Important Financial Issues Addressed in City Council

t the most recent City Council meeting, several important pieces of legislation were introduced that attempt to safeguard the financial well being of some of the City and country’s more vulnerable residents. The legislation concerned such crucial matters as minority- and women-owned business contracts, the closing of a Lower Manhattan unemployment center, the extension of health coverage to the surviving spouses or domestic partners of City retirees, and a resolution calling for prevailing wages to be paid to workers repairing the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Council Member Yvette Clarke spoke strongly on behalf of Intro. 727, which mandates that New York City agencies provide opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses in City contracting. She pointed out that while there was an Executive Order put in place by the Mayor, it hasn’t brought about equity. "And that is really a shame," Clarke said, "because while excluding these groups, we are also disenfranchising those who they would seek to employ."

Clarke noted that the high unemployment rate among Black males can be tied directly to the fact that opportunities for businesses run by minorities and women are marginalized. She encouraged her colleagues to sign onto this bill "because it is critical for the future of the dynamics of the City’s economy."

Council Member James Sanders addressed this issue forcefully as well, stating, "There are cities down South that we laugh at; yet, they have better records in this area than New York City. This old boys’ network that denies people an opportunity cannot be tolerated."

Council Member Letitia James asked for support for Resolution 1083, which calls upon Governor Pataki and the New York State Department of Labor to keep open the unemployment insurance telephone claims center in Lower Manhattan. There, 250 people are employed, including 100 Blacks, 70 Latinos, 18 Asians and 56 people of Arabic, Slavic or Jewish heritage. "The closing of this call center will take jobs away from an experienced, racially diverse workforce here in New York City and send them to Upstate New York," James commented. "Clearly, this decision was political in nature."

Council Member Robert Jackson added that this closing will result in the dropping of tens of thousands of unemployment insurance claims currently being processed by telephone. "People are going to lose their homes, there will be people who can't pay their rent, and it's going to hurt the economy of New York City," he declared.

Jackson went on to ask for the council’s backing of what is being called the Davis Bacon Act Resolution. As he explained, the Davis Bacon Act was created in 1931 to prevent unscrupulous contractors from exploiting workers on public works projects. The law requires all federal public work contractors to pay the prevailing wage of the area in which they are performing their job.

However, on September 8^th, President Bush issued a proclamation suspending the Davis Bacon Act in the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina. "The bottom line is that the President is suspending it so they can pay poverty wages to workers to rebuild the South," Jackson stated. "In my opinion, they should get the prevailing wage at the very least."

Finally, Council Member David Weprin brought his colleagues’ attention to the Survivors Health Care Coverage Act, which would prevent individuals from being left without health coverage once their retired spouses, who were former City employees, pass away. He pointed to the 1.8 million New Yorkers who already lack health insurance, and the number is growing. "The City Council has an obligation to find creative ways to reduce the number of uninsured and to preserve health coverage for those who already have it," Weprin asserted. "Therefore, these individuals – almost 200,000 in number – already have health coverage. They just need to be able to keep it. This bill will let them do just that."

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