[music]

Brigid Bergin: It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian Lehrer who's got the week off. Brian, we hope you're keeping cool somewhere. Coming up on today's show, we'll talk to New Jersey Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. Democrats in the House have just approved the $3.5 trillion budget resolution, paving the way for their plans to expand the social safety net. Plus why the share of Black homeowners in the city is shrinking. We'll take calls from people who only recently decided to get the COVID-19 vaccine. We'll talk about why they decided now was the time but first, Governor Kathy Hochul's first day in office.

It started with an early swearing-in ceremony at midnight, followed by a second ceremonial one. Governor Hochul wore white, a nod to the women's suffrage movement that has roots in New York State. She took a few questions from the press before sitting down with the state's top two legislative leaders, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Later that afternoon, just a few minutes after 3:00 PM, Governor Hochul delivered her first broadcast address to New Yorkers speaking straight into the camera for just about 12 minutes. It was a speech that served multiple purposes. Chief among them, she made clear what her priorities are going to be going forward.

Gov. Hochul: Combating Delta, getting direct aid to New Yorkers more quickly, and beginning to change the culture in Albany. To achieve all this and so much more, we must and will work together. Across every corner of this state, we'll have a fresh and collaborative approach. I've already reached out my hand in friendship to many elected officials who too are eager for a new relationship with the state.

Brigid Bergin: Joining me now to unpack this historic first day in office is Josefa Velásquez, senior reporter who covers Albany for the local news site, The City, and who was up in Albany yesterday and is still there today. Josefa, welcome back to WNYC.

Josefa Velásquez: Hey, Brigid, thank you so much for having me on. It's been a whirlwind the last couple of days and really the last month.

Brigid Bergin: I bet. Listeners, we want to get you involved in this conversation too. We want to know what kind of first impression did Governor Hochul make on you, and how are you feeling about the start of her administration. She made some news yesterday that we're going to talk some more about, setting a mass requirement for all people entering schools in New York. Did that catch your ear? Tell us what you are thinking about in terms of her priorities, and what else you'd like to see on that list. 646-435-7280. That number again is 646-435-7280, or you can tweet @BrianLehrer.

Josefa, you said it's been a whirlwind. Yesterday was certainly a whirlwind for Governor Hochul. She made history that she set her governing priorities. She basically launched her 2022 campaign all at the same time. At the Capitol, you've

been there for other speeches delivered under the previous governor. What was the feeling in the building before she spoke? What were people anticipating?

Josefa Velásquez: Well, for starters, it's a historic building that is lined with these portraits of former governors, all men. It's very hot in there but it was energetic. You could feel the excitement in the air, there was press from not just New York but national press too to see New York's first female governor be sworn in. She comes into a state that is struggling still with the pandemic but also trying to heal itself from months and months of scandal.

It's funny that the first time we got a woman to lead New York, a state of about 20 million people, it's as the cleanup crew for a man. We at this point know that she has to repair a lot of the damage that was done by her predecessor at a time where the number of COVID cases has started to rise.

Schools are opening in a matter of weeks and there's all these dysfunctional programs that were mired in the Cuomo administration being distracted by sexual harassment allegations, allegations that the former governor used his staff to cover up nursing home deaths. She has an incredibly daunting task ahead of her.

Brigid Bergin: She at the same time really seemed to be leaning into this moment, introducing herself, offering a little bit of biography to New Yorkers who may not have ever really heard her speak for any period of time before, and then drawing that real bright line between her leadership style and that of her predecessor. I think I heard the word collaboration multiple times in her remarks yesterday. What stood out to you?

Josefa Velásquez: Right off the bat, Governor Hochul promised that the hallmark of her administration would be brevity. For someone that is going to be running for reelection in 18 months, those words may come back to haunt her. Again, she is coming into this executive role with a governor who was known for his long-winded speeches and his briefings that lasted an hour plus. Her speech in the morning I think was less than 15 minutes and her address in the afternoon, laying out the hallmarks of her administration was I think I talked about just under 12 minutes.

A lot of it was really basic things that need to happen for the state to function properly, trying to figure out what to do over school reopenings. The thing that stood out the most to me is this perennial that every single governor and every single new leader that comes into Albany says, "I'm coming here to clean up Albany and restore trust." Everyone has said it, and yet, the last few governors have not achieved it.

Brigid Bergin: Certainly. That was the calling card of Governor Spitzer's administration, and then Governor Cuomo's, and now, Governor Hochul's.

Beyond just the broad priorities of fighting Delta, getting direct aid to New Yorkers, and changing the culture in Albany, Governor Hochul made some news yesterday in her speech related to how she wants to fight COVID in schools. Here's a clip of what she said.

Gov. Hochul: New York is launching a back-to-school COVID-19 testing program to

make testing for students and staff widely available and convenient. I'm also immediately directing the Department of Health to institute universal masking for anyone entering our schools.

Brigid Bergin: She also said that she would require all education personnel to get vaccinated with an option to test out weekly for now. That was her words and her emphasis. Josefa, you have reported on the debate over her vaccine mandates. What did you make of her announcement yesterday? This isn't a mandate, right? It's not a mandate yet.

Josefa Velásquez: It's not a mandate yet. This morning, as Governor Hochul was making the rounds on the morning show, she seemed to walk back some of that language saying that she doesn't actually have the authority to mandate vaccines for school teachers. It's something that needs to be mandated via legislation, either at the local level or the legislature. It's clear that by her saying that, she wants to get the legislature involved in these discussions.

Previously, the governor had emergency powers, so he could issue mandates, make executive orders without the legislature's input, which alienated a lot of lawmakers during this process. I think in the spirit of collaboration, which is something that she's very much leaning into. This morning, she walked back some of that forcefulness that she was mentioning yesterday saying, "We need input to do this, and we need to do this all together."

That means that to have that done, you would need a special session up in Albany, which opens up a can of worms because you can't just go into session when it's still in the summer and just do one thing, you have to do multiple things. It opened up the possibility for all sorts of laws [unintelligible 00:09:14].

Brigid Bergin: One of the things that was interesting given that she met-- early in her agenda yesterday was to meet with state legislative leaders. Was there any talk of a special session coming out of that conversation? I know that I saw on assembly speaker Carl Heastie's public schedule today, I believe he's at the State Fair in Syracuse. Do we have the sense that lawmakers will be taking up any of her initiatives sooner rather than later, or are people still in August mode?

Josefa Velásquez: People are still in August mode. Labor Day weekend is coming up and then shortly afterwards is the 20th anniversary of 9/11. There is still mutterings of a special session. There seems to be some appetite to do that because no one wants to lose another school year. At this point, there's a reverberating effect where if kids aren't in school, then parents can't get back to work, the economy stays stagnant. While those discussions over a special session in Albany haven't solidified, they're talking about having one, which is, I guess better than nothing. It's just a matter of when they can schedule it to make sure that there are mandates and directives in place by the time that kids go to school.

Brigid Bergin: I thought it was interesting that she also signaled there would be more education announcements coming this week. She really stressed that they

were going to be clear and concise. I think you heard in her remarks yesterday, where she really made the point to contrast her role during the pandemic, where she was out in the localities over the past year, meeting with local officials, to that of what had been happening in Albany, which is people making some decisions that then trickled down to localities. Any indication of when those announcements might be coming or what they might be or anything in particular that you're watching for?

Josefa Velásquez: I'm watching to see how Hochul's going to walk this fine line between no public health and schooling quite frankly and how do you balance that with unions and how they negotiate contracts because we've seen it already with Mayor Bill de Blasio, who earlier this week announced that he would be requiring vaccinations for teachers, that that needs to be something that has to be arbitrated with a union. Kathy Hochul is diving in headfirst into negotiations with school unions and teachers unions over this issue. It's also a really politically thorny subject where we're seeing not just teachers saying they don't want to be vaccinated but healthcare professionals who say that medical decisions should be their choice.

Especially given the fact that she is running for her first full term in 2022, which the primary is this upcoming June, she's going to have to tread carefully on this subject because the political blowback could be extreme.

Brigid Bergin: Sure. Although then she has to balance that against risking further shutdowns in the state, if the delta variant is, were to spiral out of control. Another priority that she mentioned yesterday was direct aid in getting those billions of dollars out the door faster for renters and landlords, but also for excluded workers. It seemed actually at one point earlier this month, the state was at risk of my understanding, losing some of those federal funds for renters if they didn't spend some of that more quickly. From your coverage of both of these issues, how big a lift is it to get things moving more quickly? How high of a bar has she set for herself on this?

Josefa Velásquez: Tremendously high bar. Not only could we lose that money if it's not out of the door by the end of September, the eviction moratorium that's been in place for the entire pandemic is scheduled to expire next Tuesday, or rather, this upcoming Tuesday. At the same time, the Supreme Court ruled down a key pillar of that eviction moratorium. Right now, there is this urge and rush to try to fix this looming housing crisis that we might be facing and at the same time, fix this rental assistance program that's only distributed a fraction of the money to renters.

One of the key things about that program is that if you apply for it, and even if your application is pending, you can stave off eviction for a year. It seems to me that reading between the lines of what everyone is saying publicly, that they're putting all of their eggs in trying to fix the rental assistance program and trying to get information out there about it. Yesterday evening, Kathy Hochul put out a press release saying that they're launching a major campaign to educate the public about this program and trying to get the word out there because a lot of people don't know that this program exists, let alone how to Apply.

That seems to be the focus, is let's try to remedy this program, get as many people

to apply as humanly possible. At least they have the basic protection of not being able to be evicted. Of course, there is a federal eviction moratorium by the CDC but that does not go as far as the eviction moratorium that New York has currently. There is a rush to try to figure out how to deal with this in the next couple of days and maybe even weeks given that you could theoretically make it retroactive.

Brigid Bergin: It's also interesting, this issue of the excluded workers and the funds that were set aside, just in this most recent budget, more than $2 billion to help folks who have not been eligible for any other kind of aid. Can you talk a little bit about what the program was designed to do and again, what the lift is to get it moving?

Josefa Velásquez: The program was signed into law by then Governor Andrew Cuomo back in April and it was intended to help people who did not receive any sort of pandemic-related unemployment or stimulus checks. Basically, it would help a lot of undocumented workers who were the backbone of the New York City economy during the shutdown, who had no safety net. One of the key provisions of that bill would have allowed the Cuomo administration's department of labor to set some guidelines and rules on how to administer the program since they were the ones that they keep and distribute the funding.

The Department of Labor put in a very specific ask that workers have to prove that they lost 50% of their earnings to qualify for assistance, which is an exceedingly difficult task if you're self-employed or you work in a cash economy. A lot of undocumented people don't have access to a bank, they don't have a social security number. Proving that they lost 50% of their income is really difficult. The program opened up earlier this month and funding won't be distributed until next month. Right off the bat, that 50% qualifier that people need to demonstrate, it's a prohibitive situation for a lot of people. Now there's calls to try to change it. It seems that Governor Hochul is open to-

Brigid Bergin: Responding, yes.

Josefa Velásquez: -changing that provision and making it more inclusive of the undocumented community.

Brigid Bergin: What's interesting, and if you want to reflect on it politically, there's a lot of talk about how Hochul comes from a more moderate democratic stance. She's just described herself as a Biden Democrat. Certainly, there are those legislators here in New York City in particular, that are much to her left and have pushed her, I think will likely push her to take up some more progressive issues. Do you think that making this particular issue something that she spoke about on day one, was it kind of an attempt to directly appeal to those members of her own party?

Josefa Velásquez: Absolutely. Not to mention the fact that when she was Erie County Clerk, a decade-plus ago, she threatened a Spitzer initiative that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to access driver's license saying that if any undocumented person applied for a driver's license, she would call the police on them. Although she tried to make amends for those remarks in 2014 when she first

ran with Andrew Cuomo on the ticket, those actions are still looming large and a lot of the undocumented community remembers that moment when they lost their driver's license and the fear that came from that having to take their kids to school under the threat of, if I get pulled over, I might get deported. That's something that sticks around in the psyche. I think she is trying to make amends for her previous statements, but also to lean into this more progressive wing of the Democratic party to say that, I'm here, I'm listening to you, and I will try to help, which is going to be a critically important constituency come June when the primary is happening because it's a non-presidential primary year. Not very many people vote, and the people that do vote, a lot of them are in New York City.

Brigid Bergin: The activated voters. This is the Brian Lehrer show in WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin filling in for Brian today. We'll have more on the new Hochul administration just after this.

[music]

It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Good morning, again, everyone. I'm Brigid Bergin filling in for Brian today. We're talking about Governor Hochul's first day in office with Josefa Velásquez from the city. Josefa, Hochul has said repeatedly that she wants to end the toxic culture in Albany, but she went a little bit further yesterday describing some of the ways she plans to do it.

Governor Hochul: I'm directing an overhaul of state government policies on sexual harassment and ethics starting with requiring that all training be done live instead of allowing people to clicks their way through a class.

Brigid Bergin: Now, for people who want to see a true overhaul, do you think this goes far enough? Is this just the beginning?

Josefa Velásquez: It certainly seems like it's the beginning of something. Again, every single Governor says the same thing when they step into office, "We're going to be the most transparent. We're going to have a major ethics overhaul, and we're going to change the culture of Albany." Every few years there are steps taken to do that, but they've always been piecemeal. With that said there is a lot on Kathy Hochul's shoulders given that she is the first woman to become Governor of this State, and that she is she's ascended into this role under these vicious circumstances involving the previous Governor. The bar is really on the floor here to do something, so for her to just go out and say in her first big speech that this is a priority for her. Just saying we want these trainings to be in-person, that's going to be a massive undertaking.

We're talking about tens of thousands, if not more people who work for state government that are going to have to go through this. We've all had to do sexual harassment trainings. There's usually some slide that you just have to click through and no one ever reads them. To have that done live where there is no wiggle room for you to try and get out of it, it's is a step forward, especially because there has been the situation in New York where the Governor enacted these more forceful sexual harassment laws, and it turns out that he may not have even taken the

training himself according to the Attorney General's report were under oath, a top aide said that she signed the paperwork for the Governor saying that he did the 2019 sexual harassment training. It's unclear whether he took the sexual harassment training in subsequent years.

Brigid Bergin: Listeners, we want to hear from you in this conversation, what kind of first impression did Governor Hochul make on you? Were you struck by her mask requirement for schools? Tell us what you're thinking about in terms of her priorities. What else you want to see on that list? 646-435-7280. Or you can tweet @BrianLehrer, let's go to Barbara from Brooklyn. Barbara, welcome to WNYC. What was your first impression of Governor Hochul yesterday?

Barbara: I didn't really get to see it. I had hoped to, but I missed it, I was on a bus. I wanted to just say, I didn't really get anything about her and environmental justice, because there's a lot of fossil fuel projects that are coming through in the state and Newburg [unintelligible 00:24:29], Peaker plants, they want to expand. There's the North Brooklyn pipeline that we've been fighting. It's [unintelligible 00:24:36] seen him involved in that. [unintelligible 00:24:39] in Long Island. It's like they're just trying to do all this environmental injustice in our state. I don't think she really address that.

Brigid Bergin: Barbara, thank you so much for your call. We really appreciate it. Call us again. Josefa, obviously this was as you stated, a brief speech, only just under 12 minutes, so perhaps something was only the initial priorities for Governor Hochul and we expect to hear a lot more from her in the coming days as she works on building out her administration. What are some of the issues that you are waiting to hear from her on?

Josefa Velásquez: I think there's a lot of things on the line in the next coming months. More specifically redistricting.

Once every decade lines for your local offices are redrawn but at this point, it's the congressional lines that could sway the balance of power in Congress. She'll have as she stated today in an interview, or I guess rather last night and the New York Times, she expects to be part of that process to help Democrats gain control of the house in subsequent years. That's something that I'm fascinated by because it's not every day that you have New York state and New York City look in on itself and say, "Okay, how have we changed? and how can we make our representation better?" The last time we did this back in 2010 when we started this process, Republicans were in control of the state Senate. A lot of the state Senate lines were drawn favorably for them.

This time Democrats have a supermajority in both the Assembly and the Senate, which means that they could draw the lines to favor themselves for generations to come, but really it's what is the involvement? How's it going to change for new York's congressional representation in Washington? What role will Kathy Hochul have in that? How will that carry her through the upcoming primary season where she's going to be up against probably some formidable contender. She is from Buffalo, which is closer to Cleveland than it is to Manhattan. That's a lot to deal with in the

first few months of this job.

Brigid Bergin: Let's talk to Maxine in Manhattan. We're talking about listeners' first impressions of Governor Hochul. Maxine, welcome to WNYC.

Maxine: Thank you. Good morning.

Brigid Bergin: Good morning.

Maxine: My first impression of Governor Hochul is of an extraordinarily, well-qualified, dedicated and capable, experienced person. I'm using the word person specifically and not the woman Governor, she's the Governor. I think the emphasis has to be on what she is capable and able to do and able to change in the culture of the state as a Governor. The fact that she's a woman Governor is obviously something that seems to a lot of us who've past that point when the glass ceiling didn't seem reachable, but she has made it within her reach by qualifying with all the right things. Not by the skirt that she wears.

Brigid Bergin: Maxine. When you heard her lay out her priorities, did you feel like there was anything you would add to that list?

Maxine: New York state is such a rich conglomeration of so many cultures that I hope that she will use this to her platform to reach out to the many cultures, to make very direct approaches to each group, and foster the appropriate needs of each of those groups that exists and lives and flourishes in New York. That's the one thing that I'm waiting to hear, beyond and above that, I think she was targeted 24 hours not even in office.

Brigid Bergin: There you go.

Maxine: What do we expect from someone who probably was not given the kind of access that a colleague, an immediate colleague should have been given? She could have become Governor by virtue of anything, a tragedy, or I want to go off and play on a desert island or I fell out of an helicopter.

Brigid Bergin: Thank you so much for calling Maxine. One of the things I think she raised Josefa, among the many important decisions on Governor Hochul's plate. She is building out an administration and I think a lot of people are going to evaluate how she builds out that administration in terms of how much it does reflect the population of New York state. One of the most important posts we're waiting to hear more about, of course, is her pick for Lieutenant governor. What are you hearing about that?

Josefa Velásquez: I've heard that we can expect a Lieutenant governor announcement by the end of the week. There have been two names that have been consistently been talked about. State Senator Jamal Bailey, who is the Bronx democratic party leader, and state Senator Brian Benjamin, who recently ran for comptroller. He's a lawmaker that represents Manhattan.

From Harlem both of these men are black and they represent New York City and

represent a constituency that Kathy Hochul will need come 2022. The interesting part is that it's also they are downstate lawmakers with ties to the state Senate and the state assembly. Again, she is trying to build this more collaborative spirit and the Lieutenant governor job up until now has not been a glamorous job. It's a lot of it involves sitting in a car and traveling the state all day and doing the things that the governor doesn't want to do.

That's business openings, talking to the boy Scouts, going to talk to local union leaders. Kathy Hochul has some distance from Andrew Cuomo, even though she was part of the Cuomo administration. Every single year, she has tried to go to all 62 counties in New York, something that Senator Chuck Schumer does. She has built these quiet relationships with people who maybe she's not a household name, but she has visited your area or somewhere near your area and visited diners and delis. If you just go on her Instagram, it's this very

interesting--

Brigid Bergin: Snapshot. [crosstalk]

Josefa Velásquez: It's interesting insight as to like, here's, this is the life of a Lieutenant governor. It's not glamorous if a lot of time you're on the road and yet at the same time look where she is.

Brigid Bergin: Yet Lieutenant governors most recently have been pretty important because they have not been gone on to become our governor. She has also given herself 45 days to staff up the rest of her team and she's already made some pretty interesting hires with Karen Keogh as their secretary. That's that top unelected position in state government replacing Melissa DeRosa. She's also selected Elizabeth Fine as her counsel both have roots in the city and national politics. Karen Keogh is a campaign aid and legislative assistant to city council cell Albany's before working for former Senator Hillary Clinton. She advised mayor Bloomberg's 2009 reelection campaign and then helped Senator Kirsten Gillibrand transition from the house to the Senate. Most recently was head of global philanthropy for JP Morgan. Elizabeth Fine served as counsel to the attorney general, Janet Reno, and president Bill Clinton. She was counseled to the Clinton Gore presidential campaign and general counsel for the New York City council under the speaker, Christine Quinn. Now you rattle off resumes like that, and you hear people who are obviously incredibly plugged in at a national level but also plugged in at the state and local level. What kind of reaction are you hearing to those picks and are there other key posts you're watching?

Josefa Velásquez: Right now the reaction has been great. People obviously understand who Kathy Hochul is hiring. These are incredibly talented individuals who understand government. It's so funny that it seems to be that there are three pools of people to hire from. It's either the Cuomo camp, the Clinton camp, the Schumer camp, or I guess four, and the Bloomberg camp. The same 100 people you can pick from. I think Kathy Hochul is in this really difficult position where she has to decide who from the Cuomo administration will stay on in her administration, but also at the

same time, people who are in government who understand how government works and how to keep the lights on, have to balance leaving their jobs, to go work for a governor that might not be governor in 18 months. That's a difficult choice to make, like, do you want to risk a new governor coming in and you leaving your job and then cleaning the house to put their people in?

I think one of the key things that I'm looking for is who is her health commissioner going to be. Howard Zucker, the state's health commissioner was a key player in the Cuomo administration and had an active role in writing a report that was more favorable to the governor that hid the true count of people who died in nursing homes. He has become the face of one of Cuomo's many scandals. According to people I've talked to, it seems that Zucker is staying on in the Hochul administration, at least for now. Again, Kathy Hochul has given herself this 45-day buffer to build out her staff. The other person that I'm trying to figure out is the state budget director and this state operations head, these are two people who are very wonky and whose jobs are really difficult to do.

The head of the state budget right now is Robert Mujica who was hired by the Cuomo administration and previously worked for Republicans who control the state Senate. He has not at all been implicated in any of the Cuomo administration alleged wrongdoing. He's pretty clean. The question now is whether one, Kathy Hochul wants him to stay on given his loyalties to the previous governor and two, whether he wants to stay on and help a new governor. The other one is the director of state ops. That's the person that keeps the lights on. That's the person that I helped run these mass vaccination sites and get them going. And that's going to be critical if one, we're getting booster shots soon, and if the Delta variant continues to spread.

Brigid Bergin: Right. I just have one more quick, final question for you Josefa. Governor Hochul has spent a fair amount of time here in New York City in recent days, including, of course, that recent meeting over pastries with Mayor de Blasio. How significant was that in your mind? Do we really think that the dynamics between city and state are up for a fresh start?

Josefa Velásquez: No, I think it was a lot about appearance given that Mayor de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo's relationship was so toxic, but historically the relationship between city hall and Albany has never been great but not to repeat myself, the bar is on the floor here. The mere fact that they shared a croissant is progress.

Brigid Bergin: We're going to have to leave it there. I've been speaking with Josefa Velásquez, senior reporter for The City. Thank you so much for joining us.

Josefa Velásquez: Thank you so much for having me.

Copyright © 2021 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.