City & State Magazine, August 11, 2014 by City & State

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CONTENT S

CONTENTS August 11, 2014

5.....

Political Combat: Electeds, Staffers and Candidates You Don’t Want To Fight With

ALL THINGS BROOKLYN

6.....

Broken Windows to Tech Boom By Azure Gilman

8.....

Marty Markowitz Reflects On His Time As Borough President

IF NOT COMMON CORE THEN WHAT? By Ashley Hupfl

16.... 18....

SPOTLIGHT: DIVERSITY + MWBEs Institutional Activists: Comptrollers push for more corporate board diversity By Jon Lentz Leveling the Field: Will de Blasio improve New York City’s MWBE record? By Wilder Fleming

22....

SCORECARD

24....

ROUNDTABLE

29....

PERSPECTIVES Michael Benjamin on Gov. Cuomo’s unexpected troubles ... Letitia James on NYPD reform

30....

UNBRIDLED PASSION A Q & A with Actress Kathy Nijimy

Publisher Andrew A. Holt aholt@cityandstateny.com

Editor-in-Chief Morgan Pehme mpehme@cityandstateny.com

Art Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstateny.com

Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@cityandstateny.com

Managing Editor Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com

Graphic Designer Michelle Yang myang@cityandstateny.com

Business Manager Jasmin Freeman jfreeman@cityandstateny.com

Albany Bureau Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com

Marketing Graphic Designer Charles Flores, cflores@cityandstateny.com

Developement Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com

City Hall Bureau Chief Nick Powell npowell@cityandstateny.com

CITY AND STATE, LLC

Office Administrator Kyle Renwick krenwick@cityandstateny.com

Chairman Steve Farbman

Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com

Distribution Czar Dylan Forsberg

Columnists Alexis Grenell, Bruce Gyory, Nicole Gelinas, Michael Benjamin, Seth Barron, Jeff Smith, Jim Heaney, Gerson Borrero, Susan Arbetter

Reporter Azure Gilman agilman@cityandstateny.com

Interns Mylique Sutton, Louis Cheslaw, Paulina Tam, Peter Farag

61 Broadway, Suite 2825 New York, NY 10006 Editorial (212) 894-5417 General (646) 517-2741 Advertising (212) 894-5422 advertising@cityandstateny.com

President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com

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Associate Editor Helen Eisenbach

Illustrator Danilo Agutoli

city & state — August 11, 2014

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHING

SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL

Letters to the

Editor

In the August 11 issue, Louis Cheslaw explored whether communications-based train control (CBTC) would improve New York City’s subways if it were installed across the system, as the MTA plans. CBTC provides no capacity benefit over the existing signal system. The parameters that determine maximum service levels (capacity) are: acceleration and braking rates; dwell time in stations and maximum emergency braking stop distance. This can be corroborated by comparing past rush hour service levels with the present. The Transit Authority published rush hour service levels in their 1954 annual report. They showed the No. 7 and L trains operated 36 and 24 trains per hour (tph), respectively. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council’s 2012 Hub Bound Report reported that service levels on these lines are now 26 and 18, respectively. It should be noted that the L train’s service reduction from 24 to 18 tph occurred despite, and possibly because of, employing CBTC. A comparison between the 1954 and 2012 data will show that most lines are currently operating 25 percent to 33 percent below their 1954 actual service levels. This hardly suggests that the current subway system is maxed out. The assertion that the 1954 service levels were achieved by compromising safety is false. Unlike [what happened with] the Metro-North train [that derailed on Dec. 1 near Spuyten Duyvil], the subway system signals monitored train position throughout. It also monitored speed where appropriate. The signal system would stop following trains that were too close to the train ahead and trains that were going too fast on curves or downgrades. Train operators did not override these safety features to maintain the higher service levels. The system is still capable of operating at these levels today. Billions of dollars of investment over decades for a new signal system are not required to operate at yesterday’s rush hour service levels in complete safety. —sbauman (via cityandstateny.com) SPOTLIGHT: MASS TRANSPORTATION

Q&A WITH NEW YORK METS GM SANDY ALDERSON

July 21, 2014

OIL RUSH

city & state — August 11, 2014

ere’s Bill de Blasio on the Moreland Commission imbroglio in which Gov. Andrew Cuomo now finds himself steeped: “I’m not following it, because I have a lot of other things to do. I try to keep up a bit with the world, but when I look at the media, I am focused on the things that affect By Morgan Pehme New York directly.” Editor-in-Chief What a crock! De Blasio, widely regarded as a masterful political operator, is not following the biggest political story of the year? A story that could have enormous ramifications for the power structure in this state and his standing within it? Yeah, sure. It is a credit to the press corps that nobody burst out laughing when de Blasio served up this doozy. The Moreland scandal doesn’t “affect New York directly”? How do you figure, Mayor? Because it’s an Albany issue? This from the guy who went to the state Legislature his very first month in office to beg it to grant him the ability to raise taxes on the rich—and was rebuffed? Who will time and again depend upon the Capitol to enable him to enact his progressive agenda? Why would he be concerned with a fiasco in which both houses of the Legislature and the executive chamber are entangled? Of course, to be fair to the mayor, he is only doing the same duck-and-cover routine that practically every other Democratic elected official in this state is performing right now. The difference is he does not have the luxury of dodging questions the way they can. Where have all our intrepid good-government advocates gone? Did all of the senators and Assembly members from Manhattan go on vacation and not bother to issue a press release to let us know? New York State has no shortage of politicians eager to mount their white horse to champion accountability and transparency when there is no chance they will succeed. Now, at the moment most auspicious to lead the charge for reform, everyone is suddenly on the sidelines taking a breather? Pathetic. Our politicians, so prone to pontificate on subjects about which they know nothing or have no influence, suddenly fall mute whenever it comes to speaking out

CAN SAFETY STANDARDS KEEP PACE WITH AMERICA’S FOSSIL FUEL BOOM?

against the wrongdoings of members of their own party. The notorious “blue wall of silence” among police officers is positively porous compared with how unfailingly elected officials turn the other cheek when it comes to the sins of their colleagues. The only time politicians flip on each other is to save their own skin, or when public opinion has so shifted against the perp that it’s indefensible to keep standing up for them—as in the case of Vito Lopez. (Then, as we all know, comes the pile-on, when our lionhearted leaders congratulate themselves for the courage they finally found tucked away in a drawer someplace.) Even when politicians are indicted for public corruption, for abusing the very system they were elected to uphold, for bringing shame upon their colleagues by tarnishing the institution in which they serve, our electeds say nothing. Three months after Ruben Wills was arrested for what Attorney General Eric Schneiderman described as “a shameful breach of the trust his constituents placed in him,” have any of his 47 fellow Democrats in the New York City Council called on him to resign? Why is it that the safest harbor for indicted politicians in this state is inside the halls of government? Not that Democrats are alone in laying on thick this appalling whitewash. Take Rudy Giuliani, who POLITICO’s Maggie Haberman quotes as saying, “The Cuomo situation, I can’t figure it out … I’m getting nervous that prosecutors are jumping [at a political case].” Wha—?! Let’s ignore for a second that Giuliani had to preface his remarks by disclosing that his law firm is representing individuals who might be questioned by investigators in connection with Moreland. This is Rudy Giuliani! The crusading U.S. Attorney who made his entire career taking on political corruption! If anyone should be cheering on Preet Bharara, it’s Rudy! How low Giuliani has sunk since the days when he heroically brought powerful politicians like Meade Esposito and Mario Biaggi to justice. Has he forgotten his own words? “I don’t think there is anybody worse than a public official who sells his office and corrupts others—except maybe a murderer.” I guess the only remaining test for our elected officials’ tolerance of one another’s crimes is for one of them to actually commit murder. Then we’ll find out if that’s somehow an excusable offense, too.

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In City & State’s special Brooklyn issue, Morgan Pehme opined that Mayor de Blasio should appoint a deputy mayor for Brooklyn to formulate and execute a master plan for the borough. Borough presidents have more than enough power to fill the role Mr. Pehme outlines should they choose to exercise it. Unfortunately, 12 years of cheerleading has left most Brooklynites—including possibly the current occupant of the office—with the impression [that] that is all the job can be. —Reggie (via cityandstateny.com) A Q&A with

U.S. SENATOR SCHUMER

Building back after

SUPERSTORM SANDY

July 29, 2014

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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.

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MARK BENOIT SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, GETO & DE MILLY

ALEX RIAS LEGISLATIVE AND BUDGET DIRECTOR, NEW YORK CITY COUNCILWOMAN JULISSA FERRERAS’ OFFICE

Skills: Fourth degree black belt in Gōjū-ryū; first degree black belts in tae kwon do and Hapki-do

Skills: Black belt in Shotokan karate; brown belt in jujitsu

SAM ROBERTS ASSEMBLYMAN

New York politicians frequently spar with their political opponents, but only a select few are prepared for actual physical combat. Here are a few New York legislators, candidates and staffers you would probably want to seek a compromise with if push came to shove.

Skills: Mixed martial arts, Jeet Kune Do, Brazilian jujitsu, Greco-Roman wrestling, judo and weapons Took up martial arts after she began losing her eyesight, and has competed internationally

PETER KING CONGRESSMAN

Skills: Boxing Faced off against former kickboxing champion “Irish” Josh Foley in celebrity match

MATHIEU EUGENE NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN

Skills: Master in tae kwon do Won a national tae kwon do championship in Haiti

Skills: Eighth degree black belt in American Shotokan karate Was ranked No. 1 in American Shotokan karate in New York and New Jersey, and won the World Championships

PETER LOPEZ ASSEMBLYMAN

Skills: Black belt in karate

Which of these fighters do you rank as the best of the best? Go online to cityandstateny.com to vote. cit yandstateny.com

city & state — August 11, 2014

MARYBETH MELENDEZ ASSEMBLY CANDIDATE, ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 64

ALL THINGS BROOKLYN By AZURE GILMAN

n July 29, City & State hosted a State of Brooklyn event, co-sponsored by Airbnb NYC and Maimonides Medical Center, at the Brooklyn Historical Society. The evening featured live interviews with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Council Members Brad Lander, Jumaane Williams and Laurie Cumbo, covering a wide array of topics, including affordable housing, policing practices, the borough’s cultural institutions and even the Nets versus the Knicks.

Airbnb’s New York City Manager Wrede Petersmeyer introduced the event.

city & state — August 11, 2014

ON DIVERSITY If we can’t build a borough that is both diverse and energetic and safe and inclusive—not segregated by income and race—then we are not going to be able to judge the Brooklyn experiment a success. Throughout his discussion with City & State’s Nick Powell, Borough President Eric Adams walked a fine line between celebrating Brooklyn’s growth and expressing his desire for the borough’s prosperity to extend to all of its residents.

—Councilman Brad Lander

cit yandstateny.com

I don’t know what to tell young black and brown men and women, when the unemployment rate is more than double the rest of the nation, who can’t find jobs ... and they have the ability to dance [to make money] and the only place they can do it is in the subway, but now we are going to crack down there. —Councilman Jumaane Williams

t City & State’s inaugural Brooklyn event, Borough President Eric Adams, a retired NYPD captain, praised the “broken windows” theory—which initially became a part of the city’s approach to policing during William Bratton’s first run as commissioner in the 1990s— calling it the tipping point for Brooklyn becoming a desirable place to live and start a business. “Broken windows” places an emphasis on pursuing smallscale “quality of life” crimes with the aim of stymieing the escalation of more

City & State’s inaugural Brooklyn event was held at Brooklyn Historical Society.

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have flourished in the Brooklyn Tech Triangle. “You can’t tell an Etsy or some other great tech giant to go to East New York industrial zone, or go further into Brownsville when the technology is not there,” Adams said. He also took the opportunity to talk about seniors being disadvantaged by a lack of tech skills, and his belief that schools should start phasing out textbooks in favor of iPads and other tablets. Delving into the complicated structure of New York City government, Powell asked Adams’ opinion of a July 29 op-ed by City & State Editor-in-Chief Morgan Pehme calling for the creation of a deputy mayor for Brooklyn who would be vested with the support of the mayor’s office to create and execute a master plan for the borough’s future. “I think it’s a great idea. I can wear both those hats,” Adams quipped. He then proceeded to politely disagree with Pehme’s premise. “The mayor talks about he wants more power. Barack [Obama] talks about he wants more power. You never have enough power. The question is what are you going to do with the power you have? And so we don’t need another deputy mayor. What we need is the relationship I have with the current mayor … You really need someone … [who] can be independent from any city agency or from the mayor’s office, and who can carry out the agenda of the people.”

ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING WORKSHOPS What many of us don’t know is that there are so many projects where they don’t have enough applicants who are qualified to meet the thresholds. So … we are going to make sure applicants are qualified, they have the credit and they are ready to go. —Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo

Schedule of Affordable Housing Workshops in Brooklyn:

• Nov. 13 at the Hanson Place Seventh-Day Adventist Church • Feb. 4, 2015, at Pratt Institute • June 10, 2015, at Ingersoll Community Center • Oct. 5, 2015, at Church of the Sacred Heart

City & State Editor-in-chief Morgan Pehme with Max Pomeranc, Airbnb’s New York City public policy manager.

city & state — August 11, 2014

ON “BROKEN WINDOWS”

violent crimes. “[‘Broken windows’] allowed people to understand that quality of life meant everything,” Adams said. Throughout his discussion with City & State’s City Hall Bureau Chief Nick Powell, Adams walked a fine line between celebrating Brooklyn’s growth and development and expressing his desire for the borough’s newfound prosperity to extend to its less fortunate citizens. “I think the previous years we saw great buildings and great structures,” said Adams. “The train is moving, it has left the station. My role is to make sure it stops at every station … we can’t continue to build tall buildings and small people.” To that end, when asked about creating affordable housing in a skyrocketing real estate market, Adams was adamant that rezoning was not necessarily a bad approach, if done responsibly. “Building higher, particularly on our corridors, is not something that would destroy neighborhoods,” he said. “We need to look at how we could rezone certain areas. I think we did a great job on 4th Avenue.” Adams has made access to technology a priority, and emphasized his belief that having high-speed Internet is necessary to help lower income neighborhoods in Brooklyn by allowing them to attract the kind of tech companies that

FOREVER BROOKLYN

A Q&A WITH MARTY MARKOWITZ

orough President Eric Adams was the featured speaker at City & State’s event unveiling our special Brooklyn issue, but no appraisal of the borough’s recent history would be complete without catching up with his predecessor, Marty Markowitz. Over his 12 years in office, Markowitz became a highly visible cheerleader for the borough and a living symbol of both its proud history and its bold new direction. C&S’s City Hall Bureau Chief Nick Powell spoke with Markowitz about whether he misses his dream job and what advice he offered Adams. The following is an edited transcript.

City & State: Do you miss being borough president now that you’ve had a bit of time away from the job? Marty Markowitz: If we didn’t have term limits, I definitely would have run again for borough president. Being borough president was my life’s work. I did not aspire to be anything beyond or besides Brooklyn borough president. Now, do I miss it? I have more time now to be with my wife and my son, who happens to be an African Grey parrot. I don’t have to worry about reading about myself the next day in some of the tabloids that,

city & state — August 11, 2014

frankly, don’t always tell the truth. I do miss being in the center of the job. … It’s not the most important position of city government, but nonetheless you are in the middle of almost everything that goes on. C&S: You said the position was one you aspired to as a young man. What about the job inspired you? MM: I love Brooklyn. I saw that Brooklyn was a gem that needed to be polished and needed promotion for all the good that is here. I also knew what Brooklyn needed to move it forward.

It’s the coolest city on the planet. I do believe that for the time I served, I reflected the majority’s opinion and how they see themselves and the pride they have in our borough. As I’ve said many times, they can sweep you off your feet and be in your face at the same time. C&S: Some people think development is great, while others point to its unfortunate by-products, like gentrification and pushing poor and middleincome Brooklynites to the fringes of the borough. Where do you weigh in? MM: First off, I think that the development has had a healthy impact on the borough; I hope and expect it will continue for the many years to come. Secondly, we obviously always have to be mindful of preserving affordable housing; I grew up in part in public housing, so I know the importance of housing, and good, solid, safe housing for folks of low income. We have to preserve our rent control to preserve that moderate middle income. All the new buildings, including around Atlantic Yards, overwhelmingly have at least 20 percent required affordable housing. Mayor de Blasio, there is no question he made one of his priorities the building of more lower- and moderate-income housing, which we need because we can’t have a borough or a city that is only wealth and poverty. That is not healthy for the economy; it’s not healthy for either rich or poor. There’s no question that there are places in America where your dollar goes further. Having said that, there is not a place in America more exciting to live than in New York City, and in my opinion Brooklyn is where the city begins. Overwhelmingly, the development has been positive. It has created new jobs, and Brooklyn has the fastest growing job pace in the

city. We’re also outpacing the city in terms of population growth—and the fact that people want to move here, as opposed to leaving here, shows you that we’re on the right track. But we always have to be mindful of ensuring that folks of low and moderate [incomes] have an opportunity to continue to live in Brooklyn. C&S: As a borough president, you were both indefatigable and ubiquitous, showing up at seemingly every ribbon cutting, graduation and community event. How did you sustain that pace? MM: Keep in mind that I grew up pre-Facebook, pre-viral, and pre–everything computer[ized]. So I grew up letter to paper, and to personal handshakes, and to personal conversation and one person at a time. I think that most folks my age—I’m 69 now—and older, grew up the same way I did. I was elected in 1978, but I ran for office even before that. I lost in 1973 when I ran for City Council— 300 votes I lost by. Even before that in college and high school, I held office in school government. I did that by one person at a time; I didn’t know anything else but that. Nothing equals personal appearances. And when I became borough president, the only way you can keep yourself relevant is to be seen. C&S: What advice did you give your successor, Eric Adams, before he stepped into your sizable shoes? MM: Actually, his shoe size is bigger than mine, but my waist was bigger than his, so we’re equal. I shared with him just a few items; it was not as if he asked me, “Marty, tell me how to be borough president.” He served a number of years as a state senator. He has an idea of what he wants to do, and that’s it and he’s off. Brooklyn is on automatic pilot in many ways; the work is ongoing now. And having a mayor from Brooklyn—I must say, Bill De Blasio, I never realized, or maybe I should have, how much he truly loves Brooklyn. In fact, most of his [administration] appointees are Brooklyn men and women. Brooklyn is in capable hands both with our mayor and our borough president, and of course the members of the City Council. We have some fabulous ones there, both the older ones and the new ones. Brooklyn is going in the right direction; we’ve got leaders that are representative of the Brooklyn we have today in 2014. I am confident we’re okay. cit yandstateny.com

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IF NOT COMMON CORE, THEN WHAT? A host of politicians, parents, teachers and activists around the state want Common Core repealed, but if they succeed in their long-shot effort to do so, what do they propose to take its place? By ASHLEY HUPFL

CHARLES LEWIS/AP

Common Core opponents braved cold weather in December to protest outside a public forum in Buffalo, where state Education Commissioner John King was touting the education standards.

city & state — August 11, 2014

orri Gumanow was furious. Her 13-year-old son, who had always thrived in the classroom, was suddenly struggling. Like thousands of public school students across New York, he had recently failed a new, more rigorous mathematics test tied to the state’s revamped education standards. Gumanow’s son, who began to have meltdowns over his homework on a regular basis, had even threatened to kill himself, she said. At a packed Manhattan auditorium this past December, Gumanow joined

hundreds of other parents and teachers gathered to express their anger and frustration over the state’s Common Core education standards, which they blamed for the widespread decline in test scores. The flawed rollout, they said, had left teachers, parents and students woefully unprepared. As state Education Commissioner John King sat stoically on stage, Gumanow said that the only response from school officials was to tell students they needed to try harder. “Unfortunately, when you throw

some kids into the deep end of the pool, with a brick tied to their ankle— label the brick whatever difference you prefer—it is foolish to believe they are all going to be able to come back up for air. A lot of them are going down!” said Gumanow, a former special education teacher. “I am tired of the jargon and the rhetoric. You are willing to write my son off as collateral damage.” Parents who, like Gumanow, have voiced confusion about the Common Core standards and uncertainty as to what the criteria mean for their

children, are not alone in their criticism. School districts have said they were not provided enough guidance to properly comply with the new standards, and educators, many of whom object to the new teacher evaluations tied to Common Core-aligned testing, have said they felt unprepared. Politicians have been quick to pounce, with state senators and members of the Assembly sponsoring bills requiring a moratorium or even a full repeal. Even Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Merryl Tisch, the chancellor of the cit yandstateny.com

STATUS OF COMMON CORE IN THE 50 STATES

state Board of Regents, both strong proponents of Common Core, have acknowledged problems with the way it was implemented. During his budget address this year, Cuomo said that there has been “too much uncertainty, confusion and anxiety.” Tisch told City & State that the rollout was “uneven” and that the Board of Regents should have done a better job engaging with parents. By early July, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, cit yandstateny.com

had seized on the controversy. At a press conference announcing a new “Stop Common Core” ballot line, he assailed the standards as a “disaster” and promised to repeal them if elected. The standards, he said later, are “dumbing down students.” Yet as the attacks and criticism have reached a fever pitch over the past year, one part of the equation always seems to be missing: What would replace Common Core if opponents actually succeeded in getting rid of the controversial plan?

he evolution of education policy, in New York and nationwide, has been building up to this boiling point for over a decade. When the U.S. Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2001, more commonly known as No Child Left Behind, it required states for the first time to set a learning standard that specified what students in grades 3–8 and high school should know. It also mandated the use of standardized

testing to measure student proficiency in those grades, though each state was free to set its own minimum standards. In 2008 New York began to re-examine its own standards, and created a work group to develop new ones. While that process was under way, the federal government gave states the option of adopting a new set of standards known as Common Core, which was developed by the Republican-led National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, along with other

city & state — August 11, 2014

education groups and teacher work groups. These standards built on No Child Left Behind, while also aiming to set a higher bar and create a single national standard. Then, in 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included $4.35 billion for his federal Race to the Top initiative. If states agreed to certain education policy requirements such as implementing higher standards intended to make students more college- and career-ready and instituting annual professional performance reviews for teachers and principals, they could receive a share of the money. A year later, in 2010, New York adopted Common Core. According to the state Department of Education, New York has spent $413.5 million in Race to the Top funding and has $283.1 million remaining. Implementation began in the 2011–12 school year. By spring parents and teachers were already raising concerns about the rushed implementation, among other objections. The first round of Common Corealigned tests was taken in the spring of 2013. When the results were released last August, the uproar reached its peak. Across the board there had been a sharp drop in scores—a drop that was anticipated by the state Department of Education, but jarring to parents and students. Only 31 percent of students

in grades 3–8 passed the new exams in both reading and math, compared with 55 percent in reading and 65 percent in math the previous year on the old tests. This year, after Cuomo called for “corrective action,” lawmakers approved legislation that delays the use of students’ performance on Common Core tests as a criterion for grade placement and as a factor

the possibility of the state Legislature passing a repeal is equally doubtful. Of course, shifting political winds could change the current landscape, with or without a new governor. The next round of Common Core scores are expected to be released this month. Several education experts said that if there is no sign of improvement, the calls to get rid of the standards would only get louder.

“There has to be something, because in the absence of any structure you have complete chaos.” in teacher evaluations for teachers rated “ineffective” or “developing.” Students will still take the tests, but the scores will not affect grade placement or whether a student graduates until 2022. Teachers received a two-year postponement before their students’ performance on the test counts toward their own evaluations. Although he has been critical of its implementation, Cuomo has been a staunch advocate of the Common Core standards and also integral to bringing millions of dollars in Race to the Top funding to New York. It appears highly unlikely that Cuomo would allow the standards to be scrapped, and

EVOLVING EDUCATION STANDARDS

n early July, Rob Astorino, flanked by a few parents holding anti–Common Core and proAstorino signs in the pressroom of the Legislative Office Building in Albany, unveiled his “Stop Common Core” ballot line. After making a relatively brief announcement, Astorino spent about 20 minutes deflecting questions about the specific details of his education agenda. Instead he repeatedly insisted that he has the support of parents and teachers from around the state and that he was leading a “grassroots” movement. “Obviously Cuomo’s Common Core has been a disaster. The rollout and

implementation speak for themselves on how bad it’s been,” Astorino said. “But even once the implementation is rolled out some years in the future, we’re still left with Common Core, which I oppose, and it’s something we should get out of, and I will get out of when I become governor next year.” All three Republican candidates running for statewide office, including Astorino, nominee for attorney general John Cahill and nominee for state comptroller Bob Antonacci have joined the “Stop Common Core” ballot line initiative. Cahill originally said he supported Common Core, but switched his position when the line was launched. At least one state Senate candidate, Sue Serino, has also signed on. Assemblyman Ed Ra, a member of the Republican minority, co-sponsored a bill during the past legislative session that would fully repeal Common Core. He also introduced a bill that would put the standards on hold while the state convened an independent blueribbon commission of educators to examine them. “I would prefer either of [the bills were passed] if we could get them passed,” said Ra, who admits that there is little chance either will. “I support both bills, but the idea of my bill was we’d basically put the brakes on what we’re doing and basically put together a panel of educators to study, to come together and look at the standards and

JULY 24, 2009

The Obama administration announces $4.35 billion in Race to the Top competitive grants to support education reform and innovation in classrooms.

FALL 2011

MARCH 2008

New York begins implementation of Common Core standards for 2011–12 school year.

city & state — August 11, 2014

The New York State Board of Regents announces a review of the New York State Learning Standards.

JUNE 1, 2009

JAN. 8, 2002

President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers begin a standards development process.

JULY 19, 2010

The New York State Board of Regents adopts the Common Core standards.

cit yandstateny.com

he push by politicians to repeal and replace the standards is one potential resolution to the controversy over Common Core, but it also raises a number of questions. No politician has yet introduced a comprehensive plan that addresses all the ramifications of repealing Common Core. Instead they have focused on getting the word out that Common Core is bad for America. “The requirement of the Common Core that Astorino and others say they’re going to repeal is a

% 1 3

AUG. 2013

multiheaded beast, and they’re going to have to cut off all the heads,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of Educational Leadership, Law and Policy at the CUNY Grad Center and Brooklyn College. “They would have to renegotiate the No Child Left Behind waiver, they would have to change the testing contracts and they would have to change the teacher evaluation system—and that becomes a very tall order. And at some level it’s actually not necessary. But at some level people would begin to question, as they already are, ‘Well, what are you going to replace it with?’ ” New York State United Teachers President Karen Magee said her union supports the Common Core standards, though it has been critical of their implementation and the teacher evaluations that were introduced in concert with them. A former teacher, Magee said there has always been a clearly articulated state syllabus that guided local school districts in developing their own curricula. “If they were to repeal the entire Common Core, they would have to develop some kind of common thread, at least throughout the state,” Magee said. “There has to be something, because in the absence of any structure you have complete chaos.” Moreover, despite the claim made by many Common Core opponents that the state is forcing curricula on districts and teachers, Chancellor

Merryl Tisch, the chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, has been an outspoken advocate for Common Core. Tisch said that local school boards do in fact retain control. “It is one thing to set standards; it’s another to impose how districts do their instruction and choose their curriculum,” Tisch said. “I think once you set a standard—how teachers do that, how superintendents choose curriculum along with teachers and principals—that is totally locally determined, and I will fight for the right of every school district to make those decisions. But we would be doing a disservice to our students, a real

disservice, not to have benchmarks of performance of what kids need to measure at what grades, in order to provide a road map.”

hat distinction between standards and curriculum, which is often muddled in public debate, is also at the root of the controversy, experts say. Is Common Core all about testing? Curriculum? Standards? All of the above? In an interview with City & State, Astorino insisted that the standards

JULY 8, 2014

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino announces a “Stop Common Core” ballot line.

Common Core-aligned student test results reveal pass rates dropped to 31 percent, adding to concerns about Common Core.

JUNE 19, 2014

The state Legislature passes a bill to delay the impact of some assessments aligned to the Common Core standards for two years.

MID-AUG. 2014

JUNE 2013

Students take first Common Core-aligned tests

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OCT. 24, 2013

New York holds its first Common Core forum to address concerns of parents and educators.

Second round of Common Core-aligned test results expected to be released.

JUNE 2014

Students take a second round of Common Core-aligned tests.

city & state — August 11, 2014

decide: ‘Are these the standards we should move forward with, [or] should we move forward with another set of standards?’ ” If the moratorium were successful, Ra said that local school boards and superintendents could reform their existing curricula, move forward with Common Core or revert to the previous standards. Republican State Sen. Greg Ball, who declined to run for re-election this cycle, has introduced legislation to repeal Common Core in the other house of the Legislature, where, unlike Ra, he is in the majority conference. Ball’s bill is only about 140 words long and would require the state to immediately discontinue implementation of the Common Core standards and opt out of federal Race to the Top funding. It does not specify what steps the state should take afterward.

saying, ‘Okay, we don’t care how you meet this goal—just meet it.’ And how you meet it is the curriculum.”

nother question that has been largely ignored by foes of Common Core is what would happen to the flow of federal education dollars to New York if the program were scrapped. In 2010 states were given the option of applying for a waiver that enables them to have greater latitude in deviating from No Child Left Behind requirements as long as they adopt standards that adequately prepare students for college or the workforce. Though most states went with Common Core, one state—Virginia— elected to go for standards approved by postsecondary institutions. Since March at least six states have opted out of Common Core, or tweaked the standards, and Louisiana and Wisconsin are debating moving away from Common Core in their state legislatures. Earlier this year Indiana became the first state to repeal Common Core, and the U.S. Department of Education sent state officials a letter reminding them they had to submit an amended No Child Left Behind waiver within 60 days or risk losing federal funding. The state approved a new set of standards by the deadline, although critics say it differs little from Common Core.

In April Washington became the first state to have its No Child Left Behind waiver revoked by the federal government, largely because Washington did not require state test scores to be integrated into teacher evaluations. When a state has its waiver revoked, districts lose control of millions in federal money, because schools have to begin setting aside money for federal remedies for low-performing schools, such as tutoring and school choice. Other states, including Missouri, North Carolina and South Carolina, recently passed legislation to move away from Common Core. None of those three states explicitly prohibit its use, and each will continue to use the standards through at least the 2014–15 school year while they develop new standards. Oklahoma also repealed Common Core this spring and reverted to its previous state standards, but the state has twice delayed approving an official transition plan. Astorino has suggested taking a similar course of action and at the same time salvaging New York’s so-called “lost standards,” which were in the works but abandoned in favor of Common Core. Walter Sullivan, an associate professor of Educational Leadership at the College of New Rochelle who spearheaded the “lost standards,” estimated that finishing the work

would take about one year per subject. Sullivan said that creating comprehensive standards would take time to “do it right.” Tisch argued that any further delay would be counterproductive, pointing to national and international test scores that show the United States lagging behind other countries. “Simply to stand still while the rest of the world is moving forward, to me, is just a ludicrous argument,” she said. “And if Rob Astorino is saying that he is against Common Core, then I would suggest very strongly to him that he absolutely understand what is going on with NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] scores, with PISA [Program for International Student Assessment] scores, and then come back and tell me that we shouldn’t be raising standards.”

ven though many experts agree that sticking with Common Core is the best course of action, most of them point out that the standards themselves are not without their weaknesses. One of the most pressing concerns is how special needs students and English Language learner students are handling the new standards. Another concern is that some of the standards in the lower grades may be too sophisticated—for teachers as well as students. Elementary school

ASHLEY HUPFL

city & state — August 11, 2014

and curriculum have basically become the same thing, since “the curriculum is designed to meet the standards of the test.” While there is a clear link between standards and curriculum, however, experts say conflating the two can be misleading. “[Standards are] a framework around which you build a curriculum,” said John Ewing, the president of Math for America, a private nonprofit organization with a mission to improve math education in secondary public schools. “It’s the curriculum that’s rigorous, it’s not the standards that are rigorous, and it’s sort of a misunderstanding about what standards are all about. So it always makes me nervous when I hear people talk about some set of standards, or ‘Our standards before were much better before than this new set of standards.’ ” A number of experts also said that Common Core has become a scapegoat for a variety of problems and issues within the education system that may only be loosely tied to the new standards. Lana Ajemian, the president of the New York State PTA, said that growing concerns about standardized testing have been unfairly linked to Common Core. “We believe many parents have a hard time separating those issues from the intent of the Common Core, which is basically to raise standards and ensure our kids are college- and career-ready,” she said. Another widespread misunderstanding may stem from a key distinction between the Common Core standards and No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind tracked high school graduation rates but not what students had learned when they graduated, said David Albert, director of communications and research from the New York State School Boards Association. Common Core focuses on what students should know in each grade. “What they do is they basically say, ‘These are the kinds of things students at each grade level should know in various subject matters.’ Now, that does not tell the instructor or the teacher how he or she has to go about teaching that particular standard,” Albert said. “A curriculum is a specific set of materials or subject matter that a teacher would use in order to instruct students in a particular topic. It’s really up to the individual teacher to determine how he or she wants to instruct students to meet the standards. So it’s kind of like setting a goal and

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, the Republican candidate for governor, promised to repeal Common Core in New York if elected governor during a press conference in Albany last month.

cit yandstateny.com

o where does this leave the future of the Common Core standards in New York? CUNY’s David Bloomfield called the Common Core adjustments made during this past legislative session “important and surprising victories,” given the strong support for Common Core by the governor and the state Department of Education. “It’s kind of an interesting political waiting game going on,” Bloomfield said. “There’s still going to be testing, but they delayed the consequences. [Cuomo and the state Department of Education] think the opposition will either die down or simply be distracted over the next two years so they can kind of roll it out again without anybody paying attention, without the current outcry that we have now. The opposition is hoping that Tisch and [the Board of Education] will move on.” Ajemian said that the public debate in New York has subsided in recent months, although it could flare up again soon. “Actually, it’s pretty quiet [in cit yandstateny.com

New York] right now,” Ajemian said about public calls for a repeal. “We’re anticipating as the scores are released—well, we’re not sure what to anticipate—but we imagine we will be hearing more once the scores are released.” Given Cuomo’s commitment to Common Core, a lot also depends on the elections coming up this fall. Astorino is trailing badly in the polls and in fundraising, and political observers question whether his new Stop Common Core line will be of much help. “A lot of legislators are up for election; the governor is up for election,” Ra said. “It’s going to be an issue in the governor’s election, it’s going to be an issue in the state Legislature elections, it’s going to be an issue in every congressional election … it’s going to be an issue all over the country. Really, it’s hard to say [what will happen], not knowing who those players are going to be from the get-go.” One common theme among education officials and experts has been dismay at how the debate over Common Core has been used for political ends. Regardless of whether the standards are repealed, politicians will continue to hijack controversial education issues to score political points, they lament. “I think, quite honestly, the merger of rollouts of the standards while simultaneously trying to develop an evaluation system in the state, that caused a lot of unrest,” Tisch said. “Now, if you would like to say that perhaps the implementation was uneven—I will take that criticism. If you want to say we didn’t engage with parents along the way, I would say ‘absolutely.’ But it simply never dawned on me that when we spoke about raising standards and making standards more compatible with what students would need in the 21st century that it would become a political quagmire.” The political and legal complexities surrounding Common Core are not lost on Astorino, who has since walked back his absolute opposition to the standards. When pressed, Astorino conceded that he would be open to tinkering with them instead of ditching them altogether, given the drawbacks of starting the process all over again. “It is certainly being considered,” he said. “You know, if the foundation is broken, do you just continue to build, or do you rebuild the foundation so it’s steady? So I think everything has to be on the table for this.”

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city & state — August 11, 2014

teachers, as generalists who have to teach multiple subjects, may not have all the skills needed to teach everything the new standards demand. Some also worry that the standards will not be flexible enough to address such concerns. “There hasn’t been a lot of work with that, so elementary school teachers will struggle for a little while trying to make this work. Not all of them—some of them will be great— but many of them will have to struggle for a while,” Ewing said. “As they rolled out the standards, they probably should have worked harder at dealing with that problem.” Another criticism is that teachers are forced to pace their lessons according to the standards rather than to the point of mastery. But NYS PTA President Ajemian said the idea of Common Core is to move away from just regurgitating facts toward understanding how to use those facts. “Our kids are going to be competing in a very different world, and facts will be very accessible, because there’s so much between the Internet and everything else,” Ajemian said. “How to be creative and innovative and how to apply those facts is going to be very important to how successful they can be competing in a global workplace. They’re not just competing with their neighbor next door.”

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INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVISTS

Comptrollers inch along in push for more corporate board diversity

Urban Outfitters has been a top target for proponents of greater diversity on corporate boards.

By JON LENTZ

city & state — August 11, 2014

his spring, Urban Outfitters’ shareholders took a vote on a proposal aimed at shaking up the clothing company’s board of directors. Some of the country’s largest pension funds were calling for more diversity on its board, citing a growing body of research indicating that an all-male, allwhite board can be a drag on financial performance. The company, which has faced pressure to increase board diversity for several years, had tried to placate critics by appointing Margaret Hayne,

a longtime Urban Outfitters executive and the wife of the chairman and CEO, to the board. But major investors were not satisfied, including New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who launched another effort to compel the company to revamp its board recruitment process. At the company’s annual meeting in late May, Michael Garland, who oversees corporate governance for the New York City comptroller’s office, noted that Urban Outfitters’ board is made up “mainly of company insiders and long-tenured outsiders, two of whom have financial or family ties to the company or its executives and none of whom are women or minorities.”

A company selling fashionable clothes and accessories to young women, Garland argued, should be more focused on installing a greater number of women on its board—and more concerned with promoting the kind of independent input that improves oversight, which in turn can boost performance. Given the lack of progress by the company in this regard, he urged shareholders to join him in rejecting the re-election of Hayne and two other board members. “The board’s decision to name Ms. Hayne to the board in 2013 only served to exacerbate concerns with the board and its independence, while doing little to address its lack of diversity,” Garland said. In a filing with the Securities

and Exchange Commission, Urban Outfitters claimed that it would be hamstrung by the proposal, which would require recruiting a greater number of women and minorities to be considered for board vacancies. The board argued that its existing nominating process identifies the best possible nominees based on merit, “without reference to gender, racial background, religion or ethnicity.” Diversity is part of the mix, the board wrote, but that also includes “viewpoint, professional experience, individual characteristics, qualities and skills resulting in the inclusion of naturally varying perspectives among the directors.” Ultimately, the shareholder proposal was shot down. cit yandstateny.com

and Freeport-McMoRan to cast a wide net for diverse, independent candidates, it’s for the benefit of the long-term sustainability of our investment.” Despite a string of victories with lesser-known companies, however, the board diversity figures for most of the nation’s largest corporations have hardly budged. Just under 17 percent of corporate board seats at Fortune 500 companies were occupied by women in 2013, reflecting a dearth of any significant progress for an eighth straight year, according to a report from Catalyst, an advocacy group. That same year just 3.2 percent of board seats were held by women of color. In 2012 GMI Ratings found that a little more than a third of companies had no women serving on their boards, while only about 1 in 10 corporate boardrooms had three or more women. “It’s been stagnant for a long time,” said Peter Gleason, a managing director and the chief financial officer at the National Association of Corporate Directors, which is pushing for more

diversity. “Despite all the efforts that we’ve had … the needle hasn’t really moved a whole lot, and that’s where the focus is now, getting that needle to move.” While investors like Stringer point to the Great Recession to evidence the dangers of the groupthink mentality behind the risky bets made by major financial institutions, Gleason asserts that the recession could also be a reason why some companies refuse to alter the makeup of their boards today. In his opinion, the severe downturn made companies more cautious and less likely to part ways with existing board members, preventing the opportunities that come with turnover. “Usually you don’t get voluntary change in a period when you’re trying to recover, and companies got hit hard and everything stagnated and [they] said, ‘We’re going to keep everything steady until we see some recovery, and then we’re going to start to move forward again,’ ” he said. “I think the last year or so, you’ve started to see

more turnover on boards and more new faces starting to come in, and I think we’re going to see more of that, especially as the current director population ages.” Although DiNapoli and Stringer advance their efforts to expand diversity based on a dollars-andcents rationale, that argument is not universally accepted. Some scholars contend that more diversity can lead to more disagreement, which can be counterproductive. Others have suggested that the cause-and-effect relationship goes the other way, with more successful companies adding more women to their boards. Still others have warned that efforts to increase diversity may simply result in the appointment of a token woman or minority with no real improvement in a board’s independence. That concern is exactly why New York officials are continuing to put pressure on Urban Outfitters—which can expect yet another shareholder proposal on board diversity next year.

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f course, other proposals have met with more success. City Comptroller Stringer pressured Jarden Corporation, a Fortune 500 corporation, and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, one of the world’s largest producers of those metals, into adding women to their boards this year, while State Comptroller DiNapoli won commitments to increase diversity from the real estate development giant Meritage Homes and NVR Inc., the parent company of a number of major homebuilding trade names. “Diversity is an essential attribute of an effective and independentminded board of directors—research has made that clear,” Stringer said in a statement. “But the push for outside voices in the boardroom and within management is also a common sense way to avoid the type of group thinking that contributed to some of the issues we saw in the financial crisis. When the New York City pension funds and other institutional investors push companies like Urban Outfitters, Jarden

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LEVELING THE FIELD Will de Blasio follow through on his promise to boost minority- and women-owned businesses?

By WILDER FLEMING

D city & state — August 11, 2014

ED REED

uring the 2013 New York City mayoral campaign, all of the top Democratic candidates—including then Public Advocate Bill de Blasio—prioritized the expansion of city contracts with minority- and women-owned businesses. Research at both the city and state levels has demonstrated that far more MWBEs are available to take on government contracts than are actually chosen to do so. And although there are numerous government initiatives aimed at increasing MWBE participation in city procurement, the share of city money spent on such contracts remains abysmally low. While the share of government

procurement spending with MWBEs has increased markedly at the state level in recent years, it has been anemic in the city during that same period. In spite of a 2005 law establishing MWBE utilization goals for city agencies—12.63 percent of each agency’s construction contracts under one million dollars were supposed to go to firms owned by African Americans and 9.06 percent to Hispanic Americanowned companies, for example—the Bloomberg administration did not see these goals through to fruition. “It’s plain the current administration at City Hall is not serious about this issue. … The mayor was not personally committed to it; the people around him were not personally committed to it,” said de Blasio at a 2012 City & State roundtable discussion with the Democratic

mayoral candidates. “This begins with the mayor … and in the ultimate city of immigrants, and in a city that will live or die on the strength of its small business immigrant sector, that’s bad policy.” Given his rhetoric during the campaign, now that de Blasio is mayor, will the city’s approach to MWBEs change? The short answer is that it is too soon to tell, but policymakers and leaders in the MWBE community appear optimistic. “I don’t think the mayor’s had the chance to publicly focus on that yet,” said Bill Thompson, the former New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate who, starting in 2011, chaired Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s MWBE task force, which played an important role in the considerable gains made by the state. “But I am hopeful—Bill de Blasio voiced strong

support, so I believe it is something that he will focus on.” New York State’s procurement with MWBE firms doubled from 10.28 percent of all contracts in Fiscal Year 2010–11 to 21.06 percent in Fiscal Year 2012–13. But in New York City, the numbers have stagnated— by some accounts even sliding backward—from 5 percent of the total procurement budget for Fiscal Year 2012 to 2.7 percent in Fiscal Year 2013, according to a press release from the city comptroller’s office. Oddly, the Fiscal Year 2013 annual procurement report linked to in the same press release sets the overall MWBE share higher, at 5.5 percent. To further confuse matters, the comptroller’s MWBE online “report card,” which tracks city agency contracting, puts the Fiscal Year 2013 share at 3.45 percent, and the Fiscal Year 2014 share cit yandstateny.com

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Rosenthal says the Council hearing will tentatively be held in November, although that time frame could be subject to change. Local Law 1 requires the Department of Small Business Services to expand the directory of certified MWBE firms; in the latest compliance report, SBS reported signing up 316 new MWBEs between July 2013 and March 2014, bringing the grand total of city-certified MWBEs to 3,732. SBS also claimed in the report that it “informed and connected over 1,746 MWBEs to contracting opportunities” in the first three quarters of Fiscal Year 2014—but it is not clear what percentage of these—if any—were with the government. City Comptroller Scott Stringer also touted the need for expanded MWBE contracting during last year’s campaign. “The reality is, this is not about a handout to businesses and people,” Stringer said at the same 2012 City & State mayoral roundtable. “This is about sound economic policy, because when you diversify the businesses that are able to access contracts, you increase the capacity of the New York City economy.” In March, Stringer appointed Carra Wallace, a former Cuomo administration official, as the New York City comptroller’s office’s firstever chief diversity officer. Part of Wallace’s job will be to create the MWBE grading system for New York City agencies that will replace the current report card system, which was established under Jon Liu. At the mayoral roundtable, de Blasio emphasized that any chief diversity officer in the administration would need real power—the mayor’s ear—to be effective. On his campaign website, this position was further refined: “As mayor, Bill de Blasio … will empower a deputy mayor with the responsibility of increasing diversity in city contracts and procurement.” Maya Wiley is not a deputy mayor, but as de Blasio’s counsel, she certainly has his ear. Nonetheless, the consensus among MWBE advocates seems to be that real, dramatic change can only come from the mayor himself. “I am confident he will get to it, but I think it needs to move much more quickly and with more force and emphasis,” said Rev. Jacques Andre De Graff, a prominent MWBE leader. “During the last two quarters of the Bloomberg administration, the infrastructure was put in place to advance the cause … Scott Stringer’s office has the resources to spotlight the city agencies that are doing well, but the mayor is the bottom line. The administration has the capacity and its heart in the right place, but it has not happened yet.”

at 4.35 percent. “The Comptroller’s Office is establishing a [new] grading method for city agencies and we will be releasing results this year,” said city comptroller’s office spokesman Michael Nitzky in an email. “The goal of grading each agency is to drive transparency and accountability and change behaviors within the agencies.” “This does not happen overnight,” Thompson said. “It’s a question of creating focus, and then a plan, and then moving forward. What message do you convey to your entire administration? And I don’t think Michael Bloomberg did that … Andrew Cuomo did do that—he put together a team; he took a multilevel approach within the agencies; held commissioners accountable. … I think you will see that the de Blasio administration will create focus in this area, and will start at the top.” In 2013, then Mayor Bloomberg signed Local Law 1, which was intended as a remedy to the weak 2005 law that failed to yield results. Among other provisions, the updated law, which went into effect on July 1 of last year, eliminated a $1 million cap placed on eligible contracts in the original legislation, expanded the scope of contracts acceptable under the programs and enhanced oversight requirements to help ensure the city meets its goals. Local Law 1 also established the position of a director to oversee the program, a position to which Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed his legal counsel, Maya Wiley, this spring, according to the latest periodic MBWE compliance report put out jointly by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and the Department of Small Business Services. (The report is also a requirement of the law). As director, Wiley is required to call quarterly meetings with commissioners and MWBE officers to discuss and oversee agency performance in attaining goals. Improvement plans are required for agencies that do not meet their aims. City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Contracts, also says it is too soon to tell if the new law—or the new mayor—are reversing the tide. “We [the Contracts Committee] are planning to have a hearing in the fall, once a year’s worth of data has come in,” said Rosenthal. “The city has put out one or two updates, as they were required to do, and it looks like Small Business Services is doing a fair bit of outreach and training for MWBEs, but we want to get at least one, probably two more before we have our hearing. It will be a chance for us and for the public to really scrutinize what’s been done over the first year.”

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SPOTLIGHT: DIVERSITY + MBWEs city & state — August 11, 2014

SCORECARD Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses

THE PLAYERS THE PLAYERS Gov. Andrew Cuomo has led the successful effort to increase the share of contracts given to MWBE firms at the state level, but he has had help along the way: Alphonso David, the state’s deputy secretary for civil rights, has played a key role, as has Paul Williams, president of the state Dormitory Authority. Ken Adams is president and CEO of Empire State Development, the agency that oversees the state’s MWBE program. In September 2013, Mecca Santana was appointed New York’s chief diversity officer. Michael Garner is the chief diversity officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Lash Green is the director of business diversity and civil rights at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. THE CITY New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer recently appointed Carra Wallace, the former managing director at the office of Executive Initiatives at the state Dormitory Authority, as his office’s first-ever chief diversity officer. Wallace is spearheading efforts to formulate a system for grading city agencies on their level of engagement with MWBEs. Former City Comptroller John Liu launched a “report card” website when he was in office showing in real time the share of contracts awarded to MWBE firms agency by agency. Mayor Bill de Blasio has appointed his legal counsel, Maya Wiley, to oversee efforts to reverse the city’s feeble record on MWBE contracting. Lorraine Grillo, president and CEO of the New York City School Construction Authority, has been a longtime force in this area. City Council Members Robert Cornegy, chair of the Committee on Small Business, Helen Rosenthal, who chairs the Committee on Contracts, and Laurie Cumbo, chair of the Committee on

support to the cause during his campaign, it remains to be seen if he will be effective in this area.

THE ISSUES

Women’s Issues, will be holding a joint hearing on the city’s MWBE progress in the fall. THE ADVOCATES Rev. Jacques De Graff, first vice president of One Hundred Black Men, is a prominent figure in the MWBE community. Claire Scanlon, vice president and head of supplier development at the Bank of New York Mellon, has been instrumental in advancing diversity initiatives at the bank and throughout New York City. Sandra Wilkin is the founder and president of the New York City building firm Bradford Construction, and is the founder of the Women Builders Council, which is now led by Cheryl McKissack Daniel. Bill Thompson, New York City’s comptroller from 2002 to 2009, also headed up the MWBE task force established by the governor in 2011.

LEADERSHIP Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made it a priority to increase the share of state government contracts awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses, and it shows: the share going to MWBE firms has doubled over the last several years and is now more than 20 percent. In New York City, however, MWBE initiatives have languished, with the percentage of city contracts remaining below 5 percent in recent years and by some calculations actually decreasing. Although laws were passed in 2005 and 2013 to address this deficiency, the Bloomberg administration did not show the same initiative as Cuomo has—a clear demonstration that strong leadership is needed if the opportunities for MWBEs in the city are to improve. While Mayor Bill de Blasio lent strong rhetorical

HURDLES Owners of smaller MWBE firms often lack the expertise needed to apply for government contracts and navigate the procurement process. These firms can face similar issues when trying to break into the corporate supply chain. To this end, New York City’s division of Small Business Services has worked to simplify the MWBE certification process, providing outreach programs and services directly and through community-based groups to educate small businesses on certification and the application processes for both government and private sector contracts. At the state level, similar services are offered through the Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development.

BY THE NUMBERS LEADING THE WAY

Percentage of government contracts going to MWBEs New York City: 4.3 %

New York State: 21.06 % NEW YORK CIT Y

The top city and state agencies, by percentage of contracts going to MWBEs Agency Amount

% of spending

1. New York City School Construction Authority

$139.9 million

35.5%

2. Department of Environmental Protection

$36.1 million

9.2%

3. Department of Citywide Administrative Services

$30.8 million

7.8%

(New York City Comptroller MWBE Report Card, January 2014 – Aug. 7, 2014)

N E W YO R K S TAT E Agency Amount

% of spending

1. Nassau County Interim Finance Authority

100%

$90,246.68

2. Port of Oswego Authority $27,562 97.8% 3. Joint Commission on Public Ethics

$105,253.10

85.8%

(Empire State Development Division of Minority and Women’s Business Development Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2012-2013)

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THE ROUNDTABLE

S P OT L I G H T: D I V E R S I T Y + MW B E s city & state — August 11, 2014

MECCA SANTANA Chief Diversity Officer for the State of New York

ALPHONSO DAVID Deputy Secretary for Civil Rights, Office of the Governor

C&S: A major goal going forward will be to increase certification of firms that qualify as MWBEs. How many companies are certified, and have you seen recent progress in that area? What are the obstacles to getting companies certified, and how will you overcome them? MS: With over 7,000 firms currently certified with New York State, our MWBE program is robust. While increased outreach and engagement strategies are yielding positive results, we know that the lack of understanding about the certification process, available support services and areas of opportunity still present very real obstacles. By continuing to actively engage the MWBE community through forums, roundtable discussions, outreach and networking events, we hope to further demystify the certification and procurement processes. We believe that increased knowledge of our multifaceted MWBE program, coupled with greater information sharing about ripe areas of opportunity for doing business with the state, will grow the number of certified firms.

C&S: The state has exceeded its 20 percent goal for contracts going to MWBEs. To what degree was that a result of improved reporting, and how much was it actually getting new contracts to qualifying companies? AD: The state exceeded its 20 percent goal for a variety of reasons, including executive leadership, improved reporting, consistent enforcement, and extensive outreach and education. As reflected in the 2010 MWBE disparity study, minority-owned and womenowned firms were not utilized consistent with their statewide availability. Under Gov. Cuomo’s direction and leadership, we identified and removed systemic barriers that MWBE firms had confronted in this state. We also engaged executives at all relevant agencies and authorities to ensure that they implemented the appropriate processes and procedures to ensure that goals were being set on contracts and contractors were held accountable for meeting those goals. We also created a one-stop electronic database system— https://ny.newnycontracts.com/—for firms to certify for the program, learn about bidding opportunities and track contractor performance. The system also allows the executive to monitor agency performance for compliance. Finally, we have and continue to engage in extensive outreach efforts to inform firms about contracting opportunities throughout the state. We continue to explore new ways to expand opportunities for firms in a variety of industries ranging from construction to commodities to financial services.

C&S: Will the state’s MWBE program one day become obsolete? Do you anticipate reaching a point where the playing field is level and minorityand women-owned businesses no longer need these programs? MS: The MWBE program was born out of necessity. The goal has always been to remediate the inequities that denied minority- and women-owned businesses equal opportunities to compete for state contracts. True success in this area would mean that an equal playing field has been achieved. While this would be the ideal scenario, we still have a long way to go. Until that time arises, this administration is committed to pursuing policies and practices that will sustain a strong MWBE program. C&S: Is progress being made in getting workers trained with relevant skills so that companies are better able to compete for contracts? MS: By providing MWBEs with myriad financial, technical and business support services, we are not only assisting MWBEs in creating, growing and sustaining successful businesses, we are also putting MWBEs in the best position to train and develop talent within their organizations. Strong workforces support strong businesses that are better prepared to vie for, and win, contracts.

C&S: What impact have the administration’s efforts to streamline the certification process and standardize reporting had so far? AD: One of the major barriers firms identified was the cumbersome and protracted certification process. We worked tirelessly over the past few years to simplify and streamline the process to allow firms to certify quickly. As a result of our efforts, certification is now available online for the first time in the program’s history. Documents can now be attached to the certification application and applications do not have to be completed in one sitting. Over the course of the past three years, the number of applications submitted electronically has dramatically increased from 2.3 percent in 2012 to 56 percent in 2013 to 82 percent in 2014. Further, completed applications are processed within 90 days. Finally, we revised the certification application to be user-friendly and provide guidance to firms in completing the application. Although we cit yandstateny.com

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S P OT L I G H T: D I V E R S I T Y + MW B E s

remain open to additional revisions to the process, we have received positive feedback on the changes and a significant number of firms (both upstate and downstate) have and continue to apply for certification. C&S: One way that MWBEs can learn about contracting opportunities is the New York State Contract Reporter, which is now accessible online. How effective is it in getting the word out? AD: The New York State Contract Reporter (https:// www.nyscr.ny.gov/) is a meaningful tool for firms to learn about opportunities, and we have been engaged with community leaders to educate firms about accessing the system. Importantly, earlier this year the state removed the fee to obtain access to the system, enabling firms to access the system for free, and making it easier for many small and growing firms to take advantage of Contract Reporter. In addition to the Reporter, the New York State Contract System (https:// ny.newnycontracts.com/) is another free and dynamic tool for firms to learn about contracting opportunities throughout the state. Firms have searched the system’s public directory more than 250,000 times and have issued more than 900,000 notifications through the system since its launch. We currently list thousands of bid and grant opportunities online and segregate those opportunities by value and category. In short, firms are utilizing both systems and taking advantage of the wide range of opportunities available in the state.

CARRA WALLACE Chief Diversity Officer, NYC Comptroller’s Office C&S: A decreasing percentage of city contracts are going to women- and minority-owned firms. What is being done to address this downswing? CW: The comptroller’s office will be launching a transparent and easy-to-understand letter grading system for city agencies to measure their MWBE utilization in public contracts. This will be a useful tool to focus efforts on the implementation of Local Law 1 and highlight areas where utilization can be strengthened. Diversity spending and reporting needs to be a core component of doing business in government, because what gets managed gets measured. We believe that we will impact opportunities for MWBEs through sustainable initiatives that foster transparency, accountability and disclosure.

C&S: How do you view your role as the New York City comptroller’s office’s first-ever chief diversity officer? CW: I am responsible for delivering innovative solutions to increase contract opportunities for minorities and women across New York City’s agencies and the private sector. My deputy chief diversity officer, Wendy Garcia, and I will work to eliminate impediments that prevent or block access to a level playing field. We have assembled a dynamic group of supplier diversity procurement specialists, government, business and community leaders, academics, and advocacy organizations to partner with our office in this endeavor. We are formulating ideas on how to maximize New York City’s enormous buying power to encourage and shape innovative procurement practices. I am also working with our corporate governance team on supplier, workplace and board diversity initiatives. The comptroller is the custodian and trustee of the New York City pension funds, which have over $160 billion in assets and are shareowners in thousands of publicly held companies. The reason why Comptroller Stringer engages corporations on diversity initiatives is to ensure that our portfolio companies thrive over the long-term. That requires more diversity in the boardroom and among employees, especially in senior positions. And it means casting the widest net possible to ensure that portfolio companies obtain the best value—based on quality and cost—from their suppliers.

city & state — August 11, 2014

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C&S: What are your other responsibilities as the MTA’s chief diversity officer? MG: As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chief diversity officer, I report directly to Chairman Prendergast. I am responsible for the recruitment, development and retention of state-certified minority-, women-owned businesses and MTA-certified disadvantaged business enterprises. We were able to increase our MWDBE results by being creative and implementing solutions to historical barriers that most emerging MWDBEs experience when entering the marketplace. For instance, to create our small business mentoring program for state-funded projects, we had to change the state public finance law. It now gives us the ability to prequalify potential program participants and set aside specific construction projects for all small businesses to compete for. As a result, we have awarded $101 million in projects through the program; 78 percent of those contracts were awarded to certified MWDBEs. We also incorporated a small-business loan program in which participating firms can apply for business loans up to $900,000. To date, we have issued 40 loans totaling $4 million. The MTA has also created a surety bond assistance program and a free construction training program. Our Department of Diversity and Civil Rights is responsible for ensuring that MWDBEs are held accountable for their performance and also are treated fairly. We want our projects to be completed safely, timely, within budget and inclusive of our MWDBE goals. As the MTA’s chief civil rights officer, my other duties include ensuring that MTA’s hiring process is inclusive and that all employees are treated fairly and are able to work in a harassment-free environment. cit yandstateny.com

KARIM CAMARA

Assemblywoman; Chair, New York State Association of Black & Puerto Rican Legislators

Assemblyman; Chair, Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus

C&S: How is New York State doing in terms of expanding contracting opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses? CPS: New York State is doing well: Our statewide MWBE utilization rate is above 21 percent. While construction leads the way, procurement of services has increased to 20 percent and financial services, investment and commodities continues to grow, to currently above 12 percent. Some agencies are exceeding goals while others are underperforming … There is still room for improvement across the board.

C&S: You’ve applauded the Cuomo administration for meeting its goal of 20 percent of state contracts going to MWBE firms. After meeting that threshold, what more do you expect the administration to do, if anything? KC: The efforts of the Legislature and the governor have been noble, but we need a fundamental restructuring of the concept and the program. Right now we are doing what is right on the surface but having little or no impact on the people who need it most. We are helping existing businesses get contracts to advance their companies. However, the next aim should be to ensure state contracts are going to jobs that prioritize hiring chronically unemployed and jobless populations. During the current building boom, communities of color are being virtually ignored. We are losing an opportunity to enroll young men and women in apprentice jobs who could then go on to union membership and a potential career. Worse, we are finding that even members of unions cannot get on some job sites, and those who are doing the construction are from zip codes far away. The MWBE focus has to include hiring “the jobless generation,” as well as a percentage of local jobs for every project that receives state dollars.

C&S: How do the state’s efforts compare with those on the local level in Buffalo or Erie County? What should be done in those areas to increase MWBE opportunities? CPS: I think that more resources need to be devoted locally and statewide for compliance monitoring. C&S: Is there any state legislation considered in 2014, or in the works, that could help MWBEs? CPS: My colleague Robert Rodriguez has a bill (A.9668) that would raise personal net-worth thresholds to ensure the MWBE program is able to provide access to small businesses which face difficulties being certified as a result of assets. Both houses passed the bill at the end of this year’s session.

S P OT L I G H T: D I V E R S I T Y + MW B E s

C&S: The MTA exceeded its fiscal year 2012/2013 goal of 20 percent of contracts going to MWBE firms. What was the FY 2013/2014 goal, and was it met? MG: Our MWBE efforts are aligned with Gov. Cuomo’s directive to state agencies and public authorities, which was to award at least 20 percent of contracts to state-certified MWBEs. We have had tremendous success under the leadership of our chairman and CEO, Thomas Prendergast, and our board. During fiscal year 2012/2013, we achieved 22 percent MWBE participation, or $261 million in payments, to state-certified MWBEs. In fiscal year 2013/2014, we achieved 23 percent participation, or $286 million in payments. Since fiscal year 2010/2011, we have increased payments to state-certified MWBEs from 6 percent, or $114 million, to 23 percent.

CRYSTAL PEOPLES-STOKES

C&S: Will the state’s MWBE program one day become obsolete? Do you anticipate reaching a point where the playing field is level and minority- and women-owned businesses no longer need set-asides? KC: Of course we all hope for a time when the playing field is level. We won’t be able to say that’s the case, though, until we see a real impact in communities of color. Judging the need is not just about what percentage of MWBE companies receive contracts. Ultimately, we’ll know if the program is working when we see the broad economic benefits within communities. For the reasons previously stated, we are still a way off from that time. C&S: New York City still lags the state in creating opportunities for MWBEs. What do you expect from Mayor Bill de Blasio on this front? KC: Even though the city faces different challenges due to laws regarding the procurement process, I am confident that this is a priority for the mayor. There are several barriers that MWBE businesses face in New York City based on where they are located. Whether it’s communications or transportation, improving infrastructure helps level the playing field across the city. I expect the mayor to help in creative ways, such as assisting in the application process and making sure MWBEs know that bids are being accepted.

city & state — August 11, 2014

MICHAEL GARNER Chief Diversity Officer, Metropolitan Transportation Authority

S P OT L I G H T: D I V E R S I T Y + MW B E s

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

SANDRA WILKIN

ew York is known for supporting minority- and women-owned businesses and helping to fight the constant battle for equal opportunities. Over 20 percent of state construction contracts were awarded to MWBEs in the 2012– 13 fiscal year, and New York City’s Local Law 1-2013 was passed last year to expand MWBEs’ access to city

contracts to help create a level playing field. Yet laws and regulations can only help to the extent that corporations comply. Most companies follow the law. When others do not, however, the fast and the furious phenomenon occurs: Large companies play fast and loose with the rules, leaving the entire construction industry feeling furious. The most recent example of this phenomenon is DCM Erectors, the Canadian steel company that was awarded approximately $1 billion in contracts to build One World Trade Center and a nearby PATH station. The company received contracts through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with the stipulation that at least 17 percent of the work be subcontracted to MWBEs. Last month the U.S. Attorney’s office charged the owner, Larry Davis, with paying two companies to fake their roles in the projects, allegedly so that DCM Erectors could bypass the Port Authority’s Minority and Womenowned Business Enterprise Program. This kind of alleged abuse gives

the entire industry a bad name. As the president and CEO of a womanowned firm and an MWBE advocate with more than 25 years of experience in construction, I have worked with so many forthright companies who follow the rules with integrity. However, when one company disregards the rules, it casts doubts on the reliability of large and small companies alike. This kind of defiance makes large companies appear unwilling to support small MWBEs, and makes it seem as though small companies frequently lie about their MWBE certification status. In the process, the actions of a corrupt few can cast the entire industry in a negative light. And when the industry looks bad, we all look bad. The building industry has a responsibility to come together as a community of large and small businesses to ensure that this type of fraud is eliminated. Small minorityand women-owned businesses, together with large businesses, must unite with city and state administrations, including the New

York City Department of Investigation and the New York District Attorney’s Office, so that all companies are fully aware of the consequences of playing “fast and loose” with the MWBE regulations. Additionally, if the current laws need to be revised in order that future abuses of this type are prevented, the New York building community should be tapped as a resource to help guide those necessary changes. Otherwise the success that New York’s MWBEs have fostered— elevating New York to become one of the nation’s most progressive regions in terms of its MWBE goals—may be in peril. Rather than becoming mired in further instances of harmful fraud, let us join together as an industry in continuing to raise the bar for integrity in the great city and state of New York.

Sandra Wilkin is the president of the Bradford Construction Corp. and the chair emeritus of the Women Builders Council.

We value diversity in the workplace and in the marketplace. In building an increasingly diverse supplier pool, we are able to work toward our goal of offering priority suppliers real procurement opportunities as they arise. BNY Mellon is pleased to announce on-line registration. To register, visit www.bnymellon.com/suppliers select the Supplier Profile Form and follow the directions.

2009 Regional Corporation of the Year

city & state — August 11, 2014

NY-NJ Minority Supplier Development Council

MICHAEL BENJAMIN

funny thing happened on the way to a landslide re-election. Politics got the better of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “Landslide” Cuomo won City & State’s “Loser of the Week” poll on Aug. 2. His winning percentage and margin of victory broke a previous City & State Winners & Losers record. It’s not exactly what a $35 million campaign war chest is intended to win for you. For three years, Gov. Cuomo enjoyed unprecedented public support despite his battles with public employee unions,

AN OPPORTUNITY BORN FROM CRISIS

LETITIA JAMES

am urging New Yorkers to come together to redefine the tragic death of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD from a low point in the city’s history to a turning point. Since Garner’s death, the all-toofamiliar tension and mistrust between the community and the NYPD has risen, and the ruling by the medical examiner has only intensified calls for the NYPD to comprehensively re-evaluate many of its policies. One such demand has been for the NYPD to retrain each and every police officer in the department and to require these trainings regularly throughout an officer’s career. cit yandstateny.com

cheats. Cuomo is proving as hapless as “Baby” Boyland. His ham-fisted attempts to dispel media reports of his interference with the Moreland Commission resulted in a stern letter from the U.S. Attorney instructing him to cease and desist or face charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, the lifeless Republican State Committee is unable to take advantage of the Democrats’ latest circular firing squad. Just when Cuomo is weakened and holed up on the Second Floor trying to ward off Bharara’s malocchio, the state GOP goes and picks a fight with Chris Christie. Hey, Ed, the fight is with the guy in Albany, not Trenton. I was trained by my political mentors to look outside the box in times of trouble. To ask, “Who benefits?” It occurs to me that in politics there is always an invisible (or not too visible) hand stirring the pot. On Twitter I mused, “Has anyone asked U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer his thoughts on the Bharara-Cuomo showdown?” And did “anyone think Andy called Chuck about calling his boy off?”

Although I was being facetious, I really do wonder what role, if any, Sen. Schumer or future presidential politics has played in these recent events. Some people believe that there is a formidable Clinton mafia poised to outfit Hillary’s challengers with pairs of cement shoes. One insider with a long memory reminded me of the last time a Clinton and a Cuomo butted heads: “Bill Clinton referred to Mario Cuomo as a dangerous guy people had to be afraid of.” So the feeling is that Andrew Cuomo is being taken out of the presidential sweepstakes. Whether or not Schumer, the Clintons or Vladimir Putin are orchestrating Cuomo’s public defenestration, our governor has only himself to blame. He joins Rep. Michael Grimm and State Sens. Malcolm Smith, Tom Libous and John Sampson as elected officials under the cloud of federal investigations. Certainly, this is not the state of affairs “Landslide” Cuomo envisioned back in June.

While I agree that a revamped training program is essential for reform and I commend Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Bratton for acknowledging as much, training alone is simply not enough. It is my firm belief that the best way to address this problem is to equip police officers with body cameras and to record each and every stop in an effort to ensure improved police conduct and better evidence when conduct is in question. In so doing, we will protect both the officers and those they serve. Data collected by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) indicates that there is a pattern of problems, not simply isolated incidents, to be addressed. In 2013 alone, CCRB received 16,675 allegations of police misconduct, of which 2,874 were use-of-force allegations. Chokeholds are clearly a problem not limited to the Garner incident. Between 2009 and 2013, there were over 1,000 chokehold allegations made against the NYPD. In 2013, chokeholds—a police tactic banned over two decades ago—were the fourth most prevalent allegation of use of force. But the alarming number of complaints does not tell the entire story.

Complaints to the CCRB are simply too difficult to prove, and the CCRB system does not deliver the justice it purports to provide. Of the 16,675 complaints of police misconduct in 2013, just 11 percent of complaints were substantiated; even worse, of the roughly 2,800 complaints of use-of-force, just 1.7 percent were substantiated. In the case of chokeholds, fewer than half of the more than 1,000 complaints were actually investigated, and only nine were substantiated. Apart from the clear civil rights and societal issues brought about by cases of misconduct, there is a real concern about the city’s bottom line. A 2013 report by the office of former City Comptroller John Liu indicates that among city agencies, the NYPD is responsible for the most claims against the city and ranks highest in cost of settlements and judgments. There were 9,570 tort claims against the NYPD in 2012, and the city paid some $152 million as a result of claims against NYPD. Using body-worn cameras on cops has proven to be effective. A study in Rialto, Calif., found that after one year of officers using the cameras, complaints alleging police misconduct dropped by 88 percent and use-of-force incidents were reduced by 50 percent. Other

large U.S. cities have implemented police body camera programs, including Los Angeles, Detroit and Miami. Even Commissioner Bratton has expressed support for the use of body cameras in the past. Initiating a pilot project, as part of a long-term strategy for citywide implementation, by equipping just 15 percent of officers with body cameras in precincts with the highest complaint rates, such as Staten Island’s 120th precinct, where Mr. Garner lived, would cost under $5 million—a mere fraction of what the city paid out in tort claims in 2012. Enacting a body-camera policy is both fiscally and ethically sound: Recording all encounters will enhance accountability and transparency while reducing the resources we spend to investigate and settle claims against the NYPD. Most important, it will enable the police department to correct misconduct swiftly and justly and allow our city to continue to move in the right direction.

Former Assemblyman Michael Benjamin (@SquarePegDem on Twitter) represented the Bronx for eight years.

Letitia James is the public advocate for the City of New York.

PERSPEC TIVES

support for charter schools and embrace of tax cuts to the chagrin of progressives. But it is Cuomo’s creation of the Moreland Commission as a club with which to bludgeon a recalcitrant State Legislature that refused to cede to his demands on campaign finance and ethics reform that has backfired. Despite a mandate to examine corrupt practices in campaign funding, the Commission was reportedly discouraged from pursuing entities allied with the governor’s agenda. Apparently some commissioners took offense to their independence being a mere fig leaf. It was Cuomo’s desperation for an election year “victory” on his pledge to clean up Albany that set in motion events that would damage his brand. Upon achieving his coveted campaign finance reforms, Cuomo attempted to turn his Moreland Commission weapon into plowshares. Unfortunately for him, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara had other ideas. Bharara has been making a major name for himself going after and successfully prosecuting corrupt state legislators (except for the hapless William Boyland, who managed to win an acquittal but walk into an FBI sting almost immediately) and Wall Street

city & state — August 11, 2014

A FUNNY THING HAPPENENED ON THE WAY TO A LANDSLIDE

UNBRIDLED PASSION A

ctress Kathy Najimy first came to public consciousness in her multiple-character ’80s Off Broadway cult hit The Kathy & Mo Show. She soon became a familiar comic scene-stealer in films like Sister Act and sitcoms like Veronica’s Closet, King of the Hill, The Big C and, most recently, Veep. All throughout her career, Najimy has also been a passionate advocate for a wide spectrum of issues, including women’s and girls’ rights, AIDS awareness and animal rights. For her activism, Ms. Magazine has named Najimy its Woman of the Year, and she has received accolades such as the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center’s Distinguished Achievement award and PETA’s Humanitarian of the Year award, which was presented to her by Paul McCartney. In recent years, Najimy has used her star power to push for a ban of New York City’s horse-drawn carriages. City & State Editor Morgan Pehme spoke with the actress and activist about how she got involved with the cause, her thoughts on Liam Neeson’s support of the carriages, and whether she is disappointed with Mayor Bill de Blasio for failing thus far to follow through on his campaign promise to abolish them. The following is an edited transcript.

city & state — August 11, 2014

C&S: How do you respond to people who say that this isn’t an important issue? That in a city that has so many problems, why is someone like yourself, who has an outsize voice, allocating your time to helping horses instead of people? KN: I would say Google me and see what I work on. Because people assume that I could only do one thing at a time. I work on hunger. I work on equal rights. I work on the health and welfare of girls and women. I work on respect for animals. I work on peace. I work on choice for women. I work on gay and lesbian rights. I’ve been an AIDS activist since the ’80s. That’s not a real question. That assumes you can only care about one thing. If there are two suffering children in a room, you help them both. You don’t go, “Which one do I choose?” And here is another thing about the horses: The reason that I am so big on the horses lately is because I don’t think we can totally cure world hunger in the next three years. I believe we absolutely can get these horses to safe places where they are not pulling carts in a busy, busy, crazy street in three years. So I think it can be done. And as we work toward abolishing world hunger and peace on earth and we continue to work on those things, if there is something right in front of you that is needless and meaningless, you get it done, you fix it—and we can fix it. And now we have a mayor who says he’s going to help us fix it.

City & State: After making the horse-drawn carriage ban such a prominent issue during his campaign, it seemed that when Mayor de Blasio got into office that this was going to be a done deal. Are you disappointed that he hasn’t taken action sooner to eliminate the carriages? Kathy Najimy: Let’s put it this way … I know that he had some education issues that he was really concerned with and some budget issues, and I understand. I was thrilled to hear him say recently that he’s putting the horse carriages and living wage at the top of his agenda. I am here to make sure that he keeps his promise, because, yes, that was one of the reasons I campaigned for Mr. de Blasio—there were many reasons—but like any other person in public office, like any other human being, you have to keep reminding and supporting them to go the way that they promised. C&S: Recently there was a dustup of sorts between Bill Maher and Liam Neeson over the horse-drawn carriages. As a passionate advocate for so many causes, do you feel any kind of enmity or personal hostility toward celebrities who come out on the opposite sides of issues that you get involved with? KN: I don’t know if I personally feel something. I politically do. I politically disagree with them and wish that they would change their mind or figure out a way that I can help change their mind, absolutely. And not just celebrities— anyone. I just don’t get who would be for the horse carriages, just for that, what, 10-minute ride? … I just don’t get Liam Neeson. Like, what the hell? Why? What does he get out of it? Does he want a ride? I’ll buy him a pony.

A Q&A WITH

KATHY NAJIMY

To read this interview in its entirety, including Najimy’s take on visiting the stables used by the carriage industry and the Daily News’ opposition to the proposed ban, go to cityandstateny.com.

cit yandstateny.com

Wednesday, August 27th

BNY Mellon - 101 Barclay Street, West Assembly, 10th Floor

On August 27th City & State will host its 4th Annual Energy Forum in New York City. 8:00am Registration & Breakfast 8:45am Opening Remarks

9:00am Panel 1: Technology & Innovation in New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Energy Systems

Invited Panelists: Anthony Fiore, Director, Office of Energy, NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection (pending) Kathryn Garcia, Commissioner, NYC Department of Sanitation Robert Schimmenti, VP for Engineering and Planning, Con Edison More panelists TBA

10:00am Panel 2: Investment and Affordability

Invited Panelists: Gregg Sayre, Commissioner, NYS Public Service Commission Robert Lurie, CFO, New York Power Authority More panelists TBA

Please contact Jasmin Freeman to RSVP at 646.442.1662 or jfreeman@cityandstateny.com

LET’S HOPE COOLER HEADS PREVAIL WITH A SMARTER SOLUTION BEFORE THEY TURN OFF OUR ELECTRICITY. At Indian Point Energy Center, our scientists work every day to protect the Hudson, and during our years of operation the river has returned to health. Now the NY Department of Environmental Conservation staff wants to build a cooling tower at Indian Point and shut down the plants during the hottest time of the year. They believe this is the best way to protect fish eggs and larvae in the Hudson River. The scientists and engineers at Indian Point share the goal of protecting the Hudson River and surrounding environment, and we have a Smarter Solution — a technology that is far more effective over time and far less disruptive than a massive cooling tower and forced outages.

Forced outages don’t make sense.

The Smarter Solution.

Electric reliability is a matter of public health and public safety. Forced outages would mean more pollution, as we’d burn more fossil fuels to ﬁll the power gap; more expensive power, as Indian Point’s lower cost power was taken off the market; and an increased chance of brownouts or even blackouts if Indian Point were turned off when demand is highest.

Wedgewire Screens are installed underwater, so they’re not visible. Wedgewire Screens are also non-polluting. And they can be installed 15 years sooner than a cooling tower could be successfully permitted and built.

The DEC and Indian Point share a common goal of protecting the Hudson River. And we have a proven track record of doing our part to meet this goal. We also believe there’s a Smarter Solution to meeting that goal in the future — one that will protect the Hudson’s ecosystem and ensure the continued flow of about 25 percent of New York City and Westchester’s power supply.

Wedgewire Screens are the Smarter Solution for the environment, and New Yorkers. Visit SafeSecureVital.com/the-smarter-solution to ﬁnd out more.

Safe. Secure. Vital.

Indian Point Energy Center