The City Council union and golden (arches) rule

From: POLITICO New York Playbook - Tuesday Nov 14,2023 12:02 pm

Nov 14, 2023

By Nick Reisman, Jeff Coltin and Emily Ngo

Presented by Healthcare Education Project

With help from Jason Beeferman

Members of the Association of Legislative Employees hold picket signs at a rally for the staff union outside New York City Hall

Members of the Association of Legislative Employees picket the New York City Council outside City Hall last month. | Jeff Coltin / POLITICO

Will New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ own staff get the same rights she helped extend to fast food workers?

Adams is a hypocrite, the New York City Council staff union says. When she was the lead sponsor of a 2021 law to ban fast food companies from firing workers for arbitrary reasons, she said, “Getting fired without just cause should not be something any New Yorker has to be afraid of.”

But council staffers are afraid. They’re at-will employees and “can be fired at any time, for any reason,” said Matt Malloy, stewards' representative on the executive board of the Association of Legislative Employees, the council staff union. “And we just think that's totally unacceptable.”

The union has been bargaining with Speaker Adams’ office for a contract since May 2022. And they’ve been ramping up the public pressure for a deal in the last couple months. They’ve picketed every stated meeting of the full council, and got 14 members to wear pins publicly showing support.

The current sticking point: the “swiss cheese grievance policy,” Malloy said. The speaker’s office has proposed that new staff would have a one-year probationary period where they could be fired at-will. Disciplinary protections would be revoked for six months after election years. And chiefs of staff would be exempted completely, even though they’re under the same civil service title as other member aides.

That’s an issue because members’ offices are their own little fiefdoms — and some have been accused of union busting. Three council aides shared their stories with Playbook and were granted anonymity to avoid further retaliation.

One staffer started organizing with the union. Soon, they were offered a new job in the office that was a demotion. And when the aide asked for a union representative to join the discussion, they were fired immediately.

Another staffer took a more active role in the union in their office. When their member found out, the staffer was moved from full-time to part-time employment, and their salary was reduced.

A third staffer talked openly about being gay in the office. A coworker said that would be a problem for the members, and the staffer didn’t “really fit in this office.” They were soon fired.

Those stories, while only one side of it, fit into a long history of complaints about council jobs, including low pay, long hours, mercurial bosses and high turnover.

Negotiations aren’t easy, since this is an entirely new contract. But for now, the pro-union speaker is biting her tongue. “The Council continues to negotiate with the ALE in good faith at the bargaining table, not through the media,” a Council spokesperson told Playbook. – Jeff Coltin

IT’S TUESDAY. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.

A message from Healthcare Education Project:

Medicaid pays New York’s hospitals 30% less than the actual cost of their care. But hospitals give all of their patients 100%, each and every day. Medicaid underpayments have already meant cuts to mental health services and maternity care. Albany can fix this injustice: Stop Medicaid underpayments and help hospitals stay open. Tell Albany: Every New Yorker deserves healthcare, no matter their income or ZIP code. End the Medicaid funding crisis now.

WHERE’S KATHY? Signing housing legislation in Brooklyn, then signing legislation to make Diwali a school holiday in New York City.

WHERE’S ERIC? Making an economic opportunity and public safety-related announcement, holding an off-topic media availability session and hosting a reception to celebrate Native American and Indigenous heritage.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We’re talking about helicopters!” — Mayor Eric Adams, in response to a reporter who asked about the latest on the campaign finance scandal swirling around the mayor during an unrelated announcement at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. He’ll have his weekly briefing with reporters this morning.

ABOVE THE FOLD

Some members of the New York City Council, including Gale Brewer, third from right, are in Israel this week to show solidarity with the country.

Some members of the New York City Council, including Gale Brewer, third from right, are in Israel this week to show support for the nation in its war with Hamas. | Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit

WAR-TIME TOUR: Thirteen New York City politicians are in Israel this week for an all-expenses paid solidarity tour hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

The attendees are Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine; Queens Borough President Donovan Richards; state Sens. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and John Liu; Assemblymembers Ed Braunstein, Grace Lee, Stacey Pheffer-Amato, Linda Rosenthal, Amanda Septimo and Tony Simone; and City Councilmembers Erik Bottcher, Gale Brewer and Marjorie Velázquez.

JCRC provided the names Monday, saying the visit is “an opportunity for participants to show their solidarity with the people of Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that killed over 1,400 Israeli civilians and kidnapped over 240 people who remain in Gaza as hostages.”

Since then, the Israeli government has waged war on Hamas, and more than 11,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the Hamas-Controlled Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between the deaths of soldiers and civilians.

It’s an incredibly tense time to visit, and the reaction that regular JCRC tours receive — both support and contempt — is expected to be amplified. JCRC spokesperson Tzipporah Shapiro declined to share the itinerary “due to security concerns” and said there are “extra security precautions in place” from a typical trip.

The trip drew criticism. JCRC trips are meant to give legislators positive feelings about the “explicitly racist government” of Israel, said Sophie Ellman-Golan, a spokesperson for the progressive group Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. “We appreciate that elected officials want to be in solidarity with Jews, but if they’re not going to extend that solidarity to Muslims and Palestinians, then that solidarity is actually extremely divisive, and not what New Yorkers need right now.”

JCRC is also hosting a concurrent trip for 14 New York faith leaders including Bishop Mitchell Taylor and Rev. Al Cockfield, both Adams’ allies. – Jeff Coltin

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WHAT CITY HALL IS READING

Migrants board a bus toward the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. Some single adult migrants received notices Monday they have 30 days to vacate city shelters. | Getty Images

SHORTER STAYS FOR MIGRANTS: The city began issuing notices Monday that limit single adult migrants in Department of Homeless Services-run shelters to 30-day stays.

“This process will be accompanied with the roll out of intensified case management services at these sites,” read an email to City Councilmembers obtained by Playbook. The services include help reconnecting with family and traveling to a “final destination.”

An Adams spokesperson confirmed the new notices.

The city already places a time limit at shelters run by other agencies; adult migrants must leave after 30 days and migrant families with children must exit after 60 days. They may reapply to stay in the city’s care, but beds are not immediately guaranteed.

Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park noted at a council hearing last month that about 2,000 single adult migrants were staying in DHS shelters, Gothamist reports.

The latest update to the city’s migrant policy came as Adams toured the Floyd Bennett Field site that opened to migrant families on Sunday. “This is not the best conditions,” he acknowledged, reupping his plea for help with the migrant surge. – Emily Ngo and Jeff Coltin

More from the city:

— A study found no increase in crime accompanied the opening of two safe injection sites, though by some measures, there were increases in arrests and quality of life complaints. (New York Daily News)

— Anne Williams-Isom is the de facto manager of the multiagency response to the 130,000 asylum-seekers who’ve arrived in the city since spring 2022. (City & State)

WHAT ALBANY'S READING

New York, NY — Governor Kathy Hochul announces18,000 jobs available to asylum seekers and migrants as part of statewide initiative to move individuals out of shelter and into independent living at Hot Bread Kitchen in Chelsea Market

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she won't be granting state-issued licenses to expand work permits to migrants. | Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

WORK PERMITS A NO-GO: New York won’t try to grant state-issued licenses to expand work permits to migrants.

Hochul on Monday told reporters in Manhattan the idea was abandoned over concerns it would open employers up to prosecution.

"I’m constrained by the law,” Hochul said. "Pursuing it has led to the conclusion that I can’t protect employers."

She added, “I cannot indemnify or protect employers from any kind of prosecution. That’s one of the barriers.”

Hochul has placed a premium on making it easier for migrants to find jobs in the hope that other issues like housing and food would fall into place as a result. She had previously hinted at the possibility of seeking a federal waiver for expanded work approval, but it seemed unlikely such a request would be granted.

And as the governor plans her budget proposal to be unveiled early next year, she has signaled the state will pull back aid for long-term hotel stays in favor of legal support and job placement. – Nick Reisman

MWBE CONCERNS: An affordable housing organization and a real estate group are raising concerns in a letter to top state officials to permanently extend Article 15a, the provision that created the state’s initial program to spur minority and women-owned businesses.

At issue as the law expires next year is how the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down affirmative action on college admissions could impact the renewal of the law.

“New York State, and the nation with it, are a long way from an equitable economy,” the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the New York Real Estate Chamber wrote in the letter sent Monday obtained by Playbook. “The reality is, the persistent racial wealth gap, the product of generations of slavery and systemic racism, holds back the full power of our economy. Only when all New Yorkers are able to participate on equitable footing will we reach our true, and full potential.”

The organizations are also calling for a revised certification process and an expansion of how contracts are awarded in addition to the permanent extension. – Nick Reisman

WALSH FOR STIRPE: Democratic state Senate hopeful Al Stirpe is getting the backing of independent Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh.

“I am proud to support him in his campaign for New York State Senate to bring common sense solutions to the challenges we face and advocating for much needed resources for Central New York,” Walsh said in a statement.

Stirpe, an Assemblymember, and former Oswego County Legislator Tom Drumm are competing for the Democratic nomination. Both men want to replace Democratic House candidate John Mannion in the central New York Senate seat. – Nick Reisman

GONZALEZ BACKS LLC BILL: Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez will endorse Tuesday a bill meant to pry more information from the often opaque world of limited liability companies. The measure, heading to Hochul’s desk, could lead to more information on the ownership structure of the entities.

“This crucial legislation would allow law enforcement and the public to access the same information we require from other types of corporations, facilitating my office’s efforts to hold building owners accountable for actions that put tenants, workers and the public at risk,” Gonzalez said in a statement to Playbook.

He’s the latest elected official to back the proposal sponsored by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, joining Attorney General Tish James, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. – Nick Reisman

More from the delegation:

— Former Rep. Max Rose is advising Organize New York, an liberal initiative planning to spend $9 million to register young people to vote ahead of 2024. (Huff Post)

— Wednesday is the day the state Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the critical redistricting case for House seats in New York. (POLITICO)

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AROUND NEW YORK

— Passing the Regents exam may no longer be a graduation requirement for New York high schools after new recommendations from the state’s Education Department. (POLITICO Pro)

— Buffalo is refusing to pay residents for damages from last year’s deadly blizzard. (Buffalo News)

— The Amtrak shutdown along the New York to Albany rail lines was prompted by a discovery of cracked steel beams at a Midtown parking garage. (Gothamist)

— A push to fine drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses is already being tested in Yonkers. (LoHud)

SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN

MAKING MOVES: Amy Rutkin will retire in January after 25 years as chief of staff to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Peter Lattman ... Jonathan Landman … AARP New York Legislative Representative Bill Ferris … Estee Lauder’s Joshua Friedlander … Lana (Volftsun) Fern

OUT & ABOUT: New York Jews in Politics held a government staffers happy hour at Sen Sakana in Midtown. SPOTTED: Co-founders Moshe Davis, Adrien Gardner Lesser, Pesach Osina and Eva Wyner and attendees Menashe Shapiro, Joel Eisdorfer, Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, redistricting Queen Miranda Goodwin-Raab, and HPD’s Ilana Maier and Gaby Eiss. (X Pic)

Real Estate

— The iconic 35-story Helmsley Building on Park Ave. is at risk of defaulting on its mortgage. (Crain’s New York Business)

— The mortgage on Donald Trump’s 40 Wall St. tower was transferred to a special servicer. (Bloomberg)

A message from Healthcare Education Project:

All New Yorkers deserve equal access to quality healthcare, no matter their income or ZIP code. Yet today, Medicaid pays New York’s hospitals 30% less than the actual cost of care for the low-income individuals the program covers, including children, the disabled, and seniors. But hospitals give all of their patients 100%, each and every day. Medicaid underpayments have already meant cuts to mental health services and maternity care.

Albany can fix this injustice: Stop Medicaid underpayments and help hospitals stay open. The federal government will pay half the cost of closing the Medicaid funding gap, it’s a huge savings for New York. Tell Albany: End the Medicaid funding crisis now.