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Council Member Avilés urges support for legislation on EDC project transparency
0:36:28
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128 sec
Council Member Alexa Avilés urges her colleagues to vote yes on Introductions 860 and 861, which aim to increase transparency and accountability for economic development projects led by the Economic Development Corporation (EDC). She emphasizes the importance of these bills in addressing challenges faced by communities when such projects are implemented without proper consideration or involvement.
- Intro 860 requires EDC contractors to publish annual reports on community hiring, including performance metrics and efforts to employ community members.
- Intro 861 mandates EDC to include details about community benefits agreements in its annual report, allowing for better monitoring of project impacts.
- Avilés highlights the need for these measures due to past unfulfilled promises and the varying nature of community benefits agreements across different communities.
Alexa Avilés
0:36:28
Thank you, majority leader.
0:36:30
I'm urging my colleagues to vote yes on two pieces of legislation, intro eight sixty and eight sixty one.
0:36:36
Both of these bills get to the heart of challenges faced by my community when economic development projects led by our city are dropped on us without care, consideration, or involvement.
0:36:48
Intro eight sixty will require entities that contract with the EDC to publish an annual report concerning community hiring.
0:36:56
For years, we have heard all EDC make promises to our communities touting an an opportunity for significant economic and workforce development opportunities and have yet to see so many of those promises materialize, including the thousands of jobs promised through the Made in New York project.
0:37:15
Intro eight sixty will make transparent key measurements around community hiring including performance metrics for community hiring compared to previous fiscal years and a description of efforts undertaken by the contracted entity to employ community members.
0:37:32
Through this legislation, we will have an ability to better monitor and understand how projects may contribute to or extract from our local growth and development.
0:37:42
Intro eight sixty one will require EDC to include in its annual report details regarding any community benefits agreement entered into that is purported to benefit residents impacted by an EDC project.
0:37:56
In order to advance these projects or spin a project favorably, in the press, EDC will often claim community benefit gains that will result from a CBA, often executed behind closed doors at times between parties who have no sense of the needs of our community.
0:38:14
This legislation will allow our community to keep a watchful eye on how benefits roll out and how projects compare, and most importantly, point out where relationships with our local community can be more reciprocal.
0:38:29
We have also noted that CBAs vary widely across community.
0:38:33
This is an issue of equity.
0:38:34
Thank you for your support.