City & State Magazine, August 28, 2014 by City & State

HARD WORK:

Cuomo's Relationship With Labor

August 28, 2014

LABOR

2.0

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

NEW DEALS:

De Blasio's Outstanding Union Contracts

CAN UNIONS REINVENT THEMSELVES TO BUILD NEW YORK IN THE 21 ST CENTURY? By NICK POWELL

August 28, 2014 7........

CITY

9........

STATE

CONTENT S

CONTENTS The politics of childcare voucher distribution By Nick Powell Running while under indictment By Jon Lentz

10...... The race for a progressive governor By Susan Arbetter

12....... 14......

NEW YORK’S BABY BOOMER PROBLEM

By Wilder Fleming

IS THE TEACHER TENURE FIGHT OVER?

By Ashley Hupfl

17...... Back to School: A Q&A with Merryl Tisch 18....... SPOTLIGHT:

ORGANIZED LABOR

20...... LABOR 2.0

Can unions reinvent themselves to build New York in the 21st Century? By Nick Powell

26...... De Blasio’s outstanding collective bargaining deals By Wilder Fleming

28...... Cuomo’s complicated relationship with labor By Jon Lentz

30...... ROUNDTABLE HARD WORK:

Cuomo's Relationship With Labor

August 28, 2014

LABOR

2.0

34...... SCORECARD

NEW DEALS:

De Blasio's Outstanding Union Contracts

CAN UNIONS REINVENT THEMSELVES TO BUILD NEW YORK IN THE 21 ST CENTURY?

36......

By NICK POWELL

PERSPECTIVES

Alexis Grenell exposes a Women’s Equality Party created to benefit a man ... Harvey Weisenberg reflects on his public service

38...... DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE @CIT YANDSTATENY

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHING 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

Chief of Staff Jasmin Freeman jfreeman@cityandstateny.com

Albany Bureau Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com

Marketing Graphic Designer Charles Flores, cflores@cityandstateny.com

Business Development Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com

City Hall Bureau Chief Nick Powell npowell@cityandstateny.com

CITY AND STATE, LLC

Director of Marketing Samantha Diliberti sdiliberti@ cityandstateny.com

Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com

Chairman Steve Farbman

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

Office Administrator Kyle Renwick krenwick@cityandstateny.com

Policy Reporter Wilder Fleming wfleming@cityandstateny.com

Interns Peter Farag, Paulina Tam

Distribution Czar Dylan Forsberg

Associate Editor Helen Eisenbach

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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Illustrator Danilo Agutoli

city & state — August 28, 2014

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

A Q & A with author and filmmaker Sarah Burns

Cover: Illustration by Guillaume Federighi

PAGING CINCINNATUS

city & state — August 28, 2014

hen Ed Koch and Henry Stern launched the campaign for independent redistricting in 2010 they dubbed New York Uprising, they were continuing a grand tradition of true statesmanship from which they themselves had benefited. In 1963, former First By Morgan Pehme Editor-in-Chief Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had bestowed her highly influential endorsement upon Koch in his first successful bid for office as part of her effort to bring Tammany Hall boss Carmine De Sapio’s reign to an end. She had already defeated the Tammany Tiger two years earlier in a race for district leader by rallying the forces of reform against him, and with Koch’s victory over De Sapio halting his comeback attempt, she put the final nail in his coffin—and that of the corrupt Democratic machine that had ruled New York City for most of a century. Though Roosevelt’s motivation was not entirely altruistic—she blamed De Sapio for derailing her son’s 1954 gubernatorial campaign and had vowed revenge against him—the credibility of her stand was unimpeachable. Here was one of the most respected figures in American politics dedicating the twilight of her life to the fight for good government, not on a global or national scale but in her own backyard. Nobody could have delivered the message of “Throw the bums out!” with greater gravitas and resonance. While Koch was certainly never as revered as Roosevelt, by the time he fomented the Uprising in 2010, he had long ago cast off any taint from his latter years as mayor and morphed into a bona fide New York icon. The people trusted him, and Koch was not the least bit hesitant to use that trust in their service. Explaining his resolution, at the age of 85, to devote his waning days to railing against a system gamed to keep incumbents in office—to denounce with relish those who opposed independent redistricting as “Enemies of Reform”—Koch articulated a rationale that could have expressed Roosevelt’s a half century earlier. “I am often asked why, at this point in my life, I am willing to spend so much time and energy on reforming our dysfunctional state legislature,” wrote Koch. “I decided to do this because no one volunteered

to take the issue on as a project. I decided to make it, as it were, my last hurrah.” Of course, Koch’s crusade was ultimately not as successful as Roosevelt’s. For all of the pressure he brought to bear upon the state’s politicians, in the end the status quo slithered on, with the Legislature fending off the Uprising’s onslaught by resorting to its customary legerdemain: conjuring a districting system that typifies New York’s version of the acronym RINO—Reform in Name Only. But even if voters do not reject the constitutional amendment this November that would codify this ruse—as they should—it would be unjust to judge the Uprising a complete failure. It focused the media’s fickle gaze upon an esoteric yet essential area of our electoral system to which the public would not have otherwise paid any mind, and heightened the general awareness of Albany’s ills, tilling the soil for future reform efforts. Sadly, Mayor Koch is gone now, and though Stern, his former parks commissioner, continues to lead the good-government group New York Civic (full disclosure: I served as executive director of Stern’s organization during the Uprising), he does not have the profile to command attention that Roosevelt and Koch did. It’s a shame, because now is one of those moments in our history when our system is so distressed and rotten that we could really use another Cincinnatus— an elder statesperson who comes out of retirement to champion the people’s interest armed with the unique purity of purpose possessed by a politician who clearly has no future electoral aspirations. Unfortunately, so many of our esteemed leaders of past generations continue to derive their livelihoods from government, and thus their ability to speak truth to power is compromised. Others have significant financial interests that deter them from making waves with those who could affect them adversely. Then there are those who are the parents of current officeholders. One notable exception to these disqualifiers is Richard Ravitch, who despite his wealth has never shirked from taking bold stands, and has on at least two occasions already played a significant role in wrestling New York back from the brink of disaster. Is it possible that Ravitch and Stern are our only remaining leaders of yesteryear with the virtue and audacity to serve the people without strings attached? Surely there must be others. Now is the time for them to step forward.

Letters to the

Editor

In the Aug. 11 issue, Ashley Hupfl explored the arguments against the state’s Common Core standards and the lack of a comprehensive plan to replace them if the education standards were dropped. The “foundation” Mr. Astorino refers to isn’t Common Core, it’s No Child Left Behind, and that’s broken—just look at what’s happening on the international test scores Ms. Tisch refers to, and the more important ones, PIAAC, that she omits: The United States is producing the developed world’s least competent young adults. So Congress shouldn’t be filing resolutions to continue with Mr. Bush’s ineffective mistake, but should rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, preferably in the direction of the U.K.’s Education Act 2011, which is raising accountability by reforming qualifications, a concept long ignored in the United States, where millions of youth are continuously encouraged to go to college regardless of how ill prepared they are, and where they too often emerge degreeless, drowning in debt or both, about the worst mistreatment of its young citizens to be found in any developed country. —Bruce William Smith (via cityandstateny.com) There is misinformation in this piece that must be corrected. Scores can still be used to influence student placement, retention, etc. They cannot be used alone or as the primary factor. Scores are still used in teacher evaluation. Teachers cannot be fired if the score is the deciding factor. Many of the standards are inappropriate. Period. You do not just let that go because you do not have an immediate alternative. There would not be chaos ... My gosh, teachers taught for decades before the standards movement. Stop the tests for two years. Use NAEP. Clean up the mess. Enough. —Carol Corbett Burris (via cityandstateny.com) Ashley Hupfl responds: The article refers to the delay of the “high-stakes” nature of the testing. In line with adjustments made during the 2014 legislative session, the state Department of Education is delaying the full implementation of Common Core. Graduating students will not be required to demonstrate mastery on Common Core-aligned exams until 2022. Teacher evaluations are still taking place, but a teacher cannot be fired because of them.

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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LET’S GO, METS!

n July 28, City & State proudly partnered with the New York Mets to provide dozens of tickets for active military members and veterans to attend the game between the Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field in Flushing, Queens. The Mets routed the Phillies 7–1 thanks to a great pitching performance by Bartolo Colon and a three-run home run by Travis d’Arnaud.

city & state — August 28, 2014

Army veteran David Daza (left) and Navy veteran Joe Bello (right)

WWII veteran David Burgh .

Army Sgt. Allison Churchill (right)

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CITY

POLITICAL PRIORITIES

VOUCHER DISTRIBUTION REFLECTS ORTHODOX ELECTORAL CLOUT By NICK POWELL child-care and after-school programs in Williamsburg and Borough Park. Additionally, yeshivas and other Jewish religious organizations were the biggest recipients of voucher funds. Of all the vouchers used at day-care centers and schools, nearly 80 percent were paid to Jewish religious organizations, according to the analysis conducted by the New School. Under federal law, families that receive public assistance benefits are guaranteed access to mandated childcare vouchers. The city then distributes its own child-care vouchers, which pay anywhere from $100 to $330 per week, according to a priority scale. The highest priority families include those with a child receiving protective or preventive welfare services. Any remaining child-care funds are handed out to parents who earn up to 275 percent of the federal poverty line on a first-come, first-served basis. Budget cuts eliminated nearly 10,000 low-income vouchers since 2008, including the Priority 7 vouchers that were put on the chopping block in 2009 at the behest of former mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Of all the vouchers for low-income families used at day-care centers and schools in New York City, nearly 80 percent were paid to Jewish religious organizations. cit yandstateny.com

Those vouchers were for families with “family dysfunction, family needs or family problems,” including those with one working parent and a large number of children—and a plurality of them went to Orthodox families. In fact, one of the biggest proponents of the P7 voucher was then Councilman Bill de Blasio, whose district included parts of Borough Park. It was hardly a surprise when, as a mayoral candidate, de Blasio made restoring the child-care vouchers a campaign priority last year, in a naked attempt to court Orthodox Jewish votes. At a breakfast with Jewish community leaders hosted by the social services organization Agudath Israel of America in 2013, de Blasio told the audience, “I am disgusted that, in 2009, Mayor Bloomberg came to this community, begged and pleaded for support, knowing that the support of this community would be one of the only ways he could win. Took the support, turned around, and took away every single voucher for this community. The chutzpah of that is unbelievable, inappropriate and unfair.” He added, “It is not a giveaway; it’s an act of fairness.” Sure enough, de Blasio kept his promise. With the help of City Councilmen Stephen Levin and David Greenfield, who served as the mouthpieces for Williamsburg and Borough Park, respectively, the Council agreed to include $10 million in funding in the city’s executive budget to partially restore Priority 5 vouchers—which serve low-income families who work 20 hours or more per week—for the coming fiscal year. In comments made to the Jewish newspaper Hamodia, Avi Fink, the mayor’s deputy director of intergovernmental affairs, indicated that putting money back into the vouchers was the first step to undoing the cuts Bloomberg had made to the priority 7 vouchers—cuts made out of fiscal necessity, according to the prior

administration. “We can’t fund Priority 7 without funding priorities 1 through 6, which [costs] hundreds of millions of dollars,” Fink said. “So instead of saying, ‘Hey, we can’t afford the hundreds of millions of dollars so we can’t afford anything,’ what the mayor said was, ‘Let me at least start restoring these programs, like I said I would.’ ” It is notable that Greenfield was one of the Council members heavily lobbying for the vouchers, as he has positioned himself as a power broker with the new administration, thanks largely to the key role he played in pushing fellow members of the Brooklyn Council delegation to vote for Melissa Mark-Viverito to be Council Speaker. Sources familiar with Orthodox Jewish politics in Brooklyn say that Greenfield’s close political alignment with Rabbi David Niederman, the powerful head of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg (UJO), provides a window into how the Orthodox community has kept a firm grasp on the nonmandatory vouchers. These sources say that social services organizations like UJO play crucial roles in reaching out each year to Orthodox families and helping them fill out applications for the vouchers, which are swiftly processed through ACS. In many cases, the vouchers are then used at schools that are closely aligned with Niederman, such as the United Talmudical Academy, a school controlled by the same Satmar sect, the Zaloynim, that Niederman leads. Because the Satmar vote in significant numbers and as a bloc, it makes sense that elected officials would seek to curry favor with the group. The Center for New York City Affairs report stated that the United Talmudical Academy, along with its counterpart from the Aroynim Satmar sect, the Central United Talmudical Academy, received 20 percent of the city’s total supply of low-income vouchers as of the beginning of 2014.

city & state — August 28, 2014

n an electoral climate in New York City where dwindling turnout numbers make securing blocs of votes a priority, no enclave has been better organized or more savvy at leveraging its capital at the ballot box than Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community. The latest evidence of the continued (and perhaps increasing) clout of the Orthodox community comes via a report issued by the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs on the future of the city’s early care programs. The report details how the child-care vouchers that the city distributes through the Administration of Children’s Services—vouchers that can be used at any setting a parent chooses and that are intended for low-income families according to various priority criteria—have disproportionately gone to Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn, namely Williamsburg and Borough Park. The report states that as of the beginning of 2014—prior to when the budget was finalized for fiscal year 2015—nearly 50 percent of the vouchers for these families were used at

Crane Safety Begins with Local Experience, License & Oversight Ed Christian,

Business Manager and President IUOE Local 14-14B Whether it is hoisting steel or cement 80 stories above city streets, or operating heavy equipment hundreds of feet below ground in a water tunnel or new subway line, the 1,600 members of IUOE Local 14 play a vital role in building the New York City of the future. Under the best of conditions, operating a tower crane is demanding and dangerous. Doing so in an environment where buildings are practically sitting on top of one another with an endless stream of traffic and pedestrians moving below further complicate the challenge. Even when using the most advanced technology, crane operators must remain constantly focused, patient and maintain a steady hand. The necessary skills and discipline can only be developed through intense study, training, and hands-on experience. That is why over the course of 100 years, the City of New York developed the most rigorous and demanding urban testing and licensing procedures for crane operators in the United States.

Just as importantly, New York City vigorously protected and defended its regulations and authority to administer its rules and licensing when challenged. Just last year the City saw its authority upheld in the Supreme Court of the United States when challenged by the Steel Institute of New York. In their legal memo the attorneys for the city wrote: “The necessity for effective and vigilant governmental oversight over the use of cranes, derricks and hoists in New York City is clear…it is incumbent upon the City of New York to do everything within its power to protect the public safety.” Yet, even as the City was defending its jurisdictional rights in the highest court in the land, the Department of Buildings was about to issue new regulations relinquishing its oversight responsibilities by adopting the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) “national standard” crane licensing. We agree NCCCO national standards are fine, and they serve as an excellent baseline. But there is a big difference in operating a crane in a Nebraska suburb and operating a crane atop a 60-story skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Even those in the Department of Buildings recognized it was foolish to ask a crane operator from Montana or Iowa to work on a crane 900 feet above midtown Manhattan. Their solution was to require two-years of experience in “an area of comparable urban density.” With nearly 6,000 skyscrapers, 50 million tourists, four million people on the streets of Manhattan every day, and hundreds of miles of subways and underground infrastructure, there is no other area of “comparable urban density” in the United States.

city & state — August 28, 2014

We believe the new regulations which were announced in 2012, and which have yet to be implemented will, if enacted, place the safety of our members, construction crews, the public and property at risk. We are not alone. Led by Council Member Ben Kallos who, with some 30 other members of the City Council, and Public Advocate Letitia James have introduced legislation that will restore City oversight of testing and licensing, taking into account the specific operational challenges unique to this great and growing city.

members for help. The vouchers are a way for those family members to earn compensation for their assistance. “There’s a very high need for child-care in Orthodox communities. This [Priority 5] restoration wasn’t specifically aimed at Orthodox communities, but the fact does remain that there are high child-care needs and those child-care needs aren‘t necessarily met in the EarlyLearn framework,” Levin said. “Children for the most part go to schools at yeshivas and religious-based schools; there are not … a lot of EarlyLearn programs in those communities. There are some, but by and large families are using the voucher system more.” Such programs may be needed in the Orthodox community, but there is a question as to whether the city can afford to continue to fund them in years to come. The Center for New York City Affairs notes that between 1999 and 2013 the number of children using mandated vouchers rose by more than two-thirds to nearly 57,000— contributing to ACS’ complicated fiscal outlook. The report also found that ACS has a recurring structural deficit of $90 million, forcing the agency to shift the expense of the vouchers internally and in so doing take dollars away from other programs and services. The city disputes the $90 million figure, explaining that while the voucher budget has been oversubscribed, spending on contracted care is less than projected, meaning there is enough of a surplus in contracted care to offset the high cost of voucher care. Not everyone in the new administration agrees with that arithmetic, however. As noted in the report, at a Council hearing in March ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrión indicated that the city’s budget gymnastics are not sustainable in the long run. “We stole from Peter to pay Paul,” Carrión said. “We took money from other places in the agency that was unspent, and we, quite frankly, delayed hiring as much as we could to generate some accruals to be able to shift money around to meet those needs. You can’t sustain that on an ongoing basis.” Meanwhile, the waiting list for vouchers continues to grow, to as high as 11,000, according to Carrión. But as long as the Orthodox votes keep pouring in on Election Day, it is a safe bet the voucher programs will keep going strong. cit yandstateny.com

CITY

THE ENGINEERS REPORT

When asked about the Orthodox community’s savvy in applying for the vouchers, Levin said that Orthodox families “probably apply at a higher rate,” but added, “It’s not as if [the vouchers] are tailored to one community or another.” The appearance of bias in voucher distribution has irked some childcare providers in other low-income neighborhoods across the city, however. One board member of a child-care provider in BedfordStuyvesant, who asked not to be named for fear of jeopardizing his organization’s government funding stream, said that ACS gave every indication that they intended to redirect vouchers to communities that were both “highneed” and “highutilization”—essentially, low-income neighborhoods with a larger population of schools and child-care centers where the vouchers are used. “Communities like Bed-Stuy were characterized as high need but not high utilization. Borough Park was high need and high utilization,” the board member said. “Externally it felt to us … that there was some power exercising influence over the decisions at ACS as to who to award these grants.” This is not the first time the city has been accused of playing favorites with the Orthodox community regarding voucher distribution. In 2000 Brooklyn Rabbi Milton Balkany, a fundraiser and political supporter of then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, said he had the city’s permission to process hundreds of voucher applications from low-income Orthodox families and to charge fees for the work. The revelation led to a public outcry from Eric Adams, the current Brooklyn borough president and former police captain who was the co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement at the time. Adams called for an investigation from the U.S. Attorney’s office “free of any coercion” from City Hall. Balkany was never charged in the case, but was later sentenced to four years in prison for extorting $4 million from a hedge fund. The de Blasio administration’s placating of the Orthodox community notwithstanding, few would argue that the population does not have a great need for the vouchers. Levin, the chair of the Council’s General Welfare Committee, believes that the strict tradition of the religious culture provides less freedom for Orthodox families to satisfy their child-care needs through the school system, often leaving them to rely on family

STATE

S TAT E

UNDER A CLOUD

CAN STATE LAWMAKERS FACING CRIMINAL CHARGES WIN RE-ELECTION?

cit yandstateny.com

State Sen. Malcolm Smith (left), state Sen. John Sampson (center) and former state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. dropped his re-election bid shortly before he acknowledged a federal investigation into potential misuse of his campaign account’s funds. Others, such as former state Sen. Carl Kruger, and ex–Assembly Members Eric Stevenson and Gabriela Rosa, were ousted by felony convictions. Still others are able to weather the legal clouds. Assemblyman Karim Camara was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 2007, but voters have re-elected him several times since then. State Sen. Kevin Parker has kept his seat despite a misdemeanor conviction in 2010 for a physical altercation with a New York Post photographer. Federal bribery charges were not enough for voters to lose faith in Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. in 2012, although he was eventually convicted. Other lawmakers, such as Guy Velella and Clarence Norman, withstood scandals for years before being sent to prison. “The advantages of incumbency are enough that it’s certainly possible for a lawmaker facing legal troubles to ride them out and win in November,” said the New York Public Interest Research Group’s Bill Mahoney, who tracks misconduct by state legislators. But apart from Boyland’s short-lived reprieve, the track record for scandalplagued elected officials in recent years offers little reason for Sampson, Smith and Libous to be optimistic about their chances. In 2009 state Sen. Hiram

Monserrate was convicted of a misdemeanor for assaulting his girlfriend, then lost to Jose Peralta in 2010. Then, in a failed comeback attempt, Monserrate lost an Assembly primary race to Francisco Moya. In 2010 state Sen. Pedro Espada was the subject of a corruption investigation involving his nonprofit when Gustavo Rivera beat him in the primary. Espada was indicted for embezzlement a few months later and convicted in 2012. In the 2012 primary, state Sen. Shirley Huntley lost her Queens seat to James Sanders, just a month after she was indicted for covering up the misuse of taxpayer dollars at another nonprofit. And in 2013 former assemblyman Vito Lopez, who resigned from the state Legislature amid a storm of sexual harassment allegations, failed to win a seat in the New York City Council when he attempted to resurrect his career. Of the latest crop of indicted lawmakers, Libous is in the strongest shape to defy the odds. He is popular in the Southern Tier district he has represented for a quarter century. While Smith was expelled from the Independent Democratic Conference and Sampson tossed by the Senate Democrats, Libous is still the Senate’s No. 2 Republican. He has $718,000 in campaign cash, while his rival, Anndrea Starzak, whose tenure as Vestal town supervisor ended in 2005, has yet to submit any fundraising totals. “If the candidate goes into a race that

encompasses as many people as a New York State Senate race thinking that an indictment is enough to win, they’re wrong,” said James Testani, the Broome County Democratic chair. “They’ve got to go out and make a case before the voters why somebody they’ve sent there for a number of years is no longer in a position that they’ve been sent there to do.” Although Libous’ indictment mentions an investigation into whether he used his influence to pad his son’s salary, he is only charged with the cover-up—the false statements he allegedly made to federal agents—and not the purported crime. Smith’s alleged attempts to buy his way into City Hall or the Senate leadership are more shocking. He now has just $2,800 in campaign funds, while a relatively well-known challenger, former city councilman Leroy Comrie, has been picking up cash and endorsements. Smith caught a break when a judge declared a mistrial in his case, delaying it until until after the election, but it can’t help that another defendant involved in the alleged conspiracy, former councilman Dan Halloran, was convicted last month. Sampson has also lost support, and his campaign finance filing shows him $9,600 in the hole. But the senator, who retains the backing of Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Frank Seddio, has no rivals with strong name recognition. Of course, lawmakers are, like anyone, entitled to due process as to their alleged acts. One cautionary tale is that of Joseph Bruno, the former Senate majority leader who resigned amid a federal fraud investigation. He endured two trials before being acquitted in May. “The argument by some is that if someone gets indicted, they should then be put on a stake like a witch with straw beneath their feet and be burned,” said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “The interfering problem here is that, contrary to what some might think, we do have a constitution which says that you are innocent until proven guilty. You haven’t been convicted of anything, so why should you be forced to leave office?”

city & state — August 28, 2014

ne of the few ways that New York lawmakers are forced out of office is by their falling afoul of the law. Three state senators are now trying to avoid that fate—but before they have a chance to vindicate themselves in the courtroom, each one will have to win at the polls this fall. State Sen. Thomas Libous, the Republican deputy majority coalition leader, was charged last month with lying to the FBI when he was asked about having a lobbyist funnel money to a law firm that employed his son, who was hit with federal charges as well. State Sen. Malcolm Smith, the former Democratic Senate majority leader, is accused of trying to bribe his way onto the ballot as a Republican candidate for mayor of New York City in 2013. The Queens lawmaker is also charged with seeking a bribe to help him regain a Senate leadership role. And state Sen. John Sampson, another former leader of the Senate Democrats, allegedly embezzled $440,000 from foreclosure accounts while serving as a court-appointed referee. The Brooklyn senator also accepted a $188,500 “loan” he neither divulged nor repaid, and tried to derail an investigation into the person who had provided the money, according to a federal indictment. Yet such charges will only be part of the equation on Election Day. Voters weigh a variety of factors, including the severity of the allegations, in deciding whether to give an elected official the benefit of the doubt or a second chance. An incumbent’s clout, the loyalty of constituents and the strength of rival candidates also play a role. “Sometimes, in some communities, if you have a real reputation of delivering for the community, you can get re-elected,” George Arzt, a communications consultant, said of lawmakers dealing with legal trouble. “In some communities where they regard authority as being anti-minority, you can get re-elected. In those cases where you’ve really done something egregious, you won’t get re-elected.” Of course, some lawmakers simply resign or opt not to run again. Earlier this year state Sen. George Maziarz

By JON LENTZ

S TAT E

PROGRESSIVE POPULISM AND 2014’S PRAGMATISTS SUSAN ARBETTER

city & state — August 28, 2014

ephyr Teachout won her legal battle to stay on the Democratic primary ballot, so for now there are two progressive alternatives in the race for governor: Teachout, who is running on a ticket with lieutenant governor candidate Tim Wu, and Howie Hawkins, who is carrying the Green Party’s standard along with Brian Jones. Because Teachout is seeking the Democratic nomination, she would only face Hawkins if she wins her party’s primary. For now, Cuomo’s $32.5 milliondollar war chest is overshadowing the candidacies of both challengers, which has prompted some voters to lump Teachout and Hawkins together under an imaginary umbrella with the words Anybody But Cuomo stamped on it. While the two may be attracting some of the same supporters, they have less in common than you might think. Just listen to them. “I am a progressive, but I am a down-the-line, traditional Democrat,” Teachout told ABC News. “I would be right at home in Mario Cuomo’s cabinet.” The same cannot be said of Hawkins, who on Independence Day stated, “The oligarchs have two parties. It’s time we had one of our own.” Jones, the Green Party’s candidate for lieutenant governor, predicts that progressive Democrats angry with the governor will hedge their bets: They will vote for Teachout in the primary, and if she loses they will then cast a vote for Hawkins. “I think, unfortunately, many

Democratic candidate for governor Zephyr Teachout calls herself a “traditional Democrat” and differs from Green Party candidate for governor Howie Hawkins on a bevy of issues. people are doing just that,” Jones said on The Capitol Pressroom. “And I hope people come to understand that we will ultimately need a party of our own.” But hedging is a strategy that sells both candidates short, and doesn’t account for their different political ideologies. Hawkins is a socialist. He attended Dartmouth College, and works loading

packages onto trucks for the United Parcel Service in Syracuse on the midnight to 4 a.m. shift. In 2010 he exceeded the 50,000 votes required in a gubernatorial election to retain the Green Party’s standing on the ballot. Teachout is a progressive populist. She advocates working within the system but toward decentralized political and economic power.

Teachout is a constitutional and property law professor at Fordham Law School. She cut her political chops working on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004. It’s fun to note that as a 13-year-old student at Hanover High School in Hanover, N.H., Teachout witnessed some of Hawkins’ “handiwork,” as she called it on The Capitol Pressroom. cit yandstateny.com

“I was struck by this extraordinary thing that was happening,” she said. “These shanties [at Dartmouth] were being built to protest apartheid. It turns out one of the leaders of that was Howie.” But Teachout’s politics reside in the mainstream; some of Hawkins’ do not. “Many of the things that [Teachout’s] most interested in, such as corruption in politics, go right to the problem of big government,” said Adrian Kuzminski, the moderator of Sustainable Otsego, a social network of several hundred subscribers, and the author of books including Fixing the System: A History of Populism, Ancient and Modern and The Ecology of Money: Debt, Growth, and Sustainability. Kuzminski is supporting Teachout because of her stand against corruption. “If we’re going to get a handle on it, we have to figure out a way to make politicians and the system more accountable to grassroots,” Kuzminski explained. Despite Teachout’s attacks on Cuomo’s political corruption efforts, she and the governor have similar positions on campaign finance reform: Both support the New York City public campaign finance model. Hawkins does not, arguing that the system allows the dominant role of private donations to remain intact. Instead, Hawkins espouses a full public cit yandstateny.com

campaign finance system, such as those in place in Maine and Arizona, where public funding is based on raising a certain number of $5 donations. Teachout’s position on charter schools is less stark than that of Hawkins, who says they are paid for by advocates of privatization and who wants to eliminate them. Teachout would agree to maintain the cap on charter schools for now, but says “they should remain an experiment, not a replacement for public schools.” At the same time, according to her website, Teachout wants to protect public schools from “privatization schemes, including the diversion of state funds to private schools through vouchers or back-door tax credits.” Both candidates advocate repealing provisions enacted in 2014 that mandate New York City pay for charter school rent. Both candidates want to roll back the implementation of the new Common Core standards. Hawkins is more aggressive than Teachout in his call for higher taxes on the wealthy, including a halt to the $14 billion annual rebate of the stock transfer tax. Teachout is less specific, but advocates that the rich pay their fair share. According to Teachout’s Facebook page, she and Wu “are not arguing about whether to redistribute wealth, but about how opportunity is

S TAT E

expose Cuomo’s record, that’s fine.” Teachout is a coiled spring, telling The Capitol Pressroom, “I want to be very clear to anyone who’s listening: I am running to win this primary.” While she may not win, political strategist Bruce Gyory says the better Teachout does in the primary, the more incentive she might have to endorse Cuomo. “It’s weirdly counterintuitive,” Gyory said. “Let’s say she cracked 20 percent of the vote or got 25 percent of the vote, which right now would sound huge. Do people say to her, ‘You know, you have a future in the Democratic Party. Why ruin it by being a spoiler? You made your case. Endorse him.’ ” On the other hand, Cuomo certainly doesn’t want Hawkins’ endorsement—and he won’t get it.

Susan Arbetter (@sarbetter on Twitter) is the Emmy awardwinning news director for WCNY Syracuse PBS/NPR, and producer/ host of the Capitol Pressroom syndicated radio program.

city & state — August 28, 2014

Howie Hawkins, Green Party nominee for governor, said he hopes Teachout defeats Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, but made it clear he would not endorse her.

distributed and wealth created in the first place.” Hawkins is indeed arguing about redistribution of wealth. Still, to some pragmatic voters, electability is more important than the candidates’ policy differences or similarities. “Howie, obviously, on every single issue [is] standing with the people,” said Joe Seeman, a volunteer organizer with MoveOn and Citizen Action of New York, as well as a member of the Working Families Party state committee. “The problem is that Howie and the Green Party do not believe in fusion candidacy as the Working Families Party does, and so they really don’t have … much of a chance of winning.” “Maybe a snowball’s chance in hell,” Seeman added. Another difference evident to anyone who meets the two candidates is each one’s demeanor. Hawkins is relaxed, seemingly content just to get his message out there. “I hope she beats Cuomo,” Hawkins told MSNBC in June. “Then we’ll have an argument about how far to the left we want to go. She can help

BOOMTOWN, NYC

AS BABY BOOMER POPULATION AGES, CHALLENGES ABOUND By WILDER FLEMING

recent AARP survey of New York City’s voters older than 50 found more than half of baby boomers said they plan to leave the city when they retire. City & State and AARP co-hosted a panel discussion on Aug. 7 to discuss the impending flight and what can be done to reverse the trend.

During his opening remarks at City & State and AARP’s Boomtown NYC event, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said the recent recession had hit baby boomers harder than any other group.

city & state — August 28, 2014

he last of the nation’s 76 million baby boomers will turn 50 in December of this year. As America’s largest living generation ages, it faces exceptional challenges posed by the higher cost of living and shrinking retirement savings. Many boomers will have to continue working long after the age of 65, but the rapidly evolving job market and hiring discrimination based on age make it harder and harder for them to find jobs. For New York City’s 2.6 million residents aged 50 or older, these problems are magnified by soaring housing costs and among the highest utility rates in the continental United States. The city’s 65-plus population is projected to increase by close to 40 percent between now and 2040,

but just half of working New York voters over the age of 50 say they are confident they will be able to retire at some point, according to a new report from AARP. And while two-thirds of 50- to 64-year-old voters in New York City are currently in the labor force, 14 percent were unemployed and looking for a job as of June 2013— far higher than the citywide rate of 8.7 percent at the time. “Perhaps more than any other group, the greatest recession hit the baby boomers hardest,” said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer at “Boomtown NYC,” a forum co-hosted by City & State and AARP. “They’ve lost more earning power than any other group; their retirement savings and home values fell sharply at the worst possible time—just before they

needed to cash out. Many took Social Security early, reducing their benefits by up to 30 percent.” For those New Yorkers in this group that do think they will be able to retire, slightly over a third of them said they were “extremely” or “very” likely to leave the city, according to a survey conducted by AARP of 1,300 voters in the five boroughs. “Most of the boomers who plan to leave are in the middle class,” said Beth Finkel, AARP’s state director. “And when the middle leaves, the other social classes become even more polarized … New York must be a better place to work, live and age.” Lesley Hirsch, director at the Labor Market Information Service at CUNY’s Graduate Center, said the shrinking of the middle class is

mirrored by a shrinking of middlewage jobs. “In New York City what we’ve seen is what’s been called the hollowing out of our labor market … an awful lot of middle-skill jobs evaporating,” Hirsch said. “Everyone knows manufacturing shrank a long time ago, but an awful lot of other jobs that would have been more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree—they’re really shrinking. And what are really booming are these very low-paid jobs with low skill requirements … and also the very high-paying, highskilled jobs. … What we’re seeing is this really, really difficult period right now where we as the people who have institutional knowledge in our field may or may not have the technological cit yandstateny.com

skills, may or may not have the latest educational training.” Hirsch pointed out that many jobs held by New York City’s older population are in retail, food service or education. Home healthcare jobs, which also command low wages, are the fastest growing industry in New York’s economy, according to Hirsch. Tom Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association, an independent urban research and advocacy organization, said that despite the outbound trickle of older New Yorkers to places like Florida and North Carolina, he is more concerned about diversity. “What’s very important is that … we have young people and middleaged people and elderly people able to live in all of our communities, cit yandstateny.com

and that we have people at the low, median and high end of the economic scale,” said Wright, who also pointed out that Ocean County, N.J., is the only county in the tristate region to make consistent gains in the over-50 population. “Manhattan lost about twice as many people in this cohort from 1990 to 2000 than it did from 2000 to 2010, so there’s been a great reduction in the number of folks in the 50-and-over cohort moving out in the last 10 years than there were previously.” Stringer said his office has already begun to account for the challenges ahead, which include making sidewalks and other pedestrian infrastructure safer and public transportation more accessible. He supports a new, comprehensive

affordable housing plan—something akin to the Mitchell-Lama program of the 1950s. He also stressed the need for a cultural shift toward more flexible work schedules so that boomers’ children can find the time to care for their parents and for a strengthened retirement safety net. (Just 14 percent of New Yorkers aged 65 and up earn wages or salary from work, and while three-quarters of them receive Social Security benefits, those payments average out to around $16,000 annually—a number that will only get squeezed further as the retirement population swells, if payments into the system remain constant. According to the comptroller, 59 percent of all New Yorkers lack access to a retirement plan.)

Stringer announced that his office’s new chief investment officer, Scott Evans, will head an advisory panel on retirement security this fall. “One of the things we have to recognize is so many of our communities back in the day were not places that people necessarily wanted to live or where government would invest,” he said. “A lot of the seniors today were pioneers in a different era, building up our communities. They built the schools, the daycare centers … but at the moment in their life where the first phase of their work is done, they’re the ones who are being pushed out of the neighborhoods … Skylines change … but they should change with the view that the pioneers stay so they can enjoy what they built.”

city & state — August 28, 2014

Forum presenters: (1) Tom Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association; (2) Beth Finkel, AARP’s New York State director; (3) Mitra Behroozi, 1199SEIU benefit and pensions funds executive director; and (4) Rebecca Gillan, AARP Research Center senior vice president

TENURE TRACK

HAS NEW YORK ALREADY FIXED ITS TEACHER DISCIPLINARY HEARING PROCESS? By ASHLEY HUPFL

Former CNN Anchor Campbell Brown questions United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at City & State’s 2013 On Education forum.

city & state — August 28, 2014

hen former CNN anchor Campbell Brown joined a legal challenge of New York’s teacher tenure laws last month, one key target was what some education groups called a drawn-out and ineffective hearing process for those tenured teachers facing disciplinary charges. The statewide teachers’ union countered that the 2012–13 state budget had already instituted changes reforming the hearings, capping at 155

days a disciplinary process that could typically take years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. “The law was amended in 2012, and that’s something you don’t hear Campbell Brown acknowledging,” Carl Korn, a spokesman for New York State United Teachers, said. But a number of observers contend the hearing process continues to be plagued with problems, despite the efforts to make it more efficient and cost-effective. While both sides agree

that cases involving sexual misconduct are being resolved more quickly, other proceedings are still bogged down by lengthy delays. Moreover, the costs to school districts can discourage them from bringing charges against a teacher for pedagogical misconduct, critics say. “If you have to make an economic decision about whether you proceed against someone who’s certainly not in the best educational interest of the children, the question is, ‘Is that good public policy?’ ” said Jay Worona,

general counsel for the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA), which has not taken a public stance on the lawsuits. The state Board of Regents began to seek changes in 2011 to address complaints about the hearing process. The 2012 legislative change allows the commissioner of the state Education Department to select a hearing officer if the parties fail to agree to one within 15 days, to cap the officer’s pay and to remove any officer that does not cit yandstateny.com

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city & state — March 24, 2014

Learn more and find charter schools in your community:

conclude hearings on time. The most significant change was the prohibition on introducing new evidence 125 days after the filing of the charges, except in the case of “extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the parties,” according to the amended bill. Korn, the NYSUT spokesman, told City & State that the 2012 amendment had greatly improved the hearing process for tenured teachers. “Basically the changes require all the hearings to be completed within 120 days. From the time the charges are filed to the conclusion of the hearings is a 125-day limit,” he said. “And then the arbitrator has 30 days to issue a decision. So the statutory timeline for tenure cases is limited to 155 days.” Proponents of the state’s teacher tenure system also maintain that it protects students by ensuring job security for teachers who speak out about budget shortages, raise concerns about other issues affecting students and take other steps to hold school administrators accountable. For example, teachers were able to criticize the new Common Core standards and the issue of overtesting of students without being afraid of losing their jobs. Several experts also say that teacher tenure is not an issue that is spontaneously brought up, given more pressing concerns about school aid and achievement gaps. “If Campbell Brown really wanted to help students, she would be joining with teachers in fighting for the funding that schools need,” Korn said.

city & state — August 28, 2014

STUCK WITH BAD TEACHERS? Nonetheless, some education groups argue that the 2012 changes did not do enough to ensure a cost-effective and timely hearing process, which in turn allows bad teachers to stay in the classroom. The two teacher tenure lawsuits—one filed by New York City Parents Union in early July, and the other filed a few weeks later by the Partnership for Educational Justice— claim that the state’s tenure and seniority laws violate students’ rights to a sound, basic education. Both take aim at the hearing process, at the threeyear period for making tenure decisions and at the “last in, first out” law, which mandates that the most recently hired teachers must be the first to be laid off in the event of cutbacks. A frequently cited study conducted by NYSSBA in 2008 found that the process of removing a tenured teacher

took an average of 520 days and cost a school district an average of $128,000. The 2008 data does not reflect the changes to the teacher tenure law made in 2012, however, and thus are considered outdated, calling into question the current validity of the figures. According to new figures released by the United Federation of Teachers, New York City sought to remove 637 tenured teachers over the last two years; 153 of the cases, fewer than a third, are still pending. The median length of the proceedings is 105 days; six extended for more than 500 days. The city’s figures do not necessarily reflect what is happening in the rest of the state. In the 2013–14 fiscal year, New York City had 358 total cases and closed around half of them (159). Having changed its disciplinary process for teachers several years ago, New York City touts its ability to reach decisions more quickly and less expensively now. During the disciplinary review period, New York City teachers are guaranteed continued pay, but some are not allowed to teach and instead are sent for the duration to what are commonly known as “rubber rooms.” Last year the New York Post reported that the city had paid nearly $1 million to a teacher who spent 13 years in a rubber room after being accused of sexual misconduct in 1999. On the state level, there were 525 total disciplinary cases filed in the 2013–14 fiscal year (excluding New York City), according to the state Department of Education, slightly fewer than half of which are still open. While those figures may seem comparable to the city’s, education experts agree that the city’s system is more effective. Asked to provide the number and status of all the disciplinary cases filed in the 2013–14 fiscal year, the state DoE gave City & State information about 26 cases, all of which had been resolved in 2013 by hearing officers. The disparity between the number of cases reported by the DoE and the relatively few provided to City & State is attributable to the others being closed by settlement, withdrawn or remaining open, according to a state DoE spokeswoman. Cases may also straddle fiscal years, with a decision being made in the following fiscal year. However the figures are tabulated, NYSSBA general counsel Worona noted they can be misleading. “If we just look at percentages and how many cases there are, we don’t know how

many are not filed” due to economic reasons, Worona said, and with that number left out of the equation, “we might get a warped sense of what’s not broken about the system, or what is broken.” CONDUCT AND COMPETENCY Although the 2012 legislative changes did not address the differences in pedagogical misconduct and sexual misconduct, both sides agree the changes have expedited the process of removing a teacher accused of sexual misconduct. “It does seem there has been a difference in terms of the length of times,” said Reshma Singh, executive director for the Partnership for Educational Justice, which filed one of the two tenure lawsuits. “But from what I know—and, again, we don’t have [recent] hard numbers—there isn’t that much of a significant shift in terms of competency hearings.” State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said the teachers’ union’s stance might reinforce a negative perception of teachers. “I just always think that for the union to waste their capacity on

defending people who should not be in the system, what it does is it demeans the unbelievably qualified educators in the system,” Tisch told City & State. “I just don’t think there is a place in the system for pedophiles, or defending pedophiles, or for keeping them in rubber rooms. … That being said, it’s very few people.” Of all the teachers outside of New York City who were evaluated in 2013, 49.7 percent were found to be highly effective, with another 41.8 percent deemed effective. Only 1 percent were found ineffective and 4.4 percent were found to be “developing.” The lowest-performing teachers are also given opportunities to improve their performance before disciplinary proceedings are initiated. Singh’s Partnership for Educational Justice argues that the single most important factor that determines a child’s success is the effectiveness of that child’s teacher. “This is not a silver bullet,” Singh said. “Reforming these laws is not going to address every challenge our system faces, but that does not mean we shouldn’t work on multiple solutions that will and try to tackle various challenges our students and families face.”

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THE WAY TO REACH ELECTED OFFICIALS For advertising information, please contact Jim Katocin at 212.284.9714 or Jkatocin@cityandstateny.com

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BACK TO SCHOOL A Q&A WITH MERRYL TISCH

C&S: How is the expansion of prekindergarten affecting the state Board of Regents? MT: The state Education Department was peripherally involved in the contracts and reviewing the contracts from the districts who applied for pre-K dollars. Clearly, we are looking at the standards, but these are really local programs that are going to be administered locally. We are hoping that these are not going to be babysitting programs. We know that kids who get quality early-beginning [education] tend to do much better, and so the capacity of the instructional team and the people who are running these pre-K programs are all very significant, and I hope we see a lot of great participants around the state.

s public school students begin to return to classes this month, education issues are once again heating up. In an interview with City & State’s Ashley Hupfl, Merryl Tisch, the chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, weighed in on Common Core, prekindergarten expansion, standardized testing and other education policy issues.

City & State: What did you think of the latest Common Core test scores? Merryl Tisch: The progress was modest, but real. There’s a lot of work to do. If you ask me right track/wrong track, I’d say clearly there are many districts in this state [that] are doing hard work and who are proceeding along a track that is going to yield results. I think we need to work hard, and we need to be patient with the system and need to be ambitious for all of our students. When you see the results in New York City and the increase in the number of African-Americans and Hispanic students who have moved out of the Level 1 category—those numbers are real, right? And when cit yandstateny.com

you see just pockets of people who are doing brilliant work around curriculum and instruction, particularly in math, you see real results. English Language Arts—for a variety of different reasons, people around the nation who are experts in the field say it is a harder thing to shift instructional practice around, but it’s really important, and it is really significant to work at and keep moving forward. C&S: Do you expect greater increases in passing rates as time goes on? MT: I would imagine, as I said last year, I thought the scores would go up year from year. Obviously this is all about instruction, curriculum and professional development, and it’s very

C&S: Over the past few years, tension has been high between the state Board of Regents and the teachers’ union. Is there any hope that will diminish soon? MT: I think so. I want people to remember that the evaluation system was negotiated with the union. That when New York State went to apply for the federal grant called Race to the Top, Michael Mulgrew was sitting at the table with us, talking about the importance of instructional shifts, talking about the importance of curriculum, talking about the importance of raising the standards. Out of all of this I want everyone to clearly understand that even though the rhetoric is very high in public space, we have worked with our colleagues in the teachers’ union very effectively over many different issues. But I never paid much attention to what the rhetoric is in public space. I happen to have very good personal working relationships with the union, as does the [state Education] Department. We work together; we work collaboratively. That doesn’t mean we agree on everything, but it means that on more things than not,

the product that you see in public space is a direct result of collaboration of hearing each other. C&S: Standardized testing continues to be a major issue. What is the latest in this area? MT: One of the things I hear is that the field reports after the testing show that kids would benefit from more time on the ELA test. I personally think that sounds like a sound idea, if the idea is to let children show what it is they can do. Why put on a time restraint? I don’t want any kid to leave and feel like they didn’t get enough chance to show their best. There’s a lot of misconception out there, but I do want to reiterate: In New York State we were never really highly test-dependent in terms of teacher performance or what happens with kids. We have and always have had a multimeasured system. I also never understood why we couldn’t use performance-based assessments for music and art. I’d like to encourage everyone to have a really rigorous conversation about multiple pathways to graduation. As you know, we are considering a change to graduation pathways that would allow students to get to graduation showing different competencies. It’s a fluid conversation, but that’s what good policy is about. Good policy is always about growth, expansion of opportunities and adjustments that are appropriate from what you hear from the field. But it should not be a retreat away from the ambition that we need to have for every student in New York State. C&S: Going into the new school year, are there any major changes parents should know about? MT: That’s an interesting question. I would hope that we are better at getting information out to the field, we are better at disseminating what the standards are all about, what the evaluation is all about, why we are making these shifts and how we have every child’s best interest at heart. I would want just an open dialogue with a better sharing of information and a better description of what the results are, what we’re all working toward and why we’re all working toward that.

city & state — August 28, 2014

significant and very important to stick with this. And I would imagine, as I’ve said before, as we keep proceeding down this 12-year commitment to raising standards, you will start to see better results.

ORGANIZED LABOR

LABOR 2.0: CAN UNIONS REINVENT THEMSELVES TO BUILD NEW YORK IN THE 21ST CENTURY

CUOMO’S COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP WITH LABOR

BY NICK POWELL

26 DE BLASIO’S OUTSTANDING UNION CONTRACTS

BY WILDER FLEMING city & state — August 28, 2014

BY JON LENTZ

30 ROUNDTABLE

34 SCORECARD

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S P OT L I G H T: O R G A N I Z E D L A B O R

SPOTLIGHT:

city & state â&#x20AC;&#x201D; March 24, 2014

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REBUILDING THE TRADES By NICK POWELL

city & state — August 28, 2014

WITH NONUNION FIRMS ENCROACHING ON THE UNIONIZED SHARE OF NEW CONSTRUCTION, NEW YORK CITY’S BUILDING TRADES ARE RETHINKING THEIR APPROACH TO STAY VIABLE.

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I think we’ve signaled to the building trades that we want to maximize their involvement—Gary LaBarbera is here, and we appreciate his support— but we also know that we have to build these units, and we have to make the financial realities work.” The shifting landscape of the construction industry has propelled labor leaders like LaBarbera to re-examine their old orthodoxies. In an era where some of the building trades have seen their membership erode and their influence wane, the sudden interest in the affordable housing market—spearheaded by the de Blasio administration—could help unions recapture some of the market share of new construction they have been losing to nonunion firms, who traditionally offer a cheaper alternative to commercial and residential developers eager to cut costs. “The Building Trades in New York and other parts of the country have grown much more flexible in their attempts to regain market share,” said Ed Ott, former president of the New York City Central Labor Council. “One of the strengths of the building trades has traditionally been that they understood market share. But over the last quarter-century, every time there has been a boom in the construction industry, they have come out of it with less of the share. Things have to change. They have a grasp on that— and, yes, they are working to do things in new ways.” The exact size of New York City’s various construction unions is notoriously difficult to determine. The federal government mandates that every labor organization file a financial report that includes information on the size of its membership, but experts say that the accuracy of these forms as it pertains to membership data is debatable, as many times the union official responsible for filling out the form claims a bigger boost in membership than the union has in fact attained. In order to ascertain an accurate portrait of the state of unionized construction in the city, it is thus preferable to take the estimates compiled by outside experts and weigh them against the figures provided by insiders like LaBarbera. Whichever assessments one relies upon, one thing is indisputable: In plunging the nation’s economy to lows not seen in decades, the Great Recession contributed to a sharp downturn in construction spending and employment.

The New York Building Congress, a membership organization dedicated to promoting the real estate industry, found in its annual report for 2011 that construction spending in New York City had declined 20 percent from 2008 (when the financial sector began to collapse) to 2009. Over that time period the industry lost roughly 11,000 jobs, from a high of 136,000 in the third quarter of 2008 to 101,200 in the first quarter of 2011, when it bottomed out. “Those formerly ubiquitous small- to medium-size projects, which fed the building boom, have virtually dried up, and a lot of hardworking men and women are now out of work as a result,” wrote Building Congress President Richard Anderson in the report. That same year the flagging real estate industry finally began to show a pulse, although nonunion construction companies helped provide the reviving charge. These nonunion firms, “open shops,” as they are commonly known within the industry, had largely cornered the market on constructing affordable housing, as well as smaller buildings and hotels previously of little interest to the trades. Now, however, they were beginning to make headway into segments of the business the building trades had formerly monopolized, especially low- to midrise residential developments. The niche carved out by the open shops already marked a significant change in the industry. Twenty years earlier it was virtually unthinkable that a construction project—residential, commercial or otherwise—could break ground without the involvement of the building trades. Not only were there deep personal allegiances to unions among those in the real estate community, but unionized construction was—and remains—the fastest, most efficient way to build in New York City. Moreover, nonunion shops typically lack the sophistication to construct the type of major commercial high-rises the trades specialize in, and as a rule are less diligent in ensuring workplace safety. Still, in recent years these facts have failed to dissuade developers from utilizing nonunion construction. Prominent examples include the Toll Brothers’ second Northside Piers tower in Williamsburg; Lightstone’s housing complex adjacent to the Gowanus Canal; and the City Point project in downtown Brooklyn, which is using partially nonunion labor. Related even

city & state — August 28, 2014

hen Mayor Bill de Blasio formally unveiled his comprehensive affordable housing plan back in early May, the rattling and drilling of construction equipment in downtown Brooklyn nearly drowned out his voice. While the clamor on this picturesque spring day was not actually coming from the site highlighted by the mayor in his remarks—250 Ashland Place, the future location of a residential tower, 50 percent of which will comprise affordable units— it nonetheless provided a fitting soundtrack for the announcement, a centerpiece of de Blasio’s agenda. The broad strokes of the mayor’s plan had been public knowledge for some time—the administration’s aim would be to create or preserve 200,000 affordable units across the five boroughs within 10 years—but beyond some previously undisclosed details, part of what made the event noteworthy was which union leaders had come out to demonstrate their support for the new initiative. Gary LaBarbera, the president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC), looked on stoically from a corner of one of the seated areas at the press conference, along with several other representatives from the various construction trades he represents. While LaBarbera’s involvement with 250 Ashland, a project being built largely by his members, was a mere footnote on this particular morning, the fact that his unions would be erecting the tower signifies a major milestone for the continuing viability of the trades he represents. Ten years ago, it was almost inconceivable that the building trades would even be interested in working on a New York City affordable housing project. Affordable housing developers have found it difficult to justify paying union wages for construction of housing units at below market rate prices. As a result, the building trades have historically declined such projects in favor of higher-paying luxury residential buildings and commercial high-rises. Mayor de Blasio alluded to this past dynamic in his prepared remarks. “We always look for every opportunity to work with union labor,” he said. “We also are trying to create affordable housing with real tight financial dynamics, and our job is to create it on an unprecedented level. So it really will take a lot of cooperation and creativity in that relationship, but

city & state — August 28, 2014

hired a nonunion contractor to oversee construction of the massive Hudson Yards development on the West Side of Manhattan. The decision of developers to hire open shops boils down to simple economics, experts say. A 2011 study conducted by Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Center for Urban Innovation at the Regional Planning Association (RPA), estimated that union development carries a 20 to 30 percent higher premium than nonunion work. When Vitullo-Martin compared union and nonunion costs for constructing 20,000-square-foot residential buildings in both Brooklyn and Manhattan, she found the price tag was notably less for the work if it were done nonunion. Using $750 per square foot as the average sale price for an apartment in Brooklyn, Vitullo-Martin determined that if a development company were to build a condominium nonunion in the borough, it would reap a profit of just under 30 percent, whereas if it employed unionized labor, the project would lose money. Comparable arithmetic holds for Manhattan, where Vitullo-Martin, assuming an average sale price of $1,000 per square foot for apartments in the borough, calculated that developers building nonunion would realize a profit of just under 22 percent; with union construction, they would just break even. Louis Coletti, the president of the Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA), New York

City’s biggest trade organization representing contractors, said that the price disparity tilted in nonunion labor’s favor notwithstanding, the big difference in today’s construction climate is that its present economic realities are forcing some of the trades to become less choosy about the projects they take on. In the past, he suggested, one might see contractors walk off jobs that employed nonunion labor, but with the rise of open shops, contractors have no choice but to accept a new normal. “What we have happening in New York City is that those trades that have made changes to be competitive, if their contractors are awarded that work and it’s a nonunion job, they’re going to work, and that’s a huge change in the New York City construction market,” Coletti said. “Unless we find a way to continue making changes in those markets, the BTEA contractors will find ways to compete in those markets, because we have a responsibility to those employees, to those stockholders, to keep our businesses viable. We want to do that by building union for all trades. But make no mistake about it, that’s a direction that you’re going to see BTEA contractors taking in the future. There are continued discussions that go on about how to address this. I’m hopeful that all the trades make the appropriate adjustments that will lead us to increasing our market share.” LaBarbera insists the encroachment of open shops is no greater threat to the trades than it

has been in recent decades. While construction of smaller residential buildings and boutique hotels is an areas where nonunion builders have done well at the expense of union labor, this hardly represents a new trend, he notes, as over the last 20 to 25 years the trades have consistently struggled in securing contracts for such projects. “We would venture to say that probably 75 percent of all construction activity in New York City is unionized, so to me that is a very, very strong market share, especially coming into this boom,” LaBarbera said. “Currently we have almost 100 percent employment across the board in the building trades, 130,000 unionized construction workers working in the city of New York.” “I’m not denying there is a sector of the construction industry in New York City that is nonunion, that has existed for 40 or 50 years,” LaBarbera continued. “Fact of the matter is, when the tide rises, all boats rise with the tide. The construction market right now is so busy that there are more residential projects within this kind of bailiwick, smaller projects that are being built nonunion. Not that percentages have changed; it’s because there is more and more work.” Ruth Milkman, a sociologist of labor and labor movements at the CUNY Graduate Center and academic director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, publishes an annual “State of the Unions” for New York City, New York State and the United States. Her most recent reports show that compared with the nation as a whole, organized labor in New York City has begun to rebound from its recession lows, despite its continued erosion in some sectors. Based on data from the Current Population Survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Milkman ascertained that 22.4 percent of all wage and salary workers in New York City were union members in 2012–13, nearly the same as in the prior year but considerably fewer than the prerecession figure of 24.6 percent. Losses over the past decade have mostly come from the private sector, where the building trades have historically been dominant. Nonetheless, a number of the building trades unions reported increased membership between 2012 and 2013, Milkman told City & State, citing new data from her forthcoming 2014 “State of the Unions” report—specifically among iron workers, journeymen and allied

trades, plumbers and pipe fitters, and carpenters. “It’s a very bifurcated industry,” Milkman said. “Heavy commercial [construction] is still pretty highly unionized in many cases, smaller buildings less so. One thing we’ve seen is there has been a slight increase in union density in New York City and state in the last year. Commercial construction is one driver of that, but it’s hard to pin it down exactly. Density is affected by the economy in general.”

PLA PANACEA?

he grim circumstances of the recession forced the building trades to compromise in the form of “project labor agreements” (PLAs), agreements that determine wages, benefits and other provisions—such as encouraging minority representation—which the construction unions, contractors and subcontractors negotiate in lieu of a collective bargaining agreement to ensure that an entire project remains union. As the economy went south in 2009, BCTC struck deals on several PLAs for both private and public projects intended as temporary salves to the city’s suddenly unstable construction environment. For developers and builders, PLAs represented a positive step toward streamlining the convoluted organizational structure of some of the trades. As Vitullo-Martin wrote in RPA’s 2011 report, “Applied projectwide, these agreements take a first step toward consistency in the intricate assortment of pay arrangements, holidays, work rules, and other customs.” Developers privately concede that the fragmented bargaining structure of the Building Trades (which encompasses 49 affiliated local unions) can not only make negotiations difficult at times, especially when some of the locals make demands not in sync with the rest of the trades; it also contributes to the high price tag and potential inefficiency of working with unionized labor. “The PLAs have proved very successful for some developers,” Vitullo-Martin said. “PLAs aren’t cure-alls, but there is no cure-all in labor and construction issues—none. What a PLA can do is handle some of the more onerous work rules, which is what developers and builders really complain about more than the high cit yandstateny.com

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The massive Hudson Yards mixed-use development on the west side of Manhattan is one of a handful of new construction projects in New York City using both union and nonunion labor.

city & state — August 28, 2014

cost of salaries and benefits.” In her report, Vitullo-Martin notes that the various unions within the Building Trades have unpredictable availability, with no standardized workday and “various subgroups adhering to their own seemingly random assortment of holidays.” She pointed to the Economic Recovery PLA negotiated by the Building Trades and BTEA, which included a “Schedule B” of union concessions negotiated by each local affiliate. “From the standpoint of the industry, the built-in inefficiencies come from the fact that each negotiation is separate; they’re done by separate trade associations, different subcontractor associations—there’s no coordinating or negotiating,” said one real estate developer who asked not to be named so as not to anger the Building Trades union. “If everyone has different policies, how can you build a building?” Disputing the notion that the trades are fractured or factionalized, LaBarbera prefers instead to characterize them as “specialized.” Construction by its nature is a specialized industry, he says, and nuance often gets lost with the hiring of nonunion firms, which gravitate toward more industrialstrength, straightforward projects rather than buildings that require a lot of variation or intricate design. PLAs allow the trades to maintain their hold on such projects, he noted. “We have been able, even in those types of buildings, to mitigate [cost] and

get those buildings built using PLAs; that’s one of the things we have used as a tool for now to be more competitive,” LaBarbera said. “Once you start going up to larger construction or more complicated floors, more architectural buildings, that’s where the nonunions don’t have the skills or the capacity to do that.” One PLA that has allowed LaBarbera and the Building Trades to stay competitive, while also achieving some cost savings, is the “Outer Borough” agreement covering residential development outside of Manhattan that LaBarbera helped negotiate in 2010, which required that each local affiliate provide the equivalent of a 20 percent reduction in payroll costs, taken from wages and benefits. Still, LaBarbera and Coletti agree that PLAs are not a panacea in bridging the cost gap between union and nonunion construction but rather a temporary solution to keep construction projects in the pipeline. “A PLA, in the interim, serves the purpose, for the most part, holistically, so we’ve been able to do that,” LaBarbera said. “Fundamentally, I don’t believe that PLAs should replace the collective bargaining process. I firmly believe as a trade unionist that collective bargaining should address the economics of the marketplace, and it should be done through the collective bargaining process between a local union and the multi-employer association.”

RECAPTURING THE MARKET

hen The Wall Street Journal reported in August that the Building Trades had forged a coalition with housing activists in an attempt to get a piece of the expected influx of affordable housing construction, many New York City labor experts were pleasantly surprised, for two reasons: because the Building Trades had never previously shown much interest in affordable housing construction; and because the coalition with housing activists continued a recent trend of the Building Trades working collaboratively with other organizations to help create leverage to get more work for their members. The Journal reported that the unions would join housing activists in calling for 50 percent of all new housing units to be set aside for lower- and middle-income residents, while also offering to accept wages 40 percent lower than typical union pay on affordable housing projects, and fostering a new class of workers, drawn from local communities, to help construct the houses. The latter part of that agreement is what has many individuals in the labor and government spheres excited for the opportunity it could provide for people of color to gain some upward mobility within the Building Trades. Though they have been historically slow to integrate their membership, the trades have made great strides in this area in recent years,

thanks in part to new apprenticeship programs. Black representation in union construction is higher than it has been in years (21.3 percent), and is comparable to black representation in the overall workforce (23.3 percent), according to an analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “What I think is interesting here is this actually does not seem to be an effort started by City Hall but an effort between community organizations who want more affordable housing, and those who build housing but want prevailing wages, to get together and say, ‘Do we have some good ideas between ourselves?’ ” said state Sen. Liz Krueger, herself a former housing advocate. “It’s a pretty big step for labor to say, ‘We’re willing to explore a lower wage rate for specific kinds of housing.’ I think the potential also for using internships and onthe-job training to help bring more people from the city and of color into construction labor in a unionized way would also be a fabulous win for the city.” Not everyone is convinced the mayor’s approach will ultimately align with the priorities set by the coalition of housing activists and Building Trades. Immediately after de Blasio expressed his desire to work with labor at the announcement of his affordable housing plan, Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development, equivocated on that very topic, saying, “Different kinds of folks are going to participate in that labor pool.” “Too early to tell, but I’m not convinced [de Blasio] needs [the Building Trades],” said one prominent city real estate source, who declined to be named so as not to upset the mayor. “I think he wants them because Bill, he’s a tried and true believer in unions, but at the end of the day this is about economics. Bottom line is, if you try to force Building Trades costs into the construction of affordable housing, what you’re gonna get is no housing.” The Building Trades’ newfound interest in affordable housing construction, LaBarbera explains, stems from a political sea change that came about with the end of the Bloomberg era and the dawn of the de Blasio administration, and capitalizes on the current opportunities available for growth. “It’s really been a bit of a fight with prior administrations because the whole affordable housing world has become a handful of housing cit yandstateny.com

cit yandstateny.com

evidence, he pointed to a recent Daily News report about a group of nonunion workers hired to build the Sugar Hill affordable housing development in Harlem who were paid far below the prevailing wage required on the project. “We can essentially create a pipeline of work for this workforce at a rate lower than our current prevailing wage rate but higher than what they’re currently making now, so it creates more

money for them, medical coverage for them. … There’s pension security, and they can ultimately become a journeyman worker all over the five boroughs,” LaBarbera said. Coletti believes the Building Trades dipping their feet in the affordable housing pool, combined with union and nonunion shops working pretty much at capacity, could bring about a tipping point for the construction industry as a

whole, for better or worse. “The only thing that has really saved us has been the strength of the market,” Coletti said. “I’ve never seen the set of conditions that we have now, which is the market is so hot. The nonunion world is at their capacity; they can’t handle more work. So is the union market. We need people on both sides of the table. The next couple of years are going to be very, very interesting.”

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developers that got rich off the backs of low-wage workers, and that scenario can’t continue,” LaBarbera said. “We honestly believed that with this mayor that behavior wouldn’t continue. He’s a progressive mayor that we think we can actually have an opportunity to create a win-win outcome with. In the past we were really pushed out because the affordable housing industry became very, very closed. Only certain developers got certain [incentives]. … A lot of the financing deals were done [with developers] directly. There weren’t RFPs. We’ve been trying to expose all that in the past.” Before the trades learn if de Blasio will live up to their high expectations for his mayoralty, LaBarbera will first have to convince his members—80 percent of whom he claims are already on board—to approve the new wage rate proposal. (LaBarbera does not need unanimous approval from his members to move forward.) Jack Kittle, the political director for the District Council 9 International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, has already expressed skepticism that top construction talent can be attracted at such a low rate. Ed Ott, the former Central Labor Council president, added that operating engineers, whom experts affirm are notoriously intransigent in making union concessions in project labor deals, would present another hurdle to the proposal’s adoption. “Operating engineers have always been the most resistant to change, because in New York they had no reason to change; what they were doing was working for them. It’s a skill that’s not easy to replace,” Ott said. “They’re the institutional memory in the industry, so they’ve always felt like they don’t have to change. Hard to think that [the Building Trades] would try to do [the new wage rate] without everybody being in.” One additional incentive for his members to support the affordable housing agreement is the opportunity for LaBarbera and the trades to beat the nonunion builders at their own game. LaBarbera dismissed the view that nonunion construction pulls from a different, more diverse talent pool than union shops, repeatedly insisting that nonunion shops “exploit” minority construction workers because of their unsafe conditions, inferior construction product and, most important, substandard wages. As

CAN DE BLASIO MAINTAIN HIS SUCCESSFUL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RECORD? By WILDER FLEMING

ver 60 percent of the 350,000 New York City employees that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg left to work under expired contract deals between their unions and the city have reached new agreements, thanks to successful negotiations between the de Blasio administration and seven labor unions, two of which—the United Federation of Teachers and District Council 37— account for over 200,000 of these workers. The deals have been praised by independent monitors like the city and state comptrollers’ offices, the fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Commission and several bond rating agencies. According to the mayor’s office, as long as the economy stays solid, the agreements should be fully funded within the city’s current budget framework. Despite this sunny outlook, the city still must come to terms with close to 100 bargaining units, including those representing uniformed workers such as the police and firefighters, which have traditionally asked for higher raises than their so-called “civilian” counterparts. Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, recently cited his union’s stalled contract talks with the city as one of his reasons for publicly opposing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans to host the Democratic National Convention in Brooklyn in 2016. “We still have a big question mark where the uniformed unions are concerned,” said Maria Doulis, director of city studies at the Citzens Budget Commission (CBC). “And there is a pretty big risk there. If … [they] decide they don’t like this pattern—that it’s too low for their members—they’ll go to arbitration. And historically when they go to arbitration, they get something much higher than what’s being offered by the administration or than the pattern that already exists.” Because uniformed personnel

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (left) and UFT President Michael Mulgrew announce the city’s contract agreement with the teachers’ union. are viewed as essential to the city’s daily functioning, strikes among this group are considered unacceptable: Without their presence, it is believed chaos could ensue or a disaster could go unchecked. So while it is common in the civilian union bargaining process to seek the advice of a thirdparty mediator who lays out a set of recommendations only, an impasse in negotiations with the uniformed ranks often leads to an arbitrator who hands down a non-negotiable resolution. “Relative to police officers in Nassau and Suffolk and the Port Authority, the NYPD have successfully made the case in the past that their officers are underpaid and that there is a wage differential that merits having them catch up through larger increases,”

Doulis said. In three of the last four rounds of bargaining under Bloomberg, which were negotiated between 2002 and 2008, the uniformed city employees won higher raises than their civilian peers. From 2003 to 2005, for example, the uniforms received cumulative raises of 14.5 percent, while the civilians received raises of 6 percent. In the last round, which was negotiated in 2008 and applied to 2009 and 2010, both the uniforms and the civilians received cumulative raises of 8 percent. (The teachers, which constitute a third category, did not strike a deal in the 2008–10 round of bargaining.) Bob Linn, de Blasio’s commissioner in the Office of Labor Relations and the

chief negotiator of the new contracts, would not discuss unresolved negotiations, though he did appear to differentiate the larger uniformed unions from the other bargaining units. “There are a number of units that we’re talking about in discussing the seven year pattern settlement that the city has reached,” Linn said. “There then are the large groups of uniformed service workers in police, fire, corrections, sanitation and the officers of the supervisory ranks—those are all conversations that are going forward.” The seven year pattern that was first negotiated as part of a larger deal agreement with the UFT and is now being used as a model for current negotiations with other civilian bargaining units has been agreed to by one uniformed union as well: Local Teamsters 237, which represents 8,204 school safety agents and other special officers. But as Doulis pointed out, on at least one occasion during the Bloomberg administration when the police officers were granted higher raises through arbitration, the city then re-opened talks with other uniformed unions that had already settled for less and granted them increases on par with the police department’s. Though state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli described the agreement between de Blasio and the teachers’ union, in a June analysis of the city budget, as lifting “a cloud that has hung over the city’s finances for years,” he also noted that “the union representing the city’s police officers is seeking larger wage increases than those offered by the city, and has begun the process that could lead to binding arbitration.” The deal agreed to by the UFT, along with subsequent contracts reached with two healthcare unions— 1199 SEIU and the New York State Nurses Association—actually cover nine years and several months each. Two of those years address the pair of cit yandstateny.com

DIANA ROBINSON FOR THE OFFICE OF MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO

S P OT L I G H T: O R G A N I Z E D L A B O R city & state — August 28, 2014

THE NEW DEALS

workforce over four years—a condition of the seven year pattern—and $1.3 billion in recurring savings every year thereafter. It is the realization of these savings that constitute the CBC’s other major concern, according to Doulis. “We’re going to be looking to see what the kinds of actions are that get you to those savings, because I’m sure there is some low-hanging fruit and some one-shots that you can pursue in the beginning, and you should absolutely do that,” she said. “But your focus should be on bending the cost curve and doing things that you know can provide recurring savings that make your health insurance program more efficient and more cost-effective in the future. Nationally, public sector employees on average pay around half of what their private sector counterparts do toward their insurance premiums. In New York, state employees contribute 12 to 16 percent on average for personal coverage, while New Yorkers at private firms pay 19 to 20 percent. (State workers actually pay a higher average percentage than those in the private sector for family insurance premiums.) But in New York City, public employees enrolled in one of the city’s two major plans pay

nothing toward their personal or family premiums—a practice unparalleled in other U.S. cities, with only San Francisco and Los Angeles in the same ballpark, according to the CBC. Commissioner Linn has listed a menu of options for the city and the Municipal Labor Committee—the umbrella group representing the unions—to consider in their plans to achieve cost savings in this area, including the contribution of a minimum premium on the part of the employee. Other recommendations include marketing plans to provide competitive bidding of contracts, the capping of certain rates and more effective delivery of healthcare. In a June letter to the CBC, Linn wrote, “It is important to note that the City has not assumed that cost savings will necessarily be realized through premium cost sharing with employees. The City will first work to find real, permanent savings and fundamentally bend the curve when it comes to rapidly-increasing health care costs.” He also stressed that the city’s agreement with the Municipal Labor Committee includes a dispute resolution clause “that guarantees

the savings; if the parties cannot meet the specified dollar target goals for a fiscal year, the parties have agreed to meet with the Arbitrator, who has the authority to enforce the savings.” In his previous job as a private sector consultant, Linn successfully negotiated a deal with 1199 SEIU that achieved savings by way of reigning in healthcare costs, which he has pointed to as evidence that the strategy works. Linn said the plan is to track the healthcare savings strategy on a quarterly basis, and he envisions that the reports will be made publicly available. A spokesperson for the de Blasio administration, Amy Spitalnick, said the first report is expected sometime this fall. Linn is hopeful that most of the agreements will be reached by the beginning of 2015, on track with the mayor’s goal of resolving the issue within a year’s time. Doulis agrees. “Is Bob Linn overly optimistic? I would say probably not. At this point the unions, most of their contracts have been expired for so long their members are probably eager to see the increases.”

S P OT L I G H T: O R G A N I Z E D L A B O R

4 percent pay raises other city workers had received in the aforementioned 2008–10 bargaining round with the Bloomberg administration that the teachers and healthcare workers had missed out on. (The city still has to settle with 25,000 workers who also did not receive the previous 8 percent raises.) Although the annual raises included in the remaining seven years of the agreements increase in the latter part of the time span covered by the contract—resulting in projected budget gaps for the out-years— they are kept under 4 percent. (The increases total a little more than 10 percent over those seven years. The workers were also granted one-time, $1,000 bonuses.) This seven year agreement served as a pattern for the deal with DC 37, the city’s largest municipal union. In total, the teachers’ and the two healthcare unions will each enjoy 18 percent raises over the period of their contracts. Doulis expects the overall cost of the contracts to come out to more than $13 billion once all the deals are finalized. This estimate takes into account $3.4 billion in total healthcare cost savings for the entire city

Each day more than one million children depend on 32BJ school cleaners and handypersons to keep their schools healthy and safe, yet we have an unequal system where a cleaner in one school makes 30% less than a cleaner in another school. The time is now for all workers who do the same hard work cleaning city public schools to earn fair wages that allow them to provide for their families.

Support New York City’s School Cleaners in their fight for #EqualPay4EqualWork 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the U.S.A. 25 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011

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city & state — August 28, 2014

WHEN DOES $100= $70?

S P OT L I G H T: O R G A N I Z E D L A B O R

PUBLIC ENEMIES, PRIVATE FRIENDS NYSUT, under the leadership of its new president, Karen Magee, again declined to endorse Gov. Cuomo.

he decision by the New York State AFL-CIO, an umbrella group for organized labor, to skip an endorsement in the governor’s race this month was seen as a sharp rebuke of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s dealings with the state’s public sector labor unions. But the strained relations between Cuomo and unions like the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the Public Employees Federation (PEF) and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) stand in stark contrast to his friendlier ties with other major labor

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO’S COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP WITH ORGANIZED LABOR By JON LENTZ

groups in the private sector. “Besides the teachers and CSEA, I have the overwhelming support of the union movement in this state, and I’m very proud of it,” Cuomo told reporters earlier this month. “Teachers and CSEA, we have a legitimate difference of opinion. We did for the past four years, and my guess is we will for the next four years. I’m not going to say what they want me to say to get their endorsement.” Public sector unions, which represent state government employees

and other municipal workers around the state, have plenty of gripes with the current administration. In his first year in office, with the state facing a $10 billion budget gap, Cuomo signed a bill capping property tax growth at 2 percent and struck contract agreements with CSEA and PEF that froze wages for three years. A year later, he secured a controversial deal on teacher evaluations and signed into law a new pension tier with less generous benefits. None of the moves were popular with government workers.

PEF, which endorsed Cuomo in 2010, voted out its president in frustration in 2012, and with Susan Kent now at the helm went so far as to back Cuomo’s primary challenger, long-shot candidate Zephyr Teachout. NYSUT ousted its president, Richard Iannuzzi, earlier this year. This month the teachers’ union, under the leadership of hard-liner Karen Magee, once again declined to back Cuomo and went a step further by pushing successfully to keep the state AFL-CIO on the sidelines, too. CSEA did not

city & state — August 28, 2014

Standing TOGETHER with working families in communities across New York state

Karen E. Magee, President Andrew Pallotta, Executive Vice President Catalina R. Fortino, Vice President Paul Pecorale, Vice President Martin Messner, Secretary-Treasurer

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Those fears mean little to PEF’s Susan Kent, who didn’t see her union gain much of anything when it endorsed Cuomo in 2010, and who took its reins amid widespread member frustration with the union’s inability to get more concessions from the governor. “For people that say, ‘This could hurt you; you could anger the governor,’ this is about our union standing up for the person we think is our best fit for governor, and that’s Zephyr Teachout,” Kent said. “For anyone

that wants to say that we should just cower or be afraid or pretend we don’t exist, and then maybe the governor will give us a great contract—unions have to fight for their workers, and we will absolutely be fighting for the contract our members deserve. The financial situation, as the governor pointed out himself, is dramatically different, and we are not going to do endorsements or non-endorsements because of fear of a politician. That absolutely flies in the face of what a union is supposed to be.”

LABOR DAY 2014

New Yorkers Deserve an Economy that Works for All

S P OT L I G H T: O R G A N I Z E D L A B O R

him.” Still, there is some concern in the labor movement that the state AFL-CIO snub might backfire, not just against public sector unions but against organized labor as a whole. Key government employee contracts will again be up for renewal during the next term, and rebuilding the state’s shrunken workforce could also be on the table. Cuomo, who has a reputation for playing hardball, is not likely to forget the election-year slights.

by Danny Donohue New Yorkers are a resilient and resourceful people and we deserve better than we’ve received from our so called political leaders at all levels over recent decades.

Sadly, those who object to these shocking realities are dismissed or worse by politicians and marginalized by the media. It’s not right and it’s not acceptable.

There are hopeful signs. Despite this political mess, ordinary people are doing NEW YORKERS ARE extraordinary things all A RESILIENT AND across New York. Many are RESOURCEFUL PEOPLE Instead, we’ve seen cynical delivering necessary services schemes staged for superficial AND WE DESERVE BETTER amid growing adversity, Others media consumption that do THAN WE’VE RECEIVED are working harder than ever little to solve complex problems FROM OUR SO CALLED to raise their families as they or help real people. We’ve seen struggle to make ends meet POLITICAL LEADERS AT people in serious economic and play by the rules. And ALL LEVELS OVER distress, through no fault of remarkably, more are helping RECENT DECADES. their own, ignored or denigrated. their neighbors get by and Meanwhile, corporate welfare contributing and volunteering for the connected continues as for a better community. It’s a primary tool of economic development despite clear downright inspiring and deserves support and respect. evidence that it’s actually counterproductive. Tax cuts There are tremendous opportunities for people and and loopholes to put the fix in for those who are already communities to come together and have their voices doing better than everyone else, are the priorities of the heard. It starts with voter registration, community by ruling class, whose political contributions and greenmail community organizing, and sending notice: threats call the shots. We all know strong communities work but there’s been too little focus on efforts to build an economy that works for all.

In community after community, we’ve seen schools and community services undermined and elected officials shirking responsibility: Public Nursing homes auctioned off without regard for the consequences; Thousands of people left to wander the streets and end up in local jails at taxpayer expense because mental health and other human services programs have been gutted. On a national level, the sad reality of our current political landscape is even uglier: Polarizing lies, demagoguery and overt voter suppression are just some of the shameful practices on display day by day. That’s not what America is supposed to be about.

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It’s time for our political leaders to start serving the people instead of themselves.

LOCAL 1000 AFSCME, AFL-CIO DA N N Y D O N O H U E , P R E S I D E N T

Danny Donohue is president of the nearly 300,000 member CSEA – New York’s Leading Union – representing workers doing every kind of job, in every part of New York.

8/12/14 2:30 PM

city & state — August 28, 2014

endorse Cuomo in 2010, and has made it clear for months that it was unlikely to support the incumbent this year. State Sen. Diane Savino chalked up the disagreements to the fact that “the governor is the boss,” when it comes to public sector unions. “There comes a point in time where the candidate has to transition to the employer,” said Savino, chair of the Senate Labor Committee. “And it’s very hard to be in love with your boss in the public sector, especially in this day and age, where there’s a lot of pressure on state government, a lot of pressure on taxpayers to pay for services that all of our citizenry depends upon. If you look at it purely through the lens of the public sector, there’s been some difficult decisions and some negotiations that have led to some unhappiness among some of the rank and file, and that’s reflected in the relationship that exists now between the boss and the union leaders.” Cuomo’s relationship with the rest of the labor movement, by contrast, is far more positive. His successful bid to win the backing of the Working Families Party—which was on the verge of endorsing Teachout—reflects the support of influential unions in the services sector, notably 1199 SEIU, the healthcare workers’ union, and the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council. Construction unions and the building trades, who want more union-friendly projects like the ongoing replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge, have also been pleased with Cuomo’s track record. Earlier this year the governor parachuted into negotiations for Metropolitan Transportation Authority and then Long Island Rail Road workers to tout new contracts deals—without any wage freezes. “There’s nothing better for the labor movement than an election year,” quipped Assemblyman Peter Abbate, who heads the Assembly Committee on Governmental Employees. And even though PEF endorsed Teachout, it is highly unlikely that any major labor union would support the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rob Astorino, especially given Cuomo’s huge advantages in the polls and in fundraising. If Cuomo wins his Democratic primary as expected, he can bank on the support of the bulk of the labor movement. “I think most of the labor unions will support him—looking at, especially, who’s running against him,” Abbate said. “He’s had some rocky times with some of the labor unions, but in general, I think they’ll overwhelmingly support

THE ROUNDTABLE

S P OT L I G H T: O R G A N I Z E D L A B O R city & state — August 28, 2014

DIANE SAVINO Chair, State Senate Labor Committee

DANEEK MILLER Chair, New York City Council Labor Committee

Q: Were there any key bills affecting organized labor this past session? DS: It was definitely more small-scale items. Because we were in the fourth year of the Cuomo administration, where we had done three balanced budgets, we were not looking at tremendous budget deficits. So we were not looking at slashing services. We weren’t making the hard decisions that we had to make in the past. As a result of that, there weren’t a lot of difficult fights for the labor movement. But the labor movement is not monolithic. The progressive wing of the labor movement was agitating around changing the structure of the minimum wage. That’s an issue that’s still going to be explored and discussed. But a lot of the people in organized labor said that this year they were going to get behind a cause, and one of the big causes this year was universal prekindergarten. So to that extent it was very successful. In the end we were able to negotiate increasing UPK across the state, making good on the commitment to New York City, and so that’s definitely a victory. It simply would not have happened if the discussion had simply been between two administrations. It was really the labor groups that got behind the push for UPK, because they saw it as not just helpful to their new mayor but also something that’s important to their own members, many of whom have children and want to see their kids put on the right path early in life. There really weren’t a lot of big labor bills that came through this year.

Q: What has it been like for you transitioning from a union leader to an elected official? As a new councilman, what are your top priorities in the labor area? DM: I worked with colleagues in labor and government, and with the community, on service and budget issues; we created a coalition to achieve the first of its kind childcare program. The common denominator transitioning to government remains a commitment to coalition building and collaboration; I developed and enhanced those skills in the labor movement. My focus includes restoring employee protection provisions (EPP) in school bus contracts, improving the lot of private sector service workers, a fair minimum wage that grows automatically with CPI increases, family leave and insuring government agencies honor prevailing wage and project labor agreements.

Q: What about next year? DS: There are some bills that are going to continue to be contentious unless we have enough people to support them. The farmworkers’ bill of rights is one of them. Q: Could minimum wage changes or the farmworkers’ bill of rights get done next year? DS: It depends. I learned a long time ago that every year starts with its own dynamic, so I’m sure that those are issues that will continue to percolate. In January the state will raise the minimum wage again, which will be the second minimum wage increase in two years. There will always be people who will agitate for more, and rightfully so. What I do think is going to be the subject of a lot of discussion is the concept of local control over minimum wage. How much authority should the state grant a locality?

Q: How do you see the role of unions in 21st-century New York City? Has the power of organized labor waned? DM: Unions must continue to protect, organize and educate workers. At the same time labor must effectively explain why workers’ protections make sense and help grow the economy. Retail growth fuels the economy, and consumers consist primarily of workers and their families; increase their income and security and consumer spending grows. More cash for the 1 percent increases spending not one penny! Labor must also help carry the message on public investment. For example, the Amalgamated Transit Union, where I had served as president/business agent of its Local 1056—which represents the bus drivers and mechanics of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s New York City Transit Queens Bus Division—continues to advocate for national, state and local government investment in public transit infrastructure. The smart unions’ leadership seeks to develop relationships at the grassroots level. On Sept. 16, the ATUs will hold a transit town hall in Queens with the Queens Civic Congress, the coalition of Queens civic, block, tenant and co-op and condo associations. We also need to leverage our pensions and other funds to drive public and private infrastructure investment. Q: What are the key New York City industries where increased labor organization is needed to enhance the lot of workers? DM: We already see labor drives succeeding in private sector services—car wash, fast food, discount retail— industries where workers traditionally lack the protection and benefits afforded by collective bargaining. cit yandstateny.com

NYSNA: Caring for ALL New Yorkers

Here in New York City and throughout our state, nurses are uniting to improve care for our patients. We’re working together to end healthcare inequality and to raise standards so that every New Yorker has access to quality care. Through our union, the New York State Nurses Association, we’re creating a better future for nurses and our patients:

Æ Safe RN Staffing. Having enough nurses at the bedside is key to safe patient care.

In our union contracts and in the legislature, we’re working to ensure that every patient has access to the care of a nurse whenever they need it.

Æ Community Voices. We believe that our communities should have a voice in decisions that

impact their access to care. Healthcare decisions should be based on community needs, not on the bottom line. That’s why we’re advocating to strengthen community voices in care.

Æ Quality Care for ALL. Every patient deserves equal access to quality care regardless of

www.nysna.org cit yandstateny.com

nynurses

@nynurses

city & state — March 24, 2014

income, borough, or insurance coverage. We’re working with fellow healthcare unions, patients, community leaders, and elected allies to stop the devastating tide of hospital cuts and closures in underserved communities.

S P OT L I G H T: O R G A N I Z E D L A B O R

and officers to have additional training with all the new buildings going up and new building codes and smart buildings. We also did a DCAS bill: a threeyear extension for New York City, where the new administration is trying to do away with provisional employees. It’s happened so many times—instead of filling vacancies, they were constantly putting provisional employees in. Basically, it was a big technical year.

PETER ABBATE Chair, Assembly Committee on Governmental Employees Q: Was there any major legislation in 2014 that helped or hurt government employees? PA: I’m happy to report that nothing passed that hurt labor. There are a number of bills that are still pending the governor’s signature that are incremental things that we are doing. There are a few pension things we are doing. We’re fixing a major 9/11 bill we did a few years back to make sure that people who were injured or are coming down with diseases after the terrorist attacks who might have been forgotten for benefits still have time to qualify. We’ve done a number of technical bills for the New York City pension board that they’ve requested, which should make our pension systems even stronger in the future. We’re still waiting on the outcome from the governor on a bill basically for New York City firefighters

Q: Any other notable legislation? PA: Another major bill came out of our committee that Assemblywoman Amy Paulin sponsored, which gives all veterans service credit in the system. Right now you had to be during certain periods of time, whether it was the Korean War or the Vietnam War or Iraq—but not times like now, even though fighting is going on and you might be sent somewhere. This gives everyone who is in the military credit. It passed both houses and is waiting for the governor. Q: Do you have any top labor-oriented legislative priorities for next year? PA: I’m trying to rest until the fall comes! I’m sure there will be a lot. There are some bills that might get vetoed that we might work on again, see what the governor’s veto might say and see if we can make those changes. We’ve been working with the city and state comptrollers, giving them more leeway with the investments they can make with the pension funds. I’m just happy the market is doing good, but you can’t solely rely on the market, so that’s something we’ll probably look at again next year.

Vote in the NYS Democratic Primary Sept. 9th

Zephyr Teachout / Tim Wu For Governor / Lt. Governor

city & state — August 28, 2014

“The leadership this state needs, that the public workers need, that the citizens of the State of NY need.”

“The future of Labor is the future of America” John L. Lewis

New York State Public Employees Federation, AFL- CIO

Represent i ng 54 , 0 0 0 p r of e s s i ona l, s c i e n t i f i c , a n d t e c h n i c a l e m p lo y e e s Carlos Garcia www.PEF.org Susan M. Kent Secretary-Treasurer President

BOB LINN Commissioner, New York City Office of Labor Relations Q: Over half of New York City employees are now working under new contract agreements between the city and their unions. Where do you stand with the bargaining units that are left? BL: We have now completed over 60 percent of the workforce with some of the largest bargaining units in the city: the United Federation of Teachers, representing over 110,000 workers, District Council 37, representing 100,000, and two other unions as well, the 1199 SEIU hospital workers and the New York State Nurses Association. We have no other bargaining units at the 100,000-plus level. The others are in the several thousands to 10-thousands range of membership. Mayor Bill de Blasio originally said that we should finish the majority of the bargaining in 12 months. We have done 60 percent in six months. So it is our hope that in the next six months we will get the vast majority of workers settled as well. Q: Somr fiscal conservatives say the city cannot afford to pay for these new contracts. What’s your response? BL: Well, it seems to me that by the standards of bond-rating agencies—what the bond sales have demonstrated—it’s clear that in their view, the city acted prudently in relation to these settlements. The most extraordinary problem the city faced was not knowing what the effects of these settlements would be, and I think everyone now applauds the fact that the city can go forward knowing exactly what it’s going to have to spend. I also think that by any standard, if you look at the collective bargaining at this point, the settlements the city reached were reasonable and responsible. Q: Are there any misconceptions about the bargaining process you’d like to clear up? BL: I think that we entered into a collaborative process and we solved extraordinarily difficult problems. Problems that eight months ago, most of the people looking at the city labor-relations scene thought would be impossible to settle. And it was really through a collaborative, respectful process, where we sat down together to bargain. We solved huge financial issues, and we brought together an approach on health-benefit cost containment where the parties now will work together over the next several years to figure out how to make our system more efficient and more effective. It’s better for the taxpayer, and it’s better for the employees. So I think the most important thing is that the whole nature of collective bargaining in the city is now one of collaborative problem-solving at major levels. cit yandstateny.com

BRIEF:

City & State magazine is publishing six special agencyspotlights in September and October, each including:

• Q&A with the agency principal/commissioner

• Dossiers of deputy commissioners or procurement personnel • Guide to the largest agency projects currently underway • Citizens Budget Commission analysis of each agency’s budget • Listing of active RFPs

September 15 (Ad Deadline, 9/11): Spotlight on NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection & NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation.

October 13 (Ad Deadline, 10/9): Spotlight on NYS Dept. of Transportation & DASNY To promote your organization to the above agency leaders in these special agency spotlights, email AHolt@cityandstateny.com or call 212-894-5422 for advertising opportunities. cit yandstateny.com

city & state — March 24, 2014

September 29 (Ad Deadline, 9/25): Spotlight on NYS Dept. of Health & NYSED

SPOTLIGHT: ORGANIZED LABOR

SCORECARD THE PLAYERS THE STATE Sen. Diane Savino, who chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Labor, has sponsored a bill that would give farmworkers a day off and require overtime pay for work weeks exceeding 60 hours. Her fellow senator Adriano Espaillat has introduced more comprehensive legislation that would also grant collective bargaining rights to agricultural labors, among other benefits. In the Assembly Carl Heastie is chair of the Labor Committee and Peter Abbate is chair of the Government Employees Committee. Peter Rivera is commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor, and Dan Cantor is head of the laborbacked Working Families Party. THE CITY Mayor Bill de Blasio was elected with crucial help from organized labor, with which he has long been allied. The mayor appointed Bob Linn as commissioner of the city’s Office of Labor Relations, and Linn is the city’s lead negotiator in its current efforts to reach contract agreements with all of the city’s labor unions. Daneek

Miller is chair of the City Council Labor Committee. THE ADVOCATES Mario Cilento is president of the New York AFL-CIO, the powerful umbrella labor organization for the state. Vincent Alvarez heads the AFL-CIO’s New York City Central Labor Council. The president of the sanitation workers union, Harry Nespoli, also chairs the Municipal Labor Committee, which is the umbrella organization for labor unions in New York City. George Gresham leads New York’s largest union, 1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers East. Hector Figureoa leads SEIU 32BJ, representing a vast array of property services workers. Michael Mulgrew leads the United Federation of Teachers, New York City’s public schoolteachers’ union, and Karen Magee was recently elected president of the statewide teachers’ union— NYSUT. Among the biggest advocates in Albany are Danny Donohue at CSEA Local 1000, and Susan Kent, who is the president of the Public Employees Federation.

PENSION FUNDS NEW YORK STATE Between fiscal years 2004 and 2014, the state’s annual contributions to its two major pension systems—the New York State Employees’ Retirement System (NYSERS) and the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS)—grew from $455 million to $2.08 billion. NEW YORK CITY The rise of New York City’s pension payments during the same period has been even more dramatic, going from $2.4 billion in fiscal year 2004 to $8.18 billion in 2014. That cost is projected to grow to $8.47 billion in fiscal year 2015.

THE ISSUES MINIMUM WAGE Gov. Andrew Cuomo changed his tune on the issue this spring, pivoting from the position that allowing local governments to set their own minimum wage would make for chaotic economic conditions to the view that such a move is only fair in light of the different costs of living in different parts of the state. It was partly in exchange for this fresh outlook that Cuomo received the support of the labor-backed Working Families Party in his re-election bid, and the governor has pledged to seek approval for an initiative next year that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $10.10, with minimums set up to 30 percent higher in some places. This could mean a $13.13 minimum wage in New York City, a figure Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he would push for. City Council Speaker Melissa MarkViverito has raised the possibility of raising it to as high as $15 an hour, but it is unclear how or when that would happen. FARMWORKERS BILL OF RIGHTS It might come as a surprise to some that working 14-hour days, six days a week for $8 dollars an hour with no overtime pay is completely legal in New York State—provided you’re a farmworker. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which gives private sector employees the right to organize into trade unions, collectively bargain for better work conditions and strike if those conditions are not forthcoming, does not apply to agricultural workers. Only seven states require time-and-a-

half pay for overtime in this sector—in some cases overtime only comes after 60 hours of work—and New York is not one of them. The Assembly has long tried to pass laws intended to protect the state’s 60,000 to 100,000 farmworkers, most of whom are Latino migrants, but the New York Farm Bureau, a lobbying group for agribusiness, has been successful in convincing the state Senate to block these initiatives so far. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY REFORM The latest annual audit report from the state comptroller’s office found that many of New York’s 112 active Industrial Development Agencies were underperforming and poor at reporting on their performance as required under state law. Each IDA is an individual public benefit corporation created by the state Legislature to further economic activity and job growth in its designated county or municipality. Specifically, IDAs give assistance, often in the form of tax breaks, to businesses looking to expand and develop new projects. In recent years, however, IDAs have come under criticism for handing out these tax breaks too readily because they survive on the fees they gather from the businesses in return. “Far too often IDA-sponsored projects are not producing expected benefits,” Comptroller Tom DiNapoli wrote in a March press release, “and taxpayers are not getting what they were promised.”

BY THE NUMBERS: UNEMPLOYMENT

(SOURCES: CITIZENS BUDGET COMMISSION; NEW YORK STATE COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE)

city & state — August 28, 2014

TOP FIVE NEW YORK CITY AGENCIES BY PAYROLL 1. With 135,756 employees, the Department of Education has the most municipal workers in the city, and as such, it costs the most in terms of gross pay: $9.4 billion in fiscal year 2014. 2. The Police Department has 53,033 workers with a payroll of $4.42 billion. 3. The Fire Department has 16,145 workers with a payroll of $1.65 billion. 4. The Department of Correction has 10,701 workers with a payroll of $953 million. 5. The Department of Sanitation has 9,006 workers with a payroll of $838 million.

New York State’s unemployment rate hit a low of 4.3 percent in late 2006 and early 2007, before rocketing to a high of 8.9 percent in late 2009 and early 2010. Since July 2012, unemployment has for the most part steadily decreased—with a few hiccups—from a high of 8.7 percent to 6.7 in April 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. ------Higher unemployment persists in some parts of the state, however: The seasonally adjusted rate for New York City was 7.8 percent in July of 2014, according to the State Department of Labor. In the Bronx, the rate has remained stubbornly above 10 percent since 2009. The Southern Tier County of Steuben, along with a host of North Country counties and Fulton County in the Capital Region, all have unemployment rates hovering around or above 7 percent. Meanwhile, other counties upstate and on Long Island are seeing rates drop to between 5 and 6 percent, and in some places even below 5 percent.

(SOURCE: NEW YORK CITY COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE)

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PERSPEC TIVES

IRONY OF THE WOMEN’S EQUALITY PARTY

ALEXIS GRENELL

ast month, lieutenant governor candidate Kathy Hochul was the star attraction at an event trumpeted with the headline “Women Leaders Announce Women’s Equality Party.” Rallying support, Hochul said the party would “bring together the strength and power of our state’s women leaders to promote the Women’s Equality Agenda.” Naturally, the party is supporting Andrew Cuomo for governor. The event was accompanied by a press release that featured 27 female elected officials, a smattering of celebrities, the National Abortion Rights Action League

(NARAL), the National Organization for Women in New York City (NOW) and a host of other organizations. In addition to a rundown of the party’s worthy platform, a small blurb cites federal efforts to repeal reproductive rights, ongoing sexual assault in the military and, most important, a glaring lack of female leadership in government. All good reasons for women to be active in an election year. Possibly reasons to vote for Zephyr Teachout, the only woman in the race and Cuomo’s opponent in the Democratic primary? The irony is that many of the women and organizations listed on the release endorsed Christine Quinn for mayor in 2013, touting the historic nature of her candidacy and the need to elect more women into office. Indeed, Quinn herself is listed as a supporter. Yet repeated calls and emails to party boosters were not returned, and the Cuomo campaign declined to make Ms. Hochul available for an interview. Why the silence about such a proud announcement? Because off-the-record conversations have confirmed the obvious: This isn’t a real party but an effort organized by the governor to marginalize Teachout and highlight his Republican opponent’s anti-abortion position. It isn’t an

city & state — August 28, 2014

Print. Mail. Win.

announcement driven by “women leaders.” The women listed on the release were not involved in the decisionmaking process. The campaign informed most of them about the “party” just before it was announced, at which point their participation was requested. Since no one wants to be on the wrong side of the current (and likely next) governor of New York, many signed on despite their misgivings. With only a few weeks before the primary, 86 percent of New Yorkers don’t know, or have no opinion about Ms. Teachout, according to a July 16 Siena College poll. Yet somehow, with $32.5 million in the bank and victory all but guaranteed, Cuomo felt the need not just to defeat Teachout but to deny her the right to even run. In a failed attempt to get her knocked off the ballot, the governor’s lawyers issued broad subpoenas requesting personal records to prove that Teachout didn’t meet the five-year residency requirement. The Teachout campaign successfully narrowed the scope of the subpoena, which would have included, among other things, her health records. “Is it any wonder that more women don’t run for office?” she mused on a phone call between campaign stops.

Ultimately the judge ruled in her favor. Four years ago Cuomo was willing to debate Jimmy McMillan, the comical candidate of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party. This election cycle he hasn’t lifted a finger to contest comedian Randy Credico’s candidacy. But rather than face a challenge from Ms. Teachout, he hid behind his lawyers. Meanwhile, Kathy Hochul is dispatched to Swiftboat her. There’s just something really unseemly about a supposedly secure incumbent attempting to steamroll the only woman in the race while dozens of women rally to his cause. Yet the governor’s self-defeating fixation on Ms. Teachout has earned her accolades and a disproportionate amount of media coverage, as she stands firm in the belief that “it should not be an act of bravery to run in the Democratic primary when you disagree with the policies of your opponent.” It shouldn’t be, but it is. Alexis Grenell (@agrenell on Twitter) is a Democratic communications strategist based in New York. She handles nonprofit and political clients.

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MY LIFE OF PUBLIC SERVICE

HARVEY WEISENBERG

how our system, after all these years, still does work for the people. When I speak to an Assembly colleague who has worked tirelessly to help a constituent, when I listen to the spirited and heated debate in our Assembly’s Democratic Conference, and when I conclude a busy Albany session day, I realize how responsive and open our government remains. And that, in the Assembly, is often a direct result of Shelly Silver’s leadership. Shelly has demonstrated a remarkable ability to remain humble, despite the broad powers entrusted to him as Speaker. Unlike other leaders, he has never led our conference through fear, threats or intimidation. In Shelly, I see an innate sense of decency that compels him to move forward. Although I do not always agree with him, I know the character of the man. He possesses the talent, wisdom and skills to hold together our tremendously diverse Democratic Conference. I also feel fortunate that we have so many decent young people who are willing to become our future leaders. One example is Todd Kaminsky, a young man from Long Beach who is the Democratic candidate to fill

fter representing part of Long Island’s south shore in the New York State Assembly for 25 years, I announced my retirement a few months ago, and thus will close a long chapter in my life of public service. My last day in office falls on my 81st birthday. I continue to struggle with the enormous technological advances and their impact on how we carry out our duties as public servants. On a positive note, I no longer immediately

envision a Looney Tunes character when someone suggests I “tweet” and I know that going “viral” no longer means someone is sick. I am thankful that I leave my career in government certain of one thing—true public service remains alive and well. When elected officials work together in a bipartisan manner, mountains can be moved, the people’s voice can be heard and their will carried out. Perhaps the pinnacle of my career in this regard occurred a few years ago, when a $90 million hole appeared in our budget for services for people with developmental disabilities. I made personal appeals to my colleagues in the Senate and Assembly on both sides of the aisle. In the end, every legislator in both houses joined in solidarity to find a way to restore the funds. Each step of my quest elected officials, individuals and organizations displayed genuine care and concern in protecting some of our state’s most vulnerable citizens. This occurred during—but was not eclipsed by— some of Albany’s darkest days of scandals, indictments and a seemingly ceaseless cycle of negative news. There are countless examples of

my Assembly seat. Todd has spent the past 10 years as an assistant U.S. Attorney, prosecuting some of our region’s worst criminals. At 36 years old, Todd seems so very young to me. But then again, everyone seems young to me. I grew up with Todd’s grandparents, who were outstanding examples of genuine public servants, and instilled those values throughout the generations. These values can be kept alive through an increasingly cynical era. When I speak with Todd, and so many other young men and women like him, I am reminded that there is hope for our future. I extend a warm farewell to all of my legislative colleagues, past and present, from both sides of the political aisle. I will deeply miss the camaraderie and fighting the good fight. While there is still time, I plan to relax and relish my golden retirement years with my wife, Ellen, and our family. Harvey Weisenberg, the assistant speaker pro tempore of the Assembly and a lifelong resident of Long Beach, is not seeking re-election this year.

Last Read keeps its readers up-to-the minute on all the day’s top stories with an afternoon update that hits inboxes before 5 p.m. The afternoon email highlights newly released reports, crucial in-depth analysis pieces and long-form profiles, as well as calling attention to some of the day’s top tweets from city and state politicians and the reporters who cover them.

Be the first to know. www.cityandstateny.com/subscribe for more information. cit yandstateny.com

city & state — August 28, 2014

The Must-Read Afternoon Roundup of New York Politics and Government

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE I

would still be dragging on. That seems pretty clear. As to the amount, I don’t know. How do you put a price tag on what these guys lost? It seems sort of impossible. Certainly $40 million is a lot of money, and will have a significant impact on their lives. I’m mainly just glad that it’s settled, and that maybe that means there can be some closure in this case that is now 25 years old.

38 A Q&A WITH

city & state — August 28, 2014

SARAH BURNS City & State: You began researching this story in college. Why did you decide to write a book? Sarah Burns: I was majoring in American studies and interested in 20th-century African-American studies, so it was the perfect thing for me to write my senior project about for my major—and I did that focusing on racism in the media coverage, really narrowly. But I felt like there was so much more to the story than that, and I had so enjoyed that project that was narrowly focused that I couldn’t let go of it. I graduated, and I was working for lawyers on totally unrelated cases, but I kept coming back to this story. It was still bothering me. I hadn’t aspired to be an author, necessarily. It just felt like this was a story that needed to be told. So I decided to figure out how to write a book. It took me five years, because I was making it up as I went along. I really had no idea what I was doing.

C&S: Did you know you would turn it into a documentary? SB: The book certainly came first, but once I started working on it, it became completely obvious that it should be a documentary—obvious in part because it’s a family business, and so that’s accessible to me. The medium of documentary film gave us this amazing opportunity, which the book couldn’t, which was to interview the Central Park Five and hear from them in their own words, have them tell their story, and to get to know them. C&S: The documentary noted that a civil lawsuit brought by the five men against New York City was unresolved. But in June the city agreed to a $40 million settlement in the case. Is that a fair outcome? SB: Certainly the lawsuit being settled is a direct result of the new administration. If it were still the Bloomberg administration, this lawsuit

C&S: The film establishes a backdrop of fear and crime and racial tensions in New York City at the time of the Central Park jogger case. Today the interplay of race, crime and law enforcement are still major issues, with the recent chokehold death of Eric Garner, a black Staten Island resident, and the shooting of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo., in both instances by police officers. Are there any parallels between then and now? SB: Understanding the story of the Central Park Five, you have to understand New York in 1989. The way the city was then and the things people were afraid of and the way people reacted to this is hugely important to the ultimate outcome of that case—the media coverage, the public response. There is certainly a contrast in the city in some ways. The New York of 1989—part of what we were trying to do in the film, and the book also, is put you in this time: the graffiti-covered subways, the sense of fear and danger in the city. Crime rates were many, many, many times higher. The murder rate in 1990 or 1991 was the peak, over 2,000 murders, and last year I think it was 300-something. We’re talking about a different scale. However, the more things change, the more things stay the same. What we see in Eric Garner, what we were seeing in stop-and-frisk, all of these stories—and outside of New York

too, the things that you mentioned in Ferguson—what we learn from each of these things is that these underlying problems that fed the reaction to this case in 1989—not just the crime rates and the fear of crime in the city but the fact that people were then and are today suspicious of minority (especially male) teenagers, and assume that they are criminals or potential criminals, is a problem that really has not changed at all. C&S: Although you partnered with your father, this film seems a departure from most Ken Burns documentaries. SB: Ultimately some of the underlying questions that we’re asking are the same, and some of the themes that are dealt with are the same throughout my dad’s work. And so, in maybe the most important way, it’s of a piece and related. I think stylistically it’s more of a departure. That was because the material called for that, the more contemporary nature of the story than much of what he’s done in the past. The fact that we were interviewing the main players in this story—we’re not relying on historians to tell us what’s happened 100, 200 years ago, we are here with the people who experienced this—so that by its nature is a different beast. Once we interviewed the Five, what we figured out was that we didn’t need narration, that they were telling their story and that we could fill it in with other interviews, with other information, but that we didn’t need this voice-of-God narrator telling you what happened, because we have the people themselves to tell you what happened. To read the full text of this interview, including audience and official reactions to the film and what Sarah Burns is working on next, go to cityandstateny.com.

cit yandstateny.com

MICHAEL LIONSTAR

n April 1989 a white woman jogging in Central Park was raped and nearly killed, and five black teenagers were rounded up and charged with the crime. The case of the “Central Park jogger”—later identified as Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old investment banker—riveted New Yorkers and dominated the headlines for months, culminating in the conviction of all five defendants in 1990. In 2002, however, another man confessed to the crime, and the earlier convictions were vacated. Author Sarah Burns, who first got involved while doing research for a lawyer involved in a civil suit brought by the five men, interviewed them for her 2012 book, The Central Park Five, an account of the incident and subsequent criminal trials. She also collaborated with her father, filmmaker Ken Burns, and her husband, David McMahon, on a documentary of the same name, released in 2012 as well. City & State Albany Bureau Chief Jon Lentz spoke with Burns about the film’s impact, a pending $40 million civil settlement for the five men and race relations in New York City today. The following is an edited transcript.

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