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Council Member Yusef Salaam's opening remarks for fiscal year 2026 public safety budget hearing
0:00:41
ยท
3 min
Council Member Yusef Salaam, chair of the committee on public safety, opens the fiscal year 2026 preliminary budget hearing for public safety agencies. He outlines the scope of the hearing, including discussions on the NYPD, CCRB, district attorneys, and the mayor's office of criminal justice budgets, and expresses interest in various topics such as overtime spending, new initiatives, and alternatives to incarceration.
- The fiscal 2026 preliminary budget includes $7.6 billion supporting 54,182 budgeted positions.
- Salaam emphasizes the importance of understanding budget changes and their impact on public safety.
- He acknowledges the presence of other council members and welcomes Commissioner Jessica Tisch and her team to testify.
Yusef Salaam
0:00:41
Good morning and welcome to fiscal twenty twenty six preliminary budget hearing for the committee on public safety.
0:00:50
I'm council member Youssef Salaam chair of the committee on public safety.
0:00:54
Today we will discuss the fiscal twenty twenty six budget, preliminary budget in the police department, or for the police department, the civilian complaint review board, the district attorney's special narcotic prosecutors, and the mayor's office of criminal justice to understand the administration's budget proposals for four agencies that play a central role for public safety.
0:01:18
I would like to welcome the leadership of these four agencies.
0:01:23
The fiscal twenty twenty six preliminary budget includes $7,600,000,000 that supports 54,182 budgeted positions.
0:01:34
This plan includes large changes to the NYPD's budget and minimal changes to CCRB's, DA's and mock j's budgets.
0:01:43
Today I'm interested in learning about NYPD's overtime spending habits, state and federal funding, new initiatives implemented by the department and the changes to the capital plan.
0:01:55
I'm eager to hear how the CCRB has carried out its mission and the budget request submitted by the board.
0:02:03
Additionally, I'm excited to learn about the priorities of our DA's and the SMP while addressing alternatives to incarceration policies, overtime budgeting, discovering discovery funding, and the decisions that are vital to lowering the incarceration population and achieving the city's goal of closing Rikers Island.
0:02:30
Hopefully, can work together to accomplish the changes needed throughout these agencies budgets.
0:02:36
There are many important budget actions in this plan and we hope to better understand them after this hearing.
0:02:44
The committee would also like to discuss these and other budgetary changes in the Adams administration's budget and their impact on public safety.
0:02:54
I look forward to our fruitful conversations with ongoing oversight hearings.
0:02:59
However, we have a lot of work ahead.
0:03:03
I look forward to hearing about the changes in this plan and getting updates on new programs and services for New Yorkers.
0:03:11
I also want to thank our Public Safety Committee chair staff rather for their hard work, Our financial analysts Owen Kotowski and Casey Lieske, policy analyst Chad Benjamin, counsel Jeremy Whiteman, and senior counsel Josh Kingsley.
0:03:34
I also want to thank my staff Omar Brown, Mufazu Hussein and Stephen Aileka.
0:03:41
I'd like to recognize my colleagues who are joining us today.
0:03:46
Deputy speaker Ayala, council members Marte, council members Holden, as of now.
0:03:57
I'd like to welcome commissioner Tisch and her leadership team who we will hear from first.
0:04:03
I'm now going to pass it back to our committee counsel for a few procedural items.
0:04:20
So welcome commissioner Tisch, Jessica Tisch, Joseph Kenny, Tariq Rahman, Kristen Christine Ryan, Tanya Kunzela, and Michael Gerber.