[Music] steps despite the challenges I am passionate about this work with a full-time job I recently completed my master's degree in social work so that I can work more effectively with my clients while I further my education I am concerned that this field will not will will not be able to sustain without a wage increase as I accumulated over fifty thousand dollars in student loan debt City contracts at the salaries for myself and my colleagues and we need the city to step up and provide Human Service workers with the 6.5 percent Cola to match inflation and allow us to support ourselves as we support New Yorkers in need while we are in desperate need of a caller to hire staff the peg to DSS is being passed down to Providers this will require DHS funding programs like the safe haven I work at to cut 2.5 percent from our budget by eliminating baking positions entirely eliminating positions will permanently increase the workload for already overburdened staff as myself this is not my first time testifying on this topic before the council I continue to do so because with all due respect it does it does not seem that the council is hearing the message I implore the committee to include 200 million dollars for a 6.5 sink polar in the final fiscal year 2024 budget as a step towards Human Service workers like me being justly paid for our work I'm expired and I also would like to add that I am one of those who came through the fourth society and I became a asset to the community instead of a liability please fund programs that uh that that that allow places like the fortune Society to operate and and produce productive persons inside of our our society thank you thank you we'll now hear from Nicole mcvinwah all right Starts Now good afternoon my name is Nicole mcvinyou and I am the director of policy at Urban Pathways a non-profit homeless Services since the board of housing provider serving single adults through a full Continuum of services we hold City contracts with DHS dohmh and HRI thank you for the opportunity to testify today about the need for increased wages for the Human Services Workforce and the dangerous proposed cuts to DHS and HRA contracted programs the Human Services sector is at risk of no longer being able to provide the essential services that city government and New Yorkers rely on due to underinvestment in Staffing shortages our contracts pay poverty level wages to our Workforce composed primarily of people of color and women at our organization we have a 28 staff vacancy rate high rates of Staff turnover creating huge administrative costs overburdened staff facing burnout some of who you are hearing from today staff relying on snap and working multiple jobs to make ends meet and we have staff facing homelessness and residing in shelters themselves this is simply unacceptable the lack of a cost of living adjustment for Human Services Workers and the mayor's executive budget means this budget does not fully represent a commitment to essential services and working New Yorkers while the sector struggles there is a proposed cut to funding to DHS and HRA contracted programs by 2.5 percent through provider flexible funding we cannot absorb this cut DSS recommends eliminating vacant positions but positions are not vacant because they are not needed but because our contracts do not pay enough to be competitive those who will suffer most are the New Yorkers who rely on our services we implore you to fund a full 6.5 Cola on Human Services contracts at an estimated 200 million dollars to support our essential Workforce and urge the council provider flexible funding Peg to DHS and HRA contracts thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you we'll now hear from teal and zunza time starts now good afternoon my name is teal and zunza I'm the program director of the economic empowerment program at the urban Resource Institute URI is the largest provider of shelter services in our nation and for almost 40 years we have been committed to helping those most impacted by domestic violence and homelessness as an economic Justice Advocate who has been advocating for economic equity for survivors of domestic violence in the city for over a decade living wages are not only crucial for survivors but also essential for Human Services Workers the wages of Human Services Workers are and have woeful and have been willfully and embarrassingly and inadequate proposed budget cuts only worsen this problem leaving us with the burden of supplying higher level of services while struggling to make ends meet according to mit's living wage calculator the living wage for one person with one child in New York City is 9 ninety three thousand four hundred and twenty six dollars our Human Services salaries are significantly lower than that we call in you in this committee to prioritize our Human Services Workers and invest in critical social service agencies who support the most vulnerable members of our city we must ensure Fair compensation for Human Services Workers by including a 6.5 percent Cola in the upcoming budget the lack of a cola and the mayor's executive budget means that this budget does not fully represent a commitment to essential services and working New Yorkers Human Services Workers work tirelessly throughout the pandemic and put their lives on the line to continue to provide critical services for our communities and to keep them safe and functioning and in return the city gives them poverty wages that do not account for inflation as a result many of our Human Services Workers need the same programs they provide including snap and housing shelters without Human Services Workers please support a 6.5 cost of living adjustment and with an estimated 200 million dollar increase in the final budget thank you thank you we'll next hear from Natalie and tariano time starts now Natalie and tariano 's open tonight right well uh thank you so much okay perfect um my name is Emily and turiano and I'm the director of policy and advocacy I care for the homeless an organization that provides medical and Behavioral Health Services exclusively to people experiencing homelessness in New York City we operate 26 federally qualified community health centers in all five boroughs we also operate three transitional housing residents residences one shelter located in the Bronx one in Midtown Manhattan a safe haven in the Bronx with a few programs in the pipeline uh thank you to chairing the committee for allowing us the opportunity to testify today I'm here today to urge the council Administration to reject the proposed two and a half percent cut to DHS and hia contracted programs and instead include the cola of six and a half percent for homeless service staff in the city's fy24 budget at a time when homelessness is rising we must invest in the services needed to provide integral support to those most in need we need to ensure that the infrastructure tasked with the response is strong and able to provide not only basic services but also specialized Supportive Services to help stabilize folks the reality for care for the home is that the currently proposed cut will likely affect our case management and Social Services because the operational staff are necessary to keep our doors open it is difficult to overstate the importance of our case management staff will play an important role in providing Direct Services to support our residents in accessing important resources to achieve stability of permanent housing which is the ultimate goal in our programs we have encountered difficulty hiring housing Specialists and with the proposed cuts that could be the positions that are eliminated without housing Specialist or direct service staff we relegate our residents to languish and shelter for much longer than necessary we must treat budgets as blueprints for the future and instead of embracing short-sighted approaches we need to think of how to grow the capacity of homeless service organizations to achieve what they have been tasked to do which is to provide a transitional stable place to recite it and help guide our consumers through their period of Supportive Services the goal of permanent stable housing at the same time there's a great need to bolster the workforce who provide these important services our resources are stretched thin with high vacancies and turnover with further complicates the work of our remaining staff cut to the budget means higher case loads which is the which pushes the capacity of our staff and leads to burnout which is a significant issue in our sector I'm expired uh so essentially uh what we're asking for is is now is not the time to reduce homelessness and eviction Professional Services when our student needs it the most so we urge the city council to not only um adopt to not adopt the peg but also uh to include a six and a half percent Cola for homeless services staff thank you so much for the opportunity to testify thank you we'll Now call the next in-person panel from University student Senate Aaron grama Boris on kenyaba Enrique oropeza Jonathan and Hanan Joseph Hernandez Zaire Ali and Miguel Arias thank you maybe again when you're ready good afternoon everyone my name is salimatu dombuya and I am just a student at the New York City College of Technology I am also the chairperson of the CUNY University student Senate where I represent all the about 260 000 students and I am the CUNY student trustee have you ever heard about the City University of New York it's a place where the City University is a place where we find the backbone of New York City it is a structure that was created to create and maintain a better New York City to train people who were not expected to succeed due to housing problems Financial issues food insecurity and others CUNY is where you go when you want to prove them wrong because CUNY helps you jump the economic and social ladder this is what I would like to respond to anyone who asks me about CUNY he operates on their shared governance which is simply explained as the combination of voices from students faculty and administration to participate in any decision that would affect the university that's the choice from CUNY but that's also a statement of these sitting cities willingness to understand the value that we all bring as a collective to the table shared governance has allowed us the students to have a very clear idea and understanding of the mechanism of our University and all the factors that affect how it runs furthermore we have very obviously the understanding of what we need my peers and myself value this engine and work very hard to make sure it functions because we understand that it was built for us to grow and to give back to this wonderful City I am telling you all of this to let you know that students know what they're talking about students have a voice and every time we speak we speak with power and with conviction rooted in the knowledge of what CUNY is and what New York City is about budget cuts to CUNY may seem to some of you like a necessary wrong but today we are here to tell you that it's an unnecessary burden which will not only harm the university but harm the whole city of New York investing in cuny's infrastructures for food security student housing and ensure that students see no tuition increases for in-stage students and out-of-state students is what we are here for that will be a promise that CUNY shouldn't only survive but also leave it is a promise to New York City and every single person who chose to live here that things will be okay you will hear from my peers from different campuses who will tell you specifically how underestimating the impact of pegs on CUNY would affect their student experience my name is Jonathan Hannan and I'm a PhD student at the CUNY Graduate Center and an adjunct lecturer at John Jay as well as co-chair for business of the CUNY graduate Center's doctoral and graduate students Council and a representative with the University student Senate I testified back in November 2021 at the hearing regarding adjunct wages at CUNY in the context of the new deal for CUNY and the establishing of new full-time lecturer line positions in the year and a half since then it appears that not much has changed in terms of adjunct precarity we're still employed on a semester to semester basis and we have no protection of our next semester's appointment our graduate student workers are paid less than the prevailing wage in New York City and are barely paid enough to live let alone to thrive twenty seven thousand dollars a year is not enough and it appears that the governor doesn't want to assist us in the slightest to compare New York University graduate sent student stipends are between 38 000 and 46 000 per year with the cost of food and rent exponentially increasing and the MTA once again proposing Fair hikes are already low stipends are proportionately worth less every year meanwhile our College presidents and chancellery receive salaries of upwards of four hundred thousand dollars per year and our Chancellor makes almost eight hundred thousand per year almost twice the salary of the president of the United States and yet whenever high-ranking positions at CUNY are opened it is typically not our own students who are hired full-time time positions whether they be lecture lines or executive positions are open but more often than not these are given to outside hires CUNY prefers to take candidates from what they deem more Elite institutions and the invitone alumni students and adjuncts behind as I said last time but I testified we need to support our own we need to ensure that our community is taken care of rather than giving our resources to people who do not know what CUNY stands for we call upon you our elected officials to hold CUNY accountable for these egregious hiring practices and have them put their money where their mouth is in Con in conclusion CUNY needs to benefit its own Community we discussed this problem year after year and yet CUNY never does anything about it we need jobs brought back to our own Community we need job security for our graduate students we need opportunities available for our students who are currently pursuing degrees and we need CUNY to do better hang on a sec can we get quiet in here please riffraff trailer okay good afternoon um Council chairperson Justin L Brennan council members that are here still right now uh Gail Brewer [Music] nurse and Crystal Hudson as well as Natasha Williams my name is Boris I'm a current student of Medgar Evers College day vice president at micros student government as well as the United student Senate Vice chair for evening and part-time students um right now currently New York City is the most expensive place in the world to live in I have often been rebuffed that CUNY is a communist School stalling the use of CUNY housing options despite knowing that our target audience since the end of the pandemic have been returning students I myself being one of them these evening and part-time students who have already faced or currently faced strained lives sit around family and work amongst plenty of other circumstances have also chosen to pursue and finish their degrees currently our student body range from 16 years old up to 70 years old one of whom is graduating this spring at Medgar Evers College how do we expect these students to make a choice between school and keeping a roof over their heads especially when their sustainable housing opportunities to keep nyc's future Workforce here I believe one of the ways to Target such profound issues is to look at it from a long-term development plan in which CUNY can replicate some of the current CUNY housing plans located an already existing locations around New York City and working to get a more centralized location in Brooklyn currently the transition Academy a department establishment makers Air Force College work to support students experiencing homelessness issues of housing food insecurity however housing opportunities are limited and often go to emergencies first which brings me to the idea of replicating the Roth IRA five-year rule among programs such as housing connects to keep students in the city after they graduate and for those for those who do not know about the Roth IRA five-year rules which says you cannot withdraw earnings tax free until it's been at least five years since your first contribution to our Roth IRA account these rule applies for um people from 59 and a half years old to 105. while the housing connect is a public website that allows users to enter a lottery system that often takes several years between a person can receive a pick towards a rented apartment that gives five percent preference towards NYC employees to combine these ideas it would be possible for CUNY to receive housing funds garnered to current students and future Workforce of NYC to live nearby without living away from the city these could come in housing vouchers in which community colleges can utilize by using similar time limits that Roth IRA state to allow students to pay for subsidized rent prices until they graduate from college and providing applications for students who aren't in an emergency for housing until after they graduate as well and reaching out to housing connect and several apartment complexes that could give a percentage preference to current and recently graduated students the objective is to give CUNY a practical goal that at least appeals to the place like Brooklyn housing market which currently does not have a location for CUNY students that could offer incentives to its public and private housings and backing from Council Members whom constituents in various areas would be interested in this plan um I'm just going to ask you to wrap it up yes yes uh offering applications um basically this means this isn't by no means a perfect solution to an ongoing crisis I only wish to continue a process that can yield sustainable results to current and future generations of great New York City and I would also like to add that many of our Representatives have been here for pretty much the entire day and it I've also heard from them that this has been an ongoing situation when they're the last to speak even if they registered early I'm not entirely sure why that is but students coming back we are sacrificing our whole day to come here and it does not look good if I go back to my students to do the same thing thank you that's on oh it is hey everybody my name is Miguel Arias from the City College of New York I'm doing a political science and legal studies over there I'm a Latino student but let me say that one more time I am a Latino a student in the CUNY in the city college pursuing a degree most of my family told me I shouldn't do it most of my family told me like won't do it I won't make it not because they don't believe that I want to make it because because the system doesn't believe that people that like that are like me and people who come from my backgrounds can make a difference in these systems let me give you an example of that when I came to City College I did so with a few of my peers two of them are my super best friends these two did not knew each other but they knew me but somehow they wanted to do pursue a career in the same area so computer science and computer engineering I was left perplexed when both of them told me they had decided to drop College Drop College what since since they told me this I went to all the stages of grief I was angry that they both dropped I was depressed so much that I didn't want to ask them what they dropped when I accepted the reality of things I asked them and they both described that the lack of funding and care for students in CUNY was a real criminal that has told their dreams of having an education they this criminal of higher education highs behind the lack of academic advisors that our students get which in my Camp would translate to having four to six advisors for 4 000 students in the in the social science department four to six advisors for four thousand students how is that even fair this criminal Heights is a height in in higher education behind food insecurity which in my Camp would translate to a student doing the the personal fundraisings to fill our pantries this criminal of a higher education height is behind all the price book that all students need to buy regardless if they are the 14 or the 27 edition of the same book this Criminal attack those that have no privilege I was a little bit privileged you know why because I come from a low-income family and in City College we have a department called the Sikh Department which is similar to other programs like ASAP race which offers personal academic advisors help to pay for books tutoring Network professional preparation for these students and even jobs at the same Department by the students and for the students is programs like this that seek Ace of A's that we need to continue funding and increase funding for they help students like me to continue and they prevent the students like my friends from dropping because my friends did not wanted to drop College because they just wanted to no they dropped College because the system forced them to they didn't have the same sources as I did now when you get out of this room and you see your fellow console members let them know what happened to my friends let them know the benefits that I have to speak with you today let them know thank you good afternoon senior Council my name is jayquan brown I currently attend the University of City College of New York I am a newly elected senator of the undergraduate student government it is show me to address at city college that the science and math department issues student faces are always addressed and actions are made to fix these issues very often although this is a great benefit for the math and science students I question what about the students who love printing painting sculpting photography drawing what about the students who want to be student Studio Engineers Studio assistants musicians CEOs do the music and art issues and these two departments not matter it's unfair for the students who seek career and art of music because the current issue is happening in the music and art departments are going unsolved simply because no actions are being taken and administration continues to ignore these issues Administration wants all students to be well-rounded but how can that be accomplished if art and music students are struggling stressed out about failing and confused about the quest material because the lack of support from professors science and math aren't the only departments taught at City College art and music are departments as well and deserves more attention our musicians and artistic individuals shouldn't have to deal with explaining issues occurring in their department but these issues are ignored these issues deserve to be dissolved our music and our students shouldn't despite taking Michigan art courses that will improve their current skills to transform them into even better creative individuals they should be enjoying their education experience not dislike it during my freshman year as a music Major I've dealt with these tremendous issues and music courses and I've wasted my frustrations to the chairman but there were no actions being taken other music Majors voice complaints as well as I did they told me about it but nothing was ever done to solve their issues a student I Mentor has reported to the art Department he was mistreated by us our professor due to the fact the professor was unhelpful when given full credit of his assignment and send to places to take photos that require ultimately the student I Mentor had finished the course by failure as well as music Major since they dropped their music courses and changed their music Majors to me that's infuriated and that's frustrating because it's unfair that at our University there's so many courses for math science English and there's tutoring for these majors and departments but know nothing for art and music we deserve tutoring Services provided for me other majors and other students that are taking these courses let's all together city council provide for our Music and Art majors let's plant the seeds so they can prosper and blast like flowers and be able to finish this semester successfully without being stressed out went to flip over a desk or knock a teacher out let's take action let's make it better for them in their journey and let's make change thank you thank you we have questions from council member Joseph good afternoon all couple of questions it's clear that the proposed custom CUNY in simpler term simpler terms as a student how would this impact you on campus throughout your educational Journey so um the cuts are going to affect my entire way of looking at the New York City structure because I'm not the only one that will suffer from this there are CUNY people in every part of New York City I know people and I'm sure you all do and have known people as well that do this we had earlier panels come in saying even the nurses are feeling the drawbacks because they're getting the trained individuals that are coming through the CUNY system and have no resources because they don't have classes or any other things like that personally I see the turnover rates and they're not only happening in government official offices they're happening in student government offices as well people are just doing so much and just don't have the time to do everything and this will continue to be the case I'm not sure how far down it goes in terms of students below us in middle school and high school you also see overcrowding in the classes as well yes um earlier there were I believe in the pandemic time because it was such a you know unprecedented thing there was one to I believe 40 is one of my professors mentioned now it's a little bit down to like 1 to 125 but even then students are just not even signing up to still be in it they do not see the worth anymore they do not see the point and the more people you lose in education is bad for the entire state the city everyone because no one wants to learn anything it's not worth it in in the area of cuts let me give you an example here City College in every other community colleges we have the tech fee which I believe is also going to get a cut at from the federal government and most of the time the traffic money although most of the students pay for it it there's always some left over for initiatives that the students themselves can propose to for new technology advancement in their campuses for example in my campus for the tech team Money uh we we can use it for yourself such as getting computers that the students can loan uh if they don't have a divisor or or on a diarrhea this year we saw a tremendous cut and we in in we will have less money for initiatives meaning that students will have less impact on how the or how the resources are distributed to them so having this cut at the end of the day will like I say take away from the students who want to learn thank you um can you speak to some of the great programs in CUNY um that you know are the students can participate participate and the programs you think that should be expanded more to for students sorry like like I was talking in my in my early introduction is seek I think is very important my friends they didn't have sick but when I was in the pandemic I was also in the same predicament as them I was about to drop why because because of the condition of being online not having had somebody to to be in my shoulder but then in my program which is the Sikh Department I have my personal advisor and I scheduled a one-to-one meeting with her and I told her hey look this is what I am I don't feel like I'm Gonna Go Far and then she said no no and then she advised me on how to follow up even though that I might be doing bad on classes you tell me it's okay continue or let's reinforce this and this and that and we work together on these areas and I think not having a program by sick that has advice is I have tutors that have help for books it will inevitably leave the students thinking that they they are they have no help when they go to college they have no support when they go to college but it we found this program we found C we got we found ASAP we found Ace to we at the end of the day are making an impact in the students themselves because these resources go to the students themselves thank you anybody thank you earlier you talked about mental health as a student who attend CUNY what what um what does student ratios can you share some information about the mental health support you you provided on campus and what's the student ratio say that the ratio is really low from mental student counselor to student I can talk about my personal experience I before I started pursuing my architecture degree at City Tech I was a student at the roof of Manhattan Community College where I did a lot of extracurricular activities including mentoring so every semester I had a court of about four to six students who were under my responsibility and I can tell you that that was even before the pandemic the ratios were terrible these students came from all over the world a lot of them also came from New York City and they needed help they needed someone to talk to and it was almost impossible to find someone who had the cultural competency to assist them and just someone who was just available because making an appointment was impossible today I go to City Tech and we have our role in USS and there is a countless number of students that we lost because of mental health issues students who want to be civically engaged students who want to serve other is but there's no way they can serve others when there's no one to serve them and that's where mental health comes in the support is really low I know CUNY is trying hard but there is still a lot of work to do to remedy that because it's hard for people to find the resources there are just an online platform phone number sometimes you call the phone numbers and no one picks up that's the thing a lot of these things are not active and sometimes we're told it's about Staffing how do we remedy all of that we believe it's by getting more funding for all of these resources so that we can have more people and our students can be assisted when they need help at my college The Graduate Center before the pandemic there were a lot of students who were looking for mental health counseling I myself was one of them so when I went to the counseling center and I asked them if they had any resources available or if they had any counselors available all they told me was we can give you a list of providers who accept your insurance go find a therapist outside because we don't have Staffing for that right now so how long was the wait how long is the wait when you do find someone how long did you have to wait inside The Graduate Center inside and out also inside they didn't provide me any option to find someone all they told me was go find a therapist and when looking outside it was the limit due to the student health insurance having a limited number of providers that we can work with and the wait for that was somewhere around three months we hear you thank you so much councilmember Williams hello I just had a quick question um about being an adjunct I know some of the things as a kidney student myself I know some of the graduate students talk a lot about not being able to live in New York City and go to school and I know there isn't a lot of support for PhD students so if you can talk through how the budget cuts might impact um PhD students graduate students and a lot of the issues with being adjuncts so right now with all the budget cuts because of all of the reduction in courses due to the lack of enrollment in addition to the fact that our budget is being cut and so a lot of the full-time faculty need to still be assigned their coursework there's simply not enough adjunct positions across the university to go around for our graduate students and the reduction in funding across departments means that they're less fellowships to go to our graduate students overall which means a lot of our garden graduate students are going unfunded and it makes it very difficult for us to continue pursuing a degree because if we can't get our funding we can't get a tuition waiver we can't get health insurance which means a lot of graduate students are going on leave and trying to find jobs outside of the University because otherwise we just can't continue in the University without the proper support do you happen to know it's okay if you don't do you happen to know like how um what is the word how long it's taken PhD students to finish because they're leaving to find work not able to complete their degrees I don't know a single student that's finished within five years all I know is most students take seven eight nine years because CUNY just doesn't have the proper funding and so we all have to overwork because most universities the adjuncts don't The Graduate students don't even need to add junk to teach and so they can focus on their studies because that's what their fellowships are for but here at CUNY our primary fellowships are already for teaching if that and if we can't get fellowships through that then we don't have funding to primarily be graduate students and so we have to focus on other channels in order to be able to afford to go to graduate school I myself needed to find a lecturer position in order to be able to teach five classes a semester in order that I could receive any funding whatsoever because the only option was either teach full time or don't get any funding so the options were slim and for two years I was unable to focus on my Graduate Studies because I was teaching full-time thank you for your testimony and yeah I'm I'm now five years in so agree council member Hudson hi there first of all thank you all for um Coming Out and testifying with us um or before us I was just curious to know um because I know uh at medgrever specifically the Champs program is on The Chopping Block are there um specific cuts at your at each of your schools or I should say are there cuts at your specific institutions that you're aware of that aren't necessarily like the broader CUNY cuts so the cuts affect certain schools a little differently for Omega Evers because the senior college it has um it's supposed to have a little bit more resources but because it has I guess had a consistent lower enrollment year by year these Cuts make it a lot harder because they do not have the Staffing already so for example um the I'll call it the the procurement office um in our College I believe has only two people working for the entire college and if you had a comparison of two percent in a school with 4 000 students and two percent at a 10 000 student school it's going to be very very drastic and that's what happens in mega Evers so if you don't get your things in two months in advance you know you're not just you're not going to get any of that until after your determin is done and for student clubs events like that we put in a uh order for our shirts sweaters all that type of stuff to give it to students and that was at the end of last semester in the fall we just got it at the end of this spring semester so yeah thank you overall I can say that for most schools the biggest hurdle is felt inside of the classroom because a lot of students sometimes when classes during the summer there's not enough faculty to make that happen a lot of classes are being cut because we are getting rid of a lot of our faculty members and we are opting I think for the just for the most affordable option which is not necessarily the option that gives students more quality so today's students are wondering is it worth it to have an education at CUNY with everything that we're seeing the second thing is going to be the food part today a lot of campuses still do not have a cafeteria they have to get outside of campus to get some basic food a lot of campuses only have a vending machine available for them to have food where they can have a snack or a soda or some apple juice and whatever to have food not talking even about the night class students because I am a nightclub student and we have to go to class doing Ramadan I used to go downstairs and student broke there fast with ships and soda knowing that during Ramadan students fast for like 5 a.m or 4 a.m to 7 PM but that's just for a month counting all the other cuno students that go through that on a lot of campuses so the food problem is a big one the the quality of our education is really being attacked and we believe that U.S says that even if we go to CUNY the City University of New York we still deserve the best education and that comes with valuing our faculty and make sure we get the best people and we keep them motivated to do their work because right now it seems like a lot of them are doing it for the goodness of their heart but a good education does not come from the goodness of their heart the the city has to invest in that thank you for for bringing that up we spoke earlier about food insecurity and the increased levels specifically among the student population at CUNY institutions so I just want to reiterate for the record how important it is to ensure that CUNY has all the funding it needs to provide these support systems including food so thank you did you want to add something I wanted to follow up on food services that at the CUNY grad center right now we don't have food services and there's supposed to be a proposal for Food Services going over the summer but that keeps getting delayed over and over again that we were supposed to have a meeting earlier this week but that got canceled and so it's looking like we're not going to have the Food Services set up for the fall semester in time for anything to move forward even though that was the plan so we might go another semester without food services thank you real quick I just have a crazy idea you know when I was here in the high school students also giving a speech about food in the cafeterias it reminds me interesting the the message that we send into to the students is that yes in high school you will get food for free yeah they're free for yes you can get it but once you graduate oh no no no no good luck with getting food good luck finding something uh that uh to we whenever you go to campus as long as you have something in your pocket to buy something you should be good to go but how come them from our high schools and then we bring them to college and then we don't support the uh what we go having food security but in in my when I was introducing my speech I mentioned one of the students in your campus do you know what she did she did a fundraising she did a fundraising she got about three thousand dollars and we were able to fill our punches a bit more you know but we don't have a staff now to get it open all the time now think about it we don't need to take care of your fullness anymore that's not my check to survive any food isn't that the case thank you thank you well thank you all very much thank you for your testimony okay we'll Now call up the next remote panel Aaliyah Malik Nadia narcis Sabrina Bennett Angela Sims and Edwina Archer beginning with Aaliyah Malik say again no not got it yet good afternoon my name is Leah Malik and I'm a youth with advocate Preparatory Academy and I am in 11th grade I also live industry 29. my school is one of the four schools at Springfield Garden campus there are about 1 650 students in the building the average lunch participation between September February of this school year is 20 percent one of the reason why the average launch participation is slowly because of the cafeteria of them as a whole because of different reasons for me the Bible doesn't look or feel welcome and even when I take breakfast or lunch most times I leave Hotel breakfast because I want to get to school early sometimes I just I'll up before leaving home eating breakfast at lunch in my school cafeteria doesn't appeal to me for many reasons uh school don't have the options I want during lunch there are always long vines in the cafeteria because they are in grab and go and most times when we have one server which makes the line go slower and not a lot of people have the patience to wait in the line most times I go hungry since I only have one period left before I go home we all know you want the best for us and you want school to feel like home but in others will feel like home we need to make the space where we eat look what people must didn't want to have breakfast or lunch it would like for you to support all of our New York City middle and high school by making it possible for us to enhance our cafeterias because it will be unfair for some cafeterias in our middle and high school today in hand not tall by doing this there would be more participation in school food as a whole throughout the city thank you thank you when I hear from Nadia narcisse your time will begin good afternoon my name is Naya nurses I attend Tomball High School and I'm a senior we are very thankful and excited for the 50 million currently including the mayor's anxiety of budget for schools across New York City this amount of of money will cover some schools but we need 200 million to see Equitable updates in full effect for all schools I learned that enhancing the cafeteria it mimics the style of a buffet where students can pick out which foods they do want and lessens the amount of food waste that goes on when students are just handed a meal enhancing cafeterias will promote food that isn't just food but food that is enjoyable food that's feeling this funding is necessary to help students thrive in the classroom in sports and on tests with this enhancement students will feel more motivated to go to school and learn as a freshman if I saw this information I would have loved school lunch even more and been more excited for it it will be something I would have looked forward to in a new school as a senior I hope to leave knowing the generations of incoming freshmen and students who will come back in September will have something to look forward to and be happy while eating in the lunchroom as you feel Advocates we are here again with new and old members to promote issue we're also equally passionate about we ask you to continue to support this initiative and continue to push for the 200 million dollars for an enhancement of the cafeterias thank you thank you we'll now hear from Sabrina Bennett time will begin members of the city council my name is Sabrina Bennett today I am representing CMA which stands for prey mosque at PMA is the organization mobilizing this church for justice in our beloved New York City we focus on the criminal legal system housing and education my focus will be on education specifically special education I have been active parent leader in my prison school for over 12 years and I've witnessed special education issues barely within their very schools I currently have a safe way to in special education and I see her frustrations and her peers frustration specifically specialized teachers and we are left with general education teachers stepping in to fill those voids the students academic and emotional needs are not being met because of you it's not fair to the teachers and most importantly it's not fair to those students to deserve qualified teachers that are trained and specialize in the field of special education some students are led to believe that they are incapable of learning that something is wrong with them or that they don't belong with other students Ignacio Estrada says if a child can't learn the way we speak maybe we should teach the way they learn although this is true for all students it is even more suitable for our special education students there needs to be clear information and support the families and students concerning individual educational plan IEP and special education assessment I tell my daughter every day that she is one of a kind that she is more than just worth learning and I apologize to More Than People of learning she just learns at a different pace and weighs then her some of her kids most importantly I tell her that her teachers are special people they know that the job is long hours less pain and lots of headaches yet they prove to do it every day I employ the city council to ensure robust funding for the Department of Education to meet the needs of our special education population and that's been recruiting training and maintaining qualified special education pieces invest in all time is expired the most valuable thank you we'll now hear from Angela Sims your time has begun warmest greetings City Council Members my name is Dr Angela Sims I'm a sociology and urban studies professor at Barnard College Columbia University my research focuses on racial inequities between metropolitan area jurisdictions I live in Harlem and am a member of pretty March act a coalition of Christian churches and individuals doing just to bring shalom in New York City I come before you to advocate for more Social Services spending in New York City Public Schools according to page 14 of the proposed budget the social service the social services allocation for fiscal year 2024 is a mere 3.7 million out of a school budget of over out of a school budget of over 30 billion dollars please correct me if I if I'm wrong but if I'm not this 3.7 million proposed allotment holds cost of the allocation from last year and the fiscal year 2022 budget was a decrease in spending from year 2021. this number is frighteningly low given how much given given how not only inflation but also the covid-19 pandemic has impacted students and their families how will students receive adequate social and emotional resources from their schools if there is not significant investment according to Harvard University's Center on the developing child there are three principles that improve outcomes for Children and Families one reduce sources of stress two supportive and responsive relationships and three strengthening correlation strengthening core skills each of these principles requires significant investment in Social Services I request that the allotment for social services be robustly increased at least tripled that more money be apportioned for therapists and that more money be apportioned for therapists social workers guidance counselors and Librarians if the council devotes sufficient resources to Social Services and schools this money will enable students to learn and retain more Scholastic material matriculate from New York City public schools at higher rates and ultimately will increase the likelihood that children in New York City Public Schools mature into healthy adults equipped to thrive and contribute to their families workplaces and neighborhoods and these resources are particularly important for black and latinx students because their parents or other caregiver or more likely than their white counterparts to face the time is expired of racial discrimination which causes black homes to Black and latinx homes to have lists adequate material and social social resources excuse me so I very much encourage you to increase the public schools Social Services budget thank you I just want to give a shout out to ms-297 and PS3 from council member botcher's district thanks for joining us today thank you so much thank you we'll now hear from Edwina Archer your time will begin hi good afternoon my name is Edwina Archer I am a born and raised residence in Crown Heights Brooklyn and a member of pre-march act an organization led by both the Humane and religious duties to address inequalities in New York City today I'm here to speak on the improvements necessary to honor the quality of life of those who live in nycha public housing in 2019 it is known that nycha set of legal action concerning its inability to provide decent safe and sanitary housing there are six key areas that need to be addressed in a five-year plan which are lead-based paints mold pests and waste management elevators heat and inspections these areas are all problem structurally in public housing that greatly affect the health and circumstances of the population that lives there a personal story that sticks with me is my sisters she works as a doe speech therapist for elementary students which sometimes requires visiting children that are in need of therapy one of her cases lives on the 14th floor of a Nigel building where the elevator has not been functioning and it is not recommended that my sister take the stairs since it is usually unsanitary and there are loiters and homeless persons there this structural deficiency of a broken elevator neglected that child's learning and could be risking his and others people's lives if there were ever an urgent emergency nycha needs about 47 billion dollars to bring all housing units up so a good state of repair over the next five years The Five-Year Capital program totals about eight billion dollars a fraction of what's needed according to the report on the fiscal 2024 preliminary plan the state would need to provide about 600 million dollars more annually we must work with local state and federal governments to ensure nycha is fully funded in order to honor the Dignity of public housing residents and create homes and communities where hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers can Thrive thank you for listening thank you for your time thank you we will now call up our next in-person panel Alex Parks Alexis Brody Larry Wood Reuben Argueta Lisa Lester Robin De La Cruz Kimberly Blair John a billy and Scott Daly thank you you may begin sir test I say just you say pay just sorry feeling a little Punchy it's been a long time since my oatmeal this morning um I want to thank council member chair Brennan the council members here today for this opportunity my name is Larry Wood I work as director of advocacy at Goddard Riverside a settlement house in Upper Manhattan uh Goddard and our sister organization to Stanley Isaacson to employ over 700 Human Service staff who work to feed homebound seniors create Pathways for youth engage chronically Street Homeless individuals for Aid and much more as an agency we strongly urge the council to include a six and a half percent Cola for all Human Service staff further we are particularly concerned that the mayor's proposed executive budget would make cuts to these essential Services specifically the executive budget proposes pegs to difter and dycd and cuts to DHS contracts described as provide a flexible funding as you heard from other providers it's really flexible cuts to Peg for difter and dycd is justified by a purported decreased enrollment in services this reason is outdated there is no logic in determining future funding for programs based on enrollment numbers from the pandemic uh era Goddard and Isaac operates programming in these areas including far old as adult centers at the Stanley Isaac Center on the Upper East Side we serve 6084 older adults nearly four times as many as the same period in fiscal year 22. our Center on the upper west side seeds over 125 people a day for lunch and our Lincoln Square Center attendance has increased 14 percent since 2022. the numbers indicate a return to brief endemic levels and senior centers and they do not justify cuts for homeless Services which I'm particularly upset about the administration claims that they are not in stating pegs for DHS but worse they're actually passing the cut onto the non-profits that provide the services to meet the target Peg program serving the homeless would have to cut two and a half percent in exchange for salic salary flexibility but our homeless service programs operate on such a thin margin there is no excess funding to move around these in these contracts the Administration has suggested we cut open staff lines to raise to pay for the remaining staff our Outreach work is so you're going to hear from in a minute are looking at dangerously high caseloads of 39 clients per worker compared to the best practices caseload of at most 20 to 25 clients they're already stretched very thin and it makes it very hard to build a relationship and trust with the chronically unhoused New Yorkers we're trying to engage there is no way to consolidate funding without adding to really highest case loads tomorrow scores of non-profits are organizing a day without human services we're closing programs down we're not going to be putting clients at risk but tomorrow outside on Broadway in Mary Street thousands of Human Service workers will be down here demanding just pay and we hope you can give us that six and a half percent call that we desperately need and oppose the cuts that the mayor is proposing in those flexible Cuts is just not going to work thank you for this opportunity good afternoon thank you chair my name is Alexander parks and I'm a housing Outreach specialist for Goddard Riverside's homeless outreach program which provides housing Outreach Services for those experiencing homelessness in Manhattan New York City thank you for testify letting me testify today I'm here today to urge the council Administration to not approve the proposed 2.5 percent provider flexible funding cut to DHS and HRA contracted programs and instead include a cola of 6.5 percent increase for homeless services staff in the city's FY 24 budget the provider flexible funding plan is anything but it is a cut in the budget for the vital Human Services that is already strained to a great extent our current budget can just barely meet the needs of the most vulnerable in housing and secure New Yorkers in a further cut to our budget would undoubtedly leave more of the same New Yorkers without the Care and housing that they need while DSS recommends eliminating vacant positions as a way to meet this cut it will result in unsustainably high case loads for remaining program staff which would negatively impact our clients building trust with clients takes time and skill due to their past experiences with trauma and with the high vacancies and turnover it becomes impossible uh to make this connection with the client higher case loads per worker translates to less time to build a relationship with a client potential lapses in the client's treatment plan of care and overall prolonging the amount of time to successfully house our houseless popular population and else it also leads to higher worker burnout which can create a revolving door of staff and in turn lead to distrust in our services amongst the population that we serve I have not come across one person who has disagreed about the importance of homeless Outreach Services yet here I am advocating for the cola due to my concerns with the rising costs of living in the city I current I am currently working a second job and was previously working a third job to help make my financial ends meet this was proven to be unsustainable as I literally worked myself into sickness doing this my wage is a government mandated poverty wage and the city needs the value might work we urge the council to reject the provider of flexible funding Peg which will harm services for our clients and instead include a 6.5 Cola for homeless and services staff I do this work because it is the first time in my occupational life that I have felt fulfilled with what I do I put in my utmost effort because it is my passion to see people's lives change for the better and assist in that process approving a cola instead of the cuts will attract more like-minded and compassionate workers which in turn will ensure the efficiency of our programs that serve New Yorkers who are the most in need thank you for letting me testify today hi my name is Alexis brode and I'm the medical liaison for the non-profit Goddard Riverside's homeless outreach program which provides housing Outreach Services for unhoused New Yorkers thank you members of the council for allowing me to testify today I'm here to urge the council and administration to not approve the proposed 2.5 percent provider flexible funding cut to DHS and HRA programs and include a call of 6.5 percent for the homeless services staff in the city's budget the mayor's proposed provider flexible funding is and should be called a cut to crucial Human Services the unhoused New Yorkers rely on to survive in the streets we already know that there's an extremely high need for our services within this community and unfortunately even our current budgets don't meet those demands cutting our budget even further will leave more people without the treatment and the housing they need and thus more New Yorkers sleeping on the street unsheltered if anything we need more financial support from our elected officials which is why we're also here to advocate for the cola for homeless services staff my co-workers are among the most empathetic and hard-working individuals I know but many of them like my colleague need second jobs to meet ends me and end up burning out and searching for other jobs that don't force them to live paycheck to paycheck having inconsistent staff creates a massive Gap in Services because it hinders Rapport building with clients generates more distrust in services and ultimately creates barriers for people seeking housing staff vacancies also cause higher case loads for providers like myself meaning less time to spend with each of my clients less time to work on housing goals and treatment less time to engage New individuals that would benefit from our services and again more New Yorkers on the street our caseloads often exceed 40 clients per one case manager due to staff shortages because as will never ever turn anyone away that needs our help this is still an outlandish amount of individuals for just one case manager to be responsible for between getting all my clients to the HRA office to get food stamps to their housing interviews for apartments to the plethora of other services they urgently need we really don't have time to convince people for this Cola I care deeply about the well-being of my clients and supporting this population is one of the most impactful and rewarding experiences but it's not sustainable for anyone living on City contracted wages that barely cover the cost of living I urge the council to prioritize homeless Services by rejecting the provider flexible funding and approving the cola to make sure that our programs can continue to keep experienced and compassionate staff to help our fellow New Yorkers thank you for letting me testify today thank you Justice in the Human Service field my name is Ruben arguerto I am a proud DACA recipient and a social worker for God of Riverside a non-profit settlement house that provides a wider rate of Human Services I am here alongside my colleagues and members of the community to protest the proposed budget cuts to Human Services especially those who dafta the department for the Aging we asked instead to include a caller increase of 6.5 percent for all Human Service staff in the city's fiscal year 24 budget as a social worker I help older adults address their needs by providing them support to accomplish their goals it is an intricate work that requires knowledge of systems governing the lives of the underprivileged intervention provides more than a transaction it built a report with the members of the center and creative place they can call their own Goddard cultivates knowledge and promotes inclusivity an organization as alive as the willful Spirit of the individuals who we humbly champion we provide essential services that during the kova 19 pandemic kept the city together despite the flaws we discover in the safety net of benefits we are the link that connects constituents to the Greater Community God or and other nonprofits alike partner in providing Comprehensive Mental Health and Social Services the proposed budgets will hinder our ability to help those in need the underfunding of Social Services deterts quality Talent from our ranks those already employed suffer from burnout due to the demanding nature of the job and the low salary that doesn't justify such a commitment or take into account the delicate nature of our work employees don't have a choice but to abandon their pose upheave their lives and move somewhere where they feel value and respected somewhere at the pace of living wage we can do better together for the people who need our help for our fellow employees who confronting Justice on a day-to-day basis we deserve to do better for ourselves so that with our hands we engineer and model Society for the world to admire it is within our power to help those around us it is when our it is within our power with the help of those around us to make a difference today as we consider these critical issues impacting the lives of New Yorkers thank you for the opportunity to testify [Applause] thank you chair Brannan and committee members my name is Kimberly Blair and I'm testifying on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City or Nami NYC which is the only non-profit providing direct and extensive Support Services to family members caring for New Yorkers living with serious mental illness or SMI our org is grateful to see Landmark commitments made in the council's recent mental health roadmap including the need to invest in Support Services for Families impacted by mental illness we are here today though to ensure that this upcoming budget supports and reinforces many of those commitments set forth by the city council families are the thread across a fractured system and the first line of care for loved ones living with SMI such as major depressive disorder bipolar disorder and schizophrenia so when given the proper tools and adequate support families can intervene and improve mental health outcomes for peers research of family interventions broadly and specifically our evidence-based programs support these claims and all point to the same results when a family member is involved emergency room visits and psychiatric hospitalizations decrease and there is engagement and Community there's engagement with community-based mental health care services to reiterate Nami NYC is the only non-profit offering these Family Support Services in New York City for this reason our organization is asking the city to make a 250 000 investment in our one-of-a-kind Family Support programs all available free of charge to anyone who needs them including myself who I am a peer in addition to this our written testimony delves into the need for better preventive Services community-based care and crisis Services there we also explain the urgency that our city make no further Investments towards the premature expansion of the be heard program unless the model is revised to meet the requirements outlined by our Mental Health Community in its ccit proposal thank you for your consideration and we will submit the rest as written good evening hi my name is Janae Billy and I am here in dual hats actually supporting power play NYC and the star the sports training and role models of success Citywide girls initiative AKA start CGI power play's mission is to advance the lives of girls through Sports helping them grow physically emotionally and academically stronger we create a Continuum of opportunities for girls ages 8 through 18 and utilize structured sports activities to Foster critical social emotional well social emotional learning skills girls need to succeed in school and life we build their confidence and resilience as well as create safe spaces where they can learn from each other and from strong female role models this has been crucial in helping our girls Thrive as they recover from the pandemic power play partners with schools and community-based organizations to conduct Sports based after school and summer programming emphasizing social emotional skills health and wellness leadership and College and Career readiness we also serve young people in all five boroughs power play also serves as a lead Agency for Star CGI a collaboration of 10 leading non-profits across all five boroughs and in all 51 city council districts that serve under multiple pillars we are based in the sports the Arts leadership literacy and the advocacy space our organizations we come together and we advocate for over 500 000 girls and gender expansive youth from systemically underserved communities supporting their growth emotionally academically and physically here's star CGI by the Numbers we are 10 partner organizations we will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary next year led by 10 strong Fierce women leaders over the course of the our Coalition we have raised 12 million dollars and like I said we have served over 500 000 girls in gender expansive youth we respectfully seek the support of the council for the restoration of the 1.5 million dollars funded in FY 24 of which power play receives 550 000 I will submit my written testimony that will further delve into it thank you so much for your time thank you chair Brennan and members of the council for allowing New York junior tennis and learning legally incorporated as nyjtl to testify today for over 50 years nyjtl was a counselor's partner has been driving force in New York City for the Youth to play tennis in communities reaching over 85 000 children annually [Music] last year we were in all five boroughs throughout the city currently we are funded under the council's physical education Fitness initiative NY JTL provided as I said tennis we also have educational programs we do character development for all the youth throughout the city of New York our program is because of the council are free city-wide to anybody who wants them we are extremely grateful to the council for support throughout the years for both our mission and our programming this year we are seeking one million dollars in Citywide funding an increase of two hundred thousand dollars allocated it would be our first increase in over 15 years during the 15th these past 15 years 15 years ago minimum wage was 7.25 costs have doubled cost have tripled one dollar today buys 73 cents of what it did back then given the years of rising costs as well as the impact of inflation and a pandemic on the economy it's been coming increasingly challenging for us to continue to provide our programming and thou belief that talented Universal but opportunity is not that is why the funding is so vital for what we do the overwhelming majority of our young people served by our free tenants throughout the city are black Latino and Asian please in our written testimony which I've submitted we have a pie chart which will break it down it'll show you the even breakdown of how it goes one last comment I'd like to make that during the pandemic Reef came out we served the Youth of the city we came out with programming during the summer of 2020 that year we brought the kids out for the physical education we now need the help of the city council and continued funding and fiscal year of 24 in 2024 the budget is crucial to our vision with your support we can continue to change the lives of thousands of kids throughout the city thank you all for your time and your patience thank you all very much thank you thank you just pay thank you we'll Now call the next remote panel Kevin Jones Tanya Douglas Sarah Jackson Andrew diskin Sean Deborah karika Lisa Jones and Pete Graves we'll begin with Kevin Jones your time starts now good afternoon chair Brandon and members of the city council committee on finance thank you for this opportunity to testify today my name is Kevin Jones I'm the associate state director for advocacy at AARP New York which represents 750 000 members across the five boroughs the city is not prioritizing the basic needs of our Ultra adults and New York that's which is New York's fastest growing demographic New York City 65 and overpopulation skyrocketed by 36 percent over the past decade and 18 percent of older adults are living in poverty in spite of this the mayor's proposing drastic cuts to New York City aging and critical Aging Services New York City aging receives less than one percent of the city budget and the mayor's proposal would cut that even further there are a lot of competing demands for city funding but the budget should never be balanced on the backs of our older adult population we must provide Equitable funding to meet the demand for essential Aging Services first and foremost the city must provide funding to combat hunger and food insecurity the mayor is proposing more than 12 million in cuts to home delivered meals and adults older adult care center meal programs at a time when older adults face increased food prices and considerable cuts to snap all while one in 10 New Yorkers are experiencing food insecurity the city must include and increase food program funding for community-based older adult centers and home delivered meals to ensure that our older adults are not going hungry next we must increase investment community-based care and in non-profits that provide these essential Services the city must fund New York City aging's Home Care Program and restore funding to clear the case management management and Home Care wait list and of course we won't meet the demand with existing non-profit worker shortages It's Not Unusual for organizations to have 20 or even 50 Staffing shortages and programs that's why we're calling on the city to provide Human Service workers with a 6.5 cost of living adjustment increase older New Yorkers built this city and made it great and without real investment we'll leave our older adults behind the 1.8 million older adults living in New York City deserve better thank you thank you we'll now hear from Tanya Douglas time starts now good afternoon this is Tanya Douglas and I am the director of the veterans Justice project at the Manhattan program of Legal Services um Legal Services NYC as many people know is the largest provider of free civil legal services our veterans Justice project has been around for almost a decade and what we do is provide holistic services to Veterans nearly a hundred thousand people a year and we help them in a variety of civil matters such as housing to maintain stability help them with Income Maintenance whether it's getting VA benefits Social Security benefits and a variety of other family and consumer law matters we appreciate this invitation to testify about the need for increased veteran funding the covet pandemic has impacted the veterans community in ways that are unspeakable many veterans are part of a self-sufficiency community and they're not used to asking for help our veterans Justice project at Legal Services allows low-income veterans to get culturally competent services so people who are aware of what it means to work with veterans and their families so that they can get critical services and maintain their home last with funding from the city council we were able to help several hundred veterans and I must say the couple hundred veterans that we help are much more than just the 200 veterans or so because each veteran has a family so we maintain um their housing maintain their income and help them with a variety of other matters so we are asking that this Mass this funding be maintained if not increase our veterans have sacrificed for us in ways that are Untold and often don't ask for anything so what we are able to provide is a One-Stop shopping where they can contact us for any variety of civil legal matters and we work with veteran support yeah thank you welcome when I hear from Sarah Jackson the time has begun Sarah Jackson okay we'll move on to Andrew diskin look uh good evening here Brennan and members of the committee my name is Andrew justkin I am a caseworker at Urban Pathways a New York city-based non-profit homeless services and supported housing provider I've been working in the human service sector for five years though for most of my career I've worked in the business sector in New York City truthfully I've made significantly more money in the business world than I do make now but in that era of my life I was unfulfilled and misusing substances in alcohol to cope with the discontent my life changed in 2012 as I became a sober man I now have more purpose and more clarity in my life as a case manager I'm advocating for people who can't always advocate for themselves many of my clients struggle with substance abuse disorders just like I used to now when I wake up on Saturday morning I think about the positive impact I have had on someone else's life the week from the from the week prior the problem is that Human Service workers are not sufficiently valued for the work we do every day I see how insufficient wages drives turnovers and vacancies in my own program and across the sector it often takes three to six months to or longer to build a therapeutic relationship and trust with a client so what happens when a client when a client has five or more case managers in one year it's a huge barrier for success and the client service suffers Urban Pathways by so many other non-profits is funded by City contracts and these contracts set the salaries for Human Service workers a 6.5 Cola would raise the salaries of contracted Human Service workers to better align with inflation and allow us to support ourselves as we support New Yorkers in your districts I employ the committee to include 200 million dollars or six percent six point five percent Cola and that's in the final fiscal uh 2024 budget as a step towards Human Service workers like myself being justly paid for our work thank you for the opportunity to testify today and your continued support of the human service sector thank you we'll now hear from Sean Debra carica time will begin Sean your audio is not coming through yeah you're off mute but we still can't hear you I'm sorry okay well he the difficulties we move on to Lisa Jones good afternoon chair Brennan and members of the committee my name is Lisa Jones and I work as a case manager at Urban Pathways a non-profit homeless Services a Supportive Housing provider I've been working in the human service sector for around seven years I work with these clients in Supportive Housing who are formerly homeless and live with a serious mental illness I am proud of the work I do to help people make strides in getting their lives back on track but even before that I dedicated much of my time to help numbers for me social work is a quality I finished my bachelor's in social work in 2020 and now I would like to pursue a master's in social work to continue elevating my skills and better serving my clients the problem is that Human Service workers are not sufficiently valued the work we do every day prior to working at Urban Pathways I was working as a case manager and a direct specialist provider in a shelter but for over a year even while I was working at a shelter I could not afford an apartment and so I wasn't living in a shelter myself in fact it was only last month that I was able to move into my apartment with the help of City basketball but while I'm excited that I was able to get my own apartment I'm worried about keeping my apartment the increased cost of living prices keep rising and wages are rising at the same rate it's iron ironic every day I work with people who have experienced homelessness and are trying to get back on their feet but at the same time I have to worry about being knocked off online non-profit like so many is funded by City contracts and these contracts set salaries for myself and my colleagues a 6.5 percent Ola would raise the salaries of City contracted Human Service workers to begin to better align with inflation and allow us to better support ourselves as we support New Yorkers and your districts I employ the committee to include 200 million time is expired for a 6.5 million six point percent Cola in the final fiscal year of 2024 budget as a step towards Human Service workers like me being justly paid for our work thank you for the opportunity to testify today for your continued support the human service sector thank you try Sean Deborah karika again okay can you hear me yes we got you okay wonderful thank you uh good afternoon chair Brandon and members of the committee my name is Deborah karika and I'm an administrative assistant working at Urban Pathways as a human services worker I provide essential Services by working with clients in the support of housing many of those I work with are formerly homeless and or have serious mental illness I am proud of the work that I do every day to help people make strides in getting their lives back on track I've been working in the Human Services sector for several years the job we do is hard and important the people we serve often deal with difficulties that we may or may not know which may reflect in behaviors that are challenging to deal with regardless they are all human beings just like you and me and there is no need to be there is a need to be compassionate and lead with empathy but this work is not easy a high turn of a rate and a high vacancy rate due to insufficient wages makes this work harder that has an impact on the equality of the services that we can provide our clients my nonprofit like so many is funded by City contracts and and those contracts have set the salaries for myself and my colleagues a 6.5 Cola would raise the salaries of City contracted Human Services Workers to better align with inflation and allow us to better support ourselves as we support New Yorkers in our districts why does the government undervalue Human Service workers while deemed essential during the pandemic the city continues to leave us behind in a field that is overwhelmingly staffed by women and people of color we make on an average twenty thousand dollars less than a public sector employee this exaggerates racial inequity and gender disparities I employ the committee to include a 6.5 percent Cola in the final fiscal year 2024 budget as a step towards Human Services Workers like me being justly paid for our work thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today and for your continued support of the Human Services sector thank you we'll now hear from Pete Graves uh hello uh chairman Brandon and council members thank you for the opportunity to testify today my name is Pete Graves and I'm a human services worker here in New York City working at University settlement where I'm the education supervisor at the adult literacy program as a human services worker I along with my colleagues provide essential services in our community and support a growing immigrant population as they look to better their own lives and the lives of their families here in New York City our adult literacy program helps people find jobs better their English language skills connect with services and programs all over the city and much more even though Human Services providers help connect New Yorkers to life-saving resources employees at human and services agencies receive low wages that barely cover the cost of living our work is necessary to New York's economy and safety and we deserve to be paid fairly under City contracts a 6.5 percent cost of living adjustment would raise the wages of City contracted Human Services Workers to a better alignment with inflation and allow us to better support ourselves as we support New Yorkers in your districts because of low wages it is difficult for community-based organizations to attract and retain qualified employees many potential employees refuse offers and people who do accept offers are often forced to look for new jobs outside of our organization shortly after they start because they cannot afford to provide for theirs themselves and their families with wages as they stand today considering the New York City rent guidelines board has attentively approved a seven percent rent hike for two-year leases it's no real surprise people need to look for work that pays better some employees because they are driven by our mission will take on second jobs just to try to stay with us which they should not have to do but in the end inevitably against Rising costs and rents many of these employees will seek employment elsewhere out of necessity along with those employees goes a wealth of experience and institutional knowledge it's demoralizing to see good qualified people leave again and again because they simply cannot afford to stay it's not good for employees and it's certainly not good for the communities we serve a cola is vital to retaining these employees so that we can serve our communities please support government contracted Human Services Workers by ensuring that Human Services 6.5 percent Cola is included in the upcoming budget thank you so much thank you we'll Now bring up the next in-person panel from Chinese American planning Council Ferris albuquiti Jeff Lau Mary Chang Nicholas Lombardo Robert calabretta Catherine Chambers Vanita yogeshwar and Walter Logan appreciate you guys sticking it out thank you thank you chair Justin Brannan and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify today my name is Mary Chang cpc's director of childhood development services I am a proud result of CPC service and I have been working with CPC now for 21 years this year long time so I understand firsthand how cpcs FCC Early Childhood school age centers and promise NYC are critical safety nets for nearly 2 000 children of working class aapi and immigrant families throughout New York City today I am testifying on the detrimental impact that mayor Adams proposed budget cut of 1 billion to the doe and 38 million cut qcycd would have on our community and our city cpc's program like many across New York City are contracted providers by the city to support doe and funding and we are concerned about any significant cut to the doe that will land on an outdoorstep as Community providers there is currently a growing mental health epidemic according to the centers of the disease and prevention CDC stated that over the last 10 years leading up to the pandemic feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness as well as suicidal thoughts and behaviors increased by about 40 percent among young people the covid-19 pandemic has been detrimental to the Children's Mental Health which affects their academic performance and long-term development the disruption of any in-person learning and prolonged isolation has increased the student's Stress and Anxiety fourth graders in cpc's program are asking questions like what if it stays like this forever what if my parents die what if we what if we don't have any money why why do I need to why since nothing will change and they break down in tears from sadness and hopelessness way heavy heavily on the minds of the students leaving them unmotivated and unable to focus in the classroom additionally these students carry their families pain and loss while managing their own developmental changes and hormonal and physical changes how do they manage these complex emotions that they are feeling what Outlets do they have what programs in the city can support them we come back this by investing more not cutting dycd enrichment programs summarizing birth to five programs and promise NYC these programs are our city safety nets to ensuring we invest in all our children and to support in the healing that our community for our community's well-being the system that we've recently testified is imperfect and we Face administrative and operational issues these challenges are hard and have led to operational issues that have been system have system-wide impacts and in recent months we've been working with the doe and City Partners to move the needle towards repayments and enrollments a cut the significant of 1.32 will ultimately cut the works and cause gut the works and cause irreparable harm to an already depleted and struggling system so we are asking for the city to not cut but restore and invest more not less to fix the system especially ultimately to support the True Heart of the programs our staff our staff who are contracted to serve the city of New York under the same capacity as doe educate them in the same curriculum credentials assessments and requirements and additionally our staff who must be culturally and linguistically competent to be to best reflect our community we are hoping that you will ensure and we call for the committee to ensure adequate Investments towards dycd birth to five contracts and promise NYC for all our children's mental well-being and additionally support Equitable Investments toward pay parity and the just pay campaign um thank you for your time hello everybody um Brennan and and the committee on finance for this opportunity to testify um before I begin I do want to just uh shout out my colleagues who weren't able to stay they did have to take care of some programmatic um responsibilities but I did want to um as Chinese American planning Council as you know we are the largest Asian American Social Services organization in the country uh last year we served about 280 000 people on at 35 sites throughout the city and um yeah and I definitely want to just shout out the programs that uh that we wanted to also lift up today which included funding senior services at 6.7 million to ensure aging populations can live a dignified life uh we uh I would like to shout out the program uh project reach which does great work in ensuring that we take care of our homeless and lgbtq youth throughout the city um I want to say that we also stand in solidarity with our colleagues who are asking for 6.5 increase in Cola for all Social Service workers nonprofit workers um yeah and I'll begin with my testimony my name is Jeff Lau I'm the program director of the adult literacy program at the Chinese American planning Council and today I'm here to urge the city to keep our programs whole without cuts adult literacy programs do provide critically needed services to immigrants across the city our adult literacy program provides free ESL classes and citizenship test prep classes we build to strengthen communities and serve as a conduit for learning about other critically needed services such as child care Senior Care legal services and Insurance housing College ACCESS food assistance Workforce programs and more um at a time when immigrant services are needed more than ever we are faced with Extreme Cuts By the uh the executive budget at a time when vulnerable communities are just rebuilding out of covid-19 when thousands of Asylum Seekers are coming to the city looking at the city as a sanctuary for a better life and when our communities are our community members are learning to defend against Rising hate crimes we honestly can't afford the cuts that were posed at the executive budget um I'll cut a little short sorry um uh we call in the city to increase the per student investment from 9 50 to 2700 to be consistent with the New York City Coalition for adult literacies response to the dycd literacy concept paper we also call on the city to restore the 4.4 million city council discretionary adult literacy initiative and we also would like the city to continue the pilot initiative with a five mil with five million dollars under a new title of the adult literacy program enhancement CPC was a recipient of the pilot initiative and it has shown great results to show that if you even like partially fully fund an adult literacy program you can do really great work and we would like to see that continue we believe our communities are strongest when all of our voices are heard and represented and supporting adult literacy classes is critical to continuing this effort thank you for your time okay thank you chair Brennan and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify today my name is ferrisable KT and I'm here today representing the Chinese American planning Council um CPC like my colleague Mary I am also a product of CPC as I began my journey with the company back in my senior year of high school I'm here to testify against the proposed budget cuts that would have detrimental effects on the well-being and livelihoods of the aapi community and other underserved communities in our city it is crucial to recognize the importance of maintaining and supporting the programs and services that are lifelines for our communities I am currently a family development coach at working under the neighborhood Development Area program funded by dycd and work closely with high school students on a daily basis we provide academic college career and life skills workshops that would enrich Empower them for a lifetime so I want to tell you about one of my participants who I work closely with the the past year she saw us tabling in the cafeteria of New York High School where I am based at and she decided to after hearing about the program she decided to give the program a shot before she joined the program she didn't believe that she could apply and even get into college he didn't it wasn't an option for her but after working closely with her by providing her the resources that she needs assistance with college applications uh assistance with filling out her financial aid and one-on-one counseling and also from the funding that we have with doicd for the NDA program we were able to take her to college tours of different sunnis and CUNY colleges and I'm happy to say that she has been admitted to go to one of the great one of the great schools located in New York City SUNY fit Fashion Institute of Technology which is because which was her dream school it was her Top Choice so I'm very happy and proud of that accomplishment like for her and even after she she's a senior now she's going to attend next fall and she reached out to me and my team Thanking us saying that hey even if after I've graduated and I'm not a part of CPC can I come back and speak to the other students and be a part of the events and of course that we welcome her to do that because what we give into the community comes back around and it paves a way for future participants in our program right what you invest in the community will come back and bless you know future participants also the time went up but I do want to ask do my quick asks for the FY 24 budget I believe the city must reverse a 38.8 million dollar Peg for dycd contracted programming uh support a prevailing wage schedule for Human Services Workers that through the passing of introduction 510 Stevens include a 6.5 Cola for Human Services Workers and including workers paid through all dyce contracted programs and also just a quick shout out I didn't speak about Compass directly but Compass is also a great school that's uh I mean a great program run by docd that we CPC worked closely with um we need to increase the cost per participant rate to set a wage floor of 21 per hour for workers so that providers can offer a more competitive wage to combat recruitment challenges these are very important uh these asks are very important for us to be able to succeed in our programming and providing to the community thank you so much for your time today thank you CPC love you guys thank you thank you the union okay next we'll hear from New York City Council ale Dan croup Matt Malloy for Nori Ron wawary I know I pronounced that incorrectly please forgive me okay you may begin yeah thank you good evening chair Brannon council members nurse Steven Swan Jose Hudson Krishnan good evening pleasure to be here my name is Dan croup and I'm the president of the association of legislative employees or ale which is the staff Union at the New York City Council ale is proud to be the largest Union of legislative workers in the country in my day-to-day role as a council financial analyst I'm behind the scenes of a hearing not testifying but today is different I'm here as the leader of our Union which is some 400 New Yorkers strong and our bargaining committee it's been over one year since ale first sat down with management to negotiate we said we wanted to work with the council to write a fair first contract worthy of the staff who dedicate our livelihoods to public service and our communities staff have been deliberate in building our proposals our Union formed in 2019 and recognized in 2021 democratically decided on every one of them with an extensive survey Outreach process and membership engagement collectively we called on the council to lead from the front and become a living wage employer the city council is an institution that Prides itself on Progressive values what better way to put Progressive values into action than by paying your own staff fairly currently it's not uncommon for full-time staff to earn in the 30 to 40 thousand dollar range 45 percent of council member aides earn under 55 excuse me 45 percent of council member aides make under fifty five thousand dollars which is the median salary while living wages in New York City vary from 93 426 dollars for a single parent to a hundred and thirty four thousand dollars if you consider what it takes to afford the average New York apartment staff decided to aim for seventy five thousand dollars as a reasonable wage floor given that we'd never have one before however Council management has responded to our salary Proposal with a floor of forty four thousand dollars such low wages as these plus long unpaid overtime hours which vinery will talk about more would continue to drive systemic turnover in her state of the city address the speaker called for creating living wage jobs through collaboration between the city and the state we believe the council can also create decent paying jobs like the city's budget the council's budget is to a statement of values in 2022 there were 40 Executives at the council who earned more than you all do as council members those 40 Council staff Executives took home a total of 7.4 million dollars based on the Union's analysis our 75 000 wage floor costs less the fiscal 2024 Council budget totals 100 million dollars we can do this we can become a living wage employer at the city council and Ale is proud to be joined in this fight by 19 unions and labor coalitions that we announced today have our backs and we have theirs and that includes the New York City Central labor Council which represents over 1.3 million New Yorkers workers across New York who are standing in solidarity with us and us with them we believe that respect on the job and a living wage are possible and hope the council will be a partnered towards achieving that Vision that Vision thanks for providing the opportunity to testify and after you hear from my co-workers I'd be happy to answer any questions you have thanks so much for your time hi good evening chair Brennan and all the council members here my name is vinery ranawira and I'm the vice president of Ale the union for New York City Council staffers I have been a council member aide for almost four years now and have worked in two council member offices I'm here to tell you about how ale is pushing for a Union contract that uplifts Council staff as you will as you know well Council staffers do invaluable work we support thousands of constituents many of whom are in dire situations we actively engage our communities and address their concerns we help pass critical legislation and allocate our council members budgets to essential services unfortunately Council staffers are also some of the lowest paid public sector workers and don't receive overtime like other city workers do over 120 council member aides earn under 55 000 a year I was personally paid just forty five thousand dollars for the first two years of my career at the council those are poverty wages and don't allow for the workers who serve our city to be able to live in it housing Child Care Medical food and other costs are skyrocketing and it is impossible to keep up with them with these low salaries staffers often need other jobs to supplement their income just to meet their basic needs this quickly leads to burnout and many are forced to leave preventing retention of institutional knowledge and leading to extraordinary rates of turnover this also pushes experienced people out of the council to comparable jobs and other City agencies and the private sector which offer competitive livable salaries it's no surprise the State Comptroller found that the council had 5.8 times the vacancy rate as the average city agency did between FY 2012 and FY 2020 and in FY 2022 the council had an almost 14 percent vacancy rate this is a staffing crisis with current wages it will be very hard to fill positions in any permanent way causing a serious drain on Council Members abilities to serve their districts according to L staff survey people on average work almost 47 hours per week that's a third more hours than we're paid for or 600 additional hours a year if staffers were compensated for the hours they actually worked they would be paid over seventy thousand dollars a year on average people who work at the council because they're passionate about empowering their communities but that passion can only drive them for so long they also need a living wage of at least 75 000 a year they need overtime compensation similar to what thousands of DC 37 workers already receive and additional pay for providing services and languages other than English this will allow them to sustainably do the work to keep the city running the council sets its own budget and has the money to do this and as council members often say a budget is a statement of values the council unfortunately hasn't shown that their staff's time and work is valued overwork without overtime unlivable salaries and staggering turnover rates set staffers up for failure and end in worse outcomes for constituents the council should lead from the front in supporting Fair pay and labor rights especially for its own workers thank you for the opportunity to testify on these issues um hello and uh thank you very much to chair uh Brandon and all the council members um particular uh chairman Brennan is my council member Bayer is very proud of you when I uh look into the crowd here I can't help but immediately think of all the staff members who work in your offices who are so proud to work for you who we work with every day Chanel and krishnan's krishnan's office council member Krishna and excuse me Andrew and councilmember Hudson's office Tony and councilmember Brandon's office Arlene and councilmember Williams office Whitney and councilmember Williams office Arlene and councilmember oseis Dom and council member nurses I could go on but I I just when I look at you I can't help but think of them um my name is Matthew Malloy I'm a scheduler in council member Gennaro's office I'm also our Union stewards rep representative to the executive board in my capacity I am on the front line of handling grievance issues and workplace issues and a reef resource for stewards who are in offices our workers have advocated clearly that we must bring an end to our at-will employment status what we are seeking is similar to the protections that the council passed for fast food workers in 2020 and today I'd like to speak briefly about two recent grievances that were reported to the council recently a new staffer a gay man disclosed their sexual orientation they were immediately warned that they should not let their council member find out as the member does not approve of same-sex relationships a few days later the council worker was terminated immediately after being terminated the worker reported their complaint to eeo and all of this is on file it's not an anonymous report the staffer is named and the council members named um that worker reported made that report on April 4th it is now the middle of May and that matter has not been resolved and as far as we know that council member has received no formal reprimand another staff member was warned in another office that their council member did not approve of the union and was discouraged from joining eventually they became a union member and their office's shop steward shortly after their day-to-day responsibilities began being delegated elsewhere they created a complaint that complaint went to ogc it was considering retaliation based on their Union involvement this complaint was investigated ogc found no cause a few weeks later on May 17th that union worker was fired they created the complaint on April 26th in both of these instances the stated reason for these firings was your services are no longer needed we are at will employees the council does not have to provide justification for firing a staff member we've received numerous reports that are similar reports of workers being asked to perform political activity while on the job being asked to come into the office after testing positive for covid being asked to retrieve items from an office that's under an active construction site being stalked and harassed by constituents and even having their wages being temporarily cut as a form of discipline if I wanted to emphasize one thing here today it is that all too often our workers face retaliation for doing the right thing the thing we are instructed to do in reporting the activity and this is the reason why we are advocating so strongly for our Atwell status as workers to come to an end and for us to have a clear disciplinary process and just that overall it is so important that our council members do not take a hands-off approach to this negotiation oftentimes when we canvas members a few weeks ago we felt that a lot of folks didn't necessarily know the current state of negotiations we are happy to talk with folks we're happy to meet with folks update you if you're not getting updates but we need our council members to get involved this negotiation is going to impact you for the the rest of your terms here it's going to impact your staff and um thank you very much for allowing us here thank you again to chair Brandon and thank you very much okay we have questions from Council Members nurse followed by Jose hey um well first of all thank you all for coming and testifying here I don't know if it was easy for you but I we appreciate it um so a couple things I mean one I'm I'm a little embarrassed that 44 000 was the offer that came back and I don't I'll probably get in trouble I don't know if I'll get in trouble but for saying that but that's embarrassing um and I think many of us would support that I think we need help being able to pay you all better you know we need the packet you know this we need the package to be bigger so that we can actually pay people to meet the demand of the needs and to keep and retain people there are a lot of good folks who get better offers and we can't compete um and in terms of these kinds of retaliations I mean maybe you could outline or elaborate a little bit more on what seems to not be moving um and if there's better mechanisms for you all to alert people I didn't know about this and maybe I'm just not looking in the right direction I mean I know there's certain accounts where things are shared but it would be helpful I think if you could elaborate what are some of the bottlenecks and what type of communication that could better alert people to these kinds of issues um so yes I think I'll start um as far as the the Grievances and the retaliation specifically today you know we have all sorts of stuff that folks reach out to us about and sometimes they just want to talk informally a lot of times issues we face in the offices we internally organize we try to solve the situation before going through an official process the things everything I've talked about today has been reported in an official capacity to the council because I felt it was important to speak about things that are on record so we can reflect what the response was I also chose to use our most recent examples so two things that happened in April um what we're talking about here specifically is really the eeo process and I think you know one of the greatest problems we have is that a lot of times we will get on the back end from them this statement that I read here which is that their services were no longer needed and that is really the only legal obligation the council currently has so so in our estimation well like yes there may be some things we can do in the short term in terms of comms right speaking about this publicly that's obviously very dependent on the impacted worker who usually would like to work somewhere else at the council and maybe might be a little bit nervous about you know tweeting about this they've already been very brave they've gone on the record with their name naming you know their council member or their supervisor whoever it is and they've gone on record which is already a very brief step so um I think in our estimation the number one thing we need is in these negotiations we need some help getting over the Finish Line on um Council workers not being classified as at-will employees and having a very clear uh disciplinary process with steps that would really just have parity with dc37 parity with legislation the council recently passed for fast food workers um it's you know we're not trying to reinvent the wheel it's it's something that we can take off the shelf um and in terms of if there's an interest from specific council members and ad hoc organizing in the meantime when these egregious cases come through that's that's certainly something we can talk about but any sort of public pressure that's always going to start just like anything with our Union it's going to start with the impacted member and what they're comfortable with much and just let us know what full there are those of us who do support organized labor everywhere it should be you know it should be able to exist so um we don't always try to meddle um because we know that it's still emerging but if there are ways we can help please let us know council member osei yeah thank you all for testifying this evening and you know to everyone that's here for waiting as long as you've waited to speak to us I'm in support of the Union I love my staff every single person that's been with me since day one is still in my office so I think they love me too um I will say that it's real I think they I think they do I think they do um you know I think it's really important for us as members and I know you guys were doing some canvassing uh last week to know some of the things that you were talking about and most especially when it comes to specifics and I know that anything that's publicized or you know put out through comms is definitely going to impact that specific worker but whoever that council member is who's treating their staff like that is a disgusting person and I think that's important to highlight you know not only you know for for us and for the union but uh I don't think someone should be in government if they're treating people like that in the first place um in addition to that um continue letting us know how we could amplify in certain ways and I don't know if you can do that through um the Union steward so our lead in my office I mean if she's I don't know like I'm still kind of confused at like the amount of communication that I can have with her about you know Union purpose things but if you let her know and have her be the middle person and and me advocating for something like the things that you were talking about please let me know how to proceed on that um I think you know a lot of us who are you know new and managerial roles don't want to who are in support of a union don't want to like overstep in in some ways and do something wrong so some more guidance May maybe through some of those folks within our office who are part of that Union would be helpful at least in my office I'll speak for myself um yeah I'm not a union buster councilman would you like me to reply to that yeah I said a lot I'm sorry that's fine um just briefly in response yeah we appreciate the support and we do have to say that so many council members not just this year but right over the past four years that we've concretely been building ale as the representative of the majority of the workforce here we've really appreciated the support of the council members and the collaboration that at times we've been able to have with the speaker's office but right now we are at a choice point and I think the numbers really tell the story for over seven months the speaker's office had that demand knowing that we were shooting for 75 000 and to come back with 44. I think really tells a story about The Gap that's still there and so we are going to be asking for your support to help move that conversation along and we were of course back in 2021 ultimately council members voted to give the speaker the authority to first of all at that time speaker Johnson to recognize us which was successful obviously that's why we're here as the Union uh and you know we really think that the council members are integral to this because as we know as you know you know this is an institution and I think that's part of what's so important about this contract just to add to what Matt was saying the contract should be strong on both the economics and the non-economics because we're setting the standard at the city council which is an institution of government that will be here for a long time ahead and it's never had a contract before it's never had a union in-house so we have over 30 years of overdue maintenance on living standards and that's why that starting salary which is just really one part of an overall economic package that includes some parity with dc37's pattern on overtime that includes a multilingual bonus for staff who serve constituents in languages other than English that includes an experience bonus we want all of these things to be part of the conversation on the table and so your support making sure that you know we're in conversation with you that you understand what we're looking for it really will close that Gap that venary was talking about in terms of the turnover that hurts this institution so let's use this budget as a statement of our values your values actually as council members you'll be the ones taking the vote on this budget none of the staff you will so I think the fiscal 2024 budget should be the statement of the council's values towards its staff so if you think we deserve to live in the communities that we serve you'll be supporting us and we'll be there to uh to thank you so thanks so much for your time okay we still have questions from council member Stevens followed by Williams hi good evening um first I would like to say thank you guys for being here um and obviously for me the treatment of staff is always really important especially coming from working in service for 20 years um and I'm just and not being unionized and understanding how that sometimes is challenging but my question is this is and this is a real logistical question just around thinking about because I know you guys mentioned like you know like dc37 and those things where this job is very different than that especially like working for a council member if you guys do something we get blamed for it or whatever like no one cares about those things so what does that look like really in real time and really getting a clear explanation of what it looks like if um if it's not at will and there is a discipline process and all those things I I would love to just hear what that looks like on the record around like what that process would look like because to me that's really important because because I come from service and I worked there for so long and now I'm here the conversation is it looks different than it did before so you know talk to me a little bit about that I'm having to start and then pass it over to a matter vinery I think the the question of how do you create a grievance policy that's fair for staff is an important one and this is an area that I would highlight we've you know we're working with Council management we've gotten some counters that you know we're working with what's missing though is the piece that I think is really important is Progressive discipline which means that written in the contract is somewhere where if you're tardy the first time if you some if someone finds out that you're you're you know whatever it might be let's go with tardy for the first time that you can't suddenly be jumped to being terminated in which case the union would only have retroactive or reactive recourse to go through a process which takes our limited time our resources potentially all the way through to arbitration to restore people's jobs so what we're looking for is to be proactive which means real rules of the road and the council Union has always have been about creating standards where there are none and making the those standards ones that are really robust and fair and so you know if I had to put boil everything down that we're talking about it's about living wages and fair treatment for Council staff and Matt maybe he's been working a lot on the grievance piece of this as our chief steward I don't know if you want to add in on that I'm really conscious of the other testifiers as well yeah I think just what I would add to your question is obviously we're we're on record and what we've proposed to the speaker's office in olr and I'm very confident we can get you that entire document shortly um I was trying to scramble to see if I could get it very quickly but I think I'm sure you know where to find me yeah yeah exactly but I think as Dan sort of outlined I think the it's it really is almost essentially a copy and paste of what dc37 has and and that really just entails you know a verbal warning a set amount of time a written warning a set amount of time and you know it sort of follows a ladder so is that not happening now because maybe that's why I'm baffled sure right right because that's that's that's the kind of the thing I'm trying to like get at so those things are not happening currently and folks are just jumping straight to termination in some instances and I'm asking this because sincerely I know how my offices run I don't know how other folks offices around us which is why I'm asking the questions and I think that hits on a key theme that that we have brought to the bargaining table that we have heard from our members is that currently and it's a really unique part of of our job as as working for elected officials we we like to you know refer to this as it's almost as if we're all on 51 separate islands and there's different rules and there's different expectations and yes there are tons of offices who would never just fire someone they would they would have some sort of independent process that they've all agreed to and it works but there's no such requirement quite literally you know you have to obviously go through the the formal process of of engaging with HR and there's obviously you know some steps in terms of the paperwork but we are um at well employees and and if the council member deems that our services are no longer needed um that is justification enough and you know as I you know showed and just two examples we have many others sometimes um it's very reasonable to suspect retaliation whether you know for Union involvement or on a protected category like sex sexual orientation or race um and you know that's part of the reason why we're emphasizing this so much today but yes there are definitely currently offices where people are abruptly terminated and are just the reason is your services are no longer needed well thank you guys for showing up here today and like leading with courage um especially we know like especially when you're the first ones to do sometimes it's really hard and it's scary and you guys are leading with courage and leading with knowledge and so we do appreciate that um and you know we look forward to continuing to like pushing this forward as you know this council is a council who does believe in unions and we want to be supportive and just just trying to get to some of the Nitty Gritty but we'll definitely continue this conversation so thank you yeah I have similar questions and also was just interested in like the nitty-gritty like what are you actually asking for I think I did see um some type of one pager um that kind of listed out the different demands that you guys had um and so I don't even want to comment on them I would just rather see them um because some of the things that I saw and even some of the things that were listed in the testimony I would love to further explore what those look like because foreign and this is coming from a person who prior to this all I've done is work for elected officials and so I know firsthand how abusive the environment can be and how fluid it is for people to sort of make their own rules and not a lot of recourse for individuals who are working for elected officials in the political environment but taking that into consideration it still is a political environment and like different types of industries that have certain types of norms I do think unfortunately this environment is abusive to elected officials as well I'm on the record saying that and so by extension of us I'm just interested in how all of that gets taken into consideration given the type of environment like we are I feel like we're on call all the time and we have to create our own boundaries and we have to you know tell ourselves turn the phone off um but again that that's like a reflection of what we have to be responsive to and our offices are also responsive to emergencies a fire Could Happen someone gets shot I mean so many different things so I was just equally interested in in the micro nitty-gritty of like what specifically are you asking for what makes sense I think I saw something around predictable scheduling which I think can happen but needs to happen with levels of flexibility because it's not like McDonald's or Macy's where you kind of know it's a set amount of work um you have to be there at a specific time so I just again just really interested in the nitty-gritty and also want to thank you all for coming and say firsthand I know how abusive the environment can be and why it is important to have representation thank you thanks council member Williams it's very powerful to hear you say as someone who's worked in politics for many years that it is an area that unfortunately has a lot of abuse and that's part of what we put forward as a union was that we wanted to see not just reactive measures like eeo for a small subset of cases that are about discrimination on a protected category or harassment but bullying bullying is very difficult currently under the existing Council policy to substantiate and we put forward proposals many many months ago to beef up the ability of the council by establishing an office of conflict resolution which is a similar proposal to what was put forward out of a working group that the Union at Columbia and management they're devised to put re proactive measures in place so that you could have for example coaching for managers who are not particularly adroit at managing their staff so that you could have restorative justice for issues that arise in the office to have some sort of mediation there not everything has to be a legal matter between this party said this and this party said that and only one of them can be right in fact that's a very old model of thinking we wouldn't talk to to many of the agencies for example doing criminal justice work or work with our youth and say those are the only options is that you cast them aside and they're no longer allowed or they haven't done anything wrong at all we need proactive ways of getting to grips with the bullying culture in politics and the council wants the council Union wants to be a part of moving that conversation forward it will impact our our co-workers in Albany or in Washington DC who are also very admirably I must say organizing new unions just in terms of some of very quickly I mean we will definitely get you the one pager about some of our demands but on the flexibility piece I think it's really important what we took from DC 37 contract and modeled our own overtime proposal on had options for both involuntary overtime where you raise your hand and say I'd like to take that backpack giveaway this weekend or involuntary overtime where the member says you have to show up because there was a fire in that building and the woman and and one of the tenants needs you now we have Provisions that we put forward unfortunately the response that we got was there's no circumstance that the council management thought that we would earn paid overtime that's just very unusual when you look at other city workers that there's no circumstance where you're mandated to show up on a weekend and a holiday and you don't get a dime right so we're willing to talk about you know a range of things what's the budget what's affordable what's parity we're not asking for the Sun the moon and the stars we're asking for what other public servants get so we can Tamp down the brain drain that unfortunately has impacted this institution historically for decades and make this institution all it can be and really defend and protect and rest respect the staff who work here who are unionized workers just like so many other hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the city and millions throughout the metro area so we're flexible about some of the means but some of the principles I think were still quite far away right now in our negotiations on we'd like to you know have your support as we try to get closer thank you um you know you mentioned dc37 I remember speaking to one of the presidents of a local and he talks about how he goes really hard for his members but then he also says sometimes his members are in the wrong and he equally will turn to his members and have those type of conversations and so again I have worked for many offices I have heard lots of horror stories working in Albany and so I know again staff needs protection and should be respected but how how do you also how how will you address things from sort of uh more of a neutral perspective in terms of looking at all sides because I've also heard Flip Side Stories of the opposite happening um so you know how would you look into those type of matters and would you look at those fairly just one comment and then I'll pass it along our proposal for the office of conflict resolution would have independent members as well but it was rebuffed by management so I think we're very open to the idea of there being multiple parties helping us move towards a more holistic more proactive approach to reducing abuse harassment and bullying but we're not really being met at the table on those asks yet and um yeah and I I think what I would also add is um a few weeks ago uh we were able to go to the central labor Council offices um and have a shop stewards training and a section of the training regarded on this exact point like listen it's it's not as if you know immediately upon someone telling you something it's correct right there's always a fact-finding part of that process um and that was something we really you know emphasized I think we really value you know um evidence um you know documentation Etc so I I think in that and currently even now where we do not have an arbitration process we do not have a grievance process because we need a contract in order to enforce those matters I would say even right now ultimately we we do have you know a process prior to that you know before we maybe you know send a complaint to eeo and and meet and discuss the matter right I think we always want to make sure that there is some sort of you know evidence and something to to back up um you know what what the member is talking to us about so on that end I think our stewards do a really really good job of uh collecting that information and taking the process very seriously obviously just gives the union more credibility I think that's something the Union's very aware of is that if you're going to make a big accusation you better have you know big evidence to go along with it um and I think that's why today everything I've talked about in terms of our anecdotes I've made sure that they were examples that are you know on file with eeo these aren't you know Anonymous complaints Anonymous sources we can you know talk with on the eeo office they have the specific member Aid the specific council member and all of that is you know on on file for the the record to reflect council member Krishnan followed by one well first I just want to say to you all too thank you so much uh for for Having the courage to come forward to testify today in this forum um and much less at this hour too um and coming forward with very honest uh accounts uh and uh and uh details of all that's been happening and all of your work too so it's not easy to do that um and I do and we all do appreciate you and your and your testimony today uh I'm particularly uh appalled uh by some of the things that I've heard today in particular the EO issues and the bullying the things you've mentioned so I appreciate you all disclosing these and and that they're also documented too and are things that we can look into further as well um and I would ask you all you know we all here um as you can probably see by the the uh questions and and uh comments we've mentioned are very supportive of your organizing efforts um and I know I've seen you all 250 Broadway the day you were flying and lobbying too um and I just ask that you please keep us informed with details as you provided today too of how things are going um what's happening how we can be supportive and assist you all in those efforts in my opinion uh this institution should be a model uh when it comes to worker practices worker pay and the invite the work environment that we create and I appreciate you all helping us helping this institution uh get to this place too but thank you I think all of you all of us here too we see the work that you're doing we see you value you and recognize all of your labor your sacrifice and efforts this is by no means easy work and if it's not easy for us as elected officials it's even more difficult for you all as the staff every day in our offices with the work that comes in some unexpectedly at times long days long hours but we're very grateful and I'd ask that you just keep us posted of ways that we can be supportive of making this institution the model that it should be thank you council member one and we should we still have like 200 people that thank you thank you so much everyone for coming to testify I just had one question for the dc37 jobs that you're comparing to can you help me understand is that are those salary jobs or are they hourly jobs other hourly they're salaried sorry Dan I think you should take that okay yeah could you help me unders like if you could name some of those job roles that you're comparing to I think it's a Well Benchmark that will help uh dispel some of the misunderstandings where people may think that you're comparing to hourly workers for overtime instead of salaried workers because I think there's a discrepancy in them both there's hundreds of thousands of city workers who are salaried who earn paid overtime name some of them it's like certainly both civilian and uniformed roles so you know we were looking at a range of contracts when we were doing our background research I think the dc37 master agreement is one of the sources that we used I also know there were CWA contracts that we looked at um and these are just off the top of my head so I'm happy to kind of dig into that but I think the key piece is we know there are other civilian workers who get paid overtime and there also are civilian workers who get comp time but don't see a phase out at certain income levels which was also what was pushed back at us so many of our members would just wind up phasing out of even earning compensatory time which I don't think is fair so I think those are a couple of the pieces to help answer your question but I'm happy to kind of you know get back I don't have that I think I think all that information is helpful like what the other members were saying communicating all this out so that we're more educated on everything you're fighting for so that way we can be allies to you and I do agree that it is a problem that you're on an island because there's no standardization of how an office should be run and there's no standardization of office policy it's at the at the preference of a member and their own personal desires of how they want to run their office so absolutely thank you for all that you do thank you thanks for the questions and you know we're here to to raise the standards of this institution and and make it practice what it preaches thank you guys thank you thanks so much chair Brandon thank you thank you very much chair Brandon so next we'll hear from our remote panel Sarah Wilson Hannah Wade Marie mangoon and MJ okma is Sarah Wilson There She can begin thank you okay we'll move on to Hannah Wade time starts now Hannah are you on good evening chairman hello can you hear me yes okay great good evening chairman Brandon and members of the New York City Council committee on finance I'm Hannah Wade a director of City Affairs and public policy at NYU langone health and I'm testifying on behalf of the Cohen military family center to encourage the council to fully fund veteran programs in New York City the Cohen military family center was established just over 10 years ago with the mission to address the mental health challenges of veterans by providing accessible high quality evidence-based treatments to Veterans and their family members the city council through the mental health services for veterans initiative has helped the center accomplish this Mission with funding since FY 2016 and we urge the council and the mayor to do more for our veterans veterans and their family members are seeking mental health services at a higher rate than ever before in the last decade of our operations this sharp increase has resulted in struggles to meet the demand and ultimately a wait list for services including for our city council-funded traumatic brain injury programs the funding from the mental health services for veterans initiative Remains the sole source of funding for our Center's TBI program which provides much needed evaluation and rehabilitation services for veterans with traumatic brain injury we urge the council to further invest in the veteran population by supplementing the veteran services budget continuing support for the mental health services for veterans initiatives and by creating a new member designated initiative to support our veterans in every Council District thank you again for the council's past funding for the center and the opportunity to testify today Marie you can go ahead Marie can you hear us you can go ahead thank you good evening everyone my name is Marie monjohn and I'm the vice president of policy with chicanies the Statewide Association representing New York's community health centers I'm here to testify and strong support of the council's proposal to add 10 million dollars to New York City care for the inclusion of Community Health centers in that program Health Centers provide comprehensive primary care and support services to more than 1.2 million New Yorkers at sites all across the city their vital access points and medically underserved communities and work hand in glove with community-based organizations and hospitals to address Patients health and social care needs Rising costs and inflation coupled with Workforce sororities are strangling the health center Network where reimbursement rates no longer suffice to meet the rising demand for a wide array of services even amidst these pressures Health Centers have stepped up to serve the unique needs of their communities many of them are partnering closely with the city government to provide medical care and supports to Asylum Seekers arriving from the Texas Mexico border we are providing acute and chronic Care Management translation services behavioral health support immunizations and connection to Insurance when applicable however that work is largely unfunded and additional resources are needed to support Health Center's efforts to provide care to asylees in 2022 the council passed legislation to expand the New York City care initiative to include community health centers in addition to H recognizing the critical role that Health Centers play in providing care to uninsured New Yorkers however the expansion signed into law by the council as yet to be implemented by the executive this year's executive budget proposal included a hundred million dollars for New York City care but did not mention the expansion of New York City care to include Health Centers nor did it allocate any funding towards Health Centers specifically again chicanis is supportive of the council's efforts to include health centers in the New York City CARE program and supports the request for 10 million dollars dedicated Care at Health Centers thank you so much for your time today and I refer you to my written testimony Sarah Wilson are you on MJ okma yes I am thank you so much um hi everyone my name is Sarah Wilson um Advocate I apologize for my voice um I work for safety net project of urban Justice Center vocal New York and Shout um very happy to be able to speak today there's a few different areas that I want to just make three comments on and and move along as many other people as possible um in regards to housing City steps um finances are needed for the actual voucher rent as well as the processing Brokers um fees Etc um the cost for shelter versus housing it costs twice as much to keep a person in shelter than it does to let someone out into their own housing home-based staff is really really needed for the in community at risk they cannot handle the case will that they have in community have risk of turning into a shelter or Street Homeless um there's also a bunch of non-profits that are able to process snap applications in 2010es I would love to see them be able to be authorized to also do the city sense processing um also in regards to housing the source of income discrimination unit neither substantial amount of funding so they can actually hold landlords accountable that are refusing to um as far as affordable housing goes I myself am formerly homeless dual diagnosed disabled SSD and I'm told I'm too poor low-income housing but I'm too wealthy for food stamps and medical um there needs to be more very low income housing being created for people who are disabled I says SSD as well as public assistance because the most at risk need and they're ineligible um just to go along with some of these other things um the medical community to be able to be involved I know the cold advance that they were using would be a beautiful thing to be able to use this triage people to persons like myself with mental and substance you shouldn't have to get to the point where they want to harm themselves or someone else before they're able to see treatment so that's something that would be very useful in community involving the medical staff and these things training on de-escalization uh Trump abuse Services paid for all staff um mental health empowering persons with experience as far as a consultancy uh let them turn to trials and trials and distributions okay resources and opportunities for communities necessary that are also overlooked and it's Agency for city and state for things that have a crossroad um thank you sir with the impact people and that's it I set up God bless thank you Matthew are you on Matthew Bernardo MJ oakma okay uh good evening my name is MJ okay with sage sage has been serving lgbtq plus elders and older New Yorkers living with HIV for over four decades providing comprehensive social services and Community Building programming services for homebound Elders mental health support and running the state's only program focused on the unique needs of lgbtq plus older veterans because of thin support networks lgbtq plus older people and older New Yorkers living with HIV tend to rely more heavily on community service providers for care yet they're often distrustful providers after a long history of compounding discrimination and stigma for many of these Elders in New York sages their Lifeline I want to thank chair Brandon councilmember Hudson and members of the council for championing social services and highlighting the underfunding of the Aging sector throughout the budget process services for elders are more critical than ever as the population of New Yorkers age 60 and older is growing five times faster than those under 18 with lgbtq plus Elders making up a significant part of this rapidly growing population last year this Council made history with the first ever enhancement to the lgbtq senior services in every Borough initiative since its Creation in fiscal year 15. this helped meet the growing demand for these Services by supporting the new Sage under Brooklyn at Stonewall house and directly funding griot Circle New York City's only community-based organization specifically serving lgbtq plus Elders of color it is vital for this initiative to be restored at the new fiscal year 23 levels to maintain the important work being done by both organizations this year Sage is Seeking a renewal of our funding from last fiscal year with no enhancement requests this includes funding for programming at our network of older adult centers Mental Health Services and the only Veterans Services in New York specifically serving lgbtq plus older veterans through our Sage vets program more information can be found in my submit and written testimony thank you so much for your support now we hear from Matthew Bernardo uh thank you my name is Matthew Bernardo I am the President of Housing Works and a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV housing works is a founding member of end AIDS New York Community Coalition I will highlight a few of our critical concerns and solutions identified in more detailed written testimony they are increased funding for ete initiative from 9.5 million in 23 to at least 11 million in FY 24 sustaining city council funding of at least 2.3 million for New York City councils viral hepatitis initiative um continuing 1.4 million in funding for four existing harm reduction providers addressing our tragic epidemic of avoidable overdoses in addition to the two programs currently operating with 1.5 each annually an opioid settlement funding we call for 1.5 in additional funding for five additional opcs to include at least one OPC operating in each New York City Borough for a total of 7.5 million dollars annually to support expansion of this life-saving initiative supporting great greater wage equity for Human Services Workers we call for a 21 an hour wage floor for all New York City funded Human Service workers and an automatic annual cost of living adjustment baselining of a 3.5 million of past funding for a HEPA check hep C and check B patient navigation programs providing 10 million in Baseline funding for finally reopening New York sexual health clinics close to the uh due to the covid-19 crisis supporting a cannabis Workforce training by licensed non-profit dispensaries like Housing Works we believe in enabling members of the impacting Community to be participants in New York cities and New York State's cannabis Market is essential in order to fulfill and realize the restorative justice goals housing work seeks an addition at least 560 thousand dollars to per person Justice involved clients per year uh in retail and general vocational readiness um and then lastly we are we are urging uh the the council to uh to fight the homeless epidemic uh and and and increase the pilots of the stabilization centers across the city thank you next we'll hear from Patricia Glover Corinne Walker Francis Sims Vanetta Wells Ashima Harris Sean Kennedy and Pamela Koch is there anyone else coming forward for this particular panel so I'm going to call the names again Patricia Glover Karim Walker Francis Sims Vanetta Wells Ashima Harris Sean Kennedy and Pamela Koch you can begin my name is aishima Harris Rodrigo policy manager for Equity advocates thank you to the council members for holding today's budget hearing and the opportunity to to submit this testimony Equity Advocates work with new york-based organizations to address the underlying causes of food inequity through policy and system change we convene the New York City Food policy Alliance we advocate for public policies and funding that represent s that response to our economic and hunger crisis while addressing the ongoing vulnerabilities and injustices of the food system with a focus on benefiting communities of color and under-resourced communities today I want to highlight several crucial recommendations for advancing a sustainable and Equitable food system in New York City the covid-19 pandemic continues to have profound economic social and public health impacts on our city we are still grappling with a high unemployment race and increased household expenses in light of these challenges it is essential that we prioritize funding and support for Community gardeners Youth Development programs and food scrap collection initiatives therefore our policy recommendations are as follows firstly we urge the increase for funding for the new office of urban agriculture to ensure appropriate Staffing levels and enhance transparency regarding the office's goals and activities specifically we propose a creation of dedicated position for ongoing Community engagement this will facilitate the development of recommendations by the urban AG agriculture advisory as mandated by the law by the local law one two three we emphasize the need to invest in training programs that cultivate the next Generations of farmers and strengthen viable Urban agriculture career Pathways with a particular focus on youth we propose expanding the department of education's Career and Technical education program to enhance its agriculture food and natural resources curriculum furthermore we commend the council and the mayor for their increased investment in syep and the workland grow program however we urge the Department of Youth and Community Development to reassess current regulations that create barriers for urban agriculture work sites these reassessments should include increase in Baseline funding for employer placement supporting community-based organizations working with dycd reallocate program funding to out-of-school programs and ensuring youth interns are placed at their selected work site based on their interests to support Community gardeners and maxifies the impact of Green Thumb program we recommend investing 4.8 million dollars in Green Thumb this funding would enable the hiring of additional Community engagement coordinators the creation of permanent full-time youth engagement coordinator position and capital funding for repairing or purchasing Green Thumb delivery vehicles these resources are crucial for for providing Community gardeners with the necessary tools and resources to thrive in conclusion I urge a city to prioritize Urban agriculture Youth Development programs and Community engagement by supporting these recommendations by doing so we can build a more sustainable and Equitable food system that benefits all New Yorkers okay good afternoon chair and members of the committee thank you for your continued continued efforts through this budget cycle and to all the community members who have spoken today I've learned so much from the collective wisdom in the room and appreciate the opportunity to be a part of these conversations my name is Sean Kennedy I'm the director of food programs and advocacy at the urban Outreach Center of New York and a member of the New York City Food policy Alliance a group of over 80 food system organizations Citywide each serving tens of thousands of New Yorkers ioshima mention them as well I will provide written testimony myself after this but I also handed you written testimony from Jerome Nathaniel who is the policy director of City Harvest he's also a member of our coalition the urban Outreach Center is a small non-profit situated between the Upper East Side and East Harlem according to a recent report close to 25 percent of our neighbors that's one in four people are struggling to feed themselves and their families we operate a food pantry soup kitchen and wraparound services that serve over 750 families every week most of whom are seniors and working families that number continues to grow with recent migrants or migrants arriving to the city echoing voices of others here today are most vulnerable neighbors have not regained footing after the destabilization highlighted by the pandemic if anything more and more folks who never thought they would find themselves at pantries are walking through our doors our seniors students families and Asylum Seekers are struggling to make ends meet food is just the tip of the iceberg New Yorkers are being forced to choose between food housing and other needs the Community Food Connection program has been particularly helpful to us as a Pantry in providing healthy produce meat and staple Pantry items and SNAP benefits are a huge support to our guests the New York City Food policy Alliance has a full list of recommendations that will be included in my written testimony but in the interest of time I'll highlight just a few of them here I ask that you all consider increasing the funding for the Community Food Connection program formerly efap to 59 million and increase hra's budget Baseline to ensure it can engage community-based organizations in benefits Outreach and applications such as snap and to ensure any Cuts in HRA headcount vacancy do not impact benefits enrollment thank you very much thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen the council thank you for taking the time to hear me out my name is Cora Walker I'm an organizing and Outreach activist specialist with the safety net project at the urban Justice Center and I want to talk about two things today dignity and compassion these are two things that have been sorely lacking in budgets past and it's clear that it's sorely lacking in this upcoming one especially in light of what happened with the tragedy of our unhoused brother Jordan Neely nearly was on that F train on uh down uh on a on a looks like a on an F train on May 1st 2023 stating that he was hungry he was thirsty and paid for his uh and paid for those complaints with his life City Hall's uh City Hall proposals of Slash funding to that to HRA is a terrible move that would hope that will just just that will devastate the most dispossessed and a marginalized of our New York residents especially given the record delays the unit is already having in terms of processing applications for snap and housing benefits that that uh and these are well documented already and well and well so imagine if you will a low income parent in East New York or Soundview who's already struggling to put food on the table and now must wait an additional three to four months just get the application processed or approved or a widowed individual in Red Hook looking to get trying to wait five or six months to get this uh to get the same test out your uh process this is intolerable this is not how we treat New Yorkers this is not what we do meanwhile our unhoused neighbors and friends are facing sweeps on a period on a week almost weekly basis by the NYPD and sanitation workers and when they could easily be put in any of the vacant apartments up that are that are out there for the city we're asking if the city expand the vouchers and ensure that that there's proper funding And Timely renewals for expiring vouchers that includes maintaining a well-staffed unit of to renew vouchers with some 55 which some 55 000 New Yorkers depend upon and ensuring that the vouchers go out on time we also urge the council to vote to eliminate the current 90-day rule and to increase the income limits for potential recipients and vouchers there'll be more of this and uh in my testimony but this is what we're trying we want the city to focus on as we at fiscal 22 fiscal year 2024. thank you and I'll take any questions thank you good evening everyone I want to start out by saying that I am a front line worker I am an essential worker and I am proud of it my name is Francis Sims I'm the current program director for the Renaissance men's shelter it is a mica shelter mentally ill chemically addicted that is what that means it is a shelter that is under services for the underserved sus we are 200-bed men's micro shelter located in Crown House Brooklyn budget cuts would be catastrophic for our shelter population any Cuts would greatly impact the programming and services shelters are able to provide our clients the population we serve have greater needs and require additional one-on-one assistance and attention in order to encourage them to to participate in treatment of term obtain permanent housing and office services needed to integrate them into society it also affects our ability to efficiently staff our program Staffing shortages causes caseloads to increase and staff are no longer able to provide one-on-one attention to the clients as needed this will also affect our ability to meet and maintain mental health substance use and housing referral numbers required by the department of homeless Services which our measure which are are measured through our Thrive metric and SBS reports with this being said it should be noted that adequate clinical Staffing is required for our population who benefits from the clinical approach and treatment referrals retaining mental health staff increases the probability of patients access to treatment on site as well as from off-site providers these are additional ways in which budget cuts can impact our service delivery to our clients referring clients in a timely manner to alternate treatment and support services lack of mental health and substance misuse individual and group treatment an ability to provide treatment planning and engagement delay in HRA 2010 e-submission for housing an ability to provide on-site medication management or treatment planning for challenging clients lack of psychotherapeutic group facilitation it is also important to note that budget cars Cuts drastically affect retention our inability to properly pay staff leads to high turnover it is no secret that social services and homeless services are extremely underpaid we are also asked to do more with less pay increases and a recurring Cola will be beneficial and boost morale and approve staff performance we are essential workers please hear us thank you all for your testimony thank you wait sorry wait Council Council sorry I can't uh I don't have a question well one I just want to thank you all for your service but I couldn't let it go the opportunity to go by without um just saying thank you for everybody but a special thank you to ayashima who I've known for over a decade since before graduating high school um and I just think that your leadership is such a testament to why we need Youth Services to why we need summer youth job opportunities and it just you know every time I see you in these roles it just makes my heart sing I'm proud of you and I think that everything you are is why we really need this budget to work for young people so just thank you for being here thank you all very much okay next we'll hear from Robert belkar James Kushner Adam jamilo Dundee McKellar and Joe Bella [Music] Peter Kemper please come up to the Deus yes fantastic okay okay my name is uh James Kushner I'm a disabled American Veteran U.S Marine Corps a lot of our guys had to go home because they're older and they were feeling sick as everybody knows this is Fleet Week and I'm if you don't know it I'm not going to explain it now anyway in 1893 the state legislator light state legislator let's legislature uh enacted General business law 35. allowing vets with service-connected disabilities to sell anywhere in New York state without restriction that's restriction to location in 1988 Mr Joseph kazwan an Army Air Force vet shot down in this last mission over Germany wounded was taken prisoner of war for nine months Joe tested this law and it was upheld in state supreme court he won pro se the state legislature uh pardon me I'm partially blind so I'm having a little problems reading the state legislature uh annulled the law within a year this is after Joe won the case Joe Beezer visa pittiger and myself wrote a new law General business law 35a Joe at the during all this process passed away uh when this new law was voted on at 2 A.M in the morning the roll call was taken and we had won by seven votes however assemblyman assembly speaker Sheldon silver I'm sure you all know who he is uh call to recess and sent assemblyman bragman and other another Hatchet men to knock on the hotel doors of the assemblyman who voted for the Vets to come back and change their votes or they would never breed the air of Albany again and I have the front page article in the New York Times about that this this was horrendous this was disgraceful and it was allowed to happen you talk about people being locked up he should have been well he eventually was not long enough as far as I'm concerned um when they came back some of these assemblymen were crying when silver was ahead by one vote he closed the vote in other words they came back some of them came back crying it went from six five four three two one when it went one back the other way he closed the vote we lost it took us another three years but we worked at it foreign and we had to make a compromise with the Democrats in the assembly to pass General business law 35a which is the one that I and Pisa pittiger wrote this restored the veterans rights an election was held amongst the veterans I and five others were elected to disabled veteran vendors Advisory Board and this election was overseen by the New York State Department of Labor we worked in conjunction for many years with the Bureau of Consumer Affairs during the de Blasio Administration various schemes to take over Vending which included food as well and this was one of it was done by City speaker vivarito and also councilman uh totally who and who tried to privatize this Vending it was political chicanery at its best let me say that over the years the New York City Council the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs and the current veterans Advisory Board have never served the needs of the disabled veteran vendors they worked for the City of New York not for the veterans They carried out the wills the will of the mayor but we beat them anyway because we stuck to it we wouldn't give up and that's why we're here today has chosen to support and even to finance the street vendor project giving them an office and money through the urban Justice League these people are fakes and frauds one of the one of the uh people on their board who represents they say the veterans is not part of our organization this was put together by the city council and where they thought they got the uh the right to do this I'll never know the one who is a a veteran on this uh street vendor project worked for years as a disabled veteran in Midtown New York with a yellow license we threw him out at least five or six times and he's still serving as a representative of disabled veterans and he it does not represent us in any way this organization does not represent us in in any way and it's disgrace that you keep on financing and keep promoting these people who testified this morning I'm almost finished the legitimate disabled veterans vending Advisory Board denounces the street vending project as illegitimate and calls for the city council to break all association with it furthermore we will not negotiate with any director of vending that uh who is appointed by the city council we are autonomous and guided by General business law 35a a state law and we are relying on protection from the courts of the state and not the city the city has no jurisdiction over us according to this law yet they go around promoting this the this uh these these unauthorized groups and uh also under Mayor de Blasio operational order number six stop police from enforcing vending laws shifting this duty to the dcwp law 1-1 6B should be repealed immediately we do not recognize its Authority the enforcement of General business law 35a as enforced by the NYPD will clear Midtown of illegal vendors and congestion and ashore the veterans of their rights and we will no longer come to the city council and beg to be heard send letters or anything else we will take it to court we will bring in uh uh we will use all the actions in state court because this is finished now we're tired of the political chicanery that's it is everyone testifying okay go ahead all right thank you uh I'm sorry I was slow but I thought yeah my name is street vendor too of the my disabled version yeah here because this morning we heard that street bending projects were here for funding we just want to let you know that the this street running project we're asking for fun because they are pretending pretending that they are defending deserved versions which is not true they are you know what they are they are destroying Us by the way so through the urban by the urban Justice League in urban Justice so it must be an investigation because like I said they pretending they are different in disabled veterans which is not and we are here to request uh I'm reading for I think we earned that for disabled veterans Street vendors because we are going through all our problems these days in the city we have state right but the city council we get quiet in the chamber please but the city council and Syria agency doesn't recognize the these right that we own through the state legislator I'm going to give you just an example before I the I mean the city took out power from NYPD concerning the street vending they give it to dcwp dcwp they don't have enough inspector they have only 22. how can you take a power from 35 000 police officer and you give it police officers are there 24 hours seven days a week and DCW five o'clock they have to go home so we need we need to have a ring about this NYPD issue to get back the power to be on this retreat give me my glasses Jimmy yeah Jimmy give me my glasses take my glasses I want to speak I I need to speak hello sir uh my name is Abdel Jamila United States Army retired an Iraq war veteran with an Arkham middle device Valor a New York city streets vendor and a member of the disabled veteran vendor advisory committee article 35a we are recognized by New York State Departments of Labor and the dcwp in New York City I'm writing to you today with frustration and anger about the way the New York City Council and the New York City mayoral office trying to undermine and discredit and destroy the veterans community in New York City particularly the disabled veteran Street vendors we want to work in the city with dignity and honor everywhere and anywhere and with no destruction and then with no discrimination and then with no the the restrictions because the law of 35 a is our Bill of Rights and we don't want cramps from anybody from you guys in the city hall you gotta show us some more because you've been showing a less you are everybody in the city council is preferring a legal immigrant nowadays then there's to the New York City veterans who serve honorably in the United States of American wars and as a War veterans and I'm a theater and I'm endangered in war we were sure we will make sure that we are getting our right the NYPD the the lack of enforcement by the NYPD and the loss of work and wages that we all struggle from we all have families and kids and we are trying to feed our families in this city the streets vendor project is taking over us and they now representing us at all the streets vendor project is a sham is a scam and is not representing me as a disabled veteran the New York's the New York has to organize the veteran community and he has to recognize the streets when their licensee by enforcing the streets when the law by the NYPD only the only I mean only the NYPD can do the job the city looks confused today by switching enforcement from the dcwp to the sanitation department the city council was very short-sighted thinking about the ramification and the damages they have done to the disabled veteran streets vendor licensees and to the business Community all over New York City they created the public safety crisis all over New York the streets vendor models ingestion Act introduction 1116 has to be eliminated and dismantled immediately it's not favoring any poor New York City vendors particularly disabled veterans who are working in the streets of New York we want SVP to stop speaking about veterans streets vendor period they not representing us okay thank you SVP cannot determine our destiny and the city should stop funding them and giving them money and giving them office okay thank you thank you sir thank you who wants to go next good evening my name is Peter Kempner I'm the legal director at volunteers of legal service we're a free non-profit Legal Services office that serves low-income New Yorkers to help fill the Justice Gap our veterans initiative focuses on older veterans and helping them plan for the future by Drafting and executing life planning documents for them which include blast wills and Testaments Powers of Attorney health care proxies and other Advanced directives these documents are extremely important for the veterans of our city because we have an aging veteran population and these documents ensure that they're able to make their wishes clear that they're able to pick the people that they love and Trust the most to act in their behalfs and it allows them to stay in the community for as long as possible in addition to my job at volunteers of legal service I'm also a professor at New York law school where I co-founded and teach the veterans Justice clinic for the last eight years for the the penultimate class of our semester I always focus on State and local responses to veterans in need and highlight actually the history of what New York State and New York City has done to help our veteran Community actually speak about the vending license laws that go back to the 1890s but also highlight preferences in Mitchell Lama housing preferences on civil service exams the blind annuity program uh protections against discrimination for Uniform service and that's found in the New York City and New York State human rights laws and the restoration of Honor act that helps our LGBT veterans gain back some access to benefits but we also focus on the services that are provided by the non-profit sector funded through the New York City Council these this funding ensures that veterans and their families have access to free legal services Social Services cultural enrichment Mental Health Services job placement services and Veteran focused Community Development the through line here is that we don't rely on the federal government alone to provide for our veterans it's extremely important that we as a local community as New Yorkers also provide that support as well the the New York City division Department of Veteran Services is already the smallest city agency and it is imperative that that the size and the scope of the services that it provides is at a minimum maintained the the current the the proposed budget the proposed executive plan seeks to cut the size and the scope of the services provided by DVS and and and there can be no doubt that if dvs's funding is cut that an agency that already struggles to reach its Target constituency will only harm New York City's veteran Community um thank you for having this hearing I have more details in my testimony but we must ensure that New York City is a place where veterans feel welcome that at home and have the services that they need thank you thank you chairman Brennan members of the finance committee thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify my name is Joe Bello and I was the former Citywide veterans director here at the council I'd like to begin by thanking speaker Adams and everyone who advocated for the council to hold the May 8th executive budget hearing on the Department of Veterans Services having having attended that hearing in person it was disappointing that the commissioner testified it was an opportunity to look back on previous accomplishments he had never explained what those accomplishments were the commissioner also stated that DVS stands committed to continuing and approving our successful programs and services while continuing to produce effective and positive outcomes for our City's veterans however from the hearing it was cleared all who watched the DDS did not produce any context to its programs and services from the numbers it provided additionally since no current council member served in the military or has a specialty on veteran issues they listened to what the agency said with little pushback for example the committee heard a former council member who now works for the Department of Veterans Services say they help veteran vendors every day while watching the same veteran vendors sitting right across from him in this very chamber shaking their head no if we agree that the city's budget is a statement of values then I would say it's difficult to add that value when you lack communication and transparency therefore based on the May 8th hearing I would like to make some recommendations for this committee and the b t members for consideration some council members have publicly stated that the agency is underfunded but when told that the city's budget has increased dvs's budget every year from FY 17 through FY 2022 they are surprised because of the lack of communication data or context to member to numbers from the agency the committee and the b t members should not take any action on increasing dvs's FY 24 budget additionally while I always support increased funding for veteran services this Committee in the BNT member should not fund the little-known initiative that we first heard about on the May 8th hearing which would give each council member between 25 and 50 000 for veteran issues in their districts there has been no conversations in the community no devil in the details for me the DVS or the committee chair to the committee or even the city's veterans Advisory Board and so this initiative seemingly appears to be geared towards funding veteran service organizations I personally want to thank council member narcisse for asking several pertinent questions on this that the commissioner nor his assistant really couldn't answer finally regarding the council's veterans Initiative for FY 21 as a result of the pandemic the council gave all initiatives a cunning foot cut however in fiscal year 22 the council increased Citywide initiatives from 331 million to 426 million this allowed the council to restore many initiatives to pre-pandemic levels and increase support for Key Programs except for the veterans initiative the council's veteran initiative from physical DIA 21-23 has stayed at the same level 2.7 million in discretionary expense funding to be fair and Equitable I am asking this committee and the BNT members to increase that funding to the council's veteran initiative to at least somewhere between three to three point two million dollars if not more in conclusion as this committee and the BNT members begin the physical year 24 budget negotiations with the mayor it is my hope that you will all act and provide resources towards those non-profits that are doing the tireless work in the community helping veterans and their families with much needed legal housing education mental health and Community Services thank you for your time thank you councilman Brennan and financial committee members my name is dondi McKellar I'm a proud lgbtqia plus United States Navy service disabled veteran and a homeowner from South Bronx I became a street vendor on the advice of my military sexual trauma therapist at the Holland Vet Center in 2004 continuing their long tradition of Street vendors who are military veterans a class New York state has given special rights to since 1894. today there are as many as 20 000 Street vendors in New York City there are small business people struggling to make ends meet many are also immigrants and people of color bypoc they work long hours under harsh conditions asking for nothing more than a chance to sell their goods in safe public spaces I'm also I am a medical cannabis patient I was diagnosed in 2015 with a reoccurring Globus tumor cancer in my lungs I also suffer chronic post-traumatic stress syndrome chronic post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD I discovered that the healing properties of the Cannabis helps me with my medical situation my anxiety doesn't get the best of me like before objects and sounds that used to trigger my PTSD happens less by using medical cannabis I credit my Physicians and medical cannabis for stopping the spread of my cancer cells rendering them undetectable this enabled me to live a more productive and Serene life as such I believe that more veterans would experience similar outcomes to share more light on the topic I offer a two-minute video linked by Dr Sanjay Gupta so unless you have a life or death medical need how can a veteran in NYC navigate and seek a physician's referral letter to become part of the medical cannabis program most veterans are on a fixed income and face Financial challenges towards the necessary step to getting New York State medical cannabis card at the federal level cannabis is viewed as the schedule one controlled substance according acknowledging this is vital for veterans in this emerging socially Equitable industry within New York City for those veterans seeking cannabis support we need to ensure that these concerns are discussed and addressed as the rollout commence veterans has incredible opportunity to heal themselves and Thrive with the cat events plan New York state New York state has New York State wrote Services able veterans into the Cannabis regulations with no representation at this moment we see the absence of veterans representation being normalized if this continues New York state laws will threaten to diminish veterans needs and concerns because of other groups interests this is similar to the current situation of the veteran Street vending Community is finding itself in today I offer the following four suggestions for your consideration number one establish veterans cannabis representation liaison or administrative board that includes both service disabled and non service disabled veterans include budgetary resources to ensure that veterans concerns are appropriately raised and addressed by the Cannabis NYC NYC Department of small businesses Services SBS and other City officials number two establish a practice or policies of providing equal access opportunities and budgetary resources for veteran Street vendors especially those who may otherwise be excluded marginalized including veterans with physical or mental disabilities or belonging to other minority groups such as veteran widows lgbtqia plus ETC number three established department of health and mental hygiene to set a size space and services in the city's commissaries including budgetary resources for the NYC veteran street vendor Community the department of health and mental hygiene permits 774 commissary Citywide in a city of 8.8 million people local law 18 of 2021 has 4 000 new food permits heading to to the city streets additional commissaries will be needed to perform daily Public Health requirements of cleaning carts as the food permit rollout commence number four establishment please conclude your testimony thank you sir okay thank you very much [Applause] thank you all very much thank you for your service thanks for waiting around thank you very much thank you next we'll have Jackie Duvall Elizabeth bird Bruce Rosen sorry as Helen kaplow Jesse Spellman Julie Bowen and Jay alker [Applause] what did we do all right Jackie Duvall Elizabeth bird Bruce Rosen Helen caplo Jesse Spellman Julie Bowen Jay Oaker and and Mike kinhead sure look Elizabeth bird Jackie Duvall Bruce Rosen Helen kaplow Jesse Spellman Julie Bowen Jay Oaker and Mick Cannon Kincaid thank you okay so we can we can start and we'll move on to the next panel go ahead thank you thanks so much um my name is actually Paula Siegel I'm here for my colleague Jackie de Valle we both work at take root Justice and we are here to thank you for holding this hearing for making an opportunity for the public to give feedback on the fiscal 24 executive budget I've learned a lot this afternoon so I think we all have and thank you as I think folks on the committee and the council know take root provides legal participatory research and policy support to strengthen the work of Grassroots and community-based groups in New York City that themselves dismantle racial economic and social oppression take root has a 20-year history of partnering with those Grassroots and community-based organizations that build leadership and power within our neighborhoods low-income communities particularly communities of color immigrants and other typical to others typically excluded from policy making we're here to think about the budget so I just want to put on the record that we've been working together with members of this council with council member nurse who's patiently been here all day and is in the corner and other members to make sure that our budget isn't balanced on the backs of the most vulnerable homeowners and tenants and that we're not counting on a lien sale to a securitized trust for bringing Revenue into the city and on behalf of take root which is a Founder coordinator and participant in a number of City Council initiatives we're here actually to thank you for the stable Foundation that those initiatives have in this budget and to point out a couple of key enhancements that will make our work much more powerful and we'll make sure that it reaches more neighborhoods stablehood stabilizing New York City is a coalition of Grassroots organizations that combines tenant organizing with legal representation and combats the loss of affordable housing at the hands of predatory Equity companies it defends low-income tenants from harassment and eviction we're looking for across the Coalition an enhancement of 300 000 300 000 that will that will let us protect more homes ruin more building improvements and strengthen Community organizing around the city may I finish yes just to conclude thanks so much the other two initiatives are we're looking for some for enhancements are the Community Land Trust initiative which has made huge strides reaching neighborhoods across New York City and we're actually looking for the initiative to be doubled since we kind of made it through our first three years as a pilot project it's a one point million dollar initiative we're hoping for three millions it'll let us reach neighborhoods we're not reaching now or groups are standing by to start organizing and finally our we work as a member of the Citywide immigrant legal empowerment collaborative to provide crucial legal services for immigrant workers through the low-wage worker support initiative we we make sure that folks don't have their wages stolen and that's an important initiative and we're looking for an enhancement of 827. thousand dollars across the initiative that will allow an expansion to communities we're not reaching now and finally I just want to Echo what I Heard lots of our colleagues uh say earlier today to that the city council must stand firm on funding cost of living adjustments for all of the agencies that do the work that the city sees is important thank you so much thank you foreign New York City resident I'm here again to urge the city council to permanently disband the nypd's Strategic Response Group aka the Goon Squad or hats and bats and remove its funding from the already really overloaded NYPD annual budget the only way the srg is used despite what the mayor or Police Commissioner may say is to violate the rights of protesters and other undesirables and most heavy-handed discriminatory and violent manner why do we need a group that is trained to view ordinary citizens as enemy combatants are we living in a war zone if you happen to be black brown poor homeless a migrant an asylum Seeker someone experiencing untreated physical and mental health issues and God forbid any combination of the above apparently the answer is an overwhelming yes this is not acceptable we do not need a paramilitary force in our city full stop what we do need is to have robustly funded Social Services for people who are living in a constant and stressful state of not having enough access to food shelter clothing education and most importantly free health care for all why give 500 or more no one seems to know except the NYPD and they have demonstrated that they are not receptive to answering questions uh srg officers military training and set them loose to harass intimidate beat kill people at will we do know that the srg unit has the highest number of racist complaints and allegations of abuse again this is not acceptable the lowball figure of the 133 million dollar budget for the srg could be used to help people in our communities rather than harm them we need that money and much much more taken away from the NYPD budget and used to make people's lives better not worse we need fully funded libraries with after school programs for kids as one young girl gave heartbreaking testimony previously that the library is the only place you can go to to avoid bullies we need public parks and playgrounds that can provide needed activities for kids after school in my neighborhood the kids play in in the street because there's nowhere else for them to go but what we really don't need is the NYPD and the srg working hand in glove with the crystal fascists from the Catholic Church effectively giving the anti-abortion clinic Invaders and harassers their own private armed security service escort the people who want to break the law while harassing and make abortion illegal while harassing and arresting those of us who want to uphold the law in this state access to all abortion services in health care do cops not know the law sadly it appears not and what's worse there are no consequences or repercussions for ignorant cops particularly in the srg who violate our rights every day thank you hi hi can you stop hello Miss can you please state your name for the record Julie Bowen thank you sure all right so next we'll call clear questions no questions next we'll call CLIA hazich Christina Rodriguez heart and we'll call on we have two folks on the um remote that we'll call as well so we'll let the remote folks go first you can have a seat Mike you can go first and then Jesse and then we'll take the folks on the panel he's waiting to be unmuted Mike go ahead Mike thank you my name is Mick Kincaid um and I appreciate you all sticking around for to hear all of us uh so as I said my name is Mick and Kate I'm a transgender man and I'm a volunteer within the New York city jails I want to speak today on the importance of keeping third-party providers in the New York city jails and not splashing the budget for these vital programs I go weekly to amkc and rmsc to provide LGBT specific programming until today I was the only volunteer provider for LGBT specific programming I just heard someone else has been approved um but just to emphasize why that's not sufficient is as volunteer programmers not people who are third-party organizers it took me two years to get my volunteer pass approved even after my volunteer pass was approved it took four months to make contact with the doc staff in order to figure out which units I should be going to and how to get to those units when you talk about places like Osborne Fortune Society thefts those places have highly competent well-trained staff and they have the networks and support for those workers so that when they have difficult days in the jails when they face transphobia when they face racism when they face any other kind of aggression or oppression when within their work they have a community of other staff members to turn to and that they make sure that they never go into the jails alone that there's always someone who can witness uh some kind of Doc misbehavior um those of us who are volunteers and are not supported by any particular Community organizing uh go in alone and there are days when it's just simply unsafe to go in alone I think there was an amazing visual piece in the New Yorker recently by a Riker's librarian um this person Illustrated sketches of what it was like for them to be in the within Rikers providing Library services I also wanted to say that is absolutely doc cannot at this point in time for whatever reason that they would like to say bring people to their medical appointments we know that from the Agnew settlement or ongoing your time is expired thank you ongoing crisis and they kids I also work as an attorney and so my clients are clients instantly not being brought for their videos possible to think that doc can do an additional thing on top of these two primary functions that they're failing to do they cannot provide program Services thank you for your testimony thank you I'm going to say one more thing which is in January 20 uh 2023 I testified before the city council on how the how doc has completely stripped their lgbtqia initiatives Department from a team of four people to one person it is still just one person so there's absolutely no way that doc can provide these life-altering culturally competent Services thank you so you must fund Osborne unfortunate thefts from the other providers thank you next we'll hear from Jesse Spellman and then we'll call more Folks up to the day is to try to get you all out of here thank you for your patience good evening can everyone hear me yes go ahead thank you thank you for the opportunity to testify my name is Jesse Spellman I use she her pronouns and I'm a fourth generation New Yorker I've spent time working in public schools and Community organizing but I spent the majority of my career working in business developing and implementing multi-million dollar budgets I have an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Morton School of Business I'm here to talk to you about two things number one the current use of funds for the srg is violent racist and harmful to New York and the entire Community second there is a transformative way that we can use the funds that are allocated to the srg to instead strengthen our community and you've heard this already today we need Librarians teachers social workers and Parks the srg herded my co-worker like cattle during a queer liberation of black lives matter March using batons to give him bruises all over his ribs and bodies and he had to attend meetings with clients with a black eye the srg grabbed my other friend by her ponytail threw her to the ground while she defended New York City women seeking abortions the srg twisted my friend's arm behind his back so violently that they dislocated his shoulder in Fort Greene Park just today the srg has illegally arrested people outside of city hall for no reason other than exercising their first amendment rights it is critical to understand the harm the srg has caused the violence they have perpetrated but I don't want to spend any more time reliving trauma in our community we must disband and defund the srg and use these precious resources on our neighbors on our community as an experienced business person creating and managing multi-million dollar budgets across Industries I am shocked and appalled there's no Clarity or accountability as to how this 133.7 million dollars is spent New Yorkers want affordable housing we want reduced homelessness and we want Mental Health First Responders mayor Adams himself commissioned a survey in June that proved this out you can read in the developmentist a citizen said here today herself why is there always money for violence and Terror but not for our communities Miriam cabba tells us that hope is a discipline so here's what I hope we can use the 133.7 million dollars that you instead I'm not even going to read what I wrote down because you've heard it from my neighbors and my community members today the srg has demonstrated how it terrorize and intimidates and harms New Yorkers by disbanding and defunding the srg and reinvesting those funds and do New York communities and services we can provide thousands of New Yorkers what they need this is my third time testifying for the city council but the srg this year this is the third time that I've been pushed until after 6 pm to speak the srg illegally arrested protesters during this hearing and I heard you allowed several white men to go over their time we are counting on you you are a reflection of our values we have the chance to Make a Better Community for all of us and the time is now thank you thank you what's up okay hello please hi Matt please have um clear come to the Deus Christina come to the Deus Christina Hart we also have Greg Barnes remote Hannah Carlene Natasha's servant Juan mimes or memes Michelle Keller Brian's Brianna Soto Kendra Humphrey [Applause] Griffin Jones medalia please state your name for the record before you begin you can start hi my name is Christina Rodriguez har and I live in Queens and I'm part of the Democratic Socialist of America's racial Justice working group I've been part of many peaceful protests and have experienced the nypd's brutality especially that of the Strategic Response Group the srg when thinking back over the srg's typical Behavior I am reminded of the first week of June 2020 as one example the City's curfew was utilized as an excuse to attack protesters on the night of June 3rd we marched down Lexington Avenue and as we near 50th Street it started to rain the police closed in from the back of the March people started panicking and running and I thought I might be trampled we raised our hands chanting hands up don't shoot the srg and riot gear formed a line in front of us I was four rows from the front we got down on our knees with our hands up and kept chanting then we laid down on the street with our hands behind our backs while it poured rain on us the police then moved into us with their bodies causing people to scream while they tried to get on their feet in order not to be stepped on the police started grabbing people and hitting them I saw one car in front of me be thrown to the ground with the police officer lying on top of her and her glasses smashed another young guy was thrown to the ground while on his bike the following night the police ascended on a peaceful protest I was at as well again people fell to the ground baton swung people went running and the police ran after them and arrested them for protesting this was on Central Park West and 109th I went up to the square at 110th Street to watch we then heard a loud noise and srg officers on motorcycles drove up onto the Square from behind us nearly running us over I ran to the subway and into my car came several protesters that had just been kettled some of them bleeding so we offered them first aid I could go on by enabling a grotesquely bloated police budget to continuously increase every year by allowing our police to militarize themselves so they can treat New Yorkers as enemies the city council has not done its job the city council must put an end to the srg's abuse by disbanding the unit and reinvesting those monies directly into our communities thank you thank you hi my name is Claire hazizai and I'm from the Bronx I'm a New Yorker and I'm going to start this off with I was actually dust outside at the valley a few minutes ago and I saw the srg's bhutawney firsthand one of them tried to run me and my friend over with a motorbike outside and another time when we were marching through the arch over there there were five-year-old kids inside and they and they attempted to cuddle us in there but they stopped and as we continued every moment they kept coming and they and actually they tried to run us over twice with their motor cars and one of them even tried to bring it on the sidewalk I witnessed when they started entering the crowd they tackled four people one of them was actually put into the back of an ambulance and the others were arrested right outside City Hall I have been waiting here of these others so the other speaker mentioned that we've been waiting here all day like we've they push us back here on purpose to be the last people to speak they did that I came back from that POTUS to speak because I was literally almost murdered by them and this is not the first time I have been cuddled before I have had one of my friends who's had 14 of his arrest by the srg brutalized I've seen a surge yet other protests slam a man so hard to the ground that they cracked his head open and he was bleeding over the ground and then they started chasing us and I had to run and call my friend who hadn't come there yet while looking over my shoulder begging him not to come down there this Council needs to listen I know that most of them have left and I hope that they listen to these recordings because while they left people were out there being brutalized I saw them here I don't know what they're doing but some of them look like they were not paying attention they were not giving a damn about what was happening this city council needs to start doing that because they're literally keep funding the srg they're defunding everything else like I had colleagues here before I'm at CUNY soon they spoke they were defunding us we have ceiling spung on top of us I had to go because my school has asbestos in there and I had to go 10 years from now I'm gonna have cancer we're all gonna have cancer they're funding srg they're brutalizing communities of color and they stand here they make us blast this Council needs to listen and they need to listen now and whoever tried making us Less on purpose you you now and we will not stop I'll keep orders we will all keep positing every single goddamn time to freaking bear Eric Adams a diary by all of them up thank you so much thank you so much who's next hello my name is Maurice Medina and originally I came out here to talk about the need for affordable housing and housing units for those who are houseless as we know the state criminalizes poverty and it criminalizes houselessness and it criminalizes mental health but the majority of that comes from the NYPD and the srg so we are coming here as a collective to ask that you allocate their funding and move it towards a 40 affordable housing move it towards libraries Parks the schools we ask that you take the NYPD and the srg out of our communities and out of our streets and put them put the money back into our communities for Community Gardens for mental health help and awareness and stop asking the people to pay to be terrorized to pay to be publicly shamed and defaced to be booked and be denied food water and personal hygiene items the conditions that people are put under when they're convicted or they're arrested or they're booked is our tax dollars and they can't be fed they can't be clothed they can't shower they can't use the bathroom properly and we're asking people to continue to pay our tax dollars towards the NYPD and towards the srg when all they do is terrorize black and brown communities and people with mental health problems and the house lists I want to take a moment to thank all of those who came out here to speak all of those who gave their testimony and all of those who they had us kept they had us here waiting all day okay so thank you thank you and thank you to those who are on the council who have listened check good evening my name is Michelle Keller I'm from the district council 37 I'm from the retirees Association I'm also the president of the New York City's Coalition of labor union women AFL-CIO the only National Women's organization in the Union it's regarding the erosion of the retirees Medicare and Senior Care Service thank you chairman thank you city council members for all that you do I am retired after 43 years of my calling public service that's been the theme here today whether organizing for labor worth on the shop floor or active as an officer in the union hall the message has remained the same always protect the worker Galatians 6 9 of the Bible says to us not to grow weary of doing good for in due time we shall reap our Harvest if we do not give up shame on all those responsible here where whatever their political stature the mayor the Union New York City City's Labor Relations and even you if you're silence and you're complacent government is responsible to protect all workers the Pioneers the Trailblazers the shiros the heroes retirees and their dependents not a sellout for profit and game a budget is a moral document we've heard that and we know that there is much to do in this big town in this city now inclusive of Migrant population that will never be fulfilled but why choose to destabilize sacrifice and be at home on civil service retirees the very Foundation of our City's labor this for-profit over a patient mentality is a short destruction of the doctor the patient relationship so critical in the healing process our patients will become liable for additional fees on account for upfront costs as well as after services on default there is a concern for diminished or limited types of service that can disrupt or impede the healing process we are concerned about the lack of empathy and knowledge of those trying to negotiate in our interests who are moving to settle on course greater than the members former labor can even hope to cover in their fixed incomes such poor credibility and unreliability of negotiating without the review and research of the actual contract leaves us in Peril our concerns continue for Edna the profits connected to the slave movement the review status or oversight for questionable reporting and the use of as the federal government funds and the CMR program we have a further concern for the absence of any services in some states this is not traditional Medicare the health care that we all labored to be able to enjoy who's listening who cares is your message not why is this message not resonating is it all for profit of the Wall Street and the insurance companies at the end of the day it's get out get out from the trap wave your rights to maintain your due service your sanity and your safety but who gets screwed the labor retired left to search for financial source to fund the very service entitled to us that we were promised further leaving our dependents at risk and snatching away our annual deductible city council we have put before you a bill in this matter it has been forwarded to you back in December of the year when can we expect you to deliberate and offer us support that we so that retirees can regain their respect and their dignity there is nothing new to see here we will keep fighting we will vote our interests using all we have we will stay organized we will deliberate for justice and the security of our good health what's disgusting union busting thank you so much for allowing me to speak this thank you I want to start this off by saying I was born and raised in Brooklyn as a member of the community in Sunset Park for the last three years the NYPD did nothing when there was an active shooter at the platform I take every morning they were not there they were texting upstairs I can tell you I saw the footage and it wasn't the NYPD who caught that shoot or was it it was a citizen hmm I'm hearing a lot of talk about Pride I heard that a lot in uh earlier statements about education and system in place here in New York City as someone who wanted to go into Early Education in the upk system and couldn't afford to live off the salary offered to me if I chose to do that I'm not really seeing that Pride right now okay I think we need to fundamentally rethink funding for education and for salary levels for educators versus the administrators who run these schools also as a student who attended BMCC and was a BMCC scholar recipient we need to rethink the support and funding that we give our teens and young adults as they make the difficult transition from high school into college many of these students are first generation college graduates just like me and without the proper funding and resources who do we expect to help these youth make that transition if CUNY cannot afford counselors and admissions staff who will help these kids who will keep them from becoming overwhelmed and dropping out as we saw people speaking about for CUNY representatives and students earlier I saw it happen in my siblings when they tried to pursue higher education but felt so unsupported so lost and it was so damn expensive that they had no choice but to drop out y'all could prevent that if you choose to vote and project properly I also grew up in lawsuit as housing in Brooklyn New York from 2000 to 2020 and on EBT and Medicaid to this day I was eternally grateful to have a unit that was rent stabilized during some of the most violent gentrification of Brooklyn which started in 2000 2007 in Williamsburg and continues to this day I have been working since 14 and I still have no savings why my abuela who moved to New York City in 73 and worked in the Domino Sugar Factory that is currently being renovated for uh condos uh it's currently facing homelessness because her building is partially privatized her unit at Bedford Avenue has been 500 since I was born and it's been in contention since 2009 her landlord has attempted to make numerous false claims against her refused to do maintenance on her apartment let the roof fall down over her head and he's been brought to court for these matters and been found in Grievous error as a landlord she has been proven innocent in all of this but to this day right now she is facing the threat of homelessness because her landlord wants to add renters uh Insurance fees on top of her uh rent stabilized apartment which is illegal do you know why she faced these issues because her unit has a direct view of the Williamsburg Bridge her landlord could be making six times that what she's paying right now if he removed the stabilized protection status on her unit it keeps a roof over her head at the age of 82 and he is still threatening to evict her what if this was your mother what if this was your grandmother facing the threat of homelessness since 2007 how would you feel after being made to wait 10 hours to give testimony about this about real issues that are affecting people like me who are born and bred in Brooklyn and these issues don't stop at housing we see these worries echoed in single-parent households losing snap funds we see children's quality of Education being compromised we see mental health institutions being defunded all of these are real fears that New Yorkers like me have we are coming to you today to implore you to think about the real people who will be impacted by your decisions and your voting on this budget I implore you to think of the elderly think of the disabled think of the mentally unwell people who are forced into the streets because they cannot afford basic life Necessities like food and housing anymore do you really want to contribute to New York City's already Rising homeless population do you want to overburden these courts and hospitals than they already are do you want to contribute to the overpopulation and psych wards drug programs because of corporate greed this is not the New York I know this is not the New York I was raised in and I fear for the day that Capital becomes the driving force in our political years and I fear that that's already happening right now thank you you're um I'm not gonna hold y'all I had like a list of things to say and I'm gonna really just cut to the point because y'all had us here for like the last 10 hours right y'all hate us that's just what it is right like I've been waiting for somebody to say it and nobody gonna say it so I'm gonna say it right y'all hate us y'all hate us y'all hate this country y'all hate the communities and the only reason why you guys continue to give the NYPD funding ridiculous amount of funding the fact that they make 29 million dollars at FN day is ridiculous and then we got the reason why you guys do it is because half of you are crooked yourselves oh excuse my language because we can't curse I wouldn't want the gentleman I wouldn't want the gentleman in the back with the glasses to throw me out again like he did last month after you guys left from the panels you guys subject us to these long meetings you make us sit here relive our traumas right and you guys New York City has a policy that says when you see something say something you guys see the same that we see and if you don't see the same thing that we see that maybe you guys need to stop taking Ubers stop taking lifts and get on regular public transportation all right I literally live at one of the worst stations which is East 125th and Lex it is deployed with nothing but police and that is the number one station where the where there's mental health problems it's a drug issue it's homelessness houselessness and none of you do anything about it all right you've sat here and watched kids literally tell you guys that they need food you hate us nobody's protecting the kids nobody's protecting anybody with mental health issues nobody's protecting houselessness those on the verge of being houseless or homeless nothing and the only reason also is too because half of you are crooked half of you get a pension and you don't deserve to get a pension or a paycheck because you guys don't properly do your jobs to receive the payment that you're getting and so you have to give the NYPD their funky little 29 million dollars a day because you know damn well that the minute that you guys decide to defund them they're going to be Petty because they're petty little piggies all right and they're gonna out your stuff they're gonna let everybody know who you guys are and what you guys actually represent that you don't want anybody else to know so it's one hand that washes another because at what point do you want it to stop like if you want this to be a dictatorship in a communist country then be honest and say it but don't subject us to sit here 10 hours a day when we have lives we don't get to sit on our asses and get a paycheck we actually have to work to survive because houselessness and homelessness and mental health issues and hunger is a real thing Jordan nearly was a black man who was hungry he lost his life because he was frustrated because he couldn't have food to eat and what happened Daniel Neely not even a person of not even a police officer right Daniel Penny whatever his damn name is right the murderer right nyp PD let a murderer go why do they get a check I with Point At what point do we sit here and say people need to get paid for not doing the job that they're getting paid for why do you want to you guys are literally defunding citizens our tax dollars go to these people if you defund us anymore we're all going to be out in the street and then what's going to happen you're going to criminalize us even more you're going to throw us in jail is that how you guys are going to get your money because we all know that you guys make your money off of black and brown people when we are involved in this system that's why you guys criminalize us the most you guys love to sit here and hear our trauma knowing demo at the end of the day you guys are going to go back to your cozy little homes and sit here and still give NYPD the funding I sat here for damn near 10 hours watch you right young lady I don't even know your name okay thank you no hold on a second because I understand right well let me just you don't understand that no I do understand no let me explain this before let me well let me do you a favor I'm gonna say this excuse me a second I'm gonna say this before I excuse myself because I already know what's happening because I've been thrown out this meeting no I'm throwing myself out excuse me a second don't tell me that I don't understand because I do understand I've had my ass my pad my black ass beat up and down by srg on black lives matter Boulevard okay the only thing that we sat here and asked for is that you guys don't keep giving the NYPD the millions and billions of dollars that you're giving them we are asking you guys to help us we are asking you guys to save the kids we guys are asking you to fix Mental Health crisis to actually utilize that money and do something that you need to do how many more of us need to die before you guys decide that we're not going to give NYPD any more funding how many kids needs to be out here skipping school right to tell you that they're hungry and don't have the proper hunger I watched you on your phone I watched the young lady here with airpods I watch YouTube speaking I watch the three black Brothers I watched the brothers and sisters in the corner snickling I watched this sister tell me oh God no don't tell me did you change your name for the record I gave you my name and if you didn't catch well then you should have been paying attention thank you so much [Applause] go ahead sir go ahead thank you so much don't tell me thank you and don't patronize me thank you so if you don't care thank you thank you so much go ahead sir okay good night thank you go ahead sir the clock is on for you now go ahead sorry I I need a moment just uh whenever are we still have 50 people that have to test I understand whenever people in uniform start getting up acting threatening I have panic attacks no one's threatening and when they start acting like that yes when they sir with all due respect okay go ahead with all due respect I am having a panic attack because of that and you don't get to tell me that I am not take as much time as you need thank you my name is Griffin Jones I'm a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colombia and Veteran of the BLM protests of 2020 and 21. MLK Day 21 here at City Hall I saw srg brutality so horrible I remained traumatized I saw a child brutally thrown to the ground I saw a trans woman's wig torn from her scalp and when she said that as a woman she needed it she was laughed at dude no you're not come on bro get up that's all New York's finest had to say as they dragged her along the road the asphalt ripping apart her flesh we were peacefully assembled in a public park on the sidewalk we violated no laws but the srg did not care to justify their attacks they pulled us into the street and then charged us with obstructing traffic they wanted us gone and so manufactured charges two people were hospitalized by the NYPD that night and many more were injured when I had a taser pulled at me at a protest by a third party and pressed against my head at a distance that would have killed me had my attacker pulled the trigger the NYPD stood by and watched when I was beaten with the handle the NYPD watched I was second from death and the NYPD stood by and watched they did not care if I died because I am a BLM protester and my assailant was not the srg's brutality had stolen so much from me for months after these incidents I was numb the srg stole the last semester of my college life lost to trauma the srg stole the joy of my graduation day stole my ability to enjoy a summer day because of the ptisd I get seeing any officer of the NYPD the flashbacks I get to the bodies in the street the SRT stole however many thousands I will have to pay for therapy to fix what they broke inside of me when I passed this building I get panic attacks City Hall which should represent Justice and love for my city not only represents horror reporters say there is a new srg that is impossible how can that be when the officers that did this are still employed and continue to roam our streets inflicting violence and our communities how can the joyous faces of the officers as they beat children and unleash transphobic violence be reformed there is no possibility of reform a budget is a reflection of a city's values as you've heard many times today does this city value racism and transphobia if it does by all means continue with this proposed budget we can melt down the Statue of Liberty and sell her for parts but if this is a city of liberty and justice for all it is beyond time the srg must be disbanded you can refer to my written testimony for more details on what they have done thanks [Applause] hey next panel will be nalikan masego Derek Ingram Kimberly Bernard Hennessy Garcia Hannah tager or taser Charlotte Lopez and Wendy brandies on my back okay whoever wants to start maybe go right to left whatever you want just make sure you say your name just for the record before you begin um my name is Kimberly Bernard I am a co-founder of black women's March and I am also a co-founder of may days the safest communities in America do not have the most police the safest communities in this country have the most resources I'm going to say that again the safest communities in this country do not have the most police the safest communities have the most resources I'm not going to sit here and go through all the different ways that I've seen the NYPD and the srg brutalized protesters and brutalize regular citizens in the Bronx and in Harlem and in Brooklyn arrest them for no reason right because that is information that you guys already have you've all seen it you've seen the viral videos you've heard testimonies you know what the NYPD do you know what the NYPD is about you know that the srg is violent we are tired of coming here and sitting before you and asking you over and over and over again to text the very people that voted to put you in office we are not going to sit here and ask you or beg you to do your job we are demanding that you do what is right we are in the middle of an emergency this is an emergency people are dying people's lives are in danger the NYPD is extremely violent but you already know this there is no excuse and no reason why you should not act we have been screaming we sat out there in City Hall for months in 2020 occupying that area demanding that you defund the NYPD and divest from the NYPD and invest in our communities you did not do what we asked and I think that you guys are missing the fact that you work for us you work for us and the people are demanding that you do what we ask we need you to divest from the NYPD from the srg and invest in our communities thank you hi my name is Derek Ingram co-founder of warriors in the garden and may days I'm here to State our demands housing for all we demand safe sustainable secure housing for the shelter of all human beings there should be a swift end to all real estate monopolies predatory housing practices gentrification and unsustainable rent increases and until this stolen land is justly returned to Natives and Indigenous people we demand an emphasis on localized communitarian housing with shared ownership with where living structures and land is made into green spaces and cooperatives so our community with additional funding and resources can finalize Alternatives Housing Solutions number two free public transit we demand safe sustainable Secure Public Transportation access for all public transportation is a Civic space a space of the citizens and now the NYPD and the srg has transformed that space into a racialized place of control and violence we demand new initiatives we demand more social workers and mental health professionals at public transit stations we demand free access to public transit as well as the elimination of armed police on public transit with the addition of social workers government employees and other non-governmental organizations committed to Community Affairs drug abuse Rehabilitation and de-escalation we demand the decriminalization of performers and public transit vendors who cannot afford permit we demand the MTA and the carceral mentalities and the utilization of dystopian Technologies on all public transit we demand the transparency in these Technologies this includes the release of information and Technologies used on public transit to surveil the working-class citizens including facial recognition technology tracking Technologies and the personal data being stored with the use of newer Technologies like Omni reimagining Public Safety we keep us safe the people in this room Keep Us Safe the hsrg does not keep us safe we demand an immediate end to all police brutality we demand the dissolution of the srg we demand a new radical approach a reimagining of Public Safety and a community investment we are determined to break the shackles of Oppression made by the government governing bodies and enforced by violent police we refuse to allow one another of our brothers and sisters to become victim of the corrupt militarized police that are everywhere in our communities Universal basic income we demand a universal basic income and now as the country emerges from the pandemic the guaranteed income movement sits at a Crossroads and the growing body of research based on the experiments show that guaranteed income works that it pulls people out of poverty improves Health outcomes and makes it easier for people to find jobs and take care of their children if empirical evidence ruled the world guaranteed income would be available to every poor person in America and many of these people would no longer be poor we look at past mistakes and we look at our elders for Solutions as the Black Panther stated in 1996 we believe that if white capitalists will not give us full employment then the means and with the means of then the means of production should be taken from the businessman and place in the community so the people of the community can organize and employ all its people and give a high standard of living and we the maydays agree thank you my name isgo I am chairperson for all Liberation and co-founder of mayday's I will continue the rest of the demands number five drop charges on all non-violent protesters from 2020 until 2023. we demand Freedom we demand autonomy local protesters have the right to demonstrate outside and to express themselves and speak as the country's economy crumbles and police surveil and attack our community without any regard for our lives the charges against all the non-violent protesters from George Floyd's murder until now must be dropped as they were detained solely for participating in non-violent Civil Disobedience and exercising their human rights excessive use of force intimidation and unlawful arrest seem to be a pattern in which the authorities respond to dissent and non-violent assembly these repressive actions clearly do not meet New York's obligations under international human rights law our comrades have been harassed sexually assaulted and intimidated by the NYPD while receiving trumped up racially biased charges merrily demonstrating and we refuse to live under such a violent regime led by Eric Adams and enforced with your budget number six reparations we demand reparations in 1860 over 3 billion was the value assigned to the physical bodies of enslaved black Americans to be used as free labor and production this was more money than was invested in factories and railroads combined in 1861 the value placed on Cotton produced by enslaved black people was 250 million slavery enriched white slave owners and their descendants and it fueled the country's economy while suppressing wealth building for the enslaved the United States has yet to compensate descendants of enslaved black Americans for their labor we believe that this racist government has robbed us and continues to Rob black communities with racist biased budgets now we are demanding the overdue debt of 40 acres and two mules 40 acres and two mules number seven free access to Green spaces and locally grown food we demand access to all green spaces we must democratize our green spaces we demand an end to food insecurity we demand an overhaul and increase in Community Gardens for nourishment New York City's black and brown neighborhoods are home to New York's power plants wastewater treatment facilities and major highways Mont Haven Neighborhood 97 latinx and black residents are collectively exposed to about 60 percent more pollution than is caused by their own consumption Mont Haven is nicknamed asthma alley because it has some of the worst air pollution levels in the United States they don't care about anything above 96th Street New York's green amendment is not enough we are living in Red Line spaces that have strategically put in place to block our communities from resources our communities must be nourished and we demand it be reflected in the upcoming budget the governing body of New York is failing the people we have just laid out tangible solutions to the problems affecting the driving force of New York City use these demands as a basis for your work moving forward and if you do not then it is safe to say that you are complicit in the oppression of New Yorkers thank you hi sorry I just wanted to know if you guys could give the hard copy of the demands that you just gave us guess not okay thank you very much and thank you for coming my name is Wendy Brandis my late cousin Robert Brandis was in NYPD police officer and then Detective from 1970 to 1992. I was in elementary school in the 1970s I didn't get to see Bobby very often and when I did I thought he was a little scary because he was a very big guy who often had and who always had his service weapon on him maybe that's why out of all the interesting cop stories he shared with us what I remember most is what contrasted with his appearance it was how proud he was when he de-escalated a situation if he didn't have to draw his weapon and for that matter if no one got arrested and everyone just went home that was his most successful day that is not what I have seen from this era's NYPD and especially from the Strategic Response Group who I've personally witnessed escalating multiple situations that could have been handled calmly the most recent incident I personally saw was on May 8th at the candlelight vigil for Jordan Neely there were masses of officers near Lafayette and Houston long before the event organizers made their appearance I couldn't even get them all in one photo when I crossed the street to try to do it when the vigil began the cops immediately started interfering with the speakers to such an extent that I kept my phone camera on the cops for an Instagram live which I never do because I correctly predicted to my viewers out loud that the police would find an excuse to start violent arrests I would like the city to audit the costs of this kind of one-day police activity that involves perhaps hundreds of officers it would explain why as the Comptroller said in March that the police regularly blew through their overtime budget and have done so for this fiscal year it's obscene to me that mayor Adams is willing to defund already underfunded social and cultural services that make life decent for New Yorkers in order to pour money into the type of policing that I know my late cousin NYPD detective Robert Brandis would be disappointed by start by disbanding the srg and reallocating its budget outside of the NYPD and that is a good first step thank you to chair Brennan and to this team members of the city council committee on finance for the opportunity to submit testimony my name is Charlotte Lopez and I am a program director here in New York City working at when when is the National largest provider of shelter and services to families with children experiencing homelessness I am here just as one representative of thousands of Human Service Professionals in our city many who like me are women many who like me are immigrants many who like me are people of color and are part of marginalized communities who in every space of Our Lives endure racism gender equality Health inequities and the weight of the many structurally violent ways that lead us in the government and non-profit sectors seek to get our maximum effort with compensation and reward that is as minimum as possible my colleagues and I working on non-profits across the city often endure the harsh what culture and personal safety risks associated with well-known incidents in our City's transitional housing facilities so as I start to help us restore and remain motivated to do our Vital work in the midst of the psychological and physically weathering effects of carrying out our important duties I Charlotte Lopez I'm here to support the hashtag just pay campaign and advocate for full 6.5 cost of living adjustment Cola at an estimated 200 million in the fiscal budget additionally I'm up I'm opposed to the mayor's cuts to the DHS HRA services and their programs to eliminate the gaps that include a 2.5 percent net reduction to shelter provider contract rates inflation overall is a known factor and we see it we see it in our daily lives as Healthcare housing child care food transportation and all other costs continue to exponentially rise frankly by not giving Human Service workers this needed Cola city government is actually simultaneously giving Human Service workers across and disrespectful pay cut because of the lack of cola I have seen a steady rate of attrition of Human Service workers in the few positions I have held in that time in my career tracked I have seen low to mid-level Human Service professionals resigned from their position to stay home and care for their children because child care costs more than the salaries they were provided for many others have various tough levels live in pasu work and Retail food and grocery Services because jobs are companies like Trader Joe's Wegmans as well as delivery based work with services like uber and doordash can have a higher income for an individual than them providing key services to assist families on their journey to permanent housing for example families feel abandoned each time they lose a worker whom they have built a relationship with this is unacceptable I have even seen a shelter staff who make 17 an hour having to live in our shelter facilities while serving other unhoused families poor wages is just one aspect of the burnout experienced across the board by Human Service colleagues across the city implementing the cola is a start but I am hopeful for many others in other initiatives that will increase the value and resources granted to Human Service workers like myself and those I lead by City And the state government and non-profit organizations as budgets are created and allocated thank you thank you for your testimony um I'm Hennessy I'm part of a lot of things so I won't get into it I missed my final to be here today I waited 10 hours I find it so interesting how this committee left a chunk of it left if your constituents can stay in this place for 10 hours so can you I don't know how people sleep and I know when you constantly fail the citizens of New York my friends have already mentioned about two sets of arrests that literally happened within proximity of this area is this protecting and serving again there were children at the March how is intimidating protesters exercise who are exercising their first amendment rights okay srg keeps mentioning get a permit for a protesting I'm sorry but the point of protesting is to disrupt and call attention to important issues we the people do not need permission to protest what we believe in we don't need permission for screw your permit screw your respectability politics the city council needs to disband and divest from nypd's strategic Response Group my peers and I have been traumatized and brutalized again and again and we should not have to keep reliving our trauma to convince you that the srg has to go also please explain to us why this violent group is being deployed in neighborhoods like the South Bronx my colleague who was here earlier mentioned the mon Haven that's in the South Bronx the South Bronx is already heavily policed and neglected this is my home and my community you can't come to the boogie down Bronx if you never boogie down with the people of the Bronx you want to know what the Bronx needs the Bronx needs resources and funding for said resources we want better building infrastructure and we want our mayor to not blame us when our buildings are on fire because we used a space heater because our heat is not working we want more green space and clean air especially when four highways the sheridian Bruckner cross bronc and major diesel go through the South Bronx along with having the highest asthma rates in the nation we also have the highest fine particulate matter across New York City the South Bronx gets called unsafe dirty but guess what when you address the racial economic housing environmental injustices there will be less crime and it will improve the quality of life we deserve better we do not want or need more police in our neighborhoods especially a unit that is notorious for brutalizing protesters and protection protecting actual white supremacists like a younger colleague said this budget is a budget of morals imagine what the 133 million dollars I go to the srg could do for the South Bronx we have been here for hours today and hearing the amount of cuts to so many programs that could have actually benefited the people of the Bronx is so nauseating but guess what you have a solution right here you can listen to the people and do the right thing [Applause] hi good evening um thank you to chair Brandon and the rest of the members of the council finance committee for this opportunity to testify my name is Hannah taeger and I'm a policy Analyst at win which is the city and the nation's largest provider of shelter to families with children but before this role I actually worked for two years as an income building specialist in a shelter in the South Bronx where I work directly with families to connect them to employment opportunities so that they could move out of shelter specifically I promoted the economic advancement of the mothers I worked with emphasizing abilities to ask for promotions and encouraging them to seek higher salaries whenever possible however at the same time in my own role I was stuck in a job with with a stagnant salary and zero opportunity for for a pay increase as inflation soared that's because as many have mentioned win like other organizations is funded by City contracts that determine these very low um salary is often called poverty wages for Human Services Workers so I'm here today to support the just pay campaign and demanding that the city provide a 6.5 cost of living adjustment or Cola at an estimated 200 million in this year's budget I'm also here to oppose the mayor's proposed Cuts or pegs to provide our contract rates which are written in as 2.5 percent you know we come to work a win comes to work every day to end homelessness and at the same time some of our staff are housing insecure themselves because of our low pay I'll just speak personally when I was a direct service worker at shelter I myself was rent burden while living in a very humble apartment with multiple roommates struggling to to to make ends meet um however I have had a relatively privileged position compared to many of my colleagues who often have to support families and pay back student loans while living on shelter salaries ultimately it goes without saying that the group that suffers the most from these City contracts is low wages are the families we serve that's because there's insanely High turnover understaffing um this is is very costly because it takes longer to link families to permanent Housing Shelter is extremely costly compared to paying for vouchers and it's also dangerous because prolonged stays in in shelter as we know result in worse health and mental health outcomes so please include a 6.5 Cola on your budget and thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you very much next we hear from Melo San Sosa Canada I dare I apologize the hand ranks a little bit uh Nikki busuden Beck schoolsby Mila Beach Alvin San and I think Amalia Vito sure names were malot sansosa canonetto I dare Beach Alvin San or Sal and Amalie avito let's start from the left just say your name before you begin please uh my name is Nikki bassoon the NYPD strategic Response Group excuse me the nypd's Strategic Response Group is a violent gang of thugs specifically tasked with violating the rights Liberties and Humanity of protesters in New York City since the uprising in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd I've had dozens and dozens of interactions with the srg not only have I witnessed them abused their power and position by violently beating and arresting protesters expressing their First Amendment right I've personally been arrested assaulted and kidnapped by the srg on at least seven occasions including when they broke my arm in the summer of 2020 with a baton as I was helping someone up off the ground after an NYPD Cruiser nearly ran them over srg notoriously targets my career and trans siblings for arrest making a point to taunt harass and dehumanize them hoping to quell and quash the momentum led by black Trans and queer folks especially women in Femmes city council allowing the srg to continue operating is an investment in violence white supremacy and the continued systemic oppression of our black and brown community members by continuing to allot increased budgets to the NYPD and srg city council is saying we approve of the srg's unhinged unchecked all-encompassing power to abuse New Yorkers and we refuse to protect and ensure the safety and Liberty of our citizens I'm here today to ask that you abolish not defund abolish the srg and reallocate their 100 million dollar plus budget to addressing the root causes of inequity in our city housing food education and Mental Health Services because the safest communities have the most resources not the most cops this is just one step city council can take now on the path to imagining a better New York City one that doesn't endorse a systemically oppressive force of power hungry monsters especially one that is actively at odds with its citizens abolish the srg abolish the NYPD and Eric Adams foreign I'm not gonna thank any of you for the chance to speak today it's my right to be here today I was one of the first 15 people in the door this morning I've been here for how long has it been 10 hours now and it is ridiculous that you continue to put us at the very end of all of these hearings so I'm not thanking you for for the opportunity to speak here today I am here it is my right to be here and I'm going to tell you what I think about the fact that you are continuing to prioritize the NYPD over everything else in this city while we heard children beg for food beg for food from you today my name is Bex and I'm a community organizer here in New York City and I'm here I can speak about a multitude of things but I'm here to talk about the NYPD and about the srg the site of an NYPD officer anywhere in this city does not make me feel safe it immediately rips me out of the present and sends me back in time I know that in this feeling I am not alone when I see an officer I do not only see one I see them all I see the one who threatened to cut my hand off with a buzzsaw I see the one who fastens zip ties around my wrist so hard I nearly bled I see the one who turned off his body camera in the middle of the road and leaned in close to me whispering in my ear about how he could do whatever he wanted to me I see the faces of every officer who has ever enacted violence against me and who I have walked you the same to others there are millions of New Yorkers who just like me have been brutalized by the NYPD and live in a constant state of remembering mayor Adams has claimed that he wants to unite the city but the city is already united we are united in the violence we have and continue to experience at the hands of the NYPD a big amount of the violence is perpetrated by the by the srg the um violent unit which is threatened and brutalized many of us here including myself the srg does not illustrate the worst of the NYPD rather it is the department shine star the unit it deploys to epitomize the violence that so many officers wish they could inflict they volunteer for the srg they volunteer to be there and to beat us on the street it's the unit which violates constitutional rights and which beats New Yorkers within an inch of their life when they try to exercise such rights the NYPD and the srg enact violence against the people of this city each and every day and you and this budget enable them to do so it has been said so many times today that what a society spends money on is a reflection of what it prioritizes the most 29 million dollars is spent every single day on the police in this city so what does the city of New York prioritize what do you the city council members prioritize disbanding the srg is about much more than getting rid of one police unit it is about showing New Yorkers what the city government's priority is is the city's priority keeping people safe is it providing food for our children or housing and help for our aging family members or for our for our houseless neighbors or is the city's priority and your priority stripping every budget of every single City service down to the bone and directing it all to the NYPD and resigning us to a life in a police state of your deliberate design I'm here today today and tonight to disband that the to demand that the srg be disbanded and that the 133 million dollars it receives be redirected to actual Community Resources that will enable all New Yorkers to live a life of Hope and safety not one dominated by fear that is not a life that we should have to ask for nicely it is the life that we deserve Amalia Vito for the record um in 2021 the public high school I attend more than doubled our guidance team and finally hired our first social worker some of this money came from 135 million dollars please keep that figure in mind in federal funding that was used to hire social workers and nurses I'm asking this body not to reverse this progress not in the middle of next year not in the next fiscal year and not ever just one day chair Brandon asked the doe about their plans to save programs that are relying on federal stimulus dollar the response was that there is no plan conveniently the srg costs 133 million dollars annually don't approve a budget that does not give more funding to the school construction Authority for them to increase our capacity in schools and then I along with many of my peers would appreciate we can then stick to the capacity my school got a new building last year it is our first year in our new building yet you're we're already 200 students over the capacity authorized by the school construction Authority our education system is in dire need of investment and meanwhile our system of policing is broken Beyond repair the deaths of Jordan Neely the 26th New Yorkers killed by the police since 2007 while in a mental health crisis and the 37 people who died at Rikers in the last two years Illustrated sitting that is utterly failing to protect those most vulnerable and instead focusing on brutalizing those who question these systems though the answer she was formed as a counter-terror unit it has rapidly evolved into an unaccountable violent unit often violating the First Amendment rights of so so many New Yorkers and to be clear we want a disbandment we do not want a rebranding increases in funding for police come at the expense of our civil liberties our communities and our schools and so I just spent my time pretending everything is normal or as normal if it can be it's not normal we've been here for over 10 hours and it's disheartening to sit here and feel hopeless and that this body will likely make decisions behind closed doors that make no sense why are we even considering cutting CUNY there's no way I can testify in good faith without addressing the fact that in this room there are just four council members left folks there are combined 24 council members on the BNT the budget negotiating team and on the finance committee and all the council members should be here and let's not vote on another bad budget again saying that the cuts were a surprise the cuts are not the surprise this year and one of the four people left is the chair and has listened to people talk to empty rooms three times testifying about their trauma and yet is not on council member ose's Bill to disband the SRT chair Brandon are you listening but I don't understand if how you can sit through these hearings time after time and not have it stick we've been here for 11 hours I haven't gone to school I have a test for a college class tomorrow morning um so that is all for today but thank you or no thank you thank you hello my name is Alvin Dan what's up all right hello my name is Alvin Dan and I'm a social work student at Hunter College I'm here today representing myself as someone who's experienced police brutality uh the past three years as well as a member of the Crown Heights Care Collective hyper local abolitions Collective organizing against police violence and police intervention in Crown Heights uh Brooklyn where saheed vessel a black man who is experiencing a mental health crisis was murdered by the NYPD strategic Response Group back in 2018 for mistaking the shower pipe he was holding for a firearm since then the srg has ballooned in size and budget going from 15 million dollars to 90 million dollars in one year from a 350 police officer unit to a 700 police officer unit we now know they have 133 million dollars in their budget I think we've heard enough facts today for the past 10 hours about how abysmal of the NYPD has conducted their Department over the past three years especially this year they purposely refused to testify the first two meetings the first two meetings right but they came in with shiny shoes to come grovel at the budget meeting back in uh April uh where Chief uh chief of police Jeffrey madri was lying to you and y'all sat there and listened to it and it's kind of crazy because like I'm going off cuff at this point because like I've said this speech like at the past two meetings you know but here I'm going to update with what the srg has done since then two weeks ago the srg uh attacked protesters who were who couldn't even have the dignity to mourn the murder of a black man who was screaming for food and water who was murdered by Daniel Penny who was just exonerated two hours they took for them to process we we were we were trying to get people out out of jail for 15 what was like two days straight 15 people we have leaked audio footage of officers scrambling around scratching their heads trying to figure out what to charge all the people they just brutalized them arrested were just there to mourn the death of a black man who is begging for food and water it's hard to find trust in the city council that's getting funding from the same Super PAC right the same Super PAC Common Sense New York talk about it why is Joanne Ariola a republican council member from Queens sharing the same seat as Kamala Hanks a Democrat councilwoman from Staten Island taught one talking about refunding the police the other ones talking about disbanding it but y'all are part of the same team I've been here for 10 for 10 hours I've been brutally brutally arrested by the srg five times in the span of three months I got a batons to my face I got batons to my throat I had my hair ripped out and my face smashed into the concrete on black lives matter Boulevard talk about irony right when you have a mayor that runs this city uh like a cop running a police department and every other thing everything else is just fodder 6 million has been cut from libraries 200 150 cut from Board of Ed we got all the people who showed up today didn't come saying we need more cops they said they need more funding they need a council that doesn't want to share the same Legacy the same governing body to let the Nazis run the show right I I implore you to look deeper within you and your role as council members and think about the fact that you guys are funding and allowing the same authoritarian body that ran a Nazi Germany the same badges same uniform same regalia same same judge jury executioner um um I think it's apparent uh where uh where the priorities are for for this city you know um 133 million dollars y'all cut 6 million from libraries bro you think kids want to watch a cop beat the out of a homeless person and rather than read a book in the park or you're out of your minds dude you know what I mean you can't call this city a sanctuary City when you deploy the same police officers to beat up abortion rights activists and trans rights activists and migrants and you know what I mean you can't you don't get to call it a sanctuary City calling this city a sanctuary city is like saying a pizza is a vegetable because it has Tomatoes bro it's a joke this is a joke please do not share the same uh Legacy as people who let the Nazis run their show let's do one chance the whole City's watching Human Rights Watch is watching literally you know what I mean like you have I don't want to hear in 20 years man that was a bad idea we probably should have done something about I want to hear that in 20 years you know what I mean like think about it these are these are real New Yorkers telling you like telling you that they got beat the kicked out of them they were sexually harassed by the same officers that you think is a good idea to deploy to 20 other precincts in the city it's not gonna they're not gonna stop at protesters bro if y'all take off your suits and wear hoodies they're gonna come for you next bro if you stand five inches next to a demonstration they're going to come for you just like this happened to so many people so many people you only have to have any idea how many people you have you've radicalized in this city you have no idea the city is watching generations of New Yorkers are watching thank you we're going to be coming to your addresses soon not City Hall thank you my name is Alvin Dan the Spanish srg my name is Mayla I am a concerned citizen of New York I have personally seen srg attack cattle and severely hurt people that were peaceful and not resisting that were exercising their right to protest and their right to freedom of speech I have seen where a far-right fascist physically attacked a black activist and the srg violently arrested the peaceful black activist that was getting attacked I have personally seen Joseph corvo who works worked at the sixth Precinct pushed a 14 year old black boy boy we're not going to call him a man because he's a boy he's a child down on the ground and tell him to stay down inward I had that on video once Joseph Cuervo saw that I was recording and I screamed at him to let him go I got body slammed down on the ground and arrested and they said that I attacked a police officer while I was at since or a sex Precinct they brought in a activist who went into a seizure they didn't know how to handle that seizure they were just going to let him lay there on the ground in Seas and so I finally convinced them to let me help him because I used to be a nurse but I had to help him while handcuffed to a bench when I put his head in my lap to stop him from banging his head against the ground they said I couldn't do that instead they gave me an empty tissue box and said that can be his pillow by the time I made it to Central Bookings and I asked them several times for finnamon products and I told them it was in my backpack and they refused to go get them by the time I went to Central Bookings I already have blood all the way down my legs they refused to give me water for almost 48 hours they refused to let me sleep every time I tried to sleep because they had me in isolation every time I tried to sleep they would come and bang on the cell door tell me to wake up they refused to give me food I asked for at least a sandwich and they refused to give me a food by the time I got out of there I had dried blood all the way down to my shoes I had to throw away my leggings my panties my shoes because they refuse to give me a pad that's what NYPD does and instead of Joseph corvo being fired or demoted he was promoted of course we know that's a common Trend because he was found back several years ago beating a gay man three different times send them to the hospital and back for having a sex toy in his pants and calling him very homophobic names but they promoted him to a sergeant so we already know they're going to promote them I have personally experienced srg using intimidation and threats of violence during a sweep of an encampment at the Thompson Square Park 12 srg members surrounded four people and yelling at us so we weren't working fast enough meanwhile they were supposed to be looking for the subway Mass shooter who by the way was found blocks away by a Community member not even the NYPD this was not the first time nor the last time that they have targeted encampments or an unhoused neighbor this misuse of NYPD and srg is still happening today the srg is not here to keep us safe the NYPD is not here to keep us safe even after they have gotten told repeatedly not to cuddle protesters by the city they still continue to not only cuddle protesters but also cause panic and Chaos into peaceful protest the only ones that are not peaceful at protests is the NYPD and srg who pays the NYPD and the srg more money when they can't even follow the law or their code of conducts themselves use the funding to get the people in actual apartments and actually pay for the apartments actually pay when you when they say that they're going to pay the electric bill instead of two months later because they haven't they've given them six months to get a job and they haven't found a job in two months and 103 electric bill it's too much money so now someone has a 500 electric bill and already about to be evicted within two months of being an apartment after being in a domestic violence shelter for over a year that's what I'm personally going through but instead of going to HRA today to try to get again get that taken care of I'm down here for over 10 hours trying to get you guys to listen we don't need more cops or more srg or more shelters like Eric Adams says lies and says we need we don't need abusive shelters that are basically many jails with a day pass let's be real that's what they are there are many jails with a day pass you get a day to go out and have a little fun but you got to be back by 10 pm our teachers are under unpaid and supposed to teach our youth our nurses are being unpaid but supposed to save lives are unhoused is not given a fair shot due to voucher amounts food stamps and cash benefits not being enough but you're continuing to cut the budget can I can I ask you to conclude please huh I'm trying to ask you to conclude your testimony okay I will we need Community Resources and truly affordable housing especially for our black and brown communities because they they're the ones that suffered the most but instead you guys keep giving more money to the NYPD to make sure that their lives are comfortable and get new shiny toys to play with and get praise for arrest and beating on house neighbors and targeting abusing black and brown communities the lgbtq and anyone that else that perceives as a threat to their white supremacy lifestyle thank you for putting us last and showing us at that at best the council does not want to see the faces or hear the voices of their people or of their citizens who the srg traumatized or at worst they do not care we have been sitting here for hours watching Council leave and coming back but when it's finally our turn of course they don't come back except for just a few thank you for showing the same respect as everyone else was shown by being on your phone and sleeping and not paying attention to what we have to say you let your own counsel sit here and argue with you for over an hour and a half which they brought up very good points how are we supposed to have you guys take care of us when your own employees are talking about how much of a shitty and horrible employers you guys are okay thank you yeah you okay go ahead just say your name for the record my name is Valeria Augusta Milat San Sosa I am representing the Uptown free store in Harlem we are a mutual Aid Network that has been in operation since early 2020 during the pandemic when the city was as per usual missing in action in the past three years within my network we have fed more than a thousand families elderly the disabled those with mentally ill illnesses we have been able to pay jail support we have been able to pay immigration fees and all of this Community organizing has come from our community for the past three years we have been doing the job of this city within our own community so I won't repeat what everyone has said here all day today you know what's happening within our communities you do not care but I'm here to let you know that you're not yanking all of us it might be only a few of us but you're not yanking all of us June 19th of 2023 will be my seventh year of not paying rent and I won't pay rent again in this city I do not pay taxes and I won't pay taxes again in this city I have housed undocumented people within my dwelling and I will continue to do that I have housed houseless people within my dwelling and I will continue to do that I do not pay for groceries because as a human I will not pay for groceries because this city continues to yank from all of us so I'm here to let you know you're not the only ones getting over you're not the only ones getting over and for the record for our ancestors and for every woman that fell in the Black Panther Party and for Malcolm and for Biko and for La Mumba and for marieli and for all of our resistance Fighters within our ancestral strain you aren't the only ones getting over good thank you next let's call up uh Cedar siddhar scar lures Roque Rodriguez Sofia costanzi Walter Masterson Callan ditmeyer Christopher Leon Johnson and Isabel Leyva oh sorry hold on okay you can begin please say your name before you begin my name is Cedar sklar lures I'm a resident of New York City I'm a student and I'm here to urge the New York City Council to disband and abolish the NYPD strategic Response Group in all its forms I'd like to begin by uh mentioning something that's a bunch of people have mentioned before which is that uh I think most people thanked you before they started this but you guys are paid to be here like you got paid for this entire 10-hour ordeal I'd like to thank all of the community who has shown up today to demand what you are hired to do what you're being paid right now to do that you're refusing to do because councilman Brennan is on his computer turn down your laptop I'm a student I know when the professor tells you laptops away please I'm trying to tee up the next speakers okay thank you so much people get scared when they hear the phrase abolition and on some level I get that but you have heard hours of testimony today asking for funding for social services of all kinds nurses care workers students teachers all of the people who have come here can get the funds that they need so when you get together after this hearing and wonder how on Earth will we fund all these programs well why not take that money from the NYPD that's what we mean when we talk about defunding I originally wrote this testimony last year I was planning to talk about my experience with the srg being brutalized by them watching as an srg officer walked down a line of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge pepper spraying each of us with malice knowing that there was nothing I could do but wait for the burns of that chemical weapon to hit by face or what it feels like to be hit with a bike as it is used as a weapon by srg officers after they fell off their own bikes and got embarrassed but I can't because since last year the srg has only continued its practice of brutality and lawlessness and it is only getting worse in theory the srg exists to prevent and respond to terrorism however unless they've been keeping their Valiant anti-terrorism work a secret over the past few years I haven't heard of a single instance of the srg actually doing the work they purport to exist because of in fact the one instance of terrorism that has actually occurred in the city recently the Brooklyn Subway shooting was not only not stopped by the srg but the srg failed to even attempt to respond to the violence when the shooter turned himself attempted to turn himself into the police but then was found by community members where was the srg were they perhaps responding to a different instance of terrorism no they were violently clearing a homeless encampment less than five blocks from where the shooter was apprehended instead of doing their job the only reason the unit ostensibly exists they were wasting thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to arrest people whose only crime was existing as a person unable to afford housing in this city now the srg did not kill Jordan Neely but make no mistake the srg and the NYPD as a whole is responsible for Jordan Neely's murder years ago Eric Adams began his Crusade against the city's most vulnerable population whether it is the sweeps of makeshift shelters something that has been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S court of appeals with the ninth circuit forced hospitalizations of people without clear access to care-based treatment or flooding the subway with thousands more cops to arrest people for everything from panhandling to taking a nap the NYPD and the srg are this City's violent arm that is being directed at our City's most vulnerable population doesn't it seem odd that there was literally a rally happening today in defense of Daniel penny where one of your council members was speaking isn't it odd that this cop is being or this murderer is being treated like a cop who killed someone on duty and the NYPD even knows that Daniel Penny may not be an srg officer but he was doing their job that day please listen to the words of hundreds of others who spoke before me today if you need help funding our communities why not take it from the srg from the NYPD disband the srg abolish the NYPD and Eric Adams all right all right I'm here to speak for the NYPD and our plans for the Strategic Response Group please say your name my name is Walter Masterson I'm here to speak for the NYPD and our plans for the Strategic Response Group I currently run one of the largest police charities in America you can learn more about it by Googling 40 percent cops for those of you who don't know the Strategic Response Group is a unit trained in counter-terrorism now you might ask yourself what is Terrorism well according to our own training manual it's black lives matter Occupy Wall Street and anti-trump protesters now people are constantly asking us why we don't list are we doing other white supremacist groups in our training manual and there's a reason for that I certainly I'm not going to sit here and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit here and disparage the proud boy the police by insulting the proud boys the Patriot front okay now the srg has done an amazing job dealing with non-violent protesters the homeless and helping Force birthers block access to Planned Parenthood now the Strategic Response Group has been such a huge success that we are now planning on deploying them to every police precinct in New York City yes the officers responsible for hundreds of civil suits during peaceful protests are now going to be on patrol everywhere you go yeah so mayor Eric Adams is making huge cuts to every Department in New York City except the NYPD so thank you everyone else for your sacrifice four percent cuts across the board to each department NYPD uh they're getting raises so thank you mayor Eric Adams uh lastly I just want to give a shout out to all of the Democrat council members that have made this possible all the Democrat council members who marched with black lives matter who marched for women's Reproductive Rights then turned around and supported the srg being deployed in their District Gail Brewer Mercedes narcisse Oswald Felice Rafael Salamanca salvina Brooks Powers Diana Elia Darlene Neely Julie Menon Justin Brennan thank you very much sir Camilla Hanks Keith Powers Linda Lee Marjorie Velazquez Amanda farius thank you for everyone in the Democratic party that has helped fund the NYPD and at the srg we got a little nervous when we saw you marching with black lives matter but we're glad you pulled through in the end all right thank you my name's Sophia costanzi and I would like to State for the record that we're now down to three council members for the third time in a row we who support disbanding the srg have been pushed to the end of the day so that we can testify to an empty room tell your fellow council members that they should be ashamed of themselves there should be nothing more important to this body than hearing the public once again a budget is a reflection of our values and we spend most of our money on cops that means our number one priority is cops not education not infrastructure not libraries housing Parks the Arts Health Care elder care foster care any care and if you're sitting there thinking that police spending is for Public Safety here's why you're wrong once again research has shown time and time again that the safest communities are the ones with the best services not the ones with the most cops true Public Safety is access to resources it's pretty simple if people have what they need they won't have to resort to crime how can we one of the richest cities in the world allocate away our own resources the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results you cannot continue to throw more cops at a problem they cannot solve it's literally insane after deploying thousands of extra cops into the subway Jordan Neely was murdered by Daniel Penny on the train cops did not stop this crime they actually inspired this crime we are so desensitized to police brutality that our so-called Good Samaritans are mimicking the same behavior that killed Eric Garner George Floyd Elijah McLean Manuel Ellis Christopher Lowe Derek Scott Byron Williams John Elliott Neville and I could keep saying names we cannot continue to sponsor the Public Health crisis that is the NYPD Jordan Neely was a product of a system so full of cracks he fell through every single one he was literally begging for help in the moments leading up to his death if he had gotten it he would be alive today likewise if Daniel Penny had access to the mental health care hour veterans so desperately need Jordan Neely would be alive today so first on the chopping block srg you have heard what they do and you know good and God damn well that it's all true with the least transparency in the most civil suits seems like a no-brainer over 133 million dollars that could actually help people think of the parade of agencies you have seen today and all budget season long and what that money could do for them think of the high schoolers who literally in this room just asked you for food sitting here calmly explaining to you why they need food our city is bleeding this is not robot dog silence science this is a test of your Humanity try not to fail hi my name is Isabel Leva I run the nyco use protest monitoring program through which we've documented police conduct at protest for three years before I start I just want to talk about why people in this room are so angry right now and the reason for that is that more than 100 people signed up today took time off work to testify about the srg specifically in terms of comparison to how many people signed up for other issues by far more people sign up to talk about srg than anything else so the fact that we are it's almost 10 p.m and we are all now testifying to a room that is empty except for us is incredibly frustrating that is after an oversight hearing where the NYPD did not show up and then we testified to an empty room this is after a budget hearing where we again testify to an empty room because we were again pushed to the end of the day so the anger that is felt in this room is righteous anger and I just want to say that and now I want to talk about the srg but I have testified to this Council so many times about why this unit has to be disbanded I've talked about the facts and the figures all the reasons why the srg is a threat to the safety and the First Amendment rights of New Yorkers so today I'm just going to talk about some of the things that I have seen during the more than 200 protests that I have documented at since 2020 myself with my two eyes I have seen the srg use barricades to break limbs I have seen the srg kettle protesters and Pummel trapped people with batons and fists I have seen the srg hold the taser to the head of an unhoused man while clearing Washington Square Park after curfew I've seen the srg use their bicycles like baseball bats swinging them at people's heads I have seen the srg stand on top of cars and swing their batons at the crowd below I have seen the srg pile on top of protesters as they scream I can't breathe I have seen the srg pick up a protester by her hair and slam her head first into the sidewalk I have seen the srg stand by as white supremacist attack counter protesters and then escort them to the subway I have seen the srg arrest journalists two weeks ago I have seen the srg beat photographers with batons I have seen the srg pepper spray elected officials I have seen the srg rip on house community members from their tents and violently arrest them I have seen the srg throw someone so hard into a light pole that it looked like every bone in their face was broken I have seen countless beatings dog piles broken bones and open wounds I have seen enough New Yorkers have seen and lived through enough and they come here and they re-traumatize themselves again what we haven't seen is a semblance of accountability the NYPD refused to show up to their own oversight hearing and continues to refuse to answer any questions about a unit that is currently being deployed to black and brown neighborhoods but New Yorkers did show up we keep showing up we keep sitting here and telling you that the srg does not keep us safe anything less than the full disbandment of this unit is unacceptable we keep showing up and we are asking that you do the same disband the srg and reinvest its funds into our communities um it's I'm sorry it's just you know I'm not sorry but I is why I haven't been coming to these hearings you know I have not been coming to these hearings because I can't stand listening to the replay of people who I love and cared about because you start talking about it and I can see it and I can feel it in my body and I had the srg on me and I couldn't breathe and I said I couldn't breathe I was in a protest we finished the protest we come on to the sidewalk we're on the sidewalk and on November 4th or Wednesday November 4th 2020 because I know yeah I mean and I watched the srg come on to the sidewalk and punch this woman in her face she couldn't have been 120 pounds I was shocked I just stood shocked like and because I stood shocked and I wasn't moving then they started to Pummel me from about I got hit in the back of the head I got hit in the ribs they get on top there's four people on top of me they're punching me it's a dog I play football I know about the dog pile they're getting the dog pound they hit you in the balls they hit you in the back they hit you in the ribs hey and y'all know that so I don't care I don't even care about your shock look oh wow they hurt you you know I know you know I know you don't care I know you don't care because of how you vote I know you don't care because you want the srg in your District I know you don't care because you also March Julie Juan with people who black lives matter protesters promise to not increase the New York City budget and then turn around and increased it so no I don't with you yeah I mean because you're a liar and I know you don't care about me because if you care about me you will follow through and stop these people who are trying to harm you brutalize me so I'm gonna read my actual thoughts I have lost all faith in this institution I don't know if I ever had it but I lost it and but I couldn't sleep tonight with a clear conscience without sharing my experiences with the srg on September 19th at a protest against ice I watched the srg attack people on bicycles they took a a femme individual who couldn't weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet and slammed them off their bike directly on their face afterwards we lost we got very angry that day at an ice protest so we said no we can't stand that we walked into the street in Times Square we sat our asses down and let them arrest 90 people you could look it up they arrested 90 people did any of those charges stick no how much overtime do they charge for you know how long it takes to process 90 people it's gonna be 15 hours to get out of there yeah I mean they did that on on December 11th 2020 the srg marched behind us as we marched in solidarity with folks who are a hunger strike in iced detention the srg formed the line behind us for an hour and then broke that line just long enough to allow Kathleen casillo to drive her car through the crowd injuring nine people including me who broke my leg and my friends who still have spinal injuries and cognitive issues as a result of this attack and immediately after this attack do you know what the srg did they arrested protesters they beat on protesters they brutalized Us in the street after a car ran it's over do you understand do you understand what I'm saying to you do you get it is it sinking in y'all are villains not you Sandy because you actually didn't vote to increase the police budget but everybody else who voted to increase the police budget after watching everybody here get their ass whooped for a year y'all are feelings I'm done I'm so sick of this [Applause] uh ready say your name for the record please my name is Christopher Leon Johnson on the record I'm a member of Brooklyn community board eight I'm a member of the press and I'm a member of the New York Presbyterian Association now I had a lot of things I wanted to say about defunding vocal New York um because of the fact that they are real corrupt um they got a lot of these council members under their dumb with the threats of a primary and a um and and funding against them and mostly they'll get voted out especially in certain the more like progressively in districts and I'm not here to disrespect you um councilman sending nurse but you stand next to Douglas Powell a level three sex offender who who's here in December we're going against intro 632 and he had the audacity to to call out to disparage Susan Lee who's running the city council against your comrade in the Progressive caucus Christopher Marte and he had to audacity to disparage of Mrs yatin Chu who was the leader of the age of Alliance and you had the nerve to uh to to defend it and throw them and try to throw um yeah susling to the wolves and you never apologize for that even when it was on video that this guy disparaging Asian people and then you had the nerve to stand next to Douglas Powell just a few weeks ago arrested Peter Jordan Neely and and you stood next to the guy and you try to be real slick and you only ran that one photo of of you just standing kneeling down holding flowers Etc on Twitter but you went on Instagram and instead of I don't know who do your editing but whoever gives you the wrong editor they should be fired in your office you you had a slick little slick shot of Douglas Powell standing next to you act like it's all good now I know you won't apologize for that but you need to apologize because it's disgusting that um you stood next to this guy even this guy being a racist and I know you hate the New York GOP I know you hate Republicans you don't want to sit next to Republicans but you had a prop but you have no um no issue of standing next to uh Douglas Powell who's a level three sex offender now um what else I need to talk about is uh like you blocked Sam antar shout the same Anton you have a budget question yeah I'm here I'm going for the defunding of vocal New York okay I'm calling for the the funding of vocal New York and that's on call it for and I'm gonna tell you this right now I know that a lot of you guys are running with minimal opposition in 2023 but 2025 because we know mayor Adams is running for for mayor and I know you might want for public on public Advocate or marry yourself but if you dare fund Boku New York this time 2025 you guys will not be voted to the higher office and or you gotta be voted out and that's why I need to say thank you so much thank you all right my name is Colin ditmeyer and I'm currently currently I don't I'm going to be honest it's been definitely been hard hearing what everyone's had to say I mean personally I can't say I've had any experience being hurt or attacked or anything by the srg but I definitely have seen it I've seen what's happened to all my allies that are here today and I wanted to commend all of you for everyone who's spoken today I'm like you're really out here doing the doing the work that's needed and like yeah I'm a bit a bit of lack of words right now but I just wanted to thank I want to thank zero really doing the good work that's needed here and yeah just like as it's been pointed out multiple times like people as as I've been here local basically 12 hours people pointed out about CUNY being defunded as a current CUNY student myself at Brooklyn College I know that for all these resources that can instead of going to a unit that's known for brutalizing and attacking people it could be going actually making people's lives better I don't have too much else to say after that because I'm from a bit tired like most people here are but that's just one and to close out I just wanted to say I think what we can do I do believe I know there's been a lot of tension I do have the belief that people can change and make themselves better and what I say is if we want to if we if everyone here wants to show that that's the case that we're open to improving making the lives of everyone here better we can get this we can disband this the group The srg and we can use the funds allocated to it to actually making the lives of everyone better thank you next panel will be Chanel Bueno Amy Wagner Aya Aziz CR cozior Brittany Spalding and Margo Barrett we'll take them now okay that's how they work you begin just say your name before you begin my name is Kira kosher I'm here to ask you to dis disband the srg defund srg I'm an artist I'm a designer I wrote you a letter on that whatever Forum that you have to put in I'm going to use my time instead to just look at you guys I want you to think I want you to think about what it feels like to be like these people I want you to think about what it feels like to go home into your bed and have the experience that they've had I want you to feel the broken arm the broken leg the smashed in ribs the days off work the time in the hospital that they had to experience I didn't experience that but I want you to feel it because you have this ability to change it you do you do you do the rest of the council members who off they do I don't I'm a little ass artist I don't have anything right now but these people they need your help so what are we going to do for the next 36 seconds I'm not giving up my time you know it's a shame we could have beautiful Parks we could have beautiful cities we could have elevators in the subway we could have food for our kids and instead we have these people brutalizing people think about it feel it in your bones hi I'm Chanel I'm here to talk about the school budget because just put the mic a little bit closer thank you um I'm Chanel um I'm here to talk about this about you guys now not cutting more because you cutting you cutting out the school budget um is students missing out on resources it took four months ago I just got physic textbooks for my physics class when we should have gotten them in the beginning of the school year so my teachers were not working out of this the textbook and we missed out on crucial work in physics not only that we don't have books in our library our library is empty there's probably 10 or five shelves filled with books we need more we need more money for teachers for the school because the school system is crumbling not only that some some schools don't have teachers for English and math some students don't get the subjects that they need to because the schools don't have money the schools don't have money for pencils papers for it to buy a new printer because their printers don't work anymore they don't have money to buy toilet papers for the bathroom soap to buy janitors to repair the bathrooms when they break because they don't have money taking away money affects the school system and then this when you take away money from the school system affects the whole system but you already know that it's on um good evening my name is Amy Wagner and I am the director of the yaya Network these activists use allies we were intended to be part of a panel of folks coming to you from uh a group of our collegial uh police free schools organizations I don't know if they're still waiting to be heard or if they've just given up so I'm going to say my piece at least before founding the in network I was a clinical social worker for more than 10 years in what were considered to be last chance transfer schools we had no metal detectors and only one school safety agent and despite the fact that many of our students had been pushed out of their previous high schools for fighting we had no fights zero the schools created supportive and Safe Community by maintaining a high student to adult ratio including counselors social workers Paras and community members all teachers worked with small family groups of students students knew that they had adult allies and peer mediators who would help them manage any conflicts before they turned into fights and students trusted students trusted us to support them and we trusted students to come to us when they needed help this is what school safety looks like students who begin each school day being searched scanned and wanted by police do not feel safe they feel criminalized after three years of covid students have lost Traction in their education progress the rates of depression anxiety and suicidal ideation have skyrocketed schools are still reeling from last year's Draconian cuts while Chancellor Banks has announced no new cuts for the beginning of this school year he has also made no promises that the doe will not claw back the funding later in the school year in the light of this you must reject the mayor's plan to deeply cut the education budget again and to hire 500 new school police instead redirect the 475 million dollars to hiring restorative justice counselors social workers community support staff to provide students with the services they need and the school communities that they deserve thank you thank you my name is Aya I'm here with as an adult Ally with the yaya Network I just want to reiterate that we have waited six hours Chanel a high school student has waited six hours on a school night to tell you that she has only just gotten physics textbooks at her school it is May it is almost June it is almost the end of the school year we are Yaya Network an organization with a 25-year history of supporting young people in impacting the policies that impact their lives Yaya's young people were out here being brutalized by the srg today as we waited hours and hours to give testimony I am here to implore you to look at the violence the NYPD is enacting on our youth and do something about it because it is your responsibility because that is why we elected you our schools need social workers Council work counselors restorative justice coordinators we need resource schools and arts programs and academic enrichments programs we do not need NYPD I went to an NYC public school without metal detectors where I felt safe not because the students there were any different from the black and latinx students the student bodies racially profiled and targeted and brutalized by the NYPD I felt safe because I knew everyone because my class sizes were small and kept me in relationship with everyone because I had relationships with my teachers because I had people to support me if ever I had a problem when I began teaching in NYC after schools I was shocked by the disparity between the school I attended and the schools I worked in I met students violated and traumatized by metal detectors I met a student whose college essay was about how transformed she was by the mentorship of her choir teacher and how heartbroken she was when she lost her choir and her Mentor in her junior year when her School's art program was gutted suddenly and her teacher was abruptly fired New York city has the most segregated school system in this country and this Council has presided for over a systemic racialized inequity that robs our young people of education and takes all that money that could be invested in their development and instead invests in their brutalization you have the power to stop this so do it do something the month I joined Yaya I witnessed youth on a Middle School dance team in Bed Stuy dragged across the ground in handcuffs by the NYPD again they were in middle school 12 13 14 years old crying and bloody and brutalized and I couldn't do anything because what there's no reason to do that to young people as you negotiate this budget I ask that you do everything in your power to get 75 million dollars to hire restorative justice coordinators in 500 schools get another 75 million to hire community members into positions that build safety and support young people to learn and grow and please reject the mayor's plan to recruit 560 new school cops more police will only serve to cause more harm and undermine the restorative practices we know make schools safer and keeps students learning um I'm gonna go before the person next to me just because um they said that they wanted me to um I'm here today to demand city council fully disband the NYPD strategic Response Group and reallocate its funds to services that actually serve us instead of brutalizing us over the past three years I've personally seen the srg beat shove drag pepper spray tased and Kettle New Yorkers including Medics and legal Observers under Eric Adams's increasingly violent police state the srg has participated in the city's cruel encampment sweeps arrested Clinic Defenders and intimidated abortion patients and threatened to play the elrad a military weapon in front of children at dragstory hour in 2021 I Was Myself arrested by srg officers four of them slammed me to the ground and I could have injured my head if I hadn't been carrying a backpack which cushioned my fall despite being compliant and yelling that I wasn't resisting four officers insisted on carrying Me by each of my limbs with my legs spread apart in the air I left the precinct over eight hours later with broken blood vessels and bruising on my arms that lasted for weeks all my charges were dropped and ypd Leadership has repeatedly lied under oath In This Very room claiming a gag order that prevents them from discussing the srg however both the attorney general and lawyers involved in these suits have confirmed there is no such gag order the NYPD refuses to respond to questions about the srg because they know the unit is indefensibly racist transphobic queerphobic biased brutal and that is officers get off on each other's sadism for months now hundreds of New Yorkers have taken time out of their lives to tell you our first-hand experiences being brutalized traumatized and repressed by this specific unit continuing to fund the Strategic Response Group would be the antithesis of safety council members stop funding your own constituents brutalization city council must fully disband the srg and prevent it from ever being recreated in any form I want to see it's 133 million reinvested into our libraries into our education and into the many things that many speakers have mentioned before me today over 12 hours these things would actually make our communities happier and safer [Music] everyone in the room my name is Brittany Spalding thank you for listening I'm here to represent the 68 000 little guys of the shelter system um as a kid I wanted to be accepted and you know all of that good stuff just being something to someone my adolescence was spent like a Orphan Annie and a child called it mixed in with the color purple due to my mother's ongoing crack addiction and poor treatment of her mental health you can only imagine what a child sees and encounters um living in over 40 different households by the time I was 17 years old I was the kid who was raised by this same system um in the programs in the people let me put this down for a second the programs and the people of the generation the the general welfare system helped me okay um four years ago I decided to leave from a family abusive situation that had been occurring my whole life okay once I had left which is what brought me into this situation my safety has been compromised over and over and I'm not knowing why this journey started with me looking for my biological father my paternal family and for whatever reason My adoptive family is not they have been trying to do everything I have moved three different states because I have been afraid because I don't know what's going on my children have been removed from my custody not by any type of legality that I've done neglect or anything like that but just because my family they have money they're able to do things back in Kentucky that I'm not I came here for help and unfortunately I have not been able to get that help I have not been able to get any assistance with employment and being able to sustain myself so that I can move forward with my life and with my children every time I talk to one of or complain or make a grievance at the shelter because I am now homeless at the shelter they say DHS go to DHS make a complaint after listening and being here Time After Time listening to these budget meetings in these different issues that I am hearing I'm not understanding how they could say that they would like a 2.5 budget cut when there are so many issues that makes me question and I would think that maybe you all would like to join on the pers just looking at a different perspective of who needs to be held accountable for what is not being done I don't know if it's more money or if it's more training I do agree that the people that are servicing us as caseworkers I mean if they're in the same situation as us how much help can they really offer in a process where they're not even able to process themselves out of and like I said once again it brings us back let DHS know let DHS know well they're not doing anything in their proposing budget cuts how I just don't understand so I'm afraid I'm afraid I don't know what's going on I can't even call my children I have no support I have two unfortunately been I've witnessed the srg myself because I was going to different Federal buildings asking for help I have no criminal record I am not mentally unstable do I have a mental sickness right now absolutely because I am poor I am without my children and I am trying my best to do everything that I can and I'm not getting the help y'all I'm like I'm not getting it I want to work I want to live but I can't I'm running from my family and I'm in a system that is not helping and all they keep saying is going to the same people that I now have learned that are proposing things that it's not even of Integrity it doesn't even make sense when they know how much help that we need just in the facility that I am in I can only imagine the other facilities and I won't even speak on what I heard and all of that I'm only going to go based on what I've witnessed and what I have took in my own hands and been a reasonable person okay and I am not getting the help and I am afraid so this is my last resort because I have been from here to from Texas to from Florida to Kentucky okay so that's that's all thank you so I'll give you my card and we could set up a meeting and speak to figure out I emailed you I wasn't going to tell nobody but you might have didn't get it or they might have replied but I I my email I wasn't able to get back in it because I don't have a phone okay before you leave I'll give you my information yes sir sure um Chanel can you tell me what school you were you go to I'm sorry I go to Mecca it's right down it's right down the block okay thank you thank you all for your testimony thank you thank you thank you I'm going to call forward canine holder and Braden holiday and then we're going to go to remote testimony Anuj boundary Laura wig Madeline Borelli and Martin nerbach good evening it is a good evening to be here in the room that says a government of the People by the people and for the people hopefully it is a good evening because we're here to represent the voices of those that are unheard the voices of those who are ignored the voices of those who can't speak and I'm speaking for them I'm cananie iholder I'm an award-winning educator and diversity expert here to amplify black issues black issues issues issues on and on from 400 years and on into Infinity without intervention and disruption from you all can we agree that systemic racism exists if you agree agree excuse me please say yes you all can as well or you're not in your heads affirmative okay then that means that we are actually literally funding our oppression I'll say that again you all agreed that systemic racism exists and this is a budget and we're all taxpayers so we're literally funding our oppression minute by minute day by day with every transaction on a micro level like a bag of chips to a macro level like a condo we're literally funding our own oppression and I would like my intelligence to be respected because I'm thinking about this out loud and all of you all intelligent people whatever that even means right so like literally break that down we we agree to this yes yes yes and we pay our taxes yes yes so we we literally are all of us are complicit in a system that that is racist and homophobic and everything but I'm I'm all of those things too but I'm specifically here to talk about black issues there are 83 different streets in Brooklyn named after slave holding families I learned that after my second National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship teachers were flying in from all over the country one of 36 that I was and I'm from Brooklyn and I'm holding a bill of sale with the names of Vanderbilt the Perkins and the Lots family the New Lots train station by the way the three train last stop so again we are funding our own systemic racist system we're doing it we're complicit in it now I'm here to talk about blurging black and Urgent issues right this is taxation without representation and I would like an audit what is my money funding seems like there's some issues that are Urgent and there's news cameras and there's funding right that comes real quick but when it's intersected the Urgent issue is intersected with Blackness meaning bludgeon black and Urgent there's a lot of excuses there's a lot of patronizing there's a lot of well well and a lot of crumbs if anything again the crumbs are also what our tax dollars because we're funding our systemic racial oppression right um so one I would like to talk about uh one issue which is black maternal health I went on the department of Health's website in New York City black women in this city are nine times as likely to die in childbirth or their children within two years and I then scroll through all the different department of health statistics black people over index in everything that is deadly except for yes opioid overdose the whites own that one what so again I black in this country I'm 43 years old Forever 21 if you're wondering and I would like to have a baby but again the statistics would tell me don't do that you're coming out of my paycheck so again I'm I'm trying to understand and justify or at least get an audit right you're talking about budgets maybe I need an audit I want to know how bad my taxes funds in terms of the discrimination and racism right because that's what that's what my talk stop that's what all your tax dollars are doing I want to know how many babies are dying I want to know how many black women are I want to know because I'm really confused because I pay of the people for the People by I pay I pay my taxes I'm one of these people I'm gonna move on housing violations HPD DOB a joke I live in a building on 125th Street 421a tax abatement 18 floors I was in the elevator it fell several floors terrifying the light started flickering I have been calling HPD dob for years again I win Awards in writing curriculum and programming and curating for children I do not have the mental physical capacity to be on the phone all the time with dob and HPD that is not the potentiality of who I am that's not why I went to college that's not why I have multiple degrees I have a fellowship with Colin Powell Center for policy study the same CUNY kids I know some of them I was at CUNY yesterday with the racial Justice division of Colin Powell School because again it's racial and that's what I want to do with my time I don't want to be sitting there and I get useless you get 40 days the landlords do to repair the elevators what there are dozens of people in my building that have been trapped in the elevator some of them had to crawl out from under the shafts again that's my tax dollars funding people being trapped including myself in that elevator and HPD and the dob you know paying Patsy with the landlords now how does that also impact me as an educator when children are in rooms and in homes that are you know have housing violations rats roaches molds ceilings falling apart no hot water no heat how do they show up in the classroom I know that's why I got Awards in it because I was so Keen to their eat their needs and their issues that I was able to intervene but most most teachers don't know how to do that because they it's a lot to juggle right so again these issues aren't segmented they are holistic when the dob and HPD don't do their jobs you know what goes up child abuse and domestic violence because people are frustrated and they take it out on the people that are most vulnerable in their own household so all of this matters and I've seen it I've seen it as a tenant I've seen it as a teacher I've seen it as a Transit writer I see it so when we look at all these people who are flipping out whatever that even means when we talk about mental health issues how much of these mental health issues are exacerbated because we pay our taxes and we don't get services in return I'm really confused from simple things like potholes to Major things like HPD dob can you please hold these landlords accountable can you make sure that they provide heat that building in the Bronx that had 17 people die that wasn't because of some frayed space heater core and and that became what Eric Adams and everybody else wanted to say we're going to regulate the space heaters no regulate the landlords that are too cheap and want to profit off of not providing heat for people and then the children when they come in class and they're they're they're they're they're they're they're walking around like that's what happens you cannot expect a 12 year older or a 9 year older or a five-year-older to be able to process landlords profiting off of not providing heat and water didn't make any sense to me and we've been I've been teaching for 20 years I've been teaching for I was a teaching fellow and I grew up in Brooklyn I'm a public school baby you also be damn proud of me do you know how many awards I have from public school public school I figured it out and I can't guarantee that for all these other children languishing and these ass schools right now I can't guarantee that they're going to get a quality public school education and a stable a stable enough home so they can be able to rot to rise and thrive and get published my theories are quoted I have lectured at at Ivy at Columbia University several times I can't guarantee that and I've actually had little 12 year olds little 11 year olds I've had them do stuff like this I had them go talk at Columbia about issues sure did but again when we think about HPD in a silo and then we think about Transit and Asylum no it's no child is thinking to themselves well you know that's just a Transit budget they're not thinking this is a oh that's that's that's the housing budget their child and to be honest with you adults when we're when we're navigating all of these potholes literal and figurative potholes in our lives we're not parsing through what part of the budget wasn't addressed it's all of it now I would like add this to the budget because y'all be adding all kinds of stuff to the budget if restaurants can get an A B C D rating why not buildings for people who are actually blessed to be able to live in a home because again other people have already addressed homelessness people have already adjusted police brutality so I am here to deal with other issues so if you all can put a b c d on restaurants do you know how many times these schmooze operator Realtors right wine and dine tenants all this oh look at the rooftop all this and it happened to me and now I'm in a building with the landlord that is harassing me they move the super next door to me on the 11th floor have you ever heard a super living on the 11th floor sharing a balcony with a tenant association president y'all are laughing because it's insane right right playing music two o'clock in the morning loud as can be disrupting my ability to be brilliant to be of service as an educator that's what you all allow landlords to do because I have been filing report afterwards if you pull up my name can name the io holder and 3-1-1 you will see it I have done I talked to Mark Levine I've talked to so many people and it's always okay okay and nothing's done so the landlord gets to profit right off of not being held accountable so maybe an ABCD rating could let people know you know what don't put your four thousand or eight thousand dollar security deposit plus the first month's rent and everything else that you need to do into that building because that's what these developers are doing they build that my building was built in nine months it's on a it's 60 West 125th Street it is a death trap it is a if you walk there right now it's you can smell the gas because they're trying to slap together some Ponte Bistro restaurant you can smell the gas right in front I'm telling you if something happens in that building I'm gonna say this now don't be surprised because I've been telling dob and HPD for years you can smell the gas so when the explosion happens or someone's trapped in the elevator or whatever else is going on in my janky building that looks luxury with our tax dollars because it's a 421a abatements don't say the Canadian holder didn't say so here a government of the People by the people for the people I'm going to put it on record 60 West 125th Street and then what they do is they sold the building in a year and then they changed the address so that when you go to court there's no record of what building you're talking about so again where is the government in this they have the address down as 52 to 64. but then our address and our rent receipts say 60 West so then the lease doesn't match and so then when you go to court or you go and say anything they go oh there's no building by that name I've done this I've done this with dhcr again I should be publishing my theories about education and how to get kids to thrive under ridiculous circumstances because we are literally funding our own systemic racism right that's what that's what I do best and instead I'm spending too much of my time right running around right with multiple agencies that I fund that don't do anything and allow these landlords to do what they do now the last point that I will make and thank you so much because there are a lot of blurging issues right but I'm being very selective and curating in terms of my issues okay so the last one is [Music] um can you smell what The Rock is cooking can you not see that this is going to be worse than night I know I'm funny this is going to be worse than 1970. we're on the precipice of a wave a surge and then another Surge and then another surge of people who have been disenfranchised who are delusional who don't trust anything who have not been educated who know that HPD is not going to do anything about the building who know that they're not going to get health care who know that the teachers you know are too exhausted who know that if they go into the shelter they're going to be raped or that stuff is going to be stolen they know these things do you not understand what's about to happen I wrote about it I'm published I call it the trauma class there's the upper class there's a middle class and then there's what I call the trauma class that trumps race at least 40 percent of society is in Trauma from school shootings to mass shootings to crime in the streets to mental health issues and vicarious trauma that's what everyone is under right now and so mental health is going to exacerbate and become normalized because so many more people who could be dealing with things are not going to be able to deal with the tsunami of trauma that is constantly going to be in other people's faces and then they're going to vicariously also then carry their trauma and then they can be passive aggressive and all kind of other defense mechanisms I'm telling you I published this okay trauma classes your testimony I love you black it's Canadian holder 60 West 125th Street who here can help me we're gonna I'll give you my card thank you and again what are we doing to make sure oh last thing racial Justice Commission I I interviewed executive director and no offense to him but I'm curious as to there's a charter in New York City right now do you all know this that there's a charter in New York City that's not nodding his head yes there's a charter in New York City stating that New York City is going to prevent racial harm in the future and heal the racial harms of the past hello do y'all know this it passed it was on the budget it was on the budget it was on the ballot in November thank you and so I'm just again like if this is the first budget with the racial Justice Commission how will this budget be impacted from a racial lens how will that lens actually be real last thing George Floyd's anniversary 525 is tomorrow so is New York City performative and painting BLM you know yellow on streets or are we actually going to enact the bludgeon the black and Urgent the urgency of the millions of people in the streets and around the world that we said that we were going to do shout out to security because you know y'all didn't escort me I'd love you all black thank you we still have about 45 people on Zoom that are testifying God bless them go ahead sir hi my name is Ray Holliday I'm here to say that the NYPD budget needs to be cut significantly by at least 75 percent and transferred to Community Resources and OMP has failed innocent illegal firearms that will be used in crimes for 30 years despite the increased funding in spine technology New Jersey laid off a lot of city workers in the past before n1p is able to lay off officers to meet the new puncher requirements we need real solutions such as real affordable housing extensive medical mental Services we need to fix the problems and crimes there are those who say if we have more cons there will be less crime there are 200 civilians per officer this is a numbers game anyone PD cannot be everywhere does he need to eliminate the attraction black markets that are selling illegal Firearms by fixing social issues so there are less gun crimes a1pd in the March budget hearing says that everyone has a part in public safety that's equivalent to everyone say everyone is a part of taking out fire and OMP admit that they're not responsible for an individual safety even though they're supposed to be the sole Public Safety department of New York City by having military weapons arrested powers and qualified immunity and the kids are legitimo versus New York City 2013. two NYPD officers in the front train car Mormon Kevin refused to bring harm to miss Lucito even though there were morning people to do so the court dismissal also because n1p artists are not obligated to protect individuals of course we talk about like you had cops in the subway you're about to get stamped they're not elevated protect you so what's the point of paying them the kings of Warren Virginia Columbia 1981 many law enforcement obviously by saying that police are not obligated protect individuals from harm or death unless they're under conflict this is 1981. 31 call 9-1-1 for Intruder and cops responded five minutes they were raped for 14 hours the Supreme Court said they not only going to protect anyone for home or death unless they under Constantine the taxes strategy for the past 30 years are definitely understanding of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome positives needed something like politics you think like business people by eliminating attraction black markets I just want to say one remember thing people blame their own reform for higher crime that's not true Bell reforms like it passed months before the high crime because schools are shut down parks are shut down pools are shut down a lot of birds are shut down and the school program is shut down can you imagine right we own this money but you want to move the money out of the resource which is even worse than coving we have white people getting shot up in white neighborhoods people get pushed in subway trains and 4G Street can Canal Street Chambers Street these are on like 14th Street everything then you talk about some people start shooting people in my neighborhoods can you imagine this is gonna be worse than the 80s I want to say for example I'm a video game person right sorry video say it again um I'm a video game person right so basically I've played starting from 2077. the crime in that game is so bad the military the Mannix you know like EMTs everything they carrying assault rifles so it's like I'm not going to say it's gonna be as bad but if you don't fix this right now like passes Blended put the budget only down nyp boost anything out it's gonna be a lot worse thank you for your testimony thanks okay we're now going to go to zoom beginning with Anuj mandari starting time hi everybody my name is Anuj bhandari um I am giving testimony alongside teachers unite and I'm a community organizer and youth organizer with restorative justice initiative um I am advocating for 75 million dollars towards hiring restorative justice coordinators in schools across New York City and 75 million dollars in bringing on support staff that are from the neighborhoods that our young people represent across the city this is an addition to a hiring freeze and a removal of the school safety agent positions that are in New York City Schools I used to be a restorative justice coordinator in New York City schools and I'm currently a restorative justice organizer working on multiple education justice coalitions during just a two-year window when I was the restaurant