REMARKS
Council Member Brannan opens Finance Committee meeting and outlines agenda items
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3 min
Council Member Justin Brannan, Chair of the Finance Committee, opens the meeting and provides an overview of the five items to be voted on, including resolutions for Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), property tax exemptions, and a transparency resolution. He details the specifics of each item and reminds council members about disclosure procedures for potential conflicts of interest.
- Resolution 627 and 630 concern scheduling public hearings for increasing annual expenditures for nine BIDs and amending the Madison Avenue BID district plan.
- Two property tax exemption resolutions are presented for preserving rental buildings and an HDFC co-op building.
- A transparency resolution is introduced, requiring council members to disclose any conflicts of interest with listed organizations.
Justin L. Brannan
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Thank you.
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Okay.
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Good morning and welcome to today's finance committee meeting.
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I'm council member Justin Bratton.
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I have the privilege of chairing the committee on finance.
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We've been joined this morning.
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Council members Salam, Brewer, Ayala, Fadeus, Carr, Hudson, Powers, Hanks, Juan, Lewis, Osei, Stevens on Zoom, Brooks Powers, and Moya.
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Today, the committee will be voting on 5 items.
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Resolution 627, resolution 630, 2 property tax exemption resolutions, and a transparency resolution.
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First, resolution 627 sponsored by me, concerns scheduling the public hearing required to increase the annual expenditure for 9 business improvement districts as follows.
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The 34th Street bid at $14,300,000 The Times Square bid at $17,200,000 The North Flatbush Avenue bid at $350,000 The Madison 23rd Street Flat Iron Chelsea bid at 9,000,000 and the Bayside Village bid at $430,000.
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But wait, there's more.
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Fulton Street bid at $800,000 the Hudson Square bid at $5,850,000 the Atlantic Avenue bid at $637,000 and finally, the SoHo Business Improvement District at $1,757,934.
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Resolution 630 sponsored by Councilmember Powers concerns scheduling the public hearing required to amend the district plan of the Madison Avenue bid to allow for a change in the assessment method method of the bid's district charge and to increase the annual expenditure to 2.5 $2,000,000 In both cases, the resolution set the date, time, and place for a public hearing on December 19, 2024, 10:30 AM in the city council committee room.
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At that public hearing, we'll consider 2 proposed local laws that would increase the annual expenditures of the 9 bids, and would amend the Madison Avenue District Plan, and increase the bids annual expenditure respectively.
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Next, the first property tax exemption resolution is for a new full article 11 exemption retroactive to July 1, 2024 for the preservation of 7 rental buildings in council member Rivera, Menon, and Powers districts.
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As part of the exemption, all buildings will combine into 1 unified HDFC ownership and will be designated as senior affordable housing.
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The buildings will also complete necessary projects under local laws 11 and 97.
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2nd property tax exemption today is a new full 40 year article 11 exemption for preservation of 1 HDFC co op building in council member Abreu's district.
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Upon upon approval, the building will undergo energy efficiency upgrades, moderate rehabilitation, and enter into an HPD regulatory agreement imposing affordability restrictions on the units.
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Finally, the transparency resolution today sets forth a new designation and changes in the designation of certain organizations receiving local youth, community safety, and victim services funding, and speakers initiative discretionary funding, and funding pursuant to certain initiatives in the budget.
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As with all transparency resolutions, council members will have to sign a disclosure form indicating whether or not a conflict exists with any of the groups on the attached list.
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If a council member has a potential conflict of interest with any of the organizations listed, they'll have an opportunity to disclose the conflict at the time of their vote.
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As a reminder, please disclose any conflicts you may have with proposed subcontractors used by organizations sponsored by discretionary funding.
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These disclosures must be made before the subcontractor can be approved.
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Disclosure forms must be completed and submitted prior to the vote and transparency resolution and may be emailed to Everton Smith, who is with us today somewhere, to answer your questions.
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Are there any comments or questions from my colleagues on today's items?
