REMARKS
Council Member Lincoln Restler opens committee meeting on the Mayor's Management Report (PMMR) and city accountability
0:00:00
·
4 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler critiques the Mayor's Administration for falling short on transparency and accountability, based on findings in the Mayor's Management Report (PMMR).
- Opens the meeting by recognizing the mayor's office efforts and Director Dan Steinberg's leadership in creating the PMMR.
- Highlights critical areas of concern like rising NYPD response times, increasing jail populations, and the challenges in service delivery.
- Discusses the impact of budget cuts and hiring freezes on the city government workforce's efficiency.
- Calls attention to the PMMR's role in revealing discrepancies between the mayor's promises and actual city performance.
- Expresses appreciation for the support and participation of other council members, staff, and his chief of staff in organizing the hearing.
Lincoln Restler
0:00:00
From July through October of calendar year 2023.
0:00:04
I want to acknowledge all of the hard work by the mayor's office of operations performance management team who put together the PMMR and related report, who put together the PMMR as well as related reports, they are abs this work is absolutely critical goal for instilling transparency, accountability, and city government.
0:00:21
And I especially wanna credit the mayor's office of operation director, Dan Steinberg, for his leadership in creating the Dynamic Mayor's Management Report.
0:00:29
This new and compelling tool provides meaningful real time accountability of agency performance So we are not just waiting for the PMMR and the MMR to be released.
0:00:39
For administration that has been appropriately criticized for reducing transparency, This is an important and notable step in the right direction.
0:00:48
The mayor loves to talk about getting stuff done.
0:00:51
But the findings in the PMMR tell a very different story.
0:00:54
Under the charter, the mayor's office of operations is charged with the accountability to catch issues in real time and understand when city services are going off the rails.
0:01:04
Indeed, ops plays a critical role in not only providing performance management and support for city agencies, but also providing project management expertise to make sure the priority initiatives of the administration are effectively implemented and that problems are being flagged and fixed in real time.
0:01:22
NYPD response times to crimes in progress are up by almost 2 minutes year over year and are up almost 6 minutes since pre COVID.
0:01:30
The core function of the police department is to respond to and solve crimes in our communities.
0:01:35
Instead, we've seen response times lag dangerously and massive increases in broken windows policing relating to minor issues.
0:01:43
The NYPD is on pace this year to quadruple the number of minor summons issued since the time the mayor came into office.
0:01:51
While at the same time spending approximately $1,000,000,000 on overtime.
0:01:56
Despite reductions in crime, the mayor is reversing the progress that has been made in recent years end master incarceration in New York City.
0:02:04
Adult populations in our jails has increased by almost a 1000 folks since the mayor took office despite the humanitarian crisis on Workers Island.
0:02:12
And the number of kids, kids in jail, has doubled since the mayor came into office and is up 31% year over year according to the PMMR.
0:02:22
As has been widely reported, timely approvals cash assistance and food stamps applications for New Yorkers struggling to put food on the table have plummeted despite litigation and extensive counsel oversight over multiple years.
0:02:35
While most New Yorkers likely aren't aware of the PMMR, the indicators it includes have very real implications on their lives.
0:02:45
A recent report revealed that New York City has experienced the largest increase in poverty in a decade with nearly 2,000,000 New Yorkers and one in 4 children now living in poverty.
0:02:56
These New Yorkers especially need a city government.
0:03:00
That is delivering quality services to meet their needs, and these kids deserve every possible service we can provide to set them on a pathway for success.
0:03:10
The PMM indicators tell a story of city agencies that are struggling due to 7 painful rounds of the mayor's budget cuts.
0:03:17
And extensive hiring phrases that have substantially shrunk our city government workforce.
0:03:22
The PMMR shows clearly that city agencies cannot achieve their goals as the mayor cuts their workforce and slashes their budget.
0:03:30
We will hear today from the leadership team at ops about how your office is responding to these troubling trends and what your team is doing to get our city back on track.
0:03:41
I'd also just like to thank council members in a Vertikov and council member Shahannah Hanif for joining us today as well.
0:03:48
I want to thank, Joss Reganopathy and Erica Cohen from the committee staff for their support in putting this hearing together.
0:03:56
And I just want to take a moment to thank my chief of staff, Molly Haley, who is, like, just freaking brilliant and really appreciate.
0:04:05
And so thank you for all your help in putting this together and for everything we do.
0:04:08
Our exceptional communications director, NiMooney.
0:04:11
And I'd also like to thank Lynn Schulman, who is on with us, council member Schulman's on from Queens, She unfortunately has a cold.
0:04:17
We hope she's feeling better.