UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS, LEAD PAINT PROSECUTION, SCHOOLS NOT PRISONS - ALL ON THE TABLE IN CITY COUNCIL

t the City Council meeting of October 10^th, several Council Members spoke strongly on behalf of a Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature and the United States Congress to extend and expand unemployment benefits to people who are seeking but failing to find appropriate jobs.

The Resolution's prime sponsor, Councilman James Sanders, Chair of the Economic Development Committee, said that it's clear there are a lot of hardworking New Yorkers who've had solid work histories, but, despite their best efforts, have not been able to find work since the country's economic downturn and 911. "I would like nothing more than to see every New Yorker gainfully employed," said Sanders. "But when the City loses around 100,000 jobs, there just aren't enough jobs to go around. These are difficult times for our City," he continued, "and I believe we should do some unique and different things. So I call upon every Council Member to support this Resolution."

Councilman Bill DeBlasio, chair of the General Welfare Committee, added his voice to this call. He said that New York Senators Clinton and Schumer have been fighting in Washington for an extension of unemployment benefits. They specifically asked for the support of the New York City Council to help send a message to Washington about how necessary this assistance is, not only because of 911, but because of other economic challenges facing the state. "In previous months the Federal Government did not provide additional unemployment benefits for New York," he stated. They treated it as though it were not as highly impacted as some other states, and we all know that's just not true."

He also noted that in the Senior Bush administration the type of unemployment benefits they are asking for was approved. "He considered it to be a normal response to an economic crisis of this magnitude," said DeBlasio.

Councilman Eric Dilan also spoke in favor of this legislation. He pointed out that New York City has an unemployment rate of approximately 8%. "However," he stated, "when you look at people of color districts, such as the 37^th District of Brooklyn which I represent, there's a 14% unemployment rate. I think this measure will be a great boast to the people of New York."

Councilman Larry Seabrook rose to ask for support for his Reso. 524 which "authorizes the Attorney General to take appropriate legal action against any manufacturer, supplier or retailer that may have knowingly manufactured, used, or supplied products or substances containing lead based paint from January 13, 1971 until today."

Stated Seabrook, "Lead paint has destroyed the lives of so many of our children in this city and continues to do so. These people knew that what they were doing would cause harm, but they continued to do it. But if you look at the basic manufacturers, they're still in business. They have not changed."

He said he hopes New York will follow the lead of a number of other states that have actually looked at these manufacturers, suppliers and retailers and said, "You knew you had a product that was detrimental, but you decided to put it into the mainstream and allow it to destroy our children anyway." This Resolution is designed to really deal with people who have shown such a callous disregard for the lives of children.

Councilman Charles Barron, Chair of the Higher Education Committee, urged his colleagues to support his Resolution calling for the reallocation of funds away from prison construction and into elementary, secondary and higher education. "I think it's time we deal with the problem of crime at the front end," stated Barron, "and not the back end in getting our African American and Latino men disproportionately in prison. If we build more schools and put more money into education, that would bring down the incarceration rate."

He said that they have been looking at studies, and the results clearly show that this reallocation of funding is warranted. "We need more schools rather than more prisons and I need your support for this Resolution," said Barron.

Also before the Council is another Resolution having to do with schools and prisons. It is Reso. 519 "calling upon the New York State Legislature to extend drug-free zones to playgrounds and to provide for enhanced penalties for offenders." This Resolution, which was introduced by several Republican Councilmen, can appear on its surface to be quite good. After all, who would be against doing everything possible to keep drugs away from children, right? The way it is couched, a Council Member can easily read it and be deceived into thinking it's only about drug free zones around schools and say, "Yes I'm for it."

But all is not as it may appear, however. The Black, Latino and Asian Caucus are concerned because in reality, this Resolution calls for mandatory sentencing, which means it supports the Rockefeller Drug Laws that this state desperately needs to get rid of, not beef up.

While some people say, "It's just a Resolution, don't worry about it," the fact is that if it passes it becomes policy set for the Council. One can hope that the New York City Council, which is supposed to stand for justice to all the people of this city, will get clear about what this piece of legislation is really about and vote against it.

Donna Lamb can be reached at dlamb@gis.net.