Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. every day. He Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey hey hey. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. I'm council member Sandy Nurse and I serve as chair to the committee on civil and human rights. This is my first hearing as chair for this committee. So, I first want to thank our wonderful committee staff um who were here at city hall very late last night um for helping me to get into shape on all things civil and human rights committee. Um and also thank you to my deputy chief of staff Fran who is here supporting me as well. Um we are here with council members um Lynn Schulman, Crystal Hudson, and I saw Shauna um around. Um, I want to congratulate uh you, Commissioner, on your appointment and uh looking forward to working with you. Um, and nice to meet you, Deputy Commissioner Nagash. Nagosh, I got it right. Okay. Uh, also looking forward to um the discussion later with the uh Commission on Racial Equity with Executive Director Linda Tagani. And we'll hear also later from Logan Clark from the New York City Independent Budget Office. So to everyone else in the room, thank you for being here. Nice to meet you all. The charter reforms of 2022 established a bianial cycle of racial equity planning and reporting in conjunction with the city's budgeting budget planning process. This process is intended to connect racial equity commitments to quantifiable outcome oriented metrics including resource allocation and consistent monitoring. In addition, the mayor and the mayor's office of equity and racial justice, also known as morj, must issue a cost of living measure each year by March 31st. This measure is intended to provide a more realistic assess estimate of the cost of living in New York City compared to traditional cost of living measures so as to enable the finalized city budget to more accurately account for New Yorkers actual needs and struggles. Unfortunately, no racial equity plans or progress reports have ever been issued. In my opinion, it is one of the biggest failures of the Adams administration that he did not prioritize and produce these plans. The Commission on Racial Equity or CORE cannot fully perform its charter mandate without a comprehensive, transparent, and measurable set of REPs to evaluate. These charter reforms are intended to promote transparency and accountability for city government. and in not issuing them in a timely manner, we risk further damaging the trust the people of New York have in their government. While I recognize that the timing of this hearing means we are hearing from a brand new administration uh with new appointments um which has inherited the delays of the previous one, the Adams administration's failure to comply with the charter must not prevent a transparent examination of the city's budget preparations and negotiations for this year's budget. Today, this committee will be looking for an update from MORJ on its progress in bringing the city into compliance with the charter. The city has been working on these plans for a while now, and there should be plenty of action items and recommendations that can be discussed today. Sharing this information is key to the transparency and accountability that are at the heart of the racial equity planning process. I also look forward to hearing from CORE about its plans and capacity to evaluate the fiscal year 2027 budget with or without access to the city's racial equity plans and true cost of living metric. I'm hoping we can have a productive and meaningful conversation about the progress and challenges of this process to better understand how we can work toward a more equitable city. I want to reiterate that I'm looking forward to working with everyone in this room. The goal is to get the plans. The goal is to achieve racial equity. Um, I hope you can uh see the council as a partner on this and as a body to share in the problem solving where we have challenges. And I will now pass it to committee council to administer the oath. >> Good morning. Um, could you please raise your right hands? Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth today before this committee? Yes. >> Oh, sorry. Yes. >> Thank you very much. You may begin. >> Okay. Uh good morning, Chair Nurse, uh members of the committees on civil human rights, members of the council and the public. Uh my name is Afiamensa. Thank you. Uh and I serve as New York City's chief equity officer and commissioner of the mayor's office of equity and racial justice. I am pleased to be joined by Dashosh Nagosh, deputy commissioner, and other members of the MOERJ team. Thank you for providing uh me the opportunity to speak before this committee today to properly introduce myself and to provide insight and information about the work of the Office of Equity and Racial Justice. You prior to serving in this role, I had the privilege of working with and on behalf of low-income New Yorkers as an attorney with the Legal Aid Society and with other legal services providers. Thereafter, I worked uh for community voices heard, leading its efforts to build the power of communities of color across New York before going on to serve as the chief of programs for community change, a national powerbuilding institution that provides campaign advocacy, electoral, and policy support to grassroots organizations across the country. Most importantly, I am a New Yorker who believes deeply in the transformative power of individuals who come together for their communities, and I am committed to building a just and equitable New York. I think it is important to provide some background on the office of equity and racial justice which was established as the city's centralized office that takes on an intersectional approach to advance equity across our city. Our mandate is rooted in a simple but powerful belief that every New Yorker deserves the opportunity to live, work, and thrive with dignity. To realize that vision, moj brings 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, including the Commission on Gender Equity, which works to ensure our city leads in the development and implementation of best practices in gender equitable policies and programs with a focus on economic mobility, health, and safety. the NYC Unity Project, which works to address inequities amongst LGBTQ New Yorkers, particularly youth, people of color, and TGNCB people, as well as the New York Men's Initiative and NYC her future sibling offices focused on addressing inequities among young men of color and young women of color respectfully, respectively, and education, employment, health, and justice. Our existence as an office is one that was guided by the will of the people of the city. New Yorkers overwhelmingly voted to embed racial equity and justice in our city's charter, which included documenting a vision and outlining a statement of values to guide how we carry out the work of government and serve the people, establishing the infrastructure to advance equity, including the creation of our office and the commission on racial equity, as well as development of the of New York City's first citywide racial equity plan, and ensuring we not only measure what it costs to meet basic needs, but to live with dignity in our city. The previously mentioned foundational values in the preamble of the city charter have served as the office's compass and urges all in government to justly value all talents and contributions, ensure the conditions for thriving for every person, and embrace vigilance, remedy, and reconstruction. As the office charged with implementing these mandates, our team has continued to translate our values into action and uplift these mandates with an eye towards transforming government. As I shared, an important part of the office's work is developing and implementing the citywide racial equity plan, including individual agency uh racial equity plans every two years and progress reports during off years. According to our charter, the city's plan should include short and long-term goals, outcome measures, and strategies to reduce racial disparities. The Commission on Racial Equity works to ensure community voice is integrated into the planning process, sharing community equity priorities and outcome indicators to inform the plan as it is crafted. The MOERJ team designed a planning process aimed at moving government towards equity and justice together. This was not designed as a compliance exercise, rather a unique opportunity for our city to work together longer work together toward longer term transformation. Over 40 agencies and 200 plus staff were engaged in the process and they were asked to review their priorities relative to the foundational values of the charter assess disparity data and community equity priorities and commute com create short midterm and long-term goals and strategies that are responsive. The office supported agencies throughout the process of developing plans, leading full-day training workshops, developing planning tools to guide the process, providing continuous support throughout the process, including dedicated office hours and one-on-one technical assistance. As a living and active plan, we aim to continue working together with city agencies and all stakeholders to upend the ways in which structural racism impacts our city. Now, prior to embarking on the citywide racial equity planning pro process that I previously described, the office set up a framework to guide the planning process and worked to understand and build on existing equity work across the city, explore the approaches, successes, and challenges of other localities advancing equity, including Philadelphia, Dallas, and and Chicago, and launch an advisory board to guide the implementation of the racial justice charter amendments, focusing on the citywide racial equity plan. The board convened over a dozen members, including local nonprofit leaders, civil rights trailblazers, and former government leaders who understand municipal operations. With that guidance and support, the office was committed to building a strategic framework necessary to not only advance equity, but support structural reform. This required the office to ensure the framework addressed the core lovers of government so the plan is sustainable. This meant centering things like service delivery, staffing, contracting, and budgeting from inception. This required integrating these core levers into the process and with regards to budgeting, working with agencies to consider if and how they allocate funds in their budget to remedy disinvestment and past harm as they contemplated how to approach their agency's plan and begin to develop it. This can mean reallocating funds to meet the needs of historically marginalized communities, expanding services in key neighborhoods experiencing long-standing disparities, and more. Given this is a living process and we will continue to refine and add to work. Morej has also continued to engage in equity and budgeting discussions over the last year including discussions with academic institutions like the new school on the development and implementation of equity and budgeting tools as well as attending and participating in two events in 2025 co-hosted by the new school institute on race power and political economy and the NYC Commission on Racial Equity. As we continue moving this process forward, we are committed to collaborating with our budget colleagues to integrate racial equity into the budgeting process by continuing to move city agencies to center equity in their own budget planning and decision-making as new needs are just a fraction of the budget and working with our city's budget office to review agency requests with a lens that evaluates if and how proposals of anti- equity. As the mayor shared on his 15th day in office, our administration is committed to releasing the city's first preliminary racial equity plan during his first 100 days in office. We look forward to releasing the preliminary plan, finalizing it with the input of the public, as well as collaborating with our agency partners on implementation, the measuring of progress, and continuous improvements to eliminate racial disparities. As a city leader, three weeks into my role, I am learning a lot about this office and its current work. I also recognize this is a living plan and the first release is preliminary preliminary. So there will be more opportunity to make updates including between the publication of of the prelim plan and the final plan which consists of a period for community feedback. Uh chair nurse I want to thank you providing this space for this discussion and I welcome any questions you or council members may have. >> Thank you so much commissioner. Um, I'm also learning about your a agency, so we're going to do this together. Um, we're just going to start right off the bat, and if any council members have questions, just let me know. We'll throw you on the list. Um, the previous administration, as we've said now, um, we know they they have failed to produce the plans, but they did draft a complete preliminary racial equity plan. Um they cited that the city's law department as an impediment to releasing it. Um we're thankful that the mayor plans to release it soon. Um we're looking forward to that. We understand the prior delays and setbacks are tied to the previous administration. Can you d uh you know give us more insight into um what obstacles remain to its immediate release um so that the public can begin to provide feedback? >> I thank you for the question. I I would frame it this way. Um there are new leaders coming into the administration every day and part and parcel of what we are doing in meeting the mayor's mandate of ensuring this comes out within his first 100 days is providing briefings and educating these new leaders as the uh staff and their agencies had already been part and parcel of our plan to to create their the plans for the individual agencies. So we are taking this time to brief leaders so that they are ready to move forward with their team um in implementation. We fully expect that we will have this plan out within the 100 day period. >> And so you just to to dive in a little bit more, you you've all looked at it, the document, do what what can you say about it? I mean, is it is it terrible? Is it is it something that um is in shape? I mean, could you just give us a little more insight into what you and and if the law department is the issue, can can we hear a little bit more about what their concerns would be? >> Again, I thank you for the question. Let me frame it this way as well. U I'm think framing is important. This is a continuation. It's living and breathing. So, I have seen aspects of the plan as each agency is is is in finalization and as we brief leaders. Um there are larger pieces of the federal landscape uh that have raised issues on uh on equity. We are lucky that in the city of New York our charter is clear and that we have a mandate that we we intend to abide by and a mayor who has made clear that is his intention. So we are moving forward with all deliberate speed and I would frame that this plan is the first. It is preliminary. It is a work in progress and and it is our intention to have a start and to be a part of making this better. So, it is an initial uh plan and we're going to continue to make progress. I want to just provide some space for my deputy to add further. >> Yeah, thank you, Commissioner. I would just also add, you know, the commissioner mentioned, you know, 200 staff across agent 40 plus agencies that have been working on this plan. These are folks who have uh spent a lot of time uh doing equity work within their agency. Um these are folks who have worked across multiple administrations. They're the people on the ground doing the real work and those are the people that have really shaped this plan and and continue to shape it with new leadership and staff coming on board. >> Okay. Um we can dive further into the plan in a little bit but um I do think understanding what the legal issues would be or what the law department's cons concerns would be would be helpful. You know we want to be partners in that and we want to share in the problem. Sometimes we have problems with the law department too. So, um, you know, it's helpful to, uh, clue us in. Um, to your knowledge, what efforts have been undertaken so far to address the community equity priorities even in the absence of citywide racial equity plans? >> Thank you for that question. Um, so I I would mention two things here. I think number one uh when we began the racial equity planning process in 2024 um we intentionally ensured that the draft equity pri the community equity priorities which at the time were draft were integrated into the assessment process with agencies. So they were reviewing um being briefed by the commission on racial equity ahead of developing their plans. Um so we've really ensured that that's been integrated from the start. Um, we're continuing to also look at the final pri priorities which were published to really see, particularly under this administration, how we can integrate that into some of our other work, whether it be the racial equity plan itself or program investments. >> Okay. Um, can you just talk a little bit more about what integrating means? Um it's very broad um in terms of how that's filtering down into agency uh what the agencies put forward when they're putting forward their pieces of the preliminary budget. >> Yeah. So let me speak to the planning process first just because you know the commissioner mentioned budgeting and equity and some of these other core levers of government were integrated into the process rather than treated as separate pieces. Um, in the beginning of the planning process, prior to starting to draft any plans, uh, we asked agencies to really look at a few things to ensure that prior to even drafting any ideas and outline for their plans that they're considering some key, um, pieces of information. And one of those things is the draft equity uh, community equity priorities. So, prior to putting ideas to paper, making sure that they understand these are things that need to inform their plans before they're drafted. Um, and community equity priorities were one of those things along with, uh, several other items we included during the assessment phase. And do you think, uh, over the last year, for example, in the last cycle, um, do you feel like those were integrated into what people put forward into their preliminary budgets? I think they were inter yeah I think they were integrated into comm or excuse me preliminary racial equity plans. Um we also made an effort to ensure that agencies were sharing with us where community equity priorities aligned with the goals within their plan to really ensure that we were doing our part to to hold our agencies and and ourselves accountable. >> Okay. Um despite uh you kind of answered this um to your knowledge, what kind of staffing or infrastructure do city agencies currently have for engaging in the racial equity planning process? >> Yeah, I I would thank you for the question. Um uh at the beginning of the racial equity planning process, we um intentionally uh made an effort to ensure that every agency formed a racial equity planning team. We provided some criteria as well as they crafted and and pulled those teams together, ensuring that they are diverse, ensuring that um they cut across different divisions of the agency so that equity work isn't sitting with one particular team or person. Um and then we've uh continued to and we we will continue to do so under our current administration to refresh those teams, bring new people in. Um and so those are the folks who have led the process um within their agencies to dra craft their plans. That being said, every agency is also um you know within that team working with their larger agency to ensure that the plan is informed by uh folks across the board. And how many how how many people usually come are and I'm asking this because I'm learning as we going. So how many people are typically a part of the a racial equity planning team within an agency? >> It varies by agency. Uh it really depends on how large or small the agency is. So it could be a team of you know five or six people. It could be a team of 10 or 12. Um it just varies based on uh agency size. >> Okay. and and have the agencies been proactive in working with you all to develop racial equity plans or do you set the interactions? So I can say it's a mix of both right. So some are looking are enthusiastic uh where they are looking to partner immediately and some are looking for more guidance but it is a mutual relationship. You want to speak to earlier? >> Yeah absolutely the commissioner is correct and um uh you know we we have a lot of agencies that or many of our agencies are also just taking a lead role in their in drafting their plans with our guidance with our framework. Okay. And then given the delay on the plan on the racial equity plan, how is your office ensuring that agencies will be sufficiently funded to implement the the plans when finalized? >> Thank you for the question. Um we uh so at the and I I'm going back to the the start of the planning process because these are things that we have to in order to uh achieve budget equity we have to integrate these things at the start of the process rather than consider them as we we move through the budget process. So uh as agencies were drafting their plans um we centered these what we call core levers of government within our framework. Um, equity and budgeting is one of those things. So, as agencies were drafting their plans, we really asked them to think about how they should potentially reallocate funds to particular neighborhoods, communities experiencing disparities. So, that's really integrated into their goals and they have to consider how they're using funds within their own agency um and and do that at the start of the process rather than, you know, um, as we're we're moving through the budget season. >> Yeah. Yeah. Correct. which is kind of makes me wonder like how we're going to account for that. I mean, do you have agencies put forward and I we we're all still diving into the prelim budget. It's unrealistic for any of us to to know everything here about it, but have agencies put forth money to be able to implement this plan once it's finalized or is that something that you anticipate in the exec? So I'll start and then I'll I'll allow my colleague to add as well. So thank you for the question. Again I'd say it's a mix. Each agency is doing both, you know, short, medium, and long-term goals. And as they've been, as the deputy commissioner mentioned, this was from the out the beginning of that process. And so most agencies have as part and parcel of their agency budget uh those needs as already part of what they've requested. Um >> yeah, absolutely. >> Yeah, absolutely. Um yeah, as the commissioner is absolutely right, you know, because we have asked agencies to consider this from the start, they have to think about how they're allocating funds within their own budget, right? Because given new needs is just a very small portion of of the city's budget. Um and so they're considered they're already considered uh within their agency's budget and if there are new needs that you know uh that or if there they require new needs right they would put that forward but again like we have to look at how agencies are using the funds that they have and how they're allocated. So that's done well in advance. Uh I just want to acknowledge we have council member Feliz online and uh welcome council member Hanife. Um so what I'm hearing is most agencies have put forward some uh an asked for an allocation to be able to implement or integrate these plans when they're finalized. Maybe some need need some encouragement. Is that what I'm hearing correctly? >> Thank you for the question. That is correct. So as these plans we go through the process and we get community input and they become finalized there might be new needs. >> And are you able to speak to which agencies might need a nudge or >> Thank you for the question. >> I would say uh chair that as this is a living document we will continue to learn in real time who needs um some assistance. Uh and I'm sure that we will make those needs clear at that time. >> Okay. We can revisit that in the prelim. I I haven't had a a full briefing either. So, um what steps will you all take to ensure that community feedback during the review process will be incorporated into the final equity plan this year? Thank you. Um we're very excited about uh the the community input that we expect to receive on the plan. Um we feel strongly that um community input in input will actually strengthen the plan. >> Um and our uh our aim is to ensure that as we receive that feedback whether it comes through the commission on racial equity, it comes to our office directly, it comes from elected officials, uh constituents, um that we bring all of that together, review it directly with agencies, and then consider how during the review period we can make adjustments and modifications. I would also add that, you know, to us feedback isn't uh necess feedback around the racial equity plan is not necessarily um set, you know, has has a set time frame. We should be accepting feedback during implementation with agencies as we're um measuring progress and and publishing that and sharing that progress. So, you know, to us it's not um uh confined to a particular time frame. >> Indeed, >> should be an ongoing feedback loop. all have any and and forgive me if I I'm I'm still you know I'll say it for the last time I'm still learning but will you all be doing any separate activities from for example core in terms of soliciting feedback from the from uh New Yorkers? >> Thank you for the question. We of course um respect and are excited about uh the work that core will be doing to engage the public and we'll also be doing outreach right to ensure as the deputy said that we are getting uh input and comments at all levels and continuous and encouraging that. >> Okay. So that will be like um digital outreach or forum in-person forums public hearings. Do you have any idea what that might look like? So please so I'd say we would not be limited right the goal is to ensure that community are are hearing this giving their input as the deputy said we in to make this stronger to help guide so that that is the whole point so if online in person um in whatever manner mechanisms that will allow and we'll be clearly learning and partnering with core will be taking a lead on uh engaging public okay Um if possible, could you provide us with any updates on the development of the true cost of living measure? Thank you for the question. So the the mandate the charter has us required that the true cost of living comes out by the end of March and we will be meeting that goal to have that out and published. >> Okay. Um, are you going to be building upon a plan drafted by the previous administration or would you say you are starting from scratch? Uh, there is a true cost of living measure that was already in development. Um, and so we are working and building on that. Um, and are excited to, as the commissioner said, release it. um and and also use it to inform, you know, um uh policy um and the work that we do. >> Um okay. And then for the for the racial equity plan development, how many um MERJ staff also worked on that under the previous administration who are carrying over to now estimate that it's roughly maybe a little under a dozen people. >> Okay. But I would also stress that, you know, uh, agency plans are not simply developed by our office, right? Um, we we create, um, and craft the citywide plan, but the 40 plus agencies that have been involved in the process, they're driving their plans, um, driving plan creation as well as implementation. And so, uh, the racial equity plans that have been developed are not, you know, um, simply developed by the the 12 or, you know, so people on our team. >> Okay. And are you in the process of expanding staff? And if and if so, do you have any openings or titles or hiring timelines? >> Thank you for the question. Uh so we are in the process of hiring um uh but also as I mentioned coming into the office looking at how we're structuring to both work smart and hard. So yes we're hiring yes there are some uh roles that will be posted shortly. Uh but some are already up for policy analysts and program managers and things of that nature. Some work on the plan some work across um uh our other units and for some of the other functions for OERJ. Long story short we're hiring. Um okay city that I mean that's great uh it's great to see more staff supporting and capacity supporting that work. Um we know that city agencies also vary hugely not only in size uh and operational scope but also in the kinds of equity issues that arise around the course of their work. Um what is the extent of moj staff expertise in different agencies? For example, how many staff have backgrounds relating to policing or sanitation or contracting, public housing, parks, social services, etc. >> Thank you for the question. So, our staff draws on years of experience across multiple sectors including government, nonprofit and and private. And many team members also come to work with uh backgrounds of living andor working in communities facing historic and systemic equalities inequalities. So such experience informs our understanding and their understanding of how policies decisions impact in communities differently. So our team has a wealth of experience um both in uh uh as well as lived experience. Please excuse me. Okay. Um do we but do we have I mean that's very general. Do we have any um folks who have any particular experience um to highlight here related to um equity in these different issue areas or we do we have people who we have staff members who have experience uh working at other agencies that are the very agencies that are that have created racial equity plans and will continue to work to implement those plans. Um we have people who have worked we have staff members who have worked um as part of larger organizations um external from the city doing equity work and convening equity practitioners. Um so as the commissioner said experience varies um but it's all helpful in in forming plan development and implementation. >> Okay. And then do you have any OEJ uh staff that have experience um in relation to budget analysis or key budget related processes? >> We do. Yes. >> How many? >> Um may I get back to you on that? I want to give you an exact number, but we do have some staff members with background in budgeting. >> Okay, great. Um given the implications for of racial equity planning for budget decisions, does MRJ have any staff? Um sorry, we just asked that. What is uh MRJ's assessment of the extent to which budget planning and execution currently undergo equity analysis if at all? >> Sorry, can you repeat the question once more? What is MERJ's assessment of the extent to which budget planning and execution currently undergo equity analysis if at all? >> I think as the budget process moves forward, we'll continue to work with our budget colleagues um to look at how equity is centered in the budget. Um but again, I I really do want to emphasize that our our focus can't be just be this confined period of time. we have to work with agencies on on how they uh and focus on how they allocate existing funds um in order to ensure that um budget equity can be achieved. So it's really a combination. >> Okay. In identifying performance and outcome indicators for citywide racial equity goals, the office is charged with developing standards for the disagregation of data by race, gender, and ideally such additional categories as ethnicity, income, neighborhood, and socioeconomic status. Across which categories does the office plan to track or gauge disparities in outcomes, and how were these categories determined? Council member, I'm not fully clear on the Can you just ask the last part of the question please? >> Yeah. Um, across which categories does the office plan to track or gauge disparities in outcomes and how are these categories determined? >> So, I'll start and allow my my colleague to come in. Right. So, all of those areas of disagregated um data as you mentioned are are part and parcel of what is being used. Uh, and so I'd say each agency, right, has their own special areas. Um, so it's there is not an overall one-sizefits-all. It's it's some of this is agency specific. And again, those were have been part and parcel of um for some time have been working with members of our team in creating that. >> And do you feel that the city that you have enough publicly available information to conduct an equity anal analysis of the budget? Sorry, can you repeat that? >> Does it um in your view does the city have enough publicly available data or information to conduct an equity analysis of the budget? >> I think we the the city can use the information that we have. Um but I would also just add that uh this work is ongoing. Um and so we can always continue to refine um identify gaps in data um and and for us that that should really be a focus across the city. Um I would also just add you know in the first planning cycle um we considered existing data disagregation policies as well uh including executive order 45 and the social indicators report um to really help us also just think about where are their data gaps um and um where we can directly support agencies um during the building of plans but also to incorporate and expand on exa disagregated data efforts. >> Okay. And are you do you plan to use um or have you used any data from the mayor's office for economic opportunity such as their poverty measure or social indicator and equity reports? >> Sure. Thank you for the question. Yes. Uh the office leverages disagregated data from multiple sources. One of which being the the office of economic opportunity and uh the poverty tracker. Okay great. Under the charter, CORE is entitled to one month's time to review and respond to the city's preliminary racial equity plan. Um, so that both the plan and CORE's response to it may be taken into consideration by the council when reviewing the mayor's preliminary budget. In the absence of the plans, uh, how will MOERJ ensure that CORE has an opportunity to engage with the FY2027 budget process to review its consistency with the community equity priorities? I >> think we're we're happy to work with the Commission on Racial Equity um in terms of just how they approach their review. Um, we're open to that, you know, to collaborating um and and yeah. or can you speak to a little bit more about how that would happen? >> I think we would >> or they initiate it. I mean, I'm genuinely asking. I don't know. >> Please go ahead. >> I don't know. >> So, I'm um Thank you for the question. Uh I've already had the pleasure of of speaking uh with Executive Director Tagani. Uh I am sure that they will continue to be vocal in the need and the right to be able to partner in this. And so I I want to note that that outreach has already been extended and will be reciprocated and hopefully ongoing. >> Okay. Um and lastly I for what I have and please colleagues raise your hands if you have any questions. Among the office's duties is the stewardship of the task force on racial equity uh which identified 33 neighborhoods for cross agency interventions based on health and so socioeconomic factors back in 2020. How has uh this task force evolved in its programming and its priority neighborhoods in view of changing equity trends and needs? Um when will the office issue a revised neighborhood list? Yeah. So, thank you. The um office has in the last couple years really focused its efforts in the in the Bronx and has invested um uh programmatic funds um in the Bronx in particular just because of the stark disparities in the burrow under the uh Mani administration. We look forward to really expanding the work of the task force um and revisiting the communities uh that are included on the task force list. Can you speak a little bit more to what the investment was in the in the Bronx? >> Yep. So, we have worked with the um with Nitra in particular um making investments in uh food business pathways. So, really working to help support entrepreneurs um and then actually de um uh creating contracts with them to actually provide food to community members and help address food insecurity. Um we're also working with them on um uh some worked over at worse development programs um as well as um some financial um education and literacy. >> Okay. And what about some of the other neighborhoods? Is there outside of the Bronx? >> At the moment the the Bronx has been the focus, but there is a desire to expand that um in the in the coming year. >> Okay. if you have anything that you could share with the committee on the work of that task force. Um, we'd love to get that as a followup just to understand, you know, what the work has been or and what what the plans are moving forward, how often it's met. Um, I'm not I'm not sure if there's any reporting that's associated with it, but would love to just understand a little bit more. Um, and how many neighborhoods um of those 33 are in the were identified in the Bronx? Let me get back to you on that. I want to get the exact number right. It's it's different in every bureau, but I'm happy to follow up. >> Yeah. I I And just this this task force has been ongoing for how many years? >> It was launched in 20 uh in the spring of 2020. So, it's been almost six years. >> And yeah, it would be really good to know why only the Bronx has been invested in if there's 33 neighborhoods identified um and what we could do there to make that better. Absolutely. I'm happy to follow up. I do want to just mention that um the Bronx has been the focus in the last few years. However, prior to that um upon the task force's launch and and over the first four to five years, um there were efforts over 200 million invested um in the midst and and and after the pandemic um in in a number of communities well outside of the Bronx. >> Okay. Yeah. Just a little more um information. Anything you could share would be great. Um, I don't have any more questions for you all. Colleagues, do you have any questions for Council Member Stevens? >> Well, you're on the list as number one. >> Okay. Um, good morning. How you guys doing? Um, well, I guess I I'll just start with the task force stuff and just wanted some more details. I know you said that you guys were working in the Bronx and specifically on nitrous. Do you have a list of the Nichas in the Bronx that you've been working with? >> We've been working with the uh central off one of the central divisions within NICHA, but we're happy to share a >> Haven't been working directly with the residents. Has been more through like the central that's what you're saying? >> We've worked with Yes. central agency staff. Um our our staff have volunteered and supported different efforts. So, we've been on the ground. However, we've worked primarily with the NIH staff. That being said, I can follow up with a list of uh different >> So, like you've been working with the NIH staff to then implement stuff in the Bronx and you don't know the list of NIH that you've been working with. >> I can provide if you're asking about a list of developments, I'm happy to follow up and provide a list of developments that have been impacted by our programs >> because that's like very general, right? I'm a Bronx member and I'm concerned because I'm like, well, what has what is what does this look like, right? And so, I would love more detail around like what Nichas you've been working with um and where they're located throughout the Bronx. I think that would be really helpful. Um, and then also I know you said it was like workforce development and financial. Could you go into more detail about what that looks like? And you said you've been you guys have been doing this work since 2020, correct? >> Yes. The task force had the the work of the task force has evolved over many years and it was between two different administrations. So again, there's uh there's work that has done that that was done really like across all all 30 all 33 neighborhoods rather than just the Bronx. I just >> Well, I know you say it. I was just because and you just stated that um a lot of the work has been done in the Bronx and so I'm I'm a Bronx member so I'm happy I'm happy to hear work is being done in the Bronx but I would just love more detail around like what has that workforce development look like and the financial literacy could you give more details about like what that was? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um so uh family self-sufficiency is one of the programs we've invested in. Um the focus is really um as uh income is increasing helping residents really save that money uh rather than >> and so that work that you're doing again that's also done through NICHA and then they're doing it >> it's in yeah it's in >> look like cuz and I'm sorry I just feel like it's very it's too general I'm I want to be in the weeds with this. So what does it look like with the collaboration between NICHA and you? Um could you just give like what so you doing trainings with them? Are you guys just having conversations and then how do you know that information is being turnkey to residents and to the people who live there? >> Yeah. So we meet with the the staff at NICHA who are doing the on the ground implementation bi-weekly. Um like I said our staff has also been on the ground and supported um uh particular events and and investments that have been made through these programs. Um there have also been um partnerships with external vendors to help support that work. Um so it varies by program but I'm more than happy to if you want to get into the weeds which I'm very excited to hear. Um I would be more than happy >> to this committee and you probably don't know me. I'm always in the weeds. So yes I'm always going to be asking questions and gun dig and like let me know how's this working and then how are you evaluating this work and the information with the staff and I know you said you guys have been there but what does the evaluation process look like? Yeah. So we require annual reporting with our partners at NICHA and then we also take a look at you know what else maybe we should be collecting. >> So what are some of the feedback that you've got from the annual reporting? >> Um so a lot of it has been around um what's been produced deliverables um community number of community members who have been served um looking at how the funding is being used how we can improve that if we continue the program. Are you able to share that information with council because I would love to see what these deliverables are um and and who we're serving and and all the information. >> Absolutely. So, I was just going to say if you want to get into the weeds with me, which I'm very excited about, um I'd be more than happy to follow up maybe with some one-pagers that provide not only descriptions of each of the programs that go into detail, but information on what um what what the impact has been um and and hopefully where we want to go. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, I would love to to see that report and I'm sure the committee would love to see that as well because I definitely will want to know like what that impact looks like especially when it's saying that like a lot of the work has been done in the Bronx and me being a Bronx member not feeling it. So, I'm like well what development you cuz I got a couple of niches would love to make sure my residents are also getting um this this additional supports. Um and my next question is um just around I know it was stated that um especially because the the racial equity report hasn't been um hasn't been released yet. My question is just like so what has the collaboration thus far because of the the preliminary budget has been released. What does the collaboration as we are waiting for it to come out has been done between with core to really be able to guide this information because I know it hasn't been released but we do know that there has been work that was done on it from the last administration. Have you guys been working like closely in order to make sure that these things are happening? What is the collaboration thus far look like? >> Thank you for the question. So the collaboration has just started with an engagement and introduction to each other and yet and so it's I would see it as ongoing and needing to deepen right but the I see collaboration is starting with an introduction so that has happened uh the focus has been on trying to get the plan together and there'll be ongoing engagements both in presentations to core the core commissioners and ongoing engagement as is needed. Yeah, I know. I know you just got appointed and so you're still like trying to figure things out and so just thinking about the cadence moving forward. Is that something you guys are willing to do like meet weekly, monthly, annually? Like what does that look like? Especially because it has been released, the preliminary budget is happening and so what is the cadence that you're looking to have between the agency to ensure that equity is put in this budget moving forward? >> Thank you for the question. So the initial uh inquiry and as part of the introduction was a request to continue in the rhythm that had happened with the previous commissioner of bi-weekly and so that's been agreed to. >> So you guys will be meeting with core bi-weekly and would that be you and the agency? Is that also the Mox director? Who would be a part of these ongoing meetings to ensure that equity is being part of it and core can hold up their responsibility as being an oversight agency? >> Thank you for the question. So, I'd say one the bare minimum is the are these bi-weekly meetings and what I mean by that is I'm not sure who is part of those. I know I will be there. I know my deputy will be there and then >> she's like girl I can only be responsible myself, >> right? So, and then we'll build out from there. So, I I understand what I think is the intent and the importance of the question and to ensure that this is not just like a theory that something is happening but I also want to say we are not dogmatic to I meant my thing. I said right like this is going to be built uh and so the minimum is the bi-weekly conversations and whatever comes out of those conversations of what's needed the parties who are part of those conversations will make decisions therein and moved accordingly. >> Yeah. No, I hear you and I just want to just it's our job to push to ask the questions to make sure that they're on record and I want to state that we know that you're going to be there because that's what you you're responsible for but I don't think that you should be the only one carrying this water. And so I'm pushing that not only you are there, but key players who are in this budget process are also there who are also negotiating with us as well. So I think that that's going to be just as important um to make sure that equity is being seen throughout this budget, especially people who are at the negotiation table. >> That's all the questions. >> Yeah, I think I really appreciate you digging in. Um, Council Member Stevens, I I guess to to just ask bluntly, do you feel racial equity will be addressed in this current budget cycle that we're going through given that we are going to get the plans post preliminary budget conversations and these agencies have their racial equity teams. Um, but how how what will we what will operationally be done to ensure what comes out of a plan that won't be finalized? It'll just be like a draft um gets put into this executive budget that will be adopted July 1st or June 30th. Thank you for the question and and um and for uh you know lifting up the importance of of ensuring that this budget um is not just in word but also has information that meets with the mandates about equity. And so part of what I can do is is restate what was early uh said about even in the process within the different agencies right so that it's not just at the last stage but as part and parcel of how they are looking on uh implementation. so that budget equity and budgeting is throughout. Uh and as again as a preliminary plan is released and input is sought, there'll be changes and that we are part of our role is to ensure and to work together to ensure that there is uh funding that meets the demands of what's outlined by the agencies. So what I know is that this process has already started and I and I'm also well aware that there will be as it should be accountability from the council and others to ensure that we go as far as we can and to be pushed further. >> Okay. Um council member Haneie. >> Thank you chair nurse and hi. It's great to see you. Thank you for being here with us. I'd like to first start off and maybe this was answered because I was late. um what specific components of the racial equity planning process are currently delayed and which agencies are have failed to meet those benchmarks. Thank you for the question. So let me just step back for pieces of uh of my earlier testimony. Um no agencies have failed to to meet anything. So I I I want to just take a framing of of fault. Um, we are moving forward under uh the mandate that the mayor laid of having the plan out within the first 100 days. And so we are all of the agencies are continuing to work forward to move forward, excuse me. As new leaders are joining the administration, we are updating and briefing them so that those leaders are ready to implement the plans that they're the staff on the respective agency teams have started and working to finalize those plans. Could you just clarify the piece about agencies not failing? What are the agencies supposed to do? What could you just walk me through the role of the agencies in terms of getting um uh uh that process? >> I'll start and then I'll let my colleague continue. Thank you for the question. My response of not failing was a is a response to your like who's not meeting. So, I wanted to make clear that no agency has been delayed or is doing something. That that was what I was referring to. >> Like you're saying agencies are on track. >> They've delivered. >> Correct. >> And then Oh, did you please you wanted to did you want to add anything? >> Okay. I agree. um for the community engagement cycle, could you share um what percentage of participants are from historically underresourced neighborhoods and how you're ensuring accessibility particularly for folks with disabilities, language access issues, childcare needs. >> Yeah, I would just um start by saying the Commission on Racial Equity really leads the process on community engagement. Um, so, you know, I know that the executive director and chair will will be up here soon speaking to that. Um, but as the commissioner said, we look forward to also receiving feedback directly from the public. Um, and we look forward to taking that feedback and ensuring that in it informs the um the road to the final plan. And then I'd like to know if any program was uh redesigned or defunded because it was found to exacerbate inequities. >> Sorry, can you repeat the question? >> Were any programs defunded or redesigned because inequities um were found >> within the the the are you referencing the racial equity plan if you don't mind me asking? Well, the the plan is, you know, has been something that's in development and and not something that has been released quite yet. Um, but there there's nothing that, you know, we are aware of that that's been defunded. Um, but like I said, the plan is, you know, is is a document. It's a living breathing document. It's in development. Um, and you know, that's something we can continue to evaluate with upon its release and implementation. I guess I'll clarify um what will what will uh the racial equity report entail? What will what will be in the report? And is is there a goal for making changes within agencies specific programs or um where in inequities were found? >> Yeah, I'll start and and comm invite my commissioner to jump in. Um so each plan includes goals, outcomes, strategies and indicators. And every agency plan there's 40 plus agencies who have developed plans with with about 200 plus staff. Um and each plan will have goals, outcomes, strategies to implement those uh strategies for implementation as well as indicators. Um there will be opportunity um not only through the uh community engagement process to hear from the public to ensure that it informs the plans but we expect as well during implementation our office as well as agencies will be receiving feedback and and see that as you know there's an ongoing feedback loop. >> Got it. So right now it's not like an evaluation of correct city agencies. The city agencies are are preparing their plan. >> I broke it. >> Technical difficulties. >> We got them here. Sorry. >> Oh, wait. It's working. >> It This is working, right? >> It's just not The lights's not on. >> Oh, it's working. >> Okay. The lights are on. >> Okay. >> All right. Go ahead. >> It Andrew. Correct. Yes. >> That the agencies are preparing their plans. >> Correct. Preparing and finalizing. >> And then what's the what comes next? So the the preliminary plan is released and then there's the public process for input and engagement and then um taking that input and engagement there a final plan is made >> and the engagement is trying to um obtain what kind of information >> was that my time >> what does that mean? >> Yeah, I'm happy to jump Yeah, I'm happy to jump in. um that that that includes feedback from the public on the preliminary version of the plan. So, as I mentioned, every plan includes goals, outcomes, strategies, and indicators. We expect to hear from the public about what's included in the plan, each plan. >> Could you just give me one example so I can visualize like what agency like what's the agency is making the report, it's going into the community. Could you just walk me through like specifically which agency and then how the the public is responding and and then what comes after that? >> Sure. So I'll to start from the beginning agency we work with agencies to draft racial equity plans. >> So hypothetic so there's one Yeah. So there's for if we have 40 plus agencies each of them have their own individual plan which is rolled up into a citywide racial equity plan. Um, we work with them on the development, finalizing that plan. We are the ones who release the citywide plan to the public. Um, and then the Commission on Racial E equity, who I know you guys will hear from, will step in also and over a 30-day period collect and share public feedback as well as their feedback with uh the administration, the council. Um and then we expect within a roughly 70day period to uh review that feedback that we receive from the public um use it to inform any modifications or updates to the plan maybe as a whole right depends on the feedback or it may be a feedback on a particular agency's plan. Um and then we use that feedback to inform any updates issue a final plan. Um the commission also provides um an evaluation of the final plan um and then we continue with implementation so feedback can we know this is our first time going through the process right so we don't we very curious yeah we don't know >> could you say could you like hypothetically say it's small businesses name could you name an agency that like like walk me through what exactly is >> yeah one agency doing >> so >> among the 40 agencies could you just name some agencies that are going to be are are already a part of the process. Yeah. >> Go ahead. >> If if it works for you because we have 40 plus agencies part of this process. I'm happy to um share agencies that are part of the process and share a list if that's helpful following this hearing. Uh we have >> I'm sorry. I'm trying to understand like when the final plan is produced, what is it informing and is it to inform um the budget dynamics and programs within each of these agencies or so? That's what I'm really really trying to understand. I don't know if council member nurse I hear what you're saying. The question is >> small business services. This is what's out of their racial equity plan. community has responded, has given you feedback, you've amended it, now the plan is out. What will be different in small business services if you could >> say like what an expected change would be? >> So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for the question. Thank you for the clarifications. Thank you all for your patience and our answering this. So, so I think part of our our struggle is again each agency is different but let's take this hypothetical right ideally if if a person is uh wants to raise pieces and give feedback as part of like how SPS is taking this that would be incorporated into the final plan and that would have either some shift or dynamic to how their process or their programs are implemented whether right but part of this is all part and parcel of an ongoing process and so the goals are from each of the plans, from each of the agencies rather, deal with how their programs are implemented, how they engage and deal with New Yorkers. Um, so some aspects may be about how and uh resource are distributed, it's about subgranting, how programs are being done. So it it is on a case-byase basis. Um, but to your point, ideally their input would shape how resources are set andor how programs are delivered to ensure those constituencies receive it in the way they need. >> Got it. And then what would the evaluation look like? Is there a evaluation process after that uh annually or? So the charter has after the every two years that the plan is released and then the off years is updates about uh metrics on on how those uh recommendations that each of the agencies have put how they're moving forward and those goals. >> Okay, thank you. >> No, that's really helpful. Thank you for that line of questioning. Um I wanted to recognize we have some dignitaries in the house. Um, former ambassador of Grenada, uh, Aiden Pursu is here with us. Thank you for joining us. >> Oh, >> oh, okay. Well, blame the public advocate because I'm reading what's on this postit. Okay. I told him I'm not learning. Um, and formal assembly, former assembly member Roger Green, thank you for being here. Um, and actually, um, I don't have any other questions on deck, so I'm going to give the floor to the public advocate to make a statement. >> Thank you so much, Madam Chair, and my apology. I mentioned the ambassador's brother by accident. I mixed them up. They do look alike, but I knew it was him. My bad. Um, uh, thanks again and for, uh, giving me an opportunity to say an opening statement in the middle of the hearing. I appreciate it. Uh, >> I appreciate you. Uh, as mentioned, my name is Jamani Williams, public gate for the city of New York. I want to thank chair nurse and the members of the committee on civil and human rights for holding this very important hearing and I'm excited to see uh commissioner ata and deputy commissioner here as well. I'm glad to see you in those positions and I'm also glad to see the members of uh core here as well, commissioner and their members. We the people of New York City declare that our city is a multi-racial democracy and that our diversity is our strength. So begins a preamble to New York City's charter. the document that declares our city's fundamental values and governmental functions. In 2022, New York has voted overwhelmingly to add this preamble to the charter which continues uh we strive to be a city where equity and inclusiveness, community empowerment, accessibility, and opportunity for every New Yorker are unwavering standards to which we are held accountable in all aspects of our governance. And again, I know some of this was probably covered. I just want to make sure my name was attached to these words as well. So, I appreciate the opportunity. On the same day in 2022, New York City voters codified the independent commission of racial equity core and a true cost of living metric which together aimed to put the values articulating the charter preamble into practice. This task the mayor with developing and releasing banual racial equity plans and true cost of living metric by mid 2024 and updating these plans every two years to align with the release of the preliminary city budget. Unfortunately, the previous mayor, who I believe intentionally, failed to live up to his chartermandated obligation and released neither. By now, we should have the original and updated versions of both the plans and metrics. Instead, core had to sue the previous administration over its illegal and immoral failures, one of many. Two independent organizations, the Federal Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies and the Urban Institute took it upon themselves to create a true course of economic security or ts metric that reflects many aspects of the charter mandated measures. Following the TCES measure, the median New York City family with children would have to earn 163 165,300 per year to be economically secure. This is 52,600 more than the median New York City family actually makes. This already enormous disparity is even worse for New Yorkers of more color. Using the TCS metric, 43% of white New Yorkers are economically insecure. But for Asian, black, and Latino New Yorkers, that percentage stands at 63%, 68% and 78% respectively. These disparities are geographic, too. 50% of New Yorkers in Manhattan versus 80% in the Bronx and the richest in the city country that I'm sorry, the richest city and the richest country in the world history of the world. It is a shame that any strugg any anyone struggles to meet their basic needs and that after many decades of progress, New Yorkers of more color face this burden so disproportionately. It would take a whole of government approach to shrink racial economic disparities, ensuring every New Yorker can comfortably access their basic needs. We often say that budgets on moral documents, releasing the racial equity plans and true cost of living metric will be a next step towards a city budget reflecting the morals outlined in the city charter. I am encouraged by mayor's focus on affordability and my hope is that the administration will keep it promised to release the racial equity plans within the first 100 days so that future city budgets can operationalize our commitment to ending racial equities. I look forward to the hearing testimony and those topics from the commission on racial equity from the mayor's office of racial of equity and racial justice and former members of the public. I also want to mention that the the problems that we're in uh were designed with race in mind. sort of solutions that have race in mind and it always shocks me so much that people push back on that notion and particular I want to talk about anti-blackness because that is a very particular thing that is in the root of so many of this and for some reason when we do that uh people get a little frustrated uh but it is necessary to talk about anti-blackness it's necessary to discuss the problems and solutions around anti-blackness um and the insidiousness of anti-blackness is that they don't want you to talk about it and they act like something's wrong when we talk about the solutions uh the same way we designed the problem. So, uh with that, thank you. I'm looking forward to hearing more and I really hope that the mayor does decide to release this sooner than later. Um and lastly, I do want to say uh there's been a lot of kathuffle around uh some of the talks around uh the the property tax heights, which I I don't support and is part of, I think, uh talking about equity. Uh but the real answer to that and I want to make sure I'm on the record is that uh governor has the opportunity and the ability to raise revenue from the wealthiest New Yorkers and we should not protect the 33,000 uh New Yorkers against the millions and millions who will suffer if we don't do that. Even if we cut services, it's going to be the same communities that are going to be impacted. Thank you. >> Thank you, public advocate. And um thank you both for for this opening hearing. Um, I will just say, um, as I become more familiar, I I appreciate, um, more detailed answers. Um, and just less broad. I understand for you, I understand. But, um, for folks who've been here, um, the people who are on this committee usually want more and they want to understand more. And so, um, you know, this is a this is a nice opening, but we we usually get more granular. Um, but I appreciate you all being here. Looking forward to partnering with both of you, uh, and making sure this happens. And thank you. Um, so now we are going to bring up the executive director of CORE, uh, Linda Tagani. >> Thank you. I'm gonna have someone from my team stay. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And I will now turn it to the committee council to >> to administer the oath. >> Couple more people. Okay. And I don't have everyone's names here, but I will. Okay, thank you. Oh, there it is. Good morning. Um, if everyone could raise their right hands, please. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee? >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. Please begin. >> Great. Okay. Good morning, chair and members of the Civil and Human Rights Committee. My name is Linda Tajani and I have the honor of serving as the chair and executive director for the New York City Commission on Racial Equity. I lead CORE in partnership with 13 commissioners and 15 staff members. New York City core is a product of the 2022 ballot measure that to introduce that introduced to red address long-standing racial disparities in power, access, and opportunity that's enabled and perpetuated whether by design or implementation or impact through city laws, regulations, policies, and practices. To approach this goal, the racial justice commission proposed that a body be established for the purpose of holding government accountable for advancing racial equity and increasing community voice to influence city decision-making through the development of priorities for racial equity in government operations. New York City CPS exercises this accountability function first and foremost through oversight of a city-wide racial equity plan outlining goals and strategies for reducing racial disparities in social and economic well-being. Among other requirements, the plan is meant to map existing needs by neighborhood so that individual agencies can target services and policies accordingly. The data furnished by the racial equity plan should provide the public with the information necessary to enable community members to hold agencies publicly accountable for progress. A year ago, I sat here and reported in detail on New York Cors New York City Corps's role in an efforts to advance the 2024 and 2025 racial equity planning cycle. I described the delays in launching and staffing the commission and New York City Corps's determination to initiate the planning process through the development of community equity priorities in consultation with over 4,000 New Yorkers. And I urged the city to honor the will of the electorate and the letter of the law by releasing the long overdue inaugural racial equity plan. Since then, not only has the 2024 and 2025 plan failed to materialize, but this derction has set a precedent for inaction that continues to this day with the city's violation of its duty to release the preliminary plan for 2026 and 2027. In what has become a reg regrettable pattern, New York City Corps has once again met its obligation to propose priorities based on needs voiced by community members historically under reppresented in or underserved by government and to suggest metrics for tracking the outcomes they seek. In addition to standardizing the process through which we partner with community groups to solicit such such input, we expanded the scale of our outreach, doubling our survey response yield to just short of 10,000 New Yorkers. Our timely release of the community equity priorities, however, failed to prompt either the previous or the current administration to incorporate these priorities into a plan comprising citywide goals and strategies to improve racial equity throughout city government's policym operations and workforce, including the equitable distribut distribution of benefits of support services and of environmental burdens by neighborhood. ood as required by the charter. While I appreciate Mayor Mdani's acknowledgement of the previous administration's negligence in this regard and his accompanying commitment to releasing the preliminary plan in midappril, I must respectfully reiterate that this departure from the charter prescribed timeline undermines the central purpose of racial equity planning process to align the city spending priorities with the needs voiced and outcomes sought by its most illserved served communities or as we refer to them as New York at New York City Core as communities harmed by racism and social injustice. It bears noting that the same principle of universal bounty driving the mayor's affordability platform also undergrids New York City COR's mandate to monitor the city's progress in delivering to all residents the power, access, and opportunities they need to thrive. In fact, our 2026 community engagement cycle revealed that the cost of basic needs as quality food, transportation, health care, and housing to be the most urgent of all equity priorities. A finding reinforced through the published data on existing racial disparities in access to these resources. Unfortunately, the city's delinquency in producing the preliminary racial equity p plan has been compounded by a similar abdication of its mandate to release a true cost of living measure, reflecting the level of investment necessary to allow New Yorkers to thrive. Collectively, their absis absence impairs the accuracy with which agencies can assess the cost of bridging long-standing racial gaps in health, wealth, and well-being. It is precisely this need to evaluate and eliminate the distance between the abundance that the mayor regards as the due of every New Yorker and the lived reality of different demographic groups that prompted the creation of a racial equity planning process in which the mayor and individual agencies set forth strategies to improve outcomes for New Yorkers harmed by racism and proposed indicators to measure progress. To ensure that this process is accompanied by a meaningful allocation of resources instead of merely serving as a symbolic exercise, it was designed intentionally to sync with the citywide budget process. Hearten though New York City CPS was by the establishment of a new cabinet office for economic justice, coupling the city's economic growth with its protections for residents harmed by discrimination, the acknowledgement it implies of the inextrability of economic and racial justice is undermined by the absence of a racial equity plan, its counterpart to the preliminary citywide budget. Again, this pairing is essential to fulfilling the vision of section 3403 of the charter to compel the city and its agencies to examine their existing programs and embed racial equity goals not only into their operations but more significantly into their budget allocation. Apart from being a critical aspect of the city's economic justice agenda, racial equity planning is a matter of law. For over two years, New York City CPS has battled to fulfill its mandate with which we were entrusted by the voters. And each day, the city obstructs our ability to exercise our oversight, diminishes our credibility with community, and erodess their trust in government. If ours is to be a government of laws and not of political whim, then we can no more disregard the racial equity planning timeline than the budget schedule. Just as each new administration must immediately produce a preliminary budget prior to adjusting it in the months to follow, so too must it abide by the corresponding requirement to release a preliminary racial equity plan at the start of the term and then refine it as needed over the course of the season. While the correlation between these two duties led New York City Corps to propose that the new administration receive the same one-month extension on the later deadline as on the former February 16th ultimately brought the sub submission of the preliminary budget alone. New York City Corps applauds Mayor Mandani's actions to restore the rule of law with respect to the city sanctuary status and urges the administration to demonstrate similar resolve in upholding the charter's racial equity provisions. We look forward to working with the mayor and commissioner at Minaj to realize the charter's vision of a city where the value, talents, and contributions of every New Yorker are recognized and embraced and where equity and inclusiveness, community empowerment accessibility and opportunity for every New Yorker are unwavering standards to which we are held accountable in all aspects of governance, business, and service delivery. Thank you so much for allowing me to testify. I also just want to acknowledge I'm here with my two colleagues, Rachel Nadlesen and Tyreek Washington. And one of our commissioners, Torian Easterling, is also joined us today. We will now be able to take questions. >> Great. Thank you. Um and thank you for being here. Um we're just going to get right into it. Um, why don't you just tell us about how the continued delay of the plan and the true cost of living measure has impacted your work and ability to engage in the budget process and whether you think that any of the outcomes or um goals of of the original of your mission will even be reflected in this year's executive budget. >> Thank you for the question. Um, so it is it's unclear right now like what the goals and strategies are of the agencies because it's the plan to our understanding has been under legal review and extended legal review now for over a year. Um, this hampers both the city's ability to actually follow the law and ensure that the city's budget aligns with racial equity goals and plans. And it also prevents core from ensuring that community voice is a part of government decision-making. So it is required that once the plan is released and I do sorry I want to take a step back because I think it's important to note that the racial equity planning process begins with the submission of community equity priorities. It begins with the submission of the people's voice to tell city agencies and the mayor's team what are the priorities and we have over 10,000 New Yorkers who identified 18 community equity priorities and core has met our statutory deadline for every single planning cycle. So the cycle has started and has halted with the mayor's team. With that said, it means that there to our understanding is no equity framework that is guiding OM's review of new needs requests or requests to use underspend. There is no guidance to city agencies indicating what neighborhoods should get what services or what types of investment. There's no guidance to reallocation. At one point in our city's history, we used the tree 33 neighborhoods as an organizing model around new needs and we no longer do that. And that's because the racial equity plan should have replaced that. So that means that we are once again at risk of continued disinvestment in key neighborhoods across the city, key program services and target areas. And we are also then at risk of preventing the public as well as the commission on racial equity from holding the city accountable to what is the law. Um it is required that the city look at investments per neighborhoods on a hyper localal level and to our understanding there is no framework or process that OM or city agencies are using at the current moment to do that work. Uh and as we all know budget season has started and in fact new needs requests for the executive budget are due in two weeks right >> and so we have no plan >> right and so I understand there's a new administration um and I I I agree with you it's unclear to me what and I'm still trying to figure out how all the mechanisms work but it's unclear to me what the what interactions are happening with within these agencies to come up with a you know how how we're going to quickly when the plan is released quickly integrate recommendations or proposals into um the executive budget um can you provide any update on how you all have started working with Moj since the new year >> sure so just as commissioner Atamina said we have met and spoken now a few times. Um I have also worked closely with her deputy when her deputy worked with uh under Sadia Sherman. Excuse me. Um we are in the pro early process of our relationship. We are going to be meeting bi-weekly. Um, I have shared with her our concerns around the lengthy legal review and the fact that the charter does not actually call for a legal review that this is in fact a draft plan. It is intended to be adjusted, edited particularly by the people's voice which is right now being uh prevented. And so we have shared our concerns about what has happened previously. We I have shared information on the lawsuit. The lawsuit is still an active lawsuit. Um and so we are hoping that we are able to resolve this with a release of the plan. >> Did you ever receive a a memo or some kind of legal briefing on why they opted for a the law department to do a review? >> We've never received anything in writing on why they opted. >> Okay. I Yeah, I was curious because um when um I'm a little not to be too off topic, but different legislation that the council has tried to put forward in the last couple of years, there has been caution around racial equity language in the bill because of the Trump administration and the targeting of those programs and potential cuts and those, you know, um and so I was just curious if perhaps there was anything said to you all about maybe why and if it was tied to the federal government at all. >> Well, we have had conversations, excuse me, under the previous administration where they did raise particular concerns, not and this is not conversations with the law department. This is conversations just with the Adams administration, where they particularly did raise concerns around the shift in the United States when Trump came in. Um, we had raised these concerns as well because the original plan was to get the 2024 and 2024 and 2025 plan done, the full cycle done before Trump was inaugurated and their delay then moved the planning into post inauguration and then the um then we started to see all of the executive orders. So, the concerns were only made verbal and it was with um Adam's admin. >> Got it. Um I'm just going to ask like two more questions before I open up to my colleagues and then I'll come back. But I know that you all went through process of identifying these community equity priorities with community groups. Now those now there's a new set of community equity priorities that you're about to identify, right? you're getting ready to start that cycle again or you've generated >> we have done that. >> Okay. So now the the first ones we don't we the questions we asked about you know how were the those previous ones implemented into city agency work or previous budgets. I I left unclear about how that actually what that was. Um I I think I put even a note go reread the transcript because I'm unclear what was said. Um and so what does that mean for the second these second um priorities and how will how do you imagine they will be incorporated into work this year within the city? >> So the first and second pri the first cycle and second cycle priorities remain the same because there was no action done for the 2024 2025 plan. So the 18 community equity priorities remain. What we have done in between two cycles is we went from working with 30 organizations to 70 organizations, 4,212 New Yorkers in the first cycle to just short of 10,000 New Yorkers in the second cycle. Those New Yorkers include people as young as 11 years old. Our work was produced in 14 different languages so that people could provide their both read the equity priorities and receive training and be in conversation in the language that is most comfortable for them uh and then translated into English for the purposes of our data analysis. So we have in the second cycle went out and asked New Yorkers these are the 18 priorities that you have identified which ones are the most urgent for you and what they told us was that the cost of living is the most urgent which aligns with the affordability conversation in New York. I do want to be clear that when our New Yorkers are talking to core about the cost of living, they are also specifically noting that they don't see or hear themselves in the affordability agenda, particularly black New Yorkers. >> Yeah. Interesting. >> Our respondent pool is uh believe this second cycle is around 37% black, 22% Latino, and then we've got a mixture. We do use data disagregation and so we allow for people to be very specific about how they want to identify the other two community equity >> priorities to to dial in on that in terms of they've identified the cost of living is most urgent and yet your participants don't see them reflected in the affordability agenda. How are you harnessing that information? Like what are the qu like how are they saying that to you in response to >> We have open-ended responses in our survey. So people are able to write down any additional thoughts and then these are community conversations. So there are 20 to 25 people sitting in a room all neighbors who are just having a robust conversation and so there's extensive notetaking that happens and we work closely with the organizations to hear what folks are saying. >> Got it. I do want to note housing was the second most urgent and then the third most urgent was holding police and ACS accountable for the harms that they commit in our communities. >> Um, okay. So, I this is really great information. Um, just before I open up because there are a couple other questions I'll come back to. Are there any lessons that you're taking away from the this the the second cycle um that you you want to account into moving forward? Um there are a few lessons both in like how we're working with community and what that looks like and how we can approve improve. Um, I'm going to leave those operational pieces a little separate from the policy piece. What we hear often is what is core's accountability mechanism. Are we actually going to hold the city accountable? And we are as a racial equity commission the only racial equity commission in the nation with an accountability mechanism. And our role is specifically to push the mayor, the executive branch, and city agencies to comply with the charter, which is not it's it's the charter is not a buffet. It's not subject to you choose which law you want to follow or which deadline you want to follow. These deadlines are statutory and so they must be complied with. And so what I feel like happens whenever we go out into community is they ask us, well, how is the administration actually moving forward and hearing our voice if we are the accountability body? What does that look like in day-to-day government work? >> Yeah. I mean, we we struggle as well as an oversight body in terms of um at least over the last four years of of which laws the administration chose to comply with and which ones they just decided that they didn't have to deal with unless we sue them. Um which is an extreme drain on resources. So, I think we share that challenge as well. Um I'm going to open it up to my colleagues for questions. I I saw council member Hanife had a question and if anyone else has please flag for me. >> Okay. So well one thank you for being here and and just illuminating more on what um is just a big failure. Um, so if the plan's not finalized, are agencies required to follow any any alternative equity plan or to my understanding there is no alternative equity plan in outlined in the charter that they would be forced to follow. Um and so if the plan is not finalized, they can continue to hold the work um and not be forced to enact equity in their work at all. >> And then for when the plan goes into effect, um what would happen if an agency doesn't comply? >> That's a great question. And so if an agency doesn't comply, our work is to monitor the implementation of the work and really to raise community voices and bring people to do the push and the accountability work that they need to do. It's not just core that would be coming to whether it is protesting in the streets, whether it is coming back to city council, whether it is meeting with the administration, meeting with the city agency. I think there are a lot of different accountability mechanisms that can happen. Um, but I do want to be clear, it's not only core that would be doing that work. It would also be the voice of the people. Again, we have over 10,000 New Yorkers that participated in this work. And each of them received services from various city agencies. And so they are also looking to show up and be there to push the city agencies to do their work. >> Absolutely. So, without a finalized racial equity plan, how is OM evaluating budget proposals um to reduce disparities? >> I don't know if OM is doing that work. I just wanted that on the record. Um and then uh finally um the the piece about community accountability because the community has participated in several engagement cycles. What are we saying? What are we telling residents um who who know either that the report hasn't come out or that there's no plan um or that um without the plan there's no alternative that is baseline that agencies are following and the disparities of course are continuing because they are reporting through 311 or to their elected official what have you. uh greatly appreciate that question and this is where uh we have to be very honest in this particular moment and grateful for the leadership that uh our chairperson has provided because again to reinforce this this was something that core came out of a painful reality um in a particular time specifically out of the killing of a murder of George Floyd right and so it's in that context that the community, particularly black New Yorkers specifically, wanted this level of duality to happen, this inside outside strategy with core being an independent agency holding accountability. And so our push here at this hearing is also to recognize the one, the administration is new, right? And so you want to have this level of grace um and not to be adversarial at all, but also understand that there were so many that laid that kind of foundation. And so it's it it has been the community that has been ultimately saying where's the plan? And so where are we going from now? Especially with the other mandates that we've have around reparations and several other oversightes that we have to provide. Uh there has been a several levels of community what we are calling burrowwide outreach campaigns to kind of increase this level of individual voice participation in government. And so uh the plan itself it's uh deeply important to in increasing more civic engagement, right? And so it's deeply linked to that. And so for the outreach perspective, our work continues to go. But the challenge is the partnership that we are looking for on the other side as well. The proximity of conversation. Um it's not so much just even the plan. I think it was a powerful question before. How are how is this administration looking to partner with uh an independent agency totally mandated to the actual people itself? And I think that is a unique thing. one, it's unique from this perspective that there is no other model for this across the nation. So, New York City has the ability to set the framework to lay the blueprint of what does people power look like at this particular moment. And so, for us, we will continue to do this burrowwide, uh, whether it's the Bronx, Brooklyn, where I'm from, the greatest burrow that ever lived, and various other >> I just wanted it on the record. I agree. >> I agree. Absolutely. that I second that motion >> but whe >> but whether it's that but it's also the understanding how do we encourage people and so I think Linda has been I mean I'm sorry chairperson Tjani has been able to be exceptional to maintain that connectivity to still push for the plan but larger than the plan how do we empower people's voices at this particular time >> thank you uh thank you next up we have uh council member Stevens Um, good afternoon. Thank you for being here. And, um, chairperson, I know you have a long day because we have a hearing after this on some of the the the very things we're talking about here, which was, um, one of the mandates around ECS. So, um, thank you for being here with me today. I'm going to be here all day. Um but I guess for me um I wanted to also just jump into a little bit around like the commissioners and one just asks um are all the commissioners filled on um the commission and want to make sure if they're not which roles um need to be filled. >> Excuse me. Uh so we have 13 commissioners. We have one spot that is open and that is a Staten Island representative which is a speaker appointee seat. Um that role just became open. Our commissioner Yasanya Mata was brought into the administration to lead the department of veteran services. The speaker has 90 days to identify a replacement. And could you talk a little bit about the commissioner's role in core and how that really plays into the overall work that you're doing because I think sometimes folks are not understanding that like you have to the commissioners are the one like kind of pushing even this racial equity conversation. Yes, thank you. So, we um so I'm responsible for 14 commissioners, 15 staff members, 70 organizations, and the 10,000 New Yorkers that came out. My work is to ensure that strategy that is developed by our colleagues at the commission are raised to commissioners. They have the they get briefed on all of our major campaigns and areas of work. They participate by informing the strategy, raising questions, refining plans, and then voting on essential matters. So, one example is when we created, not created, sorry, when we finalized the 18 community equity priorities, we held open meetings, which are recorded and uploaded on our YouTube, where the commissioners voted on the final language. they workshopped it with community members after a full cycle and then they voted on it. And so there are specific matters in which they vote on a particular decision and all other matters they inform strategy. >> And so I just I I want us to also just point out like you said you have 15 staff, right? 15 staff and then you have the commissioners and that's a lot and I want to just kudos. a lot of work to do with very little staff to be able to do civic engagement for the entirety of New York City. Um, so that's a lot and that's a huge mandate. Um, and I don't think that should kind of just be glossed over. Um, in addition to this racial equity plan, you have other mandates that you're working on um that I know at the council we keep passing. So, um definitely want to be able to support um in in that work, but just to wrap it up on the commissioners. And so, even with around the racial equity plan, um can you talk a little bit about what the commissioners have really been pushing for and looked to your leadership to do even around like the um the lawsuit that was put in place even um in with the last administration? >> So, the commissioners did vote on the lawsuit. We had several deliberations. Um we all as a com as a set of commissioners met with the attorneys prior to moving forward with them. Um they informed every step of the strategy was which was also um obstructed by the Adams administration. They attempted to prevent us from using our own money to hire a lawyer and we thankfully were able to receive proono services. But that was after corporation council refused to sign a certification that just acknowledged we have a difference of opinion on the charter. Um and because she would not the former corporation council would not sign that certification OM would not release the funds to allow us to use our money but also um the controllers's office would never have registered a contract. So the commissioners were part of the deliberation. They have moved forward. I do want to be clear that all of the commissioners including Yana Mata who is the one commissioner that is now a leading DVS. She was the bridge between the racial justice commission and core because she served on both. The commissioners want to do their work. They say at every single meeting in between meetings where is the plan? Their main purpose is to review the plan and provide comments with community members. for close to three years they have not been able to do that job. >> Yeah. I just I think that's just important to note, right? Like that is the main function and they have been prevented from doing that. And so we want to make sure that we're continuing supporting you and the commissioners to get this done because we do understand the importance and just understanding that this isn't just uh something that's in the box that we wanted to check after, you know, Black Lives Matter movement. This is something that we want to make sure that is being upheld because it's necessary. I mean, and you know, they say it all the time, when um America has a cold, black people have the flu. Absolutely. >> And America right now, they got pneumonia. So, what does that mean for black people? >> Yeah. >> And so, we have to make sure that those things are being uplifted. So, thank you for the work that you're doing. >> Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Stevens. Um I just have two final questions. Um, one, has core been given any opportunity to consult or give feedback on the development of the cost of living measure? >> No, we have not. >> Have you ever in the past? >> No, we have not. That plan, that plan and process has not been shared with us. >> Okay. And is that an expectation that it would be shared with you all? CORE has oversight over all of the work in chapter 78, including the task force on racial equity. Data disagregation guidelines, >> data disagregation guidelines should also be in the racial equity plan. Um, but we have not had insight into anything outside of the plan and even that was minimal at the beginning when we briefed city agencies on the draft racial equity priority. My understanding is that they're planning for a March release and so that's concerning if you all have not had any input on that. >> So the March 31st is the also the charter deadline for the true cost of living measure. This should be the second true cost of living measure report that should be released um after hearing the testimony from our partners at MERJ. I I do want to just sort of note it is a bit telling that the true cost of living measure will be released on time, but the racial equity planning process deadlines were uh were put aside. >> And that's something that if things were going the right way, you would be able to look at, review, provide some input on before it gets published. >> Yes. And that's something that we would absolutely welcome. >> Wow. Okay. Um, in the past you all have flagged inconsistencies in city-wide data collection as a limitation on its ability to accurately measure and track outcome indicators, particularly with respect to demographic breakdowns. To what extent have you been able to engage with MERJ in relation to these data insufficiencies? After our second cycle of engagement, we did share with MOERJ what our data disagregation um groupings were going to look like, excuse me. For the second cycle, we shared how we broke down different categories and particularly what people were referring to um when they checked off race, ethnicity. We also add a open question for ancestry, which is a law in New York State. actually all city agencies should be offering that particular question and so we created new categories to reflect what we saw was the response in the first cycle to the second cycle. Okay. If and if there's any specific data points that you think are missing. Um I mean we asked of the of the admin they said they have enough with what's publicly available. If there's anything else besides what you just mentioned, is there is do you want to put that on the record? >> The main concern around publicly available data is that it's few and far between >> and that the public avail publicly available data also has an extensive lag and so you're not looking at the most recent changes and as we all know our city has seen great changes in a short period of time from COVID till now. Um, excuse me. There are also key data sets that are not released in a timely fashion and the data sets that are released do not have expanded data disagregation categories. >> Is there anything else you'd like to mention today? >> I'd actually like to open that up to our colleague to my colleagues. >> Um thank you. Uh I mean I think one one issue that um bears mentioning is that there's a transparency element to all of this. So, I can appreciate the fact that agencies took account of their existing budgets when they were developing their plans, but you know, in the coming months, they're going to be, you know, testifying before the council on how they spend their current budget, how they anticipate spending their forthcoming budget. And because the plan, the racial equity plan hasn't been released, those conversations can't be informed by the substance of the racial equity plan. So this I think the same applies to just sort of ongoing collaboration with between core and OERJ where obviously that is something that is meant to happen and you know like we are indeed meant to sort of provide guidance in different ways to one another. But I mean this isn't supposed to be just a conversation about a draft plan that exists between two agencies. this is supposed to be something made available to the public. Um, and that's a that's a concern of ours. >> And what seems confusing to me as someone who's walking into this committee and and getting more familiar is if the testimony today earlier was there's a racial equity team, planning team within each a at least over 40 agencies and there have been it would I would assume something's written down somewhere, right? and whether it's aggregated into or consolidated into an overall citywide plan or not, that that has actionable items in it that can be addressed and can be put on the record um at any given time. Like there's nothing stopping an agency necessarily from moving forward besides this release of this plan, but they could do it if they chose and made the case internally and and to OM to move things forward, right? Is that I mean If an if DOT says, you know what, we want to prioritize equity and we're going to fight with OMB about it and make sure it's included in our preliminary budget, they could do that. >> Yes, they absolutely >> something on paper already, right? >> They could do that as just as an agency that also is complying with the preamble of the charter. What is missing though if they choose to do that is the people's voice in what they are choosing to invest in. What are the programs, practices, policies, as well as the target areas? What neighborhoods are we starting with? >> Right. Okay. I understand that. The the community feedback on it. Great. Anything else to add before Okay. Thank you all. We look forward to continuing to work together and and creating accountability on this. our uh next and final panel before public testimony. We will invite Logan Clark, assistant director for budget review on behalf of the New York City Independent Budget Office. And when you're ready, committee council will swear you in Good afternoon. Now officially uh three minutes in. Um thank you for joining us today. Could you please raise your right hand? And do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee? >> I do. >> Thank you. Please begin when you're ready. >> Uh good afternoon, uh chair, nurse, and esteemed members of council. Uh I am Logan Clark, the assistant director of budget review at the New York City Independent Budget Office. IBO is an a nonpartisan independent government agency mandated by the New York City Charter. IBO's mission is to enhance public understanding of the New York City budget, public policy, and economy through independent analysis. IBO thanks you for the opportunity uh to testify today on this important topic, budgeting for equity. As the Illinois based Civic Federation states, "A fundamental principle of equity-based budgeting is the use of data broken down by historically underrepresented economic and demographic characteristics to identify disparities and bias in tax systems and inform resource allocation. By collecting and analyzing data disagregated by these factors, policymakers can pinpoint where inequities are most pronounced and direct funding to the areas of greatest need. IBO's data focus allows an understanding of the opportunities and limitations to New York City's budget. IBO consistently focuses on issues of equity and following this testimony is a list of IBO reports and other resources that address this dimension of uh a broad range of topics. New York City's budget comprises several components. The operating or expense budget, the capital budget, and the revenue budget. and questions of equity uh are different depending on which component is being discussed. In the expense budget typ uh IBO typically asks who could be and who is actually being served by a program. On the capital budget, the question becomes where and what and how is the city building? And regarding the revenue budget, uh the questions are who is controlling New York City or who is uh sorry apologies uh who is NYC uh collecting revenues from and is this collection proportional? What revenues are not being collected? And what drives that? Let's address some of the central uh data challenges to tracking and measuring equity. First, demographic data. Um while understanding uh policy uh design and outcomes on the basis of race ethnicity income gender identity, and sexual orientation and disability. Um while that is central to equity, generally administrative data sets or systems of record do not typically track these factors. That leads us to geographic data. Uh, New Yorkers should be able to rely on the charter section 100G, which states, "For each city agency that has local or burough service districts within community districts and burrows, the departmental estimates and executive budget, where practicable, shall contain a statement of proposed direct expenditures in each such service district for each requested unit of appropriation. Yet, the city's existing report attempting to meet this requirement is extremely limited. The city's budget publications include the geographic report for the expense budget, a publication that only covers 14 city agencies. Those uh that subset of agencies comprises roughly $10 billion uh in appropriations for fiscal year uh 2027, of which only 1.8 billion is reported geographically. Uh that's about 1.4% 4% of our one uh $127 billion uh proposed budget. The Department of Education is a notable exclusion from this report as are the human uh resources administration and the Department of Homeless Services. This straightens the chart the charter's requirement that the budget be reported geographic uh geographically where practicable beyond credul. This leads us to budget data and budget structures. Uh the lack of consistent detail in how budgets are categorized further adds to the inability uh to understand equity. IBO has previously testified to city council and to charter revision commissions that creating unit of or creating units of appropriation standards across agencies could greatly improve insight into how uh into New York City's budget choices. The current structures uh of or the current structure of units of appropriation in many agencies does not conform to the original intent of the charter to provide programmatic transparency within the budget. Despite these challenges, assessing equity within the budget is not impossible. Far from it. IBO routinely uses geographic proxy data to rigorously evaluate city spending. Most often that involves the use of data from the United States Census Bureau. And IBO appreciates council's leadership role in maintaining the quality of census data uh in its collection and usage. As council proceeds, uh IBO suggests enhancing standards uh around units of appropriation and enhancing uh charter section 100G to encompass a broader scope uh within the city's budget. And we thank you for the invitation to testify today. And we welcome the opportunity to continue this critical conversation. >> Well, thank you for being here. Really appreciate it. Um I have just two two questions for you but uh or maybe a few but I wanted to give um council member Lynch Schulman opportunity to ask some questions first and you sure okay I've been talking a lot so all right in your testimony you mentioned the need for disagregated data um core also has been calling for this have ibo and core discussed or otherwise collaborated in any way on this topic >> uh our leadership's uh have met together uh and we are continuing that conversation >> and you've all met this year. >> Uh yes, within the past, I believe six months. >> Okay. Um and in your testimony, you mentioned needing standards across agencies for units of appropriation. Can you elaborate on any specific recommendations you may have for structuring UOVAs um that would support improved transparency and evaluation on the budget, including for equity related commitments? >> Absolutely. Um I believe uh the the thing that we don't want to do is dictate how agencies run their operations and so the the standards should be something that uh applies broadly but is still something that can uh allow for greater geographic detail um in in budget structures that are below the unit of appropriation. Uh these are called budget codes. uh certain agencies are uh will have programs that cover five bureaus all within a single budget code. Others are are doing this on a bureau level. Um others have multiple cro uh programs within a particular budget code. So it becomes difficult to disagregate a lot of data without really hands-on knowledge there. Uh this is honestly a challenge that we have in and a question that we get from the public routinely is what are the dollars that are actually being spent in my district. Um and in enforcing some greater standards on uh units of appropriation, we believe that there there's some level that uh uh could be created there. >> Agree. Um, and have you spoken with OM or any other agencies about implementing any of these recommendations? Are you aware of any initiatives to look at spending more rigorously from an equity perspective? Um, for example, in the way that core was describing concerning new needs requests or under spending requests. >> Uh, absolutely. I we are in in continual dialogue with our our partners over at OM and uh across city government. Um the the main thing I I think when we look at what agencies are requesting is that many of those requests aren't public to begin with. Um you know we're discussing uh what eval or what criteria is OM evaluating uh new needs requests on. Uh new needs are are generally not something that are are made public in terms of their overall submissions. Um so that's something that that could be looked at. Um I I think that's something that is is a potential uh area of discussion. Uh but uh yeah, broadly speaking, you know, we are are continuing conversations with uh uh with other parts of of city government. >> Um and do you have any other transparency related recommend recommendations across city government? Uh uh broadly speaking, I think there is is plenty of data that could be better and uh could be put out in more machine readable formats. Uh I know we were discussing our dislike of PDFs earlier. Uh yes. Uh so uh there's a great number of things that I I think particularly surrounding the budget uh that are are difficult to disagregate. Uh and that's part of why our office was created back uh in 1989's Charter Revision Commission. Um, and so, uh, I I I do believe that there are things that we should be doing to demystify the budget, uh, and and we'd be happy to, uh, follow up with more specific, uh, recommendations. >> I I believe the council, and I might be wrong, I know at least for the Department of Correction, we required them to start doing machine readable format reports. Um, and they were not compliant uh, for two years. we had to badger them every month um to stop sending us PDFs of very large files that we just can't read. Um so I'm going to turn it over to Council Member Shelman. >> Thank you. Um and thank you for being here today. So a couple things. One is is DOH one of those 14 agencies? >> Sorry, checking my footnotes here. Uh DOH is one of those agencies. So, you know, um we face budget deficits every year and so but there's money I think that's being duplicative in a number of different places because we don't disagregate it. So, we don't know that. Uh would you agree with that? Uh I would have to uh get back to >> but in general as a general >> I there could be there are certainly inefficiencies across city government in terms of >> I would so a few things one is um since we are starting budget season I would ask that you let us know like a list of what um council member uh chair nurse said in terms of what the units of appropriation because every year when we bargain with the administration We don't get that many. We get like a handful. So we got to figure out what that is. Um particularly I'm interested. I'm chair of the health committee. Uh so DOH and H&H and then H&H has the challenge of like it's a quasi city agency and so there are things being spent on that side and duplicates. I know there's duplicative effort in terms of a lot of different services that but they're bury but the city OM buries the money in H&H because they don't have to account for it. So um if you can give us some idea and the other is that when OM testifies at the preliminary budget hearings I would ask that you come and testify or somebody from IBO come and testify. >> Absolutely. We'd be we'd be more than happy to uh carry on that conversation and follow up with specifics. uh and uh we will be there on the 11th uh I believe is uh when we're we're set to testify. >> Yeah, I think that's the date. But um these are these it's so important in disagregating information whether it's DOH or something else or or mental health and and all of these different things. I mean if we know where the money is going then we know where to put where there's where we need resources where maybe we can take from other you know and we're not doing that. The city has never really done that. So, if we can push on that, we have a new administration and maybe that's something we can look for and, you know, move forward toward, that'd be great. So, thank you. >> Um, I just have one more question. Um, in your testimony, you talked about you're looking at and evaluating expense capital programming um around who is or could be being served by a program. How do you go about um getting those questions answered from across the different agencies? >> Uh absolutely. So, uh IBO has a a uh charter mandate to receive this uh information and that's been backed up by the courts uh back in the Giuliani administration uh when there were difficulties in us obtaining information from uh city agencies. Um and we frequently do request information from uh other operating uh city agencies. Uh but it's also something where we do use geographic proxies often. Um and so for information that's publicly available um a an example of this earlier uh this year was our work on uh uh cooling centers that are run through NISM. And that's something that's publicly available data and we're able to overlay that on other publicly available data on uh such as census tracks to figure out uh the the um racial and and equitable impacts uh uh around those. Um, and so this is something that we're very familiar with in terms of of trying to in absence of administrative data that specifically says who is being served. We're we're pretty good at being able to figure out a proxy that will get us to something for certain programs. Um, it's more difficult on on other things, honestly. uh and and cooling centers is honestly uh one of the things that I think uh sort of highlights the difficulties uh particularly in just measuring demand for city services when you're not taking headcount at the door for something, right? Um and you get something similar with libraries as well. Um and and who's coming into a cooling center to be cooled versus, you know, if a cooling center is a a petco, you know, are they just going in to get something for their pet? Um, so those types of questions and again this is just one example of those. Um, but those types of questions are are things that we are intimately familiar with over at IBO. >> Well, you so it sounds like you don't have to chase the agency down for that data. >> Uh, it depends on agency to agency. >> Okay. Are there any bad actors? >> Uh, we could follow up with specifics. Uh uh >> we could put it on the record, too. Don't worry. You are an independent office. >> This is very true. Uh uh I think we we can go ahead and and follow up uh with some of the difficulties that we have and uh honestly again some of this is is data security as well um in terms of uh times when we're dealing with uh uh personally identifying information. >> Well, we don't ask for that. I mean I think it's these are broad questions. If there are people who can't afford have very little cash or high cash incomes and they can't afford their AC, we should have more cooling centers there, right? like that has nothing to do with personal information. So what I'm saying is if there are people that you have to agencies that you have to chase down more um on broadstrokes data, it would be helpful to know that. >> Absolutely. And we can follow up with that. >> Okay. Um my last question um has there been discussion about whether COR's community engagement mandate could be complimentary to or help support IBO's understanding of and research on how the public is being served by different budget decisions. Uh I I would have to again follow up with specifics on that, but I I think that there is a a strong alignment between IBO and the work that CORE does. Um IBO serves absolutely every single New Yorker uh that calls this city home. Uh and uh CORE is doing much the same. And so I think uh there is a a strong alignment between our our two offices on that front. >> Okay. Okay. We really appreciate you coming to testify and um we hope to continue chatting with you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Awesome. So, um, one second. I now open the hearing for public testimony. I remind members of the public that this is a formal government proceeding and that decorum shall 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 transcripts of such recordings to the sergeant at arms for inclusion of in in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, 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 hearing topic. If you have a written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the sergeant-at-arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony@counsel.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. I'd like to uh bring to the uh witness table Mattaline Nye from Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Roger L. Green, Coalition for Democratic and Just New York, and Rebecca Cook Mack from Legal Aid Society. Yeah. >> Anyone can start. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Thank you to the members of the city council committee on civil and human rights and to chair nurse for convening this oversight hearing on budgeting for equity. My name is Maline Nye. I'm the chief of policy and research at FPWA. In 2022, we commissioned the Urban Institute to develop a true cost of economic security or TCEES measure following the 2022 ballot measure mandating the city's true cost of living measure. To meet the mandate, the city has worked with the same team that developed the national true cost of economic security to develop New York City's true cost of living measure. While this measure has not yet been released, the national tcees measure provides county level granular insight into all five burrows. What we found is a higher than national rate of economic insecurity in our city and an inequitable distribution of economic insecurity across our city. Economic insecurity is concentrated in communities of color. While 43% of white New Yorkers are economically insecure, 63% of AAPI New Yorkers, 68% of black New Yorkers, and 78 of Latine New Yorkers are economically insecure. Economic insecurity falls hardest on families with children. Nearly three out of four New York families with children, or 72% are economically insecure. And for single parent households, the vast majority of whom are headed by single mothers, the economic insecurity rate in our city is 91%. The true cost of living measure not only gives us statistics, it makes visible the procarity of New Yorkers, where it is concentrated, what costs drive it, and where resources are lacking. This visibility is necessary for equitable budgeting and policymaking. As such, we look forward to working with the council and the mayor's office to ensure release and more importantly utilization of New York City's true cost of living measure to build a New York in which everyone has economic security. Thank you and I welcome any questions. >> Um Roger Green, um one of the founders of the Coalition for Democratic and Just New York. um also a former member of the New York State Assembly. I served in the assembly for over 26 years. And uh during my tenure, I was the um chair of the New York State Black Puerto Rican Asian Caucus for at least three terms, longest serving chair of that body, and also had um the privilege of serving as the chair of the um standing committee on children and families and the joint budget conference committee on health and human services. Um and so I wanted to um um talk about this uh through my own lived experience as a member of the uh state legislature in which um I had uh wrote to learn that u mo much of public policy is in fact informed by the social construction of both class, race and gender. Uh and this was my own personal experience. Um, and given that reality, um, I want the, uh, city and the people of the New York, uh, um, determined to change the charter in 2022. Um, I thought that this was a major um, paradigm shift, a a positive uh, move in the direction of creating a more equitable and just society um, particularly in New York City. And so I am uh wanted to come here as a member of our coalition which was founded first as a coalition for democratic I mean coalition for adjuster York um which was the organization that I co-founded with Al Ban and others uh to um um to mobilize for the election of David Denkins uh to suggest that um that it is important at this point in time uh to ensure that um the um what has been placed in law um uh should be uh enforced. Um I was uh severely disappointed at the previous administration uh who failed to uh enact what was uh what was the law. Um, and I see this as essentially a violation of the core principles of a democracy, which is self-governance and also the consent of the govern. Um, and we can't get around that. um if in fact we're calling ourselves a true uh democratic republic uh even in the sovereignty of New York City um there has to be a commitment to ensure uh that we embrace that and we enforce those principles um and I think uh particularly also I and I was a supporter of the mayor enthusiastically supported the mayor um I still think that it's important for this administration to understand that as well and to internalize that uh particularly in its administration of its governance. Um and I wanted to say this particularly in the context of for instance one of his key priorities which is child care. Uh I served as as I said as the chairperson of the committee on children and families. Uh had um privilege of authoring legislation to expand child care through the cutuny system. um the uh enactment of the facilitated um child care provision in law that expanded child care for working-class families. That was my legislation. Um but I also know um that um again if it's not administered correctly um uh communities of color uh will be marginalized and I can say that from a personal experience. Um over the past few months um I have a grandson and my wife and I have been working with my daughter to identify child care for my grandson little Assaihiah. And I can tell you that um this is just from a cursory experience u that I have found that the distribution of child care services are different in some communities than in others. uh where communities of colors uh uh people of color exist live. Um the quality of child care that we found through my own personal assessment and I am a former educator uh was subpar uh in comparison to where we found those child care services in other parts of the of the city. And so this is where I think the so concept of the true cost of living measure becomes important also. And I want to cite what I think may be uh something that uh chairman nurse that uh that you should consider um which is um looking at um at the very least a proof of concept around these uh the principles of um of of of equity ensuring that there's equity. Uh starting with for instance the child care um proposal that the mayor has begun to uh unfold. And in that um one can look at the concept again the true cost of living measure particularly as it relates to the workers in the child care system who are underpaid uh which I think is again a reflection of the public policies the social construction of gender as well as race. Most of those workers are women. Most of those workers are women of color and also compound discrimination. Many of them also are new immigrants in the city of New York. And so that's an example of why um I think it was um unfortunate that the mayor didn't include this whole concept uh within his preliminary budget. The other thing I think is again uh support for diverse providers to ensure that um this concept of equity looks at um um how the city is going to ensure that uh diverse providers um uh based upon gender, race and class are given opportunities um to provide child care services in the city. And then of course um I think the whole issue of the uh cultural competency becomes important ensuring that that also is a part of the administration of the child care services. Um and then finally streamlining access to care to barriers which I think started with the legislation that I had enacted um which was the uh facilitated enrollment uh program. So I wanted to just come here to say that and finally again to emphasize that um that the concept of the consent of the govern um and the concept and the principle of democratic self-governance cannot be compromised that if in fact the people of the New York uh went to the polls in 2022 and enacted this into law that it's uh that it is required uh that those that are in power uh from the mayor on down. Um I um respect that. I would close on this other note also that the concept of community priorities is very important. Um when we met with the mayor prior to the election, one of the things that we talked to him about was the importance of breaking up the command bureaucracy. Uh that really is a reflection of what I called social welfare colonialism. you know that we have a system in which the people aren't given an opportunity to engage in uh a process of community empowerment and associate democracy to define the type of programs that they need within their respective neighborhoods. And I think that's why the commission's work is so important. And I just close on saying that I hope that you will give uh your strong voice and support of that and encourage the mayor to amend his preliminary budget and include um the core principles that have been articulated by the commission on racial equity. Again, thank you so much. >> No, thank you. And and just to respond, um we agree. We agree and I think the majority of the the council agrees um the black council members wrote a letter um directly uh a little bit ago saying this is a priority and we expect it and um today the progressive caucus um also put a statement out saying we we need this plan and I I think many people have said it directly to the mayor. Um, and I actually I actually think he could have just released it and said, "Hey, this is what the previous administration thought of the racial equity plan. This is not what we want, and we need your help, everybody, to get it into place." And I think it would have gone a long way to just say to to it would have gone a long way towards transparency, right? >> Right. >> Like, and to and and my philosophy is like bring people into sharing the problem. The problem was we had a bad administration that did not prioritize this and whatever red line this plan to hell. So you can let people know that and it actually I think would would um compel people to be work with you to fix it. Um, and I think when you don't share what the challenges are with the public and people and trust them that we're not stupid, we know um that they will they will show up and and and help try to solve the problem. And so I I do think that was a misstep and I think that was that it has been communicated across the board. Um, so we're with you and we appreciate your testimony today. >> Thank you. >> Uh, good afternoon. Uh, my name is Rebecca Cookmack. I'm a staff attorney in the employment law unit at legal aid. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I'm here really to preview um March testimony around the budget, but but wanted to take the opportunity to raise the mayor's preliminary budget proposal, which compounds rather than addresses the chronic underfunding at the commission on um human rights, the city, the city commission on human rights, which is an essential equity partner in this city. Um, the mayor's preliminary budget continues the cycle of disinvestment by proposing a budget cut of almost 12 10% to the commission, which we know is now more essential than ever. So, I'm here today really to call on the mayor to reverse his proposed budget cut and instead invest in the commission so that it's funded at $25 million in FY27, which is less than a 2.2% of the city's $127 billion budget. Um just as as you all know the city commission on human rights um enforces the city's human rights law which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations. It protects against discriminatory lending practices retaliation discriminatory harassment, anti uh bias-based profiling by law enforcement. It is one of the most comprehensive civil rights laws in the country and it applies to a long list of protected classes beyond those recognized by the federal and state governments. We commend city council for expanding the law and for having such an expansive view of what civil and human rights are, but we have to express our alarm at the chronic underfunding at the commission which prevents New Yorkers from receiving the justice they deserve when faced with discrimination. and that underfunding is compounded in this 2027 FY budget. Um the the small amount of money 10 that we're calling for the mayor to add to the CCHR budget is just 10% of the $250 million increase he is proposing for the NYPD budget. It is 4% of a proposed $681 million increase to the miscellaneous budget line. And this CCHR funding would have an oversized impact on the lives of New Yorkers if it was directed towards the commission so that the commission could step up and stand in where the federal government has turned its back on our most v vulnerable black and brown New Yorkers. So we so we are here today to preview a huge concern in how do we budget equitably and how do we pursue equity in this city by flagging the mayor's you know decrease in the CCHR budget which is not a decrease that this agent that it's not even an agency that this commission can can accommodate at this time. Thank you. >> And what would be the ideal budget? So, I'm part of a um human rights law working group here in the city and we are calling on the mayor to fund CCHR in FY27 at $25 million. So, it's a tiny amount of money, but with that money, we believe CCHR would be able to stand up a real early intervention team so that a New Yorker experiencing, for example, source of income housing discrimination could call, have their phone call answered, and have a resolution within two weeks. Right? We know that timing is essential and and without staff to to to pursue that, without people to take these laws seriously, it is impossible for voucher holders to really utilize their vouchers in a reasonable way. Yeah. >> So, so that's what we're calling for. >> Um we appreciate that and um we agree. Um, we want you all to have the capacity to answer phones, address these issues, follow up early on cases, not leave people hanging because you don't have uh capacity to respond to people. So, thank you for your testimony today, all of you. Really appreciate it. We look forward to seeing you at March the March hearing in a few weeks. >> Thank you. Oh, go ahead. Oh, sorry. Sorry. >> Hi, I'm Council Member Schulman. Um, so, uh, a couple things. one is I hope that you will come to the budget hearing when OM is testifying um and particularly when the different different committees are uh talking to the agencies and all of that. So um you know it's interesting because you know each of us as council members get a certain amount of money for discretionary funds and it's hard without this data and without this information to do that. So I have an interesting district. I have a well a well um um a district that does well that's middle to upper middle class half then the other half has has a lot of needs to it and I focus my attention on the one that has the needs in it. Um interestingly enough it's not where the votes come from. So that's like a little thing but it's important and it's so it's you know I represent Forest Hills Richmond Hill is the big piece. Um and you talk about like I want to know what my seek community needs uh what the Hindu community the Muslim community. So it's hard to know that without the aggre aggregate data that you all are talking about. Um so I really feel that what you have what you said is important but we also need you guys to testify at these hearings because all of that information is taken back and it's really looked at and I can push it too with the finance folks as well. Um, so, uh, I really appreciate it and Assemblyman Green because I'll you're always once an assemblyman, always an assemblyman. I worked in the C in the assembly when you were there, but we can talk offline. >> Thank you. >> Um, so thank you very much for that. I'm gonna go. Next up, we have the former permanent rep of Grenina, uh, Eugene Pursu, um, Evette Chen from the Fair Housing Justice Center, and Omar Thompson from the New Harlem Renaissance Incorporated, and Y. Jennings. Good afternoon. My name is Evette Chen and 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 today. I'm here to speak on two main points. The first, as a member of the human rights law working group, which Rebecca mentioned, uh we asked the city council to reverse the mayor's proposed budget cut and increase the CCHR budget to $25 million. This increase addresses years of underfunding. Secondly, we affirm that CCHR has a critical role in enforcing New York City's fair housing laws to eliminate source of income and disability discrimination and implement the fair chance in housing law. A well-funded CCHR can properly investigate complaints and provide meaningful relief to New Yorkers experiencing discrimination. Source of income discrimination remains 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 FEPS. 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 use their own homes. Finally, the fair chance in housing law, which took effect January 1st, 2025, expanded protections for people with criminal records. 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 agency's budget to $25 million. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. >> Thank you uh Madame Chairman for giving me this opportunity. uh only yesterday uh one of the deputy one of the deputy commissioners uh asked me to come here and testify. Uh let me start by saying to you how happy I was to listen to you the way you eloquently and comprehensively uh articulated what this whole hearing is about. I thank you very much for that and for the probing questions that you asked that educate us further. Thank you very much. When I listened to the commissioner of core, I thought I should be just invited to stand behind her. That's it. But since I've since I made the trip, I have I see no more need for me to talk on the technical aspects of budgeting and so forth. only to say thank you again for reminding us that it's one thing to draft an implementation plan as we heard today. It's quite another thing to implement that plan. I have seen so many plans. I myself have participated in drafting implementation plans on the international level like climate change agenda 21 and all these plans just die in people's shelves. So I'm very glad that you are here to insist that on the for the benefit of people who have suffered inequities throughout history that you hear to try and move the needle. So at this point I just want to touch target your hearts a little. I want to remind us that it was inequity that resulted during the pandemic to more black and brown people suffering and dying. This is something we can't gloss over because we have gotten a little handle on the pandemic. Now we can't forget what happened. Uh I was I was introduced earlier as a former ambassador of Grenada. Well, I want to say that that's true, but it's also true that I lived in this city as a citizen for 60 years now. And so I I I I know the problems of inequity. I'm also a playright now. I have five plays out there now. And some of the people of my cast members live in the black community and if you you have to take you have to go into those community to see the impacts of inequities. I have three cast members where I have in one play I have uh six members of the cast and three of them have their sons killed gunshot and stabbing and drug overdose. This is the kind of impacts that inequity is having on our community. It is no wonder that after 160 years after the emancipation proclamation was read, the black communities remain at the bottom of the social and economic to totem pole. This is the kind of results from inequity. So when we come here and beg and appeal to you to help in that area, that's the most I feel we could do at this point in time. And I urge you to take up the fight on the behalf of people who have been historically deprived because of inequity. Thank you very much for allowing me this few minutes. >> Thank you. appreciate you being here and I assure you um anything that I've said here is because I was well prepared by CORE and the committee staff. Um but we will definitely be ratcheting up the fight for sure over the next few months. >> Thank you. >> I hope you'll be at our next hearing too. >> I I'll try. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Good afternoon. Uh my name is Omar Thompson. Um just uh thank you for the chair in the committee in the committee. My name is Or Thompson. I'm a lifelong Har resident, a husband, a father of four, a stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and the founder of New Harlem Renaissance, uh, youth arts and workforce development organization based in Harlem. Um, I'm here today, um, because racial equity planning is not just theoretical for me. It's something that is personal for me. Um, I grew up in Harlem at a time where opportunity was scarce. As a young boy, um, you didn't see pathways into media, into business ownership, into the arts. Um, I saw talent everywhere everywhere around me, but very few structured opportunities. Um, I was fortunate to make it to college. I was fortunate to build a career in media and comedy and television. Uh but um I should not have had to rely on luck to uh access opportunities. Um today I own a business on 125th Street. I have um built a nonprofit that serves youth in podcast engineering and media media production and creative workforce to training. Um we create opportunities that I wish I had as a kid. Um, so sorry about that. But, um, the truth of the matter is that none of this work is sustain sustainable without intentional equity guided budgets and um, from the city actually. Um, racial equity planning matters because where the city allocates funding determines which communities thrive and which communities continue to fight to up fight uphill battles. As we all know, um, when the racial equity plan is delayed, programs serving black and brown youth are delayed, workforce pipelines are delayed, um, mental health supports are delayed, economic mobility is delayed, um, equity cannot be s cannot be symbolic. It must be operationalized through budgets. Um, I'm here as a father, a Harlem public, my mother, I mean, sorry, my wife is a Harlem public school teacher for over 20 years. Um, we have four kids that live in the city as well. And, um, the decision made in this room determines whether they have they can go up and say that invest in them early or one that asks them to overcome systematic barriers. Um, I've been honored with the with the volunteer services award and I'm receiving my uh honorary doctor's degree this May. But none of that none of those recognitions matter if the next generation does not have the clear funded pathways forward. I'm going urge the city council to release and not maybe the city to release a um racial equity plan immediately and ensure that equity is embodied in the 2026 27 budget because equity delayed is opportunity denied. Thank you. My name's Omar Thompson. >> Thank you so much. Um thank you for being here. I'm getting eyeballs because um we there's another hearing scheduled for this room after here. So I'm going to start sticking to the clock because Yeah. getting the getting the look. Um, usually I'm very generous when it's when it's um smaller group. So, go ahead. >> Hi, my name is Miss Jennings. I spoke at least five or six times last year. Dy public safety basically. I don't speak of race and the 5,000 letters that have gone to four presidents for 15 years that go every bus. I don't speak I try not to speak of race but I don't understand that I've been stalked and I've complained to IAB 311 in every one of these agencies and then the wonderful lady here from COR I reached out to last year now I'm having a lot of pain because creeping around scared the luck out of me and I can't take a third heart attack. Uh the wonderful Mr. Williams I showed him some of those letters. I saw him years ago and I tried to reach out. I saw him 20 years ago. Reverend Shton's place, but I saw him when he took the public office on October the 4th. I saw Da Bragg and he gave me a card for Miss Santiago and Miss Stevens. I went to her office when she was with Yousef Salam public safety about this issue. I get nothing. The marching around, the creeping, I don't know what it's about. I have a pain now. I had two heart attacks and now working on the third. Best part of this is that where I stay something with the electric and I spoke to Coned in the room that I'm in. They turned off the electric in that house. Something very bad. Google it late. It's called sonic attacks. Very important. Please listen. How do you know your staff have your best interests? For 20 years, I reached out to all of you different wonderful people for help and have gotten nothing. But you all get good budgets for your offices. All of you. The NYPD gets what? 70% of their budget from city council. You should see the letters that I've shown to a few of you wonderful people. They cover nothing. Their emails and letters to places you don't want to know. And everybody gets the same email. meaning Wilds Levit, Tanya K I N S E L A, Deputy Police Commissioner, Z Mandami, and the rest of them all get the same email a lot. I pay for my life and safety to be electrocuted to reach out to all of you people. And I hear from nobody. My phone is smack, my computer's hack, and I don't know if anyone gets the messages. I know I'm being what do you call it when you they don't answer your calls or whatever you call? There's a word for it now in the stalking term. But remember, whoever controls the best directed energy will control the world without weapons and bullets. Remember what I said. I asked for help. The 47 precinct the worst. The worst. The worst. My hands don't go near nobody. No one. Help. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you all for your testimony. Um we'll now hear from uh folks online. If for any reason anybody here um wants to testif who's here in person wants to testify but hasn't go ahead and see the sergeant, fill out a slip. Otherwise, we're going to move to online. We have Lily Shapiro from the Fortune Society first and then Christopher Leon Johnson. Lily um you can unmute and start. >> Thank you so much, Chair Nurse and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify. My name is Lily Shapiro and I am policy counsel at the Fortune Society's David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy. I respect respectfully refer you to my written testimony. So I will try to be succinct since I am also budget focused on the budget issue here. We simply cannot have our laws exist as rights without true remedies. And that is what we currently have with an underfunded underresourced commission on civil and human rights. Thank you to the council for pushing for more funding last year which unfortunately did not materialize in the budget. We simply must do more. I was honored to co-lead the successful fair chance for housing campaign and continue to co-lead the coalition. In December of 2023, CCHR submitted a fiscal impact statement for this bill, which is now law, indicating a need for $1.4 million to hire new staff and do a public education campaign on just this law alone. That did not happen. And thus, there has been no public education campaign from the city except for we, the nonprofits and the coalition have provided. We trained CCHR staff. We have trained the constituent service staff of city council members and our state- elected officials, other city agency staff, numerous nonprofits, hundreds of directly impacted people. We have been getting materials that we created into Rikers to inform people of their rights. Using private funds, we launched a public education campaign on the sides of city buses and on link NYC. And we have nonprofit attorneys in our networks drafting complaints for people for submission to CCHR. So their cases will actually move faster. But we the nonprofits cannot do it all and we cannot enforce the law. So today I focused on fair chance for housing, but this is much bigger than just one law. Budgets are value statements. And if we truly believe in equity in these times especially, the city must provide CCHR with at least 10 million additional dollars in funding for FY27 and exempt that commission from hiring freezes and PEGs moving forward. Thank you so much for the time today. >> Thank you, Lily. Uh Chris Leon Johnson, you're next. >> You may begin. >> Hello, nurse. My name is Christopher Leon Johnson, but I want to make this clear that uh I I think that you as a chair need to start calling out Madani and really calls name by name and ask him when's the exact date he's going to release this report. I have a big feeling that he's going to wait till after the NY election to release that report. Um he's going to hold that report and many other things hostage to make sure that his person Valdez defeat Reoso for Congress. But I'll make this clear that um Eric Adams is no longer here. Um he's gone. This is we're in February right now. I think that when people bring up Eric Adams to try to justify about this report, it's just nonsense. Um people in the city council and many of these nonprofits start calling out Badani by his name, but they won't do it because they're scared of losing that FY27 um funding when it comes to the executive budget. Uh that's what they care about because the mayors always have discretionary funding