An NYPD no-show

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Mar 01, 2023 View in browser   By Zachary Schermele Presented by NYPD brass didn't attend a Wednesday hearing hosted by the New York City Council. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images The New York Police Department failed to show up in person to an oversight hearing on Wednesday about its controversial Strategic Response Group. It was just the latest refusal from the department to answer questions about the response group, which started out in 2015 as a counterterrorism unit and now also spearheads protest responses. The unit is supported by Mayor Eric Adams, but has come under scrutiny due to allegations of abusive conduct, particularly during the widespread protests in summer 2020. The hearing had been postponed twice already, with the department citing pending litigation at the federal and state level. In a written statement to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the department’s director of legislative affairs said it “would not be able to answer any questions at this time.” “I call bull,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán, a Queens Democrat who sits on the committee. She was among a number of Council members, along with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who criticized the department for its absence. Both she and Williams said a representative could have been present to read the statement in person. In a statement, NYPD law department spokesperson Nick Paolucci said most of the topics the Council wanted to talk about “directly overlap with what is being discussed in ongoing negotiations, which the court has directed remain confidential.” According to the department, there are nearly 100 federal and state cases pending from summer 2020. The city just agreed to dole out tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of protestors who alleged the department used excessive force on them during that period and arrested them without probable cause. Two members of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the watchdog group that oversees the NYPD, testified instead. Arva Rice, the board's interim chair, said the agency has received 472 complaints against Strategic Response Group officers since the unit’s founding and about 80 have been substantiated. “The results of the SRG’s presence at protests have been aggressive and chaotic and have invariably escalated nonviolent protests into dangerous and violent environments,” Williams said at the hearing. While Adams said in January that the unit is “doing a great job,” Council Member Joann Ariola, a Republican from Queens, asked during the hearing for updated numbers on complaints against it, which she said has been reformed since Adams took over. “Going forward, we’ll have to subpoena the NYPD to make sure they appear at these hearings,” said Council Member Julie Won, one of a number of council members who have called for the unit to be disbanded. A City Hall spokesperson said public safety remains the mayor's top priority: "There will always still be work left to do, but we are taking some of the biggest actions in years to protect New Yorkers and connect with communities.” IT’S WEDNESDAY: Stay with us each afternoon as we keep you updated on the latest New York news in Albany, City Hall and beyond.   A message from Con Edison: As part of our Clean Energy Commitment, Con Edison is building a resilient, 22nd-century energy grid that’s primed to provide 100% renewable power. Specifically, we are developing clean energy hubs to connect and deliver up to 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind and investing $800 million into the installation of new transmission lines. Our efforts are expanding access to the renewable sources that will deliver hundreds of megawatts of clean, reliable energy to New Yorkers.   From the Capitol MATERNAL HEALTH: Senate Democrats passed a new round of bills Wednesday on reproductive health rights — including ways to prevent insurance fees from being imposed on pregnant people and establishing a uterine fibroid education and awareness campaign through the Department of Health. The other measures of the package would enhance the scope of health equity impact assessments and create a community doula directory for Medicaid recipients — aimed at helping minority communities better health care access. The package now heads to the Assembly. DYSLEXIA TASK FORCE: The Assembly and Senate are poised to once again pass the “Dyslexia Task Force Act” (S2599), sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Robert Carroll, to establish standards to address the issue for students. The measure recently passed the chambers’ education committees after Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed the bill last year, as part of 39 bills that would have added new task forces and commissions without any funding attached to pay for them. — Joseph Spector From City Hall CUNY is waiving its application fee for the fall semester, the system announced Wednesday. | Getty Images CUNY WAIVES APPLICATION FEE: The City University of New York is waiving the $65 application fee for New York City public high school seniors who apply between March 1 and April 15 to go to a CUNY college in the fall. The university said the six-week initiative is part of an effort to boost access to higher education, especially to first-generation college students, immigrants and working class Black and Latinx New Yorkers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the enrollment declines that followed. “We are trying to motivate seniors who may still be undecided about applying to college to take this important step toward their future at no cost,” CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said in a statement. “We are also removing a financial roadblock that has deterred many students from applying.” Seniors graduating between January and August and planning to start college in the fall are eligible for the initiative. Roughly 82 percent of CUNY’s first-time freshmen attended city public schools, according to CUNY. CUNY already waives the application fee for thousands of eligible city public school students annually, including students who are homeless or in foster care, residing in subsidized public housing or receiving public assistance. — Madina Touré “WELCOME NYC”: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced a new $2.2 million initiative to shore up services like food assistance and legal fees for asylum seekers. About half the money comes from a couple big-name charities, while the other half comes from the Council, which will earmark the funds on Thursday. — Zachary Schermele   A message from Con Edison:   On the beats REAL ESTATE: As leading state lawmakers remain cool to the prospect of reviving the controversial 421-a tax break, Hochul is pushing to extend the completion deadline for projects covered by the expired program. But key legislators aren’t too keen on that either. Developers that got their foundations in the ground in time to get the tax benefits must complete the projects by June 2026. Hochul is proposing to extend that by four years, as the real estate industry warns many projects won’t finish by the earlier deadline. The program, which offered a tax break to New York City apartment buildings while requiring affordable housing, expired last June. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, chair of the body’s housing committee, pressed at a housing budget hearing Wednesday for the number and location of projects that would be covered by a potential extension and called it “troubling” the Legislature is being asked to consider that without a fuller accounting. State housing commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas pointed to statistics released by the real estate industry that found roughly 33,000 units across 72 projects are at risk of not getting built due to the current deadline. Sen. Liz Krueger, a longtime critic of the program, said it would be a “tragic mistake for New York State to allow an additional four years on a program we ended for very specific reasons.” She did raise the potential for more limited action for projects that have negotiated agreements with the city to offer more affordable housing than the program’s requirements. — Janaki Chadha MEDICAID FIGHT: County executives continued to deride Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget plan that would “intercept” $625 million in federal Medicaid funds to reimburse counties and instead use it to cover the state’s bills. The county leaders passed a resolution during their annual conference this week calling on Hochul to dump the Medicaid funding shift — which she has argued is needed to cover ballooning Medicaid costs and noting that the local share is still capped. “The governor’s plan to shift $625 million onto local property taxpayers would be so damaging to the residents we serve,” Clinton County administrator Michael Zurlo, the group’s president, said in a statement. That’s not the only Medicaid fight as budget talks start in earnest in the coming weeks. 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is holding an event in Buffalo on Friday to push for higher Medicaid reimbursement rates, saying the state has barely increased them over the past 15 years and are disparate across the state while the coverage costs have grown 40 percent. — Joseph Spector A industry-backed poll found New York residents support an eventual ban on fossil fuels in new construction. | Getty Images GAS BAN POLL: A majority of New York residents support banning fossil fuels in new buildings, a poll conducted by Siena College Research Institute and funded by the fossil fuel industry and labor-backed New Yorkers for Affordable Energy found. Fifty-seven percent said they supported moving new construction off fossil fuel for heating and hot water starting in 2025 in the poll conducted February 5-9 with 897 respondents. A majority (56 percent) also backed a ban on fossil fuel replacement appliances for heating, cooking and more starting in 2030. Hochul’s budget includes provisions to ban combustion appliances in new single-family homes and multifamily under four stories starting in 2026 and in larger and commercial buildings in 2029. Exemptions for commercial kitchens and other facilities are included. She’s also proposed banning replacement fossil fuel heating equipment, not including stoves, in existing single-family homes starting in 2030 and for larger buildings in 2035. Gas utilities are vehemently opposed to the proposal, raising concerns about impacts on the state’s electric grid and costs for consumers as they fight what amounts to an existential threat to their business. — Marie J. French 3K BATTLE CONTINUES: The City Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus is urging the city to address problems with 3K and early childhood education. In a letter to Adams on Tuesday, the caucus proposed several solutions, including putting in place systems that ensure Department of Education-contracted child care providers are paid on time and releasing a new request for proposal for the expansion of 3K and extended day/year seats — extended hours and summer sessions — to match the needs of working parents. Schools Chancellor David Banks and First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright were also copied on the letter. “Black, Latino and Asian communities lose out the most when essential providers like Sheltering Arms close their doors permanently due to bureaucratic dysfunction and the Caucus is focused on ensuring the City gets this right,” the caucus said in a statement. Amaris Cockfield, the mayor’s deputy press secretary, pointed to the newly created Mayor’s Office of Nonprofit Services; ContractStat, an oversight initiative that aims to tackle issues before they surface, and the 12-week “Clear the Backlog” initiative to help get nonprofits with overdue bills paid for their work. “We appreciate the City Council’s focus on these important initiatives and look forward to finding ways to sustain and build on our work to lift up our students and schools in the budgetary process,” Cockfield said in a statement. — Madina Touré   A message from Con Edison: Our work includes the creation of peak-demand reduction strategies, new substations, and local transmission initiatives like Reliable Clean City projects—a trio of electric transmission projects that will connect all New York City boroughs to a supply of increasingly renewable electricity. All together, these projects help transition New York away from fossil fuels and prepare our grid to deliver 100% clean energy to all customers by 2040. See New York’s energy future here.   Around New York — New York City will pay $21,500 to each of the 320 protesters attacked by the NYPD during the Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. (The New York Times) — A man drove away on an American Airlines bus shuttle from JFK to Brooklyn. (New York Post) — In Ridgewood, Queens, rent-stabilized apartments are nowhere to be found. (THE CITY) — An upstate New York lawmaker changed his idea on weed candies; he now introduced a bill to ban them. (WNYC)   Follow us on Twitter Anna Gronewold @annagronewold Joseph Spector @JoeSpectorNY   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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