Regular Session - February 28, 2018
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1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
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6
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8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 February 28, 2018
11 11:14 a.m.
12
13
14 REGULAR SESSION
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16
17
18 SENATOR THOMAS D. CROCI, Acting President
19 FRANCIS W. PATIENCE, Secretary
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The Senate
3 will come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 rise and recite with me the Pledge of Allegiance.
6 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
7 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
8 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: In the
9 absence of clergy, I would ask everyone to please
10 observe a moment of silence.
11 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
12 a moment of silence.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
14 reading of the Journal.
15 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, Tuesday,
16 February 27th, the Senate met pursuant to
17 adjournment. The Journal of Monday,
18 February 26th, was read and approved. On motion,
19 Senate adjourned.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Without
21 objection, the Journal stands approved as read.
22 Presentation of petitions.
23 Messages from the Assembly.
24 The Secretary will read.
25 THE SECRETARY: On page 10, Senator
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1 Alcantara moves to discharge, from the Committee
2 on Rules, Assembly Bill Number 9034 and
3 substitute it for the identical Senate Bill 7282,
4 Third Reading Calendar 10.
5 On page 10, Senator Kavanagh moves
6 to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
7 Assembly Bill Number 8986 and substitute it for
8 the identical Senate Bill 7284, Third Reading
9 Calendar 12.
10 On page 10, Senator Kavanagh moves
11 to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
12 Assembly Bill Number 8929 and substitute it for
13 the identical Senate Bill 7296, Third Reading
14 Calendar 24.
15 On page 10, Senator Croci moves to
16 discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
17 Assembly Bill Number 8919 and substitute it for
18 the identical Senate Bill 7315, Third Reading
19 Calendar 43.
20 And on page 41, Senator Murphy moves
21 to discharge, from the Committee on Commerce and
22 Economic Development, Assembly Bill Number 9052
23 and substitute it for the identical Senate Bill
24 7608, Third Reading Calendar 436.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
714
1 substitutions are ordered.
2 Messages from the Governor.
3 Reports of standing committees.
4 Reports of select committees.
5 Communications and reports from
6 state officers.
7 Motions and resolutions.
8 Senator DeFrancisco.
9 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes. On
10 page 32, I offer the following amendments to
11 Calendar Number 348, Senate Print 7372, by
12 Senator Gallivan, and ask that said bill retain
13 its place on the Third Reading Calendar.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
15 amendments are received, and the bill retains its
16 place on the Third Reading Calendar.
17 May we have some order in the house,
18 please. Thank you.
19 Senator DeFrancisco.
20 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I now move to
21 adopt the Resolution Calendar.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: All in
23 favor of adopting the Resolution Calendar signify
24 by saying aye.
25 (Response of "Aye.")
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Opposed,
2 nay.
3 (No response.)
4 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
5 Resolution Calendar is adopted.
6 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Could we now
7 take up previously adopted Resolution 3389, by
8 Senator Marchione, read the title only, and call
9 on Senator Marchione to speak.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
11 Secretary will read.
12 THE SECRETARY: Legislative
13 Resolution Number 3389, by Senator Marchione,
14 commending James W. Murphy upon the occasion of
15 his retirement after 28 years of distinguished
16 service as a Sergeant-at-Arms of the New York
17 State Senate.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
19 Marchione.
20 SENATOR MARCHIONE: Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 I rise to speak on my resolution
23 honoring James Murphy upon his retirement after
24 28 years of distinguished, honorable service as a
25 Sergeant-at-Arms here in the New York State
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1 Senate.
2 Mr. Murphy officially retired from
3 the position on Sunday, December 31, 2017, and we
4 have missed him ever since.
5 Growing up here in the Capital
6 Region, James Murphy graduated from Albany High
7 School, enlisted in the United States Marine
8 Corps, and valiantly served our country during
9 the Korean War.
10 Upon the completion of his military
11 services, James Murphy attended Siena College,
12 earning a bachelor of science degree in
13 accounting. James Murphy is married to Mary
14 Knapp, and they were married on May 31, 1958, and
15 raised three children.
16 Jim began his illustrious career as
17 a Sergeant-at-Arms here in the New York State
18 Senate in January of 1990, prior to which he
19 worked for the Internal Revenue Service for
20 27 years.
21 He is a devout member of his church
22 in Colonie, where he previously served as a
23 religious education leader. In addition, he was
24 a Little League coach in Colonie and an assistant
25 coach in East Greenbush. A true asset to his
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1 community, Jim Murphy is a member of the American
2 Legion, and he served as post commander three
3 times.
4 With Jim throughout of course have
5 been his wife, Mary, and their three children,
6 James E., Dolores and Ann, and a grandson, Ryan
7 James.
8 In his capacity as Sergeant-at-Arms,
9 James Murphy always served this body, this
10 chamber with loyalty, honor and distinction. He
11 helped ensure that the New York State Senate
12 remained true to its traditions and time-honored
13 commitment to democracy and serving every citizen
14 of our great state.
15 Strength, leadership, and
16 commitment: These were the hallmarks of James
17 Murphy's lifetime of service and dedication to
18 others as Senate Sergeant-at-Arms.
19 Jim is joining us today, he is on
20 the Senate floor, and I would ask him to rise.
21 Mr. President and my colleagues, please join me
22 as we congratulate our good friend Jim Murphy on
23 his retirement after 28 years of distinguished
24 service.
25 (Standing ovation.)
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1 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
2 Breslin.
3 SENATOR BRESLIN: Thank you very
4 much, Mr. President.
5 It's a wonderful pleasure to stand
6 up and salute my dear friend of many years, Jim
7 Murphy, who has an extraordinary background and
8 an exemplary career here among us for 28 years.
9 And Jim and I had the pleasure of
10 sitting next to each other at Siena games. I
11 tended to be, at times, a legal advisor. And we
12 shared many, many stories together. And he
13 invited me to be the speaker at the Retired
14 Internal Revenue Agents Society -- a very
15 exciting group, I might add.
16 (Laughter.)
17 SENATOR BRESLIN: But I have never
18 seen anyone on this floor do what you've done on
19 a daily basis, Jim, to in a quiet way show your
20 integrity, show your professionalism, and be the
21 role model for what should happen on this floor.
22 It is such an honor to see you here
23 with your wife, Mary, and the three kids.
24 Generally I see the kids at Siena games as we
25 walk out after another defeat.
719
1 (Laughter.)
2 SENATOR BRESLIN: But you being
3 here, I think every one of the Sergeant-at-Arms
4 are saluting the fact that you represent them.
5 Congratulations. Godspeed.
6 (Applause.)
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
8 and fellow Marine Senator Sanders.
9 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you,
10 Mr. President.
11 I hold in my hand a direct order
12 from the Governor overturning this retirement.
13 (Laughter.)
14 SENATOR SANDERS: With the
15 permission of the Governor, we love you so much,
16 Jim, that we have decided that you will go back
17 and have to do another 28 years. At base pay.
18 (Laughter.)
19 SENATOR SANDERS: So since I don't
20 believe that you will accept that order, sir, I'm
21 really glad to have had the pleasure of knowing
22 your company and knowing that we are in a much
23 safer place with a fellow Marine making sure that
24 there is order in this body.
25 We will miss you. Make sure that
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1 you come back. Make sure that you send others to
2 try to take your place, although that's
3 impossible. We love you madly.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
5 Savino.
6 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you,
7 Mr. President.
8 I too rise to offer my
9 congratulations to Murph on his 40-some-odd years
10 of service to the people of the State of New
11 York, but particularly to the members of this
12 chamber.
13 You know, when you first get elected
14 to the Senate and you come in the door, you learn
15 all sorts of customs that are here and present in
16 this chamber, and one of them of course is all of
17 our Sergeants-at-Arms who take care of us and
18 treat us with such respect.
19 And I'm so proud to see your family
20 here today, because your home family gets to meet
21 your work family. We have such tremendous
22 respect for you, and love and affection.
23 And I hope that you will, after
24 today, remember every day that you served here.
25 Some days were tough, some days we were hard to
721
1 corral, and for that I apologize, every time you
2 had to come and look for me or say, "Senator, we
3 need you in the chamber."
4 But we're going to miss you. And
5 you know that you have served us so well and done
6 a tremendous service to the people of the State
7 of New York. Congratulations on your retirement.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
9 DeFrancisco.
10 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes, I just
11 want to rise briefly to make sure you truly
12 understand this, is that there's been rumors that
13 the Governor tries to prevent people from
14 leaving. And Senator Sanders --
15 (Laughter.)
16 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: -- Senator
17 Sanders was just kidding. You can retire if
18 you'd like to retire.
19 Number two, as far as the IRS Agents
20 Society when Senator Breslin spoke, you never
21 told him that they were doing an audit at that
22 time, did you? Well, he fell right into it.
23 But seriously, you have been a great
24 person to be here. Friendly but firm when you
25 had to be, a true gentleman to everybody trying
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1 to enter this chambers and those who have been in
2 this chambers.
3 So I just want to wish you the best
4 of luck in your future endeavors. And I
5 understand it's your 60th wedding anniversary in
6 May, did I hear right? Sixtieth. God bless both
7 of you.
8 (Applause.)
9 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: And many,
10 many more. Enjoy your retirement life together.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
12 Serino.
13 SENATOR SERINO: Thank you,
14 Mr. Chairman.
15 Jim, it is so great to see you here
16 today. And I just want to say a personal thank
17 you to you for helping me navigate the waters
18 when I was a newbie, as many of us were.
19 You were always so kind. We had a
20 lot of laughs. And it's so nice to see your
21 family and meet your family today.
22 So I just want to say thank you, we
23 all love you, and God bless.
24 Thank you.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Murph, to
723
1 you and to your entire family, you have the
2 gratitude and appreciation of this chamber and
3 its members, and also the gratitude of the state
4 and the country for all of your years of public
5 service.
6 I'd ask the chamber to please rise
7 and celebrate one more time.
8 (Extended standing ovation.)
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: And while
10 this chamber -- our protocol does not reverse for
11 anyone, it does for the Leader. I think that the
12 Majority Leader, Senator Flanagan, would like to
13 speak.
14 Senator Flanagan.
15 SENATOR FLANAGAN: Yes, thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 I apologize. As I am wont to do, I
18 walked in the door late.
19 Mr. Murphy, I heard the comments
20 being made about you. Here's what I know. I
21 like you because you're Irish, that's inherent.
22 And I'm not going for apologize for that.
23 Your wife is actually going to find
24 out whether or not she really likes you in
25 retirement.
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1 But most important, the thing I
2 think of when I think of you is not only
3 impeccable, quality service, the one word that
4 comes to mind, sticks in the forefront of my
5 head, you are a gentleman. You are a true
6 gentleman, and I just wanted to add my voice and
7 say thank you.
8 (Applause.)
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
10 DeFrancisco.
11 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes. With
12 respect to that, I'll take the liberty of
13 suggesting that that resolution will be
14 cosponsored by everyone. If you don't want to
15 be, please notify the desk.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
17 resolution is open for cosponsorship. If you do
18 not wish to be a cosponsor, please notify the
19 desk.
20 Senator DeFrancisco.
21 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I believe
22 there's a handup making the following committee
23 assignments for February 28, 2018, pursuant to
24 Rule 8, Section 1(C).
25 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
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1 handups are received and will be filed with the
2 clerk.
3 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can we now
4 have an immediate meeting of the Rules Committee
5 in Room 332.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: There will
7 be an immediate meeting of the Rules Committee in
8 Room 332.
9 The Senate will stand at ease.
10 (Whereupon, the Senate stood at ease
11 at 11:29 a.m.)
12 (Whereupon, the Senate reconvened at
13 11:37 a.m.)
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The Senate
15 will come to order.
16 Senator DeFrancisco.
17 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes, is there
18 a Rules Committee report at the desk?
19 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Stand by.
20 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: If not, we
21 can go on to some other business.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
23 DeFrancisco, we do not yet have the official
24 report from the Rules Committee.
25 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Okay, then
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1 can we take up previously adopted Resolution
2 3134, by Senator Marchione, read the title only,
3 and call on Senator Marchione to speak.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
5 Secretary will read.
6 THE SECRETARY: Legislative
7 Resolution Number 3134, by Senator Marchione,
8 memorializing Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to
9 proclaim March 2018 as American Red Cross Month
10 in the State of New York.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
12 Marchione.
13 And may we have some order in the
14 Senate for Senator Marchione.
15 SENATOR MARCHIONE: Thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 I rise to speak on my resolution
18 memorializing the Governor to proclaim March as
19 American Red Cross Month here in New York State.
20 For more than 70 years, presidents
21 and governors have proudly recognized March as
22 American Red Cross Month. The American Red Cross
23 celebrates everyday heroes who work tirelessly in
24 times of disaster to offer the comfort of a
25 helping hand.
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1 For over a century, the American Red
2 Cross, along with its many donors, volunteers and
3 employees, have shared a common mission, a sense
4 of purpose, preventing and relieving suffering
5 here at home and around the world through their
6 disaster relief. They are usually one of the
7 first on-scene to provide food, shelter,
8 clothing, and friendly faces of support.
9 Proclaiming March 2018 as American
10 Red Cross Month here in New York State expresses
11 our thanks and appreciation for the countless
12 good works of the American Red Cross and the
13 millions of people it has helped during times of
14 crisis.
15 Thank you, Mr. President.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
17 DeFrancisco.
18 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: It's already
19 been voted on from a prior session.
20 All right, in that case can we now
21 take up previously adopted Resolution 3414, by
22 me, title only, and please call on me to speak.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: And the
24 previous resolution will be open for
25 cosponsorship. If you would like to be a
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1 cosponsor, notify the desk.
2 The Secretary will read.
3 THE SECRETARY: Legislative
4 Resolution Number 3414, by Senator DeFrancisco,
5 congratulating the Skaneateles Varsity Football
6 Team upon the occasion of capturing of the
7 New York State Public High School Athletic
8 Association Class C Championship, the school's
9 first-ever state championship in the sport.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
11 DeFrancisco.
12 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Thank you,
13 Mr. President.
14 We have the Skaneateles Football
15 Team here. They were the Class C football
16 champions. Did I hear it's the first state
17 championship in the school's history of any
18 sport? That's pretty good. That's really good.
19 And I hear all of you are also
20 excellent students. A lot of these names we're
21 not reading, but you'll each get a copy of the
22 resolution, and it's an impressive group of
23 individuals.
24 And I know the coach, and I know the
25 coach's father and probably his grandfather. And
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1 I want to be very complimentary to him; he's
2 recently gone to coach there. And I know the
3 assistant coaches had a lot to do with it, but
4 what a wonderful job you've done under a very
5 difficult situation.
6 And each of the students and each of
7 the players, I understand, know what team ball
8 is, and that's going to bode well for all of you
9 for the rest of your lives.
10 And I say this to every group that
11 comes in in a championship team, and I hope that
12 other Senators will bear with me, but I think
13 it's important. The people you're with today
14 you're going to be friends with for the rest of
15 your life. You've experienced something that
16 very few people experience.
17 The only thing that's going to
18 change as you get older, your tackles will have
19 been harder, your runs will have been longer, the
20 pass receptions will be by one finger, not two
21 hands. You'll embellish things as you go along.
22 And the best part of it is your teammates will
23 know you're embellishing it and you'll enjoy that
24 camaraderie.
25 To this day, my high school class
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1 goes golfing once a year in North Carolina. And
2 we're just as good friends as we were in the
3 past.
4 So enjoy this experience.
5 Congratulations. And there's going to be pizza
6 in my office. And I know you're hungry. I might
7 not be there when you start, but I'll try to get
8 there before you finish.
9 So congratulations. Thank you all
10 for being here. And enjoy this wonderful
11 experience, a lifetime experience.
12 Thank you, Mr. President.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: To the
14 Skaneateles Varsity Football Team and to their
15 coach, congratulations on your state
16 championship. You have all the privileges and
17 courtesies and congratulations of this house.
18 We'd ask you now to please stand and
19 be recognized.
20 (Standing ovation.)
21 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO:
22 Mr. President, is there a Rules Committee report
23 at the desk?
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Yes, sir.
25 Senator DeFrancisco, is this
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1 resolution open for cosponsorship?
2 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Absolutely.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: So this
4 resolution will be open for cosponsorship. If
5 you would like to be a cosponsor, please notify
6 the desk.
7 And we do have a Rules Committee
8 report before the house.
9 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Move to
10 accept the report of the Rules Committee.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
12 Secretary will read.
13 THE SECRETARY: Senator Flanagan,
14 from the Committee on Rules, reports the
15 following bills:
16 Senate Print 761, by Senator Little,
17 an act to amend the Environmental Conservation
18 Law;
19 Senate 1355B, by Senator Tedisco, an
20 act to amend the Education Law;
21 Senate 5788, by Senator Klein, an
22 act to amend the Public Housing Law;
23 And Senate 7409, by Senator Krueger,
24 an act to amend the Public Health Law.
25 All bills reported direct to third
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1 reading.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The Floor
3 Leader having so moved, all in favor of accepting
4 the report of the Rules Committee please signify
5 by saying aye.
6 (Response of "Aye.")
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Opposed,
8 nay.
9 (No response.)
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The report
11 is accepted.
12 Senator DeFrancisco.
13 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can we now
14 take up the noncontroversial reading of the daily
15 calendar.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
17 Secretary will read.
18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9,
19 by Senator Bailey, Senate Print 7281, an act to
20 amend the Correction Law.
21 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO:
22 Mr. President, before we continue, I'd like to
23 take one bill out of order. Maybe two.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: So that
25 bill will be laid aside temporarily.
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1 Senator DeFrancisco.
2 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can we take
3 up Calendar Number 377, by Senator Larkin.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
5 Secretary will read.
6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
7 377, by Senator Larkin, Senate Print 6963, an act
8 to amend the Public Health Law.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
10 Gianaris.
11 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
12 believe you have an amendment at the desk. I ask
13 that the reading of the amendment be waived and
14 that we may be heard on the amendment.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
16 Gianaris, I've reviewed your amendment and the
17 rule, and it is not germane at this time to the
18 bill and is therefore out of order.
19 The subject of the bill before the
20 house is organ donation. Your bill's subject is
21 therefore not germane, and the amendment is not
22 germane.
23 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
24 the bill also relates to hunting, which obviously
25 involves firearms.
734
1 But I would like to appeal your
2 decision in any event, and I would ask that
3 Senator Kavanagh be heard and then there will be
4 a handful of members after Senator Kavanagh that
5 would also like to be heard on the appeal.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
7 Kavanagh.
8 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Thank you,
9 Mr. President.
10 The shooting at Marjory Stoneman
11 Douglas High School has once again brought our
12 nation's gun violence epidemic into full view.
13 And even though New York has the third-lowest
14 rate of gun-related death in the United States,
15 and even though we have strong laws and we have
16 effective policing and we have community-based
17 programs intended to prevent gun violence, we are
18 not immune.
19 Each year, Mr. President, roughly
20 900 New Yorkers are killed by guns.
21 Mr. President, that is 900 too many. And today
22 we're talking about several important steps we
23 can take to bring that number down.
24 Five years ago, in the wake of
25 another school shooting and in the wake of a
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1 violent incident in Webster, New York, in which
2 our first responders were specifically targeted,
3 members of this house and the other house of the
4 Legislature and the Governor came together to
5 pass the SAFE Act.
6 We instituted background checks on
7 all gun buyers, we instituted an effective ban on
8 high-capacity ammunition magazines, we outlawed
9 the sale of certain dangerous assault weapons
10 that the Legislature deemed appropriate to
11 outlaw, and we included many other provisions
12 like additional funding for school safety.
13 It was not a perfect bill, but it
14 has served us well. And the sky did not fall,
15 Mr. President. The police did not go door to
16 door taking hunters' guns. The right of
17 New Yorkers to have guns to defend their homes
18 was not infringed. New Yorkers' rights were
19 protected, and so were their lives.
20 Today we have the opportunity to do
21 that again, to come together for the greater good
22 and pass a common-sense law that will save lives.
23 The law I'm talking about, Mr. President, creates
24 extreme risk protection orders and empowers
25 family members and police to stop gun violence.
736
1 I'm proud to sponsor that bill in this chamber
2 with Senator Brad Hoylman, the coprime sponsor.
3 Here's how the bill works. The sad
4 truth is that people close to those who commit
5 gun violence often see warning signs before the
6 tragedy occurs, and they are powerless to
7 intervene. The teenager who's been arrested for
8 the shooting in Parkland, Florida, had left
9 threatening social media posts. He'd had dozens
10 of contacts with law enforcement, and he had a
11 history of violence. People reached out to the
12 authorities several times, but they did nothing.
13 It is appropriate for us to have a
14 conversation about what law enforcement may or
15 should have done in that situation, but it's
16 unclear that there was much they could have done
17 under current law.
18 If legislation like the bill we're
19 proposing today had been in place, people would
20 have been able to present evidence to a judge,
21 prove that this individual was likely to harm
22 others, and take real action to prevent this
23 tragedy by restricting his access to guns.
24 Similar to orders of protection,
25 extreme risk protection orders can be requested
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1 by family members, household members and law
2 enforcement, and they respect New Yorker's due
3 process rights while allowing a judge to
4 temporarily limit an individual's access to guns.
5 To issue an emergency ERPO order
6 requiring someone to surrender their guns and
7 prohibiting them from purchasing guns, a judge
8 must find there is probable cause someone is
9 likely to harm themselves or others. That's a
10 high standard.
11 After that emergency order is
12 issued, the respondent is entitled to a hearing
13 within three to six business days. At that
14 hearing, to keep the order in place the judge
15 would have to rule that there is clear and
16 convincing evidence that the respondent is likely
17 to harm themselves or others.
18 And even when a judge issues a
19 year-long extreme risk protection order, the
20 respondent is entitled to another hearing during
21 that year to contest the order. And unless that
22 order is renewed by a judge who finds in a new
23 hearing that the danger hasn't dissipated, the
24 order expires after 12 months.
25 Connecticut, Indiana, California,
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1 Washington and Oregon have enacted similar laws,
2 and they've withstood legal challenges. And they
3 work. A peer-reviewed study by researchers from
4 Duke University found that the Connecticut law
5 led to a measurable reduction in the state's
6 suicide rate. For every 10 to 20 risk warrants
7 issued in Connecticut, one life was saved and
8 many other violent incidents were avoided. And
9 roughly one-third of those who received ERPOs in
10 Connecticut received mental health services after
11 the order was issued.
12 Mr. President, we have an
13 opportunity to save lives by enacting this law.
14 That's why it's gaining momentum. Just
15 yesterday -- you know, the Assembly passed it
16 last year, and just yesterday the Assembly Codes
17 Committee, Republicans and Democrats, voted to
18 approve this bill unanimously and send it to the
19 floor of the Assembly.
20 Twenty-eight Senators, including
21 Senator Hoylman and myself, have signed on as
22 sponsors. And the law has been endorsed by a
23 coalition of organizations including New Yorkers
24 Against Gun Violence, Giffords: Courage to Fight
25 Gun Violence, Every Town for Gun Safety, Moms
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1 Demand Action, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
2 Violence, the Citizens Crime Commission of
3 New York City, the Coalition to Stop Gun
4 Violence, and Prosecutors Against Gun Violence,
5 cochaired by our own Cy Vance.
6 Here in New York we've stepped up
7 before to save lives taken by preventable gun
8 violence and the extraordinary number of injuries
9 caused by gun violence, and we must do it again.
10 Thank you.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
12 Hoylman to be heard on the appeal.
13 SENATOR HOYLMAN: Thank you,
14 Mr. President.
15 I rise in support of the amendment
16 and wanted to first thank our leader, Andrea
17 Stewart-Cousins, for her courage and
18 forthrightness on the issue of sensible gun laws,
19 and my colleague Brian Kavanagh, who's a national
20 leader on the issue.
21 You know, we also have to thank the
22 students of Stoneman Douglas High School in
23 Parkland, Florida, who today, for the first time
24 since that massacre on February 14th, returned to
25 school. And we have to admire their courage for
740
1 standing up to the NRA, to the trolls on social
2 media, to right-wing conspiracy theorists and
3 even the president of the United States.
4 But Parkland is just the latest mass
5 shooting. There have been 30 since 2018. And
6 with each mass shooting, we tend to become numb
7 to the horrors of the previous one, including the
8 mass shooting in Las Vegas last year, where 58
9 people died and 851 individuals were wounded, the
10 deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
11 Well, in that massacre, the shooter
12 used a device called a bump stock. And a bump
13 stock is just a piece of plastic which attaches
14 to the stock and pistol grip of a semiautomatic
15 rifle and turns it into a machine gun. That
16 allowed him to kill individuals at a rate of 400
17 to 600 rounds a minute.
18 These devices are illegal to use in
19 New York State, but because of a loophole in our
20 state law, they're legal to own, they're legal to
21 sell, they're legal to buy on the Internet,
22 they're legal to transport in the back of your
23 car. The loophole doesn't make any sense. There
24 would be no reason to own a bump stock if not to
25 use it.
741
1 President Trump says he'll close the
2 loophole on the bump stock, but it's been four
3 months since Las Vegas. We can't trust him.
4 Congress says they'll close the bump
5 stock loophole, but it's been four months and
6 they've been gutless in the face of the National
7 Rifle Association.
8 It's up to us in New York. We
9 should spit in the face of the NRA today and ban
10 bump stocks once and for all through this
11 amendment.
12 If we can't ban a piece of plastic,
13 we have failed the kids in Parkland, we've failed
14 our own children, we have failed every victim of
15 gun violence in this country.
16 Thank you, Mr. President.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
18 Persaud to be heard on the appeal.
19 SENATOR PERSAUD: Thank you,
20 Mr. President.
21 This amendment would create the New
22 York State Firearm Violence Research Institute
23 that would operate under the auspices of SUNY,
24 where they would study this epidemic.
25 Firearm violence in our community is
742
1 a healthcare epidemic. The research would
2 provide invaluable resources to the Governor, our
3 Legislature, and any agency that needs
4 information on how to formulate new responses to
5 this epidemic.
6 Gun violence in the United States is
7 a public health problem. Actually, Monday
8 evening in my district, a 9-year-old was shot in
9 the head. So we see what it can do.
10 Unfortunately, the federal
11 government prohibits the Center for Disease
12 Control from treating this as such. The 1996
13 Dickey Amendment pushed by the NRA forbade the
14 CDC from using money to advocate or promote this
15 research.
16 Gun violence -- the research must
17 continue. The federal level cannot do it. We
18 must do it at the state level. The federal
19 research ban makes no sense.
20 In 2016, 141 organizations,
21 including the American Medical Association and
22 the American Association for the Advancement of
23 Science, sent a letter to Congress asking them to
24 lift that ban. They have not. They continue to
25 just turn a blind eye.
743
1 Even the sponsor of the amendment,
2 Jay Dickey from Arkansas, wrote an op-ed in the
3 Washington Post asking for this to be lifted and
4 regretting his decision that he had made.
5 Unfortunately, we cannot count on
6 the Congress to put public safety first and give
7 funds to the CDC. Luckily, we can do that. We
8 can allow SUNY to conduct the research for us so
9 that we can understand what is the issue, the
10 underlying issue that's causing gun violence in
11 our communities.
12 This legislation would put New York
13 State in a leadership role when it comes to
14 public health and gun safety. It would not
15 impede on anybody's rights and would not create
16 any additional burdens on anyone.
17 Again, I ask my colleagues to think
18 of this the same way we're looking at other
19 issues right now. The same way we're looking at
20 the opioid issue right now and saying it's a
21 health epidemic, we must look at gun violence in
22 our communities as a health epidemic. We must
23 fund a research institute so that we can
24 eliminate this issue of gun violence in our
25 communities.
744
1 Again, thank you all for your
2 support.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
4 Gianaris to be heard on the appeal.
5 SENATOR GIANARIS: Thank you,
6 Mr. President.
7 You heard from my colleagues that
8 these are some very reasonable commonsense
9 proposals that I would be hard-pressed to find an
10 argument against. But I want to talk about the
11 broader approach to this important issue for a
12 second, because we also hear a lot about safety
13 at locations, hardening locations. And there's
14 certainly room for dialogue on that issue, and
15 I'm sure we will have it.
16 But we have to cross a line in our
17 thinking, not only in this state but in the
18 country, which is that guns make more killings
19 more likely even if the person is dangerous
20 himself or herself. Okay? It is the weapon
21 itself that allows even more people to be killed.
22 So yes, people kill people, but guns
23 do kill people too, and guns kill more people
24 than a person with a fist or a person with a
25 knife. And if we don't reach that conclusion,
745
1 we're just going to be lamenting more and more
2 deaths -- deaths of children, deaths of
3 churchgoers, deaths of moviegoers.
4 And are we going to just chase the
5 location of choice of the latest massacre? So
6 now we're going to harden schools. Which maybe
7 we should do, and we should certainly have that
8 conversation. Are we going to harden our movie
9 theaters? Because there was a mass shooting at a
10 movie theater a while ago. Are we going to
11 harden our churches? Because there was a mass
12 killing at a church in South Carolina. Are we
13 just going to have armed guards everywhere in the
14 state at every location, trying to predict where
15 the next mass shooting is going to be?
16 How about we take the shooting out
17 of the mass shooting and take guns away from
18 people who shouldn't have them.
19 You've heard about Senator
20 Kavanagh's proposal, which is being embraced by
21 the governor of Florida. No progressive is he,
22 as you probably know. You have heard about
23 Senator Hoylman's proposal to ban bump stocks,
24 whose only purpose can be to kill even more
25 people. And you heard from Senator Persaud about
746
1 simply asking for a study to find out what other
2 measures we could take to make people safe.
3 I have a proposal as well to make
4 background checks better. Right now, if someone
5 applies for a gun and a background check is not
6 completed within three days, they are authorized
7 to purchase that gun without a background check.
8 And lest you think that's a rare occurrence, it
9 happened over 300,000 times in 2016 alone, which
10 is the most recent year for which we have data.
11 I referenced the church shooting in
12 South Carolina. Dylann Roof, who was the
13 perpetrator there, got his weapon because the
14 three-day period lapsed and he was authorized --
15 even though he had a record that probably would
16 have kept him from buying the weapon in the first
17 place.
18 Why in God's name would someone need
19 a weapon so quickly that they can't wait a
20 week and a half or two weeks to get it for a
21 background check to be completed? What is it
22 about the next three days where they absolutely
23 have to have a gun? Maybe it's because they want
24 to do something they shouldn't be doing.
25 And by the way, if a background
747
1 check is not completed within those three days,
2 it likely means there was a flag on the
3 application which requires further study. So the
4 fact that we would allow those people to get the
5 guns, they tend to be the people we should be
6 prohibiting from getting the guns.
7 Now look, this is just mind-boggling
8 to me how we could watch our children die and
9 we're sitting here making excuses, trying to
10 divert the public by talking about making
11 locations safer instead of making people safer.
12 So I encourage my colleagues to step
13 up and do the right thing. Enough with the
14 absolutism around the Second Amendment. Yes, we
15 have a Second Amendment. Yes, we respect it.
16 But again, to cite probably one of your favorite
17 leaders in the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia made
18 a point in saying that yes, we can have
19 reasonable regulations on firearms, and we
20 should.
21 You want to disagree with Justice
22 Scalia? You want to be to the right of Justice
23 Scalia? You want to be to the right of Governor
24 Scott in Florida? Be my guest. But you are
25 doing a disservice to the people of this state,
748
1 and those that agree with you are doing a
2 disservice to the people of this country in not
3 moving forward on this important issue.
4 Thank you, Mr. President.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Seeing no
6 other Senator wishing to speak, the question is
7 on the overruling of the chair. All those in
8 favor of overruling the chair please signify by
9 saying aye.
10 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President,
11 on this important issue I think people deserve to
12 know where everyone stands, so I call for a show
13 of hands.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: A show of
15 hands has been requested. All those in favor of
16 overruling the chair please raise your hand.
17 The ruling of the chair stands.
18 I'm sorry, announce the results.
19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 29.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The ruling
21 of the chair stands.
22 The Secretary will read the last
23 section.
24 THE SECRETARY: Section 5. This
25 act shall take effect immediately.
749
1 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
2 roll.
3 (The Secretary called the roll.)
4 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
6 is passed.
7 Senator DeFrancisco.
8 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can we now
9 take up Calendar Number 17, by Senator Croci.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
11 Secretary will read.
12 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 17,
13 by Senator Croci, Senate Print 7289, an act to
14 amend the Military Law.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
16 last section.
17 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
18 act shall take effect immediately.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
20 roll.
21 (The Secretary called the roll.)
22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
24 is passed.
25 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can we now
750
1 take up Calendar 34, please.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
3 Secretary will read.
4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 34,
5 by Senator Helming, Senate Print 7306, an act to
6 amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
8 last section.
9 THE SECRETARY: Section 6. This
10 act shall take effect immediately.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
12 roll.
13 (The Secretary called the roll.)
14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
16 is passed.
17 Senator DeFrancisco.
18 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can we now go
19 to Calendar Number 9 at the beginning of the
20 calendar and complete the calendar in order.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Very well.
22 The Secretary will read.
23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 9,
24 by Senator Bailey, Senate Print 7281, an act to
25 amend the Correction Law.
751
1 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
2 last section.
3 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
4 act shall take effect immediately.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
6 roll.
7 (The Secretary called the roll.)
8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
10 is passed.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 10,
12 substituted earlier by Member of the Assembly
13 Gottfried, Assembly Print 9034, an act to amend
14 the Social Services Law.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
16 last section.
17 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
18 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
19 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
21 roll.
22 (The Secretary called the roll.)
23 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
25 is passed.
752
1 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 12,
2 substituted earlier by Member of the Assembly
3 Glick, Assembly Print 8986, an act to amend the
4 Public Authorities Law.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
6 last section.
7 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
8 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
9 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
11 roll.
12 (The Secretary called the roll.)
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
14 Kavanagh.
15 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Thank you,
16 Mr. President. Just to briefly explain my vote.
17 This bill is a chapter amendment to
18 a bill that was passed last year that's vitally
19 important to the residents of the Lower Manhattan
20 neighborhood of Battery Park City. The bill
21 ensures that there will be local representation
22 on that board, a cornerstone of our democracy.
23 The bill -- in addition, this
24 amendment adds some provisions about what the
25 qualifications of those members are. It's an
753
1 important part of a three-way agreement to get
2 this done.
3 And I just want to thank
4 Assemblywoman Glick, who has already passed this
5 bill in the Assembly, and my predecessor, Senator
6 Daniel Squadron, who fought long and hard for
7 this. And I'll vote in the affirmative.
8 Thank you.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
10 Kavanagh to be recorded in the affirmative.
11 Announce the result.
12 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
14 is passed.
15 Senator Gianaris.
16 SENATOR GIANARIS: Mr. President, I
17 just want to recognize to my colleagues that that
18 was Senator Kavanagh's first bill to pass the
19 Senate.
20 (Applause.)
21 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
22 Secretary will read.
23 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 24,
24 substituted earlier by Member of the Assembly
25 Rozic, Assembly Print 8929, an act to amend the
754
1 Civil Service Law.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
3 last section.
4 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
5 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
6 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
8 roll.
9 (The Secretary called the roll.)
10 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 58. Nays, 1.
11 Senator Ortt recorded in the negative.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
13 is passed.
14 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 43,
15 substituted earlier by Member of the Assembly
16 Thiele, Assembly Print 8919, an act to amend the
17 General Municipal Law.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
19 last section.
20 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
21 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
22 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
24 roll.
25 (The Secretary called the roll.)
755
1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
3 is passed.
4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 46,
5 by Senator Griffo, Senate Print 7318, an act to
6 amend the Public Service Law.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
8 last section.
9 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
10 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
11 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
13 roll.
14 (The Secretary called the roll.)
15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
17 is passed.
18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 49,
19 by Senator Griffo, Senate Print 7321, an act to
20 amend the Public Authorities Law.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
22 last section.
23 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
24 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
25 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
756
1 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
2 roll.
3 (The Secretary called the roll.)
4 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
6 is passed.
7 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 50,
8 by Senator Alcantara, Senate Print 7322, an act
9 to amend the Mental Hygiene Law.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
11 last section.
12 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
13 act shall take effect immediately.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
15 roll.
16 (The Secretary called the roll.)
17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
19 is passed.
20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 59,
21 by Senator Golden, Senate Print 7331, an act to
22 amend the Administrative Code of the City of
23 New York.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
25 last section.
757
1 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
2 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
3 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
5 roll.
6 (The Secretary called the roll.)
7 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
9 is passed.
10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 61,
11 by Senator Montgomery, Senate Print 7333, an act
12 to amend the Executive Law.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
14 last section.
15 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
16 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
17 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
19 roll.
20 (The Secretary called the roll.)
21 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
23 is passed.
24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 90,
25 by Senator Klein, Senate Print 1989, an act to
758
1 amend the Public Housing Law.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
3 last section.
4 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
5 act shall take effect on the 30th day.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
7 roll.
8 (The Secretary called the roll.)
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
10 Klein.
11 SENATOR KLEIN: Thank you,
12 Mr. President.
13 This is the first of two bills that
14 hopefully will pass the Senate today dealing with
15 the crisis which is the New York City Housing
16 Authority. This legislation would allow
17 oversight by the New York City Council to oversee
18 the over 400,000 tenants that live in NYCHA
19 housing.
20 Unfortunately, right now where the
21 City Council has the ability to have oversight
22 and hearings for various city agencies, being
23 that NYCHA is chartered by the state -- even
24 though every member of the NYCHA board, including
25 the chair, is appointed by the City of New
759
1 York -- the City Council has no oversight.
2 This bill came at the request of the
3 former chair of the Public Housing Committee in
4 the City Council, Ritchie Torres. And I think
5 now that NYCHA is in crisis, we certainly need as
6 much oversight as possible, and it only makes
7 sense for the local City Council to be able to
8 have that oversight.
9 So I of course urge my colleagues to
10 vote yes, and of course I'm voting yes,
11 Mr. President.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
13 Klein to be recorded in the affirmative.
14 Announce the result.
15 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
17 is passed.
18 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
19 197, by Senator Young, Senate Print 3939A, an act
20 to amend the Public Health Law.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
22 last section.
23 THE SECRETARY: Section 4. This
24 act shall take effect immediately.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
760
1 roll.
2 (The Secretary called the roll.)
3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
5 is passed.
6 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
7 253, by Senator Funke, Senate Print 940A, an act
8 to amend the General Municipal Law.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
10 last section.
11 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
12 act shall take effect immediately.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
14 roll.
15 (The Secretary called the roll.)
16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
18 is passed.
19 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
20 298, by Senator Croci, Senate Print 939, an act
21 to amend the Civil Service Law.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
23 last section.
24 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
25 act shall take effect on the 90th day.
761
1 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
2 roll.
3 (The Secretary called the roll.)
4 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
6 is passed.
7 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
8 420, by Senator Ranzenhofer, Senate Print 3236,
9 an act to amend the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
11 last section.
12 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
13 act shall take effect on the 120th day.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
15 roll.
16 (The Secretary called the roll.)
17 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
19 is passed.
20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
21 436, substituted earlier by Member of the
22 Assembly Schimminger, Assembly Print 9052, an act
23 to amend Chapter 396 of the Laws of 2010.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
25 last section.
762
1 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
2 act shall take effect immediately.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
4 roll.
5 (The Secretary called the roll.)
6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
8 is passed.
9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
10 446, by Senator Marcellino, Senate Print 1185, an
11 act to amend the Navigation Law.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
13 last section.
14 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
15 act shall take effect immediately.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
17 roll.
18 (The Secretary called the roll.)
19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
21 is passed.
22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
23 447, by Senator Little, Senate Print 1674, an act
24 to amend the Navigation Law.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
763
1 last section.
2 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3 act shall take effect immediately.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
5 roll.
6 (The Secretary called the roll.)
7 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
9 is passed.
10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
11 477, by Senator Alcantara, Senate Print 6343A, an
12 act to amend the Penal Law.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
14 last section.
15 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
16 act shall take effect on the 90th day.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
18 roll.
19 (The Secretary called the roll.)
20 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
21 Alcantara to explain her vote.
22 SENATOR ALCANTARA: Yes, thank you,
23 sir.
24 This bill is very important to me.
25 I represent a community that the majority of
764
1 hairdressers and barbershops are owned by women,
2 mostly immigrant women. And this bill, I was
3 very surprised to find out that theft of services
4 for a barbershop or a beauty salon was not
5 punishable as a crime.
6 So I want to urge all my colleagues
7 to please vote for this bill. It would do great
8 service to the men and women that are small
9 business owners that come into work sometimes
10 seven days a week to feed their families.
11 So I urge all my colleagues to
12 please vote for this bill. Thank you.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
14 Alcantara to be recorded in the affirmative.
15 Announce the result.
16 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
18 is passed.
19 Senator DeFrancisco.
20 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes, can we
21 go back to Calendar 46, please.
22 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
23 Secretary will read.
24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 46,
25 by Senator Griffo, Senate Print 7318, an act to
765
1 amend the Public Service Law.
2 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I move to
3 reconsider the vote by which that bill was
4 passed.
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Please
6 call the roll on reconsideration.
7 (The Secretary called the roll.)
8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
9 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
10 is restored to its place on the Third Reading
11 Calendar.
12 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: And can we
13 lay that bill aside for the day.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: That bill
15 will be laid aside for the day.
16 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Can we go
17 back to Calendar Number 49.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
19 Secretary will read.
20 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 49,
21 by Senator Griffo, Senate Print 7321, an act to
22 amend the Public Authorities Law.
23 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I move to
24 reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
766
1 roll on reconsideration.
2 (The Secretary called the roll.)
3 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
4 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Lay the bill
5 aside for the day.
6 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
7 has been restored to its place on the Third
8 Reading Calendar and will be laid aside for the
9 day.
10 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: We have a
11 supplemental calendar, Number 14A, which includes
12 the bills that we dealt with in Rules earlier
13 today. Can we take up that calendar.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Yes. The
15 Secretary will read.
16 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
17 533, by Senator Little, Senate Print 761, an act
18 to amend the Environmental Conservation Law.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
20 last section.
21 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
22 act shall take effect immediately.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
24 roll.
25 (The Secretary called the roll.)
767
1 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
3 is passed.
4 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
5 534, by Senator Tedisco, Senate Print 1355B, an
6 act to amend the Education Law.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
8 last section.
9 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
10 act shall take effect immediately.
11 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
12 roll.
13 (The Secretary called the roll.)
14 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
16 is passed.
17 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
18 535, by Senator Klein, Senate Print 5788, an act
19 to amend the Public Housing Law.
20 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
21 last section.
22 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
23 act shall take effect immediately.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
25 roll.
768
1 (The Secretary called the roll.)
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
3 Savino, I have a list of speakers.
4 Senator Klein, would you like to go
5 first?
6 SENATOR SAVINO: Yes.
7 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
8 Klein.
9 SENATOR KLEIN: Thank you,
10 Mr. President.
11 This is an extremely important piece
12 of legislation because this past Monday I stood
13 with my colleagues and, most importantly, NYCHA
14 residents where we released a report entitled
15 "The New Flint."
16 You know, we all know about Flint,
17 Michigan, where close to 100,000 people were
18 exposed to lead in their drinking water. And
19 rightfully so, it caused a national outcry.
20 Everyone pointed fingers, and ultimately they
21 found who was at fault.
22 Millions and millions of dollars
23 were spent to correct the situation, but at the
24 same time it sort of showed that individuals were
25 being taken for granted, especially in minority
769
1 communities.
2 Well, here in New York City we have
3 the New York City Housing Authority, which as we
4 all know now covered up a scandal of very large
5 proportions where residents were exposed to lead
6 paint. We all know there were 100,000 people in
7 Flint, Michigan. Well, there's 400,000 tenants
8 in NYCHA who could have been exposed, and
9 probably were, to lead paint poisoning,
10 especially young people.
11 We all know the impact of lead
12 poisoning on our young people. It disrupts their
13 motor skills, lowers their IQ, actually something
14 that we should be very, very concerned about.
15 We put forth this study to once
16 again show attention or bring attention to the
17 fact that NYCHA is not managing their properties
18 properly, NYCHA is not looking out for their
19 tenants. Surveys showed that lead paint hasn't
20 been abated in years. There has been no
21 notification to tenants about the potential risk.
22 They are being kept in the dark.
23 I want to tell you, by this report
24 and several others I put forth over the years,
25 you can honestly say that NYCHA is the worst
770
1 landlord in the City of New York.
2 You know, I know we're all very
3 concerned about cracking down on bad landlords.
4 We pass legislation, we make sure they keep their
5 buildings in tiptop shape. But here we are
6 allowing public housing run by NYCHA to run the
7 worst housing stock in the City of New York. If
8 this was a private landlord, we would have cuffed
9 them and sent them to jail for putting these
10 tenants at risk, but yet we're sitting idly by.
11 I want to thank my colleagues,
12 especially in the Republican Conference, because
13 over the last several years in the budget we have
14 allocated over $300 million to NYCHA. We
15 actually made the largest single investment in
16 the last 20 years to NYCHA.
17 But you want to know something,
18 ladies and gentlemen? Of that $300 million, not
19 one penny has been spent, not one penny has been
20 spent to actually repair roofs, to fix boilers,
21 to abate lead. They have done absolutely
22 nothing. They just point fingers at one another
23 and say they're going to deal with the problem.
24 Well, I think the time has come for
25 the state to step in and have simple oversight --
771
1 make sure these repairs are made in a timely
2 fashion, make sure the money that we allocate,
3 taxpayer dollars, to repair NYCHA is done
4 properly, and make sure, most importantly, that
5 the health and well-being of our tenants in NYCHA
6 housing, especially our children, are upheld.
7 That's something that's extremely important.
8 So whenever anyone talks about, you
9 know, how we can help communities in New York
10 City, especially those communities of color, the
11 first step is appointing a state monitor to make
12 sure the tenants of NYCHA are safe and secure.
13 I vote yes, Mr. President.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
15 Klein to be recorded in the affirmative.
16 Senator Savino.
17 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you,
18 Mr. President.
19 I want to thank Senator Klein for
20 his work and his dedication on this issue.
21 As he said, on Monday we stood
22 together with a Councilmember and tenants of the
23 New York City Housing Authority, and it was not
24 the first time where we have joined together to
25 shine the light on the decrepit conditions in the
772
1 New York City Housing Authority.
2 I represent 14 housing developments
3 in Coney Island, and six of them in Staten
4 Island, and I will tell you each and every one of
5 those developments is in deplorable condition.
6 How deplorable are they? Well, they are so
7 deplorable that yesterday the Council of
8 Presidents of the NYCHA developments, the tenants
9 themselves, joined together to file a lawsuit
10 against the City of New York demanding action be
11 taken, because they are living in the worst
12 conditions in any apartment buildings in the City
13 of New York.
14 They themselves called the mayor of
15 the City of New York a slumlord on the steps of
16 City Hall yesterday. That's how serious this
17 problem is.
18 Last August I, along with my
19 colleagues in Brooklyn, scheduled a walk-through
20 of three of the developments in Coney Island
21 because we had received innumerable complaints
22 from tenants who lived there. And they knew we
23 were coming. We arranged it with the Housing
24 Authority. We gave them the date ahead of time.
25 And usually when you do that, they like to clean
773
1 it up a little bit so it doesn't look so bad.
2 Well, they didn't do anything.
3 Conditions were exactly the way they always are:
4 Filthy, deplorable, urine in the hallways, urine
5 in the elevators, garbage compactors that don't
6 work, boilers that are not working, mold all over
7 apartments. That was before we knew about lead.
8 Five years ago, after Hurricane
9 Sandy, we had a Sandy task force, and one of the
10 recommendations out of the Sandy task force was
11 that we create the position of a licensed mold
12 remediation contractor in New York State. If you
13 want to sell your services to a homeowner, you'd
14 better be licensed and trained.
15 Only one group asked to be carved
16 out of that requirement, and that was the New
17 York City Housing Authority. They have had five
18 years to develop a program where they could do
19 mold remediation and see to it that the work was
20 done by people who were trained the same way
21 licensed contractors are in New York State, and
22 to date they have done nothing. Nothing. If you
23 go into these apartments, you will see that they
24 are riddled with mold.
25 And they send someone with a bottle
774
1 of bleach, and they spray it and then they paint
2 it again. That's not mold remediation. That
3 doesn't even barely cover the problem.
4 The conditions that people are
5 living in are so deplorable, they are worse
6 sometimes than a Third World nation.
7 So if you don't like our bill,
8 listen to the tenant leaders who stood on the
9 steps of City Hall yesterday and said "Enough is
10 enough. We can't trust NYCHA to see to our
11 safety and security and the habitability of where
12 they live." They demand a state monitor, that's
13 in their lawsuit.
14 We can do this much faster than the
15 courts can. We can pass Senator Klein's bill and
16 we can take responsibility for the 400,000 people
17 who depend upon us to make things better for
18 them.
19 I vote in the affirmative,
20 Mr. President.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
22 Savino to be recorded in the affirmative.
23 Senator Kavanagh to explain his
24 vote.
25 SENATOR KAVANAGH: Thank you,
775
1 Mr. President.
2 Just briefly, I voted with -- I
3 voted for the previous bill on the main calendar
4 that adds a layer of oversight through the
5 New York City Council.
6 I applaud the members, my colleagues
7 from the IDC and other members of this chamber
8 who have focused a great deal of attention on the
9 question of how we get NYCHA apartments into a
10 state of good repair and how we deal with some of
11 the very disturbing safety conditions that we've
12 seen.
13 I also represent many, many
14 thousands of NYCHA residents. I've been in and
15 out of these buildings for years and seen the
16 deterioration over time. But the simple fact is
17 that this is very substantially a crisis of
18 funding.
19 There are management issues that
20 need to be addressed, but what we're dealing with
21 is a landlord that by law is housing half a
22 million people and is grossly underfunded --
23 roughly a $17 billion capital deficit that, when
24 their latest reports come up, will probably rise
25 to a $25 billion capital deficit.
776
1 In the face of that, members of this
2 chamber and of the other chamber, in which I used
3 to serve, and the Governor have put some
4 resources into that problem, but it's woefully
5 inadequate. A few years ago we did $100 million,
6 but we specified that that money could not be
7 used on core capital needs of NYCHA. A couple of
8 years ago we put $200 million up; that money is
9 largely unspent at this point.
10 You know, we fought many years ago
11 against taxation without representation. In this
12 case, perhaps we should be avoiding oversight
13 without responsibility. The state needs to step
14 up and put a lot more money in. I will join
15 others in calling for at least $500 million in
16 this budget to begin to address this concern.
17 And again, I really do applaud the
18 tremendous attention that my colleagues Senator
19 Klein and Senator Savino and others have put on
20 this problem, but I don't think that this
21 particular bill, adding HCR to the mix, is going
22 to make any difference, and so I'll be voting no
23 on this.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
25 Kavanagh to be recorded in the negative.
777
1 Senator Hamilton.
2 SENATOR HAMILTON: Mr. President, I
3 rise -- I just want to say I'm a child of NYCHA.
4 I grew up in NYCHA housing in the South Bronx.
5 And no parent should have to raise their child in
6 an apartment that is poisoning them.
7 I also have the Brownsville section
8 of Brooklyn, which has one of the highest
9 concentrations of NYCHA houses in the country.
10 And going through NYCHA housing,
11 I've walked through every development from the
12 roof to the first floor. And as Diane Savino
13 said, Senator Savino said, some of the conditions
14 are worse than Third World countries.
15 I have buildings in my NYCHA
16 developments where there's only one elevator
17 button -- no up, no down. So at night when women
18 press the elevator, they're fearful the elevator
19 may go to the roof where there will be a predator
20 waiting for them. So rather than take that
21 chance, they'll walk down the stairs. These are
22 the conditions people are living under in NYCHA.
23 In several buildings there was a
24 shooting from the building. And the response by
25 NYCHA was to spray paint the windows. So when
778
1 you get off the elevator, there's no light.
2 Dimly lit. It's like you're living in a
3 quasi-prison system.
4 Many of the residents of NYCHA, the
5 elevators are broken. In one development, a
6 person literally died to death because they
7 couldn't get out on time. And because of that, I
8 passed a bill on NYCHA that anybody with a
9 disability who's a senior citizen would have the
10 option of moving to a lower floor.
11 And walking through my section of
12 Brownsville, I've gone to apartments where
13 there's mold, young children, lead paint. And
14 just think of it, we know lead is a neurotoxin.
15 And we've had the president of NYCHA lie under
16 oath that she had lead paint inspectors. We know
17 for a fact that the City of New York laid off 52
18 lead paint inspectors. So what do you expect
19 would happen when they do that?
20 We have a bill right now, I'm
21 presenting a bill that they rehire the lead paint
22 inspectors.
23 And I say to all my colleagues, if
24 you haven't been to NYCHA housing, you need to
25 go. You need to go and walk through those
779
1 developments. And if you walk through those
2 developments and you tell me it's a place that
3 you're willing to live, then don't vote for the
4 bill. But if you walk through there, right, and
5 you feel it's a place you don't want to live,
6 then you need to support it.
7 So right now people are living under
8 conditions where roofs are collapsing, front
9 doors are open, no security. All right? So if
10 you want to vote against this bill, please walk
11 through NYCHA housing and see the living
12 conditions that people are living under.
13 And I've done that. And I created
14 The Campus. The Campus was the first of its kind
15 in public housing in the country. We do STEAM
16 and coding for our young boys and girls, to make
17 sure they have opportunities to live a better
18 life. Because you can make $80,000 a year with a
19 high school diploma in coding.
20 We had the Wellness Center --
21 psychologists, psychiatrists, and social
22 workers -- because the second leading cause of
23 death in our community is suicide. It's an
24 epidemic, but no one is talking about it.
25 We have gang violence prevention.
780
1 On our second day of having our gang violence
2 meeting, a young man was literally shot right in
3 front of me, Rysheen Ervin. And I saw that young
4 man die in front of me because the police
5 department did not know how to do CPR. I watched
6 the fire department look at us -- five
7 firefighters, didn't leave the firehouse. When I
8 approached them afterwards, I said, "Why did you
9 not come to give this kid CPR?" And they said,
10 "Senator, contractually, we do not have to
11 respond to shootings."
12 These are the conditions that people
13 are living under. I went --
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
15 Hamilton, how do you vote?
16 SENATOR HAMILTON: I vote yea, yes.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
18 Hamilton to be recorded in the affirmative.
19 Senator Montgomery.
20 SENATOR MONTGOMERY: Thank you,
21 Mr. President.
22 I too, as probably most of us,
23 represent a very, very large number of tenants
24 who live in public housing. As a matter of fact,
25 if you took public NYCHA and put all of the
781
1 developments together, you would have a city
2 larger than most cities and towns in the State of
3 New York. So I'm happy that we are paying
4 attention to this housing.
5 By the way, NYCHA represents the
6 largest number of units of actually affordable
7 housing for working people in the City of
8 New York as well. So it's about time we pay
9 attention.
10 I did vote for Senator Klein's
11 first -- the first bill, which gives the City
12 Council an opportunity to oversee housing. But I
13 think it's a bit disingenuous to say that this
14 particular bill, which invites DHCR to become
15 involved and the state to become involved,
16 regulatorily speaking -- as if that's going to
17 solve the issues related to all of those things
18 that my colleagues have pointed out that are
19 wrong with NYCHA.
20 The fact of the matter is NYCHA is
21 so deprived, short of resources, and the
22 maintenance over time has been slowly but surely
23 from the federal level -- we don't put in money
24 here in the state, so the federal government has
25 been retreating from maintaining NYCHA, from
782
1 resourcing NYCHA. And of course the city has
2 done as much as it could.
3 But let's be honest, the $300
4 million that we put up last year -- the
5 $200 million -- you and I know that it never got
6 to NYCHA because it was our fault, not NYCHA's
7 fault.
8 So I want to make sure my
9 constituents understand that I'm voting no
10 because this is an insult to the constituents who
11 live in NYCHA, because we're pretending that
12 we're giving them something and we're not doing
13 anything but creating another obstacle to the
14 management of NYCHA and we haven't put any money
15 in NYCHA.
16 So let's do what Senator Kavanagh
17 suggested, at least a half a billion dollars, and
18 let it go to the real problems that NYCHA has and
19 not to gardens and other things that are not
20 relevant to the maintenance and the upkeep and
21 addressing the real structural issues.
22 I vote no.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
24 Montgomery to be recorded in the negative.
25 Senator Alcantara.
783
1 SENATOR ALCANTARA: I would first
2 like to thank Senator Klein for bringing this
3 bill to the floor.
4 And let me remind my colleague that
5 this is the same bill we all voted for yes last
6 June. It hasn't changed one bit, if I'm not
7 mistaken.
8 Also, NYCHA has 400,000 people. If
9 NYCHA was a city, it would be -- it would have a
10 larger population than the City of Albany,
11 Syracuse, Yonkers and Rochester. Most of the
12 people that live in NYCHA are senior citizens,
13 single mothers, and just working-class people.
14 NYCHA is the largest affordable housing stock in
15 the country.
16 Just because NYCHA is underfunded,
17 it doesn't mean that they need to be lied to.
18 Obviously we have met with Councilmember Ritchie
19 Torres, who grew up in public housing and who
20 proudly represents NYCHA. And obviously right
21 now NYCHA doesn't have -- NYCHA is lawless. They
22 don't have to answer to anyone.
23 So saying something is not enough is
24 not an answer. This is certainly a starting
25 point, somebody that we can go to and ask
784
1 questions when something goes wrong in NYCHA.
2 Some of the conditions in NYCHA
3 are -- human beings shouldn't have to live like
4 that. And we want to send a message to the
5 400,000 people that live in NYCHA that even
6 though you are poor, many of you guys are from
7 communities of color, we care about you and we
8 are looking out for you.
9 Because if the situation in NYCHA
10 would have happened at StuyTown, it would have
11 been a national crisis, because people in
12 StuyTown have resources. People in NYCHA are
13 elderly, Latinos, African-Americans that
14 oftentimes cannot speak for themselves.
15 So to sit here on my nice leather
16 chair and say that it's not enough isn't an
17 answer. We have met with hundreds of NYCHA
18 members. Dyckman Houses, I called last May for a
19 repair in an apartment. It took eight months for
20 someone to just go see what they needed to
21 repair, a year and a half for that repair to take
22 place.
23 The workforce in NYCHA has been
24 reduced --
25 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
785
1 Alcantara, how do you vote?
2 SENATOR ALCANTARA: I will be
3 ending in a quick minute.
4 So we just want to have --
5 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: No,
6 Senator Alcantara, your time is up. We have to
7 be fair to everybody.
8 SENATOR ALCANTARA: -- we want to
9 send a message to the people of NYCHA that we in
10 the IDC are looking out for you. And that --
11 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
12 Alcantara, how do you vote? Senator --
13 SENATOR ALCANTARA: -- even though
14 you're poor, we --
15 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
16 Alcantara, I have to ask you --
17 SENATOR ALCANTARA: -- need to
18 respect you and look out for you.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: -- to
20 state how you're going to vote.
21 SENATOR ALCANTARA: Thank you, I
22 will be voting in the affirmative.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
24 Alcantara will be voting in the affirmative.
25 Thank you very much.
786
1 Senator Sanders to explain his vote.
2 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you, sir.
3 I proudly represent the most people
4 in Queens who have NYCHA, or the most NYCHA
5 residents in Queens. Going a step further, I was
6 born in the Hammel Houses. I was not born in a
7 hospital, I was born in the Hammel Houses in
8 Queens.
9 Now, I have gone on the record with
10 my position on NYCHA, and I've taken some bold
11 moves on it. Because I too -- well, first I do
12 want to thank the sponsor for bringing the
13 conversation. It is a necessary conversation. I
14 absolutely have gone on the record because, like
15 the previous speakers, I believe that it doesn't
16 matter how much money you have or don't, we need
17 to represent people. We need to represent them
18 strongly.
19 The problems, of course, of NYCHA
20 stem from federal disinvestment and neglect at
21 New York State and New York City over the years.
22 This is not five minutes, this is something that
23 has been going on for decades. And the chickens
24 have come home to roost. Sandy further
25 devastated many of these communities.
787
1 But sadly, although I will be for
2 the first bill that Senator Klein has come up, I
3 don't believe that monitoring without financial
4 investment is merely -- it will merely do finger
5 pointing. We've got to move real money here.
6 We've got to -- I don't have a problem with
7 looking into mismanagement. That's not my issue.
8 If it's there, let's root it out.
9 But at the same time, at the end of
10 the day if you're not going to move real money --
11 $500 million is a beginning. If you're not going
12 to move real money into that, then we're not
13 really helping these people. We have to move
14 real money and have ways that that money gets to
15 the people. We want to cut through red tape,
16 let's do it. You want to make sure that it
17 doesn't take two or three years, let's do it.
18 But let's move real resources to the people
19 without the red tape.
20 So I will sadly have to vote no on
21 this one, but I applaud the momentum, the spirit
22 that people are bringing to this. Let's look
23 into this affair, let's find out why our
24 neighbors are not living in the condition that we
25 would want our parents to live under.
788
1 Thank you very much, Mr. President.
2 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
3 Sanders to be recorded in the negative.
4 Senator Comrie.
5 SENATOR COMRIE: Thank you,
6 Mr. Chair.
7 I rise to support my colleagues
8 desires to see something substantially happen in
9 NYCHA to make sure that the management issues are
10 taken care of, to make sure that there's some
11 real funding that can go into NYCHA, to make sure
12 that there's some real oversight and
13 opportunities to fix the red tape.
14 The money that has been designated
15 from the State Legislature to go to NYCHA has
16 primarily been given to do nonessential items,
17 things that are not going to be helpful to the
18 immediate issues that need to be repaired, not
19 going to help the roofs, not going to help the
20 boilers, not going to help the people that are
21 having heating problems, not going to increase
22 inspectors, not going to do anything to resolve
23 the real problems that are happening at NYCHA
24 right now.
25 Unfortunately, the money that was
789
1 designated from the Legislature here has been put
2 into cosmetic things, lighting and other issues
3 that are not germane to the real issues at NYCHA.
4 As my colleagues have said before,
5 this is a decades-old problem of the fact that
6 there's been a -- the fact that the federal
7 government has given up its responsibility for
8 NYCHA, the fact that we in the state over the
9 last decade has not -- we have not kept up our
10 share of the funding that NYCHA needs to have.
11 We need to understand that there are
12 residents in NYCHA that we need to help, and we
13 need to find a better way to do this. Another
14 layer of oversight -- I would applaud the City
15 Council for what they are doing, for the fact
16 that they have brought this to a national issue
17 and to make sure that this issue is being
18 highlighted. I think that we need to support
19 them with real money, real money that -- at least
20 $500 million a year, but make sure that that
21 money is directed to get things done within a
22 timely period.
23 I understand the need to make sure
24 that the management issues are fixed, but I think
25 we have to do an even larger responsibility as
790
1 elected officials to make sure that the immediate
2 needs of NYCHA -- because the boiler
3 infrastructure is not just a replacing a boiler
4 but dealing with, as my colleagues have said,
5 replacing a heating infrastructure that's
6 30 years old, 40 years old, in buildings that
7 need to be updated.
8 We cannot afford to lose these
9 buildings. We cannot afford to lose all of the
10 NYCHA properties because of disrepair and
11 mismanagement.
12 I'm going to be voting no,
13 unfortunately, on this one, Mr. Chairman, and I
14 appreciate the opportunity to speak on it.
15 Thank you.
16 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
17 Comrie to be recorded in the negative.
18 Senator Parker.
19 SENATOR PARKER: Thank you,
20 Mr. President. To explain my vote.
21 First of all, let me thank Jeff
22 Klein for his leadership on this issue. Because
23 this is not a new issue for him, it's something
24 he's been talking about and carrying for a while.
25 And certainly I appreciate that, and we certainly
791
1 appreciate the opportunity to debate this
2 critical issue for all of us.
3 Like Senator Hamilton, I also grew
4 up in NYCHA, in the Bushwick Houses at 390,
5 Apartment 6D. And so, you know, I'm very, very
6 well -- when I hear that the descriptions of how
7 people are living, I lived in those conditions.
8 Right? I remember having to walk up and down the
9 steps because people were afraid to ride the
10 elevators.
11 What wasn't mentioned is that most
12 of the time the bulbs in the hallway and in the
13 stairway were out, and so you typically were
14 walking up the steps and down the steps in
15 literally pitch black.
16 That being said, there are horrible
17 conditions. We certainly need to deal with it.
18 As Senator Sanders indicated, a lot of this
19 becomes because of a fiscal abandonment by the
20 federal government that we really need to take
21 up.
22 And although I applaud the attempt,
23 I think this particular bill is not necessarily
24 the way we ought to go. And so I agree with
25 Senator Kavanagh that we need to increase our
792
1 financial commitment to NYCHA. We're told right
2 now that if we started doing all the repairs
3 today, it would cost $17 billion to repair
4 everything that needs to be repaired in it --
5 billion with a B.
6 And so to ask for simply in our
7 budget this year, you know, $500 million really
8 is a drop in the bucket. And the question is not
9 what happens or where the money comes from, the
10 question is what happens if we don't start to
11 invest in NYCHA and make sure that that large
12 stock of affordable housing is properly
13 maintained.
14 I have NYCHA in my district, I have
15 Glenwood Houses in my district. Certainly we
16 share many of the same kind of issues. And all
17 of us -- what you're hearing in this debate,
18 Mr. President, is a frustration with the process
19 and with the lack of momentum and the lack of
20 dignity that people are forced to live in. And
21 we certainly, I think, collectively are saying
22 that that no longer can be the case in the State
23 of New York.
24 And so I think that we should get
25 rid of the red tape, not create more red tape. I
793
1 certainly would be supporting something that
2 allows NYCHA to use design-build, and that
3 includes MWBE in it. We should be looking at
4 other ways that we make both the construction and
5 the repair process for an NYCHA easier, smoother
6 transition. And I think that not just this body
7 but the whole state government must be committed
8 to dealing and addressing the needs of this
9 state's third largest city, which is NYCHA.
10 And so I am opposing this bill,
11 although I did vote for the first bill that gives
12 the New York City Council more oversight. And we
13 look forward to more debate and work around
14 helping the people of the New York City Housing
15 Authority.
16 Thank you.
17 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
18 Parker to be recorded in the negative.
19 Announce the result.
20 THE SECRETARY: In relation to
21 Calendar 535, those recorded in the negative are
22 Senators Benjamin, Comrie, Dilan, Gianaris,
23 Kavanagh, Krueger, Montgomery, Parker, Persaud,
24 Rivera, Sanders and Stavisky.
25 Ayes, 47. Nays, 12.
794
1 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
2 is passed.
3 THE SECRETARY: Senator Krueger
4 moves to discharge, from the Committee on Rules,
5 Assembly Bill Number 8953 and substitute it for
6 the identical Senate Bill 7409, Third Reading
7 Calendar 536.
8 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The
9 substitution is so ordered.
10 The Secretary will read.
11 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number
12 536, by Member of the Assembly Richardson,
13 Assembly Print 8953, an act to amend the Public
14 Health Law.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Read the
16 last section.
17 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
18 act shall take effect immediately.
19 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Call the
20 roll.
21 (The Secretary called the roll.)
22 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 59.
23 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: The bill
24 is passed.
25 Senator Serino.
795
1 SENATOR SERINO: Mr. President, may
2 we return to motions and resolutions, please.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Motions
4 and resolutions.
5 SENATOR SERINO: Mr. President, on
6 page number 37 I offer the following amendments
7 to Calendar Number 398, Senate Print Number 7166,
8 and ask that said bill retain its place on the
9 Third Reading Calendar.
10 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: So
11 ordered.
12 SENATOR SERINO: And Mr. President,
13 we will now have the benediction, please.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Can I ask
15 everyone in the chamber to please rise for the
16 benediction.
17 We are very privileged today to have
18 with us the abundantly patient Reverend Jean
19 Gardel Paul, pastor of Glory of El-Shaddai
20 Christian Center in Brooklyn, New York, to
21 deliver our benediction.
22 Reverend.
23 PASTOR GARDEL PAUL: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 I want to glorify God for a new day
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1 of his loving kindness, tender mercies, and a
2 solid omniscience overall.
3 I thank God also for Senator Kevin
4 Parker -- doing a great job in our community in
5 Brooklyn, New York -- for granting me this
6 opportunity.
7 Let us join together and pray.
8 Lord God, we humbly come before You
9 with thanksgiving in our hearts just for who You
10 are and all You have done.
11 I pray for all Senators representing
12 our many districts in this place. Please
13 continue to inspire their very thinking with Your
14 spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and
15 might. God Almighty, allow them to stand strong
16 as they tackle the very serious issues that
17 plague our communities today.
18 I declare and I decree: Thy kingdom
19 come on each district, each borough, each state,
20 each county, each child, each adolescent, each
21 adult, each senior citizen, and Thy will be done
22 on earth as it is in Heaven.
23 Lord, You said if Your name is
24 lifted up, You shall draw all men to you. Please
25 continue to bless these United States of America
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1 and help us to remain close to You at all times
2 despite all that is lurking around us.
3 As You have given one of the
4 greatest leaders of men, your servant Moses,
5 these words to declare over your people, I am
6 praying this blessing over each representative in
7 their respective districts. May the Lord bless
8 you and keep you. May the Lord make His face
9 shine on you and be gracious to you. May the
10 Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
11 I declare and I decree: In the
12 mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
13 God bless you all.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: Senator
15 Serino.
16 SENATOR SERINO: Yes,
17 Mr. President. Is there any further business
18 from the desk?
19 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: There is
20 no further business before the desk.
21 SENATOR SERINO: Okay, I move to
22 adjourn until Monday, March 5th, at 3:00 p.m.,
23 intervening days being legislative days.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT CROCI: On motion,
25 the Senate stands adjourned until Monday,
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1 March 5th, at 3:00 p.m., intervening days being
2 legislative days.
3 (Whereupon, at 12:46 p.m., the
4 Senate adjourned.)
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