equity and racial justice at 1:30 p.m. and the Commission on Racial Equity at 2:30 p.m. We will conclude the administration's testimony before moving on to public testimony at 3:30 p.m. So for those in the audience, walk in. Um, New York City has some of the most comprehensive protections in the nation. We are a strong, proud city because of it. And at a time when we are seeing unprecedented, militarized, egregious, increasing attacks on civil and human human rights at the federal level, it is especially important that these agencies and commissions are adequately funded and staffed so they can effectively serve New Yorkers. I want to begin by congratulating Commissioner Clark on your new role. Thanks for chatting the other day and thank you and your team for being here today to testify on the commission's budget. The Commission on Civil and Human Rights enforces our human rights law by investigating and bringing cases of discrimination while also educating New Yorkers about their rights and responsibilities under the law. But in order to really do this work, they need money. CCHR's other than personnel services budget in fiscal 2027 is 410,000 less than the fiscal 2026 adopted budget due to a one-time partial program to eliminate the gap restoration added at fiscal 2026 adoption. The preliminary plan does not include any new investments in CCHR's budget. In this plan, CCHR's budget accounted for 133 uh headcount is 133 and shows a reduction of eight positions from the 141 budgeted headcount included in last year's budget. More importantly, the commission's actual headcount as of January only accounts for 103 positions. Today, I'm looking forward to understanding how CCHR potentially operates with a vacancy rate of 27%. I can't imagine that's easy. I'm also eager to hear what additional resources you, Commissioner Clark, have requested from OM in terms of budget, filling in these vacant positions, and potentially adding headcount is needed for the commission to effectively carry out its mandates. Among among other issues, we will also discuss topics such as the commission's testing and outreach methods and the work they are doing to ensure New Yorkers feel safe reporting discrimination with the current federal administration. Want to thank our lovely finance staff, our committee staff, and my own staff for all their preparations, getting us prepared for the four hearings we have today. I don't know if we have any council members with us. Deputy Speaker Natasha Williams and Council Member Feliz, you're recognized. And I'm going to now turn it over to the committee council to administrate the oath. >> Good morning. If you could please raise your right hands. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee? >> I do. >> Thank you so much. You may begin. >> Good morning, Chair Lee. Chair Lee Chair Lee also, but also chair nurse and members of the committee on finance and civil and human rights. They're in my remarks. Uh my name is Christine Clark and I serve as the chair and commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today about the commission's work and the role it plays in ensuring that all New Yorkers can live, work, and thrive free from discrimination. Joining me today are Katherryn Carroll, Deputy Commissioner of Law Enforcement, and Mariela Salazar, Deputy Commissioner of Administrative Services. The New York City Commission on Human Rights, first and foremost, enforces and educates the public about the New York City Human Rights Law, one of the most comprehensive civil rights laws in the nation. It protects New Yorkers from discrimination across broad swaths of life, including protections against discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. But these rights are meaningless in a vacuum. Rights only become reality when they are broadly recognized and enforced. The rights protected by the New York City Human Rights Law are fundamental to an equitable society. the right to live, work, and participate in society, free from discrimination on the basis of one's national origin, citizenship, religion, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, disability, criminal history, and more. These rights are currently under attack broadly in society, fueled by a political atmosphere that encourages and incites hate and isolation, as well as with with the tacit and even occasionally overt approval of the federal government. Moreover, as inequality has increased over the past few decades across the country, those with the least suffer the most. Discrimination affects people in all walks of life, but the toll is unquestionably the greatest for individuals and families who have the least. And those who have the least access to financial resources also often find that they have the least access to justice. These are precisely the issues that I intend to make the focus of the Commission on Human Rights during my tenure as chair and commissioner. I am privileged to work with a small but dedicated team at the Commission on Human Rights who have been successful at moving mountains with limited resources. Our team of eight intake staff field over 15,000 inquiries per year. Our dedicated team of civil rights enforcement attorneys then investigate and or consiliate which means uh we settle cases with the city as a party uh every case that falls within our jurisdiction and then prosecute cases at the office of administrative trials and hearings. After trial and after receiving Oath's report and recommendation, I along with a small handful of colleagues work to review the report and recommendation, the record, and the case law to write a final decision in order. Our small but dedicated team also works hard to create updated and accessible trainings, know your rights materials, legal guidance, FAQs, and communication strategies and campaigns, as well as to engage in outreach with communities across the city. From the moment I walked through the door at this agency, the dedicated staff at CCHR have made clear that they share my vision and my priorities and are willing to embrace change to make that vision a reality. Together, we are dedicated to making the commission a place that will survive the Trump administration's retreat from federal civil rights enforcement to ensure that whatever happens at the federal level, the city human rights law will continue to be enforced, and we will continue to ensure that all New Yorkers have the opportunity to thrive in our great city. Together, we are dedicated to engaging all New York City communities, including small business owners, to ensure that every New Yorker understands their rights and their obligations, and to ensure that small businesses have what they need to comply with the law before civil rights violations occur. Together, we're dedicated to ensuring that our services are accessible to people who can't afford lawyers and for whom we are often their only shot at justice. That means taking a hard look at what works and how to best deploy our resources. This includes, for example, our pre-complaint intervention program, also known as our early intervention program, where we are often able to intervene in situations before the damage has been done and before litigation is required. This also includes our project equal access, where we make on-site visits to ensure that buildings are accessible to people with disabilities. This also means making sure that we make as much impact as we can when we can. Every consiliation order includes provisions that will prevent future human rights violations. For example, we require virtually every respondent to agree that their staff will be trained by CCHR staff and the New York City Human Rights Law and to create and implement non-discrimination policies. I should say we require that when we consiliate and issue orders in cases. We also frequently find creative solutions to ensure um uh to ensure impact in the future. For example, in housing voucher discrimination cases, we often will agree with landlords that they will set aside a certain number of apartments for voucher holders in the future. We also of course seek compensation for victims of discrimination uh both in consiliations and in litigation as well as civil penalties either of which can easily reach six figures. New York City has long been a national leader in civil rights protections. The human rights law reflects our belief that everyone has the right to live and work and thrive in this great city. Now more than ever, the commission is proud to carry forward this legacy. In closing, I want to thank the commission for its partnership. the commission. In closing, I want to thank the council for its partnership in supporting the work of the commission and for its continued commitment to protecting the rights of New Yorkers. Uh, I look forward to working together to ensure that the promise of the New York City Human Rights Law remains real and meaningful for every single person who calls the city home. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today at the beginning of this budget cycle. And I welcome your questions. >> Thank you, Commissioner. You are a speed reader. You know, that was amazing. Um, okay. Um, so I want to ask some questions about headcount and vacancies. Uh, then we'll kind of discuss the law enforcement bureau, the the info line, PMMR, and then we'll go from there. >> Um, so the your average vacancy rate between 2016 and 2025's fiscal years was about 18%. As of this year in January, we have about 38 vacancies or a vacancy rate of 28%. So, are you um currently hiring? Uh if yes, what positions are you looking for? Um and if there are any that are more difficult to fill than others. Um and if you've if your headcount includes five for the city of Yes. positions as well. >> So, I'm going to refer some of the answers to Deputy Commissioner Salazar. Um I want to say as an initial matter obviously we're hiring for we're actively hiring at all times for as many vacancies as we are permitted to hire for which is maybe not the full scope of vacancies that you're discussing. >> Yep. So just want to uh correct some of the numbers. So as of this week we have we have 109 active staff members um which means that we have 32 vacancies at the moment. Um with regards to hiring as the commissioner just said we're always hiring. Um there have been challenges in the past. um to hire. Um and that includes um let me take a step back. Um so we don't have as an agency an issue in hiring, right? We the things at least in the part of the areas that we're able to control. So we are working on our job postings. We're able to do the interviews. We're able to um offer the the job position right to the candidate. But that's the things that we are able to control once we have the candidate and we submit to B, that process can take another three to four months. >> Forever. >> Um, yes. Um, and so because of the previous administration's two for one hiring freeze, that was part of the delay. Um, and so while we're waiting for someone to get the approval, there have been times where a candidate has um, you know, uh, been able to to find other opportunities. So, we've lost great candidates. >> Um, and then it's just been a really lengthy process. Um in addition to that that you could just also say that there's the typical workplace fluctuations where people are leaving um for other opportunity you know great um personal advancement and growth. Um so we have this kind of cycle but we're always hiring um and we're doing everything in our power to to hire as quickly as possible. >> Okay. So sorry. So you're you're now at 109 >> active employees. Yes. >> And that is since when? >> As of this week I would like this weekday. So those folks came on, they were in the pipeline for a while. >> Yes. >> Okay. And we actually also have probably three that are pending approval. So more more to come. >> Okay. Um and then for the um five city of Yes positions, are those are those roles filled? >> We have three that are currently filled um and two vacancies >> and those are out in the world >> being recruited for. Okay. Um the commission and welcoming uh council member uh the commission has previously attributed the high vacancy rate to the 2 to1 hiring freeze as you just mentioned. Um with the release of the preliminary budget the mayor has announced ending the freeze. How do you anticipate the ending of that hiring fees to impact your uh staffing levels this year? >> That's a great question. So, if uh the two for one hiring freeze is ended with no vacancy reductions, meaning that we're able to hire up to the full number of lines that we're budgeted for, that would have a extremely positive impact on our ability to do the things that we do. Uh can you imagine the difference between 109 and our full headcount, which is like 141. Uh that's a significant number of people that we could hire across all of the work that we do. That includes assisting in investigating uh outcomes. It includes intake parallegals to do uh intakes faster. It includes more trial attorneys. It includes uh communication staff. Our poor chief of staff is also our communications director and our social media manager. He could get a break. There's a lot we could do um if we were if the hiring freeze were ended and we were able to hire fully up to our headcount. >> Okay. Um do you plan to submit for any additional staff lines? >> Uh that's a good question. We're in I will say we are in constant conversation with OM around staffing and hiring. So that's genuinely a constant conversation, >> but you haven't submitted as of of yet additional headlines. >> I'm sorry, and additional staff lines, >> not officially, but that's part of like, you know, we're in the preliminary budget hearings and preliminary budget conversations, but that is something that we have discussed internally. >> And you mentioned uh intake folks, trial attorneys, some social media to to get the word out about what you all do. That's important. Do you have some top priorities beyond those? Are those kind of your top priorities? >> Yeah, I think uh in terms of hiring, I I mean it's hard to say those are our top priorities because those are our top priorities across the board. It's like faster investigations, more trial attorneys, more outreach, like more training. That's like those are the things that we do. But we could do more of each of those things if we were able to. >> Okay. So, we we just we mentioned briefly um that OMB instructed city agencies to cut 50% of the the vacancies on the full-time civilian positions that were unfilled as of January 2026. I um I know you you mentioned that you would love to have those that full amount to to staff up for. Um did you all receive instruction for this as well? >> Yes. Correct. >> Um and some of this is also part of the chief savings officer like everything is kind of tied together. So the plan is due next week. Um but again we continue to have conversations about >> Yeah. And and for that and for your headcount, where do you what what kinds of work would be mostly impacted by that reduction? >> We haven't made a plan yet. So we're still I mean Hope Springs eternal. We continue to be in conversations and we haven't finalized our internal plans yet. But I think I mean you know again if we were able to hire up fully, we would hire up in virtually every corner of what we do. >> And what so um I understand you're you're still figuring those out, but of the vacant positions, what types of roles do you have the most vacancy in? >> We've have the most vacancies in attorney positions. Okay. >> Um, so a lot of advocates have told us that uh the high vacancy rate is also attributed to CCHR's salaries being just really uncompetitive and uncompetitive even within other city agencies, which is kind of crazy. Um, so what is the average salary for an attorney at CCHR? >> So the salaries for Sorry. >> Yeah, I don't know what's happening, but the salaries for all employees at the agency is based on your civil service title. All civil service titles have a minimum, an incumbent rate, and a maximum. The maximum obviously is depending on our agency's budget. We're not able to start someone below a certain amount. So that is consistent across the that's not unique to our agency. Um, off the top of my head, I could say we've been uh we've been making efforts to hire agency attorneys at level two. Um, the starting salary for that is about $83,000. Um, I'm sorry. 833 >> 83,000. Yep. Um, if the candidate has two years of experience or I mean two years of experience in the city or they have four years of experience in the private sector, we're able to start them at the incumbent rate which is about 95,450. >> And so that's on par, you're saying with other city agencies? >> Yes. Um, at least for that particular civil service title. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm going to step in to say for those civil service titles, there are other civil service titles available to other agencies that for attorneys benefit from. >> Correct. Right. >> That would have higher salaries. >> Okay. >> Do uh have you identified any other city agencies that offer similar salaries for similar positions and types of work? >> We have. I mean, every time that we're creating a job posting, we're also looking around to see how other agencies are framing the position. if there's some similarities. Are we using the right civil service title? Is there an opportunity to find another civil service title that the agency can use? There are titles that are unique to specific um city agencies and we're not able to do that. Um but I think that for the most part we are trying to be as consistent and you know following all proper civil service policies and laws. >> Okay. Um, so we can assume that many candidates who would not accept the posted salary ranges at CCHR would never apply in the first place. Has has the commission ever conducted any analysis of trends in the number of applications received for job postings over the years? For example, comparing the number of applicants received last time salaries were significantly raised um to applicant pools in recent years. Um well so before deputy commissioner Salazar answers that because she'll know the answer and I won't I do want to say that we are sort of in a unique time frame for hiring for civil rights enforcement because there are people who are leaving federal civil rights enforcement agencies and who are willing to work with us. So not not to say that we it wouldn't be easier to hire with more salaries. Of course it would. But we are also we really have an opportunity that right now to hire highly qualified um civil rights attorneys and uh investigators and other people like that. So I just want to put that up. >> And for the most part we don't have any issue with the number of applicants. We post a job and we don't have an issue that we have like five people that are applying for a position. Um that's not the issue. We haven't done any formal analysis as you mentioned. However, we do exit surveys. Um and so we have a general idea as to at least why some people are leaving. Um and that varies. They have been because they've moved out of town there. There's been, you know, remote work as something, you know, more flexibility. Um salaries has been something that has been mentioned, but not as often as you would think. Yeah, I think there's I think the the folks coming from DC who no longer can get jobs in our federal government because our federal government is hellbent on destroying civil rights um is certainly creating opportunities here and we should have those competitive salaries to capture that that talent. Um uh one of the things that um you mentioned that people are are are leaving the city. I mean, they're leaving the city because cost of living is high. And so, again, another reason to hopefully the administration can give some additional funding for you all to boost up the salaries of folks that you do have in an effort to retain them. Um, one of the things that I know um the deputy speaker cares a lot about is uh the language skills. Um, your commission staff speak over 30 languages. Um, NCCHR has previously testified that staff language skills are vital to effective outreach in many communities. At the at last year's uh budget hearing, the commission testified that CCHR staff do not get a language bonus. Do you think uh do you think staff should get a language bonus? So I think I think I agree that it's incredibly important that all our staff to the extent possible that we have as many languages as possible represented in our staff both in outreach intake and for attorney positions. We do bake language preferences into our hiring and into our job descriptions. So it is part of the job that people are being hired for. That being said, of course, again, you know, being competitive with many, many other agencies and nonprofits who are also trying to hire lots of people who speak a lot of languages, uh, particularly attorney positions. I know that bilingual attorneys are in very, very high demand across the city. >> That's right. And I I do think that we should recognize that, um, through the gratitude of an increased paycheck. Um, because it doesn't really seem like it's optional. If someone calls in and they don't speak English, it's not like you just hang up on this person, right? You have to somebody who can speak and so we should um while I understand and I recognize that it's explicit in the job posting that you are looking for this kind of preferences it seems that we should be recognizing that through some kind of bonus an incentive to kind of recruit and retain people to the city um I just want to cl if I can if I may clarify um we don't use our staff for like translation services we outsource that so we use vendors such as like L&M language services where And if someone from the public comes in and they need a translation for their intake, that's what we're that's what we use. We're not using our staff necessarily to do that. >> Well, it is fair to say that if someone walks in the door and they speak only Spanish and I speak Spanish, I don't need to do that additional step um when I can just do it right there, right? And that saves everybody time and it's an efficient way to get their inquiry addressed, especially if it's, you know, they're facing discrimination, keeping people having to take mult multiple steps is a is a good thing. So I I understand that technically that that you might have those available, but it does seem like it's a it's a clear benefit. Um and it and it should be recognized specifically since you're um recruiting for it in that way. Um I'm going to turn to law enforcement and then I'll I'll have question and then I'll I'll give um council member Han some uh an opportunity. Um, in the preliminary plan, CCHR's law enforcement bureau is funded at 6.4 million uh for 66 positions, which is a decrease of two positions compared to adoption uh last year. Does this decrease reflect an anticipated decrease in the case load? >> We we do not have an anticipated decrease in case load. >> Okay. Are the 66 budgeted positions currently staffed up? I I just want to clarify for you're talking specifically for our law enforcement bureau. >> Law enforcement bureau. >> Law enforcement bureau has 70 lines. Okay. >> Um and currently they have 49 people actively working at le >> just giving me what the >> the financial people who know better than me told me. Um okay. So you're at you're you have 70 lines and how many people are hired? >> 49. >> 49. Okay. That's pretty big gap. Um be clear are uh the sort of we're trying to we're trying to get away a little bit from all of the like silos in the agency but law enforcement bureau includes also our intake staff. So it's not only our attorneys, it's our intake staff and it's our admin who um who assist in getting filings done and sending out notices and that whole like life cycle is within that title. >> Okay. And according to the PMMR, the average age of complaints in the first four months of 2026 was about 629 days. how many cases are currently opened right now at the commission and what are the contributing factors in making the age of complaints so high. >> So I will refer most of those answers to Deputy Commissioner Carol about numbers. But I will say in terms of the the age of cases, it could be hard to tell from the outside like what's happening >> in a case between when it's open and when it's closed. >> I will say there's a lot happening on those cases between when they're open and they're closed. to do a lot of attempts at consiliation which as I testified earlier is when we settle cases with the city as a party meaning that we insert into those settlement agreements uh things that benefit the city things that prevent future violations and all kinds of injunctive relief. Uh that can happen often repeatedly throughout the case between when it comes to us and when we close it. Um but of course we can only do as much as we can do uh where we are. >> Thank you chair nurse. Um can you hear me? Okay. Sorry. Uh so during that time period we were really focusing focused on making sure that we were getting New Yorkers through the door as quickly as possible. And so our focus was getting complaintants in for intake and then complaints drafted and filed rather than historically which has been our approach which is to make sure that the backlog gets addressed as quickly as possible. Both things are extremely important. We made the strategic decision in light of the federal government that we wanted people who are reaching out to us to be heard as quickly as possible and make sure that we could get them in meet statute of limitations which is always a priority and really make sure that they weren't feeling the drop off from city government as well as federal government. So that was a shift in approach that we had taken to make sure that we were just being as responsive and as quickly as possible. or intake weight time had gone down significantly during that period which is not a number that's reflected in the PMMR but it was the approach that we were taking at the time. >> What would you say and I like two more questions and I'll pass it over. What would you say between which I understand you want to prioritize like people saying what they need what what's going on with them and get it into your case management system but between getting it into the system and the next step what what's like a good average weight time that you you think would like what what is your maybe your average weight time now if you know it and you know what would be a good standard if you had more resources. I think our our current wait time is a couple of months. Unfortunately, our our best wait time has been two weeks and that is outside of the context of our early interventions that Commissioner Clark mentioned earlier or intakes that we will fast track if we know that someone's in immediate harm or if they're coming up against a statute of limitations. >> Okay. I imagine there's different ways that things are prioritized based on the severity of the case. Um, but if you if you could, how many additional staff would you need uh to make to make this this to close this gap? >> So, I don't think I have a precise answer, but I can say that, you know, what Commissioner Carol, Deputy Commissioner Carol is talking about in terms of if we have to prioritize getting back to people sooner versus closing cases faster, we're talking about sort of the workflow between intake, case investigations, and litigation. And I think um we currently have I think 24 attorneys who are basically doing they're doing the investigations, they're doing the settlement conferences, they're trying to do the consiliations and they're doing the litigation. And so I think we do incredible work with the team that we have. That's the team that we have right now. >> Yeah. I mean that's that's the line that's always the line for for all committees like um in budget hearing and we we do recognize that and appreciate that you all do a little with a lot. Um, is it fair to say you have 70 lines budgeted, you're at 49. Is it fair to say you can't afford the vacancy uh the um the potential cut of 50% of your vacancies? >> I think the most I mean I I'm sure this is not the answer you're looking for. The most important thing that I have to say because it's it's important to me is to make sure that every New Yorker knows that literally no matter what happens, the City Commission on Human Rights is going to be here for them, including if there are cuts. we will continue to be here and fulfill our mission and make sure that we're able to fill the vacuum left by federal enforcement. I don't want anyone here to to leave with the impression that we are not able to do that for them. Uh just because it's a time of like incredible fear for people and I don't want people to think that we are unable to fulfill our mission. That being said, obviously with more staff we could do a lot more. >> Okay. And and just finally, and I'll come back to some stuff, but how many cases do you currently have at at Oath? >> So, we currently have six cases at Oath. However, I just want to make a a kind of clarifying point on that. Um, some of the cases that we have there are complex pattern and practice cases. So, it's a single case that represents up to 10. Yeah, exactly. A bunch of people. and a a the rectification of a policy that has a much broader impact than the people who have come to report cases to us. We've been prioritizing those cases in the last two years. There are some of the oldest cases we've had because they're the more complex cases that require significant amount of staff time. And so again, it's kind of a, you know, moving the chairs around to make sure we focus on things at different periods of time. In addition to that, you know, we've had significant um settlement conferences. is the oath judges are working really hard to push things to settlement rather than trial. So we've had a significant uptick in appearances we've had to make before trial even gets set on the calendar which is a significant change from prior years where we've been able to go to oath and say we've attempted settlement settlements not happening we need a trial date today. So that's been an adjustment for us in terms of resources because the appearances take time for us to prepare and to to show up to. >> And and when you when you have cases that represent a bigger trend and multi and many people and you go for a settlement, does that result in a wider systemic structural change for the city? >> Absolutely. We would never let those cases settle without a change in policy. usually some several year monitoring going forward to make sure that the policy the new policy is not also having a discriminatory impact and really making sure that we don't see the same issue in front of the commission ever again. >> Great. Okay, I'm going to turn it over to council member Hney for questions. >> Thank you chair nurse and hi everyone. It's great to see you and I just want to start off by thanking the CCHR. you all do incredible work and um some of the some of the government campaigns that I remember uh and will always remember have come from CCHR particularly through COVID on anti-Asian violence. So, I I want to see more funding and more uh capacity uh so that more New Yorkers uh recognize that this is this is that CCHR is the body that um enforces our protections. Um, just building off of um, Council Member Nurse's questions, how how do New Yorkers learn about CCHR and what's the funding that goes toward advertising and outreach? >> Okay, so that's a great question. I'm going to have Deputy Commissioner Salazar answer the money portion of it because she is good with money. Um, in terms of how people learn about us, there's all kinds of different ways. Obviously, I think there's a degree to which like in today's society, it's a lot more through public advertising and social media than it may have been in the past. Um, right now, I think, um, in terms of our agency, people learn about us through our campaigns and social media, through outreach, personal outreach that we do, community outreach, tableabling, events, things like that. As well as um through uh we offer a ton of trainings on our website, and we have I think like over a million people a year take one of our trainings on our website. And so that's another way that we people encounter us through taking maybe a mandatory training at their workplace or mandated by us as part of one of our settlements. Um and they learn uh about the rest of the human rights law and sort of our mission through those trainings. But in terms of our campaign's budget, I'll turn it to Deputy Commissioner Salazar. >> Yep. Well, I don't have an exact breakdown for each unit. Um I can tell you that our OTPS budget is relatively small and that the majority of those funds go to keeping the lights on. So it's our leases, our util these um uh licenses for you know sites and and things that our staff need to to do I mean that our staff needs in order to do their work. Um so the comm's budget is relatively small and again I don't have the figure with me but I know that um again we don't have that much money to do big campaigns but we do what we can with what we have. >> Yeah I thank you for that. I um I certainly understand um one just the scale of the commission's um uh like possibil just this the possibilities with this commission and I think even with more concerted um ads or campaigns to make sure that New Yorkers know uh what CCHR does is incredibly important particularly because you know the council's is passing law after law to make sure there's no income discrimination. There's um uh you know, pregnant people aren't being uh discriminated against in their workplace. And if the if the people impacted don't know to file a complaint or are, you know, 629 days into a wait time, that feels distressful. It feels it feels I mean as a New Yorker I would feel really discouraged to want to report. Um and I'd like to see that change so that more New Yorkers know and feel empowered and that we're not empowering these uh some of these bad landlords. Okay. My question is specifically on um accessibility and uh disability related complaints. Um, the commission reported an increase in accessibility modifications secured for people with disabilities. How would the proposed budget reductions affect the commission's ability to investigate disability discrimination complaints and secure accessibility improvements for New Yorkers with disabilities? >> I'll turn most of that answer over to Deputy Commissioner Carol. As an initial matter, I want to say I we are very proud of all the disability uh discrimination complaints that we've been able to address and modifications that we make. And that's in large part due to our um I'm going to screw it up. Project equal access. It is project equal access. Project equal access which is our dedicated project sort of that um focuses on modifications, building modifications, accessibility. People go on site, they measure for ramps, they do the whole sort of spate of things that need to be done. Obviously, that's a very small team. I believe it's three people. Uh, and so with more more people, we could do more. Um, but I'll turn over the remainder of the question unless I answered it to Deputy Commissioner Carol. >> Um, yes. So, the the team is two people actually. Um, we have an intern and they're great, but you know, they're not permanent. >> Is the intern the second person or the >> No, no, the third person. Um, and I think you know those cases in particular when we can attack them headon before we file the complaint before we have to do litigation that's a huge win and a huge value ad for both the individual who's come to us but also for the agency because those cases can be extremely expensive to litigate because we have to hire an expert who's going to go to the site spend all this time putting together a report and we are in a position where the federal government is emboldening respondents. So, so does it I mean based on just the increase of complaints and of course the settlements that you all have secured are fantastic and I was looking through um just some of your work and it's it's really wonderful to see the way in which people with disabilities are being supported through CCHR and not enough people know that. Um, and I think, you know, two people for uh a a big job um of this scale uh really brings to question just who who is left out there that there's marginalization. And as the disabilities committee chair, I'm very interested in making sure that all of our city agencies are doing their part, but especially CCHR and based off of what you what you all have secured um thousands millions in restitution and accountability. Um incredibly important for New Yorkers to understand that New York City um is not just uh talking about accessible cities. we are an accessible city and that we will fight for your civil rights as a disabled person um to expand this work. What would you say you would need? I mean it's good to know that it seems like am I right to say that the the project equal access is specifically around uh disability accessibility related complaints? Are there other teams that are doing issue based or community- based uh outreach or targeted um targeted responses? >> So, great question. And of course, I'm going to do the thing before I answer it. I want to al build on what you were saying before because I think it's really important to note that when we get accessibility modifications, those are there for life. So these are like every time we do one of these it has this sort of ongoing effect of making the city accessible or for everybody on an ongoing basis and the same is true I think we were talking earlier about source of income discrimination when we achieve as part of a settlement that the landlord will set aside a certain number of apartments for voucher holders that's expanding the stock of affordable housing in the city for the length of that lease. So, every time I do one of these things, I really >> What's the funding? Uh, is where's the funding coming from for all of the um capital projects? Is it is it's on incumbent on the landlord. Okay. >> Yeah, >> that I mean that's a huge win. >> I agree. Uh, sorry. Now I'm going to have to ask you to say your question. >> Now I've forgotten my question. >> I'm sorry. >> I'm like we're just looking at each where are we headed? Um to clarify one thing on the staffing as it relates to accessibility work. So our two projects >> remembered >> uh if there are other teams that are specifically focusing on let's say the rise in anti-semitism and addressing and understanding um how to combat or how to talk about it in the city. >> So we do have we have uh we have many overlapping like titles and departments and units. We're trying to sort of get a little bit away from that so that people aren't siloed as much as I think that they may have been in the past between outreach and enforcement and things that that sort of need to be better connected. We do have uh a community lead uh for the Jewish community in New York City who uh works on that issue specifically in terms of outreach and and and making connections and making sure that everything we do is centered in the community. And then um project equal access is kind of it's like a unique project because it involves like specific competences and also going out but then going out to sites and things that are sort of have to be specific to their job description. I I think uh and then we do also have a our pre-mployee intervention team um which like the early intervention team where people if people call us in crisis or they call us at a moment where uh quickly intervening before a litigation can solve the problem. Uh, so for example, you mentioned pregnancy discrimination. Someone who's pregnant and needs to go to the doctor and their boss says, "If you go to the doctor, I'm going to fire you." We can pick up the phone very quickly and say, "Did you know that you're not allowed to do that under the New York City law?" So, we do have a um a small team that does that. Again, we're trying to sort of make sure that we're that we're we have a little bit more bleed between the teams so that we're able to sort of fit people in where we make where it may make sense and make sure that everyone's involved in all different aspects of what we do. for the people in for the people leading uh project equal access are they do they have their hands in other parts of the >> no they're largely dedicated to that project >> and I'd love to know just how many uh disability related complaints have come in uh in this fiscal year and how many have been um >> how many settlements have been made um and uh how uh how um how many are still pending and also if there are cases from the past that have been sol that are solved right now. I mean, earlier today, we learned about um a case that has been going on for six years, and I think that's that's shocking to hear um and would certainly discourage anyone I know to report anything. Um and and especially because right now as more people are are even more scared to report to 911 um and distrustful of the NYPD, CCHR really serves as an anchor and as as as the community um for for working people. So, I love I love those data sets uh to just better understand uh that specific program and I'm really grateful to know that it it exists. >> We might have to get back to you with some of these answers. I can start. Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh so, I think in fiscal year 25 we received a total of Okay, Deputy Commissioner Carol is going to tell me if I'm reading this incorrectly. I believe a total of 662 disability related inquiries which resulted in 131 like formal complaints being filed by people and then I have another number but I'm not sure how to read that. So I'm gonna hand the answer over to Deputy Commissioner Carol. Is that complaints or >> Oh great. Okay. So then good for us. Okay. So we also and I'm gonna say fiscal year four in the first four months of fiscal year 26, we uh successfully resolved 50 cases concerning modifications for accessibility for people with disabilities. Those are cases resolved prior to a formal complaint being filed. Um so are those the numbers you're looking for? >> Yes. And and how long that the 50 cases took to complete or or close? So our we calculate the average for across all of our early interventions. So I don't have the number for disabilities specifically, but on average our early interventions take 25 days uh start to finish to complaint. So we really do try when we can get involved early on uh and be successful to do that because it does make a significant difference as opposed to cases that go through full litigation which can you know take years whether you're in front of the commission or in court. >> Got it. Thank you. Pass it back. >> Thank you, Council Member Haneie. Um, and recognizing uh our finance chair, Linda Lee, is here as well. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about the PMMR indicators. Um, we've we've touched on it briefly. uh the increase received decreased by 26% in the first four months of the fiscal 2026 period when compared to the same time in fiscal 2025. Um due to federal rhetoric causing less people to report uh what federal rhetoric is CCR CCHR seeing or hearing about and what is the commission doing to combat it? >> Fantastic question. I think there's really two effects of the federal rhetoric. It goes both ways. It it uh discourages people from reporting because they're under the impression that their rights may not be as wholesome as they were before. That's obviously not true under the New York City Human Rights Law. Nothing's happened to our law. Um people are uh under the impression that e that their rights have changed, which we are actively combating. But there's also the issue of people being afraid to interact with the government, which is an issue that we're desperately working to address as much as we can. Um certainly people I think are afraid to get to sort of present themselves to the government in any circumstances which I understand completely and again we try to make ourselves as accessible as possible to ensure that people do feel safe and that they are safe coming to us. Um I think the other effect obviously is also on the other side you know we're talking about case weight times and stuff like that. Certainly the federal rhetoric is encouraging um respondents, people who complaints are made against to dig in and encouraging their council to dig in, making them less interested in settlement or consiliation or sort of more emboldened. We obviously are going to double down and go after them as hard as we ever would. Uh we're not afraid, but it's definitely um it's it's having an effect that federal rhetoric. It's >> Yes. you. So, I I know you mentioned you're you're you're working to combat um the idea that people are fearful of of interacting with the government. What are some of the strategies we're engaged with? >> So, there's some like obvious examples and then there's a a broader messaging issue. In terms of the broader me messaging issue, we're just making sure that we show up and talk to people all the time about, among other things, that the New York City human rights law includes a protection for citizenship and immigration status discrimination, particularly for tenants whose landlords are maybe threatening them or or or calling ICE on them and things like that. Um, there's also other things we're trying to do. Our offices are like right next to 26F people. I mean, you can like see the ICE building out the back of our offices. That scares some people off. We try to make sure that we're available remotely to people. And we're also we started doing some remote remote intake clinics and different kinds of things to make sure that people are safe coming to us and it just they feel you know we're in a it's a location that's traumatizing to a lot of people. Uh and so we're trying to make sure that we're able to reach those people. We make ourselves accessible to them in a number of ways. >> Great. Yeah. I think um I want to ask about mobile clinics but I definitely think um and and we talked a little bit about this. you know, when I open up like a AM New York, I see a graphic or like a advertisement, but it actually goes to the it's for the state. Um, and I think more visibility, more money for that digital outreach, the advertising to let people know that we actually have a city entity here is is key. Just, you know, echoing what council member Hanife said. um because I don't I think as much outreach as possible is going to be important and I and I don't think you all can afford any vacancies um or cuts to your vacancies to be able to carry out that work. Um for the mobile intake clinics, tell me um you know, how many people does it take to run a mobile intake unit for a day? You know, what what does your deployment look like? You know, how frequently are you out there? Are you targeting specific neighborhoods? I mean, so I'm going to let Deputy Commissioner Carol answer that question because she sort of did it. But I think we are taking like a good look at that and trying to make sure that we're doing the thing that works the most. I think having come from the civil legal services world, mobile intake is very, very hard because there are in any given group of issues, there's only going to be so many issues that are within your jurisdiction. I think that working with the mayor's office of mass engagement is going to be really a game changer for some of this stuff because it's going to be a single point of contact for people with the entire city and all of our city services. So we're really looking forward to working with that office to make sure that whatever we do is like because it does take a lot of resources is as effective as possible. >> So we uh ran two in the last few months that were pilot programs for us trying to test out different ways in terms of outreach and in terms of staffing to maximize uh our ability to have impact. So, the two clinics we ran were in partnership with local community- based organizations and in parts of the city that are harder to get to from our office in downtown Manhattan. So, one was in Bay Ridge in partnership with the um Muslim and Arab community that is primarily down there. And then in Jackson Heights, we worked with FOC Voices Lineas to focus on the population that they serve in Jackson Heights. Um, we largely relied on the community- based organizations to do the outreach and to really let members of their community know that we were going to be there. And I think that was largely successful in getting folks through the door. It to echo Commissioner Clark's uh point about the office of mass engagement. What we found was that it really would have benefited from having multiple agencies or multiple legal service providers present for those because a lot of people showed up knowing they were going to talk to a lawyer and then were, you know, potentially disappointed if we had to say we don't have jurisdiction over this. So, I think being able to really work with other agencies and make sure we're offering a plethora of services is a great way for us to take it. That was the biggest learning point I think for us on those clinics. Yeah, that we'd love to see any um kind of like debrief or report or like you know some kind of evaluation to see where you all um where those lessons have been captured and and how we can be supportive and helpful as council members in our districts to help um get the get that word out. Um I'm going to turn it over to uh our finance chair, Council Member Linda Lee. >> Hi, good afternoon. Afternoon. Yes. Uh I'm sorry I'm late. Uh but thank you so much for being here and for all the work you're doing especially everything that is happening right now in our city. We really appreciate you and of course uh chair nurse can't think of a better role because you know I know that you're passionate about a lot of these issues. So excited to support you both. Um and I have to say I want to just comment small but mighty team right. So you have eight intake staff field over 15,000 inquiries per year. That's a lot. So, um, just want to commend you on that. Um, and just had a couple questions around, uh, more of the boring budget stuff, but, um, important nonetheless. Uh, but around headcount and vacancies, um, so fiscal 2016 to 25, uh, there was a vacancy rate of 18.8% and as of January of this year, there are 38 vacancies within with a vacancy rate of 27%. So, how has that been going since uh you know, obviously the mayor got rid of the two for one, which is hopefully helping agencies to hire at a faster rate um if you do have any vacancies and especially given the important work you guys are doing. So, just wondering um you know where that stands as of today in terms of the vacant positions and if you could break it down by department. Uh, so I'm going to start this off and say that we're we're in ongoing conversations with OM about the two for one policy and if we are able to hire without it, we will. >> That's good. >> And then just to um provide uh more updated numbers um so we currently have 32 vacancies. >> 32. Okay. >> And we currently have 109 active employees at the agency. >> 109. >> Yes. >> Okay. And then you wanted you said the breakdown by >> department >> department or units. So for our le unit um they have a total of 70 lines that are allocated to them and currently there's 49 active staff members. >> Okay. >> For our community relations bureau we have an 30 lines that are allocated to that unit and currently we have 25 active employees. >> Okay. Perfect. our office of the chair. We have five lines that are allocated to them and we have four active um employees. Um our RT department is fully staffed. They're at six. Um our general counsel has one vacancy. They're a total of but they have five uh five total lines in that department. Um our operations which includes our fleet and facility and our finance team. They're a team of six. Um but we currently have four active employees in that in that team. Our comms is a total of seven. Um but we currently have five active employees. Um our policy team is fully staffed. They're they have eight lines and they're eight active employees there. Um our HR team is also fully staffed. They are four team four employees at that team. Um no vacancies. And just out of curiosity, based on what's been happening more recently, are there areas where I don't know if you went into new needs, but I'm just curious to know, especially on the general counsel side, um because that seems low, but I mean for me, just given all the different cases you I'm sure you handle. So just curious to hear your thoughts on that as well. >> So the question is is has anything happened recently that has increased our need for general counsels or just generally across the board? >> Right. generally I mean across the board but especially general counsel because I would imagine that their case loads or if you could clarify that. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, uh deputy commissioner Salazar mentioned LEB that's our law enforcement bureau which we are trying to rebrand so as not to scare people as our civil rights enforcement bureau. Um because people don't I don't want to confuse people about what we do and who we report to. Uh so that those are the those are the lines for our intake staff, our um case handlers, uh attorneys, and then um our general counsel is sort of a bunch of things. It's like the general counsel for the agency, but it's also like our mediation department. It's there's like some terms of art in there and how we >> define our departments. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Um, and just in terms of going to back to the PMMR, uh, the commission published an updated legal enforcement guideline on guidance on national origin and immigration status. And so what was updated in the new guidance? >> I may not have that off the top of my head. We might have to get back to you on that. >> Okay, perfect. And what challenges have you all faced in reaching uh, immigrant New Yorkers due to federal government? Obviously, how everything is happening on the commission addressing those challenges. And I have to say, as a former provider on the immigrant community side, that's a lot of the challenges we saw back in 2016, and now we're 10 times, I'd say, more challenging. >> Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that there's so we testified to this a little bit before about people being afraid to come to the government, but people are also obviously afraid to fight back against their employers and their landlords if they're undocumented. And people unquestionably are using the threat of calling ICE to threaten people and to coers people and to silence employees and tenants alike. So, I think we're having, you know, the difficulty is getting the word out that just because your landlord says if you do this, I'll call Ice doesn't mean that he's allowed to do that. Um, same with employers. You still have all the rights that you have. Uh, I think also citizenship status discrimination is confusing for people because they think that it means only the difference between being documented and being undocumented and it doesn't mean that. So, employers who don't want to hire people on a green card is a violation of the law, too. So there's a there's a it's it's complicated and it's very hard to talk to people about and I understand why because I think their needs there's a lot of areas where pe where people's immediate needs are so immediate uh and their emotions are so heightened because they're so afraid that we don't even get to those more complicated conversations and I think we're definitely working on figuring out how to get um how to make sure that people at least know whether they want to exercise their rights or not obviously is up to them but so at least they know they have the option and that they know that we're here for them. >> Thank you. And I know that you're probably I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. Just one thing. You know, this is a space where we are really leveraging partnerships with community based organizations and where people already are going for trusted services and resources and community where we can build trust with those organizations and build on the trust we already have with some of them to really make sure that even if individuals don't want to come forward, their stories are being captured and we're able to take action on it. >> Right. No, that's super important to emphasize and I know that actually we had um uh with our immigration chair recently a roundt conversation and it was great because a lot of the advocates did have a lot of things that they sort of have just done on their own around the know your rights piece and everything. So it was encouraging to see that. Um and has there been any sort of plan or is there just out of curiosity any plan in terms of moving forward with um either partnering more or is there in the budget I guess I mean is uh for materials or anything campaigns related to no more know your rights. I know it's a bit tricky because obviously with this population we want to be sensitive about it as well. So just wanted to ask that as well. Uh, okay. So, if the question is, is there currently more in the preliminary budget for campaigns and know your rights? The answer is no. Um, but it is preliminary. Um, and just one last quick question. In the preliminary plan, the community relations bureau is funded at 2.4 million in FY27 for 31 positions, which is only a reduction of one position. So, just wondering what that one position was that was reduced. I would have to get back to you on that one. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you, chair. >> Okay, recognizing uh we've been welcomed by council members Abrau and Stevens and I'm going to turn it to council member Breu. Thank you, Chair Nurse. Outreach for Youth for Equity and Solidarity Council. I have questions on that. CCHR runs the Youth for Equity and Solidarity or YES Council. The YES Council consists of young leaders between the ages of 14 to 18 who advise CCHR on how to expand engagement with young people, help guide youth programming, and provide insight into the human rights issues that young people are facing. CCHR recently launched the six cohort of Yes. How many participants are in the cohort and has the number of participants changed between cohorts? >> That is a great question that I don't believe I have the answer to right here. I can tell you how many people participated in fiscal year 25. >> Please you you can give me that. >> Okay, great. Okay. In fiscal year 25 um in our fifth yes council cohort uh 371 youth focused events reaching more than 19,000 young people across all five bureaus. That is the sum total of information I have for you right now, but I'd be more than happy to get back to you with more specific information. >> Yeah, that would be great to have the the the >> six cohort. >> Yeah, the cohort differences. And how are participants selected and what methods does CCHR use to ensure all eligible students are aware of the program? >> This is one of those things where I've only been in the job for six weeks and I will definitely get back to you. >> No, no problem. Sorry about that. I I understand. >> I'm like I'm aware of the program and I've heard about it a lot and I think it's fantastic, but I don't have the full I have questions on genderbased harassment and CCHR decision and order is my last set of questions. The PPMR states that within the first four months of fiscal 2026, CCHR released a decision in order requiring a prominent food chain to take affirmative steps after the employer failed to take action when managers engage in gender-based harassment. What is the process for CCHR to release a decision and order? >> Great question. Okay. So, um the way that things work at CCHR is maybe a little bit different than people are expecting, but um people come to us with complaints. We investigate the complaint. If we find probable cause, we litigate it in front of oath. It goes to trial after however many settlement conferences, etc. After trial, the oath judge issues a report and recommendation. That comes to our office. That comes to my desk. Uh then both of the parties have an opportunity to comment on the report and recommendation. Then it comes back to me. Uh, I look at all of that with my staff. Uh, and we write a really like a legal decision. We we look at the full record, all of the briefing, all of the underlying like transcripts, the whole everything. Uh, and then issue a final legal decision and order. We are um we have recently hired up more staff to help us do that to make sure that those decision and orders can come out more swiftly than they have in the past. >> How many decision orders are normally released per year? >> It varies historically. Um I can guess for you like six or seven. I don't but I don't I don't know. >> All right. It would be >> I think seven it was last year it was seven I believe. >> It would be great to get the exact number. >> Sure. >> What what is the average time it takes to release a decision in order? >> Uh I don't know off the top of my head. >> All right. Would be great to have that information as well. >> Oh I hear that it's all on our website. But also what I can say is in so in recent within the past two years we've added two dedicated staff to helping get decisions and orders out the door. I'm obviously a career civil rights attorney and so I also have some value added there. So we are expecting to dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to get decisions and orders out the door. >> Yeah, it would be great to have the the average time it takes and figuring out what the goal is in terms of reducing that time by a specific number. Thank you very much, Chair. >> Thank you so much, Council Member Breu. And you've also done some great legislation. Did we pass your bill on tattoo >> anti- tattoo discrim? Oh, okay. >> It was It was hide and it was hide and wait. >> Hide and weight. >> Okay. >> Hide and discrimination. >> Oh, I thought there was one on tattoos. All right. >> There was a There was a bill on that chair. >> All right. I don't know. I can't remember anything these days. I don't My brain's not operating at high function. Um I have just a couple more questions because I know we've got to get to um some of the other um commissions that are here. So, um, just on tests attempted and completed, we know why you do tests, right? And just for the record, so you you don't have to say it. You call and you test to see if people are doing discrimination, discriminatory practices, so we know why you do it. Can you speak um, you know, how many testers do you employ right now? Um, and are there are they still working part-time? We current currently employ one full-time testing coordinator who sets up the scenarios and coordinates all of our our staff that do testing. We have three part-time staffers and we're actively hiring for a fourth. Okay. And how often are you updating your training material? >> Constantly. >> Constantly as you're responding to new ways of people acting up. 100% I imagine. >> Um, okay. Uh, the committee received a report that the salary for all three time three part-time testers is only 54,000 for three part-time. Is that is that accurate? >> I would have to do the math, but it it should be $20.82 >> per hour. >> Hopefully, we'll get higher than that. Um, and how many hours per week are they working at that rate? That varies, but I'll defer to Deputy Commissioner Carol. >> Approximately 20. >> And that's really bad. Um, I don't know how anyone's living off that. Okay. According to the PMMR, there were 523 tests attempted and 454 tests completed in the first four months of fiscal year 2026, which was a 22 and 29% increase, respectively. when compared to the same period previously. Um, how many of the tests completed found that you positively folks were engaging in in discrimination? >> Unfortunately, I don't have that number in front of me, but I'll have to get back to you. >> Okay, we'll look forward to the followup. Um, a lot of these are like detail. We'll send them, but has there been a time when you lacked sufficient attorney staffing to move forward with a case of discrimination that was uncovered by testers? I don't really know how to answer that question. I think I think there's there's like a lot of things that we do with the testing. Um, in terms of our like commission initiated complaints, which I think is what you're asking for. We were able to do those with or without a commission initiated team. We do now have a team of attorneys who focus on commission initiated complaints, but before that didn't prevent us from bringing those complaints. We did bring those complaints. And I would just add to that that the tests result in a variety of forms of enforcement action. So either it can be a formal complaint, but it could also be a cease and desist letter depending on the severity of the discrimination or potential discrimination that we uncover. So it takes a variety of forms and sometimes it's attorney staff, sometimes it's our case handlers and other advocates on staff. >> And can I just ask off the cuff, why do you have three part-time and not like one and a one full-time and a half part-time? I mean, wouldn't it make sense to make someone's you know, they're they're already doing that and and and just add on and give them a complete job. I mean, we would absolutely love to have more testers um and more testers working more, but uh really in working with civil rights testing, having a larger number is really of more value than having uh more hours per person because a lot of the testing we do, a lot of testing that's historically been done in civil rights is what's called matched pair testing. So, you have two people that are exactly the same except for one protected characteristic. So you want to have as diverse a pool of of people as possible to be able to test the v the variety of protected areas that our statute covers. >> Okay. Um just two more uh topic areas and and really dialed in. I mean I think um I want to talk about the source of income discrimination. I know the the court ruling was really disappointing. Um I don't know if the attorney general is appealing yet or not. I didn't see I think it was still under review. I can't remember um if that came out publicly or not, but um you know, we're obviously very concerned and I'm sure you all are too. This would completely undermine our um you know, the fact that we we people need vouchers to get housing. Um so wanting to um wanting to to hear how you all are responding to this with your testing, with your vacancy rate. um you know, if this ruling stands, how are we going to how are you all preparing for this? >> So, I think there's a couple things to keep in mind about the ruling. It is, I agree, disappointing. Um it does not specifically refer to the New York City human rights law and it is kebab only to section 8 and I think there are material differences between section 8 and other forms of housing vouchers. So, I really don't think it has any effect. City feeps, feeps, hassa, etc. link does link still exist? It doesn't. It doesn't affect other forms of housing vouchers. I think it's very specific to section 8. So that's I think the most important thing to think about. Um but of course we're like looking very closely at what we can do and making sure that we're um fairly enforcing the law uh going forward. >> Right. But people might not understand that it's you know this voucher is not the same as that voucher and so inquiry is still the same. Right. >> We immediately got calls from people that we've been working with complaintants to to ask us whether they still have the rights they had yesterday. Absolutely. Um, I wanted to ask about the info line. Um, as you know, we have a a very hot package of bills coming down the pipeline, five-point plan to fight anti-semitism. We talked a little bit about it at um at the actual hearing for it. I mentioned about the hotline. One of the things about the current hotline you have is um it just takes a long time to to get to someone. Um, and so can you talk about how adding an additional line in your commission is how how you will be able to meet that and meet the demand for that? You mean with with the >> legislation? >> Yeah. So, currently the way that our staff I mean I'll refer to Deputy Commissioner Carol because she supervises the team, but the way that the um the staff handle calls is they get 15,000 calls a year. There's eight of them. They do their best to answer calls as quickly as they can and to make sure that they're referring all calls that are not about violations of the New York City Human Rights Law to other agencies. Um that is I think for anyone who's run a hotline for like direct services uh organizations uh a huge part of the work is making sure that people are being sent to the the right places and making sure that we're not sending people on a sort of merrygo round of referrals which I think people experience regularly when they're in crisis. Uh, so we try to make sure that our referrals are hot and we're sending people to the right place. But that is a lot of what the work is. It's filtering out cases uh to determine whether they do involve our jurisdiction, which is a violation of the New York City Human Rights Law. And if they don't, where that person should go instead. >> And so, um, it's you're you have eight people, you said, responding to that. How long does it take for someone to receive a follow-up call after leaving a voicemail? I'm not sure that we track that specifically because there's a lot of different ways that folks reach out to us. So, we have a live line where people can reach someone immediately that operates from Monday through Friday, 9:30 to 4:30. So, in that we're talking about a matter of minutes. Um, similarly, if we're responding to a voicemail, frequently it takes us a couple of calls to actually get someone on the phone because people aren't telling us when the best time to reach back out to them would be. So, we also if we have an email address for someone, we'll try different methods of communication and we'll try multiple times to try and get a hold of the person who's reached out to us. Um, but I don't have the exact number or average for uh voicemail to call back. >> Also, that intake team also uh handles walk-ins which we have, >> right? So, we understand there's walk-ins, there's emails, there the the contact form through the website. Um so it would be it would be helpful to kind of know between these different points of engaging with you all what is the wait time um to get just to even get an initial intake um for for their inquiries so that we can understand where to best be advocating for staff lines for you all. Um, I still think I'm unclear about how adding an additional line here is >> You mean a job line or a >> with the proposed legislation. I I you know, and I expressed this in the in the hearing, like we're adding another line that you don't have the resources to manage. Even if we got to the 21 million that the mayor campaigned on, um it doesn't seem like that would be the best use of of uh the council's time to pass legislation to give you another line that you can't actually manage. And I think it's it's sort of like we were talking about previously about sort of using the mayor's office of mass engagement to make sure that there's a single point of contact for everybody in the city. I think it like there's uh we sort of can't be the single point of contact for everyone in the city for a full scope of things, but there are things that are like 311 and other services that make sure that they refer people to the correct agency. So, if we're getting calls about hate crimes and we're getting calls about things that are not within our jurisdiction in terms of like criminal matters uh and things like that, we want to make sure that we're not sending people to a place where we can't provide the services they're looking for. Um >> Okay. I won't I won't force you all to talk more about that. Um, but I do know that our deputy speaker wants to make a statement. So, I'm going to turn it over to her. She's still there. >> I don't need to make anything. Thank you. >> Oh, okay. Great. Okay. I think I've asked all the major things. If there's anything outstanding, we'll follow up um with you. But just again want to emphasize how much we really I think the council is is largely unified behind making sure you all have the resources you need. Um you know we're asked I'm personally saying I I I think you all need 25 million um just to even get to what your state mission is and and do it well. Um and certainly want to see we move from the proposed plan which has nothing added to um at least 10 million more for you all. um and appreciate your partnership and thank you for being here today. >> Thank you so much Turners. >> Um so next up we are going to transition to the EPC. Um, and we're just going to take a few minutes before That Sergeants, are we we good? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Appreciate you. All good. Okay. All right. We're going to pick back up. Um we are now in the afternoon. Uh, good afternoon everyone. Um, we're now going to hear from the Equal Employment Practices Commission or EPC. Thank you to Executive Director Jimmy Han for coming to testify at this budget hearing and congratulations on your new role. Um, we're looking forward to hearing how the council can further support you all in your ability to fulfill your chartermandated duties, uh, and ultimately strengthen the city's commitment to fair employment practices, workforce stability, and economic mobility for public servants and their families. EPC is tasked with auditing, reviewing, and monitoring the equal employment practices and procedures of over 145 city agencies. In fiscal year 2027's preliminary budget, the commission has a budget of nearly 1.6 million, which includes 1.5 million to support 15 positions. Your budget also includes about 87,000, which is very tiny for other than personal services. Uh EPC's overall budget has not changed since uh fiscal year 26 adopted budget. We will examine your budget, your headcount, and your needs going forward in this budget cycle. We look forward to hearing from you all about the auditing work that EPC has done over the four-year cycle, which was focused on underutilization and concluded in 2025. In addition, we would like to hear about the new auditing standards and plans that have been set in 2026. And again, I'm here with all the I think all the same folks, council members who are here. I'll now uh pass it over to the committee council to administer the oath. >> Good afternoon. If you could please raise your right hands. >> Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee? >> Yes. >> Thank you. You may begin. Hello. Good afternoon. I'm not as fast of a speaker as Chair Clark, so I have a shortened version, but I'll try to get through it quickly. So good afternoon chair nurse and members of the council's committee on civil human rights. My name is Jimmy Pan. I'm the executive director. Joining me today are commissioneria also director of audits our director of research Russell Ferry. So thank you for the opportunity to represent the EPC here. I want to express gratitude to the former chair of this committee deputy speaker Williams who's always been a strong supporter of the EPC. Also I want to acknowledge and thank our previous ED Gene Victor who stepped down in June. And of course, I want to thank the staff of the APC who have been carrying out the responsibilities and our mandate for the eight months without an ED. Thank you, of course, to the commissioners who stepped in in the absence of a head. Just quickly, New York City voters created the EPC. We provide independent oversight of the city's employment practices and the 1989 charter changes that created us also required all city agencies to establish a fair and effective affirmative employment plan. and they also created the EPC to review and monitor the effectiveness of the city's practices to assist agencies to make policy and budget recommendations and to issue an annual statement on the state of affirmative and equal employment in the city. And so in short, the charter created us to use all available tools to hold the city accountable for equal and affirmative employment. It recognized that even in a place like New York City, the government won't change on its own. We know that recently New York City voters have swept many office uh including the mayor into elected title. They recognized that the policies and practices of the city had really not provided for their economic security or their stability and for a dignified life. The city's reaction to inequality reminds us of the circumstances that led to the EPC. Those who drafted our mandate said that a charter that failed to address race relations would leave behind a ticking time bomb for the city. Uh unfortunately today we might be in an even worse economic situation than we were back then. Back in 1989 the top 1,000th of Americans controlled a whole 8 and a half% of the nation's wealth. And today in 2025 that has doubled. So the top 1,000th. The whole bottom half of the Americans 50% of our populace only controlled three and a half% back in 1989. That's gone all the way down to 2 and a.5%. So we have worse wealth inequality than any similar democracies and is getting worse here in America than elsewhere. In the past five decades, America has squeezed nearly everyone out of an affordable life, even those who are middle class. And our country's policy choices have put housing, health, and education in the hands of just a few, who then can then charge higher prices to the rest. And for employers as well, same dynamic. They can charge pay lower salaries for those who have been squeezed. And so today, our city reckons not just with an impoverishment of people of color, of women, or other historically oppressed groups, but really indeed we face an epidemic of impoverishment of the people. And so facing those vast dangers, the EPC has a small but important role. For hundreds of thousands of municipal employees and their families, access to equitable hiring, promotion, retention policies shapes, of course, their economic security and their intergenerational opportunity. We want to do more at the APC than just put marginalized people into city positions. I think government must become a place where people of all backgrounds should be able to serve the community and earn a dignified living and that government must become a workplace that counteracts economic compression that is squeezing families. So we humbly ask your help in meeting our mandate. It is so that we can help our fellow workers. At the EPC we audit all agencies every four years. The charter also requires us to see how the agencies that we audit are fulfilling the core values of the city as set forth in the preamble to the charter. And in fact, all auditing agencies have to do the same. Under any part of our oversight, including the audits, when we determine that an agency's programs or policy do not provide equal employment opportunity, then we can issue appropriate corrective action and monitor the city's implementation. But of course, our mandate goes beyond audits. We have to evaluate if the city has actually succeeded in promoting equal employment. We have a amazing research team that goes deep into the mountain of city employment data. We can do research that we can't really do anywhere else. Because we're independent, we can give our research a credibility that's hard elsewhere. And even further, we have to recommend reforms, proposed laws, as I mentioned, and work closely with our city partners. And the charter puts us and the city council of course in a position to fight for workers in the court of public opinion. And we can use our voice in the ways that others can't always. So we believe that accomplishing all of our mandates, not just one or two, contributes to a better New York to work in. So the budget must and should for the first time fund our entire statutory charge. So just want to say a few words about our recent findings. Local law 13 of 2019 requires us to analyze the city's underutilization every year. So what that means, we compare the city's actual workforce to what we would expect in the labor market availability. Unsurprisingly, agencies still underutilize marginalized workers and those workers still separate from the workforce at disproportionate rates. We also know that underutilization is just one small part of a much larger issue. In this city, we have concentrated women and people of color into lower paying and less prestigious jobs. This occupational segregation leads, of course, to wage segregation. And if we only look at underutilization, then we leave out all of those upstream root causes that divert people away from the labor market for higher paying jobs. And so we definitely want to increase our research there. Our latest four-year cycle focused on employment practices. As the chair mentioned, agencies underperformed in four main ways. One, uh, accessing taking mandatory training, analyzing their composition of their workforce, collecting data on their applicants, and fulfilling the mandated roles required through EO. Our next audits will focus on EO complaint processes as well as whether agencies are doing the right thing in reviewing and processing reasonable accommodation requests. We definitely want to streamline our audits both for ourselves and for our agency partners. But as you can recognize, improving processes takes time and capacity we don't always have. So the city has underresourced EPC from the very start and by controller standards we've only recently managed to audit all required entities within the statutory time period and that's just one of our mandates. We're budgeted for a modest 15 full-time employees and I started just in February. Every year we have to haggle with the budget office for resources and to avoid cuts and we're so small that any cuts threaten our ability to oversee city practices. We have no redundancy and we have the opposite actually. uh our operational staff are overloaded and if anyone leaves we have no backup option. We would lose significant institutional knowledge and have to put our charter mandates on hold. Of course, this year again OMB has directed us to participate in blanket citywide cuts to vacancies and budget. We're non-mar agency. So therefore, executive order 12 should not apply to us. Nevertheless, uh, OMB is requesting that we cut and each year, of course, these exercises do divert us from our mandated work, especially since we have so few staff already. Even if we don't lose staff, it just gets hard to plan our future work. OMB's proposed cut this year would bring us back to the same headcount we had in 2018. Just remember that in 2018, we were not able to meet our charter mandates and we didn't have some of these new obligations such as the local law requirement to report utilization. Of course, we don't assume ill intent on OB's part, but we do respectfully point out that these sorts of broad-based cuts have the biggest effect on small oversight agencies like ours. So, we have five major staffing shortfalls I hope the council can help us with. First, if we want to improve the lives of actual New Yorkers, we have to have communications and be able to talk about our research and our audits with clarity. We have to translate these findings into actionable items for policy makers, but more importantly, we need to reach city workers. So, our oversight powers only really matter if we can make our findings widespread and digestible. And second, we need legal and policy capacity. We have one part-time attorney who's amazing. But for us to monitor local and federal developments, if we want to make sure our audits track the law as it stands today, and if we want to really look at the city's employment structure and make good policy recommendations, we need additional capacity. Third, we need someone to help us really build out our intergovernmental relationships. We're a creature of both branches of government, so we need partnerships with both the mayor's office and city council. The charter requires us to work very closely with Dcasts. And of course, if we want to make real change in the city, we need to work very closely with OM, law department, unions, and others. Right now, we have no intergovernmental capacity. Fourth, we have so few staff that losing anyone is a systemic risk. As a committee can appreciate, sometimes it is really more costly to be poor, especially when misfortune strikes. And so, if we want to be prudent in the long term, then we should have backup staff to help us with our HR, finance, and software needs. Those could be part-time or we can find other creative ways to make it work. Fifth, our salaries are so low it truly jeopardizes our mandates. It hurts our retention, our hiring, and our institutional knowledge. It's frankly inefficient. Um, we have the lowest salary per person of every comparable oversight or small agency. Uh, and we have the lowest PS budget and that's despite the fact that oversight agencies in general probably have a lower budget than most agencies. when we compare to eight similar situated agencies, we see that they on average earn 15K a year more than what we earn at the APC. Um so, you know, much thanks to the staff for being here really to help city workers at a rate that's not comparable elsewhere. Um it shouldn't surprise you all that for these comparator agencies, the more that their mandate touches on racial justice or equity, the lower the average salary is. Common sense would say the smaller the agency actually the higher the average salary should be since every individual staff is shouldering more burdens and we need to retain them even more. So it defies common sense that we're both the smallest agency and the lowest paid oversight agency. So we estimate that bringing it up to par would cost about 230. We had a little bump for headroom. And again, just as council constantly recognizes that the poorest families have the least power to advocate for their own resources, we hope that council can step in to assist the EPC. Finally, at 80 at 86K, as the chair recognized, we are the smallest OTPS of any freestanding agency. Uh the next smallest is almost double that. And so we humbly request 100K. That even feels like a big ass for us, but it puts us just past the second lowest OTPS and puts us next to the Office of Administrative Tax Appeals. So, our budget has been so low for so long that our request looks like a sizable portion of our budget, but the amount that we request actually pales in comparison to what it costs the city to not properly fund our oversight work. Um, we think government works best when it tracks the best talent possible. And we're not just talking about agency, we're talking about the city as a whole. Um, as the chair of the 1989 Charter Revision said, an efficient government that is unjust is worth little. And here we also believe that building a government that is just is also the quickest way to build an efficient one. So, thank you for the opportunity to represent us. And Commissioner Okaro will be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Uh, really bleak situation over there I'm seeing. Um, and I don't mean to make light of it because it's not funny, but It's just the honesty is I haven't had that experience because um different types of agencies. So um so I'm just going to get right into it. Um I just want to double check um for your uh five commissioners. Are you do you have any vacancies and is anyone up for reappointment? >> We do not have any vacancies and I think there will be um someone is up for reappoint now. >> Okay. Uh the organizational chart also shows that the legal and administration units have director level positions with no assisting staff below. We know that EPC needs an entrylevel position for HR and computer services. How many additional staff members under the legal and administrative units would also be needed to reach EPC's ideal staffing level? >> I would say at this point at least three. >> Okay. And in terms of the annual report that outlines the auditing process which begins with the audit initiation letters as well as audit information sessions for agency heads and principal EEO professionals. How often are those sessions held? The info sessions held and are they virtual or in person? >> Defer to min director. >> Uh good afternoon. So in terms of the information sessions we hold four So, two for principal EO professionals and two for agency heads. >> Okay. Um I'm going to move back to budget and headcount. I was looking on the wrong page. All right. So, in fiscal year 2026, um, in the the preliminary plan, the council urged for the allocation of an additional 265,000 for three additional staff positions at EPC and an additional 87,000 for OTPS. Um, you did mention that you your current needs are you're at 86,000. It's the lowest for OTPS. Um, but what are your current budget needs for um your personnel services? So, let me defer to the executive director. >> So, we appreciate the council's recommendation in the past cycle. This year, if we add in all of the requested headcount, requested uh salary parody for staff and part-time positions and OTPS, it comes out to about 900 total. >> Okay. And I mean, maybe you could talk a little bit about how your conversations with OM has been. I mean you have one vacant position as what I'm understanding. Um are are you able to hire for that position right now? >> So OMB is attempting to to cut that position that you have >> put in for an exemption for obvious reasons. You know that position fulfills our mandate. So >> and what is the what is Yeah, exactly. So what's the conversation been like if you can share? OMB believes that all agencies should contribute to the fiscal crisis and that for their purposes we're well I don't want to speak on their behalf but they include us in the exercises. >> Okay. Um and so are you a are you able to actively hire for that position even though they're saying that they want to cut it? So currently we are looking to fulfill the app. So we have a vacancy we're looking to hire internally and so we'll have another position that's vacant that we will work through especially once we hear back from OM. >> Okay. At the at last year's uh March hearing, uh EPC testified that one area of concern in staffing was having entry level position positions to ensure that more senior roles have someone who can grow into them when someone leaves. This also speaks to the institutional knowledge and redundant uh resiliency that you were speaking of. Is that still a concern? >> Yes, it is. Um, and we're at the U council every year or every other year testifying asking for more money. It's constantly a game of jingga like, oh, they said now we can hire someone, so let's get somebody in before that window closes. Um, but as with any organization, you have to have entrylevel positions so people can come can grow with the the organization. They can learn it. Um, furthermore, since our salaries are already lower, it's harder to get um people come in laterally who have experience and knowledge when they can stay where they are for the same salary. So, we do need to be able to to train people. >> Right. Right. So, and the some some of the roles that um like if you have a a lawyer or a position in your commission versus in a city agency, that one's lower. You can't even recruit from people who have um knowledge of how the city agencies work. >> Exactly. >> What What are you What are you all able to buy with $87,000? Yes. I'm like, how Like do you have >> what are we not able to buy? >> What do you got over there for 87,000? >> We have a printer. >> Okay. >> We have Weslaw. >> Okay. Do you all have like work phones? You got Wi-Fi? What do you guys got? >> We have computers. >> Okay. >> Printer paper. >> I mean, it just seems so low. I've never had to do oversight of anything that had only 87,000 OTPS. >> Our households. Yeah. >> Right. Okay. Um, what would be ideal for you? >> So, we've put in a a request for 100K. >> Okay. >> That that's >> that's so when I think of training, when I think of for example interns to help with research, when I think of symposia, when I think of just a small ad buy to let people know we exist as an agency. Right now, I know you asked about HCCR's comm's budget, right? We have zero funding on the PS and zero funding on the OTPS. >> So probably anyone who's not in this room has never heard of us. We're asking for a modicum a diminous amount to do some media. >> Yeah. >> So I might say a 100,000 more than the 87,000. So 187 exactly. >> Sorry. Thank you for clarifying. >> Yes. Okay. I was like wait a minute. What is 20 What is 20 less than 20,000? 27,000 by you. Okay. Great. Okay. Okay. So, 187,000. Yeah. I think it would be great. >> Right. Right. Let's just bump it up. I mean, I don't understand. It's true. I don't I don't know if people outside this room know who you are and and within the city agencies. And it's unclear to me how, and we can talk about this more, but how um you do these audits, you do these reports, they're produced, and then how does that move from uh a document that lives somewhere into a change in how the city um does their employment practices? Uh especially if you're not able to communicate anything out. um what what could be helpful there in terms of um operationalizing some of your findings? We have um talked um pretty extensively internally about how to lift up the work that we're doing because in fact um some of the reason that we have um agencies delaying installing on um responding to audits is because they don't feel like there's necessarily a consequence. So then if there's not a stick we give them a carrot. And so we started um making some really nice certificates that people can use. We would love to have like some PSAs um where we can tout the agencies that are doing well. So part would be um marketing and public relations. And let me turn to executive director. Yes, for sure that and I think we are also trying to figure out how our research can uplift the positive let's say mechanisms and practices of the city because sometimes as an oversight agency when you focus on the negative one it demoralizes agencies but two it doesn't really tell us what we can do better and of course we don't want to be part of flooding the zone with so much negativity that people tune out the work of our oversight but beyond that I think we've never as an agency if I may say communicated with workers directly We I think we communicate with policy makers. We hope they read our reports. But that's different than letting the people of New York who serve their city know they have an independent champion who's trying to do research on behalf, speak on their behalf, audit the agencies on their behalf. Right now, the only connection that we might have is someone finding me on their boat and giving me a call like they did yesterday and we just talk a little bit about city practices. Um, but it would be great if people knew at least there that we had a charter mate and we've had one since 1989. Um, for the very reasons that I mentioned in my testimony that we knew that the city needed much more than what currently existed. So, I think that does help uh get our name out there, but also helps the workers who already don't get paid enough know they have someone in their pocket alongside the city council and, you know, hopefully those in the mayor will see as well. And can you maybe you could let us know like who's doing the best right now? Which agency is is um first in class. We're not contributing to the negativity, but you know who's who's you know who's bringing their A+ game. >> I I would say everybody who responds to the uh our request timely. I'll ask the director. Maybe you have a top three. >> So there's a few ways we might look at it, right? who does our audits but also just as importantly I mentioned underutilization right so it's a little tricky I I want to pass the ball to our director of research but als but but also caveat that underutilization by nature focus on the under right and so it's hard to say if an agency if a lot of agencies are doing right at the mark um they may be doing well doesn't mean that the workforce is actually as inclusive as the city as a whole it just means that according to our estimates of like who's taking civil service exams, who already has the education to be in that position that at least the agency has hired at that level. There's no excuse, right? Um to not hire at the level where you already have people trained taking the exam, right, present in the city. So in a way we could say no city agency should have underutilization but I think director ferry can some others a lot >> who are the who are the have who are the highest that have the less the least >> so some of the agencies where their workforce reflects the diversity of the city would include ACS the department of social services the department of correction those are a few examples there are others um those where the workforce might not reflect The diversity of the positions um would include for example the independent budget office, the department of environmental protection, the New York DA's office and there are others. >> Interesting. And if if I may add, you know, the council has done amazing reports on pay equity recently. I think what they would flag is that yes, some of those agencies that director Ferry just mentioned as as being the most diverse are also the least paying. Um, it's it's funny because some of those agencies kind of it just conforms to some other broader I think issues and areas where people of color are gravitating towards me like addressing types of challenges that they're experiencing based on other things. Um, okay. I have one I have one question I want to I before I dive into your reports um I will open up the floor. Um you your 2027 preliminary budget has a $10,000 contract for training program. Can you talk about what the training covers um for for $10,000? >> Absolutely. So that is um training that the staff does through um Cornell and you know all city agencies have basic EEO uh training. Um we feel like it's important for our staff to have more than that given the nature of their work and so it is um a series I think of six-hour trainings um but uh I can turn to director also who actually attends them. >> Yes. So I have completed the training in the past does a deep dive on various EO related laws. It covers investigations and it just looks at EEO overall with in a way that it just it just is more comprehensive than some of what is typically available. So it it definitely helps our staff >> and very multi-day, multi-our multi- topic. So it's a real certification. It's very intense and it is a way that we uh provide a value ad to the least paid staff of the agency. >> Okay, I'm going to uh I know Council Member Stevens had a question. Going to open it up to her. Sorry, I had a lot of commentary over here. Um, I think it's just because it's it's it's it's kind of unfortunate to just like hear that especially when we live in an age where people are always requesting data and how are we having our decisions being formed that an agency that's trying to provide that support isn't getting that support. I mean, as I'm sitting here, I'm like, I feel like you guys actually should be getting a piece of all the other agencies budget. Like, you should Oh, yeah. I said it and I'm saying it on the record because you're getting information from them that actually would help them guide their support and so they should be getting like 1 2 3% of their their budget or having a person designated in each of the agencies. I don't know. These are things that we should be thinking about because this is the work that actually pushes and make sure that we have diverse work forces. And so it's like how do we be creative on that and then and put that in all of the agencies because it is actually needed. And also then thinking about how do we then turn key this information to DOE where we're helping guide the workforce that we're setting and creating. And so that's just the idea I have. My question is and I guess what is and I mean because you're such a small agency and have such a small budget. What does your advocacy look like? How do you how are you able to do um any advocacy other than going to OMB which I feel like sometimes they're just like we looking at the numbers nothing else. So do you guys like have an advocacy plan that you do every year to kind of like beat the drum and if not how do we work together to create that with you? >> So that's a great question. Thank you. And before I answer that, I just want to go to your original point um in that a percentage of an agency's budget would make sense, but also not that it just helps to prepare this organization helps to prepare and guide agencies. There's also the savings and liability, right? So we want to be able to help shape organizations and guide them before people go to the EEOC and then end up suing the city >> and would save money. So are we presenting it to OM that way that we would save money if we were in every agency. Oh, >> okay. Well, let's let's work together. >> Yes. We don't even have to worry about fairness and equity. Let's just talk about saving money. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. Um and so then to the question of um what are we doing to get in front of OM every year? Really it largely relies on the relationships of the commissioners and of the executive director to um advocate for the agency. We would love to have a set percentage tied to the city's budget or something else. So, we would not be in this position of fighting to keep or even ask for more money. This feels very revolutionary, us um being able to to ask for um money because we're so often on our heels on the defensive trying to keep what we have. Um and so part of the reason for the the intergovernmental role is so that we can have in place um advocacy around our budget um in a more um uniform way. Yeah. Because I mean we we say this all the time, a budget is a list of your priorities. And if we're not prioritizing um making sure that fairness is happening in our own agencies, what is that? What is the message that we're sending? And I think that that's something that we should make sure that we are screaming from the rooftops, especially when we know some of the agencies who haven't diversified and haven't done these things. Um, and I think the last question I just had, um, it just flew on my brain. I'm sorry, I forgot. Sorry, I had another question, but I forgot. Okay, let me know when you got it. We'll come back. I'm going to, uh, open it up to Council Member Honey. >> Thank you and welcome. It's uh really I would say profound to to learn about you guys. Um I really appreciated just all of the new information I I have now. Um and just the incredible importance of your office um which I also hope to partner with. Um my question is around um how are you monitoring uh promotions and advancement patterns across city agencies? Like what does the current funding cover and and I know it's underutilization um but are we monitoring promotions? I've talked to at least a dozen uh city workers who've been, you know, longtimers, 20 years, 30 years, not never received a promotion or have gone through interview rigorous interviews only to be rejected and have someone new uh fill the the position. Um I think it's a you know, I know anecdotally that that's happening. Um, so what are we doing to prevent prevent that? And of course the data is important. So I'm very curious if that doesn't exist. I def we definitely got to make it happen. >> Thank you for the question. Um, so the answer is right now we're only basically doing the bare minimum where we look at what we call placements which would be new new hires and promotions. However, because of the additions with staff that we got from the city council last year that have all been brought on board within the last 12 months. >> Will you repeat that one more time? The what? >> Um >> additions to staff. >> Yes. So, yes. So, we had um additional staff that was brought on board thanks to the city council last year, but all who have been on for less than 12 months. >> Got it. Um, we will be doing more work on this in the future, both in terms of looking at the large universe and quantitative data and also we would love to talk with the city council about opportunities to do more deeper dives into agencies and those kinds of patterns at a more personal level. Absolutely. >> Yeah, absolutely. I would really I mean I it's urgent and knowing that so many New Yorkers have put in years um only to not climb uh or achieve some of their goals is um it's it it raises a lot of questions to me. Um the the contract budget includes a training program for city employees on equal employment practices. How many employees are currently trained annually and how do you measure whether these trainings uh actually reduce discriminatory employment practices and what's the funding that goes toward training that was that the $10 10 not $10,000 >> the 10,000 was for the staff and so I'm going to turn to executive director Pan >> yeah so the 10,000 is internal but your to your general question about who you know who in the city is taking trainings it is something that we do try together through audits. The harder question is, is it effective in actually increasing equal employment in the city? You know, one thing we're trying to do here at the EPC is marry our audits work to our research work a little more closely, so we can really see what works and what doesn't. Because at the end of the day, what matters is not whether people are taking a training or complying, but what does it actually do for opportunity in the city, but of course, all these things, as you might imagine, take time, take thoughtfulness, takes staff who stick around to develop these things long term. >> Takes a close partnership with Dcast and other agencies that provide this sort of data. And then we have to have someone actually translate our findings back to the policy makers such as yourselves. And h how many auditors are in the office >> and are those contracted out? >> So currently the audit unit consists of six lines including myself. So we have the director, manager and four program analysts. And the program analyst we try to get them to take the training usually within the first two years or so of um their employment. So currently we have three newer analysts that and none of the current analysts have completed the training. All are scheduled to start some of the training in April >> and and director Alab is referring to the Cornell training which is >> yes sorry the Cornell training >> external training >> external >> yeah they so they are very trained in our processes but also I would add that most people when they think of the EPC imagine that we're a lot of lawyers sitting in a room reviewing >> right >> reams of document and that's not the case >> so what's the what's the the funding line for the auditors >> they're community coordinators so they start at 60 something >> and and how many how much money is allocated right now for >> the audit >> the auditing process? >> I mean it's something that I do seems like auditing is a big part of the job. >> I would say probably around 500 >> 500,000 >> 500 >> 500,000 >> just just I'm just doing mental math. >> Okay. Got it. All right. That's helpful to know. Um I'll pass it back. >> Thank you. Um so I want to get into the annual report. You mentioned you have six auditors. Um you are responsible for auditing 145 city agencies at least every four years. So how many audits were completed in in 2025 calendar year and how many audits are scheduled before the end of this calendar year? >> Yeah. So in 2025 we completed 35 audits overall. So nine mayoral or non-maral entities and 26 community boards. >> Sorry. And 26 for this year. >> No tw the 26 included just >> community boards of Yeah, the 35 for 2025. >> And how many are scheduled to uh be done before the end of this year? >> Yeah. So we have currently 34 scheduled for this uh current calendar. >> 34. So, you're going to be doing basically 34 this year with the six auditors. >> Uh, so what? Well, this the audit team. Yes. >> Okay. >> Well, we have a vacancy. So, >> right. >> And then we're adding more agencies to our next year because we have new entities in the city government which you'll be talking to in a few minutes. >> And so, and I and I know we're we're getting close on time for MoJ, but so an auditor is at $60,000. What kind of experience do these these folks need? Um what's what is like a typical profile of your auditor? >> Uh so one, we try to make sure they have all the general basic EEO training that the city provides so they're familiar with the content of that training. We also go through a review with the analysts on our standards for the current audit cycle so that they have an understanding on what to look for, what documentation would be responsive, etc. How to And then our overall process also has a monitoring period. So we also try to make sure the analysts have information on providing best practices and guidance to agencies during that period on fulfilling or remedying remedying any corrective actions. >> Yeah. So they need both the ability to sit in an office and review thousands of pages of documents for months on end and the service skills to work with an agency that is under review that may be feeling defensive um to help bring them to compliance. So they need both. >> And at $60,000 I mean what kind of turnover have you had? Uh we've had uh >> I mean read like reading thousands of documents um you know for $60,000 doesn't seem like you'd retain that many folks that >> at the end of the during the 2023 uh calendar year we ended with only one analyst. >> So we only had one at the start of the 2024 which we had to actively recruit to be able to fulfill the 2024 audit plan. So, and some of we lose analysts for various reasons. Sometimes it's just more lucrative opportunities in the private sector. It could be someone got pulled off a civil service list for a more, you know, a better opportunity. So, it it's it's it's been tough, >> right? Um, okay. So, it sounds like and it sounds like you are asking for u at least a little bit over 200,000 to give everyone a little bit of a extra so that maybe we can retain them a little bit longer. Um because you said you you finished out the year with one person, >> not the current year yet, but in a previous year. >> In the previous year, right? Okay. >> So, um according to the report, you send a preliminary in your when you're doing your auditing or you're doing this report, you send a preliminary interview questionnaire or PIQ. Um they these agencies got to fill it out. Um there's a bunch of documentation that's required. um they get it they send it back there's a period of time to review. What is the overall uh timeline for for this this process? >> So on average we say an analyst may have around nine audits if we're at capacity to complete. So we try to allocate around four and a half to five months or so between four and five months for the the audit part and then up to six months for the compliance monitoring piece. >> Okay. And then the sorry the compliant the for the following the final determination you all begin the compliance monitoring period. Yes. >> And how long is that period again? >> Is usually up to six months. And according to the annual report, EP audited the city council um during the 2025 auditing cycle and found four corrective actions. What were those corrective actions and was the council were we compliant? >> Ultimate >> ultimate real was compliant in terms of the the very specific uh corrective actions. I would have to get back to the exact ones. >> Yeah. I don't >> Well, um is it do you are there topics or themes? >> Um it was related some one or two is related to information in a policy and >> information in policy. I'm not I'm not >> so information surrounding let's say a policy process or reason >> lack of clarity. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> There were one or two instances of >> and the other two >> I mean this is an oversight hearing. You all are an independent agency. I thought you were supposed to be able to be independently able to tell us what we're doing correct or incorrect. >> And you know um we will definitely send it over and yes we we review every city entity. Yeah. Not every ent agency agrees to our jurisdiction without a fight, >> you know, but this is like an example of like where things might be an issue in an institution for us or an agency for others and we don't know about it. >> The people who are invested every day in the institution and are showing up to ideally try to make the city better. We don't know about it. Exactly. >> So you need money to communicate out without harming anybody's personal information. But you should be able to come here and say, "No, two was like, you guys need to clear up how your policies are written so people know what's what's what. And then these other two things will more sensitive, but here's how you need to do better." That's something that we need to know. >> That's exactly right. And if an agency is performing well, their workers should know that, too. >> Right. Exactly. Um, you know, because that's like we need good people who want to work for the city, right? Like the last four years was terrible. We had high vacancy rates. Nobody wanted to work for the city. And we want talented people. we you know um and so they need to know when we're doing things right but we also internally need to know when we're doing things wrong um for so I look forward to hearing more about that um just to request it formally in the in the followup so you reset your auditing standards every four years 2025 was the last year of an auditing cycle were you able to finish all of your auditing uh audits required Um, and what are the standards for the next cycle if there were any lessons learned that you're going to change for this this cycle moving forward? >> Uh, so we were able to complete all of our scheduled audits in terms of for next year. There's some carryover with a few core standards that we may also be able to like a little tweaks to some of our core standards based on information we found. We're also as our executive director mentioned earlier doing a new issue kind of specific audit surrounding complaints of reasonable accommodation. So there'll also be you know other areas that will be >> and if I could reinforce a point in the testimony this I believe is the first time we've actually completed all audits in the statutory time frame per controller standards >> on time. So, because just because a resource issue >> and and I'm getting to my last question and then I know council member Stevens remembered hers, but you said, "Okay, you might do some tweaks. What are what are some of the things that you might be tweaking?" So there are some ways in which agencies typically disseminate information to staff and then the documentation that we receive related to that. So we want to incorporate a little more of that into we mentioned earlier we want to streamline a few things. So one change is we're trying to streamline how the information that we get to make it less ownorous on the >> right agency. >> So agencies already have to submit to a lot of places including us and so just to do our due diligence as a city partner. We don't want agencies to wonder why we're asking for certain things again if we can get it elsewhere. So we're trying to be a good city partner. >> Yeah. That's great. Um, and you feel like you're on track to to complete what you can do, what you're required to do this year audit wise? >> We're well audit wise, yes, streamlining, we're we're doing that, you know, like in the evenings after our budget work. >> Okay. Um and then um in accordance with local law 13, you published your annual report on underutilization of women and people of color in the city's municipal workforce in fiscal year 2025. Um you did talk about some of the highlights in your testimony, but if you want to just state again for the record or if you could just state for the record um some of the findings uh and and compared to the the the previous year. >> Sure. I'm happy to take a first cut. So our again I want to caution that our findings yeartoear are hard to compare and the main reason for that is while we have updated uh data on the city's workforce we have outdated data on what is in the labor market and that's because the data that we do get thankfully from DCAS you know we are gracious for that but it has been out of date for I believe 12 years so when we are saying underutilization improves or or gets worse again we're comparing to data that has the denominator has stayed the same for 12 years. So, we wouldn't expect to see changes. So, any changes I want to talk about now, take it with a grain of salt. Um what else are you on? >> So broadly speaking um the disparities in terms of the personnel you would expect compared to what is actually there uh has tended to be largest for black individuals and for and for women. um continuously many of the job titles and at the agencies where there is those disparities the new hires also don't match what the labor market is and so it's just perpetuating it further and further and also in terms of of separations uh women personnel have been leaving at a much higher rate than what their presence is as well and there are are more findings but those I would say are the main highlights >> yeah so if we were to select the top few areas, right? For example, um if we're thinking about the highest shortfall, then black police officers has a shortfall about 3,500, which means compared to the labor market estimates, which are out of date. You would expect 3,500 more black police officers if PD were hiring at that labor market availability. >> Again, same for craft workers who are black, same for health professionals who are black, not quite at that level. is the biggest agency and so we have the biggest absolute number there. But these are some of the areas where we need most attention. And one thing that really surprised me was that when you look at every agency and see what's the biggest shortfall, if you go to the top 20, it's basically black all the way down from 1 to 16 and then you have a couple and then black again. So even if an agency is doing well in diversifying, it's for those workers who they're doing the poorest. So we're not we're not hiring in some if I regurgitate it to you. We're not hiring black workers in city agencies compared to what is available and would be in >> they're already ready. They're ready to work. >> I took the civil service exam >> have educational experience are ready to go but we're not um as a city hiring these folks >> at least compared to the old data. Yes. >> And just my last question but I'm going to turn over to Stevens and then the finance year. Um have you I mean what's up with like they're not going to put out more data. Have you spoken to them about this the need for new data? >> Well, I want to be careful about what Dcast is or isn't going to do, but maybe you can. >> They're right next door, too. So, >> I know. I know. >> We can tell on them. >> I know. >> You can tell us. It's okay. No one can hear us. >> I cannot speak on their behalf either, but we have had conversations with them and it sounds like it has been a resource, personnel, and infrastructure issue. They have indicated that there have been plans for the past several years to update the numbers. Um, but they've never provided a specific timeline. >> Okay. Okay. I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Stevens. Oh, she Sorry, she totally left. Uh, finance chair. Did you have any questions? Okay. All right. Um, I guess that'll be it for you. I mean, obviously, we're going to, you know, I think everyone here um that's come to this committee wants to see you all keep that one vacant position and certainly want to get you uh a h 100,000 more for your OTPS so you can have more lights or printers or whatever you need to get your job done. Um and just really appreciate the work you're doing. We we want to see um good people working for the city and it's not surprising to see that we are not hiring black workers. I mean, that's kind of the on par for every other issue going on. Um, so we want to partner with you on that and let us know how we can be a resource to you as individual council members um to help get the word out in lie of your tiny budget. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hey, we're going to take a quick break and then we will hear from RJ All right, everyone. We're going to pick this back up. Um, sorry for the delays. We were also over in our in our time, so it worked out perfectly for a little break. Uh, good afternoon again. I'm council member Sandy Nurse, chair of this committee. Um, I now welcome Afia Ata Mensah, Commissioner and Chief Equity Officer at the Mayor's Office of Equity and Racial Justice, or MORJ for their testimony at this hearing. MERJ is responsible for advancing racial equity in the city, which includes releasing the racial equity plans, which we know that you are going to release them by the deadline, um, as well as the true cost of living. Emily RJ also consists of various other mayoral offices including uh NYC her future, the New York City Commission on Gender Equity, New York City Unity Project, New York City Young Men's Initiative, New York City Pay Equity Cabinet, and New York City Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity. This is the first time MORJ will testify at our budget hearing. So, thank you for coming in. MOERJ's fiscal year 2027 budget as of the preliminary plan is close to 5.6 million which includes 4.6 million in personnel services for 38 positions and 1 million in other than personal services. MRJ's fiscal 26 budget includes two other adjustments adjustment reductions for a total of 1 million which reflects a transfer of funding to other city agencies that partner with MOJ on their programming. We definitely were are going to ask about that and we'd like to hear how you all are partnering with other city agencies as well as learning about how its budget and headcount are supporting its mandates in this upcoming cycle. So, um, thank you all for being here. I just want to recognize we've been joined by council member Lynn Schulman. Um, and I'm going to turn it over to committee council to administer the oath. >> Good afternoon. Um, if you could please raise your right hands. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee? Yes. >> Yes. Thank you so much. You may begin. >> Well, good afternoon, chair, nurse, members of the committee on civil and human rights, distinguished members of the council, and of course, the public. Thank you for convening this hearing today. Uh, as was stated, I am Aia Atamemensa. I serve as the city's chief equity officer as well as the commissioner for the mayor's office for equity and racial justice. I am exceedingly joyed uh to be joined today uh by members of my team, Delilah Tyson, the chief administrative officer. This is her first time testifying, so everybody talk to her nice today. Uh we also have Natifa for the executive director for NYC her future and I believe we will momentarily be joined by Deputy Commissioner Dvash Nagash and we are excited to speak with you about Merj's continued work to advance pay equity in our city. Uh chairwoman, great minds think alike. So, you took so many of my initial talking points in your uh opening, but I'll just give a little bit of the greatest hits before going into details. Uh, as I shared in my earlier testimony a few when I was before this distinguished panel a few weeks ago, uh, we are the centralized city office that takes the intersectional approach to advance equity across our city. Our mandate is simple. We are rooted in the powerful belief that every New Yorker deserves the opportunity to live, work, and thrive with dignity. In order to realize that vision, we bring together several key initiatives and offices that work across government to tackle inequities experienced by communities in our city using various strategies from policy and research to advocacy and programs. Uh, as you detailed earlier, that includes the Commission on Gender Equity, which works to ensure the city leads in development and implementation of our best practices in gender equity policies and programs with a focus on economic mobility, health, and safety. The the NYC young men's initiative and NYC her future sibling offices focus on addressing inequities amongst young men of color and young women of color respectively in education, employment, health and justice. NYC Unity Project with works to address inequities amongst LGBTQ plus New Yorkers particularly youth and people of color. Uh at Morgj, we take a three-pronged approach to our work with a focus on structural change, which is dismantling the structural equal inequalities across city government. Uh this includes the implementation of our racial justice charter mandates, culture change and engagement, which is breaking silos and shifting culture to increase collaboration and inclusion. This includes bringing stakeholders together in various ways to contribute to shared strategies to advance equity and support community-based coalitions to advance these local initiatives and also in creating equitable outcomes for New Yorkers utilizing a whole of government approach to address disparities concentrated by race, gender, and other identities. Uh building the infrastructure for equity and government. As you know, the charter calls for the city to create the office of e of racial equity following the announcement of this office in pre in the previous fiscal year months of planning to identify and secure fiscal resources. Uh this was excuse me, I should take a step back. This was during fiscal year 2025 and in um so they were creating preliminary staffing structures and began establishing personnel and other admin systems necessary to onboard staff and ensure sustainable operations to advance the work. Uh during fiscal year 25, MERJ also spent significant time implementing its racial equity planning process aimed at moving government towards equity and justice together. In preparation for agency to build their first racial equity plans, MOERJ engaged them in advance of development which included building racial equity planning teams within each agency, reviewing their priorities relative to the foundational values of the charter, assessing disparity data, uh, and commission on racial equity, community equity priorities. Uh, we're also leading full day workshops and developing and providing planning tools to guide the process. Uh during that time, MOERJ also continued our work with over 40 city agencies and 200 plus staff as they began to refine the individual racial equity plan goals, strategies, and indicators with the guidance of the MJ uh team throughout the process. MJ has also spent this time now finalizing plans with agencies and rolling them into a a single citywide preliminary racial equity plan, which will be the first for the city. As part of this process, we hired equity planning managers to support racial equity planning as well as work with agencies on the implementation of the plan. We look forward to uh publishing this plan within the first 100 days and sharing it with the sector uh public, receiving community feedback and continuing to work together with city agencies and all stakeholders to finalize it for implementation. We have also been diligently working on the true cost of living measure. It has been an important priority for our office. Again, per city charter, the New York City true cost of living measure established what it costs to meet basic needs in our city and live with dignity without consideration of public, private, or informal assistance. Recognizing the limitations of the federal poverty measure, the true cost of living measure will move beyond basic poverty calculations to capture what it costs to meet basic needs, get through emergencies and have the financial stability necessary to plan for one's future. This should not be a luxury, and yet it often feels that way to New Yorkers across this city. This measure will analyze costs across various household sizes, age groups, and essential areas of need to create a comprehensive understanding of what it truly takes to thrive in our city. As one of the first cities to create a measure of this type, the true cost of living measure can help inform us on the local level as well as inform local, state, and national policy priorities to help us further advocate for the needs of working people in this city. To meet the spirit of the charter, MERJ has worked in partnership with the mayor's office for economic in uh opportunity and the urban institute to leverage local and national research to best determine costs for New York City across various household sizes, types, age groups, and essential areas of need. Incorporate categories critical to economic safety and one's ability to thrive, including debt and savings. and look at costs across various age groups including individuals disabilities as well as other areas of cost such as caregiving and we look forward to publishing the full report developed by Moj and urban uh initiative and others to share the measure in the upcoming weeks. Uh we also remain committed to advancing gender equity not only externally for the city's residents but also internally for the city's workforce. We are proud that the commission on gender equity and the department of citywide administrative services co-chair the pay equity cabinet which serves as an oversight body to provide accountability for pay equity goals across the city government workforce in 2025. The cabinet selected and begin working with a vendor to execute a pay equity job title evaluation. The first pay equity analysis report will be published in 2027 and identifies occupational segregation and gender and race pay disparities within civil societ civil service titles. Lord, this June, the job title evaluation will enter the second year of its four-year project to identify occupational segregation and gender and race pay disparities within the sub city um government workforce. In regards to our programmatic investments, uh we make these programmatic investments to serve communities that have experienced dis disparities and disinvestment to improve outcomes for New Yorkers. And I'll just share a few examples. Uh NYC her future as I previously mentioned a unit within MERJ is created to address the disparities that young women of color in particular face across New York City in areas of education, employment, justice, and health as well as to provide them with the tools to be successful by their own definition. Following the launch of NYC her future in the previous fiscal year, the unit got right to work to develop and champion programs and partnerships that support the success of young women throughout uh the city. Fiscal year 25 programs and partnerships included but were not limited to a partnership with CUNI through health career center which provides vouchers and guidance for participants to pursue health related certificate programs helping helping them to select courses confirm eligibility and apply coursework toward academic credit or future degrees. This citywide program served 356 students in fiscal year 25 and achieved a 91% completion rate partnering with the administration of children's services on future force uh which empowers young women and teens through mentoring, career exploration, vocational training, financial support and professional development including coaching workshops and access to mentors. The initiative has provided 57 young people involved in the child welfare system with individualized career coaching, vocational training, and full financial support for certifications and materials, as well as a $3,300 completion stipen. Future Force helps address low postsecary enrollment, limited professional networks, and high unemployment among youth experiencing the foster care system. NYC her future is an innovate is truly an innovation and investment hub within city government and serves as a thought partner and funding catalyst to agencies across New York City. And we look forward to the work it will continue to do to design, pilot, and evaluate initiatives that serve as proof of concept for sustained baseline investment and scalable models that advance gender equity citywide. MERJ has also continued to invest in the task force on racial inclusion and equity. Tree Neighborhood Initiative in collaboration with the Civic Engagement Commission. The Tree Neighborhood Initiative is a fullear partnership which invests in community-based organizations to strengthen civic engagement and local decision-making. The program was born out of the CO 19 pandemic through tree uh to address the disparit impacts of CO 19 on communities of color and support the development of community networks that could connect residents to one another as well as city government. This initiative is implemented by CEC in partnership with MERJ and the Young Men's Initiative. In fiscal year 25, 30 community-based organizations were awarded funds to serve as tree neighborhood ambassadors across 31 tree neighborhoods. And during the program, organizations uh are tasked with empowering residents to help shape city priorities and resources through civic education and participation in in the people's money. over the over the course of each year, each neighborhood convened at least quarterly to discuss the community needs. Uh, MEN's Teach is open to all academically qualified students interested in teaching within the New York City public school system, but through recruitment efforts specifically targeted uh we specifically target black, Latino, and Asian men. The program focuses on recruiting students um into teacher education programs and assisting them through graduation, certification, and the hiring process. supports include intensive advisement, certification, exam support, academic support, and financial assistance. Uh, men's teach is truly uh changing the landscape landscape of education in the city. Uh through this program, uh the public schools have successfully recruited over 5,000 educators who identify as men of color since 2016, strengthening classrooms while reinforcing public schools as a destination for purpose-driven educators committed to our students and communities. Just last month, YMI in partnership with public schools and and CUNI hosted the 10-year anniversary event um in Brooklyn at Brick and recognized and celebrated the accomplishments of this amazing program as well as looked to uh the future of diverse recruitment. Uh, in regards to our training, we have spent uh, as I previously mentioned, time working to implement local law 13 of 2024 requiring the creation and administration of anti-racism training for all human services contractors in New York City who provide direct services to the public. In this fiscal year, we have worked in partnership with the CUNY School of Professional Students Office of Innovative Learning Solutions on course design, development, infrastructure, and hosting uh and more in preparation for its launch. We aim to finalize and launch this training by the end of this fiscal year. As of today, MERJ Central has a current headcount of 38 with 26 active staff. Our office is small but mighty and committed to racial and gender equity and to continuing to tackle disparities in our communities. Many of us come from, live in, and have experiences within the communities we are focused on serving through our work and come from areas as diverse as nonprofit, government, academic, academia, and the private sector. Um, as was mentioned um by chair nurse, uh fiscal year 25, the budget provided was 8 million uh a little over $8 million. In fiscal year 26, the preliminary budget currently provides $5,627,000. Uh, as discussions continue with OM ahead of the executive budget, we aim to secure program funds included in our own pre included in our previous fiscal year budget. As we look forward and I continue to settle into my role um as the commissioner for MOERJ, I recognize the unique nature of this position in office and more specifically the opportunity to build on this strong foundation to ensure equity reaches every corner of government and informs discussions about how city prior about city priorities and how they are implemented. Uh I'm excited to continue advancing equity in uh government. We look forward to releasing this preliminary uh citywide racial equity plan, implementing its work and measuring as well as reporting on our progress, releasing our first ever uh New York City specific true cost of living measure and equally important activating as a tool to inform policy and deliver services and influence budget decisions. uh beginning our anti-racism training to support thousands of human service provider employees who serve and interact with residents every day and continuing to invest in young people, particularly young people of color and LGBT plus communities to tackle disparities experienced by their communities and ensure that all New Yorkers have the conditions of thriving. I in closing, I thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you about the work of the Office of Equity and Racial Justice. We look forward to working every day as part of this administration to ensure that New Yorkers can continue to live, work, play, and thrive. Uh I appreciate the support of this committee and many council members and ensuring uh that the issues of equity continue to remain on the forefront and the mind of many New Yorkers. And I thank you and welcome your questions. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner. I'm going to jump right into it. But we're going to start with um looking at just overall budget. Uh we'll go into headcount. We'll touch a little bit on the equity plan and true cost of living. And then we'll talk a little bit about um programming. So um as you mentioned in your testimony, we have seen reductions in your budget. Um and a lot of this is labeled as program funding adjustments where uh according to OM is a transfer of funds to other city agencies that are partnering with you all for MORJ programming. So related to that uh what programs were targeted by these transfers? Um what is the total funding level and what agencies are you all partnering with where this funding is being reallocated towards or allocated towards? Chair nurse, thank you so much for the question. And as you you mentioned, I would just also add it's part and parcel of of business. Oftentimes in partnership with other agencies, money is transferred um and directly allocated to those programs. And I'll take you through a list of some. I'm happy to go through more and there's some as an addendum to the testimony as well. Um let me just so in total uh it was 551,184 uh that was transferred Uh some examples include let's start with the true cost of living measure. Um I spoke to what that is the racial justice charter mandate to develop the city's first uh actual cost for what it uh measuring of the cost to not only meet needs but live with dignity in the city. This is a collaboration with New York City Opportunity DSS HR and the urban institute. Uh the funding that was transferred to cover costs was $200,000. Uh this funding was went to support things like methodology development, data collection and analysis, uh calculating costs for various groups, etc. Uh another example of that transfer was from the NYC Unity project. The transfer amount was $150,000. Uh and this was money for a partnership with uh uh MACH J the office for Mach J's excuse me office for the prevention of hate crimes the uh as part of the unity project launching these unity grants that invested with in LGBTQ communities if if I may two two more examples or is that or you all right uh from NYC her future the young woman's empowerment program this program seeks to expand and current services by launching a comprehensive mental health and wellness initiative designed to support girls in middle and high school. The P expansion of this program creates selfsafe and culturally responsive trauma-informed spaces where students can build resilience uh and strengthen emotional well-being. Uh this programming also includes a workshop and a culminating event. Uh the program expansion is projected to serve 300 students and $40,000 of funding was transferred to help that expansion. Uh the expand this and this is a partnership through DOE. So the expanded scope of programming since the allocation was established um has it was is due to excuse me um an increased demand of cross agency engagement with DOE partners. So the additional funding will further support partnership with both um public schools office of safety and youth development and continue to adequately adequately support the scale reach and operational requirements of activities aligned with uh NYC herd's core priorities. >> And then for did you mention sorry if you if I missed it um the young man young men's initiative transfer to the admin I think it says the funds went to DSS. Did you mention that in that list? >> I'm I'm coming to it, but I can hop to it right now. Just so I'm clear, chair, which allocation is this, the 325,000. Okay perfect. >> I'm going to start and then I have here with me, as I said, the executive director of uh NYC her future. So this transfer uh represented in fact uh was was a transfer to NYC her future uh for programming and after excuse me after conversation it was uh determined that NYC her future did not require that full use of funding and so some of those funds were transferred back uh young men's initiative plans to use that funding for uh men's health. Sorry, there's a lot of pages here. Uh and that is a program that is geared towards u supporting a pipeline of mental health providers uh amongst men of color. >> Okay, great. Um, and then for the the four uh offices, the NYC Her Future, Commission of Gender Equity, New York City Unity Project, and Young Men's Initiative, um, what's the what's the headcount on on these four offices? >> Okay, thank you for the question. I stated that uh, MERJ has a budgeted head. Sorry. near NYC. Her future has six with uh one current vacancy. Unity Project currently has two uh two lines, both of which are full. And then chair, please excuse me. There's a few different papers here and I want to I would want to make sure that I'm accurate to the before the council. Let me start again. Young Men's Initiative has 17 lines that spans across several different agencies, right? With four current vacancies. The Commission on Gender Equity has 13 for a total headcount with two current with two of them currently being vacant. NYC Her Future, as I said before, has six um of a budgeted headcount with one vacant. And I was correct in my previous assertion of the Unity project having two. >> And those are full. >> And those are full. Thank you. >> Understood. And so my understanding is um as of January 2026, your vacancy rent rate went up to 31%. Um you have a budgeted headcount of 38 with um a little more than 11 vacancies if my math is right. >> 12 vacancies. >> 12 vacancies. Thank you. Um >> are there any roles that are more difficult to hire than others? I thank you for the question, council member. I haven't thought of that in that framing. So that's why I'm taking a moment to pause. I I will say this. Currently, we have four posted, right? We are hiring for a a policy director program um and two other are in media. You know, we are lucky that um people are excited about working with and for this administration and this agency specifically. We have these po uh positions posted uh on our website online and have received a lot of interest. So, and but we're going to go through that process of the engagement and interviewing process. So, currently we have not had during my tenure a hard time hiring for them. Uh it's just the time of what it takes to engage folks and bring them on board. And then uh you were were you all subject to the two for one hiring freeze in the former admin? >> Were you subject to the hiring the two for one hiring freeze under the former administration? >> Um we were not. >> You were not. Okay. So um so for the you have four posted but you have 12 vacancies. How do you see since you weren't subject to the hiring freeze, how are you um seeing your ability to fill these these vacancies here? >> Yeah, I sure go. So, I'll start with we're moving forward with these these forward and ongoing conversations with with OM. >> Okay. Right. And so, have you all been instructed to to find a 50% reduction in your vacancies? So I would say that for we have the chief ser savings officer as we're mandated which is Delilah here. Uh we are still in conversation with OM and to my understanding go free. >> Yeah more than happy to chime in. So uh we we are mandated uh or we are required right to to go through the process but we are in discussion with OM. I would just add, you know, we're a new agency, so we're trying to work with our partners at the Office of Management and Budget to just get creative um and really ensure we can, you know, as we are continuing to build, we don't run into major issues and just um delivering on our mandates and doing the work that we need to do. So, there's still ongoing discussion on what that, you know, may or may not look like. Okay, understand every We know that everyone's in the room. >> Oh, sorry. We need to swear you in. I apologize. >> Hello. Thank you. Um, would you mind raising your right hand, please? And do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? And that also what you said was that I I do. And yes, it was. Thank you so much. Apologize. >> Thank you. Um, okay. So, you've been asked to go through this exercise. um should you need to complete the exercise and be subject to it, where where do you see um the overall impact being both in terms of program or specific functions or job uh titles? >> Sure. Thank you for the question. Just to help frame that, I think it's helpful to step back to something I said earlier in my testimony of how we go about the work, right? There is the structural shifts that we see through the implement execution and implementation of things like the true cost of living and the preliminary racial equity plan. There's our programs which I was able to highlight a bit of and then also our culture shifts that we see through training. So thus far with the staff that we have, we've been able to move forward and don't foresee any hurdles to ensuring that we move forward with our charter mandates. Um similarly each each of our units as well as MOERJ central has been able to move forward in partnerships and collaboration with other city agencies to ensure that the important programs uh go forward and we are on the cusp of finishing the um uh the the trainings that will go for each of the human services the excuse me the agencies that engaged with um externally. So, we're confident that we can make this happen under the framing that we have and that we'll hit make sure that we meet all of our obligations under charter mandates. >> Yeah. No, we we know um you know, all agencies are doing the best they can with the little that they got. They could always have more, right? And always do more work. Um >> and so if there are particular areas that would be um vulnerable um given all of the the programmatic work you all have and charter mandated uh requirements. Um it would be helpful for the council to know um because we want to advocate for you. We're not trying to get you. We're trying to support you um because this is work that um New Yorkers voted for and and that we support. Um okay, for racial I'm just going to ask about racial equity programming and then I'll open it up. So if members have questions, let me know. Um we did talk about racial equity. We're not going to drill down into it. We know you are saying that you're planning to uh publish those within the first 100 days. Are we still on track for that first 100 days? >> Thank you for the question, chair. We are still on track for the first 100 days. >> And and how many staff uh currently in MRJ are explicitly assigned to work on the >> at this current time? So I'm going to fully answer your question, but I I think it's helpful to provide context. This is a priority for this office. So, we have nine um equity planning managers, you've heard me use the abbreviation EPMs, who the vast majority, if not all of their time is focused on this plan. And because again, this plan is a priority for the office, it is is some of the deputy commissioner's time, it is some of my time, it is some of other senior advisers's time as well. So, I I want to add that to give further shape and frame to the amount of folks who are also working on this. >> That's helpful to know. And do you have any vacancies uh are any of your vacancies related to the racial equity plan work? >> Thank you for the question. So we started I guess they started the calendar year with 10 EPMs and then uh prior to my coming on board one we we are now at nine. >> Okay. So we so that one we shouldn't lose um in the vacancy potential cut. Okay. And the um you said the true cost of living is in the coming weeks. We're on track for the March 31st deadline. >> Thank you for the question. It is so it is my understanding that it will be coming out by the end of this month. >> And how many people are assigned to uh this particular piece of work? >> Similar to with the racial equity plan, there are several people tasked in the office specifically for this. We have about two people who specifically work on this um as the majority of their work and it is part and parcel of time of the deputy commissioner part of my time and we're part of this as a partnership through the urban institute um and other agencies in putting this together >> and I know for both the prelim the the draft racial equity plan and the true cost of living um I know that there's been so much interest in wanting to get that over the finish line and disappointment with the last administration So, I imagine you want to come out kind of come out come out the gate telling everyone what you got. What are the some of the plans you have and do you have budget for kind of getting the word out about what you have published and getting feedback? >> Yeah, thank you for that. So, I'd say we have a multiaceted approach to how we're going to do engagement. First and foremost, um CORE uh we will partner with CORE, but CORE will be taking the lead in community engagement in regards to the racial equity plan. Our plan and engagement um also will be to directly speak to stakeholders to do presentations and engagements across city agencies and of course we will provide ongoing technical assistance similar with the true cost of living. Um the goal of this tool is only as good as its use. So our goal is to one first and foremost ensure that there's full digestion across city agencies so they have an understanding of the possibilities with this tool and as well to work with urban institute and and other academic partners as well as the federation for protestant welfare agencies. FIPA has been a leader on this um to ensure that across the city folks have an understanding of the possibilities for this tool. I'm going to open it up to some of my council colleagues, but I and then I'll come back to talk about some program, but I do want to just um appreciate and acknowledge the um addendum you you put in here or the appendix, I don't know what what it's called um for the some of the investments. I know we had talked about um there was a lot of questions about the Bronx investments. So, I really appreciate the detailed um information. We really really appreciate that. Um I have Council Member Stevens. Hello, good afternoon. Um, I guess the first question I have, I just wanted to start with like men teach, which is one of these programs that I really like. Um, and want to just ask the question around like even in this this time where we we're having um issues with like when we're talking about class size mandate, we're not talking about how this is like stretching the the workforce really thin. Um, and just specifically in the Bronx, we always have had issues with retaining teachers and especially in the Bronx, I just always have felt like we need more men teachers and men of color obviously. And just thinking about how and how this partnership is looking and when you are recruiting these um young men of color to be in this program, are we prioritizing burrows like the Bronx to help with placements and what does that partnership look like with DOE? Uh, good afternoon, Council Member Stevens. Uh, I don't know if you came in when I was initially speaking, but I'm I'm joined here with the director, Natifa Ford, for NYC, Her Future, who previously served um as the head of YMI. And so, because we we learned a lesson the first time, I wanted to make sure that we were able to speak with specificity. So, I bought I bought backup today. And so, I want to turn it over to my esteemed colleague to be able to speak in depth on this issue. Good afternoon everyone. Um so just wanted to drill down just on the young men's initiative which is now the the executive director is now Dr. Chambers who's here in the back somewhere. Um, but I would >> after >> I would like to just mention as we speak about the men teach program and pro it sits within your council district and Sandy nurses, council member nurse, council member Hanifeha. I think for us across the board we have to understand YMI has the five priority neighborhoods which is the South Bronx is one. um East New York, South Jamaica, Queens, Northshore, Staten Island, and Geez Louise, Brownsville. So within those communities, it's with intentionality that those teachers are going to those schools and making sure that they're not going alone. They're going in twos and threes so that they can build community while they're there to support teacher retention and then also having the way for them to build into the larger community. So a part of men teach is not just placement, it's about retention in the space and making sure that the teachers are actually fulfilling the need of the communities that they're serving um in. And then also there's been a lot of targeted um media campaigns in specific communities to recruit teachers from the community to become teachers in those communities as well. >> Yeah, I I actually know a number of people who have gone through this program and actually haven't heard about it and I was like, wait, we still do. So, um I would definitely want to continue to partner um with with folks on this and also like I know those are the priority areas um because I I knew that from before like I said I know this was still here but um just being able to think about like in this moment I know that has been the big conversation in the Bronx around how the issue around capacity for the expansion with the the um with um having the space they we have the space but we don't have the teachers and we always see uh rotating door of teachers. So, I would love to continue to partner with with folks on this because, you know, I do believe we need to have as many male people of color in these programs. And so, I'm really happy to see that. And I guess the other question I had was around tree. Um, and I know this came out of like COVID, so it's not it's it's a newer program. and really want to know uh do you guys have a list because I didn't see in the addendment of programs that are entry because I would love to like see how to partnership with you guys on that. Um because I know that has been a big thing that I've been looking at what organizations are doing civic engagement. What does that look like? How do we continue capacity building in the communities? Um and so often that has fel fallen on either um the electeds or it's fallen on like um political clubs and and really not having those mechanisms. in some of these areas that um have lower v voter turnout rates. Um and I know um I would just love to have more information on that too as well. >> I think that's something that we'll add and follow up with because we don't have the full list of all of the orgs, but I do think it's important for you guys to to know those things and then I'll pass it to Deputy Commissioner Nagosh. >> Yeah. Hi, Council Member Stevens. Um so uh the tree neighborhood initiative is definitely one and that's been a consistent investment for us for the last uh almost six years. Um building coalitions with community um and we've invested about a little over $2 million in that for the last six years. Um and we plan to continue to do that. Um so and that's across all 33 neighborhoods. In addition to that we have um the investments in the Bronx. Um, that's really just a start for us, I think, as we, you know, continue to look at the data. Um, and and see how we, you know, as the commissioner mentioned, look at affordability and racial and gender equity. Um, as as uh, you know, things that are linked and and uh uh start to form strategies that we want to implement in the in the next and future fiscal years. will ideally uh implement more strategies uh throughout the tree neighborhoods >> as well. Thank you. Oh, and I'm just very happy to hear that the racial equity plan will be out at the end of the month and we could stop harassing you guys with that. Thank you. >> First 100 days. First 100 days. It'll be out within the first >> I'm very happy. >> April's on its way. >> Yeah. Um, so I I'm going to pass it over, but I I I want to say in case these folks leave, you know, um, just because you have equity, uh, racial, you know, racial equity in your work, we just listen to a panel from the Equal Employment Practice Commission that has almost nothing. Um, and it's and and one of the findings was that black workers are completely underutilized across city agencies, which should be no surprise to you all obviously, but um, you know, I'm just looking at the money transfers and things like that. I don't know how it works. I'm trying to put nobody on the spot, but I'm just saying I feel like they need some resources um to take care of the um, racial equity maybe issues that are internal to city agencies. So, um, just putting it out there. They're even smaller. Um, and and got even less. I don't even know if they have Wi-Fi over there. Um, so like they really need something. And I just want to mention it while everyone's in the room together. Maybe there's there's a way that this this office can advocate for them to have the resources they need to make things right within our own uh city workforce. Um, so now I'm going to turn it over to Council Member uh Hanife and then uh Do you Okay. Okay. Um, so go ahead, Council Me. >> All right. Thank you and thanks for being here. Um, I'm gonna uh ask about the food business pathways program. Love to just learn about uh what it is and how this program is running right now, who it's intended for. Um really wonderful to know that 15,000 meals uh to 18 Nitro developments were distributed. Um so if you could share just a little bit more background information and then the uh funding associated with this program for 26 and 27. >> Sure. Thank you for the question. So to provide just some background and context, it started in 2020 and it's a partnership with Nicha and the NICHA's resident economic empowerment and sustainability uh and as well as with Growen NYC as as you mentioned council member as a meal delivery service to residents who were at the time impacted by gas outages as a pilot. Um these the businesses were contracted for meal delivery and sourced their produce at affordable rates through grow NYC's wholesale food supply. uh in 2020 in 23 uh the mayor's office on racial justice through our task force on racial inclusion and equity we expanded the funding to grow NYC which allowed it to move from an initial pilot to an additional 13,000 meals uh to provide uh approximately nine months of emergency food program. uh this pilot in the initial increase across all the different Bronx develop Niche developments provided 30,000 meals and served 400 plus impacted families during that point of the gas outage. Uh this program was expanded through like the I talked a little bit about the Bronx expansion. Uh this is a cross. >> What's the cost of the initiative? >> In fiscal year 25 it was 400,000 533. That was our investment or >> uh that's between two fiscal years. So in fiscal year 26 it's a little over 300,000. >> And then what are the um does that cover the cost of the meals or is that a separate Okay. Um, and then which Nitro developments uh are involved and uh selected? >> Sure. I'll start and allow the deputy commissioner, but I believe in the addendum there's a a list of of those developments. >> Yeah. And it serves >> appreciate it. >> Yeah. >> Um, and then for 2025 and 26, have there been Nitro developments that were interested but were unable to do so because of insufficient funding? I defer to the deputy coun deputy commissioner for the answer on this one. >> Yeah. So, we've worked very closely with Nicha Ree. Um there haven't been any issues that have been raised to us. I think you know obviously we uh have worked to continue to um serve people through the program because there's dual benefits. We you know ensure that healthy and culturally appropriate meals are getting to people in need. uh but at the same time working with uh individuals who live in the same neighborhood to build up their businesses. So we haven't experienced any uh or heard of any issues at at the moment. >> Do uh Nitro Developments reach out how are you interacting with uh developments? How is that process? >> So our work is directly with uh a division within Nitra and and the agency itself. They coordinate directly with the developments. Um, so we work with the staff at at night at like central NICHA offices. >> Got it. And then what's your role in it? >> So we uh invest in the program. We partner with them when there are hurdles. We work with them to overcome challenges, whatever that they may be. Um, we'll engage with them on um finding partners. Um, so it kind of runs the gamut. We'll work with them on uh developing like uh key performance indicators, look at areas that we could be measuring maybe that we're not. >> And is this a program that uh is going to be expanded or one that you all hope to uh scale up? So, I'd say our role is to continue providing funding so that we're meeting the the scale where it currently is and to be encouraged of increased uh funding through possible uh other partnerships, but at this time we see this funding being static. >> Got it. And then how are you measuring the the success rate? Is this a going to be a service that will continue for as long as the funding is available or is there um an effort to address the food insecurity issues in our communities? >> I'll start and then I'll I'll allow my colleagues to to continue. So just as a reminder, part of what I see in this this first month is I'm trying to get a deeper understanding of all the programs and and which are priorities. Um and also to go through the the data and the community feedback to ensure one that we're meeting the need, two that we're doing so in the um the best way possible. So right now we are committed to this partnership. Uh it is not something that we are currently looking to end, but I I do want to say council member that I am taking a little bit of time to get a deep understanding of all of our programs so that we can make assessments to ensure that we are doing this work uh smart just like we're doing it hard and to ensure that we are in deepest partnership possible. >> Absolutely. And I appreciate uh you saying that uh because working with NICHA is incredibly important and I believe that our uh city should be doing more um especially because we can't cover so much of the capital project costs and food insecurity is only growing in our city and um the partnership with Growenyc I believe is very important. I'm of of course very curious about where food is being procured from and hope that it's supporting the the produce are coming from local businesses or local farms that we're you know partnering with that this program is more holistic. But I I just want to give my plus one to for this program to expand and would love to support. And then um I'd like to know about the New York City Unity Project. What's the total budget for that program? >> Sure. I'll again I'll start and allow any of my esteemed colleagues to to jump in to supplement or correct. So, uh the unity project budget is housed as part of MERJ Central. And I I want to just give a a little bit of um context to this as well. So while their budget in the last fiscal year or excuse me this fiscal year was a little over 400,000 um they are often part and parcel of other initiatives that allow them to help with the dispersement of of other funds. So, an example would be the the that $2 million grant pro program that I talked about specifically for like uh gender non-conforming uh where they were able to provide yes some funding but also to to mostly provide technical support to help identify organizations and do outreach to ensure um uh that there was a robust applications. So that is their budget, but they also have partnered to be able to expand resources and to help deliver and direct, excuse me, not deliver, direct where resources go for the impacted communities. >> And I know that uh this initiative is a partner with DYCD for SY, which is excellent. Um, I'd like to know the age range that this program is uh servicing and then how many young people have been uh reached through through the program. >> Thank you for the question. So, I think you're referring to um SY Pride the >> So, that's different or is it a is it a part of >> Sorry, let me let you finish the question. Go ahead. Is it a part of uh the the unity project or is it a separate >> So it is a program that the unity project partners on. Okay. >> So SY SY continues to run through DYCD. Um and so these are youth who identify as members of the LGBTQIA plus community. And once they um identify uh what the unity project does is then work to ensure that there is um programming that's directly targeted to those youths people who can speak directly to what it is to be um LGBTQIA or gender non-conforming in the workplace. So for example, there'll be special workshops, mentors who want to lend expertise and advice about what that pathway. So that's what I was referring to when I mean about um help to under to with the delivery and to ensure that it's culturally competent. >> Understood. And so do you all keep a record of how many young people are being reached and any goals for each year or five years whatever. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. And so to answer your other question 14 to 24 is the age range. I think you asked that as well. >> Yes. Um there were a little over 3,000 young people that participated and we expect this to continue. I think um the things we want to understand is you know not only the number of people that are participating ideally hopefully more people participating in the program because we we don't know unless folks share that information with us and choose to >> current capacity for um participation. >> There isn't a cap there isn't specific capacity for this program. >> Okay. So, it's just everyone applies and then you can identify if you'd like and and volunteer that information and then share that you want to be part of this particular cohort um and then participate in the programming that the commissioner mentioned. And then for this program, are there um ad campaigns? How are uh young people I mean that's a that's a broad age range. How are people finding out uh about this uh uh opportunity? So, one thing to note as the commissioner mentioned and the deputy commissioner is it kind of is a part of the larger DYCD work. So, it fits the the encompass of the summer youth employment program citywide. However, there's targeted outreach through um CBO partners because you know certain CBOs work with certain populations and that's where you kind of get a lot of the young people in from. So the program usually starts a little bit earlier just to kind of start through the workshops um for the for the young adults and the littles that are a part of the program but then also at the same time it is the training that the employers need on their side to be prepared to let young people enter the space in all of their fullness. So this program is leaning on the expertise of the unity project kind of you know saying this is what it is here's where we see certain trends and then working in partnership in collaboration with DYCD to develop what the curriculum is but DYCD rolls the program out as a part of their larger um summer youth employment programming. >> Got it. That's helpful to know. Thank you. >> Thank you council member um uh chair uh finance chair Linda Lee. Oh, no, no questions. But I just want to say thank you for all the work you're doing in this space because it's definitely very important and look forward to and I just wanted to echo your sentiments uh chair nurse just about um making sure that we're looking at uh other city agencies as well and making sure that we're actually meeting and hitting those um goals for making the for the staff to be diverse and inclusive. Um, and the pay equity cabinet, I think, um, I'd be particularly interested. I know it says it's not going to be published until 2027, but definitely look forward to looking at that. And I'll just end by saying that um, uh, I definitely agree. We were talking earlier about how a lot of the smaller uh agency budgets, especially the ones like you all that are doing such important work and I know that this is an area that's super important to our deputy speaker um and former chair as well um that when we're looking at equity in the budget, it's not, you know, that we're looking at it from all facets in terms of also larger agencies versus smaller agencies and where is there equity there and how are we um making sure that in order to understand the equity piece that we're also funding the work that needs to get done on that. So, I just want to thank you all for that. So, thank you, >> Council Member. Okay, just a few more questions because we are behind on time and we got a whole other panel. Um, oh Lord. Um, all right. So, just want to talk a little bit about New York City Kids Rise. Um, Emil played a little bit of a role to help expand the Safer College program from a pilot to a citywide initiative. Can you talk about your role? Um what outreach do you all do? Um what's your budget for it? And um any any and if you can talk about the sources of funding for the program as well. >> Thank you chair nurse. I'll start and let others um jump in as usual. So I just want to say that uh it's my understanding that on the NYC rise our our um collaboration has been primarily monetary. I am what I would love to do is to just have some more internal conversations so I can get 100% clear uh that that is a that is confirmed. But that's my initial understanding and then I'll allow the deputy commissioner to speak to the funding portion. So the the uh expansion was launched through the task force on racial inclusion and equity which sits within our office and that started in uh that was uh announced in 2021 um but wasn't implemented until 2022. Um Merj serves as the program administrator. So NYC Kids Rise does the actual implementation of the program. We work and coordinate with NYC opportunity. So, Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity, um DCWP, which has the funding and works contracts directly with NYC Kids Rise, um as well as the Department of Education. So, we play a role in coordinating internally with all of the agencies and Kids Rise on different issues, program, uh uh program related work, um you know, if we're updating city rules related to the program, anything that pretty much involves internal city coordination is with us. Okay, a couple more questions. Um, related to the unity project, uh, you all had a partnership with DOH for a $2 million emergency fund to support organizations for transgender, gender non-conforming, and non- non-binary New Yorkers. Um, how much of it is that u 2 million is in MJ's budget? >> None of it is in our budget. We worked and coordinated with our director of the unity project worked and staff worked and coordinated with DOHMH on that. >> Okay. Um and what's the maximum and minimum amount of funding that an organization can be allocated through this grant? >> The maximum is it's up to 92,000. >> 9200. Yeah. And you mentioned that in your testimony. >> And at this point I at this time I don't know the minimum but if you give me I will get that information to you. >> Okay. Um, we kind of just touched on this, but um, we, this is a little bit of followup from the last hearing. Um, there would be some outreach to solidify feedback from the racial equity plan. Did, did you tell us a current budget uh, for outreach once the plan is released? Oh, um, sorry, I'm just thinking if I did, thank you for the question. I don't believe I gave a specific budget for outreach. >> Yeah, we don't have a specific budget set for outreach outreach. We're definitely planning on leveraging our staff, our nine equity planning managers, folks across the team to really get out there and ensure that we're sharing and the racial equity plan with New Yorkers and getting feedback. We've been working on a plan in preparation for that while also ensuring that we connect with the uh commission on racial equity so we're not kind of overlapping but complementing each other's efforts. Yeah. >> And and do you all run like social media campaigns, advertising campaigns? So, we have a we have a our comm's team and we'll be doing robust social media engagement to make sure folks hear and I think I I referenced earlier um and as the deputy commissioner mentioned to make sure that our work is not duplicative. We see ourselves as focusing internally on agencies and also doing targeted stakeholder engagement while we see CORD's role and we'll partner with them as more so the community at large. >> Right. So what I'm understanding is you're not really doing the kind of external letting the world know about it but essentially doing more internal coordination with different agencies. >> No, we we're definitely going to be doing some external outside of agencies but uh let me give a clear example. So like stakeholders uh chambers of commerce like kind of trade organizations where core would be more so of uh I don't want to character like mass engagement or large town hall that we would hope to partner on but would not be taking leadership on. >> Okay. >> But we'll definitely be doing external engagement. >> Okay. Um we'd love to have some uh in the followup some of what that might cost you all to be doing that work. Um, and I mean I guess in addition to what you were saying about the equity managers and leveraging your staff. Um, um, I asked also in February if you needed additional funding to implement the racial equity plan and the um, uh, you said um, you would continue to learn who needs assistance. Is a living document. Um, h have you learned about who needs assistance since that hearing? Sorry if that's a little confusing, but I'll read it. I'll read it out how it's written. At the same oversight hearing, I asked which agencies will need additional funding to implement their racial equity plan, and you testified that you were learning which agencies needed that assistance. Um, do you have you all identified some folks? >> Thank you for the question, and thank you for providing the additional context. So, we're still in communication both with OM, but also through our equity planning managers um with the agencies and the agency heads as new commissioners and new leaders are coming on board for them to be able to digest their plans and get a sense of um if there's any been any shifts in their capacities. So, once we receive that information, I'm I'm happy to share it, but at this time, we have not received that information. do and and those those agencies would have um what they need to implement that plan once it's solidified or out in the world um that would be reflected in their budgets budgets. >> Thank you for the question. So um again just to take a step back and provide some context for the plans for this fiscal year each agency um as part of the planning was we started with budget right as part of because the point of the plans from each agency is supposed to be about how they do their day-to-day work not that equity is like a subset but how they're doing their day-to-day work with an equity frame. Um and so part and parcel of their plan should already in theory should already be a part of the budgeting they have for the upcoming fiscal year. >> Okay. Okay. So we'll look forward that um as you are in conversation. >> Thank you. >> Uh those are my only questions and I think we've tired every other council member out. So thank you so much for your um for being here and thank you so much for the additional information um that follows up on our last hearing and we're looking forward to continuing to partner and support you all. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, chair, for your ongoing support and um around this issue. Thank you. >> Absolutely. All right, we're going to trans Oh >> is she is she on? Okay. Um if deputy speaker wanted to make a statement. >> Yes, I'm here. Hi. Um I know there's no quum so I can't ask questions. I just want to say that I look forward to working with the um commissioner chief equity officer specifically around how her office can be empowered during the budget process. Um just came from a convening this weekend with the folks in Chicago and it was very um empowering and I felt very motivated by the work that they're currently doing. they're a little ahead of us and so I just look forward to continuing to work with the commissioner um to advance uh budget equity and racial equity in the air. >> Thank you, Deputy Speaker, and thank you all. And we're now going to transition to hear from core. So, we'll take a few minutes All right, we're going to get started. Um, thank you for being here, Core. Really appreciate it. We're going to hear from the Commission on Racial Equity or CORE. We welcome Linda Tagani, chair and executive director at CORE. um and other uh folks who will introduce themselves. Uh CORE is an independent commission dedicated to holding government accountable to advancing racial equity in government operations and increasing community voice in government decision-making. CORE's fiscal 2027 preliminary budget totals about 4.6 million which includes nearly 1.8 million in personal uh personal services to support 16 positions and 2.9 million for other than staffing. Similar to CCHR and EPC, CORE's budget also remains unchanged unfortunately in the preliminary plan. In 2024, the council expanded CORE's mandates by passing local laws 91 and 92, which require CORE to establish a truth, healing, and reconciliation process and study the impacts of slavery in New York City and recommended potential uh reparation measures. The committee looks forward to hearing the updates on the local laws and to discussing the budgetary and headcount needs that will allow CORE to effectively carry out these local laws in addition to their other mandates. Um, I'm going to pass it over to uh the committee council to administer the oath. >> Good afternoon. Would you please raise your right hands? >> Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee? >> I do. I do. Thank you so much. You may begin. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Sandy Nurse and members of the Civil and Human Rights Committee. Um, as you stated, my name is Lynette Johnny and I have the honor of serving as the chair and executive director for the Commission on Racial Equity. I lead NYC Corps in partnership with the team of commissioners and staff. Today, I'm joined by Maya Williams, our senior director for research and policy, and Rachel Nadlesen, our general counsel. I'm excited to share an overview of our accomplishments from NYC CORE's past year and a snapshot of fiscal year 2027. NYC Core is a product of a 2022 ballot measure introduced to address long-standing racial disparities and power access and opportunity enabled and perpetuated whether by design or implementation or impact through city laws regulations policies and practices. To accomplish this goal, New Yorkers called for a body to be established for the purpose of holding government accountable for advancing racial equity and empowering community members to influence city decision-making through the development and implementation of priorities for racial equity planning in government operations and the citywide budget. Today's testimony is delivered at a time in our nation and city when communities harmed by racism and social injustice, our immigrant, LGBTQIA plus elders, youth, individuals impacted by policing and incarceration, and black, indigenous, Latinx, and Asian New Yorkers experience increasing cost of living, low wages, and physical and psychological harm through continued cuts in service delivering resources. In our city, black residents experience the lowest life expectancy, followed by the Latinx community. According to our own data, black residents make up a majority of adult families and single adults in shelters, while Latinx fam residents are a majority of families with children in shelters. Black residents, when compared to white residents, are less likely to own their own home and experience deed theft at a higher rate than either Latinx or white homeowners. Child's welfare data reveals that almost 45% of black and Latinx children experience an investigation by age 18 and that black and latinx families account for 90% of system involved families despite constituting only 60% of the city's child population. Due to changes in the federal policy, federal health policy, black families across major cities in the US, including New York City, are expected to pay as much as a 24% increase in medical care while continuing to face deep theft, segregated schooling, and high rates of unemployment. These outcomes are not inevitable, but are a product of government policies and practices that continue to yield a widening racial gap in New York City, which underscores the truth of our city. Race remains the single and most important factor in determining the outcomes of New Yorkers. New York City Corps was established to expressly redress the inequities created by the racial wealth gap. As an FY25, we wrestled with and took great pains to overcome challenges to our ability to meet this mandate over the past fiscal year. Operating for much of the last year at less than full capacity, existing staff invested inordinate time and energy into initiating the second racial equity planning cycle, advancing intergovernmental projects, and producing the deliverables outlined in the racial equity provisions of the city's administrative code. Our team worked with 70 organizations and increase participation in community community engagement cycles by 16% which included a 27% increase in respondents under the age of 25 and respondents who lived in the 33 highne tree neighborhoods and increases in responses from residents who lived in Staten Island, Manhattan, and the Bronx. In surveying these New Yorkers on the relative urgency of our original 18 community equity priorities, NYC Corps learned that the issues most vital to them, lowering the cost of living, preserving safe and stable housing, and holding city officials accountable for abuse of authority, closely parallels the new administration's focus on affordability, and restoration of the rule of law. It is our hope that this correlation will induce the mayor to release the long delayed racial equity plan and true cost of living measure. Over the past year, NYC core and community organizations have continued to host additional convenings to address the intersection of racial equity and the cost of living. Along with Miss Tekka, Africana, Laca, and several other organizations, NYC Corps co-hosted an immigration justice conference, a full day convening of attorneys and organizations to advance immigrant rights and access to legal support. We work closely with government and community community partners to operationalize a New York City Council on Family Investigations, separations, and well-being, which is a community created policy solution to address long-standing systemic racism in children and family welfare system. Fiscal year 2026 also saw the launch of reparations, truth healing, and reconciliation, historic work not only for our city, but also for our nation. Following extensive engagement, excuse me, with both local community members and reparations truth healing reconciliation scholars and practitioners around the country, New York City Corps released its first progress report on the study of reparations. These outreach activities were coupled with the development of a testimony guide book for truth and reconciliation process that New York City CPS is charged with planning in tandem with the New York City study on reparations. NYC course progress with this initiative was likewise documented in a written update submitted to council at the start of the year. With this foundation in place, we are currently in the process of soliciting organizations to join a reparations truth healing and reconciliation network designed to inform NYC's work on these projects and are preparing to issue a solicitation for reparations research proposals. In view of the derailment of reparations projects in other major metropolitan areas, it is imperative that New York City Corps receive the necessary resources to conduct this historic work with the dignity and respect required at a time of growing local and national racial discord. To meet our historic and legal mandates, we need increases in our operation and personnel resources. In the remaining months of FY2026, we need to repurpose $500,000 from our personnel budget to operations. Funds will be used to continue public engagement and respond to the forthcoming racial equity plan. In fiscal year 2027, NYC core needs $6 million to complete racial equity and reparations community engagement. Our work will include but not be limited to launching public education campaigns, expanding community partnerships, conducting racial equity and community centered research and policy analysis and instituting accountability mechanisms to close the racial wealth gap and its corresponding negative impacts in health, housing, family welfare, family well-being, and more. This funding is critical to New York City CPS meeting its legal mandate as an oversight agency for racial equity planning process. Respond to requests from the speaker and other public officials to steer intergovernmental projects, addressing complaints from the public about proposed or existing policy that may have the effect of exacerbating racial inequities and implementing the city's reparations study and truth healing reconciliation process. Performing these functions in a manner consistent with the standards to which the city and the members of the public hold us will require real financial investment in NYC core. Our size and capacity remains far outstripped by the scale of its re responsibilities to plan and implement ambitious multi-year projects and the initiatives with which we've been entrusted. partnering with parent advocates on child welfare accountability council, supporting council members in the development of budget equity scoring tools, and uniting a fractured public behind the city's call for reparations and racial healing, to name but a few, require personnel and operation support. These programming duties, moreover, are accompanied by legal obligations to maintain and report on data privacy and security safeguards, record management practices, equal opportunity trends, equal employment opportunity trends, and public accessibility planning. NYC Corps faces the same expectations with regard to procurement, labor relations, fiscal oversight, ethics, and transparency standards as entities hundreds of times our size. And shoring up our bunning infrastructure is absolutely essential to the prudent stewardship and risk mitigation that the city demands. on behalf of the commission as well as the thousands of voters who affirm that our city has a duty to eliminate the racial inequities in a city where vigilance is required to prevent the reoccurrence of past or worsening of continued harms. We must act intentionally to remedy these past and continuing harms and to reconstruct, revise, and reimagine our foundation, structures, and institutions and laws to promote justice and equity for all New Yorkers. Just want to note that last section actually directly comes from our preamble. Um, thank you so much and I'm wills. >> Thank you so much um for that and and for noting that. um want to jump right in. Uh I have kind of three topic areas. The budget, headcount, vac and vacancies, and then work on the um truth healing reconciliation and reparations work. Um so, as it relates to local laws 91 and 92, um which is the truth, healing, and reconciliation process, um it looks like the preliminary plan doesn't include any changes in COR's budget. Um you all have been very proactive in communicating your needs. Um, in previous cycles, uh, what needs have you expressed to OM, um, that have not been added in the preliminary budget, and I do acknowledge you just listed out a bunch of them, but just state for the record. >> Sure. So, there are several staffing lines that we have requested that have been denied. Um and we are sub we were when the two for one hiring freeze was in place we were subject to the 2 to1 hiring freeze and that did cause delay in our hiring in FY26. Um we also are we've also asked repeatedly for additional operational funds. One of the uh notes in my testimony is that we currently have $500,000 in underspended personnel and from FY26 and we have asked OM to be able to move that in FY26 over to our operations so that we can use that money to spend on community engagement so that we can work with organizations to respond to the racial equity plan. Um, and for the um denied uh staffing line, sorry, I'm losing my brain cells. Um, you all were subject to that hiring freeze. Are you that that's been lifted? Are you able to move forward with hiring? Are you posting any jobs? >> So, right now we have all 15 full-time roles hired and accounted for. Um we have one role that is an intern role which we have an identified candidate and we're working with OM to move through the process. We are asking to hire six additional lines which are critical lines to enhance our research team, our community engagement team, our communications team and then our core operational supports. As an independent commission, we do not have support from the mayor's team or any other agency to move forward contracts, to make payments, to conduct HR actions. And so all of the um required agency roles like a privacy officer, an information officer, a procurement officer, all of that has to happen within core. Um and we have and a records officer. And so every day we learn of a new title that needs to be applied to staff members and we've not been able to give them raises either for taking on those new duties. Um we have asked in the past for our chief of staff and several other roles. Um and we are going to be submitting that today to OM as well. And um how has the how has things been uh under in terms of the interactions with OM with the new administration. Uh we have a great relationship with our task force. We're very forthcoming about what we need and also how fast we need it. We have worked with them to explain what we would do with the $500,000, how do we work with community groups. We did in fiscal year 2026 go over our organizing budget and have had to pull from other internal budget lines spending close to a million dollars just on community groups and civic participation. Um and because of that we felt like that was the strong argument to say well the $500,000 and underspend really shouldn't just be sitting there. We can we will put it to use as we've done this past year with our budget. >> Right. Um I know you all had uh moved offices last year. Are we we're good with that? We're Is there any >> Well, we still have several launch costs that we're having to pay for. So, we are setting up Wi-Fi in our office right now. We do need to get other things like a large printer for the office. Um there are some key pieces, but I do want to note that it has been communicated to us that core is no longer considered a new agency. And so we do have to find funds in our office for launch costs which we are only two and a half years old and we just moved into 22 Reed our new space about six months ago and so we went from borrowed space to our own space that we need to outfit. >> Right. >> Yeah. I don't I just like I don't know how they're Anyways, I'll reserve my comment. >> Oh, sorry. One more thing. until I eat something. >> I do want to note that part of our launch costs for our agency is also we have to buy into sign language contracts, language line contracts, and translation contracts. And uh and so we will need operational money for that as well. >> Understood. And and you'll let us know what those costs are. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, for the November plan in 2024, it included a million in the FY2026 and 500,000 in FY27 for the implementation of local law 91. It also included a million in FY26 and 1.3 million in FY27 for local law 92. There has been no increase in funding level for either of these mandates. Um, how is CORE's current budget allowed to carry out its mandates. I mean, it sounds like you're telling me, but again, for the record, >> so the local law 91 and 92, which we refer to as title 34 of the administrative code, is one of our main priority asks. It is our first priority ask. We absolutely need to increase the amount of money that we are putting in to reparations, truth, healing, reconciliation. After doing a national landscape that led to the first report on reparations, it it was clear to us that we are spending the least amount of money doing this work when compared to every other jurisdiction that has similar mandates and is establishing a study. Um, this is truly, I think, a complete atrocity. You know, New York City is the center hold. Black people were the first commodity. They made New York City's finance financial district was created because of child slavery. This is a place where we need absolutely to financially invest in this work. We also need to create a reparations public education campaign. And right now the local law has a public education campaign for truth, healing, reconciliation. we need to do a comparable campaign for reparations and so that's part of the ask for the additional funds. Secondly, the research study is focused on how government has perpetuated harm. We are soliciting proposals now, but we do anticipate that researchers will need to continue the work as we city government has grown of course over time. We have over 60 agencies that they will need to be looking at and all of their archival records for as long as those agencies have existed. So we do need to make sure that the researchers are also funded. And then the last and most significant piece is that we have a community centered model for reparations to healing reconciliation. We have been told by other jurisdictions that the model that we are building is turning out to be a national model. We will be issuing the first ever truth testimony guide book. And we have worked with UN experts to develop this particular guide book. And that's a guide book that will allow for all New Yorkers and anyone that has a connection to New York and a story either that was passed down in their family or their experience living during Jim Crow and the legacy of slavery. We will have to create an archive that takes in every single story. And so we have to have that on our website. We are going to be working very closely with doors to ensure that all of the stories are included in the city's history as well. All of this takes additional investment. >> And while we're on that, I did have some questions on it. Um I I I heard what you said in terms of some other folks contributing to it, but who was going to prepare the guide book? So we core is developing the guidebook and we hired a consultant to support us who's worked on truth and reconciliation commissions on an international scale. >> Uh we have a full draft of the guide book now that we're turning into training material for the forthcoming um reparations and truth healing reconciliation organizations that will be a part of the network. >> Um and then my last few questions and then I'll open it up in case um councilly. Okay. Um so just in terms of the truth healing reconciliation reparations report um you all had put out a call for input. Um what was the most outstanding feedback that core considered impactful from from the call for input? >> The call to community organizations. >> It said um uh in your November 2025 report you said um core put out a call for input asking for how the commission should execute the work required. So what was the kind of like big takeaway there? >> The big takeaway was the role that community wants to ensure that they play in this reparations work that many members feel like has not happened whether it be on the state side, our New York State Commission or in other jurisdictions. Community members shared with us that they want to be a part of the creation of the report. They want to see drafts before it goes out. They want to actively participate in creating preparative policies and really work hand inhand with the commission and our team to make sure that there are part of every single step that there should be no surprises in whatever the preliminary report says or what the final report says with respect to policies that will be issued. The second most critical piece is the um is really the focus on what happens after the report is done. And so we do ask in our new needs not only for an additional 3 million for reparations for FY27 but also for FY28. The report is set to be done by that time. And the most critical component is making sure that community members and elected officials un not only understand what's in the report but actually take action on the report. The truth healing reconciliation legislation has one single line at the end of the bill that says one year after that report is complete core is to implement the citywide process that we've created. Reparations has no such line, but we know that we cannot move forward as a city to fulfill our charter mandate if we are not actually moving forward on the reparations policies. And in order to do that, we need to continue engagement past the final release of the report and ensure that community members are with us every step of the way. >> Understood. Um, and then for the Weeksville Heritage Center, uh, citywide gathering from June of last year, what was the cost of that? That cost approximately $60,000 across both materials, space, food, contractors, >> and it was the first of three, right, that you're required to have? >> Yes, we are. That is it was the first of three. That's correct. Yeah. And um do you anticipate needing more events beyond the three? >> Absolutely. We are planning a public education campaign that includes burrowbased community events, working with community organizations to have hyper localal events. This the June 10th gathering was really the launch of bringing people together, bringing testimony together. We had a follow-up event on Junth also in partnership with Tyreek Washington. Both events were done in partnership with Tyreek Washington. Our first event uh centered the really the focus was community wants to work closely with government and the very first step that they told us in our call was we want to co-develop the values of this work with you and these are values that researchers, the core team, anyone working on this project are going to begin to align with. And that's what we did together on June 10th. That was the first ever citywide gathering to our knowledge that the city has ever held because it was government-ledd. June, we had one on Junth and then we also had the November 19th celebration. And what we are looking to do once the network is uh put together which we are doing over the next two or three weeks and the researcher solicitation is out is being able to launch a broad-based burrowwide campaign accompanied with a social media campaign. And I I have a little off-the- cuff question and because I don't know the tech technical rules around it, but are you all able to partner with uh like private philanthropic organizations that are invested in this kind of work either through community organizations that you're partnering with? I mean, are are there partners here who can um not not help the city sidestep its financial obligations to this mandate mandate, but to supplement and and That's what you the work you all are laying out. >> Well, there are three critical things that would have to happen in order for us to do that. I would say first off, yes, we can do that. However, what we would need first is staff who is able to both apply for those grants and work with the funders. We do not have a strategic private partnership planner and so that is an ask. We would also need to open up a bank account in order to be able to bring in philanthropy dollars. Um, as an independent commission, it is our responsibility to do that work. We actually just created an impress fund so that we can give our staff reimbursements, but this is really all a part of launching an independent commission. And I should say that we are the only independent commission in the city that has citywide engagement mandates. And so when we raise, we have procure, we have to do our own procurement. We work on our own labor issues. We need the necessary staff to do that. We have a procurement team of two, me and a senior associate for fiscal a senior fiscal associate and we have had to figure out procurement on our own. Whereas other agencies have teams of 30 or 40 people and job aids and directions to be able to do this. So, we would be happy to go out and start working with philanthropy, but we need a robust infrastructure in order to be able to do that. >> Um, okay. That that's helpful to hear. And um, one of the things that um, myself and and council member Stevens and and other um, black council members, we're partnering with the state black task force. We requested funding for you all from the state because we think the state should be contributing given that they also have work up there that they're advancing. So, um it seems that it it shouldn't be all on the city. Um certainly we know we can't rely on the federal government right now, but this is this is a this is a a stain on our on our on our country that needs to be addressed by as many partners as possible. So, it would make sense that you all can get a bank account. um and like we should work to get them some basic needs. And I'll turn it over to uh Council Member Lee. >> Sorry, just really quickly because I came from the nonprofit world and started off my nonprofit career with the foundation world and I'm just I may send some folks your way. One of the things I think we can think creatively about is how to do more public private partnerships because I do think that's very much needed um in different spaces. But yeah, the procurement process I I really uh commend you all for having to do that on your own because that is not easy having gone through it many times myself. So it's there's there's lags there. So it's this is helpful to hear um and helps us understand what the needs are. So thank you. >> Yeah, I would add that that calling it a procurement team is kind of overstating it. Um, and I do think like just to echo um the testimony of of EPC, you know, like not only is it, you know, does it undermine efficiency of the existing staff that have to wear these different hats and to a degree undermine morale, but it really does present an element of risk to the city when you have people who are not, you know, don't have dedicated staff to do work that really should be done by dedicated staff. We don't have a dedicated staff. We don't have any IT staff like that. Think about privacy and security. >> Is there a reason why the city cannot be um kind of allowing independent commissions to pull these kinds of basic >> office operations that are required? I like I don't understand that you need to be independent for the content and the work that you're doing, but that shouldn't be impacted by an IT guy. Like that seems insane. So, >> well, the onus comes back on the commission and they'll say, "Well, maybe you should talk to other commissioners and figure out who should have the staff line." And >> that that was raised in one conversation. Um, and that's actually quite difficult to do. You know what I what I want to make clear here is we are a team of 15. We have three we have a team of four community organizers that are going to be responsible for getting citywide engagement on the racial equity plan. You know, we have but only so many people and so much time to stretch to then start to create all these shared services and make the case with OM and OM will not give us a line if they feel like there isn't enough work for that staff member. >> Yeah. No, I I understand and and maybe that's something we need to work on for all of these different commissions to even just have a little pool for you all to outsource those kinds of things that that frees up your staff lines to do other stuff. I just and somebody can take one for the team and hold the staff lines and we all just acknowledge that. I mean, this is just it just this is embarrassing quite frankly. Um I'm I'm new to this committee obviously so I'm just disappointed in what I'm hearing um in terms of the resources but I know council member >> No just really quickly um to your point chair nurse um I guess I had more of a big picture question and I don't know if it's for you guys or just all the different subcommittees I mean sub agencies that are part of this committee but um because I know that in my time when I was at my former nonprofit back in the day department for the aging used to do a lot of pulled group purchasing Right. And they actually extended that to their um providers, right? So, we were able to benefit from the health insurance that they had as well as a lot of the vendors that they had access to. And I just wonder if something like that, especially when we're talking about um looking at efficiencies, I wonder if there's something like that that can be done at least within certain groupings of agencies and commissions that make sense um to be able to share some of those resources because a lot of the know your rights work, the campaigns, like there's got to be a way to maybe centralize some of that a little bit more because I know that a lot of agencies are wanting and wanting to do more of that, especially now. So yeah, I don't know. I'm just throwing something out there because >> same I I'm a little Yeah, >> basic stuff like right, you know, if if everybody needs HR. I mean, whatever. These are like we're now just like ranting. But um and it's that's a sign that I need to we need to get moving so we can all eat and get people where they need to go. But um I just want to thank you all for coming again. and we're looking forward to partnering and um looking forward to uh the release of the plan. Um so we will be all collectively holding the feet to the fire on that and um yeah, we'll be following up with you all. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you all. All right. Um, we're going to now open up the hearing for public testimony. I remind members of the public that this is a formal government proceeding and that the quorum shall be observed at all times. As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony, but may submit uh that stuff in their and and transcripts of such recordings to the Sergeant-at-Arms for inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please out please fill out an appearance card with the Sergeant-at-Arms and wait to be recognized. When recognized, you will have three minutes to speak on today's topic. If you have written testimony uh or additional statements you uh you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that to the sergeant at arms, you may also email written testimony to testimony at councsil.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. Okay. So, our first panel is going to be Nicole Sik, um, Rebecca Cook Mack, Evet Chen, Reggie Chapman. And I thank you all for a very long day of waiting. and you can begin when you're ready. >> Make sure the um red light's on. Good afternoon. Um and I hate to be between folks and food, so I apologize in advance. I know I can barely think uh when I don't have enough food, so I'm sorry about that. Um my name is Nicole Sulk. I'm actually sitting here with a number of members. Um, I I work at Legal Services NYC, but a lot of us are part of the New York City Human Rights Law Working Group, which has been around since 2014, trying to do something about the underfunding of the New York City Human Rights Commission. Um, and we're back here again. Um, and I I I'm submitting testimony, so I'll try to be very brief. Um, the preliminary budget for the CCHR, as you know, is uh 14,961,000. This would be the first budget decrease in five years for the CCHR. And to provide historical perspective, I've actually been doing this work for a really long time. I've been at legal services for almost 30 years um and doing workers rights for um close to 20. Um to provide historical perspective, the CCHR has 109 staff members, which is less than half the number of staff that the CCHR had had under the Dinkens administration in 1992. a time when the C CCHR served fewer people and forced less expansive laws. Under both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administration's funding for the CCHR was decimated in 2013. The commission had less than 60 employees and the commission gained the reputation of being a place to avoid if you wanted justice. Well, and I just want to say we are so thankful to the to the city council for creating really the most robust anti-discrimination um and protective laws in the entire country and this commission needs to be a place that can enforce those incredible important laws especially at this time. So while funding increased during the Delasio administration and the commission was able to begin work towards fulfilling its mandates, the commission has never been able to properly investigate many cases of discrimination or do the affirmative anti-discrimination work it has been tasked to do. Um from the beginning of 2022 through the end of 2025, the budget for the commission actually increased slightly each year. However, um as you probably know, and I know you've heard lots of testimony today about um problems with OM slowdowns and uh which has caused a lot of qualified candidates who are forced to wait for months for approval and the PEGs and vacancies not being able to approve. And so now the commission I think has over 30 vacancies because of this. It's really causing a problem. So I just wanted to I I know I have very little time. I just have I wanted to tell you about um one of my clients in a case that I have there who the client was um faced sexual harassment. They continue on the job. That case was filed more than four years ago or approximately four years ago. They are still facing sexual harassment on the job because that employer has not been held accountable and that's because of in part because of the resources um and not having people assigned to that case. They are now addressing it, but it's taken a long time. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I'm Rebecca Cookmack. I'm a staff attorney in the employment law unit, the Legal Aid Society, and I'm a member of the Human Rights Law Working Group. And thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you for this long day. Um, the preliminary budget proposal compounds rather than addresses the chronic underfunding the New York City Commission on Human Rights has been subjected to since the pandemic and before. As Nicole testified, the proposal cuts the commission's budget by almost 10%. And this would be, as Nicole said, the first budget decrease in years, and it's a mistake. Cutting the commission's budget means that New Yorkers will wait longer for justice and our human rights laws will go under enforced. So we're we join you in calling on the mayor to reverse course and invest in the commission so it's funded at $25 million in FY27. This is less than 0.02% of the city's $127 billion FY27 preliminary budget. It's a rounding error, but funding the commission at 25 million and allowing it to hire and fill lines will allow Commissioner Clark to build a robust civil rights enforcement agency for New Yorkers at a time when the federal government has become hostile to these rights. Commissioner Clark takes the reigns at a time when the commission is more important than ever and she cannot succeed if the city does not give her the resources necessary to do the job and the preliminary budget doesn't get under her. In FY 2019, which is precoid, the commission fielded 9,84 inquiries from the public. In FY25, that number grew by 158% to 15,532. More New Yorkers sought help from the commission than they did before the pandemic. And this should be no surprise, right? We have passed laws like the fair chance for housing law that expanded the commission's role, but we have done that without sort of suitably increasing its funding. In FY25, just 3% of those 15,500 New Yorkers who called the commission for help had complaints filed by the commission to be investigated. The number of pre-omplaint resolutions is down too. Precoid there were 537 pre-complaint resolutions and in FY25 that had fallen to 327. These are very small numbers. Um uh council member Haneie asked about um modifications for accessibility earlier and that's down by more than half from 174 precoid to just 61 in FY25. So more people called and fewer people got help. And help is also taking longer to get. In FY25, the average age of a complaint with the commission is 614 days. So that's over a year and a half. The commission today helps two people and too few people and it helps them too slowly. And we can do better. Commissioner Clark has inherited a commission that is not serving New Yorkers at a time when New Yorkers have nowhere else to turn. So, the time to reinvest has arrived, and we're glad council is is calling for for more money and pressing the mayor to make sure he gives Commissioner Clark the tools necessary to do the work she was hired for. In his inaugural address, the mayor acknowledged the transformative moment we are in and promised to govern expansively and audaciously. And so we call on council and the mayor to fund the commission at 25 million so that the commission can do its part to meet the vision and protect New Yorkers from discrimination, thereby building a better and more just city for us all. So thank you for allowing us to testify today and we look forward to working together on this. Hello, my name is Evette Chen. I'm a policy associate at the Fair Housing Justice Center, a civil rights nonprofit organization serving the NYC area. Our mission is to eliminate housing discrimination, promote accessible and inclusive communities, and strengthen the enforcement of fair housing laws. Chair Sandy Nurse and the Committee on Civil and Human Rights, thank you for the opportunity to testify. As a member of the human rights law working group, we asked city council to reverse the mayor's proposed budget cut and increase the CCHR budget to $25 million. This budget cut is the first budget decrease for CCHR in the last 5 years as mentioned. And CCHR needs the ability to spend this money immediately, roll it over yeartoyear, and hire staff to best fulfill their mission. This is especially important given the rollbacks and instability on the federal level. CCHR has a critical role in enforcing NYC's fair housing laws to eliminate source of income and disability discrimination and implement the fair chance in housing law. A well-funded commission can efficiently investigate complaints and provide meaningful relief to New Yorkers experiencing discrimination. Source of income discrimination is the most common housing complaint with more than 600 claims filed last year. Without sufficient staff to process cases promptly, voucher holders lose housing opportunities and this undermines critical rental assistance programs like city feeps. Disability discrimination is the second most common complaint. Reasonable modification requests such as ramps or grab bars are time-sensitive and essential to basic access. New Yorkers are waiting months or even years to be able to safely enter or reuse their own homes. Finally, the fair chance in housing law, which took effect January 1st, 2025, expanded protections for people with criminal records. Council finance estimated that CCHR needs 1.4 million to hire staff and provide public education on the new provision. Yet, CCHR has not received additional funding to educate the public or enforce this new law. CCHR is obligated to enforce the law effectively and ensure that the promise of fair housing is real for all New Yorkers and so we call on the city to increase the AY's budget to 25 million. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. >> Um thank you chair nerves and members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to testify. My name is Reggie Chapman. I'm the director of policy at the forest and society's David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy. I'm also a formerly incarcerated person who spent 25 years in prison. As with many others, my conviction record made it difficult for me to find housing. So, thus I have professional and lived experience with respect to this issue. Um, I would like to refer to my written testimony and be succinct as I'm referring to the budgetary issue. Uh, simply put, we cannot have laws on the book that do not provide true remedies. And this is the exact circumstance we are creating. We fail to resource and fund the commission on human rights. We do thank the council for pushing for more funding last year which didn't materialize in the budget but simply we must do more and we need more money. The fortune society is honored to successfully lead the fair chance for housing campaign as well as the comm coalition. In December of 2023, the commission on human rights submitted a physical impact statement for the fair chance for housing act indicating that it needed $1.4 million to hire 10 new staff attorneys and to do a public education campaign alone. Unfortunately, the city did not provide that. As a result, they were unable to do so. Fortunately, nonprofits in the coalition took up that responsibility. In doing so, we trained CCR staff, city council constituent services, state electeds, and numerous nonprofits, and hundreds of directly impacted people. We even got materials that we created into Rakas Island to provide people with their rights and let them know their rights. Uh further using private funds, we launched a public education campaign on the side of city buses and bus depots. We also have nonprofit attorneys in our uh networks drafting complaints for submission to CCHR to help individuals facilitate their complaints. But we nonprofits, we can't do it all and we cannot enforce the law. I focused on the Fair Chance for Housing Act today, but this is bigger than one law. And finally, I would like to say that budgets are value statements. And if we really believe in equity, especially in these times, we must provide CCHR more funding, specifically 10 million dollars more funding in FY 2027 and exempt them from hiring freezes as well as PEGs. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um, I'd love if you all have more, um, stories, like human stories, um, that help New Yorkers understand what the impact of this funding is and what happens when we don't have it. We could really use some of those to to help um, do do stronger advocacy. So, please let me know. Um, but thank you all for for staying and hanging and testifying. And we're going to call up our next panel. Thank you all. Um, Jonathan Eber Eber uh, Fi Akina, I'm so sorry. Dr. Robin, and Michelle Lions. And if I butchered your name, I apologize. Feel free to correct me. And you can begin when you're ready. Uh, good afternoon. My name is Jonathan Eber. I'm a program manager on the New York policy team at Enterprise Community Partners. Uh, we're a nationwide affordable housing nonprofit. Uh, chair nurse, thank you so much for holding this hearing, for staying so late, uh, for joining our rally this morning. We really appreciate all your support. Um, I'm a member of the human rights law working group as well. So, I'm also calling for this $25 million increase in FY27. It's $10 million up from the uh mayor's preliminary budget proposal. Um but I'll talk a little bit specifically about source of income discrimination. Um so as an affordable housing nonprofit, we are acutely aware of how important fair housing enforcement is. Uh discrimination really is worsening our city's housing crisis. It entrenches inequality and segregation. uh and SOI discrimination specifically is undermining New York City's really commendable uh investments in rental assistance programs recently that are a pathway to housing for so many New Yorkers. Um and it's been over 10 years since New York City has passed source of income laws, but tenants are still facing pervasive discrimination. They're getting ghosted or uh rejected outright or frozen where you know uh they're not getting texts back. Uh, and the mayor's management report has noted a decrease in voucher utilization rates and median search times over the past three years. Um, the NYU Ferman Center uh reported a couple years ago that only about 53% of NICHA section 8 recipients were able to find housing within 180 days. Um, a lot of that is due to discrimination. And so as the city is implementing new uh voucher programs, investing in city feeps and the housing access voucher program that HPD is rolling out, uh it really has to confront these barriers caused by discrimination. Um we're looking forward to the future of the commission. It's being reinvigorated by a new commissioner who really understands fair housing laws, but the agency remains underfunded um hiring restrictions that make it too slow to respond to New Yorkers needs. So in addition to the additional 10 million uh we are also urging the city to exempt CCHR from the OM policy of aotment, the two for one hiring freeze, the PEGs, all of that. Um and that's it. Thank you. Good afternoon, chair nurse, and thank you for holding this hearing. My name is Fumia Kinawanu, the senior policy analyst for the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies. Um we are social policy and advocacy organization that advocates for economic security for all New Yorkers. Um, like many of my colleagues, I'm also a member of the Human Rights Law Working Group. Um, I I'll try not to parrot too many of the same points, but um, CCHR is critically underfunded and understaffed and it has been chronically so for several years. And this has created um a real gap between the robust nature of New York City's um human rights law and the reality that New Yorkers are being are not able to receive justice. Um in a context in which the city has been um so invested in affordability, it is it undermines all of the city's efforts. If you know it's housing um those who receive housing vouchers are facing source of income discrimination and don't have a forum to address this issue or um those who are you know seeking employment are uh facing harassment and don't have a place to enforce their rights. Um so this has a a particularly high impact on low-wage workers through across the city. Um and in this, you know, particular moment in which the federal counterparts for CCHR, EEOC, HUD, um the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, these agencies that would enforce employment discrimination, housing discrimin address housing discrimination, and um discrimination in education um for those with disab If all of those protections are not um enforceable at the federal level due to changes in policies uh due to reductions in staff, it is incredibly critical as it has always been critical for people to have a forum in order to enforce those rights. And so CCHR needs to increase its funding to 25 million um as well as um address the cumbersome processes including the two for one aotment. um within OM that are uh preventing CCHR from filling its vacancies, but also in this moment when there are so many talented attorneys, investigators, um folks with incredible civil rights uh experience who are leaving the federal government, CCR is losing the opportunity to recruit and hire these folks. Um and that's a real loss for New Yorkers. Um thank you so much for your time. Good afternoon. Um, chair council. My name is Michelle Lions and I reside in the Bronx. I've been there for um almost 30 years. Um, I've been having situations started in um during the pandemic back in 2009 when it started. I had problems with my employer. I had problems with my um um subsidy rent subsidy program. I had problems with my um landlord and I was unfortunately not able to get any support and assistance in reference to the agency. I'm not sure because I heard a lot of a lot of them speak up on um low they didn't have enough employees to assist me in my situation but also I wasn't I was unable to like reach out to them like you know when I lost my I'm in for employee so I don't have a phone um I don't trust the um internet I'm like very delicious with that I'm not very comfortable with that so it's difficult for me to go into these city agencies and state agency if they ask me um do you have a phone? Do you have a um telephone email and I I speak to them and I say unfortunately not um for some reason I don't know if it's just a security purposes or what um a new security in the system don't allow me to get any type of support as like go to the reach out to them. They don't even make an attempt to even call them to let them know my situation. So, they probably don't even know I'm there. This is the security guard I'm I'm referring to and not the agencies that, you know, I'm coming for support and let them address address my concerns to them. Um, that's basically what I'm trying to do. I just I'm looking for someone to help me because I'm in a process of being convicted um um um evict eviction and I need some lawyer support, some assistance in reference to helping me um um prevent me from becoming homeless. So, um I'm coming to the council to see if anything like they can do cuz I try to reach out to my um councilman my but they just changed them changes. So, I guess they trying to like get things because it's new. So, I'm having difficulties with the the staff of um reaching out to them. So, but I don't know. I I'm just coming for help. I don't know what >> if you can uh give your Well, I guess you don't have a phone, right? Is what you're saying? >> Okay. >> I have a currently I have an address. >> Um >> Okay. Okay. We have your address. So, um, let's see who your council member is. >> We can Sorry. >> Oh, go ahead. >> I'm not sure if you familiar with the article 78. I don't know if you're familiar with that cuz I'm trying I'm sorry. I'm trying >> I'm trying to prevent my subsidy pro um my rent subsidy program from terminating my section um my section A due to me not able to reach out to them due to the changes during the co me um trying to reach out to them through phone um coming up in to the agency and not successful getting to them. So that's I need help in that as well. >> Okay. So let me think for a minute. Um, if you hang if you just hang here for a little bit, let me think about what a next step could be and and how we can get you connected to someone to support. >> Um, thank you so much for your testimony. Really appreciate it. Thank you all for being here. Um, and we'll definitely be continuing the conversation. >> Thank you. Um, now online, we have uh Crystal Gutierrez. Um, if you're there, you're you can begin. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? >> We can hear you. You can begin. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Christoville Gutierrez. Uh I'm a staff attorney for Make the Road New York and I am here as part of uh the working the New York City Human Rights Law working group as well. Uh mainly testify and thank you chair council member Sandy Nurse for your leadership and uh the committee. Uh I'm here mainly to testify as to why it's important that the commission is duly funded in the 25 million that we're asking. And it's because undocumented workers really can't go anywhere else other than the commission when they face discrimination and uh including sexual harassment at the workplace and or in their housing or public accommodations. Uh the federal government has increased immigration enforcement against undocumented workers to a level that has not been priorly seen in our country. And the surveillor Their surveillance of undocumented workers has included sharing information between federal agencies that has been protected that that has been deemed as private for decades and protected like the the IRS uh passing information to ICE. uh as advocates, we cannot in good conscience advise our clients to go to federal enforcement agencies like the EEOC or the Department of Housing and Urban Development because of the risk that they could share our clients personal information with immigration authorities. The state division of human rights is an agency that really does not have the capacity to take the cases and we have not gone to them for over a decade. I would say all these categories. We have the one of the most uh progressive laws in the country because we have such uh great number of protected categories like perceived immigration status or gender identity or race. And all these categories can only uh perceived immigration status, gender identity and national origin. National origin is more complicated but uh perceived immigration status and gender identity. They can only go to the commission to find meaningful uh redress. And I want to share uh a client of mine uh Teresa who worked at a mass massage parlor and was brutally raped by her employer fearing the retalation and the loss of her sole s source of income. She was forced by her employer into performing sex work in the m massage. >> Thank you for your testimony. Time has expired. >> Thank you. I just will finish. under the threat of being accused of infidelity to her husband. Mrearely five years later, the case still remains in the at the commission without uh proper uh redress. We have probable cause, but we really don't have anything else. Uh I ask and request that uh a city council you please uh increase the budget of the commission. Thank you. >> Uh thank you Crystal Ball. And if you um are submitting written testimony as well, we'd love to hear more about that case. What to to the degree in which you can share um so we can use it to further advocate. But thank you for your testimony. Okay, I think we've we've reached the end of the road, friends. Um thank you all. Thank you to you all here behind the days with me. And thank you to the sergeants and all the tech people. Okay, thank you all. We're closing the hearing.