Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We're still digesting the details in the New York City budget for the fiscal year that began July 1st, and so is City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams who negotiated it and sometimes attends talks with Mayor Adams. There's an article on Crain's from just yesterday headline, "New York City's new budget leaves more questions than answers."

The reality of the budget exists somewhere in the middle of what people say. Politically, I think it's fair to say, no, the broad spending that many would have hoped for is not in the $107 billion budget, but there also aren't the sweeping cuts to the majority of city agencies that many feared. Maybe you heard City Council Speaker Adam say the other day, we can talk for hours about the things that were not accomplished in the budget. We don't have hours, but we do have some time now to talk with the speaker and have her complete the picture as she sees it of the budget after intense negotiations finally came to a close.

How intense, another article on Crain's a few days ago was headlined "At odds. The relationship between the Mayor and the City Council reaches a low point." Speaker Adams whose own District is 28, the Queen's neighborhoods of Jamaica, Rochdale Village, Richmond Hill, and South Ozone Park, joins me now. Madam Speaker, always good to have you. Thanks a lot for coming on today.

Speaker Adrienne Adams: Oh, Brian, great to be with you. Thank you for having me.

Brian: The budget that we follow closely around here is not something that most New Yorkers pay attention to outside of the people who are activated by one budget item or another. Talk to the broader city right now and say what you think the budget that you negotiated with the mayor accomplishes for New Yorkers in broad terms. What do you think are its main achievements? If you want to add on in the same first answer, its main shortcomings.

Speaker Adrienne Adams: Oh, sure. We were in the council able to restore many of the mayor's proposed cuts and we were able to secure key investments that protected various essential services and adopting this city budget. The council and the administration have a responsibility to pass an on-time budget, and that requires negotiation. We worked until the clock ran out to restore funding anywhere we could and make additional investments in key areas like libraries, of course, $36 million in restoration to protect the access to our services there.

We got about $33 million almost in funding for CUNY to preserve programs and fund academic advisors. We actually baselined with $100 million wage increases for human service workers in this fiscal year and $150 million of baseline for the next fiscal year and beyond. We didn't want to leave NYCHA out either. That was a priority, so we secured $4 billion in capital investments for housing development and preservation. $2.5 billion was for HPD and $1.5 billion was for NYCHA, as well as over $3 million for housing tenant and homeowner assistance programs.

We also were able to because of the substantial need in poor public transportation. We added $20 million for a total of $95 billion in baseline funding for fair fares to advance access to public transit for low-income New Yorkers. All in all, despite negotiations being difficult, and they were, the council worked hard to bridge the distance between us and the administration, and we were able to claw back funding cuts to restore programs that do support health, safety, and well-being for our New Yorkers.

Brian: What most significantly would you say isn't in the budget that you would have liked to see in the budget as a result of compromises you had to make?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: There were some things that we were not able to get through when it comes to the budget. We wanted more when it came to, of course, our right to counsel. We wanted more than we got. We were happy to get what we did get with that.

Brian: Right to counsel meaning tenants in Housing Court having right to lawyers or some other category?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: Correct. With the looming eviction crisis, we did fight really hard in negotiations to ensure that there were increases to the Right to Counsel program to help low-income New Yorkers receive legal representation to avoid eviction and stay housed. We did get some increased funding, but we know that given the housing situation in New York, we could have done better with that. We are not unhappy but we know that we could have done better in that aspect as well.

We continue. This is an ongoing process. I wanted to make that note also. We adopted the budget, but this is an ongoing process in the budget experience, I'll call it. We're going to continue to work hard for more increases for New Yorkers for their sustenance and for the sustenance of our city.

Brian: How much leeway did you really have in the budget? We did a segment recently on the death of Richard Ravitch who was a figure in rescuing the city from the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. One of the things that came up was how the rules changed after the '70s to help prevent another similar fiscal crisis in the city. The city has to balance its budget each year. It can't really go into debt like the federal government can.

Speaker Adrienne Adams: That's right.

Brian: There are revenue shortfalls compared to the years before the pandemic. De Blasio is very lucky. Many analysts have said to preside as mayor over years that were pretty good economically in the city and with rising tax revenues, so he didn't have to have the same kind of dance with City Council about cuts. Then there was temporarily all that infusion of federal funds that were emergency pandemic funds. Now those are going away. It's kind of harder times, so revenues are not maybe what they were in taxes. The federal pandemic money has gone away. The requirement under the law is still there to balance the budget. How much choice did you really have?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: This was a very challenging budget negotiation. As I said, we know that the work is far from over on so many issues, so our work does continue. The council recognizes that the city faces significant budget gaps in future years, along with fiscal challenges and economic uncertainties. Meaning, of course, the loss of federal funding, increased cost of care for people seeking asylum, and cost shifts from the state. We also know that New Yorkers cannot afford the city to fail to invest in them and their communities, so the council continues to advocate in that interest. As I said we're going to continue to push in the interest. At the same time, we have to deal with the fiscal challenges.

Brian: Of course, even within the constraints of whatever the total budget number is, there's how to spend the money. I wonder how much tension you would say exists between the Mayor Adams's administration and the City Council led by you. Maybe we should remind people of no relation between Eric Adams and Adrienne Adams. Around the specific budget-related issues related to the NYPD and the Department of Correction, the NYPD gets $274 million more than last year's adopted budget. The Department of Correction gets $90,000 for submachine guns at Rikers Island while spending for classes and reentry services of Rikers got slashed. I imagine you're not happy about that.

Speaker Adrienne Adams: Yes. Again, there were some things that we could push and make headway with. There were certain other things that we could push and did not make the headway that we hoped to make. With respect to what you mentioned at the top, and then I'll talk about NYPD a little bit, none of this is personal with the mayor and myself.

We have roles to play on behalf of the city. My role, of course, is to represent the council on behalf of the constituents that we represent and to do right by them. The mayor's responsibility is to manage his administration and the city agency. I take my responsibility very seriously as does the mayor.

I'm going to be a voice for our body, our members, and our views on behalf of the people that elected us to represent them, so again, it's nothing personal. When we agree like the need for hiring halls to get New Yorkers into city jobs or other things like outdoor dining, we're going to work together in partnership. When we disagree, that's the nature of separate branches of government, so I just wanted to note that as well.

As far as the NYPD and some of the things that went there, I've always been clear about problems with the management of the NYPD's budget. It is no secret that there is exorbitant overtime spending that they blow past every single year. Funding for public safety has to be multifaceted, and it's got to extend beyond the police department. The council is not a party to collective bargaining with municipal unions which some things have gone through over the past couple of months. That's the mayor's role, not the council's role, so the labor contract costs are-- it's not within the council's power or purview. We've dealt with that.

Again, the administration's responsibility is to manage the agencies. There were some hard lines that have been drawn when it comes to some city agencies. As I said, we're going to continue to work through this in oversight hearings, hold the agencies responsible, and push through what we deem continues to be important.

Brian: Do you feel sufficiently respected by Mayor Adams? Do you feel City Council itself is sufficiently respected by Mayor Adams? I mentioned The Crain's article from this week called At Odds: The relationship between the mayor and the City Council reaches a low point. I think there was a sentiment expressed in there that this mayor would prefer if the City Council didn't exist. Does that resonate with you? Do you feel treated as if he feels that way?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: I wouldn't say to that extreme. What I would like and what my members would like would be a more collaborative relationship with this administration. That is not what we have found. We find individual calls being made at different times, which is okay, that's fine, but along with that, there should be a sufficient partnership between the administration wholly and the City Council as we are co-equal partners in governance.

That is what the body is looking for. The body isn't looking for issues or "solutions" to come to the body and then say, "Give us your thought about this and give us your suggestions to add to this, if you will," instead of being a collaborative partner to create the solutions.

Brian: About crime and public safety spending, NYPD spending in particular, I don't know if you were listening to our last segment that was about Republicans winning House seats in the suburbs in New York as much as they did last year, Hakeem Jeffries, of course, the house minority leader, and being from Brooklyn trying to lead the way for Democrats to take back the house, and the concerns about crime being so central in the New York City suburbs. Even though they don't have the crime that the city has, it's almost as if people in the suburbs, based on their votes, were more concerned about crime in the city than people in the city were.

To that end of Jeffries helping the Democrats take back the house, I do see that murders are down 10% for the first half of the year in the city, and shootings are down by 25%. That's a great number. According to numbers in The New York Times, does this show that the mayor's anti-crime strategies, including more police in the subways is working even though many progressive members of City Council might object?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: I'm very pleased with the trend of statistics as far as crime is concerned. New York is held to a very high standard when it comes to public safety. Make no mistake about it, our police department is the best in the world, and we salute them. This may be the result of the administration's policies. I really don't know. It may be the result of thoughts as well by our body because we have contributed, we believe, through our oversight and through our initiatives as well to put some other things in the forefront, and that is to alleviate crime before it happens.

That is to enable our crisis management system and fortify that organization or those organizations to partner with the NYPD and others to assist with stopping crime before it happens, crime prevention. We contribute a lot of things to the downward trend, and we really, really hope and pray that it continues.

Brian: The New York Post reported that the council is preparing to pass bills that would increase the NYPD reporting requirements after contacts with civilians. The Police Union criticizes this as burying cops in paperwork according to the post. Could you tell our listeners what are those new reporting requirements, and why if you accept the post reporting as accurate, they're worth pushing for?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: Yes, absolutely. New Yorkers need transparency and accountability, and that is something that the council is very, very intent on making happen for New Yorkers. It's one thing to say that crime is going down. We would like to see in specific areas what that looks like. We have initiated units of appropriation within our budget adoption also specifically geared towards NYPD and other agencies showing transparency as to how we got to certain conclusions.

How are we getting to the statistics? What are the contributing factors; is race, is gender? What are the demographics; is age or certain communities? How are we getting to the numbers that we're getting to and why? This is all in an effort to create, as I said, more transparency and accountability. It's to hold everyone responsible, and it's also to provide a structure for New Yorkers to look at as well, to be able to contribute to helping our statistics continuing to drop as well. It's an ongoing process and NYPD does not necessarily want the transparency that the council wants, but we feel that New Yorkers deserve it.

Brian: One more thing from the budget before you go. The City Council had been pushing for a housing voucher expansion, but it was vetoed by the mayor. There aren't many vetoes. This was one. We should note that the mayor did sign off on some housing-related reforms like the end of a mandatory 90-day waiting period for people trying to move out of homeless shelters and into permanent housing. As the city's affordable housing crisis persists, how will the council act next in light of this veto?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: The council next acts through an override process which will happen at our next stated meeting, which I believe is for the 13th, next week. That package, that CityFHEPS legislative package including our bill to eliminate the 90-day rule that the mayor did go ahead and approve is so critical and long overdue to help people move out of shelters and into stable housing and to prevent evictions.

The four bills were passed with a veto-proof majority after much significant deliberation and so many opportunities for the administration to meaningfully negotiate with us, which underscores how much support the bills have in the council, and from New Yorkers. Brian, our city can't afford to see more New Yorkers become homeless, lose their homes, and join the already high shelter population. The city quite frankly hasn't done enough to address the record homelessness or growing evictions that add to it.

These bills are about keeping people in their homes and removing the red tape that has blocked folks from exiting shelters, keeping people stuck in shelters for longer periods of time, one or two years on average in many cases. That's unacceptable. It's far more cost-effective to have someone in permanent housing than in expensive emergency homeless shelter. We've seen no argument to substantiate the legality claim. Raising it at the 25th hour seems a bit disingenuous, so the council is going to go forward with our meeting, and we will take a vote on it next week.

Brian: Sounds like an override is likely. If I can ask you one follow-up question real quick, I know we're at the end of our scheduled time. On the shelter population, we've barely discussed in our conversation today the migrant situation. The mayor and I think many people see it as so central to the pressures on the budget overall, as well as to the shelter stock and therefore the permanent housing stock in New York City. How central do you see it? Do you have a primary disagreement or a primary agreement with the mayor on how he's approaching it?

Speaker Adrienne Adams: We actually don't. I think that this is something that we pretty much agree on. This is a crisis for the city of New York. We absolutely do agree with the mayor when it comes to the dire situation of asylum seekers that New York is bearing the burden of a nation. That is the part that we have to work on. How do we lessen this burden on New Yorkers? It is taking its toll obviously on the budget. It has played a role in the budget process itself.

It is up to us to continue to work with our state and our federal partners to loosen this burden. I quite frankly can't see why it's taken so long for the president and his administration in Washington to do something to help New Yorkers. I firmly believe, though, that something is coming. I do believe that we will get some type of relief, but why it hasn't happened sooner than later is beyond me. We do agree on that.

Brian: New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Always good to hear you. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Speaker Adrienne Adams: Thank you for having me, Brian.

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