Voting for Reps on Community Education Councils, Rikers Island Jail Under New Scrutiny, and an Interview with the Outgoing NYC Parks Commissioner

Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. It's Tuesday, May 13th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: Public school parents can vote for representatives on their community education councils until midnight tonight. WNYC's Jessica Gould has more.

Jessica Gould: The community education councils are mostly advisory, with some power over school zoning, but several councils have become engulfed in culture war controversies like trans kids and sports and the Israel-Gaza war. Those controversies are motivating more candidates to challenge incumbents this year. The elections cover 32 school districts and city-wide boards for high schools and special education.

Parents can vote online using their New York City public schools account. Community groups are circulating voter guides with candidates' positions on the issues. Results will be announced in June.

Michael Hill: A federal judge is placing the jails on Rikers Island under the control of an independent receiver. The judge says the so-called remediation manager will be expected to work in collaboration with the city Department of Correction to improve conditions in the jails. The city is supposed to close the jails on Rikers by 2027 but is well behind schedule. Correction officials say five people died on Rikers through early April. WNYC is reaching out to the Adams administration for comment.

Perhaps fittingly, the New York Jets are flying across the pond to the United Kingdom this season. The NFL says the Jets will be one of the teams playing in international games this year. It's a recent initiative by the league to promote American football overseas. Gang Green will play the Denver Broncos on Sunday, October 12th, in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Here's our forecast. A 50/50 chance of late afternoon or afternoon showers, cloudy, and 73.

Janae Pierre: Stick around, there's more to come.

Sean Carlson: On WNYC, I'm Sean Carlson. New York City's Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue is stepping down at the end of the month after leading the city's Parks Department since the start of Mayor Adams' administration. She joins us now to talk about her tenure and what's next for her. Commissioner, thanks so much for coming back.

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: Thank you, Sean. Good to be here.

Sean Carlson: What do you hope your legacy will be in this position?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: Sean, I hope that it'll be a legacy of raising awareness for the importance of our parks and open spaces, how vital they are to New Yorkers. I came into this job right at the end of the pandemic, and I was so focused on making sure that people remember how important their parks were during that time and that they are still incredibly important for the health and the resiliency and frankly the livability of New York City.

Sean Carlson: One of the things that we've talked about in the conversations we've had on this program is that the Parks Department negotiated the first contract changes in 40 years with the lifeguard union under your leadership that allowed the city to regain control over lifeguard training during a time of lifeguard shortages in the city and around the country, for that matter. Can you talk more about the challenges you faced during that process and ultimately what made it a success?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: Yes. Thank you, Sean, for raising that. That is certainly a very important part of my legacy and the work we were able to accomplish. We have struggled, and then I came into this role struggling with a national lifeguard shortage. We knew that access to our pools and beaches was so critical to New Yorkers, and in order for us to really rebuild that lifeguard core, we really needed to renegotiate that contract.

It was a concerted effort by myself with this administration, with our Office of Labor Relations, to say, "We are going to sit down, and we're going to negotiate. We're going to get to a point where we have more involvement, authority, control over what happens, both on the decks and the training and the recruitment process." That's what we did. Our renegotiated contract allows for us to create a management structure that makes sure that we are involved at every step of the way.

We were able to negotiate a $22 salary with a $1,000 retention bonus, so a lot of very specific things that makes it as attractive as possible to be a New York City lifeguard and changes, I believe, that are going to be felt for years to come because we'll have much more control of the process.

Sean Carlson: Were there any goals that you had hoped to achieve as Parks Commissioner that you weren't able to? Can you talk about some of the barriers there?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: I think that it's always hard. There's so many things. The big sprawling agency, like the Parks Department, is now over a $10 billion budget, a $660 million operating budget. There are so many things coming in that you want to do that you're focused on. You want to increase access and equity for all New Yorkers. You want to make sure that we're building the health and resiliency of the city. You want to make sure that we are creating parks that are as welcoming and accessible as possible, and you can't do everything that you want.

We were very focused on a few very key things: launching vital parks for all, making sure that we were making targeted investments in those areas where it was needed most, the most under-resourced communities, making sure that we were planting trees where they were needed most, focusing on heat-vulnerable neighborhoods. I'm very proud of all we were able to accomplish.

With 30,000 acres of parkland, 14% of the city's land mass, there's always so much more that you want to do, but I'm incredibly proud of what we did accomplish, including what we talked about, the renegotiating of the lifeguard contract, really getting done some key things that hadn't happened in many, many years.

Sean Carlson: What motivated your decision to step down?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: I think, Sean, anybody who's worked in public service knows that these are very difficult jobs, and especially working at somewhere like the Parks Department. I have loved it, it has been an incredible privilege, but it is a 24/7 job. I just really felt like I needed to take time off from that, really rest and restore and contemplate my next chapter.

I have been in city government and in the parks world, really, for almost 15 years, and it's been an extraordinary, extraordinary opportunity, but I really felt it was time for me to move on.

Sean Carlson: There were steep budget cuts from Mayor Adams' administration during your tenure. Some of those were partially restored, but given that, did the budget have anything to do with your decision to leave?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: No. Sean, as I said, it was my decision to leave. I felt really good about all we've accomplished, and I also feel so confident in the team that I have built and that I've worked side by side with over these last three and a half years. It's an extraordinary senior leadership team. You can't find a more dedicated sitting employee than a parks worker. They're incredibly, incredibly dedicated to the task at hand, and I have all faith that the good work of the Parks Department will continue.

Sean Carlson: What do you think will be the most pressing issue facing the city's park system in the next five years?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: The thing that we struggle with and the thing that is such a challenge is just the-- Our parks are so important for so many things. Everything happens in parks, and we feel strongly that, literally, every blade of grass, every tree, is sacred ground. It is incredibly important, as I said, to the health and livability of the city, but there are often lots of competing forces from development, from encroachment, large events, so many things that people want to do and have on parkland.

We've got to consider that we've got to make sure that there's an understanding that our parkland is precious. It needs to be maintained. That is critical for New York City and the livability of New York City residents. It is that kind of, how do we make sure that we're prioritizing the various needs of the city, whether it be for affordability, for more housing, with what so complements livability of the city, which is for New Yorkers to have that vital green space for active recreation, for solace, for respite. We've got to ensure that parkland is a top priority.

Sean Carlson: What are your plans after stepping down?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: My daughter graduates from college next week, Sean. My third.

Sean Carlson: Oh, congrats.

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: Yes. I'm going to take some time off, spend some good time with her, and contemplate that next chapter.

Sean Carlson: Before we let you go, do you have any advice for the next city parks commissioner?

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: I would say enjoy every minute. It's an incredibly important agency for the city. I say all the time to my staff, "There are very few jobs that you can do where you can say that 8.5 million New Yorkers are living a better life because of the work that you do." I'd say appreciate the importance of the role, understand that it is challenging, but that our parks are absolutely vital to New York City.

Sean Carlson: That was New York City's Park Commissioner, Sue Donoghue. Commissioner, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck on your next chapter.

Commissioner Sue Donoghue: Thanks so much, Sean. Really appreciate it.

Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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