What's The [Data] Point? Episode 89 -- 2020 - De Blasio, Cuomo, & The Year Ahead, with Alyssa Katz & Laura Nahmias [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

Six weeks into the new year, Mayor de Blasio (now in his 7th year as mayor) and Governor Cuomo (in his 10th year as governor) have now given budget presentations and made "State of" speeches, outlining their agendas for the year ahead and starting to navigate a set of challenges. Two journalists -- Alyssa Katz of The City and Laura Nahmias of The Daily News editorial board -- who have covered de Blasio and Cuomo extensively joined the show to discuss their agendas and what's ahead.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think: Ben Max of GG (@TweetBenMax), Maria Doulis of CBC (@MariaDoulis). Listen below or download wherever you get your podcasts!

State Senator Myrie, middle, is pushing his online voter registration bill (photo: @SenatorMyrie)

Last year, the New York City Board of Elections hobbled a City Council effort to create an online voter registration portal for city residents, claiming it conflicted with state law. But the state Legislature may take steps to correct that situation this year by clarifying the law and allowing an online portal that would act as a test case for a statewide system slated to launch next year.

The New York City Council passed a bill, sponsored by Council Member Ben Kallos, in late 2017 that mandated that the Campaign Finance Board build an online portal to expand access to voter registration. Currently, the state only allows online registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles website and requires an official DMV driver’s license, permit, or non-driver ID. This effectively shuts out many New York City residents who rely on mass transit and do not have a DMV-issued document.

The CFB created the portal and was ready to launch it in June of last year. It would have allowed residents to fill out the form online, with an electronic signature, and the CFB would then transmit the information to the City Board of Elections for processing. But a week before the site was to go live, the BOE added an additional hurdle that essentially negated the purpose of the portal – commissioners voted that, after receiving a form from the CFB, the BOE would mail the form to the potential voter, who would then have to return it with their physical signature. The process would have been slower than mailing in a registration form.

At the time, the State Board of Elections’ Democratic and Republican commissioners had contradictory positions on whether signatures collected electronically would be acceptable under state law, even though a legal opinion from the state attorney general’s office had already put that question to bed in 2016. This year, legislation sponsored by Brooklyn State Senator Zellnor Myrie, chair of the Senate’s elections committee, and Bronx Assemblymember Michael Blake seeks to clarify state law and give the city the necessary authorization to begin collecting registration forms electronically.

The law would go into effect immediately and would be repealed 90 days after a statewide registration system becomes operational. The registration deadline for this year’s April 28 presidential primary is April 3. The deadline to register for the June 23 state and congressional primary is May 29, and the deadline to register for the November 3 general election is October 9.

“An online voter registration system that all New Yorkers can access is long overdue,” said Amy Loprest, executive director of the CFB, in a statement. “This legislation will make it easier for millions of city voters to register and vote in this critical election year.”

Though the bill has not moved in the Assembly, it was passed by Myrie’s Senate committee last month and he is hoping to see it approved by the full Senate and Assembly as soon as possible. “Time is of the essence,” he said in a phone interview, stressing the importance of launching the portal in a presidential election year when turnout is massive, with this year’s expected to be even moreso. “It allows for the state to see how this system rolls out.”

Neither Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s nor Assemblymember Blake’s office provided comment on the status of the bill in their chamber.

A trial of online voter registration by New York City would help inform the state’s effort, Myrie noted. Last year’s state budget included legislation that ordered the state BOE to create an online voter registration system for the entire state by January 2021. Once that system takes effect, it will supersede the city’s.

“As we have seen the national discussion hit a fever pitch, there will be many folks interested in registering and getting engaged in their democracy and we want to make that as easy for them as possible,” Myrie said.

He pointed out that it will require few resources and would barely be a burden for the Board of Elections. “This is not a labor-intensive endeavor,” Myrie said. “This is a system that has already been built, that has already been designed. Let's give the city the authorization to have it up and running. And then we can see whether or not the state should adopt it as a model statewide.”

Myrie seems to have the support of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. "We are committed to making it easier for eligible New Yorkers to vote, that is why this session we built upon the historic voting reforms of last year by making improvements to early voting and passing automatic voting registration. We look forward to reviewing this bill as a Conference to ensure it works as intended,” said Senate Majority spokesperson Mike Murphy, in a statement.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is also a supporter of the online voter registration effort and was critical last year of how the BOE meddled in it. “The City Board of Elections should allow the CFB’s online voter registration system to roll out immediately, so thousands of New York voters can register this year for the critically important 2020 elections,” said Luis Feliz Leon, a spokesperson for DemocracyNYC, the office the mayor launched to improve voter participation in the city, among other things. “The Administration appreciates that the Legislature is taking a close look at this issue.”

BOE spokesperson Valerie Vazquez said in a text message, “No comment on pending legislation.”

“New York City’s online voter registration system is ready to go for all the people who are inspired to vote in the presidential election and the coming primaries,” said Council Member Kallos, in a brief phone interview. “Thank you to State Senator Zellnor Myrie for getting this done in the Senate and we’re looking to the Assembly to get it done and the governor to sign it in time to enfranchise a whole generation of voters in time for the presidential election.”

the Mayor, the NYPD & cameras (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)

In response to an increase in reported anti-Semitic hate crimes and violent attacks, New York City and State are simultaneously implementing a permanent increase in surveillance in several predominantly Orthodox Jewish communities.

The new surveillance technology -- including 100 new NYPD cameras and state-funded cameras and license plate readers -- comes after high-profile attacks in Jersey City and Monsey in the final weeks of 2019 and a multi-year increase in reported hate crimes, many of them anti-Semitic. Amid calls from Haredi leaders for a heightened police presence and a corresponding vow from government officials to protect the physical safety of Jews, a robust public response to growing anti-Semitism has particular resonance 75 years after the Holocaust.

But this specific response also shines a light on the movement toward mass surveillance by both government and private actors, still considered Orwellian by some but accepted as part of modern life by others. Civil rights advocates and other government watchdogs are questioning the proportionality of responding to contemporary fears with a permanent security apparatus that could have other applications now and in the future.

Speaking at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio affirmed the city’s commitment to protect Jews.

“We confront [anti-Semitism] by doing the things that so many nations never did. We take our police force, we take our security forces, and we put them in the Jewish community to protect our people. That is what we must always do,” he said. He described the “cold feeling” of considering how few the non-Jews were who acted against the intolerance that foreshadowed genocide of 17 million people, including 6 million Jews.

The recent surge in anti-Semitism has faced lawmakers and residents with the question of what it means in the 21st century to stand with the Jewish community, especially those who are more easily identified as Jewish (either because they wear traditional attire or live in certain concentrated communities). In response, the city and state have each taken a combination of short- and long-term approaches, including education, reconciliation, and, most immediately, security.

According to NYPD data, anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 26 percent in 2019, and 86 percent between 2015 and 2019, doubling the rise in total hate crimes. The high concentration of violent incidents in December -- including a triple homicide at a kosher deli in Jersey City and a knife attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey -- have ignited calls to action at virtually every level of government.

In January, de Blasio reported the NYPD would be installing 100 new police cameras in Williamsburg, Crown Heights, and Borough Park -- three neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations -- as part of an effort to prevent and punish hate crimes. Days later, in response to the Monsey attack, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he was directing up to $680,000 in state funds for security cameras and license plate readers in Monsey and New Square, two Orthodox Jewish enclaves in Rockland County (the Monsey attacker was tracked to Manhattan and caught partially using a license plate reader).

“An attack on the Jewish community is an attack on all New Yorkers. These new security cameras will increase the NYPD’s visibility into these neighborhoods, and help our officers on the ground keep New Yorkers safe,” de Blasio said in a statement. One hundred and fifty additional police officers are now patrolling those streets, he said.

“This new technology will enhance security in vulnerable communities and serve as a deterrent for future attackers,” Cuomo said on January 13 when he allocated new funding to “harden” surveillance in the two hamlets. He also deployed more state police to patrol in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods throughout New York.

Representatives of Cuomo and de Blasio, both Democrats, told Gotham Gazette the new cameras and license plate readers would be permanent.

Asked by email whether there were plans to review the need for cameras in the future, like in the event of a downturn in anti-Semitic violence, mayoral spokesperson Olivia Lapeyrolerie wrote, “these cameras will be permanent.”

A spokesperson for the state police responded: “License plate readers (LPRs) are permanent installations that are employed by a number of state and local police and public safety agencies all over the state.” A spokesperson for Cuomo later clarified that the same is true of the additional security cameras.

While leaders of Orthodox Jewish communities have praised the measures, the permanent increase of government surveillance, especially in faith-based communities, has raised flags for civil liberties watchdogs.

“We shouldn’t engage in the business of dispensing with our privacy and security in some ways in order to gain a measure of comfort in others,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, in an interview with Gotham Gazette.

"I think we always need to balance the use of technology and government monitoring in a way that respects people's civil liberties,” said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, responding to a question at an unrelated press conference Tuesday. He said the city should avoid “doing anything in a dragnet-type of way, which we have seen happen in this country."

"But at this moment in time, I do think it's appropriate that we should be using our resources to protect neighborhoods across New York City that have been targeted with anti-Semitic violence and I am proud that the City of New York are taking those steps." he added.

A response to rising anti-Semitism -- mostly measured by an upswing in reported hate-motivated vandalism, with several violent assaults -- the efforts are also part of a decades-long proliferation of video surveillance, both from government and private entities, which has accelerated since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Security cameras are now ubiquitous throughout the city, forming a network of NYPD and private devices, which are often used to conduct police business whether involving counterterrorism or not. The mayor recently visited the new Homelessness Joint Command Center in Lower Manhattan, where multiple city agencies now monitor homeless people living on the street using dozens of police cameras in an effort to reach unsheltered New Yorkers more quickly.

Surveillance as Security
Civil liberties advocates have for years raised alarms about the dearth of information about how the cameras are used, especially by the police. With the expansion of artificial intelligence and biometric surveillance, like facial recognition technology, new questions arise about the power to monitor individuals and groups.

Civil rights advocates are concerned about the potential for abuse.

“There are significant unanswered questions that have to be asked in conjunction with the mounting of a massive video surveillance network in any community,” Lieberman said.

She listed examples: “What happens to the footage that is captured on video? Who has access? How long is it stored? Is it shared? Is it safeguarded in any way? And what kind of security is in place to protect against the wrongful use of this footage?”

“This is important because whatever benefits are anticipated, video surveillance doesn’t just capture the images of people who want to be on camera or who are engaged in wrongdoing. It captures everybody who goes by, and that is probably hundreds of thousands of people a month,” Lieberman added.

"It's something that the city of New York should be mindful of when we are putting in technology like this, how often do we check and see if it's necessary to be there? Do we want it to be there for 10 years, 20 years, 25 years,” Johnson said Tuesday.

While civil rights concerns are being played out in public debate, Orthodox Jewish leaders on the ground are seeking guarantees for their communities’ protection by the city and state.

“The handful of people who have criticized the increased police presence within the Orthodox Jewish community, guess what, they don’t live in those communities. So I laugh at that,” said David Greenfield, who formerly represented Borough Park in the City Council, in a recent interview on the Max & Murphy podcast. “People want more police presence, they want more safety, they want more visibility, they want more deterrence and more of an ability for the police to respond quickly to these crimes that are happening.”

Asked whether the de Blasio administration believed mass surveillance was necessary for keeping all New Yorkers safe, and whether that is the direction the city as a whole is moving, Lapeyrolerie said that ship has already sailed: “There are security cameras all over the City – whether operated by the NYPD, MTA or private buildings.”

Other Approaches to Rising Anti-Semitism
Hate crimes rose 20 percent from 2018 to 2019 and anti-Semitic ones rose 26 percent even as crime in other categories fell, the NYPD reported this January. Of the 428 hate crimes reported in 2019, 234 of them were considered anti-Semitic. A vast majority of those hate crimes are categorized as “aggravated harassment,” including the drawing of swastikas, which were up by 55 incidents from 2018 to 2019, according to Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri.

At the state level, statistics released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services show that anti-Jewish hate crimes, either against a person or property, have remained relatively flat since 2013, increasing less than five percent from 2017 to 2018, the last year data is available.

In addition to the new security technology and deployment of state police patrols, Cuomo has made $45 million available in security grants up to $50,000 for certain faith-based institutions, like schools and community centers ($25 million has already funded 500 projects since the start of the program in 2017, according to a press release). The governor has proposed another $25 million in his executive budget for next fiscal year, which would be available to a larger list of institutions, including houses of worship. He has also proposed designating certain hate crimes as acts of domestic terrorism, more school curriculum on diversity and tolerance, and expanding the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City to help facilitate school and other visits.

In New York City, the NYPD increased patrols and installed spotlights in some Brooklyn neighborhoods, and created the new Racially and Ethnically Motivated Extremism unit to investigate organized hate groups. In September, de Blasio launched the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, which is already rolling out programming. The mayor is also launching inter-community “safety coalitions,” and directing the Department of Education to develop “hate crime awareness programming,” according to a recent press release.

And in the face of rising hate crimes, Cuomo, de Blasio, and others across the political spectrum have proposed revisiting bail reforms passed by the state Legislature in 2019. Those calls have been characterized by many as fear-mongering and based on tenuous connections, largely unsupported by NYPD data.

How Involved are Communities?
Lapeyrolerie said the city’s first 30 new cameras will be deployed by March “based on NYPD’s security analysis,” which would include looking at sites with frequent incidents of graffiti, for example. According to a press release, the remaining 70 cameras will be installed with the input of community members.

“We are finalizing what our community engagement process will look like, but will endeavor to ensure the process is inclusive,” Lapeyrolerie said.

Two weeks after announcing the new cameras, the mayor’s office announced the formation of three “anti-hate crime neighborhood safety coalitions,” operating in the same neighborhoods, modelled on other anti-violence programs in the city. When asked, Lapeyrolerie did not say whether these coalitions would be involved in placing the remaining 70 cameras.

The state is less forthcoming with information about where exactly the new tech will be and what it will monitor. “Information on location strategy will not be divulged as it is a police matter,” the state police spokesperson wrote.

Wherever they are located, it’s clear the license plate readers have the capacity to capture broad swaths of information. According to a press release from the governor’s office, “This technology automatically captures all license plate numbers that come into view, along with the location, date, and time. The data, which includes photographs of the vehicle, is then uploaded to a central server and relayed to police agencies across a wide area.”

In terms of access to NYPD footage, department spokesperson Al Baker told Gotham Gazette the NYPD stores footage for 30 days “unless video is required as part of an investigation” and “video access is permission-based.” He did not provide details on how to gain permission and who has the ability to grant it. In terms of safeguards for the wrongful use of footage, Baker wrote in an email: “Internal NYPD access is controlled by user permissions,” with footage watermarked with the permitted user’s name.

While they may help, it is hard to prove cameras deter hate crimes, but they may make it easier for police to catch perpetrators. The NYPD does not have a particularly high arrest rate for hate crimes, at just over 40 percent, as Gotham Gazette previously reported.

Whatever their potential value, advocates want to see protections accompany the use of police surveillance technologies.

“The fear is legitimate that between government and private surveillance, our lives are an open book there for the picking...because the safeguards are so absent,” Lieberman said.

"I think that for people who believe that, ‘Well, if you haven’t done anything wrong what do you have to hide?’ -- all we have to do is take a look at the corruption at the highest levels of government to know that we all have enormous cause for concern when a combination of government and private actors is tracking our every move," she said.

(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Mayor Bill de Blasio made his annual trip to Albany on Monday to testify before the state Legislature on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget proposal, which is $178 billion for the 2021 fiscal year, and urged lawmakers to help prevent what he called nearly $1.4 billion in potential funding “cuts” to the city that could result largely from a proposed overhaul of the state Medicaid program.

Testifying before the joint fiscal committees of the State Senate and Assembly over the course of two-and-a-half hours, the mayor issued dire warnings about how Cuomo’s budget proposal would affect New York City and fielded pressing questions from lawmakers about a range of issues including the city’s special education services and property tax system, the impact of recent criminal justice reforms, and more. Facing two Democrat-controlled chambers, it was a mostly friendly reception for the mayor and there were few areas of disagreement with lawmakers.

Naturally, the issue at the center of the mayor’s testimony was the governor’s proposed Medicaid overhaul. “The cuts in this year's executive budget are of a magnitude we have never seen before,” de Blasio said. “These cuts would be nothing less than devastating for everyday New Yorkers.”

In reality, de Blasio’s $1.4 billion in threatened state “cuts” to the city is a combination of cost-shifts, less-than-expected funding increases, and actual programmatic aid cuts. And within that number is a disagreement between the de Blasio and Cuomo administrations about how to quantify the potential fiscal risk to the city from the governor’s Medicaid proposal, which the governor’s office says is far less than the mayor’s is asserting, even if fully realized. Like all of the executive budget, the details will be the subject of negotiation between the governor and the Legislature ahead of the April 1 deadline for the new state fiscal year.

With the state confronting a $6.1 billion budget gap, mostly from rising Medicaid spending, the governor this year is seeking to implement drastic changes to how the state assumes the cost of Medicaid for municipalities. He reconvened a Medicaid Redesign Team to find $2.5 billion in savings and also proposed that localities that exceed a 2% property tax cap (which doesn’t apply in New York City) and where Medicaid spending grows past 3% annually must pay for the entire cost above that growth rate. For the city, where the Medicaid growth rate was about 7% last year, that would mean a $1.1 billion cost increase over the $5 billion the city already spends annually, according to the de Blasio administration (according to the governor’s office, the full liability for the city is only $221 million).

De Blasio sought to drive home the negative consequences of that move, noting that the proposals this year alone would eclipse the cumulative $1 billion in cuts, cost-shifts and unfunded mandates that the city has absorbed from the state in the last six years. “We need your help more than ever before,” he pleaded to legislators, worried that if the MRT does not find the requisite savings, it could translate to further cost-shifts and outlining for lawmakers what some of the projected impacts could be, from closed health care facilities to reduced public hospital system staff.

Additionally, he said the state budget proposal leaves the city with shortfalls of $136 million in school aid from the city’s expected increase and $100 million over two years through a 5% cut to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (which was already cut by 10% last year). “These cuts year after year are adding up and are going to take away our basic capacity to serve people,” he said.

The governor's office sought to later refute the mayor's testimony point by point. Freeman Klopott, a spokesperson for the Division of Budget, said in an email that over the years, local Medicaid costs taken on by the state and school aid sent to the city totalled about $27.8 billion in additional support, rather than a $1 billion cumulative cut as the mayor claimed. He also noted that the proposed budget increases school aid to the city by $224.4 million and that there is no cut to the TANF program (the state will pay 85% of the program and the city will pay 15%). 

“The mayor used his time on the soapbox to misinform the public about our Medicaid reforms," said Robert Mujica, state budget director, in a statement. He said the MRT "will bring spending in line with targeted growth while ensuring 6 million New Yorkers maintain the same high-quality care they have now. The Mayor’s solution to raise taxes and increase spending without any accountability is a recipe for fiscal instability and inefficiency in a program charged with caring for the most vulnerable among us, and that’s unacceptable. Also, he claimed he hasn’t raised property taxes – and no New Yorker believes that one."

De Blasio however painted a grim portrait of the results of the city having to take on another $1.4 billion in spending – it would not only jeopardize New York City Health+Hospitals, the public hospital system that the administration pulled back from the verge of bankruptcy, but would also necessitate broader cuts to services the city provides. “This would literally set us back years,” he said.

The city would have to consider the closure of 19 neighborhood clinics that serve 140,000 city residents and lay-offs for 1,300 doctors and nurses; they may have to eliminate both the Summer youth Employment Program which enrolls 70,000 young people and the COMPASS after-school program which serves 120,000 students. What de Blasio did not acknowledge is that the city’s own fiscal picture, with flush coffers even as the mayor has drastically increased city spending during his tenure, would likely allow it to make up for even the worst-case scenario, though potentially exhausting a good chunk of the city’s surplus and fairly robust reserves. The mayor has insisted that the city needs to keep those reserves at significant levels to be prepared for an economic recession or unexpected catastrophe, not to help the state balance its books.

De Blasio particularly pushed back against Cuomo’s suggestion that the growing Medicaid costs are because localities lack the incentive to find savings – the governor called it “blank check syndrome” in his budget presentation – as the mayor noted that the state controls the program while localities simply act as “enrollment agents” for Medicaid. “The state of New York sets the rules. The state of New York sets the rates,” de Blasio said, while stressing that the city is ready to work with the state to identify any efficiencies possible.

The mayor proposed three solutions. He called on the MRT to work with localities to find savings (the mayor said the city had identified as much as $260 million in basic efficiencies, building on $180 million that the city has already saved the Medicaid program over three years). Notably, the governor did not include any city representatives on the MRT. De Blasio also said the state should revise the “artificial restraint” of the Medicaid Global Cap that sets limits on how much spending on the program can increase; and he pushed for increasing taxes on the wealthy to raise revenue rather than risk cutting health care services or Medicaid enrollment.

Legislators all seemed to agree with the mayor that the governor’s Medicaid proposal would either bankrupt localities or severely curtail services and lead to New Yorkers losing their healthcare.

The mayor did have some praise for the governor’s budget proposal, welcoming legislation on legalizing e-bikes and e-scooters, and recreational adult-use of marijuana, though he called for a dual licensing structure that would give the city some control over the system and for a greater degree of “economic justice,” which has been the source of some challenges in negotiations among Cuomo and the Legislature.

The hearing was, of course, also an opportunity for the mayor to ask the Legislature to fund various initiatives and to pursue non-budgetary policy goals. Hat in hand, he quickly ran through a list of requests.

He asked for more funding to fight homelessness and called for the passage of the Home Stability Support bill that would increase the value of rental vouchers for low-income residents and would keep about 25,000 people in their homes, he said. He pushed for more transparency in the MTA’s $51.5 billion 2020-2024 capital plan, which calls for a $3 billion contribution from the city that de Blasio has yet to agree to. He pointed out that $2.5 billion already sent to the MTA from the city under the previous capital plan had yet to be spent and that the agency has completed only 30% – 380 out of nearly 1,300 – of the projects approved in 2015.

As he continues to try to restore and rehabilitate the crumbling housing stock of the New York City Housing Authority, he asked the state to pitch in another $2 billion.

The mayor also raised several proposals that he unveiled in his State of the City speech last week. He called for authorization to levy a storefront vacancy tax and pushed the Legislature to start considering the preliminary recommendations of a city commission on property tax reform (the mayor praised those recommendations and said that after more public dialogue a final set will be available soon). He also pushed for the passage of new renter-friendly legislation including universal renter protection for the 2.5 million New Yorkers who live in non-regulated apartments and measures to regulate security deposits.

De Blasio also repeatedly aired his concerns about reforming the state’s bail reform law that went into effect this year. The mayor has said the law should give judges more discretion to assess the potential dangerousness of a defendant before deciding whether to set bail. He ascribed a recent uptick in crime last month in part to the effects of the bail reforms, though such a direct relationship isn’t matched by evidence. While that concern was shared by some legislators, Senator Robert Jackson, a Manhattan Democrat, implored the mayor to be more patient, noting that it has been less than a month-and-a-half since the reforms became effective. “Give it a chance to work. That’s what I’m asking,” Jackson said. De Blasio said that the good effects of the law would remain under his proposal for change, though critics say adding judicial discretion would lead to many more defendants, mostly people of color, being locked up pre-trial.

The mayor did have to defend his administration on certain fronts. Senators Jackson and Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat, pushed him to explain the city’s apparent failure to provide sufficient services for students with special needs.

Senator Diane Savino, a Staten Island Democrat, tried to dissuade him from pursuing a vacancy tax that she said would be burdensome on small businesses that are already struggling with the city’s regulatory framework. “Instead of looking for a culprit, perhaps we should have a more holistic approach,” she said.

The mayor emphasized though that his approach is not meant to be punitive. He reiterated the many proposals in his State of the City aimed at helping small businesses, including committing a $500 million investment in local businesses from the city pension fund, continuing to reduce fines, and providing low-interest loans and free legal assistance.

Assemblymember Robert Carroll, a Brooklyn Democrat, urged de Blasio to significantly expand screenings and programming for dyslexic youth, saying that such efforts would have a major impact on student reading and overall progress. De Blasio said he would look more closely at the issue.

Some of the lawmakers were dubious of the recent property tax commission’s preliminary recommendations, which are meant to reduce various inequities in the current system.

Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis, a Staten Island Republican, urged the mayor to impose a 2% property tax cap, which is in place everywhere outside the city, while the commission completes its work. Senator James Gaughran also asked the mayor to consider keeping within the cap as a means to control Medicaid spending similar to other localities. As he has done each year, de Blasio said that such a cap is not in the city’s plans or interests.

“The recommendations sound great but I don’t know how workable they are,” said Senator John Liu, a Queens Democrat. Assemblymember Tremaine Wright, a Brooklyn Democrat, expressed similar reservations, specifically citing concerns about the bills that many homeowners of color in neighborhoods that have rapidly gentrified may have to pay under a new system.

Emphasizing that the commission’s proposals are only preliminary, de Blasio said he would take their feedback into consideration as the process moves ahead, adding, “We’re trying to come up with something that will address the reality of the whole city.”

Note - This article has been updated with comment from State Division of Budget director Robert Mujica. 

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

The week begins with a great deal of attention on the shootings of two NYPD officers in separate weekend incidents in the Bronx, allegedly committed by the same assailant. Both officers, one who was sitting in an NYPD van and the other who was in an NYPD precinct house, are in stable condition (the officer shot on Saturday night was released from the hospital on Sunday).

NYPD officials and others are calling the shootings assassination attempts and tying them to recent anti-police protests, during which protestors vandalized subway stations and called for violence against police officers. The exact motives of the shooter, suspected of being the one to pull the trigger in both incidents and reportedly an individual with a long criminal record including violent incidents and paroled in 2017, are not evident at this time. In separate press conferences on Saturday night and Sunday morning, Mayor de Blasio addressed the shootings and called violence against police officers an attack on all New Yorkers.

The week also begins amid an ongoing feud between Governor Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump over the Trusted Traveler Program. As the two continued trading comments and accusations, Cuomo was in Washington D.C. on Saturday and Sunday to attend the 2020 National Governors Association Winter Meeting. While there, he gave remarks to the association and, in a separate event, interviewed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in front of a live crowd.

There’s a great deal happening this week, both locally and beyond, including the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday. In Albany, state legislative budget hearings will continue this week, starting with Mayor de Blasio’s testimony on Monday.

In the city, the City Council has a busy week, including a Stated Meeting where bills will pass and new bills introduced. Among the legislation expected to pass is Council Member Brad Lander’s Reckless Driver Accountability Act.

There are many events to be aware of this week -- see our day-by-day rundown below. Also, this Friday (Feb. 14) is the deadline for New Yorkers who are already registered to vote to change their party affiliation and have it impact which party primaries they can vote in for the April presidential primary and June congressional and state legislative primaries.

***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, February 10
The New York State Board of Regents will hold its monthly meetings on Monday and Tuesday in Albany.

The State Legislature is in session on Monday in Albany. At beginning at 11 a.m., there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on local governments, led as usual by New York City, with Mayor Bill de Blasio testifying on Governor Cuomo’s executive budget proposal and the city’s state priorities. City Comptroller Scott Stringer and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will also testify, as well as leaders from other cities around the state. After de Blasio testifies he will hold a media availability, then meet privately with legislative leaders, according to his public schedule. In the evening de Blasio will appear in his usual Monday evening segment on NY1's Inside City Hall, in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

On Monday in Albany, the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials will host its annual legislative meeting. Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will be among those in attendance.

At noon Monday in Albany, Council Speaker Corey Johnson will deliver remarks at a press conference with a coalition of labor leaders.

At the City Council Monday:
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Transportation will hold a hearing on Council Member Brad Lander’s Reckless Driver Accountability Act, a piece of dangerous driving legislation expected to pass this week.
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts will hold an oversight hearing to share updates on the Build-it-Back Sandy Funding Tracker.
--At 10 a.m., the Committee on Immigration will hold an oversight hearing on the dismantling of the U.S. asylum system and its impact on immigrant New Yorkers. The committee will also hear a resolution from Chair Carlos Menchaca on “maintaining the availability of asylum-related protections for individuals and families with a well-founded fear of persecution due to domestic or gang-related violence.”
--At 11 a.m., the Committee on Economic Development will meet on two pieces of food policy legislation.
--At noon, the Committee on General Welfare will meet on several bills related to food assistance.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Public Safety will hear a bill sponsored by Council Member Mark Treyger on individualized responses to hate crimes. The bill “would require the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) to provide an individualized response to alleged violent hate crimes...provide information to the affected community within 24 hours of the occurrence of a violent hate crime when practicable…[and] notify the Mayor, the Speaker of the Council, the Public Advocate and the council member of the district in which a violent hate crime has occurred.”

At 7:30 a.m. Monday, Brooklyn Borough Adams will appear on Fox5’s “Good Day NY”; at noon outside 1 Police Plaza, Adams will hold a “solidarity press conference with business and elected leaders following attempted assassinations of NYPD officers in the Bronx’s 41st Precinct” - participants will include Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Staten Island Borough President James Oddo, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce President Jessica Walker, Council Member Fernando Cabrera, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and others; and at 5:30 p.m., Adams will appear on News12 Brooklyn’s “Ask the BP.”

At 11:30 a.m. Monday, the city’s Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop will appear on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show.

Tuesday, February 11
"On Tuesday, Mayor de Blasio will meet with World War II veteran Sidney Walton. This event is closed press. In the afternoon, the Mayor will sign Intro. 1785 to expand healthcare benefits to surviving family members of City employees who die in the line of duty or who die from a 9/11 illness. The Mayor will also sign Intros 420-B, 873-A, 891-A, 904-A, and 919-A to further reduce lead exposure in New York City. This event is open press. There will be no Q-and-A. Later, the Mayor will deliver remarks at a contract rally for 32BJ. This event is closed press."

At 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, the New York City Bar Association will hold a breakfast with New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Linda Lacewell, who will discuss the state of the New York insurance industry, the Department's accomplishments in the past year, as well as areas of regulatory concern.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the New York City Board of Corrections will hold its first public meeting of the year.

The State Legislature is in session on Tuesday in Albany. And at 9:30 a.m., there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on elementary and secondary education. New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is among those who will testify.

At the City Council on Tuesday:
--At 10 a.m, the Committee on Finance will hear a bill sponsored by Chair Daniel Dromm that “would authorize the Downtown Flushing Transit Hub business improvement district to increase the amount it expends annually, extend its boundaries, provide additional services and the modify of existing services, and change the method of assessment upon which the district charge is based as set forth in the BID’s amended district plan.”
--At 10:30 a.m. the Committee on Rules, Privileges & Elections is expected to approve the nomination by Mayor de Blasio of Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk as the next chair of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, moving the nomination to a full Council vote.
--At 11 a.m., Council Speaker Johnson, Council Member Brad Lander, other Council members, and safe streets advocates will rally outside City Hall to celebrate the impending passage of the Reckless Driver Accountability Act.
--At 1:30 p.m., there will be a full-Council Stated Meeting to pass and introduce legislation. Speaker Corey Johnson will host the usual pre-Stated press conference at 12:30 p.m.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks at the New York Immigration Coalition Legislative Breakfast in Manhattan.

At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will attend the lease-signing ceremony for Brooklyn Community Pride Center at Restoration Plaza.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Manhattan, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will delivers keynote remarks at the Cadwalader Black and Latino Association Event, discussing "Black History Month, the ongoing struggle for progress across a wide range of issues, and the work the office is undertaking."

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Brooklyn Historical Society will host “The Toxic City: Lead Poisoning and its Silent Attack on the Vulnerable.” The event will cover the history of lead poisoning in New York City and its impact on marginalized populations, particularly low-income communities of color. Speakers will include Matthew Chachère, activist in the fight against lead poisoning; Dr. Morri Markowitz, Director of Lead Poisoning Prevention and Treatment at Montefiore Children’s Hospital; and Cordell Cleare, candidate for City Council District 9. The discussion will be moderated by Christopher Werth, senior editor at WNYC who has recently broken important news about lead exposure in city schools.

Wednesday, February 12
The State Legislature is in session on Wednesday in Albany. And at 9:30 am., there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on public protection. At noon, the Senate Standing Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering will hold a meeting to discuss “the economic impact of the three unused downstate casino licenses.”

At 10 a.m., the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a public meeting.

At the City Council Wednesday:
--At 10 a.m., the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations will hold an oversight hearing on the closure of the Court Square Library.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Governmental Operations will meet on several bills.
--At 1 p.m., the Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions will meet.

At 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Civilian Complaint Review Board will hold its monthly meeting.

At 5 p.m., this week’s Max & Murphy show will air on WBAI radio, 99.5FM and wbai.org, and include a discussion of Mayor de Blasio’s 2020 agenda and the City Council’s recently-released plan to fight homelessness with Council Member Stephen Levin.

At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC) of the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a public meeting at which “NYC Votes and the VAAC will discuss plans to help naturalized citizens in New York City register to vote and mobilize get out the vote efforts in 2020 and beyond.”

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the New York League of Conservation Voters will hold a forum with Queens Borough President candidates, where they will be asked “where they stand on environmental and sustainability issues, including how the City can meet its 80x50 climate goals, improve access to clean transportation, and reduce waste,” among other issues. Candidates Costa Constantinides, Elizabeth Crowley, Anthony Miranda, and Donovan Richards are participating in the forum, which will be moderated by Katie Honan of the Wall Street Journal.

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, City Comptroller Scott Stringer will host “Trailblazers: Program and Award Ceremony in Honor of African-American History Month” at Long Island University in Brooklyn.

Thursday, February 13
Beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday, “Robin Hood will host its fourth annual No City Limits Conference, convening national leaders across sectors in the fight to increase economic mobility from poverty in order to spur innovative solutions and increase collective impact. In conjunction with Columbia University, Robin Hood will launch its Annual Poverty Tracker Study, which documents the dynamics of poverty and disadvantage in New York City. Following this, a series of panels, presentations and speakers will focus on addressing poverty through academic work, innovative research, and civic engagement.” Speakers will include Stacey Abrams, American politician and founder of Fair Fight, Fair Count; Esther Duflo, 2019 Nobel Laureate and Co-Founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT; Wes Moore, CEO, Robin Hood; Nicholas D. Kristof, Columnist, The New York Times and co-author, "Tightrope"; Alexis McGill Johnson, Acting President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America; and others.

At 8:30 a.m. Thursday, the Association for a Better New York will host a breakfast with Donna De Costanzo, Director, Eastern Region, Climate & Clean Energy Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). De Costanzo will “discuss her career path and her policy work addressing climate pollution, energy efficiency, renewable energy deployment, and clean transportation.”

The State Legislature is in session Thursday in Albany. And at 9:30 Thursday in Albany, the State Legislature will hold a joint budget hearing on economic development. And at 1 p.m., a joint budget hearing on taxes.

At 10 a.m. Thursday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a general meeting.

At the City Council Thursday:
--At 11 a.m., the Committee on Land Use will meet.
--At 1 p.m., the Committee on Civil Service and Labor will meet on two bills related to fast food industry employment.

At 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Spencerport, the Board of Regents is holding another in a series of public meetings about high school graduation requirements.

On Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Red Hook, the city Economic Development Corporation is hosting a community meeting on the proposed BQX streetcar.

Friday, February 14 & the Weekend
At 8:15 a.m. Friday, the Center for New York City Law will host a breakfast with Janet Sabel, Attorney-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer of Legal Aid Society, who will speak about “working towards justice one case at a time.”

Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday at 10 a.m.

Beginning Friday, it is New York State Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus weekend in Albany.

***
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 & Claire Del Sorbo
@GothamGazette

(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York City has experienced a remarkable and extended economic recovery since the devastation wrought by the global recession, with job growth continuing at levels higher than the state and the entire country, according to the latest report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. But the New York City Independent Budget Office, a fiscal watchdog agency, predicts that job growth in the city will sharply decline over the next two years across all private sector industries as the national economy begins to slow its pace of growth.  

“New York City is benefiting from the longest and largest job expansion since the end of World War II,” reads the new comptroller’s report, released Wednesday. Between 2009-2019, the city added 907,600 jobs, a 24.3% growth rate, compared to the state’s job growth of 14.5% and the country’s rate of 15.3%.

The massive addition of jobs – including as many as 87,200 in 2019 – came despite broad expectations that job growth would slow last year, as experts and watchdogs say the current economic expansion is inevitably slated to end. In 2019, the city had 4.6 million jobs, a record high, with unemployment at a historic low of 4.1% (down from 9.3% in 2009). The trend beats the previous record period of job growth between 1992 and 2000, according to the report. 

Following the recession, the city’s workforce and employment landscape has also diversified, with greater addition of jobs outside the financial and banking sector on which the city has been so dependent for employment and tax revenue. About 35,300, or 40%, of the jobs added in 2019 were in the health care sector (which, along with the state’s new $15 minimum wage, has ironically been one of the factors contributing to a $4 billion budget gap in Medicaid spending that the state faces). Business services (accountants, lawyers, programmers) and social assistance jobs came in second and third after health care in 2019 city job growth.

There were a few sectors of the economy that saw slower growth – for instance, construction – and even some that experienced moderate job losses, including full-service restaurants in the leisure and hospitality sector, and the securities industry in the financial sector. But the comptroller’s report predicts that jobs will continue to solidly grow in 2020.

The Independent Budget Office, however, predicts that job growth will slow significantly in 2020 and 2021. “Ours is forward looking, and that's retrospective,” said IBO Director Ronnie Lowenstein, of the two reports, in a phone interview, acknowledging that job growth has been “spectacular” in the last few years. “But we're anticipating that it's going to fall sharply.”

IBO’s forecast is based on the Federal Reserve’s larger national analysis, which sees growth falling to roughly 1.9% in 2020 compared to 2.3% for 2019, Lowenstein noted. “So the first thing that’s feeding into our more pessimistic forecast here is the fact that we’re expecting U.S. growth to slow, which is very much the mainstream forecast,” she said. It is remarkable to some that not only is the country, and the city, ten years into the recovery with sustained growth, but that the forward-looking discussion is about slower growth, not recession.

Specifically referring to the boom in health care jobs and business services, Lowenstein said that IBO’s outlook was a bit more wary. “Certainly we're not anticipating that they're going to be shedding jobs, but we firmly expect the rate of growth in these positions to kind of slow,” she said. “We're anticipating that we're going to stop adding so many of these jobs and that's going to really show up as a major dent in the numbers we’ve been enjoying.”

If these jobs contract, however, it may not have a significant impact on the city’s revenue, she said. New York City relies heavily on property taxes for revenue, and jobs in these sectors tend to be either part-time or lower pay than other industries. “All jobs are good but not each job contributes equally to the local economy,” she said, citing, for instance, jobs in the tech sector that carry much higher pay and therefore have a larger footprint on personal income tax revenue.

There are few signs of worry, Lowenstein said, as IBO projects that revenues will continue to be “reasonably robust” and will exceed projected city expenditure. Though the city budget has grown enormously under his tenure, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been cautious in increasing spending in his $95.3 billion preliminary budget proposal this year. “As part of the Administration’s strong fiscal management we make cautious tax revenue estimates, remain focused on savings, and maintain substantial budget reserves,” said mayoral spokesperson Laura Feyer, in an email. “Slowing job creation, noted by both the IBO and Comptroller, is factored into our current tax revenue forecasts.”

But, Lowenstein did note that IBO’s revenue forecast this year is “nearly identical” to the city’s Office of Management and Budget’s numbers, “which doesn’t happen very often.” OMB has, in the past, been more conservative in its revenue predictions, allowing more mayoral administration flexibility if more spending is required down the line.

“It's interesting that we're not seeing a lot of new revenues for the current fiscal year at this point,” she said. “Is that a warning flag? Yeah, I guess so. Either that or we’re really accurate this time around.”

Note - This article has been updated.

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

This week 

The week begins with anticipation of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2020 State of the City address, likely his next-to-last as mayor, which he’ll deliver on Thursday, but much of the week will be dominated by national politics. The Iowa caucuses, the first Democratic contest of the presidential election, are on Monday; President Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday; and impeachment proceedings will continue on Monday and Tuesday leading to the scheduled vote in the Senate on Wednesday.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo is likely to continue the rollout of his 2020 agenda. After having presented his State of the State and his executive budget, Cuomo has been re-announcing pieces one-by-one, at times at events. Cuomo made an appearance Saturday night at the Human Rights Campaign Greater New York gala, announcing that the state would be renaming Brooklyn’s East River State Park “after Marsha P. Johnson, a pioneer of the LGBTQ rights movement and a transgender woman of color,” which will mark the first New York state park named after an LGBTQ person, according to his office.

On Sunday, Cuomo held a press conference at his Manhattan office where he “announced the deployment of 26 bilingual mental health professionals and 25 state building inspectors to Puerto Rico to assist in the recovery efforts as the island continues to recoup from a string of devastating earthquakes. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will lead a delegation to Puerto Rico today along with the deployments and visit the towns of Peñuelas, Guayanilla and Yauco to tour earthquake affected areas. The deployments follow a series of initial damage assessments conducted by the Governor and his delegation during their trip to Puerto Rico on January 14 and 15.”

The two houses of the state Legislature, meanwhile, continue to hold joint hearings on the executive budget on individual areas like transportation and health.

The Legislature is in session on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week in Albany, with budget hearings also set for all three of those days.

But the week also begins with local and national officials dealing with the new Coronavirus. Mayor de Blasio and city health officials announced on Saturday the first suspected case in the city, with a patient who, according to the city health department, “recently traveled from China and presented with fever and cough or shortness of breath without another common cause, like influenza and other cold viruses, identified on testing. The individual, who is under-40-years-old, has been hospitalized at NYC Health + Hospital/Bellevue and is in stable condition. Testing to determine whether this is a confirmed case of the novel Coronavirus will take a minimum of 36-48 hours and depends on CDC testing capacity.”

De Blasio and other city officials spoke with the media on Saturday with an update, as outlined by the health department, which then followed up on Sunday saying “Two additional people in New York City have been identified for testing for the novel coronavirus. Both individuals, who are over 60-years-old, had recently been in mainland China and presented with fever and cough or shortness of breath without another common cause, like influenza and other cold viruses, identified on testing.” Both individuals are hospitalized, with tests sent to the CDC for completion within 48 hours.

During his Sunday press conference focused on assistance to Puerto Rico, Cuomo gave the latest state update regarding the new Coronavirus, saying that there were still no confirmed cases in the state, and that as of this afternoon, samples from 12 New Yorkers have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing, 11 of which had come back negative. Cuomo said there was one sample from New York City outstanding -- but that number then increased to three by the evening, per the city health department. “Additionally, today the Governor announced New Yorkers can call a hotline at 1-888-364-3065 where Department of Health experts will be available to answer questions regarding the Novel Coronavirus. The Department of Health has created a dedicated website as a resource for New Yorkers.”

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, February 3
The State Legislature is in session on Monday in Albany. And at 11 a.m. Monday, there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on mental hygiene.

At 9 a.m. Monday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will speak at a City College press conference. At 7:15 p.m., Brewer will speak at the Metropolitan Museum’s Lunar New Year celebration.

On Monday Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Secretary of State Rossana Rosado are leading a state delegation “to continue New York's efforts and support for Puerto Rico.”

At the City Council on Monday:
--at 10 a.m. the Committee on Criminal Justice will hold an oversight hearing on jail violence. [Read: Council to Examine Persistent and Growing Violence Plaguing City Jails]
--at 11 a.m., the Committee on Rules, Privileges, and Elections will consider Mayor de Blasio’s nomination of Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk as the next chair of the city Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will be among those to deliver remarks.

At noon outside City Hall, Council Speaker Johnson will join “Council Members, Advocates and Tenants to Call on Albany to Fund Public Housing, Enact Measures to Fight Eviction and Homelessness.”

At 10 a.m. Monday at Brooklyn Borough Hall, “Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will host a roundtable with community leaders and medical professionals to discuss the growing public health issue of Alzheimer’s dementia and developing comprehensive strategies for responding to the illness and its impact on elderly New Yorkers. There are currently 400,000 people in New York State with Alzheimer’s disease. In 2025, a projected 460,000 New Yorkers aged 65 and older will struggle with this disease, a crisis that will not only cause suffering for many people and families, but also place a major strain on public resources. The Borough President and other participants will discuss measures to raise awareness about the influence of community and lifestyle on brain health in collaboration with Drs. Sherzai's Healthy Mind Initiative.org.”

On Monday at 11::45 a.m. in Albany, “Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris will hold a news conference to announce new support for his anti-puppy mill legislation (S.4234-A). This will immediately follow a meeting of the Domestic Animal Welfare committee, which will consider the legislation.” Gianaris will be joined by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and other legislative sponsors, as well as advocates and dogs.

At 12 p.m., in response to Governor Cuomo’s New Year’s Eve announcement that he would enact One Fair Wage for all tipped workers except restaurant workers, women restaurant workers and their allies will “stage a mass public self-defense training in front of the Governor’s office in New York City to raise awareness of the problems resulting from the tipped minimum wage exception on restaurant workers, who face the highest levels of sexual harassment in any industry.” Speakers will include Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, playwright Eve Ensler, actresses and #TimesUp activists Alysia Reiner and Carmen LoBue, musician and social justice artist Taina Asili, and more.

At 1 p.m. Monday, the New York City Planning Commission will hold a review session.

On Monday at 5 p.m. in three different locations around the state, there will be public meetings held by the Board of Regents and State Education Department as part of an ongoing process “to gather feedback on what a state diploma should signify to ensure educational excellence and equity for every student in New York State. The meetings are an integral part of Phase I in the Board and Department’s review of graduation measures and will offer opportunities for stakeholders and members of the public to share input.” Monday’s meetings will be in Malone, Ithaca, and Harrison.

Mayor de Blasio will appear in his weekly segment on NY1’s Inside City Hall on Monday in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

Tuesday, February 4
The State Legislature is in session on Monday in Albany. And at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on higher education.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday in Albany, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will attend the New York State Public Employees Conference (PEC) 43rd Annual Legislative Breakfast.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals will hold a public meeting.

At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the Committee on Land Use will meet.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Museum of the City of New York will host the “Cultivating Culture in NYC” panel to discuss the challenges facing the city’s arts and cultural organizations today. Speakers include MCNY president Whitney A. Donhauser; Weeksville Heritage Center president and director Rob Fields; director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem Thelma Golden; and president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Daniel Weiss. The discussion will be moderated by former Cultural Institutions Group chairman John Calvelli.

Wednesday, February 5
The State Legislature is in session on Monday in Albany. And at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday there will be a joint legislative budget hearing on workforce, and at 1 p.m. on housing.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday, BetaNYC and the Mayor’s Office of Operations will convene over breakfast to discuss the newly created Algorithms Management and Policy Officer (AMPO) role within the agency. The AMPO “will regularly engage with the public and will work to ensure that fairness, transparency, human-centered design, and privacy protection are central to the use of algorithmic tools and systems that City agencies may use to support their decision-making.”

At the City Council on Wednesday: at 1 p.m. the Committee on Aging will hold an oversight hearing as a follow-up to the Unpaid Caregivers’ Comprehensive Plan and Report.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy show on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org, will feature interviews with 2021 mayoral candidates Dianne Morales and Loree Sutton.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the NYC Parks’ Ebony Society and Art & Antiquities will host a book talk with author Eric K. Washington on his book Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal. Washington will provide “an illustrated talk about the nearly forgotten life of James H. Williams (1878-1948), the former African-American chief of Grand Central Terminal’s iconic Red Caps. The mostly Harlem-based baggage porters once formed the essential labor force of America’s most august railroad station.”

Thursday, February 6
At the City Council on Thursday: at 10 a.m. the Committee on Small Business will hold an oversight hearing on “‘ghost kitchens,’ ‘virtual restaurants,’ and the future of the restaurant industry.”

At 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio will deliver his 2020 State of the City speech from the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the Center for New York City Affairs is hosting a seminar titled “Is School Integration Possible in New York City?” Speaker Clara Hemphill will “explore the historical roots of school segregation and the prospects for change in the country's largest school system.”

At 6 p.m. Thursday in Albany, the New York Civil Liberties Union will host a town hall on public school disciplinary measures and the school-to-prison pipeline.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation is hosting a community meeting on the proposed BQX streetcar on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, Queens Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato will be hosting a Commuters Town Hall with the leadership of the MTA NYC Transit Team.

Friday, February 7 and the weekend
At 8 a.m. Friday in Syracuse, the Business Council of New York State will host the CEOs Speak 2020 Conference. Guests will have the opportunity to “hear how your business colleagues are viewing the national and state-level forces shaping New York’s business climate and impacting company’s day to day operations.”Speakers include Business Council President Heather C. Briccetti, Director of the Siena Research Institute Donald Levy, and others.

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 & Claire Del Sorbo
@GothamGazette

(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York State voters who wish to cast their ballots in the upcoming April presidential primary and combined June congressional and state primary elections have until February 14 to enroll in the party of their choice.

New York holds closed primaries, where only voters registered with a party affiliation can vote for their party’s nominee to the general election. This system is designed to prevent so-called “party raiding,” where members of one party vote in another party’s primary elections to skew its results. But that also means that unaffiliated, sometimes called independent, voters without a party membership cannot vote in the primaries.

Many New Yorkers found that out the hard way in April 2016 when party-unaffiliated voters seeking to cast a ballot for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign complained of being turned away from the polls on primary day.

There were as many as 2.8 million independent registered voters in the state as of November 1, 2019, according to the latest State Board of Elections data; there were 6.5 million Democrats and 2.83 million Republicans statewide at the time as well.

Up until recently, New York also had one of the longest deadlines for changing party affiliation before being eligible to participate in the next party primary. Previously, registered voters without a party affiliation (or in a party they wanted to leave for another) who wanted to vote in the April 28, 2020 presidential primary would have had to file an application to change their enrollment by October 11, 2019. If they missed that deadline, their enrollment change would not have gone into effect till after the November 2020 general election, effectively shutting them out of the primary. But that was shifted to the February deadline, much to advocates’ approval.

Last year, the state Legislature under full Democratic control for the first time in a decade, took steps to correct the party-change deadline problem. A bill, signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in September, changed the enrollment deadline to February 14. Any enrollment changes and new enrollments filed before and on that day will take effect immediately, allowing people to vote in the April 28 presidential and June 23 congressional and state primaries.

This could allow many more New Yorkers a say in the competitive Democratic presidential primary, where the state’s April vote may or may not be important to crowning a victor in the crowded field. New York doesn’t vote until after many other states. But the changed deadline also gives more time for voters seeking to participate in what will be a long list of competitive Democratic or Republican legislative primaries come June.

“While the federal administration continues to look for new ways to disenfranchise voters across the country, in New York we are making monumental changes to break down more barriers to the ballot box and encourage more people to exercise this fundamental right,” Cuomo said in a statement when he signed the bill. “This measure will make it easier for New Yorkers to have their voices heard in presidential, congressional and state primaries, which builds upon the many reforms we've made to strengthen New York's election system and increase voter access once and for all.”

Subsequent party enrollment changes, filed between February 15 and June 30, will take effect on June 30, roughly a week after the congressional and state primary election.

New York voters can find relevant deadlines, forms, and processes at the State Board of Elections website registration page, and can check their current registration status, including party enrollment, via the BOE here.

Eligible New York voters who are not registered at all have until April 3 to register in order to participate in the April 28 presidential primary, and until May 29 to register to participate in the June 23 primaries.

Gov. Cuomo (photo: Governor's Office)

In his 2020 State of the State address, delivered January 8 in Albany, Governor Andrew Cuomo mentioned expanding the state’s child care tax credit as one of his policy priorities for the year, something he reiterated on January 21 when he outlined his budget proposal, which had to take into account the cost.

But that expansion of an existing policy is only one part of what is supposed to become a signature Cuomo initiative: an expansive child care agenda to benefit families across New York. A panel convened by Cuomo a little more than a year ago is working throughout this year to deliver proposals to the governor to act on in 2021, which will be the Democrat’s eleventh year in office.

After announcing that he was going to establish a task force in January 2018 as part of his Women’s Agenda that year, Cuomo in December 2018 launched the Child Care Availability Task Force, co-chaired by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and two relevant agency commissioners, and including the governor’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa. It is, according to the announcement, a team of “experts focused on developing innovative solutions that will improve access to quality, affordable child care in New York.”

The members include child care providers, advocates, representatives of the business community and relevant labor unions, as well as from state and local governments. Along with Hochul, the co-chairs are Sheila Poole, commissioner at the Office of Children and Family Services, and Roberta Reardon, commissioner at the Department of Labor.

According to the announcement, the task force will be examining “access to affordable child care, the availability of child care for parents with non-traditional work hours, statutory and regulatory changes that could promote or enhance access to child care, business incentives to increase child care access, and the impact on tax credits and deductions relating to child care.” 

Since its launch, the child care task force has been quiet publicly, but according to the initial announcement, final recommendations are due to the governor by the end of this year and Hochul told Gotham Gazette that the panel is headed toward meeting that deadline. It has been meeting regularly since its inception to discuss different potential models to present to the governor at the end of 2020, she said.

“It’s not just a family’s problem, but this is an economic problem for the state of New York,” the lieutenant governor told Gotham Gazette during a recent interview at her Manhattan office. A Democrat now in her second term, Hochul has talked about the need to implement policy statewide that increases access to child care for all New Yorkers but that working with the 10 Regional Economic Development Councils (REDCs) is key to ensuring policy is specific to each region’s individual challenges.

Over 60% of New Yorkers live in a child care desert, meaning more than 50 children under age five with no child care providers or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as licensed child care spots, according to a Hochul letter written last May and addressed to the REDCs, urging them to invest in child care. The REDCs were created by Cuomo to design and help implement economic development programming across the state, using billions of dollars of state funds, and are a key part of Hochul’s portfolio.

In that letter, Hochul asked “each Council to consider the child care needs of your region and the unique barriers families face in your decision making. The Council can address the issues that impact businesses including chronic absence, productivity reductions, and turnover due to inadequate options for child care.”

Round nine of the REDC initiative listed “working with local businesses and communities to identify childcare needs and develop potential solutions.” During this round, which was awarded in December 2019, just under $8.8 million was given to 16 projects statewide for direct childcare projects, and almost $7.4 million was awarded to an additional four projects that have a child care component, according to the 2019 awards. The projects are mainly infrastructure based, including expansion of a Tompkins County facility that will “accommodate increased child care” and renovating a Syracuse property “into a light manufacturing facility and day care center,” among other projects.

In terms of next steps, Hochul said the task force will be holding public gatherings to glean more information about effective programming.

“I want to go into areas where we have identified through our diverse group of partners who are on our commission, let me get into a community that are doing something innovative,” Hochul said. “Let them come to us and tell us what they’re doing, what it takes to scale it up, what other assistance they would need from the state, and whether it makes sense for the governor to be considering it in his next set of policy recommendations.”

The task force last met in person on December 16 and 17 at the New York State Office of Children and Family Services Human Services Training Center in Rensselaer. At the meeting they discussed “access and affordability of child care, along with how child care ties into economic developments and the workforce,” a representative from the lieutenant governor’s office said in an email. The next meeting, originally eyed for this week, will likely be scheduled for late February.

“New York has a child care system in crisis,” said Larry Marx, CEO of The Children’s Agenda and member of the state’s Child Care Availability Task Force, in an interview. “Hundreds of thousands of New York’s working families often have to choose between dropping out of the workforce and losing income or taking care of their kids at home.”

With challenges around availability, cost, and more, child care has become an increasingly central topic of focus in public policy discussions over the last few years. Data released recently from the New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals (NYATEP) in the State of the Workforce Report shows that for the first time, the cost of child care exceeds housing as the single greatest expense for families. The report shows that “infant care for one child would consume 22.1% of a median family’s income.” This number increases to 66.7% for low-wage workers.

While crafting the report, NYATEP Executive Director and Co-Founder of Invest in Skills NY, Melinda Mack, said that as they “went across the state and looked at employers and employees and one of the things that continued to come up was the lack of child care.” This was the impetus for looking at child care more closely.

As an expert on workforce development, she said one of the main things that employers can do, and that she hopes comes from the recommendations of the governor’s task force, is for creative solutions beyond subsidies.

One policy that could go a long way is flexibility in traditional shift hours, allowing for employees to drop off or pick up their children as needed. According to Hochul, this type of proposal is part of what the task force is considering as part of its recommendations. 

Andrea Anthony, the executive director of the Day Care Council of New York, said that women “should not have to choose between going to work and staying home and if they do elect to work that it doesn’t take so much of their take home pay.”

Anthony also emphasized that it is not only beneficial to women, but to New York’s families and children.

“My sincere hope is that the governor actually makes it one of his priorities while he is in office and he actually says very clearly child care is a priority because we are helping our youngest citizens get educated and prepared for employment,” Anthony said.

The problem, and the task force’s goals, go beyond investing in child care spaces. Hochul emphasized the importance of looking at the issue from other angles, including investing in child care workers.

“Let's have more respect for the people in this field. Let's encourage more people to go in, let's use our economic development programs like workforce development and encourage more people to get the training they need to give really high quality child care,” Hochul said.

Mack also highlighted the importance of investing in the recruitment and retention of child care workers. The State of the Workforce report also cites that 70% of child care workers report having to work a second job to make ends meet.

As the task force moves ahead with its 2020 work, Cuomo has continued to move pieces of an agenda forward. In December he pledged $20 million to expand the Child Care Assistance Program, which will “reduce or eliminate wait lists for subsidized child care” or to expand available spots.

Last June, Cuomo signed legislation that allows local candidates running for office to use campaign funds to pay for child care expenses. The goal of this is to remove barriers for parents, especially women, to run for local office, and came after Long Island congressional candidate Liuba Grechen Shirley successfully petitioned the Federal Elections Commission to allow federal candidates to use campaign funds for child care.

There are other efforts at different levels of government to push for affordable and quality child care for New Yorkers. For example, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced in a press release earlier this month that she is introducing “legislation that would help expand access to high-quality child care services at no cost to student parents enrolled in community colleges and minority-serving institutions.”

Gillibrand’s Preparing and Resourcing Our Student Parents and Early Childhood Teachers Act (PROSPECT Act) would provide “$9 billion in new grant programs to provide high-quality infant and toddler care at no cost to low-income parents attending community colleges and minority-serving institutions,” according to the January 14 announcement. 

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced a child care plan called “NYC Under Three” last May. His plan lays out three recommendations. The first is lowering families’ child care costs, with contributions based on a “sliding scale, and families would pay up to a set portion of their income.” The second is to offer start-up and expansion grants to child care providers to increase accessibility and the number of seats available for infants and children. The third is increasing payments to child care providers and expanding access to training and professional development to improve the retention of workers. 

“A family’s child care bill can be one of their biggest expenses, if not the biggest,” Stringer’s plan says. “A space in a child care center for an infant in New York City costs over $21,000 per year—more than three times as much as in-state tuition at The City University of New York and exceeding median rent in every borough.”

The comptroller’s plan would allow for families to pursue educational and job opportunities, access formal child care for the first time, and increase maternal employment, it says. The report estimates that newly employed parents will contribute about $540 million annually in earnings to the New York City economy. Stringer's focus on "under three" compliments the fact that Mayor Bill de Blasio has overseen, with help through state funding, the implementation of universal, free, full-day pre-kindergarten for four-year-olds and is now rolling out an extension to three-year-olds.

“I’m really starting to see a change in attitude, but again, this is not just your family’s problem, it is society’s problem, it is a problem for the State of New York as an entity that looks out for its people,” Hochul said in the interview with Gotham Gazette. “But also we’re leaving money on the table. There was a lot more in revenue that could be coming in and getting more women participating in the workforce.”

New York City Hall

What to watch for this week in New York politics:

As the week begins, the New York political world is reacting to the announcement by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. that he will not be running for Mayor in 2021. First reported by the New York Times on Sunday, Diaz Jr. said he didn’t feel that his heart was really in the early stages of the race and that he wants to spend more time with his family.

“I plan to retire from elected office at the end of 2021 and become a private citizen,” Diaz, Jr. said in a statement Gotham Gazette received on Sunday. He later added: “I have decided to make this decision public well in advance of the 2021 election because I want to be fair to the people of this city. This decision is final, and no length of additional time will change that. Many New Yorkers have committed to support my future in numerous ways, and making this announcement now gives them enough time to make different plans. Additionally, once my campaign has finalized meeting its financial obligations, the remaining funds will be returned to all who generously stepped up to help.”

Diaz, Jr.’s departure from the race about a year-and-a-half from the all-important June 2021 Democratic primary shakes up the early field and may give more reason for candidates to jump into the race. It’s unclear where those likely to support Diaz, Jr., including many Bronxites and many Hispanic New Yorkers, may go instead.

Comptroller Scott Stringer, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams remain the major likely candidates in the race, while nonprofit executive Dianne Morales and former city veterans affairs commissioner Loree Sutton have both declared their candidacies and begun raising funds. Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen remain among other high-profile potential candidates who have said they aren’t ruling out a run.

The fallout of Diaz, Jr.’s announcement will surely be dissected throughout the week and beyond.

Meanwhile, as the week begins Governor Andrew Cuomo is on his way to Poland on Sunday, where on Monday he will attend “the official commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.” Cuomo is traveling with Empire State Development President & CEO Eric Gertler and Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa. “Amid a rash of hate crimes in New York and across the country, including the brutal stabbing that took place during a Hannukah celebration in Monsey, this trip will reinforce the State's support for the Jewish community and raise cultural awareness about the horrors that the Jewish community have endured,” Cuomo’s office wrote in announcing the governor’s trip.

The State Legislature is in session on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week in Albany, and kicks off its several weeks of joint budget hearings, evaluating Governor Cuomo’s executive budget plan and considering other priorities from around the state (Mayor de Blasio’s 2020 state budget testimony will be on February 10).

And we’re watching as local leaders prepare for the Coronavirus that has been spreading in and from China. Mayor de Blasio discussed the city’s preparedness on Friday. On Sunday, Governor Cuomo announced that while there have been “no confirmed cases in New York State,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed three cases in the United States. “New York State Department of Health has sent seven total cases to CDC for testing,” Cuomo’s office said in a press statement. “Three of those cases have been proven negative, while four results are still pending. Those four individuals remain in isolation as their cases are tested at CDC.”

It’s a busy week at the City Council and much more -- see below for the day-by-day rundown.

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The run of the week in detail:

Monday, January 27
"On Monday, Mayor de Blasio will deliver remarks at the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz...In the evening, the Mayor will appear live on NY1’s Inside City Hall with Errol Louis. Later, the Mayor will deliver remarks at the 2020 HOPE Survey kick off."

Governor Cuomo is in Poland on Monday, leading a New York delegation that is participating in “the official commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.”

The State Legislature is in session on Monday in Albany. The Legislature will on Monday begin its weeks of joint budget hearings that follow the release of the governor’s executive budget plan. At 11 a.m. it will hold its budget hearing on environmental conservation, with testimony scheduled “from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Erik Kulleseid; and New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard A. Ball; as well as a number of others from inside and outside government.

At 10:30 a.m. Monday in Albany, “State Senator Monica R. Martinez announces her unwavering commitment to amending the newly enacted bail reform law. Last week, Senator Martinez introduced bill S.7156 which seeks to make imperative changes to the new law that took effect on January 1, 2020.” Martinez will be joined by “members of law enforcement unions and victim advocacy groups” according to her office.

On Monday, the city’s Fair Fares program that offers half-priced Metrocards to low-income New Yorkers will be fully phased-in, opening to all eligible applicants.

At the City Council Monday:

• At 10 a.m., the Committee on Housing and Buildings will conduct an oversight hearing on Façade Inspections and updates to the Energy Conservation Code.
• At 1 p.m., the Committee on Parks and Recreation will conduct an oversight hearing on the Parks Department Concessions Process.

On Monday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will be among those attending the United Nations Holocaust Remembrance program.

On Monday at 11 a.m. outside “Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion,” “the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, will stand with survivors of childhood sexual abuse and Safe Horizon -- the largest victims services provider in the country -- to mark the one year anniversary of the Child Victims Act. The CVA includes a one year window that allows survivors of any age to file civil claims against their abusers or liable institutions, like the estate of the late Jeffrey Epstein, no matter how long ago the abuse happened. The window closes on August 13th, 2020. Since the one year window opened on August 14th, 2019 there have been over 1,400 claims filed across the state. There is currently a bill in the state legislature to extend the lookback window for another year to allow more victims more time to come forward.”

At 12:30 p.m. Monday at Grand Central Terminal, “Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) leaders will join with officials from the New York Transgender Advocacy Group and the Anti-Defamation League to make an announcement to combat hate crimes in our public transportation system.” Participants will include MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye; Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi; New York City Transit Chief Customer Officer Sarah Meyer; Kiara St. James, Co-Founder & Executive Director, NY Transgender Advocacy Group; and Evan Bernstein, Vice President, Northeast Division, Anti-Defamation League.

At 6 p.m. Monday in Brooklyn, Green New Deal advisor Robert Hockett will lead a panel discussion in partnership with City Council Member Antonio Reynoso and the Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board on solving the climate crisis locally. Guests can “learn about efforts that are being taken to fight climate change on a federal, state, and citywide level and how you can support these efforts in your own homes and communities.” Speakers will include Hockett; Reynoso; Bridget Anderson, Deputy Commissioner for Recycling and Sustainability at the city’s Department of Sanitation; Tok Michelle O. Oyewole, Ph.D., of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance; and Kara Allen, Senior Policy Advisor at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

City & State NY will host its 50 Over Fifty awards event Monday evening, in conjunction with AARP. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and former Governor David Paterson will be among those delivering remarks.

At 8 p.m. Monday, the New Vision Democrats, Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens, and the JFK Democratic Club will sponsor a debate between candidates for Queens Borough President at the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights. Candidates include Costa Constantinides, Elizabeth Crowley, Anthony Miranda, Donovan Richards, and Jimmy Van Bramer.

From 10 p.m. Monday night to 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Department of Homeless Services “is asking New Yorkers to volunteer for its annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) to assist the Agency and community partners in estimating the number of unsheltered individuals on the streets, in parks, subways, and other public spaces across the city.” Those interested in volunteering should visit nyc.gov/HOPE to register.

Tuesday, January 28
The State Legislature is in session on Tuesday in Albany. There will be a joint legislative budget hearing on transportation beginning at 9:30 a.m.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday in Albany, the Legislative Commission for Rural Resources will hold a hearing to “examine the effectiveness of current flooding emergency and mitigation efforts, and to discuss the need for future assistance due to the increase in extreme weather events.”

At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Albany, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics will hold its monthly meeting.

At the City Council Tuesday:

• At 10 a.m., the Committee on Health will meet to consider a bill sponsored by committee Chair Mark Levine on restricting the sale of senna and saffron-based products to individuals 18 years of age or older.
• The Committees on Civil Service and Labor and on Governmental Operations will jointly meet to consider two bills sponsored by Council Member Daniel Dromm dealing with nuclear weapons.
• At 1 p.m., the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management will meet to consider two bills introduced by Council Member I. Daneek Miller, including one that would require the FDNY to report annually the number of EMS personnel who resign in a year.

At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, “The Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) will welcome Chair and CEO of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Gregory Russ at its January Trustee Breakfast...At the breakfast, Gregory Russ will discuss solutions to address NYCHA’s capital needs, strategies to transform operations, and working with the federal monitor.”

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Board of Standards and Appeals will hold its monthly meeting.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School will host Stop the Bleeding: Bold Plans to Prevent Violence. This panel will feature Harvard Kennedy School senior research fellow and adjunct professor Thomas Abt, corporate counsel of the City of New York James E. Johnson, Suffolk County deputy police commissioner Risco Mention-Lewis, and senior counsel at the Brennan Center Taryn A. Merkl. The panelists will discuss the misplacement of drugs, gangs, and guns on urban violence and will propose alternative methods of urban policing.

Wednesday, January 29
The State Legislature is in session Wednesday in Albany. There will be a joint legislative budget hearing on health at 9:30 a.m.

At the City Council Wednesday:

• At 10 a.m., the Committee on Transportation will conduct an oversight hearing on street and vehicle safety.
• At 10 a.m., the Committee on Health will hear a bill sponsored by Council Member Ben Kallos that will “prohibit city agencies from applying to any property owned or leased by the city any chemically based pesticide.”
• At 10 a.m., the task force on Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) and the Committee on Contracts will meet jointly to discuss “building on successes, overcoming challenges, and expanding opportunities” for MWBEs in New York City.
• At 1 p.m., the Committee on Governmental Operations and the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management will conduct a joint hearing on the maintenance of the NYC Unified Fleet.
• At 1 p.m, the Committee on Justice System will conduct an oversight hearing on the technology gap between public defenders and district attorneys.

At 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy will host an Urban Food Policy Forum titled “Muckraking Investigative, Impact and Local Journalism: New Directions for Media Reporting on Food,” to explore the role of journalism in shaping food policy in New York and nationally and to critically analyze current trends in food journalism.

On Wednesday at 10 a.m. “New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer will deliver a major speech on housing across the five boroughs,” at the YM & YWHA of Washington Heights & Inwood.

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee “will hold a public hearing on the Mayor’s Fiscal Year 2021 Preliminary Expense and Capital Budget” at Queens Borough Hall in order to “obtain the views and recommendations of Community Boards, community stakeholders and the residents of Queens regarding the proposals contained in the Mayor’s FY21 Preliminary Budget. This input will be used to develop the Queens Borough Board’s budget priorities for FY21.”

At 5 p.m. Wednesday on WBAI radio, 99.5FM and wbai.org, this week’s Max & Murphy program will air and focus on the New York City economy.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the city’s Panel for Educational Policy will meet at Murry Bergtraum High School in Manhattan.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez will host “an interfaith meeting for faith-based leaders and community members on how to prevent and respond to hate crimes against places of worship,” at the Brooklyn Family Justice Center in Brooklyn Heights. 

Thursday, January 30
Joint state legislative budget hearings continue in Albany on Thursday with human services at 10 a.m.

At the City Council Thursday:

• At 10 a.m., the Committee on Resiliency and Waterfronts and the Subcommittee on Capital Budget will meet jointly to provide an “update on the expenditure and reimbursement of Superstorm Sandy federal funding.”
• At 10 a.m., the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet.
• At 10 am., the Committee on Civil Service and Employment and the Committee on Higher Education will conduct a joint oversight hearing on “adjunct faculty employment at the City University of New York.”
• At 10 a.m., the Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sittings, and Dispositions will meet.

At 9 a.m. Thursday, City & State NY will hold its New York in Transit Summit, which “brings together experts across sectors to assess the current state of New York's transportation systems, break down recent legislative actions, and look towards the future of all things coming and going in New York.” Speakers include Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, City Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez and Rafael Espinal Jr., Assemblymember Nily Rozic, State Senator Leroy Comrie, and others.

At 5 p.m. Thursday at Bayard Rustin Educational Complex in Manhattan, Teens Take Charge and the city Department of Education are hosting “a Student Forum on advancing integration in NYC high schools, featuring student testimony and town-hall-style Q&A with DOE officials. The DOE will be represented by Deputy Chancellor Josh Wallack, among others. Student leaders from Teens Take Charge will moderate and participate in the discussion.”

At 6 p.m. Thursday, the Office of the Manhattan Borough President, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the InterFaith Center of New York, and eMgage will jointly host “Census Townhall: Harlem’s Diverse Faith Communities,” aimed at educating the diverse faith communities in Harlem about the importance of filling out the Census and dispelling various Census myths. Speakers include author Mark Bittman; Joe Fassler, of The New Food Economy; and Kysha Harris of SCHOP! and the Amsterdam News. The panel will be moderated by Nicholas Freudenberg, professor of Public Health at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, state Senators Alessandria Biaggi, Gustavo Rivera, Jose Serrano, and Luis Selpulveda will host the second annual Bronx Senate Delegation Budget Forum, at Lehman College.

Friday, Jan 30, and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10 a.m. Friday.

At 9 a.m. Saturday February 1, the New York Women’s Foundation will host the Young Women Run New York Conference at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The conference will allow young women to “connect to elected leaders, become trained on strategies to mobilize for 2020, and build relationships with politically ambitious young women.” Guests include Samantha Perlman, Councilor at Large, Marlborough City Council; Amanda Septimo, candidate for New York State Assembly; Tricia Shimamura, candidate for City Council; and Jessica Weaver, Newington Board of Education. Former senior advisor to Barack Obama Valerie B. Jarrett will serve as the keynote speaker.

At 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Hunter College, City & State NY, and One Day University will host Power & Politics, a conference on political power.

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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 and Claire Del Sorbo
@GothamGazette