Council member Gail Brewer. So, good afternoon everyone. First of all, do we have Professor Juan Manuel Bonitez? Is he here? Yes, professor. Thank you for coming here with your incredible class of journalists from the J School at Columbia. We're so thrilled to have you here. We really appreciate it. We know that you're the next generation of report. Well, you already are, but you're going to be leaders in the field of journalism. So, we just want to welcome you all here to city hall. So this morning, um, uh, Finance Chair Linda Lee and I released a new council economic forecast and budget analysis ahead of our preliminary budget oversight hearings, which I want to say begin tomorrow. So, we hope that we'll see all of you at our first uh, budget hearings. The economic forecast shows a difference of nearly 400 million in tax revenue projections compared to the mayor's office of budget and management for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 combined. Our separate fiscal analysis identified nearly 1.7 billion in potential savings and additional revenue just in fiscal year 2026 alone, which of course ends on June 30th. That analysis shows we can protect critical government services without drawing down on our rainy day fund as proposed by the administration and its preliminary budget. Let me be clear, the rainy day fund has never been drawn down and the council believes it should be reserved only for true fiscal emergencies. We are committed to maintaining fiscal discipline and we will continue to work very collaboratively with the administration to ensure the finances of the five burrows remain strong and robust. Uh now turning to another topic. Over the weekend we witnessed an attempted act of ISIS influence terrorism outside Gracie Mansion during a protest that occurred in my district. This could have easily become a lethal situation. I'm so relieved that no one from the public or from the surrounding area was injured and that the mayor and his family are safe. Two alleged suspects were charged yesterday and they must be held accountable. I'm deeply grateful for the NYPD for their swift and heroic response. Particularly, I want to call out NYPD Chief Aaron Edwards and Sergeant Luis Navara, who without hesitation risk her own safety for the safety of others, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. The right to peacefully protest is of course sacrosanked uh regardless of the content, but violence and terrorism have absolutely no place in our city whatsoever. On a more celebratory note, Sunday was International Women's Day. Uh, as a woman speaker of this women led New York City Council, the pride that we all feel cannot be measured. Um, we're so proud of the women uh in city government and throughout our city who are doing so many great things. Women in public service and really across every single industry in our great city. I'm especially proud of my own daughter as a mom and so something very significant to me. Women have obviously contributed so much and will continue to make such a positive impact on our society. And lastly, I'm excited to announce four new appointments to our senior staff. Joe Daniels, who formerly served as the CEO, Bob, I see you. I know you know Joe well, right? All those years. So, Joe formerly served as the CEO and president of the 911 Memorial Museum. He was there in the beginning for the whole construction of that project um and led that project when we had 60 active construction projects happening downtown. He I'm thrilled to announce is going to be our new senior advisor for economic development together with Leah Goldman um who's a former editor of multiple publications and has done a lot in sort of public private partnership space. uh they are going to co-direct our new office for advancing partnerships and economic expansion which we are calling Apex for short. We also are welcoming Greg Crackour who served as a senior advisor and counselor to the New York State Attorney General as a new counsel to the speaker who's going to be advising on oversight investigations and other legal matters. And then lastly, I'm thrilled to announce that Maka Ajibi is being elevated to general counsel. So I want to congratulate all of these uh exciting announcements today and these appointments are going to help bolster our efforts to take the council in a new more proactive direction to deliver for every resident of the five burrows. Uh ahead of today's state of meeting, we'll be voting on three land use items. one housing redevelopment in council member Hudson's district and two housing developments in both council member Brooks Powers and Council Member Kaban's district on top of two finance items, one transparency resolution and one preconsidered resolution by Council Member Linder Lee. And the council will also vote on its fiscal year 2027 proposed operating budget. And finally, we will vote on the following five pieces of legislation. Council Member Riley's bill will require the Department of Transportation to post signs on each block of any street subject to bus lane restrictions. Uh and now I'm going to vote uh invite Council Member Riley to the podium to discuss his important legislation. >> Thank you, Madam Speaker. Uh good afternoon, everyone. Today, the council will take up intro 409A, legislation I introduced to improve transparency and clarity around bus lane restrictions across New York City. Bus lanes are very critical tool for improving transit services and helping keep our city moving. Every day, millions of New Yorkers rely on buses to get to work, school, medical appointments, and home. And dedicated bus lanes help make those trips faster and more reliable. But for many drivers navigating our streets, the rules around bus lane restrictions are not always clear. Restrictions can vary by block and by time of day, and signage is not always visible or consistently placed. That confusion can lead to unexpected violations, and frustration from drivers who are trying to follow the rules. At the same time, when bus lanes are blocked or misused, it slows down services for riders and undermines the purpose of these lanes in the first place. Intro 409A addresses these challenges by calling on the Department of Transportation to install clearly visible signage indicating the days and hours when bus lane restrictions are in effect. The legislation also strengthens transparency by requiring DOT to publish this information online in a searchable format so New Yorkers can easily look up bus lane restrictions by street name. When drivers clearly understand when restrictions apply, compliance improves, helping keep bus lanes clear and supporting faster and more reliable services for millions of riders who depend on buses every day. At its core, this legislation is about clarity, transparency, and making sure the rules of the roads are communicated clearly to the people navigating our city streets. I would like to thank my colleagues in government and our speaker uh for helping me get this bill passed. Thank you. >> Great. Congratulations, Council Member Riley. Council member Brewers's bill would consolidate the archival review board and the archives reference and research advisory board into the library and archival review advisory board. Now, I'd like to invite Council Member Brewer to the podium to discuss her legislation. >> Thank you, Madam Speaker. If you like libraries and archives, this is for you. So, it's Intro 87, and as you heard, it improves the city as it oversees and manages its archives and public records. The legislation combines two advisory boards with overlapping responsibilities into one body. There'll be nine members, creating a clearer structure for reviewing how city records are preserved and accessed for reporters as well as historians and the public. The archives holds more than 200 million records, including photographs and maps and documents to document the city's history and the work of our government. This effort will improve coordination and efficiency. It will strengthen independent review of how the city records are preserved and managed. Pres preservation is very important. Many of them are digitized now and improves transparency. It merges the archival review board and the archives reference and research advisory board and to a single library advisory board. It expands membership to nine members. The appointments will be made by the mayor and the speaker with the commissioner of Doris as it's known serving as chair and it requires members to have relevant professional expertise in archives, libraries or records management and they will meet every three months. Thank you very much. I hope there are archives in the audience. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Pria Sanchez. She is not here, but I'll mention her bill is a technical correction to the housing maintenance code. And uh deputy speaker Dr. Natasha Williams bill would require the mayor to convene a quadrrenial commission in 2026 to review the compensation levels of the mayor, public advocate, city controller, bar presidents, council members, and district attorneys in New York City. I believe the deputy speaker is on her way here, so she'll be able to say something when she arrives. Um, and last but not least, Council Member Justin Sanchez's bill would require certain city agencies to establish a two-year pilot program to encourage cleanliness and the removal of snow and ice at any bus shelter, bike share station, or public communication structure. So, I now want to invite up council member Sanchez to talk about his bill. >> Thank you, speaker. Uh, good afternoon, everyone. Uh, it is very hot outside. thankfully. Uh but it's also very hot inside with a council that is hard at work uh delivering for New Yorkers. Uh today is such an exciting day for me. Uh for the first time ever, I'll be passing a piece of legislation in the city council focused on something that New Yorkers experience every single day, the conditions of our public places. If you ride the bus anywhere in New York City, you've seen the problem we're trying to address today. Bus stops are not wellkept, covered in litter, graffiti, and until this beautiful weather came in, snow. This bus uh is a crucial component of our public transportation network. Over 1 million New Yorkers ride the bus every single day. And when they're sitting at a bus stop, they shouldn't be worried about the trash there, the snow there, because when garbage piles up in our public spaces, it sends a message. Over time, that message affects our public health, our mental health, and how people view their neighborhoods and the city that they live in, and more importantly, the bus system that they ride around in. And that's because so many people assume that the city is not doing its job or because sanitation is not doing its job. But that could not be further from the truth. The reality is is that many of our city's bus shelters, our public uh furniture, our transit structures are privately owned and maintained by concessionaires. Different companies profit from advertising on these structures and with profit comes responsibility to maintain them. And that is why I am so proud to be passing into 416A today litter's last stop. This bill makes the responsibility clear and enforceable. It requires concessionires to regularly clean and maintain the area around their bus shelters, their transit structures, including a small footprint around them so trash doesn't pile up where New Yorkers are waiting for their ride. This is about fairness and quality of life. Our sanitation workers already have an enormous job of keeping our streets clean for a city of 8 million people. They shouldn't have to be picking up the slack for big corporations that should be maintaining their own footprint. I want to thank all the members of the sanitation committee and speaker Menon and all of my colleagues for all their hard work on this and look forward to making sure that our streets are clean for New Yorkers. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Okay, >> we're going to do on topic questions first. On topic questions about today's legislation, >> there's a question about the budget. >> Could you just speak up a little bit, please? Thanks. >> Start with the agenda today and then >> Yeah. On the top press release here, introduction 52B, Deputy Speaker Williams introduce a quadranial commission. >> Yeah. And so just to set the stage here, so the council pay I guess is at $148,500 uh currently and then outside we have a discussion about $30 minimum wage that people are pushing for because right now evidently half the wealth is held by 1% of the population. The predium salary for shoveling snow is $30 an hour. >> FDNYMTs make less than that. So you have a bit of a plantation here, speaker, and I know you didn't create this and you've spoken out about this inequality, but >> does shouldn't the city council be guided by the reality that power professionals are making >> I'm I'm so glad that you're asking that, Bob. So to be clear, I want to talk about that paraprofessional bill. We just had the hearing on that. We have, I believe, now 45 members on that. I'm deeply committed to that bill and to raising the salary of PAR professionals whose starting salary is approximately 31,500 a year. It's totally unacceptable which is why we have over 1,000 vacancies of Paris. An EMT completely agree with you. The pay is too low. It is unacceptable. We've been speaking about that and these are issues that we are 100% um going to be dealing with in the budget. I've talked to the mayor directly about both of these issues. We these are real uh concerns for us and something that we're going to go on the mat to and and um the deputy speaker should be here soon. So I'm going to have you address any question to her on her legislation and we've also just one minute been joined by council member Sanchez. Do you want to say a word on your bill? No. >> You sure? Do you want to come up? Yeah. Okay. I'm just going to turn it over to Council Member Sanchez to gather her thoughts for a few minute and then say a few words on her bill and then we'll revert back to the Q&A. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you, speaker. My apologies uh for being late. Um so, intro 421A, the the good 421A is [laughter] is just a technical cleanup bill. Um I I got a lot of questions about it in the past week or so, you know, concerns around flooding and and things like that. Uh but 421A is just a cleanup bill allowing ADUs, allowing ancillary dwelling units in basement and in garages and and other other parts of homes. Uh so it's really just to align the zoning code with the housing maintenance code which is HPD's code. Thank you speaker. >> Thanks. Okay. Okay. Back to the Q&A. >> Continue with on topic questions. On topic questions about today's agenda. >> Okay. We move to off topic questions. So the members want to step aside. [laughter] >> But Linda is here. Yeah. Budget. Okay. Thanks everyone. >> Thanks. >> You sold your Kleenex. >> [laughter] >> Yes, exactly. >> Oh, is that new guy? >> Okay. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Hi, Melissa. How are you? >> Can you assess for us how you feel that over? >> Um, some people, especially in the Jewish community, are having reactions to you know, the idea that he didn't initially condemn this as a act of potentially Islamic terrorism. He has of course condemned violence and he, you know, did eventually put out another statement and come out in public yesterday. But, um, do you feel that, you know, he has, uh, you know, been outspoken enough on the other side of this? Look, the thank you for the question. Um, this act of terrorism that happened in my district was just horrifying and terrifying. My I've heard from hundreds and hundreds of residents in my district who were obviously deeply concerned about what about the incident that happened and deeply grateful to the NYPD for preventing uh what could have been a catastrophic situation. I on the issue of anti-semitism, I'm glad you're asking about that because that is exactly why we've um done this package of bills to we've got a five-point plan to address anti-semitism. We held a hearing the other week on these bills. I have one of the bills in the package to protect the exits and entrances to houses of worship. Uh so this is something that's deeply personal to me as a daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Um, in terms of the mayor's statement, he made clear uh that this was ISIS influenced terrorism. And I think that's really important to do so because that sets the record straight in terms of what is what happened at that protest. And I once again, and I said this in my comments, I really want to thank the NYPD because those officers did run in, you know, when others run away. >> Have a brief follow. Um, yeah. >> What do what did you think of a mayor's post about having hosted Yeah. >> Well, I'm not going to comment on who the mayor has dinner with. I'm really focused on running the city council and we're focused right now on the budget negotiations. >> Additional question. >> Yeah. >> Hi, speaker. How are you? >> Hi. >> Um, so Manny at this press conference on Staten Island said that the council's budget forecast leaves more questions and answers and also implied that uh the savings the council's put forward do not actually exist. I know things have not been openly tense between the two sides of city hall. Um are you now that we're looking into serious budget negotiations worried about things uh getting tenser? And then I also want to clarify I know you've talked about we don't need to tap into rainy day funds. Is that idea a complete non-starter for you? And um if there aren't Sorry. >> Sure. Let me just let me just address the rainy day fund first because the rainy day fund has never been tapped into. So I want to be clear about that. It's never been tapped into. It wasn't tapped into during COVID. It wasn't tapped into in the asylum seeker crisis which obviously were real emergencies for our city. So I'm proud of the fact that um with our great finance team and I know we have our finance uh director Richard Lee here and he and his finance team and our great finance chair have done incredible work on this but we have found these savings for 2026. So, I think these savings um you know, we're very uh focused on them. It's first of all, I want to talk about that there are 12,000 vacancies from July to February 28th of this year that were budgeted for but never filled. Those are savings. So, it's looking at that. It's looking at debt service and variable rates around debt service. It's going into the budget and finding those important areas of savings for 2026. So, we look forward to having these budget hearings and having that budget conversation. >> Okay. Um, I I had a small additional question. Sure. First, like if you wanted to respond to my first question about the mayor dunking on the council's proposal. >> Yeah, I mean, we are very confident in our savings. We think it's very important that we do find these savings uh whether they be the 12,000 positions that were budgeted for but never filled. And to be clear with those 12,000 positions, we think that they should be filled and they should exist, but they were budgeted and they just simply weren't filled. So they shouldn't they can't be really accounted for uh in the budget. And so that's why we identified that and many other areas of savings as well. >> And then if all else fails, where do you stand on taxing the rich state as well >> on taxing the rich? So, I mean, in terms of taxing the rich, the Albany had its um uh both houses came out with their proposals. They looked at a lot of different options. I think it's good that they're putting everything on the table. You always want to have everything on the table. We have said no to the property tax, the 9.5% property tax, because that would be really disproportionately borne by black and brown communities, by renters, by small property owners, by small businesses. And look, I think there are many other areas that should be on the table as well. There all sorts of tax incentives that the state has had on the books for many, many years. You know, there's certain educational institutions that are receiving enormous tax breaks. There's certain other institutions, I will just say, that are receiving enormous tax breaks. So, I think all of those need to have a hard look. >> I'm sorry, Max. >> Right. Thank you. Max with Streets. So, Speaker Mannon, you said you support all your outdoor dining and that bill is had a hearing. Many restaurant tours tell us that they'd like the bill to pass so they can plan ahead for the season knowing the structures they put out on April, April 1st, be permanent. >> So, my question is, what do you say to the restaurant owners concerned the full year outdoor dining bill won't pass the time and they'll be stuck in selling structures that they'll then have to be taken down later? >> Thank you for the question. I think we've expedited this like faster than ever before. I I've been very outspoken and vocal about this. I think the outdoor dining program that the council passed previously had some serious issues. I had raised numerous objections to that outdoor dining bill. I formerly owned a restaurant. This is something that is like personal to me. It's very difficult to own a small business in New York City. And so having and forcing restaurants who want to have outdoor dining to then store the tables and first of all remove and store the tables and chair. Many restaurants don't have the place to even store tables and chairs. I also did have concerns about DOT being the agency that's administering the program and I think we saw that come to bear with only 10% of the applications being fully approved. I mean think about that 10% of the applications and the program has been in existence for a long time. That's an unacceptable number. In addition, they're very high cost to the outdoor dining program. I think we really need to look at that. We have had 5,000 small businesses closed in 2025 in our city. We as a city need to do far more to support our small businesses. >> Any additional questions? >> Hi. So the risk management I'm wondering if council is trying to consider any additional legism bill or any additional funding. >> Yeah, thank you so much for that question and just to be clear on one thing on the anti-semitism package. Those bills apply across the board to all houses of worship. So we announced the five-point plan on anti-semitism. Um all the bills in that package apply to all um houses of worship. I just wanted to clarify that on counterterrorism, the NYPD has successfully thwarted over 50 attacks uh terrorist attacks to our great city since 9/11. A lot of people don't know that because the NYPD successfully thwarted them. I am concerned about the headcount at the NYPD given this uh recent incident and but before this incident, it was something that I was concerned with. So, it is something obviously that we'll be looking at closely in the budget to make sure that particularly on issues around counterterrorism and public safety in general that the NYPD has the resources it needs. >> Hi, um at last Monday's child hearing about you and council member expressed a little bit of frustration about the unanswered question. I was just wondering if you heard back from DO officials or officials from administration. Yeah. About those numbers, but specifically the cost for 2K and where those 2K. >> Thank you so much for the question. I mean, look, I served as commissioner of several city agencies. So, I've been on the other side testifying and I think um you know it's really important that um any administration officials are able to answer these questions because we did ask some basic rudimentary questions around child care. Um I would have to check if that information has been transmitted back to the chair uh Jennifer Gutierrez who's chairing our early childhood uh committee. And hello and our deputy speaker Natasha Williams is here. Thank you for joining us. [laughter] >> [gasps] >> Uh, so we we'll check on that and we'd be happy to get back to you if that information's been received. >> All right, we have time for a few more questions. >> Yeah, sure. Um, I wonder if you could speak to why you think the mayor's office forcing people to identify these savings that you have. They're obviously they're obviously saying that these things don't exist if they were that easy to find. Why do you think on the table in the first place? >> I'm Why did they put I'm sorry on the table? >> Oh, okay. Well, look, I mean, we have worked really hard on these savings and I think, you know, bringing our experience to bear to find these savings and this is just the beginning. Again, our first budget hearing is tomorrow. We're going to continue to look at every city agency to see where there could be savings without, let me be clear, we're not touching services at all. We're not doing any kind of service cuts. That's totally off the table for us. Um, so I think these savings were just from the finance team and Richard and his team did a phenomenal job really going through the budget and our finance chair. You want to add something on that? >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to add one thing because also the mayor's office, as you know, has chief savings officers that he put into place to look at all of his individual city agencies. Those reports are due March 20th, which obviously is not going to be in time for our preliminary budget hearings, but hopefully we'll get those numbers from them and have that in time for the executive budget. But again just to reiterate uh the speaker's point that you know we are looking for example at vacancies as one example of savings which could add up to a lot of dollars because if I let's say my salary is $12 a year $1 per month right and I get hired March 1st that's $8 that is not being spent in the city budget but those $4 for the rest of the year are being spent. So what we're saying is take a look at those $8. let's put it back into the FY26 budget. Um because those are costs that can be added back. >> This is a question. Uh just kind of jumping back to the package that the five point bill uh typically the buffer zone part of it >> sort of one of the main criticisms most recent revision of that is that it gives the NYPD too much discretion to decide you know what sort of a safe zone would be in order to determine how far the pros have to be away from a worship. Do you think that kind of changed at all in the light of what happened over the weekend, especially since there was a religious undertone there? Kind of any further reflections on that specific aspect of that? >> Well, first of all, the bills in no way impinge upon the First Amendment right to peacefully protest, which is obviously sacrianked. If anything, the bills also bring more transparency around protests because they require the NYPD to actually do the perimeter plan and to publicly release that plan. They publicly release it to the speaker, they release it to the mayor, and then it's publicly released. So, I actually think that brings more transparency around the issue in terms of what size perimeter will be put into effect. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you.