PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kevin McGee, Environmental Health and Safety Professional, on the Citizens Air Complaint Program
3:19:14
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129 sec
Kevin McGee, an environmental health and safety professional, testifies in support of the Citizens Air Complaint Program for reporting idling vehicles in NYC. He argues that the program is effective in enforcing idling laws and expresses concerns about proposed changes in Intro 941 that could weaken the program.
- McGee emphasizes the health benefits and deterrent effect of the current program
- He argues against reducing financial incentives for citizen reporters, stating it could lead to a collapse in citizen engagement
- He supports Intro 5 to make the program more accessible to non-English speakers
Kevin McGee
3:19:14
Thank you, Mister Chairman.
3:19:15
My name is Kevin McGee.
3:19:16
I'm an environmental health and safety professional with 20 years experience in the field.
3:19:21
I do have a day job.
3:19:22
Idling complaints is something I do in my spare time on the way to work during lunch.
3:19:26
It's the reason I walk twelve miles a day.
3:19:27
It's been really good for my health.
3:19:30
This program is the only means of enforcing the idling law that actually work The law went unenforced for almost 50 years during which idling went unchecked, and the health of New Yorkers was needlessly harmed.
3:19:41
Threats to this program, which I believe enter 91941 is, will result in a return to a previous level of idling and will cause more harm and death.
3:19:51
The commissioner expressed some concerns about citizens making too much money from this, which I think frankly is a red herring.
3:19:57
What what does it really matter to deterrence against pollution if one person files 100 complaints or if 100 people each file, one complaint.
3:20:05
Although if the latter scenario sounds better to you, I would encourage support of intro 5 so that the program can be opened to the 25% of the city that's not fluent in English.
3:20:15
There are critical incentives here that power or and power ordinary New Yorkers in the city's most affected and marginalized communities with access to take part.
3:20:24
It's called environmental self defense.
3:20:27
Balance against this incentive, consider that more than 1 in 4 summonses are never paid, and the ones that do take 1 to 3 years or even longer to come in.
3:20:36
Consider the work involved in overcoming the barriers to participation and learning to submit successful claims.
3:20:41
Given these existing challenges, I'm deeply concerned about a collapse in citizen engagement if the incentive is gutted by 941 and with at the end of enforcement.
3:20:50
Veteran watchdogs will quit, institutional knowledge will vanish, and new recruits will dry up.
3:20:55
I'd ask the committee, have you considered the harms to public health if citizen engagement collapses and rampant island pollution returns along with the damage to public health and the increase in healthcare costs?
3:21:05
Lastly, I just would say if I think if you pulled those of us wearing these green stickers, you'd find that we'd like to have a lot more people doing this.
3:21:13
We'd like a a world where it's no longer viable as a so called lucrative hide side hustle, mostly because not because the programs we've guided because thousands of enforcers walk the streets.
