REAL ESTATE POWER 100 … 2

EDITOR’S NOTE

RALPH R. ORTEGA

Editor-in-chief HOW TIMES CHANGE. City & State featured Melissa DeRosa in a 2017 cover story about New York women serving in government. Now, because of recent events involving her boss Andrew Cuomo, the secretary to the governor of New York is once again the focus of a cover story.

This second time around, City & State chose an illustration of DeRosa by Philip Burke that depicts her on her cellphone texting from within the halls of the state Capitol to defend the state’s top executive. This is a reference to the harsh and profane text messages written by DeRosa to state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a former gubernatorial staffer turned vocal critic of the governor, that were first made public by New York magazine. It was an example of how DeRosa’s protected Cuomo as part of her job, writes Zach Williams in this week’s cover story.

That same job included overseeing a report that undercounted COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents. DeRosa’s also been alleged to have contributed to an abusive culture that permeates the governor’s office. City & State recognizes, as former colleagues of DeRosa do in Williams’ story, that strong-willed men in politics are treated differently than women, who are often portrayed as nasty divas.

That’s a stereotype Williams avoids by going deep into DeRosa’s background and speaking to former colleagues who call out such a double standard. The end result is a comprehensive piece that shows the successes, failures and alleged extremes of a fierce Cuomo loyalist and the price she’s now paying.

The Onondaga County Courthouse in Syracuse.

CONTENTS

FIRST READ … 4

The week that was

MELISSA DEROSA … 8

How have Cuomo’s scandals affected his top enforcer?

JUDICIAL POLITICS … 12 Getting a Supreme Court seat is a sweet gig – if you can afford it.

REAL ESTATE POWER 100 … 20

The leaders forging a new path through the pandemic.

WINNERS & LOSERS … 58

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has emphasized due process for Cuomo, including in a leaked meeting recording.

CUOMO INVESTIGATIONS MOVE FORWARD

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine announced they had hired a law firm to help with the chamber’s impeachment investigation. But their choice of Davis Polk & Wardwell was met with immediate backlash because of its ties to a Cuomo ally. Dennis Glazer, who is married to Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, was a partner at the firm for over 30 years. Debra Katz, the lawyer for Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennett, called it “an unacceptable conflict of interest.” The announcement came after a contentious Assembly Democratic gathering about the impeachment investigation was leaked. During the meeting, which took place shortly before the speaker announced the Assembly would launch an investigation rather than begin a formal impeachment inquiry, Heastie touted the importance of “due process” when defending the plan to move forward with an investigation. Some members said the move was just a stalling tactic to buy Cuomo time. Lindsey Boylan, the first former Cuomo staffer to accuse him of sexual harassment, said she would not cooperate with the Assembly investigation, calling it a “sham.” She is however participating with the state attorney general’s investigation and has spoken with investigators. Other accusers, including Charlotte Bennett and

ONE AND DONE

Facing the greatest controversies of his career, Gov. Andrew Cuomo received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a Baptist church in Harlem, surrounded by Black community leaders. Cuomo has called for greater vaccine availability in Black and Latino communities and said he wanted to dispel vaccine hesitancy with the visit, but the event struck some as an attempt by Cuomo to leverage his support among Black voters to distract from his political woes.

“Our prayers are with you.”

– Cardinal Timothy Dolan, to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul at the St. Patrick’s Day Mass, via the New York Post

“Toxic masculinity dies hard.”

Ana Liss, have also spoken to the attorney general’s office. When he became aware of the leak, Heastie abruptly halted voting on the floor to gather his members into another closeddoor meeting, where he told them he would not hold any more virtual meetings with the whole conference, instead only planning to hold smaller group meetings. The Executive Chamber has hired lawyers to represent its staff in the ongoing investigations being conducted by the Assembly and the attorney general. Cuomo’s office is also conducting its own investigation into the groping allegations made against the governor by a staffer who remains anonymous.

ONE-HOUSE BUDGETS APPROVED

The state Senate and the Assembly approved their one-house budget resolutions, offering competing visions for state spending. Both chambers proposed significant spending increases, bringing their proposed budgets to over $200 billion. The budgets included $8.2 billion in new taxes, far more than the $1.5 billion in temporary tax hikes that Cuomo had put forward but still falling well short of the $50 billion that progressives want. The proposals include higher income taxes for the wealthy,

a pied-à-terre tax on second homes, new capital gains tax and increasing the estate tax rate – although some differences exist between the two chambers’ proposals. Both chambers have also put forward far more education funding, both in Foundation Aid and in additional money to fulfill the 2006 Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling, which has been an ongoing battle. Notably absent from the resolutions was legislation to legalize recreational marijuana. Lawmakers, including state Senate Majority Leader Andrea StewartCousins, say they’re close to a deal with the governor with a few sticking points including the number of plants a person can grow for their own use and how to deal with impaired driving. They expect legislation to pass before the budget.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT BILL PASSES

A bill to end the use of long-term solitary confinement in New York passed both chambers of the state Legislature after years of advocacy. Criminal justice advocates have pushed for the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act that would stop the use of segregated confinement for more than 15 days. The United Nations says that confinement for longer than that constitutes torture. The legislation has been opposed by corrections officers, who argue that doing away with long-term solitary confinement puts them in danger and they don’t have faith in the alternatives that the bill would create. The legislation now awaits action from the governor.

Both chambers of the Legislature passed a bill ending longterm solitary confinement in New York prisons.

Asian American lawmakers discuss recent hate crimes

New York has seen an increase in hate crimes and bias incidents targeting Asian Americans. Before the recent shootings in Atlanta, City & State spoke to Asian American lawmakers about their experiences during this crisis.

Rep. Grace Meng, on what it feels like to be an Asian American elected official right now: Growing up as an Asian American, my experience – I don’t want to speak for everyone – but my experience was always to be encouraged to blend in, to fit in, and to be invisible. ... We were taught that if we fit in and stay quiet then we would be seen as “American enough.” Right now, ... we can finally say to ourselves: We don’t have to be silent.

State Sen. Kevin Thomas: There’s been a lot of hateful rhetoric in politics in the past couple of years … it’s similar to after 9/11, when a lot of South Asians were targeted because they were brown and had a beard or wore a turban. ... It’s important as one of the very few Asian Americans in the state Legislature to have a voice, to uplift the community.

State Sen. John Liu, on the racism he has experienced in politics: When I first ran for New York City Council in 1997, I had the door slammed on me a lot. ... I could hear the person yell, “I would never vote for a fucking ch---.” Now, the door is not slammed quite as loudly, but it’s still shut pretty quickly, and the words are, “You think I would ever vote for someone like you?”

Assembly Member Yuh-Line

Niou, on the legislative responses to this crisis: What I would really like to see is for folks to fight for us in the budget, to make sure Asian Americans are included in social services, in access to care, access to benefits. Even with the vaccine rollout, people saw how little access and accessibility our communities had. Language access is such a huge issue for services, ... and I would like to see my colleagues support that.

Assembly Member Ron Kim: There are three ways we can deal with this. One, we can go back and blame Trump for lighting the fire with his language. Two, we can rely on more policing and punishment to make an example of people, like what happened after 9/11, when we funded a lot of money into policing and surveillance and all we ended with was a lot of discrimination against Muslims. Three, we can go back and do the work to improve the social conditions that brew violence and hatred, and that we know is deeply linked to our policymakers’ inability to meet basic needs like health care and food. – Caitlin Dorman

THE WEEK AHEAD

TUESDAY 3/23

New York City officials are discussing how COVID-19 has affected public schools at a 2 p.m. virtual event hosted by City & State. THURSDAY 3/25

New York City politicos talk about how rankedchoice voting is playing out in Brooklyn at a 2 p.m. virtual event hosted by City & State. INSIDE DOPE

New York City Council Member Robert Cornegy, who is on the panel, was part of a lawsuit to stop ranked-choice voting due to a lack of time to educate voters about it. THURSDAY 3/25

New York City’s leading mayoral candidates talk about subways, buses and bikes in a 6:30 p.m. virtual forum on the future of transportation hosted by the city’s biggest transit advocate groups.