Gale Brewer Answers to DFNYC 2013 Candidate Questionnaire

Gale Brewer, currently a NYC Councilmember from the 6th District (UWS) is running for Manhattan Borough President.  www.GaleBrewer.com

1. Money in NYC Politics. Large donors, specifically real estate developers and landlords, have a huge amount of influence in NYC politics due to their campaign contributions. While NYC’s matching funds programs is seen as one of the most innovative public funding campaigns in the country, many DFNYC members feel that big money donors still have too much influence and candidates still spend too much time fundraising. Would you support a change to full public financing of campaigns, similar to the Clean Money Clean Elections programs in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine?

I support the movement towards public financing of campaigns. I helped write many of the laws that effect public funding in New York City and would want to see public funding continue on a local, state and federal level.

2. Tenant Protection & Cost of Housing. Do you support rent stabilization and rent control laws? What will you do to crack down on landlords that break the law? Would you call on the state legislature to repeal vacancy decontrol and more generally, the Urstadt Law, so that New York City – and not Albany – can enact its own housing laws?

I support rent stabilization and rent control. As for landlords, they should be held accountable to the fullest extent of violations, slum lords and repeat offenders. I would call on Albany to repeal the Urstadt law. New York City should have the ability to manage directly it's rent pricing and laws.

3. Paid Sick Leave. There is currently a bill in the city council that would require companies in NYC with 5 or more employees to give 5 paid sick days per year to each employee (if they do not already). While many councilmembers support this, it has not been brought to a vote. Supporters feel this is much needed public health legislation that would only minimally raise labor costs, while opponents say that it would be an unfair financial burden to small business. Do you support the bill and will you actively work to get it passed? Sources: ~For: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2012/11/16/45152/myth-vs-fact-paid-sick-days/ ~Against: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/why_we_reject_sick_leave_bill_03pE50CZMFiHFhXzasDMLL

I wrote the bill, and have been the leading proponent for its passage for over three years now. It should finally pass later in April.

4. Fair Police Practices & Occupy Wall Street. The New York City Police Department has been highly criticized for its Stop & Frisk policy, which disproportionally affects racial minorities and poor and working class New Yorkers. The NYPD has also been criticized for its treatment of activists in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Do you support ending or modifying Stop & Frisk? If running for mayor, will you keep Ray Kelly or appoint a new police commissioner? Do you think Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD should have handled events in the OWS movement differently and what measures will you take to protect political demonstrations?

I have introduced a bill into the City Council called the Community Safety Act, the legislation would require officers to obtain consent before frisking suspects without probable cause and to identify themselves as part of the NYPD while carrying out “law-enforcement activity.” It would also create an inspector-general for the NYPD. I have often said that people have the right to assemble and protest. The government should never limit our ability to do so. Finally, I have spoken out against the Police's continued attitude of belligerence towards citizens. These actions must end.

5. Mayoral Control of Education. Mayoral Control of NYC schools is set to expire in 2016, but the state legislature can renew it. If elected to city government, you will not directly vote on mayoral control, but you will have a ‘bully pulpit’ as renewal is discussed in the next 3 years. Do you support keeping Mayoral Control as is, letting it expire, or making changes, for example to the hearing process for controversial decisions? (Examples: Co-locations of multiple schools in one building, providing district school space to charter schools, phasing out schools that have been labeled as “failing” due to high dropout rates, low test scores, or other factors.)

I initiated a lawsuit to stop a charter school from co-locating with a high school in my district. NYC public school space should be for public schools only. We should keep mayoral control, but there must be changes and make it a more democratic process so communities have a say on what decisions are made on schools in their neighborhoods. We must hold hearings before any decisions are made to a school or neighborhood.

6. Teacher Evaluation. A key area where the mayor has influence in public education is in the negotiation of a contract with NYC’s public school teachers. Please give your opinion on the following proposed ways to evaluate teachers for the purpose of tenure, salary and other job benefits: Improvement in student test scores, observations by other teachers, student surveys, whether the teacher has an advanced degree, a principal’s evaluation of a teacher. Should principals be allowed to do unannounced observations of teachers? Do you have any experience negotiating labor union contracts?

No test scores. There are too many variables, students could have come from a failing school and that should not dictate what a current school should be judged on. All other evaluations should be up for negotiation. It should be a fair process for the teacher and the school. As for negotiating labor contracts, I am experienced in getting two groups together to find a common ground on their needs. For example with Paid Sick leave I have met with unions and employers to work out a process to make sure both happy, or at least can come to a fair agreement.

7. Co-location of charter schools. City officials do not decide how many charter schools can exist, or grant requests to be a charter school. However, the Department of Education - currently controlled by the Mayor - may decide to provide charter schools with space, usually by "co-location" with district public schools. While more than half of NYC schools (not just charters) are co-located, it is a controversial topic when a charter school is involved. Critics argue that cash-strapped district schools should not be forced to share resources with charter schools and that co-location creates a morale problem when students and parents see the contrast. Co-location advocates argue that charter schools are public schools and should have an equal right to publicly owned resources such as buildings, charter schools do not receive funding for space and therefore operate at a severe financial disadvantage if they have to find private space, and that differences between co-located schools result from decisions the principals make about how to spend their per-pupil funding. Do you support the DOE giving public school space to charter schools? Sources: ~ Against - funding and space arguments: http://www.classsizematters.org/our-lawsuit-vs-the-doe-regarding-charter-co-locations/ ~In Favor: Funding: http://www.nyccharterschools.org/resources/school-funding-comparisons-nyc-independent-budget-office-ibo-2010-11 Space (pdf): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/87134745/media/nyccsc_colocation.pdf

Against. As I have said before NYC public school space should be for NYC schools only. The DOE should not give public school space to Charter Schools. Period.

8. The City Wage Tax. New York City’s budget depends in large part on the city wage tax, which is only paid by residents, not everyone who works in NYC. Would you call on the state legislature to allow NYC to collect the tax from people from the suburbs who work in NYC and benefit from our services (police, fire, etc.)? Would you support efforts to collect the tax from people who actually live in New York City but use a second home (a loophole not available to middle class New Yorkers with just one home) to avoid the city wage tax? If these efforts work, would you be willing to reduce the city wage tax so that workers would have more take home pay, and there would be less incentive for people to move to the suburbs, reducing our tax base?

People should pay the taxes of the residence they live in. We should close the loophole that allows people with two residences to avoid NYC Taxes. If we can reduce the city wage tax in a way that does not make us sacrifice on the services it funds I would be for reducing the tax.

9. Other Taxes. Do you support progressive taxation? Do you support Governor Cuomo’s approach to the marginal tax rate on high incomes? What is your opinion on the current property tax in NYC? Would you support a federal financial transaction tax to either raise revenue, reduce the practice of high frequency trading, or both?

I support property tax reform in New York City. Our city needs a healthy middle class, with mom and pop businesses. If property taxes are too high, New York quickly becomes a haven for the rich and large corporations. We need a tax system that is fair to those who cannot afford to pay as much as those that make more money and can pay into the system.

10. Poverty & the Social Safety Net. According to a 2012 report by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, many struggling New Yorkers are eligible for welfare, but have not been able to obtain it due to onerous application requirements, and the excessive and arbitrary use of “sanctions” by the City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). These obstacles have caused very little increase in welfare cases during the recent recession, as contrasted with large increases in Food Stamps and Medicaid. Would you change HRA to make it easier for eligible families to obtain cash assistance, connect them to jobs or meaningful job training, and reform the improper use of sanctions? How would you manage New York City's social safety net programs to ensure that people get the help they need, while at the same time preventing fraud? Report: http:/www.fpwa.org/cgi-bin/iowa/policy/article/218.html

HRA is there to help working families. It should be reformed to make sure that eligible families get the support and funds they need and deserve. HRA can make it easier for families to obtain cash, connect them with jobs etc, by using technology, advertising and PSA's to reach those in need. It is important that those that need the information get the information. I would manage the social safety net programs by making sure they are disseminating information while at the same time having workable hours of operations so those that work long hours and still need help can visit with someone one on one to ensure they get the help they need.

11. Homelessness. When Mayor Bloomberg first ran, he promised to introduce policies to drastically reduce the numbers of people who are homeless in our city. But during the twelve years of his administration, the numbers of homeless have increased dramatically each year. This is in addition to the approximately 50,000 people sleeping in shelters on an average night, according to a recent report by the Coalition for the Homeless. What would you do to deal with this sad situation? Sources: http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/pages/state-of-the-homeless-2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/nyregion/20homeless.html

Many of the city’s homeless do not know what options they have to help them deal with being homeless or how to get help with finding temporary housing. Since many of the homeless do go to shelters, that gives us the opportunity to reach the homeless and inform them of their options to help them with their situation. Again, we have information, they need it, we should run an open and accessible government.

12. Hurricane Sandy & Environmental Protection. The devastating impact that Hurricane Sandy had on New York City poses short term and long term challenges: immediate support for those who lost their homes and businesses, and climate change, respectively. What measures do you support for helping Sandy recovery efforts, as well as energy conservation and reducing the carbon footprint of New York City? What is your position on hydraulic fracturing and the Spectra pipeline?

Sandy victims should get as much federal and state assistance as possible to help rebuild their lives and homes. But we should do so in a way that will protected them from future sea level rise and storms. We need to rebuild and rebuild smart. New York needs to lower its carbon footprint. One place to start is with the legislation I have proposed that would grant J-51 tax incentives for energy conservation, electric sub-metering and load control equipment for certain housing developments. That is a start, but we have to give incentives for all developers, owners, and renters to be more energy efficient and green. We must start with education and access to information.

13. Gun Control. While DFNYC members have long supported gun control, the December 14th shooting in Newtown, Connecticut seems to have changed the debate on the national level. Do you support the proposals President Obama made to (a) renew and fix the assault weapons ban, (b) ban high capacity magazines (limit the number of bullets that can be shot before reloading), and (c) improve the background check system? Please indicate any other methods you would support to reduce gun violence, including how you would implement them, for example: gun buy-back programs, training programs for gun owners, improved access to mental health care, and involving the business community in gun safety.

A) Renew and fix the assault weapons ban. B) Ban high capacity magazines C) We need to improve background checks. Those that have committed felonies or have a history of mental illness should not be able to own weapons.

14. Choice & Marriage Equality. Please briefly state your position on the following three issues: marriage equality for gays & lesbians, a woman's right to choose, and access to birth control. (25 words or less)

I support marriage equality, a women's right to choose and full access to birth control. These are all simple positions, and ones that should not have to be discussed anymore in our society.

~ Gale Brewer, current NYC Councilmember for the 6th District (UWS) and candidate for Manhattan Borough President.  www.GaleBrewer.com

Mel Wymore Answers to DFNYC 2013 Candidate Questionniare

 

Mel Wymore is running for NYC Council in the 6th District, Upper West Side of Manhattan. www.MelWymore.com.

1. Money in NYC Politics. Large donors, specifically real estate developers and landlords, have a huge amount of influence in NYC politics due to their campaign contributions. While NYC’s matching funds programs is seen as one of the most innovative public funding campaigns in the country, many DFNYC members feel that big money donors still have too much influence and candidates still spend too much time fundraising. Would you support a change to full public financing of campaigns, similar to the Clean Money Clean Elections programs in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine?

I am in full agreement with those who believe that, even in our system, large donors hold disproportionate sway in elections, and that candidates must spend too much of their time fundraising at the expense of community work and engagement. My approach to alleviating the problem would be to lower contribution caps and hold candidates to the same caps as their donors; ensure a reasonable threshold to receive public matching funds, based on the number of donors rather than the total raised; and make participation in the public financing system a requirement for running for office in New York City.

2. Tenant Protection & Cost of Housing. Do you support rent stabilization and rent control laws? What will you do to crack down on landlords that break the law? Would you call on the state legislature to repeal vacancy decontrol and more generally, the Urstadt Law, so that New York City – and not Albany – can enact its own housing laws?

My campaign is focused on engaging my community and empowering us to play a larger part in the legislative process. There are fewer things more contrary to my understanding of effective government than the current state of affordable housing jurisdiction. The makeup and diversity of a community is a decision that its members should be able to decide, not Republican lawmakers from upstate. Vacancy and luxury decontrol regulations, rent pricing, and any other aspect of our affordable housing makeup should be the purview of city government, in partnership with the relevant community board. The time is right for comprehensive review and realignment of rent stabilization laws that reflect the need for a continuum of affordability in our districts, which landlords must participate in and abide by.

3. Paid Sick Leave. There is currently a bill in the city council that would require companies in NYC with 5 or more employees to give 5 paid sick days per year to each employee (if they do not already). While many councilmembers support this, it has not been brought to a vote. Supporters feel this is much needed public health legislation that would only minimally raise labor costs, while opponents say that it would be an unfair financial burden to small business. Do you support the bill and will you actively work to get it passed? Sources: ~For: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2012/11/16/45152/myth-vs-fact-paid-sick-days/ ~Against: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/why_we_reject_sick_leave_bill_03pE50CZMFiHFhXzasDMLL

I am in favor of the Paid Sick Time Act. As alluded to in the question, this bill is not merely a matter of basic fairness for our city's workers, it is also a necessary public health initiative. Workers such as school janitors, restaurant workers, and store clerks must be able to keep themselves away from others if suffering from contagious illnesses. Further, this bill has the support of a vast majority of New Yorkers and elected officials. It deserves a vote in the city council as soon as possible.

4. Fair Police Practices & Occupy Wall Street. The New York City Police Department has been highly criticized for its Stop & Frisk policy, which disproportionally affects racial minorities and poor and working class New Yorkers. The NYPD has also been criticized for its treatment of activists in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Do you support ending or modifying Stop & Frisk? If running for mayor, will you keep Ray Kelly or appoint a new police commissioner? Do you think Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD should have handled events in the OWS movement differently and what measures will you take to protect political demonstrations?

I believe the NYPD's "Stop and Frisk" policy exhibits clear racial profiling against Black and Latino men and the communities they live in, and must be corrected. It can also prove traumatic for members of the LGBT community, particularly transgender women and gender-nonconforming people of color. When dealing with protests of any sort, it is critically important for the city to support the full constitutional rights of assembly and free speech that we all share. Particularly with regard to the Occupy Wall Street movement, the city should have been more proactive in reaching out to the protesters to facilitate conversation, as well as provided basic infrastructure assistance to ensure the health and safety of the protesters. The city must be willing and able to respond when its citizens demand action.

5. Mayoral Control of Education. Mayoral Control of NYC schools is set to expire in 2016, but the state legislature can renew it. If elected to city government, you will not directly vote on mayoral control, but you will have a ‘bully pulpit’ as renewal is discussed in the next 3 years. Do you support keeping Mayoral Control as is, letting it expire, or making changes, for example to the hearing process for controversial decisions? (Examples: Co-locations of multiple schools in one building, providing district school space to charter schools, phasing out schools that have been labeled as “failing” due to high dropout rates, low test scores, or other factors.)

I support letting mayoral control of NYC schools expire in 2016. While it may appear to create efficiencies in the system, its primary effect is to disempower parents, teachers and students from determing the best education policies for themselves and their neighbors. Schools are communities, and communities always work best when they have ownership of their choices.

6. Teacher Evaluation. A key area where the mayor has influence in public education is in the negotiation of a contract with NYC’s public school teachers. Please give your opinion on the following proposed ways to evaluate teachers for the purpose of tenure, salary and other job benefits: Improvement in student test scores, observations by other teachers, student surveys, whether the teacher has an advanced degree, a principal’s evaluation of a teacher. Should principals be allowed to do unannounced observations of teachers? Do you have any experience negotiating labor union contracts?

Teacher evaluation should be based less on test scores and more on peer and principal evaluation—including when gleaned through unannounced observations. We should implement a more formalized system of mentorship between young teachers and more experienced teachers. While I have not personally negotiated labor union contracts, I have acted in support of the teacher's union's positions in negotiations with my children's school, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School.

7. Co-location of charter schools. City officials do not decide how many charter schools can exist, or grant requests to be a charter school. However, the Department of Education - currently controlled by the Mayor - may decide to provide charter schools with space, usually by "co-location" with district public schools. While more than half of NYC schools (not just charters) are co-located, it is a controversial topic when a charter school is involved. Critics argue that cash-strapped district schools should not be forced to share resources with charter schools and that co-location creates a morale problem when students and parents see the contrast. Co-location advocates argue that charter schools are public schools and should have an equal right to publicly owned resources such as buildings, charter schools do not receive funding for space and therefore operate at a severe financial disadvantage if they have to find private space, and that differences between co-located schools result from decisions the principals make about how to spend their per-pupil funding. Do you support the DOE giving public school space to charter schools? Sources: ~ Against - funding and space arguments: http://www.classsizematters.org/our-lawsuit-vs-the-doe-regarding-charter-co-locations/ ~In Favor: Funding: http://www.nyccharterschools.org/resources/school-funding-comparisons-nyc-independent-budget-office-ibo-2010-11 Space (pdf): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/87134745/media/nyccsc_colocation.pdf

The original mission of charter schooling in New York was to serve as a small-scale testing ground for innovative teaching methods, which, if successful in charter schools, would be implemented in public schools as well. Co-location goes far beyond this initial remit—rather than improving our public schools, co-located charter schools drain them of crucial resources. The DOE's unilateral decision-making with respect to co-location or any other substantial change to a public resource is high-handed and dismissive of any genuine concerns held by those who rely on them. It is a community's right, and the responsibility of its residents, to forge a vision for their own community—a vision that defends, maintains, and shares common assets in a manner consistent with the fabric and values of that community.

8. The City Wage Tax. New York City’s budget depends in large part on the city wage tax, which is only paid by residents, not everyone who works in NYC. Would you call on the state legislature to allow NYC to collect the tax from people from the suburbs who work in NYC and benefit from our services (police, fire, etc.)? Would you support efforts to collect the tax from people who actually live in New York City but use a second home (a loophole not available to middle class New Yorkers with just one home) to avoid the city wage tax? If these efforts work, would you be willing to reduce the city wage tax so that workers would have more take home pay, and there would be less incentive for people to move to the suburbs, reducing our tax base?

I am fully in favor of collecting taxes from everyone who works in New York City. They benefit from the services the city provides, and it only stands to reason that they should participate in the funding of those services. And, of course, I support all efforts to collect taxes from those who would use their wealth to avoid them.

9. Other Taxes. Do you support progressive taxation? Do you support Governor Cuomo’s approach to the marginal tax rate on high incomes? What is your opinion on the current property tax in NYC? Would you support a federal financial transaction tax to either raise revenue, reduce the practice of high frequency trading, or both?

Progressive taxation is the fairest and most equitable way to fund the city services we all rely on. Our focus must always be on quality of life, first and foremost, and the impact of flat taxes on a middle-class or poor family's quality of life is much greater than the same on a high-income family. Governor Cuomo's marginal tax rate on high incomes is a step in the right direction, but we still have further to go in making our tax code more progressive. The city property tax is articificially skewed high by the fact that we do not have home rule with respect to other forms of taxation, such as income tax. The result is that the city uses the property tax to raise revenue when necessary—a blunt instrument that must be comprehensively analyzed to determine who is most affected by those increases, and whether different applications are progressive, flat, or regressive. It is also important for us to identify and eliminate loopholes in our property taxation system that may be exploited for profit. I fully support a federal financial transaction tax, both to raise revenue and to help curb disruptive high-frequency trading systems.

10. Poverty & the Social Safety Net. According to a 2012 report by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, many struggling New Yorkers are eligible for welfare, but have not been able to obtain it due to onerous application requirements, and the excessive and arbitrary use of “sanctions” by the City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). These obstacles have caused very little increase in welfare cases during the recent recession, as contrasted with large increases in Food Stamps and Medicaid. Would you change HRA to make it easier for eligible families to obtain cash assistance, connect them to jobs or meaningful job training, and reform the improper use of sanctions? How would you manage New York City's social safety net programs to ensure that people get the help they need, while at the same time preventing fraud? Report: http:/www.fpwa.org/cgi-bin/iowa/policy/article/218.html

The city's social services are hard-fought and hard-won, and it is our duty to ensure that they are there for those who truly need them. Heavy-handed practices, inscrutable forms and endless red tape are not just annoying or unnecessary, given the low level of fraud in larger federal programs—they are also the failures of those who have been entrusted to lead the city. We must make every effort to simplify the process of asking for the help we have guaranteed our citizens.

11. Homelessness. When Mayor Bloomberg first ran, he promised to introduce policies to drastically reduce the numbers of people who are homeless in our city. But during the twelve years of his administration, the numbers of homeless have increased dramatically each year. This is in addition to the approximately 50,000 people sleeping in shelters on an average night, according to a recent report by the Coalition for the Homeless. What would you do to deal with this sad situation? Sources: http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/pages/state-of-the-homeless-2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/nyregion/20homeless.html

My approach to the issue of homelessness is three-fold. First, our social safety net is not adequate for keeping people on the brink of homelessness in their homes. We should study the most common causes of homelessness in our city, and reinstall programs such as Advantage that work with this exact goal in mind. Second, we must expand the affordable housing stock in the city. If someone is no longer able to afford the home they currently live in, there should always exist a cheaper option for them. And third, we must strengthen our mental health services citywide to better support people who are having a difficult time keeping their lives together. Only by addressing the immediate, long-term, and systemic causes of homelessness can we put an end to it.

12. Hurricane Sandy & Environmental Protection. The devastating impact that Hurricane Sandy had on New York City poses short term and long term challenges: immediate support for those who lost their homes and businesses, and climate change, respectively. What measures do you support for helping Sandy recovery efforts, as well as energy conservation and reducing the carbon footprint of New York City? What is your position on hydraulic fracturing and the Spectra pipeline?

I saw firsthand the destruction that Hurricane Sandy wrought on our city, particularly in the outer boroughs. It moved me to secure a $250K donation from Fairway to bring much-needed supplies to Staten Island and Far Rockaway. But above all, it impressed upon me the need to make changes to better respond to this type of crisis. The city must have in place a better structure for managing the groundswell of volunteers from the community. We are a city that cares about one another, and the city should not be caught off-guard when tens or hundreds of thousands ask to help. We can also create natural barriers and ecosystems along the coastline to absorb the majority of flooding in future hurricanes. But we also must address the "why" behind our newfound extreme weather. Burning fossil fuels is not a sustainable source of energy, nor a sustainable practice for the habitability of our planet. Fracking has no place in our energy plan, and the Spectra pipeline is short-sighted and dangerous. We must make a priority at all levels of government of exploring new sources of energy, like geothermal and anabaric digestion; of expanding use of tried-and-tested alternative energy sources, like solar; and of using less overall, by encouraging public transit and bicycling over private automobiles and weatherizing our buildings. We have the ability to change our impact on the Earth—what we need is the courage to implement.

13. Gun Control. While DFNYC members have long supported gun control, the December 14th shooting in Newtown, Connecticut seems to have changed the debate on the national level. Do you support the proposals President Obama made to (a) renew and fix the assault weapons ban, (b) ban high capacity magazines (limit the number of bullets that can be shot before reloading), and (c) improve the background check system? Please indicate any other methods you would support to reduce gun violence, including how you would implement them, for example: gun buy-back programs, training programs for gun owners, improved access to mental health care, and involving the business community in gun safety.

I been a supporter of more sensible gun control for my entire live. When Senator John Thune proposed an amendment that would force all states to recognize concealed carry permits in other states, I was instrumental in unifying the community boards to stand together against it. I support all of President Obama's proposals on expanding the scope of gun control, and would support any effort to limit and lower the number of guns in our community.

14. Choice & Marriage Equality. Please briefly state your position on the following three issues: marriage equality for gays & lesbians, a woman's right to choose, and access to birth control. (25 words or less)

All are sovereign over their own bodies. All must be treated equally. I support marriage equality, full abortion rights, and guaranteed access to birth control.

~ Mel Wymore, candidate for NYC Council, 6th District, UWS of Manhattan: www.MelWymore.com.

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Debra Cooper Answers to DFNYC 2013 Candidate Endorsement Questionnaire

1. Money in NYC Politics. Large donors, specifically real estate developers and landlords, have a huge amount of influence in NYC politics due to their campaign contributions. While NYC’s matching funds programs is seen as one of the most innovative public funding campaigns in the country, many DFNYC members feel that big money donors still have too much influence and candidates still spend too much time fundraising. Would you support a change to full public financing of campaigns, similar to the Clean Money Clean Elections programs in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine?

Making sure that government at all levels listens to the voice of the people and not the desires of plutocrats is ever more essential after 30 years of ever increasing economic inequality. Accelerating inequality skews political access and political power at ALL levels of government. Reforming campaign finance rules is crucial. Making sure that small d democracy has a healthy prognosis. A crucial component is a campaign finance system which uses the power of public money matched to a small donor strategy. New York City has a very good version of such a system. Politicians are not “bought” by their donors so much as they are influenced by those whom they spend the most time listening to. Raising money means you spend a lot of time listening big donors. Less time fundraising then is all to the good. The Supreme Court has authored 2 decisions which negatively impact the overall ability of localities to actually set their own policies. The more well-known Citizens United decision ridiculously makes corporation people! (Corporations actually don’t die like people so it is like vampires having free speech rights) The 1976 Buckley vs. Valeo decision is much more dangerous. It says that money is speech. It is a marketplace metaphor which basically says that plutocrats like Michael Bloomberg can have more speech because they can buy more of it. And those who remember the blizzard of mailers that landed on their doorsteps and the ads that were ubiquitous on TV and radio.

2. Tenant Protection & Cost of Housing. Do you support rent stabilization and rent control laws? What will you do to crack down on landlords that break the law? Would you call on the state legislature to repeal vacancy decontrol and more generally, the Urstadt Law, so that New York City – and not Albany – can enact its own housing laws?

In 1971 NY passed the Urstadt law which took away from NY City the right to control its rent laws and the right to set much of its own tax policy. I absolutely think it is essential that the law be repealed. And I would work with any coalition to achieve that. Part of that is working to get a Democratic majority not only elected to the NY Senate but in CONTROL of the NY Senate. That means not just local action but working with people all across the state. I was in Albany during the late night session which first imposed Vacancy Decontrol. I was horrified then and remain so now. The largest amount of affordable housing in this city is in the rent control and stabilization system. Yearly we have a significant loss of affordable housing through vacancy decontrol. Raising the number to $2500 is farcical. Even in 2011 when it was increased from $2000, $2500 was less than most one bedroom apts in large swathes of NY. Certainly it doesn’t cover a family apartment.

3. Paid Sick Leave. There is currently a bill in the city council that would require companies in NYC with 5 or more employees to give 5 paid sick days per year to each employee (if they do not already). While many councilmembers support this, it has not been brought to a vote. Supporters feel this is much needed public health legislation that would only minimally raise labor costs, while opponents say that it would be an unfair financial burden to small business. Do you support the bill and will you actively work to get it passed?

Sources: For  Against

Thanks to a remarkable sponsor, Gale Brewer, the present Councilwoman for this district, and the amazing coalition of grassroots organizations, this bill should pass the Council by the end of the month. I am honored that I was amongst the first to sign onto the wider grassroots campaign. I was one of the very first to be on the original letter which eventually the NY Times published. I was part of the original group of significant women leaders who worked on this bill. I helped write the resolution which was used by political clubs all over the city to advance this bill. Certainly if it doesn’t I would be honored to reintroduce it in the next Council, with a new speaker and under a new Mayor. Even if passed, this is a compromise which in the future could be expanded to other categories of workers and more businesses.

4. Fair Police Practices & Occupy Wall Street. The New York City Police Department has been highly criticized for its Stop & Frisk policy, which disproportionally affects racial minorities and poor and working class New Yorkers. The NYPD has also been criticized for its treatment of activists in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Do you support ending or modifying Stop & Frisk? If running for mayor, will you keep Ray Kelly or appoint a new police commissioner? Do you think Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD should have handled events in the OWS movement differently and what measures will you take to protect political demonstrations?

The City should have a new police commissioner. Unfettered access to so much power for so long will make anyone think they are infallible. The police and the City’s response to OWS, the movement of the 99%, was totally out of line with the centrality of free speech in this country. But it was a piece of how this mayor and this police commissioner have treated ALL protests in this city. From the anti Iraq War march in 2003 when protesters were penned into streets miles from the protest assembly site at the UN to the mass. Illegal arrests at the 2004 Republican convention. The right of assembly is merely lip service by this administration. Stop and Frisk is a policy wildly out of control. The Fourth Amendment has a very high standard to meet for stopping people and how they can be searched after they are stopped. I oppose the police turning NY City into a place where your social and racial status predisposes the NYPD predisposes them to act like those they are meant to protect are actually potential criminals. The result is that people, mostly young males of color acquire criminal records that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. I silently marched last spring to stop this invidious policy.

5. Mayoral Control of Education. Mayoral Control of NYC schools is set to expire in 2016, but the state legislature can renew it. If elected to city government, you will not directly vote on mayoral control, but you will have a ‘bully pulpit’ as renewal is discussed in the next 3 years. Do you support keeping Mayoral Control as is, letting it expire, or making changes, for example to the hearing process for controversial decisions? (Examples: Co-locations of multiple schools in one building, providing district school space to charter schools, phasing out schools that have been labeled as “failing” due to high dropout rates, low test scores, or other factors.)

Every Mayoral candidate from either party wants to keep Mayoral Control of the schools. In my role as a member of the board of NARAL, I was also at the midnight session in Albany when they passed Mayoral Control. Just like vacancy decontrol it was not an idea I was in favor of. I am never in favor of lots of power concentrated in one place. Certainly the first Education Commissioner, Joel Klein, and the Mayor who appointed him, acted more like autocrats than democrats. And their regime has favored some children over the majority of children and some schools, like Charter Schools the public schools. This version of Mayoral control under resources public schools in order to close them and create space for charter schools. One must give very serious thought to what would replace Mayoral control if it was allowed to expire. I do not think enough thought has been given to replacement institutions. It is of course also depends upon who the next mayor is and the degree to which that Mayor is willing to allow others to have meaningful role in setting policy and allocating resources.

6. Teacher Evaluation. A key area where the mayor has influence in public education is in the negotiation of a contract with NYC’s public school teachers. Please give your opinion on the following proposed ways to evaluate teachers for the purpose of tenure, salary and other job benefits: Improvement in student test scores, observations by other teachers, student surveys, whether the teacher has an advanced degree, a principal’s evaluation of a teacher. Should principals be allowed to do unannounced observations of teachers? Do you have any experience negotiating labor union contracts?

I have a Masters in Education. My specialty was testing. Therefore I am very aware of the value of tests and their inherent limitations. They are but a small part of the picture of effective teaching. Peer reviews, principal observations, and parental and child satisfaction tells you a lot more. Unlike much right wing propaganda which has sadly jelled into conventional wisdom, most teachers care about their students and they do enormously well in the face of large class sizes and limited resources. When I taught I tried to make sure that each of my children were treated as individual with individual learning styles. Mass testing programs do not honor that or cultivate their individual worth. They are unfair to teachers and certainly not in the interests of children.

7. Co-location of charter schools. City officials do not decide how many charter schools can exist, or grant requests to be a charter school. However, the Department of Education - currently controlled by the Mayor - may decide to provide charter schools with space, usually by "co-location" with district public schools. While more than half of NYC schools (not just charters) are co-located, it is a controversial topic when a charter school is involved. Critics argue that cash-strapped district schools should not be forced to share resources with charter schools and that co-location creates a morale problem when students and parents see the contrast. Co-location advocates argue that charter schools are public schools and should have an equal right to publicly owned resources such as buildings, charter schools do not receive funding for space and therefore operate at a severe financial disadvantage if they have to find private space, and that differences between co-located schools result from decisions the principals make about how to spend their per-pupil funding. Do you support the DOE giving public school space to charter schools?

Sources: Against - funding and space arguments  In Favor: Funding  Space (pdf)

One would hope that the new Mayor would make a commitment to the educational success of ALL children and not just some children. Part of that is putting a stop to co locations and saving increasingly rare school space for charters over public schools. At the least there should be a moratorium on charter co locations which should blossom a wholesale reconsideration and rejection of this policy. School resources like money and committed parents should not be leached out the public system by a charter schools which are often privately managed and owned and are some corporations profit centers. The City’s success in many areas like crime reduction has meant that many more families are staying in the City in order to have a more cohesive family life. That means the school age population has grown and will grow enormously. Right now there is an elementary school bulge which will be succeeded by a middle and then a high school bulge. The City should expend lots more effort on securing MORE school space not on putting elementary charters into public High Schools. On a simple level that space is needed for high schools not given to any elementary schools. Most certainly charter school are neither accountable in the same way as public schools nor are they as resource constrained as public schools with which they share space.

8. The City Wage Tax. New York City’s budget depends in large part on the city wage tax, which is only paid by residents, not everyone who works in NYC. Would you call on the state legislature to allow NYC to collect the tax from people from the suburbs who work in NYC and benefit from our services (police, fire, etc.)? Would you support efforts to collect the tax from people who actually live in New York City but use a second home (a loophole not available to middle class New Yorkers with just one home) to avoid the city wage tax? If these efforts work, would you be willing to reduce the city wage tax so that workers would have more take home pay, and there would be less incentive for people to move to the suburbs, reducing our tax base?

I do support the reinstitution of the Commuter tax. I also support strengthening the City’s ability to collect taxes from those with the financial resources to have second and third homes. Commuters and second home owners benefit from all this city has to offer and they should participate in ensuring that this City is place they can live and work in. In my role as a member of the NY State Democratic Committee, 68th AD, I was the sponsor of the Millionaire’s Tax resolution, which did have an impact on Gov. Cuomo changing his own opposition to this higher progressive taxation. I most certainly support progressive taxation for the City itself. Last week the Governor actually not only extended this progressive tax, he boasted about it.

9. Other Taxes. Do you support progressive taxation? Do you support Governor Cuomo’s approach to the marginal tax rate on high incomes? What is your opinion on the current property tax in NYC? Would you support a federal financial transaction tax to either raise revenue, reduce the practice of high frequency trading, or both?

As I said above, I wrote the resolution extending the Millionaire’s tax in the NY State Democratic Committee, the party’s governing organization. I know that this had an impact on his change of mind. And he now is extending it and boasting about his embrace of progressive taxation. I think that we should consider more and higher marginal tax rates on very high incomes…at all levels of government. Long term city property taxes have long favored one and two family properties over coops and condos. I think we should look again at how to more reasonably, equitably and with an eye to what we want this city to look like in terms of the distribution of tax burdens between residential and commercial buildings. I do support a financial transaction tax. I think the federal government should impose it as well as many foreign exchanges already have instituted such charges.

10. Poverty & the Social Safety Net. According to a 2012 report by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, many struggling New Yorkers are eligible for welfare, but have not been able to obtain it due to onerous application requirements, and the excessive and arbitrary use of “sanctions” by the City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). These obstacles have caused very little increase in welfare cases during the recent recession, as contrasted with large increases in Food Stamps and Medicaid. Would you change HRA to make it easier for eligible families to obtain cash assistance, connect them to jobs or meaningful job training, and reform the improper use of sanctions? How would you manage New York City's social safety net programs to ensure that people get the help they need, while at the same time preventing fraud? Report

The contention that there is an enormous amount of fraud in the use of safety net programs has long been a rationalization to cut these programs and stigmatize those who need help the most. Ronald Reagan started that meme and this administration has just continued it. It is beyond question that this recession has increased poverty and homelessness. These programs should be increased to meet the increasing need. Sanctions are a method too often used to deny people the very help they most need. This administration uses them to decrease the number of needy people not by helping them but by throwing them out of the program often on specious grounds. The goal of HRA should be to helping people get out of poverty not to reduce their rolls by pretending that poverty is merely an act.

11. Homelessness. When Mayor Bloomberg first ran, he promised to introduce policies to drastically reduce the numbers of people who are homeless in our city. But during the twelve years of his administration, the numbers of homeless have increased dramatically each year. This is in addition to the approximately 50,000 people sleeping in shelters on an average night, according to a recent report by the Coalition for the Homeless. What would you do to deal with this sad situation?

Homelessness in NY is the result of the combination of high rents in NY City, and wages that are too low to sustain people so that they can have a roof over their head and food in their stomachs. The City’s policies compound that problem by refusing to have a coherent policy to prevent homelessness. They exacerbate it by then spending enormous sums that rewards politically connected individuals who supply inadequate housing at exorbitant prices. On 95th St in this district, the City wants to spend 47 million dollars putting a few hundred people into temporary housing. It goes to just such a landlord for 10 years. 47 million dollars buys one a lot of permanent housing for homeless families. It is ill considered policy. It is also one of the drivers of economic inequality when politically connected players profit from the public purse.

12. Hurricane Sandy & Environmental Protection. The devastating impact that Hurricane Sandy had on New York City poses short term and long term challenges: immediate support for those who lost their homes and businesses, and climate change, respectively. What measures do you support for helping Sandy recovery efforts, as well as energy conservation and reducing the carbon footprint of New York City? What is your position on hydraulic fracturing and the Spectra pipeline?

I co sponsored the ban on fracking in the NY State Democratic Committee and have done so for the last 3 years. I am against the Spectra pipeline. I am against both not just because they will have immediate negative environmental impacts on our water supply, our health and our safety. They do. We should NOT be using up all the carbon we have in the ground. At present trends we will heat 2 degrees Celsius which is the outer limit to which society as we know it can adapt to climate change. The president is rightly promoting energy efficiency for cars, but he is also promoting drilling and fracking and the total utilization of all our carbon energy. If we do that then we will hit 4 degrees Celsius of warming or more. At that number, the basic structures of civilization as we know will not stay intact. In NY the watch words are Prevention of further climate change and the Mitigation of the effects which are now irreversible. We have to prepare for a stormy future. We must retrofit old buildings and hold new buildings to standards that both limit their carbon footprints and can withstand the storms of the future. City building codes and zoning rules should be brought into line to help promote green energy proposals and storm preparation demands. The good news is that such needs should generate enormous numbers of jobs and other economic activities that cannot be outsourced. This is needed by the entire east coast of the US and so becomes an essential responsibility of the federal government to protect one of the main economic engines of the United States. This is part of what I call Fix the Future. Essential and urgent infrastructure needs can be funded via the federal government directly or via bonds or bond guarantees issued at all levels of government. Interest rates are so low that the actual real rate is less than zero. NOW is the best time to actually Fix the Future.

13. Gun Control. While DFNYC members have long supported gun control, the December 14th shooting in Newtown, Connecticut seems to have changed the debate on the national level. Do you support the proposals President Obama made to (a) renew and fix the assault weapons ban, (b) ban high capacity magazines (limit the number of bullets that can be shot before reloading), and (c) improve the background check system? Please indicate any other methods you would support to reduce gun violence, including how you would implement them, for example: gun buy-back programs, training programs for gun owners, improved access to mental health care, and involving the business community in gun safety.

I am proud to say that Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy has endorsed me. She more than anyone has fought valiantly for many years to combat the evil of gun deaths. I certainly support measures like background checks, the ban on assault rifles and large magazines. I support microstamping bullets so that they can be traced. Certainly there is the technology to make sure that guns only work when the owner picks it to limit accidental shootings one of the largest sources of gun deaths. Just like cars require insurance then guns should be insured. The Heller decision was a 5-4 decision by the same Supreme Court that stated that corporations are people. If the First Amendment can be restricted in certain reasonable ways then the Second Amendment should have no more special a place. One of the reasons the NY City has become and will stay a safe place to live in and raise one’s family is that this City has long had strict rules about who and why one can own and carry a gun. Most of the illegal guns come from states with purposely lax rules about guns. Those states endanger the more than 8 million people in this great metropolis. My synagogue, on which I am a member of the Social Action Committee, has made the issue of gun violence the focus of their social action work.

 

14. Choice & Marriage Equality. Please briefly state your position on the following three issues: marriage equality for gays & lesbians, a woman's right to choose, and access to birth control. (25 words or less)

I have been on the board of NARAL ProChoice NY for 20 years. I have long been considered a thought leader on this issue in the Choice community. I said more than a decade ago that if we don’t move our pro Choice agenda forward then the right wing will push us back. I said more than decade ago if we compromise on abortion rights then the right wing will be coming after contraception. Sadly I was right. I have long supported marriage equality and I did so by co sponsoring the resolution in the Democratic State Committee on marriage equality.

Ed Hartzog Answers to DFNYC 2013 Endorsement Questionnaire

1. Money in NYC Politics. Large donors, specifically real estate developers and landlords, have a huge amount of influence in NYC politics due to their campaign contributions. While NYC’s matching funds programs is seen as one of the most innovative public funding campaigns in the country, many DFNYC members feel that big money donors still have too much influence and candidates still spend too much time fundraising. Would you support a change to full public financing of campaigns, similar to the Clean Money Clean Elections programs in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine?

Yes. I would strongly support full public financing of campaigns. There can be no question that on the Upper East Side, developers, landlords and institutions are limiting the political debate. This is one of the reasons why I am running for City Council – so I can be an advocate for my community and the proliferation of smart development, as opposed to the pell-mell over-development that exists now. The forces of the status quo have thus far been able to prevent real political engagement or community conversation about either over-development or the shameful lack of open and green space in our neighborhoods. Members of the public can’t even get information about what projects are being considered, when they will start, when they will finish or the benefits the community can expect to receive when they are completed. With full public financing there would be more opportunities for people to join the debate and advocate for these and other issues. As a candidate for City Council, I am proud to be taking part in the campaign finance program, without which I would be financially excluded from the race. Even with the campaign finance system, running for office is often prohibitively expensive and raising money is extremely time-consuming. I welcome the idea of an even playing field where anyone with good ideas, a strong community base and a willingness to work hard is given an equal opportunity to serve his or her community.

2. Tenant Protection & Cost of Housing. Do you support rent stabilization and rent control laws? What will you do to crack down on landlords that break the law? Would you call on the state legislature to repeal vacancy decontrol and more generally, the Urstadt Law, so that New York City – and not Albany – can enact its own housing laws?

Yes, I support rent stabilization and rent control. As a resident of one of the most expensive communities in New York City, I recognize that without rent control and rent stabilization, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, primarily seniors and young families, would be forced to move out of their neighborhoods and communities. Rent control and rent stabilization are the only viable means of keeping neighborhoods like the Upper East Side affordable and maintaining the diversity and vibrancy of our community. I also strongly support the repeal of vacancy decontrol and the Urstadt Law. New York City’s housing situation is nuanced and complex. Like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond, seemingly minor adjustment in rent control can have massive impacts on families, economies, and neighborhoods. It just doesn’t make any sense to have legislators who live hundreds of miles away making decisions for our local communities. Beyond simply having a better sense of the consequences of adjustments to rent control, local elected officials can be held accountable for their decisions regarding New York City rent control in a way that upstate politicians cannot.

3. Paid Sick Leave. There is currently a bill in the city council that would require companies in NYC with 5 or more employees to give 5 paid sick days per year to each employee (if they do not already). While many councilmembers support this, it has not been brought to a vote. Supporters feel this is much needed public health legislation that would only minimally raise labor costs, while opponents say that it would be an unfair financial burden to small business. Do you support the bill and will you actively work to get it passed?

Sources: ~For~  ~Against~

Yes. I would gladly and wholeheartedly support Intro. 97-A, the current paid sick day legislation. The failure of the current New York City Council to pass sick day legislation is unconscionable. When employees are forced to come to work sick, we are all at greater risk. The minimal cost of 5 paid sick days should simply be considered the cost of doing business.

4. Fair Police Practices & Occupy Wall Street. The New York City Police Department has been highly criticized for its Stop & Frisk policy, which disproportionally affects racial minorities and poor and working class New Yorkers. The NYPD has also been criticized for its treatment of activists in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Do you support ending or modifying Stop & Frisk? If running for mayor, will you keep Ray Kelly or appoint a new police commissioner? Do you think Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD should have handled events in the OWS movement differently and what measures will you take to protect political demonstrations?

I have been an opponent of the NYPD’s Stop & Frisk policy, as it is currently being implemented. As a member of Community Board 8, I introduced a resolution endorsing the Father’s Day March in 2012, and then proudly marched with friends and neighbors from our community and beyond. The NYPD needs to ensure that the Stop & Frisk policy is brought into compliance with the Constitution and ceased to be enforced in a discriminatory manner. I attended the Occupy Wall Street protests several times, adding my voice to the call for a progressive economy and the recognition that we live in a city of residents, not corporations. Whether or not the current City Council passes legislation giving an Inspector General oversight over the NYPD, I believe that the Council should take a proactive approach to questioning NYPD leaders and demanding accountability.

5. Mayoral Control of Education. Mayoral Control of NYC schools is set to expire in 2016, but the state legislature can renew it. If elected to city government, you will not directly vote on mayoral control, but you will have a ‘bully pulpit’ as renewal is discussed in the next 3 years. Do you support keeping Mayoral Control as is, letting it expire, or making changes, for example to the hearing process for controversial decisions? (Examples: Co-locations of multiple schools in one building, providing district school space to charter schools, phasing out schools that have been labeled as “failing” due to high dropout rates, low test scores, or other factors.)

Questions about education are some of the most complex and the most important faced by city government. How we educate our children is a direct measure of how our economy, our community and our city will fare in the future. There is nothing more important. Mayoral control as it currently stands is in need of change. By giving full and complete control of all of the structures of education to a single individual, all the players that should be central to educational decisions are rendered powerless, including teachers, administrators, parents and community members. The oft-quoted expression that “it takes a village to raise a child” seems appropriate. As the parent of a five year old son, I recognize that there are many individuals involved in his educational success – his mother and myself, his teachers, his school administrators, and his friends and neighbors. Educational decision making should include inputs from this diverse collection of voices. If elected to the City Council, I envision my role in the 2016 debate on Mayoral Control as one to primarily amplify the voices of parents. In the political debate between unions and the mayor, I often feel that it is the parents, who know their children best, who are lost in the shuffle.

6. Teacher Evaluation. A key area where the mayor has influence in public education is in the negotiation of a contract with NYC’s public school teachers. Please give your opinion on the following proposed ways to evaluate teachers for the purpose of tenure, salary and other job benefits: Improvement in student test scores, observations by other teachers, student surveys, whether the teacher has an advanced degree, a principal’s evaluation of a teacher. Should principals be allowed to do unannounced observations of teachers? Do you have any experience negotiating labor union contracts?

As I noted before, the failure of Mayoral Control is that it gives the power over every decision to a single individual who works in an office and doesn’t know any of the individuals involved. Of course, objective measures must be used but, as in any other field, no single tool can effectively and fairly be used to judge the totality and complexity of a teacher’s work. Teachers do not teach in a vacuum where all other things are equal. Objective measures of a teacher’s work must be mixed with human understanding. I would favor a teacher evaluation process that took all of the above suggested measures, and others, into account. As a young lawyer I was supervised and mentored by more experienced attorneys who helped teach me the way to navigate legal issues and problems. They reviewed my work to ensure that I was providing an appropriate level of service to clients, but also to give me guidance and advice. I believe that principals, school leaders and parents should not only be allowed to do unannounced observations of teachers at work, they should be encouraged to do so.

7. Co-location of charter schools. City officials do not decide how many charter schools can exist, or grant requests to be a charter school. However, the Department of Education - currently controlled by the Mayor - may decide to provide charter schools with space, usually by "co-location" with district public schools. While more than half of NYC schools (not just charters) are co-located, it is a controversial topic when a charter school is involved. Critics argue that cash-strapped district schools should not be forced to share resources with charter schools and that co-location creates a morale problem when students and parents see the contrast. Co-location advocates argue that charter schools are public schools and should have an equal right to publicly owned resources such as buildings, charter schools do not receive funding for space and therefore operate at a severe financial disadvantage if they have to find private space, and that differences between co-located schools result from decisions the principals make about how to spend their per-pupil funding. Do you support the DOE giving public school space to charter schools?

Sources: Against - funding and space arguments  In Favor - Funding  Space (pdf)

No. I do not support the co-location of charter schools and public schools. I believe that co-locations, particularly when they involve charter schools, inherently highlight the divisions in our educational system. I also do not support the idea of making single public school spaces available to charter schools. New York City’s public schools are almost universally over-crowded because of a lack of affordable, appropriate school locations. Almost any potential school space provided to a charter school is done at the expense of public school students. Charter schools are public schools, but they are also exempt from many of the rules and requirements of public schools, including union contract obligations. The price of these exemptions is that charter schools must manage their own financial struggles rather than use city tax resources to support their educational ideologies.

8. The City Wage Tax. New York City’s budget depends in large part on the city wage tax, which is only paid by residents, not everyone who works in NYC. Would you call on the state legislature to allow NYC to collect the tax from people from the suburbs who work in NYC and benefit from our services (police, fire, etc.)? Would you support efforts to collect the tax from people who actually live in New York City but use a second home (a loophole not available to middle class New Yorkers with just one home) to avoid the city wage tax? If these efforts work, would you be willing to reduce the city wage tax so that workers would have more take home pay, and there would be less incentive for people to move to the suburbs, reducing our tax base?

Yes. New York City is a regional, national and international city, but our government structures should be designed to serve the needs of New York City residents. Subjecting commuters to the city wage tax would both increase New York City’s tax revenue and discourage high-income individuals from moving to the suburbs where they would have to pay additional local taxes. If New York City were to expand the city wage tax to commuters, it would certainly reduce the overall tax burden on individuals so that they could enjoy more of their take home pay, but I would also divert some of that revenue to increasing city services. All of our city services, including education, health care, police, fire, libraries, parks, etc., have struggled financially in the last few years. If we have the ability to do so, I believe that it is imperative that we support those services to the fullest extent possible.

9. Other Taxes. Do you support progressive taxation? Do you support Governor Cuomo’s approach to the marginal tax rate on high incomes? What is your opinion on the current property tax in NYC? Would you support a federal financial transaction tax to either raise revenue, reduce the practice of high frequency trading, or both?

Yes, I support any and all progressive taxes. I strongly oppose the Mayor's attempts to balance our budget on the backs of working New Yorkers and their families. Those that have the most to give, including corporations and individuals, must support the programs and services on which our entire community depends.

10. Poverty & the Social Safety Net. According to a 2012 report by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, many struggling New Yorkers are eligible for welfare, but have not been able to obtain it due to onerous application requirements, and the excessive and arbitrary use of “sanctions” by the City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). These obstacles have caused very little increase in welfare cases during the recent recession, as contrasted with large increases in Food Stamps and Medicaid. Would you change HRA to make it easier for eligible families to obtain cash assistance, connect them to jobs or meaningful job training, and reform the improper use of sanctions? How would you manage New York City's social safety net programs to ensure that people get the help they need, while at the same time preventing fraud? Report: http:/www.fpwa.org/cgi-bin/iowa/policy/article/218.html

In this turbulent and ever-changing economy, I support providing job training and placement assistance to almost everyone. As the son of Depression era parents, I know how important it is to have a strong social safety net and cash assistance programs. We have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that all of the members of our community have access to a basic level of care. As an elected official, I will do everything I can to ensure that everyone who needs assistance is granted it. At the same time, I am not an expert on HRA policy, their use of sanctions or welfare fraud. Before I made any commitments to changes in HRA policy, I would hope to have an opportunity to question HRA leaders regarding their use of sanctions and their outcomes. In preparing for that hearing, I would seek the counsel of expert organizations whom I trust, including Community Service Society, Community Voices Heard and United Neighborhood Houses and ask them to provide me with the background information I need to ask meaningful and fruitful questions.

11. Homelessness. When Mayor Bloomberg first ran, he promised to introduce policies to drastically reduce the numbers of people who are homeless in our city. But during the twelve years of his administration, the numbers of homeless have increased dramatically each year. This is in addition to the approximately 50,000 people sleeping in shelters on an average night, according to a recent report by the Coalition for the Homeless. What would you do to deal with this sad situation? Sources: http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/pages/state-of-the-homeless-2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/nyregion/20homeless.html

The problem of homelessness is exacerbated in New York City by the chronic over-inflation of the housing market. The sky-rocketing rents, combined with the strict limits on rent-controled units, makes it almost impossible for a family that losses their home to procure any other alternatives within the city. One of the primary means to address homelessness in New York City is the development of truly affordable, stable housing. In recent years, the process of granting tax-abatements and other financial perks to developers of commercial interests and luxury housing has become almost common-place. In exchange, developers usually promise either affordable housing or open space, although neither is usually built. The first, and easiest, step that the city can take to create below-market rate housing is to hold developers of already existing projects accountable for their promises. A second step to alleviating the housing shortage, which is ultimately responsible for the inflation of housing costs, would be to stop allowing either banks or landlords to warehouse housing stock. Finally, in future transactions with developers, New York City should prioritize the development of moderate and low-income housing by providing tax breaks and other benefits to individuals who develop properties that will serve all New Yorkers, and, as to council district 5, the creation of more open and green space.

12. Hurricane Sandy & Environmental Protection. The devastating impact that Hurricane Sandy had on New York City poses short term and long term challenges: immediate support for those who lost their homes and businesses, and climate change, respectively. What measures do you support for helping Sandy recovery efforts, as well as energy conservation and reducing the carbon footprint of New York City? What is your position on hydraulic fracturing and the Spectra pipeline?

One of the main reasons that I am running for office is the abysmal lack of green space on the Upper East Side and the need for meaningful environmental care-taking by the City of New York. As such, I strongly oppose hydraulic fracturing and the Spectra pipeline. For a major metropolitan area, New York City already has a relatively small carbon footprint, although, of course, more needs to be done. The best thing that we can do to continue to grow as a green city is to reduce the use of cars by improving our public transportation network and keeping service fast, reliable and affordable. Hurricane Sandy taught us a number of important lessons. Primarily, given the incredible physical destruction, the very limited loss of life was nothing less than incredible. New York City has a professional and trained Office of Emergency Management and written evacuation procedures. Continuing to practice those procedures, particularly on low-lying areas is crucial.

13. Gun Control. While DFNYC members have long supported gun control, the December 14th shooting in Newtown, Connecticut seems to have changed the debate on the national level. Do you support the proposals President Obama made to (a) renew and fix the assault weapons ban, (b) ban high capacity magazines (limit the number of bullets that can be shot before reloading), and (c) improve the background check system? Please indicate any other methods you would support to reduce gun violence, including how you would implement them, for example: gun buy-back programs, training programs for gun owners, improved access to mental health care, and involving the business community in gun safety.

I strongly support any and all proposals, including those recently made by President Obama to renew and fix the assault weapons ban and have been a part of all of the recent gun control rallies in New York City. Unfortunately, while I would be pleased to use the bully pulpit of the New York City Council to bring attention to this issue, I also recognize that it is well outside of the purview of the New York City Council. The reality is that New York City already has strong gun control legislation, including an assault weapons ban. In general, individuals who own guns in New York City don’t buy them here. This is a national issue. While I disagree with Mayor Bloomberg on many, many things, I believe that he has taken the right path on this issue, which is using the prominence of the New York City Mayoralty to effectively lobby legislators around the country for tougher gun control legislation in their areas.

14. Choice & Marriage Equality. Please briefly state your position on the following three issues: marriage equality for gays & lesbians, a woman's right to choose, and access to birth control. (25 words or less)

Only 25 words?! Overwhelmingly, yes, yes, and yes! I strongly support all of the above and look forward to the opportunity to prove it.