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Council Member Shaun Abreu nominates Julie Menin for Speaker
0:17:46
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3 min
Council Member Shaun Abreu formally nominated Julie Menin for Speaker of the New York City Council, highlighting her extensive record of public service and her transformative leadership as Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs.
- Abreu detailed Menin's work implementing the city's landmark paid sick leave law and expanding the agency's mission to include worker protections
- He noted her success in returning $260 million to low-income New Yorkers through a new earned income tax credit initiative
- The nomination highlighted the launch of NYC Kids Rise, which created universal college savings accounts for every kindergartner in the city
- Abreu emphasized her efforts in investigating predatory industries, including for-profit colleges and abusive debt collectors
Shaun Abreu
0:17:46
It is an honor to stand before you today for this historic moment.
0:17:50
I rise to nominate a leader, a friend, and a colleague to serve as the next speaker of the New York City Council, Julie Menon.
0:17:58
In 2015, I was 24 years old and working as a liaison for the city, meeting with workers across Manhattan to let them know about the new law that guaranteed them the right to take a sick day.
0:18:10
The person leading that work on behalf of mayor de Blasio was department of consumer affairs commissioner Julie Menon.
0:18:15
Yes.
0:18:15
She was my boss.
0:18:17
Today, most New Yorkers take for granted that we can take time from work for a doctor's appointment or to recover from an illness.
0:18:25
But that did not happen by accident.
0:18:27
It happened because of the leadership from a strong city council and people like Julie with a determination to fulfill the city's responsibility to stand up for New Yorkers.
0:18:35
As commissioner, Julie did not just enforce the laws.
0:18:38
She reimagined what the Department of Consumer Affairs could be.
0:18:42
She took an agency known primarily for issuing fines and transformed it into one into one that emphasized fairness and prevented abuses before they happened.
0:18:51
Under her leadership, the department instituted more than two dozen reforms that gave small businesses a chance to cure violations and dramatically increased consumer restitution, and she will be sure to remind you by more than 70%.
0:19:04
Julie also understood that consumer protection and worker protection are deeply connected.
0:19:09
Drawing on her experience as a regulatory attorney, she led the effort to expand the agency's mission to include worker protection.
0:19:16
In addition to paid sick leave, she launched and implemented landmark laws including the living wage, the car wash workers bill, and freelance isn't free act.
0:19:27
Those efforts fundamentally reshaped the agency into what we now know as a department of consumer and worker protection.
0:19:34
She paired strong enforcement with deep outreach.
0:19:37
When implementing paid sick leave, Julie made sure information was available in 26 languages far exceeding what the law required because she understood that rights only matter if people knew that they had them.
0:19:50
Under Julie Menon's leadership, no community is overlooked.
0:19:54
Julie also believed that enforcement should put real money back into people's pockets.
0:19:59
She launched a new earned income tax credit initiative that returned more than 260,000,000 to low income New Yorkers and expanded access to the city's free tax centers, resulting in a remarkable 50 increase in participation.
0:20:13
And she would be sure to remind you that we did that through the most unpresented phone a thon throughout our city.
0:20:19
Her leadership extended beyond immediate protections to long term opportunity as well.
0:20:24
As commissioner, she helped launch New York City Kids Rise, creating a universal college savings account for every new New York City kindergartner.
0:20:32
More than 280,000 children received accounts totaling over 50,000,000, a powerful statement about what we owe the next generation.
0:20:40
Most importantly, Julie Menon offers no quarter to those who wish to take advantage of New Yorkers for their own profit.
0:20:46
She led an investigations into for profit colleges, fraudulent auto loans, abusive debt collection practices, and illegal online sales showing that consumer protection can also be a matter of public safety.
0:21:00
This remarkable slice of Julie Menon's career somehow sandwiched between time spent running a small business and starting a family on one side and demonstrating exceptional leadership as a member of the city council on the other.
0:21:12
I'm proud to have known her then and now, and it is an honor to nominate Julie Menon to serve as the next speaker of the New York City Council.