City & State New York 08292016

HOW SAFE ARE NYC CONSTRUCTION SITES? ARE STRIKES EFFECTIVE IN NEW YORK?

IS ANDREW CUOMO SABOTAGING THE ENERGY INDUSTRY?

WHOSE CAMPAIGNS REALLY GET THE MOST UNION CONTRIBUTIONS?

LABOR DAY 2016 CITYANDSTATENY.COM

@CITYANDSTATENY

August 29, 2016

TRASH IS DISPOSABLE

KILL COUNCIL NOT GOOD U

As currently drafted, City Council Intro. 495 will result in the forward without worker protections and considerati We urge the City Council We should be creating pathways to t GREATER NEW YORK LABORERS-EMPLOYERS COOPERATION AND EDUCATION TRUST, GNYLECET, IS A JOINTLY MANAGED TRUST FUND OF THE MASON TENDERS DISTRICT COUNCIL AND ITS 1500 SIGNATORY CONTRACTORS. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PATRICK PURCELL

212.452.9300

WWW.GNYLECET.ORG

LE, WORKERS ARE NOT

L INTRO. 495, UNION JOBS

the loss of hundreds of good union jobs. This bill cannot go eration of the impact on workers and their families. uncil to KILL INTRO. 495. to the middle class not ending them!

RS

ORG

WASTE MATERIAL, RECYCLING & GENERAL INDUSTRIAL LABORERS LOCAL 108 REPRESENTS 2,500 WORKERS IN THE WASTE AND RECYCLING INDUSTRY. LABORERS LOCAL 108 IS THE LARGEST UNION IN THE COMMERCIAL AND PRIVATE CARTING INDUSTRY OF NEW YORK CITY REPRESENTING OVER 1,000 WORKERS IN THE GREATER METROPOLITAN NEW YORK REGION. BUSINESS MANAGER MIKE HELLSTROM

212.925.9634 WWW.LABORERSLOCAL108.ORG

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CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016

EDITOR’S NOTE / Contents

Jon Lentz Senior Editor

This past week, the National Labor Relations Board paved the way for graduate students at private universities to unionize. Its ruling, in response to petitions

by Columbia University and New School graduate students serving as teaching and research assistants, is just the latest triumph for organized labor.

The Fight for $15 campaign built support for a higher minimum wage for fast food workers, then for all workers, in New York and elsewhere. Unions declared victory this year after striking workers along the East Coast reached an agreement with Verizon. Demonstrations by airport workers in recent years have forced the Port Authority to respond.

But while organized labor has won some battles, it hasn’t won the war.

Unionization rates have ticked up slightly in New York, but only about 1 in 4 New York workers are union members. Successful strikes are few and far between.

And well-funded foes have taken aim at labor-friendly laws across the country.

So this Labor Day weekend, neither side should be lulled into a false sense of complacency. The fight rages on.

8.

EVENT: ON EDUCATION

What we learned from city and state education officials on our recent panels, just in time to head back to school.

6.

FREED INFORMATION

Documents shed light on the relationship between City Hall and REBNY execs.

12.

ENERGY

How do New York’s energy and environmental policies impact our neighbors?

18.

LABOR

How safe are construction sites? Do strikes work? Find out in our special labor section.

37.

SLANT

De Blasio recently named James O’Neill his new police commissioner. Bertha Lewis wants him to pick someone else.

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

FROM THE

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WEEKLY PODCAST

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER WITH CITY & STATE’S GERSON BORRERO AND MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON Gerson Borrero and Michael Johnson work together, but they don’t always agree. They covered all the hot topics in politics on the podcast, but none was more heated than their talk on term limits.

“Please, whoever is out there listening to this, if you compare me to Trump, may the wrath of vengeance fall upon you, but the fact is that the system is rigged with incumbents. And you know that. And we wind up with people that are inept and should not be serving or getting re-elected because of the way the system is rigged in terms of elections.”

GERSON BORRERO

“The system in New York to some extent is rigged, but it’s not rigged because we don’t have terms limits. We have a campaign finance system that allows loopholes like the LLC loophole, we have closed primaries, we have 17 elections in a year so people don’t know when they’re going to turn out!

It’s like grabbing the simplest solution to a larger problem – let’s term-limit these people.”

MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON Listen, subscribe and review this week’s podcast by searching for “New York Slant” on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcast app.

The Baked Apple: Not the records we want to break B Y A R T H U R “J E R R Y ” K R E M E R

The Big Apple has been baking. New Yorkers could feel it for themselves this summer, as they plodded through a dripping sea of humidity, from steaming subway platforms to broiling sidewalks, exhaling with relief as they at last made it into an air conditioned lobby. Heat indices during the summer heat waves reached 110 degrees while temperatures consistently hit the mid-90s.

It’s only going to get worse. July 2016 was the warmest month ever recorded on Earth, according to NASA, and the five hottest months have all occurred in the last seven years. The Japanese Meteorological Agency predicted with 99 percent certainty that 2016 will set the record as the warmest year ever recorded, beating out the current record holder: 2015. Climate change is cooking our planet and sending us fleeing indoors.

According to one estimate, some 1.6 billion new air conditioners could be installed worldwide by 2050.

It’s not just air conditioning. In our modern, wired society, we have more devices than ever to plug in, more electronics gobbling up more juice, which need cooling systems themselves in order to function. This all adds up to a tsunami of energy demand that we are struggling to meet.

The data from Con Edison make it clear.

During the heat waves of 2016, our region twice broke records for energy consumption.

On Friday, July 22, 2016, usage peaked at 13,189 megawatts, breaking the weekday record set in August 2006. On Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, energy use skyrocketed to 11,664 megawatts, smashing the weekend record set in July 2011. That same weekend, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016, New York City set a record high for the day, clocking in at a sizzling 94 degrees, breaking the record set in 2003, the summer of the East Coast blackout.

Con Ed’s Web site offers a litany of warnings to neighborhoods across the region to conserve energy at the risk of outages. Over the summer, thousands lost power at various times from Harlem to Staten Island to Yonkers.

Despite worthy conservation attempts, the arrow is only moving in one direction.

Energy use is going up. That is why we need

to ensure we have clean, affordable and abundant sources of energy that do not emit greenhouse gases. The more greenhouse gasemitting energy we use, the more we need to produce, and the more we need to produce, the warmer we make the planet.

In an effort to keep the lights on and have a reliable energy source Gov. Andrew Cuomo has identified nuclear energy as a key bridge to a clean energy future. He is absolutely right.

Continued use of nuclear is one component of what should be a diverse power portfolio in a long-term plan, which should also include new infrastructure and new generation sources to support a growing New York.

About the Author: Arthur “Jerry” Kremer is the former chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and a principal author of the state’s power plant siting law. He now is the chairman of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance.

SPECIAL SPONSORED SECTION

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CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016

FREED INFORMATION

REBNY finds l a friend at CityatiHonal ship

By SARINA TRANGLE

Em ail s reveal a clo se rel be twee n real es tate gro up exe cs an d the de Blasio adminis tratio n

IN ALBANY, where a number of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policy priorities have succumbed to resistance from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Senate Republicans, documents suggest that de Blasio has turned to the real estate industry’s chief lobbying group in New York as an intermediary to press politicians on a matter beyond its traditional scope: the city’s public school system.

The de Blasio administration sought help from the Real Estate Board of New York in 2015, when the city was engaged in a protracted debate with state officials over whether mayoral control of city schools should be extended long-term.

Responding to an email from a New York City deputy mayor’s chief of staff, then-REBNY President Steven Spinola wrote in March of 2015 that it did not appear as if the state Senate majority leader at the time, Republican Dean Skelos, had put anything about school governance in his budget bills.

Here is an excerpt of the email exchange between Spinola and James Patchett, the chief of staff to Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen, obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request:

The de Blasio administration continued to seek REBNY officials’ assistance in Albany as well as their input on city policy, according to a review of additional emails exchanged between the two offices during the first half of 2015.

The correspondence reflects a close relationship and suggests City Hall and the real estate lobbying group have grown accustomed to collaborating. Emails show staffers socialize together. REBNY was able to secure Glen as a speaker at a banquet. The trade group helped a national real estate group extend an invitation to de Blasio for its board meeting by putting him in touch with an administration contact. And one of REBNY’s several lobbyists on staff at the time planned to lunch with an

advisor to a deputy mayor that she communicated with about various projects and policies.

City and REBNY officials also discussed development plans. When REBNY members’ projects seemed to stall in “regulatory purgatory,” Angela Sung Pinsky, then the group’s senior vice president for management services and government affairs, sought guidance from the mayor’s staff and received prompt replies. And the administration and REBNY collaborated on city policy matters, including their shared goals of passing a revamped version of the 421-a tax abatement, which was used to spur the construction of residential buildings with affordable apartments, and a more long-term extension of mayoral control.

REBNY spokeswoman Nicole Chin-Lyn

said the trade group has consistently advocated on matters of importance to the city’s well-being, including its education system.

“Given the strong interrelationship between the economic success of the city and the health of its real estate industry, and that REBNY is one of the city’s leading trade associations, the organization historically has spoken out on matters of important public interest, like mayoral control of NYC public schools,” Chin-Lyn said in a statement. “REBNY and its lobbyists have made all appropriate disclosures with respect to its lobbying activities.”

When asked about leaning on REBNY during the mayoral control fight, de Blasio spokesman Austin Finan pointed out that a range of New Yorkers and city institutions

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

supported the mayor’s request that the state Legislature grant the city executive long-term control over the school system. Indeed, de Blasio collaborated with former GOP Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the business group Partnership for New York City and the heads of several community groups on the issue. Finan said the administration checks in with all such stakeholders on matters of importance to the city, as it did with REBNY on mayoral control.

“The strength of our education system is essential to the overall health of the city, so it’s no surprise that the city’s business community made its voice heward in Albany to ensure that mayoral control was extended and our schools were kept on the right track,” Finan said in a statement. “Whether through traditional lobbying or more outward-facing public affairs tactics, a broad coalition of business leaders, nonprofits, clergy, labor unions and elected officials did its part to push Albany for an extension. The administration is in regular contact with all stakeholders associated with the issues facing our city.”

The administration touched base with REBNY about mayoral control again when the state legislative session was winding down in June 2015. At that point, Patchett requested

that REBNY express support for a three-year renewal to the governor’s office and to the new state Senate GOP Majority Leader John Flanagan. In a little over an hour, Spinola re-

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plied that he would do what he could on mayoral control.

Here is an excerpt of the exchange between Spinola and Patchett:

When the legislative session ended, de Blasio was granted a one-year extension at the helm of city schools. In 2016, it was again extended for a single year.

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CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016 8

When you get all the biggest names in New York education together in a room, there’s going to be some disagreement. And with thousands of students opting out of tests, standards changing and Gov. Andrew Cuomo promising to make public university administrations “more efficient,” there was no lack of topics to debate. City & State’s On Education event on August 17 at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus covered all of it – with a keynote from New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and discussions on standards and testing, the future of higher education, and emerging trends in K-12 education.

ALI GARBER

Not so fast Regents chancellor says state test scores are no cause for a ‘victory lap’

By MONICA DISARE for CHALKBEAT NEW YORK

NEW YORK’S BOARD OF REGENTS chancellor downplayed this year’s state test scores on Wednesday, insisting that gains in English and math do not warrant a “victory lap.”

“I think we’ve made it very clear that this year’s exam cannot be compared (with last year’s), and yet we have out there people looking at different pieces of this test and reacting to different pieces,” state Chancellor Betty Rosa said. “The whole idea that we put the asterisk there, the footnote, is that we really didn’t want people taking a victory lap.”

Her comments, which she made during City & State’s On Education forum at Fordham University, came roughly half an hour after New York City’s schools chancellor praised the results on the same stage, and noted that all districts in the city showed improvement.

“Every single district in the city, without fail, has moved forward, has made progress,” Chancellor Carmen Fariña said.

“That’s unique because you always have some places more successful than others.”

Both the city and the state displayed big gains in English test scores, but Rosa’s comments underscore the fact that the two entities interpret those gains differently.

(The city slightly outpaced the state’s increase, improving English language arts scores by 7.6 percent compared with a 6.6 percent increase statewide.)

REGENTS CHANCELLOR BETTY ROSA SPEAKS DURING CITY & STATE’S ON EDUCATION EVENT.

“I THINK WE’VE MADE IT VERY CLEAR THAT THIS YEAR’S EXAM CANNOT BE COMPARED (WITH LAST YEAR’S).”

-BETTY ROSA, Regents chancellor When the test results were released, state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia cautioned not to make an “apples-to-apples comparison” with last year’s results, since students took untimed and shortened tests this year. But in a press conference a few days later, Fariña called the results cause for a “three-day celebration,” and Mayor Bill de Blasio said they were “pure, hard evidence” their reforms are working.

In an interview with Chalkbeat on Wednesday, Fariña stuck to her original stance that the test scores are reliable since the “rigorousness and difficulty” remained the same year to year. She also

said test scores would “absolutely” be used to measure progress at schools in the city’s Renewal turnaround program, though she said they will be among several measures.

Rosa noted that across the state, part of the reason to hold off celebrating is that the achievement gap between students of color and white students remains intact.

She also said she is working with Elia to sort out exactly what conclusions could be gleaned from this year’s tests.

■

Chalkbeat New York is a news site covering educational change in New York schools.

DREAMING OF CARNEGIE HALL Nisan Ak

Queens College Master of Music Performance in Orchestral Conducting, 2016

HER STORY Born in Turkey, Nisan Ak came to Queens College’s Aaron Copland School of Music for a conducting workshop in 2014 and stayed for a master’s degree. “I want to combine traditional and modern music in a way that the audience, the players and I, as the conductor, will love it.”

GOAL To be a role model for women conductors in this male-dominated field

cuny.edu/welcome

CUNY★AMERICANDREAMMACHINE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK-1847 HUNTER COLLEGE-1870 BROOKLYN COLLEGE-1930 QUEENS COLLEGE-1937 NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY-1946 COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND-1956 BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1957 QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1959 CUNY GRADUATE CENTER-1961 BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1963 KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1963 JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE-1964 YORK COLLEGE-1966 BARUCH COLLEGE-1968 LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1968 LEHMAN COLLEGE-1968 HOSTOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1970 MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE-1970 CUNY SCHOOL OF LAW-1983 MACAULAY HONORS COLLEGE AT CUNY-2001 CUNY SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES-2003 CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM-2006 GUTTMAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE-2011 CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY-2016 CUNY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE-FALL 2016

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n o S G N I 3 TH A D N E G A S ’ A Ñ FARI

By JEFF COLTIN

l for New York City’s THE FIRST DAY of schoo students just weeks 1 million public school is optimistic. It will be a away, and Carmen Fariñ demic year as Maythe start of her third full aca chancellor, and with or Bill de Blasio’s schools m, universal pre-K, the pair’s signature progra us is on a whole new going steady, Fariña’s foc nce. De Blasio and plan: Equity and Excelle iative and its ambiFariña announced that init the school year last tious goals one week into ms will begin to take year, so many of its progra ich starts Sept. 8. shape this school year, wh those big plans in ny Fariña focused on ma of y & State’s On Eduher keynote address at Cit Fordham University’s cation forum last week at Here’s some of what Lincoln Center campus. she had to say.

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,” or making a plan TS EARLY. g backwards by design nin lan “p on COLLEGE TALK STAR ng usi foc t of Education is a and her colleagues are

en ls’ case, Fariñ Fariña said the Departm of their y will end. In the schoo rne jou the y choose a profession ere wh ing duate college or after the of action by first ask gra y the er aft be to s nt my kid asking, “Where do I wa program in which ?” nted, like expanding a ing me ple own lik im be hops uld wo n of ways the pla college-readiness works Fariña gave a number campus, and offering e leg rt of col sta a it the vis rk cts ma tri o certain dis year will als all seventh-graders in ngali and Arabic. This r, Be , rke rin wo da ialan soc M e rt lik pa s, – guage ll get a “shepherd” wi t den for parents in more lan stu ool h sch eac h ich with their hig ot program, in wh de to 12th grade to help gra the Single Shepherd pil th . six m nity fro mu m the com ir or in the will stick with with problems at home part counselor – who 10th into college, as well as ng better than waiting till ch getti d mu , an s ch ces mu is pro e leg col to application go to nt wa ders committed to “Getting seventh-gra a said. riñ Fa ” grade or 11th grade, ES.

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NEW TEACHERS AT RE

T COURS ED PLACEMEN are ‘qualified’ really is a big mistake,”g at MORE ADVANC th rnin engaged with lea s for only the kids

se be “To me, AP cour are more likely to cellence ves that students lie e Equity and Ex be th e in Sh . ed id ct sa a fle re is Fariñ ich ng AP gi wh , len se al e more ch orous cour cess to five of th while taking a rig ac s 35 of nt – de s se stu ur ol co ho P high sc ering new A off e ar s ol goal of giving all ho sc This year, 63 high urse last year. classes by 2021. nced Placement co va Ad gle sin a er which did not off

NEWAL SCHOOLS. The de Blasio adminis tration’s tactic of inv esting heavily in strug and add counseling ser gling schools to exten vices has been critic d the school day ized lately for its lack heard the criticism, of discernable result and mentioned how s. Fariña has surely many new teachers “We now have 248 tea would be joining the cher leaders going int 94 targeted schools. o our Renewal schoo “highly effective,” sh ls by choice,” many e said. “More people of whom are rated are go game-changer.” ing into the schools than are asking to go out. That’s a

Pipe dreams 12

CityAndStateNY.com

ON EARTH DAY, environmentalists cheered as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Environmental Conservation denied a crucial permit for the $750 million Constitution natural gas pipeline. The move by the DEC, which had already banned high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the state in 2014, killed the ambitious project, which was designed to bring the spoils of gas wells in Pennsylvania to lucrative markets in New York, New England and beyond. The pipeline’s death came, some speculate, because it had sought to cut a path between two states headed in opposite directions on energy policy.

A few weeks later and a state away, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s handpicked secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, resigned amid accusations that he’d gotten too friendly with environmentalists. The timing of his ouster meant that he wasn’t around in an official capacity in June, when his former boss gutted years’ worth of the department’s efforts to implement new drilling regulations for certain natural gas companies. “They’re a lot more restrictive,” Wolf griped in July when asked about Cuomo’s policies. “It’s so restrictive in New York that we can’t even pipe our gas across its borders to New England, which really needs a clean source of energy.”

This unlikely rift between New York and Pennsylvania had been growing for years.

The two states are in many ways very similar, not least in that they both have Democratic governors who describe themselves as environmentalists. But the states are handling the issue of what to do with the bounty of natural gas buried deep beneath their soil – and how that resource impacts current and future energy policy – in radically different ways.

There are clear structural issues behind the division: Wolf is bound to powerful rural legislators from the Marcellus Shale region, and both Democrats and Republicans are desperate to fuel Pennsylvania’s flagging economy with gas industry jobs.

August 29, 2016

By JUSTIN SONDEL and RYAN BRIGGS

Pennsylvania has big hopes for its energy industry, and says only one thing stands in its way: Gov. Andrew Cuomo At the same time, his New York counterpart has sailed along on a tide of opposition to gas drillers, centered in the politically influential New York City metro area. And Cuomo’s agencies have acted independently – on the Constitution pipeline decision, the ban on hydraulic fracturing, and subsidies to nuclear power plants as well as solar and other renewable industry players – without the need for legislative approval.

But some grumble about deeper, more cynical motivations and promises that will never be fulfilled. Cuomo’s environmental gains are coming at the expense of other states, they say, underwritten by cheap gas from Pennsylvania, which New York City is consuming at record levels, all while tying much of his energy policy’s future to the costly subsidization of the state’s ailing nuclear sector. Some observers have speculated that he may be more interested in the presidency than realizing his own promises of a carbon-free New York, though he again denied any higher ambitions when asked recently at the Democratic National Convention.

Meanwhile, after a bruising budget battle last year, Wolf may be more concerned with securing his own re-election through

compromise than fulfilling a rose-tinted vision of a state that is both environmentally responsible and accommodating to the gas industry.

“For the first 15 months in office, Wolf fought like a tiger to transform Pennsylvania, and, frankly, he didn’t get anywhere,” said John Hanger, who served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection from 2008 to 2011.

“For the last six months, he’s chosen to take whatever piece of the loaf he (can) get.”

But it’s a promise that can seem far fetched, based on gas industry domination of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s capital, combined with a downward economic trajectory – with supportive politicians forever chasing the promise of that unshackled industry creating a gusher of new jobs.

As Wolf and Cuomo go farther down their chosen paths, the division has created public friction between environmentalists, the gas industry in both states – and even between the two governors.

CUOMO’S SIGNATURE MOVE in the war between a booming Northeastern hydrofracking industry and environmental groups was a 2014 announcement

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

that, after six years of study, New York would officially ban hydrofracking. Since then, he has continued to shift away from natural gas.

In August, Cuomo’s Public Service Commission voted to adopt the Clean Energy Standard, formalizing his previously stated goals by requiring that energy providers in the state comply with the objective of deriving 50 percent of all energy from renewables by 2030. The new standard also set aside more than $1 billion in subsidies to keep existing nuclear power plants operational.

Even Cuomo’s economic development policies have frustrated the gas industry, including huge investments in nuclear energy and aggressive efforts to develop renewable energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

At a cost of more than three-quarters of a billion dollars, New York is building North America’s largest solar panel factory in Buffalo, set to be run by SolarCity. The lead anchor tenant at a business hub in the rural Western New York town of Alabama, 1366 Technologies, is a manufacturer of solar equipment parts. And the state is putting $250 million toward a photonics center in Rochester, which will house a solar research and development facility.

“Governor Cuomo has led the way in combating climate change – one of the single greatest challenges of our time,” said Abbey Fashouer, a Cuomo spokeswoman.

“The governor is taking real, enforceable actions to preserve our planet through the Clean Energy Standard, including a firstin-the-nation 50 percent renewable energy mandate which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grow the clean energy economy. New York will continue to lead the way forward with policies that create jobs, develop new industries and protect our environment for future generations.”

Many groups, including unions and environmentalists, have cheered the administration’s push toward developing clean energy jobs.

“Governor Cuomo has shown his commitment to climate leadership by moving New York, and the nation, towards a renewable energy future, while at the same time creating thousands of jobs across the state, protecting ratepayers from volatile fossil fuel prices, and improving New Yorkers’ public health and environ-

ment,” Lisa Dix, New York senior representative for the Sierra Club, said in a statement after the adoption of the Clean Energy Standard.

But critics say these economic and environmental policy moves amount to heavily subsidized job creation schemes that hurt taxpayers while benefitting industry leaders.

Ken Girardin, a communications and marketing manager for the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, argued that Cuomo’s decisions are designed to force people into buying “less reliable, more expensive solar energy. This entire Clean Energy Standard is best viewed as a jobs program, funded on the backs of homeowners and businesses paying electrical bills.”

The Cuomo administration did not directly answer City & State’s questions about Pennsylvania’s energy policies, but in a press release issued on the day of the adoption of the state’s Clean Energy Standard, the governor indicated that he hoped the policy would be a catalyst driving other states to move away from natural gas and other fossil fuels.

“Make no mistake: This is a very real threat that continues to grow by the day,” Cuomo said of climate change, “and I urge all other states to join us in this fight for our very future.”

But if the plan was to lure states like Pennsylvania over to the green side, it hasn’t worked. Wolf has welcomed the continued drilling in his state, which issued some 2,500 drilling permits last year alone, and has supported a parallel strategy of investing big in urban natural gas processing hubs and other projects. He scoffed when asked if New York’s environmental policies should be regarded as a model.

“New York’s policy is because they are concerned about how advanced the (drilling) techniques are in fracking to assure themselves that (they) have a good clean environment,” Wolf said. “But I don’t know how you can assure yourself of that without actually doing it and regulating it and overseeing it and making sure you’re doing things right. So that’s the big distinction as I see it. Their policy is to not do it at all. Mine is to do it, and do it right.”

And make no mistake, Pennsylvania is doing it. It may not be as permissive as other gas-rich states, like West Virginia or South Dakota, but it’s the Wild West compared with New York. Wolf sealed a crucial budget deal this year in part by agreeing to scrap a big portion of a five-year deal to tighten drilling regulations after several

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disastrous gas leaks. The new state rules do apply to fracking enterprises, but politically influential conventional gas drillers, responsible for a disproportionate number of those leaks, were wholly exempted.

Wolf also inaugurated the largest tax credit in state history in July: $1.3 billion to underwrite a gas processing hub, known as a cracker plant, near Pittsburgh. And the gas industry wants him to go further.

“We have abundant cheap energy here,” said Andrew Levine, chairman of environmental and energy practices at Philadelphia law firm Stradley Ronon. “But at the outset, it has to be recognized that Pennsylvania starts at a disadvantage. It has the second-highest corporate tax rate in America.”

Levine says that the state needs to subsidize gas-consuming industries in order to stimulate an industry still reeling from cratering petroleum prices that have made natural gas products less competitive. “You have demonstrable pre-existing demand,” he said. “We have to start that engine with a well-reasoned manufacturing incentive program. European companies and Asian companies are used to some level of government involvement. … It’s not material to the funding of the project; it’s symbolic. We lost a billion-dollar project to Ohio over a state contribution of $30 million. It’s a question of feeling welcome.”

Also on the Pennsylvania gas industry’s wish list: rolling back regulations in New York. Gas industry players like Levine suggested that the decision to deny the permit for Constitution might be part of a larger scheme to starve gas suppliers and reward the nuclear and renewable energy industries.

“It’s New York acting in a predatory fashion, trying to cut off Pennsylvania’s revenue stream,” Levine told City & State.

“The governor of New York has a decidedly anti-gas stance. And he is doing anything he can to destroy Pennsylvania’s ability to transport gas through his state.”

But Empire State environmental groups couldn’t be happier about some of the recent moves in New York. Cuomo has set aggressive state energy standards – recognized by many as one of if not the most progressive in the nation – requiring that greenhouse gas emissions be cut by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030, and by 80 percent by 2050. Approving a project like the Constitution pipeline would have been a significant setback in reaching those goals.

“If you don’t let them build any new pipelines, then you have to meet the increased

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CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016

need through renewables,” said Anne Marie Garti, an attorney and founding member of Stop the Pipeline, an environmental group, though she said she believes the decision to block the Constitution pipeline was unrelated to Cuomo’s broader energy policies.

Jessica Azulay, a program director with the New York nonprofit Alliance for a Green Economy, agreed, saying the state can influence the way that infrastructure is built out and should be trying to push toward fewer emissions and systems that can deliver renewable energy sources.

“The state has to be really careful where it’s investing money,” Azulay said. “In terms of investments into infrastructure and energy generation facilities, continuing to invest in natural gas, which does contribute very significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, is going to hurt the state in terms of moving toward those goals. Their investments, at this point, should all be going into

renewable energy build-out and not natural gas build-out.”

PENNSYLVANIA’S environmentalists are considerably less cheery. They do not see Pennsylvania under Wolf’s leadership as laying out a grand energy strategy, but, instead, as carving out piecemeal victories for a struggling – but still influential – gas industry.

Wolf’s inauguration in 2015 had brought the promise of change – for the environmental policy and a host of other issues – after four years under Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. But in May, Quigley, the head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, fell on his sword.

He had stood out from other DEP officeholders in that he was actually an environmentalist, having previously worked for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. His predecessor, Mike Krancer, was a former energy company

“MAKE NO MISTAKE: (CLIMATE CHANGE) IS A VERY REAL THREAT THAT CONTINUES TO GROW BY THE DAY, AND I URGE ALL OTHER STATES TO JOIN US IN THIS FIGHT FOR OUR VERY FUTURE.”

-New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO

lawyer and a climate change skeptic.

But just 11 months after he took the job, Quigley tendered his resignation, presumably under heavy pressure from Wolf.

The governor’s office gave no official reason for the secretary’s sudden departure, but few doubted it was unrelated to a profanity-laced email Quigley had sent just a few days earlier to several environmental activists protesting the move to gut new drilling regulations.

“I’ve slept on this but can no longer hold back,” Quigley wrote in the email. “Where the fuck were you people yesterday? The House and Senate hold Russian show trials on vital environmental issues and there’s no pushback at all from the environmental community?”

Today a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy, Quigley doesn’t like talking about the debacle surrounding his resignation and wouldn’t criticize his former boss.

But he wasn’t afraid to characterize the bipartisan influence the gas industry has on Harrisburg.

“This state has always been the captive of extractive industries,” Quigley said.

“It was coal, oil, timber industries and, now, gas. The history has always been that we privatize the profit and socialize the costs. These industries have always had tremendous sway in Harrisburg – and they continue to have tremendous sway in Harrisburg.”

This may be the decisive difference between the two states on the issue.

Hanger, another former DEP secretary who went on to work for a law firm with ties to the gas industry, doesn’t fault Wolf for his political stance. Hanger said he admired that the governor cut through the hyperbole that often dominates both the pro- and anti-gas sides of the debate, which he said were riddled with misinformation or self-righteousness.

“It’s so polarized and politicized,” he said. “The industry denies it causes any problems. Anti-frackers deny it has any benefit. And the media plays up those roles. Wolf is right in the middle of the road, where all the dead armadillos are. He gets hit by both anti-frackers and industry.”

But Hanger concurred with Quigley’s assessment of the state Legislature as utterly in thrall to the gas industry, although he said it was not solely because of the industry’s considerable lobbying efforts.

He painted a picture of Wolf as a realist trapped by the geography of a polarized state.

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

“This is the huge difference between Pennsylvania and New York. The entire General Assembly in Harrisburg is in the hands of right-wing Republicans with historically overwhelming numbers,” Hanger explained. “In New York, the political center of gravity is New York City or maybe Long Island and Westchester. That area is dominant in New York politics and it’s predominantly anti-drilling. In PA, Philly and its suburbs are anti-drilling and important, but they’re not dominant. It’s the difference of where the population centers are.”

People in urban centers everywhere often mistakenly assume that because of high-profile protests, sometimes led by New York celebrities like Yoko Ono and Lady Gaga, fracking is unpopular everywhere. But in much of Pennsylvania, particularly the more rural and economically depressed sections of the state, that’s simply not the case. Quigley pointed to the jubilation surrounding the announcement of the tax-incentivized gas processing plant near Pittsburgh as evidence that even Pennsylvania’s cities weren’t wholly on board with anti-gas messages.

But he also said that full bans on fracking, like Cuomo’s, deprived rural areas of a rare economic opportunity. The difference between Wolf and Cuomo is that the New York governor could afford to ignore the depressed rural sections of New York state because of the dominance of urban centers.

While jobs numbers are highly controversial for political reasons, the best estimate today pegs the size of Pennsylvania’s gas sector employment at around 90,000 – a not-insignificant number for smaller counties with few other prospects.

“Those who also say the gas industry created no jobs or very few jobs sound like New York elitists. Don’t tell a high school graduate in Lycoming County that’s making $80,000 a year on a gas well that that job isn’t important,” Hanger said. “The hypocrisy in New York is that they oppose drilling, yet consume a lot of gas.”

Indeed, reports show that New York had the largest number of homes added using natural gas as a heating source in the nation between 2005 and 2014, while air quality has improved around New York City as coal and oil plants have closed.

CUOMO, EVER THE shrewd politician with a lifetime of experience in the business, is likely not operating solely on moral grounds in his progressive energy posture.

The governor surely saw the way the political winds were blowing when he decided to

aggressively pursue these standards, several sources speaking on background told City & State.

Tom West, an attorney who represents gas interests in New York, said that while he and many of his clients disagree with the governor on the role that natural gas should play in building out renewable energy infrastructure, no one is against adding renewables.

Cuomo surely understands that dynamic, West said. “I think he’s trying to stake out his future as the governor who pushed the envelope on our energy policy,” he said. “I think he wants New York to be a model for the rest of the country, the rest of the world.”

Wolf, a first-time politician, was headed toward being a lame-duck, one-term governor after a disastrous nine-month budget impasse last year that revolved in part around his efforts to introduce a gas extraction tax. The consensus among those who followed this year’s budget process – which, notably, was only days late – is that Wolf likely had to abandon his position on

the tax and on conventional drilling regulations (among other concessions) in exchange for support from powerful upstate Republican legislative leaders.

As Hanger puts it, Republican Senate President Joe Scarnati “is in a district that’s one of the most rural, natural resource-dependent in the country. He could not be elected to that seat if he did not support the gas industry.”

At least from a political point of view, this was probably a smart move – maybe one of Wolf’s only moves, Hanger said. In a state like Pennsylvania, most residents aren’t voting people out of office for being pro-gas – but they might vote out a governor for failing to pass the budget in a timely fashion two years in a row. “(Environmental policy) virtually never overcomes someone’s lifelong partisan commitments,” said Hanger. “It certainly doesn’t move enough voters to turn a district” PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK do have one thing in common: their state

“IT’S SO RESTRICTIVE IN NEW YORK THAT WE CAN’T EVEN PIPE OUR GAS ACROSS ITS BORDERS TO NEW ENGLAND, WHICH REALLY NEEDS A CLEAN SOURCE OF ENERGY.”

-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf

15

16

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executives have gone to great lengths to throw money behind what they view as a job-creating “bridge fuel” toward cleaner, greener energy sources.

Cuomo has pledged at least $1 billion – and some estimate that number could approach $8 billion by the end of the 12 years of planned state assistance – to prop up existing nuclear plants in the state as part of the Clean Energy Standard, a plan that his administration argues will ensure the state meets its greenhouse gas emission goals.

In his first press event related to New York’s efforts to keep nuclear facilities open, held this month, Cuomo appeared at the FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant on the shores of Lake Ontario with the heads of two energy giants – Exelon, which is buying the plant, and Entergy, which is selling it – to announce a deal to keep the plant open, saving the jobs of 600 employees. While there is no official estimate, the state expects that the move to renewable infrastructure and the subsidies to nuclear plants and solar industry manufacturers will create thousands of jobs in the coming years.

Coincidentally, the billion-dollar Pennsylvania gas cracker plant is expected to create 600 jobs, which Wolf touted on a recent trip to the region where it will be located. The state’s DEP promotes a Clean Power Plan plan that paints an almost utopian mixture of “clean” coal, natural gas and renewables – cutting carbon emissions by a third in 2030 while also growing extractive industries.

Both governors frequently bring up jobs when justifying the expenses incurred as part of their respective energy policies.

Both as an investment and a job creator, Pennsylvania politicians, including Wolf, argue in favor of natural gas production, given its abundance and relatively low emissions compared with other fossil fuel sources.

It just has to be done right, Wolf says.

“I’m a very strong environmentalist, but I believe with the right regulations, the right oversight and right enforcement that we can do (gas drilling),” Wolf told City & State last month. “Most people, I think, want to do it, but they want to do it right.

And that’s where I come down.”

In each case, both the industry advocates and the politicos argue that their respective solutions are cheaper and will create more jobs. But on the economic side, in Pennsylvania, the oil commodities crash is still ravaging the state’s gas industry and most of the commonwealth’s big drillers have laid off staff. Cabot Oil

August 29, 2016

& Gas cut its capital budget by nearly 60 percent this year, while Atlas Resource Partners, which operates around 218 wells in Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy last month. A ballyhooed vision of transforming downstate refineries into an “energy hub” in Philadelphia seems to be faltering, with investors getting antsier as the era of cheap oil drags on.

“The predatory, monopolistic practices of the Middle East have deliberately caused an oil glut – and now, prices are recovering,” said Levine, the gas industry lawyer.

“We’re dealing with the inception of this new market. It shouldn’t surprise us that there’s defibrillation going on. We’ll look back at this now as the start-up phase.”

It could be true, but it’s a pretty long start-up phase. And environmentalists, suffice to say, hate Wolf’s plan. They don’t believe in “clean coal,” and there’s increasing evidence that fracking contributes far more to global warming than scientists once realized, primarily due to a growing number of previously undetected methane

leaks. But state lawmakers, fearful of damaging a struggling industry, are already moving to scrap tighter state methane regulations that Wolf introduced in January.

While Wolf and Cuomo may be taking very different paths, both governors are making some pretty bold promises – economic, environmental, or both – through energy policy. Now they just have to keep them.

Azulay, the environmentalist with Alliance for a Green Economy, stressed that New York’s plan is not perfect – her group has been highly critical of the decision to invest so much in nuclear instead of using that money to more rapidly move toward renewables – but said that decisions like the Constitution denial and the institution of the Clean Energy Standard signal that the state is on a better path.

“It definitely contributes to the sense that, okay, we’re moving in the right direction now,” Azulay said. “We’re going to get renewable energy and that’s where we’re going to be putting our investments.”

■

2014 energy production estimates (in trillion BTUs) NEW YORK

PENNSYLVANIA

0

1566.4

20.8

4474

Crude oil

2

38.8

Nuclear

450.1

823.3

Biofuels

23.4

15.7

375.4

169.2

Coal

Natural gas

Other renewables

Source: Energy Information Administration, State Energy Data System

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

17

In hot water

Environmentalists and industry insiders are boiling over Cuomo’s nuclear subsidies. Will they land in court?

By JEFF COLTIN

THE CUOMO ADMINISTRATION’S initiative to subsidize three upstate nuclear plants is a lifeline for their owners, with almost $1 billion to keep them afloat over the next two years and more money to come.

But energy industry insiders warn that a lawsuit could stall the plans and put the power plants back in financial hot water.

“It’s a 100 percent certainty that parties will litigate. It’s just too big an issue for them not to,” said an insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The source referred to the deal as the “single largest transfer of wealth from the government to a single corporate entity in New York history.”

That corporate entity is Exelon, a Fortune 150 energy company that owns Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station north of Syracuse and Ginna Nuclear Power Plant outside of Rochester. It’s also in the process of buying from Entergy Corp. the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant – located next door to Nine Mile Point on the shore of Lake Ontario – in a deal contingent on the state subsidies. The state’s fourth nuclear power plant, Indian Point, which is about 35 miles north of New York City, will not immediately receive any of the new funding.

The Cuomo administration set a goal of having 50 percent of the electricity used by the state come from renewable sources by 2030. And on Aug. 1, the Public Service Commission approved the state Clean Energy Standard, a set of checkpoints to hit the clean energy goals.

The three upstate nuclear plants are a huge source of clean energy. The Cuomo administration argues that the money spent on keeping them online is worth it because of the long-term benefits of avoiding fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas.

Some critics aren’t buying it. The Alliance for a Green Economy New York supports the state’s clean energy goals, but the group is considering a lawsuit against the nuclear subsidies. Tim Judson, the group’s co-founder, accused Cuomo of caving to Exelon and called the subsidies a waste of “billions of dollars on short-term nuclear bailouts instead of accelerating the transition to renewable energy.”

FitzPatrick

Ginna

Nine Mile Point

Indian Point

Other critics take issue with the specifics of the subsidies. Instead of transferring money to Exelon, the state is requiring utilities to buy “zero-emission credits” to pay the company for operating plants that do not emit carbon. A coalition of energy companies, including the U.S.-based subsidiaries of Shell and BP, filed comments with the Public Service Commission opposing the plan because only nuclear plants are eligible for the credits, and not other clean energy producers.

The coalition also claimed the state would be interfering in the wholesale energy market – charges that have sunk similar cases of state-sponsored energy subsidies.

While a New York lawsuit may be imminent, it also may be unnecessary. An easier first step for opponents would be petitioning the Public Service Commission for a rehearing. Petitions are due by the end of the month, and as of Aug. 24, at least one energy company, Ampersand Hydro LLC, had submitted a request calling for hydro facilities to be eligible for the credits, too.

Time is of the essence for Exelon; the sale of FitzPatrick is contingent on the subsidies. The nuclear plant’s current owner, Entergy, says a stay in the case could put a planned January refueling in jeopardy – though “anything short

of an injunction blocking its implementation, Exelon will continue to pursue purchasing the plant,” Entergy spokeswoman Patricia Kakridas said.

Judson, of the Alliance for a Green Economy, questioned Entergy’s statements. “Entergy and Exelon have used the threat of imminent plant closures as a political cudgel in this process,” he said. “And I think it’s worth taking any statement like that with about 10 grains of salt.”

The Department of Public Service is optimistic that there will be no injunction, and a department source noted that the tight schedule of the sale and scheduled refueling of FitzPatrick leaves little room for a court to issue a stay. The department issued a statement to City & State saying it is “confident the Clean Energy Standard has been designed to withstand judicial review.”

Whatever happens in court, do not expect the Cuomo administration to give in easily.

Cuomo made his position clear when he announced FitzPatrick’s sale this month: “I believe the state has a moral obligation, a financial obligation and a civic obligation to step in to this situation to avert a crisis for Central New York and to avert a crisis, an energy crisis, for this entire state.”

■

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CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016

—RIHANN A

August 29, 2016

City & State New York

LABOR DAY 2016 There are plenty of songs that capture aspects of the labor movement: Judy Collins’ “Bread and Roses,” whose lyrics were inspired by a labor leader’s speech; Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” a meditation on working-class struggles – even Snow White’s “Whistle While You Work,” which offers a cheery take on getting through one’s daily chores.

This year, there’s another tune to consider adding to the canon: Rihanna’s “Work,” a catchy dance hall single whose looping repetitions of its title phrase evoke the endless monotony of the modern job.

Indeed, many workers today feel that it’s all “work, work, work, work, work, work” – with little payoff.

While the stock market has been climbing for years, wages are only beginning to creep up. Unemployment is down, but many remain out of the workforce. And organized labor, which historically has improved working conditions and given employees a greater voice in negotiations with managers and owners, is mired in a long-term decline dating back to the Reagan administration.

And yet unions are still critical players, especially in a labor-friendly state like New York. In this special edition, City & State reports on the the role of organized labor in the construction industry, at the ballot box, and in broader policy matters like raising the minimum wage.

CONTENTS

20

HOW SHORT-TERM “DEMONSTRATION STRIKES” ARE SHAKING UP LABOR NEGOTIATIONS

By SARINA TRANGLE

26

UNION AND NON-UNION CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES SQUARE OFF OVER WORKER SAFETY

By BOB HENNELLY

34

IN STATE SENATE ELECTIONS, UNIONS SIDE WITH INCUMBENTS

By ASHLEY HUPFL

19

20

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August 29, 2016

LABOR

A brief history of work stoppages The federal government began tracking work stoppages in 1947, when there were 270 disputes, including strikes and employer-initiated lockouts that involved at least 1,000 workers. The annual total rose to 470 in 1952 before plummeting in the 1980s. Last year, there were just 12 recorded work stoppages in the United States.

1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957

270

DEMONSTRATION

STRIKE

1958 New York City Mayor Robert Wagner issues an executive order requiring the city to recognize and collectively bargain with municipal unions.

1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965

THE RISE OF THE

222

The Transport Workers Union shuts down subways and buses for two weeks.

1966

PRIVATE-SECTOR UNIONS ARE HAILING THE SUCCESS OF SHORT-TERM WORK STOPPAGES BY FAST FOOD EMPLOYEES AND AIRPORT WORKERS. BUT CAN THE TACTICS HELP UNIONS SLOW THEIR LONG DECLINE?

By SARINA TRANGLE

1967

The Taylor Law is enacted, banning strikes by public-sector employees in New York.

1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976

381

231

WHEN ROBERT DOREN, a Buffalo-based attorney, advises firms before they head into labor negotiations, he now makes sure to ask about their finances, their management goals and any vulnerabilities that could potentially embarrass the company.

“The strike of the 21st century, I would say, is the corporate campaign,” Doren said. “When the employees represented by the union continue to work, and the union attacks the company publicly … it doesn’t make any difference whether any of the allegations are truthful. By making the al-

legation, it damages the reputation of the company. And the company is more likely to want to agree to the union terms.”

In the wake of the Occupy Wall Street protests against bankers and wealthy elites, some point to the rise of a newer kind of private-sector strike: the demonstration strike, in which workers walk off the job for a brief period to draw attention to the case they’re pressing with their employer while trying to sway public opinion enough to force them to compromise. Think of the fast food workers who walked off the job for a day in 2012,

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

spurring a slew of similar demonstrations, and, ultimately, the governor’s adoption of a wage board’s $15 recommended minimum wage in the fast food industry. Or consider the security personnel, baggage handlers, cleaning employees and others working for Port Authority airport contractors who have briefly abandoned their posts multiple times in a campaign that eventually resulted in unionization and negotiations for wage and benefit improvements.

These successes, in turn, have emboldened union leaders who conduct more traditional strikes, in which employees aim to get management to agree to more favorable conditions by refusing to work so long that they undercut productivity and reduce revenue.

Still, statistics show that the number of work stoppages has been steadily declining for decades. The drop in strikes and lockouts, many historians agree, can be traced to the diminished clout of organized labor once it became more acceptable to fire those on strike and hire replacement workers in the 1980s. A high unemployment rate and ease with which companies can outsource jobs also deter such actions.

DURING NEW YORK CITY’S most recent mayoral campaign, about 200 fast food workers went on strike for a day in November 2012, holding demonstrations at various restaurants and one central rally outside a Times Square McDonald’s. Organizers said the goal was a $15 minimum wage and unionization. Similar strikes continued in New York – and spread across the world. During the so-called “Fight for $15” campaign, some workers complained about not just their low pay but franchisees’ heavy reliance on part-time work and retaliation against those who participated in demonstrations.

Around that time in 2012, security personnel, baggage handlers, those who clean airport cabins and other airport personnel voted to go on strike. The workers contended that they were poorly paid and struggling with management over inadequate training and equipment. Workers reversed course when the the Port Authority committed to fixing conditions by working with the contractors that employ these workers.

Recurring rallies, demonstrations and petitions built up the pressure, and the Port Authority executive director issued a directive in January 2014 ordering contractors to immediately raise pay, phase in an hourly wage of $10.10 by the end of 2015 and develop plans for improved benefits. Staff engaged in short-term strikes when contractors did

not implement these changes, according to Robert Hill, a 32BJ SEIU vice president.

When the strikes started, a number of mayoral candidates and other officials proclaimed themselves proponents of their cause. During his 2015 State of the City address, Mayor Bill de Blasio called for instituting a $13-an-hour minimum wage in New York City in 2016 and indexing increases to inflation, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said that was a “non-starter” with state lawmakers. However, in May of 2015, Cuomo convened a state board to examine raising wages in the fast food industry. Within months, he adopted the board’s recommendation of a phased-in $15 minimum wage for fast food workers. Expanding the pay hike statewide, the governor proposed – and passed in the 2016 budget – a $15 minimum wage in New York City and its suburbs by 2021, with upstate areas reaching $12.50 per hour by the end of 2020 (when state agencies will then draft a timeline for increasing the upstate rate to $15 an hour).

Four years after the strikes started, the fast food workers may not have gotten a union, but they have raised wages across the state. Roughly half of the Port Authority airport workers have joined unions that are now engaged in contract negotiations to ensure that better benefits are actually implemented, Hill said. Initially, he said, “they were talking about it as if they were crazy.

And now here we are. … Fast food workers have struck. And airport workers have struck. And retail workers have struck.

As a result, it created a movement and a moment.”

The short-term strikes have become common in part because they prevent workers from being replaced, according to Doren.

He said it’s difficult for companies to hire employees on such short notice: The National Labor Relations Board won’t allow companies to use replacement workers once permanent personnel or their union offer to resume work and request that staff be reinstated, without tying their return to any conditions or further action.

“The thing is, I notify you I’m on strike at 8 o’clock this morning, at 5 o’clock this afternoon, our strike ends. I’m shutting you down, really, with no time to get replacements. And so, I’m not putting the employees’ job at risk,” Doren said. “And I’m going to keep doing this until I get want I want.”

Still, these brief bursts of publicity-seeking picketing are not entirely without risk, according to 32BJ’s Hill. He said some workers had been fired during the airport organizing efforts and were only

21

The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union begins a three-year effort to organize textile mills in the South.

1977 1978 1979 1980

187

In a turning point in labor history, President Ronald Reagan fires 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and hires replacements.

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

Some 400 janitors demonstrating in Los Angeles for higher wages and better benefits are beaten by police.

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

39

Some 74,000 home care workers in California vote to join the Service Employees International Union.

11

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

The Occupy Wall Street movement begins.

12

Source: The 2016 CUNY / New York Times in Education calendar

Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and honorable members of the City Council: In my role as Business Manager for Local 46 Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers here in New York, I hear a lot of hard stories about the exploitation and abuse of workers. But last week, I spoke with someone whose experience of mistreatment and cheating made me angrier than anything has in a long time. Not because it is shocking, but because it no longer is. We must stop the complacency that is threatening to undermine our city.

Luis came into my office shaken and worried. (I won’t use his last name to protect him from possible retribution.) He described what had happened to him that day, after two years working for (name omitted) Construction, the same contractor on whose West 37th Street job site a worker died in 2014.

As NYC’s building boom takes off, number of site-safety inspectors drop – and construction fatalities spike Photo Credit: James Keivom/New York Daily News

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS October 18, 2015

Local46_CS081516_SP.indd 2-3

Here’s Luis’s story:

On July 25th I fell on the job while carrying a bundle of rebar. My leg buckled and the rebar fell on me. I asked [X Construction] to call an ambulance and they refused. They carried me out of the jobsite and drove me to the nearest hospital. At the hospital a nurse asked what happened. I tried to answer but a foreman immediately broke in and told them I tripped and fell while on a coffee break. The foreman told me, “Don’t worry. Don’t do the wrong thing. We’ll take care of you.” When I went in to work today (Monday Aug. 15), I was told to get lost, that I was a liability and that they have no record of me being injured. My first daughter was born while I was out of work injured. I have no idea how I’ll pay my rent. When a worker is injured they tell the worker not to file for workers’ comp. If a worker does file, whoever their contact is on the job is told that they too are off the job, unless they can get their friend to retract the claim.

When the men and women who build our city can be fired for getting injured on the job, something is broken. Construction deaths are on the rise, and three out of four of them occur on non-union sites — sites where workers are intimidated, told to keep their mouths shut, pushed to work unsafely, and cheated of wages, benefits, and basic respect. Sites where a site-safety inspector tells a worker he can’t do something because it’s unsafe, and the minute the inspector is gone the foreman tells the worker to “do it, or leave the job.”

We count the deaths and read about them in the news, but how many people are unable to work because of injuries on the job? How many are evicted because paying medical bills means they can’t pay the rent? How many worry that they might be the next tragic headline, but are too afraid to speak up?

It’s time to step up and do what’s right for our city. We need your leadership. It’s time to show that there is an alternative to the tale of two cities in which rich developers get richer while workers labor in the shadows. It’s time to end the unfair advantage given to contractors who break the law. By misclassifying workers or paying cash off the books, these contractors cheat taxpayers every day. Good contractors, who provide safety, respect, health care, and other benefits for their workers, and who pay their fair share in taxes, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation, are being squeezed out. What is the financial toll on the working men and women of this city?

Here are a few steps you could take tomorrow to get serious about protecting our workers and our tax dollars.

• Hold City Council hearings on workplace safety and training in high-rise construction.

• Set up a task force headed by people with real industry knowledge: construction industry experts, community-based organizations who represent workers, and union representatives. Task them with joining workers’ compensation staff and the district attorney to do direct worker outreach, job by job.

• Ensure safety and proper training by requiring the use of state-approved apprenticeship programs for all trades on all buildings above 10 stories.

• Implement recommendations with regard to workers’ compensation reforms set forth by District Attorney Cyrus Vance in his Report of the Grand Jury of the Supreme Court State of New York First Judicial District Issued Pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law Section 190.85 Subdivision (1)(c).

• Devote the resources needed to enforce the laws meant to protect workers. Without enforcement, it’s just paper in a file somewhere.

For years, the headlines have told the story of an industry rife with abuse and negligence: • “Construction worker falls to his death in elevator shaft”; • “City-hired firms building affordable housing owe $11.8M to workers”; • “Concrete slab crushes worker in midtown Manhattan.”

It’s time to take real action.

Most of these stories never make it into the newspaper. And I realize that not every story merits political intervention. But when you pass by a jobsite this week, take a minute to think of the thousands of workers who, like Luis, have been thrown off of jobsites — or worse — because they got hurt, or they objected to dangerous conditions, or they simply asked to be paid.

We can do better, and we can do more.

On this Labor Day in 2016, we hold dear, and with deep respect, those who came before us. Their courage made it possible for working people to enjoy the dignity of the workplace. We ask that you join us to restore a city that is failing the next generation.

Terry Moore Business Manager Local 46 Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers

8/26/16 4:54 PM

24

CityAndStateNY.com

reinstated after further strikes. He also argued that giving up a day’s pay can put minimum wage workers in a financially precarious position.

WITH FAST FOOD and airport workers claiming victories, some union leaders sense that the more traditional strike is also increasingly viable. David Mertz, the New York City director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said the labor group has won concessions using the traditional strike with large companies, including at a Mott’s facility in upstate New York, and at small establishments, such as car washes in New York City. After a 2011 strike sputtered, Verizon workers tried again in April 2016 and were then able to negotiate larger pay increases, smaller pension cuts and an outsourcing policy that the union preferred over what had initially been proposed.

“I think people looked at our strike and privately said, ‘How on earth can they possibly win?’ And when they saw that we actually had a strategy to win and that we were very successful in negotiating a good contract, it was pretty exhilarating for people – and, I hope, inspiring,” said Bob Master, assistant to the vice president of Communications Workers of America District 1, which represents some of Verizon’s workers in the region. “The fast food strikes contributed to an environment in which it was more favorable for us to go on strike.”

Despite the trumpeting of recent triumphs, demonstration strikes are not new, according to Joshua Freeman, a professor

24.9%

of employed New Yorkers were union members in 2008

NEW YORK LABOR PARTICIPATION

August 29, 2016

of history at CUNY’s Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies and at Queens College. Some trace the strategy back to the Justice for Janitors movement in the 1980s and ’90s, when demonstrations were used to draw attention to janitors’ working conditions. Many custodians worked for contractors, but found the landlords who dictated decisions to these contractors were often resistant to their demands until the protests began.

But Freeman said some recent organizing efforts have been innovative by invoking federal protection for striking workers who are not unionized. “Remember, for example, some of the Walmart strikes and so forth – people then went to the (National Labor Review Board) when they claimed there was retaliation,” he said. “Is it entirely new? No. But in some ways, it really is something we haven’t seen much of in a long time, and I think it does represent a kind of bolder initiative on the part of labor.”

Nevertheless, Freeman cautioned against lumping demonstration strikes in with their traditional counterparts, saying it’s comparing apples and oranges. And he said the infrequency of strikes makes it difficult to identify any trends or change in effectiveness for either short- or long-term strikes.

Certainly, there have been high-profile failures, such as a strike that began in July at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, which the operators later announced will close after Labor Day. “We’ve seen some successes in both those approaches, but I think it’s still a little bit premature to say, ‘Oh, well, the climate’s changed,’ or,

23.2%

of employed New Yorkers were union members in 2012

27%

25%

26.1%

of employed New Yorkers were union members in 2005

23%

‘The strike is back,’” Freeman said. “The numbers are still pretty low.”

Since the federal government began tracking work stoppages in 1947, the number of annual disputes that involve at least 1,000 workers hit an all-time high of 470 in 1952. These disputes, which include strikes and employer-initiated lockouts, dropped off dramatically to 96 incidents in 1982. The decrease came shortly after then-President Ronald Reagan made good on a threat to fire more than 12,000 air traffic controllers if they did not return from a walkout within 48 hours.

Technically, strikes had long been illegal for public employee unions under federal and state laws. But historians point to Reagan’s move as one that ushered in an era in which it was more acceptable for the government and businesses to replace those out picketing, blunting the strength of the strike. By 2009, the number of work stoppages hit an all-time low of five – and the annual totals have remained in the low double digits every since. At the same time, the rate of unionization among workers has declined. In 1964, 35.5 percent of New Yorkers belonged to a union, according to NPR. Federal data shows that number fell to 24.7 percent in 2015.

NUMBERS ASIDE, many in the labor movement say the Occupy Wall Street protests showed that the public’s perception of unions had shifted – and that the followings of U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and other populist or anti-elitist candidates provide further evidence that Americans are increasingly frustrated by the shifting economic landscape.

Ed Ott, the former executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council, said unions finally seem to have shaken the 1970s-era notion the general public had that unions served as organizations to defend the privileged middle class. Once again, Ott said, unions have managed to cultivate an image of partnering with low-income workers to alleviate poverty. “The fact that you see politicians standing next to unions and other organizations – workers’ organizations – willing to take an arrest with them means that there’s been a re-fusion of social justice issues and unions as being an effective tool within that struggle,” he said.

In New York, for example, elected officials have been arrested at car wash workers’ strikes and airport workers’ rallies.

Even on the management side there is an acknowledgment that politicians can have an impact on labor disputes. Labor

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

“I THINK THERE’S ALSO A CHANGING ATTITUDE THAT IS, ‘WHAT IS THE UNION GOING TO GET FOR ME?’” - STEPHEN HANS, former union attorney

attorneys who represent management say police and legal authorities are less likely to punish strikers if they engage in misconduct when politicians stand alongside them. Even if these officials don’t regulate a given industry, elected officials retain control over tax benefits, zoning decisions and othermatters,whichcanbeaconsiderationfor businesses, these attorneys say.

But others disagree with the notion that unions are enjoying a resurgence in pop-

ularity. Doren said he thinks only a small portion of the public – mostly Sanders followers – now look more favorably at unions.

And Stephen Hans, a Queens attorney who used to represent unions but now works for company executives, said he believes there is a growing realization that unions are not generally advantageous for employees at small or mid-sized businesses. At those firms, Hans said unions are often unable to provide employees with any benefits

Our Perspective Eliminate Tip Credit for Car Wash Workers

C

By Stuart Appelbaum, President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, RWDSU, UFCW

ar wash workers in New York City – or “carwasheros,” as they call themselves – have made great strides since their campaign to unionize began in 2012. Hundreds of carwasheros at 10 car washes have won the dignity and respect that comes with union membership.

Union contracts have given carwasheros – for the first time – paid time off, the ability to return to their home countries for visits and have their jobs protected, and guaranteed wage and benefit improvements.

But throughout New York State, the socalled “tip credit” threatens to continue to undermine progress that workers are making in the car wash industry.

The tip credit is a part of New York State minimum wage law that allows industry operators to pay car wash workers a different, lower minimum wage. In theory, workers’ tips are supposed to make up the

difference, and possibly more. And, if workers’ tips don’t raise the level of pay to at least the minimum wage, car wash employers are supposed to make up the difference in additional hourly wages.

In actual practice, it’s a flawed system that enables wage theft and contributes to systemic underpayment of car wash workers – exactly what the car wash unionizing campaign and carwasheros have been fighting against. Investigations have shown that employers don’t always make up the extra pay for workers when tips are short, and carwasheros don’t always receive the tips customers presume they are getting. We shouldn’t be giving unscrupulous employers additional incentives to underpay their workers.

Earlier this summer, workers at one Queens car wash won a $130,000 settlement against an owner who was

25

the workers could not receive by talking directly to management.

“I think there’s also a changing attitude that is, ‘What is the union going to get for me? … Why do I have to give an extra $30 a month up to somebody?’” he said. “You’re not going to force a small to mid-size employer to reach into his pocket if he just doesn’t have it.”

And partnerships between politicians and private-sector unions have their limits.

And if private unions want to cement their political status, Ott said they will have to prove that their endorsements come with the ability to turn out voters.

“If you look at the last few municipal elections, the private-sector unions – they backed this candidate, they backed that candidate – it had no impact outside of the nonprofit sector – like 1199,” he said. “If you go back into history, (Mayor Fiorello) La Guardia and others all over this city used to end the election cycle just before the November vote with a mass rally in the Garment sector to demonstrate their numbers – those were private-sector organizations that had extraordinarily wellorganized operations.”

■

paying below minimum wage, withholding overtime pay, and committing other wage and hour violations. And that’s just the latest settlement of many, including one that saw a New York carwash operator pay almost $4 million in 2014. Wage theft is still rampant in the industry, and the tip credit helps create an environment where it happens.

The tip credit enables wage theft and contributes to systemic underpayment of car wash workers.

The Cuomo Administration has done a good job prosecuting wage theft, and helping win justice for workers across New York. But we need to do more. We call upon the Governor and the state legislature to eliminate the car wash tip credit, and bring the base pay for all car wash workers in New York up to the minimum wage.

It’s an important move that will show New York’s commitment to fighting for worker rights, and protect worker pay.

www.rwdsu.org

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LABOR

The DARK SIDE the of BUILDING BOOM As the construction industry rebounds in New York City, union and non-union construction companies blame each other for the rise in worker injuries and deaths.

By BOB HENNELLY

ON THE MORNING of April 6, 2015, Carlos Moncayo was doing excavation and foundation work at a non-union construction site in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Despite city and federal regulations and multiple warnings from inspectors, the trench was not properly shored up, according to officials, even as the depth grew from around seven feet to at least 13

feet. Shortly before noon, the trench collapsed and killed Moncayo, a 22-year-old undocumented laborer.

Last month, Harco Construction LLC, the construction company at the site, was convicted in state court of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in Moncayo’s death. “Today’s guilty verdict should signal to the con-

struction industry that managing a project from afar does not insulate a corporation or general contractor from criminal liability,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement. “Just as a supervisor can be held accountable for a safety lapse resulting in a fatality at a factory, construction companies are responsible for the safety of the individuals that work on their projects,

EVERY WORKER HAS THE RIGHT TO RETURN HOME TO THEIR FAMILIES AFTER A DAY ON THE JOB Safety can never be an afterthought on a construction site.

Construction work is inherently dangerous, but following the proper procedures dramatically reduces the associated risks—which is exactly what our members do.

The Building Trades Employers’ Association represents 1,800 construction managers, general and specialty trade contractors.

In 2015, BTEA contractors were responsible for roughly $35 billion in construction activity in New York City, 88% of the total volume.

Our commitment to safety is our first and foremost priority.

Louis J. Coletti President & CEO

That’s why BTEA contractors spend millions of dollars a year on training project managers, enforcing safety protocols, and providing their workforce the necessary equipment to keep them safe.

For BTEA members, safety is about creating a culture from the CEO’s office to the labor force. All we need to do is look at the statistics to see how BTEA contractors don’t shy away from vigorous safety enforcement. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration:

• 83% of construction deaths in the city last year were on sites not under the control and supervision of BTEA contractors.

Let’s take it a step further and delve into data taken from the New York City Department of Buildings:

• 81% of accidents last year occurred on projects not managed or under the control of BTEA contractors.

• 65% of stop work orders for dangerous conditions were issued to contractors not managed or under the control of BTEA contractors.

• 64% of accident-related violations were issued to contractors not under the control or supervision of BTEA contractors.

BTEA contractors don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk.

Louis Coletti is president of the Building Trades Employers’ Association.

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NYC construction injuries

472

203

2011

2012

152 Fatalities 2011

5

2012

8

2013

3

2014

8

2015

12

regardless of union or immigration status.”

The ruling came as New York City’s building trade unions are trying to stem the proliferation of non-union builders, arguing that the sites they operate are inherently more risky. Lawyers and boosters of the non-union segment of the construction industry adamantly deny the charge.

But in the wake of the guilty verdict in the workplace death of Moncayo, New York City’s construction union leaders say it could be a major turning point in their bitter battle with the non-union contractors that continue to dominate the city’s

2013

2014

2015

once-in-a-generation multibillion-dollar housing boom.

“Far too many criminally negligent contractors have quite simply gotten away with murder, and that stops today,” said Gary LaBarbara, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. “Negligent contractors should be put on notice that they can no longer put profits ahead of the safety of workers and that they will be held liable for their actions.”

CHARLENE OBERNAUER, the executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, which works with the construction unions on training, claims the link between nonunion work sites and unsafe conditions is well documented. “This is particularly true in New York City,” Obernauer told City & State. “When you look at the fatalities for calendar year 2015, you will see that 15 of the 17 fatalities we have documented were at non-union sites.”

LaBarbara, whose union represents over 100,000 members of 15 different unions, agrees. “There is definitely a nexus between fatalities and serious injuries and non-union job sites,” he said. “The significant difference between non-union and union is our extensive apprentice and safety training that teaches workers how to work safely and what safety equipment is required.”

To assess whether there is such a nexus, it would be helpful to know just what percentage of New York City's construction workforce is unionized – but there appears to be no consensus on that question.

BuildingNYC, an advocacy group aligned with non-union builders, claims that the higher incidence of workplace injury and deaths at non-union construction

sites is simply because three out of every four construction workers are employed at non-union shops, according to the group’s calculations. In its analysis of construction deaths between 2008 and 2014, BuildingNYC says 60 were linked to non-union sites, or 65 percent of the total, while 33 deaths occurred on union sites, or 35 percent, a higher percentage than the 27 percent of construction industry’s rank-andfile that are unionized, according to the advocacy group.

BuildingNYC's estimate on the nonunion share of the construction trade is supported by a 2015 report by the City University of New York’s Murphy Institute, which found that slightly more than 26 percent of the those involved in construction in New York City were enrolled in a union, versus 15 percent nationally.

In contrast, a 2014 survey of the industry's employment picture by Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs found that “union workers have a majority of the market share in the New York City construction industry” but took note that “non-union workers are gradually increasing their presence.” The Columbia analysis also found that unions dominated “public sector construction, especially infrastructure and large scale commercial development,” while the residential sector was more likely to rely on non-union labor.

Nor is there consensus on the significance of the Harco verdict for the construction industry. While trade unions see Harco as a watershed case that strengthens their hand, advocates for the non-union segment of the construction industry say the ruling was based on a “perverted version of strict liability” in which “the inherent danger of the industry will no longer have any legal significance.”

Brad Gerstman, an attorney and spokesman for BuildingNYC, said his group is likely to file an amicus brief supporting Harco, which has filed a notice to appeal.

Gerstman said the verdict has serious implications for the entire construction industry, both union and non-union sectors.

“The conviction of Harco Construction has set a dangerous precedent where an accident is no longer an accident,” he said, “and you have to be worried that when an accident does happen there will be a homicide charge hanging over your head.”

IN THE LAST few years, New York City’s construction business has been booming.

The city has experienced a 329 percent increase in construction volume since 2009 and a 517 percent increase in new residen-

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tial starts, according to the city’s Department of Buildings. In 2009, when the city was still reeling from the Great Recession, the department issued just 74,586 permits.

By last year, the number of permits taken out spiked at over 107,000.

With this surge in building has come a substantial uptick in serious worker injury and workplace deaths. According to the Department of Buildings, in 2013 there were just three construction-related worker deaths and 203 injuries. By last year, the number of construction workplace deaths had risen to 12, with 472 injuries reported.

Obernauer says the variation between the 17 construction deaths in 2015 documented

by NYCOSH and the lower Buildings Department total of 12 is due to a broader definition she uses for what qualifies as a construction-related work site accident.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which also has documented more construction-related deaths or injuries in the city than the Buildings Department has, uses yet another set of criteria. OSHA counted 20 deaths in the city in 2012, 17 in 2013 and 22 in 2014. Its total for 2015 will be released at the end of this year.

According to a Buildings Department representative, OSHA and Buildings Department statistics measure different things. “If a worker cuts his hand on a circular saw, that's an occupational injury that OSHA would count and we would not,” the representative said. “However, if someone hammers into a wall and it falls down on someone, that's an injury caused by a construction accident which we would likely count.”

The Buildings Department’s data indicates that between 2014 and 2015, injuries jumped by more than 91 percent to 471, while deaths jumped 50 percent to 12.

In another variance, OSHA identifies whether a site involved in a workplace injury or death is a union or a non-union shop, a distinction the Buildings Department does not make.

“While OSHA and the Buildings Department may have different numbers on this, the data is clear on this,” said Lou Coletti, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, a trade group made up of unionized builders and contractors.

“When it comes to worker safety performance, union and prevailing wage job sites far outperform the non-union.”

INJURIES AND DEATHS at construction sites in New York City can hit im-

August 29, 2016

“IF YOU ARE WILLING TO STEAL WAGES FROM YOUR WORKERS THEN IT’S PRETTY LIKELY YOU’LL HAVE NO TROUBLE NOT SPENDING THE MONEY ON SAFETY EQUIPMENT OR TAKING THE ADDITIONAL TIME TO DO A JOB SAFELY.” - MARK PETERS, commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation migrants the hardest. A 2015 New York Times examination into the circumstances involved with construction site deaths for the prior two years found “an increase in fatalities and injuries” that “mostly affected undocumented laborers” that “far exceeds the rate of new construction” over the same period. The Times also found that many of the deaths “were completely avoidable.”

"For a lot of these non-union shops, the key is to get workers that are sufficiently undocumented so that they can pressure those workers to not report when they are hurt on the job, or even lie about it as the company directs them if they have to get to the hospital,” said Richard Weiss, the communications director for the Mason Tenders’ District Council, Laborers International Union of North America. “Non-union companies can use multiple subsidiaries, even set up seemingly separate limited liability companies, all as a way to distance themselves from having to take responsibility for the workers that get injured on their job sites.”

Bob Bartels, business agent at large for the Steamfitters Union, calls the non-union construction world “a free-for-all.” “You're dealing with workers from all kinds of ethnicities, that might have immigration issues, so they end up taking 10 or 12 dollars an hour, under the table, with all kinds of workplace risks to their safety, but they can't speak up for themselves,” he said. “They've got to have representation and that is what joining with a union is about."

Mark Peters, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Investigation, which also worked on the Harco case, said that over the years he has noticed a connection between contractors that cut corners on things

like prevailing wage laws and their willingness to put worker and public safety at risk.

“If you are willing to steal wages from your workers then it’s pretty likely you’ll have no trouble not spending the money on safety equipment or taking the additional time to do a job safely,” said Peters.

FOR MANY NEW Yorkers, a union construction job remains an opportunity worth pursuing. Earlier this month, dozens camped out in lower Manhattan for over a week in stifling heat in hopes of qualifying for one of 250 apprenticeships being offered by the Carpenters Union. In July, hundreds slept on the street in Queens hoping for a similar slot with the Plumbers Union.

Following the dramatic increase in construction accidents, the Buildings Department has in recent months “significantly” increased its enforcement and oversight, a representative said. Fines have also been quadrupled from $2,400 to $10,000.

“This week, the Buildings Department began sweeping contractors with poor safety records who are working on buildings under 10 stories because last year a disproportionate number of accidents occurred at these sites,” the Buildings Department representative said via email. In addition, the city will hire 100 new enforcement inspectors as part of a $120 million upgrade, which includes new information technology to more accurately track and locate bad actors in the industry.

Is the heightened enforcement effort paying off in terms of reducing workplace deaths and injuries? Based on the Buildings Department's year-to-date numbers as of August, the city has seen five construction worker deaths and 253 injuries.

■

At-risk CHILDREN

need our attention

by Danny Donohue Every day, across New York state, thousands of children are at risk of abuse and neglect. Their situation is made worse because the people responsible for their protection - child protective services workers - are overwhelmed by caseloads that threaten the social safety net. Continuing economic challenges for working New Yorkers and an unprecedented heroin epidemic are contributing to the strain. In some places, caseloads can run up to nearly 70 active cases per month.

Last spring, both the Senate and the Assembly acted to address the needs of kids. Legislation capping caseloads and moving New York in the right direction was approved by both houses. It follows the conclusions of the OCFS report by capping active cases to 15 per month and requiring adequate staffing to ensure appropriate follow-up, investigation and site visits to assess the well-being of children in a variety of circumstances.

That is simply dangerous and nearly impossible to handle. But don’t take my word for it. That was the conclusion of a 2006 report by the state’s Office of Children and Family Services. It found that smaller caseloads have a direct benefit for children under supervision.

Now it’s up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign it and give these kids a chance at a better life. It’s the right thing to do for the children and our communities. CSEA joins with many other responsible organizations and elected officials in urging the Governor to sign and set the standard.

These at-risk children deserve better than the attention they’re receiving under current circumstances.

Caseworkers know this and agonize over the working conditions that too often leave them only bad or worse choices. They have difficult work to do under the best of situations, but rarely have the luxury of that reality. They know that one bad decision can have horrific consequences. They also know there can be unacceptable outcomes through no fault of their own.

It’s the worst kind of stress.

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DA N N Y D O N O H U E , P R E S I D E N T

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

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QUICK TAKES

ON HOW THE STATE’S MOVE TO RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE WILL IMPACT THE LABOR FORCE …

CHAIRMAN, STATE SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR

“The state’s labor workforce will begin seeing the benefit of the minimum wage increase at the end of this year as the increase phase-in begins. The different phase-in for New York City, the metropolitan suburbs and upstate took into account the regional economic differences while the safety valve for an executive hold on implementation affords the opportunity and flexibility to pause in the event of an economic downturn during the multi-year phase-in period. In all, it’s a pragmatic approach.

Hand-in-hand with the minimum wage discussion, the budget included a multibillion-dollar income tax reduction for middle-income families. Also, our colleagues in the Assembly joined us in passing various initiatives promoting workforce development and job training through recommendations made by the Senate Workforce Development Task Force, which I co-chaired with Sen. George Amedore. Connecting people with in-demand, well-paying jobs must continue to be a priority as we explore ways in which the state can encourage and help transition workers from low-wage jobs. We must continue to build upon these steps as we move forward.”

Reach New York’s decision makers and influence policy.

Feature your message in this must-read daily morning round-up of New York government and political news.

Contact Tom Allon at Tallon@CityandStateNY.com for more information.

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

33

QUICK TAKES

ON THE PATROLMEN’S BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION’S APPROACH TO CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS …

CHAIRMAN, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR

“Like all public employees, we have to make sure police officers are fairly compensated for the services they provide and show that we value what they do. We know that collective bargaining works when all sides are negotiating in good faith, and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the administration should come to the table in a manner that is beneficial for the city and the folks who serve it. Before Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, 100 percent of the city’s contracts were open, and now that many of them are closed, we should have the same diligence in negotiating this one. The economic benefits of paying all public employees fair compensation should not be overlooked. As the costs of living in the city increases, giving all civil servants the ability to live here will enhance the services we all receive. As a labor leader, I have had to negotiate several contracts, and while it is never easy, I assure you that collective bargaining works.”

POSTAL WORKERS * PAINTERS * GARMENT AND TEXTILE MANUFACUTURING WORKERS * POLICE OFFICERS * RESTAURANT WORKERS * WATERPROOFERS * NURSES * RETAIL WORKERS * ELECC FIREFIGHTERS * FOOTBALL PLAYERS * TRANSPORTATION WORKERS * TELECOMMUNICATION WORKERS STEELWORKERS * RAILROAD WORKERS * CONSTRUCTION WORKERS * PILOTS * CEMENTT SEAFARERS * GOVERNMENT WORKERS * STAGEHANDS * FILM AND TELEVISION WRITERS * MARINERS * AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLERS * MUSICIANS * TEACHERS * AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING W POSTAL PAINTERS * * GARMENT ANDWORKERS TEXTILE MANUFACUTURING WORKERS* SHIPBUILDERS * POLICE OFFICERS * RESTAURANT WORKERS * WATERPROOFERS NURSES * RETAIL WORKERS * *ELECC ROOFERSWORKERS * FLIGHT*ATTENDANTS RESTAURANT * HEALTH CARE WORKERS * TRUCK DIVERS * FILM AND TELEVISION WRITERS ** TAXI DRIVERS * BLACKSMITHS FIREFIGHTERS PLAYERS * *TRANSPORTATION * TELECOMMUNICATION WORKERS STEELWORKERS * RAILROAD WORKERS ** CONSTRUCTION WORKERS * PILOTS * CEMENT VARIETY ARTISTS* *FOOTBALL BAKERY WORKERS FARMWORKERS *WORKERS MANUFACTURING WORKERS * ELEVATOR REPAIRERS * PROFESSORS * MACHINISTS UTILITY WORKERS * LETTER CARRIERS * SCHOOT SEAFARERS * GOVERNMENT WORKERS * STAGEHANDS * FILM *AND TELEVISION WRITERS STORE * MARINERS TRAFFIC CONTROLERS * TEACHERS * AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING NUURSES * BUS DRIVERS * BRIDGE BUILDERS * IRONWORKERS LABORERS * GROCERY WORKERS* AIR * OPERATING ENGINEERS ** MUSICIANS LONGSHOREMEN * THEATRICAL EMPLOYEES * ACTORS *WP

NY LABOR STRONGER THAN EVER NY LABOR

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Employee Relations Collective Bargaining Labor Economics Strategic HR Management Law & Public Policy Organizational Behavior 212-340-2808 • mpsnyc@cornell.edu www.ilr.cornell.edu/mpsnyc

NU DRIVERS * SBRIDGE BUILDERS IRONWORKERS * LABORERS WORKERS *TRTHEATRICAL PIURSES LOTS **CBUS EEMMENT NT MA M SO SON ONS * SEAAFFA FAR ARERS RS * G*OOV VERNMENT WORKERS * STTAG AG*EHA HGROCERY AANNDS * STORE FILM AND D TELEVIS*IOOOPERATING N WRITER RITERS TERRS ENGINEERS * MA MAR ARIN INE NERSS* *LONGSHOREMEN AIA R TRAF RAFFIC A F COONNT NTR OLLEERS OLE RS * MUEMPLOYEES USIC SICIAIAN ANNS * *TE TEAACTORS ACCHHE HERRSS * P OFFFICE EMPLOYEES * URADIO CRANE OPERATORS UNI NICCIP NI CWORKERS CIPAL IPAL EMP EM SLOY LOY LO EEA PAINTERS * NURSES RETAIL AIR RCRAFT T MANUFACTU CTU RINGG WARTISTS RIN ORK RKERS ERSS**HOTEL ER ROOOF OFER EEMPLOYEES RRSS * FLIGGHTT* ATT ATTEND EN ANT END TS * RE RES RES EST E TAURANT TA* MUN * HEES EAL*TH CPOSTAL ARE WOWORKERS RKERS * S*HIPIPB BUILDE LDERRS ** WATERPROOFERS TRRUUCCK DIDIVEERS * FILM AND TE*LEVI EVISIO ONWORKE WRITEER ELLECTRIC WORKER KARIE KER S *TY IREFIG FIISSTSHTE TERS FOOTB FO OTB ALKER PS AYE A* FA * TRANSPORTAT ION ONN WO WORKE RKERS K RS * WORK TEELE LEC ECCKOERMSM*UELE NICAT ION WREOPA R RE STEEL EERROOWOR WORKER ER RA LRO RAI LRHINI WOR KE STY* WO KER ONSTR ON STRUCT STR U * ION ILON IO WER RC BLA ACKSMMCITALTLHWOR S * VA RIETY T FAIRE RTFIG * RSBA BAAKK*ERY RY WTBALL WO ORALL KERS RPL FRSARMW RMWORK ORKERS ORK ERS *ATIO MANUFACTURING ECAT VATATTION OR WO PRKE PAI RER ERSRSS * *ST PEEL FESS E OKER RSRSS ** MACH NADSTDTSWO *ORKER UTILIT WCON ORK RKER ERSUCT ETTTTWO ET PIROCERY LOTS Y* SST CTO NTWOR M KER MA SON FAR FFA RS * GIN VERERRSNM* ENT WORKERS * ST*TAG ATHEATRICAL GEHA HAANNDS *EMPLOYEE FILM ANDDESTE*LEAVCT IOONS W* RITER RPL TER M&AR ARPIPIN IIPEFI NEFI NE EFITTE RSSTTE ROFF A FICEECOEM OMNNT NTR OYEE ERS RS * RA MU SIO IAIAN AN TEA HTEEL GR TEEM OMRE RENT WORKER OR KSO KE ERONS RS S**OP OSEA PPEEARA RAT ATARTIINNG NERS G EN ENG GGINOOVEER LOONGSHOREMEN LON CITSORS PILTERS U RS ERS UM UMB E*RSMA T * RSAIA R *TRAF OAFFIC PTRLOYEE PLO LOOLE YLLEEE RAD ADUDSIC IOICART AR RTNTSIST ISTS*S TE * AHOT HCCHOT OHE ERRSLSEM E*M AIR T ML AEMPL NUFACTU CTUUESRIN RING*G WPOS ORK RKERS ERSWOR S ORKER * ROO OSFER OF ERRS GHTST ATT ATTEND EN ANTENT TS *AN RDES RES RE EST E TEXT TEXT A ILE EGALWO THOCRKE AERRS RSE *OFF SHIPCERS IPBBUSILDE LDER RS TAURAN * TRRAN RUUCNCTK WORK ANDPROOF TEOOFERS LEVI EVISIO RITEOR MRCRAFT UNICIPAL MPLOYE OYEES OST TALER KERS *S P*AIN A FNLIG TERS TER * END GARM ARMENT AND TTAURANT EXTILE ILE MMAAWORKERS N ACCUSTU*RHINEA NUF RE W*ORPOKOELIC LICE OFFICER * RES RESTAU WDIDIVEERKSER ERS RS* FILM * WATERPR ERSON*WAU AUTO BLA ACKSMM*ITTRETA HETAIL S *I VAWO ARIE RIETY T ART*ISSTELE TY SLECTR *CTRICA BAAKCAL BA KERY RYWWO WORK ORKER KERS R*S FIFIREF * REFIGH FARMW FA RMWORK ORKERS ORK * MANUFACTURING EVSAT*ORTELECOMMU REPA P MRE PAI RER ERS NIC * ATION PRROOONFESS EWO ORRSSKERS HEINI NELW STTS * UTILIT WORK WO RKER ERSW*ORK LET EETTTRTSER C NUURSES ORKERS RKERS GHTERS S ERS * TEACH HERS * TRANSP TRA RAANSP NSPPOR NS OORTWORK TATI AT OKENRWOR ATIO WS ORKER O* ELE KER ERS NICATI WOR KER*RSMACH * STE LWORKERS S *TYRAIAILROAD ORKER GR YUCTIO SSTTIO TOORE TO RN WORK ORKER KERS KE ERRS * POP OILO PPEETS RAT RA ATT*IINNG NCGEMEN ENGENT EN GINT EER GIN RS *NSLON LOONGSHOREMEN THEATRICAL CSTTAG ORSSEHA PNDS U * ERS UM EFRSILM& AN PIPIPEFI T VIS RS ION* OFF OWRRITE ICEEREM PLOYEE LO YEE * RA RAD AD IOIRART ARTTRA RTRATIST ISTS HOT HOT OTROL EOL LEM EERMR COROCERY ONSTRUC WWOR OORKER ILOTS MASO MERASONS * SE SEAFA AFARER RERSS * *GOVERN GOV VERN ERNMMEN MENTAEMPLOYEE L WOR WOR OORK RKKEERS ES * *ACT ER TAGEHA E *ANPL NLDS DUMB AND DEFIFITTE TELE TELE ELTTE VISION ITER SM*PLO MYEE MA RIRINNS ERS *DAIO FFICSC *CONT FFI CONT ONTR REL

STRONGER

THAN EVER

MUNICIPAL MPLOYE OYEES ES * PAIRCRAFT OSTTAL WOR OS ORKER KERSS * PAIN A NTER TERS S * GARM ARMENT ENT AN ANDD TEXT T*EXT EXTILE ILE MMAAATTEND ILE N ND NUF ACDCANT UNT TUSRI*NGRES WOOTAUR RKEREANT R *WORKERS RS POOLIC LICEE OFF OFFICER S * RES RESTAU RANNT WORK W * KFIREFIGHTERS ERS ER RS * WATERPR PROOF OOFERS ERSDIVERS * AU AUTO USICIANSL E*MPL TEACHERS MANUFACTURING WORKERS * ROOFERS FLIGHT ANTS RESTAU * CERS HEALTH CARETAURAN WORKERS * TRUCK *O NU URSES RETA ETAILI WOORKERS CTRICA CAL WORK RKERS * FIFIREF REFIGH GHTERS S * TEACH HERS * *TRANSP TRA RABAKERY ANSP NSPPOR NS OORTWORKERS TATI AT ON WOR ATIO WORKER O* FARMWORKERS KER ERSS * TELECOMMU M* MANUFACTURING NICATI NIC ATION ON WO WORRKERS KER RS * STEEELW * RAIAILROAD *WPROFESSO ORKER ORK ERS R FILM LM AND* TELEVISION WRITERS* ELE *LECTR TAXI DRIVERS * BLACKSMITHS * VARIETY ARTISTS WORKERS *LWORKERS ELEVATORS REPAIRERS CO ONSTRUC UCTIO TIOON WORK WO* LETTER ERS * CARRIERS PILO ILOTS TS * *CEMEN ENTT MASO MADMINISTRATORS ASONS NS * SE SEAFA AFARER RERS * GOVERN GOVVERN ERNM MENDRIVERS MEN TA L WOR WOR OORK E * SBUILDERS ER ERS TAGEHA TAG E ANNDS EHA NDS D* IRONWORKERS * FILM AN ANDD TELE TELE EL* LABORERS VISION VIS ION WRRITE ITER RS * MA M RIRIN NERSWORKERS * AIR TTRA RA*FFI FFIC C CONT CONT ONTRROL ROLEN ERNR UTILITY WORKERS SCHOOL * SNURSES * BUS *RKKBRIDGE * GROCERY STORE OPERATING MUSICIANS * TEACHERS * AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING * FLIGHT ATTEND ND DANT ANTS NTS * *RES RESTAU TAURRANT WORKERS* RADIO * HEALTH CARE*WORKERS * FIREFIGHTERS * TRUCK DIVERS ** LONGSHOREMEN * THEATRICAL EMPLOYEES * ACTORS *WORKERS PLUMBERS*&ROOFERS PIPEFITTERS * POLICE OFFICERS OFFICE EMPLOYEES ARTISTS HOTEL EMPLOYEES * CRANE OPERATORS FILM LM AND TELEVISION * TAXI DRIVERS** PAINTERS BLACKSMITHS * VARIETY ARTISTS* NURSES * BAKERY* WORKERS * FARMWORKERS * MANUFACTURING WORKERS**TEACHERS ELEVATOR*REPAIRERS * PROFESSO MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEESWRITERS * POSTAL WORKERS * WATERPROOFERS RETAIL WORKERS * ELECTRICAL WORKERS * FIREFIGHTERS TRANSPORTATION WORKKR UTILITY WORKERS * LETTER CARRIERS * SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS * NURSES * BUS DRIVERS WORKERS * BRIDGE *BUILDERS IRONWORKERS * GROCERY STORE WORKERS ENNS TELECOMMUNICATION WORKERS * STEELWORKERS * RAILROAD WORKERS * CONSTRUCTION PILOTS ** CEMENT MASONS* LABORERS * SEAFARERS * GOVERNMENT WORKERS* *OPERATING STAGEHANDS LONGSHOREMEN * THEATRICAL * PLUMBERS & PIPEFITTERS OFFICERS * OFFICE EMPLOYEES * RADIO ARTISTS* *ROOFERS HOTEL EMPLOYEES * CRANE OPERATORS *N FILM AND TELEVISION WRITERS *EMPLOYEES MARINERS ** ACTORS AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLERS * MUSICIANS* POLICE * TEACHERS * AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING WORKERS * FLIGHT ATTENDANTS * RESTAURAN MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES * POSTAL WORKERS * PAINTERS * WATERPROOFERS * NURSES WORKERS WORKERS * FIREFIGHTERS * TEACHERS TRANSPORTATION WORKEK UTILITY WORKERS * LETTER CARRIERS * SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS * NURSES * BUS DRIVERS* RETAIL * BRIDGE BUILDERS* ELECTRICAL * IRONWORKERS * LABORERS * GROCERY STORE *WORKERS * OPERATING TELECOMMUNICATION WORKERS * STEELWORKERS * RAILROAD WORKERS * CONSTRUCTION * CEMENT MASONS * WORKERS SEAFARERS* *PLUMBERS GOVERNMENT WORKERS * STAGEHANDS OFFICE EMPLOYEES * RADIO ARTISTS * HOTEL EMPLOYEES * CRANE OPERATORS * MUNICIPALWORKERS EMPLOYEES* PILOTS * TEACHERS * RESTAURANT * CONSTRUCTION WORKERS S FILM AND TELEVISION * AIR* TRAFFIC * MUSICIANS * TEACHERSAND * ADMINISTRATORS AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING WORKERS**PROFESSORS ROOFERS * FLIGHT IRONWORKERS * AUTOWRITERS WORKERS* MARINERS * PIPEFITTERS LABORERSCONTROLERS * POLICE OFFICERS * SUPERVISORS * LETTER CARRIERS * OFFICEATTENDANTS EMPLOYEES ** RESTAURAN MUSICIANN

New York State New York State AFL-CIO

UTILITY WORKERS * LETTER CARRIERS * SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS * NURSES * BUS DRIVERS * BRIDGE BUILDERS * IRONWORKERS * LABORERS * GROCERY STORE WORKERS * OPERATING E OFFICE EMPLOYEES * RADIO ARTISTS * HOTEL EMPLOYEES * CRANE OPERATORS * MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES * TEACHERS * RESTAURANT WORKERS * PLUMBERS * CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IRONWORKERS * AUTO WORKERS * PIPEFITTERS * LABORERS * POLICE OFFICERS * SUPERVISORS AND ADMINISTRATORS * LETTER CARRIERS * PROFESSORS * OFFICE EMPLOYEES * MUSICIAN

AFL-CIO

Helping Working Families Achieve A Better Life

Mario Cilento, President Terrence L. Melvin, Secretary-Treasurer

Helping Working Families Achieve A Better Life

100 South Swan Street, Albany, NY 12210 phone: 518-436-8516 50 Broadway, 35th fl, New York, NY 10004 phone: 212-777-6040 Mario Cilento, President www.nysaflcio.org | connect with us on

Terrence L. Melvin, Secretary-Treasurer

100 South Swan Street, Albany, NY 12210 phone: 518-436-8516 50 Broadway, 35th fl, New York, NY 10004 phone: 212-777-6040 www.nysaflcio.org | connect with us on

34

CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016

LABOR

Ideology

OR

Incumbency?

1199 SEIU is getting behind the state Senate Republicans this year after a failed effort to win a Democratic majority in 2014. Other big unions tend to make campaign contributions to candidates on both sides of the aisle – in the same cycle.

AS THEY TRY to maintain control of the state Senate this November, Republicans won a key early battle when the influential 1199 SEIU shifted its support back to the GOP. However, the powerful health care

2010

union’s bet on the Senate Republicans is not the norm for a number of unions, which tend to contribute to both major parties each cycle. The party-blind giving in New York also differs from union contributions on the national level, which

Which parties did unions giv e to in the senate? $100,000 $80,000 $60,000 $40,000

NYSUT

NYS TROOPERS

NYSPBA

NYSCOPBA

CSEA

AFL-CIO

32BJ SEIU

1199 SEIU

$20,000

tend to go to Democrats whose policy positions more closely align with theirs.

“Unions in many ways are like other interest groups, because the money follows power and the unions, if they want to be successful in their advocacy, they have to be able to work with both Republicans and Democrats,” Blair Horner, executive director of NYPIRG, said of New York labor groups. ”Campaign contributions follow power. Now, that being said, some unions tend to be more ideological than others.”

For example, the Communication Workers of America tends to be “more activist and liberal oriented,” Horner said.

The CWA has contributed $92,500 to Democrats since 2010, including $20,000 already this year, and nothing to Republicans. Conversely, the state Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association contributed $75,225 to the GOP, while giving no money to Democrats.

As this year’s races heat up, City & State took a look at state Board of Elections’ January and July reports to see who gets contributions from some of the state’s biggest unions during election years. (The analysis does not include any contributions by labor unions to individual candidates.)

■

2

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

2012

REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS

$100,000

35

2014

$80,000

$200,000

$60,000

$150,000

$40,000 $100,000 $20,000

$100,000

$80,000

$60,000

$40,000

NYSUT

NYS TROOPERS

NYSPBA

NYSCOPBA

NYSUT Democrats:

AFL-CIO Democrats:

Republicans:

Republicans:

$366,250 $160,400

NYSUT

NYS TROOPERS

NYSPBA

NYSCOPBA

CSEA

AFL-CIO

$20,000

$124,000 $130,700

1199 SEIU campaign contribution history:

$94,000 to Democrats 2012 - $100,000 to Republicans 2014 - $154,000 to Democrats 2016 - $100,000 to Republicans 2010 –

32BJ SEIU

CSEA

Many unions donate to both parties.

2016

1199 SEIU

AFL-CIO

32BJ SEIU

1199 SEIU

NYSUT

NYS TROOPERS

NYSPBA

NYSCOPBA

CSEA

AFL-CIO

32BJ SEIU

1199 SEIU

$50,000

36

CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016 36

QUICK TAKES

ON HER SHIFT FROM WORKING AT THE AFL-CIO TO SERVING IN STATE GOVERNMENT …

COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

“At its core, the Department of Labor is a service organization, dedicated to improving the lives of New Yorkers. Businesses are our customers, and our staff work tirelessly every day to provide them with services they need – like job postings and referrals, career fairs, and customized recruitments – to help to fill the jobs New York is creating. Our extensive network of Career Centers, nearly 100 of them across this state, are free and open to any New Yorker who is looking for a new job or a new direction in their career. Our No. 1 goal at the Department of Labor is to connect job-seekers with employers looking to hire the hardworking residents of this state.

“As commissioner, I’ve had the opportunity to travel the state and gained an invaluable understanding of the unparalleled commitment to the people of New York that this agency and the administration possess. My conviction since being confirmed has only grown stronger. Under the governor’s leadership, the department has helped usher in a new era of economic growth and sustained prosperity. And as a result, today, New York is the best state in the nation to live and work.”

Home Six years before the Statue of Liberty was dedicated, Deloitte opened an office in New York.

Today, more than 5,400 professionals work for the organization in six offices throughout the state, including its global headquarters in Manhattan.

www.deloitte.com

O August 29, 2016

City & State New York

37

A fresh perspective on opinions/ Edited by Nick Powell

MAYOR DE BLASIO MUST REVOKE O’NEILL’S APPOINTMENT

DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE

By BERTHA LEWIS

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO CONGRATULATES NYPD CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT JAMES O’NEILL AT A PRESS CONFERENCE THIS MONTH NAMING HIM COMMISSIONER BILL BRATTON’S SUCCESSOR.

n Aug. 2, Mayor Bill de Blasio made the passive decision to let NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton call the shots on who would take over as his successor, consciously disregarding the line of succession and avoiding an opportunity for an open and transparent process.

When Bratton announced his resignation, we got ready to give congratulations to First Deputy Ben Tucker, but were left dumbfounded when the mayor announced that James O’Neill, the “architect” of the NYPD’s

neighborhood policing program, would be filling the highest civilian role in the department. Another display of mayoral incompetence met with no backlash, comments, or questions.

O’Neill enters the game with plenty of baggage. After accepting his new position O’Neill stated, “never in his life did he even think he would be standing at a podium as the next commissioner.”

Perhaps this thought stemmed from his involvement in a five-month misconduct investigation in 2008.

Under his watch as commanding

NYSlant.com

August 29, 2016

A KATZ

38

INCOMING NYPD COMMISSIONER JAMES O’NEILL, MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, OUTGOING COMMISSIONER BILL BRATTON, AND FIRST DEPUTY BEN TUCKER, FAR RIGHT, CONGRATULATE OFFICERS ON THEIR PROMOTIONS AT ONE POLICE PLAZA. officer of Citywide Narcotics, 15 of O’Neill’s cops were investigated over charges that undercover officers traded drugs for information and sexual favors. O’Neill was transferred by thenCommissioner Ray Kelly. In 2014, Bratton rewarded him with two promotions: first to chief of patrol and then to chief of department.

By promoting O’Neill to commissioner and skipping over Tucker, de Blasio is pretending to be a crime-stopping mayor and a police reformer. Both believe in increased community policing, that the broken windows policy is evolving, and are quoted boasting that the NYPD has changed for the better – but where

is the proof?

The Village Voice reported in June that during the first three months of 2016 the number of NYPD arrests for the possession or sale of small amounts of marijuana were up over 30 percent, a crime decriminalized nearly a year before. Similarly, a study done by the Police Reform Organizing Project showed that in 2016, 86.5 percent of misdemeanor arrests have involved people of color, with fare-beating and marijuana possession and sale as the highest categories.

These arrests come under the influence of Bratton, who previously stated on the radio show “The Cats Roundtable”

that marijuana is the cause of the “vast majority” of violence in New York City, suggesting that weed is as dangerous as heroin. We should expect O’Neill to echo the outdated views of his predecessor.

Without looking into them personally, O’Neill has already committed to backroom deals that were already made in the administration.

Of course, I am referring to the Right to Know Act “compromise,” in which Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the de Blasio administration (and by extension the NYPD) agreed to institute changes to the department’s patrol guide instead of passing police reform legislation. It is clear that the administration’s ability

August 29, 2016

City & State New York

change boasted by the administration is not impacting the lives of minorities.

Community policing is just another term for stop-and-frisk, and one must wonder if a different view would be taken had the line of succession not been trumped by Mayor de Blasio.

We at The Black Institute call upon Mayor de Blasio to revoke his appointment of James O’Neill. We believe that the selection of Commissioner Bratton’s successor should be an open and transparent process. First Deputy Ben Tucker has a clean record and is completely capable of serving in the interim as a search is conducted nationally and locally for the most qualified candidate.

It is time for New Yorkers to demand that Mayor de Blasio follow written protocol. We see past his cloud of meaningless rhetoric and see that his administration is blocking reform. Instead of seizing an opportunity to assert himself, our Mayor again displayed his level of incompetence.

A KATZ

■

to disregard the Right to Know Act is another example of Mayor de Blasio’s commitment to a cosmetic fix of the system, blatantly ignoring the main purpose of the bill – accountability.

Among the rank-and-file, we are told to remain assured that the new NYPD commissioner will continue the great work of Bratton. His “great work” includes the prevention of systemic change, which we cannot allow to continue. Meaningful reform is not only fair enforcement in all communities and decriminalization of low-level, non-violent behaviors, but also increased accountability for officers who abuse their powers.

For us on the ground, we know that the

MEANINGFUL REFORM IS NOT ONLY FAIR ENFORCEMENT IN ALL COMMUNITIES AND DECRIMINALIZATION OF LOW-LEVEL, NONVIOLENT BEHAVIORS, BUT ALSO INCREASED ACC O U N TA BILIT Y FOR OFFICERS WHO ABUSE THEIR POWERS.

Bertha Lewis is president and founder of The Black Institute.

39

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES AUGUST 29, 2016

Notice of Formation of IMPRCR 4115 50TH LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/20/16. 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 RCR Management LLC, 155 Riverside Dr., Ste. 1D, NY, NY 10024.

As amended by Cert. of Amendment filed with SSNY on 06/23/16, name changed to 4115 50TH LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of IMPRCR 4541 39TH LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/20/16. 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 RCR Management LLC, 155 Riverside Dr., Ste. 1D, NY, NY 10024.

As amended by Cert. of Amendment filed with SSNY on 06/23/16, name changed to 4541 39TH LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

CONTENT LENDING LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 6/21/2016. Office located in NY County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 535 110th St., Apt. 5D, NY NY 10025. Purpose: any lawful act.

BESSO LLC filed Arts. of Org. with the Sect’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/8/2016. Office located in NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 124 W 93rd St., Apt. 7B, NY NY 10025. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of Diana La Mere, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State to NY (SSNY) On July 12, 2016. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against 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: 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228.

The principal address to the LLC is: 66 Fort Washington Ave #64 New York, NY 10032.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of Fair Shake Food LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/12/2016.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: US Corp. Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave #202.

Brooklyn, NY 11228.

Principal business address: 360 E 88th St. #8F, NY, NY 10128.

Purpose: any lawful act.

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CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016

For reservations and rates please email: legalnotices@cityandstateny.com or call 212-268-0442, ext. 2017

Notice of Qualification of ROBERTA’S COMMISSARY I MANAGER, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/30/16. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/29/16. Princ. office of LLC: 655 Madison Ave., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10065. 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., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, 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 PEG GLOBAL PRIVATE EQUITY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS VI LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/27/16.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/15/15. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service

Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of LDV NoMad, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/07/16. Office location: NY County.

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 PENINSULA (US) LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/06/16. Office location: NY County.

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 FERA MORINGA

LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 5/18/2016. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC, 7014 13th Ave #202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Principal business address: 232 W 14th St. NY, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of Horizon Actuarial Services, LLC. Authority filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 6/20/2016. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in DE on 10/2/2007. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 900 Ashwood Parkway, Ste. 170, Atlanta, GA 30338.

DE address of LLC: 1313 N. Market Street, Ste. 5100, Wilmington, DE 19801. Certificate of LLC filed with Secretary of State of DE located at: 401 Federal St. Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of SBJCT LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/30/2016.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 435 W 23rd St. Ste. 1BB, NY, NY 10011. Purpose: any lawful act.

IFARCO 349/119 LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 12/04/2015. Office in NY Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLC upon whom process may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of process to c/o Timothy O’Donnell, Esq., 40 Exchange Place, 19th Fl, NY, NY 10005. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Principal business location: 301 East 69th St., NY, NY 10021.

Notice of formation of HFBRE LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 6/24/16.

Office loc.: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail copy of process to is Fox Rothschild LLP, c/o Leonard Budow, Esq., 101 Park Ave., 17th Fl., New York, NY 10178.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of SITELIFT LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on July 08, 2016. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 333 Pearl St., NY, NY 10038.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against him or her may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Danielle Djokic, Registered Agent at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of Pearl Gamma Funding, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/22/16. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 05/22/16. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Pearl Gamma Funding, LLC, 100 William St 9th Fl NY NY 10038. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 1209 Orange St.,Wilmington, DE 19801. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of East 14th MK LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/14/2016. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 511

Canal St. Ste. 600, NY, NY 10013. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Application for Authority of RCC TRS, LLC filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/5/16.

Formed in DE 1/31/05.

Office loc.: New York County.

SSNY is designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address SSNY shall mail copy of process to is 712 Fifth Ave., 12th Fl., New York, NY 10019. The office address required to be maintained in DE is 110 S. Poplar St., Ste. 101, Wilmington, DE 19801.

Cert. of formation filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of G’S DELIGHT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/13/16.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: c/o Proskauer Rose LLP, Eleven Times Square, NY, NY 100368299. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Attn: Jay D. Waxenberg at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of GLEN COVE RESTAURANT II LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/12/16.

Office location: NY County.

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 RMA INVESTORS, L.L.C. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/12/16.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office

of LLC: 20 E. 9th St., NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Robert D. Adler at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: To conduct any lawful business activities or investment activities permitted or authorized to be conducted by a limited liability company under the New York limited liability company law or the corresponding provisions of any successor law.

Notice of formation of UESMEX LLC Art. of Org. filed with the ssny on July 15 2015 new york county ssny designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC 1685 1ST AVE NY NY 10128. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of NMNY GROUP LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/22/16.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 350 Fifth Ave., Fl. 68, NY, NY 10118.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Kudman Trachten Aloe LLP at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of JEWISH APPLIED RESEARCH CENTER, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/14/16. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/06/16. Princ. office of LLC: 1350 Broadway, Ste. 2101, NY, NY 10018. 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., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.

City & State New York

August 29, 2016

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 MUDRICK DISTRESSED ENERGY CO-INVESTMENT FEEDER, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/14/16. Office location: NY County.

LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/06/15. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Mudrick Capital Management, L.P., 527 Madison Ave., 6th Fl., NY, NY 10022.

Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: c/o Corporation Service Co., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of 79 BAXTER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with the Sect’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/13/2016.

Office located in NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Raber Enterprises, LLC, 175 Canal St., 2nd Fl., NY NY 10013. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of RPM of Panama City, LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on June 1, 2016. Office: New York County.

LLC formed in Florida (FL) on January 28th, 2016. Princ. office of LLC: 2012 Tupelo Ct. Panama City, FL 32405.

SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 170 E 106th St #2F New York, NY

10029. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notification of formation of MOMENTUM FITNESS, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on January 23, 2014. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC 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: 180 W80 Street, Mezzanine.

New York, NY, 10023.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of CEEDS Staffing LLC. Art. of Org. filled with SSNY on April 7, 2016. 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, 833 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10003. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of Awesome Accessories, LLC. Art. of Org. filed with NY Secretary of State (SSNY) July 28, 2016.

Office Location: New York County.

SSNY has been designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 324 E. 61st St., #1RE New York, NY 10065 Purpose: Any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Two Lane Films LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on July 20, 2016. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as 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 theLLC served upon him/her is:

Angela Costrini Hariche, 53 Park Place, #4J, New York, NY 10007.

The principal business address of the LLC is: 53 Park Place #4J, New York, NY 10007 Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of Sherwood Clinton LLC, Art. of Org. filed with Sec’y of State (SSNY) on 6/20/16.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to Sherwood Equities, 745 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10151. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of Soussand Associates, LLC, Art. of Org. filed with Sec’y of State (SSNY) on 5/17/16.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to Philippe Soussand, 30 E. 85th St., #14B, NY, NY 10028. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of Silverview CLO LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 3/1/16.

Off. loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 2/29/16.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom proc. against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to Att: Adam Hagfors, 40 W. 57th St., NY, NY 10019.

DE off. addr.: CSC, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp: any lawful activities.

Public Notice – Matter Ventures, LLC Notice of qualification of Matter Ventures, LLC. Application of Authority filed with the Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on 6/21/2016. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in DE on 12/02.2012.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall

mail copy of process against LLC to principal business address: 421 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94107.

DE address of LLC: Corporation Trust Center, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington, DE 19901. Certificate of LLC filed with the Secy. of State of DE located at: 401 Federal Street Suite 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of Honeymix LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on May 25, 2016. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: 225 W 112th St NY NY 10026. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of formation of Grafted Hospitality Group LLC, Articles of organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/02/16.

Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: c/o Marzec Law Firm, 225 Broadway Suite 3000, New York, NY 10007. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of Drake Communications, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/2/2016.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 7014 13th Ave, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Principal business address: 113 Nassau St, New York, NY 10038. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of Marisa Terol llc. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/12/2016.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and

shall mail copy to principal business address: 189 west 89 Street 18L NY, NY 10024. Purpose any lawful act.

Notice of formation of 57Crickets60Elm, LLC, Arts of Org filed with Sec of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/01/16. Office location:NY County.

SSNY designated agency upon whom process may be served against LLC. Principal business address is 3 Wash Square Village, 2-O, NY NY 10012.

Notice of Formation of 55 HAUS LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on July 14, 2016. Office: New York County.

SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC, 220 E. 25th St 4A, NY, NY 10010.

Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of OBBP PARKING OWNER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/18/16. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/10/16. Princ. office of LLC: Vanke Holdings USA LLC, Attn: General Counsel, 130 W. 42nd St., 16th Fl., 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. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Corps.

Div., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RPA RIVINGTON, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of

41

State of NY (SSNY) on 08/03/16. Office location: NY County.

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. Purpose: To hold real and personal property and any other lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RatetheBiz, LLC. Arts of Organization filed with the SSNY on June 13,2016. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: 7014 13th Ave Ste. 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228. Principal business address: 121 W 36th St. NY, NY 10018. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of 7A MADISON SQUARE LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on August 08, 2016. Office location: New York County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC, 262 WEST 38TH STREET ROOM 1701, and NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10018.

Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

ADVERTISE HERE

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CityAndStateNY.com

August 29, 2016

CITY & STATE NEW YORK MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING Chairman Steve Farbman, President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com, Vice President of Strategy Jasmin Freeman, Comptroller David Pirozzi dpirozzi@cityandstateny.com, Business & Sales Coordinator Patrea Patterson

Who was up and who was down last week

BILL DE BLASIO – Sure, he’s fond of cheesy dad-jokes, but the mayor is winning major cool-dad cred with his Bernista kids this week, getting a sit-down dinner with Bernie Sanders in Burlington. Some have questioned his seemingly frequent sojourns out of the city, including a certain governor, but why should de Blasio care? Take Cuomo’s comments with a grain of salt, and then rim your margarita with it.

You’re on vacation!

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

LOSERS

As the summer winds down, you can feel the pressure building. Autumn is right around the corner, and with it the onset of the election season and a rush of political maneuvering. So while you still can, take a cue from Mayor Bill de Blasio: Schedule some time off, kick back and check out who the biggest Winners & Losers were this past week.

EDITORIAL - editor@cityandstateny.com Editorial Director Michael Johnson mjohnson@ cityandstateny.com, Senior Editor Jon Lentz jlentz@ cityandstateny.com, Albany Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com, Buffalo Reporter Justin Sondel jsondel@cityandstateny.com, City Hall Reporter Sarina Trangle strangle@cityandstateny.com, Managing Editor Ryan Somers, Associate Copy Editor Sam Edsill, Web/Engagement Editor Jeremy Unger, Editorial Assistant Jeff Coltin SLANT Slant Editor Nick Powell npowell@cityandstateny. com, Editor-at-Large Gerson Borrero gborrero@ cityandstateny.com, Slant Columnists Nicole Gelinas, Bruce Fisher, Richard Brodsky CREATIVE - creativedepartment@cityandstateny.com Creative Director Guillaume Federighi, Senior Graphic Designer Alex Law, Marketing Designer Charles Flores, Junior Graphic Designer Kewen Chen DIGITAL - digital@cityandstateny.com Digital Manager Chanelle Grannum, Digital Content Coordinator Michael Filippi MULTIMEDIA Multimedia Director Bryan Terry

KEN THOMPSON – If your job is to prosecute lawbreakers, you probably shouldn’t be breaking simple, easy-to-follow laws yourself. The Brooklyn district attorney spent nearly $2,000 reimbursing his security detail for the small convenience of having them pick up his lunches and dinners.

Thompson was ordered to pay $15,000, among the largest fines in a decade and the first against a DA in the history of the Conflicts of Interest Board.

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, Digital Sales Director Brie Moran bmoran@cityandstateny.com EVENTS - events@cityandstateny.com Events Manager Lissa Blake, Senior Events Coordinator Alexis Arsenault, Events and Marketing Coordinator Jenny Wu

Vol. 5 Issue 33 August 29, 2016

HOW SAFE ARE NYC CONSTRUCTION SITES? ARE STRIKES EFFECTIVE IN NEW YORK?

THE BEST OF THE REST RICH FUNKE – state senator’s opponent off the ballot

PAUL KATZ - NLRB allows Columbia grad students to unionize DONOVAN RICHARDS councilman gets $91 million for Far Rockaway ED RILEY - developer reopens Hotel Syracuse

THE REST OF THE WORST STEVE BANKS - HRA chief seeing more complaints at shelters BYRON BROWN - more lead testing in Buffalo’s wealthier areas JEFFREY IMMELT - DEC says GE not done cleaning Hudson MARTIN NUSSBAUM & DAVID SCHWARTZ - Rivington developers drop armory project under pressure

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.

IS ANDREW CUOMO SABOTAGING THE ENERGY INDUSTRY?

WHOSE CAMPAIGNS REALLY GET THE MOST UNION CONTRIBUTIONS?

LABOR DAY 2016 CITYANDSTATENY.COM

@CITYANDSTATENY

August 29, 2016

Art Direction Guillaume Federighi

CITY & STATE NEW YORK is published weekly 48 times a year except one week in January, August, November and December for $124.99 by City & State NY LLC, 61 Broadway, Suite 2235, NY, NY 10006. Application to mail at periodical postage prices is pending at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: City & State NY, LLC, 61 Broadway, Suite 2235, NY, NY 10006.

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