Candidate Answers to JOLDC: Jeffrey Omura for City Council District 6
Candidate Name: Jeffrey Omura
Office Seeking Election for: City Council District 6
Explain, based on life experiences and accomplishments, why you believe you are best qualified to represent your district
I am an actor, activist, and labor leader. I’ve organized my community and seen big results, and I intend to take the same approach on the City Council.
In 2016, my acting career had taken off, but my colleagues and I were struggling to make ends meet while working for unlivable wages at New York City’s renowned Off-Broadway theaters. So, I helped create and lead #FairWageOnStage, a grassroots campaign to ensure that stage managers and actors receive fair pay Off-Broadway. The movement gave Actors’ Equity Association leverage to achieve historic wage increases, up to 83%, across Off-Broadway
theaters. I was soon elected to the board of Actors’ Equity, where I’ve organized from the inside, negotiating higher wages and greater benefits for the union’s members. I recently helped lead the union’s first strike in over 50 years.
As a union officer, I’ve seen firsthand how the pandemic has devastated New York’s Arts & Culture sector. Most of the industry’s employers shuttered, with 70% of arts workers out of work. Realizing that the sector was getting left out of conversations at every level of government, I helped create a new campaign, Be An #ArtsHero, organizing the nation’s arts sector to collectively lobby Congress for direct arts relief. After meeting with over 60 US Senate offices, the #ArtsHero organizers helped secure $15 billion for the arts in the recent pandemic relief bill.
Locally, many of the City Council’s arts advocates are term-limited and there may be no one left to advocate for the arts and arts workers at a time when the industry needs it most. I will be that champion. I’ve drafted a detailed Arts & Culture Recovery Plan to ensure the revival of New York’s Arts & Culture sector and to get its workers back to work without sacrificing contractually negotiated wages and benefits. More artists—and arts patrons too—live on the Upper West Side than any other neighborhood. The arts are a major reason why many in this neighborhood choose to live here.
As New York recovers from this pandemic, I believe our policy solutions must match the scale of our challenges and always keep workers at the forefront. I will prioritize a massive expansion of low income and affordable housing with good paying union jobs, saving neighborhood restaurants and mom and pop shops to bring back opportunities to our community, integrating our public schools so all of our kids have access to a quality education, expanding employment protections to gig economy workers, implementing a Green New Deal for New York City and raising revenue with a multi-pronged approach, including increasing taxes on the City’s ultrarich and a pied-a-terre tax on empty luxury condos.
I’m eager to make history as the first openly gay person elected to represent District 6 and the first Japanese-American ever to win elected office in New York State. I’m running for City Council to ensure that all New Yorkers, including artists, the LGBTQ+ community, communities of color, organized labor, and working families have a seat at the table and a voice in City Hall.
Please identify any openly LGBTQ candidate for public office you have previously or presently endorsed?
I was not in a position to endorse them, but I have donated to the campaigns of Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, Speaker Corey Johnson’s campaign for Mayor, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for President, Massachusetts State Rep. Carl Sciortino’s campaign for Congress, and Katie Hill’s campaign for Congress.
If applicable, what legislation directly affecting the LGBTQ community have you introduced or co-sponsored? (indicate accordingly)
Not applicable
What LGBTQ organizations have you been involved with, either on a volunteer basis or professionally?
Stonewall Democrats of NY
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund The LGBT Center
Trevor Project
I’m applying for and intend to get the endorsement of the Victory Fund.
Do you consider yourself a member of the LGBTQ community?
Yes, I am a proud gay man and an ally for trans and gender non-conforming folx.
Have you marched in Pride? Which marches and for approximately how many years?
Yes. I attended my first NYC Pride in 2002 as a spectator. I have marched in several since, including 2020’s Queer Liberation March.
Have you employed openly LGBTQ individuals previously? Do you employ any currently?
My campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, field director, data consultant, communications consultant, advertising consultant, policy consultant are all members of the LGBTQ community.
What press conferences, demonstrations, rallies and protests in support of LGBT issues, pro-choice legislation, criminal justice issues and the Resist Trump Movement have you attended?
I attended several Resist Trump Movement marches beginning in 2016. I attended several Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
Have you ever been arrested? If so please explain why and outcome of arrest.
No.
Do you commit to visiting constituents who are incarcerated in state prisons and city jails?
Yes.
Will you affirmatively seek to hire formerly incarcerated individuals?
Yes.
Describe your legislative and policy vision for combating systemic racism
I am committed to restorative justice, to correcting the wrongs of systemic racism inside and outside of our government institutions, and repairing the resulting harms.
I pledge to find ways to collaborate with historically disenfranchised people to listen to their stories, learn their needs and see that their needs are met.
I will keep communities of color at the forefront in the legislative, budgeting, and uniform land use review processes to ensure that the City truly meets the needs of communities of color in education, criminal justice, housing, healthcare, jobs, environmental justice—wherever they are underserved—and to see that New York City government attains its full potential to serve all its citizens.
Criminal Justice
I support reducing the size and scope of the NYPD, and diverting those funds saved by its reduction to the Department of Education to help struggling schools and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to develop clinical health programs, for a start, especially in communities hit hardest by incarceration.
Mayor de Blasio’s Neighborhood Policing initiative was meant to correct the wrongs of broken-windows policing and stop-and-frisk, and build trust for police within the community. It led the City Council to approve the addition of 1,300 uniformed officers in 2015, but the swell of NYPD ranks to 36,000 sworn officers is a problem, not a solution.
We can change these ratios by reinvesting in these communities.
In neighborhoods like Brownsville, Tremont, and East Harlem, historical injustices, racist practices, and racist policies worsen environmental conditions and lead to poor health outcomes. These neighborhoods have the highest rates of premature mortality and chronic disease in the City, with cancer, heart disease, HIV, and addiction being the leading causes of premature death. To counteract them, we must take a broad approach to correct economic and social disparities through policies that favor funding education at all age levels, righting environmental injustice, and improving access to clinical health care—not policing.
Five years into their careers, NYPD officers can earn anywhere from around $80,000 a year to as much as $100,000 a year with overtime and holiday pay. Reducing the force by eliminating just the 1,300 new officers City Council approved in 2015 would save the City $110-130M a year, not factoring in pension and health payments or obligations.
That money could be diverted to the Department or Education to fund under-resourced schools and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to fund clinical programs in communities devastated by the cycle of poverty and incarceration that past policing, subject to the whims of mayoral politics, have brought them. With further reductions, we can expand adult education programs in these communities, to give formerly incarcerated citizens a better chance at reentry, and better fund the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to address environmental justice issues that have contributed to the higher Covid death rates in low-income communities of color. Money can be shifted to the Department of Homeless Services to hire professionals better suited to reach out to homeless New Yorkers and to streamline the process of getting them into permanent, supportive housing. By reducing the size of the NYPD and diverting the funds saved to public schools and health and human services, we can better address the root problems that lead to crime, social disorder, and quality of life issues, and the poverty, neglect, and abuse that contribute to them.
Looking forward, I believe that City Council should:
Create an Elected Civilian Complaint Review Board, accountable to the people of New York City, with the authority to discipline officers;
Amend the City’s Charter to create a confirmation process for the Police Commissioner requiring the advice and consent of the City Council;
Lobby Albany to end qualified immunity for police officers;
Renegotiate police contracts to remove special protections from disciplinary action and accountability;
Lobby Albany to reinstate and expand bail reforms, press for the elimination of cash bail, and hold Governor Cuomo to his previous support of its elimination;
Reaffirm the City’s commitment to close Rikers Island;
Transform Rikers Island into a green energy hub;
Develop a community college reentry program for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers, and direct agencies providing any adult education opportunities that receive City funding to target outreach in communities hit hardest by incarceration, providing support to give the formerly incarcerated a better chance on reentry;
Prioritize funding for social work and mental health services;
Lobby Albany to legalize and tax marijuana, and ensure that members of communities harmed by the war on drugs are given priority to the legal licenses, and that ensuing tax revenues are put toward the repair of those communities;
End zero-tolerance discipline policies in New York public schools, limit the role of police in schools, and reduce the reliance on invasive technologies like metal detectors and biometric surveillance systems that treat students with suspicion;
Require the NYPD to produce data about its school metal detector program, including the location of detectors, requests by principals to install or remove them, and items confiscated through scanning; and
Decriminalize sex work.
Education
We’ll enhance funding for universal 3-K and Pre-K to ensure fair pay for teachers in both public schools and Community-Based Organizations that provide it, enabling them to attract and retain talent, to give all students in New York City schools an equal footing from the start. We can support short-term and long-term hiring practices, funding, and incentives to hire more teachers of color system-wide.
Mayor de Blasio, his hand forced by the pandemic, which prevented fourth-graders from taking academic tests by which middle schools determined admission eligibility, effectively ended screened schools in the coming school year. But rather than in middle school, integration must start at the elementary school level. The gains students make in 3-K and Pre-K in socialization, fine motor skills, language acquisition, and math can be lost if students don’t attend well-resourced elementary schools. Because middle- and high-income parents often have more time and ability to fundraise than lower income families, there are often glaring disparities in resources between schools segregated by race and socioeconomic class. We must address this, and City Council can encourage integration by helping spread resources equally throughout the school system.
We could create a fund to disperse additional money to PTAs of struggling schools. Wealthy PTAs might donate a portion of their raised revenue above a $200K threshold, or a small portion of every dollar, to a community PTA fund. Or private corporations that have profited mightily during the pandemic could be encouraged to create an endowment to fund these PTAs.
But a more organic solution might be to encourage collaboration and cross-cultural community building between PTAs of different schools, and community fundraising within each District. Guidelines and resources could promote inclusivity, diversity, and equity within PTAs and district wide PTA councils, with an eye to inclusion of parents from all backgrounds, an acknowledgement of the disenfranchisement of communities of color, and a centering of their voices. This would not only help allocate resources more fairly among schools, it would prevent voices of color from being drowned out by white ones. And it could break down barriers between communities that rezoning hasn’t solved.
Further, we should fund restorative justice programs in our schools: anti-racism and anti-bias training for faculty, staff, parents, and students; and multilingual mental health support in the form of more guidance counselors and social workers. And we must demand the DoE address invasive police practices like metal detectors and their impact on students of color.
We should also fund the creation of a culturally inclusive curriculum across the system, and as Connecticut did last year with mandatory Black and Hispanic studies, press for its adoption at the state level. 40% of New York City schoolchildren are Hispanic and 25% are Black: students should be taught their own histories, not just the state-prescribed ones.
My hope is that by the time I take office, the pandemic is under control, but in the meanwhile it has laid bare the inequities of Internet access for students across our district. We need to ensure equal Internet access, because learning will no longer be contained to the classroom, students without access can fall behind at home, and more lower-income Black and Brown families have been keeping their children home from school during the pandemic. City Council can accelerate initiatives to expand access to families in need.
We must also demand the DoE produce data on attendance records, identify the students whom the school system failed to serve during the pandemic, and connect them with social services and private tutoring to bring them back up to speed.
On January 11, 2021, Commissioner Carranza finally took action correct the injustice of two separate school systems often operating within the same school building—the well-resourced Gifted & Talented program that serves children who are predominantly white and Asian, and the rest of the school system, which is chronically underfunded for students who are chronically underserved—by promising to phase out the Gifted and Talented exam administered to four year olds. Building on the elimination of the Gifted and Talented exam and screened schools with funding and programs that encourage the equitable distribution of resources, and leadership from progressive Council Members who strive to bring different communities together, City Council can use its budgeting power and influence to help finally integrate New York City schools.
Language justice
We must ensure equal access to government services regardless of language.
I spend my afternoons on the street talking to small business owners in the district. Many immigrant business owners tell me they are struggling to gain access to PPP loans and other government assistance during the pandemic because of language barriers. As an Asian American, I’ve seen firsthand how language barriers have prevented the Asian American community, particularly in New York City, from gaining access to government services. Many in public service believe in the model minority myth—that Asian Americans are smoothly integrating both socially and economically. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, which tracks poverty, reports that the Asian population had the highest poverty rate in the City in 9 out of 12 years tracked, when compared with other racial groups. But only 1.4 percent of social service contracts went to programs designed to serve Asian New Yorkers, who now make up almost 15 percent of the population. Worse, the number of Asians living in poverty in NYC grew by 44 percent, from 2000 to 2016.
District 6 may be a predominantly English speaking (either as a first or second language) district. But, at least 10 other languages, including ASL are used here, and 22% of the district is made up of immigrants. Every resident should have the opportunity to have their voice heard and opinion considered in the course of their district’s governance. I will make it a priority to ensure that I am both available and able to communicate with every district resident regardless of language.
We must create a campaign to recruit diverse translators who represent our demographics. We must fund an interpreter program citywide. We must create a strategy for translation in times of emergency. We must provide adequate support for English Language Learners in our schools. And we must enforce compliance across agencies, so that City services are accessible to all, regardless of their English language proficiency. As a labor leader, it is extremely important to me that all translators be paid fairly.
Will you not seek, and refuse, the endorsement of Bill de Blasio?
I will not seek nor accept any endorsements from Mayor de Blasio.
In view of the fact that Ed Koch has been documented to have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people with AIDS, and was blatantly racist, would you support and sponsor a bill to rename the former Queensboro Bridge?
Yes and I would advocate for renaming the bridge to honor our City’s LGBTQ+ activists and leaders.
What is your position on removing the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Circle and if so, what should replace it?
Yes, we should remove the Columbus statue in Columbus Circle and replace it with a statue honoring the Lenape tribe, the indigenous people who called the island of Manahatta home before Dutch colonizers arrived. I would consult with the Lenape to design an appropriate tribute.
Historical symbols of hate and genocide belong in museums, accompanied by historical context to ensure that future generations can learn from America’s historical (and ongoing) racist institutions and not forget the deep roots racism has in American culture.
Will you refuse contributions from real estate developers and all law enforcement unions or associations?
Yes and yes. We must prioritize the expansion of affordable housing over the interests of real estate developers. Developers should have no undue influence over our elections. One real estate developer donated to my campaign and we immediately refunded it.
The NYPD’s unhinged response to the mass Black Lives Matter protests over the summer was the latest indication that the City has lost control over its police department. The City Council must prioritize renegotiating police union contracts to ensure oversight and accountability, and creating an elected civilian complaint review board with the authority to implement discipline. The police unions should have no undue influence over our elections.
Do you support reducing the budget of the NYPD and if so, by how much?
I support reducing the NYPD budget by 1 billion dollars. That funding should be redirected to the Departments of Education, Homeless Services, and Health and Mental Hygiene.
How would you have voted on the FY21 City Budget?
No; a budget is a moral document. I would not vote for a budget that so grossly prioritizes funding for the NYPD over funding for education, our communities, and our most vulnerable citizens, particularly in the midst of a pandemic.
Are you in favor of removing police from any of the following? a) Schools; b) Mental health response calls; c) Homeless outreach and social services; or d) Traffic enforcement.
I support limiting police presence in schools, mental health response calls, and homeless outreach and social services.
In schools, we must disarm the police and train them in conflict resolution, until we can eliminate them entirely.
Schools
Police in schools can too often send students into the school-to-prison pipeline.
Zero-tolerance disciplinary policies, which involve police patrolling school hallways for minor misbehavior, often lead to arrests and juvenile detention referrals and can result in criminal charges and incarceration. The pipeline disproportionately affects students of color, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ students.
Police reliance on invasive technologies like metal detectors and biometric surveillance systems treat students with suspicion, and these degrading practices only educate children on how biased police may perceive them as adults. Since 2016, the NYPD has been required to produce data about its school metal detector program, including the location of detectors, requests by principals to install or remove them, and items confiscated through scanning, but they’ve never fully complied. They denied a FOIA request for the data filed last year by the NYCLU and two subsequent appeals, citing “a danger to public safety,” and leading NYCLU to file suit against them in August. We must enforce our demand for transparency from the NYPD so we can work toward appropriate policy.
We must treat our City’s children with dignity and the presumption of innocence, not degrade and endanger them.
Mental Health Response
The police are the first to admit that they are not equipped nor trained to handle mental health calls. The Mental Health Teams pilot program, which sends FDNY mental health and crisis workers to respond to mental health calls should be expanded citywide. We must also beef up resources to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Homeless Outreach and Social Services
I support eliminating police outreach to the homeless and other social service areas in favor of support from agencies and professionals better-equipped to deal with these problems. We must recognize these people as victims and regard them with compassion, not as criminals to be punished. Police are trained in law enforcement. We cannot expect them to be social workers.
In 2015, the Sergeants’ Benevolent Association, a police union, launched its “Peek-a-Boo, I See You” initiative, encouraging New Yorkers to shame homeless people. “As you travel about the city of New York,” said SBA president Ed Mullins,
“please utilize your smartphones to photograph the homeless lying in our streets, aggressive panhandlers, people urinating in public or engaging in open-air drug activity, and quality-of-life offenses of every type.”
Punishing homelessness is also expensive and ineffective. Providing a chronically homeless person with permanent supportive housing costs taxpayers a third of what we spend on the same person in incarceration, emergency room visits, and hospitalization.
Homeless people need our support, not harassment from the police.
NYPD should enforce traffic laws and make our streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Should the NYPD Vice Squad be eliminated?
The NYPD Vice Squad should be eliminated immediately. We know that the Vice Squad’s undercover operations result not just in numerous allegations of false arrest, but also of sexual misconduct. Moreover, this unnecessary waste of taxpayer money almost exclusively targets Black and Brown people. Years of reporting has shown us that this squad serves little purpose aside from brutalizing people of color, including LGBTQ and trans people.
I believe sex work should be decriminalized. Decriminalizing sex work allows sex workers to exercise their rights to justice, health care, worker protections, dignity, and equality.
Police harass sex workers, extort bribes, abuse, exploit, coerce, or rape them. We must put a stop to this unchecked abuse of authority.
Should Dermot Shea be fired immediately?
Dermot Shea should’ve been fired weeks ago. He is unfit for the job. Far from serving and protecting New Yorkers, he seems to take delight in forging a culture where the police view the city as a war zone and themselves as soldiers.
Should the NYPD Commissioner require confirmation by the City Council?
Yes. We should amend the City Charter to create a confirmation process for the Police Commissioner requiring the advice and consent of the City Council.
How would you recommend police officers be penalized for refusing to wear masks in public while on duty, in defiance of city and state rules?
We should implement a three strikes rule. Strikes one and two, they will have to pay a financial penalty. Strike three, they lose their job.
What reforms would you make to the Civilian Complaint Review Board? Would you support state legislation to make CCRB disciplinary determinations binding?
Yes, I would support state legislation making CCRB disciplinary determinations bind, but the board needs a complete overhaul. We should:
Create an Elected Civilian Complaint Review Board, accountable to the people of New York City, with the authority to discipline officers;
Amend the City’s Charter to create a confirmation process for the Police Commissioner requiring the advice and consent of the City Council;
Lobby Albany to end qualified immunity for police officers and support state legislation to make CCRG disciplinary determinations binding;
Renegotiate police contracts to remove special protections from disciplinary action and accountability.
What is your position on the plan to close Rikers and create four borough-based jails?
I agree with the Council vote to close Rikers Island.
Isolated as it is from the rest of the City, reachable only by a two-lane causeway, Rikers’ detainees are isolated from their families, who can only take one bus in and one bus out. While its new power plant is purportedly now more efficient than its old one, the whole island is surrounded by power plants, waste transfer stations, and natural gas compressor stations emitting harmful pollutants whose short term and long term effects include asthma attacks, heart attacks, and lung cancer. It has hundreds of
unairconditioned solitary units posing a serious threat to health, flooding in its largest jail and in the juvenile detention center when it rains, and sewer backups.
Rikers must close.
The four proposed modern jails will create more humane conditions for detainees, who will be closer to their communities as well as to courthouses. They also call for a significant reduction in rates of incarceration: thanks to state bail reform laws passed in 2019 and Covid-mitigation releases, New York City’s incarcerated population went from 5,500 to below 4,000 in March 2020, putting the City on target to meet the new jails’ sum total capacity of 3,300 people. Significant reductions in incarceration can help end the cycle of poverty and incarceration suffered by many of our communities, and the tens of millions of dollars the City will save every year can be put toward efforts to reduce poverty and improve health, education, and employment opportunities in District 6 and beyond, funding schools and health programs in communities hit hardest by incarceration.
I am open to hearing the views of the No New Jails movement. And the community at large may continue to have input into the construction of the new jails.
Any effort for greater decarceration in the City requires cooperation of elected officials at multiple levels of government. At the state level, further bail reforms would further reduce incarceration rates in the City. Cash bail criminalizes poverty. Washington, DC and the State of New Jersey have effectively eliminated cash bail with excellent results. Governor Cuomo supported its total elimination, but in last year’s budget rolled back some of 2019’s cash bail reforms after pressure from Mayor de Blasio, police, prosecutors, and Republican and moderate Democratic state legislators. I will use whatever influence I can as a Council Member to hold the Governor to his commitment.
Will you advocate for the Governor to review sentences of incarcerated individuals over the age 55 who have served in excess of 15 years to determine if they warrant release?
Yes, I support bill S2144/A9040, and will advocate for Elder Parole.
It’s common knowledge that New York City’s 311 system is not adequately responsive to the public’s concerns. How would you alter the 311 system to combat these problems?
NYC’s 311 smart phone app is actually pretty great. Unfortunately, no one knows about it. We need a public information campaign to get more New Yorkers to download and use the app.
The entire 311 system is only as good as the City’s ability to analyze the data and respond to it. We have the data. We should invest in a data analytics team to break it down so we can better understand what problems are happening and where. With this better data, we can
suggest policy solutions to the patterns and trends it finds,
more accurately and efficiently prioritize funding for agencies and programs,
and set long term goals for reducing certain kinds of reports (traffic lights, noise complaints, food safety, homeless assistance, etc.).
Hold agencies accountable when they fail to reduce the number of complaints.
Do you support decriminalizing sex work? Will you pledge to oppose the Nordic model?
Yes, sex work should be decriminalized. I pledge to oppose the Nordic model.
Criminalizing adult, voluntary, consensual sex, including sex work, violates the human right to autonomy and privacy. New York City should not tell consenting adults with whom they can have sex, nor dictate the terms.
Criminalizating sex work exposes sex workers to abuse and exploitation by police. It disproportionately affects people of color and LGBTQ people.
The NYPD descends on communities of color, trying to get New Yorkers to agree to exchange sex for money. They make arrests based almost entirely on their own word, incentivized as they are by the promise of overtime to ensnare as many people as they can. Data shows that almost all arrested in the last four years are people of color. Police harass sex workers, extort bribes, abuse, exploit, coerce, or rape them. NYPD vice detective Rene Samaniego was fired and convicted in 2019 for helping run a prostitution and gambling ring that hauled in millions of dollars, tipping off those running brothels in the operation to NYPD activity while profiting off the sex workers.
According to Human Rights Watch, “criminalization makes sex workers more vulnerable to violence, including rape, assault, and murder.”
Criminalization prevents sex workers from seeking justice for crimes committed against them. It prevents them from organizing as workers, advocating for their rights, and consolidating to support and protect each other.
Decriminalizing sex work allows sex workers to exercise their rights to justice, health care, worker protections, dignity, and equality.
The Nordic model’s goal is to end sex work, making it impossible for sex workers to organize and enjoy their rights.
Do you oppose school screening, which exacerbates segregation? Which screens in your school district(s) will you advocate to abolish?
I oppose school screening. In 2019, Community School District 3, which overlaps with my Council District, allotted a quarter of sixth grade seats for low-income students with low test scores and grades, which still didn’t go far enough to address the deeply-rooted causes of segregation. In 2020, because Covid school closures prevented fourth grade tests by which middle schools determine admission, Mayor de Blasio put an end to screened middle schools in the coming school year until the end of his term. On January 11, 2021, Commissioner Carranza announced that, in a year, Gifted & Talented tests administered to four-year-olds will be eliminated. Finally, New York City will no longer have two separate school systems, sometimes operating within the same building, and resources may be allocated more equitably. I oppose reinstating the middle school entrance exam and, other than performing arts schools, I oppose screening for specialized high schools.
Describe what reforms you would make to the control of the NYC public school system.
Since 2002, control of the Department of Education has been in the hands of the Mayor and the Mayor alone. I believe confirmation of the Chancellor of the DoE should require advice and consent of the City Council. We should empower superintendents and
Community Education Councils. As an elected officer of a union, I firmly believe we should empower teachers and administrators with competitive pay and benefits to attract the best talent, and through control over curriculum and testing to best meet the needs of our students. They understand the needs of students better than anyone. The Governor and State Legislature should have a reduced role in control over the NYC public school system.
Do you support public funding of abortion?
I support public funding for abortion. I will lobby to repeal the federal Hyde Amendment and I support the continued funding of the New York Abortion Access Fund. This includes funding for birth control, access to appropriate reproductive health education, cancer screenings, STI and pregnancy testing, and abortion services. The radical right has politicized abortion-related healthcare since the Reagan era and I will work to expand access to reproductive health care for all New Yorkers. Abortion is a private medical decision to be made in consultation with their medical provider, and should be available to everyone, regardless of wealth or means. Currently, medication and surgical abortion services can cost between $500-850 and too often are not covered by health insurance. Uninsured patients are forced to pay out of pocket for a procedure that 1 in 3 American women will have in their lifetimes. City Council should help alleviate that burden.
Do you support the creation of safe consumption sites? Would you support the use of NYC DOHMH authority to establish SCSs without NYSDOH authorization?
I support the creation of Safe Consumption Sites, and would support NYC DOHMH authority to establish SCSs without NYSDOH authorization.
However, on January 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled with Trump’s DOJ and against an SCS in Philadelphia, Safehouse. Judge Bibas, while lauding the nonprofit’s motives, wrote, “Congress has made it a crime to open a property to others to use drugs.” In her dissent, Judge Roth called the ruling “absurd” and the 30-year-old law it referenced “incomprehensible.”
I hope Safehouse can win on appeal or in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile,
President-elect Biden—who at the time of its crafting supported the 1986 statute against
drug dens that says, “It shall be unlawful to manage or control any place for the purposes of unlawfully using controlled substances”—has expressed regret for his earlier stances and favors legalization of marijuana, his nominee to head HHS, Xavier Becerra, champions SCSs, and we can only hope incoming AG Merrick Garland will not enforce the law against them. But we must pressure Congress to repeal the law. SCSs are a tool in our arsenal to fight the epidemics of drug abuse and addiction, HIV, and Hep C.
Do you smoke or otherwise consume weed?
Yes, and I support the legalization and taxation of marijuana, with a focus on using that revenue to support restorative justice the Black and Brown communities disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs.
Have you ever supported any of the members of the IDC? If so, who? What did you do to help defeat the IDC in 2018?
Never.
What will you do to support nightlife in NYC?
As part of my Arts & Culture Recovery Plan, I will support live musicians and performers in bars and restaurants by modernizing state liquor and city zoning laws.
Venues that provide live music often struggle to get liquor licensing, forcing them to decide between selling alcohol and employing artists. The State Liquor Authority should have no say in whether or not a venue can employ musicians and performers. I will work with state lawmakers to revoke the State Liquor Authority’s power to regulate live music, and work with the Office of Nightlife and other authorities to change outdated and confusing zoning laws, to allow more restaurants and bars to hire live musicians and performers.
Do you commit to speak with restaurant and nightlife industry representatives before taking a position on any policies that affect their businesses?
Absolutely. In my campaign, I spend every afternoon on the street canvassing the district talking to restaurants and other small business owners about the challenges they’ve faced during the pandemic, how they’ve survived, and what they need from the City. I’m eager to engage these business owners in policy discussions.
I am a frequent consumer of NYC’s nightlife scene: bars, clubs, music venues, etc. I have the support of Ru Bhatt, founder of Occupy the Disco, and Ted Arenas, owner of Rise Bar, and I intend to call on them and other nightlife industry representatives before taking positions on policies that affect their business.
Will you work to place restaurant, bar and club owners on community boards? Will you commit to not appointing or reappointing community board members who are hostile to food and beverage establishments?
Yes and yes.
Now that the cabaret law was repealed do you support amending the zoning resolution to allow patrons to dance at more venues and eliminate the restrictions against dancing?
YES.
Did you oppose the de Blasio/Cuomo proposal (and giveaways) for bringing Amazon’s HQ2 to Long Island City?
Yes.
What role do you believe the local member should play in the approval of development proposals before the Council?
Every Council member should be a steward of our City's most precious commodity:
land. I will ensure development approvals align with the goals and needs of community residents. The best time for me to get involved in the development process is before ULURP begins when proposals are still being shaped and community groups, unions, and stakeholders will have greater say in shaping them. I will organize community
education and engagement initiatives in advance of public hearings. Once ULURP begins, I will work with the Community Board to ask tough questions of developers in public hearings and ensure that all aspects of the process consider the needs of the community.
Do you support legislation to prohibit discrimination against formerly incarcerated people in housing?
Yes
Do you oppose the removal of the nearly 300 homeless individuals from the Lucerne hotel due to pressure from some local residents?
Yes.
What proposals will you advocate for to protect immigrants and further New York as a Sanctuary City?
As the chair of Actors’ Equity Association’s International Actors Committee, I discovered that our union’s membership policies excluded many non-citizen immigrants. Of course, non-citizen immigrants deserve the same workplace protections as everyone else so I’ve worked to expand our union’s membership and membership benefits to include those immigrants. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made, but we have a ways to go.
I’m eager to ensure that New York remains a destination for immigrants from around the world and that non-citizen immigrants have all the same protections that citizens do.
As a City Council member, representing many non-citizen immigrants, it will be my duty to lobby Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and to ensure the country’s immigration policies are equitable for immigrants of all backgrounds.
I applaud City Council’s legislation directing the Probation Department to not honor ICE requests, limiting sentences for disorderly conduct from fifteen days to five days to protect immigration status, restricting the Human Resources Administration from sharing personal information unless subpoenaed, and protecting our immigrant neighbors in other ways that have bolstered our sanctuary city status.
My focus will be on expanding worker protections to gig economy workers, who are some of our most vulnerable workers. The City should also fund legal services and support organizations that provide aid.
Do you support a single-payer universal health care system? Please elaborate on what policy and legislative steps the City can take to expand access and affordability.
Yes. Healthcare is a basic human right and I will work to ensure all New Yorkers have access to affordable healthcare regardless of employment or immigration status. This is personal for me. I’m lucky to have received great health insurance through my union, Actors’ Equity, for the last several years. But the pandemic shut down all of our employers and we only qualify for the health insurance program when we work. Like thousands of others, I lost my insurance and I don’t know when I’ll be able to return to work and regain eligibility.
I would urge State Legislators to pass the New York Health Act, which has the potential to be a highly successful program to provide universal coverage in the state with lower administrative costs than commercial insurance and more manageable prices through bulk bargaining power.
Medical bills in the United States are the highest in the world. The City has considerable power to influence the cost of medical care through Health and Hospitals’ economy of scale. We first have to make health care costs more transparent and hold doctors and hospitals accountable when they arbitrarily inflate costs. If we can lower the cost of medical care, a statewide health insurance program would become more viable.
Who did you support for office in the following primaries or special elections: A) Mayor in 2013 B) Public Advocate in 2013 and 2019, C) President in 2016 and 2020
Governor and Attorney General in 2018?
Mayor in 2013 - Christine Quinn Public Advocate in 2013 - Tish James
Public Advocate in 2019 - Jumaane Williams President in 2016 - Hillary Clinton
President in 2020 - Elizabeth Warren in the primary and Joe Biden in the general Governor in 2018 - Cynthia Nixon in the primary, Andrew Cuomo in the general Attorney General in 2018 - Zephyr Teachout in the primary, Tish James in the general
Top 3 issues you aim to address locally and legislatively
1) Arts & Culture Recovery: New York is facing an Arts & Culture depression. The Pandemic has shut down most of the sector’s employers. Hundreds of cultural institutions face permanent closure. 70% of arts workers are unemployed. In a normal year, this sector accounts for 12.6 billion dollars in economic activity, making it an unparalleled engine of growth and jobs. Without Arts & Culture, many New Yorkers will find it difficult to justify paying exorbitant rents for tiny apartments and leave, corporations will choose cheaper cities to locate their headquarters and drain New York of badly needed jobs, and tourism will take years to rebound, hurting the City’s hotels, restaurants and retail. A shrinking population, loss of jobs, and tourism will make it nearly impossible for NYC’s tax revenue to return. New York’s economic future depends on an Arts & Culture Renaissance. I have a plan to make it happen.
2) Affordable Housing: Housing is a basic human right. New York City’s residential rent has soared in the last twenty years. New Yorkers increasingly face housing insecurity while the number of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness has skyrocketed. The housing crisis is a challenge that affects more New Yorkers than any other. Fixing our housing crisis will reverse the effects of gentrification and displacement, allow our city to be more socioeconomically and racially diverse, and help to close the gaps between our richest and poorest citizens. Current laws demand that New Yorkers experiencing homelessness be reported to the authorities three times before they can be assigned a case worker to help them get back on their feet. This system is draconian and outdated; we must instead respond with compassion and help our neighbors.
3) Help Small Businesses: New York’s unemployment numbers have skyrocketed during this pandemic. As of November, we are facing between 11 and 12% unemployment. This is happening against the backdrop of twenty years of soaring commercial rents, and shuttered businesses. Minimum rent provisions in commercial mortgage agreements prevent landlords from lowering rents to what renters can afford. The landlords then write off the loss of these unleased properties from their taxes. Meanwhile, vacant storefronts line our neighborhood streets. The basic culture of the neighborhood has eroded. The loss of these businesses means there is less pedestrian traffic and fewer people on streets, allowing for a rise in crimes like robbery, burglary, vandalism, and break-ins. We must alter our tax code to bring mom and pop shops back to our neighborhood, rethink our city streets to encourage year round outdoor dining and invest in new building projects district-wide to bring back the jobs our community desperately needs.
Mayor de Blasio has indicated his intent to call a third Charter Revision Commission, what additional reforms would you support to 1) the budget process, 2) the land use process, and 3) the powers and duties of municipal offices?
We need to make the City’s budgeting, zoning, and policy approaches more transparent.
Budgeting. New York City needs greater authority over its financial future. We need to work with the State Legislature to grant NYC the authority to raise income and sales taxes, as well as borrow money.
Zoning. Enshrining the Right to Housing in the City Charter would require the City finally end homelessness and provide housing to all of its residents.
Powers and Duties.
NYC should lead the nation by implementing universal suffrage and automatic voter registration. When residents turn 18, they should automatically be enrolled to vote. Residents should retain their right to vote in municipal elections when incarcerated in jails and prisons.
Require advice and consent of the City Council for the confirmation of Police Commissioner, with a term-limit to place the commissioner under review;
Require advice and consent of the City Council for the confirmation of the Schools Chancellor.
Elected Civilian Complaint Review Board with the authority to discipline police officers.
Creation of a citywide Chief Diversity Officer.
Please explain your vision for the present powers of the office you are seeking and how you intend to exercise them?
The City Council has five main powers: property taxes, budgeting, land use, legislation, and the bully pulpit.
Property taxes
I envision a massive property tax overhaul to make our system more equitable and spur economic growth. Current property taxes are linked to old property value assessments. These assessments are no longer accurate. Caps on property tax increases prevent a fair collection of revenue. Property taxes on commercial real estate are passed down to business owners in the form of sky high rent. We must reform those taxes so that landlords can lower rents and business owners can afford to rent storefronts. Some of my neighbors on the Upper West Side pay 10x in property taxes for their brownstones as what the Mayor pays for his brownstones in Park Slope. Clearly, there’s enormous room to adjust taxes so that they are collected more fairly.
I will work with the State Legislature to modernize the sales tax to include all goods and services sold online, tax digital advertising, legalizing and tax marijuana, implement a pied a terre tax on empty luxury condos, and increase income taxes on ultra-millionaires and billionaires.
Budgeting
Budgets are moral documents. If elected, I intend to chair the Cultural Affairs committee where I will grow the arts budget with a focus on equitable funding for artists, cultural institutions, and neighborhoods traditionally left out of funding opportunities. I will prioritize funding for the Department of Education, Homeless Services, and Health and Mental Hygiene. I will redirect funding from the NYPD and limit the role of police in schools, homeless outreach, and mental health response calls. I will invest money saved from reduced incarceration to address poverty and improve local health, education, and employment opportunities, funding schools and health programs in communities hit hardest by incarceration.
Land Use
One of the greatest powers of my office is member deference. Traditionally, zoning changes and ULURP approval in a district requires the support of that district’s Council member. I support the progressive caucus’ effort to create Comprehensive Planning, and part of that planning must include the community. Development projects must be planned and executed with complete transparency, and the inclusion and input of community stakeholders. As a union member and elected officer of a union, I bring unions and other community groups into the development process to make clear to the developer our expectations before ULURP begins.
I will oversee a massive reimagining of our City’s streets to turn avenues into pedestrian plazas and drive more foot traffic down our commercial corridors, get cars off the roads, make garbage pick up more efficient, create more bike lanes, create priority busways, and expand outdoor seating for restaurants.
Legislation
I will push through legislation to fast track and streamline the Basement Apartment Pilot Program to create over 200,000 attic, basement, and garage apartment units for low income and affordable housing.
I will streamline the process for getting our neighbors off the streets and into permanent supportive housing.
I will close Rikers and turn it into a green energy hub.
I will develop a community college reentry program for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers. Target communities hit hardest by incarceration for educational outreach, to give the formerly incarcerated a better chance upon reentry.
I will eliminate regulatory hurdles for small businesses by creating a single point-of-contact customer service liaison assisting business owners.
Bully Pulpit
I will champion the rights of workers and join them on picket lines, march with them in the streets, and call out their employers when they are treated unfairly.
I will champion the integration of our public schools and call out systemic racism and injustice when I see it.
Do you commit to working with Jim Owles during your campaign and while in office? What role can the club and the progressive LGBT community play in holding you accountable?
I am a gay man. Most of the staff of my campaign are gay. Most of my friends are gay. I already rely on the counsel of the LGBTQ community to align my moral compass and will continue to do so. The Jim Owles Club has been a progressive leader for decades. I intend to call on the club’s membership for policy ideas, as a sounding board, to engage with the LGBTQ community, and to help lobby my fellow Council members when I need help passing legislation or a budget that’s important to the community.
If you receive the endorsement, do you agree to identify the club on all literature and electronic materials where you list endorsements?
Absolutely.
What additional information would you like Jim Owles to consider when we are making our endorsement decisions?
When I was 12 years old, I woke up every morning in fear, knowing that at school that day, as I walked down the hallway or sat in class, the other kids would greet me with chants of “faggot”. They knew what I had only just begun to understand: I wasn’t like the other kids.
At 14, I was outed at school by a friend I thought I could trust with my secret. Middle school was just a warm up for the fear I would feel in high school.
At 16, my community theater director, an out and proud, HIV+, progressive activist, heard my story and alerted me to the Michigan State House’s Education Committee’s upcoming hearing on school bullying and encouraged me to testify in support of a proposed anti-bullying law. I agreed. I don’t think I realized how important my testimony was, but I knew that I was representing the voices of countless other gay kids across the state who couldn’t be there to tell their stories.
I didn’t find the courage to come out to my parents until I was 21. And when I did, I saw the shame, disappointment, and regret in my mother’s eyes.
When I began my career as an actor, I dreaded what would happen if casting directors and producers found out I was gay. Would it be possible to have a career as a gay man? But I made the decision. I was finished hiding. I would choose to live my life openly and never hide who I was or the men I dated.
The height of the AIDS crisis had faded before I became sexually active, but the trauma remained. Until PreP, every sexual encounter I ever had was filled with terror. Every HIV test would certainly come back positive. Every cough, every sore throat was surely a sign of AIDS. And then, just five years ago, I began taking Truvada, and that fear evaporated.
It’s a fear that every gay man of a certain age knows all too well.
I know who you are, what you’ve been through, what it means to be a gay man. I know your trauma. And that is why I am the best candidate in this race to receive your endorsement.
A few years ago, I discovered that a major health epidemic was plaguing NYC’s gay men, but the community, medical professionals, and the Department of Health weren’t talking about it. It was difficult to even find resources about the issue. I single-handedly launched a lobbying effort and successfully got the Department of Health to create a new public health campaign around this issue. I am happy to tell you more about it in the interview.
I’ve seen how inadequate public health policies have harmed our community. When the HPV vaccine was approved by the FDA, it was first recommended only for teenage girls. Somehow, those recommendations didn’t take into account who was transmitting the virus to those girls. Eventually, the recommendations were expanded to teenage boys. When the FDA later updated recommendations to include everyone up to the age of 26, I was already too old to take advantage of the vaccine. Health insurance companies wouldn’t pay for the vaccine without the FDA’s recommendation. It would take several more years before the FDA again changed recommendations to include everyone up to the age of 45. At that point, I watched a generation of gay men deal with the consequences of HPV exposure, requiring extensive and invasive surgeries to prevent potentially cancerous growths. Still today, I encounter young men who have never heard of HPV, have no understanding of the dangers of the virus, and have no idea that there is an FDA recommended vaccine available to them that could prevent costly and painful surgeries and potentially save their life and the lives of their sexual partners. This is a major opportunity for the NYC Dept of Health to do better.
All five openly gay City Council members are term-limited and after the 2021 elections, we may have many fewer gay voices in City Hall. Representation matters.
Representation saves lives. I look forward to earning your support.