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Thousands of Low-Profile Cases Could Turn on Police Body Camera Footage


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(photo: @NYPDnews)


In June 2016, the Policing Project at the NYU School of Law co-sponsored a study with the NYPD to assess sentiments regarding police body cameras, part of an effort to influence department policy as body cameras become worn by an increasing number of patrol officers. The NYPD has been gradually outfitting its officers with body cameras, in part as a result of a court order, with an initial rollout of 54 cameras in 2014, and 1,200 more to be added to the force this year. As part of a new contract with the city’s patrol officers union, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in early 2017 that all 23,000 patrol officers would be wearing body cameras by 2019.

In implementing a body camera program, the NYPD must outline the protocols that would guide everything from circumstances under which officers must activate their cameras to the proper method of releasing footage.

The Policing Project survey, which remained open for 40 days, received 25,126 responses from “individuals who identified themselves as living, working, or attending school in New York,” as well as 5,419 police officers. In a study conducted concurrently by the Marron Institute of Urban Management at NYU, police officers answered similar questions and were encouraged to participate by Pat Lynch, the President of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), who posted the questionnaire on the union website within days of its launch.

One of the many themes in the study was the ongoing question of a defense attorney’s ability to access police body camera footage in the cases they handle with clients, who are charged with a crime by a local district attorney. Public defenders, who handle a large percentage of cases brought against poor New Yorkers, are particularly concerned about rules governing the usage of body cameras and access to footage. There were 314,870 arrests made by the NYPD in 2016, most of which were for non-violent crime.

Discovery law -- the process by which defense lawyers are given access to materials by District Attorneys in cases and plea negotiations -- is inconsistently implemented across the five New York City boroughs, according to public defenders. As body cameras become ubiquitous in the NYPD -- by 2019, all members of the PBA will be wearing one -- there is increased pressure from public defenders and advocacy groups like the Brennan Center for Justice, the Bronx Defenders, and the New York City Civil Liberties Union (who all submitted their own responses to the surveys) to develop comprehensive laws surrounding police-worn body cameras.

When Mayor de Blasio and the PBA announced their new contract deal, the mayor said, “this agreement provides the compensation and benefits the world’s finest police department deserves, while outfitting the entire force with body cameras and delivering the transparency and policing reforms at the center of effective and trusted law enforcement.” Transparency is the lynchpin underlying calls for the proliferation of body cameras within the NYPD (and other police departments around the country); but some fear that NYPD policy and district attorney practices will not uphold the rhetoric espoused by the mayor.

While police body cameras are often discussed in the context of major incidents of police brutality, it is the many thousands of lower-profile interactions between officers and members of the public that will make for virtually all of the footage taken by such cameras. Police body cameras will capture hundreds of thousands of low-level arrests each year, as well as circumstances around felonies, contentious and harmonious exchanges between police and the public, and instances where people feel that they are treated wrongly by the police and wind up bringing their own legal action.

Police body cameras are heralded by many, including de Blasio, Public Advocate Letitia James, and others, as a key accountability and transparency tool. But, they also open what could be a Pandora’s Box of questions and potential pitfalls. Rules for recording and disclosure are being closely tracked by those who will be directly involved in many of the cases where body camera footage will be a factor, and red flags are being raised.

According to Cynthia Conti-Cook, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, “the way prosecutors interpret discovery laws in New York State and criminal procedure law really allows the prosecutor to delay what he or she is revealing, causing many people to plead guilty before potentially vital evidence is disclosed." This can place public defenders in difficult positions – if prosecutor determines that body camera footage isn't relevant to a case, the public defender may never see it.

While key factors in many legal proceedings involving police body cameras will be when the camera is turned on (and off) and what is recorded, it is illegal for prosecutors to withhold footage that could exonerate a defendant.

According to Debora Silberman, senior staff attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services, “prosecutors have an obligation under [the] Brady [Bill] that they are required, if there is exculpatory video, they're obligated, [by] ethical and constitutional obligations under the law, to turn that over to us, and to make that known to us.” But this doesn't necessarily mean that a public defender will have access to body camera footage, even if it does exist.

Conti-Cook of Legal Aid said that if there is a recording from a body camera that was not evidence a prosecutor wants to produce in support of their case, either because it exonerated the defendant or in any way undermined police testimony or other evidence, then the way that prosecutors work, the prosecutor will likely withhold that evidence until the day of trial, hoping for a guilty plea before they were forced to disclose.

When contacted for comment, multiple representatives for District Attorney offices disputed this. They claimed that the Supreme Court decision of Brady v Maryland, which established that prosecutors must turn over all exculpatory evidence, meant that body camera footage would have to be given to public defenders, regardless of whether that footage was favorable to a defendant or a police officer and D.A.

Still, some public defenders have expressed doubt that it is so cut and dry and closely followed in all cases.

As things stand now, public defenders are looking forward to the proliferation of body cameras, largely so they can contextualize cases. A problem that defenders often point to is the short amount of time they’re given to prepare a case for a defendant. According to Conti-Cook “We have attorneys in Manhattan who don't learn the names of the complaining witnesses until the day before or the day of trial. And there's no way that you can prepare a case without having that information. So the night before they're always scrambling with coming up with a quick investigation, you prepare for the next day. But it really puts us systematically at a disadvantage when it comes to counselling our clients.”

It remains unclear if body camera footage will help ease this phenomenon by providing more context, or simply be another data point that public defenders need to scramble for in the final hours before a case.

The issue of evidence disclosure, including of body camera footage, is relevant to various cases, those that are tried in court and those settled pretrial. According to Silberman of Brooklyn Defender Services, “many of our cases end in a plea bargain, prior to a pretrial hearing, so we don't get the benefit of challenging the constitutionality of the search or the approach of our client...we don't get to challenge whether the police officer's observation were true or accurate, or whether they make sense in the context of the allegation.” If public defenders are able to refer to body camera footage to ascertain the full circumstances surrounding a case, they may have more leverage and even avoid some plea bargains altogether.

One public defender presented a hypothetical situation as an example. A police officer is legally allowed to search a person if the officer believes they witness an exchange of drugs take place. But what if that officer is 50 feet away from the exchange when it happens, and it’s not clear what they were actually capable of seeing at the time? Body camera footage could corroborate or disprove an officer’s account of events.

Even if a search yields the discovery of drugs, Silberman sees how body camera footage could be used on behalf of a defendant. “Very often, when we suspect that there has been an illegal approach of our client, and illegal search of our client, and illegal car stop, a car search, of either the car or the house, we would be challenging the constitutional grounds for the search or the approach,” she said.

Silberman also sees what she thinks can at times be the officer point of view, saying, “I think it can be easy to justify illegal behavior by convincing oneself that taking a gun off the street or taking the drugs off the street was worth the search.”

“[S]o few of our cases get to the stage where we get to challenge their observation,” Silberman added. “Most of our cases plea out. Which means that you're entering a plea, you're taking a misdemeanor or a felony and possibly jail time, or probation. Before you even get to that stage, very often a prosecutor will say to you, ‘look, if I have to go to a hearing, my offer's off the table.’”

There are many more pretrial hearings, when a district attorney offers evidence and a potential plea deal, than trials. “Only when you do a pretrial hearing do you get to challenge the constitutionality of the search or the approach, search through the vehicle, search of the client, search of the house,” Silberman said. “If we had a video of the kinds of observations that were made, it would be a completely different ballgame. But it's so infrequent that we even get to a stage to challenge the officer's testimony or perspective.”

Right now, both district attorneys and public defenders agree that police body cameras will have a positive impact. In a statement to Gotham Gazette, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said that he “has long supported the use of police body cameras, which increase the civility of interactions with residents, reduce false complaints against officers, and provide potentially vital evidence for criminal investigations and prosecutions.”

On the question of discovery, Vance's spokesperson said, “Our office will meet our legal obligations to provide this material in discovery, as we do with all evidence. We are confident in our ability to efficiently and effectively utilize and produce body camera evidence.”

Echoing a point made by Vance, de Blasio, and others, Silberman of Brooklyn Defender Services thinks that police officers will be aided by body cameras too, saying that they “benefit public safety and officer safety. Just as much as we're concerned about the truth coming out, so are police officers. Police officers also have to deal with people making accusations of falsehoods, whether they're saying something that's not true, or whether they were being too aggressive. And if an officer is acting in accordance with the law, that is justifying all the actions that he took.”

State Senator Daniel Squadron, who had co-written a letter with Assemblymember Dan Quart and Public Advocate James asking for more transparency from the NYPD, agrees. One detail that concerned Squadron, Quart, and James related to Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). In their letter to then-NYPD Commissioner William Bratton, the three elected officials outlined their worry that the cost of filing a FOIL request for body camera footage was “prohibitive” ($36,000, per the example they cited), and the procedure by which the NYPD could redact footage would undermine the ostensible purpose of body cameras: increased transparency.

In response, Bratton wrote that “our working group is proceeding as expeditiously as possible, trying to balance public transparency and individual privacy.” He cited the NYU Policing Project study and closed his letter assuring the three officials that the NYPD was “exploring all options for the use of body-worn cameras by our police officers.” Bratton has since retired from the NYPD and been replaced by Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill.

In a statement to Gotham Gazette, Senator Squadron said, “Body cameras can protect officers and civilians alike, but it's critical that transparency be a central component,” Squadron added he will “push to ensure that transparency and safeguarding privacy are cornerstones of body camera policies." Squadron didn’t address specific questions about district attorneys turning over body camera footage.

The concurrent NYU/NYPD study did address the way in which the NYPD or district attorneys would disclose body-camera footage in criminal and civil proceedings. In conjunction with the release of the Policing Project survey results, the released NYPD its assessment of the survey and its new draft policy for body-worn cameras. The NYPD rejected some recommendations from the Policing Project and accepted others. “Arresting officers will provide the assigned prosecutor with access to all BWC video related to an arrest utilizing the Body Worn Camera video management system,” the NYPD writes. Notably, the NYPD did not stipulate how the assigned prosecutor should then release the footage to public defenders.

To Nick Malinowski, formerly of Brooklyn Defender Services and now at Vocal-NY, a grassroots organizing group, the new NYPD protocol is not enough. In a statement to Gotham Gazette, Malinowski said, “Body cameras in and of themselves are neither good, nor bad. The way they are used, who has access to the footage, matters. There is not much in the current NYPD plan to suggest it will improve transparency or accountability and certainly the history of the NYPD in this regard does not give us confidence; instead we really should understand this pilot project as an expansion of police power and surveillance.”

In 2015, there were a total of 306,695 dispositions across all five district attorney borough offices, according to data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. When Gotham Gazette contacted the five DA offices, none were able to provide precise data on the number of dispositions in which body camera footage was used as evidence. As the NYPD rolls out its body camera program, that fact is likely to change.

Mayor de Blasio has pledged that body cameras are “delivering the transparency and policing reforms at the center of effective and trusted law enforcement.” A lot will depend on how the cameras are used and what footage is made available to both defendants and their attorneys, and the broader public. Silberman believes that body cameras “really speak to truth and justice. This is really what our adversarial system is all about. They would speak to what actually happened. It would give us a constitutional perspective on the incident at hand, and the incident in question.”

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by Elena Burger, Gotham Gazette

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Consulting Firm with Deep City Ties Adds New Class of Clients, Looks National


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Carlos Menchaca, center, & other Red Horse clients (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


Ritchie Torres became the current New York City Council’s youngest member in 2014 and the first openly-gay representative from the Bronx. Carlos Menchaca joined the legislative body that same year as its first Mexican-American representative, and the first openly-gay member from Brooklyn. Queens Council Member I. Daneek Miller is the Council’s only Muslim representative. All three are men of color and members of the City Council’s progressive caucus. And each is a client of Red Horse Strategies, a New York City-based political consulting firm with national ambitions that has established itself as a prominent player in the city, attracting progressive and increasingly diverse Democratic candidates.

Red Horse was co-founded in 2008 by Doug Forand, Marc Lapidus and Nathan Smith, political operatives with decades of collective experience in elections, campaigns and government. In the two years prior to forming the consulting firm, the three worked together at the New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, where Forand served as executive director.

In the nine years since starting the firm, they have helped elect Democrats throughout the city and state, from City Council, boroughwide and citywide offices to statewide positions and Congressional seats. They’ve been involved in the successful campaigns of Andrew Cuomo for Governor, Tom DiNapoli for Comptroller, Letitia James for Public Advocate, and Bill de Blasio for Public Advocate, along with numerous races for City Council, state Senate, state Assembly and U.S. Congress. The Red Horse brand is progressive, focused on “emerging communities” and candidates as well as issues that reflect the firm’s policy goals. The firm says its strength is in tailoring services to clients rather than using a one-size-fits-all formula and that the candidates they often work with are often underdogs in their races -- Menchaca, for example, took on an incumbent City Council member in the Democratic primary.

“We’re looking for candidates that we think have the potential to be viable,” said Forand, co-founder and senior partner, in a phone interview, “and that doesn’t always mean candidates who start from a position of strength, but someone who sort-of understands what the work is gonna do, someone who can build the network they’re gonna need to fundraise...Someone who’s really up for the kind of commitment to a race that it takes to win because campaigns are insanely hard work for the candidate.”

New York is flush with political consultants, particularly Democratic-leaning firms, and Red Horse is among the prominent names on the list. Other firms, many of whom have close ties to Mayor de Blasio, include Berlin Rosen, AKPD Message and Media, SKDKnickerbocker, The Advance Group, Metropolitan Public Strategies, and The Parkside Group, to name a few.

Some of these firms tend to focus on direct voter communications and campaign mailings, which is where the money is in political consulting, said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant who runs his own firm and whose past clients have included former President Bill Clinton and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Other firms employ broader public relations strategies, a natural long term evolution for successful firms, according to Sheinkopf. “What Red Horse has done very well is try to sell quickly and dominate the left where possible and therefore they have a marketing edge,” said Sheinkopf.

He said Red Horse’s combination of direct communication for candidates and an effective field operation, along with their work on issue-based campaigns, is “not a unique model, but it’s a smart business model to follow.” Sheinkopf added, “As the Democrats move further to the left, they’ll become even more prominent.”  

Red Horse’s team of 13 staff is currently handling 15 City Council campaigns in the 2017 election cycle, including eight reelection bids -- for Council Members Helen Rosenthal, Ritchie Torres, Antonio Reynoso, Barry Grodenchik, Carlos Menchaca, Mark Treyger, Elizabeth Crowley, and Rafael Salamanca Jr. The Council is a 51-member body.

The firm is also involved in five competitive races in districts where the current Council member is term-limited from running again this year. In two races, they’re working with candidates to challenge incumbents: in the 35th Council District, their client Ede Fox is challenging Council Member Laurie Cumbo; and in the 14th Council District, they’re representing Randy Abreu, who’s hoping to unseat Council Member Fernando Cabrera.

Candidates who have worked with the firm sing its praises. Council Member Reynoso’s first experience with Red Horse was when he was managing the City Council campaign of Diana Reyna, whom he eventually replaced when she was term-limited out in 2013. “What I think separated them from other firms was the support,” he said. “During the heated moments of the campaign, in the last two months, they were there everyday. Their attention to detail and involvement, we consider above and beyond.”

Reynoso said that he wasn’t a clear favorite in his own race, going up against Democratic county boss Vito Lopez. But Red Horse helped him, a first-time candidate in 2013, win the primary, and thus the seat, given the Democratic advantage in the district, with a strong field operation. “After just one cycle, they were probably the most sought after consulting firm in New York,” Reynoso said. Red Horse was involved in 10 City Council campaigns in 2013, and seven of those candidates were victorious (Jenifer Rajkumar, Austin Shafran, and Lew Simon lost their races).

“Nothing breeds further success like success,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, a government reform group, of Red Horse’s record. “Every election cycle there’s a new ‘It’ political consulting firm that’s the new kid on the block that garners the attention based on their ability to win in past races, and this is their time.”

The firm’s abilities were most recently recognized in March by the American Association of Political Consultants, which presented them with four Pollie Awards, the “Oscars of the political world,” as a Red Horse email blast read. One of those was for the best Get Out The Vote program in the country, for their work on the special election of State Senator Todd Kaminsky last year. Kaminsky, a Democratic Assembly member at the time, won an open Long Island seat that had been held by a Republican. Grassroots outreach defines the Red Horse approach, as well as campaigns tailored specifically to their candidates, candidate clients and Forand explained.

“We came to this business convinced...that integration of a strong ground operation, strong field program with a strong messaging program was always gonna be the best formula for creating a successful campaign and it’s something that really does drive our approach to every campaign,” said Forand.

He stressed that they still give each race the individual attention that they and their clients call their hallmark. “The reality of campaigns is that whether you’re running for City Council, [where] there’s 160,000 people, or for a Congressional district of 700,000, it takes the same amount of work, focus and determination to run a successful campaign,” Forand added. “[It] doesn’t get easier because the race is smaller.”

He said that Red Horse opposes the “cookie cutter approach” to campaigns. “Every district has its own character, its own constituency, its own concerns, and we try to build a messaging construct that’s gonna reflect that and reflect it in the context of the candidate,” he added.

This year, in the City Council in Brooklyn’s 43rd Council District, an “open” seat, Justin Brannan is another first-time candidate who’s relying on Red Horse. “I like the history they had doing races with unorthodox candidates,” Brannan said of the firm, and himself. “I like their scrappiness. I need folks who I can text at two o’clock in the morning if I have an idea and have them tell me it’s a bad idea and I should go to sleep or that it’s a good idea and we’ll talk in the morning.”

And although they’re one of the established firms in the city, with numerous victories under their belt, Brannan said, “They still operate hungry. They’re not resting on their laurels. They still come at stuff with an underdog perspective.”

Despite the fact that Brannan has long ties in the community and is an aide to the current Council Member, Vincent Gentile, his campaign may indeed be the underdog if Assemblymember Joseph Abbate enters the race, as is rumored.

Marjorie Velazquez, a Democratic district leader in the Bronx who is running to replace term-limited Council Member James Vacca for the District 13 seat, said Red Horse sees “the candidate for who they are and [helps] them deliver their message, empowering them.” Velazquez is one of few progressive women of color running for the City Council this year, aligning with Red Horse’s goals of promoting gender and ethnic diversity. She chose the consultants because she saw that in Ritchie Torres’ Bronx campaign in 2013, they were willing to take on challenging races. “They take on races where they honestly believe in their candidates,” she said.

“Well we do look for candidates that we believe in, that we think you know, this is somebody who a) is gonna be a good candidate and b) is gonna make a difference in the Council or whatever office they’re running for,” Forand said of the firm’s approach. “I mean we all got into this business not because we grew up with the desire to be political consultants but because we grew up with the desire to make progressive social change, and this was the means by which we were most able to do that.”

Along with Brannan and Velazquez, Red Horse is working for Carlina Rivera, Marti Speranza and Diana Ayala in “open seat” City Council races, looking to help fill five of the seven seats being vacated due to term limits.

Red Horse’s work isn’t limited to candidate campaigns, and it has been lucrative. The firm is actively engaged in issue advocacy, which has earned them millions in consulting fees from progressive organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, NYSUT, the state teachers union, to name a few. Since its inception, the firm has received more than $31.3 million for candidate campaigns and lobbying work combined, according to state Board of Elections records. It did work with Mayor de Blasio’s defunct nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, as well.

Forand insists theirs isn’t typical lobbying “in the traditional sense of the word at all,” even though they’ve had to register as lobbyists under state law. “The lobbying laws are pretty broadly written and for good reason, so we have had to register,” he said, “but from a business perspective, it is one of the differences between us and a lot of other firms. We don’t do that work. We don’t elect people and then go lobby them on behalf of a different client.”

It’s that conflict that good government groups also warn against. “The fact that some of these political consulting firms do it not just on behalf of candidates but also issue campaigns is essentially the same side of the coin,” said Dadey of Citizens Union. “It’s when these consultants directly lobby the elected officials they helped put in place that I believe poses the conflict. There is no conflict here if they are simply representing organizations trying to get their message out, broadly, without any direct contact with elected officials they’re lobbying.”

Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, believes that the joint model of advocacy and campaign consultancy brings up concerns about conflicts of interest as they become increasingly common. But, he said, “Not a lot can be done about it,” since it is a natural result of Supreme Court decisions that have relaxed restrictions on political spending under the First Amendment’s free speech protections. “I’m not surprised that in the Wild West of American political life and campaign finance, political consulting firms are flourishing,” Horner said. “The stakes are high and the payoff is big.”

While Red Horse has deep ties in the City Council, it does not appear to be pushing any issues on the city level at this time. The firm is currently working with state Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi, a Queens Democrat, on the Home Stability Support proposal, which aims to revamp rental assistance statewide to help low-income New Yorkers avoid homelessness. “Generally its public awareness campaigns on behalf of an organization...pursuing a specific policy goal,” Forand said of the advocacy work Red Horse takes on.

Red Horse has its own policy goals, Forand said. For instance, as evidenced by their work on HSS, the firm has focused on housing policy. “You can’t live in New York City without understanding how critical affordable housing is for the economic future of the city,” said Forand. And, the firm is also striving to improve gender representation and ethnic diversity in elected offices. “Where we have the opportunity to work with those candidates who are sort of groundbreaking and history-making, we like to do that,” Forand said.

Issue advocacy is a particularly lucrative side of the consulting world, said Sheinkopf. “It’s smart to try to make yourself partisan when it’s required, or nonpartisan or bipartisan when it’s required,” he said. “Advocacy campaigns are nonpartisan, they enable you to maintain partisan credentials while representing corporate and special interests.”

Looking ahead, the firm seems to be taking its mission beyond the New York area. The newly launched Red Horse website indicates that they now have a presence in Florida and California as well. Jon Greenfield, managing director of press for the firm, when asked about phone listings for offices in those states, said, “We’re planning on making a formal announcement in the near future because we’re in the process of expanding nationally.”

Their brand has also apparently not been hurt by involvement in Mayor de Blasio and the state Democratic party’s attempt to flip the state Senate in 2014, which triggered at least two state investigations into potential violations of election law. Red Horse was among five firms subpoenaed by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, before the case was referred to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. Vance’s investigation recently closed down and no charges were brought against de Blasio and his aides. In another related investigation that began last year, the Erie County District Attorney was looking into donations made in 2014 to the Erie County Democratic Committee, which then made payments to Red Horse for its work on the state Senate campaign of then-Senator Marc Panepinto from Buffalo. There’s no indication that Red Horse was or is being investigated.

Red Horse’s Greenfield confirmed that the firm received $50,000 for its work on the campaign but did not comment on the investigation. The Erie County DA’s office did not respond to multiple calls and voicemails seeking comment.

Union organizer Marvin Holland, another new entrant into electoral politics, was also a recent Red Horse client. Holland unsuccessfully ran for the District 9 City Council seat in Harlem in a special election held in February. Despite the loss, Holland was complimentary of the firm. “I think they are one of the few consulting firms that can do an entire campaign,” he said, noting that other firms had specific strengths while Red Horse was a one-stop consulting shop. “They have a well-rounded program.”

Holland lost to state Senator Bill Perkins in a crowded field, but is running again this fall to unseat the short-term incumbent. He is not retaining Red Horse again, though, but said that he isn’t looking to hire any consultants for his campaign. He’s chosen to go at the race with his own resources and team, having crafted his message and strategy, with the help of Red Horse, through the special election.

Forand said the firm’s work at the congressional level will likely create more opportunities for them. The firm helped elect Grace Meng to Congress representing Queens, and she was recently reelected as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. “We’ve put together a pretty successful track record of winning some very tough races here in New York,” he said, “and we think that’s something we can directly apply across the country.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Note: Gotham Gazette is an independent publication of Citizens Union Foundation, sister organization of Citizens Union.

The Week Ahead in New York Politics, April 17


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

This week sees a return to action for the City Council after its usual spring break, with several committee hearings, including a few of particular interest, such as the economic development committee on “preparing for the impact of federal travel bans on New York City’s economy” and a general welfare committee oversight hearing examining changes in the city's approach to homelessness one year after a restructuring was announced by the de Blasio administration. See details of these and other hearings below.

Saturday is Earth Day, being celebrated again by some as a "car free" day in the city, which will include closure of a big stretch of Broadway to cars for the day. Saturday will also see the March for Science in New York City, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the country.

Mayor Bill de Blasio had no public events this weekend after his week on Staten Island. The mayor has two public events on his schedule Monday -- see below for details -- and no public events scheduled for Tuesday.

[Read: De Blasio Holds Town Hall as Week on Staten Island Nears Conclusion]

Governor Andrew Cuomo spent last week celebrating his top accomplishments passed through the new state budget, including raising the age of adult criminal responsibility, a public college affordability plan, and investments in Buffalo and elsewhere upstate. Cuomo then said Saturday that he does not see any more big ticket items, like government ethics reform, getting passed in the legislative session that will begin the week after this one and extend until mid-June. Cuomo has no public events scheduled Monday or Tuesday.

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

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

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
At 8 a.m. Monday at The New School, the Center for an Urban Future will host “Heading Off NYC’s Human Services Crisis,” which will “explore ways to strengthen the city’s human services nonprofit sector.” Speakers will include City Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland; Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies; Larry Lee, Executive Director of Womankind; Allison Sesso, Executive Director of the Human Services Council of New York; and Frederick Shack, CEO of Urban Pathways.

Monday at 8 a.m., “Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams will lead dozens of Brooklynites on his third annual Bike-to-Work ride, including the sister of Lauren Davis, a cyclist killed in a crash one year ago in Clinton Hill, as he kicks off his Earth Week celebrations in and around the borough...Borough President Adams will bike from Grand Army Plaza to Brooklyn Borough Hall…”

At approximately 10:25 a.m. Monday, Mayor de Blasio will arrive at Pier 1 in Brooklyn on the inaugural ride of the NYC Ferry and host a formal dedication ceremony for the new ferry service. At 7 and 10 p.m., the mayor will appear on NY1’s Road to City Hall.

At 12 p.m. Monday, Public Advocate Letitia James will appear at an Urban Youth Justice news conference at the steps of City Hall. 

At 6 p.m. Monday, Urban Democracy Lab will host “Welcome to the Occupation: Squatting and Resistance from Berlin to New York” at NYU Deutsches Haus. 

Rep. Dan Donovan is holding a telephone town hall with constituents Monday evening at 7 p.m.

Tuesday
At noon Tuesday, the Manhattan Institute will host “The Open-Government Movement: How Posting All Public Spending Online Can Transform U.S. Politics,” discussing the movement to make public all government spending records with featured speaker Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks.com.

At 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez "will join Earth Day Initiative at their Earth Week Kickoff, to invite New Yorkers from across the city to take part in this historic event. Council Member Rodriguez will unveil additional details about organizations taking part in the event and will be available to answer questions and discuss programming on Car Free Day."

At 1 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, "Assemblymember Charles Barron, Council Member Inez Barron, along with the Alliance for Quality Education, the University Student Senate of CUNY, other elected officials and education advocates will gather on the steps of City Hall to condemn the education priorities of Governor Cuomo. The anti-public education Governor's *Free* Tuition Plan includes a $200 a year tuition hike for four years for SUNY/CUNY students. Groups are also criticizing the Excelsior Scholarship for leaving behind students most in need."

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, City Council Member Robert Cornegy, Jr. will host a “Workforce Development Town Hall,” in partnership with JobsFirstNYC.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, at P.S. 234 in Astoria. "Senator Michael Gianaris, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Assemblymember Aravella Simotas and Councilmember Costa Constantinides will host a town hall to discuss the important issues affecting immigrant communities. The elected officials will field questions from the community and address current issues and concerns. The town hall will be held in partnership with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s Civil Rights and Labor Bureaus, whose attorney’s will provide information regarding the unique role of the State in protecting immigrant rights."

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Brooklyn Historical Society will host “Superfund Brooklyn.” City Limits editor and publisher Jarrett Murphy will moderate “a panel of experts about the history of these sites [referring to environmental remediation project sites at Gowanus Canal, Newtown Creek, and Wolff-Alport], cleanup efforts, and what this means for the borough.”

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the New York City Bar Association, in partnership with the Historical Society of the New York Courts, will host “Constitutional Conventions in New York: Past, Present, and Future.” Panels of political figures, lawyers, and judges will discuss “the history of our NYS Constitution from 1777 to the present, focusing on the successes and failures of the process of amending the Constitution by the calling of Constitutional Conventions” in the hopes of better understanding “the value of the opportunity to convene a 2017 Constitutional Convention.”

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, City Comptroller Scott Stringer will hold a town hall at the Tropical Paradise Ballroom in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

At 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Brennan Center’s Faiza Patel “will join Review and Debates at New York University's Kimmel Center for University Life for a panel discussion about the state of whistleblowing in the information age.”

Wednesday
At the City Council on Wednesday

  • The Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet at 9:30 a.m.
  • The Committee on Civil Service and Labor will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “the labor movement in New York City after President Trump,” as well as two resolutions “affirming the right to collectively bargain” for the city’s workers and urging Congress not to adopt Right-to-Work legislation.
  • The Committee on Waterfronts will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “dredging projects in the City’s waterways.”
  • The Committee on Housing and Buildings will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss several proposed laws
  • The Committee on Courts and Legal Services will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing “examining the process of mayoral judicial appointments.”
  • The Committee on Education will meet at 1 p.m. to discuss proposed laws relating to “creating a sexual health education task force” and requiring the education department to “distribute information regarding the gifted and talented programs and exam,” as well as a resolution for the State Education Department “to convene a task force to assess the cultural relevance of state learning standards.”
  • The Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions, and Concessions will meet at 1 p.m.

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, City & State will host “Growing Opportunity and Diversity: The New York City Building Trades,” discussing the growing diversity and transformation of the building trade industry. Keynote will be delivered by Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, will be conference chair.

On Wednesday morning, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, ANHD, and Goldstein Hall will host a conference on "Community-Friendly Real Estate Development for Faith-Based Institutions" at Deutsche Bank, 60 Wall street.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Brewer will co-host "Learn Your Story, Tell Your Story" event for Immigrant Heritage Week with the Department of Records and Information Services, at 31 Chambers Street.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Public Advocate Tish James will host a public Q&A for residents of the South Bronx at the Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Congressional Rep. Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn will hold a town hall focusing on immigration, healthcare, and gun violence.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Panel for Education Policy will hold its monthly Educational Policy Meeting at Long Island City High School in Queens.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, State Senator Gustavo Rivera and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs will host a Know Your Rights Forum at Bronx Community College.

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, the New York City Bar Association will host “Police Reform: What's Working,” with a focus on “recent policing reforms in New York City, what reforms are working well and what aren't, and what further reforms should take place and why.” The Daily News’s Rocco Parascandola will moderate a panel featuring City Council Member Antonio Reynoso; Deputy Police Commissioner Lawrence Byrne; New York State Executive Deputy Attorney General Alvin Bragg; Civilian Complaint Review Board Chair Maya Wiley; Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, Deputy Director of Impact Litigation at Bronx Defenders; and Monifa Bandele, of Communities United for Police Reform.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Republican mayoral candidate Michel Faulkner will hold a town hall  meeting in Harlem; topics of discussion will include sanctuary cities, education, public housing/NYCHA, and affordable housing.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, residents of New York’s 11th Congressional District will hold a town hall at Bay Ridge Manor in Brooklyn. The event, sponsored by the "Fight Back Bay Ridge" coalition, will feature several advocacy organizations frustrated by the fact that Rep. Dan Donovan has not agreed to hold an in-person town hall with constituents.

Thursday
At the City Council on Thursday

  • The Committee on Higher Education will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding CUNY Start
  • The Committee on General Welfare will meet at 10 a.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “Reforms to Homeless Services, one year later,” as well as to discuss several proposed laws.
  • The Committee on Land Use will meet at 11 a.m.
  • The Committee on Economic Development will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “preparing for the impact of federal travel bans on New York City’s economy.”

At noon Thursday, the #NoCuts Coalition will host a rally at Federal Plaza to protest against the federal government’s proposed budget cuts to affordable housing.

At noon Thursday, the Brennan Center’s Faiza Patel “will join the American Constitution Society and the Muslim Law Student Association at Columbia Law School for a panel discussion about the legal implications posed by religious immigration policies.”

At 6 p.m. Thursday, Manhattan BP Brewer will host the opening reception for a new exhibit at the Manhattan Borough President's Office Peyton Art Gallery by Gallery35 artists' collective, 1 Centre Street, 19th Floor.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the Vera Institute will hold its “Reimagine Justice” gala. Honorees include Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy; Steven M. Cohen of MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated; Vanita Gupta, the former head of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; and Pat Nolan, the director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the American Conservative Union Foundation. Tanya Acker of CBS will serve as Master of Ceremonies. 

Friday and the weekend
On Friday, "Regional Plan Association hosts the annual Assembly, a full-day conference examining how the tri-state area can fulfill the promise of economic opportunity, meet the challenge of climate change and stay competitive with metropolitan areas around the world. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will deliver the keynote address." Featured speakers include Biden; Polly Trottenberg, Commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation; Purnima Kapur, Executive Director, New York City Department of City Planning; Tom Prendergast, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategic Officer, STV; Ydanis Rodriguez, Council Member 10th District, New York City Council; Antonio Reynoso, Council Member 34th District, New York City Council; and many others.

At 10 a.m. Friday, the Chambers of Commerce for all five boroughs will host the MWBE Recognition Awards at Vaughn College in East Elmhurst, celebrating diversity across the city. Invited speakers include Queens BP Melinda Katz, Public Advocate Tish James, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, City Council Member Robert Cornegy Jr, and Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop.

On Friday and Saturday, the Benjamin Center at SUNY New Paltz will host “Women in Politics: Past, Present, and Future.” Keynote addresses will be delivered by Dr. Allida Black, the editor of the Roosevelt Papers, on Friday, and by black feminist author and activist Barbara Smith on Saturday. In addition, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will speak at the event on Friday." 

Saturday is Earth Day. Starting at 10:30 a.m., the nationwide March for Science will occur, with marchers standing in opposition to the Republican climate agenda in Washington. In New York, the march will take place on the Upper West Side.

At noon Saturday, Sierra Club New York City and United for Action will host a rally at Foley Square expressing opposition to President Trump’s climate agenda. Speakers will include City Council Member Costa Constantinides, State Senators Liz Kreuger and Brad Hoylman, and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, among others. The rally will coincide with Earth Day and the March for Science in Washington D.C., New York City, and elsewhere.

On Saturday, Broadway will be closed to vehicular traffic from 47th St to 14th St as part of “Car Free Day NYC” in honor of Earth Day, an effort spearheaded by Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and the city's Department of Transportation, among others.

At 9 a.m. Sunday, Acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez will host an immigration forum at the Shiloh Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Brooklyn.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, Senator Daniel Squadron will host a "Community Convention" at Stuyvesant High School for his Senate district.

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

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette



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