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The ongoing rivalry between City Council and City Hall, long an open secret progressing toward common knowledge, continues to quietly rage on with another decree dividing the two public entities.
Speaker Adrienne Adams moved to file the advice-and-consent law with the Board of Elections (BOE) last week so it can appear as a question on the ballot for New Yorkers to vote on in the general election this November, while Mayor Eric Adams concluded his charter revision hearings this week.
The advice-and-consent law, introduced May 23, allows the City Council to approve mayoral appointments for agency commissioners. It was adopted after a majority of councilmembers passed it June 6. Shortly after the law’s introduction, Mayor Adams convened the Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) to change the city’s constitution with a particular emphasis on public safety and “fiscal responsibility.” The commission’s first meeting was held May 29. The last CRC convened in 2019 to review the city’s charter through a racial justice lens and took nearly a year to hold public hearings.
The final commission report was released July 23, before the last meeting. The CRC received more than 2,300 written comments and its 12 meetings were attended by more than 750 people in-person and virtually, said the city.
The mayor’s CRC ballot proposals include amendments to expand the sanitation department’s authority over city property and trash cans; assess the fiscal impact of proposed local laws and address “inefficient budget deadlines”; improve the city’s capital planning process; improve minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs); and establish requirements and a prior vote for City Council laws centering around public safety.
The latter amendment dicates that if the City Council moves to pass any future legislation applying to the NYPD, FDNY, or Department of Correction (DOC), it would have to first give notice of an intention to hold a hearing and vote to the public, the mayor, and relevant agency heads at least 45 days in advance; allow agency leadership to testify and file a “public safety impact statement”; and give an additional 50-day advance notice before the vote of the public, mayor, and agencies, said the report. The mayor and city agencies would also be allowed to hold their own public hearings on city laws during the period between the notice and the ultimate vote.
Speaker Adams, councilmembers, and some advocates speculate that the CRC ballot proposals are being “rushed” to block voters from voting on advice and consent. Regardless, the law currently authorizes the City Council to practice that process until November 2025.
“The Council is filing the ballot question for voters to decide on the advice-and-consent law in this November’s general election, so voters can exercise their democratic right to vote on this existing proposal,” said Speaker Adams in a statement. “The Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission should refrain from blocking New Yorkers’ ability to decide on advice-and-consent by rushing to create new proposals, because that would be undemocratic. Advice-and-consent strengthens representative democracy and government by ensuring we have the most qualified and ethical commissioners to effectively deliver the services that New Yorkers deserve.”
On July 22, councilmembers in the City Council Progressive and Black, Latino, and Asian Caucuses held a press conference ahead of the CRC meeting in Queens to double down on slamming the mayor’s commission as “undemocratic.”
“The mayor initiated this charter review commission as a very blatant effort to block our ballot proposal that we passed earlier this year that should and must be on the ballot this November,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse.
“We should be questioning the necessity and legitimacy of this entire process right now,” Councilmember Chi Ossé said. “The council passed the advice-and-consent bill to expand oversight of the city’s executive branch—of the mayor’s work, that he does uphold our Democratic process. Immediately thereafter, the mayor initiated this Charter Revision Commission, clearly as a cynical ploy to force the council’s measure off of our November ballots. Whatever proposals ultimately come from this commission, we know that they are secondary to the commission’s purpose of existence to undercut the Democratic process and the New York City Council.”
Ossé went so far as to liken the mayor’s “power grab” to the authoritarian and furtive political tactics of ex-President Donald Trump. “We do not want a mayor within the City of New York to do that same thing with the process that is undergoing right now,” he said. “We have an obligation to call this out for what it is.”
After the release of the final report, numerous advocacy groups, including Housing Works, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), Make the Road New York, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Muslim Community Network, and the Immigrant Defense Project, signed a letter demanding the mayor’s CRC proposals stay off the ballot.
“New Yorkers deserve nothing short of a thoughtful City Charter that creates a city that works for all New Yorkers. This report from the Charter Revision Commission stands in stark contrast to these values, prioritizing political gamesmanship over safeguarding our city’s guiding principles,” said Michael Sisitzky, assistant director of policy at the NYCLU. “This harried, disorganized, and opaque revision process has led to final recommendations that would undermine our local democracy in the service of making agencies like the NYPD even less accountable to New Yorkers. We urge the Commission to keep those dangerous measures off of the November ballot.”
In his usual Tuesday morning briefing, Mayor Adams said that he was impressed with the commission’s job so far and disagreed with the idea that anything was done in haste.
“No: being rushed is introducing legislation in a week. That’s what’s being rushed,” Mayor Adams said. “We allowed New Yorkers to come in and speak. Part of the recommendation that people are saying [is] before you do these changes in law, people should have a right to come in and speak. That’s ironic. It’s all going to work itself out. It is all part of the process. All we need to do is take a deep breath, meditate, drink a green smoothie, and just be fine.”The final public hearing will take place Thursday, July 25, at Brooklyn Public Library Central Library at 2 p.m. The CRC will vote to adopt the final report proposals then. If adopted, they will be placed on the November general election ballot for people to vote on.
It didn’t take long for the meeting invites to go out.
Soon after President Joe Biden declared his support for Vice President Kamala Harris to launch what will undoubtedly be a historic campaign to become his successor in the Oval Office, a Zoom call was organized by members of the #WinWithBlackWomen network, a national collective of Black women leaders.
Those on the July 21 call took to social media, even as the call was still taking place, to talk about the energy and excitement they were hearing from Black women who appeared thrilled to witness the start of Harris’s campaign. Like many, they were expressing a supercharged interest in this year’s campaign, because they now feel they have an essential role to play in it.
The #WinWithBlackWomen Zoom tallied about 44,000 attendees. The network said they quickly hit capacity and that led them to widen participation so that 30,000 more women could attend the call via the social audio room app Clubhouse, and 20,000 more joined on various other platforms. “This groundbreaking gathering featured a distinguished roster of guest speakers, including influential political and spiritual leaders, policy makers, activists, celebrities, and prominent figures,” #WinWithBlackWomen representatives said in a statement. “The event also heralded the revival of the Brown Girls Fundraising Collective, raising an unprecedented fundraising initiative that surpassed all expectations by raising over $1.5 million dollars in less than three hours. Additionally, the enthusiasm was palpable, as nearly 10,000 individuals from across all 50 states eagerly volunteered to join #WinWithBlackWomen’s State Organizing Groups.”
The #WinWithBlackWomen call led to a similar effort to organize and strategize with Black men on July 22. The journalist Roland S. Martin created the WinWithBlackMen.org video call which was broadcast on the Black Star Network app and on YouTube. It saw 35,000 Black men show up to hear political strategists and Congressional Black Caucus members discuss the Harris campaign.
Kamala Harris’s well-known collegiate attendance at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University and her membership in the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority also stand to benefit her campaign.
The AKAs, like other Black Greek-letter organizations, are non-partisan, but as with many fraternities and sororities, they support philanthropic programs, raise funds for charitable causes, and support community organizing. Harris’s sorors told the AmNews they have already heard from members who are eager to get back to work with their door knocking and phone banking campaigns.
“Delta Rho Omega will focus on voter registration, voter education, and voter mobilization as we approach the historic 2024 presidential election,” Monique Okumakpeyi, president of Brooklyn’s Delta Rho Omega chapter of the AKAs said. “The stakes are high for our democracy, and everyone’s voice must be heard as we choose our local and national leadership. We will answer the call of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s international president and CEO, Danette Anthony Reed, by engaging in our most robust voter registration efforts to date. However, we cannot stop at adding names to the voter registration rolls. We will make sure voters are familiar with the issues, know the candidates on their ballot, and know their polling location. For those who are unable to make it to the polls on Election Day, we will share information about early voting dates and locations, as well as absentee ballots. Lastly, each member is encouraged to ‘Take 4 or more in ’24’; namely take four or more people with them to the polls this year. Voting is our ‘Black job,’ and the 2024 election is a serious matter.”
The presidents of The Divine Nine, the network of Black greek-letter organizations, issued a statement vowing to conduct a massive, coordinated voter mobilization campaign “to activate the thousands of chapters and members in our respective organizations to ensure strong voter turnout in the communities we serve. This nonpartisan coordinated voter mobilization effort builds on our shared legacies of social action and service to our communities.”
The Divine Nine include the following organizations: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.; Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity; Omega Psi Phi Fraternity; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity; Zeta Phi Beta Sorority; Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority; and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity.
“As you know, we’re a nonpartisan organization, so we don’t encourage the vote one way or the other,” Elicia Pegues Spearman, Alpha Kappa Alpha’s North Atlantic regional director, explained to the AmNews. “But we do encourage people to understand what their voting rights mean, [and] how to get to the polls. So that’s why we’re doing voter education and voter registration.
“We don’t endorse any candidates or the party they’re in; what we endorse is voter registration and voting. But are we surprised that one of our members has been nominated? Not necessarily surprised, because we have members who are held in high esteem, who’ve achieved many great things, and that give back to our community. So, it’s not surprising that someone of her character, her skillset, has been nominated. Of course we’re pleased that she’s a member.”
Harris had just recently delivered a keynote speech at the AKAs’ 71st Boule in Dallas, Texas. At one point during her July 10 speech, Harris said, “Consider: Donald Trump has openly vowed, if reelected, he’ll be a dictator on day one, that he will weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies, round up peaceful protesters and throw them out of our country, and even, and I quote, ‘terminate’ the United States Constitution.
“What’s more, Trump advisors have created a 900-page blueprint of their agenda for the second term. They call it Project 2025. It includes a plan to cut Social Security, to repeal our $35 cap on insulin, to eliminate the Department of Education and end programs like Head Start.
“So, let us be clear: This represents an outright attack on our children, our families, and our future. And all of this is to say, I do believe this is the most existential, consequential, and important election of our lifetimes.”
If Kamala Harris wins the presidency, she would not only be emblematic of the promise of Black Greek-letter organizations, added the AKA’s Pegues Spearman, her impact on the world as an HBCU graduate — similar to President Barack Obama –– would be substantial.
“In general, for females, we’ve had presidential nominees –– like Shirley Chisholm and Hillary Clinton –– but no one’s been elected yet in the United States. Other countries have had female leaders that are doing great jobs. So as the leader in the world, we should not be lacking behind in our female leadership,” Spearman said.
“I think empowering others and inspiring others to know that they can put their best foot forward and try to do anything, that’s important,” she added. “So whether you’re an AKA that’s a Republican, an independent, or a Democrat, the fact that it’s a female is important. I think we want to hear her voice and hear what she has to offer to the country.”
Organized labor, a stalwart voting base of the Democratic Party, has spent the week praising the union-aligned work of President Joe Biden after he said he would withdraw his bid for re-election in 2024.
“Thank you, President Biden,” SEIU (Service Employees International Union) International President April Verrett wrote in one of many statements issued. “There is no other president in recent U.S. history who has done more for working people. President Biden has given workers fighting for unions—Black, white, Brown, and beyond—a voice at the White House, used his bully pulpit to challenge CEOs and was the first president to walk a picket line.
“We are incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished under the Biden-Harris administration, including executive action to lift up care workers, record job and wage growth, debt relief for millions of student borrowers, lower prescription drug prices for seniors and historic legislation to address our climate crisis,” Verrett continued. “We respect his decision to step out of the race and appreciate his endorsement of Vice President Harris to finish the job they started.”
On top of recognizing Biden for his work, labor leaders lined up to endorse Kamala Harris as the best candidate to further efforts for union workers. Within hours of the announcement of Harris’s candidacy, some of the nation’s largest unions began endorsing her.
On July 22, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) became the first union to endorse Harris when its members unanimously ratified a resolution endorsing her candidacy at the 2024 AFT convention in Houston, Texas. In part of its rationale, the AFT noted that “Biden and Harris know that union membership can be transformative and provides a pathway to the middle class, and have supported worker rights; Trump relentlessly attacks unions and sought to weaken workers’ voice through appointing anti-worker voices to the National Labor Relations Board; and… there is still much work to be done on important economic, climate, healthcare, housing, child care, voting rights and education issues—here and abroad—including addressing the cost of food, gas and housing; and it is clear that Harris understands these issues, share our values and is the right choice in 2024.”
“It is regrettable that with such a stellar record of achievements, there was ever any doubt about President Biden’s ability to lead,” George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said. “Nevertheless, his decision to pass the torch to Vice President Harris reflects his longstanding commitment to putting the American people before personal ambition.”
“Vice President Harris has been a proven ally of the IBEW,” said International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) International President Kenneth W. Cooper. “Working by President Biden’s side, she cast the deciding vote to save our pensions. Their administration created good union jobs through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the American Rescue Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
“IBEW members know Vice President Harris and have engaged with her over the last four years as she’s visited our job sites, union halls and training facilities. She has listened to us, and we stand confident that she will continue this administration’s extraordinary record on behalf of working people when she is sworn into office next January.”
“Kamala Harris believes in the promise of America––freedom, equality, opportunity, and justice for all,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). “She is exactly the person we need to be elected president of the United States. We know that she will fight for working people and we proudly endorse Kamala Harris for President.
“Kamala Harris is the person best positioned to continue and expand the work of the most pro-union administration in our nation’s history. In four short years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Biden-Harris administration have been able to reinvest trillions of dollars to rescue the economy, to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and to create opportunity in every community through the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Rescue Plan. They’ve taken action to protect and uplift workers at every turn.”
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International President John Costa said his union was now ready to “focus on building on the progress of the past three and a half years by electing the first female president, the woman who has played a key role in so many of the successful policies that have benefited our members and all working families. For ATU members, this means further progress on transit worker safety through minimum vehicle safety standards on buses, investing in public transportation operating assistance to keep critical bus service on the road for transit dependent riders, and expansion of apprenticeship programs to ensure that transit workers have the skills for the transition to electric buses to keep their jobs and help transit agencies operate efficiently and safely. We know that Kamala Harris will fight for us on these issues, because she has already been doing so as vice president.”
“Since the very beginning of her career in California — the nation’s largest agricultural producer — Kamala Harris has proven herself a loyal friend of all working people,” the United Farm Workers wrote in their endorsement. “Dime con quien andas, y te digo quien eres. (Tell me who you are with, and I’ll tell you who you are.) Vice President Harris has stood with farm workers as California attorney general, as a United States senator, and as vice president. The United Farm Workers could not be prouder to endorse her for president of the United States. Together, we continue the work of building an America that works for all of its working people. ¡Sí Se Puede!”
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) deemed the Biden-Harris administration “the most pro-labor administration in any of our lifetimes.” The union said it is resolved to “enthusiastically [support] the election of Kamala Harris as president of the United States [and] will organize, educate and mobilize our members to support Kamala Harris for president, to elect members of Congress who support our work to rebuild power for working people, and to ensure that everyone understands what is at stake in this election.”
“[T]he most important political priority for working people is preventing a second term for Donald Trump,” the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades said in a statement. “There’s no better candidate to keep the anti-worker Trump-Vance ticket and their Project 2025 as far away from the Oval Office as possible than Vice President Harris.”
“The AFL-CIO is proud of our early and steadfast support for the Biden-Harris administration, and now we’ll ratchet up our mass mobilization of union workers to elect Vice President Harris as president,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “Like Harris, the labor movement doesn’t back down—and we’ll never shy away from a tough fight when the future of workers and unions is on the line. Together, we will defeat Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and their devastating anti-worker Project 2025 agenda in November.”
“Vice President Harris has been cracking the glass ceiling her whole career,” declared AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) President Lee Saunders. “Now she has the opportunity to become the first woman and the first woman of color to hold the highest office in the land. And AFSCME will help her get there.”
Brooklyn resident Edgar Telesford was slapped with a $1,000 summons for selling bottled water and pre-packaged chips without a license from the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) last June. A former teacher, Telesford was ticketed near the famed Apollo Theater on 125th in Harlem and says the fine is a major setback for remaining financially independent.
“I have to sell 3,000 bottles of water to be able to pay for that ticket,” he said. “I walk up and down on 125th Street, from 125th to Marcus Garvey [Park], and I may sell about five to 10 bottles of water each time I walk the five to six blocks. And that was my route, and they caught me on my route.
“You could imagine how many times I would have to walk that route to pay for that ticket, and then pay rent and then buy something to eat.”
$1,000 marks the typical fine for section 17-307 (a)(1) of the city’s health code, which bans individuals from serving as a food vendor without a license.
Compliance can be tough. Mobile food vendors require both a license for handling food and a permit to set up shop. So after completing the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s licensing requirements, a vendor like Telesford would also need a permit.
“A lot of people cannot access the permits because there are caps on the number of these permits that goes back to the ‘80s,” said Mohamed Attia, managing director of the Street Vendor Project. “The only change that happened to this cap was really recent in 2021 when the council passed Intro. 1116 which is now known as Local Law 18 [of] 2021. The local law states that the health department should make 445 applications for a new type of license, called a supervisory license. [But] 445 applications doesn’t mean 445 licenses.
“That means that the agency will send those applications to vendors and wait for the vendors to fill it out, submit it, and go through the whole process, and then they can obtain the supervisory license. Now this supervisory license is different from the old license, which allows the vendor to obtain a permit for their cars or truck immediately. So there is no more waiting time for the permits, but there is a significant wait time for that supervisory license.”
Attia says while the $1,000 fine is a longstanding flat fee, some vendors are double-ticketed for $2,000 due to lacking both a license and permit. He’s also seen both civil and criminal summons issued at the discretion of the officer.
Telesford started street vending after losing his job in the NYC Department of Education teaching science. Struggling in his job search and too young to retire, he began vending in Manhattan, which he found more accessible than in his home borough of Brooklyn. He typically buys water and chips in bulk from warehouse stores and sells them loose. However, the city requires the same standards for such goods as it would for handling raw ingredients, according to Attia.
DSNY spokesperson Vincent Gragnani said 73 warning signs and fliers were distributed in the 125th corridor before the agency took “any enforcement actions.” He also pointed to enforcement stemming from more than 18,000 complaint calls through 311, business improvement districts, councilmember offices and community boards between last April to the end of this past March.
“We should be clear that the Department of Sanitation did not create street vending laws nor set the fines,” Gragnani said in an email to the AmNews. “We enforce these laws, with a focus on situations where vending has created dirty conditions, safety issues, items being left out overnight, and setups that block curbs, subway entrances, bus stops, sidewalks or store entrances.”
City council members introduced the “Street Package Reform” bill package last year, which includes Intro. 431, a bill increasing the number of licenses.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visitinghttps://bit.ly/amnews1.
