PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jessica Walker, President and CEO of Manhattan Chamber of Commerce
2:05:29
ยท
126 sec
Jessica Walker, representing the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, strongly supports Intro 1132 and discusses the recent increase in small business fines and summonses. She emphasizes the need for better data collection and analysis to understand and address these issues.
- Summonses issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs and Worker Protections increased by 171% between fiscal years 2023 and 2024
- Small business fines collected are higher now than pre-pandemic levels
- Current data available through the city's open data portal is not useful for analysis without significant cleanup
- Top five business needs identified: technology, financing, marketing, business strategy, and navigating city and state agencies
Jessica Walker
2:05:29
There we go.
2:05:30
Hi.
2:05:32
Thank you.
2:05:34
So, we I've today, I really wanna, strongly support intro 1132.
2:05:39
Today, we released an issue brief that, tried to look at, what's happening on the ground.
2:05:46
And it shows that summonses summonses issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs and Worker Protections jumped, by 171% between fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024.
2:06:00
A 171%.
2:06:02
In addition, the amount of small business fines collected have been increasing and are higher now than they were at pre pandemic levels.
2:06:10
We don't know why this is going up, particularly when mayor Adams has implemented real measures to try to bring down small business fines.
2:06:18
Last September, when I asked the department, DCWP for data that we could analyze, I was directed to the city's open data portal.
2:06:27
That data was in such bad shape that the data expert that I conferred with said it really was not useful, unless there was a ton of cleanup that, of course, would take a lot of time and money.
2:06:39
So we know very little about where this where these business fines are being issued and for what.
2:06:45
And if we do know more about it, organizations like ours and many others can send our outreach staff to the area to provide education and help businesses comply with the laws.
2:06:57
It sounds like from the testimony today that SBS does not have the capacity to do this, but you might wanna consider going straight to the source and requiring acquiring DCWP and the health department to start releasing their data in a way that is actually useful, and some of the things that are outlined in the in the legislation.
2:07:15
Lastly, I just wanna, let you know we do a lot of the outreach with the Small Business Resource Network.
2:07:21
And the top five business needs that we have identified out there right now are, technology, financing, marketing, business strategy, and navigating city and state agencies.
2:07:32
Happy to always, work with you.
2:07:34
Thank you.