Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On FOX5’s “Good Day New York”

January 17, 2024

Curt Menefee: All right, thanks a lot, Ines. Well, Mayor Eric Adams unveiled his budget for 2025 yesterday. And while the NYPD, FDNY and Sanitation Department are being spared from another round of cuts, other city agencies will still have to reduce their budgets.

Rosanna Scotto: All right. Joining us this morning with more on the new budget plus the latest on the migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams. Nice to have you back on Good Day New York.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. I see you have a new partner there. Curt, congratulations to you. Wish you a great fortune with the great Rosanna.

Menefee: Thank you so much, Mayor Adams, and thank you for joining us this morning. Let's start with the budget. And you announced yesterday a balanced budget, $109 billion, and the cuts were less dire than you announced back in November. How do we get to this point where things balanced out for you?

Mayor Adams: Well, you first start with a foundation. We were clear, we wanted to invest in people, public spaces and public safety, and then you move out from there. And what we did in November, we identified the problem. It was believed, as I stated last year, we were going to have 100,000 migrants and asylum seekers in our care with a cost attached to that. Instead of 100,000, it ballooned to 168,000.

So we had a two‑pronged attack: number one, we had to be able to pay for that, but number two, we needed to start a process of cycling them out of our care. We were successful on both fronts with our cost efficiencies and with our 30‑day program and now our 60‑day program.

Close to 60 percent of those people cycled out of our care and we never reached that 100,000. Those cost savings allowed us to restore some of the impacts that we were going to make on those public safety people and public spaces.

Menefee: You know, we're going to get to the migrant crisis in just a second, but I want to ask one follow‑up question there. You know, back when you made the announcement in November about the drastic cuts, the City Council kind of pushed back a little bit and said the budget projections that you had in your office had were probably too restrictive.

Did the difference come from the migrant situation being better than you thought, the governor giving you more money in her fiscal budget for next year, or exactly how do we get to this point from where the city council thought we would be and versus where you thought we would be back in November?

Mayor Adams: No, great question. Number one, we knew we had a plan in place to cycle out those migrants who we did not want long term tax burden or cost on our residents. But also, we're always fiscally conservative when it comes down to financial projections, because we can't make a mistake. And now the projection we have is a little higher than the city council's projection.

And so when you combine that with a real strong economy that we're experiencing here, decreasing the cost of migrants and asylum seekers, utilizing those cost efficiencies in all of our agencies— what we call PEGs— that is the perfect management tools that we use, that it won't impact our bond ratings. But at the same time, we're not going to just spend to be spending, we're going to be fiscally prudent in the process.

Scotto: So, Mayor, there was some kind of mention of helping the migrants in a different way. You made some kind of mention about nonprofits kind of taking over now. Does that mean you're getting rid of [DocGo]? What does that mean, and who polices the non‑profits?

Mayor Adams: Well, our current shelter system, for the most part non‑profits are running that shelter system. The migrants and asylums crisis, our humanitarian relief centers that you see at Floyd Bennett Field, Randall's Island and other locations, they were not part of our shelter system, because our shelter system runs based on a different set of rules and circumstances.

And that's why we're in court right now, to say that the right to shelter does not apply to the migrant and asylum seeker crisis.

Scotto: But you've said that before, like when does this come to court? Like this is… I mean, it's dragging out forever!

Mayor Adams: Rosanna, I feel the same way as you. You know, I cannot mandate to a judge, I'm in the executive branch, the judicial branch, they go by their own tune, I wish this comes to a conclusion faster than it is, because we need real clarity here. And so what we want to do now is have non‑profits handle this issue we believe is more cost effective.

Scotto: Well, uh, somebody's got to keep an eye on them as well. But let's talk about the curfews last night, because it was the first night it was put into effect at the migrant shelters. How did it go? Were there any problems?

Mayor Adams: No, we did not hear any reports of problems. It's about bringing clarity. You know, we inherited this action, and when you look at it as an emergency, we need to now stabilize for our emergency and shift, because this is going to be here a while. We're still getting thousands of migrant and asylums who are coming here.

And so we want to give clear messages on what's expected. The overwhelming number of people who are there, they want to take the next step in the American dream, but you do have a numerical minority that we want to give clarity to that you can't come into our systems and be disruptive and in the neighborhoods.

Menefee: A couple things on the minds of New Yorkers that I found here. You know, look, one of the things that makes New York great, it does bring in people from all over the world, all over the country, people come here.

And the great thing about being an American is that you have the right to protest against the government, against policy, against these things. But the clash between some of the Palestinian protesters who have a right to protest and some of the people that are saying they're trying to get to work or trying to get to the hospital.

We've seen a couple of minor skirmishes. What can the city do to try and prevent this from becoming a major issue, because we don't want to get the situation where someone gets hit by a car or something bad happens as this escalates.

Mayor Adams: Curt, and you're right, and we saw that on the Brooklyn Bridge where the agitation moved to the point that there were some physical interactions with the protesters and motorists. You have a right to protest, you don't have a right to be disruptive. And the actions that we saw on those who were protesting on one day that they wanted to block the tunnel, block the bridges. That's not acceptable.

And we're going to have clear, concisive actions to make sure that we immediately correct the conditions, and that's what our officers did. Hats off to those officers that every day are the heroes and sheroes of the city, like those two officers who were shot yesterday while carrying out their duties. Those are the real men and women that I'm fighting on behalf of, everyday working class New Yorkers. And we're not going to allow people to come in and disrupt the normalcy of our city.

Scotto: Any talk about bringing in the National Guard to kind of keep things sane in New York City?

Mayor Adams: Things are sane. You know, listen, we have been extremely successful. I say it over and over again, crime is down. You know, homicide, shootings, five of the seven major crime categories. Jobs are up, tourism are back, four million people back on our subway system. We're out pacing the state in reading and writing.

We are moving, in two years, Rosanna, think about this, in two years. People told me it was going to take four to five years to turn around our economy, and we have more private sector jobs in the history of this city. In two years you're seeing a new New York and we're going to, we believe that we're going to continue this success that we've experienced.

Scotto: Fantastic. We have taken to the streets of New York and we've asked a few New Yorkers…

Menefee: Yes, so before you go, we want to see if we can answer these questions for these New Yorkers.

[Video plays.]

New Yorker: Why can't we get more efficient government? I think there's plenty of money to do so many things and have thriving services for New Yorkers.

New Yorker: Maybe Eric Adams can do something about the e‑bikes on the sidewalk. It's so dangerous.

[Video ends.]

Menefee: So, what can you do about the e‑bikes on the sidewalks?

Mayor Adams: I hear that all the time. In every community, from Washington Heights to Prospect Heights, they're talking about the illegal use of bikes on sidewalks, running red lights. We are combining with DOT and the New York City Police Department and the other folks' advocates, I should say, to come up with real solutions of changing this massive change on how we're using our streets right now.

And that is right on my agenda for 2024, to make sure we have safer use of the e‑bikes, scooters, skateboarders, regular bikes. Just a complete change in how we're using our streets now. It really happened after Covid, and now we have to get it under control.

Menefee: Thank you so much, Mayor Adams for joining us. I know you've got a busy morning. We appreciate the time.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.