February 9, 2015
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“A core component of our economic development policy must be to raise the floor for all workers…a crack down on wage theft and labor law abuses, and an affordable housing policy that requires developers to do more for middle-class and low-income New Yorkers...” – Mayoral Candidate Bill de Blasio, May 30, 2013
WHAT ARE NYSAFAH AND ITS MEMBERS DOING TO PREVENT WAGE THEFT? MDG Design & Construction
Stolen Wages $4.5 million
NYSAFAH Board of Directors
Lettire Construction
Stolen Wages $ 3.3 million
Member, NYSAFAH
Great American
Stolen Wages $575,000
Member, NYSAFAH
NYSAFAH and its members oppose prevailing wages being paid to hard working New Yorkers. Members of their Board of Directors have been forced by the New York State Attorney General to pay back-wages to workers they failed to properly compensate.
WHAT IS NYSAFAH DOING ABOUT WAGE THEFT? NOTHING!!
NYSAFAH, CLEAN UP YOUR ACT! GREATER NEW YORK LABORERS-EMPLOYERS COOPERATION AND EDUCATION TRUST, GNYLECET, IS A JOINTLY MANAGED TRUST FUND OF THE MASON TENDERS DISTRICT COUNCIL AND ITS 1500 SIGNATORY CONTRACTORS. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PATRICK PURCELL 212.452.9300 EMAIL: GNYLECET @ AOL.COM
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
CONTENTS February 9, 2015
Michael Gareth Johnson Executive Editor
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CITY
Does de Blasio’s rezoning plan go far enough?
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By Sarina Trangle
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END OF AN ERA
The swift, sudden downfall of Sheldon Silver By Ashley Hupfl
STATE
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Silver’s state budget legacy By Jon Lentz
By Jon Lentz
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Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis on post-Silver reforms
The strong legal case against Sheldon Silver
Michael Benjamin on Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
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RENT RAGE
Tenants battle to keep their homes By Ken Thorbourne
BUFFALO
Is Steve Pigeon the next target of Preet Bharara?
24.......
By Alan Bedenko
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
Cuomo’s hospitals plan…de Blasio’s shift to healthcare inequality…Q&As with Jason Helgerson, Ramanathan Raju, Mary Bassett, Kemp Hannon, Richard Gottfried and Corey Johnson
February 9, 2015
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33.......
PERSPECTIVES
34.......
BACK & FORTH
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. on combating public corruption
A Q&A with former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell
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city & state — February 9, 2015
SHANNON DECELLE
I
was 14 years old when Sheldon Silver was elected speaker of the Assembly. I was 15 when Joseph Bruno became Senate majority leader. I had just turned 23 when I started covering politics in Albany in 2002 when the two leaders had a stranglehold over the State Capitol. Each year, Silver and Bruno would engage in an almost scripted dance of political posturing, attacking each other in public on hotbutton issues their supporters or conference members wanted, and ultimately coming to some mutually beneficial agreement to take care of their respective conferences. It always felt like this was not the way government should work. If you started to accept it as a fait accompli, good government groups like the Brennan Center were there to tell you the process was corrupt. Yet, in the end, nothing changed. And then all of a sudden everything started to change—from the pay-to-play pension fund investigation of Alan Hevesi in 2007 to Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute problem and Joe Bruno’s resignation in 2008. Countless other rank-and-file lawmakers left in handcuffs or because they were sick of the process. But as the players and rules changed, somehow Sheldon Silver remained—like the last tree in a forest ravaged by fire. When Silver finally fell, it was without much fanfare. The Manhattan Democrat was unable to negotiate his survival in the back rooms he owned for decades. On the cover of this issue we wanted to encapsulate the quiet exit of the legend by depicting Silver walking off the page with a long shadow—a reference to his legacy. The white space represents a blank slate he leaves behind him—an opportunity for reform lawmakers will likely not capitalize on. But we can hope. Inside the issue Albany Reporter Ashley Hupfl recaps the rapid decline and backroom dealing inside the Democratic Conference to force Silver out and usher in his successor, Bronx Assemblyman Carl Heastie. We also look at Silver’s legacy. Senior Correspondent Jon Lentz focuses in on the impact Silver had on the state budget, where he would drag on negotiations into the summer in order to win more funding for his members, ultimately resulting in lasting changes in the process. And for fun, we included a timeline to show what else was happening in the world during Silver’s 21-year reign, capping our reflection on this historic transition of power.
Letters to the
Editor Can Andrew Cuomo Avoid a Sophomore Slump?
REMEMBERING
ANNUAL
STATE LEGISLATIVE
Mario Cuomo 1932 - 2015
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January 20, 2015
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January 20, 2015
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CITY AND STATE, LLC Chairman Steve Farbman
more YEARS Can Andrew Cuomo
President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com
Avoid a Sophomore Slump? By Jon Lentz
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city & state — February 9, 2015
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In the magazine’s Jan. 20 edition, City & State contributor Susan Arbetter reported on New York’s Brownfield Cleanup Program and the state’s Superfund program, both of which will require legislative action to continue helping clean up toxic sites. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2015-16 budget proposal recommends substantial amendments to New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP). The reform proposals include many thoughtful and constructive suggestions for improving this important program. However, certain aspects of the proposed changes are likely to create more difficulties in cleaning up and redeveloping brownfield sites, which already face significant challenges. Under current law, a BCP applicant may claim up to $35 million in tangible property (i.e., development) tax credits for a non-industrial project or three times its site preparation (i.e., cleanup) costs, whichever is less. These caps were added in 2008 to address concerns about the overall costs of the BCP. Despite several independent studies that indicate that the caps have achieved this goal, the governor proposes to eliminate the tangible property credits as an “as of right” feature. Instead, he would require applicants to meet a second set of criteria to be able to claim the credits. This so-called “two-gate” approach is controversial, not only because of the proposed criteria but also because it would inject more complication, delays and uncertainty into the BCP application process. As a result, the New York State Bar Association’s Brownfield Task Force, which we co-chair, convened a cross-section of stakeholders to study the BCP and issued a report in January that was based on the valuable input of these participants. We concluded that the goals of the two-gate approach could be better achieved by retaining the “as-of-right” eligibility for tangible property credits for all projects
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admitted into the program; lowering the $35 million cap for these credits; and providing for higher caps as well as increasing the “three times” multiplier for certain categories of projects that address well-defined public priorities. The state’s contaminated sites cannot be cleaned solely with taxpayer funding. We are concerned that the governor’s proposals could have the effect of discouraging much-needed private investment in brownfield sites. Our recommendations synthesize the best elements of the governor’s and Legislature’s 2014 proposals—as well as creative ideas from other stakeholders—into a package that could form the basis for reform that all parties can support. —David Freeman, director of real property and environmental law in Gibbons’ New York office, and Larry Schnapf, principal of Schnapf LLC and a professor of environmental law at New York Law School
Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@cityandstateny.com Events Director Jasmin Freeman jfreeman@cityandstateny.com Business Development Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com Director of Marketing Samantha Diliberti sdiliberti@cityandstateny.com Office Administrator Jeff Stein jstein@cityandstateny.com Distribution Czar Dylan Forsberg
EDITORIAL Executive Editor Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com Senior Correspondent Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com Web Editor/Reporter Wilder Fleming wfleming@cityandstateny.com
As part of a special section remembering Mario Cuomo, veteran journalist Wayne Barrett reflected on the former governor’s life and his contradictions.
Albany Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com
Read this meditation by the great Wayne Barrett on Mario Cuomo. No-nonsense, myth-debunking, and prayer-like. —Dan Barry, New York Times columnist (via Twitter)
Editor-at-large Gerson Borrero gborrero@cityandstateny.com
No reporter has covered NYC with the weighted urgency of Wayne Barrett. —Patrick Gaspard, U.S. ambassador to South Africa (via Twitter) In a great Mario remembrance, Wayne Barrett provides a corrective to the “Vote Cuomo not the homo” smear. —David Freedlander, The Daily Beast senior political correspondent (via Twitter)
Staff Reporter Sarina Trangle strangle@cityandstateny.com
Columnists Alexis Grenell, Nicole Gelinas, Michael Benjamin, Seth Barron, Susan Arbetter
PRODUCTION Art Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstateny.com Graphic Designer Michelle Yang myang@cityandstateny.com Marketing Graphic Designer Charles Flores, cflores@cityandstateny.com Web Manager Lydia Eck, leck@cityandstateny.com
To have your letter to the editor considered for publication, leave a comment at www.cityandstateny.com, tweet us @CityAndStateNY, email editor@cityandstateny.com or write to 61 Broadway, Suite 2825, New York, NY 10006. Letters may be edited for clarity or length.
Illustrator Danilo Agutoli
City & State is published twice monthly. Copyright ©2015, City and State NY, LLC
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70 years of rent control has not solved New York City’s housing shortage.
Let’s Rethink Housing Affordable Housing means fairness for ALL tenants and owners.
For too long, New Yorkers have lived with a broken housing system. It’s time for stakeholders to come together and reframe the conversation. A clear, workable, and ethical plan is needed to restore an adequate supply of housing so that New Yorkers of all income levels can find and afford quality homes. Contact info@chipnyc.org for more information.
STATE OF OUR STATE Taste Albany, Jan. 20, 2015
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I started in 2000 and I was No. 61 in the conference, and now I’m No. 5 in the Democratic Conference and probably about No. 18 in the entire Senate, so I stayed long enough to wear them all down. —State Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson
Assemblyman Luis Sepúlveda State Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson
Erica Orden, Jesse McKinley, Zack Fink, Mike Vilensky
Assemblyman Michael Blake, Bruce Gyory
Assemblyman Keith Wright
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LEGISLATIVE LAUNCH AND MARIO CUOMO COMMEMORATION Taste Albany, Jan. 6, 2015
Assemblyman Phil Steck and Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbera State Sen. Brad Hoylman and state Sen. Pat Gallivan
Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli
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SHANNON DECELLE
city & state — February 9, 2015
—State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli
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Mario Cuomo, we’re reminded that he was someone who had strong opinions, strong views, strong heart, and he never wavered. It didn’t matter to him what the polls said.
Gov. Cuomo: Hundreds of teachers across the city and state have invited you to visit their classrooms to see how education works on the ground and what our kids need in order to succeed. If you were to talk to real teachers in their classrooms you would learn a lot from them. You would learn that it is poverty and inequality and lack of funding, not “failing schools” or “bad teachers,” that are at the root of our education system’s struggles. You would learn the impact of overcrowded classes, lack of supplies and too few supports for teachers and struggling students. You would learn that high-stakes testing forces teachers to “teach to the test” — which doesn’t teach our kids much of anything at all. And you would learn that teachers are motivated by seeing their students succeed, not by corporate bonus-style “merit pay.” The fact is that the education agenda that you put forth in your State of the State address isn’t about education at all — it is political payback. You’re angry that New York’s teachers didn’t support your re-election bid. But who are you really punishing when you push failed ideas on our schools? It’s not teachers. An entire generation of our state’s children will suffer if you have your way. Let’s look at some of your actual proposals, a laundry list of old ideas that have been proven not to work. You want to extend teachers’ probation from three to five years, but you have no plan to help support them during this period. You want “failing” schools to be taken over by outside entities that would have the power to abrogate contracts and fire entire staffs, but you don’t have a plan to support these schools either. You acknowledge that charter schools don’t accept enough English language learners and special-needs students, yet you want to increase the cap on the number of charters in the state without requiring them to first follow the law. Likewise, didn’t you say just last year that teachers shouldn’t be penalized for students’ scores on state exams because of the flawed rollout of the Common Core? Yet, without doing anything to fix the Common Core except pass the blame, you are now proposing that 50 percent of teachers’ evaluations be based on results from those same exams. Most teachers don’t even work in grades or subjects that are covered by a state exam, which means they will be evaluated based on student work they had no hand in. For those who do, basing 50 percent of evaluations on state test scores will force them to spend even more classroom time on test prep. The rest of the country is moving away from high-stakes tests for students and teachers. Even Texas, the home of the highstakes test, is considering basing only 20 percent of teachers’ evaluations on student scores. You are pushing for a gotcha-style evaluation system that you say will weed out “bad teachers” rather than proposing a system that will help all teachers hone their craft. You like to talk about how much you love teachers, but there wasn’t very much love for us in your agenda. As historian of education Diane Ravitch has said, “You don’t improve education by demoralizing the people who have to do the work.” Governor, classroom doors across the city and state are open to you. It seems like you could use a trip back to school. Why not make a visit?
Ira J. Goldstein is the Executive Director of the New York Black Car Fund, Chief Operating Officer of the Black Car Assistance Corp (BCAC), and Treasurer of the Coalition of Transportation Associations (COTA).
ON THE ROAD TO SAFER DRIVING
AND A SAFER CITY
OVER-TAXED SAMUELS CALLS ON STATE TO ASSUME MUNICIPALITIES’ MEDICAID COSTS
As anyone who has ever started their vacation behind the wheel for a drive of any distance, it’s not easy on your back. In fact, most non-crash driver injuries are back related. So imagine what it’s like for drivers who sits for an average of 10-12 hours a day, driving an average of 200 miles per day behind the wheel. These drivers get out mostly to assist passengers out of cars, and lift heavy luggage. I’m talking about Black Car Drivers. While our main function is to provide workers’ compensation for these drivers, beginning in 2007, the Black Car Fund has offered an “Earn While You Learn” Program. Even before Vision Zero, we instructed tens of thousands of drivers in enhanced safety and defensive driving techniques. The Fund pays drivers $300 to participate or they can reduce points off their license. As part of “Earn While You Learn” the Black Car Fund has developed a wellness program to ensure our drivers are healthy enough to deal with their long hours on the road, to reduce injuries and maintain a better quality of life.
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Conducted at our award winning Driver Safety Center in Long Island City, drivers are taught proper lifting techniques; the physiology of the back and ergonomic exercises to reduce injuries. The “Save-A-Back” course was also an “Earn While You Learn” opportunity with each driver receiving $200. Those initial classes were well received by our drivers, so the fund has expanded the program to include more “Earn While You Learn” opportunities, including a return of the Save-A-Back course. Some of our additional instruction classes are a “Hands Only CPR” instruction. The CPR class, was developed in conjunction with, and through a grant from New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell. Never happy to rest on our accomplishments, the Black Car Fund is constructing a curriculum for a road rage prevention class. While recognizing the success of Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative; we at the Black Car Fund have heard from our drivers that compliance with the new speed limits is also leading to more hostility on the roadways of New York City directed at them. Through these programs we endeavor to provide our drivers with the tools to drive safe, smart and comfortable environment for their passenger’s/client’s mental health -- and their own.
city & state — February 9, 2015
In the near future, we anticipate launching the “Transportation on Patrol” courses that educate drivers on tell-tale signs of possible criminal activities; providing additional eyes and ears for law enforcement. Not only does this help create safer city, it allows for positive interactions between drivers and police that aren’t simply violation related. Just as importantly as these programs, many of the ideas for these courses have come from our drivers. And by listening and responding to those ideas The Black Car Fund is able to demonstrate we are not simply here to provide for our drivers should they unfortunately be in an accident. We are committed to help them improve behind the wheel but also to live healthier, happier and more productive lives. While providing service beyond mere transportation to this City.
By SARINA TRANGLE
B
ill Samuels, founder of the liberal policy group EffectiveNY, wants Gov. Andrew Cuomo to champion a property tax relief proposal floated by Mario Cuomo, the executive’s late father. At a recent event hosted by City & State, Samuels said the state has spent decades resisting requests that it assume a larger share of Medicaid funding and, consequently, has saddled local municipalities with an outsize burden. Samuels said a 1967 constitutional convention proposed the state pay for Medicaid costs not handled by the federal government and that the recently deceased former Gov. Mario Cuomo floated a similar idea in the late 1990s, but it never proved politically palatable. “The goal isn’t just to lower the taxes,” Samuels said. “The goal is to take the shackles off our county executives, to take off the unfair tax burden on our working families and homeowner, and most importantly, create a competitive business environment.” He suggested Gov. Andrew Cuomo use $733 million in the state budget to relieve counties outside New York City of around a third of their total estimated $2.2 billion property tax burden and assume the remainder of the municipalities’ collective burden over the next two years. Currently, the federal government pays for about half of Medicaid in New York and the state government covers 35 percent and passes another 15 percent onto the counties, according to EffectiveNY. Samuels said all other states bankroll a larger portion of Medicaid. “Forget this 2 percent tax cap,”
Samuels said of the current policy, which requires at least 60 percent of voters to approve upstate local governments’ budgets if they rely raising the property tax revenue of more than 2 percent or the rate of inflation. “Overall, New York State doing what 49 other states do, doing what’s right, we reduce county
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New York State property taxes by 49 percent.” Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment. In recent years, his administration has had the state assume increases in Medicaid costs and offered grants and assistance for municipalities and school districts that work with the Financial Restructing Board for Local Government. Local elected leaders at the City & State conference echoed Samuels’ complaints that the state required municipalities to provide health and social services, tasked them with complying with the 2 percent property tax cap and failed to throw more weight behind them in union contract and pension negotiations. Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said 80 percent of the surrounding Onondaga County tax levy went to Medicaid. She said Syracuse took pension negotiations to binding arbitration, which put the final financial decision out of the city’s
AFL-CIO
hands, and the remaining budget forced her to close a fire house, shut senior centers and trim other services constituents expect. “As long as the discussion doesn’t focus on, ‘Let’s solve the problem,’ but instead focuses on, ‘Well, let’s win the media cycle of the day by casting blame or throwing it on other people,’ we’re still going to be in this position,” she said. “We feel we have very little control.” E.J. McMahon, president of the right-leaning Empire Center for Public Policy, said finding $2 billion in the state’s budget to cover more Medicaid costs would likely be much more difficult than Samuels suggested. “If this was easy, it would have been done,” McMahon said. “If we could really lift all of the statemandated health services and welfare services and social services off the backs of counties, if we did a thorough enough job of it, we may not need counties.”
Helping Working Families Achieve A Better Life
Teachers and Collective Bargaining are Not the Problem in Our Schools, They're Part of the Solution by Mario Cilento, President of the New York State AFL-CIO
There are many reasons the New York State AFL-CIO is vehemently opposed to the Educational Opportunity Act in the Executive Budget. The first and foremost is that it ignores the real difficulties that our public schools face and instead places blame squarely on the shoulders of the professional women and men who have dedicated their lives to the welfare, nurturing and betterment of our children. This is evident throughout the education proposal but nowhere is it clearer than in the plan to allow for the negating of collective bargaining agreements in so-called “underperforming” public schools and a dramatic erosion of due process for our teachers when it comes to discipline. These proposals single out school employees, including teachers, administrative, operational and support staff, and also suggest that union representation is somehow responsible for the myriad of problems that frustrate our teachers across the state every day.
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The proposal ignores poverty, malnutrition, substance abuse, developmental and behavioral issues and many of the other issues caused by socio-economic circumstances. No matter if in a city or a rural area, if these issues are present and particularly if they are persistent, you can guarantee they will interfere with a child’s ability to learn. The state testing and evaluation process can never account for these issues and to hold individual teachers and the entire collective bargaining process responsible only exacerbates the problem. It will discourage teachers from giving the real story to parents, especially when the news is not comforting. It will discourage qualified individuals from applying to be teachers in the first place. Worse, it will make our current teachers question whether the state has their back.
Bill Samuels of EffectiveNY says his property tax plan would help local governments.
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We urge our elected officials to treat teachers as partners in improving our schools, and to work toward real solutions that actually make all our public schools, and in turn all our children, the best they can be.
For more information on the New York State AFL-CIO, visit www.nysaflcio.org.
city & state — February 9, 2015
ARMAN DZIDZOVIC
The vast majority of our teachers and school personnel are dedicated and effective. We need to do better for them. Simply throwing our hands up and saying “blame the teacher” and “privatize our public schools” is not fighting for our children; it is surrender.
CIT Y
IN THE ZONE
DOES DE BLASIO’S REZONING PLAN GO FAR ENOUGH? By SARINA TRANGLE
city & state — February 9, 2015
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noting it was on a site where prior zoning would not have required any affordable units. “There are many more rezonings like this coming to neighborhoods across the five boroughs.” After the mayor stepped off the stage at Baruch College’s Mason Hall, Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development, said the Planning Commission aimed to release a draft of the inclusionary program this spring for the targeted areas: East New York, Long Island City, Flushing West, the Jerome Avenue corridor, the Bay Street corridor and East Harlem. “That will outline the
administration’s approach to mandatory inclusionary, which as we’ve said before, will not be a one-size-fits-all approach,” Glen said. “There will be a menu of options that different neighbors and developers can take advantage of.” But Real Affordability for All, a coalition of 50 groups seeking to bolster low-income housing, said half of the units in the projects in question should be affordable. The coalition also said that more detailed criteria were needed to ensure units designated for struggling New Yorkers were affordable to local low-income families.
“We want to make sure that we get into the details and specifics,” Real Affordability for All spokeswoman Maritza Silva-Farrell said. “Astoria Cove has not proven to be a good model in terms of affordable housing. We are talking about 27 percent being affordable … and also the depth of affordability that we want to see is not happening there.” Silva-Farrell said too many Astoria Cove units would be market rate and that even the affordable units would not benefit residents of Astoria, where the median income for a family of four was $51,540 in 2013. Under the agreement, 5 percent of the affordable
ARMAN DZIDZOVIC
I
n an affordable housing push framed as a fight for the soul of New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would lead the charge by mandating affordable units for new housing developments in six areas targeted for rezoning. But just how flexible the administration should be in wielding this requirement is still a matter of debate. Housing advocates applauded the mayor’s emphasis on housing in his 2015 State of the City address, but some urged the administration to set a standard benchmark for inclusionary zoning, calling for half of all units added in the rezoned areas be affordable to low-income residents. Others disagreed, saying that the more flexible approach proposed by city officials has proven effective. De Blasio elaborated on his firstyear pledge to expand affordable housing across the five boroughs and cited Astoria Cove as a model for the mandate. In that development, to be constructed on the Queens waterfront, the city reached an agreement this past fall that would classify 27 percent of the more than 1,700 units as affordable. The developer also agreed to make infrastructure investments in exchange for the subsidies and added air rights to develop taller buildings, a process known as upzoning. Housing advocates had called for half of the units to be affordable at Astoria Cove as well and criticized the agreement at the time, while city officials touted it as a victory. “As a result of the mandatory inclusionary zoning framework adopted by this administration, and—I tip my hat—the City Council’s very tough negotiations, 465 units of affordable housing will be created on this one site alone,” de Blasio said,
Mayor Bill de Blasio said his plan will reverse years of allowing developers’ bottom lines to drive expansion in the city.
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LESSONS FROM THE BIG APPLE:
CIT Y
AREAS TARGETED FOR REZONING
THE VALUE OF ENTERPRISE ANALYTICS By Johnny Cavaliero, Managing Director, Accenture The City of New York is a longtime leader in using analytics to manage complex operations, making it one of the safest and most efficient big cities in the world. For example, analytics helped to identify the 1% of pharmacies that accounted for more than 60% of total Medicaid reimbursements for Oxycodone. Analytics also helped save lives by boosting the inspection “hit” rate of buildings so dangerous that they must be vacated, rising from 13% to 75%. New York used a highly strategic approach to achieve those and other results. The Mayor’s Office on Data Analytics (MODA) was launched with a focus on crossagency data transparency to support more informed operational decisions and to root out fraud and waste. From there, City leaders recognized the potential value of analytics not just for understanding what already happened but also for looking ahead—enabling better insights and preparing for the future. To that end, the City invested in an enterprise analytics platform. Known as DataBridge, the platform helps New York City more quickly and accurately shift resources where they are needed most. Because it operates at the enterprise level, the platform supports cross-agency improvements in operational optimization and public safety initiatives. With an enterprise platform like DataBridge, virtually any city, county or state can achieve robust levels of analytical exploration, enabling employees to: Flushing West
East New York
East Harlem
Long Island City
Bay Street Corridor
apartments there would be available for those making 60 percent of the median income while 15 percent will go to renters making 80 percent of the median and 7 percent to “middle income” households making 125 percent of the median. But a blanket mandate for the city could be counterproductive, said Rachel Meltzer, assistant professor of urban policy at the Milano School. More flexible inclusionary zoning programs have boded well for other cities such as San Francisco, while those with more rigid approaches, like Washington, D.C., have not had such success, she said. “It can be quite dangerous because it assumes all these submarkets are the same, which is not true,” Meltzer said, adding that New York City’s plan will be “a very neighborhoodbased approach, which is exactly how inclusionary zoning is supposed to be.” Meltzer said she expected New York City to mandate the number of affordable units and the size of the subsidy for them based on the profit developers could reap given various cit yandstateny.com
projects’ sizes and locations. De Blasio rounded out his housing policy push by saying the city would add 160,000 market rate homes, in addition to the 80,000 affordable units created and 120,000 preserved it committed to securing by 2024. The mayor said expanding the housing stock would ease the tight housing market and drive down demand. The administration also plans to spend $36 million contracting lawyers to represent those in rezoned areas who are being harassed by landlords looking to lure in higher paying tenants. The mayor offered plans for 11,250 affordable units in a proposed housing development at Sunnyside Yards as well, although a spokeswoman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo quickly shot down that idea, noting that the MTA currently uses the land and that it would not be available “for any other use in the near term.” Other new proposals include studio apartments for artists on limited incomes. De Blasio also called on Albany to renew and strengthen rentcontrol laws set to expire in June.
• Prioritize issues and better allocate resources • Make decisions based on true need—not intuition or qualitative information that does not accurately reflect what is happening in the field • Save lives by helping avoid human catastrophe • Identify and reduce instances of fraudulent, wasteful, abusive and erroneous activities • Identify high-risk or high-cost activities • Identify data patterns to reduce risk and prevent problems
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Based on our experience supporting New York City’s DataBridge platform, Accenture has identified three fundamental steps to building an enterprise analytics platform: Build infrastructure. An end-to-end infrastructure, including data, data management, methods and consumption, lays the foundation for a powerful analytics capability. Consider using a range of tools for data discovery, predictive analytics, business intelligence and reporting. Assess available data. Virtually every government has a wealth of data—from citizen phone calls to crime reports and inspection results. The challenge is creating a comprehensive picture of operations, ensuring that the most pertinent data is available to support meaningful analyses. In New York, data about physical landscape, including data about streets, buildings and zoning was crucial to creating a picture of the City. Create a model for sustainability. Just as important as infrastructure and data is the long-term growth and sustainability of the platform. Consider developing a set of tools for prioritizing initiatives based on their quantitative and qualitative value, along with an organization structure to support the work. How can enterprise analytics help your jurisdiction support cost savings, public safety and quality of life—delivering public service for the future? Learn more about New York City’s DataBridge platform at http://www.accenture.com/nycdatabridge
city & state — February 9, 2015
Jerome Avenue Corridor
S TAT E
SILVER BULLET?
CORRUPTION CASE AGAINST ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SHELDON SILVER IS STRONG, LEGAL EXPERTS SAY By JON LENTZ
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city & state — February 9, 2015
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hile announcing the corruption charges against then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was careful to point out that the legislative leader is “presumed innocent, unless and until proven guilty.” Legal experts were quick to agree, of course—but they also said that the criminal case against Silver appears to be a strong one, given the solid legal framework underlying the charges, the detailed documentation of his alleged corruption schemes and the substantial number of cooperating witnesses. In a bombshell announcement, federal prosecutors accused Silver, formerly one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, of using his elected office to amass millions of dollars through bribes and kickbacks disguised as legitimate payments in an outside job as a private attorney. According to Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, some $700,000 came from real estate developers with business before the state, funneled to Silver
through a real estate law firm run by his former counsel. In another scheme, he allegedly directed research funds and additional benefits to a doctor who referred asbestos patients to a personal injury law firm that paid Silver nearly $4 million for what prosecutors described as a no-show job. Silver’s attorneys have dismissed the allegations as “meritless” and predicted a “full exoneration” of their client. One potential weakness of the charges is the mail fraud law, which underlies a portion of the case and is “notoriously fungible” and “troubles some appellate judges,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. But the underlying legal framework appeared to be solid otherwise, O’Donnell and other legal experts said. “The allegations here go beyond technicalities: they are of an old-fashioned, audacious, middle of broad daylight, years in the making scheme to line Silver’s pockets by corrupting his office and using it for private gain,” said O’Donnell, a former prosecutor. In addition, several experts said the 35-page complaint makes clear that the charges were the product of an intense effort by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “A case such as this is vetted at the highest levels of the Justice Department,” O’Donnell said. “That does not assure that it cannot collapse, but such an outcome is unlikely.” Another factor is which witnesses will testify if the case goes to court. Several witnesses mentioned in the complaint were directly involved and have cooperated with prosecutors, which could bolster the case. The doctor and an attorney at the real estate law firm that paid Silver, both unnamed, were granted immunity as a result of their cooperation with
prosecutors. Investigators also fleshed out the details of the alleged schemes by interviewing developers and lobbyists who were directly involved, including at least one who also has a non-prosecution agreement. Jennifer Rodgers, who served formerly in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, said that having cooperating witnesses with firsthand knowledge of any criminal conduct is always an advantage for prosecutors. “The complaint does reference a cooperating witness who received a non-prosection agreement—the doctor who allegedly was benefitted by the speaker’s diverting funds to his research center he was involved with and a nonprofit in exchange for the doctor sending patients to the law firm that paid Sheldon Silver legal fees,” said Rodgers, now executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School. “If that doctor is a cooperating witness, which the U.S. attorney says that he or she is … that’s obviously a very strong piece of evidence, because that person has firsthand knowledge of the relationship between him or her and Silver and what deal was struck and what went on there.” Regardless of the final outcome, the perceived strength of the charges against Silver likely played a key role in his ultimate decision to step down as Assembly speaker. Some influential colleagues in the Assembly initially said that they still supported Silver as speaker, but ultimately the charges led to his resignation. By contrast, Senate Republicans have rallied around Deputy Majority Leader Tom Libous, who is under federal indictment but may have benefitted from questions about the strength of the case against him. “Obviously it’s just a complaint, you haven’t heard his side and he’s presumed innocent,” Gerald Lefcourt,
a criminal defense attorney, said of Silver. “On the other hand, if all this is true, it’s a pretty devastating series of accusations. A lot of these are 20-year counts. Not that he would receive 20 years for this, but the potential penalties are very significant. And he’s in such a position of power.” Lefcourt represented Mel Miller, one of Silver’s predecessors as Assembly speaker who also ran into legal trouble while in office. But Lefcourt said that the case against Miller was different in that he did not face allegations of abusing his political office, as Silver is accused of doing. Miller’s conviction was eventually overturned. “Miller was charged with something—he actually co-oped a building. His firm, they actually did real legal work that had nothing to do with his legislative role and he was never accused of using his office for an improper purpose,” Lefcourt said. “They claimed that in co-oping the building he breached fiduciary duties. The federal Court of Appeals threw the indictment out, so of course he stayed on. It had nothing to do with his public office—and after all, he didn’t commit a crime.” Another point of comparison is the case of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. He was initially charged with honest services fraud, not an outright bribery charge like the one that has been lodged against Silver. When the honest services argument was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, Bruno had a re-trial—and was acquitted. “This is a bribery theory,” Lefcourt said of the allegations against Silver. “This is not just you’re not honestly being a legislator. This is quid pro quo, which is you give me this, I’ll give you that.”
— with reporting by Wilder Fleming. cit yandstateny.com
MICHAEL BENJAMIN
I
t took six agonizing days for the New York State Assembly Democrats to ditch Sheldon Silver from the speakership. Fortunately, they didn’t have to pry it from his cold, dead hands. And since politics loathes a power vacuum, new leadership stepped forward to keep the whole enterprise from falling apart. I give my former colleagues a lot of credit for not descending into a real life version of William Butler Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming.” To the chagrin of
critics, they made the center hold. After a few days of political wrangling to whittle down five potential successors to my former colleague and Bronx party boss, Carl Heastie. As it became evident that Heastie—a heretofore little-known Bronx assemblyman—had the votes to become the speaker, a sense of pride and trepidation came over me. I was happy someone I knew ascended to the highest rank within the Assembly. I was also worried that a top AfricanAmerican politician had drawn a bull’s eye on himself for zealous prosecutors, crusading editorial boards and cynical critics of the Legislature to target. In a recent New York Post column, I noted that Speaker Heastie was “an imperfect messenger” because of the questions raised about his per diems and campaign expenditures by City & State and other members of the media. He hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing and seems to operate within the parameters of flawed but legal rules. In brief remarks shortly after being elected, Heastie identified several areas where he will break with the past. He called for greater transparency and accountability in the travel and per diem reimbursement system. And he called for severely restricting outside
income in exchange for higher pay to attract the best and brightest to legislative service. He also vows to democratize the chamber. Early in his career, like many junior backbenchers, Heastie chafed under the seniority-based system. In private and in his public remarks, he promises to recognize and reward talented members and give them more input in policymaking as well as which bills come to the floor. No one benefits from a disempowered speaker but all agree that his power should not be despotic. While Carl promises inclusion and a listening ear to all members, he will rely on his lieutenants to maintain discipline in the ranks. At 47, Heastie also comes from a generation unencumbered by the sexism and prejudices of the past. This generational shift will benefit the young women who work on central staff and in district offices. His promise of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and misconduct must ensure we have no repeat of the Vito Lopez and Micah Kellner cases. In recent public statements, the Southern District’s crusading U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has excoriated the “three men in a room” budget-
making process. One of his recent taunts—“Do they always have to be white?”—has been refuted by Heastie’s election. Also, Bharara has pointedly asked how voters can trust what emerges from that meeting room. Speaker Heastie needs to forthrightly answer that query by revealing publicly all the issues agreed upon and dissolving the secret slush funds controlled by each house and the governor. Disbursements from all fund accounts must be disclosed, credited and signed off by the state comptroller (and perhaps by the state attorney general, too). On a personal note, I am hopeful that with two mixed martial arts supporters helming the conference that this will be the year the MMA ban will finally be lifted. I am also hopeful Speaker Heastie will commit to a more transparent and bipartisan process for getting bills to the floor for up or down votes.
PERSPEC TIVES
WELCOME, SPEAKER HEASTIE
Former Assemblyman Michael Benjamin (@SquarePegDem on Twitter) represented the Bronx for eight years.
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B U F FA LO
BHARARA: HONEY BADGER
ALAN BEDENKO from THE PUBLIC
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city & state — February 9, 2015
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reet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, has the ability and willingness to do what no elected official in New York can or will. In fact, we should be thankful that Gov. Andrew Cuomo disbanded his Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, enabling its investigatory files to be picked up by Bharara’s team of federal prosecutors and the FBI. The U.S. attorney, after all, is an appointed federal law enforcement official, not beholden to any of the parties, factions, personalities or pressure groups that maintain a corrupt chokehold on New York’s body politic. Bharara is New York’s honey badger, completely unconcerned with the toes on which his investigations might be treading. Rumors swirled in advance of a Bob McCarthy recent article in The Buffalo News, as political junkies texted each other about the visit that the FBI and state law enforcement paid to one G. Stephen Pigeon. Before I get into this party political inside baseball—why should you care? Ultimately, the policies under which we live and work are decided by people whom we elect to public office—locally, regionally, statewide and in Washington. The quality and efficacy of those policies can vary, so it’s theoretically important that voters make informed choices and select good candidates. Unfortunately, that’s not always how it works in real life, and too often personal ambition and greed get in the way. Scapegoats are many, but
political machines aren’t necessarily to blame. Factionalism is the bigger problem. If you’re a Republican, it can be frustrating how the ultra-right “Tea Party” wing of the party can be at odds with the establishment party committees. One need only look at the 2014 race for the 60th Senate District—rightist Republicans were so angry at incumbent Republican Mark Grisanti’s support for same-sex marriage and the NY SAFE Act that they ousted him in favor of a same-sex marriage and NY SAFE Act proponent, liberal Democrat Marc Panepinto. As for the Democrats, they cyclically rip each other to shreds. However, the Democratic factional trench warfare is seldom about ideology or policy, but instead about patronage and power. It can be so paralyzing and distracting that Democrats end up losing winnable elections. Steve Pigeon was the chairman of the county Democratic committee until about 12 years ago, when he was replaced by Len Lenihan. Pigeon’s committee was known for sharp elbows and racking up electoral losses. Throughout Lenihan’s—and now Jeremy Zellner’s—chairmanship, people and clubs loyal to Pigeon have popped up periodically to sabotage the Democratic establishment’s candidates and procedures. Rather than mounting a credible or serious challenge to the chairmanship in order to regain control of the committee, they directly and indirectly help the other side. One of those years when Pigeon and his cronies gave sabotage a try was 2013. It’s not just that they run primary races—there’s nothing wrong about that on the surface. It’s that they disappear after September. Come primary day, they generally stop any meaningful activity and refuse or fail to help any Democrat, whether their candidate or not. In 2013, the Erie County Democratic Committee endorsed several candidates for the county legislature, and Deputy Sheriff/bike shop scion Bert Dunn for county
sheriff. The Steve Pigeon faction backed different candidates for all of those races, including Dick Dobson for sheriff. On its face, primary races during primary season are no big deal. But for years, Pigeon has been suspected of playing fast and loose with election regulations that run the gamut from vague to toothless to unenforced. Typically, the Pigeon modus operandi is to use go-betweens and shell corporations or LLCs to funnel money to, from and between his candidates and certain campaign consultants and companies to do lit, polling, signs and media buys. They use rhetorical sledgehammers to demolish their opponents with whatever smear they can muster—just ask Sam Hoyt. It’s a well-oiled machine that has, over the last decade, been organized quickly and quietly, but enjoys few electoral accomplishments. When Pigeon’s candidate “Baby” Joe Mesi ran for the state Senate, you’d have thought his primary opponent, fellow Democrat Michele Iannello, was the worst villain since Torquemada—but when it came time to go after Republican Mike Ranzenhofer in the general election, punches were pulled all over the place. As usual, they stopped fighting in September. Campaign finance and disclosure violations are seldom investigated and almost never prosecuted. At least, not in Erie County. In 2013, Pigeon and erstwhile political commentator Kristy Mazurek set up the “WNY Progressive Caucus.” New York doesn’t formally recognize “political action committees” or PACs, so the Pigeon-Mazurek group was set up as an unauthorized committee. So constituted, the law permitted the WNYPC to raise and spend money to donate to specific campaigns. The WNYPC explicitly could not coordinate with campaigns, nor spend money on their behalf. In early September 2013, just weeks before primary day, the WNYPC paid for thousands of pieces of literature to be mailed to voters that slammed legislative candidates backed
by party headquarters, most notably Tim Hogues, Betty Jean Grant, Wynnie Fisher and Lynn Dearmyer. By way of example, one piece of WNYPC lit slammed Hogues for being a “Republican” and promoted the candidacy of his challenger, Barbara Miller-Williams—a woman who had quite literally conspired with Republicans to mount a legislative coup in 2010. Furthermore, the WNYPC’s disclosures were not complete. For a time, it showed the PAC to be in the red, a big no-no. Disclosures came in late and were inaccurate and misleading, in one instance showing a $9,000 donation from another, long-dormant Pigeon-associated PAC, “Democratic Action.” What was odd about that Democratic Action donation was that this group did not disclose any outflow of money during the same 2013 cycle, and had most recently showed a fund balance of $2,400 and a concomitant “no activity” report with the Board of Elections. It didn’t have $9,000 to give. Dick Dobson, a Pigeon-backed candidate for sheriff, embarrassed Bert Dunn on primary night. Dunn went on to waste his money on an unsuccessful general election run using a personal, bespoke minor party line. But in September, Pigeon, Mazurek and their WNYPC utterly abandoned Dobson during his general election bid. There were contemporaneous whispers that the Dobson effort had merely been a repeat of an earlier “Democrats for [Republican incumbent Sheriff] Tim Howard” campaign. In a county legislative race, Wynnie Fisher defeated Wes Moore, the primary candidate backed by Pigeon and Mazurek. Apparently Fisher and her neighbors don’t get along, so Mazurek planted a story with her WGRZ 2 Sides colleague Michael Caputo accusing Fisher of being crazy. The problem was that a letter from the aggrieved neighbors was sent to Wes Moore at an address in Lancaster. But Moore’s campaign committee was based in an office in Clarence. The Lancaster address was a house on Doris cit yandstateny.com
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because formal, credible complaints were presented. As rumors swirl about the FBI and State Police subpoenaing records and following the money, it seems that campaign finance and election laws are being enforced in a serious way. Will there be a prosecution? Will it focus on elected officials, or will these two-bit operatives get caught in the web? Time will tell, but something big
is going on behind the scenes, and it’s being directed by very serious people from outside the area. It’s being directed by people who don’t owe any of these malefactors anything.
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not have a district attorney in Erie County, empowered to investigate and prosecute violations of state law? I know Bharara is on the case because he took possession of the Moreland files, but it’s unseemly that it takes an outsider to investigate and prosecute this here. The Attorney General’s office—under attack for supposedly not investigating election irregularities—is investigating these
This commentary was originally published by The Public (www. dailypublic.com), a weekly WNY news publication and web site.
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city & state — February 9, 2015
Avenue where Mazurek was living, and which also served as the mailing address for WNYPC. There was, on its face, a smoking gun of coordination. How and why would Wynnie Fisher’s neighbors decide to send a letter to an address for Wes Moore that didn’t exist? In late September 2013, Tim Hogues and Betty Jean Grant, with an assist from anti-Pigeon transparency advocate Mark Sacha, filed a formal complaint with the New York State Board of Elections accusing Pigeon, Mazurek and WNYPC of various illegalities and violations of campaign finance law. After the County Board of Elections resolved to investigate the complaint, it was turned over to the state BOE, which in turn appears to have turned it over to the state Attorney General’s office and the State Police. Once an investigation such as this is put into the hands of people outside of Buffalo, you know that the threat of shenanigans is decreased exponentially. Law enforcement interviewed several people in the county legislature, as well as several unsuccessful 2013 legislature candidates who were targets of the WNYPC. Subpoenas have been issued and action taken to enforce them. Don’t be surprised if forensic accountants are trying to account for all the money—where it came from, and how it was spent. It was recently reported that certain real estate deals and former deputy mayor Steve Casey are under investigation. This likely has something to do with the Seneca Mall project, where Casey is now employed. In The Buffalo News, Bob McCarthy interviews his longtime source Steve Pigeon and reveals: “He said he used his own money to donate to the fund, that the fund was never coordinated with candidates, and that he acted only as a donor and not as an administrator responsible for reporting. He added that he has not been contacted by any investigators.” I’m not financial genius by any stretch, but that seems unlikely, at best. The WNYPC raised almost $300,000 in 2013—$100,000 came from Pigeon alone. How wealthy or well-paid would Pigeon have to be in order to have the disposable cash to dump $100,000 on the likes of Wes Moore, Dick Dobson and Rick Zydel? Now under state and federal investigation is where, exactly, that money comes from. And why is it that the U.S. attorney from Manhattan is looking into the campaign finance shenanigans of some small fish in Buffalo? Do we
END OF AN
ERA
city & state — February 9, 2015
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THE SWIFT AND SUDDEN DECLINE OF SHELDON SILVER By ASHLEY HUPFL
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However, as the severity of the charges became clearer, support in the Assembly began to wane. Legal experts told City & State that the case against Silver was strong, given the framework underlying the charges, the detailed documentation of his alleged corruption schemes and the substantial number of cooperating witnesses. “Obviously it’s just a complaint, you haven’t heard his side and he’s presumed innocent,” Gerald Lefcourt, a criminal defense attorney, said of Silver. “On the other hand, if all this is true, it’s a pretty devastating series of accusations. A lot of these are 20year counts. Not that he would receive 20 years for this, but the potential penalties are very significant. And he’s in such a position of power.” After Silver’s arrest, support began to erode over the weekend as members grew more uncertain about his ability to remain in power. Silver’s spokesman, Michael Whyland, told reporters Sunday night that Silver would delegate his duties on a temporary basis to five veteran Assembly members, all of them allies, a move that was almost immediately rejected by the majority of the Democratic conference. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also criticized the proposal. By Monday morning, the Silver’s grip on power was rapidly deteriorating. Several Assembly Democrats publicly called for his resignation, most notably the influential Assemblyman Keith Wright, long considered as a potential successor to Silver. Later that day Assembly Democrats conferenced for about six hours to determine the speaker’s fate. At the end of the conference, representatives were dispatched to Silver to deliver the message that a majority wanted him
to step down—albeit with some supporting the option that if he were acquitted of his charges, he could return to his post. “I think it has been conveyed to him that the members of the conference believe the appropriate thing to do is for him to resign his speakership,” Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh said Monday night. “Many of us feel that if the speaker does not make that decision [to resign] he should understand that he has lost the confidence of the majority of our conference.” Initially, it remained murky how the Silver’s final act would play out. Late on Monday, he defiantly said that he was still speaker and would be “standing for a long time.” A day later, he all but conceded defeat, saying he would not “hinder” the transition. However, it was unclear whether he would voluntarily resign on Monday, Feb. 2, the date set for him to step aside, or if the Assembly Democratic Conference would have to oust him from the leadership. Following the Assembly Democrats’ decision to abandon Silver, an election to replace him was initially scheduled for Feb. 10. Until that date, house rules dictated that Morelle, the conference’s second in command, would become acting speaker. On Wednesday, Wright announced his candidacy for speaker, followed by his Assembly colleagues Catherine Nolan, Carl Heastie, Joseph Lentol and Morelle. But less than 12 hours after getting into the race, Wright was the first candidate to drop out. On Jan. 28, sources told City & State that Mayor Bill de Blasio was supporting Heastie of the Bronx behind the scenes and Gov. Andrew Cuomo was actively pushing for Morelle, leaving Wright with no room to gain traction. Lentol
exited the next day and Morelle dropped out the day after, leaving Heastie—the heavy favorite—and Nolan, the only female candidate. Silver held a notoriously tight rein over the rank and file, and his looming resignation prompted roughly two dozen Assembly Democrats to push for reforms that would prevent a new speaker from gaining the absolute control Silver once enjoyed. The “reform caucus” sought to change the strict seniority rules, term limits for speaker and committee chairs and revising how bills get to the floor, among other things. “This is a once in a lifetime—at least for us new members, 42 percent of the body is relatively new—this is an opportunity for us to reflect change,” Assemblyman Luis Sepúlveda said. “No one person should have this much power.” When Monday rolled around, Silver voluntarily handed in his letter of resignation as speaker. Nolan, Heastie’s last rival, dropped out. With only one candidate remaining, the vote for speaker was moved up to Feb. 3, when the chamber voted unanimously to elect Heastie, making him the first black Assembly speaker in state history. “I am truly honored and humbled to have earned the support to be elected as new speaker of the New York State Assembly,” Heastie said after he was elected. “We gather here today during a turbulent time for this institution. The resignation of the previous leader has brought about change in the leadership of this house. This change in leadership will bring about much needed reform.” Silver watched the vote from his new seat on the Assembly floor. He then left the chamber quickly and quietly as reporters followed him shouting out questions.
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city & state — February 9, 2015
A
fter two decades as speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver tumbled from being one of the most powerful men in the state to just another rank-and-file assemblyman in less than two weeks. On Thursday, Jan. 22, a day after he sat next to Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the State of the State address, Silver was hit with corruption charges by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara. The five-count criminal complaint alleges that Silver pocketed millions in kickbacks since 2000 in the real estate and healthcare industries in return for favorable treatment in Albany. “There is probably cause to believe that SILVER obtained approximately $4 million in payments characterized as attorney referral fees solely through the corrupt use of his official position,” federal prosecutors wrote in the complaint. The Assembly Democratic Conference’s initial response to the news was to declare their continuing support for Silver to remain as speaker, emphasizing that people deserve the presumption of innocence until proven guilty—not just in the courtroom, but in the Assembly chamber as well. “I’m continuing to support the speaker and I will say that the members overwhelmingly in the conversation that we just had are continuing their support and there is a strong feeling, as I think we all should reflect on, that there is a presumption of innocence and we have every confidence that the speaker will continue his role with distinction,” Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle, the conference’s No. 2, said the day of Silver’s arrest.
SILVER’S GOLD
THE FORMER ASSEMBLY SPEAKER’S MIXED RECORD ON THE STATE BUDGET BY JON LENTZ
W
hen Sheldon Silver stepped down as Assembly speaker this month, he concluded a nearly 21-year reign marked by his shrewd and effective negotiating style. After he was elected to lead the Assembly in 1994, he went about expanding the Democratic conference to secure a super-majority, bolstering his leverage in budget talks. He operated deftly behind the scenes, shifting funds around to his advantage.
And again and again he waited out his rivals, using delays to maximize what he could deliver. His tactical victories won him the enduring support of his conference and made him an Albany institution, a champion for Democrats, labor unions and progressives and a bulwark on issues like housing and education. He outlasted four governors—Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson—as well as a
handful of Senate majority leaders, no doubt frustrating them all at times along the way. “It was both admirable and frustrating—mostly frustrating, from the Senate’s perspective,” said John McArdle, a former spokesman for the state Senate Republicans. “Having to deal with a very skilled negotiator who had a huge conference that supported him and enabled him to do what he did—which was wait out everybody
until the absolute last moment, and just when you thought you had an agreement or a deal, it was just one more thing. It was classic Shelly Silver. Just when you shook hands, he said, ‘Oh, just one more thing.’ ” Yet juxtaposed against his accomplishments has been the steady erosion of the state Legislature’s clout during Silver’s tenure. The authority of New York’s already strong chief executive not only expanded on his
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Sheldon Silver is sworn in as Assembly speaker after the death of Saul Weprin.
1993
1994
city & state — February 9, 2015
Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States, dies at age 81.
Silver works with GOP Governor George Pataki to reinstate the death penalty, although the state’s highest court rules it unconstitutional in 2004.
1995
Newt Gingrich is sworn in as speaker of the House of Representatives, a position he holds until 1999.
Silver is instrumental in repealing New York City’s commuter tax, which assessed non-resident workers similarly to city dwellers.
1999
Assembly Majority Leader Michael Bragman makes a failed attempt to oust Silver as speaker.
2000
2001
Silver’s chief counsel, Michael Boxley, is arrested on rape charges.
2003
Boris Yeltsin steps down as the first president of Russia after serving for nine years. He cedes control to Vladimir Putin
2,996 people are killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, including 2,606 at the Twin Towers.
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watch, but the former speaker also played a pivotal role in the shifting power dynamics. It was in the 2004 case Silver v. Pataki that the state Court of Appeals reiterated and reinforced the limited role of state lawmakers in deciding how and where to spend state dollars. “Silver’s name is attached to a landmark lawsuit that curtailed the budgeting power envelope the Legislature had been seeking to expand,” said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy and a former staffer for Assembly Republicans. “He lost, basically.” Nonetheless, McMahon offered grudging praise for Silver’s effectiveness in state budget talks with the governor and the Senate majority leader, even as he downplayed Silver’s strategy as more “doggedness” than “skill.” “On behalf of his allies, he had a winning record in the end,”
McMahon said. New York’s constitution gives the governor nearly unilateral powers over state spending, starting with the task of developing and introducing a comprehensive “executive budget” proposal. What is unusual is that the Legislature cannot amend the budget, except to reduce or remove spending items. That leaves lawmakers with little recourse other than to refuse to sign the measures by the statutory deadline in an attempt to pressure a governor to concede to their demands. Late budgets were not unusual when Silver took over as Assembly speaker in 1994, but he took them to a new level. In his first eleven years as speaker, not a single state budget was completed by the April 1 deadline. The average delay during those years was 79 days, and in some years the budget was held up for more than three months, lasting well into the summer months. Some years, Silver was the lone
voice for urban and downstate Democrats and progressives, facing off against Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Gov. George Pataki, both Republicans. In other years, especially in Pataki’s last term, Bruno and Silver joined forces against the governor, who was trying to keep spending in check as the economy rebounded. Of course, there were times that Silver’s efforts backfired, most notably when they spurred the lawsuit from Pataki that ultimately weakened the Legislature. The ruling was later exploited by Gov. David Paterson, who introduced budget extenders in the face of opposition that forced lawmakers to choose between accepting his budget in piecemeal form or shutting down the government. When Andrew Cuomo took office, having that weapon in his arsenal—even though he didn’t have to actually wield it—helped pave the way for four straight on-time budgets. “There’s no doubt that the
Legislature’s power relative to the governor diminished during the time of his leadership,” Gerald Benjamin, a professor at SUNY New Paltz and a longtime scholar of state government, said of Silver. “You could say that the institution was diminished while he was leader, but it’s hard to say that was because of him.” Richard Brodsky, a former assemblyman who is now a senior fellow at the think tank Demos, said that the Legislature’s structural challenges—clarified by the state Court of Appeals in 2004—made Silver’s successes all the more remarkable. “He maximized the budget power of the Assembly with no real constitutional power behind it,” Brodsky said. “Silver v. Pataki specifically says that the Legislature’s only remedy when it doesn’t like what the governor does in the budget is delay.”
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Jonathan Lippman, Silver’s childhood friend, is appointed chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s Silver faces his highest court. Silver first primary also blocks then-Mayor challenge Michael Bloomberg’s in over two congestion pricing plan. decades.
2008
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Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016
Silver, long accused of mishandling sexual harassment scandals in the Assembly, publicly censures Assemblyman Vito Lopez for allegedly groping and kissing a pair of interns.
2010
The U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC rules that the government cannot restrict independent political expenditures by nonprofit corporations.
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2011
2012 Hurricane Sandy causes widespread damage in New York and New Jersey, prompting efforts to prepare for the effects of climate change.
Silver is arrested on federal charges that he used his position as speaker to obtain millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. Silver steps down as speaker of the state Assembly.
2013
2014
Gov. Andrew Cuomo abruptly shutters the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption as part of budget negotiations with Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
2015
2016
city & state — February 9, 2015
2007
William Rapfogel, a Silver ally whose wife is his chief of staff, is arrested for stealing millions of dollars from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, where he was chief executive.
PERSPEC TIVES
A RARE OPPORTUNITY FOR REFORM
NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS
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wo years ago, following the use of taxpayer funds to cover up sexual harassment in the state Assembly, I was among those who called for then-Speaker Sheldon Silver to resign. In my eyes, the use of constituents’ hard-earned money to silence young victims sexually harassed by an elected member of the Assembly was completely inappropriate, and enough to warrant a cleaning of house and shakeup in leadership. This year, amid five counts of
criminal charges against Silver, the shakeup and cleaning is finally underway. To many, Silver was seen for years as the reform movement’s biggest obstacle in the fight for real, meaningful changes to our state government—changes that would bring transparency, openness and more checks and balances that were obviously very much needed. Now, for the first time in two decades, we have a chance to make sweeping reforms to Albany’s culture and safeguard the state from another abuse of power. First, we must look at the alleged crimes committed and ask, “How could one person have so much unilateral control without checks and balances?” And, “Why was he allowed to get away with it for over 20 years?” For years, Silver had control over slush funds of taxpayers’ hard-earned money that he could secretly distribute without legislative approval. It was too easy for the Speaker to obtain $100,000 to silence the young sexual harassment victims, and $500,000 in Health Department grants to encourage a doctor to refer patients to Weitz & Luxenberg, who in turn paid Silver millions, according to prosecutors. Court documents also state that Silver allegedly used his power as
speaker to influence legislation in order to give tax breaks to wealthy developers in exchange for kickbacks in the form of referral fees from a real estate law firm. He failed to report a single penny on his financial disclosure reports. He ran the chamber more like a dictatorship than a democratic body, unilaterally preventing legislation from coming to the floor despite overwhelming bipartisan support that would have guaranteed its passage. And if you publicly disagreed with him, he could unilaterally sanction and strip you from leadership posts, committee assignments, stipends and staff allocation. All this must change. And now is the opportunity to do it. Reducing these powers is the first step on the long road to restoring the public’s trust. But it’s not enough. The Legislature must adopt real changes to the state’s ethics laws to tackle corruption once and for all. The Assembly Minority Conference under Leader Brian Kolb has put forth numerous proposals, such as implementing eight-year term limits for legislative leaders and committee chairs; requiring every appropriation to be specifically identified in the state budget with notification to the state attorney general that no conflict of interest exists; and prohibiting any
appropriation to organizations that employ or compensate the governor, a legislator or family member. Other proposed measures include the forfeiture of campaign contributions by an elected official convicted of a felony offense related to his or her official duties; prohibiting the use of campaign funds for personal use; creating penalties for failing to file financial disclosure statements within 30 days after the deadline; establishing new crimes and increased penalties for those who act against the public trust or fail to report corruption; ensuring transparency and easier public access of committee meetings and votes; and stripping pensions for those convicted of betraying the public trust. A 19th-century member of the British Parliament, Sir John DalbergActon, once said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Now is our opportunity to truly change Albany. We must seize it.
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (@NMalliotakis on Twitter) represents portions of Staten Island and Brooklyn.
PRESENT:
CAUCUS WEEKEND EVENING RECEPTION FEATURING NEWLY ELECTED NYS ASSEMBLY SPEAKER CARL HEASTIE
FEATURING: DJ, music and dancing / Open bar / Hors d’Oeuvres city & state — February 9, 2015
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13 • HILTON ALBANY, GRAND BALLROOM • 9PM – 1AM RSVP at Events.CityandStateNY.com In Partnership with:
Bronx Borough President
RUBEN DIAZ JR.
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RENT RAGE
IN GENTRIFYING BROOKLYN, TENANTS FIGHT TO KEEP THEIR HOMES By KEN THORBOURNE from CITY LIMITS
A PREFERENCE REVOKED Creese, along with several other cit yandstateny.com
tenants in her building and tenants at 1646 Union St., a 23-unit building across the street that Renaissance also purchased in May, are victims of having their “preferential rents” yanked out from under them. Preferential rents refer to rents that are lower than what the landlord of a rent-regulated apartment building could legally charge. Some 17 tenants in the buildings now face eviction because of disputes over their new rental amounts.
Rachel Hannaford, an attorney with South Brooklyn Legal Services, which is representing six of the tenants facing eviction, said her agency has seen landlords revoke preferential rents before. “But I’ve never seen it in such a huge concentration of tenants,” she said. “It is a way that landlords in high-interest markets can turn over their apartments.” Renaissance officials didn’t respond to several messages left at their offices. Preferential rents are offered for a
number of reasons, the most common of which is that it can be the only way to entice people to rent in one of the city’s grittier neighborhoods— that is, of course, before the gritty neighborhood turns into a real estate hot spot. Sometimes preferential rents are tied to legal agreements. For example, the previous owner of 285 Schenectady and 1646 Union obtained a low-interest mortgage backed by the federal Department of Housing and
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1646 Union St. 285 Schenectady Ave.
city & state — February 9, 2015
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hen Natasha Creese received her rent renewal lease in the mail last August, she just knew there had to be a mistake. The landlord was upping the rent for the three-bedroom Crown Heights apartment she has shared with family members for the past 27 years by $1,112 a month for a one-year lease, or $1,148 a month for a two-year lease. She currently pays $991 a month plus utilities. “I thought someone was losing their mind. I thought someone was smoking something when they made my stuff out,” said Creese, a 39-year-old, selfemployed single mother who lives at 285 Schenectady Ave., a 35-unit building at the corner of Union Street. But there was no mistake. When Creese spoke to the building manager for Renaissance Realty Group, the Coney Island-based realestate firm that purchased the building in May through a limited liability company, he said the staggering 112 percent rent hike was more than justified. “‘Crown Heights is the new Manhattan. It’s not like it was 20 years ago,’” Creese said she was told by the manager. He added, according to Creese, “‘I bought these buildings to make money.’” The new lease kicked in Jan. 1, but Creese said she is still paying the old rental amount since her family can’t afford the new asking price. “I’m planning to fight this all the way to the end,” she said.
Urban Development. In return for HUD backstopping the mortgage, the owner had to rent 20 percent of the units to low-income individuals. But that obligation ended in 2009 when the mortgage was paid off. The two Crown Heights buildings remain covered by local rent regulation guidelines that restrict how much the legal rent can rise. But because of what some advocates would describe as porous regulations, those legal rents can be jarringly high. And once the preferential rate is revoked—which landlords for the most part are allowed to do when leases are being renewed— the new rate is based on the existing rent guidelines standard, not what the tenant is actually paying. So even though the city’s Rent Guidelines Board this year allowed only 1 percent increases on one-year leases and 2.7 percent hikes on two-year leases, Creese’s rental increase is being calculated as if she were currently paying $2,081 a month in rent, the legally allowable amount.
city & state — February 9, 2015
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THE NEW MANHATTAN... OR THE NEW BUSHWICK Renaissance owns several multifamily properties across the city, many in neighborhoods such as Crown Heights, Lefferts Gardens and Ocean Hill, that are, if not the new Manhattan, within a few new cafes and organic markets of becoming the new Bushwick. Through corporate stand-ins, Renaissance scooped up 285 Schenectady Ave. and 1646 Union St. in May 2014 for $10.7 million, according to city records. Jorge West, a second-floor tenant at 285 Schenectady, is being asked to shell out at least $425 more per month for the two-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife and son. He currently pays $1,385 a month plus utilities for the unit he has lived in for 18 years. The new lease that was set to start Jan. 1 pushes that rent to $1,810 a month for a one-year lease or $1,841 for a two-year lease. West has continued to pay his old rental amount. “The landlord wants to get everyone out of this building,” said West, who has lived in the building for 18 years. Jessica Wolff, a tenant organizer with the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, an advocacy group working with several of the tenants, has reviewed the renewal leases of 15 tenants at the two buildings and said
A MATTER FOR THE COURTS
most of the rent hikes range from 50 to 100 percent. Due to the frequency of gun battles in the streets, they used to call the neighborhood around 285 Schenectady “Dodge City”, according to Creese. “Nobody would live in this neighborhood,” she said. “My mother’s slogan was, ‘You’re not living outside, you’re living inside.’” Creese and other tenants say they came to the neighborhood when no one else would, and they’re angry that now that the neighborhood is on the upswing, they are the ones being pushed out. “We (the tenants) built this building. We took care of it,” said West. “And now, we are the ones you want to get rid of?” But the tenants are hardly living in luxury. There’s a water leak in the ceiling of West’s living room that he said hasn’t been addressed for a more than year. The windows in the apartment are so drafty that he’s encased each of them in plastic sheeting. According to the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development Office of Code Enforcement, 285 Schenectady has 146 outstanding code violations, including 19 Class C violations, the most serious kind. These include violations for no hot water, lead paint, a leaky roof and no window guards. At 1646 Union, there are 187 outstanding violations, including 18 Class C violations whose fixes are all overdue, according to code enforcement. These C violations include mold, a broken lobby door, rats in two apartments, a concealed
water leak, a missing or defective window guard and broken windows, according to city officials. But with gentrification galloping across Central Brooklyn, these apartments are now hot commodities and landlords are looking to cash in.
ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES? Frank Ricci, a spokesman for Rent Stabilization Association, the landlord lobby group, empathizes with tenants facing “exorbitant” rent hikes, but said property owners in the city, especially the owners of Class 2 buildings (properties with more than three units) have been rocked in recent years by hefty tax hikes and increases in water and sewer rates. “These are the most overtaxed properties,” he said. “Way out of whack in comparison to other properties.” Ricci, who says he was not familiar with Renaissance or the properties in question, does believe there should be an alternative to doubling someone’s rent. Several cities around the nation, including Boston and Philadelphia, he said, have adopted a system whereby the legally allowable rental rate is phased in over a period of time. “To us it’s a good solution,” said Ricci. “That would be my recommendation and what we would consider the best practice in these situations.” To keep long-term tenants and property owners in place, Ricci proposes the city freeze property taxes in some neighborhoods.
Whether Renaissance can unilaterally revoke the “preferential rents” tenants have been paying at 285 Schnectady and 1646 Union is an open question that will likely be settled in housing court. Hannaford, the attorney at South Brooklyn Legal Services, believes the state Department of Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR), the agency that oversees rent-regulated properties, would have to sign off on any rent hikes. A city housing agency spokesman also believes DHCR has to weigh in. His opinion is based on the agreement the previous landlord made to receive the HUD-backed mortgage. The relevant clause in that agreement reads, in part: “In the event the HUD consent is not required, Mortgagor shall obtain the approval of the government agency having jurisdiction over rent regulation and registration before making a change in rent.” That government agency would be the DHCR, the city spokesman said. It remains unclear, however, whether this clause extends to a new owner, and if it applies beyond the 12 low-income apartments the HUD deal ensured. DHCR didn’t return several phone calls seeking clarification on the matter. In the meantime, the tenants are mounting a battle to stay in their homes. They held a rally in November with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo. Several now have legal representation, and several court hearings are on the docket this month. Adams told City Limits he is “working with a coalition of local elected officials to see how best to ensure these tenants can stay in their apartments affordably … All options are on the table, including the possibility of legislative remedies.” For West, the 285 Schenectady tenant, this is a fight that came to his doorstep, and he’s not backing down. “We have to go to court. We have to do what we got to do,” he said. “I’m going to fight them.”
This story was published by City Limits, which City & State is partnering with to cover crucial housing policy stories in 2015. cit yandstateny.com
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Affordable Housing Policy: April 2013: Then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio criticizes former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s annual increases in water rates as a “hidden tax.” February 2014: Mayor de Blasio increases water & sewer rates 3.6%. June 2014: Mayor de Blasio calls for Rent Freeze (landlords wind up with 1% rent increase, lowest ever on record). November 2014: Mayor de Blasio calls for stricter rent regulations. January 15, 2015: Mayor de Blasio announces a 13% increase on real estate tax assessments.
Increased Taxes and Costs + Rent Freeze = Landlords Cannot Repair, Improve, Maintain and Preserve Affordable Housing The de Blasio affordable housing policy hurts poor and middle-income families, those most in need of affordable housing – as well as landlords of rent-stabilized apartments, the largest providers of affordable housing. The de Blasio Affordable Housing Equation Just Doesn’t Add Up. It’s Time for New Solutions to an Old Problem.
www.RSANYC.net
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
SPOTLIGHT:
HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
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city & state — February 9, 2015
ealthcare is one of the most critical—and most expensive—services that government provides. In New York, a key driver of healthcare costs is Medicaid, the joint federal-state safety net program that will account for some $62 billion in in-state spending—at the local, state and federal level—in the next fiscal year. The Cuomo administration has taken innovative steps to curtail those costs by finding efficiencies through its Medicaid Redesign Team, the driving force behind the state’s changing healthcare policies. Now, thanks to an $8 billion federal Medicaid waiver that allows New York to reinvest some of its cost savings, officials are working toward completely overhauling the state’s hospital and healthcare delivery system. On the state level, lawmakers have also made top priorities of medical marijuana and an epidemic of heroin and opioid abuse, and both issues will continue to be watched closely as new laws passed last year go into effect. And in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has inherited and largely embraced his predecessor’s public health campaigns against smoking and unhealthy food and drinks—while implementing new strategies to tackle them. In this special section on health and hospitals, City & State delves into these changes that are transforming healthcare in New York and explores what’s next on the horizon.
HEALTH
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De Blasio’s shift to healthcare inequality By Sarina Trangle
Questioning Cuomo’s hospitals plan By Sarina Trangle
Q&As with Jason Helgerson, Kemp Hannon, Richard Gottfried, Mary Bassett, Ramanathan Raju and Corey Johnson.
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NYSNA: Caring for ALL New Yorkers
Here in New York City and throughout our state, nurses are uniting to improve care for our patients. We’re working together to end healthcare inequality and to raise standards so that every New Yorker has access to quality care. Through our union, the New York State Nurses Association, we’re creating a better future for nurses and our patients:
Æ Safe RN Staffing. Having enough nurses at the bedside is key to safe patient care.
In our union contracts and in the legislature, we’re working to ensure that every patient has access to the care of a nurse whenever they need it.
Æ Community Voices. We believe that our communities should have a voice in decisions that
impact their access to care. Healthcare decisions should be based on community needs, not on the bottom line. That’s why we’re advocating to strengthen community voices in care.
Æ Quality Care for ALL. Every patient deserves equal access to quality care regardless of
income, borough, or insurance coverage. We’re working with fellow healthcare unions, patients, community leaders, and elected allies to stop the devastating tide of hospital cuts and closures in underserved communities.
www.nysna.org
nynurses
@nynurses
IS CUOMO’S HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN THE BEST REMEDY? BY SARINA TRANGLE
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ov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget earmarks $1.4 billion for healthcare infrastructure: $700 million for central and east Brooklyn, $300 million for Oneida County and $400 for rural health facilities. Yet key details remain vague, prompting questions from lawmakers and advocates about how the state’s healthcare dollars are being spent. According to the budget summary, the $300 million to revamp healthcare delivery in Oneida County would help reduce unused patient beds. Another $400 million would be used on debt consolidation and “other capital projects” to spur consolidation in rural areas. The $700 million in funding for Brooklyn is similarly aimed at cutting back on “unnecessary inpatient beds” while improving patient care and increasing access to “communitybased” medical services. A Cuomo official said recently that a new hospital would need to be built in Brooklyn, a goal seemingly at odds with the goal of reducing patient beds. But there has also been speculation that the money would be spent on a new facility to replace the financially strapped Brookdale Hospital, a nonprofit teaching hospital. The Cuomo administration offered few additional details amid concerns about its proposals. The Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS), which represents health centers operating 600 primary care sites across the state, said it was “dismayed” that the governor planned to invest $1.4 billion in hospitals without reserving resources for the community-based care sector the state is counting on to transform healthcare as part of its ongoing Medicaid reforms. The state plans to use its $8 billion
PHILIP KAMRASS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS city & state — February 9, 2015
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A HEALTHY BUDGET?
Gov. Andrew Cuomo with state Health Comissioner Howard Zucker (left) in October.
federal Medicaid waiver to consolidate and integrate hospitals with primary, behavioral and other community health providers, with the ultimate goal of reducing avoidable hospitalizations by 25 percent over five years. Beverly Grossman, CHCANYS’ senior policy director, said she supports the state’s efforts. But although the administration claims that its latest investments will increase access to community-based care facilities, Grossman said that such providers were being overlooked while the state reinforces “the existing inpatientfocused health care delivery system.” “Although only the $400 million
intended for upstate rural providers is specifically restricted to hospitals, it is our understanding that the additional billion is intended for hospital transformation in Brooklyn and Oneida County,” Grossman said in prepared remarks delivered at a Feb. 2 state budget hearing. “We have significant concerns, based on our repeated past experiences, that this money will not flow beyond hospital walls to community based safety net providers.” State Sen. Kemp Hannon, the chair of the Senate Health Committee, also questioned the prudence of the capital expenditures during a time when the
state is seeking to reduce hospital admissions. Hannon said there was a need to review whether Brooklyn and Oneida were the most appropriate sites to receive $1 billion and whether construction at those sites had to be 100 percent financed by the state. “There is a major program that’s going on called [Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program], which would reconfigure all health care provider relationships, and there would be a proposed reduction of 25 percent of hospital admissions,” Hannon said. “It would seem to be more logical that you’d have to be cit yandstateny.com
2005 state commission charged with reviewing the changing health care delivery system, said replacing aging Brooklyn hospitals with streamlined, modern alternatives would be wise. In 2011, a state-commissioned report recommended closing 1,235 hospital beds in Brooklyn because many were vacant and others could be emptied by using more robust primary and preventive care to drive down the borough’s high rates of preventable hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Berger, the report’s author, argued that there was nothing contradictory about Cuomo’s approach and that investing the money to replace Brookdale’s aging facility would make sense. “You have a whole bunch of hospitals that are really in terrible shape, and you really should wave a wand and make them go away,” Berger said. “You could easily take out two or three institutions in Brooklyn, replace them with one new acute care facility and network, and the quality of care would be immediately improved.”
HEALTH
MEDICAL MEASURES
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s spending proposal includes a number of healthcare measures. HEALTH CARE TAX Cuomo calls for an annual premium averaging less than $25 per plan on coverage purchased inside and outside the NY State of Health insurance exchange.
recoup $1.1 million.
NIXING PHYSICIAN PROFILES The governor estimates that discontinuing an online doctor directory, which he believes offers information publicly available elsewhere, will save $1.2 million.
WATER FLUORIDATION GRANTS The governor aims to offer $5 million in grants for installing and upgrading drinking water systems.
STOP RESIDENT AUDITS The executive’s plan would halt “duplicative” Department of Health audits of medical residents’ hours and
EMERGENCY FOOD FUNDING The proposal seeks to increase financing for hunger prevention efforts to $34.5 million.
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
looking to using existing facilities if you’re going to have reduced admissions.” At a recent budget hearing, state Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson said $300 million was directed to Oneida County because providers there requested funding to replace antiquated facilities with a modern alternative that had fewer inpatient beds. He also said the government was still tweaking its definition of rural, but intended to spend the $400 million assisting providers in non-urban settings whose debt threatened their existence. Executive Deputy Health Commissioner Sally Dreslin said federally-qualified health centers— nonprofits that provide comprehensive primary care in underserved areas— would have the opportunity to seek a share of the money and it was not necessarily limited to hospitals. She said a nonprofit might even be able to partner with a larger Brooklyn hospital project. Stephen Berger, who chaired a
HEROIN PREVENTION A $5 million investment is slated to address heroin and opiate addiction through treatment and prevention programs.
hanys_half page horizontal_011415_outlined text for publication.indd 1 cit yandstateny.com
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HOW HAS HEALTHCARE POLICY CHANGED UNDER THE DE BLASIO ADMINISTRATION? BY SARINA TRANGLE
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uring his first year as mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg broke ground by taxing cigarettes and signing a law forbidding smoking in bars and restaurants. A trans fat ban, an attempt to cap sugary drink consumption and a PR campaign promoting breastfeeding also became hallmarks of his threeterm health crusade. By contrast, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “tale of two cities” narrative has spun a new direction in the health department. In 13 months, he has launched a five-year plan to prevent those with mental health problems from cycling through the criminal justice system and created a “Center for Health Equity.” Bloomberg was driven by increasing up life expectancy and improving other aggregate health indicators through macro-level policies and legislation, health and political experts said. As for de Blasio, he will likely shift personnel and resources in an attempt to cushion those must susceptible to disease and death, said Bruce Berg, associate professor of political science at Fordham University. “The Bloomberg public health effort was a citywide effort,” said Berg, whose book on New York City public health policy, “Healing Gotham”, comes out this month. “They were gratified to see improvements in health anywhere. The de Blasio folks are much more interested in improving the health of some of those populations who probably didn’t benefit as much.” Bloomberg’s top-down approach to public health led to new restrictions, including bans on smoking in bars and restaurants as well as parks and plazas, a prohibition on serving food with obesity aiding tran fats and restrictions on pouring sodas larger than 16 ounces
ED REED/OFFICE OF THE MAYOR
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS city & state — February 9, 2015
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TALE OF TWO MAYORS
Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with his successor, Bill de Blasio, in November 2013. in many types of businesses. Critics said this so-called “nanny state” approach veered into parenting, particularly when city hospitals hid formula and pushed breastfeeding and city officials required waivers for an Orthodox Jewish circumcision tradition that involves sucking blood from the wound. Bloomberg also flooded streets in poor neighborhoods with fruit and vegetable green carts, offered health bucks subsidies at farmer’s markets
and worked to eradicate food deserts where low-income communities lacked access to healthy food. During the mayoral race, de Blasio said he would continue or improve on Bloomberg’s more controversial policies, such as efforts to limit large, sugary drinks, mandating that restaurants post health inspection letter grades and requiring disclaimers for the Orthodox circumcision practice that poses a risk for herpes transmission.
Now in office, de Blasio has altered the grading system for eateries but kept it in place. He bemoaned a court ruling that the administration needed the City Council’s approval to cap sugary drinks. De Blasio spokeswoman Maibe Ponet said dialogue with legislators over how to reduce sugary drinks is “ongoing” and the administration expects to announce soon a new circumcision policy that the community is more comfortable with. The city Health Commissioner, Dr. cit yandstateny.com
“THE DE BLASIO FOLKS ARE MUCH MORE INTERESTED IN IMPROVING THE HEALTH OF SOME OF THOSE POPULATIONS WHO PROBABLY DIDN’T BENEFIT AS MUCH” to smoking, such as the Chinese- and Korean-Americans and the LGBT community, which has a smoking rate nearly two thirds as high as the general public’s. “We know the commissioner is not only aware, but also educated and has the parts that will address the disparities,” Kwan said, noting that Bassett helped direct Bloomberg’s signature ban on smoking in bars during her previous department tour as deputy commissioner. “As a ChineseAmerican and also as someone who is gay as well … there is a general question of how we’re going to reach these crowds of people who are going to be more vulnerable to smoking addiction.” But the most notable shift for the Blasio administration has been its sweeping initiatives to assist those with poor access to healthcare. Bassett, who was appointed in January 2014, said she sought to hold an equity lens up to the agency when she accepted the commissionership. “I said we were going to focus on engaging the communities more intentionally than we had in the past, particularly communities that bear an excess burden of ill health and preventable deaths,” Bassett said. She created the Center for Health Equity to address health disparities in communities of color. Its work spans everything from helping local bodegas more prominently display nutritious food to launching a pilot program that will send medical professionals to
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to you, but they are because people who are more educated are more likely to be healthy.” In December, de Blasio announced a $130 million, five-year plan to assist those with mental health problems who get caught up in the criminal justice system. It entails opening two clinical “drop-in” centers that offer police an alternative to making an arrest. The initiative also aims to keep more people in their local communities and in treatment programs by developing a new flight risk assessment tool and a bail system less reliant on money. Then, last month, New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray announced that the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and Health Department would create a roadmap to more inclusive mental health care. Even de Blasio’s first-year push to expand access to pre-kindergarten programs could qualify as a healthcare initiative. Dr. James Colgrove, professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said the de Blasio administration has not explicitly framed universal pre-kindergarten and other social welfare programs as health issues—but they could. “There’s a huge body of literature that shows that societies with very unequal wealth distribution have worse health outcomes,” Colgrove said. “To the extent that de Blasio’s policies aimed at reducing disparities have that effect, than, yes, you could consider that to be a public health agenda.”
ARRESTING SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST IN OUR CHILDREN In 2004, tragedy struck my family. My smart, beautiful, 22-year-old daughter Allison, graduate of Lehigh University, on her way to dental school, died of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Despite regular doctor visits since birth, she had a heart condition that went undetected. One day our lives forever changed.
Allison didn’t fit what most Americans view as the SCA profile. Heart conditions are generally associated with adults, not children or young adults who are active and healthy. But increasingly we understand that the various cardiac defects that can result in SCA-cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, Long QT Syndrome and Brugada Syndrome-can affect anyone. In 2013, the American Heart Association estimated a total of 9,500 SCA-related youth fatalities. A study published in December’s “Circulation: Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology” and backed by the UK charity Cardiac Risk in the Young suggests that figure is a gross underestimate.
92% of all SCA victims die within minutes, meaning that heart health education and early detection are the best chance to save lives. 2014 was a watershed year for this issue. In May, the New York Assembly enacted the Dominic Murray Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act, a comprehensive set of measures that include teaching SCA symptomology, mandating better student medical records and more. In October, New York State also enacted a law requiring high school students to learn CPR. Also in October: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health announced a new joint registry on youth fatalities, including SCA. This is all wonderful news. Preventive medicine and emergency treatment rely on good record keeping to understand medical conditions. For children, this often starts at school where nurses are the first responders who play a major role in evaluating the symptoms and wellness of students. Symptoms of a sudden cardiac episode can be mild. Fainting, breathlessness and palpitations are easily presumed to have non-cardiac causes, which is why heart health awareness is the first step in keeping kids safe. The entire school community-nurses, teachers, parents, our children-should know the early warning signs.
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
Harlem public housing developments to help tenants manage chronic diseases. Bassett also started a division of child and family development that focuses on maternal-child health, the Early Intervention program for disabled infants and toddlers, schools and language development. “There are huge language gaps by race and income in children who are as young as 3,” Bassett said. “These might not sound like health outcomes
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Additionally, parents should realize the value of safety screenings and have their children tested for undetected heart conditions. The most common screen for cardiac irregularities is the electrocardiogram, which can detect and prevent eighty percent of all SCA-related conditions, and is one of the tests, along with the more thorough echocardiogram, that I credit with saving my son. Edward, like Allison, suffered an SCA episode. Thankfully, he had been previously diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, and at 19 years old he had an internal cardiac defibrillator (ICD) implanted. Screening saved my son’s life, and it can save yours, too. A decade later, our family and friends still wish Allison was still here with us. I still miss Allison and thank modern medicine for every additional day I spend with Edward. It is time for America to stop associating heart disease only with adults and to start arming our school faculty and parents with all the information and support they need to stop youth SCA in its tracks.
Sandra Wilkin Frowley and her family established Allison’s Heart Foundation for Children and Young Adults in 2009, to raise awareness and educate parents and children about potential heart health issues. Her daughter Allison died from Sudden Cardiac Arrest; her son Edward also had an episode but survived.
city & state — February 9, 2015
Mary Bassett, said the agency is still tackling the leading causes of death, such as obesity and tobacco use. But while the targets may not have shifted, the remedies have changed. One area is smoking prevention where de Blasio appears to be taking a more targeted approach than his predecessor. Patrick Kwan, director of NYC Smoke-Free, said he and other anti-tobacco advocates recently met with Bassett and brainstormed ways to get through to populations most prone
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
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to all New Yorkers, irrespective or their ability to pay or insurance status.
KEMP HANNON
RICHARD GOTTFRIED
COREY JOHNSON
Chair, New York State Senate Health Committee
Chair, New York State Assembly Health Committee
Chair, New York City Council Health Committee
Q: What stood out in the governor’s State of the State and budget address? KH: The specifics about what we wanted to deal with were the major amounts of power that they would proposed to the [state Health] Department in regards to what they call value-based pricing. We have a lot of questions about those details. We have a lot of questions about discontinuing the physician profile. We think there needs to be strengthening of the Doctors Across New York program to make sure that there are sufficient medical personnel in the non-urban areas of the state. We’ll take a look at how the global cap is proposed and the growth in regard to that. There is a startling proposal for an assessment on health insurance in the state. We were not expecting a proposed new tax. There is a reduction by 15 percent of a number of worthwhile public health programs, and I thought we’d had that debate last year, and that had been rejected previously.
Q: Did any healthcare provisions in the governor’s budget stand out? RG: From what I’ve seen so far, I would not support the hospital private equity pieces they are pursuing. There are good things in there. The governor is advancing proposals similar to what Sen. Gustavo Rivera and I are going to be advancing to promote easier access to clean syringes. Moving forward with advancing integrated delivery system that has to do with care-coordinating is important. It also needs to be done carefully. There are always details we need to watch out for and that’s what we’re beginning a very detailed analysis of now.
Q: What were your top accomplishments in your first year chairing the Health Committee? CJ: We held oversight hearings on a wide range of public health issues, including the financial stability of the public hospital system and boosting access to care, and we approved a city budget that put a focus on hard-toreach communities. We also passed legislation allowing transgender New Yorkers to amend the gender markers on their birth certificates. Previously, they could only do so after undergoing surgery that was not an option for many. We passed bills regulating pet stores, safeguarding the treatment of animals and cracking down on negligent social adult day care centers. In a change from past budgets, we were able to expand funding to combat HIV/AIDS in communities of color, infant mortality and hepatitis B and C.
city & state — February 9, 2015
C&S: The governor has proposed new capital spending on hospitals. Are there areas that need new hospital facilities or resources? KH: There is a major program called DSRIP, which would reconfigure all healthcare provider relationships, and there would be a proposed reduction of 25 percent of hospital admissions in the state in four years. It would seem to be more logical that you’d use existing facilities if you’re going to have reduced admissions. C&S: What are some important priorities for you? KH: The governor was correct about having electronic cigarettes being included within the Clean Indoor Air Act. The promotion of the prevention agenda and the health improvement plan are really good objectives.
Q: What parts of the integrated delivery system need to be watched carefully? RG: An integrated delivery system can easily become almost a feudal system with a big hospital as the lord and master and that has real peril for patients and for individual healthcare professionals. On the other hand, there are enormous advantages to an integrated system and to well-done care-coordination. So we need to make sure that as much as possible consumers have choice in what system they want to be a part of. Q: Single-payer healthcare is still a top priority? RG: Very much so. We are signing up cosponsors on the bill, particularly among the freshman members of the Assembly. We now have a majority of members in the Assembly as sponsors. We are continuing to increase support in the labor movement and consumer groups and my goal is to have the Assembly pass the bill and reach a stage where, when New Yorkers think about what Albany ought to be doing, that universal health coverage is on everyone’s checklist. Getting the bill passed in the Assembly helps get us to that point. When we are at that point, making this a law becomes an achievable goal.
Q: Have there been any changes to the city Health and Hospitals Corporation since the state received the Medicaid waiver? CJ: To date, only $500 million of the $8 billion Medicaid waiver funds has been distributed and only a small portion of that has been allocated to HHC. HHC is one of 10 New York City-based “Performing Provider Systems” competing for funds. As the largest public hospital network in the U.S. and the state’s biggest provider of uncompensated care, it is critical it receives its fair share. The receipt of these funds is necessary given HHC’s budget deficit, which is expected to grow due to a loss of federal funding— despite increases in uncompensated care. The waiver, coupled with the recent announcement that the federal government has approved Gotham Health, the network of 39 primary care sites, for “Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike” status, will help HHC continue to fulfill its mission of providing quality healthcare
Q: The city won a federal grant to improve treatment of those with hepatitis C. How has that been working? CJ: This project will test a model involving a robust effort to identify persons with hepatitis C and connecting them to comprehensive medical care and adherence support. Given recent medical advances, hepatitis C treatment is now shorter, less toxic and more effective than in the past. A cure has become achievable for those who can afford treatment but still remains elusive for many on Medicaid. As part of the larger campaign to combat hepatitis in its various forms, I introduced a bill last year with Council Members Margaret Chin and Peter Koo that would require the Health Department to issue an annual report on its efforts to identify and prevent the spread of hepatitis B and C. This information is essential to community-based organizations, health professionals and government partners and will assist greatly in combating these diseases. We also launched a $750,000 hepatitis initiative to fund the training of local health providers to do testing, outreach and screening by the Health Department and local communitybased organizations to encourage testing for hepatitis and supporting linkages to culturally competent care for those diagnosed with these diseases. Q: Why the new focus on animal issues in your committee? CJ: Animal welfare legislation in the city has lain dormant for many years due to state preemption. The city recently regained its ability to establish standards and regulations for the pet industry. We passed four bills in December, including one regulating irresponsible breeders and requiring pet shops to disclose information about the origins and health of the animals they sell. Some breeding operations are known to keep dogs in cages their entire lives, with the sole purpose of producing litters. It is our responsibility to make sure that the city is not contributing to this problem. We also sought to keep animals out of the hands of abusive owners by creating standards that potential owners must meet before obtaining a new pet. And we passed measures to address overpopulation and animal homelessness. This session, we’re going to do more. cit yandstateny.com
Q: A recent city investigation found 13 hookah bars were violating the Smoke-Free Air Act by selling shisha with tobacco in it. How does the city enforce this? MB: From our sting operation, in this case, we have requested revocation of their permits. I’m not quite sure where it is in the process. It’s a long process, however, it is going forward. This is the first time that we’ve actually sent the product to a laboratory for analysis. And the laboratory analyses showed that they were consistent with having the presence of tobacco
Q: A City Council bill would ban the sale of hookah and hookah products at businesses that receive more than half of their revenue from other products, such as food and alcohol. What’s your position? MB: We’re looking at it. I personally haven’t seen it yet. Q: The Bloomberg administration was known for sometime graphic advertisements highlighting public health campaigns. Is this a strategy you plan to continue? MB: This strategy of highlighting to the public that tobacco will not only kill you, it will maim you and make your life miserable first has been extremely successful—successful in this city, successful all over the world.
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Q: What did you learn from treating a patient with Ebola? MB: This department is known for its technical excellence and I consider it the premiere urban health department in the United States and probably in the world. So our technical management of Ebola was something that I had every confidence that we could
pursue. Long before the first patient, Mr. Thomas Duncan, arrived in Dallas Hospital, we began the conversation with partners and providers and began issuing guidance on how to alert us to the possible presence of a patient. We worked on our lab protocols. What was sort of special about this response was our communication strategy, in that our adoption of a policy of transparency, of sharing what we knew with the public. Our outreach strategy was very important, going to the neighborhoods where people had been quarantined, making sure that we made information available to people. We had an informational card aimed to speak to lay people and we handed out thousands of these postcards. Additionally we reached out to the West African community of this city, a community where relatives and friends were suffering and even dying back home, and made sure that we got information to them and that we made it clear that the Heath Department was here to help and support. Those were additional things that we were able to do that were certainly major in our response to Ebola—one that the public appreciated and one that helped with the early identification and full recovery of Dr. Craig Spencer.
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SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS
Commissioner, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
New York City’s ads have been used in Australia and in other countries as well as other states across the country. This is a public health strategy that works. What has changed in New York City is the types of cigarette smokers that we have. We now have 70 percent of people who report in our surveys that they smoke, smoke 10 or fewer cigarettes a day or don’t smoke every day. And people who don’t smoke every day may not even really consider themselves smokers. So part of what we’re grappling with—and we had one campaign aimed at this last year— is how to reach out to these smokers who are now a majority of smokers. A targeting campaign may not be all that we need. We need to think about this widening proportion of smokers who smoke 10 or fewer cigarettes a day or don’t even smoke every day and what kind of messaging would reach them.
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city & state — February 9, 2015
MARY BASSETT
in what was being served. In addition to there being tobacco, which is illegal in all restaurant and bars, all of the individuals were under aged. You have to be 21 to purchase tobacco products. One thing that I want to add about hookah: it is a tradition with roots in the Middle East and so this has nothing to do with going after a cultural tradition. It’s purely about tobacco use because tobacco use is unhealthy no matter where you come from.
SPOTLIGHT: HEALTH AND HOSPITALS city & state — February 9, 2015
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JASON HELGERSON New York State Medicaid Director Q: What are some of the challenges that the state faces while implementing reforms with the $8 billion federal Medicaid waiver? JH: The biggest challenge is what we’re asking providers to do to come together in large groupings, sort of across the entire continuum of healthcare—hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, home care providers and specialty providers in behavioral health developed for those who are developmentally disabled. You name it, we’re asking all of these providers to come together and work as a team. Throughout the history of healthcare in New York and across the country, providers have functioned in silos and, in many cases, have seen each other as competitors even though in a lot cases they see the same patients. They can keep the revenue, they can keep their patients and what we’re asking them to do now with [the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program] is to work together and be held collectively accountable for improving health outcomes for Medicaid members and that is not easy. Q: Part of this effort are the “Performing Provider Systems.” What are these? JH: Many months have been spent trying to create what we call Performing Provider Systems, which is this grouping of providers who will be held accountable for results, and that has been a major challenge. So, I would say that the biggest challenge is trying to get all these different providers— at the minimum it’s hundreds, or over a hundred, and at maximum it’s thousands—providers who are single providers in a system to work together as a team. I would say that’s the biggest challenge. Q: But the argument is that in the long run this will be the most financially beneficial outcome for these groups, right?
JH: Correct. What I would argue is that healthcare in New York, particularly the safety net element of it, is on a downward slope and what I would use as my evidence for that is diminishing margins, particularly in places like hospitals and nursing homes. And unless we change the path they’re on, there’s going to be a continuous sort of decline and that decline will mean poorer performance by the providers and less access for patients and what we’re trying to do with DSRIP is sort of change that trajectory. What we’re saying is that in the long run these providers—when they work together and when we fundamentally change how we pay for healthcare in ways that will reward providers for their success and allow them to capture savings when they’re successful—that that will lead to a more sustainable future. Q: Are there any other big policy initiatives or issues involving Medicaid in New York that you expect to come up this year? JH: Move No. 1 is the fully-integrated dual advantage program, which is trying to bring together—this would be in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County—a pilot project that we’re working on with Medicare where Medicare and Medicaid payments are brought together systematically for the first time. Then we have managed care plans, which will be responsible for the holistic needs of that high-needs population. The second move that’s big is the nursing home benefit has now been carved into managed care contracts effective Feb. 1. And this is a big move—that’s $6 billion of fee-forservice spending that, over time, will move from fee-for-service to managed care. And the last big piece, which we’re particularly excited about, is the $7 billion in behavioral health services to spend outside of managed care and fee-for-service, while the population itself has been mostly in managed care. So we’re carving those services in and asking the managed care companies to be accountable for meeting the complete needs of the Medicaid population, including the most specialized services. But we’re also launching—the first in the nation—a specialized managed care product for people with significant persistent mental illness, as well as a subset of those who have substance abuse disorders. Those will be, as I say, a highly specialized product uniquely designed to meet the needs of that subset of the population.
HHC’s services are critical to the city’s most underserved populations and to the communities that suffer from the worst health disparities. The health of those populations directly impact everyone else’s health, whether you know it or not. We need to be sure our patients are provided for before making any decisions like that.
RAMANATHAN RAJU President and CEO, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation Q: Under the Medicaid waiver, applications for Performing Provider Systems were due in December. How many of the institutions that you oversee applied? Are any seeking to transition into non-hospital roles? RR: HHC is taking a leadership role in the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) process. We have applied to the state as a single, citywide Performing Provider System (PPS) consisting of all our healthcare facilities, including our nursing homes, community health centers, home health agency and our insurance plan, MetroPlus. The HHC-led PPS, OneCity Health, has approximately 400 community based partners across the city whose work will be guided by the results of comprehensive community health assessments of the areas we serve. In response to those health appraisals, we will launch new initiatives to proactively meet the primary care needs of higher-risk patients, reduce 30-day readmissions, better address chronic health conditions, and enhance mental health and substance abuse programs. OneCity Health closely aligns and expands on HHC’s previous population health work and takes it to a next level of magnitude. Q: What hospitals, if any, may be closed or downsized in the near future? RR: Any closure or downsizing needs to be carefully considered within the context of New York City’s overall healthcare landscape. The DSRIP process will bring many changes and we can’t risk leaving our patients without access to effective care. This risk is magnified where hospital closures, bankruptcies and consolidations may have profound effects. The role and value of the HHC healthcare system cannot simply be measured by just the bottom line.
Q: How feasible is the goal outlined in the Medicaid waiver of reducing unnecessary hospitalizations by 25 percent within five years? How much progress has been made in the city? RR: This is the future of healthcare. We have to do this. We are entering a very challenging period involving significant risks to effective community healthcare. Reducing unnecessary hospitalizations by 25 percent is quite feasible, and we can do it by keeping people healthier and not just thinking about them when they’re sick. HHC, together with its hundreds of partners, has seized the opportunity offered by DSRIP to transform care to better reflect the needs of the communities and patients we serve, and reorient the system to focus on chronic disease management and prevention. Q: How do you anticipate the president’s executive action offering legal reprieve to some undocumented immigrants impacting the city’s healthcare system? RR: HHC is New York City’s largest provider of healthcare services to undocumented immigrants, as well as its uninsured population. Undocumented immigrants are shut out of the insurance plans on the state health exchange and the subsidies offered by the Affordable Care Act to pay for those plans. But the ACA also decreases the amount of financial support given to care providers who serve the uninsured such as HHC. It’s a serious problem for us because these patients are still going to need our services and we will still provide them. The president’s recent actions under the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability could make Medicaid benefits available to some people who meet eligibility requirements, but not many. Gov. Andrew Cuomo included funding in his recent executive budget for some of these costs, but while the ACA brings many benefits we will remain in a bind between its exclusion of undocumented immigrants and its reduction of payments for uninsured care. cit yandstateny.com
transgressions. This defies logic, and should end today. Close the bribery carve-out for public officials. To prosecute a person for bribing a real estate developer, a labor leader or even a professional boxer, a state prosecutor need prove only an “intent to influence” the recipient of the bribe. Bribery of a public official, on the other hand, also
who further their own, undisclosed economic interests in the performance of their official duties. A 2010 U.S. Supreme Court opinion limited the ability of our federal partners to prosecute undisclosed self-dealing. This provides an opening for state prosecutors to lead the charge against high-level corruption. More than ten other states punish undisclosed selfdealing as a felony. New York’s district
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“BY ALL INDICATIONS, THERE’S ENOUGH CORRUPTION TO GO AROUND”
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ear after year, indictment after indictment, we are reminded that our state criminal statutes do not meaningfully prohibit, penalize or deter corruption at the highest levels of government. As corruption cases mount throughout New York State . . . half a dozen district attorneys said local officials they believe to be corrupt have gone unprosecuted because New York laws make it too difficult—more difficult than in most other states—to bring corruption cases. ... Are tougher laws the answer? Why is most of the New York corruption being exposed by the Federal Government and not the state and local authorities? That’s from a New York Times investigation into “dishonesty in government” in Albany following “a series of corruption scandals [including] abuses by half a dozen state legislators.” The year was 1987. Then, as now, the FBI and numerous U.S. Attorneys proved themselves remarkably capable of policing corrupt officials in New York State through application of federal laws like extortion, mail fraud and wire fraud. I continue to appreciate the excellent work that they do. Their success has led some to suggest that we need not fix our state corruption laws at all (an effort that, by the Times’ writing in 1987, had already “been debated for decades”). Why bother, when federal authorities appear to have things under control? For one, total reliance on federal authorities to safeguard the integrity of state and local government is risky public policy, and inherently in tension with a federal system of sovereign states. Why, in a nation that grants states primacy in police power, cit yandstateny.com
would New York cede this area to a federal government of limited powers? Notions of federalism aside, there is nothing in our law or politics that requires U.S. Attorneys to pursue these cases in the future. And there is nothing to be gained from equipping prosecutors at only one level of government with the statutory tools necessary to drain the swamp. By all indications, there’s enough corruption to go around. The failure of New York’s district attorneys to bring corruption cases at the highest levels of government is not for lack of will or trying. It’s for lack of state penal laws that adequately outlaw the conduct. It’s because—compared to our federal counterparts—we’re fighting high-level corruption with one hand tied behind our backs. In 2013, I shared ideas on how we can close this gap with the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. These proposals were the recommendations of a special task force I convened during my term as president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, and had been unanimously approved by all 62 of New York’s elected district attorneys. The state Legislature has not yet acted on these recommendations. I submit there’s never been a better time. New Yorkers deserve honest public servants and transparent public processes, now more than ever. As I told the Moreland Commission, these are three ways we can get there: End transactional immunity. Contrary to the laws of 49 states, every witness before a New York State grand jury automatically receives full immunity about anything to which they testify. As a result, prosecutors are reluctant to call the very people who know about corruption, for fear of giving them a lifetime pass for their
requires an explicit “understanding or agreement” between the bribe giver and the official for the crime to be complete. In practice, this means that those who bribe public officials are less likely to be prosecuted than those who bribe boxers. There is no justification for this imbalance.
attorneys need a similarly powerful tool.
Criminalize undisclosed selfdealing. New York State needs a law that specifically targets public servants
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. is the Manhattan district attorney.
Corruption in state government has depleted our public coffers, and degraded our public confidence. We needed these changes in 1987, and we badly need them now.
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city & state — February 9, 2015
CYRUS R. VANCE, JR.
MAKING HISTORY AGAIN E
d Rendell, the former governor
contender to Hillary. You talk about Elizabeth Warren—No. 1, she doesn’t want to run, and everyone who knows her knows that to be a fact.
of Pennsylvania, has kept busy since completing his final term in office in 2011. He returned to his old law firm, landed a gig as an NBC news analyst and pursued various business opportunities—but he also kept a foot in the political world, highlighting the need for infrastructure investment and, more recently, helping pitch Philadelphia to host of the 2016 Democratic National Convention. City & State’s Jon Lentz spoke with Rendell about the bid from the City of Brotherly Love, a rival bid from New York City and how the presidential field is shaping up. The following is an edited transcript.
city & state — January 9, 2015
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City & State: Why would Philadelphia be a good site for the 2016 Democratic National Convention? Ed Rendell: One, in 2000 we ran the Republican National Convention and it is widely regarded as the most successful political convention in the last 25 years from a logistics standpoint, from a transportation standpoint, policing standpoint, donor experience standpoint, all those things. No. 2, basically that team that ran the 2000 convention— transportation, police, political—that team is pretty much intact. We are a wonderful city now in terms of donor and delegate experience. We have great hotels: 11,000 rooms downtown, 7, 8 minutes from the Wells Fargo Center, easy transportation. We’d close Broad Street as we did in 2000, close it down to traffic and use both north and south, one way going down, one way coming up. With the buses it’s 6 or 7 minutes. Everything else in Center City is walkable. The convention center is walkable from the hotels, the restaurants are walkable, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Constitution Center—all walkable. So logistically, I think we’re the best in terms of donor and delegate experience. Third, we’re a great historic city. Our slogan is,
A Q&A WITH
ED RENDELL “Let’s Make History Again.” We obviously made history in 1776 and 1787, and obviously it’s possible to be nominating the first woman to run for president of the United States. Instead of delivering the acceptance speech outdoors at a football stadium, Hillary Clinton could deliver her convention address with Independence Hall as a backdrop. The hall holds easily 40,000 people. And in terms of raising the money, the DNC is asking for a commitment of $65 million. We raised $65 million back in 2000. Adjusting that for inflation, that’s about $75 to 80 million. We have no doubt we can raise the money. C&S: New York City is expected to have a fundraising advantage. Plus, Mayor Bill de Blasio is pushing hard to bring the event in Brooklyn, while Hillary Clinton,
the presumed frontrunner, was a New York senator and has strong ties here. ER: Well, New York obviously has the strongest advantage in the fact that it can raise a lot of money, no doubt about it. But the donor and delegate experience with the hotels being in Manhattan and the center being in Brooklyn is a disaster. Security is a disaster because of the businesses and residences that are inside of the security perimeter. So New York has some assets, and obviously money is the biggest, but it’s got some significant liabilities. But then, so do Philadelphia and Columbus, so I wouldn’t count New York out. C&S: How do you see the presidential field shaping up? ER: Well, on our side of the aisle, I don’t think there’s any serious
C&S: She’s been clear about that. ER: Yeah, she’s been clear, but even if she did run she would be the strongest challenger from the left of our party and she would probably get 15 percent of the vote in primaries. Hillary Clinton is almost unprecedented in the level of her experience that she would bring as the nominee. She’s got great political strength and loyalties. In fact, by the end of the campaign in ’08, she’d ran a great campaign, and got more popular votes than then-Senator Obama did, won more of the big states than Senator Obama did. So she’s got that infrastructure still in place for her all over the country. She would be, in my judgment, if she decides to run, impossible to beat. On the Republican side, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie have the problem that they’re moderates running in a party that is clearly to the right of right almost. You know, if you saw the straw poll in the Iowa caucus, no moderate came close. The righter to the right, the better they did. It’s going to be very difficult for the moderate to emerge because the party has become so much the captive of the far right. But if anybody has a chance, Jeb Bush would have that chance. But Chris Christie obviously staying in the race hurts Jeb Bush. But on the other hand, you tell me who is going to emerge from the conservative pack—it’s hard to figure any of them emerging. If they pick someone like Scott Walker, who led the Iowa straw poll, maybe he successfully tries to keep a foot in the moderate camp and a foot in the conservative camp. Maybe he can pull it off, but it’s not clear. Rand Paul certainly has a following that’s not going to go away. It’s very unclear on the Republican side. To read the full interview, including Rendell’s thoughts on political centrism and public-private partnerships, go to cityandstateny.com.
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city & state — February 09, 2015
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Albany: Stand Up for Workers and Protect the Scaffold Safety Law
COALITION
city & state — February 09, 2015
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NORTHEASTERN ON OCCUPATIONAL NY COALITION SAFETY & HEALTH
For further information on what they’re saying, straight facts and the 12 things you need to know about the scaffold safety law, please visit:
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