PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Journalist and Participant in the CACP
2:44:24
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138 sec
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, a journalist and participant in the Citizens Air Complaint Program (CACP), testified about his experiences with the program and his concerns about proposed changes in Intro 941. He highlighted the program's positive impact on reducing idling in his neighborhood and other areas, including environmental justice communities.
- Kroll-Zaidi criticized Intro 941 for giving DEP broad powers to rewrite the program and potentially limiting participants' speech.
- He shared his personal experience of facing legal challenges due to what he described as the administration's attempt to chill participation in the program.
- The speaker expressed concern about the potential creation of a "speech tribunal" under the Adams administration through Intro 941 and Intro 747.
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
2:44:24
My name is Rafael Krogsetti.
2:44:26
I'm a journalist and a participant in the CACP.
2:44:29
As a result of my own participation, I've seen in my neighborhood, waste cutting trucks that line up next to PS 307, actually waiting their turn before turning on the engines.
2:44:38
And contrary to what commissioner Ugerwal suggests, this pays dividends in other neighborhoods.
2:44:43
Drivers don't have LoJacks that allow them to idle only in EJCs.
2:44:48
My most rewarding experience so far has come from mentoring new participants.
2:44:52
I volunteered last year to train new participants through a nonprofit in Hunt's point.
2:44:57
The difference from 1 year to the next was striking.
2:44:59
The polluted street grid there has lit up with summonses.
2:45:03
The gatekeeping that has kept this program from EJCs is not due to other citizens.
2:45:07
We are the ones who do the outreach.
2:45:10
At the same time, it has been immensely frustrating to try to explain the city's unnecessarily convoluted management of this program to these new participants.
2:45:18
Intro 941 proposes not only to increase these complications by giving DDP broad power to rewrite the program whenever it sees fit, but also to ban participants from engaging in protected speech simply because they are, and I quote, unfamiliar with those rules or protest them in principle.
2:45:34
For example, by being so bold is to submit a truck with Florida plates.
2:45:38
I've experienced firsthand this taste of the future.
2:45:42
I was one of the administration's 5 so called false statement summonses over everyday submission errors.
2:45:49
This has resulted in a year and a half of oath proceedings, 1000 of dollars in legal fees, in a series of no shows and ironically false statements by DEP employees.
2:46:00
These summonses, if I may be plain, were meant to chill participation and create pretext for this bill's speech code.
2:46:06
Or are we to believe that there was a hodgepodge of fraud in this program exactly in February 2023 and that now maybe a 140,000 complaints later crickets?
2:46:16
There was never chair an issue with citizen misconduct.
2:46:21
The executive branch has shown itself to be unworthy of the increased powers that council would hand them through 941-747.
2:46:28
This all powerful.
James F. Gennaro
2:46:30
Your time is elapsed, but I I wanna I I wanna ask you to finish your thought.
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi
2:46:35
Thank you, chair.
2:46:36
An all powerful speech tribunal for the Adams administration would be a bizarre intervention.
2:46:41
Thank you.
