Important issues dealt
with by City Council

ealthy homes, summer jobs, domestic violence, police misconduct, genocide in Sudan: these were some of the important issues dealt with at the most recent City Council meeting.

Council Member Letitia James asked for her colleagues’ support for her Healthy Homes Act, which seeks to alleviate the problem of "immediately hazardous" housing violations, 43% of which go un-addressed for an average of one year. Further, one in four certifications filed by landlords claiming to have corrected the violations are false.

James’ bill (1) mandates automatic re-inspections to verify corrected violations, (2) requires that HPD carry out renovations if the landlord fails to respond to notices from the city, at a cost to the landlord of three times the price of the repair, and (3) increases the fines for landlords who falsify information. It also enables tenants to collect legal fees and gives 100% rent abatement to tenants in apartments with violations.

Council Member Lewis Fidler brought attention to legislation he was introducing that calls upon the Mayor and the State to finalize funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program well in advance of the annual budget process. Because the City budget negotiations and the beginning of the summer program coincide, it leaves everyone scrambling at the last moment and up in the air about what amount of money will be allotted. "Every year we play the same game with summer jobs," Fidler commented. "It is not fair to the providers or to the kids. I am asking each of you to sign on to these resolutions so this council’s position on behalf of kids and summer jobs is unanimous, emphatic, and crystal clear."

Fidler also introduced legislation urging New York State to allow persons in dating relationships who experience abuse to petition for orders of protection in Family Court. Council Member Tracy Boyland, Chair of the Women’s Issues Committee, expressed her strong support for the resolution, stating that anyone who is a victim of domestic violence, whether they're married or dating, deserves protection. "For the State to recognize this would be a triumph for all women, not just in New York, but throughout the country," she stated.

Addressing alleged violence of a different sort, Council Member Margarita Lopez introduced a Local Law born out of the detention of 1,800 people by the New York Police Department during the Republican National Convention. "As everybody knows," she said, "these detentions violated human rights, civil rights, and put people in conditions that were unsanitary and unhealthy."

This Local Law would expand the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) powers, authorizing the CCRB to respond to complaints by members of the public regarding not only the actions of individual police officers, but the procedures of the Police Department itself. It would deal with issues including but not limited to the unsanitary conditions of police managed facilities, the failure of the police to address medical or other health-related needs of arrestees, and inappropriately long detentions.

Finally, Council Member Oliver Koppell introduced a resolution denouncing the horrifying situation that exists in the western region of Darfur in Sudan. He sponsored the legislation along with many other councilmembers, including Helen Foster, Yvette Clarke, Leroy Comrie, Kendall Stewart, and Bill Perkins, who believe that genocide is being carried out in Darfur, but is not receiving the international attention it deserves. "Tens of thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes, people are suffering from starvation, women are being raped, men and boys are being killed," Koppell declared. "This is genocide."

Council Member Robert Jackson further explained that their resolution urges the US Government to take immediate action to support the implementation of the United Nations multi-national peacekeeping force and humanitarian relief effort to end this reign of terror. He asked his colleagues to imagine themselves in the situation of the people of Darfur, and to think of the support they would hope to receive from the people of the world.

Council Member James Sanders said that what is happening in Darfur should outrage the world, and that those who have taken the position of "never again" should not stand silent about the genocide of any people on this planet. "Whatever holds us back," he concluded, "we must regain our voices and say that this genocide must stop!"

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