REMARKS
Council Member Gennaro supports racial equity legislation
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124 sec
Council Member James Gennaro expresses his support for a package of bills related to racial equity in New York City.
He connects these bills to a 2022 ballot referendum that established a Commission on Racial Equity and argues that the new legislation expands upon and provides more context to the commission's purpose.
- Gennaro references Intros 242-A, 279-A, 471-A, and 833-A as part of this package.
- He emphasizes that no one should be afraid of conversations about racial equity.
- Gennaro sees these bills as delivering on and improving what voters approved in 2022.
James Gennaro
0:50:04
Thank you, Matt.
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I'm a majority leader.
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I just want to speak on intro 242A279471.
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A33.
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I just want to go back to what the voters did in 2022 when they approved by a margin by ballot referendum.
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Of 70 to 30, the creation of the commission on racial equality.
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This is what it said.
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There should be established a commission on racial equity.
0:50:38
Oh, no.
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It's the commission on racial equity.
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There should be established commission of racial equity.
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The purpose of which is to enable community members with equity experience or lived experience relevant to goal of equity to propose priorities for racial equity in city decision making and policy and assess performance towards those priorities.
0:50:57
Very nice but a little bit a little bit vague, quite frankly.
0:51:01
And so so the council comes along as it well should to give more context and texture and to really drill down on what the voters voted for overwhelmingly in 2002.
0:51:16
To me, this is what these bills represent.
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No one should be afraid of a conversation.
0:51:21
No one should be afraid of a of a dialogue, you know, colloquially, a diverse commission or a diverse task force that'll work very closely with Core.
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We have our own Pesach Osina who was who was one of the commissioners for Core.
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So this is a very you know, a diverse group of people that are gonna look at something that desperately needs to be looked at.
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And I support these bills, and this is what the people ask for.
0:51:52
Very appropriately in 2002.
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We're delivering on that.
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We're making it better.
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We're taking this, expanding it, giving it more context and texture.
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And I thank the speaker and everyone involved.
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In bringing this forward.
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So thank you very much.