Candidate Answers to JOLDC: Jesse Laymon for City Council District 26
Candidate Name: Jesse Laymon
Office Seeking Election for: City Council District 26
Explain, based on life experiences and accomplishments, why you believe you are best qualified to represent your district
I've been a full-time organizer and activist for progressive causes, campaigns, and candidates since graduating college in 2003. I've organized on campaigns to stop wars (with MoveOn.org), to save the Clean Air Act (with Environmental Action), to protect women's rights & reproductive health (with Americans for UNFPA), to transform campaign finance & tax millionaires (with Citizen Action), and to shift our economic development focus from corporations to workers (with the NYC Employment and Training Coalition).
Between issue campaigns, I've worked as a manager of field campaigns to elect Democrats in competitive battles with the worst Republicans, including on the Presidential campaigns of 2008 and most recently 2020.
Locally, I've been a Community Board member for 5 years and a volunteer leader & board member with both Citizen Action of New York and the Working Families Party for 10 years.
In my most recent issue-campaign role, I spent 4 years as the Policy Director for the NYC Employment and Training Coalition, where I focused on legislative advocacy in City Hall. As a result, I have a strong understanding of how the Council and Administration work (or, as is often the case, don't work).
Setting myself apart will be the key to my campaign, in a contest that will feature more than 10 candidates (potentially as many as 18!). I hope to do so by highlighting my track record and commitment to the progressive movement, and doing so with the support of trusted validators such as the Sunrise Movement NYC.
In addition to leaning on my background (which I think is the most relevant and progressive in the wide field of candidates, though others also have strong areas of strength), I also stand apart from the candidates by virtue of being the person who's won an election in this district before (I was elected as a Democratic District Leader in June of this year, running against the "Queens machine" establishment candidate), and as the only one who has a young child (and can thus speak to the challenges that so many NYC parents are having during this year of crisis).
Please identify any openly LGBTQ candidate for public office you have previously or presently endorsed?
Cynthia Nixon for Governor
Tiffany Caban for Queens DA
Jimmy Van Bramer for CD 26 (in ‘13 and ‘17)
If applicable, what legislation directly affecting the LGBTQ community have you introduced or co-sponsored? (indicate accordingly)
N/A
What LGBTQ organizations have you been involved with, either on a volunteer basis or professionally?
I first volunteered with Gay Men’s Health Crisis when in the 1st Grade (my kindergarten art teacher was one of the brave men in the mid ‘80s who openly disclosed his HIV-positive status to his employer; and my Quaker school reacted in a way they can be proud of to this day, organizing ways for the school community to support not only him, but NYC’s HIV+ community writ large). I continued to be active in AIDS Walks and similar activities through my teens; in my 20s I worked on the Presidential campaign of Howard Dean because of his support for gay marriage (or, as he sometimes rather meekly described it, civil unions; no one’s perfect), and my pivot from working on national politics to NY politics came about because of the 2009 failure of the Democratic-controlled State Senate to pass marriage equality (I protested outside my State Senator’s office; and helped build support for his primary opponent and eventual replacement).
Do you consider yourself a member of the LGBTQ community?
No. I am a cisgendered straight man. FWIW, I am married to a queer-identifying bi-sexual woman.
Have you marched in Pride? Which marches and for approximately how many years?
Yes, I have marched with progressive groups in two NYC Pride parades,
Have you employed openly LGBTQ individuals previously? Do you employ any currently?
Yes; I can’t count how many LGBTQ individuals I’ve supervised across political campaigns (dozens, to be sure); and my first hire of my Council campaign is a trans woman.
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?
Protests outside of Senators offices for Marriage Equality; Participated in multiple pro-choice marches (inc. the March for Women’s lives in 2004); stood outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park (where federal inmates and immigration detainees are housed); attended one of the Women’s Marches against Trump.
I should not though, that I’ve focused my time primarily not on demonstrations and marches in supportive communities such as NYC, but rather on organizing and voter engagement and mobilization in swing states and districts (including managing a statewide campaign in Pennsylvania to elect Joe Biden & Kamala Harris in 2020).
Have you ever been arrested? If so please explain why and outcome of arrest.
No. I’ve been willing to be arrested as part of civil disobedience actions at the State Capitol and outside Governor Cuomo’s office; however my role as an organizer has often meant I wasn’t asked or chosen to play that role in those actions.
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:
When I launched my campaign, I did it with a focus on racial equity, and I’m proud to have won the first major endorsement of this campaign from an organization focused on racial justice, Citizen Action of New York.
My own career and life as an activist have included a focus on anti-racist policies and campaigns, including not only time spent advocating for the abolition of prisons and police departments, but also professional advocacy the last four years on behalf of investments into job training programs aimed at low-income communities of color.
I believe we must confront racial injustice in several parts of our society simultaneously. For example, I want to lead my district on a process of desegregating our public schools, while also advocating for district-level desegregation to be mandated across the City. I want to transform our development planning process to be not only comprehensive and professional, but built on a foundation of racial justice (I support the vision of ANHD’s “Plan for People of Color”). I want to start the Green New Deal in public housing, improving the environment for residents of the Queensbridge Houses first. I want to shut down all polluting power plants located in densely populated communities of color, and I want to accomplish that within my time in the Council. And yes, I want to dismantle the NYPD and replace it with community-focused and trauma-informed safety investments.
None of that will be easy, but it is a core reason (along with confronting climate change) that I chose to seek public office in the first place, and it will be a guiding motivation for me as long as I’m in office.
Will you not seek, and refuse, the endorsement of Bill de Blasio?
I will not, and would refuse it if he offered it.
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?
I would support doing that, yes. I publicly opposed the renaming of the bridge after him (and I oppose several of the recent renamings after mediocre NY politicians, such as Mario Cuomo and Hugh Carey) at the time.
What is your position on removing the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Circle and if so, what should replace it?
It should be removed, as should all monuments to conquistadors and confederates - historical figures who are specifically remembered because of something they did that should not be and should never have been celebrated.
I don’t have strong feelings about what should replace each statue. I am broadly supportive of public statuary and public art, and do think that grand statues have a place in society - just not those of famous racists and mass murders.
Will you refuse contributions from real estate developers and all law enforcement unions or associations?
Yes.
Do you support reducing the budget of the NYPD and if so, by how much?
Yes.
I believe we can achieve a complete abolition of the NYPD within 8 years, using the '8 to abolition' principles as a guide.
In the immediate 2-year term that I hope to be elected to next year, I would pursue a variety of significant reductions to the NYPD's scope and budget, including:
- A hiring freeze & vacancy eliminations
- A promotion freeze
- A vehicle and equipment purchase freeze
- Elimination of the vice unit
- Elimination of the narcotics unit
- Elimination of the aviation unit
- Elimination of the PR unit
- Transfer of responsibility for event safety (parades, protests, etc) to FDNY.
- Piloting of alternative 911 response managed by the Department of Health for 911 calls related to Mental Health crises & Domestic Violence crises.
- Piloting alternative community safety patrols in NYCHA.
- Downstream changes to formerly NYPD tasks now embedded in other agencies (ie, transforming the 5k School Safety Agents at DOE into School Support Staff aimed at fill-ing the gaps in counseling & caring for students instead of policing them)
I believe the ultimate budget for community safety measures (including 911 response) in a post-NYPD city should be approximately half of the current NYPD budget of $6 billion; I think the incoming Council should aim to make permanent cuts of at least $1 billion to the NYPD in its very first budget, and more in its second.
How would you have voted on the FY21 City Budget?
I would have voted against the budget.
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.
All of the above.
Should the NYPD Vice Squad be eliminated?
Yes.
Should Dermot Shea be fired immediately?
Yes.
Should the NYPD Commissioner require confirmation by the City Council?
No - the NYPD should be dismantled over the coming decade and the office of the NYPD Commissioner should be one of the earlier pieces to be scrapped. It is a role that exists largely to provide prestigious public punditry on the local news about the importance of the NYPD. We don’t need a chief of NYPD propaganda, and I hope to see the last NYPD Commissioner be let go by 2025.
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?
Yes, and I’m appalled that an acquaintance of mine was detained at a DHS facility a few blocks from my house by NYPD & DHS Police because he asked them to put on their masks.
What reforms would you make to the Civilian Complaint Review Board? Would you support state legislation to make CCRB disciplinary determinations binding?
Yes; I think an entity like the CCRB should be strengthened, even as we work to dismantle the NYPD. There will always be a need for civilian monitoring of whatever collection of law enforcement agencies we have.
What is your position on the plan to close Rikers and create four borough-based jails?
We should close Rikers in less than 4 years, and not build any new jails. We should aim to reduce the nightly jail population down to the level that can be accommodated at the Manhattan and Brooklyn jails that exist (and in time we should see to replace these with far smaller community facilities).
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. Though this Governor won’t do it; I will advocate for this to be standard procedure and I will campaign for a Governor who will embark on a massive program of clemency and pardons.
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?
I support increased funding for the system, especially as we consider it’s increased use in a world where the NYPD is not the first agency we call to solve our problems.
Do you support decriminalizing sex work? Will you pledge to oppose the Nordic model?
Yes, Yes.
Do you oppose school screening, which exacerbates segregation? Which screens in your school district(s) will you advocate to abolish?
Desegregation of schools is an important plank of my campaign, and I’d work to extend the just-announced one-year suspension of all middle school screening for at least 3 years (including all screened schools in my district).
I think we as a City should acknowledge that the status quo of school assignment is broken and racist, but also that we may not have all the answers for how it should ultimately look. The lottery system the DOE is implementing this year is worth trying for a few years to see what outcomes it achieves in terms of demographic distribution and educational attainment.
Describe what reforms you would make to the control of the NYC public school system.
I’d make desegregation of both elementary and middle schools my area of focus; I believe that the segregation of our schools, both by dint of neighborhood and via screening, is the single biggest roadblock to improved outcomes for lower-income students of color.
Do you support public funding of abortion?
Yes; my wife and I are longtime supporters of the NY Abortion Access Fund, which pays for women who cannot afford the procedure or who live in more repressive states to get the medical care they need and deserve here in New York.
Do you support the creation of safe consumption sites? Would you support the use of NYC DOHMH authority to establish SCSs without NYSDOH authorization?
Yes, strongly.
Do you smoke or otherwise consume weed?
No. I’ve never particularly enjoyed smoking (anything), and I never took a liking to the weed I tried. It’s never bothered me to be around others smoking it, though, in social settings, etc.
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?
No.
What will you do to support nightlife in NYC?
One of the cornerstone proposals of my campaign is a direct wage subsidy at local small businesses, aimed at generating rapid re-hiring as we exit the pandemic and focusing that re-hiring on traditionally marginalized communities.
I'm proposing we re-purpose the money generally wasted on corporate tax credits for "job creation" and use it for this direct wage subsidy for small businesses instead, targeted at $20/hr jobs for local workers, especially younger workers.
This would have a significant impact for nightlife in NYC, which has been decimated by the pandemic, even while we still had indoor dining.
Do you commit to speak with restaurant and nightlife industry representatives before taking a position on any policies that affect their businesses?
Yes. I’ve worked with Andrew Rigie in the past, and would consult him and his colleagues regularly about policies that affect NYC’s hospitality industry.
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. As a CB member myself who served on the “Public Safety and Quality of Life” (liquor licenses, mostly) committee, I was regularly a helpful ally to restaurants and bars looking to gain or extend their ability to serve customers.
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?
I believe that “member deference” is effectively dead as of today - both the advocates of development and opponents of rezonings have begun organizing support/opposition to development as if the new standard is 26 votes (not the local member’s vote). Depending on the makeup of the Council as a whole and who we choose as our next Speaker, this could be a very good thing.
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. Viscerally.
What proposals will you advocate for to protect immigrants and further New York as a Sanctuary City?
With the departure (good riddance) of the Trump Administration, many leaders in New York will breathe an overly-confident sigh of relief and think that the need to stand up to Federal immigration policy and authorities is over. I feel the opposite is true: with the Trump Administration gone, now we have far greater opportunity to truly create a "sanctuary city" that openly embraces our foreign-born New Yorkers without the threat of unrelated budgetary reprisals from Washington.
We should pass local laws that severely penalize businesses that threaten workers with exposure to immigration authorities, and we should ensure that the Department of Consumer and Worker Affairs is rigorously enforcing wage and benefits laws, *especially* for workplaces with significant immigrant populations which are known to be more vulnerable to employer abuses.
We should do everything in our power at the City level to remove ICE completely from NYC. We should not only forbid any public agency from cooperating with them, we should make informing on an undocumented immigrant a fireable offense for public employees including police officers. We should seek to remove ICE from any publicly owned property in New York, and we should offer expanded public assistance to the legal defenders of our neighbors under threat of deportation.
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.
The ideal solution to expanding coverage would be a state-based universal healthcare plan (I think the NY Health Act is the clear model); but I know this will require overcoming the resistance of our centrist/conservative Governor. In the meantime, I think we should explore targeted local alternatives, including automatic enrollment of all uninsured individuals in an existing City-managed plan.
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 C) Governor and Attorney General in 2018?
Mayor in 2013: Bill de Blasio (I opposed his re-election in 2017 after it became clear to me he had no political vision or courage)
Public Advocate: Tish James in ‘13 (though I organized a unity event with both her & Daniel Squadron during their runoff); Jumaane Williams in ‘19.
President in ‘16 & ‘20: Elizabeth Warren (I was “Ready for Warren” back in ‘16… alas).
Governor in ‘18: Cynthia Nixon (I also supported Zephyr Teachout in ‘14)
AG in ‘18: Zephyr Teachout
Top 3 issues you aim to address locally and legislatively
I've built my campaign around two broad issue areas: racial justice and environmental protection, and thus on the policy proposals that will allow us to build a more equitable and sustainable city.
Three of my highest-priority proposals will be
- A jobs guarantee for traditionally under resourced younger New Yorkers. This would take the form of a direct wage subsidy to small businesses in NYC to get them to hire CUNY students (and NYCHA residents and some other key groups as well). We could fund this by eliminating the corporate tax credits that pass as "economic development" in New York, and by enacting a new fee on vacant retail spaces.
- A price on carbon pollution in NYC. This would be an important revenue-raiser for NYC during time of tight budgets, and would help to incentivize the decommissioning of old fossil fuel power plants.
- Beginning the dismantling of the carceral state by moving at least $1 Billion out of the NYPD budget and investing in community-based solutions to prevent violence and crime.
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?
The City Council must have more power versus the Mayor in setting the City’s budget.
We need to scrap the ULURP process and implement a comprehensive community/city-wide planning process.
The Public Advocate should have a more meaningful job; the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement and the Department of Investigation should be moved under the PA’s office.
Please explain your vision for the present powers of the office you are seeking and how you intend to exercise them?
I'm running for City Council because of my deep disappointment with the current Council's failure to live up to its professed progressive values. I believe that we need Council Members who see themselves as fully committed to a movement to change our City, not ones who simply agree with progressive policies most of the time.
As a Council Member in 2022, I intend to lead the fight to put a price on carbon emissions in NYC, alongside fees on other non-essential and/or destructive choices (such as landlords and investors holding vacant property, and e-commerce and app-tech companies seeking to drown our small businesses). I also expect to be a part of the battle to end policing as we know it in NYC, defunding and then dismantling the NYPD, and closing Rikers without building new jails. And I hope to use the revenue gained from my proposed fees, and the money saved from the vortex of criminal justice, to invest instead in local elements of the Green New Deal, including direct employment subsidies for traditionally marginalized communities in our City (to effectively guarantee jobs for targeted communities, and to help local small businesses and non-profits re-hire and grow).
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?
Yes. I see my role as a potential endorsee as committing to listening to the club when it sets policy goals, opening myself to questioning and criticism, and recognizing that I will always have room to grow on this issues, speaking as a cis straight man.
If you receive the endorsement, do you agree to identify the club on all literature and electronic materials where you list endorsements?
Yes
What additional information would you like Jim Owles to consider when we are making our endorsement decisions?
N/A