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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rudy Washington, Former Deputy Mayor of New York City under Mayor Rudy Giuliani
9:13:59
·
6 min
Rudy Washington, former Deputy Mayor under Rudy Giuliani, provided testimony in support of Randy Mastro's nomination as Corporation Counsel. He shared personal experiences working with Mastro, highlighting their collaboration on various city initiatives and Mastro's support during challenging times.
- Washington emphasized Mastro's role in fighting organized crime and supporting minority business initiatives
- He credited Mastro for helping secure funding for Harlem development projects
- Washington also mentioned Mastro's assistance in securing healthcare for 9/11 first responders, including himself
Rudy Washington
9:13:59
Hello.
9:13:59
Hello.
9:14:01
Good evening, Mister Chairman.
9:14:05
Madam speaker.
9:14:06
I first like to start off by simply saying madam speaker, I I grew up in your district.
9:14:12
And my family, we migrated from the south, fleeing the clan, And as a result of that, I grew up with the suspicion of of of young white folks.
9:14:28
And I give that backdrop because I first met Randy in 1993.
9:14:38
And at that time, there was I had no body in my circle that was white.
9:14:46
I had no white friends.
9:14:47
I didn't know anybody from the white community.
9:14:51
And I met Randy and and consider myself a fairly good judge of character.
9:14:58
We instantly bonded in 93.
9:15:02
And little did I know a year and a half later, he will be somebody.
9:15:07
I'm counting on the cover of my back when organized crime was coming after us.
9:15:13
I 2 lived under.
9:15:14
My kids lived under.
9:15:15
My wife lived under for 2 years, two and a half years of police protection, you know, from the Fulton Fish market.
9:15:22
And it got messy, and I won't I won't bother you with the details.
9:15:27
But after that fight, Randy dragged me into another fight.
9:15:32
And I was with the carding industry, which was the Genevieve's crime family.
9:15:38
And once again, we lived through that.
9:15:41
I wanna correct the record on something that I think was deliberately distorted back in the day back in the day by the New York Times.
9:15:53
The minority program.
9:15:54
I've heard it from the counselor.
9:15:56
I've heard people speak about it.
9:16:00
That program was built upon the antidote of my company.
9:16:05
I I was 60% of what made mere Jenkins program.
9:16:11
I testified, I submitted written testimony.
9:16:14
And unfortunately, at the end of mere Jenkins administration, when he was prepared to roll it out, the lawsuit flew, and it was from the General Contractors Association.
9:16:26
They stopped the program, and it was Randy Mashler who I went to and devised another way of tackling that issue.
9:16:34
And that was to put me on the policy procurement board where I changed the rules so that commissioners could now do sole source purchasing.
9:16:46
I planted a matter speaker on 60th Street in Jamaica, a business development center.
9:16:53
I'll also put 1 in Harlem, around a 116th Street at the Malcolm Savares Moss, a business development center.
9:17:01
And I it escapes me now.
9:17:03
We put one in Brooklyn.
9:17:05
And there we work with minority firms, and we had our commissioners do sole source procurement and got numbers larger than anybody had gotten before, but the times wouldn't print that.
9:17:18
They wouldn't put it out there.
9:17:20
Alright?
9:17:22
When I wanted to transform and do work in Harlem, I wanted to compete against 7 cities.
9:17:28
I needed a $100,000,000 to submit my proposal to reform a 125th Street.
9:17:35
Those bean counters at OMB which you guys are familiar with wasn't gonna give me a $100,000,000 upfront to show the federal government that is in place in the way he could pull it back.
9:17:47
It was Randy who went to bat with me to fight OMB and convince the mayor that $300,000,000 would be a good investment in Harlem, starting with Home Depot on the east and all the way to the west from River To River Reformer in Harlem.
9:18:05
I mean, we we did some good work together.
9:18:08
And I would just like to say, I watched when was at his wedding.
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I was with him when his child was born, my daughter calls him her godfather.
9:18:22
We have dinner probably twice a month, once every 2 months.
9:18:29
And when we're not when we're not having dinner, we touch in base.
9:18:33
And he's checking on me.
9:18:34
Lastly, I'll leave you with this very few people notice, but I was the person who did the first rescue and search operation 911.
9:18:47
And, yes, I remember because I had major concerns when Christy Whitman said, the older ear was fine.
9:18:55
All that equipment, that was me upfront.
9:18:59
3 days later, I was in intensive care at Beth Israel.
Keith Powers
9:19:02
I just wanna stop you there because we have a few people left to leave very soon who wanna also have an opportunity to testify.
Rudy Washington
9:19:08
Okay.
9:19:08
Well,
Keith Powers
9:19:09
we're gonna call.
9:19:09
You wanna Alright.
Rudy Washington
9:19:10
Let me just say this.
9:19:11
Yeah.
Keith Powers
9:19:11
You can go ahead.
9:19:12
Sorry.
Rudy Washington
9:19:12
Tammy and our and our record.
9:19:15
When leaving government in node 2, I wind up being sick a number of times.
9:19:21
And when I applied to have my medical, I was just looking for medical coverage.
9:19:26
The city denied me.
9:19:28
And I found out the city was denying every first responder, fire enforcement construction workers.
9:19:36
And I went to Randy, and he vetted my legal team, went after the city.
9:19:43
And we won for every first responder that's received in health care today.
9:19:48
And as Randy said, he's been through this with me.
9:19:51
I lost track of the operations.
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My last one was in February of this year, and I'm still recovering.
9:19:57
And and he's been there for me.
9:19:59
His family has been there for me.
9:20:01
So thank you for giving me this time.
Amanda Farías
9:20:04
Thank you.
Keith Powers
9:20:04
Thank you.
9:20:04
You can stay.
9:20:05
We might have questions.
9:20:06
That's all you can you can stay.
9:20:07
I think we might call one other.
9:20:10
Do you have any any concerns or questions?
9:20:14
Okay.
9:20:14
Thank you for your testimony.
9:20:15
Thank you for your patience as well.