New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
Mayor Bill de Blasio started his post-presidential campaign mayoralty on Friday, and continues it this week, which could set the tone for how he will approach his final two years, three months, and several days. The mayor jumped into several local public appearances on Friday and Saturday, before having no public events on his Sunday schedule. A potentially consequential legislative push by de Blasio enters a new phase Monday as the City Council hears two bills that would create a private-sector retirement-savings program. De Blasio will participate in a rally in support of creating such a program on Monday morning at City Hall, just ahead of the Council hearing.
Governor Andrew Cuomo will talk politics with former New Jersey Governor Christ Christie at Christie's new Seton Hall institute in a conversation between two men who were close allies as neighbor governors that should be interesting.
Essentially for both de Blasio and Cuomo, the MTA Board will on Wednesday vote on the new five-year, $55 billion capital program to update subway signals, buy new train cars, and much more. There has been very little time for Board members, the public, and watchdogs to review the plan ahead of this week's vote. De Blasio has said almost nothing about the capital plan, which Cuomo and the MTA are asking de Blasio's administration to contribute $3 billion in city money to, as it was being crafted and since an overview of the draft plan was released this past week.
It's a very busy week at the City Council, with important oversight hearings (such as on standardized testing in schools) and legislative hearings (such as on the plan to create a private-sector retirement-savings program for city workers), as well as a full-body Stated Meeting at which bills that have passed committee are voted through the full Council and new bills are introduced to the body.
And that's not all. President Donald Trump will be in the city this week as he addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. There's a lot happening this week, with many events to be aware of -- see our day-by-day rundown below.
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday, September 23
On Monday, the United Nations will continue to meet in New York City. The UN Secretary-General will convene a special Climate Summit, and the UNGA will hold a one-day high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will be in Rochester Monday for several events as part of his ongoing annual state tour.
The MTA's monthly Board committee meetings will take place Monday.
On Monday morning at 10 a.m. at City Hall, "Mayor de Blasio will deliver remarks at a rally for retirement security...In the evening, Mayor de Blasio will meet with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte" in a closed press event. In the 7 and 11 p.m. hours, "Mayor de Blasio will appear on NY1’s Inside City Hall...Afterward, the Mayor will attend the launch party for Stephanie Ruhle’s new podcast “Modern Ruhles.”"
The 2019 NYC Employment and Training Coalition( NYCETC) Conference will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center starting at 9 a.m. Monday. Speakers include Wes Moore, CEO of Robin Hood Foundation, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Borough Presidents Eric Adams, Ruben Diaz, Jr. and Gale Brewer, among many others through a full day of speeches, panels, and seminars.
At the City Council on Monday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Housing and Buildings will meet on three bills including one that would ban outdoor advertisements of alcoholic beverages near school areas.
--At 10:30 a.m., the Committee on Civil Service and Labor will meet to discuss two bills to establish a retirement savings program for private-sector employeesto establish a retirement savings program for private-sector employees.
--At 11 a.m., the Committee on Land Use meet on several pieces of legislation.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Contracts will hold a hearing on a bill that would reduce apprenticeship program directive requirements.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Environmental Protection will hold an oversight hearing on protecting health through improving air quality.
At 10:30 a.m. Monday morning, WNYC radio’s The Brian Lehrer Show will air a discussion of what’s next for Mayor de Blasio after he’s dropped his presidential bid and returns to be mayor full-time for the next two-plus years, featuring WNYC’s Brigid Bergin and Gotham Gazette’s Ben Max.
At 11 a.m. Monday, schools Chancellor Richard Carranza will make “an announcement about instruction” at MS 88 in Brooklyn.
At 2 p.m. Monday at City Hall, “First Lady McCray and Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams will make an announcement regarding hurricane relief for the Bahamas.”
At 4:45 p.m. Monday, City Comptroller Scott Stringer will tour Jacob Riis Early Childhood Center with State Senator Brad Hoylman.
At 5:30 p.m. Monday, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will join the "United In Outrage: Resistance March" to protest the Trump administration ahead of the President's arrival to New York City to speak at the United Nations General Assembly.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will co-sponsor a forum on the New York Health Act, at Hartley House.
Tuesday, September 24
Tuesday is National Voter Registration Day.
President Trump will be among the world leaders to address the United Nations on Tuesday.
At the City Council on Tuesday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Women and Gender Equity and the Committee on General Welfare will jointly meet on several bills.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Education will hold an oversight hearing on “Breaking Testing Culture: Evaluating multiple pathways to determine student mastery.”
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Transportation will meet to discuss a legislation corresponding to off-hour deliveries at city facilities.
--At 2 p.m., the Committee on Civil and Human Rights will meet to discuss a bill that would prohibit conversion therapy services.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, the Assembly Standing Committee on Governmental Operations, and the Assembly Legislative Commission on Government Administration will jointly hold a public hearing on New York State’s response to federal government shutdowns.
Regional Plan Association will host a panel titled “New York 2050: Meeting our Energy Goals,” focusing on the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Panelists include Dale Bryk, Dep. Secretary for Governor Office of Energy & Environment, Susanne DesRoches, Dep. Dir. Infrastructure + Energy at NYC Mayor's Office of Recovery & Resiliency & Office of Sustainability, Clint Plummer, Head of Market Strategies & New Projects -US at Ørsted and Juan Parra, Community Solar Program Manager at SolarOne.
City & State NY will hold its Rebuilding New York Summit involving “discussions that dissect the biggest infrastructure issues, including funding for repairs, policy recommendations, and where the city and state has seen its biggest successes and shortcomings,” at Baruch College, CUNY from 9 to 4 p.m. Tuesday. Speakers will include Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Senator Todd Kaminsky, City Council Members Alicka Ampry-Samuel and Ydanis Rodriguez, and Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton, among many others.
At 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Open Society Foundation will host Building Power: Women’s Leadership in the Fight for Justice, Democracy, and Fair Work. Speakers will include Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation; Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO; Anannya Bhattacharjee, international coordinator of Asia Floor Wage Alliance; Maricarmen Molina, general secretary of the Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de El Salvador-CSTS; and Liduvina Magarin, executive director of the Center for Worker and Migrant Integration.
At 6 p.m., Tuesday, City Comptroller Scott Stringer will host a celebration of African immigrant heritage.
Wednesday, September 25
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, The Association for a Better New York and Citizens Union will hold a discussion on this year’s charter revision proposals, with Gail Benjamin and Carl Weisbrod of the 2019 Charter Revision Commission.
The MTA Board will meet on Wednesday.
CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute will host the Urban Food Policy Forum: Putting Food on the Green New Deal menu from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
At the City Council on Wednesday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Finance will meet to discuss the designation of certain organizations to receive funding in the Expense Budget.
--At 10:30 a.m., the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections will hold a hearing with Alana Sivin, NYC Board of Correction’s Transgender, gender nonconforming, non-binary, and intersex Task Force.
--At 1:30 p.m., the full City Council will meet for a Stated Meeting, prefaced by Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s usual pre-stated press conference.
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5 FM and wbai.org, and feature conversations on the new MTA capital plan with Nicole Gelinas of City Journal and on fusion voting with a guest to-be-determined.
Thursday, September 26
At the City Council on Thursday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Governmental Operations and the Committee on Land Use will jointly meet to discuss multiple bills related to zoning lots.
--At 10 a.m., the Subcommittee on Capital Budget will hold an oversight hearing on Front-End Planning at the Department of Design and Construction.
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Technology and the Committee on Small Business will jointly hold an oversight hearing to discuss the expansion of the film industry and its impact, and related legislation.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Parks and Recreation will hold an oversight hearing to examine the Park Department’s maintenance practices.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Higher Education will meet to tour the New Science Building and STEM initiatives at Lehman College in West Bronx, NY.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo will join former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as the inaugural speaker of the Christie Institute of Public Policy in partnership with Seton Hall University School of Law.
Friday, September 27
At 10 a.m. Friday, Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show.
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by Ben Max
@GothamGazette
(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)
In a process likely to last years, the New York Board of Regents is considering changing high school graduation requirements, which may include revising or creating a substitute for the Regents exams. To graduate, most students must currently pass five Regents exams. But while the education policy-setting board recently announced its exploratory plans, another path to a New York high school diploma already exists: a set of performance-based tasks that test students on an array of skills meant to be more in line with college- and career-readiness than what typical standardized exams measure.
Roughly 38 schools with about 30,000 students in the New York Performance Standards Consortium abide by the Performance-Based Assessment Tasks as their graduation requirements, along with the English Regents exam.
The beginnings of the Consortium were formed in the early 1990s when the state education commissioner at the time agreed to grant a waiver to a group of schools that had been using performance assessments instead of the state’s standardized exams, according to the Consortium’s website. The official organization formed in 1998, and now about 30,000 students attend the 38 Consortium schools in New York City, Rochester, and Ithaca.
Rather than earning a score of 65 percent or better on the five Regents exams in order to graduate high school, students at Consortium schools complete written tasks and oral presentations called Performance-Based Assessment Tasks (PBAT) against a set of rubrics, and must also pass the English Regents exam.
The PBATs include an analytical essay on literature, a social studies research paper, an extended or original science experiment, and problem-solving at higher levels of math. Instead of learning a vast amount of material for the Regents exams, students at Consortium schools may choose to take a deep dive into one topic for their PBAT, such as writing a paper on “Why did the Civil Rights Movement happen when it did?” or conducting an experiment on “The Effect of Tank Volume on Goldfish Growth.” Students work on their projects for months, compared to a Regents exam that may be conducted over a day or two.
Students give a presentation on their work to a panel of three external evaluators, and teachers use a standardized rubric for grading. The rubric is aligned to state educational standards, and each year the Consortium conducts studies where teachers from every Consortium school compare their students’ work to align weak, medium, and high performances to ensure standardization.
Gareth Robinson, the principal of a Consortium school in Queens, said when he taught at a Regents-based school, he had to make sure to teach the facts that were going to be on the exam, which did not necessarily prepare students for the writing and critical thinking skills they need in college.
“When I taught U.S. history last, [my students] were really interested in slavery and how the Constitution was interpreted today,” Robinson said. “But we didn’t really have time to get into that because it was, ‘I need you guys to memorize these dates, these four facts, because you need to recognize them on the test.’”
Regents Rethinking Process Underway
The Board of Regents announced a plan in July to form a commission that will make recommendations about potential changes to the state’s graduation requirements. Earlier this month, that mission was fleshed out slightly more, giving the commission a two-year timeline. The commission is expected to be formed in February and have representatives from New York City, the state PTA, and teachers unions, among others.
As states like California, Arizona, and South Carolina have eliminated their high school exit exams, New York has made room for some alternative pathways to graduation, such as the PBAT, while also significantly tinkering with the Regents exams and passing requirements themselves. The majority of states do not require a state exam for students to earn a high school diploma. While some raise doubts about moving away from the standardized tests as what they call an “objective measure,” the PBAT Consortium has been slowly growing and may offer a model for the larger shift that could be afoot.
The state allows students to substitute the social studies exam for other tests in career and technical education, art, or math, also known as the “four plus one” option. Additionally, there is an appeals process that may allow a student to earn a Regents diploma with a score lower than the passing 65%.
At the July Board of Regents meeting, several of the regents expressed the need for the commission to examine the emphasis of state tests as the only measure of achievement, what learning looks like in the 21st Century, and how some students, including some who pass the tests, do not have the reading and writing skills necessary to succeed in higher education.
New York State Education Department officials told Gotham Gazette that the Board of Regents has only discussed the process to review diploma options in New York, and there has been no discussion on specific alternative diploma options at this point. Spokesperson Emily DeSantis said the Board of Regents wants to ensure “ample time is provided” for the commission to carry out its work, and “no decisions have been made at this point.”
“The Board of Regents and the State Education Department have made it a priority to allow students to demonstrate their proficiency to graduate in many ways,” DeSantis said. “As we have said, this is not about changing our graduation standards. It’s about providing different avenues — equally rigorous — for kids to demonstrate they are ready to graduate with a meaningful diploma.”
Michael Benedetto of the Bronx, who represents District 82 in the New York State Assembly and is the chair of the Assembly education committee, said he is “not afraid” of a step like changing or getting rid of the Regents exams, adding that other methods of evaluating students like testing language proficiency by having a discussion with a student, may be more accurate.
“I’m not afraid of exploring those options and looking at them,” Benedetto said.
State Senator John Liu of Queens, also a Democrat and the chair of the Senate’s New York City schools subcommittee, said he hopes the commission does a “thorough and exhaustive” job.
He said there is a perception that New York has a “gold standard” in terms of high school graduation requirements and the state should be regularly assessing and “revising if necessary” what it means to be the gold standard.
“There’s no perfect assessment system,” Liu said, “whether that be standardized written exams or subjective evaluations on a host of criteria. Every system has its weakness. It’s the right thing to do for the commission to be reviewing this.”
Ray Domanico, the director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute, a think tank, said after 20 years of the current Regents exam requirements, it’s time for the Regents to look into the policy. He said there needs to be a “more aggressive push” to certify and make paths for careers and technical jobs for students who do not go to college but need to earn a living wage.
Domanico said nationally less than 40% of students complete a bachelor’s degree by their late 20s and that the number is lower for those in New York City.
“We’ve had this policy in place for close to 20 years, now it took awhile for it to phase in, but it’s based on the notion that all students who graduate high school must be prepared for college readiness,” Domanico said. “Although we certainly want more students to be prepared for success in college, that remains a heavy lift.”
Performance-Based Assessment - A Model?
Meanwhile, according to a 2017 PBAT Consortium report, the Consortium schools have shown strong results: they had about a 20% higher percentage of students enrolling in college and higher college-readiness numbers than students from other New York City public schools. The report said Consortium schools have a higher percentage of Hispanic students, students living at the poverty level, and English Language Learners. The most recent data set available for Consortium schools was based on information from the 2014-2015 school year.
Regent Judith Johnson, who emphasized that her comments are her own and not the Board’s official policy, said performance-based assessments allow students to answer the question “what do you know?” as opposed to “do you know this?”
She said the “what do you know?” question needs to be factored into assessing student learning because it is more related to the skills students need to succeed in post-secondary education and in work settings.
“All students know something, and there needs to be a mechanism for students to demonstrate what they know,” Johnson said in an email to Gotham Gazette. “They may not know ‘this’ but many know a lot that is not included on their Regents exams, and gauging their learning by a single exam disadvantages students who are not skilled test-takers and/or whose knowledge doesn’t comport with the test-makers’ vision of what students ought to know. These are often smart, creative students who think in ways not valued by Regents exams.”
Ben Wides, a teacher at East Side Community High School, which is part of the Consortium, said the PBATs closely resemble papers and projects students will complete in college, which may lead to the better numbers. He said the process of revising and meeting with teachers creates a model for students to approach assignments in college.
“Students will have to take tests in college, they may have to take multiple choice history tests, etc., but to be a strong student in college, you need to be able to write a paper along the lines of what a PBAT is asking students to do,” Wides said. “The PBAT is a more authentic assessment of a student’s readiness to be successful in college than the Regents exam is.”
The report also showed that teacher retention rates were higher for Consortium schools, by 8 percent, and the Consortium’s four-year graduation rate was 80% compared to the larger Department of Education’s 71%. In 2018 the New York City graduation rate rose to 76 percent while the number of students the City University of New York deemed ready for college was 66%, according to state data.
Domanico said that though he has not looked recently, Consortium schools have generally produced good results. He said while there is a place for alternative assessment systems in a school system as large as New York City, the difficult questions are of scale: will the approach work for all students and are all teachers prepared to be successful in the “nontraditional” environment.
“At a minimum I would like to see those schools continue doing what they’re doing,” Domanico said. “If the evidence is still very positive for them as it has been in the past, one might think of expanding those schools, but I don’t know I’d be ready to quickly jump to that as the model for the entire city or state.”
Ann Cook, the executive director and co-founder of the Consortium, told Chalkbeat in 2018 that the Consortium’s assessment system would be difficult to spread across the state. There is also a limited number of waivers the state will grant.
“Could every kid in the state be doing this? I’d probably say no,” Cook said to Chalkbeat. “And the reason is you have to have a faculty that is interested and wants to do it. They should want to opt into this because it takes a lot of work in the school.”
Wides said that he does think the Consortium could be a model for other schools, though it is not something that could be implemented for all schools in the state because of the professional development required for teachers and the “reorientation of the school culture.”
Most Consortium schools are in New York City, and the Board of Regents and the State Education Department has extended the waiver allowing Consortium school graduates to earn a Regents diploma five times since the 1990s. There are 16 Consortium schools in Manhattan, 9 in Brooklyn and 4 in Queens. Some member schools include Beacon High School in Manhattan and Bronx Lab School.
“People have to ask what it is we want kids to be able to do when they leave high school,” Cook told Straus Media in 2015. “We’re preparing kids to survive and get the most out of the college experience.”
Robinson said when the Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights, the high school he co-founded and serves as principal, was forming, an adviser suggested that the school was functioning more as a Consortium school rather than a traditional school.
Robinson said he had not heard of the Consortium before, but contacted Cook about becoming a member school. At the start of the process, the Institute first became a pilot Consortium school, where students still needed to pass all the Regents exams to graduate but teachers and administrators started to prepare the work for the PBATs. Robinson said there first had to be a referendum where 90% of the teachers and the principal agreed to become a pilot school.
Later, the Consortium received from the Board of Regents and State Education Department an expansion on the number of waivers it was allowed to grant to schools looking to become full members. Robinson said two schools that were supposed to receive the waivers dropped out because their referenda failed, and the Institute was able to secure a waiver to administer the PBATs.
“So starting our second year we became a new member of the New York Performance Standards Consortium, and that was a big learning process, or I should say it was a big unlearning process,” Robinson said, “because all of the teachers, everyone, had all been trained to teach in Regents schools, had taught in Regents schools, had students taught in Regents schools.”
Robinson said teaching PBAT is a lot of work for teachers who have to design their curricula “from the ground-up” and have to know their content “really well.” He said while curricula is still aligned to state standards, it can be more individually designed to fit students’ struggles and strengths. Because students spend months working on their assessments, they have more opportunities to check in with teachers and get help if needed.
He added that the process of scheduling outside evaluators to conduct the panel portion of the assessments is a lot of added work on schools.
“A lot of schools aren’t necessarily going to want to do the work because it sounds kind of simple you know the kids do this project and write this paper and do this presentation, but it’s really hard to schedule,” Robinson said. “My school this year we had about 120 juniors and so when all of them have to present one PBAT, we have to get 120 kids scheduled at the same time of Regents week to do these presentations.”
Wides said, though, that teaching PBAT makes students more excited about education as they are learning to develop questions and then answer them using evidence and analysis rather than answering multiple choice questions or writing short essays on the Regents exams.
“If you go to a Regents school, and I don’t want to pigeon hole all Regents schools, but the academic goal is 80% of students score X on the Regents. That is not a learning goal,” Wides said. “The learning goal is I want students to be intellectually curious.”
Wides added that one challenge with teaching PBAT is choosing “depth over breadth.” He said Consortium schools may cover less content than Regents-based schools in order to devote time for students to develop the reading and writing skills for the PBAT, aiming to serve them better in the long-run.
Domanico also said that for some parents it’s difficult to make the change to a Consortium school because they “might not look like the schools they have come up through themselves.”
Parents who are familiar with progressive education, Robinson said, have no questions about the work done in Consortium schools. He said once they explain how the school works to other parents, “they get it.” Robinson added that when the school announced it was becoming a Consortium school, some students did transfer because their parents felt being at a Regents school would look better to colleges.
“Now we have our third graduating class and I can safely say in three years, 100% of our kids have been accepted to at least one school,” Robinson said. “I have for the first time in my teaching career, one of my students is getting into my alma mater, Tufts [University].”
The New York City Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on how many schools can receive a waiver for Regents exams. Cook also did not respond to interview requests.
On Tuesday, September 24, the New York City Council education committee will hold an oversight hearing entitled "Breaking Testing Culture: Evaluating multiple pathways to determine student mastery." It's unclear how the PBAT schools will be featured, but the hearing promises to be fairly exhaustive, with, as the title suggests, heavy skepticism toward standardized testing. It comes, in the state's largest city and school district, as the statewide Regents exam review is not yet officially started. Council Member Mark Treyger of Brooklyn, a former teacher, chairs the education committee and will lead the hearing. Mentioning the hearing and inviting interested parties to testify, Treyger tweeted on Saturday that "We must explore & hear about alternative, research-based measures to gauge student proficiency & mastery of content. Relying solely on standardized exams shortchanges students & learning."
Assembly Member Benedetto said that while there aren’t that many Consortium schools in New York, there are enough to get a sense of how they are performing.
“It’s all speculation, but I would speculate that the future might look bright for these schools,” Benedetto said. “As far as I can determine they seem to be performing quite adequately. If that’s the case it can only bode well for other schools in the state to possibly follow their model and the way they go about things.”
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by Samantha Handler, Gotham Gazette
@sn_handler @GothamGazette
Ben Max contributed to this story.
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
Mayor Bill de Blasio begins the week in South Carolina, where he has been campaigning for president over the past few days. De Blasio is set to return to the city Monday evening. De Blasio missed another annual event he has traditionally attended when on Sunday the African American Day Parade took place without him; he's previously missed the Puerto Rican and Dominican Day Parades while campaigning for the Democratic nomination and polling at 1% or under.
After missing the cutoff for last week's Democratic primary debate, de Blasio has said that if on October 1 he doesn't meet the requirements for the October debate, he will reassess his campaign. He needs 130,000 individual donors to his campaign and to hit 2% in four different national polls considered qualifying by the Democratic National Committee. There were 10 candidates in Thursday night's debate, which had the same qualifying thresholds, and it looks like at least one or two more might make the October debate, meaning it will be over two nights instead of one.
De Blasio, New Yorkers, and others will see a sharp contract to the mayor's struggling campaign on Monday evening when, as de Blasio is returning from campaign events in front of small gatherings of people in South Carolina, Senator Elizabeth Warren will be giving a major speech in Washington Square Park that is likely to draw thousands of people.
In government news, as the week begins we're following the developing story of how city and state government are moving to combat increasing use of electonic nicotine, otherwise known as vaping or e-cigarettes. The City Council has been considering two related bills that include a ban flavored e-cigarettes, which recently received support from Speaker Johnson, but on Sunday, Governor Andrew Cuomo took "emergency executive action to ban the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes in New York State - the latest in a series of actions to combat the increasing number of youth using vape products."
This week includes a variety of interesting and important hearings and other events -- see details and the day-by-day rundown below -- including a City Council hearing on mental health among first responders that takes place amid a spike in police officer suicides. NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill will also give a speech at an event Thursday morning, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will co-host a town hall in Manhattan with Council Member Keith Powers, Brooklyn City Council Member Carlos Menchaca will hold a public event to solicit feedback as he considers whether to agree to a rezoning of Industry City in his district, and much more.
We're also awaiting details of the MTA's next five-year capital plan, which is being quietly crafted behind the scenes as the deadline for the MTA Board to pass it is coming up soon. The plan is expected to outline more than $30 billion in spending over the next five years on signal upgrades, new subway cars, investments in the commuter rails, and much more.
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday, September 16
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will continue his annual statewide tour in Cortland and Tompkins Counties on Monday.
At 9 a.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will host a roundtable discussion on his “NYC Under 3” childcare proposal at United Neighborhood Houses in Manhattan.
At 9 a.m. Monday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will deliver remarks at NYU Tandon Conference on Energy & Mobility in conjunction with the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the German American Chamber. At 6 p.m., Adams will host "a public forum on Clark Street subway station renovations with Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, and Congress Member Nydia Velázquez" at Saint Francis College.
On Monday art 10 a.m., "The Committee on Standards and Ethics will continue its disciplinary hearing concerning Council Member Andy King. Please note this meeting is in executive session and will be closed to the public."
At 10 a.m. Monday, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs will join ArtBridge and Google to celebrate the first public artwork installed under the City Canvas pilot initiative at the Dr. Gertrude B. Kelly Playground.
At 11 a.m. Monday, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will announce the 2019 Police Officers of the Year at Syracuse Police Department. At 6:15 p.m., Hochul will announce the top teams for the Buffalo Skyway Corridor Competition.
At 11 a.m. Monday, the Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction and Overdose Prevention will hold a public meeting at St. Johns’ Staten Island campus “to hear from stakeholders on strategies for reducing overdoses, improving individual and community health, and addressing the harmful consequences of drug use.”
At 1 p.m., State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will hold a press conference at Schenectady Fire Station to release his latest Smart Tech report. He will be joined by Mayor Gary McCarthy, Assemblymember Angelo Santabarbara, and representatives from National Grid. Afterward, DiNapoli will attend the ABLE Information Session with Assemblymember Santabarbara at the Schenectady County Public Library.
At 5 p.m. Monday, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will honor Congressional Rep. John Lewis at the FBA SDNY 2019 Presidential Rule of Law Award Ceremony. Williams will present Lewis with "a proclamation in recognition of his work that spans decades, as the Federal Bar Association SDNY Chapter honors him with the 2019 Presidential Rule of Law Award."
At 7 p.m. Monday, presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren will deliver a speech “on how corruption in Washington has allowed the rich and powerful to tilt the rules and grow richer and more powerful. The speech will be at Washington Square Park, near the site of the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.” Warren has been endorsed by a number of local city officials, including Comptroller Scott Stringer and City Council Members Brad Lander, Antonio Reynoso, and Jimmy Van Bramer.
At 6 p.m. Monday, City & State NY will hold its 2019 Bronx Power 100 reception. Speakers will include Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and New York City Health + Hospitals Vice President Theodore Long.
At 6 p.m. Monday, City Council Member Carlos Menchaca will host a community conversation, “Should Sunset Park Rezone Industry City?” at Sunset Park High School.
The 2019 New York City Charter Revision Commission will hold an information session at John Jay School of Criminal Justice about its ballot proposals from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday.
U.S. Sentaor Kirsten Gillibrand will appear on NY1's Inside City Hall Monday evening in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.
At 7 p.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will host a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Tuesday, September 17
The 74th session of the UN General Assembly begins Tuesday in Manhattan.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will continue his annual statewide tour Tuesday with stops in Liverpool, Fayetteville, and Manlius.
At 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will appear live on “PIX 11 Morning News.” At 9:45 a.m., Johnson will deliver remarks at a rally in support of his streets master plan bill with Families for Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives, at 250 Broadway.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, "Mayor de Blasio will present the Alvarez family with a Key to the City to honor the late Detective Luis Alvarez." "In the afternoon, the Mayor will travel to Pennsylvania. He will return to New York City in the evening."
At the City Council on Tuesday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Veterans will hold an oversight hearing about VetConnect NYC.
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Finance will hold a hearing on several bills.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations will hold an oversight hearing on the Diversity in Cultural Institutions as part of the Cultural affairs’ diversity study.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Public Safety, the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction, and the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management will meet jointly for an oversight hearing on “Preventing Suicide and Promoting Mental Health for First Responders” and to discuss related legislation.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the State Legislative Commission on Rural Resources and Assembly Committee on Local Governments will hold a public hearing on “rural broadband” to “identify current broadband needs in rural New York State.”
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will hold a press conference on "National Grid denying service to New Yorkers. The Public Advocate will join constituents, elected officials, and advocates to condemn National Grid's efforts to deny service to New Yorkers via a moratorium and their attempts to make those affected lobby on behalf of the Williams pipeline." The event will occur outside the National Grid Brooklyn office. At 5:30 p.m., Williams will join a "Day of Action on the New Public Charge Rule" in the Bronx, joining "advocates to distribute information and raise awareness of the new public charge rules, and to engage with communities about the census, citizenship and voter registration."
At noon, Crain’s New York Business will host its Most Powerful Women in New York luncheon. Speakers will include Andrea Stewart-Cousins, majority leader of the New York State Senate; Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of the New York tri-state region CBRE; LaRay Brown, CEO of One Brooklyn Health System Inc. and Interfaith Medical Center; and Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of Wealth and Asset Management at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
At 5:30 p.m., Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and the New York Immigration Coalition will host a Queens town hall on the “public charge” rule at Queens Borough Hall.
On Tuesday evening, the city Department of Design and Construction is holding a public hearing on the East Side Coastal Resiliency project. Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will be among those who testify.
At 6 p.m. Tuesday in Brooklyn, Senator Zellnor Myrie is hosting "Census 2020: Crown Heights Counts."
The 2019 New York City Charter Revision Commission will hold an information session at the College of Staten Island, informing voters about its ballot proposals, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
On Tuesday evening, City Council Member Keith Powers and Council Speaker Corey Johnson are hosting a town hall meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Wednesday, September 18
At the City Council on Wednesday:
--At 9:30 a.m., the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet.
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Aging will hold an oversight hearing about protecting seniors from extreme heat and cold.
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Civil and Human Rights will meet on several pieces of legislation.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Hospitals will meet on two bills, including one that requires medical schools to train all students about “implicit bias.”
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Economic Development, the Committee on Education, and the Committee on General Welfare will jointly meet on several bills related to healthy eating and lifestyles, among other related topics.
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the State Public Campaign Financing Commission will hold a public hearing at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany.
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5 FM and wbai.org, and feature a conversation with Steve Banks, the commissioner for the New York City Department of Social Services, focused on homelessness and other aspects of his portfolio.
At 6 p.m., the New York City Panel for Educational Policy will hold a meeting at the High School of Fashion Industries.
The 2019 New York City Charter Revision Commission will hold an information session at the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx, informing voters about its ballot proposals, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Thursday, September 19
At 8 a.m. Thursday, the Association for a Better New York will host a breakfast with NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill: “The commissioner will highlight the challenges of sustaining New York's historic crime reductions amid an evolving political climate, and examine public safety as a responsibility shared by everyone who lives and works in our nation's safest city.”
At 8:30 a.m. Thursday at New York Law School, a forum, “Seismic Shifts or Natural Progression? Recent Changes in NYC Real Estate.” Panelists include Louise Carroll, commissioner of NYC Housing Preservation and Development; Lisa Gomez, COO and partner at L+M Development Partners; Brenda Rosen, CEO of Breaking Ground; and James Whelan, President of REBNY.
At City Council on Thursday: At 10 a.m., the Committee on Youth Services will hold an oversight hearing on DYCD’s Adult Literacy Program and discuss a bill that would require bilingual after-school programs.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will attend the grand opening of Hamaspik Home Care, located in Brooklyn.
At 6 p.m. Thursday, the Manhattan Institute will host a panel titled “Future of Families in the Childless City,” focusing on New York City’s declining birth rate and the attributing causes including “pricey housing, poor schooling, declining public safety, and unwelcoming public spaces.” The panel will include Nolan Gray of the city Department of City Planning; Brad Hargreaves, Chief Executive Officer, Common; Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute and City Journal; and Derek Thompson of The Atlantic.
Friday, September 20
At 10 a.m. Friday, Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show.
The Climate Action Strike will take place Friday in New York City and across the country. It is part of a movement to raise awareness about environmental degradation and climate change, scheduled for just ahead of the September 23 United Nations Climate Action Summit. Additionally, the New York City Department of Education announced that schools will excuse absences of participating students.
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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).
***
by Ben Max & Gia Ramesh
@GothamGazette
(photo: Samar Khurshid)
The New York State Public Campaign Financing Commission heard many hours of testimony on Tuesday from experts, government reform advocates, elected officials, and others on creating a new statewide system of electoral campaign financing that would encourage small contributions and curb the effects of wealthy donors.
At what was its first public hearing of several planned for the next few weeks, the commission also explored questions around how fusion voting -- where more than one political party can nominate the same candidate for an elected office -- interplays with such a system and whether it could legally be eliminated under the commission’s mandate.
The nine-member commission was created earlier this year when the state Legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo failed to come to an agreement over a public campaign financing system for state legislative and statewide races. Its recommendations are due by December 1 and become law unless the state Legislature holds a special session within three weeks thereafter to pass a different system. Members of the commission include two appointees each by the governor, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and one each for Republican minority leaders Senator John Flanagan and Assembly Member Brian Kolb. Cuomo, Stewart-Cousins and Heastie jointly appointed one member. The commission does not have a chair.
Tuesday saw two phases of testimony before the commission and a raucous rally outside Borough of Manhattan Community College in between as activists and elected officials called on the commission not to touch fusion voting, largely as a show of support for the Working Families Party, which often cross-endorses Democratic candidates.
During the first portion, 17 invited experts and advocates weighed in over the course of nearly six hours on the commission’s agenda, suggesting best practices for setting up a system that would overhaul how New York State conducts elections, fielding questions about how such a system should be structured or current models like that of New York City, and warning against doing away with fusion voting.
There were few areas of disagreement, at least among those who testified before the commission. The advocates generally agreed that a state system should be modelled after New York City’s program, which matches small dollar donations with public funds at a 6-to-1 or 8-to-1 ratio and includes fundraising and donor thresholds that candidates must meet to show grassroots support before accessing public funds. It also has low individual contribution limits, which the experts and advocates for good government said must be decreased across the board to encourage participation and reduce the appearance and reality of pay-to-play politics, particularly considering current state limits are among the highest in the nation.
They said the program must encourage viable candidates, avoid paying public funds to those running in noncompetitive races, and be timely and efficient to make it attractive to potential candidates. And they concurred that any campaign finance program should be administered and overseen by a new independent, nonpartisan agency separate from the state Board of Elections, which has a lacklustre history of enforcing campaign finance laws.
The ostensible goal of a public financing program is to limit the type of pay-to-play politics that has typified New York state elections and led to many scandals. Advocates noted that small donor matching programs not only encourage candidates to spend more time campaigning in communities but also boost diverse candidates. At the same time, they expand a candidate’s donor base along both racial and economic lines.
Richard Briffault, professor of legislation at Columbia Law School, said three aspects are necessary for a successful program: “That the program be attractive to viable candidates, that it promote electoral competition and that it operate at a reasonable cost.”
Some also said that additional reforms were necessary to ensure an effective program. Laura Ladd Bierman, executive director of the League of Women Voters of New York State, urged the commission to also reduce or eliminate contributions from lobbyists and contractors doing or seeking to do business with the state, to establish reasonable limits on party housekeeping accounts (which currently have no limits), and to add new disclosure requirements for “bundlers” who cobble together contributions from multiple donors for a single campaign.
“New York cannot build a functional campaign finance system on top of the broken enforcement structure and sky-high contribution limits” of the current system, she said.
But commission members seemed skeptical of many of the recommendations made before them. Some raised concerns about the potential costs of an expansive statewide program, whether it would encourage a glut of candidates seeking third party lines, whether a separate agency to oversee it was appropriate, whether New York City’s program is as effective as advocates say, and even whether it should be uniformly applied across the state.
Ayirini Fonseca-Sabune, New York City’s chief democracy officer, sought to defend the city’s program, noting that it has recently been strengthened through a charter revision process and subsequent legislation. She pointed out that in 2017, 92% of candidates on the ballot in the city’s election were participants in the program; and in the recent public advocate special election, the most common donation was $10, compared to $100 in the previous public advocate race.
“I think it’s not perfect,” she said of the city’s program, when pressed by Commissioner Mylan Denerstein on how it could be better. “There’s always room to improve but I think it is a leader in the system.”
A crucial question was whether participation in the program would mean higher costs to the taxpayer. The legislation creating the commission authorized up to $100 million each year to fund a public financing program, but Michael Malbin, former professor of political science at Rockefeller College, University at Albany, estimated it would only cost about $240 million for every four-year election cycle, or $60 million annually. He did say, however, that it would only work that way if the qualifying thresholds proposed by the governor were lowered. “It needs minor tweaks but not in my view a major overhaul,” he said.
Even before beginning its work, the commission came under criticism for having included fusion voting on its agenda. There are already two separate lawsuits filed against it, by the Working Families Party and the Conservative Party, who believe the governor is out to eliminate fusion voting, which allows them a level of clout in New York politics.
At Tuesday’s hearing, several experts cautioned the commission to avoid being distracted by the issue of fusion voting and to focus solely on campaign finance reform. Representatives from the WFP made an impassioned plea as well. “Disenfranchising anybody is a serious offense against democracy,” said Alex Rabb, an election lawyer, noting that fusion voting had repeatedly been upheld in New York top courts and eliminating it would be unconstitutional. He and others also argued that the legislation authorizing the commission made no mention of fusion voting.
Heather McGhee, a volunteer on the WFP national committee, said fusion voting is an “essential element of a healthy democracy” as third parties give voters a home when they are disenchanted with the two major political parties. Scrapping fusion voting would also limit voter choice, they argued.
Commissioner Jay Jacobs, chair of the state Democratic Party and appointed to the commission by Cuomo, seemed particularly intent on critiquing fusion voting and insisted, along with Commissioner Henry Berger, that it was within the commission’s authority to consider ending the system because it would affect how public financing would work. Jacobs said fusion voting already limits voter choice, since one candidate can run on multiple ballot lines, and that if public funds were made available, potential candidates in suburban and upstate counties may flood the ballot in attempting to run on third party lines. That, in turn, would be cost prohibitive and could blow past the $100 million funding cap, he speculated. “We would see a proliferation of primaries, opportunities to ballot, that would have a cost impact,” he said. “That’s why I think we have to look at it.”
Jacob’s criticism, to those who support fusion voting, is somewhat unfounded since public funds are given to individual candidates regardless of how many ballot lines they may pursue.
Republican appointees David Previte and Kimberly Galvin showed somewhat different opinions. Previte conjectured that ending fusion voting might actually lead to more candidates running, adding strain and cost to the system. And Galvin argued that it was not within the commission’s mandate.
Much like New York City’s public financing program is administered by the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Board, experts argued that any state program must similarly be managed by an agency with a strong culture of independence, ideally by virtue of its structure and composition. Evan Davis, manager of the Committee to Reform the State Constitution, proposed an agency comprised of members appointed by the judiciary, legislature, and executive, pointing out that the bipartisan Board of Elections does not have a reputation for independence.
Though Davis conceded that no agency could be perfectly independent, he said, “You have the ability to really move the ball forward.”
Commissioners Previte and Galvin took issue with that recommendation (as they did with many of the ideas put forward on Tuesday). Galvin, who is co-counsel and co-director of the state BOE’s campaign finance compliance unit, said Davis’ proposal would effectively set up another version of the BOE but without the institutional knowledge and experience to handle campaign finance matters.
Jacobs raised other concerns as well, about how limiting spending might encourage independent expenditure campaigns and whether candidates in districts with lower median incomes should get higher matching funds.
Experts pushed back against both arguments.
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, said a public matching funds program is “the only effective counter” against independent expenditures, particularly if it is bolstered with strong disclosure requirements. Rick Schaffer, chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, noted, “The uniform approach has worked and can work.” Establishing different matching ratios for different regions would be a complex system to manage, he said. Chisun Lee, senior counsel, and Joanna Zdanys, counsel, of the Brennan Center for Justice, said that could also raise legal issues.
The Brennan Center also released a new report on Monday that analyzed how small donor public financing affects constituent engagement, showing that candidates who participate in such a program receive more donations from donors in their district and raise a larger amount of funds from small donors.
Citizens Union's Rachel Bloom reiterated the demand for greater restrictions on party housekeeping accounts and on donations from those who do business with the state. "Keeping track of those doing business with government and limiting their contributions will not only help to lower the potential for 'pay-to-play', but will also allow the public, the press, and watchdogs to monitor possible conflicts of interests, and demand accountability from their elected officials when needed," she said, in her written testimony.
Other experts and advocates who testified before the commission Tuesday included representatives from Reinvent Albany, the New York City Bar Association, and Fordham Law School professor Zephyr Teachout, who has in recent election cycles run for governor, congress, and attorney general.
Shortly after the expert testimony portion, Fair Elections for New York, a coalition of advocacy and community-based organizations that pushed for state public campaign financing, held a rally outside the hearing, calling for a strong public matching program and the preservation of fusion voting. Organizations such as Make the Road Action, Citizen Action, and New York Communities for Change were joined by several elected officials including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, State Senators Robert Jackson and Jessica Ramos, and Assemblymembers Yuh-Line Niou, Robert Carroll, Diana Richardson, Harvey Epstein, and Linda Rosenthal.
Later, the microphone at the commission hearing was opened to members of the public. Dozens spoke, including city elected officials, state legislators, and people representing party organizations and advocacy groups. The testimonies were largely in favor of creating a strong public matching funds program modelled on the city’s and preserving fusion voting.
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer was among the many elected officials who implored the commission to decouple the issues of public campaign financing and fusion voting. “The commission needs to examine how to expand publicly financed campaigns because that is a problem in need of a solution,” he said. “But the proper time and place for debating fusion voting is not before this commission, it's in the state legislature."
Public Advocate Williams criticized what he and many others viewed as a cynical attempt by Cuomo to harm the Working Families Party. “I really think it's an atrocious overreach to combine these two issue,” said Williams, who had the WFP’s support in his attempt to unseat Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul in the 2018 Democratic primary. “We are all watching right now, in real time, while a bully follows through with a threat, with nothing to do with the initial reason this commission was put together.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Ethan Geringer-Sameth contributed to this story.
>> Note: Gotham Gazette is an independent publication of Citizens Union Foundation, sister organization of Citizens Union.> >Note - this article has been updated.
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
This week will see the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. There will be rememberances throughout the city, state, country, and world.
Also this week: Mayor Bill de Blasio begins the week on a presidential campaign trip to Puerto Rico, where he went after a stop in New Hampshire this weekend. The mayor will not be on the Democratic stage Thursday evening for the third primary debate after he failed to meet the polling and donor thresholds. De Blasio flies back to the city Monday evening. While he's away, First Lady Chirlane McCray will join Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and others to rally for Williams' paid personal time bill that de Blasio came out in support of earlier this year and, while on the campaign trail, has been pledging will pass this year, even though the City Council has indicated it has no timeline for passage and Speaker Corey Johnson has expressed concerns about its impact on small businesses. The bill would mandate that employees at businesses of five or more workers receive 10 days of paid personal time each year.
The spotlight this week will also be on de Blasio's housing plans -- Deputy Mayor Vicki Been will give a speech Tuesday morning -- and on the City Council, which has several committee hearings and a full-body Stated Meeting this week. Those are just two of a number of events to be aware of: see our day-by-day rundown below.
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday, September 9
The New York State Board of Regents will meet on Monday and Tuesday in Albany.
On Monday at the City Council:
--At 10 a.m. the Committees on Juvenile Justice and Public Safety will hold a hearing: “Oversight - Reducing Gun Violence: The Relationship Between Law Enforcement and Community Based Solutions.” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will participate in the hearing.
--Also at 10 a.m., the Committee on Health will hold a hearing on several bills and resolutions.
At 9 a.m. Monday outside 250 Broadway, just ahead of a state Senate hearing, “Impacted New Yorkers, advocates, public defenders and elected officials will gather outside the state office building in Lower Manhattan to mark the repeal of New York’s infamous ‘Blindfold Law’ -- a landmark victory for justice. They will also urge full and immediate implementation of the new discovery statute, which officially takes effect on January 1, 2020. The new statute will help protect New Yorkers -- particularly, Black and Latinx New Yorkers who are disproportionately arrested and prosecuted -- from wrongful convictions, in addition to improving overall transparency and accountability in prosecution across the state. The rally will be followed by a public hearing held by the State Senate Codes Committee on steps taken by law enforcement to implement discovery reform.” Participants will include Senator Jamaal Bailey, impacted New Yorkers, and representatives of various groups including VOCAL-NY, JustLeadershipUSA, Citizen Action, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, The Legal Aid Society, New York County Defender Services, Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, FWD.us, Human Rights Watch, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) Campaign.
On Monday at 10 a.m. in Manhattan, the State Senate will hold an oversight hearing on the implementation of discovery reform. Codes Committee Chair Senator Jamaal Bailey will lead the hearing and be joined by a number of other senators who co-sponsored the discovery reform legislation enacted into law earlier this year and set to go into effect at the start of next year.
At 12:30 p.m. Monday, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, First Lady Chirlane McCray, and others will rally near City Hall in support of Williams’ legislation that would mandate paid time off (aka paid personal time or paid vacation) in New York City.
At 5:30 p.m. Monday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will be on News12 for his monthly “Ask the Borough President” session.
At 6 p.m. Monday, Public Advocate Williams will appear on the 'Housing Justice for All' Radio Show on WHCR-FM 90.3.
At 6 p.m. Monday, the Association for a Better New York will host What’s On Tap? with NYC Department of Small Business Services commissioner Gregg Bishop, who “will discuss his path to office, experiences in government, and vision for New York City.”
At 6:30 p.m. Monday at Queens Borough Hall, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will hold a voter information session regarding the 19 proposals in five questions that will be on the New York City ballot later this fall.
Tuesday, September 10
At 8 a.m. Tuesday, Crain’s Business will host a breakfast forum with Vicki Been, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, to “discuss her goals, housing policy changes and the city's economic development post-Amazon.”
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the NYC Board of Corrections will hold a general public meeting.
At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at Brooklyn Borough Hall, “Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams will host his sixth annual 9/11 remembrance event in the Rotunda of Brooklyn Borough Hall to honor those lost during and since the tragic attacks on September 11, 2001. A banner with the names of all 266 Brooklyn residents who died that day is on display at the top of the steps behind Brooklyn Borough Hall now through the anniversary next Tuesday. This memorial, first unveiled during 2017’s remembrance ceremony, was envisioned by Borough President Adams — himself a 9/11 first responder — as a way to give the victims’ loved ones and all Brooklynites a place to pay their respects.”
At 10 a.m. Tuesday the state campaign finance reform commission will hold its first of four public hearings, at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., experts invited to testify will appear, then starting at 4 p.m., members of the public will be allow to testify.
At the City Council on Tuesday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Transportation will hold a hearing: “Oversight - TLC’s Implementation of For-Hire Vehicle Growth Restrictions, For-Hire Vehicle Driver Pay Standards, and Other Recent Local Laws.”
--Also at 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Committee on Housing and Buildings will hold a hearing on several bills.
--At 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Committee on Education will hold a hearing on several bills and resolutions, including a bill that would require “A pilot program to review school start times to reduce adolescent sleep deprivation” and a bill that would require more reporting on health education in city schools.
At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics will hold a public meeting.
At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez will deliver remarks about how his “office is working to keep Brooklyn safe” at East Midwood Jewish Center.
At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Brooklyn Borough Hall, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will hold a voter information session regarding the 19 proposals in five questions that will be on the New York City ballot later this fall.
At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the New York City Bar will hold Access To Justice: It's Not Just Lawyers Anymore, a discussion on people and technology outside of court-assigned lawyers who can provide access to justice. Speakers will include Noelle Francis, executive director of HeatSeek, and Rebecca Sandefur, Associate Professor of Sociology & Law at the University of Illinois.
Wednesday, September 11
Wednesday is the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. There will be remembrances across the city, state, country, and world.
At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Vera Institute of Justice and The Square One Project will host Reimagining Justice. “As we approach the 25th anniversary of the federal 1994 Crime Bill, this multi-format event will consider the visionary work, big ideas, and fundamental values that will guide the next 25 years of justice policy.”
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show on WBAI radio, 99.5 FM or wbai.org, will feature NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller, who will discuss the NYPD’s counterterrorism efforts since September 11, 2001.
Thursday, September 12
At 8 a.m. Thursday, the Association for a Better New York will host First Deputy Comptroller Alaina Gilligo for “an inside look at the Comptroller's office. The Comptroller's office safeguards the City’s fiscal health, roots out waste, fraud and abuse in local government, and ensures that municipal agencies serve the needs of all New Yorkers.”
At the City Council on Thursday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Immigration will hold a hearing on several bills.
--At 10:30 a.m. the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections will hold a hearing on nominations by the mayor of Jarrod E. Whittington to the Environmental Control Board and Everardo Jefferson to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
--At 11 a.m., the Committee on Land Use will meet on multiple items.
--At 1:30 p.m., the full Council will hold a Stated Meeting, likely to be preceded by the usual pre-Stated press conference led by Speaker Corey Johnson.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a board meeting.
At 12:45 p.m. Thursday, New York Law School will host Privacy Talks: The Future of Consumer Privacy with Mary Stone Ross of MSR Strategies.
On Thursday at 6 p.m. at Monroe College, the Bronx State Senate delegation -- Senators Jamaal Bailey, Alessandra Biaggi, Gustavo Rivera, Luis Sepulveda, and Jose Serrano -- will hold a “legislative update” for Bronxites.
At 6 p.m. Thursday at Community Church of New York, Beyond Plastics, NYPIRG, and former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck will host a discussion about how New York City can “break free from plastic.”
Also at 6 p.m. Thursday, New Yorkers for Parks will host Open Space Dialogues: Reconstructing the Capital Process, a discussion “to consider the successes, as well as the room for improvement, in New York City’s parks capital process.” Speakers will include Andrew Cohen, City Council Member; Diane Jackier, chief of capital strategic initiatives at NYC Parks; Sue Donoghue, president and park administrator of the Prospect Park Alliance; Jennifer Godenzo, senior director at the Participatory Budgeting Project; Celeste Frye, founder and CEO of Public Works Partners; and Charles McKinney, practical visionary.
Also at 6 p.m. Thursday, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz will host a celebration of Trinidad and Tobago’s independence at Queens Borough Hall.
At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Civilian Complaint Review Board will hold a public board meeting. “Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions about police-community relations and learn about key Agency updates. Investigators will be available to receive complaints of misconduct.”
There will be a Democratic primary debate in the race for the party’s presidential nomination on Thursday at 8 p.m. Mayor de Blasio did not qualify.
Friday, September 13
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday at 10 a.m.
***
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 Max
@GothamGazette
(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)
One out of every four years, there are few elections on the ballot in New York City, with almost no competitive races at the city or state level. Such is the case in 2019, the year after congressional, state legislative, and statewide races, and the year before the presidential, congressional, and state legislative races.
But New Yorkers will this fall have the opportunity to vote on several ballot proposals that could make fundamental changes to the City Charter, the document that governs central powers and functions of elected offices, city agencies, and local elections. And, there is also the culmination of the high-profile race to become the next Queens District Attorney, multiple special elections, and the first test-run of early voting and electronic poll books, both passed in Albany earlier this year. There would be two other district attorney races, but both the top prosecutors in the Bronx and Staten Island have gone unchallenged this year.
There are also important deadlines that voters must heed ahead of November 5, Election Day, which could affect their ability to participate in next year’s presidential and other primary elections. The presidential primary in New York is set to take place April 28 (Governor Andrew Cuomo had proposed moving the state and congressional primaries, currently scheduled for June, to the same date but the state Legislature rejected the idea).
It’s also noteworthy that this election will mark the halfway point between New York City mayoral elections, meaning it is exactly two years until the next mayor is selected.
Deadlines
Election day is November 5 this year, but there are also nine days of early voting, which is launching in New York for the first time.
Friday, October 11 is the last day to register to vote in the 2019 general election. Registration applications must be delivered in person to the New York City Board of Elections or mailed with an October 11 postmark (it must be received by October 16 to be processed). The Department of Motor Vehicles also processes online voter registration applications for individuals with a valid state driver’s license, permit or non-driver ID, and social security number.
October 29 is the last day for voters to postmark an application to receive an absentee ballot, while November 4 is the last day that voters can apply in person for an absentee ballot.
November 4 is also the last day when absentee ballots must be postmarked and mailed in order to be counted. The ballot must reach the BOE by November 12 at the latest. Voters can also have their absentee ballot delivered by another person to the BOE by election day.
The BOE offers voter registration forms in five languages and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs supplements those with forms in 11 additional languages.
Governor Andrew Cuomo also signed an executive order last year that grants conditional pardons on a case-by-case basis allowing parolees under post-release community supervision to vote.
Separately, if a voter changes their address on their registration by October 16, the BOE must process it by the general election.
New York will also roll out nine days of early voting for the November general election, after it was approved by the state Legislature and signed by Cuomo earlier this year. From October 26 to November 3, polling sites will open for varying hours across the five boroughs. There are 61 sites in total – 18 in Brooklyn, 14 in Queens, 11 in the Bronx, 9 each in Manhattan and Staten Island. (There will be no early voting on November 4, the day before Election Day.) Voters are assigned to specific early voting sites, which they can fine here along with poll site hours.
To facilitate early voting, the BOE will for the first time utilize electronic poll books, which were also approved by the Legislature and Cuomo this year.
On Election day, all poll sites statewide will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Voters can find their poll sites here (it always makes sense to double check in the days before heading out to vote).
Governor Cuomo has also signed a bill passed by both houses of the Legislature that significantly shifts New York’s deadline by which voters must change their political party enrollment to be able to vote in the next primary election. Previously, for a registered voter to switch party affiliation – from unaffiliated (aka “independent”) to Democrat or Republican, for example – to vote in next year’s presidential primary in April or the federal and state primaries scheduled for June, they had to deliver their application to the BOE by October 11 of this year. But the bill signed by Cuomo moved that deadline to February 14, 2020.
What’s On The Ballot
In New York City, there are two special elections, one citywide and one City Council, taking place in the general election, as well as the general election for Queens District Attorney, and a variety of judicial elections. (District Attorneys Darcel Clark of the Bronx and Michael McMahon of Staten Island will both get another term by uncontested elections.)
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a Democrat who was elected in a special election in February, must defend his seat this year in order to serve the remainder of the term that runs through 2021. His opponents include City Council Member Joe Borelli, a Staten Island Republican, who has acknowledged his extremely slim chances of victory in a city where Democrats overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans, and Libertarian candidate Devin Balkind. Borelli has also said he’s running in part to discuss the powers of the office and make it clear that the public advocate should hold the mayor accountable.
Williams’ election kicked off a nonpartisan special election in May for his City Council seat, in Brooklyn’s District 45 which covers Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood, Marine Park, Flatlands and Kensington. The seat was won by Farah Louis, who previously served as Williams’ deputy chief of staff. Williams had, however, endorsed her opponent, Monique Chandler-Waterman, a non-profit leader.
Chandler-Waterman attempted to challenge Louis in the June 26 primary but was unsuccessful yet again. Louis faces only one active challenger, Anthony Beckford, in the general election, but she is expected to win easily and serve out the remainder of the term through 2021.
In Queens, Borough President Melinda Katz eventually won a recounted and drama-filled Democratic primary over her closest competitor, public defender Tiffany Cabán, and is expected to win easily in the general election over Republican nominee Joe Murray, a defense attorney and former NYPD officer (Murray is a registered Democrat but received a Wilson-Pakula certificate from the Queens Republican Party in order to appear on their ballot line).
In July, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission approved five overarching questions to place on the ballot, containing 19 proposals in all that cover issues such as elections and redistricting, government ethics, police accountability, the city budget, and land use policy. Voters throughout the five boroughs can cast a “yes” or “no” vote for each of the five questions, and they each need a simple majority of votes cast to be approved.
Read all about them here: Charter Revision Commission Gives Final Approval to 19 Proposals in 5 Questions to Appear on November Ballot
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Note - this article has been updated.
(photo: Edwin Torres/Mayor's Office)
New York City is showing modest progress in the fight to curb the explosion in drug overdoses, with the health department reporting 38 fewer deaths last year compared to 2017, after a concerted $60-million effort focused on substance abuse prevention, treatment, and education, especially with regard to opioids.
One aspect of that fight has been the expansion of access to medication-assisted treatment, which experts and activists say is a crucial element in preventing overdoses, curbing addiction, and helping those suffering from substance abuse disorders to reclaim their lives. The city has continued some advancement on that front, training thousands of more prescribers, while a state bill that could help that effort, which passed the Legislature this year, languishes unsigned by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Medication-assisted treatment involves prescribing and administering drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine, which help mitigate the symptoms of withdrawal and curb cravings.
Methadone is itself an opioid, albeit a relatively weaker one, that can help those suffering from addiction wean off stronger narcotics. Buprenorphine acts similarly and is an even more effective treatment drug since its effects level out no matter the size of the dosage. Both, however, are stringently regulated.
Methadone treatment programs are subject to oversight by numerous federal agencies, and the drug must be administered to patients on site under observation. For buprenorphine, doctors must receive waivers to prescribe the drug after undergoing an eight-hour training. In the United States, compared to other countries, the treatment remains vastly underutilized.
“Medication-assisted Treatment (MAT) is a standard of care for opioid use disorder and it is critical for treating addiction, and also is a protective factor against overdose,” said Dr. Denise Paone, Director of Research and Surveillance at the city Health Department’s Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use. “So we've invested a lot of effort into the expansion, particularly of buprenorphine, because as you know, methadone is federally regulated.”
Since the March 2017 launch of HealingNYC, the city’s multi-faceted strategy to combat the opioid crisis, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has trained 1,800 new buprenorphine prescribers, surpassing the original goal of 1,500. The aim of the program has been to increase buprenorphine prescriptions by 20,000 by 2022.
There has already been some success, with prescriptions up from 115,167 in 2017 to 126,002 in 2018.
Besides training new prescribers, the city has also expanded a Nurse Care Manager program – where registered nurses coordinate treatment for patients and with providers – to 26 primary care clinics around the city, and is funding 9 of 14 syringe service programs to provide on-site buprenorphine.
“In actual clinical practice, we are providing funding to these federally qualified health centers that serve those that are underinsured or not insured. And we provide support so that these primary care clinics can provide on-site buprenorphine,” Paone noted.
It’s hard to draw a through line from the investments in buprenorphine access to the reduction in overdose deaths, Paone said, because of the many elements of HealingNYC that work in concert. “But buprenorphine obviously plays a major role,” she said.
There are still numerous challenges as the city attempts to increase the number of doctors prescribing the life-saving drug. The first is the required physician waiver. “There is an effort across the country, supported by a lot of attorneys general, as well as health departments to work at the federal policy level to have this waiver removed,” Paone said, citing a letter sent by several attorneys general to congressional leadership, calling for eliminating the waiver. But that effort has seen little movement.
In New York State, buprenorphine prescribers are also required to get prior authorization from insurance companies. A bill sponsored by Assemblymember Dan Quart and State Senator Pete Harckham passed the Legislature earlier this year and would do away with that requirement but it has yet to be signed by Cuomo. “The bill is under review,” said Caitlin Girouard, a Cuomo spokesperson, in an email.
“From social stigma to regulatory barriers, people seeking treatment for substance use disorders are faced with significant obstacles,” Quart said in a statement. “While this bill won’t remove all existing roadblocks, it will cut red tape and wait times, guaranteeing New Yorkers faster access to lifesaving treatment. The opioid epidemic has devastated communities across the state and I encourage the Governor to sign my bill into law, and ensure those seeking treatment have swift access to the care they need.”
Harckham, a Democrat representing parts of Westchester and the Hudson Valley, chairs the Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse and is also co-chair of Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction & Overdose Prevention, which was created earlier this year and held its first hearing last month.
“We want to find out what's working, what the gaps are, what we need to do from a legislative standpoint, what we need to do from a regulatory standpoint,” he said in a phone interview. “And certainly we have to break down any barriers we can to medication-assisted treatment because evidence shows, that's what saves lives.” Harckham expects that next year, the Legislature will pursue a robust package of bills to fight the opioid crisis based off the task force’s work.
Removing the stigma around buprenorphine and methadone also remains a priority for the city, and the Health Department has sought to fight it with a $2.8-million mass media and advertising campaign called “Living Proof” displaying real stories of individuals who have benefited from treatment.
The ads ran on local television (2,141 times), newspapers, online, in social media, and on the subway system. Besides the millions that saw the ads on the subways and ferries, the health department provided data that social media ads led to 2 million online video views and over 80,000 visits to NYC Health’s “Opioid Addiction Treatment with Buprenorphine and Methadone” web page. “It was actually quite powerful, and then we're in the process of doing an evaluation of that campaign,” Paone said.
“Expanding access to medication treatment is really probably the most critical response right now to the opioid epidemic,” said Dr. Chinazo Cunningham, professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, which has trained several hundred buprenorphine prescribers. “But what we also know from research is only about half of the people who are trained, actually go on to prescribe it and actually treat addiction and so we need to do more than just train people,” she added.
Besides that, Cunningham said the city needs to invest more in nurse care managers and that service providers need more support for mentoring and education in addiction treatment. “I think that the issue is there's not one thing to turn this epidemic around,” she said. “But all of these approaches are based in evidence to show that these are what the barriers are and these are the kinds of supports that are needed for providers to take this on and to provide treatment.”
Jasmine Budnella, drug policy coordinator at VOCAL-NY, an activist group, was among dozens who protested outside the governor’s New York City office last month, calling on him to take more action towards fighting the overdose epidemic. She said the prior-authorization bill is an important step to increase access to buprenorphine. “For low-income New Yorkers, that was the only bill that we were able to pass this last session that we know has proven evidence will work in reducing the overdose crisis,” she said in a phone interview.
Budnella believes the city’s approach to medication-assisted treatment needs to be more holistic and expanded past the areas where overdose deaths have been highest. She noted, for instance, that overdoses are a leading cause of death in homeless shelters.
“We need to continue expansion, but not just in areas of high need,” she said. “We need to make sure that we're extending to all people.” She urged the mayor to provide more funding to the health department and to the Department of Social Services, to ensure that the city tackles the nexus of the overdose and homelessness crises, particularly by investing in supportive housing for those who require addiction-treatment services.
“We need to make sure that we have wraparound services for folks,” she said. “We also need to make sure that the criminal justice system is not the first to get employed for people who use drugs…What we really need is infrastructure where we have social workers and public health experts who are the ones employed to go help people with substance use disorder or mental health issues, so that the police don't have to police poverty.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
Mayor de Blasio was back in the city to march in a wet West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn on Monday after Nevada and California presidential campaign stops (and a family trip to Connecticut). The mayor is continuing with his presidential bid even as several others, such as New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, have dropped out recently. Neither de Blasio nor Gillibrand qualified for the Democratic primary debate set for September 12, which 10 candidates will take part in. (It is worth noting that the mayor entered the race in May whereas Gillibrand declared her candidacy in January.)
De Blasio is hoping to make the October debate, which has the same polling and fundraising thresholds as the September debate, while also saying that the debates are not as significant as other parts of the campaign. But de Blasio has been stagnant in the polls since entering the race and does not appear to be raising much money from many donors. He insists it’s still early, he’s still getting his message out, and he can break through by the time the first votes are cast in Iowa in February.
There’s a lot going for de Blasio to address back in the five boroughs: he must wrestle with major education recommendations put forth last week by his School Diversity Advisory Group; deal with increases in anti-Semitic hate crimes, NYPD officer suicides, and byciclist and pedestrian fatalities. It’s also the first week of school. And more (NYCHA, homelessness, and so on).
Under pressure from City Council members given recent anti-Semitic attacks in the city, de Blasio’s office has said it would open the new Office of Hate Crime Prevention earlier than mandated by law, and that it has gotten the ball rolling just ahead of an announcement set for Tuesday of this week.
There are also two very important hearings scheduled for this week in the process to close the Rikers Island jail complex and open or enlarge a jail in each of the boroughs other than Staten Island. The City Planning Commission is holding a meeting for its vote on the proposal on Tuesday and the City Council is holding an open public hearing on Thursday.
One of those hearings is that the City Planning Commission, the other at the City Council, which has a busy week after the usual end-of-August break.
There’s a lot happening 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?
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday, September 2
Monday is Labor Day as well as the annual J'Ouvert celebration and West Indian Day Parade. Many elected officials, including Mayor de Blasio, Governor Andrew Cuomo, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and others are participating.
Tuesday, September 3
Mayor de Blasio and City Council Members including Mark Levine, Donovan Richards, Chaim Deutsch, and others appear set to announce the early opening of the city's Office of Hate Crime Prevention.
On Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Manhattan, there will be a joint state legislative hearing on “Electric Power System Reliability,” held by the Senate and Assembly committees on energy and authorities.
School Chancellor Richard Carranza will appear on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Tuesday morning.
At noon Tuesday, “The City Planning Commission (CPC) will hold a Special Meeting and vote on the New York City Borough-Based Jail System application. This session will be livestreamed.”
At 1 p.m. Tuesday the City Council Committee on Immigration will meet at City Hall to discuss several bills.
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, “elected officials, celebrities and supporters will hold a ‘server for an hour’” events at local restaurants in downtown Brooklyn “to call for an end to the subminimum wage for tipped workers. The event will also call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to enact One Fair Wage, a policy that would increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for hundreds of thousands of tipped workers in New York. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries...will serve food and drinks to customers in support of One Fair Wage in New York and the Raise the Wage Act, which was historically passed in the United States House of Representatives on July 18, 2019, and is now waiting to bring the bill to a vote in the Senate. Elected officials—including NY Assemblymembers Michael Blake, Ellen Jaffe and Walter T. Mosley—as well as actress Erika Alexander, and Heather McGee will also join the “server for an hour” event. Dozens of restaurant workers and owners, community groups and labor allies, and other elected officials will address members of the press to ensure tipped workers will earn living wages to improve their lives, help professionalize the restaurant industry, support the many immigrant women and people of color workers, and boost the economy of New York City and the state.”
At 2 p.m. Tuesday in Flushing, “Council Member Peter Koo and the Glow Community Center will announce an upcoming free high school admissions seminar in Flushing. Students and parents will have the opportunity to learn about the admissions process, important deadlines, and what to know about recent proposals regarding the SHSAT. Participating organizations include InsideSchools and the Scholastic Merit Fund.”
At 5 p.m. Tuesday, the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis will host Climate Disasters and the Green New Deal at the New School, a discussion of climate change and the “great challenge for society, academics, and policy makers,” featuring Professors Stephanie Kelton; Claudia Kemfert; Bob Kopp; and Stefan Mittnik.
At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will will host a community discussion on “placard abuse and related issues” at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
NYCHA Chair and CEO Gregory Russ will appear on NY1's Inside City Hall on Tuesday evening.
Wednesday, September 4
At the City Council on Wednesday:
-At 9:30 a.m. the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet.
-At 10 a.m. the Committees on Public Housing and on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction will hold a joint oversight hearing on “Accessibility in Public Housing.”
-At 10 a.m., the Committees on Environmental Protection, on Resiliency and Waterfronts, and on Consumer Protection will hold a joint oversight hearing on “Consolidated Edison Summer 2019 Service Outages.”
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org, and feature a discussion about education policy and city schools. Specifically, the show will examine recently-released recommendations from the School Diversity Advisory Group, assembled by Mayor de Blasio in late 2017, to desegregate city schools and improve the overall education system. Guests will include DSAG member Matt Gonzales and City Council Member Mark Treyger, who chairs the Council’s education committee.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Manhattan Institute will host the 2019 James Q. Wilson Lecture: The Entrenched Vs. The Newcomers, given by Harvard professor of economics Edward Glaeser. “Glaeser will address the conflict between entrenched interests and newcomers in its economic, political, geographic, and generational dimensions. The question for policymakers is whether they enhance the gains that flourish from the proximity and openness that cities offer, or double-down on the advantages secured by exclusion and anti-competitive behavior.”
At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, City & State NY will host its 2019 Labor Power 100 reception, spotlighting “distinguished public officials, labor organizers, activists, academics, industry leaders, and others, as they come together for a unique networking opportunity.” State Senator Andrew Gounardes will be among the speakers.
Thursday, September 5
Thursday is the first day of school for most New York City public school students. Expect a busy day for Chancellor Richard Carranza and Mayor de Blasio.
At 8:15 a.m. Thursday, the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School will host a CityLaw breakfast with Dr. Oxiris Barbot, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, on “Measles: NYC Policy and Thoughts on Anti-Vaccine Movement.”
At 10 a.m. Thursday, the City Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses will hold a public hearing on the borough-based jail system plan.
At 12:45 p.m. Thursday, New York Law School will hold Privacy Talks: Regulation and Innovation with Zachary Hecht, who is the current policy director for Tech:NYC and former policy director for City Council Member Ritchie Torres.
At 6 p.m. Thursday, the Vera Institute of Justice will host Incapacitated, Indigent, and Alone: A Conversation on New York State’s Guardianship System. “With guardianship such a challenging role, involving the coordination of complex legal, health care, case management, and property issues, it is more important than ever that NYS develop a coherent plan to support qualified guardians.” Speakers will include City Council Member Rory Lancman, Richmond County Supreme Court Justice Richard Troia, and others.
Friday, September 6
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10 a.m.
At 10 a.m. Friday in Manhattan, two Assembly committees will hold a joint hearing on “Robocalls, spoofing and nuisance calls.”
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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 Max
@GothamGazette
(photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)
The New York City Health Department announced on Monday that the city’s efforts to curb the ongoing opioid crisis are showing progress, with 38 fewer drug overdose deaths in 2018 compared to the previous year. It is the first year over year drop in eight years, the city said.
There were 1,444 drug overdose deaths last year, down 3% from 1,482 in 2017, according to Health Department data. And the first three months of this year saw 331 overdose deaths, down 45 from the same time last year, and two fewer than the last three months of 2018.
“The decrease in drug overdose deaths is promising, but far too many New Yorkers are still dying,” Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said in a statement. “We are closely monitoring the trends of the epidemic as they evolve and responding to upticks in emergency department visits and deaths with targeted strategies and community engagement. We remain firmly committed to expanding life-saving services and caring for New Yorkers who use drugs.”
The announcement from the city did not include comment from Mayor Bill de Blasio, though First Lady Chirlane McCray was quoted saying, in part, “There is no one solution to the pain and tragic consequences of the opioid epidemic and New York City’s multi-faceted response reflects that.”
Although there was a reduction in overdose deaths citywide, disparities exist across boroughs. Deaths rose in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island but dropped in Brooklyn and Queens. Among New Yorkers between the ages of 55 and 84, overdose deaths increased for the fourth year in a row. The rates of overdose increased by 5% for Latinos, and decreased 13% for black New Yorkers and 5% for white New Yorkers.
In 60% of all drug overdose deaths in 2018, the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl was detected.
The city has been undertaking a concerted effort for the last two years to decrease accidental overdose deaths. In March 2017, de Blasio and McCray launched HealingNYC, which has since invested $60 million in overdose treatment, prevention, and outreach measures, according to Monday’s announcement.
Since then, the city has distributed 230,000 kits of naloxone, a drug that can counter an overdose, for free through programs across the city. The Health Department also conducts free trainings in administering naloxone and has launched nonfatal overdose intervention programs in 11 city hospital emergency departments, and will expand it to 15 private hospitals by June 2020.
The city has undertaken a broad outreach effort as well, working with 374 community-based venues, 88 substance use treatment programs, 140 pharmacies, and nine shelters in the Bronx and northern Manhattan.
The Health Department has trained 1,800 individuals to prescribe buprenorphine, which can reduce opioid dependency, and has funded 14 syringe service programs that helped 18,274 last year. Prior Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett has identified expanded use of buprenorphine as one essential key to bringing down opioid addiction and overdoses. The city also wants to open safe injection sites, but has yet to receive state approval to do so.
Also in her Monday statement, McCray said, “Individuals struggling with substance use disorders and families caught up in this scourge are our responsibility, and we will continue innovating to make sure communities have access to the lifesaving resources, services, and treatment they need.”
The city’s five district attorneys – Darcel Clark of the Bronx, Eric Gonzalez of Brooklyn, Michael McMahon of Staten Island, Cyrus Vance Jr. of Manhattan, and acting DA John Ryan of Queens – welcomed Monday’s news and called for greater action from the state to target the import of fentanyl and its variants, which remain largely unregulated. They called on the state Legislature to designate all those variants as Schedule I controlled substances and for increased funding for public awareness campaigns and police labs, coroners, and medical examiners.
“Fentanyl analogs serve no legitimate medical purpose and are produced by clandestine laboratories outside of the U.S. New types of fentanyl analogs are continually emerging as international labs slightly tweak chemical formulations. As long as fentanyl analogs in all their variants remain unregulated in New York State, they will proliferate unchecked and more lives will be lost,” the DAs said in a joint statement.
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
This week, we'll find out whether Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York will qualify for the next Democratic presidential primary debate scheduled for September 12 and 13. The debate qualification deadline is Wednesday, August 28, and both candidates have struggled to meet the dual donor and polling threshold – each must hit at least 2% in 4 DNC-approved polls and at least 130,000 unique donors, including from at least 400 unique donors in at least 20 states. De Blasio said at a news conference last week that he wasn't "halfway there" yet in terms of the number of donors. Gillibrand has said she has just over 110,000 donors so far. On Sunday, de Blasio appeared at a CNN town hall, which could give him a bump in donors if not polling.
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced that the second span of the Kosciuszko Bridge would open to traffic on Thursday morning. Pedestrians and bikers will also be able to cross the bridge on Wednesday between noon and 6 p.m. The governor, who toured and surveyed the bridge on Sunday, will likely take a victory lap over the project as he touts its completion four years ahead of schedule and on budget. On Wednesday evening, the governor is hosting a cocktail reception to celberate the grand opening. "While the federal administration obsesses over building walls, in New York we are building bridges and other infrastructure critical to moving our 21st century economy forward," Cuomo said in a statement. "With the opening of the second span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge on Wednesday, we will once again demonstrate to the nation that it's possible to take on big projects and to get them done on time and on budget."
Overall, it's a relatively slow week in terms of events in New York politics, but there are some -- 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
Governor Cuomo is in Albany without any public events scheduled.
At 11 a.m. Monday in the Madison County Board of Supervisors Chambers, the Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction & Overdose Prevention will hold a roundtable that will “focus around challenges faced by rural communities.”
At 11:30 a.m. Monday, the East Bronx History Forum will hold a street co-naming for WWII POW 2nd Lieutenant John Sekul, on Newbold Avenue between Castle Hill and Havemeyer Avenues.
At 1 p.m. Monday, the City Planning Commission will hold a review session, which will be livestreamed.
At 6 p.m. Monday, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza will appear on a live interview on FOX 5.
Mayor de Blasio will make his weekly appearance on NY1's Inside City Hall on Monday in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.
At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks at a Rockaway Point Association meeting. At 8:15 p.m, he'll speak at a Point Breeze Association meeting.
Tuesday
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is in Syracuse. At 11 a.m., he'll be speaking at a 9-11 memorial ceremony at the Horticulture Building at the New York State Fairgrounds. At 1:30 p.m., he'll connect local residents and businesses with lost money at an Unclaimed Funds Booth at the Center for Progress Building.
At 12 p.m. Tuesday, the Real Estate Board of New York will host “The New Rent Laws - What We Know AND What We Don't Know" - this event is for REBNY members only.
At 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, the NY Metropolitan Transportation Council will hold a program, finance and administration committee meeting.
At 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Riders Alliance will hold a Bronx bus turnaround campaign meeting.
Wednesday
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the NYS Business Council will hold an Energy Committee meeting “to discuss the PSC Resource Adequacy Review, Clean Energy Standard, Legislation, and other matters of interest to membership.”
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting, which will be livestreamed.
At noon Wednesday in Albany, the New York State Board of Elections will hold a tentative commissioners meeting.
On Wednesday at 5 p.m., this week's Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5FM and streaming at wbai.org.
Thursday
At 7 p.m. Thursday, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will host a town hall “on public housing issues that impact our district and community” at NYCHA Boston Road Plaza in the Bronx.
Friday and the weekend
At 10 a.m. Friday, Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show.
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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 Joey Fox and Samar Khurshid
@GothamGazette
The State Capitol (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)
The New York State Public Campaign Financing Commission, tasked with devising a voluntary system of public funding for state elections, held its first meeting Wednesday at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan. The commission has inspired a measure of optimism among government reformers that it will limit the influence of money in state elections and reduce pay-to-play politics that have long defined state government.
The commission, which was named in July, was created in this year’s state budget as a compromise between legislative leaders and Governor Andrew Cuomo when they could not come to an agreement on the specifics of a public campaign finance system for state elections. Seven of the commission’s nine members were appointed by Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, all Democrats, with each selecting two commissioners and jointly appointing another. Republican minority leaders, Senator John Flanagan and Assembly Member Brian Kolb, each had one appointment.
The goal of the commission is to reduce the sway of large-dollar political donors in elections by incentivizing candidates to seek smaller contributions that can be matched with public funds. It would be modelled after the program administered in New York City’s municipal elections by the Campaign Finance Board, which matches small dollar contributions at a 6-to-1 or 8-to-1 ratio depending on what restrictions candidates opt to operate under.
The state commission is charged with developing a plan to distribute up to $100 million in public funding annually to candidates running for legislative and statewide office. In order to participate in the program, candidates will have to adhere to spending limits, lower contribution limits, and stricter disclosure requirements.
The commission’s mandate also includes examining the state’s fusion voting system, which allows candidates to run on ballot lines for multiple parties at the same time. The system gives third parties such as the Working Families Party and Conservative Party a measure of influence in state elections as candidates seek their endorsement and ballot line. In order to maintain their place on the ballot for four years, the parties must receive at least 50,000 votes in a gubernatorial election, which would be threatened if the state commission moved to end fusion voting.
“I hope and expect...that they deal with public campaign finance where small dollars will be matched at least 6-to-1...and I’m hoping that they do not try to get rid of fusion voting,” Senator Robert Jackson, a Manhattan Democrat, told Gotham Gazette at the meeting. “The bottom line is if...smaller parties are out, then you’re dealing with two parties -- and that’s not democracy,” he added.
The purpose of Wednesday’s meeting, where many of the commissioners met for the first time, was to establish procedures for the work that lies ahead. “The first thing we have to do...is organize ourselves and lay a framework for what the commission is going to do and how it is going to do it,” said Commissioner Jay Jacobs, a Cuomo appointee and the chair of the state Democratic Party.
The commission will hold five sessions to solicit input from members of the public, with the fifth meeting reserved for testimony from invited experts. Its final report is due December 1 and will become binding if legislators do not return from break to modify it within 20 days.
At the outset of the meeting John Nonna, the Westchester County Attorney appointed to the commission by Stewart-Cousins, asked whether the commission had the authority to lower contribution limits for candidates who opt out of a public matching program, “because there’s a relationship there that needs to be taken into account.”
“That’s one of the issues that we’ll have to discuss and see where we go on that. I think that’s an issue before us,” replied Henry Berger, a well-known election lawyer appointed to the commission jointly by Cuomo, Stewart-Cousins, and Heastie.
Another issue raised by commissioners was whether the final plan had to be approved in a single vote of the commission at the end of it’s roughly three-month timeline. Jacobs, who submitted a resolution that aspects of the ultimate proposal cannot be separated into multiple votes, explained his reasoning: “The idea being that this is a package and we have to all agree on the components of the package and we can’t pick it apart à la carte.”
“We’re going to vote on it as a single piece of legislation, and that piece of legislation will probably include a severability clause, they usually do,” Berger later added.
The two commissioners appointed by Republican leaders -- David Previtte, selected by Senator Flanagan, and Kimberly Galvin, chosen by Assembly Member Kolb -- voted against the resolution, which carried.
“I voted against the resolution because I had never seen the resolution,” Galvin told Gotham Gazette after the meeting. “I think it’s unfortunate that at an organizational meeting, one of the commissioners would pull out a resolution and expect an immediate vote when we hadn’t seen it, reviewed it, discussed it or talked about it.”
With the commission also looking at the issue of fusion voting, third parties say they are being targeted by Cuomo. Both the WFP and the Conservative Party, along with a handful of state legislators, have filed lawsuits challenging the commission’s authority to change or even eliminate fusion voting, saying the appointed commission cannot change statutes that have been upheld by the courts. Advocates saw Jacobs’s resolution to package the final proposal as a way to bind the issue of fusion voting with the prospect of a public campaign finance system.
“It's a transparent effort to tie public financing and ending fusion voting together. This is Cuomo's poison pill to eliminate fusion voting,” said WFP executive director Bill Lipton, in a statement addressing the resolution.
The WFP has a sour history with Cuomo. The party backed actor and education activist Cynthia Nixon in her primary challenge against the governor last year and supported progressive state Senate candidates challenging members of the erstwhile Independent Democratic Conference. The now-defunct IDC was a group of eight breakaway Democratic state senators who shared power with Republicans and whose then-leader Senator Jeff Klein was a Cuomo ally, allowing the governor to hold sway in a divided Albany.
During the budget session, Cuomo, who repeatedly said he supported creating a public matching system, raised what fusion voting proponents called unfounded concerns about how a public financing system could be administered, and the effects of independent expenditures and fusion voting on the proposed system. “Cuomo has put fusion in the cross-hairs to attack us. Fortunately, the State Constitution protects this important right,” Lipton said
At the meeting, the commissioners also touched on the need to consider the administrative costs of implementing a state public matching system and methods for receiving and considering public testimony, including public hearing procedures and electronic submissions. In a closed executive session, which came at the end of the hour-long meeting, Galvin said the commission considered the issue of staffing, or a lack thereof. “[W]e just all talked about it and tried to figure out some way to [staff the commission], and I don’t think that’s been resolved yet,” Galvin told Gotham Gazette.
For years, advocates have sought a state-level public financing program. Fair Elections for New York, a coalition of labor unions, good government organizations, and community groups, which led the push for public campaign financing during the legislative session and budget negotiations, rallied outside the building prior to the meeting to push for what they hope to see the commission accomplish.
“We are...committed to expanding the democratic process in this state to make sure that big money donors, that corporate dollars, that real estate do not suffocate our democracy,” said Jawanza Williams of Vocal-NY, a multi-issue community organizing group and member of the Fair Elections coalition.
The coalition called for the commission to create a 6-to-1 matching program for both primary and general elections. The group says the high matching ratio must be accompanied by lower contribution limits for both participating and nonparticipating candidates in order to incentivize small-dollar fundraising and participation in the program. The group would also like to see the commission set up an independent enforcement unit separate from the State Board of Elections, whose commissioners are selected by party leaders and which has been criticized for lacking independence.
On Tuesday, Reinvent Albany, a good government watchdog and member of Fair Elections, issued a list of 18 recommendations for the commission, which include establishing clear and granular expenditure guidelines, and lower contribution limits for party committees and entities with business interests before the state.
The overriding goal of reformers is to limit opportunities for pay-to-play politics, which has only worsened in the decade since the Citizens United decision, where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that political contributions are a form of constitutionally protected speech. New York State also had lax campaign finance laws until they were amended earlier this year, and has seen years of unending corruption scandals with lawmakers regularly going to prison.
“We’re here today to let the Commission and the leaders who appointed them know that New Yorkers are paying attention and expect them to craft a model for the nation to lessen the influence of big money and give power back to constituents,” said Laura Friedenbach, deputy campaign manager for the Fair Elections coalition, in a statement.
The Public Campaign Finance Commission will hold four public hearings throughout the state during September and October. The fifth meeting for invited experts has yet to be scheduled.
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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
@GeringerSameth @GothamGazette