CITY COUNCIL CITY OF NEW YORK ------------------------ X TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES Of the COMMITTEE ON FINANCE JOINTLY WITH COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS ------------------------ X March 5, 2014 Start: 10:05 a.m. Recess: 5:40 p.m. HELD AT: Council Chambers City Hall B E F O R E: JULISSA FERRERAS Chairperson HELEN K. ROSENTHAL Co-Chairperson COUNCIL MEMBERS: Ydanis A. Rodriguez James G. Van Bramer Vanessa L. Gibson Robert E. Cornegy, Jr. Laurie A. Cumbo Corey D. Johnson Mark Levine I. Daneek Miller Vincent M. Ignizio Melissa Mark-Viverito Ruben Wills Jumaane D. Williams World Wide Dictation 545 Saw Mill River Road – Suite 2C, Ardsley, NY 10502 Phone: 914-964-8500 * 800-442-5993 * Fax: 914-964-8470 www.WorldWideDictation.com COUNCIL MEMBERS: (CONTINUED) David G. Greenfield Brad Lander Stephen T. Levin Ben Kallos Inez D. Barron Andy L. King Daniel Dromm A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Dean Fuleihan Director Office of Management and Budget Ray Orlando Office of Management and Budget Beth Goldman Commissioner Department of Finance David Resnick Acting Commissioner Department of Design and Construction Ana Barrio Chief of Staff Department of Design and Construction Eric Macfarlane Deputy Commissioner for Infrastructure Department of Design and Construction David Varoli General Counsel Department of Design and Construction Bruce Rudolph Department of Design and Construction Carla Van de Walle Department of Design and Construction Scott Stringer New York City Comptroller Tim Mulligan Deputy Comptroller of Budgets New York City Comptroller's Office Nivardo Lopez Director for City Legislative Affairs New York City Comptroller's Office A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Ronnie Lowenstein Director Independent Budget Office George Sweeting Deputy Director Independent Budget Office Raymond Santander Assistant Director Research & Negotiations District Council 37 Ralph Palladino Representative Clerical Administrative Employees Local 1549 DC 37 Nova Strachan Lead Housing Organizer Mothers on the Move 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE JOINTLY WITH COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS 5 2 MALE VOICE: Quiet please. 3 CHAIRPERSON FERRERAS: Good morning and 4 welcome to New York City's Council Finance Committee 5 Hearing on the Mayor's Preliminary Budget for FY 6 2015. My name is Julissa Ferreras and I chair the 7 Committee. I'd like to introduce my colleagues that 8 are here with me today; we have Majority Leader Jimmy 9 Van Bramer, Council Member Corey Johns, Council Vinny 10 Ignizio, Council Member Mar… [background comment] I'm 11 sorry, Mark Levine. 12 Before we get started, I would like to 13 take a quick moment to thank the entire City Council 14 Finance Division, including the deputies of the 15 Division -- Regina Poreda Ryan, Nathan Toth, Latonia 16 McKinney, Chief Economist, Ray Majewski and Chief 17 Counsel to the Finance Division and Finance 18 Committee, Tanisha Edwards. I'd like to thank them 19 all for their very hard word and that they worked 20 around the clock preparing for this hearing. 21 I'd like to also make mention that we 22 have a new Speaker that we are so happy to have here 23 with us today, as mentioned in the introductions, 24 we've been joined by Council Speaker Melissa Mark- 25 Viverito; we have a new administration, a new Speaker 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE JOINTLY WITH COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS 6 2 and I'm excited to her here today to kick off the 3 first day of the Preliminary Budget hearings. 4 Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. 5 SPEAKER MARK-VIVERITO: Thank you, Chair 6 Ferreras. I wanna thank everyone that has joined us 7 here today for our first official budget hearing of 8 the cycle and I wanna thank OMB Director for being 9 here as well. 10 So my name is Council Member Melissa 11 Mark-Viverito and I'm Speaker of the New York City 12 Council. Today is the first day of hearings on the 13 Preliminary Budget; while these hearings are not new 14 to the Council or the Mayor's Office, the 15 participants and values have changed. This will be a 16 truly thorough analysis of the budget like we've 17 never done before. I'm happy to say that real change 18 has finally come to the City's annual budget adoption 19 process. With this new start, this Council and the 20 Administration will look at agency spending in its 21 totality, evaluation each agency for efficiencies, 22 assessing each agency for best practices and ensuring 23 that each agency is leveraging the City's spending 24 power. No longer is the conversation relegated to 25 cuts or Council initiatives. The conversation will 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE JOINTLY WITH COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS 7 2 be substantive and thorough, something New Yorkers 3 can be proud of. We can now discuss whether an 4 agency's proposed budget truly reflects its mission 5 and goals; this is a necessary and essential reform. 6 As elected officials, we are all responsible for 7 every taxpayer dollar spent and we want to ensure 8 that every one is spent in the most targeted and 9 effective way to reflect our shared values and 10 priorities. I am pleased to see that the Preliminary 11 Budget includes funding for universal pre-K, which 12 will provide free high-quality full-day pre-K to 13 55,000 4-year-olds in the upcoming school year and 14 73,000 4-year-olds in the next; $62 million in child 15 care, which would provide child care services to 16 4,200 children, ranging from newborns to 4-year-olds; 17 $5.5 million for case management, which will reduce 18 the workload of the case managers at the Department 19 for the Aging from 110-1 to 80-1, which means our 20 seniors will be afforded the time and care they 21 deserve; $43 million for the Fire Department to 22 prevent the closure of 20 fire companies and retain 23 505 firefighters, which would mean faster response 24 times and ultimately a safer New York City, and $190 25 million to the Department of Youth and Community 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE JOINTLY WITH COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS 8 2 Development, which would double the number of middle 3 school youths served by after-school programs to 4 120,000 across 512 schools, starting in September. 5 The list goes on and on. These are real changes and 6 these changes reflect the values of New York City and 7 affect the lives of every New Yorker. With that 8 said, the Administration and the Council can do more; 9 we have the opportunity to make more changes, 10 meaningful changes, that will improve the lives of 11 every New Yorker so that everyone in this city will 12 be proud to call this city home. 13 Over the next few weeks the Council will 14 hold budget hearings to hear from agencies and the 15 public about the budget's impact on city services and 16 the quality of life for New Yorkers. It is through 17 these hearings that the Council will learn more about 18 the City's priorities and work with the 19 Administration as partners in government to make sure 20 the budget is reflective of those priorities. I'm 21 excited that with a new administration and new 22 leadership in the Council we can finally adopt a 23 budget that is responsive to our needs. 24 In addition to hearing from the 25 Administration and the public, we will also hear from 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE JOINTLY WITH COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS 9 2 the City's two independent fiscal monitors, the New 3 York City Comptroller and the Independent Budget 4 Office, who will add to the conversation about the 5 City's priorities, goals and constraints. We want to 6 hear from everyone and everyone's voice will be 7 heard. Today we have a long day of hearings, so in 8 the interest of time, I'm gonna turn the mic back 9 over to our Finance Chair, Julissa Ferreras and 10 again, I welcome everyone here in this chamber. 11 Thank you. [background comment] 12 CHAIRPERSON FERRERAS: Thank you, Madame 13 Speaker. Before we get started, I wanna remind 14 everyone who wishes to testify to please fill out a 15 witness slip at the Sergeant of Arms. For members of 16 the public, the witness panels will be arranged by 17 topic, so please indicate that topic of your 18 testimony on your witness slip. Now with that said, 19 let's get started. 20 The preliminary budget hearings mark the 21 beginning of the Council's role in the annual budget 22 adoption process. On June 27, 2013, the Council 23 adopted the FY14 budget which totaled approximately 24 $70 billion; through prudent budgeting and 25 collaboration with the Administration, we were able 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE JOINTLY WITH COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS 10 2 to accomplish a lot of great things. We were able to 3 provide $106 million to the library system to ensure 4 that all libraries remain open for five days a week. 5 The Council restored $143.6 million for early 6 childhood education and after-school program, which 7 brought the funding to levels at or above their FY13 8 levels. The Council prevented the closure of any 9 fire companies and protected senior services and the 10 budget also reflected restorations of all the 11 initiatives adopted in last year's budget, plus a few 12 enhancements, including additional funding to DFTA 13 for case management, as well as increases for the 14 Council's Domestic Violence and Immigrant 15 Opportunities initiatives.