disturbing pattern that fewer kindergarteners are getting vaccinated overall and that measles outbreaks have spread across the country killing three Americans as many deaths from measles uh more than in the actually the past 23 years combined. Want to welcome the public advocate for joining us today. Thank you for being here. In terms of the vaccines, we are actually also seeing higher uh numbers of childhood deaths from diseases um like whooping cough and influenza. And certainly as a mother and I know many of us are parents that is these are terrifying statistics. Now one of the root causes for these alarming trends is a massive campaign of misinformation and disinformation and it is being fueled specifically by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The new life that Kennedy is giving to the movement has clearly given new life to the actual diseases themselves. The erosion of public trust in science doesn't just increase health risks for its own band of followers. It also puts the wider community in jeopardy. As lawmakers and as leaders, we can't just sit idly back and let this happen. So today, we are fighting back. And I do want to say as someone who taught a course at Colombia called when cities take the lead that was about when the federal government is deregulating. It is up to cities to take a lead on issues like that. So, with a package of legislation that seeks to combat disinformation, we are taking the lead in sharing facts, in counteracting Secretary Kennedy's falsehoods, and creating a safer and healthier city for all New Yorkers. Looking back to earlier this week, on Tuesday morning, the mayor and I announced that the city council reached an agreement to move the deadline for his executive budget from May 1st to May 12th. That adjustment reflects a very simple reality. We will not have the necessary clarity to complete the executive budget until New York State has finished theirs. The city council is taking a prudent approach to this budget process and ensuring that our fiscal stewardship is responsible by continuing to find savings that will close our budget shortfall as well as the revenue raisers that we had announced on April 1st. We also took the opportunity to reiterate our prior calls on Albany to deliver its fair share for New York City because despite being the economic engine of the state, the city contributes much more to the state's revenues than it receives back in return. That imbalance truly undermines our capacity to keep the city affordable and to invest in long-term stability. With that said, we certainly appreciate what the state government has been able to do for our city. They're an essential part of the solution, and we are all committed to delivering a budget that meets the need of every single New Yorker. Yesterday, I was deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court decision to strike down a Louisiana congressional map. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act brought our country closer to fulfilling the ideas of democracy. 61 years later, the Supreme Court has brought us further apart. We cannot allow our hard-fought voting protections to be lost, and we must always defend fair representation. And finally, yesterday morning, the council's committee on consumer and worker protection held a hearing to discuss a bill I introduced to create the nation's first insurance accountability office. This would be modeled after our healthcare accountability office which I created in my first term and that aims to perform the vital role of promoting transparency and accountability around the insurance industry. We have to be real about these numbers. We have to be real about the fact that the cost of insurance has gotten completely out of control and the hikes are particularly ownorous in our state and New Yorkers are quite frankly footing the bill for that. So whether you're a small business owner, and about 5,000 small businesses closed last year, if you're a small business owner in New York City, you're paying four to five times the national average for liability insurance. We know that the high cost of insurance, whether it's small businesses, as I just mentioned, whether it's health insurance, whether it's homeowners insurance, it is affecting everyone from renters to homeowners alike. And that's exactly why we need this office of insurance accountability. It will give the city the tools to understand what's driving these exorbitant costs so we can be smarter about it and we can finally bring these exorbitant costs down and get a better value value for taxpayers. So now we're going to move on to our stated agenda. First we're going to vote on the following land use items. St. Francis Prep commercial overlay which will bring into compliance an existing illuminated sign posted at the entrance of St. Francis Preparatory School in Council Member Linda Lee's district. Next, we're going to vote on the following finance items. Preconsidered introduction sponsored by also Council Member Linda Lee, would extend certain dates relating to the executive budget for fiscal year 2027. Introduction 791, also sponsored by Council Member Linda Lee, would amend the district plan of the Fulton Street Business Improvement District to change the method of assessment upon which the district uh charge is based. And then three preconsidered resolutions, also sponsored by council member Lee, would establish two partial 40-year article 11 tax exemptions and a partial 9-month article 5 tax exemption for four buildings in majority leader uh Abrau's district. Pre-considered resolution sponsored by council member Lee would establish a full 50-year article 11 tax exemption for one building in council member Sandy Nurs's district and a preconsidered resolution sponsored by council member Lee would establish a full 40-year article 11 tax exemption for two buildings in council member Gio Oay's district. Today we're also vote on the following resolutions. Resolution 183- sponsored by Council Member Amanda Fious would call on the state legislature to pass and the governor to sign a bill providing that certain contracts to purchase food can be awarded to a qualified bidder who complies with certain standards when such a bid is not more than 10% higher than the lowest responsible bidder. Resolution 396, sponsored by public advocate Jamani Williams, would declare May 15th through June 15th as Tourett Syndrome Awareness Month and June 7th as Tourette's Syndrome Awareness Day in the city of New York. I I really want to thank you, public advocate, for your leadership on this and you've really, you know, inspired so many New Yorkers who are grappling with this and so thank you so much for being here and I'll turn the podium over to you. >> Thank you so much. Uh thank you, Madam Speaker, and thank you for your leadership on the vaccines. I'm hoping cities across the state and across the country take your lead on making sure we're pushing back on the disinformation. Uh thank you for uh giving me the opportunity to speak uh today and for the council for moving forward on this resolution. Peace and blessings to everyone. Love and light to you all. Um and for making sure that it comes to a vote today. It's it's particularly important. So I appreciate that important to me. I know many others. I appreciate the partnership and the urgency that was taken in getting this done. Today, we're doing something pretty basic, I think, of saying that people with Tourette's syndromes uh deserve understanding uh not ridicule. Tourette's has been misunderstood for a long time. Uh too often people turn it into a joke before they ever take the time to learn what it is. Sorry, I got a little worked up in the other one. I'm going try to make it through everything here. I'm good. Thank you. Um, I know this personally. I know what it feels like to have people react before they understand. And for a lot of kids, that starts early. It starts in the classroom, starts in the hallways, starts when adults don't know how to respond. So sometimes instead of support, they get punished. step empathy. They get embarrassment. Instead of being helped, they get pushed aside. Uh this revolution definitely won't fix everything. Uh but awareness does matter. Understanding matters because once people know, they can definitely do better. So this is more about them rec more than just recognizing a month. It's about recognizing people and it's about making clear that in New York City, nobody can should have to hide who they are and everyone should be treated with dignity. Uh, you know, for me, Tourette's syndrome is never something that I hid. Uh, but I never leaned into it intentionally, and I'm trying to lean into it intentionally now. Um, understanding the impact uh that I'm seeing from young people who see me as an elected official. Uh, I was once when elected the first elected official in the country with Tourette's syndrome. Thankfully, I'm not the last. Uh, shout out to Justin Farmer in Connecticut who ran for office cuz he saw me as a very powerful thing, probably one of the most powerful things I've been a part of as an elected official. Um, understanding what happened at BAFTA. Uh, the intersection of having Tourette's and being black as a black man who also ticks uh the n-word, understanding that environment was not protected of anyone involved. Uh, the black community who had to hear the word and uh, Mr. Davidson who has Tourette's syndrome and so I am trying my best to now lean into it uh to help folks who are dealing with that and other tick disorders. Thank you the speaker and the council for helping me live a model of uh be who you needed when you were younger. So thank you. >> Thank you so much public advocate. Thank you for your courage and to speak out about this. it it really is going to inspire particularly young people who are struggling with this. We so appreciate your leadership on this. You and I have had many personal conversations about this. Thank you for what you're doing. Um and next we are going to be voting on a package of bills related to improving the response to code blue emergencies. Introduction 798, sponsored by Council Member Rita Joseph, would require the Department of Social Services in collaboration with New York City Emergency Management to submit annual reports on warming centers in New York City and post them online. Don't believe Council Member Joseph is here yet. If she does come, we will then have her speak at that time. Uh, introduction 778A, sponsored by Council Member Lincoln Wrestler, would require the Department of Homeless Services to create a platform that allows for real-time tracking and reporting of all engagement with street homeless individuals. Now, I invite Council Member Wrestler to discuss his legislation. >> Thank you so much. Um, I will just say briefly, it was almost 20 years ago was the first time I met Jamani Williams. Uh I was part of an interview committee for a position that he had applied for. Uh we had decided in advance of the inter of the interview process who we were going to hire. It wasn't him. Um but this guy came in and just wowed us all so much that there was no other choice we could make. Um and Jamani, you've been a model elected official. you've inspired like generations of young Brooklynites, young New Yorkers and your remarks today were really powerful. So, thank you for everything you do. Um, and thank you, speaker, for supporting this important legislation. Um, I'm grateful for it. Um, intro 7778A uh will require the Department of Homeless Services to implement a data system that is accessible on mobile devices for all the outreach workers that we have operating across the city of New York. We all know that there are many thousands of street homeless New Yorkers who are struggling with mental illness today. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars, on street outreach contracts, on safe haven shelters, on mental health services to try to provide assistance to these individuals and connect them to the help and the housing and the care that they need. But we don't have good data systems to actually track what are our engagements with these individuals and what are the outcomes that that yield from those repeated engagements. And that is what this legislation will solve for. Uh this was inspired by a controller lander audit from 2023 that showed that DHS simply did not have a comprehensive data system that was accessible in real time to the DHS outreach workers that are operating on the ground. And so we are creating it. Uh in addition to that new D mobile platform that's being created that uh street outreach workers will have access to, there will also be new and rigorous reporting that will help us understand exactly how many street homeless New Yorkers are being placed in housing and connected to other services every single quarter because if we don't have good data and if we don't have good tracking systems then we can't actually improve. Uh we know we have a very serious challenge right now in New York City where there are too many thousands of people who are struggling with mental illness on our streets and in our subways. And I'm very hopeful that with this new um and effective tracking uh platform and with uh regular reporting, we'll be able to make a meaningful difference in helping to drive down uh that number of street homeless New Yorkers. So, thank you to Speaker Menon and to Chair Hudson for supporting this legislation. Uh and I'm very grateful to my colleagues for their support as well. Thank you. Thank you. Now, introduction 727A, sponsored by Majority Leader Abrao, would require the Commissioner of Homeless Services to make best efforts to coordinate with hospitals to make supplies available to patients experiencing homelessness upon their discharge from the hospital. And introduction 726A, also sponsored by Majority Leader Abraa, would require the Commissioner of Homeless Services to developformational materials directed to hospitals pertaining to a code blue or code red alert and provide them to hospitals to distribute to patients. I'm now going to ask our majority leader to come up. >> Thank you, Madam Speaker. New York takes care of its own. That's who we are. But we failed that promise when someone walks out of a hospital with nowhere to go during a cold snap in the middle of winter or a deadly heat wave in the summer. This past winter, extreme cold and storms claimed lives that didn't have to be lost. One of those victims, a man named Noelto Jimbo, was found on a park bench, discharge papers still fresh in his pocket. In our city, no one should be left behind. And with extreme weather more and becoming more and more frequent is not just a winter problem. It's also a summer problem, too. We don't want anybody leaving a hospital and walking straight into a crisis. This legislation closes that gap by ensuring hospitals have the tools to connect vulnerable patients to warming centers, cooling centers, and the support that they need before they ever hit the street. It will provide them with important supplies like blankets or bandanas. These are necessities that many of us take for granted and they are the bare minimum that we owe our neighbors. Thank you, Speaker Menon. And I also want to thank General Welfare Committee Chair Crystal Hudson for making sure that we get this legislation across the finish line. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we're going to vote on a package of bills to expand public education on the importance of vaccinations to combat misinformation, disinformation, and to improve public health. Council member Lynn Schilman has sponsored three resolutions that call on our state government to enact certain pieces of legislation on this very important issue. Resolution 273A would do so for legislation authorizing dentists to administer influenza vaccines, COVID 19 vaccines, HPV vaccines, or vaccine related to a public health emergency. Resolution 425 would do so for legislation requiring vaccines to be regulated, recommended, administered, and insured based on the recommendations of various healthc care organizations. And finally, a preconsidered resolution would do so for legislation requiring insurance to reimburse the total direct and indirect uh practice expenses associated with vaccinations. So, I'm now going to call on Council Member Schulman. You got Can you Okay. Thank you. >> Little again next time. >> Thank you. Thank you, Speaker Men and your leadership on public health has been unwavering. I'm so grateful to stand alongside you and my colleagues today. And I I just want to say something uh about the public advocate. I want to thank you for sharing your experience, your personal experience with us because that means a lot. We all have personal experiences. We all have family members with personal experiences. but you making it public makes it easier for them. So, thank you. I am proud to sponsor three resolutions being voted on today. Each one a direct response to the growing threats to vaccine access and public health in our city and state. And none of this would be possible without the speaker's commitment to making New York City a leader on public health. She said, "Cities lead, that's what we're doing." The first resolution 273 calls on New York State to authorize dentists to administer vaccines. Dentists were on the front lines of our COVID response. They showed up. They were qualified and they saved lives. It's time to make that permanent. Every additional access point means no more New Yorkers are protected. The second resolution 425 calls on New York State to require that vaccine policy be grounded in the recommendations of reputable nationally and internationally recognized healthc care organizations, not solely a CDC that has become increasingly politicized. The federal government is eroding public trust in vaccines more than ever and putting lives at risk. New York will not follow them down that road. And finally, the preconsidered resolution calls on New York State to require insurers to fully reimburse pediatric practices for the cost of providing vaccines. Pediatric offices are the backbone of our childhood immunization system, and we must make sure they can afford to stay there. Speaker Menon, thank you again for your leadership and making sure New York City always steps up when Washington steps back. And they're stepping way back these days. Today, we are doing exactly that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Shelman. Okay. Introduction 693A sponsored by Council Member Eric Denowitz would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to develop and implement a plan to educate the public regarding the importance of childhood vaccines. I now invite Council Member Denowitz to talk about his bill. Thank you, Madam Speaker, for uh putting this package forward and to the health chair, Lynn Schulman. Um I do first want to, you know, also recognize our public advocate, uh Jumani Williams. Um because be beyond a resolution, honestly, you're simply being up publicly and saying, "I have Tourette's is is really important to our to our kids, to to my former students." Um and beyond anything we do in this body. um you are helping them out in ways that you'll never know, that I'll never know. Most of us here will never know, in ways that are incalculable. So, so I I I just thank you for being up here and very publicly talking about your experience with Tourette's. Um so, we know something that's pretty straightforward. Vaccines save lives. The federal government has taken numerous steps to undermine trust in our public health system and make us less healthy, including health and human services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s order to remove the universal recommendations for childhood vaccinations against the flu, roto virus, hepatitis A, B, RSV, and uh um and and other ways to undermine our trust in our federal government. This is part of a broader ideological crusade by science deniers to undermine the usage of vaccines. And it puts our communities at risk while eroding trust in our government. And we've seen the effects. Measles are up, whooping cough is up, hospitalizations for preventable diseases are up. And soon, I am sure hepatitis B will be up. And we will start to see polio again in our country. But we in the New York City Council are taking action. We will not sit idly by as our federal government sws misinformation within our communities and as more and more of our children are hospitalized by preventable diseases. My bill, intro 693, would fill the void left by our federal government by requiring the the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to create a plan to educate the public regarding the benefits and importance of childhood and adolescent vaccinations as informed by recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physic uh physicians and other major trusted organizations as opposed to the CDC which is becoming more and more driven by ideology instead of by science. It will this education campaign will target those neighborhoods with the lowest childhood and adolescent vaccination rates in a culturally sensitive and linguistically relevant manner. I and we in the city council will continue to fight for our children's health in our city by uplifting science. We here in the council consider a model for what the federal government should be doing, focusing on the health of our neighbors rooted in science and we will do so by passing intro 693 and the rest of the bills in this package. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Speaker. >> Thank you. Finally, last but not least, introduction 260A sponsored by Council Member Shaker Krishna will require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in collaboration with the Department of Education to developformational materials about vaccines. I now invite Council Member Krishnan to talk about his bill. >> Thank you so much, Speaker. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm your city council member Shaker Krishnan, the chair of our council's oversight investigations committee. I first want to say to our public advocate as you've already heard thank you for your powerful words for leading by example whether it's talking about Tourettes and battling the stigma to so many other issues and for you giving a voice to so many people who otherwise would not have a voice were not for your work and advocacy. So thank you brother. I'm thankful for Speaker Menon, chair of the health committee Lynn Schulman, and Council Member Eric Denowitz for their leadership on combating vaccine misinformation, and I would also say disinformation because it's deliberate. Together, we are passing an aggressive package of bills to combat false information around vaccinations and make it more accessible for New Yorkers to get critical vaccinations. The federal government, from Donald Trump to his health secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., have been spreading false claims actively about vaccines. They are gutting our access to health care and undermining the public institutions that keep us healthy and informed. This is a one-two punch for our public health system. They are intentionally confusing our families and they are also making it harder to access care. But our city council will not stand by and allow the federal government to interfere with our famil family's access to healthcare. My legislation, Intro 260, would require the Department of Education to develop and distribute materials around vaccines to parents of all New York City public school students, including those enrolled in early childhood education programs like 3K and PreK. These materials would give parents and educators clear information on vaccinations, how they work, their public health benefits, their safety, and where to access vaccines required to enroll your child in school. This bill would directly combat the dangerous claims the federal government is making about science, and it will ensure our families know where to turn to for access. Today, with the support of our council speaker, Julie Mannon, we are doing the work that Donald Trump and RFK Jr. refuse to do, which is to give New Yorkers clear health information and ensure they can keep their families healthy. Thank you very much. And I just want to recognize a very close friend of mine who's here who's worked in the LA city council, a native Brooklynite, Iber Schultz from law school. So, good to see you. >> Okay, thank you so much. So, that concludes our stated agenda. Happy to start with on topic. Anyone have any questions? >> Yeah, Katie. >> I I was curious. I had seen a listing of some bills that might be introduced today and it was focused on it was a four bills focused on dog waste. I don't know if they're still being introduced. >> Yeah, we we we generally don't discuss bills that are being issued, but as part of the agenda, but yeah, I mean, if you have any questions. >> Yeah, happy to. We are doing a dog waste package, but those are being introduced, not voted on today. >> Yeah. Okay. Oh, I want to run by the introduction. Yeah. Sure. I mean, we're happy to. So, I mean, I'll mention something. So, about two years ago, a year and a half ago, I introduced a bill um and I had a hearing that would require uh the city to put dog waste back the the bags on all of the litter baskets throughout the city. So, that bill I introduced and was heard about a year and a half ago. We know that dog waste is an enormous issue and so we're doing a dog waste package. So, more to come. We'll be really talking about that in the coming weeks as those bills go to a hearing. >> All right. We'll continue with off topic questions. >> Okay. Thank you all. Okay. Well, they can they're welcome to stay or go. They're >> welcome if you want any of them to stay. >> He's going to keep me coming. >> Okay. Stay. Stay. Whatever. Whatever you want. Whatever you want. >> Okay, >> great. Any offic I'm sorry. Do you mind speaking up just a little bit? There was a little expanding citys, but given that the council's budget response didn't really account for the multi-billion dollar cost of that expansion, where do you propose the city find the savings necessary in order to make room for more vouchers? So to be clear, we're on board with saying to the administration to drop the litigation and we're on board with a responsible settlement. We have been crystal clear about this from day one. We've urged the administration to drop this litigation on FEPS because continuing to litigate only delays a settlement. And at this point, we have offered a reasonable, responsible settlement that does contain the cost, but that also protects vulnerable New Yorkers. >> Yeah. I I have a followup question on that. Can you elaborate at all on the settlement that you're >> I can't because we're in settlement talk, so I I can't elaborate on that. Can you elaborate at all on what is the hold up with this moment? You mentioned outside that the mayor is not coming to the table. >> What we said is that the administration continues the litigation. We our position from day one has been to drop the litigation. We don't think it makes sense to continue litigation on this matter. It the best thing in our opinion is to come to the table and negotiate a responsible settlement which is we've been prepared to do on day one. >> Sure. >> Um hi right here. >> Hi to you. Good to see you. wondering where you are in discussing with your body about the potential of the veto override, the mayor's veto of the school buffer zone bill, especially uh with Carl Wilson expected to join the council once results are certified. Is that moving forward, does his election give new hope for a veto override? >> So, first of all, we just received the actual veto today, which then triggers the 30-day clock. I will be in consultation with the members. Now that we have the veto, we'll start to talk to members over the course of the next couple weeks. So that's a conversation directly with the members. >> Is the is the conversation around perhaps modifying the bill to the members liking or to the mayor's liking or around overriding the >> Again, I'm going to talk to the members to see where the members are at before we make any decision on that. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Yes. Hi. I wanted to follow up on the city fs and the budget. Sure. Um, you know, the governor this week specifically pointed out this spending and that it goes at 4% >> and that's part of the reason why the state can't really finish the budget and because the number hasn't been decided on. I'm wondering >> if you're asking for a reasonable expansion. I mean, how do you see this as a sustainable program moving forward? And does the settlement would that be included in the FY27 budget? So, so first of all, what we're asking for is a settlement that does contain costs because we do agree that the costs are um not sustainable. So, we do agree that there has to be a change to the cost structure. We have been working very closely with the advocates on that. We have put forward a reasonable settlement which is why we believe that continuing to litigate delays our ability to reach the settlement and we want to reach the settlement as soon as possible. >> Would it be in the FY27 budget or would it be across multiple years? for first of all any kind of settlement will be across multiple years because it's something that we recognize the cost has grown exponentially and so we are cognizant of that and in consultation with the advocates I think we're in a very good place on cost containment that literally contains a cost but also protects vulnerable New Yorkers so we've put forward you know a responsible settlement and so we would like to get to the finish line with that settlement because then that will allow us to finally get clarity around the issue because we agree we need to get clarity around the issue which is why we need the administration to agree to the settlement. >> And then lastly, have you spoken to the governor about this? >> Oh yes. I' I've spoken well I haven't spoken about this all the specifics of the settlement because again we're in settlement conversations. I've spoken at length numerous times with the governor about the fact that we she and I both agree we need to have cost containment. We understand we need to have cost containment and that's why we put a reasonable settlement offer on the table that meets the overall goals of protecting vulnerable New Yorkers but recognizes that the program needs to have sustainability. >> Time for one more. >> All right. >> Okay. Thank you all so much.