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Contrasting Herself with Former Boss Bill de Blasio, Loree Sutton Runs to be ‘Quality of Life’ Mayor


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Former veterans commissioner Loree Sutton (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


Loree Sutton knows Mayor Bill de Blasio well, having been hired by him as commissioner of the New York City Department of Veterans’ Services, and she’s now running to succeed him on a platform of bringing a very different leadership style atop city government.

“I saw things to continue to deteriorate in our city, the quality of life and all that we see around us in the city, I kept looking for who is the common-sense candidate, the passionate pragmatist, the person that is going to be able to draw energy and ideas and insights from both sides of the political spectrum and forge common-sense solutions going forward,” Sutton explained about her decision to run for mayor during a recent appearance on the Max & Murphy podcast. “I didn’t see it. I saw politics as fear.  I saw career politicians who were rushing for the far left. I saw industry, real estate, being demonized. We are so much better than this.”

A 30-year veteran who retired as a Brigadier General and top Army psychiatrist, Sutton was de Blasio’s first veterans affairs commissioner and announced her plan to run for mayor in the 2021 race soon after leaving the administration last year. Sutton plans to compete in the June 2021 Democratic primary as a moderate alternative to candidates she believes are mostly running too far to the left and on a platform of consensus-building leadership, with a focus on delivering city services as “the quality-of-life” mayor, as she put it on the podcast.

“New Yorkers are hungry for a different kind of leader and a different kind of leadership and that’s what I bring,” she said.

Though Sutton had little background in or ties to New York City before moving here just before de Blasio was first elected mayor in 2013, she believes her work in city government, her military service, and her ability to build relationships will help her compete with several expected candidates who currently hold elected office or worked in city and federal government for many years. Those likely or possible Democratic competitors include Comptroller Scott Stringer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and former Bloomberg and Obama aide Shaun Donovan. Nonprofit executive Dianne Morales is also seeking the nomination, and others may jump into the race.

Sutton has been critical of de Blasio’s leadership, including his struggles to forge strong working relationships with Governor Andrew Cuomo and others. She cited the “Amazon debacle” and pointed to the departure of Andy Byford from the MTA, and sounded the alarm about what she sees as a deteriorating sense of law and order on city streets.

“So much boils down to relationships,” she said when asked to explain what she sees as deteriorating in the city under de Blasio. “We’ve seen the fractured relationship between the mayor and the governor which hasn’t served us well. The one project they collaborated on over these last few years was the Amazon debacle. We saw how that went, political malpractice at all levels.”

“I’m a general officer, I’m a proven leader -- I know how to get stuff done,” she said. “I’m a psychiatrist; relationships matter to me. I want to bring our city together and relationships are the key to that success. We can form the kinds of partnerships and restore trust, credibility, and pride to our city.”

She wants what she describes as an “L-train solutions” in all areas of policy, referring to Cuomo’s effort to overrule long-established plans for something seen as less disruptive to commuters by bringing in outside experts for a fresh perspective and thinking outside the box. She cited both the L-train repairs and the 14th Street busway as good examples where creative solutions have been sought and found.

“When I first moved here to New York, I heard about this L-train looming disaster and then, lo and behold, when the governor brought in some engineers that looked at this, they said ‘we don’t have to close the whole train down, we can reimagine this and do things a different way,’” she explained.

One of Sutton’s main areas of focus in her campaign is mental health care, and fixing a system that she and other critics believe de Blasio has designed poorly in attempts, spearheaded by First Lady Chirlane McCray, to take on the issue.

“You’ve gotta go where the seriously mentally ill are,” Sutton said. “They tend to be in our jails, in our shelters, in our hospitals and emergency rooms. We have to have community resources whether it be secure diversion programs, that seriously mentally ill who are arrested that they can enroll in those programs on a voluntary or involuntary programs up to one to two years.”

She emphasized the need for a system-level approach, that there’s no “one size fits all” answer to mental health programming in the city, and did say some kind words about the de Blasio/McCray ThriveNYC program. Sutton helped run some mental health programming through the Department of Veterans’ Services, saying, “It depends upon us working across the entire spectrum of mental health issues, which I think the Thrive program was designed to do. Now they’re working hard to extend that across the spectrum of mental illness and I applaud that. I think the credibility, the accessibility, the transparency, the oversight that is now starting to take root, is very heartening.”

About 16 months from the primary, Sutton does not appear to have outlined key policy proposals or platform focus areas, but indicated they will come in due time. At this point she appears mostly trying to establish her candidacy around her leadership style, including in juxtaposition to de Blasio’s, and pitching herself to New Yorkers as a sensible, center-left Democrat who wants to run city government well. She criticizes those of her competitors who are eschewing the real estate industry and its plentiful campaign donations, crediting it for important contributions to the city and saying that it is divisive to cast out all the people in a large, essential industry.

Asked about what other policy areas she wants to tackle and de Blasio programs she would undo or alter, Sutton said, “I think it’s important for communities to be able to come together and get beyond the debate between charter schools and regular public schools and be able to focus on school as community centers.” She praised the de Blasio administration’s community schools program and said she wants to “double and triple down that investment so that there is year-round programming at schools.”

“We can engage with parents, as well as students and really open up and ensure a range of options for our students to ensure not just their success in careers but in life, in citizenship and in service,” she continued. “I think it’s important to establish apprenticeships to be able to introduce our students to all kinds of different roles in the world.”

While she was critical of de Blasio’s relationship-building capabilities, Sutton was sure to say that he was “absolutely right” on his approach to the policing tactic of stop-and-frisk, the use of which his police department has significantly decreased after a great deal of controversy during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s tenure and de Blasio’s 2013 campaign focus on the issue (stop-and-frisks dropped dramatically in Bloomberg’s final years as he faced a federal lawsuit and a great deal of criticism).

But, Sutton stressed, the next mayor must address a “growing sense of disrespect and lawlessness” she says is happening in New York City, “that I do think is tied to backing away from the kind of quality of life offenses, broken-windows policing methods that have worked so well in the past minus the overuse of stop-and-frisk.”

“I think that this next mayor is going to have to move from a tale of two cities to become a mayor of one city and quality-of-life resides at the very heart of that,” Sutton said. “It’s about education. It’s about safety. It’s about partnerships. It’s about the environment. It’s about community and those relationships. It’s about transit. That’s what I bring to the table.”

[Listen to Sutton’s full appearance on the Max & Murphy podcast]

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by Katie Kirker, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

Ben Max contributed to this article.

Council Moves Bill to Require More Reporting on City Efforts to Address Gender Discrimination and Sexual Harassment


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Council Member Helen Rosenthal (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


The City Council is set to pass a bill requiring more reporting from mayoral agencies “on efforts to prevent and address sex- and gender-based discrimination and harassment.” The bill, which passed the Council’s Committee on Women and Gender Equity Tuesday and is likely to pass the full Council on Thursday, deals with the city’s Commission on Gender Equity (CGE) and the Department of Education.

According to Council Member Helen Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the women and gender equity committee and is the lead sponsor of the bill, it “brings long buried reports into one shared context in a clear and organized public website where the data and its findings cannot be hidden anymore. The New York City Commission on Gender Equity and the Department of Education will have more tools to address gender discrimination. But like any reporting, the follow through is ultimately their responsibility. Ensuring that New York city sex- and gender-based discrimination and harassment protections are responsive, up to date, and tangibly accessible is more important than ever.”

The legislation, (1536-A), requires the CGE to “include information about sex- and gender- based discrimination, including Title IX, in its annual report, change the due date for the annual report to April 1 each year and also require CGE to post links to publicly reported data from city agencies, including the DOE, relating to sex- and gender-based discrimination and harassment.” 

From the DOE, the bill requires annual reporting on “resources, support, policies and procedures related to preventing and addressing sex- and gender-based discrimination and harassment, as well as information related to the internal structure for central and borough employees whose work relates to sex- and gender-based discrimination and harassment.”

A Council hearing held in April 2019 by the Committeee on Women and Gender Equity jointly with the Committee on Education and the Committee on Higher Education, had Council members listening to a variety of testimony from stakeholders who advocate for stronger sexual harassment reporting, among other changes. During the hearing data comparing the number of Title IX coordinators in New York City versus other metropolitan areas shed light on a problem, which Rosenthal mentioned in the Tuesday committee vote as impetus for this legislation.

Title IX is federal law that protects people from discrimination in an education setting on the basis of sex.

“The New York City Department of Education had only one Title IX coordinator for over 1.2 million students. By comparison, Chicago has 20 IX coordinators for a third as many students. After our hearing, the de Blasio administration agreed to add seven Title IX coordinators. If we were to follow Chicago's lead, New York city would have 60 Title IX coordinators,” Rosenthal said in her opening statement on Tuesday.

Rosenthal and others voting in committee on Tuesday repeatedly pointed to the Trump Administration saying it will roll back Title IX protections, the specifics of which, according to Rosenthal, are set to be released “any day.”

In New York City itself, Rosenthal also noted, the New York Times just reported that a rape victim came forward and was pressured by a detective in the Special Victims Division of the NYPD to not continue with her case. Subsequently, three more women were allegedly attacked by the accused.

“No wonder that women and anyone is dissuaded from coming forward. And we learn now that it starts in our elementary schools. It starts when our kids are in the school system and the victims are told not to come forward there. There are no counselors for them to talk to,” Rosenthal said. “We fail them there and then we fail them when they become adults.” Rosenthal has also been at the forefront of those demanding changes to how the NYPD runs its Special Victims Division and handles allegations of sexual assault.

Council Member Laurie Cumbo voted in favor of the bill, saying, “as we are about to begin Women’s History Month, I couldn’t be more proud to set it off in such a powerful way.”

The legislation passed in an unanimous vote with five votes in the affirmative. The entire committee was present including Rosenthal, Cumbo, and fellow Council Members Diana Ayala, Ben Kallos, and Brad Lander.

“I’m proud to be a part of this bill,” Rosenthal concluded. “But I think we could be doing so much more and the administration is in a great position right now to do just that. We’re negotiating the budget. They could add the 52 additional Title IX coordinators they should have. This is a great opportunity for them to do that. I hope they will heed our call.”

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by Katie Kirker, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

'Go Big or Go Home': Dianne Morales Goes for the Top Job in New York City


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Dianne Morales, mayoral candidate, at the Women's March (photo: @Dianne4NYC)


Dianne Morales, a Brooklyn native and, until recently, nonprofit executive, has never run for elected office before but is seeking to become the next mayor of New York City.

“I grew up in this city and spent my last 30 years helping communities to overcome poverty through a variety of different ways,” Morales said during a recent appearance on the Max & Murphy podcast to discuss her candidacy in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary. “Whether that be through education, helping people find jobs through career pathways and here I am now, a candidate for New York City Mayor.”

From Bedford-Stuyvesant, Morales served for nearly the past decade as CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods, a social services nonprofit working in the Bronx. She resigned from that post at the start of the year, she said, to campaign full-time ahead of the June 2021 primary vote that will likely determine the city’s next mayor given how overwhelmingly Democratic the five boroughs are.

Morales, seeking to become the city’s first female mayor, knows she faces a tough road ahead against sitting elected officials with more name recognition, political connections, and fundraising prowess than her, but believes she brings a unique perspective and skill set to the race, and plans on breaking through over time.

Setting up a distinction with at least one of her competitors, Morales made clear during the interview that becoming mayor has not been her dream for her whole life. Rather, she believes that a combination of factors came together at the right time that helped her decide to step into this race. She said one turning point for her in the decision-making process was after Hurricane Maria and her involvement in relief efforts in Puerto Rico, where communities weren’t being reached by aid.

“As I’ve been reflecting about how I can bring my experiences and the things that I’ve learned and the things that I’ve done and have been effective at to scale on a different level and to have an impact and support larger communities in a different way,” Morales said of her decision. “The idea for running for office increasingly became an option. Some of the changes that we need to make in order to have a long-term impact on communities have to be done on the structural and systemic level.”

Morales said it is at this level where she thinks she can make the most valuable change for the city, and use her experience fighting poverty and other challenges the city faces to help the most New Yorkers. Rather than running for office at a lower level first, such as borough president or City Council, she said running for mayor is what made the most sense to her.

“When you think about what I’m talking about what I’m wanting to do, the kind of change and impact and scale that I want to have on the city, it’s at the mayoral level,” she explained. “Because I’m not someone who has aspired all my life to become an elected official and because I’m not mapping out the strategic pathway or the steps to that, it didn’t make sense to me to think about City Council or a local position. I’m not planning to spend the next 20 years of my life in elected office. This is one of those ‘go big or go home’ moments for me. This is the place where I think I can have the greatest impact and make the biggest difference in the largest number of people’s lives.This isn’t going to be a second career for me.”

Her campaign is focused on “basic human needs,” she said, like ensuring New Yorkers have access to mental health services, that women are empowered, and everyone has access to housing. She said that while some of her background and her stances may get her labeled as a progressive Democrat or even democratic socialist, others separate her and make her hard to pin a label on, such as her belief in school choice. She doesn’t fall “neatly into one box,” she said, adding that she hopes that will be an advantage for her in this race.

“Women who do better, their families do better, and their communities do better. A focus and priority for me would be the economic wellbeing, safety, access to childcare, those kinds of issues that help women to live full, successful and productive lives,” Morales said.

Morales said that while she likes some of what de Blasio has done during his tenure, especially on early childhood education, she also believes that there are flaws with the way those programs were rolled out. She also criticizes his work on mental health services, disagreeing with the way the resources were allocated, something Morales said will be key to her platform.

Hitting on a discussion that has been ongoing for many years, including heatedly at points during de Blasio’s tenure, Morales discussed issues related to police responses to mental health crises. When someone calls 311 or 911 about such an emergency, Morales said, police are often deployed, but she wants to consider decoupling the relevant services, creating distinct response units.

“If we used those resources that are being misdirected and apply those things to support mental health services in a whole different kind of way and what would it look like in housing, again, if we were able to redirect those resources that are really needed and are directed in a much more targeted way,” she said. On that issue and others, Morales appeared not fully prepared with details of how she would run the city or what specific policy plans she will show voters as she seeks their support.

Morales also said housing would be a focus for her, but did not provide any real indications of what her plans are to address the problems she’s identifying with perhaps the biggest issue facing New Yorkers. Morales cited experience with various types of housing, from shelter to supportive housing to affordable housing, and said in the city’s shelter system “there’s a problem with the philosophy for an operator that’s running a shelter is simply ‘just get them placed.’ There’s not enough emphasis in terms of how do you not just get them placed but provide them the support they need to sustain permanent placement and permanent housing.”

Morales’ campaign website doesn’t provide much clarity about her positions or proposals, though it is still early in the campaign, with the primary about 16 months away. “[E]very New Yorker has the right to quality housing, jobs, education, healthcare, and transportation,” her “issues” page states, but it’s followed by a list of broad principles and few actual policy ideas.

In the Democratic primary, Morales may be competing with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Comptroller Scott Stringer, former city Veterans Services Commissioner Loree Sutton, and Shaun Donovan, a former top aide to both President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg, as well as any other candidates who jump into the race.

With the early departure of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. from the mayoral race, Morales is the only Latino candidate currently in the running. Asked about how ethnicity is explicitly part of her candidacy, she said, “When you look at our demographics, it’s communities of color. Coming from a low-income background and having lived experiences that many of our residents are living right now and being on the other side of that and having the opportunity to build systems and structures to help people overcome that. I think that experience is valuable.”

“I also think that there is something to be said about having those experiences as a woman of color and being able to understand and relate to so many in the community of New York City,” she continued. “It’s important to understand how to galvanize communities at large and be inclusive in creating a vision for New York City that involves everybody being able to do better and that is something that I bring to the table.”

In a brief subsequent interview with Gotham Gazette about her campaign, Morales said she is currently going all over the city having meetings with civic leaders and groups, trying to reconnect with people as a candidate and introduce herself to others. She said she is spending a good chunk of her time trying to raise the money needed to run her campaign.

“I’m having meetings with all kinds of places, I’m meeting with community groups, I’m talking to policy folks,” she said. “I have a very clear sense of what my values and priority issues are, but I don’t need to reinvent the wheel. I think there’s a lot of value in talking to folks who have dedicated their lives to these sorts of issues and have dedicated their lives to shaping the policy agenda. And I’m fundraising, that’s the part of the gig that you might not like, but you have to do.”

Talking just after attending a press conference about the new ranked-choice voting (RCV) system that will be implemented for special and primary elections for city offices beginning next year, Morales said that RCV is a good opportunity to re-engage communities that have lost faith in government and politics.

RCV “is an opportunity to educate those communities and bring them back into the fold and the idea of the potential of having more than just a polarized choice and the idea of potentially changing what leadership reflects in the city, with women or people of color, potentially in leadership,” Morales said. “I think those are things that inspire folks who traditionally have stayed at home.”

[Listen to Morales' full appearance on the Max & Murphy podcast]

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by Katie Kirker, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

Ben Max contributed to this story.



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