Little finger. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the New York City Council hearing for the committee on consumer and worker protection. At this time, I'd like to remind everyone to please silence all devices and at no point may you approach the deis. If you want to testify at today's hearing, please see a sergeant-at-arms at the back of the room to fill out a testimony slip. Chair, we are ready to begin. Good morning everyone and welcome to the 2027 fiscal budget hearing. My name is Harvey Epstein and folks that don't know me really I'm honored and privileged to chair the committee on consumer work protection. You know I'm really glad that you know I have the the commissioner here and the staff. I want to thank my colleagues uh you know Councilman O and Hanks for joining us today and we're going to really review the budget process and look over kind of these budget issues. budget items. You know, the the budget we've seen today, the DCWP budget, it's 70.7, no 74.7 million, about 38 in personnel expenses, supporting 484 budget staffers. A slight decrease from fisc fiscal year 26 budget um which was 75.1 million and also 38 million 68 38.6 million for other personal expenses. There are a lot of topics we're going to be discussing today hopefully with the the panel here and the people who are testifying around the ability for this department to seek restitution for workers and protections and for consumers. You know, talk about the vacancy rates uh in the agency and what's happening there and how important the work that the this agency does provide financial support and other support for people in this community. Um, it was really critical that we understand how we can be helpful here to the to the agency to make sure that it really connects up with consumers. You know, I want to thank the work that you've done so far. You know, it's only been a little over two months since you've been to this role and I know uh you the commission has done a lot of work to advance the rights of workers and consumers. I really look forward to really robust engagement here on this process. And I want to thank the committee staff uh you know finance division uh Glenn Martini Dan Coupe uh Chimo Oboruri and the legis division Sarah Swan and Natalie Meltzer for their work as well as my team to help this hearing happen today and then I would like to ask the committee council to please swear and the members of the administration. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions? >> I do. >> I do. >> Thank you. And and you can begin with your testimony. >> Thank you, Chair Epstein, and thank you members of the committee on consumer and worker protection. My name is Sam Lavine, commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Today I'm joined by our general counsel, Mike Tiger, and my chief of staff, Carlos Ortiz, and our deputy commissioner of the Office of Labor Policy and Standards, Elizabeth Wagner. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today before this committee to testify on the critical work of our agency and its budget for fiscal year 2027. DCWP is the nation's leading municipal enforcement agency charged with delivering economic justice. DCWP leverages its authority to bring New Yorkers real economic relief and protect them from predatory, deceptive, and unconscionable practices that violate their rights as consumers and workers. This includes pioneering cutting edge protections such as the city's consumer protection law, protected time off law, fair work week law, and delivery worker laws, including the minimum pay rate for delivery workers. Through licensing more than 45,000 businesses in over 45 industries, DCWP ensures fair competition and a level playing field for responsible businesses that are an integral part of New York City's vibrant communities. DCWP also provides essential services such as free tax preparation for individuals and families as well as tax prep services for self-employed workers and small businesses and one-on-one financial counseling to ensure that New Yorkers keep more of what they earn and can plan for their futures. We are committed to making sure New York City is a fairer and more affordable place to live. I'm incredibly honored to be entrusted with leading DCWP in its next chapter under Mayor Mandani's administration. Under my tenure, I promise that DCWP will be a champion for New Yorkers and our mission to deliver economic justice to consumers and workers across our city. We'll be stronger than ever. I look forward to being a close partner with this council and I thank you for your work passing historic legislation and supporting the work of our department. Today, I'll provide the committee with a fiscal overview of our agency, our successes over the past year, and our path forward continuing to build a fairer and more affordable city for all. So, starting by talking about our budget for fiscal year 2027, DCWP's preliminary budget is approximately $73.4 million with an authorized headcount of 484 and an active headcount of 425. of this active headcount, only 387 are actually dedicated to DCWP's work. Last year, our team conducted more than 52,000 inspections and 1,230 investigations on behalf of consumers and workers, securing 47.5 million in real economic relief for New Yorkers. Our financial empowerment centers helped nearly 10,000 clients with free one-on-one financial counseling. and our NYC free tax prep program completed more than 110,000 tax returns for New Yorkers. We are beyond proud of the work that we have accomplished this past year and with Mayor Mani standing beside us, we are looking forward to being able to accomplish even more for the city of New York. Since our landmark consumer protection law was passed more than half a century ago, we have used our authority to safeguard the rights of New York City consumers and have focused our efforts on securing economic relief, protecting New Yorkers from deceptive and unconscionable business practices, and ensuring that New York City is a fair marketplace for all businesses who comply with the law. Last year alone, DCWP returned more than $3 million to New York City consumers. And we're continuing this work aggressively. Just this year, we've announced major lawsuits against businesses exploiting and cheating cheating New Yorkers seeking millions in penalties and restitution for agrieved consumers. Our case against Extraspace takes on the business of of uh takes on the business for their false advertising, bait and switch tactics, and clear violations of our consumer protection law. for which we're seeking at least $5 million in penalties and restitution. We're also seeking nearly $20 million from Radiant Solar for its deceptive and illegal schemes that drove up utility costs for New York consumers. Finally, we've taken legal actions against three major employment agencies, CMP, Golden Rose, and Elanes for systematically exploiting economically vulnerable New Yorkers with illegal advance fees. This action has already led to almost a million dollars in restitution for New York job seekers so that they can feed and house their families. And we're going to continue this work. In the last year, as the council knows, our mandate grew and we worked to establish new and innovative protections for consumers across the five buraus. Last June, we implemented council member Oay's historic Fair Act, banning costly forest broker fees and ensuring prospective tenants have clarity and other fees related to the apartment rental. >> I agree, council member. I agree. Uh we also implemented speaker Menon's safe hotels act creating stronger standards for consumers and workers at hotels. Uh, this implementation highlighted the efficiency of our licensing customer service with licenses being approved in only two days and in-person wait times being an average of only four minutes. In support of small businesses, we worked with Speaker Menon on the announcement of a DCWP license reform package which eases regulatory burdens and modernizes requirements for small businesses across the city. and we advocated strongly in favor of the package of excuse me of the passage of the street vendor reform package allowing more of our city's smallest businesses to operate in compliance with city laws. In the Mandani administration, DCWP has already taken aggressive and innovative measures to leverage our authority to ensure that New Yorkers have a fierce protector in city government. Under under this mayor, we announced the adoption of the strongest prohibition on hotel junk fees in the United States, which will pre New Yorkers traveling outside the city and those visiting our city from facing unexpected and costly fees when traveling. Just last month, we announced the publication of the Stopping Harassment and Intimidation and Ensuring Lawful Debt Collection Rule, the Shield Rule. A new debt collection rule that provides New Yorkers with the nation's strongest protections against debt collector harassment. That rule far surpasses the protections afforded by federal regulations and delivers first in the nation innovative protections related to the collection of medical debt. In this new era of accountability, we will go further than ever before to crack down on deceptive predatory corporate practices like junk fees and ownerous subscription traps. Predatory industries have been put on notice, comply with the laws of New York City, or face consequences. Just yesterday, Deputy Mayor Sue officially launched the city's junk fee task force, which we are co-chairing, and we are excited about the potential to develop more groundbreaking policy to stop these practices that are directly undermining affordability for New Yorkers. and Mayor Mumdani's rental ripoff hearings have been a major step in identifying the key issues affecting renters in our city, including ownorous and costly fees such as the broker fees that council member Oay targeted with the fair act. This is all to say that we are here to deliver economic relief for consumers who have been wronged and we have sent a clear message that praying on New Yorkers will come with severe consequences. I also want to talk about our groundbreaking worker justice initiatives. DCWP has been and will continue to be here to ensure that workers across the city who come can come to our office and that we can set the standards for worker rights and labor standards across the United States. Our cutting edge worker protection laws not only establish greater stability in workers schedules, incomes, and employment, but also ensure that workers are treated fairly and with dignity. When companies violate workers rights, we prioritize monetary relief for workers and hold employers accountable to the fullest extent of the law. Last year was a historic year for our worker protection efforts. With this committee, we passed laws to strengthen existing protections, and we delivered a record-breaking 44.4 4 million in restitution to more than 24,000 workers through enforcement through enforcement of our cornerstone workplace protection laws. This includes the biggest worker protection case in New York City history, a landmark 38 million $ 38.9 million settlement against Starbucks for violations of our fair work week law. As you all know, DCWP is a national leader in developing and implementing cutting edge labor protections. excuse me, cutting edge protections to raise labor standards for workers across industries. In 2025, we strengthened our cornerstone workplace laws while advocating for protections in new industries. With the help of council members Nurse, Gutierrez, and Abrau, we expanded our delivery worker laws, strengthening protections relating to tipping and pay transparency, and expanding the minimum pay rate to grocery delivery workers and other existing protections to all contracted delivery workers. We also worked closely with council member Krishnan to pass muchneeded deactivation protections for delivery workers and four higher vehicle drivers, securing stability and employment for tens of thousands of hardworking New Yorkers. With the help of labor partners and council member Hudson, we fought to enact the Alain Etien Safety and Security Act, which will provide security guards that help keep us safe each and every day with better pay and benefit standards. And just last month, our protected, excuse me, our strengthened protected time off law went into effect for 4.3 million New York City workers, requiring an additional 32 hours of unpaid time, and expanding the reasons that employees can take time off, including child care, workplace violations, public benefits hearings, and more. The law as well as our February benchmark report represents a standard for worker rights and stable schedules that the rest of the nation can look to as a model. This is just the beginning. DCWP has already made great strides in 2026, taking on businesses and major corporations that exploit their workers. We recently announced a major win against a creative production company, Splashlight, for violations of our Freelances and Free Act, where we secured $500,000 for freelance workers who were cheated of their hard-earned payments. At the start of the year, we released a report that revealed the corporate greed of businesses like Door Dash and Uber exploiting and cheating their workers out of $550 million with design tricks that made it harder for customers to tip. In January, we announced a lawsuit against the delivery at MotoClip for egregious violations of the delivery worker laws. And through our team's efforts, we were able to get thousands of wrongfully deactivated delivery workers their jobs back. And we secured nearly $5 million in restitution. But we are not stopping there because thanks to the city council, DCWP will be delivering even more for workers in the months and years to come. We are working to implement laws that expand worker protections and improve labor standards for workers. None of this could have been achieved without the relentless efforts of workers, advocates, and this council. And DCWP looks forward to these continued partnerships and doing even more this year. We are also committed to setting New Yorkers up for financial success. Over the course of the past two decades, DCWP is committed to has been committed to supporting New Yorkers across the city by helping them reach their financial goals. Our financial empowerment work has impacted hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and their families through vital research, educational research, and direct services that help them take control of their financial health. As part of the affordability agenda, we want to help ensure that New Yorkers are able to keep more of their hard-earned money and they're not being ripped off by junk fees and other uh exploitative conduct. Each year, New York City Free Tax Prep saves New Yorkers tens of millions of dollars in tax prep fees uh for expensive paid filing services while ensuring New Yorkers can keep the entirety of their tax refund. DCWP's trusted providers across 141 tax prep sites provide free professional tax preparation services to thousands of New Yorkers. Last year, our program helped file more than 110,000 tax returns through NYC Free Tax Pro, saving nearly saving clients nearly $40 million in preparation fees and maximizing their refunds and access to valuable credits like the earned income and child tax credits. This year, we're aiming to grow these savings all while cracking down on exorbitant charges and deceptive practices that too often uh characterize the tax industry. We have already cracked down on predatory tax preparers who use junk fees and deceptive practices to exploit the people of the city. And we are accelerating enforcement, deploying inspectors across the city to ensure tax preparers are following the law. New Yorkers can say goodbye to fees without sacrificing qualities by using NYC Free Tax Pro. We will ensure that you can claim every credit you're entitled to. We are also very proud of our financial empowerment centers which offer New Yorkers free confidential one-on-one financial counseling sessions with trained financial counselors. These sessions help individuals and families achieve their financial goals and make a huge difference for households by addressing savings, banking, credit, and debt, including student loan debt, and much more. Since their inception, financial empowerment centers have served nearly 100,000 clients, increasing their savings by a total of 15.4 million and reducing their debt by more than $130 million. In 2025, we expanded our financial empowerment centers to eight New York City Health and Hospital and Metrop Plus Health Sites, giving us the opportunity to serve even more New Yorkers and provide vital resources to assist constituents manage their money amidst the affordability crisis we are all struggling with. We also announced our financial literacy for youth initiative. expanding financial and consumer education to the youth and family of our cities and helping to set them up for success. Through this initiative, we will bring financial educators to New York City public schools and youth serving programs, developing a healthy a financially healthy environment for students and their families. Let me conclude with this. The Mandani administration has made clear that more than ever before, DCWP is committed to delivering economic justice for all New Yorkers and making New York City a fairer, more affordable place to live and work. We will protect New Yorkers by unleashing consumer protections against corporate greed, strengthening cornerstone protections for workers, and bringing economic relief to and financial health to New Yorkers and their families. DCWP wants New Yorkers to know with full confidence that whether you're a worker or consumer or household looking to improve your financial health, you have a champion and a passionate ally in city government. I would like to express my sincere appreciation once again for the opportunity to testify today and the incredible work that DCWP does every day. We are eager to carry forward the torch of Mayor Mandani's affordability agenda. We look forward to partnering with you all in this new era of economic justice for the people of New York City. Lastly, I would like to thank my team at my side and and behind me uh for the support they've shown me from the moment I have stepped into this role just a couple months ago. In short order, our team has taken major steps to redouble our efforts to protect workers and consumers from exploitation and bringing economic relief to countless New Yorkers across our city. As the administration moves forward with an ambitious vision for economic justice, I am confident that together we will transform the city into one that is fairer, more affordable, and more just. I thank you and I look forward to answering your questions today. >> Thank you very much. And I want to acknowledge that uh Council Member Brewer and Council Member Lee have joined us. Uh oh, and Council Member Areola is on Zoom. Okay, she's on I'm like I don't see her. She's on Zoom. All right. Thank you. Uh so just I know my colleagues have a lot of questions, so I just want to take a few off the top. Um, so I've heard from the mayor numerous times over the last three months that we were going to double the budget of DCWP to try to expand its resources and its reach and I'm wondering um over what time frame do you expect that doubling to happen and when will we see anything in relationship to that? >> Well, thank you Chair Epstein and thank you for your steadfast support for our work and congratulations of course in chairing this committee. Uh, Mayor Mandani did make that commitment and I can tell you we are in ongoing conversations with the mayor and with city hall about our needs for the coming year. Uh, it is absolutely the case that the council's passed groundbreaking new laws that we are charged with enforcing. Uh, OM has worked with us to identify significant new needs in order to enforce those laws. You know, in terms of the actual timeline, those conversations are ongoing, but we know that the mayor inherited a massive fiscal crisis from Eric Adams, and there really is an all hands-on deck effort to try to address that while continuing to fulfill the mandate that we've been charged with. So I just uh so the answer is it's unclear but I know we have have a lot of needs and we can go through all those and we will today but um it's a little disappointing to see a budget that's a reduction in the budget and potentially a reduction in your headcount from what the proposed budget that what the actual budget was from last year. Uh is there something with inside DCWP that determines that you need less staffing than you needed in the past? Well, it was a preliminary budget as you know, Chair Epstein, and you know, conversations remain ongoing with uh the with city hall, with OM. Um, you know, when the council passed new groundbreaking laws like for higher vehicle deactivation, OM did identify significant new needs for for DCWP to make those laws a success. >> You say new needs, you mean additional staffing support. >> Exactly. Additional staffing support. And those conversations remain ongoing for the exec plan to ensure that we can enforce those laws effectively. >> Right. And I know you've listed off 10 12 different things where it's going to require additional needs of staffing. Um I just want to just flag that as a you know as a a large concern that we have that we're giving you a lot of authority and I'm not sure the staffing levels meet those needs based on what I'm hearing today. >> Yeah. I can Oh, go ahead. >> No. So, your headcount uh it's 484, but the actual active headcount is 425. Can you explain the difference there? >> Yeah, essentially, council member, what's going on is a number of our lines, I believe it's about uh 58 of our authorized lines, 38 of our active lines and 20 of our vacancies are actually funded by DOH. We don't control those lines. They they work with our licensing centers. Um but those lines are not in consumer and worker protection. So uh so 387 is your actual inconsumer worker protections people actually working in your agency >> I believe the active Carlos do you want to fill in for right now >> uh that's let me confirm one moment share it is um that's correct 387 are dedicated to DCAP's work uh >> I think just to go just to clarify uh so it's 48 484 four total authorized headcount for the agency. But as the commissioner mentioned, 58 of that authorized headcount is DOH funded lines. Uh and then within those DOH funded lines that are there are 20 vacancies, which um represents u if you put it all together about 30% of our total vacancies as an agency. >> That's through DOH and they're funded through your agency. We receive an intracity grant to fund those 58 lines and they are responsible for DOH licensing and permitting. Uh for example, food service establishments is one. Um uh that's their their role at the agency. >> Right. And the 387 from the 425 >> those 387 uh those are the the active headcount. We >> that's a team effort here. I believe 387 is as of January 2026. Um for FY27 the authorized headcount will be 484. For FY26 the authorized headcount was 475. Uh so we're talking about different time frames here. >> So you continue uh in the future fiscally you're you're still saying of the headcount who are going to be working on DCWP work. What number will that be based on the proposed budget? Currently, currently the preliminary budget has us at 387 active for working on on on this uh on these issues um on DCP work. 387 and of of that can you break down how many of them are forward- facing consumerf facing uh individuals? Go ahead. >> Yeah, give me just a moment council member to get you the uh to get you those numbers. So essentially we have uh just to give you a little sample of it our general counsel which handles a lot of our consumer protection work but also is legal counsel for us uh has a total of 83 active uh licensed uh let's see given your question OPS which is a worker protection unit >> 83 active lawyers >> no that's it's a whole suite of different workers like our consumer ser sorry about that chair um it's a whole bunch of different types of staff for example our consumer services unit which is the intake and mediation arm of the agency, all non- lawyers, >> all competitive civil servants. That's within the general counsel division. So that's a couple dozen people. And we have other functions. There are a couple dozen lawyers within the general counsel division that are doing consumer protection, enforcement, and legal counsel work for the agency. >> And in terms of lawyers, >> how many lawyer can you just ask how many lawyers do you have who are working inside the agency? >> In terms of lawyers who can bring cases to get money back to workers and consumers, it's shockingly low. We have about 20 uh 20 or so. >> I think if you combined the lawyer, the enforcement lawyers in OPS and the enforcement lawyers doing consumer protection work in the general counsel division, it's a little over 40 attorneys. >> And just in the general counsel's office, how many? >> Um I think in between 20 and 25. you. So, you have 20 to 25 lawyers to uh represent everyone who's come to you across New York City on any affirmative litigation you're doing >> to sorry to confirm. So, it's 20 to 25 lawyers for consumer protection 18 attorneys for worker protection. So, we're talking about 40 total 40 approximately across these two areas. Now, we have other attorneys in our agency. They are not working in these enforcement efforts. They have other roles such as legal counsel working on contracts. Yeah. Um so that's the breakdown. I'm also happy to give you a breakdown of each division if that's helpful. >> I would be it would be helpful because you know we just talked a lot. I think probably just on Council Member Oce's Fair Act, you might need 20 to 25 lawyers, you know, just to just on the cases that may need to be brought just on that one provision of law alone. And so I want to flag this as consumer protection issues, not to mention all the workers rights issues that we're talking about feels to me, you know, as someone who was at one point a practicing lawyer when we have eight and a half million New Yorkers and we're seeing hundreds of thousands of potential complaints that we are putting your agency in a very difficult position to be able to represent New Yorkers to their the their fullest extent. I know you wanted to add something. No. Okay. >> Well, if I could I mean I think uh I appreciate um uh the sentiment around that because I I think I think everybody on this day is believes that the work that this agency is absolutely critical for New Yorkers and I think it speaks volumes uh to to what particularly Mike and Liz and other folks at our agency have been able to do with these resources, the concrete uh outcomes in in tens of millions of dollars in economic relief. I think um you know it's why I believe that pound-for-pound the best agency in the city uh and more resources we could always do more >> and I if I may add very briefly chair um I have done consumer protection enforcement at the state level at the federal level my my my whole career um it's just in my third month here at DCWB this is the leanest enforcement operation I've ever seen um it is a tribute to Mike and Liz that we can deliver so much for the city but there is no doubt we are lean and mean uh and we are stretched touched. There's there's no doubt about it. >> Right. I want I know Cherros, Council Member O has to leave soon, so I want to give an opportunity to kind of weigh in with some questions. >> Thank you, chair, and thank you, Commissioner, for your testimony. I wanted to follow up on some questions I had the last time we had a hearing together. Um, and it's around rid share/dely app services and and search charges. Uh, a concern that often comes up for constituents and New Yorkers abroad, um, is that some ride share and delivery apps charge these search charges that don't seem to make sense. Uh, New Yorkers are are left in the dark on what fees they're actually paying when these apps uh, implement these search charges. Uh, prices on apps like Uber, Lift, and Door Dash can vary from order to order. While this may be a TLC issue for rid share apps, I want to know if DCWP is working on anything to address this, especially uh anything regarding to potential price gouging and fee transparency. Yeah, I think this is an excellent question, council member. And what I will say is that my big fear is that what consumers are experiencing with Uber and Lyft where they don't know how much something's going to p how much something's going to cost and they get hidden fees and it changes throughout the day and two people sitting in the same building going to the same destination end up with totally different prices. My worry is that this is the future of pricing that what is happening in at Uber and Lyft could happen in our grocery stores, our hardware stores, uh when we're shopping every day. So, I can tell you a what we are doing is leading the city's aggressive effort to crack down on junk fees. Uh we had our first task force meeting yesterday. We passed the hotel fee rule. We continue to work on that. We're sending warning letters. Um, but I can tell you that we are also very interested in working internally about the next generation of pricing abuses. Whether that's dynamic pricing where people walk into a grocery store and the cost of eggs rises from when they go from one aisle to the next or whether it's surveillance pricing where companies are using our personal data to try to set prices as high as they can the most that we're willing to pay. I think it's really critical that as the federal government really just says industry do whatever you want. We're, you know, we're we don't care. we're not going to bring law enforcement that New York step up and protect these basic principles that New Yorkers should know how much something's going to cost before they pay. I so I think that's critical and if anything we have to go broader than Uber andyft across the economy to make sure these pricing abuses can't become entrenched. >> I appreciate that answer. My office is working on drafting legislation around uh transparency around uh surge pricing um as well as regulation around surge pricing. So, we would love to work with with you all on on what that legislation looks like and would love your support and and potentially getting it uh passed. Another question that I want to ask is, you know, a more convoluted issue, but deed theft is a prevalent issue in in my district and across uh the city where there's a high number of black homeowners who are prayed upon uh by different companies that aim to steal their deeds. Uh one of the ways that deed theft happens is that you have individualized targeted outreach with predatory intentions. Uh these are bad actors posing as real estate or financial experts and vulnerable homeowners like seniors or those facing financial hardships and leans often rely on these experts uh and as a result can lose the deeds to their properties. And while deed theft is more commonly seen as a department of finance issue, in my view it falls in the category of malicious business. Uh, what is DCWP doing, if anything, to hold these bad actors in real estate and financial scams accountable? And how can constituents take action with DCWP when they're approached by a deed theft scammer? >> Yeah, I I absolutely >> I could not agree more, council member. I think if anything malicious business understates what the problem is, especially the type of scheme you're describing. What I'll say is we are very engaged in helping people protect their homes, protect their equity. We just brought a major case against Radiant Solar, which was a company that was ripping off New Yorkers around solar installation. When we see instances of deed theft, and I'll have Mike add to that, our general counsel add to this. The fact of the matter is it's not just a Department of Finance issue, it's often a criminal issue. Sure. At the end of the day, we are a civil law enforcement agency, but we routinely refer cases to district district attorneys for criminal prosecution. My general view is that given the egregiousness of the kind of conduct you're describing, the best approach is to put these guys and people I should say behind bars, but I'll let Mike add to that. >> That's right. I mean, there are a lot of different flavors as you of what is classified as deed theft as you're as you're referring to council member. So, I think we can approach this in a collaborative effort across all the different enforcement agencies. As a first step, always you can always reach out to us >> and talk about that. As uh the commissioner mentioned, we have relationships that we have cultivated with the five district attorney's offices. So if we think this is something that is best for criminal enforcement, we can talk to the economic crimes bureaus and these different district attorneys offices. We don't want to give people the runaround, but we want to actually be able to work with your offices to to help your constituents find out what the best route is. if it's something that's best for us to enforce under our consumer protection law, our deceptive business practices law. We want those types of complaints and we encourage you and and your colleagues to submit complaints online or through 31 and we want to engage with what you're seeing. >> Chair, can I ask one more question? I promise it'll be brief. Um, you know, I I want to thank you, Commissioner, uh, and your agency for your commitment to upholding the Fair Act and ensuring that the bad actors that are landlords and brokers are held accountable. And since the passage of the Fair Act, broker fee complaints have dropped from 50 complaints a week to 25 a week. Uh but what can your agency do to ensure those numbers continue to decrease and what resources does DCWP need to do that work and how much will it cost? And um again, we are here to advocate for more funding for you. So I know you could do a lot more with more, but um any specifics would be really helpful for us. >> Well, I appreciate that, Council. What I'll I want to start by reiterating what you said. Um complaints have fallen. Uh far fewer complaints we get actually involve uh uh broker fees. Many of the complaints we get are from New Yorkers warning us that they might they have heard about a friend who's been charged a broker fee or things like that. I really believe that this law is making a meaningful difference in increasing the accessibility of housing uh without any >> I told you guys it was a great bill. I told you it was a great bill. >> Right. And many many many of the uh predictions of doom uh have have certainly not come to pass. If anything, this is making you know I paid a massive broker fee when I moved into my most recent apartment. Many New Yorkers can't afford to come up with 15% of their rent. Um uh in terms of what we are doing, um we know that there are brokers out there trying to evade the protections of the Fed, whether it's saying to renters, you know, we're not going to advertise any broker fees, but you know, come to our office. We're going to make a deal. Um there are I we are very concerned about essentially black market off the radar transactions. That is one reason we are making a concerted effort to hear from more renters. Not only by driving complaints from 311 into our office which as you know we are but we are now doing rental ripoff hearings. We just did our third. We have another in Manhattan next week but we're hearing from th I don't know how many tenants. We're hearing from many many tenants about all sorts of for lack of a better word shady practices we are experiencing. And we are very committed to working with you. Whether that means clarifying the scope of the fair act to close these loopholes. Perhaps it might require amendment. We would work with you on that. Perhaps it requires, you know, continuing the 50 plus cases. We have an oath right now and sending a message to these landlords and brokers that this conduct is unacceptable. All options are on the table. >> You asked about resources. I'm trying to move quickly. You want to talk about that? >> I was going to say one thing about the rental rub off hearings that you know we under the Mandan administration administration also. I know we have a lot of other questions up here, so you can >> Well, we have some legislative ideas, too, that we're happy to share. That's >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And more resources would allow us to bring more enforcement. >> Of course. Thank you, Commissioner. >> I I want to Council Member Hanks, uh I know she's got some questions, so I'll turn to her now. >> Thank you, Chair, and uh thank you, Council Member Oay. Happy belated birthday, and you had a profoundly amazing bill that we passed. Um so, thank you so much, Commissioner, for being here. um the work that you're doing is supremely important, but um I am I'm always here to rally for the uh the fifth burrow. Um so we just want to ask a few questions. So DCWP's work ex you know spans inspections enforcement actions complaint me um mediation the restitution for harmed consumers and workers and in Staten Island this role is especially significant due to the bureau's reliance on small businesses and service sector employment where issues like wage theft deception deceptive contracting and pediatory financial practices may be harder to detect due to lower density and fewer in enforcement touch points and you You know, I really appreciate as part of your testimony letting us know, you know, how many enforcement officers compared and I know it's 8 million people and I'm asking about Staten Island, but we do want to know uh what specific consumer protection and worker right violations are mostly reported in Staten Island and how does DCWP tailor enforcement on those issues and how does DCWP ensure that Staten Island residents are aware of their rights under laws such as paid safe and sick leave and and fair work week protections. >> Well, thank you council member for that question. Let me just start by saying my colleague's going to see about pulling up the complaint numbers and response. But I just want to make clear we are about protecting consumers and workers but protecting small businesses is a key part of our mission too. Whether it's making sure our licenses are easy to obtain, whether it's reducing fines and fees, whether it's educating small businesses about the laws they need to follow, whether it's ensuring a level playing field for small businesses. And I would just add, council member, and I I bet you've heard about this all over Staten Island, small businesses are being scammed, too. Small business are being defraed, too. They're being ripped off, too. Uh, and the reality is our consumer protection law is limited in that regard. But small businesses, I think, need, and I'm very happy that my former colleague, first deputy Kenny Maniah, is now commissioner of small business services. Small businesses need a champion in city government, too. That's what we are trying to do every day. um and we see it as as core to our mission. I'll see now Carlos can talk about some of our complaint data. >> Well, I would I would say that, you know, we don't um we have specific efforts in Sat Island with respect to outreach. Um uh we I think we we we our targets are for um at least uh 100 events in Sat Island, outreach events in Staten Island um per year. Um and we also additionally uh we do small business outreach in the burough every year as well. Uh this includes small business walks with local council members too to meet one-on-one with businesses. Um and the last piece I'd mentioned know because it came to me very discreetly your point about low density bureaus and how they could how we could we could address for example worker rights issues there. One one manner is just by our our proactive investigation posture we have when we receive a complaint. So, uh, when we receive a complaint from a business, uh, a worker right complaint, uh, we'll make sure we take a look at the entire business and and also if they have locations in other parts of the bureau or locations across the city. It's a way for us to maximize and our efficiencies and effectiveness of resources uh, to make sure even if it's a lowdensity burrow where we've received complaint that we're able to really spread the spread the scope of that investigation. >> Let me just say as a proud Curtis High School alum, >> yeah, go Warriors. Um I just >> I brought him here just for you, council member. >> Just I would say um that we take this very ser when we're looking at complaints. We're looking at all five burrows. We want to make sure that we're spread we're spreading love all over the city and make sure that we're using our resources as much as we can across the entire city. And I think our we have a rental ripoff hearing uh coming up at IS-49 um in a couple weeks. >> Yeah. So, we definitely look forward to hearing from Staten Islanders about what's going on on the ground at that hearing. >> Thank you so much and thank you, Chair. >> Thank you. Uh uh now I'll turn it to Council Member Lee. >> Hi. Good afternoon. Okay, it's afternoon. Um and I'm so sorry I I was in such a brain fog yesterday when I saw you guys walking in. So, I I I did not give you your due flowers. And so, I'm very apologetic, but congrats, Commissioner Lavine. And of course, we love Carlos and the rest of the staff. So, thank you so much. >> Um, and just really quickly, cuz I was trying going back to the numbers because I was really trying to follow along as um, uh, Chair Epste was going through the vacancies and the positions cuz so we we on our side, we had 63 vacancies and 421 active as of end of January, but you said the most recent numbers are 4 387 active. >> Council member staff. Go ahead. I I can take that. I think what we were trying to communicate and perhaps it was not successful was um was um the amount of staff dedicated to DCUP work and the amount of staff dedicate dedicated to DOH work. >> Right. >> So uh I think your numbers are are for the most part they're they're accurate for the time period that you're taking in. >> Okay. >> Uh overall it maybe if I can try to be clear uh from our end it's uh 484 is the authorized headcount. We have approximately 60 vacancies. Yes. And then from that 484, 58 of those lines are that's DOH. >> Okay. And just out of curiosity because I know that um even even in the programs we had where we ran the senior centers like the DOH piece for the food handlers license and all these other things were were a big holdup in in moving things forward. So just curious to hear how your conversations have been going with DOH in terms of timeline, how long it takes to get those through and how that impacts maybe some of your work. Well, um I would say I I I think I'd have to I'd have to circle back my colleagues at DH in terms of their their their metrics. I know for us our wait times are about four minutes for each client and then additionally two days for processing applications. I think you know the policy of of putting all these agent licensing functions within one agency it's from a Giuliani era really right uh I think there are some inefficiencies there particularly when it comes even from like a constituent perspective of who am I exactly interfacing with here >> um that said you know we we try we coordinate as much as we can uh uh with DOMH to make sure that we're delivering as much as we can for New Yorkers. Okay, great. Thank you. And then just uh switching gears a little bit to chief savings officers. Um so I'm assuming that you guys still have the same 1.5% mandate in FY26 and 2.5% for FY27. Um so just wanted to I mean I know the proposals are due tomorrow, but wondering if you could share some area areas that are being evaluated. >> Oh, I know we gave you more work, so that's the other issue, too. >> I appreciate it, council member. Um, our original chief savings officer is now the SPS commissioner, but we have a new chief savings officer. Um, you know, our discussions with OM and with city hall are ongoing about those savings, so I don't want to get ahead of them, but I can tell you we have identified savings. Um, but there no easy solutions here, council member. We, as it's a theme at our hearing, we're stretched very thin. Um, but you know, we we we were given that mandate and we're following it. >> Where have those areas been? I'm even curious because I feel like we've given you a lot of extra stuff on your plate. So, just curious where the savings have been found. >> Well, I can say generally because again, I don't want to get ahead of city hall on this, but we're examining every contract we have. We're examining every corner of our org chart. We're examining every every line. Uh we're trying to find savings where we can. Um it's not easy. Um, and again, you know, when you when you hear our topline budget, and I'm so glad you asked uh my chief of staff about DOH, it elides the fact that many of our lines are actually not in our control, right? So, that's that cannot be touched by any of these savings. So, it is a challenge for us, but we're working with city hall to meet it. >> Okay. And um the services like enforcement and licensing that protect New Yorkers, um will those be held harmless? >> I hope so, council member. I you know that's going to depend of course on the do you mean with the savings target specifically or with the exec plan and the budget for the coming year. >> Right. Okay. And um uh what efficiencies might DCWP implement to reduce costs while maintaining the enforcement levels which I know you're looking at again. So >> yeah I I can just say council member it's it is a challenge. We staff our cases very leanly. We we've talked about how we can reduce our backlog, for example, of worker protection cases. We're certainly taking an aggressive posture with companies where we're saying, you know, we're not going to let negotiations drag on if you if you uh don't give us the information we need and we believe the law is being broken. We're going to court. But going to court takes cost, too. So, I'm not going to pretend it's been easy, council member, but again, you know, we we are doing what we can and you know, looking between the cushions. No, >> I would I would say as well that you know over the over the past 10 years I believe we had a net headcount increase of of of 10 or or so approximately 10. Um so it speaks to throughout that time we've had to strategically readjust our resources. We've had to become leaner and and effective with what we have. Um it's something the agency I think has been able to we've excelled at it, you know, based on the outcomes we put together. All that said, again, there's there's mandates coming. These mandates are super important to us and to and to our our allies and we want to make sure that we are we're making the best case uh or putting the best foot forward on those. >> And hopefully you'll find change and not gum old gum in the cushion in between the cushions like what my kids find. But every counts I could just ask one more question chair. Sorry. Um so just on the revenue generation side um the most of the obviously the revenue is through fines and licensing. However, the revenue for FY27 um expected revenue is 1.3 million lower than they were in FY26 budget adoption and just wanted to know what the reason was for that decrease and if um the revenue might increase um the need for expense cuts. And lastly, this is just like a personal um interest of mine, is have you guys also looked into the possibility of using AI and tech to, you know, help with some of these fee collections and reducing outstanding penalties. Um I because I've been talking to folks that are doing this work in other municipalities and cities across the nation. So I was just wondering if that's something that you all are looking into as well. >> Uh so much there. I think I I'll try to keep it brief. Council member, this really thoughtful question on on revenue. I want to get back to you on the targets. The reality is we target conservatively and then generally exceed our targets. Okay. Certainly, if we have litigation success this year that we're likely to exceed our targets, but we will get back to you on that. Okay. I'm glad you asked about AI and tech. This is something we we do believe we can find more efficiencies by using more technology. That does require OTPS money to implement these systems. Uh you know, we have, you know, work we've worked with OTI well in the past. They continue to support us. Uh there also permissions we need to use AI. Um but we are absolutely we could not do our minimum pay rate cases without the systems we have to track pay across a different delivery app. So implementing tech tech tools has already made our agency more efficient and we really do want to redouble that but it takes money to save money. >> Yeah. I mean I would add too to the commissioner's point. I know that for example you leveraging data scientists in our investigations has really taken our our work out of an analog era and I know with the commissioner we're already thinking about how do we spread that how we spread that that idea to other parts of our agency and again going back to becoming lean and efficient still >> right yeah some I was joking with someone this morning sometimes I feel like we're still operating on DOSs it's like old school >> I registered for this hearing on carbon paper like yeah >> awesome thank you chair Thank you. Uh, council member Brewer, >> thank you very much. So, if can you like I don't know that you have to do it now, but could you divide up this is what the health inspector, the hotel inspector, the vendor inspector, are they all cross-trained because you don't have that many. I mean, if you think of all the folks, you have so few to do all those jobs. And so, is it crossraining? >> Yeah, thank you for the question, council member. um they are cross-trained but I I don't think every inspector is trained for every industry. So for example, we have 48 field enforcement staff, 48 inspectors essentially. Um we have 22, excuse, let me answer it this way. We have 14 for petroleum license qualification. We call that special enforcement. 24 for tobacco, which as you know is a a major problem. >> Very well. >> Uh six for operations, but I know either one of you should weigh in. >> That's correct. I would say that's the correct breakdown. And the 48 uh field inspectors are really the the cross trainin ones. They're the ones out there doing patrols and doing uh uh response to complaints. >> So they could do vendors, they can do hotels, they can do >> Well, we no longer do vendor enforcement. Street enforcement has been moved over to Yes. Um >> so they can do hotels, they can do >> the 48 can do hotels. Um that's correct. >> Or Yeah. Or any of our licensed categories or any other these businesses enforcing for consumer protection laws. >> Okay. Go ahead. And then 24 tobacco. I know that >> 24 tobacco which is partly funded by the state as well. Um and then uh as the commissioner mentioned 14 for special enforcement. >> Okay. And then six operations. What does operations mean? >> Just general. >> I believe that's processing the summons and >> processing summon. >> Yeah, just quality checking making sure that things because you know we issue these summones, they go to oath or >> reporting and data analysis process. So just making sure everything is streamlined >> and only oath or the department of finance knows if anybody pays their fees, right? Because nobody seems to pay the general >> to that. >> Well, I mean I'm sorry. only I'm just I did a report with IBO a while ago finding two billion unpaid that was a few years ago I'm trying to get another report so what I'm saying is you don't know if people pay that's up to oath to assign and then for >> well oath oath issues the decision >> correct and then finance is supposed to collect >> well we actually do some internal collections we send out an initial letter and then um if they don't if we don't get um the penalties or the restitution paid through um our internal collections process is then we work with the law department. >> So you don't so finance because finance for other agencies does the collection but in your case you do the collection >> at least at the at the um the initial stage >> at the initial stage. Okay the >> I'm sorry the department of finance does not do our collections directly. >> Oh that's interesting. Okay. >> We collected approximately $16 million last calendar year. >> 16 million. And do you have do you know how much you didn't collect or that's not >> No, we we don't have that with us some uh >> could you let us know because I know you try. Okay, just >> the people who were in the uh as I don't think the ones from the cannabis shore uh paid a penny just FYI. Um the other issue was just on paid sick. I didn't know what your numbers might be. That's obviously my bill. I care about it. You have done a great job. I didn't know if you had a number for what has been paid on that or how many people have been >> Yeah. Let >> fought not doing the right thing. >> Appreciate that, Council. I turn it over to your wonderful OPS chief. >> Yep. We sure do. So, um, in fiscal 2025, um, we or rather in calendar year 2025, we had 525 complaints. >> Wow. >> Um, and we were able to, um, uh, close 288 investigations, opened 305 investigations. Um and in total we've collected um 4.5 million for workers um just under the protected time off law or paid sick leave law um and 47,000 um in civil penalties. >> Right. Thank you very council. I would add since you were able to successfully pass that bill uh three $34.6 million in fines and restitution uh delivered to over 77,000 New Yorkers. >> Thank you. Just as long as Delasio doesn't get credit, I'm fine. >> We'll make sure. >> I get I deserve the credit on that one. Um the other question is there's a lot of you I guess on the list of for the 48 would be those who are messing up the scheduling. That's still an ongoing issue. You know, when you get told that your schedule's changing quickly, um that's a law that we passed. So I'm just wondering is that also something that is a constant um challenge because I do get a lot of complaints still about people's scheduling. Go ahead. >> Yeah, so the 48 staff are actually in our field enforcement division. Um the it's the office of labor policy and standards that enforces the fair work week law. Um we get a lot of complaints too. Um our enforcement of that law is broader than ever. Um, many of the complaints we get are alleging issues that don't just affect one person, but affect the whole workforce. When we get a complaint like that, we open a workplacewide investigation. Um, often a citywide investigation to look at every uh store under that corporate umbrella. Um, we've had a great deal of success settling those cases. Um, collecting money for workers. Um, in fiscal 20 or rather in calendar year 2025, we've collected um, let's see, three $39 million just under the Fair Work Week law for workers which we distributed to >> um, >> does it does it send a message that they shouldn't be doing it or it just continues? In other words, is it that should send a message? >> Yeah, we definitely see compliance improvements. you know, we have had some companies where we're then looking a second time, you know, because we get complaints. Um, which is bad news and good news. Um, the good news is it's better. It might not be perfect, but it improves. Um, so we do think our enforcement is making an impact. There have also been independent researchers that have studied this and found that New York City um, nationwide among Fair Work Week law jurisdictions um, is doing the best in actually improving scheduling protections um, for fast food workers. >> Congratulations. I know I still get complaints so I appreciate that. Just finally with FIFA coming and the the boats coming in July. Um that's going to be a lot of hotel challenges I assume. In other words, are we doing extra maybe through NYC tourism that people can complain there'll be a million I assumed visitors here etc. You get the issue. So how do we handle their complaints because they don't may not know what to do about complaining. >> Yeah. Thank you council member. As you know we are we are licensing hotels now. It's been a big part of our agenda to make sure not only that New Yorkers aren't getting ripped off by it when they travel, but that people don't come to the city and find getting ripped off >> and we'll have many visitors. We hope >> strongest in the nation hotel junk fee rule. You were there for the announcement. Uh we announced a couple months ago. Uh we have um enforcing safe hotels act to ensure there's not illegal subcontracting to ensure the safety and cleanliness in the hotels. Uh we continue to receive consumer complaints. Mike, do you want to talk a little bit about of our additional efforts in the space? >> No, I think that I think you've hit like sort of the key points. I mean, we're always we're very attuned to the fact that we're going to get an influx of visitors here. We definitely care about like making sure not just that New Yorkers are protected, but tourists coming to the city are protected. So first as always if any if you're hearing anything on the ground please >> no I'm just saying are you working through NYC tourism for the so that they have this as I mean they have many issues on their agenda but would they have this on their agenda? >> Yes we we are in communication with New York City Tourism um and we're also closely working with Hannah and HTC as well to leverage those communication channels with workers and consumers. >> Okay. And then just finally and then the one more question. This non seniors getting scammed. >> It I get this complaints all the time. I don't know if that's you or if that's FTC in your old job and my mother-in-law's job, but I'm just wondering what is that something that is on your radar or is that state and federal? Oh, >> it's absolutely on our radar. In so many jobs, it should be Facebook's job. It should be Google's job. I mean, what drives me crazy >> the telephone too. The telephone. >> Absolutely. You know what drives me crazy about this is reporting now suggests Facebook is earning 10% of its ad revenue is from scams from and they know it and they're not doing anything about it because federal law protects them from liability for scams perpetrated on their platform. So there are limits to how much state or even federal agencies can do here. But we are absolutely committed as part of our education efforts or financial counseling efforts or enforcement efforts when when we find fraud we attack it. when it's criminal, as I was saying to council member OS, who's no longer here. We'll refer to her criminal partners. We work with the AG all the time. But, you know, candidly, council member, this problem has grown so massive, >> huge. >> I mean, the number of complaints, I'll just say to the FTC emanating from social media primarily targeting older people went up 20 something like 20fold over the last decade. >> No, I I you see it, you get it. You they complain. I They come into my office, they've been ripped off 19,000, 30,000 constantly. >> Yeah. No, a absolutely and candidly the upstream solution, the way you avoid playing whack-a-ole with this problem in my opinion, a is education. Making sure people have the tools to avoid these scams and B is for social media platforms to take more responsibility. >> Okay. Thank you. >> On the education piece, last year we we conducted 619 outreach events. Uh my goal for this year is to get that to about 730. So we're saying about two events per day for for the calendar year. >> Thank you, Council Member Brewer. I want to acknowledge council member Audabal and Krishna are with us and Abrau and I want to go to council member Audabal for questions. >> Yeah, I think you answered my question because I was going to ask you about uh your education efforts both on the consumer side and the you know worker protection side um you know can't enforce uh force laws if people don't know about them and don't know where to go to you know make a claim. Um so I I wanted to know um and again we want to advocate for more staffing uh certainly in uh not only the area of enforcement but the area of education which is also extremely important is if we want to enforce uh this legislation to protect workers and consumers and particularly you know to um uh council member Brewer's point you know a lot of seniors in my district are being, you know, um are affected by uh a multitude of of scams, um including, you know, deed theft and you know, are there plans to do, you know, more education, you know, maybe working with the Department for the Aging, uh to ensure that seniors are, you know, uh being advised of, you know, their rights and you know, uh scammers. ers and is this is a multi-art question. I know it's a lot um and uh whether or not uh you uh have a list of you know contractors who are known you know violators of of you know of the law and who are you know uh to so that people know who not to uh contract with. Thank you, uh, council member. I think, um, so approximately 620 events last year, uh, reaching, uh, 75,000 New Yorkers. Um, I think the breakdown is kind of half and half between consumer protection and, worker protection. Uh, it's it's a it's a team, small team, five people. I like to think they're the best outreach team in the city, though, because they burn in a lot of shoe leather. Um, our model is to really plug in to community based organizations and their ongoing meetings, membership meetings. whenever you have a meeting, we are going to be there to go um as way to get out there and to every be be broad and deep with our outreach. Um with respect to deed theft, you know, I we coordinate closely with the Department of Aging, for example, on their booklets um that provide educational resources and and referrals over to our financial empowerment centers. We also coordinate closely with HPD's homeowner help desk as well, which really helps address a lot of these deed theft issues, too. Um, and in the the home improvement contractor space, you know, I think we have done a lot of work over the past few years, and I can maybe toss it over to Mike about this. Um, revitalizing how we uh disperse restitution through our trust funds and other enforcement work. >> Yeah, we we have a uh home improvement contractor trust fund that, as uh Carlos mentioned, we've revamped the sort of uh operating rules under. So now that uh you can we have a more streamlined process where you can get up to $20,000 in relief without having to file a case. And we also increase the cap if you do file a case in civil court how much you can uh get from the trust fund. We also have a home improvement contractor wall of shame on our website. Um that's for repeat violators of unlicensed home improvement contracting. It's very important for consumers and we make that something an educational point. We really try to get out to consumers that they should check our website which has a license lookup function to see if their home the home improvement contractor they're considering hiring is licensed by us because you get a lot more protections under the law if you hire a licensed home improvement contractor. And so if you go to our website, you'll see the most recent bad actors as far as unlicensed home improvement contracting. just sort of responding to your question, council member, of like where are the bad actors? That's at least one um sliver of the pie where we actually do have something on our website. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And I we're also joined by Council Member Banks on Zoom. I want to turn it over to Council Member O'Bri. >> Thank you, Chair. My question is, commissioner, does the mayor's office of management and budget still have a twoin- one out of hiring requirement implemented for DCWP's hiring policies? >> Uh, at the moment, yes, council member. >> Huh. Um, I So, this is not I thought they were supposed to be all gone. What happened? This is not Why isn't the DCW being Why are you being subject to this? >> Well, we have we got savings targets by OM. Um um we're in discussions with OMB about those cuts. My understanding is if and when that's when that is resolved, uh the two for one will be lifted. But Carlos, do you want to add more details on that process? >> No, that's that's 100% correct, Commissioner. We um we have we're we're under two for one until we identified our savings targets. >> I I mean, I'm shocked to hear that your agency is being subject to 2 to1, and I'll tell you why. Uh, you know, the council has done obviously passed a lot of legislation that you're going to be tasked with enforcing. Uh, for instance, um, I passed a package of bills on on tipping transparency, pay transparency, something I've worked very closely with WJP on. Um, how do you I would imagine you need more resources to implement these laws. Is that correct? >> Or do you think you have the headcount necessary to implement those laws? No, it is true, council member, that OMB identified the needs for your legislation and others uh with respect to how we can effectively implement these laws and there are significant additional needs. I can go through them if that's helpful. >> I mean, in addition to that, the council also passed a slew of bills led by the streets vendor project to expand licensing for street vendors. We expect those licenses to be out the door as soon as the law requires. And it sounds like this hiring p this two for one hiring policy is severely limiting your ability to do your job. What is the what is the ask that we need to make from this administration to help you do your job between now and exec? >> Well, we're committed to full robust implementation of the street vendor license expansion. I was proud to our administration reversed the previous administration's opposition to that bill. We were happy to see the council override the veto. But it is the case as you alluded to that uh the fiscal impact statement for the license expansion identified 26 new lines uh that DCWP would need to implement it effectively. Um we are we are having ongoing conversations with OM with city hall about how uh those needs might be reflected in the exec plan. But you know whatever happens we are committed to making this a success. It's not whatever happens. So, you need the resources. And so, our job is to make sure that you have those resources. I like to know how much money you need to do it. >> Well, the fiscal impact statement put forward with the legislation identified 26 lines, 3.1 million in FY27, 2 and a half in and out years. >> How many worker rights and consumer rights attorneys? >> Just to clarify, that's for just that one bill. That is just for street vendor licenses. >> 26 for just for street vendors, not to mention everything else that we did. Right. >> Correct. >> So what is the overall Can I just What is the overall increase in staffing that you would need according to OMB to cover all the laws that we've passed? >> If if you include the laws that were passed in 27, what year is it? 26. Yes. Um 302 new lines. >> Um and uh I can give you the breakdown of but 302 new lines. >> Yes, chair. I think these these uh these fiscal impacts are available on uh city legislator. So we're happy to forward you over the >> Is it your position that you you have to enforce these laws? >> Absolutely. >> And is it also your position that you need the resources necessary to enforce these laws? >> Yes. And we and but but I also want to be clear. We recognize the city's in a budget crisis. Whatever our the allocation is, we're going to do our best to enforce these laws effectively. >> I think we need DCWP to get it the resources that you need. I know that you can't I know you there's some limitations on what you can say here today. I have no limitations. I can say whatever I want. Sort of like Gail. No, I'm just kidding. Um Gail always says what she wants. But seriously, we need to get you the resources that you need and we need to get all those lines that that you need to do your job. The advocates in this room from WJP to drum to the laundry workers center to WJP. I think I already said that. and everyone else like we we are committed uh to this issue and again we want you to do your jobs. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member. >> You guys really good. >> No, I just I just I think I I want to add like I think we would need a breakdown of where the need is for increased headcount. Like how many lawyers do you need? How many, you know, education folks, you know, on the ground do you need? because I I think I I and again I'm going to emphasize how important it is for, you know, workers and consumers, small businesses to be educated on what their rights are, where they can go uh to make a complaint, uh what resources are available to them, and because they're just folks are not going to the law is not going to be enforced if people don't know know about it. And um so I would like to hear more about how much do you need, you know, uh on the education side as well um to uh to have a a fully functioning agency that's going to be able to do do its work appropriately. >> Well, we appreciate that, Council Member. Um certainly with respect to the laws that were passed, there are publicly available fiscal impact statements. I'll give you a couple of the highlights for higher vehicle delivery deactivation was estimated to require 170 lines. Delivery worker deactivation 34 lines. Street vendor license expansion 26 lines. Delivery worker expansion 14 lines and on and on. Um I believe that these estimates do include the resources necessary to do outreach around these laws. Um but it is also the case that since these laws were passed um the mayor has issued significant executive orders uh charging DCWP for example with leading a citywide all of whole of government crackdown on junk fees directing DCWP to lead a crackdown on subscription traps. Directing DCWP to co-organize the rent ripoff hearings. We're excited about this. We've never had a mayor in my opinion as relentlessly as committed to consumer and worker protection. But the needs for our agency continue to grow. Um and that is reflected in um um I think all of our testimony today. >> Thank thank you uh uh Council Member Krishna. >> Thanks so much Chair Epstein. Good to see you commissioner for deputy commissioner and team as always and appreciate your work and our conversation so far about all we can do together for protecting all of our workers and small businesses and drivers. Uh, I wanted to follow a couple questions. Some of them kind of follow up on on the conversation we were just having, which is um, as you all know, separate apart from the street vendor package. We passed historic legislation to protect uh, Uber and Lift drivers in the city, overrode the mayor's veto uh, to do that. And, you know, this has been the biggest issue facing drivers in the city since the medallion crisis. But the biggest question now is going to be ensuring, and I know we've had conversations about this and appreciate your partnership and you mentioning it in your opening statement, too. Um I would love to get a better sense of what are the resources you all need um from a dollar standpoint. I know you just briefly touched on it, but if you can give a bit more detail about what are the resources you need from a dollar standpoint um to implement this um from a staffing standpoint, what kind of staffing are we talking about? um and what is the plan uh currently um to to you know separate from the staffing needs how are we going to start working together to implement it and I know you all share the same goal that we do on it so it's just a question of making it happen together >> well I think council member let me just start by saying the how critical this legislation is which is why we supported it I have spoken to and I know you have too uh Uber drivers or you know I don't remember specifically Uber but rid share drivers who wake up one day and they can't log in. They've been deact Now deactivation is sort of a technical term, but it means they lose their livelihood, right? They don't know why. They had no due process. There's nowhere really to go, no one to call. Uh they don't know what to do. And then there are downstream consequences. Maybe they're being pedled now predatory lending products. Maybe now uh you know, they're being affected by scams. Um so this is a major crisis facing thousands of workers throughout our city. and the laws that the council passed around delivery worker deactivation and a for higher vehicle are not only a necessary corrective but in my opinion a national and international model. Um that said they do require significant resources according to analysis um because we are anticipating significant volume of complaints as you know there's a look back period so within the first year I believe anybody who's been deactivated six years prior so we're expecting a flood of complaints from from the jump um what OM has estimated uh is that for higher vehicle would require 400 excuse me 170 lines 4.2 2 million in FY27, 23 million in outy years. Uh delivery worker deactivation 34 lines, 1.3 million in 27,5 million in outy years. And Liz, if you'd like to weigh in sort of how we're thinking about implementation with the caveat that this is going to be very resource dependent. Yeah, I would just um add that you know we are already looking at you know rule making and some of the sort of internal work that um would be needed to make these protections real but um you know without resources we're unable to do things like um create the complaint interface on our online complaint filing portal um you know have systems to track how many cases are coming in and then obviously investigators and attorneys to take the cases talk to workers ers interview them, investigate um what's the real reason for their deactivation, what's the evidence, did the company do an independent investigation to um into the circumstances that led to the deactivation? Was it an algorithm or a person who made the final decision? All of these core protections that the law creates. Um you know, we obviously need um people to be able to to to handle all of those um cases for workers. >> And I, you know, I think that's something we should give. I mean, of course, first and foremost is going to be the funding piece and making sure that we have that in place and you know, you have our full commitment here in the council to to work with you all to ensure that. Um, I know it's obviously a top priority for for city hall and our mayor, too. Um, but, you know, but I think that's where the rubber really meets the road is to make sure we get those resources in place. Um, what I I look forward to is is working with you all to do so. I know your commitment. Got a great team here, a great first deputy commissioner that uh as a constituent as well and worked very hard on this issue with me for a very long time. So, I know the the will is there. Um, and let's let's figure out how we can we can make that happen. It would be great to have, as Council Member Ald mentioned to, just a breakdown of these different programs that we've passed that are priorities for both of our both of us. You know, what what the needs are specifically. How have the conversations been with city hall uh on that front in terms of making sure that, you know, as we move to executive budget, these programs get the funding that we need? Well, >> I think the mayor has made very clear that this is a significant priority for him. I mean, since his time in the assembly, of course, he stood with us when we returned $5 million to uh underpaid deliveristas um and also got 10,000 workers actually react or eligible for reactivation. Um in terms of the budget, you know, those conversations are ongoing, but you know, it is a certainly a matter of public record that I think the city is aware of that there are significant needs that have been identified for successful implementation of these laws. Uh but those conversations are ongoing. >> Great. Good to hear. And then look forward to to more data on that, more conversations. On another note, um you know, shifting more to the immigration context, um a big issue that we are seeing in neighborhoods like mine and Jackson Heights on Roosevelt Avenue and around there too. um are a lot of individuals who are in desperate need of help but you know notarios or others engaging in immigration fraud um which uh is happening more and more and I'm hearing more about it too. What what are the number of complaints that DCWP has received on that issue? Um how have you all taken action and what are your plans going forward to to to help address it? >> Oh, thank thank you council member. We just want to make sure we get you the right numbers here. Um, so with respect to let me just start by saying >> for as long as I've been in consumer protection, immigrants face and I know everyone here knows this unique vulnerabilities and this year it is worse than I have ever seen, worse than our allies on the ground have ever seen. Given many pe many immigrants feel they can't report scams to government. Many companies unfortunately feel emboldened to rip off their workers because they can threaten workers with retaliation through ICE or otherwise. One of the things we are hammering over and over every meeting any of us does is if if you want to file a complaint with us go through your or go through Make the Road, go through New York Immigrant Coalition, whatever it is you don't if you don't want to give your name to us, that's fine. Go through a group. We'll hand we'll take in the complaint. We'll reach out. We'll do the investigation. We want people to be able to file complaints without fear of retaliation. Um, with respect to the number of complaints, we had 30 complaints in 2025 compared to 46 the previous year around immigration services providers. Um, and what we're seeing is that a lot of these scams are moving online, which makes year-over-year comparisons quite challenging. I don't know if either of you want to add anything to that. >> No, of course, this has been a priority for several years for us. I mean, I can say that every single complaint uh coming from an immigrant goes to the highest levels of uh our consumer protection enforcement attorneys and we look at each one individually to reinforce what the commissioner says. Uh we you can submit complaints anonymously. You can submit it through an advocate. We whatever makes sense for an immigrant to be able to get information for us, we want to make that happen and so we can talk to them. We actually have a case currently pending at oath, the office of administrative trials and hearings against Anatario who is uh repeatedly been praying on the Ecuadorian community in Queens. >> Um so this is something that we do face significant systemic challenges given where we are in 2026, but something that we are very dedicated to continue to work on and try to find the best solutions. And when we get immigrants who are willing to talk to us, we will take action. I would I would add to council member to your point about what we're doing. Um we're also uh are in the midst of uh citywide sweeps of immigrario's fraudulent fraudulent immigration service providers. Um we've also dedicated some OTPS as well to digital advertising to try and meet these consumers where they are to the commission's point about a lot of this stuff moving on digital. And we also plan to be uh starting up some in-person outreach as well uh April leading into July. Just and just one uh final point for the entire committee. Um like we have two buckets of laws that we can actually enforce. We have the consumer protection law which applies to all businesses no matter the subject but we have very specific laws that this council has passed for immigration service providers and we supported a bill last year that actually increased the penalties um for violations of the immigration services provider law. We have a lot of great materials online uh for immigrant bill of rights. Yeah, absolutely. We'd love to. >> Right. So, so he's helping with the business owners, education, enforcement issues, and uh next he's wanted to make sure he's got a lot of street vendors in his district. Um, and he wants to know if there's a funding available to do outreach. >> As an answer, >> education. >> I feel like I just heard this that we would love more funding for outreach and education for street vendors um and partnerships. You mentioned street vendor project to support those efforts. >> Indeed. Yes, we we support those efforts. >> Okay. Thank you. I want to talk to about finally about student loans. um you own partnership with summer appears to deliver some results. He wants to know kind of what data you have around summer. Is it working? Is it not? How many people are they seeing? What are the impacts? You know, they've have a decent uh foot financial footprint. I think it's three million a quarter, 12 million for this past fiscal year. >> Yeah, that's right. Well, we know that we estimate that 1.4 New Yorkers are struggling with student loan debt. And we serve them in a number of ways. As you referenced, we have a program with summer uh uh that has served uh I believe thousands of New Yorkers have created accounts uh including many city employees. We do financial our financial empowerment centers offer student loan counseling services. More than 9,000 people use our financial empowerment centers last year. Believe couple hundred of them used student loan services. We do a lot of outreach and education around student loan services. We do referrals to EDCAP too and we uh we don't fund them directly but we will work with EDCAP closely and we appreciate uh intro 177 your legislation chair um because I I do think given what is happening in Washington and the prospect of widespread defaults uh student loan defaults for New Yorkers we really do have to make sure these efforts are coordinated and integrated to reach as many New Yorkers as we can. >> Thank you. Um, I'm going to go start round two and Shirley, you can go first. >> Thank you, chair. Uh, I do have a question about revenue raising and um, have you, you know, DCWP uh, your enforcement programs can uh, raise revenue through fees and fines collected from bad actors? And um you know has has there been an analysis done about the long-term revenue raising impacts uh of shorter term investments in in the DCWP staff budget. >> Uh good questions and I'll do my best and then turn things over to my colleagues as needed. You know our goal is never fines and fees as such. Our goal is a more fair economy but often the way you do that is through fines and fees. You have to deter you have to punish wrong behavior. we have to deter it for others. 2025 we collected $15.8 million in fines and penalties. It's about the same as in 2024. Um in terms of projection going forward, um it is the case that enforcement or our enforcement of key worker protection laws can return millions of dollars not only to workers and consumers but also to the city treasury. Um my understanding is that our revenue targets for I believe this is just for our worker protection efforts are about $300,000. We regularly exceed that by at least an order of magnitude. Um so I think we really are overperforming when it comes again the goal is not revenue. The goal is justice for our workers but the reality is that does lead to penalties that benefit the city treasury uh far in excess of what OM has targeted for us. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I have a couple more questions if that's okay with you. Of >> course. >> So I want to figure out if we can break down what's what's the budget for consumer protection and what's being budgeted for worker protection so we can figure out where the balance is. I I hear the the 387 is your total lines and I hear that you're having 20 to 25 lawyers which big difference between 20 and 25 and 15 to 20 lawyers. So I'm wondering do they overlap or do they like how how does this break down? Are people specialized in doing this work? You know are the lawyers specialized or you know I know we talked a little bit about the inspectors having some specialization. >> Yeah I I can give you a bit of an overview and then my colleagues will jump in with some more details. So we do our consumer protect we specialize basically in terms of our outward enforcement work. We basically have two buckets. We have work protection we have consumer protection. Um, a worker protection sits under Liz's team at O Office of Labor Policy and Standard. Consumer protection sits under Mike's team at general counsel. Um, the headcount for general counsel is 83 active, but again, that's o overincclusive in some ways because that's not just the lawyers bringing enforcement cases. That includes legal counsel. Yeah, I think yeah, we to we talked about this like a little bit earlier um that we have not a bunch of the non-awyer units of the agency are within the general counsel division. So that's when we drilled down before and about like the 20 to 25 attorneys that work on consumer protection work. So just to serve they're they're generalists. Um they come in they don't >> they do anything they do any kind of case. So they and >> in in the consumer protection lane they do any kind of case. >> Yeah. They may get a case against a used car dealership. they may get a case against a debt collector. Now naturally like in any workplace like in any regulatory enforcement agency you organically develop expertise and become a subject matter expert. So the people who do who do well and bring you know uh bring excellent like used car cases they will naturally um have more used car cases they developed an expertise and that's like organically happens but we don't necessarily bring in attorneys with specializations in the many many many industries that fall in within DCWP's jurisdiction. I >> I'll also just add briefly that the the majority of our OTPS budget is essentially the the vast majority is essentially passed through. So our total OTPS budget for FY27 based on the JAM plan is 36.9 million. Uh 12.7 million of that is through kids rise. That's straight pass through. We don't administer it. Uh 7.6 million goes through our youth uh youth empower excuse me through our financial youth excuse me through our financial counseling programs including youth financial empowerment. Um five million goes to nonprofits that do free tax prep. $4.1 million for a beautiful building down the street, beautiful offices, and then our remaining OTPS budget to invest in the kind of software, for example, we need to do worker protection cases, tools Mike's team, Mike's team needs to investigate consumer protection cases. That's all under $7 million. >> Thank you. Very helpful. Uh we noticed that the revenue projections for fiscal year 2027 are 1.3 million dollars lower than the fiscal uh in 2026. Is there a reason why uh those revenue expectations are lower? >> I I think um I think we'd have to circle back with with OMB about those revenue projections they had for us, but to the commissioner's point earlier, we we frequently exceed our our revenue targets. >> Just a clarifying question on that. Is that from the PMMR? >> Yeah. >> Okay. It'd be great to know why they're lower and whose projections are lower based on It sounds like you're doing additional enforcement and we would expect that that not to be lower. >> Yeah, we're we're bringing more than a million dollars in. Yeah. >> Yeah. Already in 2026, I believe. >> Ken, about the the current vacancies you mentioned earlier, you had 60 odd vacancies and your expectations that you're filling those vacancies before the end of the fiscal year. or those vacancies remaining vacant through June 30th? >> Well, do you want to talk about the vacancies and the the challenges posed? >> Yes. So, I mean, I think as you mentioned earlier, currently we're in a two for one hiring. Um uh we we work, you know, we we've submitted uh um candidates for hiring and we work through OMB on on getting those um uh fulfilleds. Um, if I could walk through the vacancies, I'd say that uh 20 of those vacancies are in our uh Department of Health licensing uh unit. Um, the next highest >> which we don't control. >> Which we don't control. That's a good point. That's what I was trying to get to. I'm sorry. Uh, the highest the highest vacancies are in Department of Health. We coordinate with Department of Health on those hirings and we we work at their direction to get those in. Um, I think a problem is that those vacancies end up being a part of our overall vacancy reduction target. Um so it does create difficulties in terms of how much the agency needs to uh meet for a a project to eliminate the gap. Um but for the most part overall like our vacancy rate is um for our for our DCTP divisions is fairly low. >> And if I could just underscore a point my colleague alluded to you know there I understand 20 vacancies right now for DOH. We we cannot close those vacancies. So when we get a vacancy reduction target that that includes DOH lines in the target um that disproportionately falls on consumer and worker protection because those 20 vacancies from DOH are untouchable. >> Right. So of the 40 odd other vacancies are you planning to try to fill those before the end of the fiscal year? >> 100%. >> We want to fill those but we're but we will we need to make sure those conversations with OMB are successful. So is an like are you so I'm clear you've gone to OM asking them for the ability to hire and they've said yes on the 2 to1 and then you're posted and looking for applicants. I'm I'm not sure. We are we we are we are looking to hire. We we interview and we make sure we we do our step of the process to hire people, bring people in, right? >> Those hires are still subject to the two for one rule, >> right? And so and then you've gone to OM with actual names on the two for one rules saying, "Hey, we have these 10 people for these 20 lines that we want to hire and we want to do it now." Is that happened or are you just in some other process? >> You've lost people. That's why you have vacancies right? >> I think it's uh all over the life cycle of the hiring process. I'd say for virtually every one of the vacancies we have posted it across all the divisions in DCWP and there are ones where we have interviewed and that we have made a conditional offer to and we're waiting for OM clearance. There are ones where we are engaging in active interviewing and there are ones where we have just recently posted the lines. >> Okay. So is your expectation there'll be you're trying to to hire some of those lines between now and the end of the fiscal year? >> Yeah, I think a great example of this of this life cycle of of vacancies is we just received nine new lines in the preliminary budget. Those are you know those are going up. Those postings they have gone up, >> right? And so that's a vacancy for example that's in the early steps of of us actively working to hire, >> right? So we move as quickly as possible to interview people, select a candidate, get an accepted offer, and then at that's the point at which it goes to OM for approval to actually onboard the person. Um, so we're able to move very quickly up until that point where we have someone sign waiting for permission to on board. >> So do you have people waiting for OMBB approval? >> We do. >> And how many lines is that? >> I don't think we have that number with us. >> We do have some. I just want to add >> Did you get me? Could you get us that number? >> Sure. Thank you. >> Just uh to add to the uh complexity, the rich tapestry of hiring in New York City. Um a lot of times what we're talking about are the non-competitive lines like for the lawyers, but there are also obviously competitive civil service titles where you have to call from a pool. So there's a whole different process for sort of teeing up having a pool called that's unnecessarily complex and goes beyond the scope of uh what we can talk about today. But just to say there we are attempting through whatever the necessary route is for hiring for individual positions. We are trying to hire for those positions. >> Yeah, it'd be great to know how many of those are sitting at OM and just waiting for decisions. That would be great to know. >> Sure. >> Does your expectation commissioner that um with additional hiring you could provide additional resources to the city because of the the fees and fines that may be collected? >> Absolutely. To say nothing of millions of dollars for consumers and workers in money they are owed. Is it is it your expectation that without additional hires, New Yorkers will not be able to collect those millions of dollars in fees and fines? >> It will mean a substantial reduction in both the amount of back pay and compensation we can get for workers, compensation we can get for consumers and and uh effective enforcement of the laws to protect marketplaces. So yes. So besides resources, are there additional tools you think at this point that the agency needs to be able to advance your overall goal of protecting consumers and workers? >> I think, you know, one thing that we are really striving to do is just get the word out to the people of New York that if they're being cheated, whether it's on the job or at the grocery store, wherever it may be to come to DCWP, we are getting we've already seen a pretty significant increase in the number of complaints in 2026. I think that's because of the great uplift we've had from members of the council, from the mayor about the important work we do. So, I do want more consumers and workers, more New Yorkers coming in the door to tell us about what's happening. Of course, our ability to actually respond to those complaints will depend on resources. And I can also tell you particular in particular, you know, part of that is of course people, but part of it also is systems. You know, we just did a hotel junk fee rule. We don't have economists internally who can estimate how much that's going to save, which I think is important for people to know. A data scientist who can look at a one of Liz's big cases and figure out, you know, it can be hard to figure out exactly how much a worker was underpaid across many years. We need really good data scientists to do that. So, it's not just about, no offense, the lawyers, it's it's it's also about the data scientists and economists who to support our work. >> Yeah. I mean, speaking >> no offense to you either. all the lawyers in the room. I sounds we need a lot more support for your agency in a lot of different ways to be doing that. >> Can we talk about the the student loan issue? Um can you talk about the contract this company summer has? What data information you have from them? How successful can we see they are so far and when their contract expires? >> Um I want to for some of those more specific questions I'm going to defer to Carlos. My understanding is that the contract with summer was entered into in 2025. Um the uh uh I do you want to get into sort of the budgeting how it's being budgeted. Carlos, >> maybe how many people it's serving? You know, >> we we have that information. I don't know if we can get a teacher. >> I don't know if we have that information with us right now. I think summer started last year in May as a pilot program for for employees. the the city employees, I should say. The pilot was expanded in August um significantly um it's been and it's also um significant expanded significantly to residents across the city. I'm sorry. Um I think since that time in August, we've been evaluating how it's been working out for workers, I mean for for city workers and for residents. Um it's something that um we're looking into. We we also recently put up an ad campaign around our financial empowerment center services uh including uh our nyc.gov/ / studentloans uh that links to summer 2 uh to make sure that we're connecting New Yorkers with um uh these services. Um I I think we have taken a two-pronged approach both in my uh our website but also our financial empowerment centers to be able to provide New Yorkers with student loan debt assistance. And >> so with some are doing I think you mentioned we work expanding the work in the hospitals for financial empowerment doing uh f tax prep in hospitals and community based organizations. Some are doing that on the ground as well. No, those are community partners doing that that >> and so summer's just uh people have to go to summer or is it online? >> It's an it's an online portal that people can go to. >> Okay. I think I'd love to more details about how many people are going through that portal, how many people are getting served, what the benefits of that portal are, knowing that we have a very um a lot of seniors and immigrants maybe not have access to that portal and not know how to use it and you know question the veracity of putting information in a portal. >> Yeah. And I will just say yes. So there there is that portal and I I think we could get you those numbers but we'll confirm. Um, I will also say, and I really want to stress this to people, our financial empowerment centers provide student loan counseling. It's not on a website. It's not a phone call. It is in personalized. People can come in with their manila folders full of papers and our financial counselors will help them sort them out and set them straight. I don't mean set them straight, but get them on a path to financial well-being. So just just so I understand it, the additional uh funding for summer, what additive value does it have in addition to what you're already doing then? >> Well, I understand that summer offers uh I believe they specialize in public service loan forgiveness and income driven repayment. I believe they also do quality checks when people submit applications. Um but it is also the case that our financial empowerment centers do provide this service in person. um to New Yorkers who who seek it out and we have great partners there. >> It's a program that we're in the midst of evaluating and I think we're going to come to decision about um uh what metrics and we can share this with council too about what what metrics um um we can identify to help us make our decision about the longevity of the program. >> I'd appreciate that um you know ongoing conversations around it. So on tobacco enforcement, we've seen a real reduction in tobacco enforcement. I'm wondering why that's happening. Obviously tobacco is a problem >> and you know we in my district we've seen a lot of uh illegal sales of tobacco. We've had the sheriff department go out numerous times to numerous locations and I'm just wondering what do you what do you account for the reduction in that kind of tobacco enforcement. I'm going to let um Mike jump in in a minute, but my understanding is that there was significant efforts last year with the sheriff to shut down a lot of illegal smoke shops, which has I think so I think there was an unusual spike last year which might explain the reduction this year. But Mike, why don't you add to that? >> Yeah, we were um we collaborated across agencies because there definitely we all saw it. There was a huge smoke shop explosion, illegal smoke shop explosion in the city. a lot of it um because of the roll out at the state level of the cannabis licenses. So there was a strong collaboration between agencies. Um members of our field enforcement division um collaborated with the sheriff's task force um to shut to work on shutting down a lot of these um illegal businesses. And that's something we continue as necessary to collaborate on. separately. We license um tobacco retail dealers and electronic cigarette retail dealers or you know electronic vape vape shops and we have our independent legal authority too and we still continue to have inspectors in the field issuing violations for unlicensed activity, issuing violations for underage sales and that continues a pace. Um I don't think um we can get you the exact numbers on that. That is that is not divergent strongly from prior from prior years. Although we'll get you we'll get you exact numbers on that. That's something we're still dedicate we're still dedicated to doing. We are still sealing using our own independent powers businesses across the city that are repeat unlicensed actors of our of of DCWP's licensing regime. So this is still something that we are doing every day in the field. Yeah, great to to focus on that because we see a lot of these illegal activities going on and legal cigarette sales and they get two three violations and they change LLC's but the same location, same you know people and so you know we have the sheriff department come out time and time and time again and this the illegal activity is continuing and we hear a lot from frustrated neighbors. AB: Absolutely. The LLC shuffle is something that is pervasive across all enforcement for all all regulators. So, it's it's something that we struggle with. But again, we um I would say even before the sheriff's task force really kicked in last uh last year or the year before using our independent ceiling powers, we had been targeting repeat unlicensed actors. And that really actually has shown some benefits. one, it got some revenue back in the city's coffers because some of them actually finally didn't then did pay the piper and agreed not to continue to unlicensed sell uh tobacco or electronic cigarette retail dealers. And also, we've been thinking about how to use our overall laws creatively to actually address these issues. We actually brought an action in state court last year that is still ongoing against I think on Lennox Avenue um for a repeat recidiv recidivist unlicensed actor. we have powers under our law to go after the landlord. So, we sued the business and the landlord and got a preliminary injunction against both of them. And still, we're working on resolving that case right now. But the actual bad actor was kicked out. Uh the landlord had to agree, no, I'm not going to rent to anyone who's going to do this bad stuff anymore. And we're working on resolving that case. So, it is definitely something even with our threadbear resources, it is definitely in our portfolio of work that we think is important and we're continue to work on. Well, we'd love to have you come back out to my district for the multiple locations that are doing all this illegal behavior. We've done some walkthroughs in the past with DTWP staff. There's three right on 28th Street that we would love to shut down. We've gotten the sheriff out there multiple times. They issue multiple violations, including yours, and they still do operate probably right now. They're operating right now. Um, so anything you can do to help us kind of get in front of that because obviously illegal tobacco and illegal operations, we'd love to be able to shut those businesses down forever. >> Yeah, happy to work with you on that. >> Great. And just on those oath violations, can you tell us how many oath what kind of money we're getting from those uh illegal cannabis and illegal tobacco? Like what kind of fines and are we collecting in that? So on on tobacco and eig cigarettes in 2025, we collected approximately 2.1 million for unlicensed activity and that's based on 4,742 violations. I don't know, Mike, if there's any additional data points to add to that. >> I would I would just clarify that we don't have authority to enforce over cannabis. We just we our authority is situated within tobacco and ecigarettes. And so it's 4,000 over 4,000 unlicensed activities. And aren't the fines up to $10,000 a day? No. >> Um they're not that high. Again, I just there are different u suites of laws. The cannabis we don't directly enforce. >> So I think some this sort of gets coingled sometimes, but for unlicensed activity for tobacco retail dealers or electronic cigarette dealers, it's a $100 a day. That can accumulate still quickly when it goes when it goes on for years. And there are um stiff violations for underage, flavored tobacco, flavored vapes, the usual array of misconduct that we're out there combating every day. Um the sort of ceiling that that we sort of reinvigorated a couple years ago that I referred to a little earlier that has really helped. we thought has had a salutary effect on um conduct in the field but also on getting money returned on some of these penalties that in the past may have been just ignored. So in 2025 I was just helpfully handed as a uh to jog my memory. We sealed 57 businesses just again using our independent DCWP suite of laws and collected $785,000 in penalties. >> Okay. Thank you. So NYC uh kids rise the program um how much you've allocated in this in the primary budget for kids rise >> in the prelim 12.6 you referenced earlier I believe yeah what I referenced earlier is 12.6 6 million. Was that from prelim? Just got to make sure. >> That should be approximate. 12.7 >> 12.7 million. And how many how many uh young people that include? >> My understanding of how this works, and someone might have to correct me, is that the budget assumes that every eligible kid is going to open an account. Um so, uh starting with about $100. So I believe the way it's funded is a hundred times the number of eligible new students. >> Yeah. And and I would say that this money is is particularly this is a pass through uh contract that we have a lot of the the oversight of it. Uh I believe it it it sits with the mayor's office of equity and they they conduct a lot of the metrics collecting for that program. >> So are you just so I'm clear do we know if this is actually happening? Are children getting these these $100? Is this happening? Is it how many students is it impacting? >> As the commissioner mentioned, our understanding the program it's it's an autoenrollment program, but in terms of the metrics, those are held by the mayor's office equity. >> So auto enrollment by whom, Mike? How does a parent I don't think it's I I I don't know if it's auto enrollment. I think an an account in theory is created for every student >> and then a parent needs to claim that account on behalf of their on behalf of their child. So do we know if there are unclaimed accounts and >> there are many there are many unclaimed accounts that's my understanding. How do we like what role does DCWP have to >> I think it's >> those account accounts get claimed if families know about it and they get the resources >> you know I think it's a really innovative program but we really do not play a role in the administration of it the promotion of it >> we don't administer the program that it's really administered by mayor's office equity where we hold a contract to pass through the money to to New York City kids rise >> so once the money's gone you you're not >> did you take the money back >> everything and goes out >> but if the money isn't spent, where's that money go? >> Do you see it? It goes back to the general fund. >> I think we I be happy to connect council with the mayor's office equity to answer some of these questions about how that program uh is situated and works. >> But to be clear, like when a parent wants to claim an they don't go to us. >> Yeah. >> Uh we're not the ones putting creating the we truly play no role. It's it's it's entirely ministerial, >> right? >> Yeah. Thank you. And so can I question does it make sense if you are only the pass through that it actually belongs with you because you I mean I don't what like if you're not sure how successful it is or how many families are enrolling it what the outcomes are. I'm not sure what the money's doing here. >> There's a there's a reason I believe we were charged with being the pass through that predates me and I I just don't know the answer. I believe probably when the when the program was first stood up, this probably was during Commissioner Menon's time, there was a reason for the contract to sit sit with us. Um, but as we've said, this now is administered by a different agency. I think there so it's a pass through contract. Um, uh, and it does, you know, ultimately does impact our target revenues for our target pegs. So >> yeah, I I would I mean I would encourage if we could do a little deeper dive on this just to figure out the efficacy of doing it here and whether it's a little disjointed and what makes the most sense because if just you're giving money then someone else is working allocating it. I'm not sure your role is critical or maybe it is if it is maybe you should play a more comprehensive role. >> Well I mean I I guess what I'll say chair is I just want to repeat something Carlos said. Um it is a ministerial role. you know, it's up to the council at the end of the day, I believe, how how the program is structured. Um, but where where it does affect us is when we get a PEG target. Um, my understanding is that money is included in the denominator and that as with the DOH lines is we we cannot touch. So when when we let's just hypothetically if we got a 1% PEG target in terms of the actual impact on consumer and worker protection it's meaningfully greater than 1% because a significant portion of our budget both OTPS and PS are lines and dollars we don't control. >> I appreciate that that I recognize that. And this is financial literacy program that you have for youth. And I'm wondering you know how many how many you're in high schools I assume. >> Yes. Let me just jump to my information on our financial literacy for youth program. Um so we currently have f 15 financial educators assigned in high schools and districts throughout the city. Um, I understand we are aiming to reach, yes, we're aiming to, we're partnering with New York public schools to ensure that every student has access to this kind of education by 2030. Um, so we are we we do have a plan to expand the program over the next four years. >> So 15 educators, 450 high schools. >> Well, the way the program is situated, it's one educator per district and the the educators available for that district. So no matter if the district is a small district or a large district, just one per district. >> That's the that's the aim essentially. >> I appreciate that. Council member Audible. >> Yeah, but I'm I'm going back to uh vacancies again and filling of of positions. Um, so has the your high your rate of of vacancies due just due to the to the two for one rule or hiring freezes? Um, have you had any other challenges in filling positions? And are there particular roles or positions that are harder to fill and what strategies do you have to to try to fill those? I I think um you know I think the I remember being here a few years ago and our vacancy rate was around 5%. I think that was a kind of a natural attrition rate that we had at we're we're at that right now essentially if we're not including the DHMH lines. You know over the course of the Adams administration we underwent hiring freezes we underwent two for ones. Those impact the ability to fill vacancies. Um as my colleague uh Michael Tiger mentioned there there are certain vacancies that are they're revenue generating. They're very easy to hire. Some are subjects two for one. Some are subject to civil service titles. Th those have a all different flavors of difficulties in terms of hiring. Some easier, some not. Um, >> and I I would just add to that as a as a lawyer myself who's who's been in government enforcement a long time, we pay less than other similar situated agencies. New York AG, for example, which their lawyers are not getting rich, but they're they're getting richer than ours. Um I think that's true on the worker protection side as well. That's obviously a challenge across city government, but it it is a significant challenge for us both in recruitment and retention. >> I think ultimately when we talk about our a low vac lower vacancy rate, um I think and and also the challenges of of of you know what what people make, I think it comes back to the the work that we do and the fact that the folks in our agency, they care about this work deeply. And that's how you get an agency that's our size performing and delivering results of that magnitude. >> Um, and we've always said that more resources we can do more work and I think we all believe this work is critical. >> Thank you. >> I want to turn your attention to the solar radian solar lawsuit like how how many lawyers or staff on that case? >> That's a Mike Tiger question. >> I mean we have uh two staff council >> and how many case cases do those two staff council work on besides the solar arian case? Oh, I mean I don't have the inventory committed to memory, but I mean they probably both have uh between five to 10 other investigations of varying size. Yeah, I can't I can't commit that those specific attorneys are working on but that's I think a lot. Yeah. >> And how many people do you think this solar case will impact? Um or how many people you think the potential fraud impacted? >> That's at least 370 consumers, but those are just the ones I believe. Yeah, I mean those are ones we were able to identify through people who came to our consumer services unit or we, you know, were revealed through documents that we obtained through the uh pre-filing discovery process. But we've gotten additional complaints that have come into the agency since we filed the case. Um that case is just at its beginning stages as far as the actual litigation um which is right now pending for the office of administrative trials and hearings. And I think um we'll definitely be able to report more as that litigation continues. And just to possibly forecast where you may be going, I I excuse me if I'm wrong. You know, this lawsuit, which has two attorneys on it, we are aiming to recover $1.7 million in civil penalties for New York City. I guarantee you their pay combined is a lot less than $1.7 million and $18 million in restitution for defrauded New Yorkers. It's a very good uh return on investment. >> Yeah. So, do you think there are more examples of the solar radiant that are out there that you have limited resources to >> Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Commissioner. >> 100%. Yes. >> Yeah. No doubt. I mean, this is something that we're hearing from advocates on the ground that we've heard from other regulators about, especially solar fraud right now in the home improvement contract. There's a lot of people that are excited about engaging with green energy because they understand what's going on all around us, but that allows an opportunity for predation to occur. And so it's really pernicious right now. People offering very enticing seeming opportunities for like on the cheap we will make you go green and then they are very bitterly disappointed. So this is something that yes chair we would love to do more work on if we had the resources >> and and and just in general you know it's not like we're bringing cases against every bad actor in New York City. We sued Extra Space. We started getting a flood of complaints, including at the rental ripoff hearings about other providers in New York City. We're very strategic in our enforcement. The reason we, you know, one reason we brought the cases we brought is we want to and need to send a signal to other players in the marketplace. But the reality is that, you know, we're scratching the surface when it comes to how many New Yorkers are being defrauded every day. We're trying to sue big companies, get money back to people as quickly as we can. Um, but that does require resources. >> Yeah. And I want to flag that I think you've seen an increase in worker protection complaints as well, right? From 20. So substantial increase, right? >> Just in calendar 26, I believe the numbers are going up quickly. Is that right Liz? >> Yes, that's right. >> So what kind of increase are you are you identifying? What kind of increase in in cases? >> We're really seeing increases across all of the um complaint categories. Um our our three biggest complaint categories are protected time off, uh fair work week, and delivery. Um all of those are up. >> Yeah. So, am I wrong to assume that the the more these cases go up, the more the backlog of people having to wait to actually speak to someone to to manage a case will continue to go up? >> That's exactly right. >> And so I I don't want to harp on this issue, but it seems like a resource problem which is then really negatively impacting a consumer and a worker problem. >> I think that's correct. Yeah. So I really do appreciate all the the work you're doing. Um uh so yeah, restitution, worker restitution. Do you see based on from last year this this year from 25 to 26, do you see an increase in potential restitution cases as well for workers? >> Um yes. Um 2025 was our biggest year for worker protection restitution. Um a total of 44.4 million. um which went to um 24 over 24,000 people. Um you know, we are on track uh currently to match that number. Um we think we could far exceed that number um with more resources for enforcement. >> And let's not forget either that last year had um last calendar year had the largest worker protection settlement in the city's history with Starbucks. >> Right. Thank you for Yeah. And then we're going to exceed that and additional resources will just continue to help workers. I know we we spent a long time up here so I don't want to go through every section. Um uh and so I'm wondering I worry here that there seems to be a gap in between um inspections and justice for people in the world. Right. So, I'm wondering how we manage that gap because people are seeking coming to us, coming to you, seeking justice because they've been wronged and hearing like they're waiting a year, year and a half, maybe getting restitution, maybe not. Like, how do we as a city kind of grapple with that in this moment where we we're talking about affordability and the crisis of affordability and these are the people who are struggling the most? >> Yeah, I mean, I think you need to take a multi-pronged approach. Um it's in the first instance it's really critical that both workers and consumers understand their rights and obligations respectively or not respectively the other way around that employers understand their obligations workers understand their rights. That's one of the reasons, for example, when protected time off uh came into force earlier this year, when uh the new some of the new tipping protection laws came into force earlier this year. We did a major outreach campaign to we sent I think to how many employers did we send notices to >> over 55,000. >> So, we sent notices to more than 55,000 there. Most employers, I think, want to follow the law. They need to make sure they know what the law is. We also created an audit tool to help employers identify whether they're complying with the protected time off law sufficiently. So in the first instance, the best thing we could do is make sure that the law is followed. But at the end of the day, there are always going to be companies that don't follow the law. And that does require sustained enforcement. And sustained enforcement does require sustained resources. This is not something an AI chatpot can do. This is not something, you know, we need lawyers who can go into court and take on big companies rep with big law firms with offices downtown. Uh we we need we need good people on the other side of the table to bring those cases. Yeah, I 100% agree with you and I also would flag and I think for me I worry about some of this under reporting as because um people are scared of government and in this moment of a federal government which creating fear across our entire country, people become more scared of government and they really rely on community based organizations in their neighborhood who are working with them who understand the issues and and have been and been on the ground and I think our obligation to those organizations who are really going to help all of us do our job better and providing sufficient resources to them as well. So I I think I hope as we move forward in this budget process. um the administration will hear our concern for those organizations and figure out how we can get them the additional resources that they need as well in addition to the resources you need to make sure that we can do this well because you 8 and a half million New Yorkers are relying on us all to be there for them whether the consumers which are all of us and the workers who are lowwage workers >> I I could not agree more I mean just to underscore the point further a decade ago maybe a little more than a decade ago you know part of the business model of so-called gig work is that it's harder for workers to organize. It's harder for workers to build power. It's harder for workers to fight back against exploitation. They know they're not union. They the companies assert they're not employees, et workers isolated. And what the groups you're describing, the workers justice project do is they bring people together to build worker power. I started my work many years ago in consumer protection helping with tenant organizers uh fighting the foreclosure crisis. We see a very similar dynamic here with workers. We could not do the work we do. We wouldn't even be aware of the problems that are happening in these markets if it weren't for organizations that actually stand up for deliveristas, stand up for ride share drivers, stand up for taxi drivers. These organizations are critical to our work. They're critical to the financial well-being of the of the people they serve, and they're critical to putting a check on a model that was set up for exploitation. >> I I would I want to know this is a perfect way to end, Carlos. fine. But but I I do want to I do want to add >> Nevertheless, he persists. >> I I I echo what what the commissioner said. >> Uh but I but I think um you know, one aspect I want to make sure is out there about these complaints. um why complaints are going up too and why people feel trust coming to us because this hyper sensitivity to immigration status and and collecting demographic data uh and and building partnerships with the organizations commissioner just mentioned but it's also because that we're delivering to people concrete results people getting results that's why they have trust not to come to us as well that's only reinforced by our advocate allies who are here today I'm looking forward to their testimony too >> thank you thank you all I know you've been here a long time I want to thank you all for your time and your testimony I'm We'll have some followup to to to keep going. And I want to thank my colleagues and let's we have some panels. So let's let people know where their panels are. I think yeah uh just the panels. This is the first panel. >> Thank you chair. >> Wait. Just so just so people know who are waiting who want to testify. >> You guys can go. You're good. You're good. You just missed. Okay. I just want to so the panels that we have so we have six panels so far. Um so and hopefully we'll get through them as quickly as we can. Obviously we'll have questions for them but I want to flag this for people who know. Um yeah Winston Burkeman uh Breed Lilia Tosen Rebecca Cook Mack and Paul Song on the first panel. Second panel is Tito Singha, uh, Magdalina Barbosa, Elizabeth Jones and Rosanna Rodriguez. Third panel is Aaron Einson, Ted Moore, Matthew Snider, and Miriam Clark. I just want to let people know when you hear your name. Fourth panel, Muhammad Aia uh, Liia uh, Gulipe and Gustavo AI. And fifth is Bobby Desai, Carmen Jackson. And those are the ones we have. Those are the first five panels. I want to make people know that, you know, you may be taking a little longer and I apologize that this is uh taking so long. Um so now we're in the open hearing for for public testimony. Um I just want to make sure that uh people the witnesses are here to testify. Thank you. And just so you know, there's no video or photography at the witness table and um you can't present audio or video recordings at the at this hearing. Um, and if you haven't test signed up to testify, please do. You can sign up in the back. Um, we can submit written testimony. You can give it to the sergeant-at-arms. You can also submit if you don't haven't submitted written testimony, you can do it within 17 hour 72 hours at testimony at councsil.nyc.gov. Um, and we'll call our first panel. So, thank you all for being up here so quickly. Winston, Lilia, Rebecca, and Paul. And you guys can decide which order you want to go. Can you all hear me? >> Yeah, we hear you. >> All right. Well, thank you so much, uh, Chery, members of the council and the committee, um, for the chance to testify and for the really important conversation we just heard. My name is Winston Burke Venbreen. I'm the legal director of Protect Borrowers, formerly known as the Student Borrow Protection Center. We're a policy nonprofit focused on household credit and debt. Uh, I recently testified before this committee on the need for a strong consumer protection law and a DCWP in light of the federal government's complete abdication of its consumer and worker protection mandates. Uh, a few highlights from that testimony for today. Complaints from New York City to the federal CFPB rose 63% from 2024 to 25 for a total of 184,000 complaints. Now, most of the state, however, saw a rise of over 100% for that same time period. Now, we can't prove causation, but I would suggest that the reason uh New York City saw a relatively lower spike is because DCWP uh fills that gap more so than the rest of our uh great state. Um I've included more data in my written testimony that I'll submit for today, but I hope we can stipulate for the purpose of this committee and hearing that DCWP's work is critical for all New York City residents and workers. I want to focus today on how successful it is also in addition to everything you've already heard. So, it's one of the only agencies in the city that brings in significant revenue in the forms of penalties and also puts real money back in New Yorkers pockets in the form of restitution. We've heard testimony about the millions of dollars returned to workers and consumers. So, I won't, you know, I'll spare you that litany, but it really is impressive, especially relative to the other jurisdictions that my organization works with. Uh DCWT uh DCWP protects us from abusive employers and also from predatory companies that price gouge or cheat us during crisis like the current affordability crisis. For this reason, New Yorkers literally cannot afford to underinvest in DCWP. Unfortunately, the preliminary budget does just that. It's clear from today's testimonies that the agency does not have the staff needed to fulfill its existing mandates, let alone to continue filling the void from the federal government. This year's proposed budget would ultimately reflect an 8% funding cut, as the chair mentioned in his opening remarks. This this really can't stand. Making sure DCWP is fully funded and staffed is a sound investment. For this reason, I urge the committee and council to double the agency's current budget. Um, I would just note too, and I don't know how this works in the budget process versus bargaining or other things, but I think it's really important that the commissioner noted that the salaries are relatively lower. Uh, I think for attorneys, and I'm an attorney, it's it's really hard to try to get highquality attorneys to come work for New York and to live in New York and to pay them $95,000 when they're a decade out of law school or something like that. So, um, I would just appreciate that that point was made. So, thank you for the chance to testify. I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Lilia Tosen. I'm the president and CEO of Access Justice Brooklyn. I'm here today to talk about a slightly different issue, which is the access to justice gap that affects consumer defendants and which DTWP doesn't have the resources to adequately address. AJB serves low-income Brooklyn consumers burrowwide, but most reside in neighborhoods in central and east Brooklyn. One way that we assist those clients is in the consumer legal advice and resource office, which we call Claro. As many as 70 to 80 people seek assistance at Brooklyn Claro on any given day, which is a number that's increased substantially since the pandemic compared to 2019. In 2025, we have handled an increase of nearly 40% in matters for consumer defendants relying on the same level of staff. The increased demand far exceeds the capacity of the CLO program. To ensure that they are seen, consumers start arriving at the Kings County Civil Court at 9:00 a.m. and we don't open our doors until 2 p.m. As a result, the individuals who are forced to wait are waiting in courthouse hallways until the doors open. Many later comers will be waiting in vain because we will not have space to see them. The last time I visited Clara, we put a signup sheet for 50 people out first and 67 people signed up and we had to tell the people who signed up at 51 to 67 that there was no way that we could see them. We really invite the committee to witness this at clo to come any Thursday and to see not only you know our clients but also the constituents who are there and to hear about their challenges. Some of these cases would be dismissed easily with even a bit of advice and counsel. These include attempts to collect on income that is exempt such as social security payments, default judgments that resulted from improper surface and cases that are filed after the statute of limitations has expired. Without CLO, prosay consumers are largely left unaware of their defenses and rights. For example, while we applaud DC uh DCWP's new shield rule against predatory debt collection, we know that most consumers will never be able to know about their rights or how to enforce them without being seen by a legal services nonprofit like us. The same is true for survivors of DV or IPV who have coerced debt, which now has stronger protections under state law. To improve our capacity to address these challenges, we're requesting the committee support for our speaker's initiative request and the fiscal year 2027 budget. And of course, we also support the increase in the budget to DCWP. >> Good afternoon. My name is Rebecca Cookmack. I'm a staff attorney in the Employment Law Project at the Legal Aid Society. Thank you for this morning afternoon's hearing and for the opportunity to testify. The mayor's preliminary budget cuts the DCWP funding and we call on the mayor to reverse course and double the DCWP budget to 130 million as promised during his campaign in the FY27 calendar year. The mayor's vision for economic justice cannot be achieved without fully funding the agencies responsible for enforcing protections for everyday New Yorkers. The preliminary budget cuts funding to the portfolio that falls under the purview of the newly established deputy mayor for economic justice by over $250 million. This is the same amount it proposes increasing the NYPD budget by. So, we join council in pressing for a budget that reflects the critical enforcement role DCWP plays in building an affordable and just New York City for all. DCWP is a partner with the employment law project, employment law unit. We regularly refer clients to them. For example, a while back, I connected a fast food worker with DCWP. She called Legal Aid's hotline seeking help when her hours were cut and last minute changes to her work schedule were threatening her family stability. She was struggling to retain her second job, was worried of how she would continue to pay her bills, and was looking for help. I helped her submit a complaint to DCWP which was investigated and in the end she was one of the 15,000 New Yorkers included in the recent 38.9 million Starbucks settlement that will ensure the company complies with our laws going forward. DCWP made a demonstrative difference to her life. DCWP is also a partner to the economic equities project at Legal Aid. Solar panel scams, which we heard about today, are endemic in parts of Queens and the Bronx. But because of arbitration clauses in those contracts, it can be very, very difficult to resolve them through private litigation. But DCWP is not confined by arbitration clauses. And recognizing that synergy, the Consumer Law and Bankruptcy Project was able to work with DCWP to share the patterns we were seeing and begin referring homeowners to the agency. And as we heard in January of this year, it brought an action against Radiant Solar, one of New York City's largest solar contractors. DCWP is an important in partner for everyday New Yorkers. It enforces city laws, and in the absence of federal enforcement due to the dismantlement of the CFPB, it is more essential to the city's consumers than ever. So, we need to increase its budget now. DCWP's portfolio has expanded over the past year, and it will continue to grow. It needs additional staff to meet the mandates of our groundbreaking, first in the nation laws regarding the deactivation of app-based delivery workers and rid share drivers. These laws require robust enforcement and regulation and as a blueprint for regulating gig economy platforms nationwide. This legislation success or failure will have national implications. We have a responsibility to workers here in the city and around the country to vigorously enforce these laws. So, we join council in calling on the mayor to fund DCWP and FY27 at a rate commensurate with its import and to add those 200 plus lines New York City needs to do the deactivation work properly. Thank you. >> Uh thank you chair and members of the committee. Um I'm Paul S with NELP the National Employment Law Project. We're a national workers rights policy or headquartered here in New York. We work frequently with the council and with DCWP. Um we recognize this is a tough budget year. Most agencies are going to need to trim their budgets and not expand them. But despite that overall context, we believe there's a really strong case to treat DCWP differently. We believe it's one of the key places um in the city budget where strategic investments make sense even in this environment. You've heard many of the reasons during the excellent uh hearing that you you held before the panel. Now, first, DCWP is one of the most crucial frontline agencies for delivering on the mayor and the speaker's affordability agenda. You know, each year it recoups many millions of dollars of uh unpaid wages and restitution that goes right into famil family's pockets that's spent in local economies and lo neighborhood businesses, boosting them as well. Um these are, you know, not abstract benefits, but really vital, you know, lifelines for for New Yorkers. Second, um the mayor and the council have rightly been proud about our nationleading new laws that we passed just in the last uh in 2025 and early this year. Um there's been a whole slew of them that are really cut cutting edge protections. But as you've also heard, the fiscal notes in those laws have indicated that the agency needs more than 300 new staff at more than $19 million just to cover those new obligations, let alone the backlog of all their other work. Um third, um you know, DCWP, as you've heard, is one of the rare agencies that actually where investment leverages a lot of additional money, both um recovering money from New Yorkers that goes into the economy and fees and costs for the city budget. So, it it is a place, you know, there's a a case for treating it differently than other agencies for those crucial reasons. Fourth, it's uh enforcement of the laws is also crucial for the uh markets and the kind of business environment in the city. Unless our laws are enforced, you know, responsible companies that play by the rules will be undercut. And then finally, um you know, DCWP is really a tiny agency. You know, it's 1% the size of the NYPD. The additional 65 million to double its budget is 120th of 1% of the whole city budget. Truly a rounding error. you know, there are a lot of places where that those additional revenue could be found, even simply just trimming the the proposed growth of the NYPD, but one way or the other, it's essential to find it. Um, we know you agree with us. Your excellent op-ed in the Daily News yesterday really made the case, uh, Chair Epstein. So, we hope um, the speaker and the mayor will find a way to make that happen. Thank you. >> I really want to thank you all for all your work. Um, I don't know if you knew this, but I helped start Claro over 20 years ago, so I know how vital that is and how important it is for consumers across the city. So, thank you all for your work and I really appreciate it. >> Thanks. >> We'll go to our next panel. Um, Tito Singha Magdalina Barboso and Elizabeth Jordan. You want to leave the bag? We can. Is there lunch in there or something, man? I don't know who wants to go first. You guys want to negotiate? >> I'll go first. Uh, good afternoon, uh, Chair Epste and >> that's so funny. >> And and and the council committee. Uh my name is Tito Senha. I am the director of workers rights for take root justice. We thank the uh committee for the opportunity to submit this testimony. Uh we are here as members of the citywide immigrant legal empowerment collaborative silk which is a consortium of several New York City legal service providers and CBOS which chair you you founded or helped create which we appreciate. We appreciated the calls earlier on to support CBOS and workers rights advocates. Along those lines, uh we're here to say that lowwage worker support uh is the only dedicated city funding that ensures that the city's low-wage and immigrant workers have redress from workplace justices. In the last few years, this funding has supported our work in representing immigrant workers with claims of sick leave violation, sick leave retaliation, and wage theft before DCWP. We request that the council renew and increase low-wage worker support funding from $2 million in FY26 to 3 million in FY27. Low wage worker support funding has remained the same for nearly 10 years and an increase is needed to cover increasing costs and the escalating demand for services supporting immigrant workers. In the last year, Silic LSPs recovered approximately $6.3 million in unpaid wages and damages. Since January 2020, Take Route has obtained approximately $4.5 million in settlements and recoveries for workers. Salic LSPs in the last year have represented nearly 10,000 workers and conducted over 50 know your rights trainings. Low wage worker support funding makes this work possible. We commend DCWP's robust enforcement of the protected time off law. Um and we commend DCWP's investigators and council for working collaboratively with us um to bring claims before the agency because we believe our advocacy helps enforce the law as well. and helps improve the agency's uh enforcement of those laws. Um so we support robust funding for DCUWP. However, this crucial funding has lagged behind other priorities as well as the low wage worker support requiring last minute saves each year to renew this funding. And as you know the the the committee knows cases are not resolved in one year. We need funding that is multi-year. So, we respectfully request that this committee uh the council demonstrate its ongoing commitment to city's low-wage and immigrant workers by renewing and expanding lowwage worker support uh for employment related legal services from $2 million in fiscal year 26 to $3 billion in fiscal year 27. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you for giving me credit for doing it. So, it was a couple years ago. >> Good afternoon, Chair Epstein. My name is Magdalina Barbosa. I'm the director of legal services at Catholic Migration Services. I also really appreciate the testimony to talk about the low-wage worker support initiative. Again, as my colleague Tito mentioned, it is the only dedicated city funding for employment legal services. Um, when low-income workers experience wage theft, when they experience workplace discrimination, denial of paid sick leave, they often turn to trusted legal services organizations um, like CMS, like Take Root Justice, like Make the Road New York, like Legal Aid Society for free legal assistance. Many um, low-wage workers cannot afford or access legal representation from private attorneys. And while agencies like the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection enforce many laws, um they do not have jurisdiction to address all types of workplace violations that many workers in this city experience. I would like to share just two stories of um uh that illustrate the working conditions that many low-wage workers face and how CMS was able to assist these workers because of the funding from the low-wage worker support initiative. Recently, we resolved a case referred by the Carol Gardens Association. It's a domestic worker advocacy or involving a nanny who worked over 50 hours a week without overtime pay after experiencing a medical emergency. On the job, she was terminated by her employer and was not paid for her last two weeks of work. Our attorneys acted quickly, advocating on her behalf and successfully negotiated a $25,000 settlement within two months. With the collaboration of another worker center, Catholic Migration filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a group of delivery and kitchen workers employed at a restaurant on the Upper West Side. The workers earned as little as $3 an hour and worked over 60 hours a week without overtime pay. This case was recently resolved um for $50,000. Um, it cannot go unnoticed that the city's immigrant workers are now in an environment where employers feel embo emboldened by federal immigration policies to retaliate against complaining workers um by reporting them to DHS or at least threatening to do so to silence their voices. These workers have the courage to stand up for their rights and they deserve to have legal counsel to assist them in in vindicating their workplace rights and to protect them from illegal retaliation. While we appreciate the council's continued commitment um for this critical initiative, we are requesting increased funding for this initiative at $3 million in fiscal year 27. CMS and our partners have received the same award for this work for nearly a decade. During that time, the cost of carrying out this work, including personnel and operating expenses, have risen significantly. An increase in funding will help ensure that our organizations continue delivering this vital work and have the resources we need to meet the growing costs. Finally, I'm just going to say that I join um my colleagues in in the disappointment in the mayor's preliminary budget that does not provide adequate funding for not just um the Department of Consumer Worker Protection, but also um the City Commission on Human Rights. Um we need um these agencies to be adequately funded in order for um the city to be able to advance many of its priorities. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good afternoon and um thank you Chair Epstein and and committee members. My name is Elizabeth Jordan. I'm co-leal director at Make the Road New York. Make the Road is the largest grassroots immigrant organization in the state serving 30,000 immigrant and workingclass New Yorkers each year with community centers in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. We provide legal as well as health access and adult literacy and educational services. The low-wage and immigrant workers we serve across the city face unique legal and workplace challenges exacerbated by the unprecedented attacks we are seeing on immigrants. The council's support for legal services for low-wage and immigrant workers is more critical than ever in the face of horrifying anti-immigrant attacks and an uptick in immigration related retaliation. Our legal team represents hundreds of workers each year to recover stolen wages, combat unlawful discrimination, and enforce their rights to paid sick leave and other basic protections. We outreach to thousands of workers across the city and educate them about their rights. Ensuring that New York's low-wage workers have access to free legal services advances the affordability agenda by directly putting money back into the pockets of low-income families, preventing manageable issues from becoming catastrophic and reducing the need for expensive public safety net services. to share one but a typical case. Clara is a grocery worker who came to us in 2023 with paid sick leave claims and wage theft claims against her grocery employer of 10 years and notebooks filled with her notes from years of work. We filed to recover her unpaid sick time and wages with both DCWP and the state do. The employer was frequently out of the country and when MIA claimed to have no funds to pay and sought to obstruct agency investigations at every turn. Last year, both agencies reached settlement with the employers for nearly $25,000 and beginning last month, Claudet received her first checks. Continued support from city council discretionary funding is essential to maintaining and deepening our impact, including the initiatives my colleagues have mentioned, the low-wage worker support initiative. We also request an enhancement of make the roads allocation to $362,000 in order to meet our increased cost and an overall increase from $2 to $3 million. Um, under the legal services for working poor initiative, we also asked the council to renew $165,900 in funding for Make the Roads free legal services, which includes um labor and employment as well. And finally, we request an enhancement of the speaker initiative funding to $300,000 for our wraparound services, which include workplace justice, immigration, and housing legal services. The strong enforcement of workers rights protections by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has been essential to our work over the years to protect immigrant workers in New York City. The preliminary budget, if it adopted, would reduce DCWP's funding and leave the agency woefully underresourced and unable to enforce the critical protections for working New Yorkers that it is charged with enforcing. The city should double DCWP's budget, but at the very least must allocate an additional 14 million to DCWP for fiscal year 27 and a baseline of at least 39 million for outy years to ensure their ability to enforce key worker and consumer protections um that we heard about earlier today. Without meaningful and adequately resourced enforcement, these protections are not real for immigrant workers in New York. >> Thank you very much. Um, can I shoot a quick question as on the on the both the legal services for the working poor and the the silac money, have you have you asked the administration to baseline that funding? >> I don't think I don't think we've had the No, I don't think we've had the opportunity certainly our agency and others. >> I would encourage you to and then you know, please do reach out if that could be helpful in that. >> Thank you. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Yeah. And I started legal services with the working poor too. So So Muhammad, uh, Lijia and Gustavo are next. And then after that we have Aaron, Matthew. >> Miriam and and Ted more. Okay, whoever's ready to go >> I have to open my computer. >> All right, I'll take a minute. Um, good afternoon uh, Chairpstein and members of the committee. I'm Muhammad Ata. I'm the co-irector of the Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. So glad that we don't have the timer. So I can get my 10 minutes. No, it's not going to work. Okay. The three vendor project is a membership. >> I'm timing you right here now. So >> all right, sir. Thank you. >> The whole colleagues behind you. I'm timing you. >> All right. All right. Uh the Shender Project is a membership based organization with more than 3,300 members. We strive to support three vendors across the five borrows uh by providing direct services such as small business consultations, legal representation, and access to a wide variety of resources. We also organized to build power to the vendor community across the city and ensure that the their voices are heard and uh they have a seat at the table at the end of the day. Vast majority of our members are immigrants who hail from across the globe. Given the diversity of our membership, our services are offered in seven different languages. Arabic, Bangla English French Mandarin Spanish and Wolof. Uh thanks to the diversity of our small team, we respectfully request that the council considers our funding applications for this fiscal year since SVP is almost the only entity providing education, outreach, and small business services to the street vendor community in New York City. Street vendors are non-traditional workers running the smallest businesses in our city, and they need the city's support to thrive. Earlier this year, the city council passed a historic landmark package of legislations, including local law 54 for the year 2026 that will create a total of 21,500 new licenses for street vendors. 11,000s of these licenses will go to food vendors as supervisory licenses, a system that is still new to the vendors community. That has created a lot of confusion with the existing system that has been in place for decades. 10,500 of these new licenses will be offered to merchandise vendors as general vendor licenses, a substantial change to a 47year-old law that a lot of vendors don't know about. We respectfully request that the city council prioritize creating a new initiative of $5 million to ensure sufficient resources to all non-traditional workers across our city. Street vendors, delivery workers, laundry workers, and many others need support from the city to make sure that they are aware of the new systems, protections, and laws that the city has created. The laws and reforms are as good as they are followed and we have to do our part to ensure workers are aware of the reforms taking place so they can benefit from them. We also urge the city council to ensure that there is adequate funding to the department of consumer worker protection this coming fiscal year so they have the capacity >> Thank you. so they have the capacity needed to implement the local law. Looking forward to the next steps with the council. Thank you so much sir. >> Thank you. Okay, good afternoon uh chair uh Epstein and members of the committee. Uh my name is Gustavo Ch. I'm a co-founder of Loi Brista Sunidos and worker organizer with the worker justice project and thank you for the opportunity to testify in today. So I'm here today to speak about three important issues that we are calling the uh the council to significant invest in DCWB capacity to including double his budget on 135 millions and ending 400 inspector investigators and illegal staff. Second, we are here for um asking for five 5 million to fund a workers right organizing and education initiative. Tell we we are we urging the city council to uh close loopholes and local law 1332 including expanding the definition in the activation and cover uh workers who temporarily lock out unlimited in hours. There are and restriction and offer the job and punishment by apps who once puritize their profit and not our safety. Over the past five years, loist and the worker justice project. We have fight for five and won 10 historic lab uh labor protection for more than eight 80,000 delivery by uh based up delivery workers. This including landmarks that a standard of 20.44 per hour in the just cow protection that uh text in effect next year and pay transparent uh transparency law. We are proud to have partnership with the district uh for with uh city council to pass this law but our focus must be making sure these are fully enforced. At the time when the federal government was uh cut funds in on critical uh agency in New York City uh New York City was a step up in passing historic labor protection for workers like daily bristas. Now we must ensure to the city agency to really have the resource to enforce this abs uh this rights. We are asking for 39 million for DCWP on the budget uh uh FY27. So this has the staff to funding this need to protect to protect workers and make sure the labor rights was a fight for we are truly enforced. And additionally we are calling for 5 million for newly launching worker right organizing and education initiative laid lead by the street vendor project drum and laundry worker center and the worker justice project. this initiative. Will we keep >> time is expired? >> Will we keep will we keep their rights feel empowered by uh speaking out and organizing? And finally, we asked the city council to close loopholes and local law 1332 and just cause the activation law passed by last year. We urge we urge the city council to expand definition and this activation including workers who has temporary le activation and reduce a schedule to limit work offers. This investing will be changed a lot and help hardworking New Yorkers live and work with dignity. Thanks again. >> Um well thank you so much for the opportunity to testify. I wanted to say first, thank you so much for championing uh many of our deliverista laws that we have in place right now. I think this amazing committee has been very supportive and we're super excited to um be able to work together with the agency and I also want to say thank you so much for highlighting the role of worker organizations in the co-inforcement. This past year, we have been very working very closely with DCWP to build a co- enforcement model that is a true close partnership with worker organizations. Um, and you highlighted something clear. Um, we have a federal government that is terrorizing our our communities, creating fear for workers coming forward to stand up for their labor rights. Now more than ever, the role of community organizations like Workers Justice, the Street Benders is so critical to make sure that workers not only know their rights, feel they can trust our city government and making sure that they can continue to organize. Um, and we strongly support that and agree that DCWP's budget needs to be doubled. Um, and they need double amount of staff. Um there is numbers of probably more than hund00 million dollars that really does the agency what it needs. But we're also calling for um the city council to fund worker organizations because at the end of the day it is us who are going to be on the streets on the field building trust, making sure workers have the power and are accompanied in the organizing process. Um but also I'm here to advocate. Um, I want to say while we're so thankful that we passed a strong Jaws cause protection for app delivery workers, unfortunately the apps managed to leave a huge loophole in 1332, which is the Jaws cause protection. Um, right now the law only protects workers who are permanently deactivating, leaving the door open for app delivery companies like Uber, Door Dash to use temporary deactivation, use limitation of their scheduling and the number of offerings as a main punishment when deliveristas cannot deliver on a realistic time frames. We're hoping to pass further legislation to close those loopholes and also we're asking for the support to make sure that some of our key key uh funding priorities are also funded. One of them is 4.9 for our day labor workforce initiative that funds a lot of our uh workforce and workers rights initiative um throughout the city. So, I'm going to end it there and I just wanted to say thank you so much for your uh for being our champion for standing with the Libertaristas and uh we're looking forward to close working keep working very closely with city council this year. >> Thank you. Thank you all for all your work and I appreciate it and for your continued commitment to workers of New York City. Thank you. >> The next panel, Aaron, Ted, Matthew, and Miriam. Thank you. >> How you doing? >> You too. It's fine. Wherever Whatever order you guys want to go want to go. Is this on? Okay. Uh, thank you, Chair Epstein. the committee on uh consumer and worker protection and the New York City Council at large for their long-standing support of the legal services for the working poor coalition. My name is Matthew Shedler. I'm the supervising attorney in charge of the consumer law project at Campbell Legal Services, one of the five members of the coalition that includes housing conservation coordinators, mobilization for justice, northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, and Take Root Justice. The coalition was created with support from the city council over 20 years ago to address the civil needs of working poor and other low-income New Yorkers whose income is slightly higher than the poorest New Yorkers, rendering them ineligible for free legal services. The LSWP's services are critical to ensure working New Yorkers maintain financial independence and to help them preserve economic stability in communities across New York. In the fiscal year 2026, LSWP, the LSWP initiative was funded um in the city council budget under legal services for low-income and workingclass New Yorkers totaling $9,255,000 with each of the five co coalition members receiving uh $455,000. In fiscal year 2027, Kama and the other members of the legal services working poor coalition are requesting $600,000 a $600,000 allocation from the city council, which includes a full restoration of the 455 thou uh $455,000 allocated in 2026. A 200 or a $600,000 allocation to each of the five coalition partners would support critical legal services and allow providers to deepen their impact in the practice areas of immigration, consumer, workers rights, and benefits law. The impacts of cuts, actions, and policy changes on the federal level threaten the social safety net and puts working poor New Yorkers at risk for immigration abuses, illegal debt collection, the wrongful termination of benefits, and other threats to their well-being. We call on the city council to make a critical investment into legal services in fiscal year 2027, including the legal services for the working poor initiative. We continue to see that working poor New Yorkers who can barely make ends meet, facing catastrophic consequences as a result from civil legal from of a civil legal problem. Common problems include not being paid for their work or not being paid overtime, identity theft, the freezing of a bank account as a result of a collection lawsuit they did not even know about, or being denied public benefits to which they're entitled. The consequence the consequences of these problems can lead to other issues as well, including increased risk of eviction or foreclosure. These working poor New Yorkers can end up spiraling spiraling downward to join the ranks of the poor if they don't have access to lawyers to assist them. Our legal services organizations represent these new these New Yorkers across all five buraus. One example of the uh of our work is the case of Mr. G, client of mine. After a long search in 2022, Mr. G found employment in a job he enjoyed. Unfortunately, this made him ineligible for the public assistance he was receiving. And when his landlord tried to raise his rent, he knew he could no longer afford his apartment. He moved out at the end of the lease, turning in his keys to the rental office. Years later, Mr. G found out he had been sued in New York City civil court. >> Time has expired. >> You're not gonna hear the ending. Um, >> you did good. >> It's a doozy. Yeah. >> Um, but with that said, we would ask you for the enhanced support to the legal services for the working poor coalition. Thank you, Chair Epstein. >> Excuse me. Can you got to move in? >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, thank you all council analysts, everyone. It's been a long hearing and thank you for all your work always. Um, I am here to put into the record because we have shared this with the mayor, first deputy mayor, with um, chief of staff to the mayor, um, deputy mayor Sue. We delivered a letter last week to them calling for $130 million for DCWP and expansion of DCWP. UAW region 9A led this letter along with 32BGA um HTC um Teamsters 808 or 804 808 bunch of other labor siblings a lot of worker centers and um this is not known by the council so allowing you all to know this as well. Um, I don't need to get into the disinvestment of DCWP. Our um, council member Abrau actually got into what I wanted to talk about on the 2:1 earlier today. Um, that we need to get rid of um, the savings officer for DCWP, that DCWP actually brings in far more revenue than it actually could and if we expand it, it actually could be a revenue generator for the city. um our laws and the affordability agenda that our mayor has championed requires robust enforcement and regulatory efforts. Our success as New York and ensuring that we are a city that people will believe in will have n national implications but also just implications for everything. And so increasing this budget sound investment enforcement puts money back into the pockets of working New Yorkers. It makes sure that people have trust in government. And so for all that, we're calling on the council to call on the mayor for augmenting DCWP funding to $130 million level. I'll leave it at that. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> Is this on? >> Yeah, we can hear you. >> Great. So, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today. I'm Miriam Clark, a former president and member of the legislative committee of Nila, New York. We're an organization representing uh lawyers who represent the vindication of employee rights. We've got more than ah thank you 450 members in the state of New York um many of whom practice in the city. So, I submit this testimony on behalf of Neil and New York to call on the administration and city council to fully invest in the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to ensure that it is able to fulfill its crucial mission of protecting city workers, especially the most vulnerable. Um, so one piece of new legislation that I haven't heard talked about today is the new right to prenatal leave law. um which is an incredible advancement, probably unique in the country. Um but a six-month backlog and an 18month investigation period renders that law virtually meaningless. So if I got fired because I went to my OB/GYN appointment um while I was pregnant, my child is a year and a half old by the time there's been any redress. I've long lost that job. Um, same thing is true, by the way, with ESTA, another law that I didn't hear too much talk about. Um, if someone has been fired or they had to go to work sick, six months later, 18 months later, it's it the law becomes meaningless, which is so frustrating when we know that city council and advocates have worked so hard to pass these laws. Um, so I'm not going to go over the data because you've heard it from um the department itself. The one thing that I wanted to point out that I thought was troubling in the PMMR um was that the number, this is the 2025 PMMR, the number of workers entitled to restitution decreased from the first four months of fiscal 2024 to the first four months of fiscal 2025. So that's actually going down while the laws are becoming more and more protective. the amount of workers actually being helped are going down. The amount of civil penalties also decreased by 61% to $26,000. That shortfall continued into 2025. So, while the department has been, I think, rightfully hailed as small but mighty in the press, it is not staffed by miracle workers. That's why the mayor during his campaign advocated for doubling the AY's budget to $130 million, which we also strongly advocate for. We recognize that in light of federal cuts, difficult choices must be made, but they should not be made on the backs of pregnant women who are afraid they're going to be fired because they went to their OB/GYN appointment or New Yorkers who have to come to work sick because they're going to get fired otherwise. So we therefore urge the administration and city council to adequately fund the DCWP at the $130 million level. And >> your time is expired. >> One sentence. We urge the council to consider requiring that the civil penalties connected by collected by DCWP stay with DCWP and not go back into the whole city budget. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. And that's that last one's gonna it's a tough one for the city, but I appreciate not wanting that money to roll back in and to encourage the work of the DCWP. So, thank you and thank you for all advocating for increase in funding and and encourage legal services working to talk about baselining that funding because I think that might be a long-term really helpful plan. I thank you all. >> Thank you. >> And Aid Desai and Camar Jackson are our next panel. could be restitution. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Epstein and members of the committee. My name is Camarra Jackson. I am the CEO of Elite Learners, Inc. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify. Elite Learners, Inc. is a New York City based uh community-based organization with a strong presence in Brooklyn and partnerships that allow us to support families across multiple burrows. I don't know if Council Member Banks is still on, but we have two storefronts in his district. So very proud to be here. Um through our community programming, including our housing work with homeowners, we regularly assist residents facing fraud and deed theft. Deed theft is one of the most devastating forms of consumer fraud affecting New York City homeowners. Victims are often longtime residents, seniors, immigrants, and families facing financial hardship who are targeted by bad actors offering foreclosure assistance loans. Um, they come in all forms. They offer modifications. Some offer quick cash deals. Many homeowners do not realize they have signed documents transferring ownership of their property until it is too late. Through our work at Elite Learners, homeowners are receive assistance. Um, we're able to connect with them. We're able to navigate the process required to challenge deft transfers. That often includes coordinating with the department of finance, the district attorney when fraud is suspected, and helping families gather documentation to pursue legal action for their homes. This is the work we do on a daily basis. We help families preserve homes that represent decades of work and generational stability. It is through it is through our work we are asking for support through our speakers request and discretionary funding to continue. Prevention is just important. Elite learners also conducts proactive outreach to communities where homeowners are most vulnerable to predatory actors. We help residents recognize warning signs of deft, review suspicious documents, and connect with trusted legal counsel before doing anything. For these reasons, we encourage the council to ramp up efforts to protect homeowners. Ensure residents in your district have access to trusted people, nonprofit organizations, and during and before deft occurs. We are happy to be a resource. again, Elite Learners, Inc., thank you so much for having >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon, Chair Epstein. My name is Beta Vita Sai. I'm the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Uh we speak in full support of DCWP's request for a proper budget. last year and again this year as we override the you know had to override the veto we won a historic bill um which was the result of the work of a phenomenal champion in Councilman Krishnan and a lot of blood sweat and tears from our membership. We won the biggest you know protections against unfair firings by Uber andyft. Uber and Lyft would be considered the largest employers in the city of New York. There are over 200,000 licensed TLC drivers in New York City. About um 85% of them work just for these two companies. We serve collectively a million people every day. About 85% of that work is from Uber and Lift dispatches. And you know, these companies have incredible power over the drivers. They're able to fire you with the click of a button. This is a workforce that spends 60 to $80,000 in investments on the vehicle. With the click of a button, when you're fired overnight, it means you're not only left jobless, incomeless, but you're left with a debt that can actually become generational poverty. And so when we're talking about the enforcement of this law in particular, it it it's not just about, you know, the model um bill on ending unfair firings. It is absolutely a measure to end poverty. And you know, I think that's the key thing here in so much of DCWP's work. You know we services education information these are all critical. Representation is critical. These are all necessary protections for the working class and the poor. But we don't talk enough about how much poverty is created by corporate wrongdoing. You know, whether it's wage theft or unfair firings. and a robust DCWP I see as not only a vehicle to write these wrongs, but it's absolutely a stop measure against increased poverty in our city. And so we need this agency agency to be properly funded. We need an end to the austerity budget which has included you know um not only cutting services of the poor but also giving corporations a free hand. And I think having a robust DCWP is really the anti- austerity budget. You know, lastly, I I really just want to say to the council as a whole, we need to tax the rich. Like all of this that we're talking about is critical money. We can't do it. >> We can't do it without having the courage and the vision to really make those who are wealthy, both individuals and corporations, finally pay their share. Because the budget holes the mayors talked about is still not enough. We need a bigger budget. and that can only come when all of New York pays its share, particularly those that can actually afford it. >> Thank you both. And but for Albany, we could do it. So, we just need our state legislators, which I know fairly well about, um to kind of put the resources in place and allow the city to have more control over our taxing power. So, thank you and thank you for the work that you've done and continue to do for for drivers across the city. Um, can just one quick question. Do you do you guys get HOP funding for that the work you're doing around the >> No, do you have you applied for state funding for the attorney general for hop funding or >> not for hop? >> Okay. All right. >> But we will. >> All right. Thank you both very much. I appreciate your work. And next we have folks on Zoom. Um, and Malot say more is the first person you can unmute and and begin. may begin. I don't know if you're still there. I can't tell. But if if you can't unmute and mid next, we'll disc if when you can, we can. But let's move to Zara Nasier. You may begin. Oh hi. Um, sorry, just collecting all the things. Hey, everyone. Good morning, chair and members of the committee on consumer and worker protection. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Zara. I'm the um executive director of People's Plan NYC. We're a citywide coalition advancing a more just and equitable equitable budget. Um, I'm here to today to speak about the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and its role in holding corporate actors accountable as part of a broader campaign that we're running called Make Them Pay, which is starting this year. Right now, um, New York City, in our estimation, is owed at least $ 1.5 billion in unpaid penalties from landlords um, and also some corporations whose uh, violations harm worker, tenants, and and small businesses. DCWP is responsible for enforcing some of the most important worker protection and consumer laws in our city. Um, from wage theft and paid sick leave to unfair business practices. And it does a tremendous amount of um work for what it costs. It's one of the best bargains in the city. Um, but it's underresourced and um, you know, when enforcement is weak, that means bad actors treat penalties as options, not just the cost of doing business. And so workers will lose wages, consumers are exploited. Um, you know, responsible businesses um are also undercut. And so we're we're calling on the council to support our proposal and uh help push for the significant investments in DCWP. Um we echo other folks here who said, you know, DCWP needs its budget doubled, 235 million. We need to add 400 inspectors, legis u legal staff and investigators. Um, you know, the department today also named that they need additional resources. And this is really about deterrence, fairness, and protecting New Yorkers. It's part of a broader shift that we're pushing for, which is real corporate accountability across agencies and collections. Um, our campaign is focusing on improving collections and imposing real consequences for uh bad actors. And we know that some of the most important and effective collection works happens at the agency level. the agencies have far better collection rates than even Department of Finance. Um, and we really feel like corporations won't change their behavior and unless there are real consequences. Uh, New Yorkers follow the rules every day. When they don't, they're penalized. Um, corporations should obviously follow the law, too, and face consequences that are proportional to the harm that they cause, especially when it harms um and affects the health and safety and wages of New Yorkers. So, we're proud to be joined in this campaign by over 40 um organizations and unions in including folks who testified today like Worker Justice Project, brand workers, and um the Coalition for Domestic Workers along with uh 10 and counting elected officials in New York City council members. Um and we're obviously growing that number every day. Uh we appreciate the council's partnership um and look forward to >> The time is expired. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. And is Malot there? >> You may begin. >> Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon all your chairperson and distinguished members of the New York City Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection. My name is Milatsu and I'm the director of policy advocacy and strategic partnerships at the New York Network of Workerown Cooperatives, also known as Nicknock. We are the member-led trade association representing worker cooperative businesses and democratic workplaces in New York City. I'm here alongside my colleagues from the Democracy at Work Institute, Center for Family Life, Workers Justice Project, and our Advocacy Council members representing 10 other organizations that make up the Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative, WCBDI. We are here asking New York City Council to continue supporting the expansion of worker ownership in next year's budget and firmly into the future. Since the inception of the initiative, we've created over 200 new worker cooperative businesses and over 1,200 new jobs that are not only providing higher hourly wages, but also building wealth and assets for individuals who are overwhelmingly bipac women and immigrants. We have seen firsthand how our initiative has served to bolster our sector, strengthening existing cooperative businesses and creating new ones. The initiative partners have collectively worked to create a comprehensive ecosystem of support for worker businesses that not only ensures creation of new worker cooperatives in low-income areas, but also the technical assistance needed to sustain businesses and create jobs, as well as the education and outreach needed for communities, interested entrepreneurs, and allied organizations. We did a lot of work during the pandemic earlier years and beyond to bring in over 20 million in grants and loans to cooperatives and keep them afloat. And we did this with a 3.7 million budget. We are here asking city council to enhance our funding to 5,97,000 in order for initiative to double down on the essential long-term economic recovery for worker own cooperative businesses that we will need to claw ourselves out of this crisis. We thank the city council for the opportunity to testify and hope that you will consider our budget priorities and recommendations during this year's budget negotiation process. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I really do appreciate the work of building more worker co-ops, something that I was involved with back in my old legal services days when we got that started. So, thank you. >> Thank you, council member. >> Uh the next person is Katherine uh Mzek. >> You may begin. >> Good afternoon, distinguished council members, and thank you for the opportunity to testify online today. My name is Katherine Mercek and I'm a worker owner at two co-ops here in New York City. The Samaya Yoga Back Care and Scoliosis Collective and Oasis Solidarity Collective. Um, we're members of Nicknock. You've already heard from my colleague Meat, which is a partner organization in the WCBDI initiative. and your support of our community of democratically run businesses helps to protect and create jobs for women, immigrant workers, and communities of color across the five burrows in a wide array of industry. Thanks to city council's support, New York City has more cooperatives than any other city in the US. And I'm testifying today to urge you to continue to support the great work of WCBDI, enhancing the initiative's funding to 5.09 09 million and to also support commercial rent stabilization to protect New York City's workers and small businesses from displacement. The first co-op I joined, Samaya, is a very special little studio for therapeutic yoga in Chelsea with classes both online and in studio. I'm proud to say my 19 other worker owners and I have been democratically running the studio together for 11 years in the same space the whole time. To make yoga accessible to all ages and abilities, we use specialized rope walls and equipment, which incurred a lot of startup costs that we are still paying back. Getting our business through the pandemic was a huge challenge that forced us to close our physical space temporarily and pivot to teaching online. But we were able to get through it for two main reasons. One, because we're a cooperative. And two, because we were lucky enough to have a reasonable landlord who was willing to work with us. As a cooperative, we banded together to decide as a team how we would pivot, divide the labor, and work together to keep the studio afloat while making sure our teachers who most needed to work could keep teaching online and make ends meet. We were also grateful to have access to technical support from WCBDI partners and a couple small grants specific to worker co-ops. This support provided proono legal services with Tacroot justice to help us with the negotiation of our lease and Nicknox cooperative sustainability fund which allowed us to pay for consulting sessions to help manage some communication and distribution of labor challenges during the transition and to strategize for the future. Nicknox's grant fund was also a huge support for my other co-op, Oasis Solidarity Collective, which is made of a diverse group of worker owners with the mission of providing training and education on worker cooperatives and meeting facilitation services with an anti-opression lens. Nicknox's grant fund allowed us to cover the cost of a new website as we go through a rebranding strategy. Even though both of my so small cooperative businesses are surviving, it's incredibly difficult to thrive in this economic environment. It's a myth that the pandemic reset commercial rents for small businesses back to reasonable rates. And commercial tenants have extremely limited protections from being pushed out by exorbitant rent hikes or evictions even when they've built a community around their space and spent tens of thousands of dollars building it out specific to their needs as my co-op has. This causes the death of so many time businesses. Um, just a moment. Like two of the yoga studios I used to work for before they sadly had to close because because their landlords were not so reasonable. The system should not be based on the luck of the draw and the whims of the particular landlord that you end up with. So all in all to say, please enhance WCI's funding to 5.09 million and please support commercial vent stabilization to protect our beloved small businesses from displacement. Thanks so much. Well, thank you for your time and thank you for the um letting us know how important work our own cooperatives are as well as affordability for our commercial spaces. Maybe more CLTs would help with that. Um I I want to notice um Council Member Sanchez P. Sanchez couldn't be with us today because of um other commitments, but you know, I hope she was able to join. Our next is Nilia Coyote. >> May begin. Good afternoon, chair and members of the committee. My name is Nila Coyote and I am the executive director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment, NICE, located in Jackson Heights, Queens. I'm sorry, the noise. It's literally the seven train passing. For over 25 years, NICE has been a trusted community organization and frontline responder for New York City immigrant workers during our city's most acute crisis. Our deep integration allowed us to read to reach hard to reach individuals and currently NIC's core purpose is to intentionally drive economic mobility and community integ integration among immigrant families through our empowering model the preetition for life and work. Today, we strongly urge the council to fully fund the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, DCWP, in the upcoming fiscal year 2027 for communities, immigrant workers, women, pre-apprentices, day laborers, domestic workers, and survivors of labor exploitation. This agency is not just an abstract one. It is a critical lifeline. It represents one of the few institutions where workers can safely report abuse, recover stolen wages, and demand accountability without fear. At NICE, we witness daily both the harsh realities and the extra extraordinary resilience of low-wage immigrant workers. Workers come to us after enduring wage death, unsafe workplaces, sudden termination and retaliation for asserting their rights. We have heard a lot today. Many are excluded from from traditional labor protections or silenced by fear tied to their immigration status. Without strong enforcement from DCWP, these workers are left vulnerable to ongoing exploitation. At the same time, we know that enforcement alone is not enough. Workers must also have pathways to economic mobility, dignity, and long-term stability. This is why now NICE launched the pre-apprenticeship for life and work. A comprehensive workforce development model that equips immigrant workers with job readiness skills, industry recognized certifications, professional ESOL, and critical life skills training. Through our program, participants not only access better job opportunities, but also build the knowledge and confidence to assert their rights in the workplace and navigate systems that have historically excluded them. This is where the work of DCWP and community based organizations intersects powerfully. When workers are informed, organized, and supported, and when there is a strong enforcement agency behind them, real accountability becomes possible. We have seen firsthand how DCWP's enforcement of laws can transform lives, but also recovering millions of dollars in stolen wages, partnering with CBOS in co- enforcement, and a big etc. We heard today at a time when immigrant communities are facing heightening economic instability, rising cost of living and increasing fear driven by broader immigration enforcement, the city must not retreat from its responsibility. It must lead with courage. Protecting workers is not optional. It is essential to the health and future. >> The time is expired. >> Thank you. We respectfully call on the council to fully fund DCWP's enforcement and outreach programs and expand investments in C in CBO's workers protection and workforce development initiatives. Thank you for your leadership and the opportunity to testify. >> Thank you very much and thank you for the work that NICE does, you know, for New Yorkers all over the cities. Um, Genesis Gonzalez, you may begin. Good afternoon, Chair Epstein, and distinguished members of the New York City Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection. My name is Genesis Gonzalez, and I am an assistant director at the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, a 48-year-old service organization dedicated to providing vital sources to lowincome families in Brooklyn so they can thrive and build sustainable futures. I am here today to respectfully urge the New York City Council to continue supporting the worker cooperative business development initiative by allocating 5.1 million in fiscal year 2027, including 675,000 for the center for family life to continue helping lowincome families develop cooperative businesses. With continued support from the New York City Council in fiscal 2027, the Center for Family Life will incubate a new worker cooperative in administrative services, creating pathways for young professionals to enter and compete in the service economy while advancing their careers. We will also provide 275 technical assistance services to existing worker cooperatives to help them address administrative challenges and remain operational. In addition, we will offer 20 training sessions in business administration, finance, marketing, and industry specific skills, enabling 400 participants to strengthen their entrepreneurial knowledge. Through these efforts, we also aim to create at least 15 new jobs and cooperative businesses. These achievements would not be possible without the steadfast support of the New York City Council. On behalf of the Center for Family Life, thank you for your time, consideration, and commitment to economy equity. We respectfully ask for your continued support in fiscal year 2027. Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate you you and appreciate the work for Center Families Life who I've worked with many many times over the years. Uh Zuben Solammani. >> Uh hi. Uh good afternoon. My name is uh Zuben Slemani uh with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. I'm a senior staff attorney uh and just wanted to uh really impress upon everybody here the need for full funding of DCWP's initiatives especially with regard to the driver deactivation protections. So, I think it's important to know just how crucial uh these protections are because going beyond uh you know, council went uh built off of its success with fast food, but if you compare what happens to a forired vehicle driver uh when they're deactivated, it's not just a loss of income. It's ongoing uh significant debts, car payments, insurance that accumulate and cannot be paid off while they're out of work. So, you know, we passed I think this is the best uh driver deactivation protection uh framework in the country. It's the best one on paper, but it's only going to be as good as its enforcement. Um, and you know, I would note that other places that have driver deactivation laws, uh, the laws included funding for driver organizations to do these appeals sort of independently, perhaps in informal way. And we rejected that model because we need a real uh solid enforceable uh legal a legal structure here. And I think there there are two sides to this enforcement. There's the prosecution investigation side uh and then there's the larger framework which allows those prosecutions to be effective uh the data reporting the requirements um that drivers receive notice in an adequate manner and to make sure that the companies are doing those things. And I think you know on the one uh you know it was it was really important to us uh as we push this bill with uh council member Krishnan that there would be a private right of action and we think that a lot of cases would be appropriate for a private action but there are always going to be some cases especially those that require more of an investigative push. They're going to be more appropriate for public action. So on the one hand, it's important that DCWP has adequate funding for their investigations and their prosecutions, but that larger piece of compliance with the with the data reporting and the notice uh and all of that is going to make it that's necessary even where drivers choose to go with a private attorney uh to court or arbitration. Um so I I think um I you know and I just I just my experience I've been here for a long time. We've dealt with the city regulating drivers behavior for a long time in the TLC context and I just I think it's important to note that there has never problem with the city fund. They're looking at regulating whether driver behavior is appropriate or not in the context of punishing them. The TLC has an army of lawyers who prosecute drivers. They move them quickly. uh and to to just the level of minutia in which they punish drivers has been you know in one year I recall I searched the database there were over a hundred violations for drivers using the wrong tone of voice. I I I'm I'm not kidding. I'm not making this up. It was discourteous violation for speaking in the wrong tone of voice. I represented a a driver once who was charged with an act against the public. >> Time has expired >> for using a nebulizer so he didn't have an asthma attack and didn't stop breathing in the car. So, we can always find the resources when it comes to punishing this workforce. I challenge everybody here to do the right thing and find the resources to make it so that drivers who have been unfairly deactivated have a stable life, a stable income, and can remain at work when they get fired through no fault of their own. >> Thank you very much and appreciate all your work, and I know how important this is to all of us. Um, Marissa Centenno, you may begin. I don't know if Marissa is there, but we'll go to the next one. Christopher Leon Johnson, >> you may begin. >> Oh, yeah. Hello. My name is Christopher Leon Johnson, deputy chair cabinet's pre-budget hearing committee. I want to make this clear that uh look um I think that the city I know that shout out to Zam Madani for being the guy that had the boss sent up to our um corrupt commissioner Jessica Tish to repeal the criminalization of theistas but he should have been repealed at on January 1st 2026 when he got sworn as mayor the day that the minutes after he rose his hand as mayor he could have did that uh we should wait three months to do this but I will make this clear that um I think that you Mr. FC need to step up to the plate and make it to where that um like the worker justice project gets at least like let's say a million dollars to help out the guys and gals going to be laid off by relay in the next um week and a half or April 1st 2026. Uh what are these guys going to do after April 1st 2026? Um unless they go to Moto Click. I mean that's my thing. But I'll make this clear that uh look um what needs to start happening more is this need to be a thing of going for the regulation of the apps. I supported the hub. I understand we can put all over the city, but if these guys are in a situation where they can still be deactivated despite the fact that in summertime there's going to be unfair deactivation laws and they can still be deactivated not only for the laras but the for higher vehicles put in hubs and taxi stands and all stuff does no justice at all. You have to the city council serving this committee has to be more proactive when it comes to protecting worker rights. And I believe that the city council need to make a letter um and openly condemning David Doe for selling out the the the tax workers alliance and working with empower. And I'll make this clear that I'm going to hope I'm going to condemn both uh Liga Galafa and Mr. Ben Fernass for not saying anything about Jessica Tish. They not not one time in the past three months or even the year prior called out just the tish for the crim criminalization of the research. The it's going to end on 27 but the damage already been done. Look at the cause of the effect. A lot of guys have to go to court who's paid and stuff like that and you can say that oh relay is going to um they're going to be held accountable but what about the the money that the city should be paying these guys and gals back for missing days out of work. If I had it my way, I'll be suing the city on behalf of the Listas so they can get payback from the city for taking time off work for the unfair for the uh for the criminalization for them for getting tickets going to court. Uh if I had my way, but I think the city council like I said this going forward uh my my goal is right now is that uh relay need to be held accountable. They should not be pull the city like this is wrong for these guys out of job April 1st, 2026 with nothing nowhere to go. And this is where this is where you went where if Uber and Door Dash didn't want to you couldn't get on Uber and Door Dash. This is where you went. So these guys have a job. So we can talk about work justice all we want. But my my >> time is expired. >> Go forward and um help out guys with relay. So thank you so much and enjoy it. >> Thank Thank you very much. Next is Christine Hines. >> You may begin. Okay, so if we don't see Christine, maybe CJ Hayes next >> may begin. >> No CJ, maybe Brandon Lee Clayton. Okay, next maybe Bend Fuller Gogans. Next is Allan without a last name. And last that I have listed is latest Munoz. >> All right, we're trying to figure out we can get people unmuted. Just a reminder, if people haven't signed up to testify, we are close to the end of the hearing. So, we need to know that you're testifying. you haven't signed up and you wanted to, this is kind of the end of the game Now, >> yeah, I I think we see someone raising their hand. We're just trying to figure out what the problem is getting them unmuted. Yeah. Heat. So the people who are trying to get unmuted uh I think you need to be accept being upgraded to a panelist and then in theory you can be unmuted. So if you've been asked to be upgraded and you haven't done it yet. >> Okay, good. So latest, do you want to go first? Marissa. Oh, Marissa's first. Marissa, you ready? >> Yes. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Hello. Thank you to the members of the committee on consumer and uh worker protections for the opportunity to share my testimony. My name is Marissa Centino and I am with the National Domestic Workers Alliance. I'm here to ta today to speak on behalf of the New York City Coalition for domestic work to urge the city council to double the department of consumer and worker protection budget to 135 million to strengthen its enforcement capacity and hire 400 investigators and inspectors and legal staff. The NYC Coalition for Domestic Work represents nearly 250,000 nannies, house cleaners, and homeare workers who provide essential care and support to New Yorkers. Our coalition comprises of Alikar, Carol Gardens Association, Damayan, hand in hand, >> uh the domestic employer network, LANA, and ourselves the National Domestic Workers Alliance New York Chapter. Organizations with membership throughout the five burrows, domestic workers organized for decades to win fundamental rights like minimum wage, paid overtime, protections against discrimination and harassment, paid sick leave, amongst other rights. In fact, New York is the first state in the country to pass a domestic worker bill of rights. DCWP is responsible for enforcing some of those protections such as paid sick leave. For a decade, organizations that are part of this coal coalition have built a strategic and effective partnership with DCWP um and the paid care division dedicated to joint domestic worker outreach and education with accessible know your rights materials and trainings. rights are only useful if individuals are aware of them and can exercise them to improve the working conditions of domestic workers. It's essential that we continue to expand our partnership with DCWP, especially given the current national uh political climate and we've become and it's become even harder to reach immigrant workers, in particular domestic workers who work in isolated and private homes and are more likely to fear coming forward and reporting labor rights abuses. In addition, DCWP launched an innovative project called the mediation program in 2022, which has become a critical resource for domestic workers in New York City, providing fair and accessible effective pathways to resolving workplace disputes and recovering unpaid wages, including unpaid sick leave and other uh rightful earnings. We've seen a successful um roster of workers who uh we've been able to usher through this mediation clinic um co collaborate and we have seen success in uh wages recovered. So through many domestic workers have effectively used this program to recover their wages and secure the benefits they're entitled to. It's important to build up the DCWP budget to maintain and grow enforcement programs, something we are very passionate about here at NDWA. And with increased funding, more domestic workers will be able to know their rights and employers comply with their obligations, access to remedies for labor violations and use services like me like the mediation clinic. Uh we have found DCWP and our collaboration to be very innovative, forward thinking and we plan to be uh collaborating. >> The time is expired. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate your testimony. Latest uh near next. >> You may begin. >> Um thank you. Um but my colleague Marisa Centenno just give the testimony and thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Are there any other witnesses in person or online who want to testify? See?