins becoming the leader of a new Senate majority.
Having more women in the Legislature would go a long way towards creating a safer space for female employees at all levels of government, according to Stewart-Cousins.
“The most disturbing thing is that almost every woman has a story regarding harassment or worse,” said Stewart-Cousins, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “This is true in every walk of life and unfortunately true in government. Only by confronting sexism and gender bias head-on will we be able to truly create a culture which respects everyone equally. We need to support women and pro-women candidates for office and energize pro-women New Yorkers to get out and vote.”
An increase in the number of women in Albany has helped reshape the culture from an old boys' club, in which women were largely relegated to secretarial positions, to a more egalitarian environment, where women are not only elected to office, but have risen to acquire key chair positions in both houses and led the passage of women-friendly legislation.
Assemblymember Nily Rozic, who became the youngest woman in the state Legislature and the first woman ever to represent Queens’ 25th District when she was elected in 2012, said she has watched the culture transform since she began her tenure in Albany as an aide to Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh.
“It’s certainly gotten better since I was a legislative staffer, but we have a long way to go. The underlying change that’s happening is that more women are getting elected to the Legislature and that really positively affects our work place,” said Rozic.
Aside from the most serious cases of sexual assault and rape, it’s often sexual comments and diminishing jokes -- such as the one described by DeRosa -- or an extra-long hug that makes the state Legislature a treacherous place for young women.
Alexis Grenell, a political strategist and commentator on feminist issues, said the comment described by DeRosa is a quintessential example of how women are verbally undermined in the workplace.
“The harassment that Melissa described is fundamentally dehumanizing,” said Grenell. “There is nothing benign about it. It’s meant to take away her worth as a thinking, contributing person in a professional environment and renders her the sum total of her physicality and sex appeal. That is dehumanizing. It’s not why she’s on the call.”
Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, in an interview with Gotham Gazette, recalled her first years as a legislative staffer in Washington, D.C. and as chief of staff to Assemblymember Ron Kim, of Queens. She said that when she first arrived in Albany, Kim warned her not to get into elevators with “the wrong people.” Later, she learned that she had been named on a “hot or not” list that had been circulating among male staffers at the Legislature.
“People would stop me in the hallway and say ‘you are just so exotic,’ but you know I’m not going to report them for it,” said Niou, who was elected to Silver’s old Assembly seat in 2016. “It’s just an ignorant and not very thoughtful comment.”
These types of incidents collectively create a hostile environment that women internalize and come to see as normal, she said.
“Over time, I’ve built this protective shell, like ‘oh these things are just going to bounce right off of me,’ but these things happen every day,” said Niou. “Somebody insists a kiss on the cheek -- like forces it -- but everyone kisses on the cheek, all over Albany people do the kiss-kiss thing.”
The cheek kiss, which is often reserved for women in political settings, falls into a bit of a grey area, but many women in government have observed the greeting often provides an opportunity for hands to roam. The Assembly’s newest sexual harassment policy warns that touching -- including brushing against the body, squeezing, hugging, massaging or patting -- may fall under the category of sexual harassment, but that has not ended the practice.
Grenell, who frequently holds press conferences at the Capitol, said to bypass the double kiss, she initiates a handshake by extending her arm as far away from her body as possible.
A similar strategy is deployed by one Pennsylvania lawmaker, who at a recent women-led panel in the state, explained how she avoids the cheek kiss -- by placing one hand on her colleague’s shoulder, and the other outstretched for a handshake, according to an account by a journalist covering the Harrisburg Capitol in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Albany veterans say they have grown accustomed to awkward and demeaning daily experiences.
"I've been saying for the last 15 years: Every week, I drive three hours north and 30 years back in history in regards to how we treat women," said Senator Krueger, of Manhattan.
With women across all industries, including government, empowered by the Weinstein blowup and its ripples to speak out about their experiences, Krueger said she would not be surprised if it led to another watershed moment in Albany.
“I would suspect in the New York State Legislature, like so many other places -- where you have men in powerful positions and young women who might not have a lot of worldly experience, who think these are very important men,” she said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if more stories come out.”
Update: The story has been updated with allegations about former EDC official Sam Hoyt that emerged Tuesday afternoon.
***
by Rachel Silberstein, State government reporter, Gotham Gazette
@RachelSilby @GothamGazette
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
The big event this week will be Wednesday night’s mayoral debate, the second of two televised debates ahead of Election Day, November 7. Mayor Bill de Blasio, the incumbent Democrat; Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican nominee; and Bo Dietl, running on his own independent line, have been invited to participate. [This section of our article has been updated to reflect that CBS decided to invite Bo Dietl to participate in the debate (de Blasio and Malliotakis were guaranteed entrance given their fundraising numbers and participation in the public matching system.]
Meanwhile, of the four other candidates who will be on the mayoral ballot, two -- Sal Albanese, the Reform Party nominee, and Mike Tolkin, running on his own independent line -- are suing to be included in the debate. Tolkin met the financial requirements to be included in the first general election debate but was not invited by the lead sponsor, NY1. The other two mayoral candidates are Green Party nominee Akeem Browder and Libertarian nominee Aaron Commey.
De Blasio will kick off the week with a morning campaign announcement with Senator Charles Schumer and an evening campaign rally with Senator Bernie Sanders, both in Manhattan. On the government side of things, de Blasio is hosting a town hall on Thursday night in Queens and he has several events on Monday.
Much attention at the start of the week is being paid to the testimony of Jona Rechnitz, a cooperating witness in a federal corruption case against former correction officers union president Norman Seabrook who was also a major donor to de Blasio and has claimed a startling level of access to the mayor and his administration. De Blasio fielded press questions about Rechnitz’s testimony on both Saturday and Sunday, dismissing allegations as lies, old news, and not what New Yorkers really care about.
While there are many events to be aware of listed below, of special note are a City Council oversight hearing on Monday dealing with school bullying and the first public forum of the hopefuls vying to be the next City Council Speaker. Monday is a very busy day of Council committee hearings ahead of Tuesday’s “Stated meeting” where the full Council votes through bills that have passed committee and sees new bills introduced. See below for much more.
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday
At 9:15 a.m. Monday, Mayor de Blasio and Senator Schumer will make a campaign announcement at Grand Central Terminal.
On Monday at 10 a.m., "Mayor de Blasio will deliver remarks at Know Your Value Conference with Mika Brzezinski." At 11 a.m. de Blasio and Senator Bernie Sanders will take a subway ride together, then hold a press conference about de Blasio's millionaire's tax proposal. At 4:30 p.m. "the Mayor will deliver remarks at a Local 3 IBEW rally for a fair contract" (City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will also deliver remarks at the rally). And at 8:30 p.m., "the Mayor will deliver remarks at the 50th anniversary of the annual Restore Brooklyn benefit."
At the City Council on Monday:
--The Committee on Public Safety will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss a proposed law relating to “requiring the police department to disclose gun violence information to applicants for firearm licenses and permits,” as well as to discuss resolutions urging Congress to oppose two pieces of legislation involving firearms, one eliminating a tax on silencers and the other allowing someone with a concealed carry permit to carry in another state regardless of licensing requirements.
--The Committees on Women’s Issues and General Welfare will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “HRA’s system of domestic violence shelters,” as well as to discuss a proposed law relating to “exits from domestic violence emergency shelters.”
--The Committee on Education will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “DOE’s Response to Incidents of Bullying, Harassment, and Discrimination in NYC Schools and Efforts to Improve School Climate,” as well as to discuss a proposed law relating to “requiring the department of education to list on its website the name and contact information of the designated respect for all liaison at each school.” City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will deliver opening remarks.
--The Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services will meet at 11 a.m. to discuss a proposed law relating to “requiring the board of correction and the commissioners of the department of correction and department of investigation to submit quarterly reports regarding the investigations of excessive use of force by correction officers on inmates.”
--The Committee on Consumer Affairs will meet at 12:30 p.m. to discuss a proposed law relating to “security cameras and security guards at certain eating or drinking establishments and repealing subchapter 20 of title 20 of such code, relating to licensing public dance halls, cabarets and catering establishments.”
--The Committee on Parks and Recreation will meet at 1 p.m. to discuss the renaming of “70 thoroughfares and public places.”
--The Committee on Immigration will meet at 1:30 p.m. to discuss proposed laws relating to “persons not to be detained by the department of probation” and “federal immigration enforcement,” as well as a resolution calling upon the federal government to extend Temporary Protected Status for 10 countries.
--The Committee on Environmental Protection will meet at 2 p.m. to discuss several proposed laws relating to the sewage system and fire hydrants.
--The Committee on Housing and Buildings will meet at 2:30 p.m. to discuss proposed laws relating to Buildings Department inspectors and to “requiring the department of buildings to report on site safety managers and coordinators.”
At 10 a.m. Monday, First Lady Chirlane McCray will attend a ceremony with Health Commissioner Mary Bassett and National Institute for Reproductive Health President Andrea Miller, honoring New York City for being one of the NIRH’s top cities in America for reproductive rights.
At 10:30 a.m. Monday, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will release the Comptroller’s Annual Wall Street Report, “on the profitability of New York City’s securities industry,” and hold a press conference call.
At 10:30 a.m. Monday at 633 3rd Avenue, “Reform Party Mayoral candidate Sal Albanese will hold a press conference outside Governor Cuomo’s midtown Manhattan office to call on him to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Mayor de Blasio’s corrupt administration.”
At 11 a.m. Monday, the Assembly Standing Committees on Health and Correction will meet jointly in Albany for a public hearing on “healthcare in New York correctional facilities.”
At 11 a.m. Monday at City Hall, "New York City Council Members and environmental justice advocates will gather...to call on Mayor de Blasio to implement a stronger energy efficiency policy that will require building owners to reduce all types of energy usage, including electricity, not just fossil fuels, while protecting affordable housing and protecting good union jobs." Participants will include City Council Members Ben Kallos, Margaret Chin, Bill Perkins, Antonio Reynoso, and others; leaders of ALIGN and the Climate Works for All coalition, and others.
At 11 a.m. Monday, City Council Member Costa Constantinides will hold a press conference at 22-52 23rd St. in Astoria, Queens to announce the introduction of a bill to create a website for people to easily pay and inquire about property taxes.
At 6 p.m. Monday, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and the League of Women Voters (LWV) will co-host a workshop on the upcoming vote on whether to hold a state constitutional convention at the Albany Public Library. NYCLU is against the Con Con while LWV is for the Con Con. Erika Lorshbough, NYCLU’s Legislative Counsel, will discuss the downsides of a convention, while Laura Bierman, Executive Director of LWV, will speak to the upsides of a convention.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, the New York City Bar Association will host “Women of Color in State and Local Government,” a discussion with women of color working in city and state agencies about the challenges and opportunities that uniquely impact women of color in the political and government realm. Panelists include Shannon Manigault, Inspector General for the New York City Department of Investigation; Vilda Mayuga, Chair and Hearing Officer for the State Department of Labor’s Industrial Board of Appeals; Nneka Martin, Agency Attorney for the FDNY; and Archana Rao, Financial Frauds Bureau Chief at the Manhattan DA’s office. The panel will be moderated by S. Jeanine Conley of Littler Mendelson.
The Center for Popular Democracy is having it's gala Monday night, at which it is honoring City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. Comptroller Scott Stringer is among those who will attend.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, NYCLU will host “Constitutional Crisis, Trump, and the ACLU” at the Fordham University School of Law, providing “legal analysis of the threats to democracy, civil rights and the rule of law posed by the Trump Administration and explain how the ACLU is fighting back.” Fordham Law professor Olivier Sylvain will moderate a panel consisting of NYCLU Legal Director David Cole and national ACLU Legal Director Art Eisenberg.
At 7 p.m. Monday, Mayor de Blasio will be joined by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for a campaign rally at Terminal 5 in Midtown West.
At 7 p.m. Monday, WNYC will host a live discussion on “Queens Machine” reporting by Brigid Bergin, discussing how the Queens Democratic Party operates. Dennis Walcott, the former schools chancellor and deputy mayor and current CEO of the Queens Library, will host a discussion at the Flushing Branch of the Queens Library on the history of political machines in New York City and the people who tried to take them down. Bergin and Fordham political science professor Dr. Christina Greer will be featured speakers.
Tuesday
Tuesday will mark one week until Election Day. Use our voter guide to see which races you'll be voting in and who the candidates are; find a collection of our election coverage here; read articles from us and our partners about Mayor de Blasio's record here; and listen to our election-focused podcast here.
The full City Council will hold a stated meeting at City Hall at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, prefaced by a press conference by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
Also at the City Council on Tuesday:
--The Committee on Finance will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss the establishment of a BID in Morris Park, Bronx, as well as to discuss a resolution “approving the new designation and changes in the designation of certain organizations to receive funding in the Expense Budget.”
--The Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet at 10 a.m.
--The Committee on Land Use will meet at 10:30 a.m.
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics will meet on Tuesday in Albany.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Board of Standards and Appeals will hold a public hearing at Spector Hall.
Mayoral candidate Sal Albanese will be in federal court in Brooklyn Tuesday morning to attempt to obtain a court order that he is included in Wednesday’s night’s mayoral debate.
Wednesday
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, Crain’s will host a debate among the eight candidates for New York City Council Speaker at the New York Athletic Club in Midtown Manhattan. Crain’s Assistant Managing Editor Erik Engquist will moderate. The attending candidates will be: Corey Johnson, Mark Levine, and Ydanis Rodriguez of Manhattan; Ritchie Torres of the Bronx; Donovan Richards and Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens; and Robert Cornegy and Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn.
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, City & State will host “On Immigration,” discussing “policy, management and leadership issues affecting New York's immigration efforts and program,” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City. City Comptroller Scott Stringer and city Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop will separately deliver keynote remarks. There will also be two panel discussions featuring government officials and advocates who will discuss how New York will move forward for DREAMers and the role immigrant-owned businesses play in the New York City economy.
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting at Spector Hall.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the New York Women’s Foundation will host “Women’s Leadership and the Lippman Commission” at Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work, discussing the “role of women’s leadership on the Commission and the work being done to help women entangled in the criminal justice system.” Event participants will include women who served on the Commission, including Margaret Egan, of CUNY; MaryAnne Gilmartin and Jane Marshall of Forest City New York; Insha Rahman, of the Vera Institute; Courtney Bryan of JPMorgan Chase; Dr. Althea Taylor, of the Hunter College School of Education; and Ana Oliveira, president the the NY Women’s Foundation.
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, CBS will televise the second mayoral debate, including Democrat Bill de Blasio, Republican Nicole Malliotakis, and possibly others.
The Manhattan GOP will be holding a fundraiser/watch party at The Empire Steakhouse that Malliotakis will visit after the debate.
Thursday
At 10 a.m. Thursday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a board meeting at 100 Church Street.
At 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Civic Hall will host a workshop on New York’s new paid family leave law. Molly Weston Williamson of a Better Balance will discuss the details of the law and how it could affect people’s lives.
At 6 p.m. Thursday, NYCLU and Citizen Action NY will host a workshop on New York’s new paid family leave law at the Albany Public Library.
At 6 p.m. Thursday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will host a community forum on the East Harlem rezoning proposal at Taino Towers in her district.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, Mayor de Blasio will hold a town hall meeting at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village with City Council Member Barry Grodenchik, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, State Senator Leroy Comrie, and Assemblymember David Weprin.
Friday and the weekend
No events on our radar as of Sunday evening, but stay tuned!
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Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).
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by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette
De Blasio on the train (Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)
Amid an ongoing feud -- between the Mayor Bill de Blasio on one side and Governor Andrew Cuomo and the MTA on the other -- over funding for mass transit infrastructure in New York City, 27 New York City Council Members on Thursday announced support for the mayor’s proposal to tax wealthy New Yorkers to raise money for subway and bus improvements.
The mayor has pitched a tax increase on the top-most earners in the city as part of his “Fair Fix” plan, which would raise about $700 million in 2018 from 32,000 city residents, according to the de Blasio administration. That figure would rise to $820 million annually by 2022, according to city estimates, by increasing the highest income tax rate from 3.876 percent to 4.41 percent for individuals making more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million.
The revenue would be used for the subways and buses, but also to fund the “fair fares” plan to subsidize half-priced MetroCards for the city’s lowest-income residents, something de Blasio has expressed support for in principle, but refused to fund out of city budget money while saying it should be the responsibility of the state-controlled MTA.
More than half the 51-member City Council, including five of the seven members running to be the next speaker, backed the plan in a letter to MTA Chair Joe Lhota and the MTA board, on which the New York City Mayor has four appointees of the 14 seats (the Governor has a plurality of six and also appoints the chair). However, two leading speaker contenders did not sign, nor did current Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, though she has expressed support for de Blasio’s plan.
“It’s called the Fair Fix because rather than ask working New Yorkers already feeling the pressure of rising fares and bad service to foot the bill on their own, we are asking the millionaires and billionaires in our city to chip in a little extra to help move our transit system that helps make them some of the wealthiest people in the world,” reads the letter, which was sent out by Council Majority Leader Jimmy Van Bramer’s office. “This plan is the right approach and it must advance without delay.”
“We need more cost-effective capital construction for the MTA and must think of ways to generate more revenue for the exclusive purpose of bringing our mass transit system to the 21st-century,” said Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, chair of the transportation committee, in a statement Thursday. “I am confident that Fair Fix, along with other plans proposed at the city and state levels, would raise desperately needed funds for a sustainable plan of improvements.”
Of the new revenue raised from the mayor’s proposal, $500 million would be dedicated each year to capital infrastructure improvements and the city estimates that it would allow them to borrow about $8 billion more for upgrades. At least $250 million would help provide half-price MetroCards for 800,000 low-income New Yorkers, which is based on the “Fair Fares” proposal created by a group of transit advocates who insisted that the city fund those MetroCards in the budget this year. De Blasio refused to add Fair Fares to the budget, even eschewing a smaller pilot proposal made by the City Council, but included it later in his tax increase proposal, insisting throughout that the state should bear the burden.
Any tax increases are seen as unlikely to move through Albany, especially during a state-level election year, which 2018 is, due to opposition from both Gov. Cuomo, a Democrat, and the Republican-controlled state Senate. De Blasio and all 27 signers of the new letter are Democrats.
The 27 Council Members who support that notion include most of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, with a few notable exceptions. Speaker Mark-Viverito did not sign the letter, nor did Council Members Corey Johnson and Mark Levine, both of whom are prominent speaker candidates. Robin Levine, a spokesperson for Mark-Viverito, said in an email, “The MTA is in need of immediate fixing and the Speaker has long supported both the millionaire’s and commuter taxes.”
A spokesperson for Council Member Johnson did not return a request for comment on why he did not sign the letter.
“I'm fully supportive of the millionaires tax as I believe we desperately need new revenue for the transportation system, which is also why I support congestion pricing,” said Levine in an email. “I didn't sign on to the letter because Joe Lhota and the MTA board don't control the income tax rate.”
De Blasio has been an ardent opponent of a congestion pricing scheme, some version of which Cuomo has indicated he will offer in January when he unveils his executive budget proposal and the state’s legislative session begins. Congestion pricing typically includes mechanisms to raise money for mass transit while altering the city’s toll system and implementing measures to reduce street congestion in Manhattan.
The fate of de Blasio’s proposal is largely uncertain. It would have to be approved by the state Legislature, and Republicans who control the state Senate and have an acrimonious relationship with the progressive Democratic mayor have already thrown cold water on any tax increases. At the same time, the governor and MTA’s Lhota continue to pressure de Blasio to fund half of a $836 million emergency action plan for the city’s subways that Lhota unveiled shortly after retaking the helm at the MTA at a crisis point in subway service. De Blasio has refused, citing money that Cuomo has raided from the MTA and offering his tax plan.
Cuomo has set up a task force to explore congestion pricing but did not initially invite de Blasio, or any other elected official from New York City, to join it. Cuomo made an invitation to de Blasio during a recent NY1 interview, which de Blasio shot down, with his spokesperson calling the task force a “charade” and the mayor saying it is set up for the governor’s own purposes. De Blasio has consistently rejected congestion pricing as a “regressive tax” that would hurt outer borough commuters, despite the facts that while the most prominent plan, Move New York, would institute tolls on the now-free East River bridges, it would also lower tolls on some bridges, and that car owners tend to be wealthier than those who solely rely on public transportation.
“New Yorkers want real solutions and that's why they're rallying around the mayor's plan to ask the wealthiest 1% to chip in a little extra," said Austin Finan, a mayoral spokesman, in a statement when asked for a response to the City Council members’ letter.
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette