Senator Michael Gianaris (photo: NYS Senate Media Services)

August 20, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Senator Michael Gianaris on Post-Cuomo New York Politics

State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat and deputy leader of the State Senate, joined the show to discuss Governor Andrew Cuomo's downfall and reign, what's next in New York state politics, legislative priorities and dynamics, his own political future, and much more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

An Excluded Workers Fund rally (photo: Senator Michael Gianaris' Office)

August 20, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: New York's $2.1 Billion 'Excluded Workers Fund'

Assemblymember Carmen De La Rosa and Bianca Guerrero, campaign coordinator of the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition, joined the show to discuss the state's $2.1 billion Excluded Workers Fund that was created to help New Yorkers who lost work and income due to the pandemic but were ineligible for other state and federal unemployment aid. The state is now taking applications for the available grants, but there are challenges.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Soon-to-be-Governor Kathy Hochul (photo: governor's office)

Kathy Hochul, the Democratic Lieutenant Governor about to become New York's 57th Governor and first woman to hold the position, has been stepping further into her own after the resignation announcement by Governor Andrew Cuomo. As Hochul becomes Governor on Tuesday, August 24, 2021, she will define herself anew as the most powerful state government leader, free of the trappings of the Lieutenant Governor position, largely seen as a key functionary for the Governor and his or her administration.

Over nearly two terms, Hochul has been a loyal lieutenant to Cuomo, even as they have clearly not been close and the governor has regularly been disrespectful of her, including publicly encouragining her to leave their ticket in 2018 to run for her old congressional seat, largely sidelining her during state budget negotiations and the covid response, and not once mentioning her in his covid book about leadership. Hochul has persisted, travelling the state promoting major administration initiatives, especially related to economic development, and championing key causes, like child care and women's empowerment. There is no record of her saying a cross word about Cuomo or even flubbing an administration talking point as she's visited all 62 counties of the state each year as Lieutenant Governor.

But in past interviews and debates, Hochul has talked about her background, her politics, her approach to the government roles she has held, the Cuomo-Hochul administration record, and more. Below is a sampling from Gotham Gazette of Hochul in her own words, including an in-depth discussion about her personal story and political history in a June 2018 podcast interview at her Manhattan office and her 2018 primary debate against challenger Jumaane Williams, as well as two other podcast and radio interviews on the Max & Murphy show hosted by Gotham Gazette's Ben Max and Jarrett Murphy of City Limits. In some instances, like during the debate, you can clearly hear Hochul sticking closely to her careful approach to being Cuomo's lieutenant; in other instances, you get a better sense of Hochul defining herself as a person and a politician.

To better get to know the incoming Governor of New York, listen to her in her own words:

Comptroller DiNapoli, right, & Governor Cuomo (photo: governor's office)

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, the self-described “steady hand helping the state move along” throughout more than a decade of scandal and turmoil in New York politics, is expressing optimism about the change of leadership expected when Governor Andrew Cuomo resigns and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul becomes the state’s 57th Governor.

Appearing recently on the Max Politics podcast hosted by Gotham Gazette’s Ben Max, DiNapoli discussed Cuomo’s decade-plus as governor, their contentious relationship, his reaction to the scandal that brought Cuomo down, how his office is helping Hochul with the transition, whether he is going to run for Governor himself in 2022, and more.

During the August 13 conversation DiNapoli also acknowledged that the joint investigation between his office and the office of State Attorney General Letitia James related to possible misappropriation of state resources by Cuomo and his administration related to the Governor’s pandemic book and priority covid testing early in the pandemic is ongoing. This, after James’ office closed out its inquiry into a long list of allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo, the damning findings of which led to his resignation.

DiNapoli had called for Cuomo to step aside back in March when the accusations had become numerous and an apparent distraction, saying that while an independent investigation took place, the state needed stable leadership. DiNapoli said on the podcast he never witnessed or heard anything about Cuomo’s inappropriate and unlawful behavior toward women. He did of course acknowledge some familiarity with the other major findings in the report: that Cuomo has run an administration rife with bullying, intimidation, and secrecy, a “toxic” and “abusive” culture as explained by former members of the executive branch who spoke with investigators hired by James, though he said he did not know the full extent as outlined in the report.

Having served alongside four governors and three attorney generals, not to mention becoming Comptroller because his predecessor resigned amid scandal, DiNapoli said the Cuomo resignation was not something unfamiliar to him, but also unique. “There’s a part of me that’s almost like, ‘Oh well, here we go again.’ But there's another part though, I think there’s something a little different about this, in some ways more monumental,” said DiNapoli, one of four elected statewide state-level officials, in a job meant to provide checks on the executive branch especially as the state’s chief fiscal officer. All four positions are currently held by Democrats. Hochul will soon get to appoint her Lieutenant Governor.

“Whatever analysis you have on Cuomo’s tenure,” DiNapoli said, “he certainly was a very dominant figure in state government over the past decade, really maximizing the power of what in New York is already a very powerful role as Governor.” The magnitude of the power shake-up created a “huge vacuum,” DiNapoli explained. “We’ll get through this, but whenever you have this kind of reshuffling, and this is such a huge reshuffling, happening right before a pivotal election year where everything is up, all the legislative seats, all the statewide offices, I think we’re in for a bit of a rollercoaster for the year ahead,” DiNapoli said of the looming 2022 elections.

“The distraction at the top of government made it harder for there to be a focus on making sure we were operating in the smoothest way possible,” DiNapoli recounted, adding that he had urged Cuomo to step aside back in March to allow government to continue without having to deal with months of drama in an important period of leadership. Directing his team, DiNapoli said, “We still are dealing with tremendous issues with the economy, with public health, you mentioned the rent program…So what I have said to my folks is that we need to just do what we do well, which is to stay focused on the work of government.”

The comptroller said he had had a brief conversation with Hochul, who is set to be sworn in as Governor at midnight Monday night, or 12 a.m. Tuesday August 24, and that he’s made his office and its experts available to her and her team during the transition. He expressed great optimism about her leadership and the change of style and tone, including a far stronger sense of collaboration among officials, that she will usher in.

DiNapoli’s relationship with Cuomo has been more than contentious, and while the nature of the Comptroller-Governor relationship is always tense at times, as designed constitutionally, Cuomo’s and his team’s repeated attacks on DiNapoli over things like audits went beyond the pale, in typical Cuomo fashion.

“I never really understood it. I remember after many calls with him in 2006, I endorsed him when he was running for AG,” but “everything shifted as soon as I became state comptroller,” DiNapoli said on the podcast. “I don’t know whether I was viewed as a rival, I don’t know why he would have thought that I was sitting there plotting and planning to take him on, to run against him or anything like that, I never gave any indication of that.”

“We had a really difficult time when he was Attorney General and that really was a very contentious, privately contentious relationship,” said DiNapoli. During Cuomo’s first run for the governorship, he did not endorse DiNapoli, who was seeking his own first statewide election after having been an Assembly member from Long Island appointed by the Legislature to the position of Comptroller during that 2009 vacancy. “It was the first time in my memory that the top of the state ticket did not endorse a running mate on the ticket. It was embarrassing frankly,” DiNapoli recounted.

Regarding what he said was a relatively small, inconsequential audit a few years ago, DiNapoli said Cuomo “got all wiggy” when asked about it at a press conference. DiNapoli recalled Cuomo saying, “That’s the comptroller’s opinion. The comptroller tells his auditors what he wants them to write and then they write the audit.” This was an utterly false characterization of the audit process, DiNapoli explained, saying, “I mean it’s total nonsense! Our auditors are civil service, I don’t know if they are Republicans or Democrats, they do a professional job, I back them up because they are calling it as they see it.”

“The problem with him, and not just him, but some of his team, they seemed to just enjoy the sport,” DiNapoli said of the larger culture in Cuomo-world. “They enjoyed the sport of accusing you, they enjoyed the sport of that nickname that I don’t repeat that they used in describing certain anatomy related to squirrels, as I recall. That’s like bad boy locker room nonsense. They had too much fun doing that.”

“We didn’t answer in kind. I mean I pushed back, I stood my ground, I think I protected the office,” said DiNapoli. But at the end of the day, DiNapoli said, “I also understood what the power relationship was. We did not have a lot of cards to play, so to me the best defense was stick to the merits of the issue.”

Cuomo’s hostile relationship with other actors in New York politics like Mayor Bill de Blasio became harmful to New Yorkers, most notably during the pandemic. That relationship also had a long history. DiNapoli said he did not have a lot of answers about why he and others didn’t call Cuomo out more, and that it’s quite reasonable to ask, other than the major power imbalance and Cuomo’s penchant to make people pay for crossing him.

De Blasio’s extended and revolutionary 2015 criticism of Cuomo “unleashed a fury from Andrew that destroyed whatever functioning relationship they might have had,” according to DiNapoli. “Fast forward to what we just went through with covid and how in so many cases, the dysfunction between the two of them hurt the people of the City of New York.”

DiNapoli recounted how Cuomo was able to gain power by serving as the Democratic mediator for a vulnerable Republican majority in the State Senate, which Cuomo helped prop up to ensure he would remain extremely powerful brokering deals with the Assembly’s Democratic majority.

Both Cuomo himself and others in his sphere made Cuomo “into a much more powerful presence than was appropriate, and maybe that’s a lesson for whoever becomes governors down the road, maybe it’s a lesson to look again at how we structure the executive branch vis-a-vis the Legislature,” DiNapoli reflected. Additionally, the comptroller said, “There was a whole power structure in New York that was very much behind him as well, and I think that was a very strong enabling force. When you’re sitting on $20 million, not just this year, but in other years, politically, who could take that on?”

“Maybe folks should have said more often, ‘the emperor really doesn’t have clothes.’ On the other hand, given the power that the emperor had all those years, the ability for him to get away with really undercutting your ability to do your job, which is really what he kept inflicting on Mayor de Blasio, it's a tradeoff,” DiNapoli said.

“It’s not a new notion that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” DiNapoli told Max. With an accommodating Legislature and friendly newspaper editorials around elections, DiNapoli said “it just reinforced [Cuomo’s] own view that in some ways the governorship had to be an imperial role rather than a democratic role. It ended up being his undoing.”

Through this tumult, DiNapoli remains firm in his conviction that his team will continue to keep government running smoothly in a time when the public health crisis is still looming large. DiNapoli said short-term, his job will be “keeping the operations of government functioning smoothly, making sure the bills are paid, the checks get out, and more longer term, looking at the difficult time we’ve been going through and how we can through our audit and our research work contribute to making government work more efficiently and effectively.”

With state finances stable and offices opening back up more amid widespread covid vaccination, DiNapoli said his auditors would be able to reengage with their investigations into the Department of Labor’s handling of unemployment during the pandemic as well as the management of infection rates in nursing homes, among other more long-term work that is more possible when the state is not in a constant emergency situation.

With Cuomo almost out, DiNapoli envisions a much more constructive relationship with the Hochul administration and a more productive government. “We’ve cleared the decks in terms of the distraction, let’s all focus on government for now,” DiNapoli said. And while Cuomo “tended to not want to engage when we made recommendations, sometimes very belligerent when we would produce an audit that was really meant to be helpful and try to improve government operations,” DiNapoli said, “I’m hoping with a new administration, there will be more openness to look at some more recommendations.”

DiNapoli campaigned for Hochul during her successful run for Congress a decade ago and calls her a friend. “She is a very fine person. A very smart person, she’s been certainly a friend and a colleague in government for many years,” said DiNapoli. A new administration might bring much needed change as New York continues its pandemic recovery.

“I hope it will be a reset in terms of tone,” DiNapoli said, “a reset in terms of civility, atmosphere, opportunity to in a more united way, a less hard-charging way, confront the continuing public health emergency, to confront the fact that our economic recovery is still uneven, that there are a lot of families and people who are hurting out there, and that we need to have a concerted effort to look out for those who are being left behind.”

With a focus on “doing a good job as comptroller,” DiNapoli said he hasn’t taken time to consider the possibility of his own run for governor in 2022, and said he most likely will be running for reelection as state comptroller. Either way, he plans to be on the ballot in 2022.

“I’d be certainly less than honest and probably less than human if I didn’t say I’m pleased when people write articles and they mention me as a possibility [for Governor], everybody has a little bit of an ego. Certainly after 20 years in the Legislature and 15 years as state Comptroller, I think I know something about what you need to have New York State run.”

Hochul has quickly said she will run for a full term as Governor in next year’s election, with the primary in June.

For now, DiNapoli wants to focus on giving “Kathy Hochul the opportunity to settle things down, to settle in. We need her to be successful with this transition,” he said, “and let’s give it all a few months to see what the lineup is for next year.”

[Listen to the full conversation on Max Politics: Comptroller Tom DiNapoli on the End of the Cuomo Era and What’s Next]

New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (photo: Office of the NYS Comptroller)

August 13, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Tom DiNapoli on the End of the Cuomo Era and What's Next

New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli joined the show to discuss Governor Andrew Cuomo's resignation announcement and tenure, what he is hopeful about moving forward, his relationship with presumptive next governor Kathy Hochul, whether he may run for governor in 2022 himself, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Andrew Cuomo (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

August 11, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Reflections on Taking on Andrew Cuomo

Rebecca Katz, founder of New Deal Strategies, a top advisor to Cynthia Nixon's 2018 gubernatorial campaign, and a former member of the de Blasio administration, joined the show to discuss Andrew Cuomo's reign and downfall.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at "Max Politics."

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (photo: Gabriel López Albarrán/Governor's Office)

August 11, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Getting to Know Future Governor Kathy Hochul

As Kathy Hochul is set to become New York's 57th Governor, and first woman to hold the position, reporters Anna Gronewold of Politico and Bob McCarthy of The Buffalo News joined the show to discuss her background, ascent, first press conference as presumptive next Governor, and what's next.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at "Max Politics."

Governor Andrew Cuomo (Don Pollard/Governor's Office)

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced that he is resigning from office, just one week after a bombshell state attorney general report found that he had sexually harassed 11 women, nine of whom were current or former state employees.

Cuomo, in a live virtual address from his Manhattan office, said his resignation will take effect in 14 days, at which time Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will take over, making her the first woman to become Governor of New York.

The governor continued to deny the substantiated allegations against him and claimed the report from Attorney General Letitia James’ office was “politically motivated,” “unfair,” and “untruthful.” But he nonetheless apologized to all 11 women, and he said he wanted to avoid “months of political and legal controversy” which would distract the state government as it deals with the lingering coronavirus pandemic. The governor was simultaneously facing an impeachment investigation by the State Assembly, which was looking into the sexual harassment complaints and several other issues. The impeachment could still proceed and if impeached, the governor faced the prospect of not being able to run for state office ever again.

“I think that given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing,” Cuomo said, “and therefore that's what I'll do, because I work for you, and doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you.”

The governor, a Democrat now in his third term, went on to tout the many accomplishments of his tenure including the passage of marriage equality, gun control legislation including an assault weapons ban, a $15 minimum wage law, paid family leave requirements, free public college tuition for low-income New Yorkers, a broad infrastructure program, and eleven timely, balanced state budgets.

In a statement, Hochul said she agreed with the governor’s decision and was ready for the role. “It is the right thing to do and in the best interest of New Yorkers,” she said. “As someone who has served at all levels of government and is next in the line of succession, I am prepared to lead as New York State’s 57th Governor.”

Cuomo’s fall from grace was months in the making, as he and his administration were beset by several compounding scandals. The Governor was first accused of sexual harassment in December by Lindsey Boylan, a former economic development official, who later came forward with her full story in February. Another complaint from Charlotte Bennett, an executive assistant in his office, soon followed and kicked open the floodgates to several other complaints against the governor.

At the same time, the administration faced intense scrutiny over its mishandling of COVID-19 in nursing homes. The administration had, according to a report from the attorney general’s office, undercounted the number of deaths from COVID-19 in nursing homes, drawing criticism that the governor and his top staff attempted to cover up the true scope of fatalities.

In March, the State Assembly’s Judiciary committee launched an impeachment investigation to look into both the sexual harassment claims and nursing home deaths. The scope of its inquiry was broad and also included whether the governor had misused state resources to write and promote his pandemic memoir and whether the governor had improperly given priority Covid testing access to family members and close associates. The committee was also looking into whether his administration covered up potential flaws in the structure of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, a signature infrastructure project for the current governor.

The 165-page report released last week by Attorney General James – based on an investigation by independent attorneys Joon Kim and Anne Clarke – substantiated 11 complaints against the governor and also concluded that he and his top aides illegally retaliated against Boylan. The 11 complaints included Boylan’s and Bennett’s allegations but also previously unreported ones. One involved a state trooper on the governor’s protective detail, who said Cuomo ran his fingers along her stomach and back, and kissed her on the cheek. The most serious complaint, however, came was from an unnamed employee, simply termed “Executive Assistant #1,” who said Cuomo groped her at the executive mansion last Fall.

That accuser, Brittany Commisso, went public on Monday in an interview with CBS This Morning and the Times Union. Last week, she also filed a criminal complaint against Cuomo with the Albany Sheriff's Office.

The effects of the AG’s report were swift. It quickly led to a flurry of calls for Cuomo’s resignation from top Democrats, including President Joe Biden, U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, besides dozens of local and state Democratic elected officials.

On Sunday, Secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa, the top unelected official in the state, resigned her position. According to the AG’s report, DeRosa led the effort to retaliate against Boylan and tried to discredit her account.

The Assembly’s impeachment inquiry was also given added urgency as the Judiciary committee was presented with the report. “Our goal is now to bring this matter to a conclusion with all due haste,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Monday in a news conference. Heastie had previously said he would await the attorney general's findings before taking a position on whether Cuomo should remain in office. That shoe dropped last week, along with calls to resign from Jay Jacobs, the chair of the state Democratic Party and one of Cuomo's staunchest allies.

Cuomo indicated Tuesday that he hoped to avoid a drawn out impeachment probe. “It will consume government. It will cost taxpayers millions of dollars. It will brutalize people,” he said.

“It is a matter of life and death, government operations, and wasting energy on distractions is the last thing that state government should be doing,” he added. “And I cannot be the cause of that.”

Photo: Kevin Coughlin/Governor's Office

Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple current and former state employees, and his executive office retaliated against one woman who publicly accused him of harassment, according to the findings of an investigation released on Tuesday by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

James released a lengthy report concluding a five-month investigation by independent attorneys Joon H. Kim and Anne Clarke, who were appointed by James' office to look into several allegations of sexual harassment against the governor. Kim is a former federal prosecutor and partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, and Clark is a high-profile employment lawyer and partner at Vladeck, Raskin & Clark, P.C.

According to James, the report found that Cuomo harassed multiple women by “engaging in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching and making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women.”

The investigators interviewed 179 witnesses and reviewed more than 74,000 pieces of evidence, including documents, emails, texts, audio files, and pictures, James said. “These interviews and pieces of evidence reveal a deeply disturbing yet clear picture,” she said, noting that the governor and the executive chamber violated both state and federal law as well as the executive chamber’s own written policies. The governor and senior aides also retaliated against one accuser, Lindsey Boylan, who made public allegations against the governor on Twitter in December last year and then came forward with her full story in February. The report noted that the governor's office leaked personnel records regarding Boylan and the circumstances of her departure from his administration in an effort to undercut her credibility. 

The scathing report concluded that Cuomo’s administration and senior staff created a “toxic workplace” that enabled the governor’s harassment and led to a “climate of fear” that discouraged staffers from reporting their complaints. “This investigation has revealed conduct that corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government and shines light on injustice that can be present at the highest levels of government,” James said. However, James later noted that the behavior laid out in the report constituted civil violations and the governor does not face criminal liability. An Assembly impeachment probe into these and other allegations is also ongoing and James' report led to renewed calls for Cuomo to resign from state lawmakers and other prominent elected officials Tuesday.

At the news conference, Kim said the governor’s actions and repeated sexualized comments towards state employees “were not isolated incidents” but rather “part of a pattern” that extended to workers outside of the executive chamber, including a state trooper on the governor’s protective detail. The trooper was one of 11 complainants in the report, and one of two whose complaints against the governor were previously unreported. “Some suffered through unwanted touching and grabbing of their most intimate body parts. Others suffered through repeated offensive, sexually suggestive or gender based comments,” Kim said. “A number of them endured both. None of them welcomed it. And all of them found it disturbing, humiliating, uncomfortable and inappropriate.”

“The governor's conduct detailed in the report clearly meets and far exceeds the standard” for gender-based harassment in the workplace, said Clark.

Among the complaints that were substantiated in the report were allegations made by Charlotte Bennett, who was previously an executive assistant in Cuomo’s administration. Bennett, who left the administration in November, came forward with her complaint just days after Boylan, saying the governor harassed her last spring by inquiring about her sex life and whether she had ever slept with older men. Bennett said she believed the governor was attempting to sleep with her. 

Cuomo responded to the report on Tuesday afternoon, denying the complaints in a livestream without taking questions from the press, though he did apologize for certain actions. “I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” he said. “I am 63 years old. I have lived my entire adult life in public view. That is just not who I am and that's not who I have ever been.” He specifically addressed Bennett’s complaint and apologized to her, though he dismissed her complaint as a misunderstanding of his intentions.

The governor also attempted to explain away another complaint from a woman who said he held her face and gave her an unwanted kiss on the cheek at a wedding, of which there is corroborating photo evidence. As he has repeatedly done since the allegations were first levelled, he said he has a habit of hugging and kissing people, both men and women, as gestures to show appreciation and friendship. “I now understand that there are generational or cultural perspectives that, frankly, I hadn't fully appreciated and I have learned from this,” he said.

He dismissed the claims that his office fostered a toxic work environment while also insisting that complaints against his top staffers, including Secretary of State Melissa DeRosa, smacked of sexism. “I have always said my office is a demanding place to work and that it is not for everyone," he said.

The report quickly triggered a flurry of calls for the governor's resignation from both sides of the aisle, including from President Joe Biden and prominent Democrats such as U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Thomas Suozzi, and Gregory Meeks, and State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

Biden had previously said in March that Cuomo should resign if the Attorney General's investigation confirmed complaints against him. "I stand by that statement," he said at a news conference on Tuesday.  

“No elected official is above the law,” said Schumer and Gillibrand in a joint statement. “The people of New York deserve better leadership in the governor’s office. We continue to believe that the Governor should resign.”

"Recognizing his love of New York and respect for the office he holds, I call upon the Governor to resign," Pelosi said in part in a statement.

“As I said, when these disturbing allegations first came to light, the governor must resign for the good of the state,” Stewart-Cousins said in a statement.

Notably, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, also a Democrat, did not directly call on the governor to step down. In a statement, he said the findings of the report were “disturbing” and the victims’ accounts were “gut-wrenching.” “The conduct by the governor outlined in this report would indicate someone who is not fit for office,” he said, noting that the report had been sent to the Assembly judiciary committee, which is conducting the impeachment inquiry into the governor. Heastie said the Assembly would undertake an “in-depth examination” of the report. “We will have more to say in the very near future,” he added.

State Senate Republican Minority Leader Rob Ortt said in a statement, “In the wake of another devastating report, now more than ever Andrew Cuomo must resign. If he fails to do so, the legislature must immediately reconvene to take action to remove him.”

The sexual harassment investigation is just one of the many scandals that have plagued the governor for months. The Assembly’s impeachment investigation is looking into both the sexual harassment complaints and the Cuomo administration’s mishandling of Covid-19 in nursing homes, among other issues. The nursing home issue is also the subject of a federal inquiry. Separately, Attorney General James is also investigating whether the governor misused state resources when writing and publishing his book released during the pandemic. 

On campus at CUNY (photo: @cunyedu)

The City University of New York, CUNY, is facing budget constraints, student enrollment questions, union demands, covid vaccination pressure, and other challenges as its long-awaited in-person reopening approaches. COVID-19 and the Delta variant that has been spreading in the city has heightened concerns about those reopening plans, while university leadership, faculty, staff, and students continue to plot and implement ways to improve the academic, economic, and mental health of the student body that has endured significant hardship over the past year-and-a-half.

In an announcement to faculty and staff on July 26, CUNY said it will be delaying its return to in-person work, which was previously scheduled for August 2, by two weeks, citing the need for additional time to prepare campuses for reopening.

With the August 16 staff return drawing near, the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY (PSC-CUNY) — which represents some 30,000 faculty and staff — is raising concerns about the state of CUNY facilities and advocating for additional safety measures to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 on campuses. And while a major influx of federal funds did come through, the city’s public university system is also dealing with concerns about city and state budget allocations amid a pandemic that devastated the entire city, its schools, economy, and more.

Each school’s reopening plan, made in accordance with university-wide policies and varying some among the campuses, must be approved by CUNY prior to the August 16 reopening date. Students are due back to campus in late August, and CUNY’s range of in-person, hybrid, and virtual classes officially begin on August 25.

All students attending fully in-person or hybrid in-person/online classes at any CUNY campus must submit proof of vaccination against COVID-19 by August 10, and unvaccinated students must opt for virtual courses only. Not all courses will be offered virtually, CUNY has said. CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez has urged faculty and staff to get vaccinated, but it is not required to return to the workplace.

“As I’m sure you are aware, Governor Cuomo announced this week that all CUNY and SUNY students will be required to be vaccinated to attend in-person classes in the fall,” Matos Rodríguez wrote in an update to faculty and staff in May. “That mandate does not include faculty and staff but getting vaccinated is the most important step that each of us can take to protect our collective safety moving forward.”

In an internal survey of nearly one-third of CUNY students, faculty, and staff, 59% of students, 87% of faculty, and 70% of staff report being fully or partially vaccinated as of early July. Sixteen percent of students, 3% of faculty, and 9% of staff indicated that they did not plan to get vaccinated, while another 8% of students, 7% of faculty, and 14% of staff said that they preferred not to answer if they were vaccinated.

“Put simply, getting the vaccine remains the single most important thing that we can do, individually and collectively, to advance and sustain our forward momentum,” Matos Rodríguez wrote in an update about the survey. “Everything about this pandemic remains situational and fluid, and all decision-making will continue to reflect the most up-to-date guidance from local, state and national public health authorities in the interest of safeguarding our community.”

Like many other colleges and universities across the country, CUNY has seen a recent decline in enrollment, especially troubling for a system that serves so many low-income New Yorkers and is a major engine for socio-economic mobility.

“There was a 5.1 percent enrollment dip in Fall 2020 compared to Fall 2019 reflecting nationwide impacts of COVID-19 on higher education,” a CUNY spokesperson wrote in an email to Gotham Gazette. “We don’t have Fall 2021 figures yet.”

On July 28, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the CUNY Comeback Program, which plans to eliminate $125 million in unpaid debt for at least 50,000 CUNY students. The program will also be distributing another round of student emergency grants for those who experienced financial hardships during the pandemic but did not accrue debt. CUNY has already distributed many of those grants funded through federal aid packages, such as over $230 million in relief to students.

“This compassionate action will allow CUNY students and recent graduates to move ahead in pursuit of their educational and career objectives without the specter of unpaid tuition and fees,” Chancellor Matos Rodríguez said in an announcement with the governor. “This landmark measure will also enhance CUNY’s important contributions to New York’s economic recovery.”

At a New York City Council oversight hearing in June, Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment management Denise Maybank reviewed CUNY’s various enrollment campaigns that target certain underrepresented demographics.

For example, in response to decreased enrollment of Black and Latino men, the university launched the CUNY Black Male Initiative to provide additional academic and social support to those traditionally underrepresented populations, according to Maybank.

Maybank also praised CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), which aim to help students get their associate degrees as quickly as possible and graduate at least 50% of students within three years.

CUNY’s Tutor Corps launched its summer 2021 program — formed with support from the Center for Youth Employment, Department of Youth and Community Development, and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City — in July of this year. In the program, high school and college students work as tutors and teaching assistants to middle schoolers in STEM classes across the city. More than 250 undergraduate students from CUNY’s 18 campuses are participating in the program this year, according to a University release.

“It’s a great thing for the seniors who graduated from the DOE,” Rodríguez said in a July 23 interview with Spectrum News on Friday. “It’s a way for our students to earn some money, have a sense of worth, and it gives the new students friends immediately in the new campus. So it’s a win-win for everybody”

During a July 6 CUNY Board of Trustees meeting, Rodríguez outlined CUNY’s budget for the 2022 fiscal year, which runs from June 30, 2021 to July 1, 2022. CUNY will have a total operating budget of $3.8 billion for its 25 different campuses and central offices. The budget is a $36.3 million, or about 1%, increase from the 2021 fiscal year. Most of CUNY’s revenue comes from tuition and state funding — some $753.8 million and $2.01 billion, respectively.

New York City also funds CUNY, largely the community colleges, though that fell some $67 million for the 2022 fiscal year. About 14% of CUNY’s budget consists of city funds, Matos Rodriguez said in the Board meeting. State support in the operating budget increased by 3%, or some $61.2 million, and CUNY’s federal aid totaled $691 million, an enormous pandemic-relief amount that has helped CUNY to aid students, pay faculty and staff, and prepare its campuses for a covid-era reopening.

Back to Campus
During the June 23 hearing held by the City Council’s Committee on Higher Education, the committee heard testimony from CUNY administrators, faculty, and students regarding CUNY’s return to in-person operation. The hearing largely centered on CUNY’s use of federal funds and Fall 2021 campus reopening plans.

“It is imperative that CUNY’s return to campus is not just about returning to business as usual,” said Brooklyn Council Member Inez Barron, who chairs the committee. “The university must be responsive to the heightened needs of its community as well as committed [to] closing the gaps exacerbated by the pandemic.”

As New York City emerged as a global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, some 270,000 students and 20,000 faculty members at the nation’s largest public university system began virtual and distance learning. The City Council hearing came just over a month before CUNY staff are expected to return to their workplaces for in-person operations.

“While the state has significantly relaxed COVID protocols…CUNY is committed to continue to increase in-person activities in a gradual and strategic manner that will ensure the continued health and safety of our community,” Hector Batista, CUNY’s executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer, said in his testimony.

In line with Governor Cuomo’s announcement that COVID-19 vaccines would be required for all students attending in-person classes, the CUNY Board of Trustees approved a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for all students registering for in-person classes for the upcoming Fall term. The mandate, which was approved in the July 6 Board meeting, requires that students get their final vaccination shot by August 10.

Daniel Lemons, interim executive vice chancellor and university provost, said in the June Council hearing that regardless of student vaccination requirements, there will still be mandatory weekly testing and masking requirements for all unvaccinated faculty and staff beginning in the fall.

“We’ll have a combination of testing and vaccines, but again the message is, and we’ve seen it with the rise of the variant, you know, please vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” Rodríguez said in the interview with Spectrum News on Friday.

CUNY has also launched a campaign to encourage members of the CUNY community to get vaccinated as soon as possible. The campaign, which is called #VaxUpCUNY, hopes to ease vaccine hesitancy and anxiety in communities of color particularly.

Students who are not vaccinated must show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test within seven days prior to visiting campus in order to access facilities and other services, according to CUNY’s vaccination policies.

“So we'll have this mixed population of vaccinated mostly and unvaccinated population on the campus,” said James Davis, PSC-CUNY president and an English professor at Brooklyn College, in an interview with Gotham Gazette. “And so in that circumstance we just want to really make sure that measures are being taken to prevent the introduction of the virus onto the campus and then the spread in case the virus does go on the campus.”

Another complication arises in the approval of different campuses’ reopening plans — though all reopening plans have been submitted to CUNY, not all of them have been approved, Davis said. Other campuses have been asked to revise and resubmit their reopening plans. The University has also agreed to allow labor unions to conduct walkthroughs of the facilities that their members will occupy.

“And the issue we're running into now is a kind of bottleneck between, on the one side, the approvals for the reopening plans are delayed longer than I think anyone wanted, and therefore our ability to accompany management on these pre-occupancy walkthroughs has also been delayed,” Davis said. “So we're just very concerned at this point about being able to conduct the walkthroughs with management, identify any potential issues or trouble spots and raise questions that we might have as a labor union, get timely responses and remediation, and have that all be done in time ...”

Ventilation standards, accommodations for remote work, and easily accessible reopening plans and inspection reports are among many of PSC-CUNY’s health and safety demands. At the City Council hearing, Diane Banks, chair of PSC’s health and safety committee and assistant professor of biological sciences at Bronx Community College, recommended funding to update and install HVAC systems in poorly-ventilated CUNY buildings, as well as a delay in the reopening of buildings that do not meet ASHRAE safety standards.

Jean Grassman, one of PSC’s lead coordinators for its Health and Safety Watchdogs committee and associate professor of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences at Brooklyn College, said in an interview with Gotham Gazette that the health and safety committee is concerned by CUNY’s campus entry policy.

“We would like to have CUNY require to show either vaccination status or indication of…a negative PCR test within the last seven days, or rapid tests within the last six hours,” Grassman said. “And they would like to do something more relaxed, which is the vaccination status, and then covid test within the last week, and that really worries us.”

Another concern, Grassman said, is the lack of a central mask requirement for all CUNY campuses in the fall. The idea that unvaccinated individuals will wear masks and adhere to an honor system is unworkable, she said, so PSC-CUNY is advocating for universal masking at all schools.

“Also, students will be on campus who aren't necessarily taking [in-person] classes,” Grassman said. “They come in to use the library, to, you know, do things with the bursar. Students may be taking remote courses, but they will extensively be coming onto campus, and if there is a relaxed system…they will be on campus and potentially infectious.”

Grassman said that PSC-CUNY’s list of demands are not excessive and necessary to ensure safety on campus. The union is not seeking a vaccine mandate for faculty and staff.

“We just don't want any rush into facilities that you know haven't really been cleared in terms of ventilation occupancy standards,” Davis said. “...There's going to be a lot of troubleshooting and we're just expecting it's going to be an iterative process and we'd like to see the University show some flexibility with their reopening targets.”

In the Friday interview with Spectrum News, Rodríguez emphasized that CUNY will be following the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control, the city, and the state as it resumes in-person work and learning.

“We’re always going to have to keep our ears close to the ground,” Rodríguez said. “I think we learned that in the last year. … Right now, the guidelines state that individuals who are vaccinated do not have to wear a mask. I mean that is their choice. But individuals who are not vaccinated do have to wear a mask. So far that’s the approach that we’re taking.”

“Treading Water”
In a June 15 op-ed in City & State, prior to the passage of New York City’s $98.7 billion “recovery budget,” as Mayor de Blasio called it, Chancellor Matos Rodríguez argued that rectifying demographic disparities in higher education and ensuring an equitable economic recovery from COVID-19 require investment in the city’s public education. Outlining CUNY’s important role in the city’s overall recovery, he urged the next mayor, which will likely be Democratic nominee Eric Adams, to restore any impending reductions to CUNY’s budget. Two weeks later, the City Council and de Blasio agreed to a budget for the next fiscal year that cut CUNY’s funding by $67 million.

CUNY, which has long been recognized as one of the most diverse university systems in the United States, has a student body that is 30% Hispanic, 25% Black, 23% White, and 21% Asian and Pacific Islander. According to the 2021 U.S. News & World Report rankings, CUNY campuses make up four of the top five most diverse regional universities in the country.

During the City Council hearing, Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome, a political science professor at Brooklyn College and University Faculty Senate representative, emphasized the importance of returning to campus with equity in mind. She suggested reforms ranging from job security for adjunct faculty and staff to increasing funding for ethnic studies programs.

“CUNY is involved in building human capital, and has been noted to be a powerful engine of socioeconomic mobility in our city, state, and country,” Okome said. “Now more than ever, it should be adequately funded, and it should be given the material conditions that it needs to succeed in its mission.”

Lemons said at the hearing that, in line with existing societal inequities exacerbated by the pandemic, many CUNY students who worked either full or part-time in the service industry were impacted by the wide-ranging layoffs at the onset of COVID-19.

“Such an immediate and unexpected loss of income was devastating for our students, many of whom are supporting a family while earning their degree,” Lemons said. “A survey revealed last year that over 40% had lost their jobs during the pandemic. In response, CUNY worked assiduously to secure and equitably distribute close to $118 million to 198,000 of our students through emergency relief funds through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security package, CARES.”

The CARES funding was followed by a second round of relief payments in early May, where CUNY distributed another $118 million in federal pandemic emergency funding to 161,000 of its students, according to its website. The funding had been secured through the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, and provided grants averaging $750 to aid student expenses. CUNY will also distribute additional federal funds to the majority of students during the upcoming fall term, Lemons said.

City Council Member Helen Rosenthal said during a period of questioning at the June hearing that the many messages she has received from CUNY students who cannot afford to return in the fall paint a different picture.

“What I’m hearing from students is the demand is overwhelming,” Rosenthal said. “And I’m not saying it’s easy and I’m not saying it’s a slam dunk, you know, y’all are doing God’s work, but this is part of the job. [It] is meeting all of these students' needs and meeting the moment.”

A third round of federal funding, secured through the American Rescue Plan Act, will provide CUNY with an additional $399 million in relief this year. Matos Rodríguez said in the July 6 Board meeting that they estimate about 10% of the funding was spent in the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The rest of CUNY’s federal relief funds — some $684 million over several packages — will be spent over the next two years.

In fiscal year 2022, according to the chancellor on July 6, CUNY plans to spend $136 million to cover projected revenue losses, $125 million on student support and retention, $20 million to ensure the safe reopening of campuses, $8 million for online program development, $5 million on mental health services, and $4 million on faculty professional development.

The $5 million for mental health services will be used to expand clinical staff at CUNY’s campus health and wellness centers and increase virtual counseling services, according to a University release.

Over the next two years, an additional $386 million of CUNY’s federal funding will be made available for CUNY colleges to create campus-specific proposals.

“We’re incredibly grateful and so fortunate that we’ve received these federal stimulus funds and we’ll have the use of them over the next two years,” Rodríguez said at the Board meeting. “But as I pointed out earlier, these are one-time funds and once we spend them, they’re gone. They’re not part of our baseline, ongoing budget.”

Rodríguez also said that in the 2021 third quarter financial report released in May, most of CUNY’s community colleges and several senior colleges showed structural deficits as a result of the pandemic.

CUNY Board member Henry Berger expressed frustration at the city and state funding for the upcoming fiscal year. The state funding is only enough to keep CUNY “treading water,” he said, and the city funding has also not done CUNY any favors.

“We got $67 million less from the city,” Berger said. “That comes out of our operating budget. We have to make that up. The only good news is that in the financial plan going forward, it’s proposed to be restored next year. This year, we’re still down $67 million. This means there’s pressure on all the campuses.”

The federal funds are great, Berger said, but they cannot be used for a lot of the things that CUNY’s operating budget requires. He suggested starting an organized campaign as soon as CUNY returns in the fall to make sure their voices are heard when state and city budgets are created in September and January, respectively. The state and city funding this year is very disappointing, Berger said, and CUNY has to work hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We have to get together,” Berger said. “It’s the Board, it’s the students, it’s the faculty, it’s the staff. If we don’t ask, we ain’t gonna get.”

Note- this article has been updated.