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Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold's must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable New Yorkers | | | | |  | | By Anna Gronewold and Sally Goldenberg | In no corner of New York Democratic politics has the gulf between establishment players and reformers been wider than in Brooklyn, where party elders have been at war with a growing band of opponents. Now, after several bruising election cycles, the county organization is making a public attempt at bridging the divide. Party leader Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a member of the Assembly, has tapped an outspoken reformer to lead a new judicial screening committee. Bichotte Hermelyn is joining forces with district leader Dana Rachlin, who was appointed to the unpaid position last year by a slate of party reformers that includes Borough President Antonio Reynoso and City Council Member Lincoln Restler. The pair broke the news of their unlikely alliance together during a recent interview with POLITICO. In Brooklyn and other counties, judge selection is a prized process controlled by party bosses who view it as one of their last bastions of power as grassroots organizers gain a foothold on traditional party machines. But the ad hoc committee will be charged with screening candidates for civil, state Supreme and surrogate courts — a new step in a process that has long been intentionally opaque. “We want to turn things around and be the first county to do this,” Bichotte Hermelyn said, touting the diversity of Brooklyn’s judges. Rachlin’s committee will interview candidates and provide feedback. Rachlin, an activist who co-founded the public safety-focused nonprofit We Build the Block, said she will use the opportunity to press potential judges on their beliefs and review their records in dealing with defendants who have mental health challenges. “How aware are they of the impact of taking somebody out of the community, or leaving somebody in the community?” she said. “How did they behave in court? What was their decorum like? So that was what I'd be interested in.” Shortly after becoming a district leader, Rachlin was faced with voting on a civil court nominee in a contest that pitted party loyalists against the reformers. In a surprising move that portended her preference for compromise over conflict, she sided with the county organization’s pick. Whether the committee wields enough power to sway a process that remains important to Bichotte Hermelyn’s plugged-in predecessors remains to be seen. To that end, the party chair called it “a step forward in uniting our party.” IT’S WEDNESDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: agronewold@politico.com and sgoldenberg@politico.com or on Twitter: @annagronewold and @sallygold WHERE’S KATHY? In Albany and New York City with no announced public schedule. WHERE’S ERIC: In Washington D.C., for the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger Breakfast Meeting, a live interview with POLITICO, an African American Mayors Association Axon Enterprises Mayor’s Roundtable panel discussion, the 91st Winter Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors‘ opening plenary luncheon, and to deliver remarks at a special United States Conference of Mayors closed session. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I mean, we can talk about erectile dysfunction but not clitoris stimulation. Something is wrong. Something is just wrong. And we just have to stop doing that.” — Eric Adams with a wide-ranging speech on women's health yesterday
| | | | JOIN TODAY TO HEAR FROM MAYORS AROUND AMERICA: 2022 brought in a new class of mayors leading “majority minority” cities, reshaping who is at the nation’s power tables and what their priorities are. Join POLITICO to hear from local leaders on how they’re responding to being tested by unequal Covid-19 outcomes, upticks in hate crimes, homelessness, lack of affordable housing, inflation and a potential recession. New York City Mayor Eric Adams will be our featured speaker. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | |  | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | IN THE HOT SEAT: Today’s the day that the Senate makes a move (or not) on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s chief judge pick. The Judiciary Committee’s hearing for Hector LaSalle — and the first time we’ll really hear from the judge himself since controversy started snowballing in late December — starts at 10 a.m. in Albany. THE NUMBERS: There are 13 Democrats and 6 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary. IF Republicans all vote to advance LaSalle out of committee (that’s still an if) and IF LaSalle’s two public Democratic supporters — Senators Luis Sepúlveda and Kevin Thomas — vote yay as expected, only two more Democrats need approve him to advance the nomination to a full Senate vote. Hochul and LaSalle’s allies have been lobbying members, and though many have privately expressed disapproval, the final count is far from certain.. ACCORDING TO BRAD: A full Senate vote won’t happen immediately today, regardless of how the committee vote falls, Judiciary Chair Brad Hoylman-Sigal told reporters yesterday. “We’re going to have the full and thorough hearing that Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins has promised the governor and this nominee,” he said. “You’ll hear from the nominee, my colleagues will ask questions — I believe two rounds of questions of the nominee — and then we’ll have a vote in the committee. And from there, we’ll determine the next steps.” Those next steps are a point of contention between the governor and the Senate, but Hoylman-Sigal said that he believes a “no” vote means that’s it for LaSalle. “It’s my understanding that the committee vote is sufficient to determine whether advice and consent has been granted to the governor for this nominee,” he said. — Anna and Joe Spector DIGITAL REVOLUTION! The Assembly yesterday began to livestream committee meetings, fulfilling transparency promises made in 2016. “It was such a novel event that a GOP member waved to the camera,” said Capitol Pressroom’s David Lombardo, who contributed this long-awaited screenshot of the Rules committee. The Assembly is starting slow, with just the “major” committees, Speaker Carl Heastie said earlier this month. Minority Leader Will Barclay in a statement called it “a welcome and overdue measure of transparency to our legislative work,” and said that the Assembly GOP wanted to livestream committee meetings even before 2016. — Anna | 
The Assembly Rules committee meets on its first livestream. | David Lombardo / Capitol Pressroom | HERE’S THE New York Department of State flowchart you didn’t know you wanted, via New York Post’s Zach Williams #UpstateAmerica: “Saugerstock” residents aren’t thrilled about a massive glamping site planned nearby.
| | WHAT CITY HALL IS READING | | The City Council is planning to introduce legislation this week that would strengthen prohibitions on former city officials contacting the government — a move that would impact the mayor’s erstwhile chief of staff, Frank Carone, and others in similar situations. Currently, top administration officials are barred for two years from appearing before the agencies they oversaw. Legislation penned by Council Member Lincoln Restler — obtained by POLITICO and expected to be unveiled Thursday — would expand that to all of city government. Carone, with whom Restler has butted heads in the rough-and-tumble world of Brooklyn politics, recently started his own consulting company. And in response to the impending bill, he told POLITICO he has always followed the rules and will continue to do so if they change. Restler is also introducing legislation that would apply a two-year, citywide ban to former elected officials, which could crimp the plans of any ex-lawmaker looking to lobby or otherwise contact the administration in their post-government jobs. — Sally Goldenberg and Joe Anuta “NYC will offer free abortion pills at 4 city-run sexual health clinics,” by WNYC’s Elizabeth Kim: “New York City plans to offer free abortion pills at four sexual health clinics as early as Wednesday, a city-funded expansion that seeks to break down barriers to abortion in low-income communities, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday…The four clinics could potentially deliver up to 10,000 abortion pills a year, according to health officials. The first rollout will occur Wednesday at a sexual health clinic in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. Three other city-run clinics in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens are slated to dispense the medication by the end of the year as part of a $1.2 million package that includes a broader array of health care services, city officials said during a news conference following the mayor’s address.” Mayor Eric Adams said neither he nor anyone else in City Hall has received a subpoena in relation to a federal investigation into one of his associates. “This administration has not been subpoenaed. We have not received a subpoena. I have not personally received a subpoena. No one else has,” Adams said Tuesday, in response to a lengthy article The New Yorker published over the weekend exploring the mayor’s relationship to Brooklyn pastor Lamor Whitehead, who is the target of a federal extortion probe. — Sally Goldenberg “NY1 Investigation: The barriers to getting into mental health court,” by NY1’s Courtney Gross: “[H]undreds of detainees on Rikers Island have serious mental illness. Defense attorneys, families and advocates say the alternative to keeping them behind bars — which is potentially bringing cases to mental health court — is selective and nearly impossible to get into. A NY1 investigation has found these courts, spread across the five boroughs, have different standards for accepting people. In 2022, many of them only took a few dozen new felony cases. NY1 has found local district attorneys all have different requirements for referring defendants to these courts. And judges, too, have different approaches.” FROM the book ‘RIKERS: An Oral History’ by Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau: “Solitary at Rikers: ‘People Go Crazy in There,’” “People who survived solitary confinement at Rikers describe the horrific conditions and mental anguish that extreme isolation can cause. Until recently, New York City had nearly a thousand such ‘punitive segregation’ cells.” “MTA set to pay nearly $3 billion for old, overweight LIRR, Metro-North cars,” by New York Post’s Nolan Hicks: “The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is preparing to spend nearly $3 billion to buy hundreds of overweight and overpriced train cars that will saddle riders with longer commutes — and the cash-strapped agency with higher costs for decades to come, The Post has learned. The MTA still wants to move ahead with another purchase of the steel dinosaurs even though federal authorities approved a massive regulatory overhaul in 2018 that now allows the agency to buy high-tech trains — common in Europe — that are dramatically faster, lighter and cheaper.”
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | | | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | “Trump’s Former Lawyer Meets With Prosecutors About Hush Money,” by The New York Times’ Ben Protess and William K. Rashbaum: “The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Tuesday took a significant step forward in its investigation of Donald J. Trump, meeting with his former personal lawyer about hush money paid to a porn star who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The questioning of the lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, offered the clearest sign yet that the district attorney’s office was ramping up its investigation into Mr. Trump’s role in the $130,000 hush money deal.”
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Child labor law violations in New York increased by 68 percent in 2022 compared to the prior year. — New laws designed to expand access to mental health services were tweaked to exclude art therapists. — A group of Assembly staffers has gone public with their intent to organize. — Assemblymember Tony Simone says MSG un-invited him to an event after he criticized the use of facial recognition software. — The Buffalo Water Board quietly stopped adding fluoride to the water in 2015 and kids can get a lot more cavities now.
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Yagmur Cosar of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation … NBC’s Jane Timm … Fox News’ Jonathan Serrie … NYC Department of Environmental Protection’s Beth DeFalco …CNBC’s Sandy Cannold … CNN’s Sam Waldenberg … Alex Korey … Shane Cardillo … Kirk Bell … Laura (Maloney) Johnsen … Allie Wright MAKING MOVES — Dan Kranz is now communications director for Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.). He was previously senior adviser & communications director for Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.). … Chris Coffey, CEO of Tusk Strategies, is also becoming board chair of Win — the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing in New York City. In his new role Coffey will focus on communications and organizing as the city’s migrant and homeless crises continue. … … LouAnn Ciccone is joining Brown & Weinraub as a senior adviser. She spent three decades working in the Assembly, where she most recently was secretary to the speaker and senior policy adviser to Speaker Carl Heastie. … Katherine B. Forrest has joined Paul, Weiss in their antitrust litigation group. She most recently was at Cravath and is a former district judge in New York’s Southern District and a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
| | Real Estate | | A series of city-issued documents have laid bare in the past few days the troubles facing the real estate sector as Adams prepares to negotiate with the City Council over his proposed $102.7 billion budget — a spending plan that relies upon nearly $32 billion in property taxes.
- The total value of offices, stores and hotels that comprise the commercial market is nearly $9 billion short of Fiscal Year 2021. The new figure was released by the city’s Department of Finance on Tuesday;
- Overall revenue from taxes on commercial transactions is projected to decline by nearly 43 percent this fiscal year — or $465 million;
- By June 30, residential transfer taxes are forecast to be down by 27.3 percent for a total of $791 million in revenue to the city.
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