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Q&A
Detailed discussion on Brooklyn DA's rent costs and budget inequities
5:38:04
ยท
4 min
Council Member Restler engages in a detailed Q&A with DA Eric Gonzalez about the high rent costs for the Brooklyn DA's office and the resulting budget inequities compared to other boroughs. They discuss the impact on operations, staffing, and public safety initiatives.
- Restler highlights that Brooklyn spends significantly more on rent than other boroughs
- They discuss how the high rent affects the operating budget and limits expansion
- DA Gonzalez explains the historical context and ongoing challenges caused by the rent costs
Lincoln Restler
5:38:04
And so according to the testimony here, Queen spends $6,420,000 in rent, so Brooklyn spends four times more than Queens in rent.
5:38:12
Kings New York County spends $3,700,000 in rent, we spend about seven times as much as New York County in rent.
5:38:18
The Bronx spends $2,000,000 in rent, we spend 12 times more than The Bronx in rent.
5:38:23
And Richmond County spends 190,000.00, so we spend a 28 times more annually in rent in Brooklyn than we do in Staten Island.
5:38:32
There is no separate line item in your budget for rent.
5:38:35
Correct?
Robert F. Holden
5:38:36
That's correct.
Lincoln Restler
5:38:37
So if we take the $24,000,000 out of your budget from rent, there's a hundred and $24,000,000 left over.
5:38:44
Is that accurate?
Eric Gonzalez
5:38:47
Yes.
Lincoln Restler
5:38:48
So that is the same as The Bronx.
5:38:50
And district I'm not trying to take a penny away from district attorney Clark.
5:38:53
No.
5:38:54
I'm I would never ever ever do that.
Haydel Michel
5:38:55
You better not.
Lincoln Restler
5:38:56
I would never do that.
5:38:57
Althea and I are
Yusef Salaam
5:38:58
on the same team.
Lincoln Restler
5:39:00
But we're twice the population.
5:39:03
We have twice as many people, literally more than twice as many people as The Bronx, and we have the same operating budget when you take rent out of the equation as as The Bronx.
5:39:11
And in fact, if you look at Manhattan, and everyone knows we're the most populous borough, we have the most arrests, 72,000 arrests last year, is that right?
5:39:19
78,000.
5:39:20
70 eight, excuse me.
5:39:22
We get 46% less funding per felony arrest than Manhattan.
5:39:25
Is that right?
Eric Gonzalez
5:39:26
Yes.
Lincoln Restler
5:39:27
So and our head count is a 22 DAs a 22 ADAs lower than Manhattan.
5:39:33
Is that right?
Eric Gonzalez
5:39:34
Yes.
5:39:36
A budgeted head count.
Lincoln Restler
5:39:38
A budgeted head count, excuse me.
5:39:39
So this is totally unfair.
5:39:43
It deeply undermines safety and fairness in our borough.
5:39:47
When you ask OMB, you know, King's and for the record, for the background, district attorney's office moved into the office space you have as a way of advancing the commercial office space market in Downtown Brooklyn, right?
5:40:00
This was an economic development strategy?
Eric Gonzalez
5:40:01
Yes, in 1998.
Lincoln Restler
5:40:03
In 1998, '20 '7 odd years ago.
5:40:06
And we still need that help in the Downtown Brooklyn office market unfortunately.
5:40:09
But when we ask OMB for a separate line item to so that that this funding that we have to put into rent is not taking away from the costs and the expenses of operating your your your office, what do they say?
Eric Gonzalez
5:40:25
Well, in addition to that, the other space, city owned space that the DA's office had access to to kind of drive down some of the cost, the municipal building and others had been sold.
5:40:37
And so not only are we paying this tremendous, rent, and not, and it's hurting, really, the operating budget of the office because we're not receiving additional funding for that.
5:40:50
We have also, not been able to have enough space to do that.
5:40:59
We're caught in in this issue where we need to actually get more space because we've been limited to the space that had been provided.
Robert F. Holden
5:41:08
You don't
Lincoln Restler
5:41:08
have the money to pay for the space and you don't have the money to expand your headcount despite the obvious need and the clear unfairness and the inequity in funding compared to each of the other boroughs.
Eric Gonzalez
5:41:16
Yeah.
5:41:16
And I think that where you really start to see that is in, you know, the amount of dollars available per felony prosecutions.
5:41:23
The the county, not only handles the most number of arrests, but the most number of felony indictments, including the most violent felony indictments in this in the city and the state.
5:41:35
And so it's been a a hardship.
5:41:38
Historically, the broken DA's office pays the least in terms of starting salaries and in many other ways because this is how we try to negotiate the difference
Lincoln Restler
5:41:49
between This is 16, 17 percent of your total budget.
5:41:52
If that was freed up, what would you do to advance safety in our borough?
Eric Gonzalez
5:41:57
Well, headcount needs to go up.
5:41:59
It's all laid out in our written testimony.
5:42:01
We would obviously continue to fund these initiatives in our office that deal around issues of public safety.
5:42:10
The operational side of the office would work much better.
5:42:14
The budget crisis that we're in is something that I've testified about year after year, but the rent as the contract is renewed goes up.
5:42:27
And so we start to see a higher differential.
5:42:31
I think years ago, was about $10,000,000 that separated Brooklyn from Manhattan.
5:42:37
Today, after you take away the, you know, the funding for the rent, you know, that number is closer to $40,000,000.