REMARKS
Council Member Restler expresses appreciation for DEP's work
1:08:09
·
75 sec
Council Member Lincoln Restler opens his remarks by expressing gratitude for the opportunity to speak and thanking Commissioner Aggarwala and the DEP team for their thoughtful testimony. He emphasizes his appreciation for the partnership with DEP under the commissioner's leadership.
- Restler highlights the importance of citizen enforcement tools
- He acknowledges the limitations of city workers and inspectors in holding all bad actors accountable
- Restler views the Citizens Air Complaint Program as an effective deterrent and useful tool
Lincoln Restler
1:08:09
We can all be alexander.
1:08:10
I'm fine.
1:08:12
Thank you very much, chair, for the opportunity and for the hearing today, and thank you commissioner and team for your thoughtful testimony.
1:08:21
Just wanna generally state how appreciative I am in the partnership with DP under your leadership.
1:08:26
So thank you very much for the work that you do and your stellar team.
1:08:29
I did have a few questions that I wanted to ask that I just worry about some of the operational implications of some of these changes and would love some more information.
1:08:41
The reduction in time to have only 5 days to submit a complaint from the time that the the video is captured.
1:08:49
Well, let me just one step back.
1:08:52
I think citizen enforcement tools are important, and I think that they are valuable, and I think you testified to that today.
1:08:58
I believe that there are many other areas where we could be doing more citizen enforcement that would be very helpful in ensuring that bad actors across the city of New Yorker held accountable.
1:09:06
There's only so many city workers.
1:09:08
You only have so many eyes and ears.
1:09:10
And as hard as the inspectors of DP work and as much as we appreciate their service to the city, like they it's just impossible for them to be holding everyone accountable that needs to be.
1:09:20
So this is another effective deterrent, and I think it's a useful tool.
