Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. As David just mentioned in the newscast, today is special election day in parts of Queens, from Jamaica to Kew Gardens Hills. Check your local listings to make sure you're in District 24, where Rory Lancman was your city council member, then go and vote if it's your district. This is, of course, a mayoral election year in New York City, and it could be that with a dozen or more people running in the June 22nd democratic primary, many New Yorkers will just throw up their hands and think, "Who cares who the mayor of New York is next year?"

The truth is, most New Yorkers do that in most mayoral elections, especially in these light turnout primaries, which, let's face it, in heavily democratic New York, actually determined the De Blasio elections and will probably determine this one, the primary in June, not the general election in November. Who cares who the mayor of New York is? A relatively few people who have got more power than you do if you don't vote. Here's something we'll do right now that we hope will help more people to care enough to vote. As part of our mayoral election coverage, our senior political reporter, Brigid Bergin, is going to join us in just a minute to take a step back and describe what a mayor actually does.

We also want to invite you to call in on a little thought experiment right now. Here's the question, with so many people running, let's say we have each of the candidates on the show two more times, it might be more than that, who knows, but let's say we have each of the candidates on the show two more times, what two topics would you really like us to drill down on, so you can compare the candidates on that? We'll take your recommendations on the phone. 646-435-7280. It's that simple. With so many people running, let's say we have each of the candidates on the show two more times, what two topics would you really like us to drill down on, so you can compare the candidates on them?

We'll take your recommendations on the phones right now. 646-435-7280. We'll definitely take tweets on this too. You can tweet @BrianLehrer, and maybe by the end of the segment, the answer to who cares who the next mayor of New York is, will be more people than before. 646-435-7280, or tweet @BrianLehrer.

With us now is WNYC senior political correspondent, Brigid Bergin. Hi, Brigid.

Brigid Bergin: Good morning, Brian. Happy special election day.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, happy special election day. We'll see how rank choice voting works for the first time. Will some no name candidate in this aid candidate field win, because a lot of people thought, "Oh, what the heck? I'll put them second."

Brigid Bergin: One of the things I'll tell our listeners that I just learned, is we will find that out not for another two weeks, because even though the polls will close tonight at 9:00, they will not be able to confirm the final results of this election until all the military ballots have been received, which under state law is up to 13 days after the special election. If we need additional tallies, if there's no winner with 50 plus one, once all those ballots are in, we won't know that for another two weeks. Here we are entering the new rank choice voting world.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Join us for our February 2nd election return special on February 16th. We'll start it at 8:00 PM. No, I'm kidding. Brigid, I see you're working on a piece. Tell me if it's out yet, or if we're going to wind up previewing it for our listeners first scoop on what the mayor of New York City does.

Brigid Bergin: It's a little preview. It should be up later today, but one of our goals in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom during this election cycle, is to not only cover the races and the candidates and the issues, but also to, as you described, help people understand what people do in these offices and why they should care about them. Later today, we'll post a little explainer about what does the mayor of New York City do. It includes some things that I think that we think about these things, and we know them, when we're thinking broadly about what the role of the mayor is, but when you actually have to articulate it, it's good to put down some of the duties and functions.

Of course, the mayor of New York City serves as our chief executive, and in that role, has the power to appoint and remove commissioners. We're talking about the police commissioner, the fire chief, the school's chancellor, the head of sanitation, and the health commissioner and the person who negotiates labor contracts, the labor commissioner. These are hugely important functions within the city have an impact on the lives of New Yorkers every day. You want to see how your trash is picked up, how policing is conducted, the way schools are run, the mayor has the power to appoint the people who make those decisions and carry forth that person's vision into policy. That's one huge thing the mayor does.

Brian Lehrer: Sets budget priorities for billions of dollars, is one of the subheads in your article. People sometimes yawn at the budget, but actually think the budget can be endlessly fascinating because what expresses a government's priorities more than what they spend money on. Can you talk about the mayoral role in that? We're entering a new budget season right now.

Brigid Bergin: Absolutely. It's really important to understand that we have a very executive driven budget process here in New York City. The mayor really starts this process out. We think of it in terms of the fiscal year, which runs from July until the end of June. This time in January is where we start thinking about the next fiscal year. Just a couple of weeks ago, the mayor laid out his preliminary budget proposal, and that's a bit of a blueprint for what will begin a months long negotiation process with the city council. Given the ongoing pandemic that we're enduring here in New York City, huge budget at deficits because of a lack of property tax revenue.

The preliminary budget that was proposed this particular year had a real focus on essential services, and it just begins a process of negotiation with the city council. What will happen is they will conduct oversight hearings with all of those agency heads to determine how they are actually spending that money, what programs are working or not working, where things need to grow, where they things need to shrink, but that process will continue with feedback from the council, that then the mayor should incorporate into an executive budget proposal, which comes out later in the spring.

That's after we have our state budget in place, so we have a better sense of how much money we're getting from Albany. We should also have a better sense of how much federal money we're getting. That's when we really start to get a sense of what is this budget going to look like, what is the shape of it. Another round of negotiations goes on with the council, another set of hearings with agencies. Then finally the mayor and the council have to agree on a balanced budget that's required by law and that has to be in place and enacted ahead of June 30th, which is the end of the fiscal year so that come July 1st, we have a new blueprint for that upcoming fiscal year.

Brian Lehrer: I guess if you're just joining us, WNYC senior political correspondent, Brigid Bergin, look for her article later today on Gothamist, What does the New York city mayor do? Let's see what some priorities are for some of you for what we should ask the candidates for mayor who will continue to come on the show between now and the June 22nd. By the way, I said the date again, June 22nd, June 22nd. Write it down in your calendars right now. You can do early voting before that, but still that's the date of the standard in-person election day, June 22nd, June 22nd. It's a double number. It's easy to remember. It's the first day of summer, June 22nd, June 22nd.

MaryEileen in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Thank you so much for calling in.

MaryEileen: Oh, thank you for taking my call. I would like you to really get into the subject with the candidates, what they're really going to do about policing, specifically policing their interactions with people of color. Even though, aside from the George Floyd killing, which was horrific, and so a lot going on national TV, they have still continued to act in the same horrific ways toward people of color. We see the difference in treatment from just recently, we all know, January 6th, and if that more people of color, [unintelligible 00:09:57] in the streets of Washington. They will handle with gloves, or basically they stood back, and we innocently are being murdered in the streets for no reason, and they get away with it. I don't understand what they're going to really do about this. It's an attitude. It's like almost built into their system that you can treat us any all which way you can, because there's no consequence.

Brian Lehrer: I'm curious if there's a particular reform or set of reforms, or just defunding that you're most interested in at this point, or if there's any candidate who so far seems to be speaking to this effectively, in your opinion.

MaryEileen: I don't think any candidate-- Well, I'll be honest. I think Eric Adams, but I haven't heard him say anything definitive, but I know he's mentioned it, but I didn't hear anything concrete. I just believe that these people, they work for the city of New York, they are accountable to us. We pay our taxes, and they treat us in such a horrific way that they have to be. There's something that can be done, but people, I think these candidates, are afraid of the union, of that whole process, and they want them to support them. They give you a good speech, but when they get in, they do nothing. They do nothing to hold back these police. This is a matter-- I don't care who you are. I always say this, and I don't want to take up more of your time, but I always say this, if Obama was walking down the street with a hoodie on, they'd attack him too. It's just a total disrespect of people of color.

Brian Lehrer: We remember when--

MaryEileen: I just think that that's-- I'm Sorry.

Brian Lehrer: No, I was just going to say, we remember when Obama said about Trayvon Martin, "If I had a son."

MaryEileen: Yes. It was such an outrage, and he backtracked. He backtracked when Mr. Skip Gates, Henry Louis Gates, was arrested in his house. He backed up on that. You know what I'm saying? Talking about he's going to have the best, no, this is not a time for best, and the police officers said to him, "I will not apologize." This is the attitude that they have, and the sanction behavior that they can get away with. I don't know, it pains my heart. I just said that, that is one fundamental thing that has really-- Sorry, go ahead.

Brian Lehrer: No, I was just going to thank you for your call, and I'm going to get some other folks on here, but we really, really appreciate you pausing it.

MaryEileen: Absolutely. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Deidre in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Deidre.

Deidre: Hi, Brian. I love your show, first time caller.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Deidre: I'm calling about education. I'd really like to know what the next mayor is going to do for the 1.1 million public students of New York City. Especially since the New York City mayor has mayoral control over the schools. This past year has been a disaster in terms of how the COVID shutdowns have been handled. Even before that, we have, as has often been mentioned on your show and otherwise, the most segregated school system in the country, and yet we think we're a progressive city.

I would really like to hear the mayoral candidates talk about public education and their position on a lot of issues. Also just budgeting. We have 1.1 million students, and we have the most crumbling buildings. I'm involved in participatory budgeting in my district in Brooklyn, and every year, half of our projects are submitted, that people from the community submit for funding by the discretionary budget or the city council member, just to get a working bathroom in their public school, which is ridiculous. I'd really like to hear more about that.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much, Deidre. Thank you. Federico in Staten Island, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Federico: Good morning, everybody. Just a brief segue on the previous two callers. I'm a firm believer that parenting skills and the gifts the parents give to their children on socialization is really the issue. If Black Lives Matter really wanted to address the issue, they would focus on parenting skills and making everybody responsible, from the person who becomes a cop, to the person who becomes a potential suspect on the street. That is my thought.

Brian Lehrer: That's your thought, but I think it needs to be responded to say that when there's been systemic racism in this country in housing, in economics, and all kinds of things, you can't just put everything on personal responsibility. This is, of course, a long standing debate between Democrats and Republicans and others. I think society has more or less come to the conclusion that not everything can devolve to personal responsibility. We have to understand the context in which people are living, but Frederico, I know you want you to say other stuff, go ahead.

Federico: It has to start somewhere. Wherever we start, it has to start somewhere and take action. I had called about issue about the questioning New York candidates. Well, I have two suggestions. The first suggestion is personal. The executive has to describe their personal crisis decision-making perspective, experience and proclivity, because many times being a mayor, you're faced with a crisis that you never expected what happened, and how you deal with it is very important.

The second issue, I think it's more important, more panoramic, and it's applicable to almost every election, is in terms of funding. The whole issue in New York, for example, the real estate brokers, magnets contributing to the election campaign of different politicians, the pay to play. We have to do something about that. It's personal decision-making and it's financial decision [unintelligible 00:16:47].

Brian Lehrer: Federico, thank you very much for your call.

Brigid, on his last point, and interesting set of callers, you can react to whoever you want, if you want to react to multiple ones, but when he brings up crisis management, certainly that's something that every chief executive, every mayor, every governor, every president has to be good at, but I don't how you test that in a candidate because nobody's ever been in that position until they're in that position.

Brigid Bergin: I agree. It's also, I think, a hard thing for someone to respond to in a question, because no one's going to say that they're going to panic and not be a good choice, so I'm not sure what you learn from someone's response and that it doesn't necessarily speak to policy, I guess. I think maybe some of what Frederico was getting at that is interesting to me personally, is who do candidates, and then when they become elected officials, who do they surround themselves with, who makes up not just their advisors and people who get to appointed positions, but who are those people that they hold close, and whose opinions matter to them. I think that can tell us a little bit more about how they think about situations and address problems. I think that is something that's interesting, and is a potential question, who makes up your kitchen cabinet.

I was also struck, and I understand that this can come from the types of callers you get at one time, but in those responses that we heard, no one talk about really your previous segment, which is how to address some of the disparities that we've seen so far in the response to COVID-19, and ensuring that we get a vaccine protocol and process across the city so that city residents are the people who are getting the vaccine. That is something that absolutely can be driven by the mayor and the policies that he or she implements for the city health depart.

Brian Lehrer: Well, that's an interesting question for you as senior political correspondent, how much focus you think there should be in this mayoral campaign on COVID at all. I can say that looking at our whole board of callers, the ones who've been on so far, and many others who were calling in, there are topics all over the map, but none of them are COVID. Maybe there's an assumption on the part of people that since the next mayor isn't going to take office until January 1st of next year, that hopefully COVID will be over, or at least the policy will all be set and it won't be the debate anymore.

How much do you think it is relevant to ask people who are running for an election in June that doesn't take office until next year, specific COVID questions which always seem so immediate?

Brigid Bergin: I think that you cannot possibly divorce this race, either the campaigning aspect of it or the policy aspect of it, from the question of what will be the lasting impact of this pandemic on our city, and how do we emerge from this. There's been, I think among all of the candidates, a lot of conversation about rebuilding the city, addressing issues with the economy, but all of those issues are completely interwoven with the impact that this devastating public health and economic crisis has had on the city for the past year. Moments before I came on the air, I got a release from the Andrew Yang campaign saying that he just tested positive for COVID-19 with a rapid test, which, as we know, the results have a lower certainty. He, again, will have to be essentially relying on virtual campaigning and taking some rests. We've seen other candidates who have had to sideline their campaign activities because of potential exposures.

This is going to continue between now and June, and is a very real issue, not just for the candidates, but also their volunteers, the entire civic process that we're used to engaging in around campaigns is going to be radically different for the next few months. No less important, but how could the issues that have emerged because of this crisis not be driving some of the decision-making for both voters and candidates about what they plan to do if they are elected to office.

Brian Lehrer: We're almost out of time, and we have a great segment coming up next, listeners, with Anna Sale and Jo Ann Allen together on aging in the context of the Death, Sex & Money special that's coming up on the station tomorrow. Let's do, in our remaining time, which is short, a little lightning round. Let's just go through as many callers as we can for like 10-second shout outs of your issue.

Robin Queens, forgive the short shrift. What's your issue?

Robin Queens: Sure, Brian, thanks. I'd like to know what the new mayor's going to do to help taxi cab medallion owners and the yellow taxi cab industry in general in the city. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. You have Jenea in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. What would you like to hear us ask the mayoral candidates about?

Jenea: Hi, Brian? I'd love to know about their stance on sex work decriminalization. We don't want legalization. Sex workers do not want legalization or the Nordic model that they're now proposing. We want de-crime, and we want to know what the mayor's going to do about it. Thanks?

Brian Lehrer: Janea, thank you so much. Nick in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Nick, what should we ask the mayoral candidates about?

Nick: I'd like to ask them about overdevelopment in the city. I think that was de Blasio's biggest problem, and I feel like the housing crisis hasn't really been dealt with in an equitable way, and that there's just literally hundreds of buildings that are close to empty that are luxury apartments all over the city.

Brian Lehrer: Nick, I'm going to leave it there. Very clear. Mariah in Manhattan you're on WNYC. Hi, Mariah.

Mariah: I would like the next mayor to redo East Side coastal resiliency project, which is part of the battery and financial district issues. Plan four, which was approved by the mayor and the parks department doesn't address the fact that there's not going to be any resiliency written into what they're going to do to the East Side East River Park.

Brian Lehrer: Mariah, I am going to leave it there. One more, Liam in Williamsburg, you're going to get the last word. You've got 10 seconds, Liam, go for it.

Liam: I think real estate and housing makes or breaks the city, Brian. Ask them, do they support the Real Estate Board. Are they really for it? Are they taking money from real estate people? I want a yes or no answer from the candidates.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Thank you very much. Thanks to all of you who called on this. Want to get us a last word, maybe on this piece that you're releasing on Gothamist today or anything else, Brigid?

Brigid Bergin: Well, I will say that this is your quick digestible overview of what the mayor's office does. Obviously the mayor's office does a lot more than what we're going to be writing here. Please follow all the updates from the Gothamist team. My colleague, Liz Kim, is following all of the mayoral updates, and we're excited to really dig into the next few months and talk to you a lot more.

Brian Lehrer: Talk to you a lot more. Brigid Bergin, WNYC senior political correspondent.

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