2020 SESSION IF DEMS GO FOR BROKE, WILL NY GO BROKE?
Tish James isn't playing anymore THE POWER OF DIVERSITY THE MOVERS & SHAKERS OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY CIT YANDSTATENY.COM
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December 9, 2019
CONGRATULATIONS
ERROL
LOUIS CITY & STATE’S POWER OF COLOR: BLACK 100
December 9, 2019
City & State New York
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EDITOR’S NOTE
JON LENTZ Editor-in-chief
DURING HER FIVE YEARS as New York City’s public advocate, Letitia James sought to expand the powers of a historically weak office in a novel way: by aggressively filing lawsuits. She sued the city over its rent freeze program, took on the city and the state over alleged mismanagement in the foster care system, and filed a lawsuit against the city Department of Education over a lack of air conditioning in school buses transporting students with disabilities. Her efforts often failed. One reason is that her office has no explicit authority to sue, and a number of her cases were rejected for a lack of legal standing. One of her most high-profile legal failures as public advocate was an unsuccessful effort to make public the grand jury testimony in the Eric Garner case. Since becoming attorney general this year, however, it has been a different story. She now leads one of the most powerful attorney general offices in the country. And she has been taking on the biggest target of all: President Donald Trump. Many of the cases are still working their way through the courts, but just last month her office secured a $2 million settlement with Trump regarding his now-defunct nonprofit. In this week’s cover story, City & State’s Jeff Coltin assesses James’ first year as attorney general – and asks whether she’s holding other New York politicians accountable.
CONTENTS
LONG ISLAND … 8
Nobody represents the island quite like Robert Moses.
SETTING THE AGENDA … 11 A preview of the 2020 legislative session LETITIA JAMES … 24
CELESTE SLOMAN; PHILIP ROZENSKI/SHUTTERSTOCK
The first year of the historymaking attorney general
POWER OF DIVERSITY … 30
New York’s 100 most influential black leaders
WINNERS & LOSERS … 62
Who was up and who was down last week
CityAndStateNY.com
December 9, 2019
CHANGES ON THE WAY FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE
TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT ADVANCES
Rep. Jerrold Nadler stepped back into the national spotlight by leading the House Judiciary Committee’s first public hearing on the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Before the hearing, the committee chairman told fellow members during a prep meeting that he
wouldn’t “take any shit.” And he followed through, keeping the hearing orderly and successfully quashing Republican attempts to derail it. The day after that hearing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the chamber would begin drafting articles of impeachment. Nadler also scheduled the Judiciary Committee’s next hearing for Monday, Dec. 9.
The state Campaign Finance Reform Commission, tasked with creating a statewide public campaign finance system, released its final report with a list of binding recommendations. They include somewhat lower (but still high) contribution limits for all candidates and a public matching fund system for candidates that opt in, including a tiered matching system for legislative candidates. The proposal also increases the number of votes required for third parties to retain their place on the ballot. The report was derided by Democrats and Republicans alike, but after Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said he “wasn’t alarmed” by the changes, it appears unlikely that the Legislature will return this month for a special session to reject the proposals. If so, they will automatically go into effect on Jan. 1 – unless
SPECIAL DELIVERY New York City Council Transportation Committee Chairman Ydanis Rodríguez ushered in the city’s new cargo e-bike pilot program aimed at reducing traffic congestion caused by the trucks delivering more than 1.5 million packages every day in the city. Rodríguez demoed a DHL cargo bike while announcing the program, which has attracted praise as well as doubts that the 100-bike pilot will make a dent in congestion.
the commission itself is declared unlawful in a lawsuit brought by the state Conservative Party.
TWU CONTRACT DEAL REACHED
“I’m not going to take any shit.” – Rep. Jerrold Nadler, in a closed-door impeachment preparation session a day before his Judiciary Committee began its hearings, via Politico
After months of heated negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its biggest union – the Transport Workers Union Local 100 – the two parties reached a tentative contract agreement. The four-year deal includes about a 10% pay raise for members over the course of the contract, as well as an agreement from the MTA that it would not lay off any station or train car cleaners after concerns were raised over the agency hiring outside, nonunion companies for certain cleaning services earlier this year.
NEWARK SUES NEW YORK
“Nobody asked me about (stop and frisk) until I started running for president, so come on.” – former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, after years of defending stop and frisk, via “CBS This Morning”
The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, is taking New York City to court over its Special One-Time Assistance program, through which New York City pays one year of rent for approved applicants living in homeless shelters, generally in other cities. Newark is one of the most frequent destinations that New York City sends program participants, but the new lawsuit claims those people live in often squalid conditions with abusive landlords and that New York City is
EVAN EL-AMIN, LEV RADIN, RON ADAR/SHUTTERSTOCK; NYC DOT; MIKE GROLL
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December 9, 2019
pressuring people to live in such substandard housing. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the program, while acknowledging it had made some mistakes, and expressed surprise over the lawsuit. His comments came after the release of a report from the New York City Department of Investigation that found the city had sent people to live in poor conditions.
HEASTIE WEIGHS IN ON JCOPE
In the latest state Joint Commission on Public Ethics scandal, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie admitted to speaking with one of his appointees soon after a conversation with Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the ethics commission. The scandal began when another commissioner alleged that Heastie’s counsel called to inform her that Cuomo expressed anger to Heastie about how the commissioner had voted on a recent matter. The timing suggests that matter was about governor’s former top aide, Joseph Percoco. The complaint raised the concern that someone had
THE
WEEK AHEAD
City & State New York
illegally leaked information to the governor about how the commissioners voted during what was supposed to be a closed-door meeting. Heastie would not say what prompted him to call his appointee, simply saying that they spoke often. He also said the Assembly counsel would investigate why his own staffer called a JCOPE commissioner.
SENATE REPUBLICANS JUMP SHIP
Within a week, three more Republican state senators announced they would not seek reelection. State Sen. George Amedore, who represents the Hudson Valley, said his party’s new minority status did not impact his decision. GOP state Sen. Betty Little, a 79-year-old lawmaker from the North Country, announced her retirement days later. The last decision of the bunch came from Buffaloarea state Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer, who said that he wants to spend more time with his family and that his minority legislative status did not play a role.
THURSDAY 12/12 State senators examine housing discrimination by real estate agents against homebuyers on Long Island. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. at the Student Center Theater at Hofstra University.
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COMMENTARY
Is de Blasio jealous of Bloomberg? Hizzoner isn’t taking former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s bid for president all that well. Is he just jealous? “This is a Democratic Party today that’s getting more progressive, that wants to address the concerns of working people, that does not accept the status quo,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told The New York Times on Nov. 11. “There’s no way in the world we should nominate a billionaire who epitomizes the status quo.” Following Bloomberg’s stopand-frisk apology on Nov. 18, de Blasio – who campaigned to end the practice – slammed the former mayor’s mea culpa, saying that “it was too big a mistake and too haughty a mistake to simply be brushed aside.” On Nov. 25, after Bloomberg’s campaign officially launched, de Blasio said he has spent six years “undoing what Michael Bloomberg did” in an interview with “The Young Turks.” On Nov. 27, de Blasio reached out to New York magazine to discuss his litany of complaints against Bloomberg and his mayoral record, questioning his Democratic values and stances on criminal justice. De Blasio isn’t the only one raising these concerns. Bloomberg’s enormous wealth, past criminal justice policies, previous Republican Party membership and recent donations to GOP candidates have all been derided by progressives as he vies for the Democratic nomination. But that doesn’t mean Hizzoner’s obsessive Bloomberg-bashing is fooling anyone. De Blasio tried
INSIDE DOPE
A recently published investigation by Newsday found systemic racial bias by real estate agents was driving ongoing housing segregation in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
and failed to capture the nation’s heart with his own presidential run that ended just months ago. Despite launching his campaign late in the game, Bloomberg has already sped ahead of several Democratic candidates in the polls – which has been tied to U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris’ decision to drop out of the race on Tuesday – and his pockets are deep enough to bankroll his campaign without donations. It’s understandable why the current mayor might be feeling a little salty. Politico has suggested that de Blasio’s heavy-handed criticism of Bloomberg and his legacy does him a disservice. “De Blasio is not mistaken to think that he is well situated to serve as a voice of reason amid Bloomberg’s excessively rosy presentation of his own tenure as mayor,” writes Politico. “Like a Cassandra from City Hall, de Blasio is warning Democrats to resist Bloomberg’s enticements. But in his eagerness to do so, he is perhaps diminishing himself in the process.” Instead of fuming over Bloomberg’s immediate successes and mourning his intangible dreams of becoming president, de Blasio would do well to turn his attention toward the city and try to spend his two remaining years in office preserving his own legacy – which is in serious jeopardy of being tarnished by ongoing problems with homelessness, failing infrastructure, inequality and segregation. - Amanda Luz Henning Santiago
SUNDAY 12/15
MONDAY 12/16
A state law goes into effect that makes it harder to disqualify signatures on a petition for ballot access. If the signature doesn’t match the voting rolls, a voter can still swear it’s them.
The New York City Council Committees on Contracts and General Welfare hold a hearing on the Department of Homeless Services’ contracts with shelter providers, starting at 10 a.m. at City Hall.
NATION-LEADING DISTRICTS 6
CityAndStateNY.com
December 9, 2019
BECAUSE NEW YORK CAN’T HELP BEING EXTRA.
BY AMANDA LUZ HENNING SANTIAGO
NEW YORK’S CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS possess many notable attributes, though not all are praiseworthy. The best-educated congressional district in the country sits in New York – and sadly so do the poorest and most unequal districts. To get better acquainted with a few of New York’s nationleading districts, here are some of the titles held by New York’s congressional districts.
POOREST: DISTRICT 15
Since 2010, the 15th Congressional District has been the poorest – as well as the most Democratic – House district in the country. As of 2017, the median household income in the district was estimated to be $28,042, according to 24/7 Wall St.’s analysis of 2017 census data – well below the city’s $33,562 poverty threshold at that time. The local congressman, Rep. José E. Serrano, is retiring.
MOST PEOPLE OF COLOR: DISTRICT 15
District 15 has the highest number of people of color, at 97%, compared with the rest of the country, as of 2017, according to the APM Research Lab. The fact that the district with the most concentrated population of people of color also has the highest rate of poverty in the country is nothing short of alarming.
RICHEST: DISTRICT 12
The district, represented by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, has the luxury of being the richest in the nation, The Associated Press reported. In 2014, the per-capita income in the district – which includes the Upper East Side and parts of Queens and Brooklyn – was $75,479.
BEST EDUCATED: DISTRICT 12
In District 12, which stretches from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to Long Island City in Queens and Greenpoint in Brooklyn, 69% of residents have received a college degree, making it the most educated district in the nation, The New York Times reported in 2017.
MOST UNEQUAL: DISTRICT 10
As of 2018, New York was home to the most unequal district in the country, in terms of income, according to Forbes. Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s 10th District has a Gini index – a rating of 0 means perfect equality, while 1 indicates a complete lack of equality – of 0.5882. The district includes a portion of Manhattan’s West Side and downtown areas, and a large swath of South Brooklyn.
HIGHEST JEWISH POPULATION: DISTRICT 10
As of 2014, District 10 also had the biggest Jewish population in the country, the Berman Jewish Databank reported. At the time, the district’s Jewish population was estimated to be 197,000.
SMALLEST GEOGRAPHICALLY: DISTRICT 13
Measuring just 12.98 square miles total, District 13, which runs through Morningside Heights, Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood in Manhattan and a small portion of the Bronx, contains the smallest area of land than any other district in the U.S., according to progressive website Daily Kos. The seat is held by Rep. Adriano Espaillat.
December 9, 2019
City & State New York
A Q&A with state Conservative Party Chairman
We’re not standing for it. We do not agree with the existence of this commission.
GERARD KASSAR
LEV RADIN/SHUTTERSTOCK; U.S. HOUSE; CONSERVATIVE PARTY
The commission creating a public campaign financing system is recommending that third parties must reach 130,000 votes in gubernatorial elections in order to survive. Does the Conservative Party have concerns about that? I’ve gone back about 30 years and I haven’t seen any indication that we would (have a problem) hitting that number. We’re usually way over that number. We don’t think we’d have a problem with the presidential (election) either, which will probably end up being between 140,000 and 160,000 votes per election. But there is an issue here. The issue is
we’re not standing for it and we’re in court Dec. 12. We do not agree with the existence of this commission. We do not agree that the Legislature had the authority. The Working Families Party and several Democratic lawmakers have themselves said that this commission should have never existed, despite supporting public campaign financing, which you don’t. That is the essence of our argument. We had two essential arguments in the beginning. One was that fusion voting was
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constitutionally protected, which I think put fear in the commission’s eyes, because they knew we were right. And we also were pivoting on the idea most people consider is a logical argument that the state Legislature cannot create commissions that have statutory authority. And that is a big part of our argument going into this. (Our attorneys) have submitted quite a bit of stuff. What has it been like to be on the same side as your ideological oppo-
sites, the WFP? We pretty much limit ourselves to discussions relating to this. They are like us, very philosophically driven, but just from the entirely opposite side. I’ve always been part of what I consider the nontraditional political movement. I’ve always been active in the third-party movement, but through the Conservative Party. And I generally believe that this is an aspect of politics in New York state that may be unique, but it’s good. It really gives people more options. It’s a freedom of speech issue for me, additionally, because we and they say
things different from the traditional big parties. In that sense, we’ve always shared a certain common ground. What have been the commission’s main arguments against you so far? They have been heavily attempting to get it dismissed, and they have failed. I think their major argument has been – it’s almost like they’re trying to thread a needle and find something, somewhere, that says commissions can do this. But they’re really like a salmon swimming upstream. There’s a lot of current against them on that argument, and our guys seems fairly confident.
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CityAndStateNY.com
November 25–December 2, 2019
Long Island is Robert Moses’ legacy COMMENTARY
Sorry, idealists – Robert Moses State Park already has the perfect name for the car-obsessed, segregated region. by R E B E C C A C . L E W I S
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SSEMBLYMAN DANIEL O’DONNELL recently introduced new legislation to rename Robert Moses State Park on Long Island. According to the bill memo, the hope is to create a commission that will choose a new name that “reflects the history of Long Island.” (O’Donnell represents the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but he grew up in Commack, a short drive north of the South Shore park.) The temptation to remove the honor for a legendary mid-century master builder, whose legacy has been tarnished by revelations of racist views and exclusionary policies, is understandable. But no one better reflects the history of the island – segregated, car-dependent, but blessed with beautiful public beaches – than Robert Moses. For better and for worse, contemporary Long Island is Moses’ legacy. As the bill memo notes, Moses destroyed the homes of tens of thousands of low-in-
come New Yorkers in order to build highways to serve suburbanites. He even took active measures to prevent minorities from reaching the pristine beaches and parks he built on Long Island, such as making overpasses on the Southern State Parkway too low for buses from the city to reach Jones Beach. As the head of a series of quasi-governmental agencies, such as the Triborough Bridge Authority and the Long Island State Park Commission, Moses amassed and abused unprecedented power. Yes, it makes sense that one would want to remove the name of a man who treated the public he ostensibly served with contempt. His disdain became readily apparent during his 1934 failed gubernatorial run, one of the biggest flops in New York’s history. (Full disclosure: This reporter is a lifelong Long Islander and is currently reading “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s epic biography of Moses, so she thinks about nothing but Robert Moses during her free time.) But if you want a name for the park that
reflects Long Island’s history, it’s hard to come up with a better one than Robert Moses. The man almost single-handedly made the island what it is today through the system of parkways that he created. The parks and beaches he built continue to draw millions of people every year, and they remain feats of engineering brilliance. Fire Island, where Moses’ namesake park is located, was nothing more than a sand bar before New York’s prolific builder of public works saw the opportunity for something more. And as for the racism, that is too is embedded in Long Island’s history, whether we like it or not. It’s built into the very foundation of its suburban neighborhoods, as minorities were steered into communities away from white families with brokers that outright refused to sell to nonwhite homeseekers. Levittown, the nation’s first true modern suburban neighborhood, was literally built for whites only before the Supreme Court ruled that its builders couldn’t
JAMES KIRKIKIS/SHUTTERSTOCK
November 25–December 2, 2019
be quite that explicit. Long Island today remains incredibly segregated, with majority-white neighborhoods of great wealth located often just blocks away from lower-income, majority-minority neighborhoods. For this reason, Long Island’s public schools are also among the most segregated in the nation. And a recent investigation by Newsday found that discriminatory housing practices are still commonplace on the island. In order to build his parks and parkways on Long Island, Moses made a number of backroom deals with both rich landowners and powerful political leaders. Corruption was rampant, with connected party bosses who could make things happen for the right price. Today, it’s hard to go more than a few weeks without reading a story about some public official on trial for corruption on Long Island – it’s another one of our traditions that the name Robert Moses reflects. And while the political machines may not be what they once were, bosses
City & State New York
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RACISM WAS BUILT INTO THE VERY FOUNDATION OF ITS SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS, AS MINORITIES WERE STEERED AWAY FROM WHITE FAMILIES WITH BROKERS THAT OUTRIGHT REFUSED TO SELL TO NONWHITE HOMESEEKERS. like Rich Schaffer in Suffolk County continue to flex their influence over what happens locally. Moses was not exactly a good guy. That much is apparent to anyone who has even a cursory understanding of who he was and what he did. And generally, we can agree that naming parks after bad people is better avoided. Certainly, the commission proposed by O’Donnell’s legislation can find someone else who reflects the strug-
gles of Long Islanders to make the region better and fix the wrongs of the past, celebrating their accomplishments by naming Robert Moses State Park after them instead. But that “beautiful state park,” as the bill memo calls it, would literally not have existed without Moses, nor would many of the other features that have come to define Long Island. And they might not have been built were Moses a better person.
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December 9, 2019
City & State New York
SETTING THE AGENDA PART ONE
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EMOCRATS CONTROLLED ALL the levers of power in Albany in 2019 for the first time in years, and they capitalized on it by passing a slate of progressive measures, from the Child Victims Act to new farmworker rights to stronger tenant protections. In 2020, we’ll be watching to see what the party does in its second act. How will the governor close a multibillion-dollar Medicaid shortfall? Will lawmakers further boost school funding – even if the Second Floor resists? And which environmental initiatives are on the agenda after the passage of sweeping climate change legislation this year? Our annual legislative preview explores all of these issues, and more. And be sure to read the second installment of this two-part feature in next week’s issue, with details on pending legislation on labor, infrastructure and recreational marijuana.
CityAndStateNY.com
December 9, 2019
EDUCATION
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Will New York kids finally get their funding? LAWMAKERS FINALLY HAVE A CHANCE TO BEAT CUOMO IN A DECADELONG SCHOOL AID FIGHT. By Zach Williams
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UBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING has long been a sticking point between Democratic state lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But Democratic state senators are raising the stakes with a fight over the Foundation Aid formula, a key part of state education funding. “We have a two-fold strategy,” said state Sen. Shelley Mayer of Yonkers, who chairs the Education Committee. “We need more money. We believe we’re owed more money under a formula that was to be fully funded and was not fully funded, coupled with the fact that individual indicators in the current formula need a revision.” She added that, in principle, cooperation with the governor is possible, despite their differences. “I am confident that the governor understands the incredible priority that our public school education is for our students,” she said. Yet it is unclear how much Cuomo wants to go along with them, especially if it makes him appear to be following their lead rather than the other way around. In fact, the Cuomo administration argues that it has been at the forefront of efforts to improve education funding in recent years. “The formula for Foundation Aid is adjusted every year during budget negotiations, and the governor has used that opportunity to direct more funding to high-need school districts,” said Jason Conwall, a Cuomo spokesman. “The governor will continue to fight for equitable funding so that every student has the opportunity for a high-quality education, and we encourage our partners in the Legislature to join us in providing funds to the schools with the greatest needs.” Cuomo also increased ed-
ucation spending to a record $27.9 billion this year. About two-thirds of this is distributed via Foundation Aid, the formula of state aid for public schools created following a 2006 state court decision in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York. The specifics of the 13year legal saga that led to the ruling are complicated, but the court essentially ruled that New York City schools had failed to provide a “sound basic education” to all its students – a situation that the state had to rectify by transforming its approach to funding public schools. While a new formula was established, its implementation was disrupted by the Great Recession and political instability that saw three governors in less than two years. Cuomo and his supporters say the state is not legally bound to honor billions in funding commitments made by former Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson. “These are ghosts of the past and distractions from the present,” Cuomo said while unveiling his legislative agenda in December 2018. There were high hopes within the newly elected Democratic state Senate majority that they could increase Foundation Aid by $1.2 billion in the 2019 session to make up for the funding that Spitzer and Paterson promised but ultimately could not deliver. In the end, the state budget approved earlier this year included a $618 million increase, which was the same as the year before. With the 2020 elections looming, Democratic lawmakers are now taking steps to get themselves in a position to prevail in this decadelong funding fight once and for all. The latest offensive began not with a boom, but with coffee and cookies on the second floor of the River-
front branch of the Yonkers Public Library in mid-October. That is where state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins kicked off the first in a series of roundtable discussions by highlighting just how difficult it will be to secure changes to the Foundation Aid formula and billions of dollars in additional funding. “I’m asking all of you to be partners in the transformation,” she said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, (so) we also want to manage expectations.” The roundtable discussions and a Dec. 3 hearing in New York City featured lawmakers and school officials arguing that the Foundation Aid formula is outdated and drastically underfunds public schools across the state. However, the state already faces a multibillion-dollar funding shortfall for Medicaid – the one portion of the state budget that exceeds the $18.4 billion allocated for Foundation Aid in the 2019-2020 school year. While Cuomo has demonstrated in past years a willingness to increase public school funding – on his terms – he balances that with his determination to adhere to a 2% cap on state spending increases. The budgetary powers of any governor are significant, and interviews with key senators show that they will first try to secure as much new funding as possible, given the state’s fiscal realities, in the upcoming months without going all-out against Cuomo, whose cooperation they would need to change the funding formula. A final push to secure the full amount that lawmakers want would come after the 2020 elections, when they hope to capture a veto-proof majority in the state Senate. “There will be peace when we fully fund this court mandate,” said state Sen. John Liu, who chairs the New York City Education Committee. “We need more Foundation Aid and with the governor’s self-imposed 2% cap – even if we could identify new sources of revenue – the Foundation Aid formula could not be fulfilled anytime very soon … so long as he has veto power, he can enforce that cap.” To get there, Democrats will need to add two more seats to their current 40 seats in the
December 9, 2019
City & State New York
63-seat Senate to reach a supermajority, a goal that has become more achievable now that GOP incumbents like state Sens. George Amedore and Betty Little are not running for reelection. Democrats already have a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, which is enough to override a gubernatorial veto. Democrats in both chambers do not see eye to eye on some issues, and a governor can leverage these divisions to get his way. But the dynamics of public school funding are different. Just about any legislator – Republicans and Democrats alike – would favor more local school funding. A longtime practice of state budgeting called “save harmless” ensures that school districts receive at least the same amount of money as prior years. (The long-standing “shares agreement” also means that New York City and Long Island get about 39% and 13% of school funding, respectively.) Increasing education funding is one of the most popular things that a lawmaker can support, and it is conceivable that supermajorities in both chambers would vote in favor of exceeding the governor’s 2% cap. The governor can control the state budget even if he lacks majority support in both houses of the Legislature, but he will have trouble overcoming opposition from united legislative supermajorities. Appropriations bills can only be introduced by the governor, and once they are submitted, they do not need to be signed into law, but merely passed by the Legislature. Lawmakers cannot alter an appropriations bill, but they could add a line item to an appropriations bill and fund it through a separate bill. The governor could veto that line item and the bill, but that can be overridden by a twothirds vote in each chamber. In such circumstances, a governor cannot wield his most powerful budgetary weapon of shutting down the government until he
gets what he wants because the Legislature already passed his budget bill, and state law does not require a gubernatorial signature, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy. The Assembly is also examining the Foundation Aid formula in roundtable discussions this fall, but it is doing so behind closed doors, per rules of the chamber that precluded the two chambers from hosting joint roundtables, according to Assembly Education Committee Chairman Michael Benedetto. He said in an interview that he wants to increase funding for school districts as much as possible, but he and the Assembly appear to be taking a neutral stance, at least in public, on the brewing conflict between Cuomo and the state Senate. “Any time you’re going
in 2018 requires the disclosure of additional school-level data to show where districts are allocating funding. “We demanded school-level transparency on 76 major districts representing half of all the students in the state,” Cuomo said in his 2019 State of the State address. “We’re increasing it this year. The findings are worrisome. We gave 70% of the funding to the poorer districts but it never found its way to the poorer schools.” In theory, Foundation Aid is supposed to be based on four factors which are – in simplified form – costs per student, student needs, local costs of living and local districts’ funding capacity. Fiscal realities and the governor’s insistence on the spending cap limits how much money the state can spend on education, which means that the formula is essentially reverse-engineered by the administration to fit the funding levels the governor wants both statewide and in particular districts, according to Rick Timbs, executive director of the Statewide School Finance Consortium, which represents more than 400 public school districts statewide. “The amount of money that’s in the formula simply is not adequate enough to have an equitable distribution,” he said. “So they come up with this hodgepodge … and to make it worse, they’re trying to still fulfill the ‘shares agreement.’” Given these realities, it should be no surprise that the state budget also ends up reflecting the political power of individual lawmakers. Long Island did relatively well in getting funding when Republican state Sen. John Flanagan was the majority leader up until this year. Since then, Westchester County – represented by Mayer and Stewart-Cousins – and New York City – where most Democratic senators hail from – have received big funding increases. The recent state Senate roundtable discussions in Yonkers,
THE LATEST OFFENSIVE BEGAN NOT WITH A BOOM, BUT WITH COFFEE AND COOKIES.
to say you’re on one team or the other, you’re creating problems,” he said. “Basically, what I want to do is look at the totality of everything – all the needs of all the kids – and get everybody to work together.” Lawmakers say that “educational equity” can only happen if another $4 billion for Foundation Aid is phased in over several years. But Cuomo has his own interpretation of what “equity” means. Rather than emphasizing funding increases for school districts, Cuomo points to the high per-pupil spending in New York compared to other states as a reason to question whether the money is getting to the schools and students who need it most. A Cuomo-backed state law passed
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New York City, Syracuse, Long Island and Buffalo, and the hearing in New York City, showed that lawmakers and many school officials are united in pushing for updates to the Foundation Aid formula. Poverty levels are still measured by outdated 2000 census data and the amount of students who receive free and reduced price lunches, an imperfect metric because New York City now gives free school lunches to all students. School officials lament that special-needs students are still lumped together even though the costs can vary depending on a student’s medical, mental or psychological issues. Changing these metrics are among the small steps that Democratic senators want to take in the upcoming months, though it remains to be seen how they will use what they learned in recent weeks to make their case. Senate Democrats will likely have to go along with the governor’s education proposals for the upcoming fiscal year in certain respects, as well as play some legislative defense against the governor’s own proposals. Cuomo last year successfully pushed for controversial new requirements for districts to disclose how they allocate funding. But legislators were able to block others, such as a proposal that would have consolidated certain funding programs that reimburse districts for expenses like buses, textbooks and computers. Education funding is also part of a much broader battle between the executive and legislative branches of state government. It has loomed particularly large since the 2004 court decision in Silver v. Pataki established the governor’s overwhelming power over the budget process. Legislators failed in a 2005 effort to get voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would tilt the balance of power back toward them. Winning supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature offers them a different path to shift the balance of budgetary power away from the Second Floor in the Capitol. This opportunity exists just over the electoral horizon, and Senate Democrats are charting a path to get there.
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CityAndStateNY.com
December 9, 2019
ON THE SYLLABUS HOW DEMOCRATS WILL DECIDE KIDS’ FUTURES IN 2020. BY JEFF COLTIN SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOLS WHETHER OR not to change the admission criteria for New York City’s specialized high schools – and how – has been a hot topic, infused with debates over racism, classism and educational equity. The Specialized High School Admissions Test governs entrance into New York City’s top public high schools, including Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech, but since it is enshrined in state law, any practical changes have to come from City Hall and the state Capitol. State Sen. John Liu, chairman of the New York City Education Committee, made it clear there’s no appetite for change in 2020. The city government, too, seems to be postponing action. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in September that he would go
back to the drawing board and scrap his plan to eliminate the exam. The City Council kicked the issue to a task force that is expected to release a report on May 1, 2020 – only a month before the scheduled end of the state legislative session. Still, state and city lawmakers will be feeling outside pressure to act, thanks to the new, well-funded Education Equity Campaign, backed by money from billionaire Ron Lauder. The campaign is calling on lawmakers to keep the SHSAT, but to also create more specialized high schools, similar to a plan introduced by state Sen. Leroy Comrie and Assemblyman Peter Abbate Jr. during the 2019 session. Likewise, Assemblyman Charles Barron has vowed to push a plan to repeal the Hecht-Calandra Act, the controversial law giving Albany oversight of the city’s schools, and let the New York City government handle the school diversity issue on its own.
RURAL SCHOOLS THE RURAL areas of New York state are facing “(an) exodus that we haven’t seen before,” with
many residents leaving due to the lack of economic opportunities, according to David Little, executive director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State. As Little told “The Capitol Pressroom” in September, the declining tax base is hitting rural schools pretty hard – and it’s affecting students’ educations, causing a shockingly high 75% college dropout rate for rural graduates who go on to pursue higher education. The No. 1 goal for rural schools is to get more state funding, but Little’s group is also pushing the state Legislature to support merging smaller, local high schools into regional schools. Former state Sen. Catharine Young had sponsored a bill for the past eight years to make such mergers easier, but it never passed, even under a more upstate-oriented Republican majority.
CHARTER SCHOOLS WHAT HAD once been an arduous political battle in the years of Republican state Senate control faded into the background in 2019, with a united Democratic government that isn’t interested in lifting
the cap on charter schools. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has long been a supporter of charters, despite widespread Democratic wariness, but he wasn’t able to change any minds in the state Legislature, where nobody introduced a bill to lift the cap this past year. “You know, I have never been a fan of lifting the cap,” state Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Shelley Mayer told City & State in November. “My primary focus continues to be on traditional public schools, which have been short-changed.” One reason for the lack of action is geography. New York City advocates have been sounding the alarm that no new charters can be opened in the five boroughs because the state has already hit its cap in the city. But outside of the city, in areas generally more amenable to charter schools, there’s still the possibility of growth. The state is some 100 schools short of the cap. Any other action on charter schools by the state Legislature also appears to be unlikely, given the Democratic majorities.
-with reporting by Zach Williams
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We are NYC Charter Schools by James Merriman, CEO, New York City Charter School Center
Over 126,000 students attend a charter school in New York City. That’s almost 12% of all public-school students. In fact, in some neighborhoods over one third of Kindergarten students attend a charter school. Then consider grandparents and other relatives, neighbors, fellow church, synagogue and mosque members, and friends that these students are connected to. What does it mean? Virtually everyone in New York City is either connected to or knows someone who is connected to a charter school.
It also means that when opponents strike up a familiar refrain—that charter school parents and supporters are somehow “the other”, or even enemies — they are in essence attacking the choices made by the neighbors they say hi to in the morning or the colleagues they work alongside each day.
These are just three of the many faces featured in the New York City Charter School Center’s new campaign: “I Am NYC Charter Schools.” This initiative not only spotlights the diverse array of New Yorkers served by our schools, but the breadth of those connected to and supporting them.
Here are a few faces you will see in our city’s charter schools…
We estimate that over a million New Yorkers are now connected to a public charter school. And if you do the math you will see there are only two degrees of separation between almost every New Yorker and a New York City charter school.
CHester HiCks is a retired police officer, whose grandchild is enrolled in a charter school. Chester liked the school so much he became a board member, helping to ensure the school runs effectively. AfrA MAsud is a firstgeneration student from Jackson Heights. She’s at the top of her charter school’s eighth grade class. frAnCinA HenAo graduated from a charter school and is now a third-year law student at Cardozo Law School.
I have a simple ask of our public officials and policy makers: Look around your office. You are likely looking at people who send their children to a charter school or who know someone who does. Union officials might want to do the same thing. Whether it’s 1199, NYSNA, DC 37, or even the UFT, they are likely to be surprised at how many of their colleagues call a charter school “their school.”
There used to be a time when it was easy to think of charter schools as “other,” as something that “doesn’t have much of an impact in my community.” Twenty years later, that just isn’t true. Charter schools – and their students, staff, partners and supporters – are everywhere. Our alumni are making the world better. Our educators are helping to reshape public education. Our collaborations are supporting neighborhoods. Charter schools are now deeply inter-woven into the fabric of public education in New York City. We educate students, we hold coat drives and raise money and food when hurricanes hit our homelands. We agonize over legislation, like ending DACA, that affects our students in harmful and deeply personal ways. As we grow, we are more than ever committed to working in partnership with all stakeholders. We know what is at stake after all; it’s the future of our children and our city. And, we are doing our part to make it a better one for all students.
NEW YORK IS ON THE VERGE OF UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE
Why replace it with healthcare run by Albany bureaucrats? The state has lowered its uninsured rate to under 5%, the lowest level in history. The New York Health Act would mean: • Staggering tax increases: $250 billion in new taxes • Delays in healthcare: 32 weeks for a hip or knee replacement • Devastating job losses: Nearly 2 million jobs at risk—worse than the 2008 recession • Government-run healthcare: Lose your private health insurance—let Albany decide your benefits
LET’S FIX WHAT IS BROKEN INSTEAD OF BLOWING UP THE ENTIRE SYSTEM AND REPLACING IT WITH AN EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE, EXPERIMENTAL, GOVERNMENT-RUN SYSTEM. Members of the Realities of Single Payer coalition support universal healthcare coverage for all New Yorkers but believe Single Payer is the wrong approach. Adana Veterinary Clinic Albany Associates in Cardiology American Property Casualty Insurance Association Associated General Contractors of New York State Benefit Design Services Corporation Big I New York Bond Benefits Consulting, Inc Buffalo Niagara Partnership The Business Council of New York State, Inc. Business Council of Westchester C & D Assembly, Inc. Canfield Machine & Tool LLC CAP COM Federal Credit Union Capital Region Chamber of Commerce Centers Health Care Century Benefits Group, Inc. Chemung County Chamber of Commerce Columbian Mutual Life Insurance Company Consiliarium Group, LLC Corning Area Chamber of Commerce Crisafulli Bros. Plumbing & Heating Contractors, Inc. Critical Link, LLC
DiVirgilio Benefit Resources, LLC Dupli Envelope Eastwood Litho Employer Alliance EMS Financial Services, LLC EP Nevins Insurance Agency, Inc. FICS Incorporated Food Industry Alliance of New York State, Inc. Goetzmann & Associates Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce Greater Central NY Association of Health Underwriters Greater Niagara Frontier NY Association of Health Underwriters Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce Hart Rifle Barrels, Inc. Health Options NY Hematology Oncology Associates of Central NY Hilliard Corporation HMS Infitec, Inc. Kaatirondack Benefit Planning, Inc. Long Island Association Matt Industries Merchants Insurance Group
Mohawk Valley EDGE Multivista CNY, LLC National Association of Health Underwriters National Federation of Independent Businesses New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce New York City Uniformed Sanitation Officers Association New York Health Plan Association New York State Association of Health Underwriters NYS Building & Construction Trades Council NYS Conference of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans NYS Hospitality & Tourism Association NYS Professional Fire Fighters Association NYS Society of Plastic Surgeons North Country Chamber of Commerce Northeast Dairy Foods Association, Inc. Northern Tier Contracting Inc. Northeastern NY Association of Health Underwriters Northwest Bank NYC-LI-Lower Hudson Valley Association of Health Underwriters Partnership for New York City
SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE WILL HURT NEW YORK realitiesofsinglepayer.com
Pathfinder Bank Perry & Carroll Inc. Pinnacle Human Resources, LLC Police Conference of New York, Inc. Pompa Bros., Inc. Practice Support Services, LLC PrintRoc Inc. Pro Flex Administrators Queens Chamber of Commerce Ralph W. Earl Co., Inc. Rockland Business Association Sergeants Benevolent Association Sheridan Benefits, LLC Southern Tier Shopper Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State, LLC Tech Valley Office Interiors The Agency The Reis Group Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater NY Unshackle Upstate Upstate Benefit Planning Vertex Solutions Village Tavern Restaurant & Inn Welliver McGuire, Inc. Western NY Association of Health Underwriters
December 9, 2019
Cuomo’s multibilliondollar headache
THE STATE MEDICAID PROGRAM IS DEEP IN THE RED, AND THERE ARE NO EASY SOLUTIONS. By Zach Williams
S
TATE BUDGET SEASON has not even begun, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo already faces a $4 billion structural gap in the state Medicaid program. This shortfall reached $1.7 billion last year and is hovering at about $2 billion this year. It will reach $6 billion in the coming fiscal year that begins on April 1, 2020. Not only does this affect the long-term viability of the state program that provides health insurance to millions of people, but it also affects the state’s finances more broadly. The upcoming budget season will test the appetite that Cuomo and the state Legislature have for addressing the problem. The state is facing its largest projected budget deficit in nearly a decade and Medicaid is largely to blame, according to the state’s mid-year financial update released in November. To plug this hole, the Cuomo administration plans to seek $1.8 billion in savings while shifting $2.2 billion more into the next fiscal year by delaying one month’s worth of Medicaid payments – just as he did earlier this year with last fiscal year’s $1.7 billion gap. Such budgetary sleights of hand may balance the books, but they do not solve the underlying problem of Medicaid costs exceeding budgetary allocations. Upcoming budget talks between Cuomo and lawmakers may explore funding cuts, tax increases, a repeal of the cap on Medicaid spending growth or even the establishment of a task force like the Medicaid Redesign Team that Cuomo created in 2011 to help deal with the state’s shaky finances. Whether or not the state budget for the coming fiscal year will be able to
HEALTH CARE
City & State New York
avoid future delays in Medicaid payments remains a formidable challenge considering the state’s reliance on that tactic in recent years. The state has put off payments from one year to the next since 2014, $50 million in the first year and now $1.7 billion from last year – or 8% of the state’s Medicaid spending. All options appear to be on the table for dealing with what Cuomo called a “major problem” a few weeks ago. “We are developing a plan that will fix the structural imbalance while also continuing high-quality care for more than 6 million New Yorkers,” said Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state Division of the Budget, in a statement to City & State. Funding for the state Medicaid program is split among the federal, state and local governments, with the state paying about one-third. The program cost the state Department of Health $11.9 billion in 2011 – its share of the total cost has risen about 0.5% to 1% each year since – and the state has now budgeted to pay $22 billion of the $74.5 billion state program in fiscal year 2020. Lawmakers and health care providers are feeling pessimistic about the situation. “We are in for a massive round of pretty nasty Medicaid cuts,” said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chairman of the Health Committee. Medicaid requires the state to provide health services to anyone who qualifies, but the state could trim around the edges to reduce costs for supplemental programs and the reimbursement rates to providers that contract with the state. The state has already tried to cut funding for nursing homes by $352 million, a move recently blocked after a state judge issued
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an injunction in response to a lawsuit filed by providers. The leaders of several nonprofits told City & State that they operate on tight margins that could require them to deliver services without getting fully reimbursed by the state if Medicaid cuts materialize. “I remain exceedingly worried,” said Jeffrey Farber, president and CEO of long-term care provider The New Jewish Home. “It is sort of like getting blood from a stone.” The reasons behind the state’s Medicaid deficit are complicated. To some degree, the state is a victim of its own success in increasing the percentage of the population who now have health insurance. About 95% of New York’s 19.5 million people have health insurance nearly 10 years after the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act. Enrollment in the state Medicaid program has jumped by about 50% over the past decade to about 6.3 million people in 2019. This expansion in health care services, however, has pushed Medicaid expenses beyond its budgetary limits following the implementation of a “global cap” that ties spending increases, more or less, to the rate of inflation. In the past year, the presumption that the state is in fact keeping spending growth under the cap is more about style than substance, according to Bill Hammond of the Empire Center for Public Policy. “This was not a near-miss. State-funded Medicaid expenses, which were budgeted to grow by 4%, had actually grown by 12%,” he wrote in October. A rapidly aging population is only pushing Medicaid further into the red. “A lot of babies were born in the late 1940s and are now consuming large amounts of health care, including longterm care,” Gottfried said. The Cuomo administration argues that there are several reasons that it has struggled to keep spending below the cap. For starters, increases in the minimum wage have increased labor costs. The federal government has decreased its financial support to the state while enrollment in a state long-term care program has grown at a rate of approximately 13% per year.
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CityAndStateNY.com
The spending cap has also decreased from about 4% to 3% in recent years because of changes in the 10-year rolling average of the Medicaid consumer price index that determines the cap. Health care expenditures meanwhile are growing nationally at about 5.5%. The state also increased its support to financially distressed hospitals by 27% to about $770 million. Politics also appear to play a role. The state authorized the first increase since 2008 in Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals after the Greater New York Hospital Association, an industry group, donated more than $1 million to the state Democratic Party, which Cuomo effectively controls, The New York Times reported in October. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a recent appearance on “The Capitol Pressroom” that she wanted her chamber to be involved on the issue. But like Cuomo, she has remained vague on how to deal with the deficit. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to ad-
December 9, 2019
“A LOT OF BABIES WERE BORN IN THE LATE 1940S AND ARE NOW CONSUMING LARGE AMOUNTS OF HEALTH CARE.”
The bottom line is dress it without that something will causing a lot of have to happen by the pain,” she said. state budget deadline In budget negoof April 1, or else the tiations, howevstate may sink further er, the governor into a financial hole. has the most Only the Cuomo adpower and law– ASSEMBLYMAN RICHARD GOTTFRIED ministration has any makers will have sense of where negoto follow his lead. tiations on this issue In a sense, the will start in January, current Medicbut the broad strokes aid deficit even are already obvious. adds to Cuomo’s Health care providers leverage because say it is not a matter of he can urge fiscal if cuts are coming, but restraint on budjust a matter of what get priorities that will fall on the chophe does not share ping block. “The state with lawmakers has to look at what by pointing to ter or worse, just as last year’s they’re spending, and in the the Medicaid deficit. At this point, it is impossi- unexpected $2.3 billion short- short term, they have to make ble to predict how political and fall showed the volatility of the some decisions about what economic dynamics will af- state’s finances. The implosion they’re going to continue fundfect efforts to address Medicaid of a proposed deal to bring an ing and what they’re not going funding during the upcoming Amazon headquarters to Queens to fund,” said Bea Grause, budget season. The release of the underscored how political devel- president of the Healthcare Asmid-year financial update has opments can suddenly compli- sociation of New York State, a offered policymakers a glimpse cate the relationship between the hospital and nursing home inof the state’s financial situation, governor and lawmakers in un- dustry group. “That’s what we’re in the dark about.” but it could change, for bet- expected ways.
! H C U O
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$250 billion in NEW TAXES. 2,108,363 JOBS AT RISK. $897,767,575 in HOSPITAL LOSSES. LONGER WAIT times for care.
SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE WILL HURT NEW YORK realitiesofsinglepayer.com
December 9, 2019
STATE OF HEALTH DEMOCRATS’ BIG PLANS FOR HEALTH CARE BY ZACH WILLIAMS SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE IN THE past year, proponents
of implementing a single-payer health care system statewide have arguably come closer than they ever have since Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chairman of the Health Committee, first proposed the New York Health Act nearly 30 years ago. While the bill did not pass this year, the state Senate and Assembly recently concluded a joint statewide series of hearings on the legislation on Nov. 25. While a common theme at the hearings has been the ongoing shortcomings of the existing health care system, Gottfried and state Senate Health Committee Chairman Gustavo Rivera still face significant obstacles to passing their bill. The New York Health Act aims to replace the current system of health insurance with a government-run system that would provide comprehensive health
City & State New York
care without deductibles or premiums. Such a system would effectively double the size of state government and require hefty tax increases, but single-payer supporters say the cost to taxpayers would be offset by the savings they would get compared to their current health care costs. While the bill has significant support in the state Legislature among Democrats, it remains to be seen whether legislative leaders will bring it up for a vote next year.
VAPING AND TOBACCO THE RECENT vaping-related
illness deaths across the country and the spike in nicotine addiction among teens has brought renewed scrutiny to vaping and tobacco products. A litany of bills before the state Legislature aims to confront the issue. Proposed laws would make it illegal for anyone under 21 years old to possess tobacco or vaping products. Online sales of vaping products could be subject to new ID requirements. New packaging requirements could come into play. And flavored vaping products could become a thing of the past. Lawmakers, however, will likely follow the lead of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who announced in November
the implementation of a new law raising the minimum age to buy nicotine products to 21. The governor will likely include proposals on the issue in his upcoming state budget, which offers lawmakers some political cover from voters who might be upset by any limits on a product that has become increasingly popular in recent years. Testimony at a recent state Senate hearing showed that vaping supporters will not go quietly. Beyond simply arguing that adults should be able to buy the product as a matter of personal preference, opponents of new laws limiting sales of vaping products, including flavored products, argue that it will undermine efforts to reduce smoking rates among teens and adults. Representatives of the vaping industry also said new laws would harm small-business owners.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AN ONGOING political battle
over gestational surrogacy continues to divide Democrats. New York is one of just a few states that do not allow a gay or infertile couple to make a contract with a woman to bear their child. Supporters like Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Sen. Brad Hoylman, who is gay, argue that it is a matter
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of civil rights for LGBTQ people. Feminists like activist Gloria Steinem and Assemblywoman Deborah Glick – the first openly gay woman elected to the chamber – argue that paid surrogacy commodifies women’s bodies, especially poor women. Cuomo could try to legalize the practice in his upcoming budget proposal. Another issue is a proposal from Hoylman to ban “medically unnecessary” surgeries on intersex children (until they would be able to consent to it under an informed basis) that would remove reproductive organs in order to help them conform to the male or female genders. The bill was introduced in November, and it is unclear how much support it currently has among Democratic lawmakers. Other legislative issues coming up include ongoing efforts to pass a bill that would mandate comprehensive sex education in public schools from grades one through 12, as well as another bill that would establish the crime of fertility fraud. News that the rapper T.I. takes his daughter to the doctor for so-called virginity tests has also inspired new legislation to ban the medical practice.
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20 CityAndStateNY.com
New York’s war on plastic
DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS ARE PUSHING A WAVE OF BILLS NEXT SESSION AS THE CLIMATE CRISIS WORSENS. By Alexander C. Kaufman
N
EW YORK STATE lawmakers are ringing in the new year with at least one clear resolution: Cut down on single-use plastics. Ahead of the upcoming legislative session, Democratic legislators in both chambers have introduced more than a half-dozen bills to limit the availability of single-use plastics – from ambitious bans of plastic cutlery to narrow restrictions on shampoo bottles in hotels. These initiatives come on the heels of new laws passed last year to ban plastic bags in stores, slated to go into effect in March. Less than 10% of U.S. plastic waste is recycled, according to Environmental Protection Agency data. More than 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean every year, adding to an estimated 150 million metric tons already circulating, according to the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy. In a March report, the World Wildlife Fund projected that the total amount of plastic in the ocean will double by 2030. Now, as lawmakers in California and other progressive states scramble to stem the flow of plastic waste, New York legislators are hoping momentum from the plastic bag ban and successful local bans on Styrofoam in New York City, Suffolk County and Troy will propel a new suite of bills to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk in 2020. It won’t be an easy fight. It took years for the plastic bag bill to make it over the legislative hump. The plastics industry is powerful and its advocates already point to 1,500 jobs at
risk at three upstate factories that produce polystyrene, the plastic referred to colloquially as Styrofoam. Cuomo, too, is no guaranteed supporter, having carved out sizable loopholes in the plastic bag ban he pushed through in the budget last year, allowing restaurants and delis to continue serving food to go in plastic. Cuomo also had previously crushed New York City’s attempt to enact its own plastic bag fee. Yet at a moment when the national debate over the climate crisis is opening the door to environmental policies that would have been considered radical just a few years ago, the fight over plastic – a nonrenewable fossil fuel product – is reaching “a tipping point,” said Debby Lee Cohen, an anti-plastics activist in Manhattan who co-founded the nonprofit Cafeteria Culture. “We’re not going to get there just by encouraging people to change their behavior,” she said. “We see now that incentivization through laws and regulations make the huge difference.” Now is the time, state Sen. Kevin Parker said in an interview, to “go big or go home.” The Brooklyn Democrat introduced what may be the most ambitious proposal this session: the New York Plastic Free Act, which would prohibit the sale of single-use plastic products, including bags, bottles, food packaging, cups, stirrers and cutlery. The ban, he said, would spur new markets for compostable alternatives made from bamboo or other materials, and encourage restaurants to provide reusable metal utensils and straws. It may not pass this session, a reality Parker understands. The average piece of legislation takes three years to pass in
ENVIRONMENT
December 9, 2019
New York, he said, so he introduced a second bill to enact the bans at state agencies, in the hope it would whet the political palate for his statewide proposal. “I’m looking for a home run,” he said. “But I’ll take a double and triple to get there.” More limited bills, such as state Sen. Todd Kaminsky’s proposed ban on plastic shampoo bottles in hotels, may be more likely to pass. Kaminsky’s bill already has support from the hospitality industry, five co-sponsors and a companion bill in the Assembly, introduced by Assemblyman Steve Engelbright. “In New York City alone, over 20 million single-use hotel vials are used every year,” Kaminsky, a Long Island Democrat, told City & State. The bill does not bar hotels from offering nonplastic small bottle alternatives. Other bills aim to impose 5-cent fees on paper bags, encouraging New Yorkers to carry reusable bags, and add liquor and noncarbonated drinks like Gatorade and Snapple to the list of beverage containers covered by the “Bottle Bill,” first passed in 1982. Another would require restaurants to provide plastic straws only upon request. Two bills from Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy would require restaurants to allow diners to take out drinks or leftovers in Tupperware-like containers from home, and mandate that all single-use plastic containers be made from 75% recycled materials. It’s unclear whether all the bills will be voted on, especially since some conflict or overlap. For example, Parker’s bill would render Fahy’s moot. Asked which bills would take priority, Mike Murphy, a spokesman for state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said, “We will discuss these bills as a conference.” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie did not respond to questions sent by email. A spokeswoman for the governor’s office declined to comment on the record about whether Cuomo would back any of the bills. The state Department of Environmental Conservation said in an
December 9, 2019
City & State New York
“WE’RE NOT GOING TO GET THERE JUST BY ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO CHANGE THEIR BEHAVIOR.”
emailed statement it “continues to lead the nation in responding to changes in global recycling markets and is committed to supporting and improving recycling of plastics and other materials across the state.” The American Chemistry Council, the plastic industry’s top lobbying group, said it was still reviewing the legislation in New York. But Margaret Gorman, the trade association’s Albany-based regional senior director, said, “Generally, we believe simply banning plastics will not alleviate the problem.” “We, as an industry, are willing to work with elected officials in finding solutions that will work,” Gorman said. “We want to be a solution provider.” There are other efforts out-
fountains in its airports, train stations and bus stations. Locally, New York City outlawed Styrofoam containers at the start of this year – ACTIVIST DEBBY LEE COHEN and it began issuing fines to eateries in July. Suffolk County slapped a 5-cent fee on plastic bags in 2017, and it caused plastic bag usage in 2018 to decrease by 1.1 billion bags. Last year, the Long Island county banned Styrofoam and plastic straws. This summer, Nasside the Legislature, both from sau County’s Republican-conlocal governments and activ- trolled legislature banned ists seeking to pressure govern- Styrofoam takeout containment entities. On Dec. 2, more ers too. In September, Troy, a than two dozen environmental post-industrial city north of groups signed a letter to the Port Albany, passed a bill banning Authority of New York and New Styrofoam and mandating plasJersey urging the agency to stop tic straws only upon request. selling single-use plastic water That, Kaminsky said, was a bottles and build more water sign the issue was no longer
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ideological, but rather is “seeping down to the level of regular people wanting to take action.” “These are not places with overwhelmingly Manhattan City Council types,” he said. “These are suburban moderate areas.” But that may speak to the fact that “the state of New York is way behind the curve on this issue,” said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator during the Obama administration. “People don’t think about it this way, but New York is a coastal state; the majority of New Yorkers live on Long Island or New York City or in Western New York along the Great Lakes,” said Enck, who now runs the nonprofit Beyond Plastics out of Bennington College in Vermont. “Yet New York is pitifully behind California.”
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Alexander C. Kaufman is a senior reporter at HuffPost, where he covers climate change and environmental policy.
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POWER MOVES CLIMATE CHANGE ISN’T THE ONLY ENERGY ISSUE ON THE AGENDA. BY ZACH WILLIAMS IMPLEMENTING THE CLIMATE LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNIT Y PROTECTION ACT NOW THAT the state has its
climate goals etched into law, it has to implement its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% before 2050. Appointees to a 22-member state climate action council established in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act will determine a climate action plan for the state to implement. The leaders of the majority conferences in each house of the Legislature get three appointments each, while the minority leaders each get one. The governor, however, will in practice control the council through the 12 commissioners of state agencies and leaders of public authorities who will sit on the council, along with two “non-agency expert mem-
December 9, 2019
bers” that the governor appoints. Most of the council appointments have yet to be named, though Republican minority leaders in the Assembly and state Senate have already named two energy industry insiders to the council, which was given two years to develop a scoping plan to implement the law. While not directly related to the climate change law, an updated version of a bill mandating that the state pension fund divest from fossil fuel companies was also recently introduced in both houses.
PUBLIC CONTROL OF UTILITIES
NEW YORK BANNED FRACKING, BUT THAT HASN’T STOPPED FRACKING FROM AFFECTING NEW YORK.
THERE IS a growing movement on the political left to establish a public utility to deliver power in the New York City area – an idea that will likely provoke a backlash from business interests if it gains traction in the months ahead. Lawmakers have yet to introduce a bill that would further this goal, but electrical outages and a temporary gas moratorium in Brooklyn and Queens and on Long Island have generated some support for ending private control of the city’s electrical
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and gas grids. Private utilities also cannot count on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to defend them, considering his recent criticisms of utilities National Grid and Con Edison. Legislators brought the issue up in September at a hearing examining Con Edison’s performance in the city and there is an expectation that the issue will come up once the Legislature reconvenes next year.
“We’re not in session until January,” Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris told City & State in September. “So we have a few months to figure out what might be the best way forward.”
FRACKING CRACKDOWN NEW YORK state banned fracking five years ago, but that has not kept the controversial drilling
method from affecting the state in several ways. While state lawmakers are not aiming to stop the importation of fracked gas in the upcoming legislative session, they are looking to continue efforts to prevent the importation of fracking waste material into the Empire State. One bill would classify all waste that comes from oil and natural gas production as hazardous, which would help prevent drilling fluids and other pollutants from getting into the air, soil and drinking water. Another bill aims to ban the use of production brine – wastewater from oil and gas extraction that has a high concentration of salt – for de-icing and/or dust control on roadways and land. A third bill would increase the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s authority to regulate the gas and oil industry. The first two bills have already passed the state Senate by large, bipartisan margins, while the third was just introduced in October. It is unclear whether or not Cuomo supports any of the three bills. He has generally supported tougher environmental controls on pollution.
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City & State New York
The year of
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RBLFMR/SHUTTERSTOCK
Tish Letitia James made a national name for herself going after Trump. But is she “Cuomo’s A.G.”? by J E F F C O L T I N
portraits by S E A N P R E S S L E Y
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UTSIDE HER OFFICE DOOR, New York Attorney General Letitia James has tome upon tome of McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York, stuffed into shelves. Inside her office, with 23rd-floor windows looking into the skyscraper canyons of Manhattan’s Financial District, the reading selection is thinner. There are three children’s books, gifts from Chelsea Clinton. There is a copy of Shirley Chisholm’s autobiography, “Unbought and Unbossed.” Chisholm was the first black female member of Congress. James, a fellow Brooklynite, became the first black woman elected statewide in New York a little over a year ago. And there’s a yellowed copy of Ebony magazine from February 1975, featuring Texas Rep. Barbara Jordan – a black female attorney famed for her speech defending the House of Representatives’ right to pursue President Richard Nixon’s impeachment. “I try to surround myself with pictures that remind me of the reason why I’m in this office,” James explained in November. But don’t take that too literally. There are, unsurprisingly, no pictures of Donald Trump, even though he may be the main reason why she’s attorney general. James’ campaign, as she said the night she won, “was about that man in the White House who can’t go a day without threatening our fundamental rights.” In the fourway Democratic primary, more than 40% of voters picked her, giving her a mandate
December 9, 2019
political autobiography, so the implication that she’s in office because of Gov. Son-of-aguv is particularly hurtful. (Trump notably called her “Cuomo’s A.G.,” repeatedly refusing to use her name. Her response? “I’m independently elected. ... I’m not the governor’s attorney general.”) In a historic first year, James’ office has been a flurry of activity, taking legal action on the biggest issues of the day, such as opioids, fossil fuels and Facebook. But Trump and Cuomo dominate New York politics in 2019, and James’ time as the state’s top law enforcement official will be defined by her strategy regarding those two power players – one enemy and one ally.
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AMES HAS RECEIVED a lot of attention for going after Donald Trump like she promised. So even the cases her office pursues that aren’t about Trump sometimes feel like they’re still about Trump. James pitched her legal actions against student loan providers as something the Trump administration should be doing on the federal level instead. And when James announced a lawsuit against e-cigarette company Juul in November, it was just after the Trump administration dropped its plan to ban flavored e-cigs. (A spokeswoman said James’ press conference had been planned for weeks.) But other cases are quite clearly about Trump. When James took office, she consolidated all the cases challenging the
“I’M INDEPENDENTLY ELECTED. ... I’M NOT THE GOVERNOR’S ATTORNEY GENERAL.” to litigate against the sitting president. And she’s undoubtedly done so, filing 20 lawsuits against the Trump administration in her first 11 months alone – including suing to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents out of courthouses and trying to hold the White House accountable for not enforcing the Clean Air Act. Also missing from James’ office is any sign of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state’s most powerful politician, whose full-throated endorsement and support helped James march to victory last year. James always bristles at the implication that Cuomo helped her – “earning it the hard way” is central to her
Trump administration into a new office headed by Matthew Colangelo, who previously ran the AG’s social justice division. And there’s been a lot of work. James has been party to 20 lawsuits against the Trump administration and has continued litigation on many more brought by her predecessors. She successfully defended (so far) a New York law that could finally reveal the president’s tax returns. Perhaps the office’s biggest win came in November, when her office got a judgment ordering Trump to pay $2 million in restitution for charity money that was illegally used for his political campaign.
Her Democratic base seems to love it – consider the bootleg “Go Letitia Go” T-shirt for sale on Amazon. “Makes a great Anti-Trump protest shirt,” reads the listing. (“I’m like 90% sure this is illegal,” a James spokeswoman said of the unauthorized shirt.) But not all New Yorkers appreciate her focus on Washington. On James’ watch, the office “has been totally politicized and used as just a tool of the Democratic establishment in New York to attack the president of the United States,” New York Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy said. That’s an argument used by the president himself, who called the case against his foundation “politically motivated harassment,” but it’s one that James said doesn’t affect her. “If any of my remarks in the past have criticized the president and/or this administration for violating the law or the rights of certain individuals, I’m not sorry,” James told City & State. “The law looks at facts, not rhetoric, and application to the law, not my political persuasion, or my political comments.” Of course, there’s always a political aspect to the job. Alvin Bragg, a candidate for Manhattan district attorney who served as chief deputy attorney general until December 2018, said that James has done a good job speaking carefully since taking office, but added that she’s in a tough spot. “Attorneys general must balance their roles as litigants who are bound by court rules and politicians who may feel duty-bound to respond to lawless policies in real time and with moral clarity,” he said. “James has done a good job of continuing and prosecuting cases we developed.” But some on the left – like Jed Shugerman, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law – think James has been chilled by Trump’s accusations that she is playing politics. “A prosecutor cannot be intimidated from doing their basic job of fighting fraud because a fraudster accuses them of politics,” he said. Shugerman – who was a volunteer consultant on Zephyr Teachout’s attorney general campaign, a fellow Fordham law professor who positioned herself to the left of James in the 2018 primary – gave James credit for her cases challenging the Trump administration, but called her a “major disappointment” when it came to taking on Trump personally. James oversaw the Trump Foundation case, yes, but that was initially brought in 2018 by James’ predecessor, Barbara Underwood, he said. And other than subpoenaing two banks for records regarding The Trump Organization, the president’s holding company and primary source of wealth, Shugerman said James hasn’t done a thing in her first year to take
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So you would actually be trying to have a conversation with him rather than deposing him? If you seek to depose him, you’re obviously going to turn him off. And so I’m trying to appeal to his higher angels.
Then-New York City Public Advocate Letitia James protests President Donald Trump’s travel ban at JFK Airport in 2017. She’s now New York’s top law enforcement official.
ONE OF THEM NOW
ATTORNEY GENERAL LETITIA JAMES ON GOING FROM PUBLIC ADVOCATE TO THE HEAD OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
A KATZ/SHUTTERSTOCK
Your constituency has changed over time. First a liberal Brooklyn district in the New York City Council, then representing the whole city as public advocate. Now you have the whole state. Still very Democratic, but – There are Republican pockets! And you know, we got pushback on, for instance, Green Light, the legislation that would provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Have you had to quiet your rhetoric in some ways? I wouldn’t describe it as rhetoric. I think what I have always attempted to do, both as a City Council member and as a public advocate, is try to bring individuals together to try to forge a common ground. And some of my rallying speeches, they’ve been, you know, pretty liberal. But at the end of the day, when you get to know me and my heart, you’ll find that what guides me is my faith and the sense that we’re all in this together, despite your political affiliation and despite your philosophy and/or your religion. And that we are here to serve a purpose. And for me, it’s to serve and to serve others. Regarding the special prosecutor order, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported a story where they felt
like they couldn’t get a straight answer from you. Are you in favor of codifying and expanding the executive order giving the attorney general jurisdiction in certain cases of killings by police? I thought I was clear that we should codify the existing law. And I support expanding it. However – and this is a big however – I don’t want to come out and support without reemphasizing the fact that it’s an unfunded mandate, and it requires resources. And we have limited resources. You made similar comments about the new discovery and bail laws, calling them unfunded mandates. Do you have concerns about the content of the laws? By no means. I support the criminal justice reform, but in the forefront: bail reform, as well as discovery, and hope that we will go further in the next legislative session. But again, it was passed without resources. And it puts us at a disadvantage. When you say that, are you standing up for district attorneys across the state? Are you speaking as the top law official here? I’m speaking as the chief law enforcement officer of the state of New York. When laws are passed that impact and affect the admin-
istration of justice, they should come with additional resources. Otherwise there’s a question as to whether or not the law can be effective or not. Back to the special prosecutor. Do you think in general that local DAs can’t always be trusted with prosecutions of the police that they work so closely with? It’s not a question of not being trusted. It’s a question of the appearance of a conflict. And because of that close relationship between police officers and district attorneys, that symbiotic relationship, it would provide a greater level of comfort for the general public to have an investigation be done by an independent party. And that independent party should be the office of the attorney general. Have you ever talked to Donald Trump? Or at least in the past year? I have never met President Trump. But I would be willing to talk to him, if he would have me in his office. And what would we talk about? A potential conversation with President Trump is: “How can we heal our nation? And how can you be a little bit more of a president with a heart, and less of a president with a steel backbone?”
He famously avoided saying your name in tweets for a while. I believe that changed and he finally said James at one point? Oh he did? No, it was a press release. He refers to me as the governor’s attorney general. It’s a badge of honor. It’s a badge of honor that he recognizes that the office of attorney general is on top of its game, and that we’re standing up on behalf of the residents of the great state of New York, and the Constitution, both the federal Constitution, the state constitution. And so I’m proud of that. But I would like for him to know that I’m independently elected, and that I’m not the governor’s attorney general. He’s a Floridian now. He doesn’t know the specifics. Well, yeah, but we still have jurisdiction over him. Do you think there’s a race or gender aspect of him not using your name? Well, I’m sure he knows by now that I’m a woman and a woman of color. Is there a political aspect to it? I don’t know. Far from me to assume to know the thinking of President Trump. New York has seen the political left grow in influence. Left. Left I don’t know … left. You were always – Left of center. Really left. No, no. People put me in that space, but I’m sort of – not really moderate, but reasonable. I travel all over the state. A lot of people are of that impression. And a lot of people during the campaign were like, “No, we can’t support you because you’re radical.” And then after they talked to me, it’s like, “You’re pretty normal. And pretty moderate.” I was like, “Yeah, it’s the media that paints me as this radical left nut.”
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down Trump – despite lawyers like himself laying out the case. “She campaigned on holding the Trump administration and President Trump accountable, explicitly for their corruption,” Shugerman said. “And she has failed to do that.” A spokeswoman from James’ office said, “Our investigation of The Trump Organization is ongoing.” And James’ allies laughed away the criticism she wasn’t going after the president hard enough – including another opponent in the 2018 attorney general primary, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney. “If you know another attorney general who just took a $2 million bite out of the president’s ass, let me know,” he told City & State. “She has got a big victory against Donald Trump, and I’m sure there’s more to come.”
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UT WHEN IT COMES to the Cuomo administration – and New York’s political establishment in general – there hasn’t seemed to be much action. James has been active in Democratic politics for two decades, and won election last year with the backing of just about every elected Democrat in the state, plus the labor unions and political clubs that support them. The general feeling, said Seth Barron, a project director at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, was that “everyone in Albany breathed a sigh of relief when she came in. She’s not going to take on anybody powerful politically.” It was James’ biggest liability in the Democratic primary, and she worked hard to counter the argument. She made “Fighting Corruption No Matter Where it Lies” the very first “issue” on her campaign website and promised to be “an independent enforcer,” and she pledged to bolster the office’s work investigating elected officials for self-dealing. But James doesn’t have much to show for it in her first year. The highest profile action by her Public Integrity Bureau has been the conviction of former Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas for stealing campaign funds. That means no cases brought against any state legislators, New York City lawmakers or state agency heads. No major investigations have been announced and no secret ones are being whispered about. Most corruption cases in the state are brought by federal prosecutors or district attorneys, but there is still ample opportunity for an attorney general. In the past decade, James’ predecessors have brought cases against former state Sens. George Maziarz, Shirley Huntley and Pedro Espada Jr., among others. As a candidate, James promised to go after corruption, calling for “fundamental reform” of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, which is widely considered toothless. But with controversy swirling in Novem-
“IF YOU KNOW ANOTHER ATTORNEY GENERAL WHO JUST TOOK A $2 MILLION BITE OUT OF THE PRESIDENT’S ASS, LET ME KNOW.” – REP. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY
December 9, 2019
ber over whether Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie were tipped off to JCOPE’s closed-door deliberations – and whether the state inspector general’s probe into the matter could be trusted – James hasn’t sounded reform-minded. “I will not question the integrity of the watchdog agency,” she said when asked to comment at an unrelated Nov. 19 press conference. Although independently elected, the attorney general often functions as a partner of the governor, reliant on the executive for cooperation and criminal referrals. That setup remains, even if there’s any personal animosity between the two leaders, as there was with Cuomo and former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. But that doesn’t mean the attorney general is a lapdog. Just look at then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s scathing 2007 Troopergate report against then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s office. James told City & State that she and Cuomo talk “quite a bit” and praised his cooperation in agreeing to set up a legal risk assessment committee with her office – something that has gone previously unreported. “I was disturbed by the amount of judgments that we pay out as a result of certain bad conduct,” she said. James first wants to look at the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, but “we’re going through agency by agency.” But critics see other opportunities James isn’t taking to challenge Cuomo’s dominance in state politics. She has been strangely silent when it comes to statewide public campaign financing, despite promising to push for change during her campaign. James has been a loud supporter of the idea since at least 2014, and was criticized in 2017 for utilizing public financing too much – legally accepting and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money during a shooin reelection campaign for New York City public advocate. James submitted written testimony in support of public financing before a state Senate committee in March, but hasn’t made any comments since, while a commission met to actually create such a system. A possible explanation? Cuomo and his allies are using the commission as an end around to revoke ballot access from the governor-antagonizing Working Families Party. James’ relationship with the party seems to have chilled somewhat since last year, when she initially spurned the party’s ballot line in what was seen as an embrace of Cuomo and the establishment, but James is still a historical ally of the party – the first person to win office on its ballot line alone and a former registered party member. Stuck again between
City & State New York
Cuomo and the WFP, James has stayed quiet. She recused her office from defending the state against a lawsuit from the third party because of her ties, but also hasn’t been publicly supportive of the Working Families Party – even though Democrats like U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, nobody’s idea of an anti-establishment rebel, have done so. One of the times James appeared to publicly break with Cuomo, she was still accused of letting politics cloud her legal judgement. James’ office dropped its legal appeal defending the legislative pay commission, effectively allowing state lawmakers to get a major pay bump without having to submit to the recommended ethics reforms. “James should remember that her first loyalty is to the voters and taxpayers in the state who have said over and over again that they want honest government,” Newsday’s editorial board wrote. In her downtown office, James insisted that New Yorkers can trust her to go after malfeasance and corruption among the state’s political establishment. But she’s aware of the appearance of conflict of interest, and promised to “separate myself” from individuals and organizations under investigation. “So you’ll see me at less events and not as much in the public eye for those reasons,” she said, “because there’s pending investigations all over the state of New York.” It’s an odd statement for someone The New York Times recently spotted “danc(ing) atop a platform in a ropedoff club at an exclusive party” at Somos, the annual conference in Puerto Rico for New York’s political insiders. James is very much in the public eye, but it is true she’s being seen at fewer events – if only because she kept a breakneck public schedule in her previous job as New York City public advocate, a job where the primary purpose seems to be appearing at public events. Still, James said she would not be recusing herself from any potential political investigations. “I have a lot of friends. But I also have an oath. I also have loyalties to the Constitution and to the law,” James said. “So if someone that I know, or someone who was a friend violates the law, I’ve got a duty and a responsibility to make sure that the law is followed.” Not everyone is Albany is convinced. “She has clearly become the legal adversary of the national administration,” said Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, a Democrat who supported Teachout in 2018. “The only question that’s still open: Is she willing to take on the state with the same zeal where there are allegations of misconduct? So far there hasn’t been a lot of discussion of that.”
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TRUMP CARDS
THE AG’S BIGGEST CASES AGAINST THE PRESIDENT
New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued the Trump administration 20 times in the first 11 months of 2019. She was the lead plaintiff on 15 of those cases, covering everything from emission standards to healthy school lunches. James also continued litigation on many other cases first brought by her predecessors. Here are some of the highlights. THE DONALD J. TRUMP FOUNDATION Filed June 14, 2018 In a case originally brought by James’ predecessor, Barbara Underwood, New York accused Trump’s personal charity of self-dealing and breaking campaign finance laws. The foundation was dissolved in December 2018 and the case was closed in November, with Trump ordered to pay $2 million in damages to legitimate charities. THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION Investigation first reported March 11, 2019 James opened an inquiry into The Trump Organization, the president’s holding company, and subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records in order to investigate whether he lied about the value of his assets. James hasn’t spoken publicly about the case, and no lawsuit has been filed. ICE ARRESTS Filed Sept. 25, 2019 James sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to block the practice of making immigration arrests in and around courthouses. A ruling is expected before the end of the year. CONSCIENCE RULE Filed May 21, 2019 James led a lawsuit with nearly two dozen other states and cities to block a new federal rule making it easier for health care professionals to deny abortions on religious or moral grounds. The states won the case and a judge blocked the rule in November. PUBLIC CHARGE Filed Aug. 20, 2019 James challenged the federal immigration rule that would deny entry and green cards to immigrants who might rely on public assistance. James won a preliminary injunction in October to block the rule, but lawsuit continues. TRUMP TAX RETURNS Filed July 23, 2019 James has defended New York against a lawsuit from Trump challenging a state law that was passed to allow certain House committees to request the president’s state tax returns. While Trump’s lawsuit was dismissed, the case may not be over and his tax returns have yet to be made public.
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BLACK 100 IN NEW YORK, several high-profile black politicians have risen to positions of influence in recent years. New York Attorney General Letitia James is now the state’s top law enforcement official. As the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn could be the next speaker of the House of Representatives. And in Albany, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins drive the state’s legislative process. But those impressive individual accomplishments haven’t singlehandedly ended racial disparities in the state or in New York’s halls of power. Looking at our own New York City Power 100 list, fewer than a fifth of the people on the list were black – even though roughly a quarter of the city identifies as black or African American. And on our latest Albany Power 100, only a dozen
black individuals made the cut, while the state’s population is nearly 18% black. So this year, we decided to create a new list – the Power of Diversity: Black 100. Our inaugural effort features a number of individuals already on our city and state political lists, but it also spotlights dozens of lesser-known power players. Any New York political figure who identifies as black – including two Latino lawmakers of African descent vying for a South Bronx congressional seat – is eligible for inclusion. As with all of our lists, each individual was assessed based on their record, particularly within the political or policy arenas. As the 100 people on this list show, black people hold lots of power in New York – and they’re breaking down barriers like never before.
December 9, 2019
1 LETITIA JAMES
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL
SEAN PRESSLEY
LETITIA JAMES is the attorney general of New York, but her influence stretches across state lines. “Tish” has successfully sued to block President Donald Trump’s attempt to deny green cards and visas to immigrants who seek to use public benefits, held Trump accountable for entangling his foundation with his 2016 presidential campaign and filed a motion to dismiss the president’s attempt to challenge a state law that allows certain congressional committees to request his New York tax returns. This year has been a whirlwind for the attorney general. She’s one of 47 attorneys general who’ve signed on to investigate Facebook for “anti-competitive” behavior, and she filed a cease and desist against two companies pushing DIY rape kits. Recently, James has found herself in a legal tussle with the National Rifle Association over whether it has the power to prevent state investigations from seeing documents subpoenaed from its ad agency in a challenge to the organization’s nonprofit status. In November, she monitored early voting polling locations in Nassau County to counter reports of voter intimidation and improper challenges to voters’ signatures.
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2 HAKEEM JEFFRIES
CHAIRMAN HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS ONE OF the many Democrats on the front lines of the
impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has found himself battling the White House at every turn. Whether speaking in support of the Equality Act or reminding people that the founders didn’t want “a king, dictator or monarch,” the Brooklyn congressman made sure his voice was heard in 2019. Jeffries introduced The Eric Garner Excessive Use Of Force Prevention Act of 2019, taking national the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold bill that was proposed in Albany. Recently, Jeffries helped introduce The Lower Drug Costs Now Act with the goal of driving down the increasing prices of prescription drugs. In the spring, the House Democratic Caucus chairman teamed up with U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer to reintroduce a bill that would decriminalize marijuana use. The congressman landed in some hot water – but refused to apologize – for calling Trump the “Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” voicing the frustration and anger echoed by many of his constituents.
3 CARL HEASTIE
WHILE SHEPHERDING Democrats in Albany and in the Bronx, Carl Heastie has taken advantage of the mandate given to him by New York’s voters. The Assembly speaker has pushed through a progressive agenda with help from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and, over the past year, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. This year was a busy one for Heastie. He helped pass tenant protections, including ending the vacancy bonus, repealing high-rent vacancy decontrol and establishing anti-harassment protections for tenants statewide. Under Heastie, the state Legislature expanded the statute of limitations for rape accusations, protected women’s reproductive rights, banned so-called conversion therapy, decriminalized marijuana and closed loopholes that limited state liability for sexual harassment by elected officials. In his own way, Heastie’s actions are also a response to President Donald Trump’s policies, making sure that New Yorkers are shielded from the more extreme effects of Washington’s actions. Heastie not only holds significant power in Albany, but his power also is centered in the Bronx, where he once led the Bronx Democratic Party.
ANDREW KIST; ASSEMBLY
ASSEMBLY SPEAKER
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4 ANDREA STEWART-COUSINS
STATE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HOLDING SWAY in the state Senate and in New York
5 ERIC ADAMS
BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT WITH THE BUZZ about a possible 2021 mayoral run get-
ting louder, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has kept his name and face in the local news media this year by speaking out against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan for a new jail in Brooklyn. The former police officer has been on a never-ending quest to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the black community – including his recent call for a cop who punched a subway fare evader to be put on desk duty. Over the years, he has advocated for better policing and an improved de-escalation process while also calling for an end to the violence that has plagued some parts of Brooklyn. As Brooklyn borough president, Adams has attended to issues big and small, including investing in new boilers for Mitchell-Lama housing developments. He has also called for a task force to investigate the increase in black youth suicide attempts. With an expected crowded pool of candidates vying for City Hall, expect Adams to become an even bigger name in 2021.
STATE SENATE; ERICA KRODMAN/BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT’S OFFICE; LEV RADIN/SHUTTERSTOCK
City politics, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins completes the troika that’s driving state politics. The first black woman to lead the state Senate, Stewart-Cousins made sure her constituents in Westchester County weren’t left out of a conversation long dominated by the five boroughs. On top of securing Metro-North Railroad funding for the area and assisting with getting a county sales tax increase approved, Stewart-Cousins helped pass the Child Victims Act (something activists want to take national) and secured stronger reproductive rights for New Yorkers. Stewart-Cousins was part of a team that helped pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, which expands protections for members of the LGBTQ community and is the first major LGBTQ-centered legislation since the Marriage Equality Act of 2011. Stewart-Cousins is also chairwoman of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, making her yet another state elected official with a national voice. Recently, she teamed up with Cuomo to support the idea of government funding to help struggling local news outlets.
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JUMAANE WILLIAMS
GEORGE GRESHAM
CONGRESSMAN
NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC ADVOCATE EXTREMELY VOCAL
about what he likes and dislikes about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s agenda, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has a reputation as a champion of the people. Williams has ridden the wave of the #Resistance to President Donald Trump’s agenda and anti-police brutality protests to a bigger profile. He recently questioned former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s reversal on stop and frisk.
PRESIDENT 1199SEIU
AS THE leader of the largest health care union in the country, George Gresham continues to assert his power in New York City. Having the ear of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other political figures, his proximity to power allows him to advocate for universal health care and minimum wage increases. The union also has a track record of allying with hospitals to push successfully for more health care funding in Albany.
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GREGORY MEEKS
CRYSTAL PEOPLES-STOKES ASSEMBLY MAJORITY LEADER
WHETHER IT was
showing his support for Melinda Katz during the Queens district attorney Democratic primary or vocalizing his disapproval of the current presidential administration, Rep. Gregory Meeks left his stamp on the 2019 political landscape. As the first black man to head the Queens Democratic Party, Meeks has a lot of work to do to bring “the machine” back to prominence.
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BUFFALO’S OWN
9 CHIRLANE MCCRAY
NEW YORK CITY FIRST LADY WILL SHE or won’t she? Rumors about a
possible campaign run, local or statewide, surround Chirlane McCray. While the pundits keep talking, she keeps working. The board chairwoman of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and the mastermind behind the city’s ThriveNYC mental health initiative, McCray continues her unprecedented run for a local first lady. One could compare her to another (national) first lady with political ambitions of her own: Hillary Clinton.
Kasirer congratulates all of the this year’s wonderful Power of Color: Black 100 recipients especially David Jones of Community Service Society and Camille Joseph of Charter Communications, clients whom we are proud to represent! Kasirer is the #1 lobbying and government relations firm in New York. We advocate on behalf of a wide range of clients who seek local expertise in navigating the City. We advance our clients’ goals—building coalitions and consensus and influencing decision-makers in the dynamic political landscape that defines New York. And our team of professionals, whose careers intersect at politics, policy and government, achieve victory on behalf of our clients with an unwavering commitment to the highest standard of ethics in the industry.
Kasirer LLC 321 Broadway, 2d Fl New York, NY 10007 T: 212 285 1800 F: 212 285 1818 kasirer.nyc info@kasirer.nyc
Crystal Peoples-Stokes took full advantage of her first year as Assembly majority leader. Perhaps the biggest impact Peoples-Stokes made in Albany involves marijuana legalization. Pointing to the many people of color incarcerated for marijuana-related infractions, Peoples-Stokes pushed for these communities to benefit from the revenue that would be generated by legalizing recreational marijuana. On a smaller scale, she helped pass a tax break for long-term senior homeowners of limited income.
T O BE A
Black Entrepreneur ME A NS
You are the master of your own destiny DR . DUCL A S CH A R L E S Co-Founder Strivers’ Row
nyc.gov/benyc
November 18, 2019
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KEITH WRIGHT
LAURIE CUMBO
ERROL LOUIS
RITCHIE TORRES
CHAIRMAN MANHATTAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MAJORITY LEADER THE TERM “voice of
YOU CAN call him a
mover and shaker if you want, but Keith Wright is simply a man who’s trying to direct the Democratic ship the best way he knows how. While consulting for Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, Wright also keeps his hand in party politics. Whether it’s putting aspiring Democratic politicians in positions to succeed or aiding the movement to close Rikers Island, Wright can work with many different groups across the city.
12 AL SHARPTON
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK THE REV. Al Sharpton is a staple in New York
City politics and activism, and 2019 wasn’t any different. He testified before the House Judiciary Committee on police misconduct, criticized Facebook’s new policy on political ads and helped highlight civil rights violations in New York and around the country. His National Action Network has a presence in black communities nationwide, and Sharpton can be found wherever incidents of racial injustice make headlines.
the voiceless” could easily describe Laurie Cumbo. Pushing for better bus service for her constituents in Brooklyn, combating gun violence, bridging the gap between different communities in Crown Heights, protecting women’s rights in the workplace and promoting grants for artistic endeavors, Cumbo has made sure her constituents were taken care of in 2019. She’s an ally of New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and serves as his official No. 2.
ANCHOR AND HOST OF “INSIDE CITY HALL” NY1 IF YOU’RE an elected official in New York City, appearing on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” is a must. Errol Louis asks the questions New Yorkers want answered on a daily basis, keeping the five boroughs up to date on the never-ending news cycle, connecting the dots to make sense of it all. He values the perspectives of others as well, making sure to highlight local reporters with his weekly media roundtable segments.
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN
RITCHIE TORRES
has emerged as a power player in local politics – and he has his eye on the next prize. He has outraised his opponents for a Bronx congressional seat, getting an edge on the likes of Assemblyman Michael Blake and fellow New York City Councilman Rubén Díaz Sr. As an openly gay legislator, Torres’ battle with Díaz (who is known for his anti-gay comments) should make 2020 interesting.
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK CONGRATULATES
WILLIAM C. THOMPSON JR., CHAIRPERSON, BOARD OF TRUSTEES ON BEING NAMED ONE OF
CITY & STATE’S POWER OF COLOR: BLACK 100
“THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK SYSTEM PROPELLED ALMOST SIX TIMES AS MANY LOW-INCOME STUDENTS INTO THE MIDDLE CLASS AND BEYOND AS ALL EIGHT IVY LEAGUE CAMPUSES, PLUS DUKE, M.I.T., STANFORD AND CHICAGO, COMBINED.”
CHRISTOPHER MOORE
– The New York Times
CUNY.EDU
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MICHAEL BLAKE
RUBÉN D�AZ SR.
BILL THOMPSON
ANTONIO DELGADO
ASSEMBLYMAN
AN UNSUCCESSFUL
run for New York City public advocate didn’t stop the Michael Blake train in February. His name has remained in the news, as he recently voiced his support for Housing Works employees trying to unionize and called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to back off his proposal to put more police officers in subway stations. The assemblyman also proposed a bill to establish a living wage for tipped workers in the restaurant industry.
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN
THE OUTSPOKEN
New York City councilman has been a staple in the Bronx and beyond. However, his popularity with his base doesn’t guarantee he’ll win the congressional seat he’s seeking in 2020, especially against heavyweights like Assemblyman Michael Blake and New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres. His history of criticizing homosexuality could throw a wrench into the national Democratic agenda, if he were to win retiring Rep. JosÊ E. Serrano’s seat.
CHAIRMAN CUNY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
CONGRESSMAN REPRESENTING THE 19th District,
GIVEN THE vast
reach of the City University of New York, there are always issues to resolve: the union contracts to negotiate; the uproar over CUNY’s support for Amazon HQ2; the perennial hunt for new leaders. Bill Thompson has navigated CUNY through it all, using the political skills he built as New York City’s comptroller to keep the system focused on its core mission: educating young New Yorkers and paving the way for upward mobility.
19 YVETTE CLARKE
CONGRESSWOMAN A FORMER member of the New York City
Council, Rep. Yvette Clarke has been active in Congress, fighting to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, opposing the use of facial recognition technology in public housing, calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump and advocating for the voting rights for ex-felons. Clarke, who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on Black Women & Girls, will face several primary challengers next year.
 � � � NYC
7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St. #4641, New York, NY 10007 212-431-4748 With offices in Albany and Buffalo
www.boltonstjohns.com
Rep. Antonio Delgado will be in the news in the coming months as he gears up for a competitive reelection campaign. So far the congressman has raised over $2 million, vastly more than any other candidate. Delgado spent much of this year highlighting issues with broadband service in rural areas, pointing out that residents, schools and health care providers are suffering as a result.
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BYRON BROWN
KYLE BRAGG
DAVID R. JONES
ELIAS HUSAMUDEEN
BUFFALO MAYOR
WORKING THROUGH his fourth
term as mayor of Buffalo, Byron Brown has had his share of successes and setbacks. On one hand, he has replaced more than 100 water lines to combat lead exposure and is working to improve the city’s infrastructure. But he has also had to address a recent FBI raid on a City Hall office, in which investigators searched the offices of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.
PRESIDENT 32BJ SEIU
KYLE BRAGG had
some big shoes to fill when he became president of 32BJ SEIU after the unexpected death of Héctor Figueroa in July, but he’s hit the ground running and kept the union moving. Bragg has advocated for fast-food workers to organize and be paid a higher minimum wage, pushed back against President Donald Trump’s nomination for labor secretary and voiced his support for immigrants and those given temporary protected status.
PRESIDENT AND CEO COMMUNITY SERVICE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK KEEPING HIS ear to the political streets, David R. Jones remains a staunch advocate for low-income New Yorkers. In his columns for the New York Amsterdam News, Jones addresses the student loan debt crisis and the increasing costs of health care. As a member of the MTA board, he took Gov. Andrew Cuomo to task over the proposed L train plan and questioned the need for hiring 500 additional police officers to patrol the subways.
PRESIDENT NEW YORK CITY CORRECTION OFFICERS’ BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION
24 PATRICK B. JENKINS
FOUNDER PATRICK B. JENKINS & ASSOCIATES POLITICAL CONSULTING, community rela-
tions and fundraising have pushed Patrick B. Jenkins and his firm into the top tier of New York politics. He once served as an adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and has established the firm’s lobbying power in Albany. Jenkins has been able to effect change away from the cameras and reporters. True power operates quietly and Jenkins – who started his career in government at the New York City comptroller’s office – demonstrates that well.
ELIAS HUSAMUDEEN
had his hands full this year, between fighting the tide against the movement to close Rikers Island and putting out fires created by his officers. He’s also spoken out against changes to solitary confinement rules and reminded New Yorkers about the dangers that correction officers face on the job. Husamudeen seems poised to play an even bigger role in the development of law enforcement policies.
CWA Local 1180 Officers
U.S. HOUSE; DAWN COTTER-JENKINS
Gloria Middleton President Gina strickland 1st Vice President Gerald Brown 2nd Vice President robin Blair-Batte Secretary-Treasurer Lourdes Acevedo Recording Secretary Members at Large Hilary Bloomfield Denise Gilliam Helen S. Jarrett Lisa Lloyd Debra Paylor Gregory Smith Lenora Smith Venus Williams Hazel O. Worley
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Congratulations to Our President Gloria Middleton On being chosen as one of 2019’s Power of Color: BlaCk 100 Your contributions impact not only the Black community but ALL communities. Thank you for being such a powerful leader. New York Administrative Employees Local 1180, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO 6 Harrison Street, 4th Floor l New York, NY 10013
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GREGORY FLOYD
HAZEL DUKES
WAYNE SPENCE
GWEN CARR
GREGORY FLOYD
SUPPORTING EQUAL PAY for first
leads the largest local union of Teamsters in New York City, representing more than 24,000 city government employees. Representing a public union sometimes means clashing with City Hall – and Floyd has done plenty of that. He’s spoken out against the elimination of metal detectors in some schools and criticized Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s “Medicare for All” plan, saying “one size doesn’t fit all.”
PRESIDENT NAACP NEW YORK CONFERENCE responders. Fighting for employees at private day care companies. Meeting with the NYPD to discuss laws banning flavored nicotine products. Hazel Dukes has been busy making sure New York does right by its African American community. This summer, Dukes had a plaque unveiled in her honor at Ruby’s Vintage, a restaurant in Harlem, to celebrate “her dedication to human rights and equality.”
PRESIDENT NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FEDERATION EARLIER THIS YEAR, Wayne
Spence’s union filed a lawsuit accusing the State University of New York of pay inequities and staffing issues. As he pushes back against subpar working conditions faced by nurses in New York hospitals, Spence is also among the many voices working to overhaul the state’s parole system. Reelected in 2018 for a second term as president of the union, Spence serves as a voice for 54,000 public employees.
ACTIVIST AND MOTHER OF ERIC GARNER GWEN CARR’S presence has become commonplace in New York City. Following the death of her son, Eric Garner, at the hands of New York City police, Carr has become one of the highest-profile anti-police brutality voices. Linking up with parents of other police brutality victims and partnering with the Rev. Al Sharpton, Carr put pressure on the NYPD, which recently fired Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in Garner’s death.
30 ROWAN WILSON
ASSOCIATE JUDGE STATE COURT OF APPEALS NOMINATED BY Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2017, Rowan Wilson has become an important figure on New York’s highest court. This year alone, the court called for the retrial of a man convicted of murder due to a juror potentially tainting the verdict, and Wilson has battled his colleagues in several rulings. In February, he was one of two dissenters in a ruling that allows nonprivileged recorded prison phone calls to be used against inmates.
CONGRATULATIONS!
JANELLA T. HINDS SECRETARY-TREASURER NEW YORK CITY CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL AFL-CIO
WWW.NYCCLC.ORG
NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS
PRESIDENT TEAMSTERS LOCAL 237
Congratulations!
Janella T. Hinds Vice President,
Academic High Schools
United Federation of Teachers ○ A Union of Professionals Michael Mulgrew, President 52 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 ○ www.uft.org
MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE 36 BATTERY PLACE, NEW YORK, NY 10280 THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 | 9:00AM-4:00PM New York residents rely on its public transportation systems and roads to get everywhere, with varying degrees of success and frustration. Following the release of the MTA’s five-year capital plan and the continuation of long-planned expansion projects, New York’s systems for moving people and information are poised for a huge makeover. The NEW YORK IN TRANSIT SUMMIT will bring together experts across sectors to assess the current state of New York’s transportation systems, break down recent legislative actions, and look towards the future of all things coming and going in New York.
PANEL TOPICS MOVING NEW YORKERS SAFELY RESHAPING NEW YORK’S TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE CAN ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION METHODS SAVE NEW YORK? HOW TECHNOLOGY IS TRANSFORMING PUBLIC TRANSIT
FEATURED SPEAKERS POLLY TROTTENBERG, Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation ERIC BEATON, Deputy Commissioner for Transportation and Management, New York City Department of Transportation CATHERINE RINALDI, President, Metro-North PHILLIP ENG, President, Long Island Rail Road GEORGE LATIMER, Westchester County Executive Assemblywoman NILY ROZIC, Sponsored legislation on ebikes and escooters CECILIA KUSHNER, Executive VP for Planning, Development, and Transportation, NYC Economic Development Corporation NYC Councilman RAFAEL ESPINAL JR., Sponsored legislation for ebikes Senator LEROY COMRIE, Chair Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee Councilman YDANIS RODRIGUEZ, Chair Committee on Transportation JOSHUA BENSON, Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations, New York City Department of Transportation RSVP at CityAndStateNY.com/Events For more information on programming and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Lissa Blake at lblake@cityandstateny.com
December 9, 2019
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DENNIS WALCOTT CHARLES & INEZ PRESIDENT AND BARRON CEO QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY
FORMER New York
31 JAMAAL T. BAILEY STATE SENATOR
JAMAAL T. BAILEY’S star has quickly risen. In his second term as a state senator, the Bronx native leads the state Senate Codes Committee. In this role, Bailey has helped pass bills that ended cash bail for most crimes, among other important criminal justice reforms. He recently introduced a bill that would limit the public display of tobacco ads. He also wants the public to be able to access NYPD disciplinary records. 25440_COBA_Elias Husamudeen Journal AD
City schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott has made a quiet impact leading the Queens Public Library. He’s been busy replacing the roof of a branch in South Ozone Park, partnering with the city on improving census outreach and opening a branch at Hunters Point. After the Hunters Point branch received some criticism, according to The New York Times, for accessibility issues in a section of the library, Walcott said the library will address “the needs of the public.1” 12/3/19 V3.pdf
ASSEMBLYMAN; NEW YORK CITY COUNCILWOMAN
THIS POWER COUPLE continues to
poke the bear in both New York City Hall and Albany by speaking truth to power. If a policy doesn’t benefit communities of color in any way, Charles and Inez Barron will let you know. Assemblyman Charles Barron has even interrupted speeches by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to demand more funding for public schools. Both Barrons recently expressed their desire to eliminate the Specialized High School Admissions Test. 10:29 AM
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RODNEYSE BICHOTTE
ROBERT CORNEGY JR.
ASSEMBLYWOMAN ASSEMBLYWOMAN
Rodneyse Bichotte has been working to bridge gaps in the communities she serves for a while now. Whether it’s building alliances with the Orthodox Jewish community or advocating for minority- and women-owned businesses, the Brooklyn assemblywoman has her hand in much of the borough’s politics. She’s pushed for more state funding for the SUNY and CUNY systems, supported legislation to help enforce child support obligations and hosted immigration education events for her constituents.
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN ROBERT CORNEGY JR. stands above
the rest – and that’s not just because he’s 6-foot-10. He’s helping the New York City Council move forward on shrinking the size of the city’s jail system and is currently eyeing a 2021 run for Brooklyn borough president. Recently, the Housing and Buildings Committee chairman introduced a bill that would prevent the city from foreclosing on residential properties that don’t meet the criteria for physical or financial distress.
THE COBA EXECUTIVE BOARD
CORRECTION OFFICERS’ BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION, INC. “PATROLLING THE TOUGHEST PRECINCTS IN NEW YORK”
PROUDLY SALUTES OUR PRESIDENT
ELIAS HUSAMUDEEN ON BEING NAMED TO CITY & STATE’S 2019 POWER OF COLOR: BLACK 100 LIST CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE HONOREES!
STATE SENATE
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ELIAS HUSAMUDEEN
JOSEPH BRACCO
ELIZABETH CASTRO
KAREN TYSON
MICHAEL MAIELLO
AMELIA WARNER
FREDERIC FUSCO
KENYATTA JOHNSON
President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
3rd Vice President
Treasurer
Financial Secretary
Legislative Chairman
Corresponding Secretary
DANIEL PALMIERI
BENNY BOSCIO
ALBERT CRAIG
ANGEL CASTRO
PAULETTE BERNARD
TYSON JONES
MARK MACK
Recording Secretary
Sergeant-At-Arms
First City-Wide Trustee
Manhattan Borough Trustee
Brooklyn Borough Trustee
Bronx Borough Trustee
Queens Borough Trustee
FOLLOW US ON
WWW.COBANYC.ORG
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DONOVAN RICHARDS
CALVIN O. BUTTS III
BRIAN BENJAMIN ZELLNOR MYRIE
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN LIKE MANY of his
colleagues, New York City Councilman Donovan Richards is term-limited in 2021 – although he may leave the legislative body early if he can prevail in the upcoming special election for Queens borough president. In the meantime, the likable chairman of the Public Safety Committee is continuing to weigh in on criminal justice issues, including criticizing the recent hiring of another white man as the next NYPD commissioner.
PASTOR ABYSSINIAN BAPTIST CHURCH A LONGTIME pillar of
the black community and outspoken political pundit, Calvin O. Butts III is a figure frequently sought after by aspiring politicians. He added his voice to the successful calls to fire NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, whose chokehold led to Eric Garner’s death. Butts is set to retire next year as president of SUNY Old Westbury, leaving behind a legacy of increased enrollment, an improvement in grades and the creation of the school’s first graduate school program.
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STATE SENATOR
STATE SENATOR
THE STATE SENATOR is a testament to
THE BROOKLYN
proving oneself when given the opportunity. He might not make the front page of the tabloids or be the focal point of salacious gossip, but the former real estate developer has made a name for himself in Albany. Benjamin, who is exploring a run for New York City comptroller in 2021, has been at the forefront of successful efforts in the state Legislature to reform the criminal justice system.
state senator has had a lot on his plate this year – including his push for election reform. Zellnor Myrie sponsored five election reform bills that were signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and launched the state Complete Count Committee to motivate residents to participate in the 2020 census. Despite being a first-term lawmaker, he also played a key role in shepherding through sweeping new tenant protections in Albany in 2019.
40 I. DANEEK MILLER
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN NEW YORK CITY Councilman I. Daneek Miller’s importance to city politics and the local labor movement can’t be challenged. The former president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1056 has continued on the pro-labor path as an elected official. He chairs the Civil Service and Labor Committee and co-chaired the MTA Labor Coalition. He recently helped introduce legislation that would allow every private sector worker in New York City to save pre-tax for retirement.
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POWER
Congratulations to the Power of Color Black 100 List from the members of 32BJ SEIU. 32BJ SEIU
32BJSEIU
32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country. 25 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011 • www.seiu32bj.org
OFFICE OF NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN I. DANEEK MILLER
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Congratulations Paul Thomas Partner
on being named to the
Power of Color: Black 100
Pollie/Reed Awards for Creative Ad Design
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OVER
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CHARLIE KING & RACHEL NOERDLINGER
JAMES SANDERS JR.
KEVIN PARKER
LEROY COMRIE
THROWING HIS
support behind U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris’ now-suspended presidential campaign and New York City first lady Chirlane McCray’s ThriveNYC campaign, assisting in the passage of a ban on 3D-printed guns and grilling Con Edison for power outages this summer, state Sen. Kevin Parker has used his platform for purpose – and for a little trash talk. Go to Twitter if you want to see him at his most unvarnished.
LEROY COMRIE has been in elected office for nearly two decades, serving in the New York City Council for three terms and, after his failed Queens borough president bid, representing constituents in the state Senate since 2015. He speaks softly and keeps a low profile – after state Sen. Michael Gianaris’ pending appointment to an obscure board that would have weighed in on Amazon’s HQ2 fell through, it was Comrie who got the post.
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CHARLIE KING
41 DEBORAH ROSE
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILWOMAN NEW YORK CITY Councilwoman Deborah Rose, who is Staten Island’s first black elected official, has benefited from the support of the Working Families Party. Recently embroiled in a tussle over rezoning the Bay Street corridor and a possible homeless shelter on Victory Boulevard, Rose has also called for a microtransit pilot program to increase transit options in the borough. Meanwhile, there are rumors that she’s eyeing a possible public administration post.
joined Mercury Public Affairs as co-chair in 2015 before eventually becoming partner. His relationship to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (he was a senior campaign adviser for his 2014 reelection bid) only furthers his reach. Rachel Noerdlinger has served as a communications adviser to the National Action Network and as an aide to first lady Chirlane McCray. She’s also helped Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner.
STATE SEN. James
Sanders Jr. is a champion of small business and entrepreneurship. Among his recent successes, the chairman of the state Senate Banks Committee has pushed to direct more capital to businesses previously overlooked by banking institutions, and supported renewing and expanding the law giving minorityand women-owned businesses better access to state contracts. Sanders was among the lawmakers who supported Tiffany Cabán in this year’s Democratic primary for Queens district attorney.
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NIKOLE HANNAH- KIARA ST. JAMES JONES CO-FOUNDER
LOVELY WARREN
ROCHESTER MAYOR
DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
NAMED TO Essence
magazine’s 2018 Woke 100 Women list, Lovely Warren is gaining recognition on a national scale. Her efforts to form a police accountability board (which would investigate misconduct and make recommendations to the Rochester police chief) have been met with some resistance. She’s also doubled down on calling for a state takeover of the Rochester City School District. The city’s first female mayor, Warren previously served on the Rochester City Council.
STATE SENATOR
FOCUSING ON
47 JENNIFER JONES AUSTIN
CEO AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FEDERATION OF PROTESTANT WELFARE AGENCIES IN AN era when the gap between the haves and the have-nots is wider than it has been in decades, Jennifer Jones Austin has been pushing City Hall and Albany to do right by New Yorkers in need. Austin and several other civil rights figures recently met with incoming NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea. In October, she was named the first female co-host of the “Open Line” radio show on WBLS.
racial injustice, Nikole Hannah-Jones made waves this year shepherding The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 project, which drew the praise of many and the ire of conservatives. She’s publicly expressed her concerns with the Specialized High School Admissions Test, joining the growing chorus of voices pushing to change the admission process. Hannah-Jones is the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.
AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NEW YORK TRANSGENDER ADVOCACY GROUP PUSHING ALBANY
to do what Washington won’t, Kiara St. James maintains her perch as a staunch advocate for LGBTQ rights across New York state. She helped enshrine the protection of gender-nonconforming and transgender individuals with the passage of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act in the state Legislature. St. James recently attended the National Trans Visibility March in Washington, D.C.
STATE SENATOR
SHEENA WRIGHT PRESIDENT AND CEO UNITED WAY OF NEW YORK CITY
WHEN SHEENA WRIGHT joined the
United Way of New York City in 2012, her goal was, as she puts it, to “play more of an activist role.” One notable initiative is ReadNYC, which is aimed at doubling the number of third graders in poor neighborhoods who can read on grade level. Other key goals include eradicating poverty in the city, making life more affordable and increasing the response rate for the 2020 census.
OFFICE OF NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN DEBORAH ROSE; ROB WHITE
PARTNER; MANAGING DIRECTOR MERCURY
STATE SENATOR
Fordham University congratulates all of the
Power of Color: Black 100 award recipients including our own
Christina Greer, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Political Science and American Studies fordham.edu
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A.R. BERNARD
LARAY BROWN
SHAUN D. FRANCOIS I
DARREN WALKER
SENIOR PASTOR CHRISTIAN CULTURAL CENTER THE HEAD of a
40,000-member Brooklyn megachurch, A.R. Bernard briefly spent time on President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The pastor has made a name for himself in politics through his efforts to build affordable housing on the church’s premises and via his political endorsements. Bernard’s church was also the venue for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s big speech reversing his position on stop-andfrisk policing.
CEO ONE BROOKLYN HEALTH SYSTEM
BROOKDALE UNIVERSITY Hospital
Medical Center, Interfaith Medical Center and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center need hundreds of millions of dollars from Albany each year to remain afloat. With One Brooklyn Health System, all three hospitals have come together to hopefully right the ship. LaRay Brown is tasked with making that a reality after receiving a $664 million transformation grant from the state. Only time will tell if she will be successful.
PRESIDENT DISTRICT COUNCIL 37 AS PRESIDENT
of District Council 37 and the New York City Board of Education Employees Local 372, Shaun D. Francois I represents school crossing guards, health aides, lunch workers and other school staff. After taking over as District Council 37 president earlier this year, Francois got to work bringing together the more than 50 locals in the area. “I want to build a stronger foundation for the Council,” he said after becoming president.
APPOINTED TO the New York City Planning Commission by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2015, Hope Knight is part of the agency responsible for approving the mayor’s plan for borough-based jails that will replace Rikers Island. Knight has led Jamaica, Queens, down the road to luxury apartments, more retail options and restaurants. The neighborhood is booming, thanks in part to her efforts at the Greater Jamaica Development Corp.
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INGRID LEWISMARTIN SENIOR ADVISER BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT’S OFFICE SHE’S BEEN at
56 GREGG BISHOP
COMMISSIONER NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF SMALL BUSINESS SERVICES TASKED WITH helping small businesses
develop, Gregg Bishop has one of the most important jobs in New York City. This year, his department reached its goal of certifying 9,000 minority- and women-owned business enterprises, well ahead of the deadline. The city has awarded more than $13 billion in contracts to MWBEs since 2015, and it is reportedly on track to reach its goal of awarding 30% of mayoral contracts to MWBEs by 2021.
PRESIDENT FORD FOUNDATION
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams’ side for a while, and she’ll likely remain there now that Adams is openly eyeing a 2021 mayoral run. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lewis-Martin’s been loyal to her home borough and was once a public school teacher in Crown Heights. She’s been behind the scenes for a long time, but expect to regularly see her in front of the camera with Adams next year.
54 HOPE KNIGHT
PRESIDENT AND CEO GREATER JAMAICA DEVELOPMENT CORP.
FLOYD & ELAINE FLAKE SENIOR PASTOR; CO-PASTOR GREATER ALLEN AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL OF NEW YORK
THE FLAKE family has been power brokers in Queens politics for a long time. Floyd Flake endorsed Melinda Katz in the Queens district attorney race, which may have aided her narrow victory over progressive insurgent Tiffany Cabán. Floyd and Elaine Flake recently hosted rapper Kanye West’s “Sunday Service,” where he and a gospel choir played many songs.
59 WILLIAM FLOYD DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS AND PUBLIC POLICY GOOGLE
WORKING WITH
local and state officials, William Floyd was involved with Google’s expansion in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. While another tech giant – Amazon – was spurring controversy, this spring Google purchased the eight-story, 325,000-square-foot Milk Building at 450 W. 15th St., previously owned by Jamestown Properties. If you need to explain the difference between the failure of Amazon’s HQ2 and the success of Google, one key factor is Floyd.
AT A time when democratic socialists have become a greater part of the political conversation, Darren Walker has made reforming capitalism one of his objectives. Overseeing the foundation formed by Edsel Ford (son of Henry Ford), Walker wants to make art and culture more accessible, and create a capitalist system that is fair, inclusive and sustainable. “If you want the American dream today, you ought to move to Canada,” Walker recently told CNBC.
60 MITCHELL GORDON TAYLOR SENIOR PASTOR CENTER OF HOPE INTERNATIONAL SPEAKING OF
Amazon HQ2, Bishop Mitchell Taylor was a vocal supporter of Amazon’s bid to open a new headquarters in Queens. Taylor said he spoke for the residents, including NYCHA tenants, who actually lived in the area and that protests were coming from critics who don’t call Long Island City home. Recently, Taylor met with developers who want to develop the Long Island City waterfront, including some of the spaces Amazon wanted to occupy.
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JONELLE PROCOPE
CLINTON MILLER RAYMOND PASTOR MCGUIRE
PRESIDENT AND CEO APOLLO THEATER FOR THE past
16 years, Jonelle Procope has not only kept the name of the Apollo Theater in the public eye, but has ensured the organization remains financially stable in the future. By raising money to restore and preserve the legendary venue, maintaining its status as a museum for the history of black music and expanding its educational and community programs, Procope has transformed the historic theater into a thriving nonprofit.
GREATER JAMAICA DEVELOPMENT CORP.; NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE; SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATURE
City & State New York
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BROWN MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH AFTER TWO
decades leading Brown Memorial Baptist Church, the Rev. Clinton Miller has solidified his political might. He was a member of the 2019 New York City Charter Revision Commission, whose reforms were easily approved by voters. Last year, Miller displayed his political independence by rejecting a request from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to speak at his church and criticized Cuomo’s primary rival, Cynthia Nixon, on the optics of her marijuana legalization stance.
GLOBAL HEAD OF CORPORATE AND INVESTMENT BANKING CITIGROUP CITIGROUP RECENTLY overhauled
its consumer banking division as part of another restructuring of the company, leading to the departure of quite a few top-level executives. Ray McGuire, however, is still shepherding the company’s global endeavors. A veteran of the financial services industry, McGuire has recently been speaking out on political issues, such as solving income inequality. “We need to move forward with a coalition,” he said.
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64 KIRSTEN JOHN FOY
PRESIDENT, BROOKLYN CHAPTER NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK WORKING FOR thenNew York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and for the Rev. Al Sharpton molded Kirsten John Foy into the political figure he is today. Foy supports bringing casinos to downstate New York because of the jobs it would create for people of color, and has called for more specialized high schools in New York City. He attended a National Day of Outrage rally to protest Atatiana Jefferson’s death at the hands of police.
65 DUWAYNE GREGORY
PRESIDING OFFICER SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATURE KNOCKING DOWN a challenge from Repub-
lican Christopher Connors, DuWayne Gregory easily cruised to victory this year. Development is the name of the game for Gregory, and he wants to see more of it in Suffolk County. He also wants his constituents shielded from the potential damage of another Superstorm Sandy. He commissioned a report, coinciding with the seventh anniversary of Sandy, to improve the county’s storm preparedness and response efforts.
CONGRATULATES CONGRESSMAN GREGORY MEEKS SPEAKER CARL HEASTIE SENATOR KEVIN PARKER SENATOR JAMAAL BAILEY ON BEING NAMED TO CITY & STATE'S POWER OF COLOR BLACK 100 LIST 5 PENN PLAZA 19TH FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10001 119 WASHINGTON 2ND FLOOR ALBANY, NY 12210 WWW.PATRICKBJENKINS.COM
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RUDOLPH F. “RUDY” CREW
CHRISTINA GREER
T. ANDREW BROWN
ALPHONSO DAVID
THE STATE Board of Regents had an interesting year. It has been in the news for considering revamping high school graduation requirements, spent much of the year transitioning from one education commissioner to an interim commissioner to another acting commissioner, and have found themselves in a controversy over possibly taking over the Rochester City School District. T. Andrew Brown, a Rochester-based attorney, has been at the center of it all.
BEING A longtime
RUDY CREW, the former New York City schools chancellor who has been at the helm of Medgar Evers College since 2013, recently oversaw the school’s largest graduating class. And he wants to continue expanding the Crown Heights, Brooklyn, CUNY school’s academic offerings. Despite an accusation of bullying and harassment by a former staffer – which a CUNY internal inquiry failed to substantiate – and rumors of his impending resignation, Crew’s still here.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR of political
science at Fordham University, Christina Greer focuses on New York City and state politics, black politics, campaigns and elections. She co-hosts the “FAQ NYC” podcast about New York politics and hosts “The Aftermath,” where she talks with black thought leaders about the Trump presidency for Ozy. She is the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream.”
VICE CHANCELLOR STATE BOARD OF REGENTS
PRESIDENT HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
69 LEECIA EVE
VICE PRESIDENT OF PUBLIC POLICY VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS LEECIA EVE was hired by Verizon in 2013
as the company’s vice president of government affairs for the tri-state region. Eve briefly stepped away from her job last year to run for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general. Even though she lost to Letitia James, it’s clear that politics is in her blood as the daughter of Arthur Eve, a former assemblyman, and Constance Eve, the founder of Women for Human Rights and Dignity.
former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo keeps Alphonso David in proximity to power. As chief counsel, he helped the governor push through a bill allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and called for criminal justice reforms. David, who joined Human Rights Campaign as its president in August, has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump – calling him the “worst president on LGBTQ issues ever.”
Congratulations to
Jennifer Jones Austin 2019 Black Power 100 Chief Executive Officer, FPWA Your commitment to community and passionate leadership inspire us every day
ANTHONY ALVAREZ PHOTOGRAPHY
PRESIDENT MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE
Be a game-changer. Elijah Craig, Brooklyn native Berkeley College Alumnus, High School Admissions Associate, and Assistant Coach, Berkeley College Men’s Basketball Team, Four-Time USCAA Division II National Champions
BerkeleyCollege.edu
Berkeley College reserves the right to add, discontinue, or modify its programs and policies at any time. Modifications subsequent to the original publication of this document may not be reflected here. For up-to-date and detailed information, please visit BerkeleyCollege.edu and view our catalogs at BerkeleyCollege.edu/publications.
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MARA GAY & JEFFERY C. MAYS
GERRARD BUSHELL
GEOFFREY CANADA & ANNE WILLIAMS-ISOM
MICHAEL GARNER
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER; REPORTER THE NEW YORK TIMES
EXECUTIVE CHAIR THE CARLYLE GROUP’S TERMINAL ONE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT AT JFK IN SEPTEMBER,
YOU’LL HEAR Mara
72 ELINOR TATUM
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS AS THE head of the black newspaper of record in the five boroughs and beyond, Elinor Tatum has kept the New York Amsterdam News important in such a way that those running for office still seek its blessing. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg took a recent pilgrimage to the newspaper’s offices for a talk with Tatum. With presidential and mayoral campaigns in 2020 and 2021, expect the paper to remain a major stopping point.
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Gerrard Bushell departed as head of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, leaving the public benefit corporation as the country’s No. 1 municipal bond issuer, with $35 billion in bonds sold in his tenure and $9.5 billion borrowed in 2018 alone. Bushell was recently appointed as executive chair of the Terminal One Development Project at John F. Kennedy International Airport, overseeing a $7 billion project.
and Anne Williams-Isom continue to be prominent figures in the community. A pioneering education reformer and thought leader, Canada has been widely acknowledged for his contributions, recently winning the Richard Murphy Leadership Award for his work in youth services. Williams-Isom recently announced that she will step down June 30, 2020, after 10 years with Harlem Children’s Zone.
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REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT FOR GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS FOR THE NORTHEAST REGION CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS
SOCIAL SERVICE EMPLOYEES UNION LOCAL 371
THE MTA’S chief
diversity officer since 2009, Michael Garner continues to work on developing and expanding opportunities for minorityand women-owned business enterprises and disadvantaged business enterprises. Garner also deals with Title VI and Equal Employment Opportunity issues. When he is not at his full-time job at the MTA, Garner gives speeches about his work at various professional conferences.
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CAMILLE JOSEPH- ANTHONY WELLS MEREDITH PRESIDENT GOLDMAN MARSHALL
BERTHA LEWIS FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT THE BLACK INSTITUTE
FROM LEADING
ACORN to founding her own activist nonprofit, Bertha Lewis stays in the news commenting on issues that affect the black community. Recently, the longtime activist and community organizer wrote an op-ed in the New York Amsterdam News expressing her support for rankedchoice voting, which was approved by voters on Nov. 5. She also took Gov. Andrew Cuomo to task for using the N-word on a radio show in October.
GEOFFREY CANADA
CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
77 CARMEN CHARLES
PRESIDENT MUNICIPAL HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES UNION LOCAL 420 CARMEN CHARLES was elected to a seventh
term as president of District Council 37 in January. She founded the District Council 37 Carribean Heritage Committee, chairs the union’s Women’s Committee and represents its 10,000 members, which includes health care workers in New York City Health + Hospitals, the city Office of Chief Medical Examiner and the Department of Correction.
CAMILLE JOSEPH GOLDMAN has
worked for some of the biggest names in New York and national politics, including U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. For the past three years, she has capitalized on that experience as an executive at Charter Communications, which settled with the state on upstate broadband investment.
REPRESENTING 17,000 social services
workers, Anthony Wells has been active this year. He has come out against single-payer health care, stating that he doesn’t want his members losing the medical benefits they bargained for. The New York Health Act “is going to cause some problems,” he told City & State. On top of that, Wells continues to lead the District Council 37 Civil Service Committee and co-chairs the union’s Municipal Labor Committee.
MANAGING PARTNER AND COFOUNDER BRP COMPANIES MEREDITH MAR SHALL has played a
huge role in developing property (usually affordable housing) in the tri-state area. He’s currently developing 2,300 residential units in New York City and Philadelphia, including a 255-unit residential building in his old Flatbush, Brooklyn, neighborhood. BRP Companies estimates that its real estate portfolio is at $1.7 billion. Marshall, a former managing director at Musa Capital Advisors, is responsible for BRP’s investment strategies.
BILL MOORE; LOCAL 420
Gay’s opinions on all things New York City politics if you follow her on social media and read her columns in The New York Times. While politicians court the newspaper’s editorial board for endorsements, Gay focuses her commentary on political issues in the five boroughs. Jeffery C. Mays closely covers the nitty-gritty of city and state politics. Earlier this year, he followed Mayor Bill de Blasio on his failed presidential campaign.
PRESIDENT; CEO HARLEM CHILDREN’S ZONE
Congratulations to DC 37 President
Shaun Francois I
and the Power of Color: Black 100 Representing 150,000 employees
District Council
AFSCME AFL- CIO
7
THE UNION THAT MAKES NEW YORK CITY RUN. www.dc37.net
For 62 years Rev Dr Al Sharpton has dedicated himself to the strengthening of our democracy, for the dignity of every life and for equal protection under the law! For over two decades Rev Kirsten John Foy has enjoyed the privilege of Rev Sharpton’s mentorship, leadership and friendship! Rev Foy and The Arc of Justice join our voices to the plethora of those thanking Rev Sharpton for his exemplary sacrifice, service and strategy. Congratulations to The Rev and our entire National Action Network family from Rev Foy and your entire Arc of Justice family!!! The Arc of Justice congratulates all of the recipients of this prestigious honor! Kirsten
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LLOYD WILLIAMS
MICHAEL & LAKEESHA WALROND
SEAN T. CAMPBELL
JESSICA WALKER
A PROMINENT community leader, Lloyd Williams oversees the historic business organization that was established in 1896 as the Harlem Board of Commerce. From music festivals to street events to the annual Harlem Week to the economic development of the neighborhood, Williams has kept the engine running at the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, which is the oldest continually operating business organization in Upper Manhattan.
SENIOR PASTOR; EXECUTIVE PASTOR FIRST CORINTHIAN BAPTIST CHURCH NEW YORK Theo-
82 GLORIA MIDDLETON
PRESIDENT COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA LOCAL 1180 GLORIA MIDDLETON is in her second year as president of Communications Workers of America Local 1180. This year, the union settled a lawsuit with the de Blasio administration that it had brought against the city in 2013. This came after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found reasonable cause to believe the city discriminated against women and people of color who served in administrative manager positions for decades.
SECRETARY-TREASURER NEW YORK STATE AFL-CIO THE REV. Terrence Melvin is the No. 2 at the
New York State AFL-CIO, the umbrella group representing millions of public and private sector union members statewide. Melvin, who is also an associate minister at Second Baptist Church in Lackawanna, worked his way up at the Civil Service Employees Association, an influential state public sector union, before being elected to his current post in July 2007.
for about 30 years, Sean T. Campbell represents private sanitation workers as well as workers in the rental car, warehouse, factory, funeral and demolition industries. Campbell, a champion of environmental justice, notched a major win when New York City passed a commercial waste zone bill that will create at least 20 different zones and designate several private waste haulers to provide services in each of them.
SINCE TAKING the helm at the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce in 2016, Jessica Walker hasn’t been shy about advocating for local businesses. Walker, who previously worked at the Partnership for New York City, has called on the New York City Council to amend or avoid legislation she says harms business owners, including a measure that makes it harder to fire fast-food workers and a landmark law overhauling New York City’s private trash hauling system.
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JANELLA HINDS
ALICKA AMPRYSAMUEL
JUANITA SCARLETT
MAYA WILEY
REPRESENTING BROWNSVILLE, one
JUANITA SCARLETT
A LIFELONG edu-
TERRENCE MELVIN
A UNION member
87 SECRETARYTREASURER NEW YORK CITY CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL
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logical Seminary appointed LaKeesha Walrond as its president earlier this year, making her the first woman and the first black woman to serve in the position at the 119-year-old institution. Walrond has been executive pastor of First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem for over 10 years. Michael Walrond continues to lead the church as senior pastor, and oversees a number of social justice initiatives.
PRESIDENT AND PRINCIPAL OFFICER TEAMSTERS LOCAL UNION 813
PRESIDENT AND CEO MANHATTAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
cator, Janella Hinds has spent decades pushing for better education for students. As vice president for academic high schools at the United Federation of Teachers, she has testified before the New York City Council in favor of desegregating the city’s public schools. The former high school teacher also serves double duty as the No. 2 at the New York City Central Labor Council, the city’s umbrella group for public and private sector unions.
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILWOMAN
of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, is a tough job. And representing New York City Housing Authority residents, a huge population living in difficult conditions, may be an even tougher job. Alicka Ampry-Samuel, chairwoman of the New York City Council Public Housing Committee, does both. An attorney and community organizer who once worked as an international diplomat in Ghana, Ampry-Samuel is on the shortlist of potential future City Council speakers.
PARTNER BOLTON-ST. JOHNS has worked for some of the state’s biggest political names – Andrew Cuomo, Mario Cuomo, Eliot Spitzer and John Liu. Now that she’s made a name for herself, she’s taken her experience to the private sector, with stints at Park Strategies and McKenna Long & Aldridge before joining Bolton-St. Johns, where she advises clients in the health care, energy, economic development and education industries on public policy and public affairs.
PROFESSOR THE NEW SCHOOL AN ACTIVIST,
professor and former chairwoman of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, Maya Wiley has devoted her life to battling racial injustice and inequality. This year, she spoke on a panel at South by Southwest, stating that cities would benefit from working together to bolster innovation and solve problems by learning from one another. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, is rumored to be eyeing a mayoral run in 2021.
THE ADVANCE GROUP; EL-WISE NOISETTE
CEO GREATER HARLEM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
December 9, 2019
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MILTON TINGLING
PAUL THOMAS
NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK
PARTNER THE PARKSIDE GROUP
TUNISHA WALKER-MILLER
KENNETH KNUCKLES
MILTON TINGLING
PAUL THOMAS
TUNISHA WALKER-MILLER is a
KENNETH KNUCKLES has had a
has served in an under-the-radar role as Manhattan’s county clerk since 2015. The administrative workload he oversees may seem mundane – summoning locals for jury duty, handling marriage licenses, keeping court records – but Tingling is anything but dull. As a state Supreme Court justice, he blocked then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed soda ban in 2013. Tingling is also a lifelong friend of Manhattan Democratic Party Chairman Keith Wright.
92 FREDERICK WATTS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE FREDERICK WATTS runs the Police Athletic League, a more than century-old New York City nonprofit aimed at youth development. Watts’ organization is known for its partnership with the New York City Police Department and with figures like the late Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. The nonprofit, whose board is made up of some of New York’s most influential figures, runs an array of programs, including Head Start, universal pre-K, after-school activities and summer camps.
brings plenty of valuable experience to his government relations work, given the many relationships he has cultivated in New York City and state politics. Among Thomas’ past employers are then-state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, state Sen. Kevin Parker and the New York City Council. Now at The Parkside Group, he serves a wide range of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, educational and cultural institutions, and nonprofit organizations.
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT CAPALINO+ COMPANY
leading expert on government contracts for minority- and women-owned businesses, heading up top lobbying firm Capalino+Company’s MWBE consulting group since its founding in 2015. Walker-Miller – who previously held positions in the state Senate Democratic conference, in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration and at ACORN – has used her current job to create an MWBE directory.
VICE CHAIRMAN NEW YORK CITY PLANNING COMMISSION busy year. The New York City Planning Commission approved building four outer-borough jails as part of the city’s plan to close Rikers Island, despite protests. It also approved a rezoning plan for the Bay Street corridor on Staten Island and a plan for development on the Peninsula Hospital site in Queens. Until last year, the Bronx native served as president and CEO of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corp.
The Friends of Harlem Hospital Center Congratulates Our President and Chair
Reverend Jacques André DeGraff
LAURA BADGER/MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
And All The Honorees on being named to the list of the
CONGRATULATES
Black Power 100
DR. A.R. BERNARD
You are examples of what is best in our community.
The Friends of Harlem Hospital Center Board of Directors
Reverend Jacques André DeGraff Elaine Edmonds Valencia Porter, MBA Carole D. Smith R. Linsy Farris, MD Gilford A. Finch, MBM Michael J. Garner, MBA George Hulse Janet E. Charles, Esq. Dr. Jocelyn Cordice Paul T. Williams, Jr. Eboné M. Carrington, MPA, FAB
on being honored as one of
CCCINFO.ORG
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THE POWER OF COLOR: BLACK 100 CITY AND STATE NEW YORK @cccinfoorg | @ccclongisland | @cccorlando
718-306-1000
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DEIDRE SULLY
ANTHONY KENDALL
JOHNNIE GREEN
CHRISTOPHER J. WILLIAMS
DEIDRE SULLY runs
NYC Smoke-Free, an initiative of Public Health Solutions, but it feels like she’s on a one-woman mission to make the five boroughs a smoke-free oasis. At a time when vaping has become a public health crisis and New York has raised the age to purchase tobacco to 21, Sully has been an outspoken advocate. She’s also called on New York City to address the dangers of menthol cigarettes.
SENIOR PASTOR MOUNT NEBOH BAPTIST CHURCH
CHAIRMAN AND CEO MITCHELL TITUS ANTHONY KENDALL runs Manhat-
tan-based Mitchell Titus, which bills itself as the biggest minority-owned accounting firm in the country. Kendall – whose firm specializes in government and public sector work as well as asset management, private equity, nonprofit and real estate – has been at the reins since 2009, relying on his more than 30 years of professional experience. Last year, the firm joined forces with a Chicago-based, minority-owned accounting firm.
JOHNNIE GREEN
98 JACQUES ANDRE DEGRAFF
MINISTER CANAAN BAPTIST CHURCH OF CHRIST JACQUES ANDRE DEGRAFF continues the
tradition of black church leaders diving into matters of social justice and politics. He supported New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to scrap the Specialized High School Admissions Test and has spoken out in favor of diversifying the construction industry. DeGraff has also been a longtime proponent of minority- and women-owned businesses, demanding a greater share of city and state government contracts for such firms.
Velez Organization would like to congratulate the honorees featured in the Power of Color: Black 100 List, with special recognition to our friend and colleague,Reverend Jacques Andre DeGraff. We congratulate City and State for their commitment, and all honorees for their accomplishments.
For forty years, recognized as one of the largest and most successful Minority Business Enterprise construction industry firms in New York. www.velezorg.com 110 Williams Street, Room 2402, New York, NY 10006
leads his flock at Mount Neboh Baptist Church and is an advocate for social and economic justice for black New Yorkers. He has mobilized other preachers across New York City in pursuit of economic justice, most recently opposing the legalization of recreational marijuana if the black community doesn’t benefit. He has criticized a proposed fur ban in New York City because of the significance of fur in the black community.
BOARD CHAIRMAN SIEBERT WILLIAMS SHANK & CO. LLC THE WILLIAMS
Capital Group LP, a large black-owned investment bank, recently merged with Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., LLC to form Siebert Williams Shank & Co. LLC. The merger, which was announced in October, installed Christopher Williams as the firm’s board chairman, with Suzanne Shank as its president and CEO. It also makes the new company the largest minority- and women-owned financial firm in the country.
Put your hands together! Brown & Weinraub proudly applauds the leaders making a big impact in the Black Community.
50 State Street – Albany, NY 518 427 7350 | brownweinraub.com
Government Relations | Strategy | Healthcare Consulting & Advocacy | Corporate and Legal
JACQUES A. DEGRAFF; A KATZ, LEV RADIN/SHUTTERSTOCK; SEAN PRESSLEY
DIRECTOR NYC SMOKE-FREE
December 9, 2019
City & State New York
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LIVING LEGENDS
NEW YORK has a
rich history of black leaders who paved the way for others. Alongside our Power of Diversity: Black 100 list, we recognize five groundbreaking black politicians who are living legends.
UNA CLARKE
DAVID DINKINS
H. CARL MCCALL
DAVID PATERSON
CHARLES RANGEL
AFTER EMIGRATING from Jamaica
DAVID DINKINS
WHEN H. Carl McCall
IT WAS David Paterson who became New York’s first black governor, smoothing the waters after thenGov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation in 2008. Paterson, who had also been the state’s first nonwhite state legislative leader as state Senate minority leader, has kept busy since opting not to seek a full term as governor, including serving as the state Democratic Party chairman in 2014 and 2015 and, more recently, joining Las Vegas Sands’ efforts to site a casino in New York City.
THE “Lion of Lenox
as a student, Una Clarke went on to become the first foreign-born member of the New York City Council, where she served for a decade through 2001. She was then followed by her daughter, Yvette Clarke, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 2006. In 2015, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Una Clarke as a member of the board of trustees of the City University of New York.
made history in 1989 when he was elected as the first – and so far, the only – black mayor of New York City. He had previously served in the Assembly, as president of the New York City Board of Elections, as city clerk and as Manhattan borough president. Since shortly after he lost his reelection bid in 1993, he became a professor at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
announced his resignation as chairman of the State University of New York board of trustees earlier this year, it concluded a remarkable career: the first black man to serve as state comptroller, from 1993 through 2002; three terms in the state Senate; an ambassador to the United Nations; and president of the New York City Board of Education. What’s more, he had a shot at becoming the state’s first black governor, although he fell short as the Democratic nominee in 2002.
Avenue” was a political force in Harlem – and in New York and the nation – while serving in the House of Representatives for 46 years. Among his achievements are being awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his service in the Korean War, marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr. for civil rights, helping to create the Congressional Black Caucus and chairing the influential Ways and Means Committee.
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CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES
December 9, 2019
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF KINGS U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, V. ST. CLAIR JOHN; ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE
December 9, 2019 For more info. 212-268-0442 Ext.2039
legalnotices@cityandstateny.com Notice of Formation of ENC Property Maintenance, LLC filed with SSNY on May 20, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 39 Tynan Street Staten Island, NY 10312. Purpose: any lawful act or activity. Sylverlink LLC. Arts of Org. filed on 10/01/2019 w/ the Sec. of State of NY (SSNY). Office in NY. SSNY is designated agent upon whom process may be served and mail a copy to 40 Morningside Ave Apt 21, NY, NY 10026. For any lawful purpose. Notice of Formation of MKP SUPPLY LLC. Articles of Org. filed with the Secretary of State of New York(SSNY) on 10/2/2019. Office located in Richmond County. SSNY has been designated for service of process. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to: 354 Castleton Ave Staten Island NY 10301. Purpose: any lawful activity or purpose. NY PIANO TECH LLC Art. OF Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 10/4/19. Off. Loc. : New York Co. United States Corporation Agents, Inc. designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.
Notice of Formation of CONVERGENT VENTURES LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/28/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 850 Third Ave., Ste. 16C, NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity. SF Princeton LLC, Arts of Org. filed SSNY 09/27/19. Office: NY Co. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process may be served & mail to SF Princeton LLC, 45 Broadway, 25th Fl., NY, NY 10006. General Purpose. Notice of Formation of DACCAN Consulting LLC filed with SSNY on August 19, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 625 W57th St , Apt 458, NY, NY 10019. Purpose: any lawful act or activity Notice of Formation of Mindful Modern Designs LLC filed with SSNY on September 11, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 3845 Gromer St, Yorktown Heights NY 10598. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated July 23, 2019, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Kings, wherein U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION is the Plaintiff and ST. CLAIR JOHN; ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, ROOM 224, 360 ADAMS STREET, BROOKLYN NY 11201, on October 31, 2019 at 2:30PM, premises known as 134 EAST 92ND STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11212: Block 4610, Lot 26: ALL THAT CERTAIN LOT OR PARCEL OF LAND, WITH THE BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS THEREON ERECTED, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, COUNTY OF KINGS, CITY AND STATE OF NEW YORK Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 501789/2017. JAMES MARTIN CAFFREY, Esq. - Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff.
65 CPW 1F LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 09/24/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 65 Central Park West Apt 1F, NY, NY 10023. Reg Agent: Anand P. Desai, 65 Central Park West Apt 1F, NY, NY 10023. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM Notice of Qualification of S + B CHELSEA, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/29/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Maryland (MD) on 08/19/19. Princ. office and MD addr. of LLC is: 8171 Maple Lawn Blvd., Ste. 200, Fulton, MD 20759. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Theodore A. Offit, Esq., c/o Offit Kurman, P.A. at the princ. office of the LLC. Cert. of Form. filed with Michael L. Higgs-Director, 301 W. Preston St., Rm. 801, Baltimore, MD 21201. Purpose: To lease real property.
Brooklyn Eye Plastics MD, PLLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 10/03/13. Office: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of the PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the PLLC, c/o Chaneve Jeanniton, 115 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Purpose: For the practice of the profession of Medicine. Notice of Qualification of Wildflower Renewables LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 10/18/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 80 8th Ave., Ste. 1602, NY, NY 10011. LLC formed in DE on 10/16/19. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Cogency Global Inc. (CGI), 10 E. 40th St., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10016. DE addr. of LLC: CGI, 850 New Burton Rd., Ste. 201, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.
LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM
Notice of Qualification of S + B UPPER EAST SIDE, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/28/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Maryland (MD) on 12/14/18. Princ. office and MD addr. of LLC is: 8171 Maple Lawn Blvd., Ste. 200, Fulton, MD 20759. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Theodore A. Offit, Esq., c/o Offit Kurman, P.A. at the princ. office of the LLC. Cert. of Form. filed with Michael L. Higgs-Director, 301 W. Preston St., Rm. 801, Baltimore, MD 21201. Purpose: To lease real property. THE WATCH LOUNGE LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 10/29/19. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 99 Tulip Avenue, Suite 308, Floral Park, NY 11001. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. Notice of Qualification of Louisiana PDC, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/15/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Louisiana (LA) on 02/08/17. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o C T Corporation System, 28 Liberty St., New York, NY 10005. LA addr. of LLC: c/o , 200 Corporate Blvd, Lafayette, LA 70508. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of LA, 8585 Archives Ave., Baton Rouge, LA 70809 708049125. Purpose: Any lawful activity Notice of Qualification of HR Buds, LLC. Authority filed with SSNY on October 1, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 10 E. 40th St., 10th floor, New York, New York 10016. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
R&K PASEO LLC 1 filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/18/19. County: NY. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o The LLC, 845 United Nations Plaza, 42B, NY, NY 10017. Purpose: any lawful act. Notice of Formation of Silver Linings - Aging in Place Organizers, LLC filed with SSNY on July 12, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 522 East 88 Street, Apt. 3C, New York, NY 10128. Purpose: any lawful act or activity. Imose Fashion, LLC, Arts. Of Org. filed with SSNY 09/12/2019. Office loc: Richmond County. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Michelle Emokpae, 15 Bailey Place, Staten Island, NY 10303. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. Notice of Qualification of NOMURA STRATEGIC VENTURES, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/25/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/14/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
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PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com
December 9, 2019
Notice of Qualification of Graphic Athletics, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/02/19. Office location: Westchester County. LLC formed in Florida (FL) on 08/17/18. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Cohen & Grieb, P.A. (CG), 4890 West Kennedy Blvd., Suite 370, Tampa, FL 33609. FL addr. of LLC: c/o CG, 12468 Jacqueline Rd., Brooksville, FL 34613. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of FL, Div. of Corps., 500 South Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399. Purpose: Any lawful activity Notice of Formation: Mojo 33 LLC filed with SSNY on 10/24/2019. Office: Kings County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Mojo 33 LLC 4024 Ave U - 2nd Fl, Bklyn NY 11234. Purpose: any lawful purpose
NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF KINGS MTGLQ INVESTORS, L.P., Plaintiff -against- MICHAEL MCGRATH, RACHEL SHERMAN, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered herein and dated July 22, 2019, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Courthouse 360 Adams Street, Room 224, Brooklyn, NY on December 12, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. premises situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, known as Unit No. 2J in the condominium known as “Dorchester Heights Condominium” together with a 1.956 undivided interest in the common elements. Block: 5185 Lot: 1022 Said premises known as 2116 DORCHESTER ROAD A/K/A 2116/2118 DORCHESTER ROAD, UNIT 2J, BROOKLYN, NY Approximate amount of lien $434,558.32 plus interest & costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment and Terms of Sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The Purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee or the Mortgagee’s attorney. Index Number 5761/2015. GREGORY T. CERCHIONE, ESQ., Referee David A. Gallo & Associates LLP Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 99 Powerhouse Road, First Floor, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577 File# 7254.1219
Notice of Formation Hernandez Consulting, LLC filed with SSNY on 07/29/2019. NY County. Florintino Hernandez designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served at 68 Bradhurst Ave. Apt. 4M New York, NY 10039 Purpose: any lawful act of activity.
SMITH BERGEN HOLDINGS LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 10/22/19. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 102 Bergen Street, Unit 1, New York, NY 10014. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of Formation of JMD TITLE SERVICES LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/07/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, One Penn Plaza, Ste. 4530, NY, NY 10119. Purpose: Perform title services.
Notice of Formation of Sant Epernay, LLC filed with SSNY on July 22, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 8 W. 75 St. 4A, NY, NY 10023. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
Notice of Formation of Brownstone Recordings, LLC filed with SSNY on August 31, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 28 W 123rd st , NY, NY 10027. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
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Notice of Formation of ALMS HILL ROOF LESSEE, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/30/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
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Notice of Qualification of 250 WEST NYACK PROPERTY LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/30/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/23/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St. Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of INNOVATUS CAPITAL PARTNERS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/01/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/22/15. Princ. office of LLC: 777 Third Ave., 25th Fl., NY, NY 10017. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State of the State of DE, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity
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NOTICE OF SALE STATE OF NEW YORK SUPREME COURT: COUNTY OF KINGS CAPITAL ONE, N.A. Plaintiff, vs. YURY GOKHBERG, TATYANA GAVRIKOVA, A/K/A TATYANA GARIKOVA, et al., Defendants NOTICE OF SALE IN FORECLOSURE PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT In pursuance of a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the office of the County Clerk of Kings County on July 29, 2019, I, Jack Segal the Referee named in said Judgment, will sell in one parcel at public auction on December 19, 2019 at Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, County of Kings, State of New York, at 2:30 P.M., the premises described as follows: 44 Noel Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11235 SBL No.: 8907 840 ALL THAT TRACT OF PARCEL OF LAND Situate in the borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York. The premises are sold subject to the provisions of the filed judgment, Index No. 503995/2013 in the amount of $172,798.60 plus interest and costs.
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Brettanie L. Hart Saxton, Esq. Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP Plaintiff’s Attorney 500 Bausch & Lomb Place, Rochester, New York 14604 Tel.: 855-227-5072
NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF KINGS
Notice of Formation of LUMBER LANE REAL ESTATE, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/04/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Philip Krim At Casper Sleep, Inc., 3 World Trade Center, NY, NY 10007. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of Wildflower Partners LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 9/18/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. bus. addr.: 80 8th Ave., Ste. 1602, NY, NY 10011. LLC formed in DE on 9/17/19. NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Cogency Global Inc. (CGI), 10 E. 40th St., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10016. DE addr. of LLC: CGI, 850 New Burton Rd., Ste. 201, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.
MTGLQ Investors, LP, Plaintiff AGAINST Oliver Barrett; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly dated November 28, 2018 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Room 224, Brooklyn, NY 11201 on December 19, 2019 at 2:30PM, premises known as 1740 East 54th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11234. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of NY, Block 8493 Lot 71. Approximate amount of judgment $685,206.78 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 500455/2016. Jack Segal, Esq., Referee Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792 Dated: October 28, 2019
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CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES
Notice of Qualification of GPMT CLO REIT HOLDINGS LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/07/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/04/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of THE DTE DEVELOPMENT FUND LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/06/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o DTE Holdings LLC, 1501 Broadway, Ste. #1304, NY, NY 10036. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of FEATHERSTONE DISTRIBUTION, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/08/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/12/19. Princ. office of LLC: 220 E. 42nd St., 29th Fl., NY, NY 10017. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of DE, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. GPG MEDALLION LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 10/1/19. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 6073 Flagstaff Dr, Eastvale, CA 92880. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.
Notice of Qualification of THE PRIVACY CO. MANAGEMENT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/12/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/07/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Renee M. Lercher, CFO, The Privacy Co. LLC, 845 3rd Ave., Fl. 18, NY, NY 10022. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qualification of EDEN POINT PARTNERS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/08/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/09/18. Princ. office of LLC: Andrew Lutakome Kayiira Jr., 20 E. 35th St., Apt. 15L, NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of Atacama Real Estate LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 11/6/19. Office location: NY County. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Alfredo Miguel Irigoin, 101 Warren St., Unit 2660, NY, NY 10282, principal business address. Purpose: any lawful activity.
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December 9, 2019
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1323482 FOR WINE & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL WINE & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 135 SULLIVAN ST NEW YORK, NY 10012. NEW YORK COUNTY, FOR ON-PREMISE CONSUMPTION. ECHIZEN LLC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1323497 FOR WINE & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL WINE & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 5693 RIVERDALE AVE BRONX, NY 10471. BRONX COUNTY, FOR ON-PREMISE CONSUMPTION. GMS KOSHER LLC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1323605 FOR WINE & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL WINE & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 131 E 70TH ST AKA 962 LEXINGTON AVE NY, NY 110021. NY COUNTY, FOR ON-PREMISE CONSUMPTION. LEX 70 LLC
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NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1323626 FOR LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 837 WHITE PLAINS ROAD. SCARSDALE, NY 10583. WESTCHESTER COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. EASTCHESTER FISH GOURMET INC.
GO-ORGANIC UGANDA’S BEST COFFEE LLC, Arts. of O r g . filed with the SSNY on 10/21/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 215 W 104th St. #1860, NY, NY 10025. Reg Agent: U.S. Corp. Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave., Ste 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose Notice of Qualification of Happiness Ventures LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/06/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/06/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 112 E. Victoria St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Address to be maintained in DE: 2140 S Dupont Hwy., Camden, DE 19934. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, Division of Corporations, PO Box 898, Dover, DE 19903. Purpose: any lawful activities. NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1323681 FOR LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 350 1ST AVE NEW YORK, NY 10010. NEW YORK COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. 350 1ST AVENUE LLC. Notice of Formation of Classic Dutch Cookie LLC filed with SSNY on 10/21/2019.Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 689 Fort Washington Ave PH5, NY, NY 10040. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
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PUBLIC NOTICE AT&T proposes to modify an existing facility (new tip heights 63.5’ & 70’) on the building at 4 Vestry St, New York, NY (20191885). Interested parties may contact Scott Horn (856-8091202) (1012 Industrial Dr., West Berlin, NJ 08091) with comments regarding potential effects on historic properties. Notice of Qualification of KOHLBERG MANAGEMENT IX, L.L.C. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/18/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/15/19. Princ. office of LLC: 111 Radio Circle, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Corporate Div., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of Center Rock Advisors LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 11/12/19. Office location: NY County. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Brad McFadden, 200 W. 67th St., 10L, NY, NY 10023, principal business address. Purpose: all lawful purposes. Notice of Formation of HUDSON MEDICINE, PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/14/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of PLLC: 281 Broadway, Second Fl., NY, NY 10007. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Jonathann C. Kuo, MD at the princ. office of the PLLC. Purpose: Practice of medicine. \
Notice of Formation of Yonkers CSG LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 10/11/19. Office location: NY County. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Dimension Energy LLC, c/o Rafael Dobrzynski, 3280 Peachtree Rd. NE, 7th Fl., Atlanta, GA 30305, principal business address. Purpose: any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of BILTMORE PRESERVATION CLASS B, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/25/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Qual. of MAINSPRING PARTNERS LLC, Authority filed with the SSNY on 11/07/2019. Office loc: NY County. LLC formed in DE on 09/30/2019. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Cogency Global Inc. 10 East 40th St., 10th Fl, NY, NY 10016. Address required to be maintained in DE: 850 New Burton Rd, Ste 201, Dover, DE 19904. Cert of Formation filed with DE Div. of Corps, 401 Federal St., Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose. MISSING HEIR - Information wanted concerning the whereabouts of MAUREEN SMITH whose last known address is 107-10 Shore Front Pkwy., Apt. 611, Rockaway Beach, NY 11694. Information wanted to settle an estate in which MAUREEN SMITH has an interest. Please communicate with Janene B. Reilly, Esq., Salvo Rogers Elinski & Scullin, 510 E. Township Line Rd., Ste. 150, Blue Bell, PA 19422.
PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com
December 9, 2019 NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT – COUNTY OF KINGS PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff against SIGISMONDO RENDA, ESQ. AS GUARDIAN AD LITEM MILITARY ATTORNEY ON BEHALF OF DAVID JARUSHEWSKY, if living, and if dead, the respective heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, executors, administrators, trustees, devisees, legatees, assignors, lienors, creditors and successors in interest and generally all persons having or claiming under, by or through said defendant who may be deceased, by purchase, inheritance, lien or otherwise of any right, title or interest in and to the premises described in the complaint herein, and their respective husbands, wives or widow, if any, and each and every person not specifically named who may be entitled to or claim to have any right, title or interest in the property described in the verified complaint; all of whom and whose names and places of residence unknown, and cannot after diligent inquiry be ascertained by the Plaintiff, et al Defendant(s). Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered on November 28, 2018. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Courthouse, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. on the 19th day of December, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. premises described as follows: All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York. Said premises known as 996 Decatur Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11207. (Section: 11, Block: 3432, Lot: 22). Approximate amount of lien $ 1,054,190.83 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed judgment and terms of sale. Index No. 502602-14. Jack Segal, Esq., Referee. McCabe, Weisberg & Conway, LLC Attorney(s) for Plaintiff 145 Huguenot Street – Suite 210 New Rochelle, New York 10801 (914) 636-8900
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1323738, FOR WINE & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL WINE & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 252 FRANKLIN ST BROOKLYN, NY 11222. KINGS COUNTY, FOR ON-PREMISE CONSUMPTION. ALULA CAFÉ INC. Notice of Formation of Spin Cycle Coffee LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/29/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o James Veltri, 27 West 70th St., Ste. 2A, NY, NY 10023. Purpose: any lawful activities.
Notice of Formation of BILTMORE DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 11/25/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 60 Columbus Circle, NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Any lawful activity. Notice of Formation of Hart - Ditmars, LLC filed with SSNY on October 21, 2019. Office: Kings County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 53 Bainbridge Street, Brooklyn, NY 11233. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
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NOTICE OF FORMATION MerchantCantos LLC. Application for Authority filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 08/21/2019. Office location: NEW YORK County. LLC formed in Delaware on 02/07/2013. SSNY has been designated as an agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/ her is: MerchantCantos LLC, Legal Department, 245 Park Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10167 The principal business address of the LLC is: 245 Park Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10167 Delaware address of LLC is: c/o The Corporation Trust Company, Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington DE 19801 Certificate of LLC filed with Secretary of State of Delaware located at: John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901 Purpose: any lawful act or activity
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Notice of Formation of Ciella James, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/05/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Denise Kilburg, 71 Broadway, Lobby 2B #138, NY, NY 10006. Purpose: any lawful activities. Notice of Formation of Primary Care Offices Of Manhattan LLC filed with SSNY on November 19, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 274 Madison Ave Suite 705, New York, NY 10016. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.
Notice of Auction
Notice of Auction Sale is herein given that Access Self Storage of Long Island City located at 2900 Review Avenue, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 will take place on WWW. STORAGETREASURES. COM Sale by competitive bidding starting on December 26, 2019 and end on January 07, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. to satisfy unpaid rent and charges on the following accounts: Contents of rooms generally contain misc. #2101-Peter Hargrove; tennis racket, 100 + boxes, 10 hangers with clothing, 6 milk crates, scattered bags, 1 guitar#2112-Peter Hargrove; 30+ boxes, clothes, bags, shopping carts, DVD’s, magazines, newspapers, VHS tapes, dresser, 2 picture frames on top of unit. #2412-Thomas J. Delmastro; Approx. 24 boxes, 2 filing cabinets. #4708-Rhonard Bryce-Thurton; Tv, 15 + boxes, 2 plastic containers, 4 bags, a CD rack. The contents of each unit will be sold as a lot and all items must be removed from the premises within 72 hours. Owners may redeem their goods by paying all rent and charges due at any time before the sale. All sales are held “with reserve”. Owner reserves the right to cancel sale at any time. Sunrise D LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 08/06/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Jin Qian, 15 WEST 61ST STREET,UNIT 22D,NEW YORK, NY 10023 Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose
Notice of Auction
PUBLIC NOTICE
Notice of Auction Sale is herein given that Citiwide Self Storage located at 45-55 Pearson Street, Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 will take place on WWW.STORAGETREASURES.COM Sale by competitive bidding starting on December ,26 2019 and end on January 7, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. to satisfy unpaid rent and charges on the following accounts:
SprintCom, Inc. (SPRINT) proposes to install telecommunication antennas and equipment on an existing light tower at 110 8th St in Troy, Rensselaer County, NY (Job #45772).
Contents of rooms generally contain miscellaneous items: #5K08 Louis Flores roughly 50-boxes, 2- stools, mattress, 2-lamps, misc. furniture, roughly 5-bags # 5H09 Alan McElroy 10-boxes, 5-tote bags #7Q19 Benjamin Brannan mattress, sofa, small dresser, misc. furniture #3P33 David Zimman matress,boxspring and rails #5T20 Alfredo Villamar several bags/ boxes, shoe boxes, misc. clothes, 1-luggage bag # 7Q17 Lisbet Crowey Polar packing materials, 4-cases of sletzer water, cooler, 1 - box of cups, loose packages of cups
In accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the 2005 Nationwide Programmatic Agreement, SPRINT is hereby notifying the public of the proposed undertaking and soliciting comments on Historic Properties which may be affected by the proposed undertaking. If you would like to provide specific information regarding potential effects that the proposed undertaking might have to properties that are listed on or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and located within 1/2 mile of the site, please submit the comments (with project number) to: RAMAKER, Contractor for SPRINT, 855 Community Dr, Sauk City, WI 53583 or via e-mail to history@ramaker.com within 30 days of this notice.
The contents of each unit will be sold as a lot and all items must be removed from the premises within 72 hours. Owners may redeem their goods by paying all rent and charges due at any time before the sale. All sales are held “with reserve”. Owner reserves the right to cancel sale at any time. LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM
LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM
LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM
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CITY & STATE NEW YORK MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING CEO Steve Farbman, President & Publisher Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com, Comptroller David Pirozzi, Business & Operations Manager Patrea Patterson, Administrative Assistant Lauren Mauro
Who was up and who was down last week
LOSERS
DIGITAL Digital Marketing Director Maria Cruz Lee, Digital Content Coordinator Michael Filippi, Social Media Editor/ Content Producer Amanda Luz Henning Santiago, Digital Marketing Strategist Caitlin Dorman, Digital Marketing Associate Chris Hogan, Web/Email Strategist Isabel Beebe
DONALD TRUMP “The world is laughing at us,” the president has said many times, appealing to voters’ sense of pride. It turns out he was right … but last week it was actually world leaders, and they were laughing at Trump. Trudeau, Macron & Co. hurt his pride so bigly that he cancelled a presser and went home early. And back home, the House of Representativess officially announced its drafting articles of impeachment against the president.
THE BEST OF THE REST
THE REST OF THE WORST
RODNEY HARRISON
RAS BARAKA
The NYPD commish may be Irish, but at least the chief of detectives is black now.
TODD KAMINSKY & AMY PAULIN
Their new law slaps new limits on the one group everybody hates: telemarketers.
Pissed about NYC homeless sent there, Newark’s mayor revealed the “illegal and uninhabitable” conditions in his own city.
SPENCER FREEDMAN
The deputy IG made JCOPE pinkie swear they’d never leak to Cuomo. Case closed!
KAT SULLIVAN
RICHARD MALONE
TONY UTANO
VINCENT SAPIENZA
JCOPE finally dropped its case against an alleged rape victim, but did it really have to write that five-page letter on the way out? Christmas came early for unions like his TWU Local 100, with annual raises of 2.3%.
CREATIVE Art Director Andrew Horton, Senior Graphic Designer Alex Law, Graphic Designer Aaron Aniton
Bowing to pressure from local Catholics, the Buffalo bishop stepped down after mishandling the sex abuse scandal. After Queens homes were flooded with sewage, the DEP chief is up to his ears in it.
WINNERS & LOSERS is published every Friday morning in City & State’s First Read email. Sign up for the email, cast your vote and see who won at cityandstateny.com.
ADVERTISING Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@ cityandstateny.com, Account/Business Development Executive Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com, Event Sponsorship Strategist Danielle Koza dkoza@ cityandstateny.com, Sales Associate Cydney McQuillanGrace cydney@cityandstateny.com, Legal Advertising Executive Shakirah Gittens legalnotices@cityandstateny. com, Senior Account Executive William Thomas EVENTS events@cityandstateny.com Sales Director Lissa Blake, Events Manager Alexis Arsenault, Event Coordinator Amanda Cortez, Editorial Research Associate Evan Solomon
Vol. 8 Issue 46 December 9, 2019 2020 SESSION IF DEMS GO FOR BROKE, WILL NY GO BROKE?
Tish James isn't playing anymore THE POWER OF DIVERSITY THE MOVERS & SHAKERS OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY CIT YANDSTATENY.COM
@CIT YANDSTATENY
December 9, 2019
Cover image Sean Pressley
CITY & STATE NEW YORK (ISSN 2474-4107) is published weekly, 48 times a year except for the four weeks containing New Year’s Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving and Christmas by City & State NY, LLC, 61 Broadway, Suite 1315, New York, NY 10006-2763. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to City & State New York, 61 Broadway, Suite 1315, New York, NY 10006-2763. General: (212) 268-0442, subscribe@cityandstateny.com Copyright ©2019, City & State NY, LLC
NASSAU COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE; EVAN EL-AMIN/SHUTTERSTOCK
JAY JACOBS It’s a good time to be the de facto chairman of a potentially unconstitutional government commission that has binding statutory power. The Campaign Finance Reform Commission – which Jay Jacobs is technically not in charge of – released its final recommendations for a statewide public campaign finance system. The changes also include new hurdles for third parties like the Working Families Party – which is what Jacobs seemingly wanted all along.
OUR PICK
OUR PICK
WINNERS
There were many worthy nonprofits that needed donations on Giving Tuesday, the global day of charitable giving. Assemblyman Michael Blake thought his congressional campaign was one such worthy cause, asking donors to “please contribute today on Giving Tuesday.” Campaigns are technically nonprofits – especially if you lose – but it certainly seemed to go against the spirit of the day. That said, thank you for your weekly donation of time to reading about last week’s Winners & Losers.
EDITORIAL editor@cityandstateny.com Editor-in-Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com, Managing Editor Ryan Somers, Senior Editor Ben Adler badler@cityandstateny.com, Special Projects Editor Alice Popovici, Copy Editor Eric Holmberg, Staff Reporter Jeff Coltin jcoltin@cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Zach Williams zwilliams@cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Rebecca C. Lewis rlewis@cityandstateny.com, Tech & Policy Reporter Annie McDonough amcdonough@ cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Kay Dervishi
BIG TOBACCO TARGETS US WITH MENTHOL
MENTHOL CIGARETTES ARE MORE ADDICTIVE AND HARDER TO QUIT. STOP TARGETING OUR COMMUNITY.
The New York State Trial Lawyers Association
CONGRATULATES City & State’s
POWER OF COLOR: BLACK POWER 100 Lawrence J. Park NYSTLA Executive Director Protecting New Yorkers Since 1953 www.NYSTLA .org | @NYSTLA