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Council Member Lincoln Restler pays tribute to journalist Tom Robbins and introduces legislation on cooling-off period for city officials
1:16:05
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117 sec
Council Member Lincoln Restler pays tribute to the late journalist Tom Robbins, praising his investigative work and impact on journalism. He then introduces new legislation aimed at creating a cooling-off period for high-ranking city officials to prevent conflicts of interest when entering public service.
- Restler describes Tom Robbins as a tenacious and brilliant journalist who held power accountable
- The proposed legislation would prohibit senior city officials from determining policy related to their previous employers for two years
- The bill aims to close the "revolving door" between lobbying and public service, complementing earlier legislation addressing post-government employment
Lincoln Restler
1:16:05
Thank you very much, madam majority leader.
1:16:07
I firstly just wanna echo council member Brewer sentiments about the passing of Tom Robbins.
1:16:13
Tom was one of the truly great investigative journalists in our city.
1:16:18
For many years at the Village Voice, more recently at the city, he was behind that Eric Adams table of success linked all of the various corrupt actors in the Adams orbit to the mayor.
1:16:32
He was for many years a professor of journalism at at the CUNY journalism school.
1:16:38
He was the very first person to say to me that Adrian Adams should be our next mayor three years ago.
1:16:44
He was a tenacious, brilliant, and savvy journalist.
1:16:49
He held the powers that be accountable, and he will be missed dearly.
1:16:53
He was a constituent and somebody who I admired immensely.
1:16:57
I also am very proud to be introducing legislation today, of which the number I do not know, but the bill creates a cooling off period for the most powerful folks that enter into city service.
1:17:09
Essentially, this would prohibit employees with substantial policy making discretion, senior staff at city hall, agency heads, etcetera, from participating in determining policy for any previous employer that they had worked for for the previous two years.
1:17:23
It would apply to lobbyists and their clients, to law firms, and the the clients that lawyers represented.
1:17:29
It is important that we close the revolving door in city government between lobbying and public service, And we passed legislation earlier this year to shut the revolving door on the way out for people like Frank Caron when they leave city service, but it's important that we also shut that door for the people entering in so they don't do favors for the lobbying firms and the companies that they previously worked for when they enter into the public sector.
1:17:54
And I hope my colleagues will sponsor whatever the bill number is, and I trust you all will figure it out.
1:18:00
Thank you.
1:18:01
1295.