What's The [Data] Point? Episode 113 -- 8, Emma Wolfe on the De Blasio Years [You can listen to or download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including iTunes]
Emma Wolfe, Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor for Administration under Mayor Bill de Blasio, joined the show to discuss the de Blasio years. Wolfe has been a top advisor to de Blasio for over a decade and reflected on her work in government and politics, how the de Blasio administration should be remembered, and more.
Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think: @TweetBenMax & @CBCNY. Listen below or download wherever you get your podcasts!
Read more: What's The [Data] Point? 8, Emma Wolfe on the De Blasio Years
Kids at the library (photo: John McCarten/City Council)
On Monday, the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Libraries convened to hear updates from the city’s three library systems regarding their programming and COVID-19 recovery.
According to the committee’s report, Monday marked the second hearing on libraries since they reopened in July of this year after COVID-19 suspended in-person operations for 15 months. The three systems are Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Public Library, and the New York Public Library system, which includes Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
New York Public Library’s Brian Bannon was quoted in the committee report saying “public libraries during times of crisis are the first to raise their hands and find ways to help, so the closing of our physical doors caused us to be more creative and open our doors virtually.” The Presidents and CEOs of the three systems — Linda Johnson of Brooklyn, Anthony Marx of New York Public Library, and Dennis Walcott of Queens Library — testified about exactly how they’ve done that and detailed the work that remains to be done. The hearing was chaired by Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, a Queens Democrat.
“In the wake of the pandemic, Brooklyn Public Library is especially focused on ensuring our city rebuilds a more equitable economy,” Johnson said. “Even if we all manage to vaccinate every last eligible New Yorker, we know our city still faces unprecedented challenges: learning loss, high unemployment, and extreme economic inequity, the effects of social isolation and trauma. But libraries are not powerless in the face of these challenges. We have long known how to support students and job seekers, how to create more equitable and more cohesive communities. With the renewed support of this committee and the incoming City Council and [mayoral] administration, we know that public libraries can help our city rebuild. No other institution interacts with every neighbrohood on a human scale.”
Johnson and the other library leaders explained how their programming has shifted in response to the pandemic and what interventions they are able to implement to create a more equitable New York. She mentioned some library services that get at the heart of inequity.
In her testimony, Johnson said that BPL’s renovated Business and Career Center is offering small businesses finance and marketing workshops and providing seed money to budding entrepreneurs. BPL has also initiated the “Pathways to Leadership” scholarship program to help a more diverse generation of librarians enroll in master’s programs in library science, a field Johnson said had “long been dominated by white women.” The BPL has also partnered with No One Left Offline and Devices for Students to help low-income Brooklynites get access to hotspots so that they could continue adult education programming remotely.
“Nobody should be barred from improving their reading skills because they cannot afford broadband,” Johnson said.
In arguably the biggest change to come from the pandemic, all three library systems have permanently eliminated late fees. Across the board, patrons will only be charged for lost materials and those fines will be removed once the materials are returned.
“No one will be prevented from using their library because of unpaid late fees,” Johnson added.
Johnson said that the ways libraries serve New Yorkers has “changed dramatically” during the pandemic. Despite those changes, each library network boasted high engagement statistics.
Marx of NYPL reported that his system lent 10 million ebooks. Walcott of Queens said 1.4 million ebooks were loaned out in that borough between July 2020 and June 2021, a 68% increase compared to that timeframe one year prior. Johnson said that since BPL reopened, her system welcomed 900,000 in-person visitors to date.
Marx particularly wanted to celebrate NYPL’s performance on the digital front. “We are also running a digital library,” Marx said. “In many ways not just for New York but for the world. Because New York is the leader of the world, we should, we must.”
While each library system’s engagement with patrons is high, Marx expressed concern that residents of lower-income areas are not accessing books at the same rate as those in middle- and upper-income neighborhoods. He said that eliminating late fines was a “pretty clear statement” of NYPL’s commitment to invest more in communities in need, but that that’s just part of what the library needs to do to encourage people to use the library.
Wolcott celebrated how his network’s digital pandemic programming has “outpaced” in-person programming. The Queens Library hosted a 24-hour Black Health and Healing Virtual Summit in February, he noted, and said over 7,000 people attended the event in real time. Wolcott added that he was one of the viewers who tuned in at 3 a.m., aptly watching the session on insomnia. He said that “the beauty of the summit” was that it reached so far beyond Queens, with some attendees coming from South Africa.
Monday’s hearing was also a farewell of sorts, with Van Bramer chairing his 125th and final hearing of the committee he has chaired for his 12 years in the Council. Term-limited from seeking another term in this year’s elections, Van Bramer, who represents District 26 in Queens, is leaving the Council at the end of the year.
Van Bramer worked at Queens Public Library for 11 years before his time in the Council, and his love for libraries was given much appreciated by those who testified.
“We are grateful for your unmatched library enthusiasm,” Johnson said. “That’s not hyperbole, I’m sure it’s unmatched.”
Committee members including City Council Members Laurie Cumbo, James Gennaro, Mark Gjonaj, and Francisco Moya did not attend the hearing. Another committee member, City Council Member Darma Diaz, did attend and thanked Van Bramer and the library CEOs for their service.
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by John Besche, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
Eric Adams after a press conference (photo: Eric Adams)
In the last two months of the mayoral election, now Mayor-elect Eric Adams refunded more than $1 million to 653 donors, only a few of whom had already contributed the maximum amount to his campaign while others had donated nothing previously.
Between September 28 and November 25, the period covering two campaign finance disclosure filings, donors attempted to give Adams’ campaign more than $1.3 million. But Adams only retained about $298,000. The recent $1 million in refunds accounts for about half of the nearly $2.2 million that Adams’ campaign refunded in total since the campaign began raising funds in 2018.
In past elections, a single donor could give mayoral candidates as much as $5,100, a contribution limit even higher than what was permitted for congressional and presidential candidates. At the same time, the city’s voluntary public matching funds program provided a 6-to-1 match for the first $175 of every qualifying contribution from a city resident.
Campaign finance reformers argued that the high contribution limit encouraged candidates to focus their fundraising on wealthier donors, giving them outsize influence in elections over everyday New Yorkers. In 2018, a Charter Revision Commission created by Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a ballot question, which was approved in the general election that year, establishing new rules for the 2021 city election cycle. Though the previous rules would remain in place through 2021 and be eliminated for future election cycles, candidates could now opt into a new system that came with a $2,000 individual donation limit for citywide candidates and would match the first $250 of a qualifying contribution at a rate of 8-to-1.
The City Council then expanded the program further by increasing the amount of public funds that could be paid out to candidates, but also made certain pieces retroactive, forcing candidates like Adams into more refunds in order to participate in the new system.
Adams, like almost every mayoral candidate, participated in the new program and adhered to its limits including by returning a large sum of money via contributions that came early in the cycle at the higher limit. So when donors who had already given the maximum sought to donate again after he won the primary, their money was returned.
Surprisingly, many others who tried to donate for the first time also saw their money reimbursed by the Adams campaign, despite the fact that Adams had rebuked progressive calls to deny donations from real estate and other interests and said he welcomed funding from any and all supporters.
In all, of the more than $1 million that was refunded by the Adams campaign from September 28-November 25, $910,000 came from 455 donors who tried to give a maximum donation of $2,000. The campaign appears to have stopped its flurry of fundraising in September and, at some point in that period, switched off its fundraising portal. Evan Thies, a spokesperson for the campaign, said in an email that out of the refunds made in that two-month period, “the bulk was to return excess funds by refunding any max contribution made 9/1 or later.” He did not explain why the campaign began refunding all maximum donations, though by that time it was apparent that Adams was both the heavy favorite in the general election and had raised a solid sum to fund his final campaign operations.
There is no set limit to how much money a campaign can raise, though mayoral candidates participating in the public funds program were limited to spending about $7.3 million in each of the primary and general election stages. The primary spending limit was increased after Wall Street executive Ray McGuire, who did not participate in the matching program, raised more than half of the spending limit for participating candidates. But, at the end of the election, the campaign must face a post-election audit by the Campaign Finance Board, and can use remaining campaign funds for compliance purposes and other expenses. Once those obligations are satisfied, the campaign must repay any leftover public campaign funds to the city, according to the CFB.
Overall, as of the most recent filing, Adams raised more $9 million in private funds for his campaign, received another $10.1 million in public funds and spent about $18.1 million. He had just over $1 million in cash on hand as of November 25. One more filing is due from the campaign on January 18 that will likely detail many last expenses.
By all appearances, the general election was a foregone conclusion from the time the primaries were decided in June, and Adams had hit the limit for receiving public matching funds in the general. His fundraising far surpassed his Republican opponent, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who only raised $1.6 million in private contributions, got $4.2 million in public funds and spent more than $6 million, leaving him with a negative balance of about $203,000 as of the most recent filing.
[READ: Eric Adams’ $18 Million-Plus Campaign]
There were some notable names among those who donated the maximum to Adams between late September and late November but had their money returned to them by the campaign. They included David and Susan Rockefeller; Susanne Durst, wife of real estate mogul Douglas Durst; Alexandra Cohen, wife of hedge fund billionaire and Mets Owner Steve Cohen; Richard Edelman, CEO of PR giant Edelman; former Bloomberg deputy mayor Howard Wolfson; and more.
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette