Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

July 2, 2024

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYCLYzTy6kY

Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy, Communications: Good morning everybody, my name is Fabien Levy and I serve as deputy mayor for Communications for the City of New York. We appreciate you all joining us for our weekly in-person media availability. New Yorkers deserve safe streets, good paying jobs and a more affordable and livable city.

With last week's budget agreement, we delivered on all those things. Our budget will invest in early childhood education and cultural institutions, libraries and public schools, upstream and downstream approaches to public safety, help build more affordable housing that New Yorkers need and so much more.

That's why the overwhelming number of City Council members voted on it this past weekend. Now that we're in a new fiscal year, we're starting over, which leads perfectly into segueing to the newest arrival to Team Adams. Yesterday, Deputy Press Secretary Kayla Mamelak started the fiscal year by giving birth to Abel Mak Altus, weighing at 7 pounds 1 ounce and measuring 19.75 inches, a future NBA star.

Many of you know that Kayla usually takes a leading role in helping to run these media availabilities, as well as our office. We're going to miss her over the next three months. Thanks, mayor, for doubling the amount of paid parental leave. So, mazel tov to Kayla, to Adam, Big Sister Ivy and Abel.

Now to get back to our regularly scheduled programming to tell you more about the budget and all the work we're doing every day to get stuff done for New Yorkers. The mayor has once again convened senior leadership here at City Hall to answer your questions.

Joining us today, we have Mayor Eric Adams, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Chief Advisor to the Mayor Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief of Staff Camille Joseph Varlack, Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar, Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg, and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Tiffany Raspberry. Without further delay, I'll turn it over to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. I really want to thank Reverend Sharpton. I read that. I don't know if you guys saw that op-ed in the Daily News. He really just laid out... When you read how this administration is covered, you think you're living in a different city. What we have accomplished in two and a half years, and when I first took office, I went back and looked at some of the things they were saying about David Dinkins, coded words incompetence. We know what that means. We have turned around this city in two and a half years. Two and a half years. First ever, first ever, first ever, first ever. You hear that over and over again.

You won't think that. We know what we've done. Again, hats off to Speaker Adams because it takes a partnership to navigate COVID, navigate 206,000 migrants and asylum seekers, navigate 40 percent increase in crimes when I became the mayor. Jobs were not here. Tourism was gone. No one was on the subway system. We weren't building housing. Two and a half years. Reverend Sharpton laid out a tenth of our successes. announcement today, $26 billion in NYCHA. $26 billion in housing, $2 billion in his budget. Advocates was asking for a billion. A billion.

Instead we did $2 billion. W's after W's after W. 94 percent of those who wanted child care, early child care seats, 94 percent of them received them. Then when you look at the we dropped the cost of child care by 90 percent, from $55 a week to less than $5 a week. Over and over again, we've done it and we're going to continue to do it. I just thought Reverend Sharpton really laid out a real message of what our successes are and how those successes have been depicted. What's interesting, Michael? The first two pages of the Daily News. First two pages. Yesterday we had some of the most historical things that took place in the city. The Supreme Court ruling. All these other issues. The first two pages, two pages, was who gets the credit for the victory of the budget.

I don't care who gets the credit of the victory, how the sausages are made is not important. Do people have the vegan [sausages] to eat is more important to me. [Laughter.] If other people want the credit, New Yorkers want resources. We did it. We landed the plane, as Ingrid said, over and over again. If you haven't read Reverend Sharpton's piece, please. Look at you. Read that story. Because I just think it really touched what many of us have been saying.

Speaking of public safety, when I was state senator, I advocated for the decrease in the speed limits. Met with groups, and we did a whole video around this. I'm not new to this. I'm true to this. I've been doing this for a long time, back in my Senate days. Now the speed limit is decreased to 20 miles an hour. So important. Too many reckless drivers out there. We've been zeroing in on them, removing over 40,000 moped, dirt bikes, and illegal two, three-wheelers off our streets. Thousands of ghost cars are off our streets. Another way we can help is by decreasing the speed limit. In some cases, as low as 10 miles per hour. People are driving too fast.

Just dealing with our economy, we have been clear, public safety, affordability, make this place livable for working class New Yorkers. We inherited a real issue in our economy. We had a $7.1 billion budget gap that we were able to close and at the same time bring back over $300 million to some of those important issues when we settled the $112.4 billion budget. The investments are clear. The idea, Maria Torres-Springer has been just a superstar on these housing issues and these housing numbers. I don't think we were fully until we retrospectively look at this, what she has accomplished. We need the City of Yes to pass so we can deal with this 1.4 percent vacancy we have in the city.

Education announcement in the 2023 budget. All of these programs that were sun setting, we were able to sustain. hats off to Jacques Jiha and the chancellor and his team over there. The investment was clear. All the advocates have been calling on dealing with children with disabilities, those with different language barriers. What the chancellor is doing with his new initiative, DIAL, Division of Inclusive and Accessible Learning. It will support the needs of multilingual learners and students with disabilities. People have been advocating this for decades. We are going to do it and the money is going to be there with the right coordination.

We want to remind everyone the Charter Revision Commission is in place. Folks come out. We have Manhattan and Staten Island is coming up asking people to come out. We know 8.3 million New Yorkers and 35 million opinions. This is an opportunity to hear those opinions.

Lastly we want to flag, I learned a new term. Was it smashing? Smishing. Smishing campaign. Attempting to defraud. We probably added more new words to Webster in the last five years in the history. Our Cyber Command Center is aware of this campaign involving a fake New York City Pay website. The Department of Finance and CityPay will never request payment from anyone via text messages. Many of us say it could never happen to me. You'd be surprised how we are looped into these various requests for our personal information. Just be real conscious of that and we're going to do our job. OTI has created a social media alert which has been disseminated by the Department of Finance and our communications team to inform residents of this problem. So, why don't we turn it back over to you, Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy. I hope, seeing that new baby born, giving you motivation.

Deputy Mayor Levy: I would just point out, I just want to be very clear, this is a scam. Just want to be clear. This is a scam. If this link, first of all, it has a .com. City agencies don't use .com. Again, like the mayor said, we will never ask you via text message to pay a bill. This is going all over. I've seen it. People from upstate send me messages, even reporters saying they got this. This is one I personally got in the middle of the night last week. Lots of people are getting this. Please just report this out as a scam, not something that anyone should be clicking on. All right. We'll take some questions. Liz.

Question: Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you, Marcia?

Question: This morning your administration announced an initiative in Midtown to deal with quality of life issues. I wonder if you could discuss with us the quality of life issues, the conditions that you hope to correct and address the fact that a lot of people say they're afraid to go there for a host of reasons and what you're trying to accomplish.

Mayor Adams: I did a walkthrough last week, I think it was Thursday or Friday, with the Times Square theater community. There were several things that we observed. I also did a walkthrough on 34th Street last year with the team. There's a number of things we are facing. Some of them are within our span of control. Some of them are not. Those who are loitering and dealing with the real drug issue that we have in the city. As those issues take a lot of care.

That's what Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom has been really looking at. Because you can't just pick someone up because they are nodding, because they are high on narcotics. You just can't arrest them. It's a combination of enforcement. In those areas, the crime is down in those precincts. We're still dealing with the visual. We have the Roosevelt Hotel that's there. We had a real problem with scooters that were lining the sidewalk. We had people who were just created in an unsightly condition. It could have been a combination of tourists, a combination of those who live in the area. We wanted to go in. I like to get on the ground. I did a walk. I'm communicating with the commissioner. I'm communicating with the Department of Sanitation, DOT. It has to be a combined effort. I'm a little concerned about the narrowing of 8th Avenue. 8th Avenue has been narrowed down to two lanes. If someone is double-parked, it turns into one lane. The theater community says this is having a major impact. We need to look at what we're doing over there. It's a combination of things that's happening.

Question: Maybe you could tell us what message you're trying to send not only to tourists, but also commuters who have to come into that area, whether it's the Port Authority Bus Terminal, Times Square. What kind of a message you're trying to send to people about this area and about how you want to fix it?

Mayor Adams: That is the heartbeat of our tourist dollar. That is our anchor. Times Square is it. Times Square, we hope to pull people into its gravitational pull and then propel it throughout the entire city. That is our number one draw. If anyone is there, 1 a.m., 2 a.m. Sometimes I walk the streets. If I just want to get a real boost, I walk to Times Square around 2 a.m. in the morning, and it's just unbelievable.

So it must be clean. It must be safe. We must make sure that whomever is in the area is following appropriate rules. I said, it's a challenge because you have many outsiders. You have the impact of the migrants that's in the area, the hotels. You'd rather put it in a big location than in a smaller community. It should be clean. What I've learned, that the first step to disorder is an unclean place. The Department of Sanitation has been responding immediately. There's more we're going to do. I said, the walkthrough helped me a lot because I'm going to speak with the commissioners about having a concerted operation with the alliance. The alliance has been a real partner on identifying what they believe are the problems.

Question: What is the Manhattan District Attorney supposed to do?

Mayor Adams: What is what?

Question: What is the Manhattan District Attorney supposed to do?

Mayor Adams: He's part of the initiative. He has a role, particularly when we have repeated offenders in the areas of shoplifting, in the areas of those who are committing crimes in the area. It's a real partnership. We meet with our district attorneys, DM Banks meets with our district attorneys. We have a coordinated effort to work together. We believe in tearing down the silos and the walls to cooperate with each other.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Two questions. First, I wanted to ask about the budget. I know you've talked a lot about sound fiscal management, bond ratings, the good marks you got there. Some of the watchdog groups are already noting that overtime costs, for uniformed agencies like the NYPD, it looks like they're under-budgeted again, as they have been for years at this point. Can you just explain why is it, if it just comes back to bite the city again next year, why underestimate by hundreds of millions of dollars what, these uniformed agencies are typically spending on overtime? Why not just raise that number if it seems like year after year they're vastly exceeding what's budgeted?

Mayor Adams: On Wall Street, they have the bulls and is it the doves? What's the other side? Bear. The bulls and the bear. There's always those who are more aggressive in predictions and more conservative. That is just— there's a reason. There's a term called liberal and conservative. We take a very conservative approach, because we can't get it wrong, number one. Number two, we're seeing things that others are not seeing, such as if DM Williams-Isom didn't come up with a plan of dealing with the migrants and asylum seekers, we would have had 206,000 people in our care. That is just not predictable. We're still getting 5,000—roughly 5,000 a month. these are unknowns. These variables are just unknown.

We didn't know which way the economy was going. We didn't know what our tax receipts were going to look like. When you are responsible for making sure you're writing the check that won't bounce, you're seeing things differently. Now, some of the watchdog groups say, you should spend less, and then you leave that meeting and walk outside, and there are thousands of people saying you need to spend more. This is—welcome to New York. We made the smart, right decisions. We— when you look at the management of our—the crises we're facing, to start out January 1, 2022, and say we're going to put savings in place, and now we see the benefit of those savings, because no one thought we were going to be spending $4.9 billion on migrants and asylum seekers. I knew that, you know what, we better be ready for the uncertainty. Because we went in and told the agencies, you have to find efficiencies, like households find efficiencies, we were able to now close that $7.1 billion deficit and have $8.2 billion in savings for what the next crisis is going to happen.

This is what Bloomberg did. Many people don't really appreciate what Bloomberg did at the end of his administration. He turned over a fiscally sound city to the previous administration. We were able to weather COVID and other things because Bloomberg did that. I'm creating a fiscally sound city, so no matter what the uncertainties are, if it's another COVID, if it's another migrants, if it's another this or that we can still run as a city. I just think that's the story that is being lost. So yes, we're conservative. Jacques Jiha is conservative. Trust me, even when we go to him and say, Jacques, you need to spend money, it's a battle. He knows we got to weather these uncertainties that run in a city this complex. This team did the right thing January 1, 2022. We took a lot of hits. When we started doing PEGs in agencies, everyone criticized us, everyone attacked us, but we were focused. We said, no, we're going to be ready for the uncertainties.

First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright: And if I can just answer the overtime specifically, the mayor made sure that we have an overtime task force that looks at those numbers very regularly across not only the uniform agencies but all city agencies. People have put plans in place to reduce overtime. As the mayor said, one of the big challenges is the unknown. There have been a record number of demonstrations this year. In addition, when you think about overtime, you also have to think about it in the context of how many personnel you have. If you have more vacancies, you have fewer people to do more work. It is a balance, and it's something that we're looking at very closely and very intentionally at the direction of the mayor on a regular basis.

Mayor Adams: Right. That's a great point you raise, DM. We had a record number of protests, protecting people from everything from tree lightings to the Israeli Day Parade to those having the right to protest to managing our subway system. We had a spike in January in subway crime. Now, subway crime is at near record levels. It's so safe in our subway system. I'm not going to do anything that's going to impact public safety in this city. We have to be safe. Having our police officers out there doing the job is crucial.

Now, we need more police officers. We need more correction officers. DM Banks tell me all the time that we're at code red on correction officers. We need more parole officers. We need more school safety agents. If you don't have the personnel, as the DM stated, that you have to have people there to fill those slots. That's what we should all be part of is a recruitment campaign to get people to fill these jobs. We need more lifeguards. That's why people from West Africa should be able to work to become lifeguards, from Central and South America,

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor, how are you? My questions, I have with me today, now that the budget has been finalized, I was wondering are the discussions when it comes to Randy Mastro being nominated for corporation counsel starting again, what does that look like?

I also wanted to get a clarification from yesterday. You were asked about Biden's performance in the debate and him dropping out. You mentioned letting the Democratic Party choose the way they want to move forward. I want to know what your role is in the Democratic, the National Democratic Party. Are you a superdelegate? Do you think Biden should stay on the ballot when it comes to November? Then final question, I believe on Saturday is the deadline to approve or veto the Advice and Consent Bill. You've publicly come out against it. Do you plan to veto it over the weekend?

Mayor Adams: You've been working on the, [inaudible] the Randy?

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: We're moving forward with Randy. We're working in partnership with the Council to see how things can manifest. It hasn't changed. we've been in a good place with them, contrary to what the news has been reporting. We needed to get past the budget cycle. We'll just move forward and see how things progress with Randy.

Mayor Adams: The Advice and Consent, the team has been really working really hard on this. I voiced my concern about it. Lisa and the team has really been digging into the history. There's been just a large number of those who have been in government, I think going back to the Lindsay days, Lisa, who have talked about this bill. We're still in discussion. We make a determination on how we're going to move forward. But you will know, we'll make sure we call you over at New York 1 before we do anything and let what we're going to do.

Deputy Mayor Levy: We'll call her afterwards.

Mayor Adams: Okay, after, see? In the area of President Biden, he started out slow. I think he started to move forward as he went on. Listen, I identify with him. People want to take the first day of your life and define your life. I know what the last couple of years have been. There was a reason I said I'm the Biden of Brooklyn, because I just think working class people are authentic. I remember meeting him in 2021 when I went to the White House. We were able to chat briefly. Just authentic leaders are not perfect. We have good days and we have bad days.

People want to make the worst day of your life your entire life. I think it's imperative that he makes a decision on where he's going to move forward with his partners in the party. Whatever I can do, I'm going to do. I'm not going to get ahead of the strategy. I'm going to be in alignment with the strategy. I'm a superdelegate. Am I correct?

Lewis-Martin: Yes, they changed the name, but it's still superdelegate.

Mayor Adams: I'm a superdelegate and my vote is going to go for President Biden.

Question: Mr. Mayor, can you elaborate a little on exactly, just to follow up on Marshall's question, what you hope to do and what you're going to do in town? In particular, as it relates to 8th Avenue, fewer pedestrians, fewer bike lanes. For Ms. Zornberg, you use the term review for what the federal government is doing, for what the Southern District is doing. Can you define that term review and explain why you use the term investigation, which everyone else uses?

Mayor Adams: First of all, whenever you're dealing with an issue, you go first and do an analysis of what the problem is, and then you implement a plan to correct it. Historically, people who are in leadership positions, they would send their people out to do that. I don't do that. I like to go in, do my own visualization, bring in my team and put a strategy in place.

We're dealing with traffic congestion there. We're dealing with uncleanliness that's in the area. We're dealing with the overuse of mopeds and bikes that are everywhere and parked in disarray. We're dealing with the proper movement of people. We're dealing with those who are under the influence of what appears to be drugs, that are just loitering in the area. We're dealing with those with severe mental health issues in the area. We're dealing with Mickey and Spider-Man not staying in the right area they're supposed to be.

Right. I think the naked cowboy was out there also. We need to look at all of that, and then the problem, and you come with a strategy to correct it. That's where we are right now. Friday, I think it was Thursday or Friday, I did a walkthrough, and I had a good team of people with me, and now we're sitting down and we're putting in place a strategy to correct each one of those issues, because it's not just a one-size-fits-all.

Question: How do you prevent those folks from just going to other neighborhoods and causing trouble there? Farther west or east or north?

Mayor Adams: You have to stay on top of it. It's not about displacing your problem to another area. You align yourself, because that's a good question, because that often happens. You align yourself with just not the precinct personnel in that one area. You align the precincts and the borough commander so there's a full plan, because you anticipated the displacement of the problem. You want to make sure you have an effective solution.

You do what DM Williams-Isom has done. I don't think people realize she removed 7,000 people off our subway system that were dealing with severe mental health issues. We didn't displace it to the Port Authority. No, 1,000 of them we gave shelter to. When you look at what she's doing with scouts, we were on a call yesterday with the Police Department that's going to do a new initiative. In the next couple of months, you're not going to see these severe mental health people on the system without the care they need. We don't want to displace the problem to another location. We are going to make sure that we give people the services they need and take corrective actions in the meantime. Lisa.

Lisa Zornberg, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall: I'm not sure I even get the question. It seems like you're trying to just ask about – I think that's a colloquial term, and I'm not going to get into it. Let's talk about smishing.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: On behalf of my colleagues, the New York Times and ProPublica recently published an investigation that showed Police Commissioner Caban has been exercising a little known authority he has to end cases of alleged police brutality before they get a chance to have a disciplinary trial.

I'm wondering if you are concerned about that practice by the police commissioner. Were you aware of that practice, that it was going on? Then secondly, do you think it jibes with your promise when you were elected to create more transparency in the Police Department?

My second question is on… You talked about quoted words when people were referring to you as incompetent. Many of your primary opponents have used that language. I'm wondering, are you saying that they're calling you incompetent because of race, or maybe there's another reason you think it was

Mayor Adams: Let me just answer his first part. You could determine – I think Reverend Sharpton laid out the case. You could determine based on what Reverend Sharpton laid out and the history of what he did. I think what he did a good job of laying out. Then you make the determination of your own. While you're here, I also want to point out that story you guys wrote the other day on the migrants in education, what the Department of Education has done for migrants.

The Department of Education basically did a good job for City Hall, and the administration hasn't done a good job. The Department of Education is my Department of Education. How do you separate an agency and say the agency did a good job, but the administration [didn’t do] a good job? A principal is under the chancellor. The chancellor is under the mayor. We have done a good job of educating 38,000 children, so don't separate the success of the policies that we put in place as though we have not been the ones who are the architects of those policies. I'm not getting that. You disconnect us from our success, and then you want to connect us to any problem. It's either one or the other.

Either this administration is leading the city in all of the initiatives, and we take the blame when we fail, but when we succeed, don't pull it out from the administration. When I read that article, it appears as though we were in the way of the success of the school system that's educating these 38,000 children. They are doing it with the resources we're giving them. that's what they're doing, and that's the pattern that we're talking about that I think Reverend Sharpton clearly laid out in his article. It's attempting to appeal as appears though this administration has not been successful in navigating the crisis with our team over in Albany and our team in the City Council. Go ahead, Lisa. You want to talk about the…

Zornberg: Yes. I appreciate your question, sir, because there's some clarification and some misunderstandings, and I appreciate the opportunity to clarify. Consistent with the law and specifically consistent between a memorandum of understanding that exists between the New York City Police Department and the CCRB, there are procedures that permit the police commissioner only in certain cases, where there have been police officers against, there have been no previous substantiated allegations.

The police commissioner can retain the case in those certain circumstances so that instead of a CCRB trial, it is the police commissioner who determines and adjudicates any discipline. So I just want to be clear, first of all, when you said that if the police commissioner retains a case, that it's the end of the case or it shuts down a case, that's inaccurate. It does not, if the police commissioner decides to retain a case, then under the specific procedures that are consistent with the law and agreed upon, if he retains the case, it does not mean no action is taken. It only means that the police commissioner adjudicates the case instead of a CCRB trial.

The second part of your question was about transparency, so I want to address that too. This process is transparent. In the instances where the police commissioner determines to retain one of those cases, the police commissioner provides a written explanation to the CCRB giving the why, explaining why the decision was made for the police commissioner to retain the case, and that communication gets posted quarterly on the CCRB's website.

Mayor Adams: Let's be clear, Jeff, you've been following me for a long time. I have committed my life to police reform and proper policing, public safety and justice. I've said this over and over again, testified in federal court, Floyd versus in my PD. The federal judge mentioned my testimony in her ruling. 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement was known to fight against aggressive police behavior. I monitor these cases. I don't interfere, but I'm very clear on what I expect.

We are going to have a Police Department that's professional and public safety. They go together. Police Commissioner Caban, just like Commissioner Sewell, they have been extremely clear in doing that. We're closing the timelines to get these cases handled. They've been going on too long. The number of reforms that we're going to do, I think, is going to be amenable and is going to lead the entire country on how you can have both justice and safety. Let Jeff finish. Go ahead, Jeff.

Question: You're saying all of those cases were people without prior disciplinary actions?

Zornberg: I think you should follow up and get specific answers from the PD itself, which is much more familiar. I don't want to misspeak. What I'm telling you is that the retention, the police commissioner's retention ability is limited. To my knowledge, it is limited to cases where allegations are brought against an officer who's had no prior substantiated allegation made against him or her.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. First of all, thank you for making it happen, Room 9. I was there yesterday. I think it's just great. I have a couple of questions.Would the mayor travel to Paris for the Olympic Games in 2024? Also, mayor, it's just unbelievable. We just want to know what's the secret. You always bounce back. Is it just…

Mayor Adams: I would love to go to Paris, but when I even leave the city to go to Queens, they write about where is the mayor. They get really lonely when I'm not here. I'm going to do an analysis. The mayor of Paris is a good guy. I think, Camille, you just came back, right?

Camille Joseph Varlack, Chief of Staff to the Mayor: I did.

Mayor Adams: Camille and I think two of our leadership.

First Deputy Mayor Wright: DM Anne.

Mayor Adams: And DM Anne. They both came back, participating in an important conference there. I'm looking at it because I think… We’re getting ready to have a huge event with the, we won the finals for the World Cup. It's always good to see what's happening. You'll be the first person I let know that I'm going.

Question: What about the secret? Is it the smoothie or… Your bounce back, How do you do it?

Mayor Adams: Stay focused, no distractions and grind. That's what you have to do. If you allow… People wake up every day with a mission, how am I going to distract the mayor? I am so focused that I know how good we're doing, and I see myself through crises. I don't see myself in crises. Just as people were saying, you're not going to get the budget passed, you're not going to get the budget passed. What did I keep saying? We're going to land a plane. We got this.

Question: Hi, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: Katie! How's it going?

Question: I wanted to ask… We don't care if we go to Queens. I think Southampton is a little bit further than Queens. I wanted to ask you, my colleague [inaudible] story about a police officer who was, she lied twice about getting the COVID vaccine. Commissioner Caban, it's his first deviation from the discipline matrix, ruled that she should not lose her job, even though according to the discipline matrix, and according to an NYPD administrative trial judge's recommendation that she be terminated, she was not. I just wanted to get your take on….

Mayor Adams: Hold on, get your camera going. I'm awake.

Question: It's very specific. What message does it send when an NYPD trial judge recommends an officer lose her job for lying to the IAB, but then the commissioner deviates both from that recommendation and from the matrix? Then do you believe officers should be terminated for material lies, absent extraordinary circumstances, as the matrix currently says?

Mayor Adams: When I saw that, two things I saw in the story. In the story, I believe I saw that other officers were fired for the same thing. That's not true. I immediately called and spoke to DM Banks. I said, what's going on here? DM Banks made it clear that no one was fired for that type of infraction. There were extenuating circumstances with this young lady, this officer, I should say. She was given 85 days suspension, 85 days, and one year probation. That is a huge, huge penalty.

The commissioner wanted to send the right message. I never want Commissioner Caban and any of my commissioners to be robotic. I want them to be human beings. I want them to make the right call and make the right decision for the good of their agency and for the good of our city. I think he did that analysis based on the totality of the entire operation. He made the right decision within his powers. He utilized what was within his powers. 85 days, one year, no one else has been terminated for that infraction. I think he made the right decision.

Question: Do you think the discipline matrix should be changed then if a commissioner is going to deviate from it?

Mayor Adams: No, I think the commissioner… Again, never take out the human element of making decisions for human beings. I don't want a decision for a human being to be dropped into an AI computer and without saying what's the outcome of it. I want commissioners to be human beings and look at the totality of the decision and make decisions as human beings. He did that.

Listen, Caban is a… If you don't know Commissioner Caban, he moves around this city. The amount of love he gets, the amount of respect these offices are giving to him, they are working for him. I think he needs to keep doing what he's doing. I said suspension. She lost 85 vacation days. That's a lot of time, a lot of time.

Question: Mr. Mayor, on Friday.

Mayor Admas: What's happening?

Question: I'm good, Eric.

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: On Friday after you and the speaker had your handshake, she made remarks about wanting to move away from the budget approach where cuts are being made and then the Council has to fight to restore them. I guess… She made similar remarks last year. Did you feel like those comments resonated with you? Is that something that you want to commit to doing going forward?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Listen, I love Adrienne. Adrienne is solid. I'll always call myself an urban mayor because of my style and methodology. I think she's an urban speaker. I don't know when we can go back and see just common folks that are running these major cities. If she feels there's a method that we could use to move away from where we were to where we need to go, I'm all ears.

I think Adrienne has been a great leader. People want to focus on the three or four things that we disagree on and not the 96 things that we agree on. I'm just really proud what the two of us, what we have done. We've showed everyday public school students that you could arise and manage these cities during difficult times. This was a difficult time to be the mayor and to be the speaker. If we want to acknowledge it or not, we brought this city back. I'm proud of her. If she has some ideas, I'm open to hear them. We don't have to just agree on everything. We just need to move this city forward and work for everyday working class people.

Lewis-Martin: I want to just jump in. I want to be clear. It wasn't a fight of restoration. We negotiated what needed to be restored. We had budget negotiation teams who worked copiously. Jacques, Jeremy, and I worked weekly… Sometimes as we got closer to the end of the budget, three times a week, sometimes daily, in order for us to sit down and figure out what could we restore. These were extenuating circumstances that we did not anticipate in our wildest imaginings. We were able to successfully work with the Council in order to restore needed and vital services.

We're proud of the fact that libraries, culturals were baselined. These are things that the libraries and the culturals had asked for many, many, many administrations. And this administration was able to deliver it. It would have been undeliverable without our direct involvement. The City Council would not have been able to be successful. It is a partnership.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Lewis-Martin: They did not push for the restorations. No, we worked in partnership. We worked in partnership 100 percent of the way. It's a matter of perspective. To them, they pushed for those restorations. We wanted the same restorations. Again, we did not know what laid ahead. Okay, we had a tremendous budgetary crisis with the migrants. We were able to put that aside and work in partnership to get to a successful budget. It was a success.

Mayor Adams: Yes, and I think that what you're raising was so important because you don't realize how much Tiffany, Ingrid, DM Isom, all of us… Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer was constantly pushing, we got to go put this extra $2 billion in housing. First Deputy Mayor Wright was saying, we got to go look at these libraries and figure out how to get this done. All the noise out there didn't know what was going on internally.

There's no comfort that any of these folks that are up here in these leadership positions with their portfolios want to see the childcare. Chancellor Banks was fighting hard to say, how do we get this done and land the plane? We weren't loud but when you look at the $7.1 billion in savings and only $345 or 49 million, we sat down and said, okay, here's what we all could agree on to put back in.

It doesn't matter to us who has the credit. What matters to us is that every child that wanted access to the seat is going to have that. Our libraries are open seven days. Our cultural institution, go speak to those culturals and ask them about the conversation they had with me. I said, just hold on, we're going to get through this. Ingrid, you're dead right. We were there. We just need to figure out how to get it done.

Lewis-Martin: The new needs…

Mayor Adams: Right, and the new.

Lewis-Martin: The hospital, the trauma center.

Mayor Adams: Exactly, the trauma center out in the Rockaways. We're going to always be the bad guys. We got that. We know that's the price of leadership. No matter what we say, the turbulence will not define the pilot. The pilot is defined by his ability to get to the gate and land the plane. We land the plane, baby.

Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Mr. Mayor, I would like to get your reaction to the accident in Deer Park where the NYPD officer died. Emilia Rennhack, family name Kowalczyk. She was actually Polish. If I can get your comment, are you going to attend the funeral?

Mayor Adams: Yes, and I spoke with her husband. He was devastated. He was devastated. You could only imagine. The culprit allegedly drank many beers. To have someone at the prime of their life, a law enforcement officer who probably responded to many scenes of violence, you never thought you'd be making a notification or someone will be making a notification to your family members. It's just a devastating story.

It just reinforces, as we move into the July 4th weekend, how drinking and driving is a terrible combination. I did not know she was from the Polish community, a community that is just, I've known so long through my days in the 94, and I think I was the first mayor to ever march in a Polish Day Parade. The Polish community is a real contributor to our city, and my heart goes out to the family. I already told Gladys and the team I would like to be at the funeral and I would like to show my support, but it was a devastating notification. It took a while before we knew because I believe she didn't have her ID, but when we were notified, it shook us all.

We also lost a Correction officer who died for what appeared to be a medical condition. The commissioner notified me the other day. His funeral is coming up as well. Any time you lose a loved one, it impacts us all. When you lose a member of the civil servant family, it has a major impact. We've had a couple of losses, throughout the last two and a half years, so it really hurts. Not only have we lost a total of four people, I think, in that incident, and just, having a car drive through the window while you're sitting there just, doing something that you probably do every week.

From my understanding, it was learned, when it first happened, it was learned, and found out about it, through just wondering where she was. It's just a devastating story, and the criminal justice system will take its course. Ingrid just notified me that today we lost the Sanitation chief. The funeral is today. These incidents impact you, it really impacts, and I'm really sorry for the loss of that family.

Question: Hard pivot, but something I know you want to talk about, affordable housing, which you celebrated this morning. Specifically, the intersection of affordable housing and office conversion, a separate but related initiative that you championed. We've seen some big office conversions. You visited down on Water Street. They just announced the Pfizer building was being converted right by our studios, 1,500 units, but you're not seeing a lot of that become affordable. Looking at this $2 billion, how do you make sure it actually results in affordable housing somewhat quickly for families in need?

Mayor Adams: She's chopping at the bit right now because she just loves talking about this topic. Why don't we turn it over to Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer.

Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: Thank you, mayor. Thanks for the question, Henry. We've been focused on this from day one. We did an analysis early on, the administration, together with the City Council, that there’s about 135 million square feet of outdated office space that could be converted and the potential of that conversion is about 20,000 homes. So that’s a lot, right? So then we took a number of major steps to make sure that it happened, that includes, of course, through the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity taking care of the regulatory issues.

And then to your point, fighting really hard to make sure that we get an incentive in Albany as part of that housing package where, by the way, we got the four major things on housing that we really fought for so that as the incentive is used, you must build affordable as part of that project. Then we put together an Office Accelerator in order to ensure that as buildings are contemplating this that they had a way to get the type of service and support because of the often labyrinth of city agencies that have to be involved in the conversion. There are about 70 buildings that are part of that program and many of those buildings have converted.

So it’s really been a multi-pronged approach so that the 135 million square feet, there’s a real chance that they get converted into 20,000 homes and it’s really through the incentive that we are already marketing and making sure the development community knows about where we're going to get the affordable and a significant number of affordable in each of those buildings because we want to learn the lessons from Lower Manhattan as those conversions happen and they were great, but not enough affordable. So we're not going to redo that mistake and we're going to make sure that as many of those 20,000 units are available to New Yorkers across the income spectrum.

Question: Is there a conversation around shifting to more of a mandate model than an incentive model because affordable housing is so desperately needed?

Deputy Mayor Torres-Springer: Well, you are mandated if you use that incentive to create affordable, and we're going to use every other tool that we have, including the $2 billion that we have added to the budget so that it's a now a historic $26 billion budget for affordable and many others.

Because converting offices to residential, they're difficult. It's difficult financially, it's difficult from a regulatory perspective but we have painstakingly identified all of the barriers and we have solutions for each and every one of them and the fact that these major buildings are converting, I think is proof that we're making progress faster than many other cities who are experiencing these issues.

Question: Mr. Mayor, I wanted to ask you about the 1,600 families that are on the pre-K waiting list. I know as part of the budget deal that you reached with the Council the agreement was that the city would go through that entire list and ensure that there was a seat for every single student. I wanted to know how fast, like when can families start expecting to get offers?

Then secondly, on the comment to Jeff about how you devoted your life to police reform, I wanted to ask if you could talk about what you consider the major police accountability reform you've instituted as mayor in terms of transparency or addressing racism in the force.

Mayor Adams: I think it's a combination. One of the big things that I don't think many people appreciate about this is that rarely has a mayor understood the intricacies of not only policing but agencies. If you were to do an analysis of the previous mayors throughout the decades, they did not come from that agency that has a major impact on our quality of life. That's one of the most emotional agencies in our city, the New York City Police Department.

It's a combination of things, not only symbolic but substantive. We are moving to close the gap of how long it takes to identify those officers who are not suitable to do offices. It was taking years and that was one of the major things that I wanted to focus on to ensure that we identify those officers who commit crimes or do something that's improper and how long they're going to stay in the agencies.

The second is the proper use of stop and frisk. Stop and frisk has been something that's been abused throughout the years. Going in, doing a real analysis on how we are utilizing a tool that if it is effectively used that we could address the issues.

The third is our inspection team, something that you don't see, don't even know that exists. We beefed up our inspection team to be proactive, to go out there and identify those cops that are not following the rules, not doing the right things. The amount of manpower we've put in place by those inspection teams that could identify misbehavior, inactions, the failure to properly carry out their police roles is something that's crucial.

One of the most important things I could do around reform was the commissioners I picked, particularly Commissioner Caban. Long history, everyone knows his history. His dad fought for integration in the Police Department and now his son is a commissioner of it. The right leadership can place us in the right direction. Those stricter timelines on cases that have languished for months is a huge shift in what we have done in the past. Then the best reform we could have is people being safe because the loudest may talk about disbanding, defunding, removing the Police Department, but that's not what I hear from New Yorkers.

Having police officers respond courteously, professionally, and respectfully to the people in the city that they have and driving down crime, that is a huge reform for me. Far too long, for eight years, officers did not go after these quality of life issues. They ignored those who refused to pay their fare in the subway system. They ignored those who were driving ghost cars on our streets. They ignored those who were doing these petty crimes, these quality of life crimes.

That's part of the reform that many of us don't realize. I need to reform a police department that say taxpayers are paying you well, give you a great contract. Now it's time to make sure that we are front and center to keep the people of this city safe.

Joseph Varlack: Sorry, on the education question, do you want to take that?

Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: I got it, yes. Thanks, Camille. The mayor mentioned this in his remarks at the beginning, about 94 percent of those families who apply for 3K receive an offer, one of the top offers. You speak about the numbers of families who have not received an offer. It was initially, when the process started, it was 2,400. As of now, 1,000 seats have been filled for those families who are able to access those seats.

We have about 1,400 left, and we are still working as families accept and reject some of the seats, we are working with the Department of Education and the team internally here at City Hall to make sure that those offers go out as soon as possible and as quick as possible to make sure those 1,400 families or so receive those seats before the end of the year. And the second?

Question: [Inaudible.]

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: Before the start of the school year, right?

Question: Before the start of the school year.

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: That’s correct. And the historical investment that was announced last week, along with City Council, regarding not only 3K, but the entire system and how us, together with the Department of Education and City Council, are going to work not only to make sure the investments are put in the right places, but also that the work that's needed to be done in order to reimagine the system is done in conjunction with City Council.

Question: Will there be new [inaudible] for 3K?

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: We continue working both here with City Hall and City Council, as well as our partners at ECE, at the Department of Education, our partners at the Office of Student Enrollment, as well as the announcement that was made last week, I believe, on Monday, about Christina Foti, the deputy chancellor, who's going to work particularly with our Early Childhood Education Department for those students with special needs.

First Deputy Mayor Wright: I think it's important to note that in 2019, 67 percent of families got their first choice, and in 2024, I think we had, what, four times more people applied? 94 percent of people got their first choice.

Mayor Adams: Did you get that?

First Deputy Mayor Wright: Those are important facts, so the team has done a great job.

Mayor Adams: Right, and in 2019, we had 14,000 people apply. 2024, we've had 42,000. Not only did we go out there and say to parents this is something you should be doing for your children, we increased the numbers and we increased the availability, and if there's nothing you take away from what we've done, previously, we had a bunch of seats with no people in the seats and taxpayers were paying for those empty seats, and I said we're not doing that anymore.

These are taxpayers' dollars. We should not be wasting taxpayers' dollars, so we are realigning. We're using the OTI, CTO, to use technology to identify where is that person who needs the seat and where is the seat? We had this fake program that was going on, and we're drilling down and make it right using taxpayers' dollars. 94 percent of the people who applied for the seats on time got the choices that they want. What more can we say?

How are you? Why are you calling him? I like to call on him.

Question: [Inaudible] a lifeguard shortage. It looks like most of the youth learn to swim programs are not going to be offered. I think there's one pool in Manhattan that's offering public swimming programs. Last year, the City Council passed a program. I think they allocated $5.4 million so all public school second graders could get into a swimming program. It was knocked out in the November budget cuts.

Is it back in this year, coming up, the second grade swim program? If it's not in, why not? If it is in, where are these kids going to swim? It's a school year program, and they have to be swimming in indoor pools.

Mayor Adams: Meera, do you know about this?

First Deputy Mayor Wright: Meera’s not here, but I do…

Deputy Mayor Levy: We can look into it and get back to you.

Mayor Adams: We'll find out.

Deputy Mayor Levy: I don't know the budget lines off the top of my head.

Mayor Adams: We'll find out. We'll get that question answered for you. But we have 600 lifeguards, more than we had last time of this time of the year. There is a national lifeguard shortage, national. That is why everyone mocked me, but when I say that we have those from West Africa, South America, Central America, who are willing to work, we should look at that. Instead of keeping our pools closed and the aspiration of people closed, let's open the doors, let's open our pools.

Let's allow our new arrivals who can pass the test, let's give them the right to participate as lifeguards, as food service workers, as backstretch workers in the racing industry, as nurses. People need to work. It makes no sense that we have jobs that are available, could be filled, and we're not allowing employees to fill them.

Question: One other question. The congestion crisis is gone. Do you have any idea if it would, if you'd like to see it come back, maybe with a little more exemptions for first responders, maybe a slightly lower fare? Do you have any feeling one way or the other on it?

Mayor Adams: The best idea I have is to support the governor as she navigates us through how to get this done right. I've always said we have to get it right. I was very big on exemptions for working class people, such as MTA workers. I've been very clear that MTA workers should be a part of that conversation of exemptions.

We just have to get it right. We have to have the right amount, the right methodology, because I don't want to do anything that's going to turn around our economy. We're moving in the right direction. This economy is starting to boom. I don't want to do anything that's going to impact my restaurant industry, impact my tourism. We want to do the balance. As Ingrid has always pointed out, I don't want to displace the carbon emissions to places like Staten Island, to places like the Bronx and others. We just got to get it right, and that is what's important to me.

Deputy Mayor Levy: Keith, just as I found out, Learn to Swim is back this year. Free classes will be available in all five boroughs for kids ages 1 1⁄2 to 17. Sessions run between July 8th and August 30th, and you can register online on the Parks website.

Mayor Adams: All right, give us a long one…

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Easy, easy. Yes, easy.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Go ahead.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: Listen. Mike. Easy. Go ahead, Mike. Mike, ask.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: No, we're going to get to this later. Just breathe.

Deputy Mayor Levy: You've got to do some meditation, Mike.

Mayor Adams: It's all good.

Question: Did members of the administration know that, and I might be mispronouncing the name, if I do, I apologize, Robin Mui was operating as a registered foreign agent when they met him in 2022? If not, how do you explain that, given it was widely publicized in 2021 that the paper he worked for was forced to register as a foreign agent?

Mayor Adams: Listen, I know Robin Mui. I knew him from the days of Borough Hall, and I had no knowledge that he registered as a foreign, what did you say, foreign lobbyist?

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Okay, I had no idea. When people register under that, it doesn't mean you can't speak with them. It doesn't mean that you can't do interviews with their paper. There are rules that they must follow. He has participated on a number of things that we've done in Borough Hall but it's all about following the rules.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Thanks for addressing our questions. I just wanted to go back to the Venezuelan gangs and just clarify, is there going to be a review of security in migrant shelters citywide?

Then a follow up question. This is separate. State Assemblywoman Rajkumar has been pretty present at a lot of the press conferences lately. Is this an indication that you're going to back her for comptroller?

Mayor Adams: I'm surprised you said that presently she has been there. If you go back to the beginning of the administration…

Lewis-Martin: The campaign.

Mayor Adams: My campaign, she was, right. I think she was the first…

Lewis-Martin: She was the first Assemblymember to endorse you in the New York State Assembly.

Mayor Adams: She has clearly, sort of, vision of this administration, and she has been an advocate based on our real belief on leaning into working class people. She often talks a narrative of how her mother was born in a mud hut in India. Now her daughter was the first woman to be elected to the state from East India.

Lewis-Martin: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Right. I know there's a lot of anticipation on her next steps. I haven't heard her make an announcement. She assisted us on Diwali to get the Diwali bill. She was the leading voice around the SMOKEOUT Act. I think she comes from the cloth of working hard like I have. People used to criticize me when I was a state senator. I used to be all over the place. Senators used to say, what are you doing to my senatorial district? Because I said crime doesn't stop at a border.

She has clearly embraced working hard. I think we should lift up those electeds who believe in working hard. She is one of the omnipresence, her desire to work. There's nothing wrong with good old fashioned working hard. She's always been at our events. She's always been standing with this administration. I think her, Assemblyman Gibbs, and a few others, they just have been real partners to help us push through our important legislation.

If she makes the decision that she's going to do something else in her political career or she's going to go and utilize her law degree and practice or, it's up to her. Right now, she's been a great ally and a great partner.

Question: [Inaudible] security in migrant shelters?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I spoke with Tim Pearson, who has been really partnering with the chief of staff to look at what do we need to do in addition, if there's anything at all. We're big on stopping the weapons from coming in. As I said yesterday, I had Commissioner Weiner and First Deputy Commissioner Kinsella go to Colombia to speak with the Colombian officials to learn about this gang and to get as much intel as possible. Matter of fact, she sent me a briefing this morning.

These are bad guys. These are bad guys. We must prevent them from having a foothold in our city and not only a Band-Aid of stopping them from bringing weapons inside our HERRCs or shelters, as some of you may call it, but to identify them and send the right message that you're not going to wreak havoc on our streets. They did a good job of learning this gang and some of their practices.

Like I said, these are bad guys, and they do not represent the migrants and asylum seeker community here. This is a small number of people who are violent, and we're going to identify them and use our practices like we use with any gang in the city because there are gangs in the city. We just do a good job of identifying them and making sure they do not take a foothold in our city like in other areas.

Question: [Inaudible] of security in migrant shelters?

Joseph Varlack: We do this every single week.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.