PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Smitha Milich on Randy Mastro's Nomination
11:02:23
·
113 sec
Smitha Milich testifies against Randy Mastro's nomination as Corporation Counsel, citing concerns about his past actions and associations. She criticizes Mastro's involvement in Giuliani's task force on bilingual education and his representation of Chevron in an environmental case.
- Milich argues that Mastro's approach to bilingual education shifted responsibility from the city to individual parents
- She highlights Mastro's representation of Chevron in a case involving pollution in Ecuador as problematic
- Milich contends that Mastro's pro bono work does not offset the harm caused by some of his other clients
Smitha Milich
11:02:23
Hello.
11:02:23
Good evening.
11:02:25
And I don't know if you're looking at the chat, but Darren Mack was supposed to go after me.
11:02:29
So I just wanna put that out there in case you're not looking at the chat.
11:02:32
So I'm gonna skip through my testimony.
11:02:35
Just wanna speak particularly to mister Mat Mastro's actions on Giuliani's task force, on the bilateral education, which he cochair, and he called bilateral education a failure that should be scrapped, Today, he said it was because the program was sending a lot of bilingual kids to special education and that he instead advocated for city wide parent choice to determine how their kids would be supported.
11:02:57
Despite chair and Joseph clarifying that the city already provided that choice to families, I think Mister Mastro stressed parent choice in this issue.
11:03:05
It put the responsibility of receiving quality education on individual parents instead of the city who is in charge of creating, running, and funding the program.
11:03:15
Ultimately, the mayor, Mister Mastro, worked for, was racist xenophobe, who didn't even pursue the recommendations of the task force, which Mister Mastro acknowledged today was one of his greatest regrets under Giuliani.
11:03:27
We don't believe Mister Mastro who has a corporate lawyer represented Chevron when the oil giant successfully appealed an Ecuadorian court's $19,000,000,000 judgment for polluting the Ecuadorian rainforest.
11:03:37
We don't think he should be spearheading New York City's law department.
11:03:40
In his own words, Mister Mashro, called the company a victim of a travesty of justice.
11:03:45
An oil giant was the victim, not the countless Ecuadorians subjected to the consequences of millions of gallons of toxic wastewater spilled into the waters of the aquadore in Amazon.
11:03:57
People might say Mister Mashilo should not be judged by his clients.
11:04:00
We believe that his his judgment in taking on clients matters.
11:04:04
Accolades are being sung of his many charities regarding his pro boner work.
11:04:08
But the good work cancels out if the same person doing pro bono work is also the same person on the side that is causing the harm.
11:04:15
Thank you.