FY 2027 Executive Budget Hearing

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Good morning. Welcome to the New York City Council Executive Budget Hearing for the Committee on Finance, joined with the Committee on Aging and Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Relations. Please silence all cell phones and electronic devices. Moving forward, no one is to approach the chairs today.

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We are ready to begin. Great, thank you. Good morning and welcome to the first day of the Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget Hearings. I am Council Member Linda Lee. Today's hearings will begin with the Department for the Aging, followed by the City's library systems and the Department of Cultural Affairs. I am pleased to be joined by my colleagues, CM Susan of the Committee on Aging, and we are also joined by CM Schulman, CM Brewer, and I think that is it for now. So I want to welcome Commissioner Dr. Lisa Scott McKenzie and your team. Thank you all for joining us today to answer our questions.

On May 12, 2026, the administration released the Executive Financial Plan for Fiscal Years 2026 to 2030, with a proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget for the Department for the Aging. The proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget represents less than 1% of the administration's proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget in the Executive Plan. This is an increase of 0.6% from what was originally budgeted in the Fiscal Year 2027 Preliminary Plan. This increase results from several actions, mostly due to additional funding to support indirect cost rates for human service contracts. As of April 2026, DFTA's headcount was 300, which is 39 positions less than their Fiscal Year 2026 budgeted headcount.

In the Council's Preliminary Budget response, we called on the Mayor to add $2 million to DFTA's budget to continue one-year funding for a Council priority that was included in Fiscal Year 2026 for case management services. We also called on the administration to provide additional metrics in the Mayor's Management Report on the demand for types of meals distributed at our older adult centers and further details on the meal distributions of our home delivered meals and case management metrics on the level of assistance provided.

Further, in our Preliminary Budget hearing, we called on the administration to increase City-funded meals for the older adult population in light of HR 1 federal funding cuts. On the Council side, I introduced legislation which would expand home delivered meals from solely weekdays to seven days a week, as food assistance for our older adult population should not be restricted to just business days. We were disappointed to see that our request was not included in the plan. We look forward to listening to your testimony and hearing your thoughts on many of these things that we have brought up, and I will now turn it to my co-

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chair for this hearing, CM Susan, for her opening statement. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Susan Zhuang. I serve as the chair and this is my second budget hearing as chair on the Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget for the New York City Department for the Aging, also known as DFTA. Thank you to DFTA Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie for joining us. Thank you to the older adults in the audience and the community members who have joined us today. I will keep my comments here brief and request that the Commissioner keep her remarks brief as well, so we can move on to questions from Council Members.

I would like to continue my new tradition in the Aging Committee, where at each hearing we show some pictures from the older adult centers. This is one of them. I actually visited there, and that is the condition of some senior centers, which is terrible. It is essential that New York City government, both the Council and DFTA, come face to face with the real issues that older adults are living every day. Older adults and the people who serve them are forced to exist in these conditions. We must hold our agency accountable. Older adults and the older adult provider network have faced challenging past few years due to the pandemic, budgetary constraints, world inflation and the increased cost of living. I look forward to working collaboratively with providers and the administration to help the City's 1.8 million older adults overcome those challenges.

DFTA has a critical role to play in assessing and meeting the needs of older adults, collaborating with the provider network and the Council to harness best practices and create innovative approaches to best serve our City's growing population of older adults. DFTA's Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget is more than the Fiscal Year 2027 Preliminary Budget. Additionally, the Executive Budget is less than the Fiscal Year 2026 adopted budget, as Council discretionary initiative funding is not yet included in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget. Despite serving almost 20% of the City's population for less than 1% of the City's overall budget, which is probably only 0.6%, this is simply not sufficient to meet the needs of older adults in the City.

The Executive Plan includes a one-time allocation of $4.2 million to the baseline budget starting in Fiscal Year 2024, to cover the expected cost increase for human service contracts, but not enough for direct service programs for all older adults. The other adjustments in this plan were modest, added in Fiscal Year 2026 and Fiscal Year 2027. Savings indicated in the plan total $7 million in Fiscal Year 2026 and $3 million in Fiscal Year 2027 and in the out years. I am disappointed to not see deeper investment in older adults in this plan, and as chair of this committee I look forward to working alongside the administration to come up with new ways to create and implement expanded services for older adults.

DFTA's capital commitment plan is the smallest in the City at $5.8 million over Fiscal Years 2026 to 2030, a decrease of 26.5% when compared to the Preliminary Budget capital commitment plan, largely due to projects being delayed and pushed further into the outer years. With over 300 older adult centers and about 62 networks in DFTA's network, this funding is insufficient to properly address all the infrastructure needs like the one you see here. I believe the capital program could be enhanced to help refurbish centers, improve technology and connect older adults to much-needed technology and resources. As I have said before, I want DFTA to advocate for additional capital funding to be added to the budget to create more affordable older adult housing units across the City. This is a big priority of mine, as older adults are struggling with rising rents and the lack of accessible, affordable, older-adult-friendly units across the five boroughs.

In this hearing, we would like to get a deeper understanding of DFTA's expense and capital challenges included in the Executive Plan, as well as the impact on key agency services, including case management, home delivered meals and older adult center programs. Additionally, I would like to learn more about the potential impact and the decision-making process that went into savings that were included in this plan. While we know all agencies were required to find savings to close the budget gap, I am concerned about the impact on older adults across our City.

I would like to thank the committee staff who have helped to prepare this hearing: Senior Financial Analyst Julia, her Deputy Director Christopher, Senior Council Counsel Hannah, Council Counsel Joshua, Policy Analyst and my Director of Budget and Legislation Jennifer. I have now turned it back to the Finance Committee Council Member to administer the oath to members of the administration.

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Great, thank you, Chair. Before we move on, we have been joined by CM Aldebol and CM J. Sanchez. Thanks for being here. I personally can attest to how important the CDBG and capital grants are for kitchen renovations and all the things that DFTA needs, so we have got to figure out how to get more funding for that in the pipeline. Thank you. Before we get started, I would like to take a quick moment to also thank the entire Council Finance Division staff for their efforts preparing for these hearings. As the Chair has already mentioned, Julia, Miss Simon, Hamid for today's hearing, Committee Counsel staff Brian Scarfo, my Senior Adviser, and all the finance analysts and support staff who make it all work. As a reminder, for this year's Executive Budget joint hearings, we will take public testimony on all agencies' Executive Budgets on Wednesday, June 10, beginning at 9:30 a.m. I will now turn it over to our Committee Counsel to swear in the witnesses for their

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morning, Chairs, Juan, Charlie and members of the Committees on Aging and Finance. I am Dr. Lisa Scott McKenzie, Commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging, New York City Aging. I am joined this morning by Jose Mercado, our Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss New York City Aging's Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2027.

Over the past three months, I have become acclimated to this role as Commissioner for New York City Aging. Every day I see the incredible work that staff at this agency and throughout our network of community-based nonprofit providers complete as they deliver vital services to nearly 2 million New Yorkers over the age of 60. Today we are discussing the administration's Executive Budget during May, which, as you know, is Older Americans Month. This month is a national time to acknowledge and promote the contributions of older adults in our society and throughout the many communities represented in New York City. It is also an opportunity for us to affirm our commitment as the largest area agency on aging in the United States to provide aging services and make New York City a truly age-inclusive community. This year's theme for Older Americans Month is "Champion Your Health," and I am so excited to be a part of New York City Aging's commitment to older adults and their health, well-being and dignity as we meet the growing needs of New York City's quickly approaching 2 million residents over the age of 60.

Through my previous work at the New York City Health and Hospitals system, I became keenly aware of the many ways in which older adults' health needs are affected by outside forces, whether that is based in food insecurity, escalating housing costs or persistent inequality in our communities.

To support this important work, our Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget projects funding, of which a portion is in City funds, with funding for a headcount of 343 staff. This includes allocations to core programs you are all familiar with, including $263.6 million to support older adult centers, $81.1 million for home delivered meals and $57.6 million for case management. The work done by our older adult centers and our providers combats poverty and financial insecurity while also connecting older adults to in-home services, which address their needs when struggling with activities of daily living. There are also allocations of $47.2 million to support home care for homebound older adults who are not Medicaid eligible, and $16.8 million for NORC programs. Finally, $15.4 million for caregiver services supporting the caregivers and their care receivers in the City, and $7.3 million for transportation services, allowing older adults to be connected to community centers, houses of worship, shopping and medical appointments.

As this administration has made clear, there are key challenges in the City financially, and New York City Aging is always prepared to prioritize the needs of older adults and our core aging services while limiting the impacts of these challenges. Nonetheless, we are still keenly aware of these challenges, which have been exacerbated by changes to the federal landscape and the need for continued and increased investment from the State to support the growing number of older adults throughout New York. We also continue to advocate that our State and federal partners share the financial responsibility of serving older New Yorkers living in the City.

Since our Preliminary Budget hearing, we have achieved some notable milestones and recent successes that we would like to share with you today. Beginning in my second week at New York City Aging, I began visiting older adult centers as part of an engagement tour with the goal of visiting every site in the New York City Aging network. In some cases, you have all joined me for these engagement tours. These are not just meet-and-greets or photo ops. These are meant to be hands-on reviews of center status and function, so we can better understand from the providers and center directors what their real needs are in running these facilities and what New York City Aging can do to improve services. I have observed staff serving meals, teaching continuing education courses, dance classes, music and technology programming and exercise classes at over 32 centers today. I just wanted to mention that I appreciate the photos, but in person when we go out, we have completed at those 32 centers 60 just-do-it repairs so far, and these are repairs where we find minor issues like painting, or there may be a minor leak or some issue that we can address very quickly, so that we do improve conditions when we go out to these sites.

Earlier, we hosted the second annual Talent Connect Hiring Hall with the Brooklyn Borough President at the Brooklyn Public Library. This hiring hall brought together employers, workforce training partners and community partners in our continued effort to ensure that we promote a viable workforce after 60. We know that more older adults are working after 60 and more older adults have the experience and talent to contribute to the workforce longer. Events like this one are how we turn that commitment into action, connecting real people with real opportunity in real time. We are so proud of the great impact this event had on older New Yorkers.

Also, we hosted the second annual Plant Forward Cook-Off, where chefs from our exceptional network of providers competed against one another for the best plant-forward meal served at older adult centers throughout New York City. This year's top winner, Korean Community Services Corona, really stole the show. The second and third place finalists were the Council of People's Organization with a chickpea curry medley and Bronx Works Morris older adult center with a Dominican vegan dish. This was an impressive way to show that meat is not always the key to a tasty dish and a little competition is a good thing.

Finally, as I mentioned in the Preliminary Budget hearing on March 12, we were so excited to launch the citywide campaign to reach New York City's family caregivers across New York City. Many residents provide daily care for a parent, spouse, grandchild, family member, chosen family, friend or neighbor. Yet many individuals who provide this care do not identify themselves as a caregiver and as a result do not realize they qualify for services designed to support them. This multimedia campaign, titled "You Care for Them, We

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"Care for You" is aimed at raising awareness with the nearly formal and informal caregivers in the City. We are thrilled about these recent successes and some key programs supported in this Executive Budget, which shape our core services and improve the lives of older adults in New York City. We know that a common denominator of challenges faced by many older adults today is food insecurity and the need for increased nutrition resources among vulnerable populations. As I have said in the past, access to food and meal provisions at New York City Aging are part of those meat and potatoes issues — pardon the pun — which are fundamental to supporting the lives of older adults. Two of Aging's core services are the congregate and home-delivered meals programs, which are intrinsically connected to providing meals and nutrition assistance to older adults. These are essential services for healthy living and preventing the social isolation that affects older adults at a very basic level.

We continue to hit milestones in meal delivery, with a current record of more than 10 million meals served to older New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs. This includes meals served at the 300-plus senior center network and meals delivered to homes. We are pleased to share that we are on track to match that number again in the new fiscal year. Additionally, New York City Aging is continually evaluating our efforts and exploring areas for improvement. While workforce programs continue to be a way for older adults to avoid long-term poverty, meals programs are a lifeline to older adults struggling with financial and food insecurity. This includes enhancing meal options for recipients, embracing the diversity of our City by increasing the availability of culturally aligned meals and promoting uniformly high quality and nutritious meals. These have been key improvements for our providers that we have achieved through partnership between this administration and Council leadership.

We are so excited about our current caregiver campaign because, as we have said in the past, the number of older adults in New York City will continue to grow and it is imperative that we grow the community support systems which allow older New Yorkers to age in place. We do this through home care and caregiver services, which greatly serve those who are homebound or in need of additional supports. Home care services are provided through Medicaid reimbursement and, for those who do not qualify for Medicaid programs, through the Expanded In-Home Services for Elderly Persons program, where case management hours are reimbursed to providers. Without this, clients are at a disadvantage when Medicaid home care workers are incentivized to take on those clients because the pay is higher. There is no distinction between non-Medicaid and Medicaid home care workers — they are primarily women of color — and this exacerbates inequality because of the salary disparity. Currently, the home care program at New York City Aging is projected to be funded at $47.2 million for FY27.

Many older adults are caretakers or caregivers who also have full-time jobs. The caregiver program offers options for respite care through home care and our participation in social adult day care. We know that the cost of maintaining an older adult in institutionalized care is far higher when compared to the cost of community care options such as supporting caregivers. FY27 funding for the caregiver program supports caregiver support that positively impacts the health and well-being of older adults while aligning with the cultural background of the individual. This is why community care is so incredibly important to the future of older New Yorkers.

As New York City's population ages rapidly, Aging places paramount importance on Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, or NORCs, as a vital piece of the community care puzzle. Through contracted providers, New York City Aging currently funds 36 NORCs across the City, delivering essential social services directly to where older adults live. NORC programs are uniquely positioned within people's homes and communities, offering services distinct from traditional older adult centers. Currently the NORC program is funded in New York City and, because they are embedded in the community, NORC staff provide vital health care management to address long-term housing issues. These are key interventions that prevent older adults from being forced into institutional care. Maintaining and expanding NORC funding is essential to our shared goal of making New York a truly age-friendly city.

We welcome your continued advocacy, and the great work that Aging and our providers have accomplished with our resources this past year has shown where New York City Aging is prepared to prioritize vital programs that truly meet the needs of older New Yorkers and continue to advocate for innovations in Aging services which look to the future. Even in the face of challenges, we continue to be good stewards of public dollars. We are grateful to the chairs and committee members for your ongoing advocacy and continued partnership to support older New Yorkers. I also want to take an opportunity to invite you all to join us on May 27th for National Older Adult Health and Fitness Day in Foley Square. Once again, we will gather with more than 1,200 older New Yorkers to take part in instructor-led flexibility exercises, movement-based self-expression, dance at any age as a form of exercise and laughter yoga — designed to bring more oxygen to the brain, which makes us all feel more energetic and healthy in our daily lives. We appreciate your dedication and advocacy for older adults and would love to see you there. Thank you for your time today. We are happy to answer any questions.

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Great, thank you. And I am so excited to hear that the senior center got first place for the food — that is so exciting. And the food is really good, and I am not going to lie, even within the senior center network we would sometimes have little competitions between the Flushing and the Karen Horney senior centers, which I know is probably not good, but they are both amazing cooks there who work really hard. So, okay, we have also been joined by Council Members Marte and... and with that I will start off with questions that actually came out of our roundtable meetings that we had with some of the providers around the budget and, of course, our favorite topic of contract reimbursement and procurements. So just a few questions around that topic. As we have heard from many human service providers, Aging's network finds the contracting process — I think for a lot of these groups — to be challenging. Providers have experienced delays in reimbursements, stagnant reimbursement rates and frequent changes in contracting steps and approvals, and few opportunities to expand services and funding, which pose further challenges to organizations that are already struggling to stretch their limited resources to ensure that older adults receive the services that they need. And I know that you share some of these frustrations as well.

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And so I just wanted to ask: what is the average time for reimbursement to providers for the contracts? On average, about two weeks. Now we also, by law, can actually go up to 30 days, but we average two weeks.

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Okay. So from the time they submit their invoices it is usually two weeks, and then if there are issues with the invoices, how long does that process go — you go back and...

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...forth? So usually we do one round back and forth, and after that when we see a second round we just decide to call them and have...

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...a conversation over Teams or the phone to avoid the back and forth, because that could just prolong it. Okay, perfect.

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And have there been any major delays due to changes in the agency's data management or the contracting system, and if so, when and what has been done to address this?

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There have not been delays. We have actually made waivers because we basically had a new client tracking system, which is essentially a re-platforming. So we have waived a lot of the requirements in order to ensure that payment is done in a timely manner. There would have been a requirement where there would be documentation regarding clients served, and we decided to actually allow the providers to submit their own database information to avoid the back and forth.

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Okay, and then just a follow-up on that. So when it comes to comparing deliverables and metrics, how does that work if you are allowing the providers to submit their own data?

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We will go back and actually have the provider resubmit all the documentation into our system. We would then run the reports and compare those to what was submitted with the invoices compared to what is actually in the system.

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Okay, so you are going through that process right now. Okay. And then do you have an internal team that is designated to look at what the contractors have provided to see if it is sufficient or not compared to the dollar amounts for the contracts? Yeah, so that is part of the payment process. We have our analysts who are basically reviewing invoices compared to the budget, and the payment system does that as well. Right. I just was not sure if that was included in the new system. Okay. And when the contracting process changes, what steps does Aging take to ensure that providers are aware of the changes so that they do not cause delays in the process?

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So normally what we tend to do is send out an all-providers notice as soon as there is some change. We provide a heads-up before actually implementing it and normally we reach out to certain providers to get their opinion on that change and see how it will affect them. Okay.

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And I am assuming you collect feedback regarding the process, and if so, what are the major areas of concern that you have heard from providers?

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Well, I am kind of taken aback because normally, as you say, we not only do payments within two weeks, we do not have any delayed payments, so I am trying to figure out who is actually mentioning this so we can have a conversation and find out what is happening. We are basically noticing that because of the advance process, many providers have not submitted invoices on time, so that has also been something we have been chasing — invoices to make sure that they are entered. Okay, let me try to get some more feedback, because I know that two weeks is not a long time, but I know that the feedback we have been hearing from providers is that a lot of times there are delays, and so I am just wondering what the disconnect is. So there could be, for example, processes in place — there is what we consider our baseline contracts and then there are the discretionary contracts.

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Right. So discretionary is always a little late because by the time it gets registered and the budget gets approved... but we have implemented a new process. Instead of having the providers submit one invoice at a time, we allowed the providers to submit several invoices under one invoice — so several months at once — and then once the contract is registered we do the payment. So we heard the issues and concerns providers were having specifically with discretionary, and we actually addressed that just recently to ensure that all of this moves faster. Okay.

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I did also want to mention that we have a very open communication loop with our provider network. We do meet with them monthly, we provide updates and we also provide them the opportunity to pose questions directly to New York City Aging and our Chief Financial Officer if there are concerns. So please encourage them to let us know if there is something that we can do better. Okay.

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Perfect. Then moving on to the older adult capital budget. As mentioned on the capital budget front, as presented in the Executive Capital Plan, there is a total which is 26.5% less than the total for the same period presented in the Preliminary Capital Commitment Plan. The agency's planned commitment...

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...comprises 0.05% of the City's total FY26 to FY30 Capital Commitment Plan.

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New York City Aging already had a very small five-year capital plan, and why did it see a further decline in the Executive Plan? So there was a capital target and we moved a lot of the funding to the out years.

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I see. Okay, so it is because you are shifting the funding out. Which funding projects saw the decrease in funding, or which ones were shifted out and why? A lot of them just moved across the system to meet the targets, so it would be a lot of renovation projects and vehicle purchase projects — all of those we moved to the outer years.

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Okay, what is the main reason for that — was it budget targets?

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Okay. So it was not because there were issues with the... because I know the capital process is really cumbersome. So was it also issues with paperwork? What was... so part of that is, as we look at, for example, when we move projects out, we figure out which projects are going to basically go first or not. A lot of it, as we mentioned earlier in previous testimony, is that we do not control our capital budget — it is more of a pass-through. A lot of projects are driven by providers who say when they can pick up the project and when they can start it. So when they start a project that is in the out years, we move it into the in years to cover the costs. Okay.

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Are you okay with that? Well, it is not unusual, you know. No, I know that, but I am just saying because a lot of our senior centers — I do know that a lot of them are older, and some of them, especially the ones in older buildings, need a lot of capital improvements. And so I am just wondering what the plan is to sort of advocate to make sure that these projects are happening on time instead of constantly being pushed out to the out years. So how can we make sure that a lot of the funding and the projects actually do happen and it is not just a line item...

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...on paper? Well, thank you. And we are very strategic about the projects that are moved out to the outer years. Obviously, if they are shovel-ready to go, then those are the projects that you want to fund. If they are still in the design phase and you are not expecting work for a period of time, it makes sense to move the money. But I do want to say thank you to the Council also for your advocacy and for the $5 million that you allocated for projects. Out of that $5 million we have had a listing of 55 projects, and out of the 55, 25 of them will be completed by June 30th. These are kitchen renovations, bathrooms, minor roof repairs and purchasing of equipment, so that is very helpful. Obviously all of this money will also go towards some of those renovations — the monies that we have allocated for renovations and repairs. We will continue, as we said earlier, to be good stewards of public dollars, and if there are dollars that can be allocated for programs such as our minor home repair programs that we can implement more efficiently to be able to serve more older New Yorkers, we will do so. Okay, great. And...

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...thanks for the clarification, because I know that sometimes when groups are working on their capital projects there are, like, design fees, for example, that could take a lot longer than expected, and there are a lot of approval processes even...

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...within just that one step. So it is good to get that clarification. And what is the breakdown of the capital funding that goes to support the agency's infrastructure needs? So we have a four-year plan. Currently we have renovations for $15.1 million, we have computers for $600,000 and vehicles for $1 million.

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Okay. And then also for your devices, if at all? Well, so we have roughly $2 million set aside for computers for agency employees. Okay, got it — I thought you meant the senior centers. Okay, perfect. And then lastly, before I turn over to the Chair, just really quickly going into the Mayor's savings exercise. I know that all agencies were asked to find savings in this year's budget, and so how did the Department for the Aging determine which savings to include in the Executive Plan, and what was the process and what metrics were used to make the...

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...assessments? Sure. So what we did is, given the fact that we had a new Commissioner, we basically reviewed the full budget with her and looked at opportunities where we can streamline and consolidate, and that is kind of where we presented back to the Commissioner, and that is kind of where we went from there.

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And we looked at other information from our data and so forth. I want to say that we did not negatively impact any of the services provided by Aging, and I am very happy to report that we were able to accomplish this goal. And I think the positive of having someone new come in is that you are probably looking at things with a very...

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...fresh perspective. So that is good. And how much in savings were identified, and did Aging hit its savings target or was the agency permitted a lower...

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...target? So our overall savings was $2.9 million. We did submit a target — another one — but the target was not accepted. And the target was...

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Sorry — not accepted or accepted? Not accepted. Oh, okay. What was the reason for that?

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The decision was really made that it would basically negatively impact older adults.

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Okay, and what were the categories again? If you could go a little bit into the breakdown of what was included in the savings...

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So we had, for example, nine vacancies — that is basically our target. We also looked at different cuts. We looked at contracts that were outsourced that were actually insourced, so we insourced those savings there. We also looked at the programmatic consolidation of contracts, which would not affect any of our seniors.

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The nine positions — as you mentioned earlier, having a fresh eye helps you look at some efficiencies that can be gained within the agency. All of those nine positions were lower-level staff whose responsibilities could be picked up by higher-level staff, so we made some reassignments. There were no people being unemployed. So we did, I think, a great job in being able to obtain those savings without impacting either staff or older New Yorkers.

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No, and that is the most important thing that we were concerned about as well. We just want to make sure that none of the services are negatively impacted. So just to clarify, none of the older adult centers or programs saw any decreases in the funding. Okay, that is perfect. Thank you, Chair. Can you clarify the capital commitment plan? I see there is a huge...

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...decrease here in 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030. Does that mean there is not enough capital planned in the pipeline, or why?

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The decrease is significant. As the Commissioner mentioned earlier, a lot of the projects are not ready, so they have been pushed out. When they become ready, they will be pushed back...

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...into the plan. So that is going to change later. Yes, it could change next year. That is correct.

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Okay. And also, with over 300 older adult centers in New York City, it is critical that the centers have the improvements and additional resources, including capital plan for equipment or infrastructure repair. What do we do? For example, going back to fiscal year 2026, what we do is we look at a combination of underspending in contracts, and then whenever a provider needs something specific — if they need a repair — we basically allocate the funding. That is kind of the process we follow. Do you have a total amount? A lot of providers reach out to me saying they need improvements.

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Right. If they come to us — what is the plan? Does the City have a plan? How much is your budget for that? Do you have a...

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...plan? So what we tend to do...

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...for example, is we look at what is being underspent and give the providers authority to spend it. So if you can give us who those people are, the complaints are basically mentioning these issues...

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...because again, the Commissioner has been going around and she has been looking at these things. The phrase she uses — I forgot the term — is "just do it." So that is kind of what we tend to do. Again, most providers usually reach out to us when they have specific issues regarding elevators or heating that is not working, and when they come to us we can evaluate and look at where we can move money to help them out and make sure there are no health and safety issues. We tend to make sure that health and safety comes first and then we provide the funding.

Yes, and I am aware that many of the sites that did have elevator issues — those issues have been resolved. So if you have a new list outside of what has been shared with us, I would certainly like to see it. As the Commissioner mentioned, health and safety is always prioritized. Those "just do it" items would definitely have been issues that could have affected health and safety if they were not taken care of, and those are the ones that we prioritize to address first. So if there are others out there that you know of, please share them because I would like to address them quickly.

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Is that the answer? There is no real capital plan for sites that have capital planning that is ongoing?

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Currently, for instance, there are 106 DFTA sites and we know that there are a number of capital...

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...improvements that are taking place for boilers. These are major renovations that take a number of years. New York City Aging does not have a direct capital plan. We are not the ones to affect any of these constructions or repairs. We are a pass-through. But when we are aware of any issue that needs to be prioritized, that is what we do. So if there are major infrastructure upgrades, they will definitely be planned, designed and moved through the process as usual. So yes, there is a plan for repairs. All relevant repairs are either in progress or being planned, and if there are any others that you are aware of, we would certainly like to hear about them.

(00:43:09)

And also, when I go to visit senior centers, I always hear — even when we do roundtable discussions — providers always say they have a very, very difficult time accessing capital funding and that they are...

(00:43:26)

...addressing all the issues. But from what I understand, you are saying this is not a direct DFTA...

(00:43:37)

...responsibility, and that it is going to affect other agencies. I know that there is a Cabinet for Older New Yorkers. How often do you meet and what are the agenda topics? Can we find out what the plan is right now?

(00:43:58)

Well, you will be happy to know that the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers has been revamped and our first meeting will be June 25. We have also discussed looking at the membership...

(00:44:12)

...to see if there are others that should be added, or maybe additional interests that should be represented, so that we can better cover the needs of our older New Yorkers. The Cabinet for Older New Yorkers does, as you know, contain certain specific members by law, and we are looking to boost the membership by having even greater collaboration.

(00:44:37)

And I remember in the last hearing I asked if we could have a list of people from each agency who work specifically for the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers. You also provided the list, and also to Council members so we can share with...

(00:44:56)

...our older adult centers. Oh, absolutely. I know the law does mention some of them, and I know that we have also submitted it at least once, but we are happy to do it again. It is also on our website. Yes.

(00:45:07)

I went to the website, but the website only links to agencies — there is no particular person we can talk to. Basically, when our older adult centers have issues, they are calling 311. It is very hard for older adult centers to navigate the system. They do not know where to go. If we can have the director contact information provided to us and we share it with our older adult centers, that will be much easier for them and we would really...

(00:45:43)

...appreciate that. We will definitely do that. As you know, it is usually the agency head, and of course we have had some turnover in agency heads over the last few months or so. But we will make sure that an updated list is available and the agency head would decide on the liaison. So if there is a liaison that is appointed as well, we will definitely make sure you get that.

(00:46:05)

If you have not yet set up the topic for the June 25 meeting, I will have a suggestion: older adult housing issues, because it is a top priority for me and also for a lot of Council members. From the information we know, SARA programs are very difficult. Yes, there is senior housing in the pipeline for the next four years, but it is very hard to apply additional SARA program funding to build more senior housing. That is a big concern for senior groups and also in the community. Everyone is worried — if SARA is gone, what is next? So I think that is a very...

(00:46:54)

...important topic. And also — can I just say one thing? Yes. Thank you for sharing that. Obviously it is one of our top priority items as well. Everyone has heard me say that there are four top items: food insecurity, affordable housing, access to quality health care and safety. So definitely that would be one of the themes covered during the June 25 meeting.

(00:47:18)

Can Council members come and participate in the meeting?

(00:47:24)

Well, we will take a look and see whether or not it fits within the time frame for some of you. But as you know, I always say we have a very large tent and we want to invite in as many participants as possible. So we will see how we can make that possible. We do not close the door on anyone. We would like to include anyone who wants to work to better New York City for older New Yorkers.

(00:47:48)

Okay, we will follow up with you with the full list of member representatives from each agency.

(00:47:54)

My team is going to take notes. For the contract provider indirect cost rate, the executive plan includes an additional $4.2 million in funding, which is the baseline beginning in fiscal year 2026 for cost expenditures for human service contracts. This additional funding was added to the baseline in the preliminary plan starting in 2027. Why was the funding required? What changed since the preliminary plan was made?

(00:48:41)

There is an indirect cost rate that is set every three years. When that deadline hits, providers are allowed to submit their new costs — that is the increase between that point and the next three years. So for example, if you have a 17% rate when you first applied and then three years later it goes up to 20%, that is a 3% increase that is basically provided to the providers. How much of this additional funding will go towards providers?

(00:49:10)

All of it goes to the providers. It covers the overhead costs. Think about the overhead costs of providing services — there are the direct costs, which cover all the program activities, and there are also the administrative costs. Those are also expenses, and that is where the increases come in. Do you think...

(00:49:26)

...the increase is enough?

(00:49:29)

Well, based on their documentation, that is basically what they are showing — that there is a need for additional funding to support that. That is what this shows.

(00:49:38)

Okay. I just want to recognize that we have also been joined by CM Restler and CM Thomas-Henry. We have a few Council members lined up to ask questions. First is CM Schulman, followed by CM Brewer. Thank you.

(00:49:57)

Thank you very much, Chair. I actually want to ask about some health care related items. The executive plan includes an additional $264,953 in federal funds for fiscal year 2026 and $223,136 in fiscal year 2027 to provide outreach to older adults regarding health care. What will this funding be used for? What health care programs are included? What methods does New York City Aging plan to use for this outreach and how many older adults does the agency anticipate being able to reach?

(00:50:34)

There is another piece to that question. The federal funds for fiscal year 2026 — do you want me to repeat this?

(00:50:46)

No, we are listening. Okay. The money for fiscal year 2026 has to be spent within the next few weeks. So how is that going to work?

(00:51:15)

Sorry about that. We are just getting clarification. We are waiting for some guidance from the State to actualize that money.

(00:51:29)

Okay, so the money has technically been spent — we are just waiting for confirmation. Yes. Okay, so then what is it being used for? What...

(00:51:35)

...health care programs are included? So it is basically information and referral regarding Medicare and Medicaid. And how is the outreach being done? We have a combination of volunteers as well as contract providers who provide...

(00:51:55)

...information. Okay, I am going to ask a totally different question here.

(00:52:01)

Commissioner, you talked about cultural competency in terms of the food and all of that. So you know that there is an issue with halal food as well as kosher food for some of the senior centers. I know we have had conversations about that, but can you just let us know how those issues are being addressed? As everybody knows, those foods are not the usual food that you have.

(00:52:32)

Thank you. We have had several conversations on this, formally and informally, and I think we all recognize that there is a gap in the ultra-Orthodox meals — the glatt kosher as well as some of the halal and some other meals. I do welcome again your advocacy and us coming up with a solution to look at how we could fund some of these additional programs. Any time that we can put food in the mouths of older New Yorkers, it is a goal for us. We just need to find a way forward. We would like to work along with the Council to come up with something that would cover those meals that are not covered in our current...

(00:53:17)

...package. I appreciate that and please keep us posted on how that moves forward. Can I ask one more question? Yes. All right, this is very quick. In the City Council's preliminary budget response, we called on the administration to restore to baseline $2 million in one-time...

(00:53:41)

...funding for DFTA case management services, including health services and home-delivered meals and all of that. So what is happening with that?

(00:54:09)

So it is $2 million that normally would be funded, but it was funded by the Council. Now it is being funded by the administration. Our goal is hoping that this will be funded with the Council's funding going forward.

(00:54:23)

Okay, thank you very much, Chair. Thank you very much, Commissioner. Let us know if you want to send around written questions. Council member Brewer, followed by CM Restler. Thank you.

(00:54:33)

Thank you very much. Maybe I missed this, but there are a lot of these groups that come to me and point out that the indirect cost rate — that there is a lot owed to them, millions of dollars actually. So how are you addressing that? Would there be some hope to maybe postpone some of the AR fees until the arrears are paid? People are really concerned and cash flow is an issue. How are you addressing that issue?

(00:55:02)

So currently we are basically doing fiscal year 2023. Once the 2023s are all done — we have received roughly about 70 invoices and we have approved half of them — once those are all done we will move on to 2024, then once those are done we will do 2025 and 2026 and 2027. So we do them sequentially, not out of order, because that is how we are able to actually charge them back to the current fiscal years. But yes, we are moving as quickly as possible to...

(00:55:27)

...get them done. Our goal right now is to try to get them all done — 2023, 2024, 2025 — and remember, as the Council member just mentioned, there are actually additional indirect cost rates that were just approved, which means amending contracts. So our goal would be to try to get them all done by the end of fiscal year 2027. Right now we have done 2023. Next month, if we get all the 2023s done, we can then move on to 2024 and then to 2025 and 2026, and then go back and amend the contracts for all the new rates that have just been approved. Again, this is a big back-and-forth process so we do not want to disrupt the order. We just cannot go that route.

(00:56:05)

Are you identifying those that have huge cash flow problems as a result of not having...

(00:56:11)

...Yes. Any time anyone has cash flow problems, they know they can call us directly — email us, call us. Normally we have very good relationships and they can call the Commissioner at any point in time to make sure that all of this is done. That has been happening, and as I said, anyone that has experienced a cash flow issue, we advance money and move forward from that point.

(00:56:27)

The other thing is, I know that federal funding makes up not just your budget but I am also concerned about health care for older adults. How are you addressing...

(00:56:37)

...any federal cuts, even to your agency or to some of these bigger programs that are going to be addressing challenges — health care in particular? So currently we have been keeping a close eye on the federal government budget because last year, as you know, there were a lot of grants that were basically cut and then reinstated very quickly. So we are keeping a very close eye on those things to make sure that does not happen again, because we do have a very large grant program ourselves.

(00:57:09)

So you have not been cut?

(00:57:12)

Right. As of right now they have not been cut. Again, we are watching very carefully because, as you know, the budget kind of swings back and forth on these issues.

(00:57:19)

Okay. What about seniors who could end up, just because of Medicare and Medicaid cuts — have you had any concern about those?

(00:57:28)

Well, we are watching very closely the federal landscape and as you know it can change very quickly. Yes.

(00:57:31)

Well, HR 1 — we definitely have not had any significant impacts due to HR 1, and...

(00:57:39)

...many of our older New Yorkers who receive New York City Aging services are also SNAP recipients and will struggle to meet the able-bodied adult without dependents work requirement for ages 62 to 64. So we are watching this very closely and we are working along with HRA to mitigate any impacts from HR 1.

(00:57:57)

I believe that is the deadline for all of that.

(00:58:00)

Yes. So are you able to get either volunteer, school or work assignments to be able to deal with that, particularly for your population over 55? I know HRA has a very robust program and we have been working along with them to look at the numbers of those that are between 60 and 64 that would be impacted, and I have been very encouraged by the numbers that I have seen so far. Okay. Thank you.

(00:58:25)

You, sir. I just had a really quick follow up to that because, if I could just clarify, I know that you are saying that there is a two week turnaround time for invoices and reimbursement payments but...

(00:58:35)

But now, so to the Council member, with the indirect rates and how it is backlogged to fiscal year 2023.

(00:58:41)

I am just curious. So is the two weeks based on the fiscal year 2023 checks, or is it current? And so where is the discrepancy happening?

(00:58:48)

Those are two different things. What I consider to be separate swim lanes. One is actually the invoices themselves — they have written a monthly invoice — and then there is the fiscal year 2023 indirect rates. Those are separate. We would keep those separate and so we have two different teams looking at them.

(00:59:00)

But are the indirect rates not part of the contracts?

(00:59:03)

So they are, but what we are talking about — these are payments that go retroactive.

(00:59:06)

Okay, so we are keeping those separate.

(00:59:11)

I want to make sure I understand how fast it would be to bring them current. So currently, right now we are current on invoices. We are making sure that providers get paid on a regular basis. On top of that, we have the retro payments coming in. So we are doing those at the same time.

(00:59:28)

The amount that is backlogged for the retro payments — so right now for fiscal year 2023 it is $10 million. Again, that is the maximum amount of the contract, so we have been noticing that not everyone is submitting to the max. What we are getting is an average of 34% less.

(00:59:48)

To the max. Okay. And do most of the providers know that they can submit indirect cost rates? Because I remember even when I was at my previous organization, we had to advocate for that. We were not told we could. And of course it does not increase the total budget of the contract — it just shifts the money around a bit. So I just wanted to put that out there.

(01:00:06)

In this case, it actually increases the base of the contract. That is what happens. Is that new? Yes. Okay, right. Yes.

(01:00:17)

Before you... yeah, so that is actually...

(01:00:19)

I see. Okay. We lost out on that opportunity, but the way it works currently, for example...

(01:00:25)

When we do the budget, there is always a 10% indirect rate, no matter what. On top of that, whatever rate we are giving — so that is kind of the delta that gets increased in the contract. And that is the payment that is missing right now. That delta, like I mentioned earlier, is 17% of the budget right now. So say your contract is at 10% — you get 17%, so 7% is missing. But you have to show that you have 7% in expenses, because sometimes you do not have that percentage of expenses. But then that should be reflected in the invoice. It is, right. So then what is the...

(01:00:54)

Reason for the delay? Because of the process itself — it takes time to amend contracts, it takes time to make the payments. That is the reason for the delay. And our goal... the way it works, it is a very complicated...

(01:01:09)

Process, right. So I guess my question is, why the two parallel tracks? So one track is making sure providers get paid monthly. That basically ensures that providers are kept current. Then there is the other track, which is the fiscal year 2023 backlog — basically going backwards. What we do is we make a payment and we have to then pay it back to fiscal year 2023, because we actually have one budget, which is fiscal year 2026. Your budget, fiscal year 2026, only has a certain amount...

(01:01:30)

So right now I have $20 million. So you are using the fiscal year 2026 budget for the backlog first, and then that is going to go towards all the prior years.

(01:01:39)

Okay, I guess I am just wondering why there is a backlog.

(01:01:42)

Okay, well, we made a decision back before the pandemic to make sure that providers got paid first before doing indirect rates. And that took a big amount of time. That is the reason we fell behind during the pandemic. That is where we are a little behind. Okay.

(01:01:55)

Sorry. Thank you. I just want to make sure that I am understanding this correctly. We have also been joined by additional Council members. I am sorry, Council member, for eating into your time. Sorry, go ahead. Thank you so...

(01:02:07)

Much. Thank you, Chair, and congratulations, Commissioner. It is good to have a whole person in City government, alongside my colleague CM Schulman, who is forever a wonderful person.

I have a few questions. I am going to try to get through them quickly if I can. The first relates to older adult transport. My office has partnered closely with the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island to transport seniors to grocery stores in our community. It has been a tremendous success. My understanding is that you all are considering modifications to the aging transportation plan that would eliminate group rides for the standalone program that Coney Island operates. Can you ensure that in the final plan there will continue to be options for providers like the Jewish Community Council of Coney Island to provide group transport to older adults that are unconnected to a senior center? Thank you so...

(01:03:01)

Much, CM Restler, and it is good to see you again, as always. As you know, with the process we are very limited as to what we can discuss publicly, especially when we are about to submit a new request for proposals...

(01:03:14)

And we cannot commit that any one provider will be... So I am not looking for the provider. I am just looking for the service. Well...

(01:03:20)

The service will definitely be there. We very much appreciate how impactful the transportation program is for older adults, and our current providers work incredibly hard to ensure that older adults, especially those in transit deserts, can get around their community. So there will continue to be standalone transport for folks that are not connected to a senior center, and we can partner with providers to provide, for example, transport for seniors to grocery stores in our...

(01:03:46)

Community. What I am committing to is that there will continue to be a transportation network that provides vital services for older New Yorkers. What that looks like will be determined by the process. Okay. I mean, look, if this service is not going to be continued — which I have not read the full plan — but it could be worth mandating that the service continues to be available for seniors who are not connected to a center, to continue to have programming organized in our communities. But if that service is not going to be provided, I just want to be prepared, because I do not want my seniors to be left unable to access supermarkets in their community. I would need to know that in the next two weeks so that I can put the money aside in the budget. So I am just looking for guidance one way or another. I prefer for the Jewish Community Council of Coney Island to continue to provide it, because they have done an amazing job. But at the end of the day, I just want to make sure my seniors are able to continue to go to Wegmans, because they love doing it.

(01:04:37)

Absolutely. And I like Wegmans too. So we are aligned in that we will make sure that our seniors have transportation. All right, I am going to follow up, but I am going to take that as a commitment.

(01:04:47)

Second is NORCs. I have multiple developments in my community that are unofficial NORCs where the average age is over 60 of the people living there. These are developments with over a thousand apartments, so they are great places for people to age in place, but the only City funding that I have is what I pay out of my own budget to try and bring a social worker in every week. When can we expect, recognizing the growing older adult community in our City, to see more investments go to these unofficial NORCs so that they become official NORCs and actually get all the support that is needed for the people who are trying to age in place in their homes in Brooklyn?

(01:05:28)

Once again, we are aligned. There is a NORC RFP that will come out later this year. We are looking towards somewhere around September or October of this year.

(01:05:35)

Do you expect that will expand the number of NORCs that are supported?

(01:05:40)

We will see how the RFP turns out. Okay, but that is our hope.

(01:05:43)

All right. Well, I hope you all have the resources for it, because that is critically important. Then I had two more, but I will try to do one before the Chair cuts me off.

As you know, there was a healthy amount of scrutiny and concern around the move to 14 Wall Street. Could you give us an update on where that stands? Just to remind the viewers at home — there was concern that the folks who own 14 Wall Street had given a healthy amount of money to the former Mayor, Mayor Adams, and that that had greased the wheels for an unorthodox and frankly untraditional procurement process that was leading to you all moving out of Dr. Lafayette. Are you all still planning to move forward? Has the lease been approved? Are you continuing negotiations for the move to 14 Wall Street?

Obviously, you know, I have been in the role for three months. This one was not your fault. So I was not really involved with all of the issues that potentially happened before. I will say this: moving forward, our plan is to provide more modern, updated accommodations for older New Yorkers, and we would have the capacity to do that at 14 Wall Street. We are planning to have construction, and the only construction that we will do there is to upgrade services for older New Yorkers. Our staff would also gain the benefit of moving into that space, but they will be moving into pre-existing space which also has furniture already in place, so it could be a pretty quick relocation effort. The majority of the upgrades and services would be for older New Yorkers, which would be a good thing for all of us. Okay. Thank you.

(01:07:29)

Thank you both to the Chairs. Thank you. I can put you down for round two. Okay. CM Mealy, followed by Thomas Henry.

(01:07:39)

I align with the questions that have been answered. Commissioner, I was just wanting to break down what the Council member said. You are saying that there are not going to be any new RFPs coming up other than the transportation one? No...

(01:07:59)

I am actually saying that there would be three RFPs coming out later this year. The first is anticipated to be the NORC RFP, followed by transportation. Okay, so that is...

(01:08:16)

Still open? Yes. And I just want to ask — how many providers have not submitted invoices? Can you comment on that for the budget?

(01:08:26)

Yeah, they get paid over two weeks. So you should have our assessment of all that they have submitted so far. Right. So as a result of the...

(01:08:39)

The process, about 50% of contracts, right? So we were basically — there were losses, I would say, across multiple agencies. As of today, I would say as of this past Friday, we had providers that we were chasing down to submit invoices.

(01:08:54)

Okay, is one of those in my district? No, no, no.

(01:08:59)

Because we still have funding set aside — we have put in funding for a pool table, a boat ride, and that still has not come through. We have not gotten that invoice as of yet, and I am listening to hear that it would be done in two weeks, so I wanted to see why that had not been done so far.

(01:09:23)

This process is about to end with the budget, so should it not be in by now?

(01:09:30)

So providers have until August to actually submit their last invoice for the year.

(01:09:34)

So in that particular case, we know we have been working with that provider to ensure that they can submit their invoices to reflect the expenses that you were mentioning. Okay. Has any additional funding been part of...

(01:09:49)

The senior housing developments — have you assessed how many are out there? Because in Kings Borough, seniors and older adults are in their backyard and now they are building housing. So have you assessed that as part of your capital plan or is that a separate capital matter?

(01:10:14)

Well, if it is an actual construction project, it is more than likely a capital matter, because DFTA does not do any construction projects at all. But do you know of any collaboration that...

(01:10:28)

Is still staying as a senior center or senior adult living? We have not had any notices that any of the centers would be closing, so we are going to assume at this moment, until we have time to investigate further, that it is going to continue as a senior center with a new building.

(01:10:49)

It will still be an adult day center. If there is a current program out there, it is our understanding that it will be continued. If that changes, then obviously we would let you know. Thank you.

(01:11:05)

Okay, great. Since CM Thomas Henry is here, we will go to CM Thomas Henry. Good morning, Commissioner. Good morning. I have a question about food insecurity and the bill about weekend meals. Have you budgeted for that and do you support covering weekend meals going forward? I believe in our previous testimony we did say that we support the initiative. No, we are not currently budgeted for it.

(01:11:50)

Okay. And your vacancy rate is about 11.4% — is that correct currently? We do have 27 vacancies. There are three that we are actively hiring for right now and there are 24 that are very close to OMB approval for us to move forward with hiring. But our vacancy rate is two percentage points lower than it was last year. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

(01:12:22)

Okay, great. I just had, before we go on to round two, one more question specifically about mental health services. Because obviously, as we know, it is definitely an important and vital service for our older adults to prevent a lot of social isolation, depression and other things that lead to mental health conditions. So which programs do you currently have that address mental health, and what support services are included? Besides the geriatric mental health program, are there others that you provide as well?

(01:12:59)

That is correct. We direct them into mental health services. Okay, so that is the main one, right? Yes.

(01:13:02)

And then for those that maybe do not have a contract with an Article 31 provider, are there other types of mental health services that you encourage them or guide them to provide at the senior centers?

(01:13:17)

That is something that we are investigating currently, because obviously we have seen the need for mental health services increase across the City. What I would like to see — and this is just a goal, I do not know how we will get there yet — but as a goal, I really feel that senior centers are a trusted area of support for older New Yorkers, and that they would probably seek care there, and it would be destigmatized. So it is something that we would like to see. Again, it could be something that we come back to later and say, let us work together on this. But that would be the goal.

(01:13:58)

And I know that sometimes even the providers that do have partnerships with outpatient clinics, sometimes the bar to get seniors into services is high — like you have to do intake sessions or, you know, sessions first, and all of these things that are required by the state. That was the reason why I was asking, because I know that sometimes even just writing classes or art classes can be used to build a lot of social trust, and then also just talking through and doing some of the work if it is led by a social worker. So I am encouraged to hear that.

(01:14:32)

So thank you. And what is the current budget for mental health programs at the New York City Department for the Aging as of the executive plan? Still, regarding the geriatric mental health program, it is $6.2 million.

(01:14:46)

Okay.

(01:14:49)

And how many providers are currently contracted to provide these specific services for the geriatric mental health program? Eight providers. Okay.

(01:15:06)

I do not think that has changed, right? Has it been the same? Yes, it is. Okay.

(01:15:11)

And when is the option for renewal available for the contracts and when do they end? Sorry, we will get back to you on when the contracts expire. Okay, perfect.

(01:15:41)

When they expire and then also if there is going to be an option to renew. Okay, great.

(01:15:48)

I will pass it along. Chair Brewer, do you have any second round questions?

(01:15:54)

Thank you, Chair. For me, I am going back to the executive capital plan. Okay.

(01:16:01)

Exactly.

(01:16:02)

The executive capital plan pushed $6 million in funding for older adult center upgrades from fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2034, which is beyond the five-year capital commitment plan but within the ten-year capital commitment plan. This funding came from Borough Presidents. In response to the committee follow-up from the preliminary budget hearing, you indicated that repairs at 12 older adult centers were included in this project, with timelines ranging from 10 to 18 months. Which Borough President did this funding originally come from?

(01:16:53)

Brooklyn.

(01:16:53)

What work is included in this project?

(01:16:56)

There is a list of projects — roofs, kitchens and so on. A lot of them are still in design. Some of them have not started yet. Again, health and safety will be the focus. We will make sure that happens. As I mentioned earlier, it is in the out years when these things start to come into fruition. We would then move the money from the capital money in the out years to the current year's budget.

(01:17:20)

What was the specific rationale for pushing this $6 million capital project from fiscal year 2026 all the way to fiscal year 2034, when the original project timeline was only 10 to 18 months?

(01:17:41)

So a lot of these projects are not design-ready, as the Commissioner mentioned. These projects were pushed out, and when they become design-ready and ready to start, we would then move the money from the out years to the current year. Right, when they are shovel-ready. Because at this point, if you do not have a design, it would be very difficult to move ahead. You would tie up funds unnecessarily. So as the projects become mature and we are ready to start work on them, then you can advance the funds.

(01:18:10)

What is the current condition for the AT12 impact? AT12 impacts nonprofits, and they have anyone saying they do not want to wait. They want to do improvements right now. So half...

(01:18:26)

Of those projects are night sites, and so we work with them to ensure that there are no health and safety issues. So that is kind of working with them. The other half are a combination — they are owned by landlords, a combination owned by us again. There are different stages. So, sorry, really quickly, the contract expires on June 27.

(01:18:47)

They will be renewed for one more year. I am sorry.

(01:18:53)

Have any of the 12 organizations had to turn away clients or reduce service or close some part of their program? No.

(01:19:05)

No, no. You sure? Yes. And also for one site, they need to change the elevator.

(01:19:11)

And the $6 million — it is not that big a project?

(01:19:17)

As I know, if it is not a big project, why does it take eight years to push so long to get the project complete? Upgrading a...

(01:19:28)

An elevator is a large project. There are a lot of codes and requirements to upgrade an elevator, and it does take a substantial amount of time. I can tell you from my previous experience I have replaced elevators a lot, and it would make sense first of all to have the cab — the new cab design — ready to go before you unnecessarily tie up monies. I would like to hear, as I mentioned earlier, which sites are still saying that they have elevator issues, because I have visited the sites that previously had elevator issues and I rode the elevator just to be sure. I am here today, so I can tell you that they were safe. But if there are any lurking issues, that for us would be a priority health and safety issue, and that would be put at the forefront. That is...

(01:20:22)

Not something we would ask you to wait until 2034 to resolve.

(01:20:26)

I went to a senior center. They finally, after three or four years, fixed the elevator issue. Now the issue is the elevator is done but they do not have the money to do ceiling painting, kitchen upgrades, a broken refrigerator that has become an issue. And also they have had to lay off staff members to cover the costs.

(01:20:56)

Well, I am not so sure if laying off the staff members was related to fixing the elevator, again, if it was three or four years ago. I know that it is fine now because I have visited those sites. If there are things like ceilings and other upgrades that have to take place, if they are cosmetic in nature, that is a little different than health and safety. But if they are health and safety, then that would be on our just-do-it list and again that would be prioritized. Thank you. So just really quickly, of the 15 projects, 12 of them are with NYCHA and so we are working with NYCHA to determine when these things have to be scoped up again. We do not control any of these aspects of the design and so forth. Of the others, two of them are actually owned by the provider and one of them is actually owned by the landlord. So we have a list and we are working with NYCHA on these projects, and whenever they are ready, we will then make sure the money is there to move forward on these projects.

(01:21:51)

If we have the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers, that will be more helpful, right? Not if — when. It will be June 25. Okay.

(01:22:01)

I am looking forward to it. Also, for me — my kids always say... my eight-year-old daughter said she wanted to be a pathful... but I said we need iPads for seniors, because this is an activity issue in New York City. A lot of seniors are isolated. The executive plan includes an additional $740,000 of inter-city funding in fiscal 2026, only for IT to support older adults' technology programs, to ensure that older adults have the support, training and education they need. Technology is critical, and it is also a big priority for me.

(01:22:54)

What will this funding be used for? How was this amount determined?

(01:23:03)

So that is actually inter-city with OTI, which basically supports our labs and essentially provides training for older adults on computers. How do you pick the training sites? So those — do they need to apply, or...

(01:23:18)

So those were actually...

(01:23:20)

Picked through a combination. So how — who can participate?

(01:23:25)

Like all the cases where the service providers are providing services in different languages. So this is funding that has been there for more than 10 years. I would get back to you regarding the selection process, so I will get back to you on that. I do not have it right...

(01:23:43)

Now. But I can tell you seniors are benefiting from this program. Out of the 32 sites that have been visited so far, all 32 have been outfitted and they do provide culturally sensitive training. I have seen training programs that are in different languages depending on the site, and it is something we are again aligned on. I would like to see as much training go towards older New Yorkers learning how to use technology, even in an expanded way, to help with language services and other things so that they can more quickly adapt to...

(01:24:22)

Being able to live in New York City and to thrive in New York City.

(01:24:25)

Does this money also include help for seniors to pay for their internet? Because that is what seniors ask me — they say, "Oh, you teach us, but I do not have the internet at home."

(01:24:36)

So no, it is not. There is no funding for that, not for personal residences. No, not for that.

(01:24:45)

Okay, but I see the other needs there. Thank you, Chair.

(01:24:53)

Okay, so we are going to go on to a couple more folks for round two. First we have CM Brewer and then CM Restler, if you had any...

(01:24:59)

Follow-up. Thank you. A couple of quick questions. One is on NYCHA. I have a lot of NYCHA and a lot of senior centers in NYCHA, and it is always a challenge, as you know, to get them repaired. So how do you prioritize that? How do you make NYCHA be responsive? I know it is a funding issue, but sometimes it is more than that. How do you work with NYCHA on that? That is topic number one. Number two, not mentioned here — I do not know if it is definitely a funding issue — are scams. Seniors are getting scammed because of the internet, and I did not hear how you are working on that topic. We try to have forums on it, but there is never enough to be able to have that information. And then...

(01:25:40)

Those two questions in particular. Well, I will start with NYCHA. As you know, we are promoting inter-agency collaboration again at the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers, but we have done so separately as well. I do have a scheduled meeting coming up with Lisa Bova-Hiatt from NYCHA to discuss some of the issues that have been impacting some of the NYCHA sites. NYCHA sites are one third of our portfolio, so obviously it is always a focal area for us. At most of the sites that I have gone to where we have seen those just-do-its, we have made sure that we have made some repairs so that we do improve conditions. But for major repairs at NYCHA, they do have a pretty robust capital plan that they are implementing, but of course some of those repairs take a while. For us at New York City Aging, we are making sure that the 106 centers that are under our aegis are operated in a safe manner, and if we need to, we will take action to make sure that our seniors have good conditions in which they can receive their services, or if it means relocating, or even if it means closing a site because it does not meet our standards, we are willing to do that. Okay, I mean it is an ongoing issue. I will go into the scams. So the scams — we spend a lot of time on that because we recognize that older New Yorkers are targets, and some of them have been scammed out of SNAP benefits and other things.

I know that there are several initiatives that are being rolled out to protect them, but we are also ensuring that at all of the sites there are training programs on cybersecurity, along with the technology teaching, so that folks are aware of what constitutes a scam and how to work with NYPD, because this is a crime. NYPD has been very responsive in providing not only training but also making sure that they partner with those families to try to catch the perpetrators, or at least to protect the older New Yorkers.

(01:27:54)

Okay. I mean, I would love to hear another time exactly what kind of training. It is not just SNAP. It is also just going on the internet and signing up when Chase says, "We have material for you," and you push the button and give your Social Security number, and that is you going down the rabbit hole. That is part of the training also.

(01:28:12)

That older New Yorkers recognize that any communication with unknown parties, and anyone asking for your personally identifiable information, you...

(01:28:24)

Should be very, very cautious before moving forward, or you seek guidance before going forward. And we know that, but I am just saying it is happening on a major scale, according to the District Attorney's office and everybody else I have talked to. All right, thank you. Thank you. Okay, perfect. CM Restler, did you have any more questions?

(01:28:44)

I will always ask more.

(01:28:46)

Questions. Thank you very much. I am excited for these two weeks together. So I just...

(01:28:54)

Wanted some clarity. The Mayor and the team have announced that the 2-for-1 hiring process is a thing of the past. Is that actually your lived experience? Are you now able to hire fully to your headcount? Are there any barriers that you are encountering to be able to hire the allocated headcount...

(01:29:14)

That you have? Well, we are working with City Hall, as you know, and OMB. But I would have to say in my short-lived experience, yes, we are being — we are able to move forward, and as soon as OMB gives us the green light, we will move forward with the additional 24 that we are waiting...

(01:29:35)

For. So just for my insight, how many people have you hired? It is May 2026, so we are five months in. You have not been there a full five months, but how many new people have you been able to hire this calendar year?

(01:29:50)

We are interviewing because we are very selective. So have you brought on any new people?

(01:29:55)

I have brought on a Chief of Staff, the press team, Deputy Commissioners...

(01:30:02)

Well, I am canvassing for some Deputy Commissioners now. I was very, very fortunate in that many of the staff members that were at DFTA are very, very competent and qualified, and they were able to stay on, and I think they are doing a fantastic job. You know, where...

(01:30:18)

Where that does not exist, I do have some lines that we are canvassing for right now and we are interviewing. I fully expect that we will have candidates on board pretty soon. There are some that are in the second phase of their interview. But yes, we are actively hiring. You know, Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez is one of my all-time favorites and I know that she built a strong team, and the continuity of experienced government hands from administration to administration is valuable. But there is also a need to bring in new people who share the values of this administration. So just to confirm — have you hired new staff since you have come on? I apologize if I am not being clear. I am interviewing. You are interviewing? Yes, because I am selective about who will be on the team, and of course we want folks that will share the values of this administration. So yes, I do have high-level positions that we are canvassing for right now. Great. And just since I have 29 more seconds, I asked earlier just about the protection of the standalone transportation component. Am I right to understand that DFTA's vision is to try to consolidate this as one citywide transportation contract instead of borough-based contracts through the process? Well, I am...

(01:31:37)

Not sure where you got that, because that is not what I said. What I said is there will be an RFP later in the year, and I think it might be worthwhile to wait and see what is in that package before we start to assume that there are things in that package that might not be there. Okay.

(01:31:54)

We are happy to continue the conversation. I will read the RFP when it is out. I think I have made clear what is a priority for me and I hope that that has been heard and that it can be reflected and incorporated as we go through this process.

(01:32:04)

Thank you. I always appreciate your feedback. I will never be shy about offering it.

(01:32:11)

Sorry, can I just piggyback off the transportation question really quickly? I know that a lot of the providers have expressed concerns, as CM Restler mentioned, with the transportation programs. How many dedicated transportation contracts currently exist that are not part of providers?

(01:32:36)

I will definitely have to get back to you on that. Okay, the question — okay, if you could, that would be...

(01:32:41)

Awesome. And then we have also been hearing that New York City Aging is planning to change, as mentioned, the transportation program to have just one citywide provider. Does New York City Aging have plans to reduce the number of providers in its transportation programs, and if so, when will an RFP...

(01:32:59)

Be issued? You know, I really would like to eliminate there being so much preliminary angst before the RFP is actually issued. Again, we should wait to see what is in the package, and if there are questions and concerns at that time, I will be very, very happy to answer any of them. But we have not taken a firm stance on anything yet.

(01:33:24)

Okay. But, you know, just to recognize that there is angst because I think this is such an important program for a lot of the older adults and seniors. I would imagine that before the process, you would do a white paper and get input from the community, and I am sure at that point they will be able to give you some of their concerns. Okay? Absolutely.

(01:33:50)

And throughout the process — so as the RFP gets crafted and drafted — just to clarify, the community will be able to participate in the feedback portion. How do we ensure that every community receives the services in a culturally responsive and fully accessible way? Well, that has always been our goal, and I think our previous history of being able to roll out programs that are very culturally aligned — that is our overarching goal, which we plan on continuing. Where there are gaps, or if there are gaps identified, we will always come up with a plan to be able to reach those communities that have not been served. Okay, perfect. And we have recognized him, and then Chair, go ahead.

(01:34:44)

I have a follow-up question. For the previous RFP, there is a caregiver RFP — in the language there is a severe trial... well, what happened in your concept paper also, on page seven. There is the concept paper that was put out, and it is saying the... it is about LGBT inclusion and the hearing and the van. You said with the immigrant populations they are included in it, but it is said in a way that... so when you get to change the language in the concept paper, when you put it out...

(01:35:42)

Okay, I do want to just state again that whatever our RFP issued serves the communities — the very diverse communities throughout New York City — that is our goal, and if we do identify a gap, we will make provisions to be able to cover that. I also want to just backtrack a little bit on the transportation RFP. I mentioned that the concept paper was issued late last year and we are still receiving feedback. So we have a rather extensive period of time by which we can have input from as many people as possible as we craft this new RFP. And then once the deadline for that... sorry, the RFP has not been issued yet. So we are saying right now, probably between September and October of this year.

(01:36:27)

Okay. Oh, sorry, I just meant in terms of the concept paper — like the timeline for that. They are still accepting comments. Oh, good. We are still accepting comments there. Okay, we have not issued a deadline on it yet. Okay.

(01:36:42)

So no deadline yet, and then most likely later this year for the RFP. Yes, later in the year. Okay, yeah. Thank...

(01:36:51)

You. Thank you. Can you confirm which RFPs have been released so far this fiscal year?

(01:36:59)

What is the status of them? So the caregiver RFP was released, and that is actually being finalized and will start...

(01:37:06)

Only one RFP so far. Okay. What...

(01:37:13)

Others are you anticipating releasing between now and the end of fiscal 2027? Well, for now it is the RFP that I mentioned previously. It is the NORCO that will be followed by the...

(01:37:27)

Case management RFP, and then the transportation. When will they be released?

(01:37:38)

All of them will be released by... looking at...

(01:37:39)

This year, in the order that I mentioned previously — NORCO and then transportation. Correct. What...

(01:37:47)

Is the agency doing to streamline communication with providers throughout the process? We do have open forums as we mentioned, and I think I mentioned previously that we also meet every month with our provider network. We are very responsive to phone calls, to emails, to any form of communication. If they would like to ask a question, we are here. We are available.

(01:38:17)

Why is Aging considering additional costs? Possibly there is a need to increase for inflation?

(01:38:28)

Well, we did not have a cost-of-living adjustment included in our budget, so...

(01:38:31)

Yes, at this time it feels like New York City treats nonprofit providers as though they have the capacity to engage in negotiating like for-profits do.

(01:38:43)

So the nonprofits feel like they do not have the capacity to negotiate compared to the for-profits. Is there any additional service you can help nonprofits with? I give them more time so they do get plenty of time for submitting. When they submit their spreadsheets, which basically tells us exactly what they want the program to be, and then once we identify who the winners are, we sit down and discuss what the budget would look like. As I mentioned previously, it is not our goal to exclude anyone. So if someone makes us aware that they have a challenge, we can work with them so that they can be included in the process.

(01:39:33)

When in the process is the issue with the Passport system? For some reason a nonprofit told me that they are only able to work on one proposal at a time in the Passport system.

(01:39:44)

They want to work on their proposals for both their existing contract together, but the way a proposal was drafted...

(01:39:57)

They could not basically lose everything and then they have to redo the process again. Anyway, are you going to help them be able to do like two contracts...

(01:40:13)

Together? So unfortunately we do not control Passport, so that would be something that we can take. We can take that information moving forward.

(01:40:20)

So that can be in the cabinet. There could be... okay. And of course we advocate for any upgrades that will enhance the capacity of our provider network. We do not want to put unnecessary roadblocks in their way either. So yes. And also what is the reason the agency reduced the number of... give an example, full caregiver, why reduced to one? Well, we do not control the outcome. It is a very open, fair, competitive process. So if...

(01:41:03)

If a prior provider did win in the process, that is not something that...

(01:41:13)

Its original provider, and then this... not your time. The previous commissioner combined them and now a lot of confusion has come to us, with people saying they do not want to be transferred to the other provider. It has been an issue there, and also for language access, because a lot of smaller populations, for example Hindi also, but they speak... they are scattered in different communities. When it is canceled and it is citywide, it becomes one provider, and then it is very difficult for them to navigate the system because of the language...

(01:42:05)

Issue. And I believe it was addressed in the RFP. This is something that needs... and when we did look at those distinct need providers, we did find that many of them were serving a really small clientele. If there is a gap there, it is one of the areas that we can review. I think in reviewing the contract we would like to look at it to make sure that it does serve as many communities and as many distinct needs as possible. I am open to reviewing it to see if there is any amendment that we can make to better cover...

(01:42:41)

Those areas. What feedback have you been hearing about care under the recent RFP? Well, again...

(01:42:52)

It has been concluded now and it is active July 1, so there is a lot that I cannot discuss publicly yet. But I am open to additional questions once that caregiver RFP is issued. A number of community based providers also changed. Would you mind if we defer this until after the RFP is issued? Okay.

(01:43:23)

Sure. What data metrics did the agency use in determining which providers received citywide or community based contracts? The RFP explains...

(01:43:34)

All of the terms and the conditions, and again it was a fair, open, competitive process and it is really specific as to the details of who would be selected for that...

(01:43:47)

That contract. Okay. Is the agency considering adding additional citywide providers, given the concerns we have been hearing from the community? As I mentioned, I am...

(01:43:59)

Open to hearing the concerns, obviously, and if there is a gap identified there that we can better address, absolutely. I would welcome any interagency, inter-Council, or any collaboration from any group that is willing to assist in this process.

(01:44:18)

Thank you, Commissioner. And I feel bad. These are... they are not... okay. And CM Thomas-Henry, not to put you on the spot, but I know you were on the list for questions. So you could feel free to go ahead and ask. Thank you, Chair. I am not going back to my questions because I believe they were addressed, so I will not do that to you. But I do want you to hear directly from one of my seniors, if you like. So...

(01:44:45)

My name is Molly and my name is Juanita. We participate in senior activities at ELMCORE in Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Queens, and Golden Phoenix 1, 2, 3 and 4. The acronym for SENIORS is S. We are seniors from diverse backgrounds. We have worked, lived, raised children, attended homes and are now empty nesters with time to socialize with our neighbors and fellow seniors.

(01:45:16)

At the senior center, we are kept busy with educational activities such as crafts, singing, dancing and sign language, Spanish and Mandarin, which we certainly enjoy. There is also the technology of the computer world, QR codes and issues which are remarkably interesting. We do not have much nightlife, but a good night's rest helps us stay healthy, energized and ready for tomorrow's activities. I am learning at...

(01:45:45)

The center. We feel independent, intelligent and confident to interact with others. We enjoy the order of the daily events, trips, movies, proms and presentations organized by the senior staff and volunteers. In addition, consultants from different fields come in to inform us about tips for safe, healthy and secure living. We need resources to help us cope with today's financial pressures.

(01:46:17)

Many of us live on fixed incomes while the cost of living continues to rise. We hope to enjoy life's essentials, including healthy meals, affordable housing and recreation. Your support can help us secure the resources needed to meet these basic needs. Our centers provide communication, neighborhood involvement and entertainment, enjoyment of all our community has to offer, and specialized trainings, timely notifications regarding future trips and other activities. We...

(01:46:51)

Are entertained throughout the day with crafts, music, recent movies and shared stories, especially during our sip and chat sessions, our recommendations on how to access other New York City benefits and care organizations. We are updated and pumped up seniors and older adults in the winter of our lives who are not to be left behind or pushed out. We need your support. Gracias.

(01:47:25)

Thank you so much for that. That was really gratifying to hear all of the wonderful benefits that Molly and Juanita are getting from the centers. I must say I have met a lot of Mollys and Juanitas on my many visits out to the centers. But of course, we also recognize that...

(01:47:41)

They do need our help and they need our support, and that is exactly what everyone in New York City Aging, along with this administration, has been working towards, to make sure that our seniors can live, thrive and survive here in New York City. So I want to say one thing. I heard that they said they do not have much nightlife, so that means they have not joined us for our Borough Night Out. We just recently had one in Queens that was phenomenal. So I am going to invite Molly and Juanita to be my guests at our Borough Night Out so that they can have some nightlife, and I could probably have some...

(01:48:17)

In addition to that, the resources, we will help point them towards the available resources and we will keep fighting and advocating every day so that they have additional resources. Again, our four main areas of focus: the first being food insecurity, the second being affordable housing, access to quality health care and safety. So we are aligned, and that is what makes New York City great. Am I allowed to ask what types of activities they do on these...

(01:48:55)

Outs? Well, you know, I had some... or is that like...

(01:48:59)

A secret? No, it is not a secret at all, because our older New Yorkers post and live stream. I want to make sure... in fact, we had one of our older New Yorkers that attended this event where there was music and dancing, food of course, the older New Yorkers sharing some of what they have learned over the years. But one actually had a tripod set up and she was live streaming out to her family and her friends so that they could see the great time that she was having. So it is not a secret. It is a lot of fun, lots of entertainment and lots of older New Yorkers enjoying each other and us enjoying them as well. So I love it. Again, we open that invitation to our Night Outs.

(01:49:45)

Love it. Okay. I was about to close out, but we have been joined by CM Banks, who I know has questions for Aging. Okay, perfect. Thank...

(01:49:53)

You, Madam Chair. And welcome. First of all, first time meeting you, pleasure to meet you. Particularly when it comes to the leasing agreements, that was something we had conversations with the former commissioner about. For all centers that one of the conversions... NYCHA... and I wanted to know if there has been any clarity as to where the status is with those particular lease agreements.

(01:50:26)

And I have to say it is an evolving situation in that we do have a meeting with NYCHA leadership coming up pretty soon to get more information ourselves. Again, it is still pretty early, but to get more information about those NYCHA agreements, what they include, what they do not include, and the scope of work, because at many of those sites they are performing major...

(01:50:48)

Infrastructure upgrades. And while it is a good thing for the building and for the senior center, there are some minor inconveniences. As long as those inconveniences do not cause health or safety issues at the site, then there is no issue. But if there is an issue there that is causing inconvenience or health and safety vulnerability for our older New Yorkers, then New York City Aging will work along with NYCHA to ensure that they are remediated immediately.

And the reason why I bring that up is because there is a center in my district where the sponsor, the NYCHA development, has put in for capital funding. Since they do not have a lease, they cannot put in... they will not qualify for the capital funding, particularly for that particular building. I believe it was a system or whatever that was needed. And this was a situation where they were located in a senior... they were located in a community center that was sharing a space with another youth program. Then there was a decision made to move them into a commercial space within the NYCHA development, which made sense. But that space that they moved into, they have not had a lease agreement, and that has caused major concerns about the continuation of programming there. So we are hoping that we can get some clarity and we are looking forward to working with you on that as well, and also with NYCHA and with those private developers who have now taken over those centers.

(01:52:25)

And thank you for that. There are some lease issues at several of the locations that operate. It is not just specifically... we are working along with them to ensure that we do not displace seniors unnecessarily. Right. So...

(01:52:39)

Definitely. That is something to look forward to working with you on. And increased funding for staffing and cooking at cooking sites for the senior centers. We know that obviously with the increase of food costs, there are monies being allocated for extra funding given to these particular centers to meet that need. So what we do every year is we look at, for example, where underspending and overspending is, and then we reallocate where the need is. Okay. And transportation... I am just trying to run through these questions. Accessibility is a major issue. Transportation continues to be one of the biggest barriers preventing older adults from accessing health care, meal programs and social services at older adult centers. How is DFTA working with the MTA and other agencies to improve transportation access and reliability for seniors, particularly to Access-A-Ride services? So many of our...

(01:53:43)

Older adults... well, right before you came in, we mentioned the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers, in which we do have a Department of Transportation and other representatives. We do talk about issues like this. How can we increase the efficiency of transportation for our older adults? So we are looking forward to putting forward some initiatives that will help. And obviously we do also have our transportation report that will come out later this...

(01:54:09)

Year. Okay. But we are looking forward to working with you, especially on those lease agreements. Thank you very much. Thank you. I will go back.

(01:54:17)

Thank you. And we were joined previously by Deputy Speaker Williams. Just to close it out, I just wanted to ask: now that you have had a few months under your belt, in terms of new needs, which is not really something we have talked about... I know that there are your four main priorities that you are trying to push, but I am just curious to hear if there are any new needs that you are looking to include in the budget as well that we were advocating for. Well, I...

(01:54:42)

Can tell you that our needs will always outpace our resources, and there are some issues that are of concern at this time. We will more than likely look at some that are related to transportation and looking at the fleet of vehicles. For many of the sites they are quite aged, some of them have well over 200,000 miles and they are not in great condition. So it is a need that at some point we will probably come back to this Council and ask for your advocacy in acquiring some new vehicles for some of these sites. Perfect, and that was...

(01:55:24)

Actually a question that CM Wong had anyway, so you answered both. So thank you so much. And I think if there are no further questions, that will conclude the Department for the Aging portion of the hearing. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner.

(01:58:22)

Hi guys, please keep it down, please. We have a hearing rolling. Please keep it down again. No footage... really... sorry, we are...

(02:07:49)

Just waiting for them to adjust the camera angles. So the angles are...

(02:11:46)

Sorry. I never know if I am supposed to gavel in if we have a continuous hearing. Okay, just in case. All right, so good afternoon and welcome to the second Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget hearing for the day, focusing on our City's library systems. It is going to be a fun one. I am CM Lee of the Finance Committee, and I am pleased to be joined by Deputy Speaker Dr...

(02:12:07)

Nantasha Williams of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Relations. We have been joined by my colleagues CM Hudson, CM Lewis, CM Maloney on Zoom, CM Powers, CM Restler, CM Sanchez and CM Ossé. Welcome. Tony Marx, President of the New York Public Library, Dennis Walcott, President of Queens Public Library — sorry, I just had to, you know, Queens — Karen Sheehan, Vice President of Brooklyn Public Library, and yes, and your respective teams. Thank you all for joining us today.

To answer questions: on May 1, 2026, the administration released the Executive Financial Plan for Fiscal Years 2026 to 2030 with a proposed City budget of $104.7 billion. The libraries' proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget represents an increase of 7.2% from the amount originally budgeted in the Fiscal Year 2027 preliminary plan. This increase results from several actions, mostly the baseline funding starting in Fiscal Year 2027 for subsidies to libraries for operational support.

In the Council's preliminary budget response, we called on the Mayor to add $30.7 million to the three library systems to support their critical operations and resources as a third space for New Yorkers. We were pleased to see that was included in the plan. The combined unfunded capital backlog across the three library systems represents a significant deferred maintenance need to the City's public portfolio. The distribution of capital needs is deeply inequitable, and branches in historically underserved neighborhoods are disproportionately represented among the most deteriorated facilities. Further, during the preliminary budget hearings, there were design-build and broad application concerns and procurement issues identified.

As New York continues to face an unprecedented housing affordability crisis, the Council remains interested in opportunities to maximize public assets, including the thoughtful development of affordable housing on top of public library facilities where appropriate. These projects represent a unique opportunity to modernize the aging library infrastructure, expand community space and create much needed affordable housing, while libraries continue to serve as vibrant and accessible centers for New Yorkers. I will now turn it over to my co-chair for this hearing, Deputy Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams, for her opening statement. Thank you.

(02:14:55)

Good afternoon and thank you to everyone joining us today for the Committee on Finance jointly with the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Relations Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget Hearing. I would like to welcome the representatives from the three public library systems and my colleagues in the Council. New York City's three library systems — the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and of course the Queens Public Library — together operate 220 branches across all five boroughs, making them one of the largest public library networks in the country. These institutions are essential community anchors supporting literacy, workforce development and lifelong learning for millions of New Yorkers every single day.

I am pleased to report that the Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget includes $526.6 million for our three library systems, a $35.2 million increase from what was proposed in the preliminary plan. This is a meaningful step forward and it reflects the sustained advocacy of this committee, our colleagues in the Council and library supporters across the five boroughs. Of particular significance is the Executive Plan's decision to baseline $31.7 million in additional City funding for library operating expenses beginning in Fiscal Year 2027. In Fiscal Year 2026, the Council fought hard to secure $30.7 million in one-time funding for these same purposes. We made clear in our Fiscal 2027 preliminary budget response that these funds needed to be baselined, not treated as a one-year fix, and the administration has responded. This is a victory for our libraries and for the communities they serve.

While today's hearing focuses on the Executive Budget, I want to be clear that our work is not done. We will be examining whether staffing levels, program funding and capital commitments in this budget are sufficient to meet the needs of all New Yorkers. As of March 2026, library full-time vacancy rates stand at 8.1% with over 378 budgeted positions unfilled. We will be asking our library partners about their plans to address those vacancies and what additional support they need from the City.

I also want each system to tell us about their capital needs in Fiscal Year 2027, active capital projects and any recent groundbreakings. I want to hear about any branches that need comprehensive renovations and about your most urgent projects across the boroughs.

Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge my colleagues who are present: CM Sanchez, CM Brooks-Powers, Brewer, Lewis and... I would also like to thank Finance staff Carolina and Aaliyah for their work on this hearing as well as committee staff for their support. Finally, I would also like to thank my staff Priyanka and Shockey. I am going to ask my colleagues to limit their questions and comments to three minutes.

I will now turn it over to the committee counsel to administer the oath. In terms of the administration — but this is not the administration, so I do not think you get sworn in. So with that, I will turn it over to you. Okay. One quick thing before that: as a reminder, for this year's Executive Budget joint hearings, we will take public testimony on all agencies' Executive Budget on Wednesday, June 10, beginning at 9:30 a.m. So please let your folks know that it is going to be on Wednesday, June 10, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Okay. Sorry. Now...

(02:18:42)

You can go.

(02:19:05)

My name is Tony Marks and I am the President of the New York Public Library. It is a particular pleasure to be with you all this afternoon. I want to thank the City Council, Speaker Menin, Deputy Speaker and Committee Chair Dr. Williams, Finance Committee Chair Lee and all the members of the committee for this opportunity to testify on the Mayor's Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget.

As we all painfully know, for many years all the library systems including the New York Public Library faced at this juncture significant cuts to our operating budget each year. We started with those deficits, with advocacy just to get back to even. Last year at the last minute we were held harmless, which achieved additional funding, and so we are hugely grateful to the Council for leading the fight to make us whole. But that total of restored and increased funds, as we all know, was one-time and not baselined. So that was still the budget dance, as we lovingly call it. The budget dance is laborious. It is costly. It diverts resources and our attention and efforts from where they belong.

But this year we are so pleased to say is different. Mayor Mamdani has delivered on his promise to end the budget dance with an Executive Budget that restores and baselines the libraries at $31.7 million, plus an additional $2 million for the Council's efforts to expand Sunday service in his Fiscal Year 2027 preliminary budget. We are incredibly grateful to the Mayor for that effort and of course we recognize and celebrate the City Council's ongoing essential advocacy and support. It is so refreshing to spend time doing the work of the library instead of the advocacy to keep us whole. So we can focus on our Sunday service, our after-school programs, our summer learning and so much more. But that is the foundation that brings us again to steady state and it is a foundation that, with your help and with the Mayor's help, we...

(02:21:33)

...would like to build on further. The Mayor has indeed acknowledged that his move in terms of bringing us up to baseline is intended to ease the upcoming negotiations with the City Council and we hope those go very well. We ask you for increased expense funding. Having been operating on a mostly flat budget for several years, the New York Public Library alone has $52 million in unmet needs, particularly from rising costs of operations. Because we know costs are going up for everything, collections are the same, and continued emergency repairs.

We are also looking for a transformational capital investment from the City of $150 million for each of the systems and we hope that you will consider a $10 million request in capital funding from the Speaker and the borough delegations to address unexpected shortfalls and new projects.

Let me dive in for just a minute on the expense side. As I have mentioned and as has already been mentioned by the Chair, rising costs of operations including technology, cybersecurity, security and compliance with unfunded mandates require us to foot the bill. We have to foot the bill for maintenance, equipment and healthcare coverage without any increase in funding. Collections are so essential to what we have and what we can offer to our community and we know the cost of those have risen alongside increased demand. We should celebrate that increased demand given that that is not the case in terms of reading across the nation. Let us not be stingy in giving the people of New York the books that they are eager to read so that they will continue to read more. We cannot be hamstrung in our efforts to meet the diverse needs of our community and in diverse collections in every neighborhood. We have, of course, a need for a budget for emergency repairs to help us reduce disruptions to access to our collections. Given that our buildings are small and often aging structures, they face real maintenance challenges. With additional funding we can also do more.

The Mayor himself has said he is committed to working with the Council to eventually get 2.5% of the City's budget for libraries. That would be most welcome. In fact, it would be fabulous. With an additional $28 million for the New York Public Library alone, we could expand hours and days of service. We could continue to expand our, for instance, high school after-school program, where attendance last year was 68,000 — that is a 31% increase over the previous year. We can continue, again as an example, to host career fairs at a time when it is increasingly hard for our teens to find jobs. We had 1,600 attendees in the past and we would like to do much more. The preliminary Mayor's Management Report continues to show steady increases in all of our program attendance, library card holders and computer and wireless sessions. The New York Times, in its survey of 35,000 New Yorkers, showed "more funding for libraries" as the top choice of our citizenry.

On the capital side, our services are of course of little value if they do not happen in places that feel safe, welcoming and modern, let alone open. Many of our locations are in need of long-term structural upgrades and renovations. Continued progress is challenging for many reasons as we have discussed for many years. That includes our City's process that often results in wildly increased costs and shortfalls and significant delays. We know that the Council is very aware of this situation. The Mayor is very aware of this situation. In his commitment to excellence in government he has talked about the need to enact reforms. Meanwhile, we are so delighted to be working with the Deputy Mayors who are focused on this effort. We have a great new head of... who we are also looking forward to working with. We look forward to any partnership that will create creative approaches to avoid cost overruns and delays so that we can use the funds made possible by the citizens of New York more effectively.

We also look for a transformational investment of $150 million for each system. You will recall in 2016 we got $100 million. We used that to do a renovation of five century-old Carnegie Libraries in some of the most high-needs neighborhoods of the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. As has already been mentioned by the Chair, there are also co-location projects where we use the air rights on top of libraries for affordable housing. We have discussed these with Speaker Menin, with the administration and with respective City Council Members. We are eager to do these co-location projects wherever that is possible going forward.

Alongside that, we also have $10 million in undesignated funds from the Speaker and borough delegations that really would be essential for us. They give us the flexibility to address unexpected shortfalls and new work that could be done in time for Council Members to celebrate completed projects with their constituents during their terms.

As the Mayor has recently noted, the budget dance kept libraries on the perpetual back foot, desperately trying to keep the same floor year after year instead of being able to advocate for more. We are so grateful to the Mayor for getting us here and here we are advocating for more. The libraries have always faced significant cuts in previous years. It is so wonderful not to be facing that this year. It was always the City Council who joined us and championed our efforts. We are relieved not to be fighting to get back to even at this juncture, but we want to do more. Costs have gone up so we need your help so that we can continue to do the great work that New Yorkers depend upon us for. We are the most visited civic institutions in this city. We are in every neighborhood including the poorest and we are proud of our efforts to meet the needs of New Yorkers, whatever they are, and to work with you to make that possible. Thank you so much for this...

(02:29:01)

...opportunity to testify. Good afternoon and thank you, Speaker Menin, Finance Chair Lee, Deputy Speaker and Library Chair Dr. Williams, members of the committees, our Brooklyn delegation and the entire City Council. I am Karen Sheehan, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration at Brooklyn Public Library.

Brooklyn Public Library is grateful for your steadfast support. Your commitment makes it possible for our dedicated library workers — the over 1,000 members of DC 37 Local 1482 — to deliver the programs, services and resources New Yorkers count on every day. We also appreciate the Council's response to the Fiscal Year 2027 preliminary budget calling for full restoration and baselining of library funding. For too long the budget process has been defined by an unstable cycle where critical operating funds were granted temporarily only to be stripped away in the next budget proposal. This made planning impossible, drained staff morale and ultimately harmed the very communities who rely on consistent library services.

Thanks to our collective advocacy, the Council's leadership and the Mayor's action, the Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget restores and baselines $31.7 million in operating support to the library systems, of which our share is... We are deeply grateful to Mayor Mamdani and the City Council for working to make this crucial funding permanent and welcome additional conversations about funding libraries at 0.5% of the City budget. City support is vital and it has been far too long since we have had this kind of certainty. Securing this funding in future years is a major relief and demonstrates that public libraries are a priority for the City. We appreciate the end of the annual budget dance.

However, we cannot rely on this restoration alone. As it stands now, our library budget is flat. Without additional funding to address our remaining operating gap, after years of fighting back cuts we have struggled to...

(02:31:22)

...provide service as funding has not kept pace with the growing demand and the increased cost of doing business, and patrons have felt these effects — whether through longer wait times for books or more frequent service disruptions. In the last calendar year, Brooklyn neighborhoods lost 177 hours to unplanned delays and closures at their libraries due to staff shortages.

The restoration proposed in the Executive Budget will reduce our operating gap, but while this is extremely helpful a significant shortfall remains that will continue to erode service across our system if further steps to address it are not taken this year.

Libraries are vital to the fabric of this City. Brooklyn Public Library and our dedicated employees are serving more patrons, protecting intellectual freedom, encouraging civic participation and helping New Yorkers thrive across our 62 locations. The need for our services is only growing. In the last calendar year, Brooklyn Public Library recorded over 6 million visits, circulated books and digital materials over 10 million times and welcomed 841,000 attendees to our public programs. Adult literacy and education programs enrolled over 1,100 learners pursuing high school equivalency diplomas and career certifications. The workforce development team hosted over 1,600 career workshops and one-on-one counseling sessions, helping close to 16,000 individuals looking to advance in the job market. Just last month we partnered with the Department of Labor and six elected officials to host a job fair that filled our lobby at the Central Library with more than 1,200 job seekers. While it is heartening to provide this opportunity, it just underscores the growing need for these vital services. We cannot keep doing more with less.

(02:33:23)

As I mentioned earlier, Brooklyn Public Library must contend with $8.7 million in unavoidable costs in the upcoming fiscal year. A significant driver of this shortfall comes from mandatory nondiscretionary expenses. This year, general health insurance costs grew by $2.7 million, including an unfunded mandate for the PICA prescription drug benefit. Our staff deserves great benefits. However, this benefit was negotiated and implemented by the City without the corresponding funding allocated to the libraries. Every dollar we must redirect to cover unfunded mandates like this impacts our ability to provide core public services.

Beyond health care, the cost of basic library operations continues to climb. Our buying power is diminished as the price of e-books and materials is up 5%. Book costs increased $2.5 million this year, including $400,000 just to maintain our current digital collection. Books are the lifeblood of the library and ideally we should be expanding our collection. Instead, we are spending more just to keep it steady.

Keeping our doors open and our facilities safe also requires us to dip into precious operating dollars. Our branches periodically encounter emergencies requiring immediate attention that cannot be addressed through a traditional capital project. The heavy rains that hit the City last Wednesday flooded three of our branches. During an extreme cold snap just a few months ago, a sprinkler failure caused flooding that left...

(02:35:00)

$100,000 worth of damage at the Sunset Park Library kept the community out of the branch's lower levels for weeks. At the Leonard Library, water infiltration in the building required an immediate infusion of $800,000 to waterproof the lower level and make the building safe for staff and patrons. The cost of this emergency work and rising maintenance contracts has cost us several million dollars this year.

We are grateful — as grateful as we are for restored baseline funding — we have a significant deficit to manage. The Council has traditionally championed a library initiative, crucial expense funding that has helped fund library operations, including staff positions, collections and building maintenance. For the past several years that subsidy was $15.7 million for all three systems. The Council's support has been instrumental in maintaining consistent library services for the City and we hope we can count on it again this year.

Brooklyn Public Library is the steward of more than one million square feet of City-owned buildings with a burden of over $400 million to bring them up to a state of good repair. Roughly one third, or about $130 million, are considered emergency needs: heating and cooling systems, roof replacement and safety enhancements. Our infrastructure is aging. Brooklyn's library buildings average 74 years old and 20 of them are over a century old. It is no wonder that we lost over a thousand hours of public service due to system failures last year.

It is difficult to overcome this capital crisis without adequate funding. Lacking a source of recurring capital dollars, our team cannot effectively address emerging problems or plan for preventative maintenance. Through the capital process, with your partnership, Brooklyn Public Library has made progress over the years. The Council's lump sum capital allocation for libraries has been a lifeline, allowing us to address urgent repairs and fill shortfalls as stalled capital projects across the borough. We have $12.8 million in project shortfalls and the Council's capital funding has been instrumental in helping us keep projects moving forward.

(02:37:22)

We are very grateful for your support and this year, once again, we have requested $10 million in capital funding from the Council through our Brooklyn delegation. BPL has also submitted a ten-year capital plan request to the administration for $276 million to care for our physical plant shortfalls and upgrade our technology. Like our fellow library systems, our request also includes a transformational $150 million investment that would enable five comprehensive branch overhauls in Brooklyn. The results are paying dividends. Comprehensive branch renovations address multiple improvements in a single project, saving time and money and reducing interruptions in neighborhood library service.

We are thankful that the administration has added $15 million in the executive budget towards one of our capital projects and we urge City Hall to allocate additional capital funding to the library. We thank the Council for your long-standing borough-wide capital support and our members who have generously funded library projects in their districts.

(02:38:32)

In a poll at the start of the new year, the New York Times asked readers how we can make the City a better, more livable place for all, and overwhelmingly ranked funding libraries as their top priority. Libraries are a beloved public good. As a library user named Kenny wrote to us this spring, Brooklyn Public Library made it possible for a shy, introverted little immigrant girl to travel the world, explore magical lands and fantastical creatures from those pages. From those pages she learned to be open-minded, fearless and to become a lifelong learner, a bookworm committed to social justice.

Brooklyn Public Library is grateful for the relationship we have with all of our patrons, our staff and all of our City's leaders. We look forward to continuing to work together serving our communities with the investment that they deserve. Thank you.

(02:39:27)

Thank you so much. Thank you, Tony and Karen. Good afternoon, Speaker Menin, Chair Lee, Deputy Speaker Chair Dr. Williams and the esteemed members of the City Council and the various committees that are represented today.

So, my folks always have an over-under on how long it will take before I deviate from the script. For those who had under 15 seconds, you will be the winners today, because I just want to take this personal note to thank each of you for your support, but more importantly,

(02:40:00)

your advocacy, both at the full City Council level but also in visiting our individual libraries as well. It makes a tremendous difference to our staff members, to the people who work day in and day out. Before I came down here I was at Central, and I always try to be at Central when possible at 10 o'clock in the morning when we open our doors, because it really just reinforces the value of who we are as a library. Walking through our doors, we had two classes from PS 95, we had people who are coming to our library training program, we had people who are coming for books and to receive the various program services that we offer.

I mean, that is who we are as a library and all of you know that. Your advocacy allows us to continue that. I just wanted to add that in because you guys are always there for us. I mean, you are there in so many different ways, both from a collective point of view but also when you are getting on our case as well, as far as making sure we are providing the appropriate services to the community. So what Tony and Karen had to say, I basically say ditto, and I am not going to read all my remarks, but quite frankly, how it pertains to Queens — I also look forward to your questions as well.

Our budget for fiscal year 27 allows us to plan effectively for the out years. I mean, we are always reacting, reacting, reacting based on the cuts, and this gives us a foundation to really take a look at moving forward and what it means. But I would not be honest if I did not say we are not satisfied. The reason we are not satisfied is because, as Karen indicated and as Tony indicated, basically we have stayed flat, if not even going further back. Costs have been shifted to us that are buried deep inside the budget. Karen talked about the PICA additional expense that we have to absorb, and that was not there before, and that is $1.2 million. We have contractual insurance premiums that are going through the roof. We have mandated expenses, which means that we are forced to spend less on books and other library materials and defer branch maintenance and repairs and forgo other key operational needs.

Each of us can cite the number of hours we have lost as a result of those needs. Like Karen also indicated and Tony mentioned, as a result of the recent flooding, while we only had one library that we could not open for the day because of the flooding, in the past we have had library after library after library that has suffered as a result of this deferred maintenance. Having our own plan to address those needs would enable us to provide the public with more efficient service. Meanwhile, last fiscal year we lost 442 public service hours due to unplanned closures resulting from building issues. Again, the planning that this baseline funding allows us to do — we thank the Mayor for that. It allows us to take a look at what we can plan for this coming fiscal year and moving ahead as well, but the needs are still there.

We need more books and materials, as Tony and Karen have indicated, in our collections, which would improve wait times. We need the ability to hire branch and support staff, resulting in enhanced public service and programming, which is so important. Our HR team at Queens has done a masterful job over the last year working collectively with all the departments within the Queens Public Library to make sure we are bringing people on, but having that money there allows us to do that in a better way.

Like Tony and Karen — and if I slip and call you Linda, I am just so used to ten years of that. I have not done it yet. I have been good so far. Linda is that partner next to me and I am so used to it. We also need upgraded public IT networks to ensure safe and updated systems for internal and external use and to reinforce our buildings to address the infrastructure issues and unplanned closures.

We know the City Council recognizes this and the tremendous impact that libraries have on the lives of New Yorkers. I am blessed. I am extremely blessed to have the Queens delegation, and I look at each of you — you have been outstanding for us. You are there for us on a regular basis. We have that type of relationship with each other. When we see each other at parades like yesterday, we are able to interact. We see each other at our libraries. We see each other when you are walking down the street in front of one of your libraries and I happen to be in Queens. You guys are really on the money for us and we appreciate all the money you have put in place, and that has been baselined this year for our Sunday initiative as well. The Sunday initiative has benefited libraries throughout the borough as well as throughout the City and we thank you for that.

Our buildings function, as you know, as vital social infrastructure — spaces where the public can go to learn and connect with others with no barriers to entry. I call it our community living rooms. People are able to come in, network with each other, sit down, meet people from diverse backgrounds and religions, and just be in a library and feel the safety that goes along with that.

Our fiscal year 27 system-wide capital needs are $225 million, comprised of major projects such as renovations and infrastructure projects. Chair Lee, the library that you walked by yesterday — the Douglaston Library — when the Douglaston-Little Neck Memorial Day parade happens next year, that library will not be open because we will be moving from that building, from a 7,500 square foot building to roughly a 16,000 square foot building. So we will be expanding our infrastructure, not just there, but in a number of your districts as well.

That is why libraries are requesting from the administration $450 million — $150 million for each system — to renovate at least 12 buildings throughout the City. For Queens, we are looking at Hollis right now, which is under renovation. Astoria's Carnegie Library is under renovation. Bayside Park is under full renovation as well. Soon to be opening is a brand new location for our Lefrak City Library on the opposite side from where we were, because that building had been flooding. Now we will have a brand new Lefrak City Library. Technically it goes to December 23 or so, but we will be opening it this summer, before December 23, when it is actually nice out — the summer and not the cold part of summer.

We have these buildings currently under construction, and Arverne as well. I look right over there because Arverne — you can see the tangible results of the construction because it has been closed off, not the library itself, but we are lucky to have a lot where we are building an extension onto our Arverne branch. We also have branches in the pipeline that will undergo major comprehensive renovations, including South Jamaica, including Briarwood, including Maspeth and including Woodhaven Heights. Some of these are very complex projects, but we look forward to working on the development of these projects as well.

It is essential that we keep the momentum going in modernizing our aging buildings, but it requires capital investment. This fiscal year we have already filled the gap of shortfalls by $35 million, and what Tony and Karen indicated about that $10 million from the City Council has been instrumental in addressing those shortfalls. At the same time, we need to make sure we continue that, because shortfalls will pop up, and as you well know better than I do, when those shortfalls come up, if we are not able to fill them, then the project stops altogether. We cannot afford that to happen. So that is why we are requesting continued capital

(02:48:47)

support in the amount of $10 million.

Speaking of which — you have heard me talk about this somewhat in a very positive way, but I must say here for the first time, I am just extremely disappointed. I am, you know, an old guy. I am not into social media at all. That is just way above my understanding in life. But then someone shared with me a social media clip of the commissioner standing in front of one of our libraries talking about what he is going to do around design. At the same time, we did not get the courtesy of someone standing in front of our library talking about that design. I did not get the courtesy, as the president of the Queens Public Library, of even a heads-up — like, hey, this is happening — even before we sat down one on one and talked about the future of our collaboration. That does not help with collaboration and working together. I feel it is important just to say: we want to collaborate, we are here to collaborate, but it takes two to collaborate, not just one.

(02:49:52)

I spoke optimistically about the future of libraries under the City's new leadership and I give my big compliments to the Mayor. I also give my big compliments to the Deputy Mayor. I have had a fantastic relationship with her. She is always available. She calls, she texts, she meets in person, we meet online virtually. I cannot say enough positive things about the Deputy Mayor and her relationship with the libraries, and

(02:50:22)

we look forward to continuing with that relationship. You all understand our libraries are the centers for learning, connection and opportunity, where our trusted and dedicated staff are here for everyone, whatever their circumstances, whatever the issue.

As the Chair knows, last month the Cambria Heights Teen Center hosted its annual prom attire giveaway, where young people browsed through 1,600 donated dresses, shoes, ties, suits and accessories and attended workshops to ensure a fun and safe prom night. As a matter of fact, one of the mothers there had two children attending. She went up to one of our team members and said, "I just want you to know you saved me close to $3,000 with the amount of attire, the shoes and the accessories I was able to get today, and we thank you for that."

Our Job and Business Academy recently held a job fair at the Flushing Library, connecting more than 600 job seekers with prospective employers. Our outstanding staff are planning activities for Summer at the Library, our summer reading initiative in partnership with the New York City public schools. I always look forward to that. We get together with the Chancellor, normally a Deputy Mayor and other folks, talking about the summer in the City and what it actually means for our children and the partnership we have as a City working in conjunction with the school system and our public libraries.

Next month we will complete the library's professional child care and home health aide certification trainings with a graduation ceremony. We love being here to serve the public. We really do. We are here to be public servants on a regular basis, and with the investment that you have provided, and with hopefully increased investment that you provide, we will be able to continue to expand our services to build an informed, equitable and livable City for all.

As I close, again I want to say a big thank you to all of you for your advocacy. I also thank the Mayor for his advocacy, his support, his funding and his baselining of dollars, which has benefited us tremendously in our planning. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

(02:52:48)

Thank you so much. Okay, in the interests of time I am going to breeze through a few questions I had, because I am sure my other colleagues will be asking very similar questions. Also, before I start, I just want to recognize that we have also been joined by CM Stevens.

Okay, so as we know, and as we just heard from you all, the budget is not enough. The baseline is great as it is, really bringing us closer to what it probably should have been in previous years, and it is helping with the planning and the staffing, yes. But I am just curious to hear from each of you: what additional expense funding is needed for, among other things, to maintain seven-day service where applicable, evening hours, weekend programming, all of the things that you all need to do? What is the delta, if you will, of what is in the budget versus what is needed? Thank you.

(02:53:46)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the New York Public Library requests $15.2 million in additional expense funding to address unmet needs and rising costs. Those include library collections at $5.1 million, non-capital-eligible emergency facilities repairs to keep our doors open at $1.3 million, and operating costs of $8.8 million, which include the new unfunded mandates that we have already heard about, as well as cybersecurity, core technology costs, incremental services, program costs and costs of recently opened locations. Thank you.

(02:54:30)

We need approximately $7 million to close our operating gap. I had briefly mentioned $2.7 million in health care costs. In addition to that we have unreimbursed wage growth among our union employees. We also have increased minimum wage for part time employees. We also have an increase in number of service points, which is a great problem to have. Larger libraries are now built to serve our public and have teen centers as well as children's libraries and adult spaces. These libraries are larger and have more service points and we do not actually have enough staff to properly meet the demands of those libraries. Our collection requires another $2.5 million to meet the rising costs, and of course building maintenance contracts continue to increase. With Queens, it is $9,620,700, of which $2,700,000 is deferred maintenance increased costs, $2,700,000 in unfunded wage growth, $100,000 in library materials, $1,200,000 in PICA expense and that will come to $9,620,700.

(02:56:09)

Okay. And then for all of your budgets, is it 100% City funding or is some of it privately raised? I am assuming donations and all of those things. But I think we are probably the

(02:56:19)

heaviest on the City-funded portion percentage-wise. It is roughly 95% for the Queens Public Library. We are at roughly 85%

(02:56:29)

from the City and about 10% from State and Federal, and then the balance is from

(02:56:35)

private sources. So the New York Public Library is slightly different. About 60% of our funding system-wide comes from the City, for which we are hugely grateful. We get some State funding, partly by formula — $20 million — and some earmarks beyond that. Beyond that, it is private funding, return on an endowment, as well as my job to raise somewhere around $80 million a year, which funds the research library for all five boroughs and for all comers from anywhere around the

(02:57:08)

world. Perfect. Okay, so I am just going to get into the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs English language funding, and I have to bring this up. So we know that $500,000 for NYPL goes for its services, $300,000 going in FY26, but Queens Public Library has nothing. Am I reading this wrong? We have the largest number of immigrants in Queens, and just wanting to know how will this funding expand access to English learning services. How many additional New Yorkers are expected to be served? Because especially in a city like New York City and especially in a borough like Queens, there are so many different languages spoken, and so I would love to see if there is a way for us to help advocate for that for Queens Public Library as well.

(02:58:01)

By all means, and we do get support and now

(02:58:04)

I will get you... maybe I missed that. Yeah, let me get that in

(02:58:08)

a couple of minutes and then let you know. Okay, so I will be a little less... if there is money going to... okay, but if you all could just talk about those programs and services and if there is an additional need to expand that and how many folks you are serving with

(02:58:26)

that. Great. I can jump in. Since July 1, 2025 to present, we have run 78 classes across 32 branches, including three virtual sites, and we have served 1,408 patrons. Continued funding of $500,000 would support next year's "We Speak English" classes and multilingual immigrant navigation. We do this work in collaboration with our Adult Learning and Outreach Services and greatly appreciate

(02:59:06)

any additional support for this program. It is very well attended and the demand is high. At the New York

(02:59:13)

Public Library, back in FY25 we received $350,000 to establish English Learning and Support Centers in 20 branches. In FY26 we got an additional $500,000 which allowed us to add 10 more branches. This is all part of a collection of work aimed at the immigrant community and those who need help with English. This is a moment in history where not everyone in this country is being as respectful of the immigrant community. It is in our lifeblood. It is basic to us. We are the first stop for most immigrants. We respect everyone. We serve everyone. We do not ask for any papers from anyone. Everything we do is free. These are essential resources

(03:00:01)

for our new New Yorkers, and we have all been new New Yorkers at some point. So for us it is $500,000 as well. We hosted classes at 28 branches, and we can break down the 28 locations, but those locations are in many of your respective districts within the Borough of Queens as well.

(03:00:23)

Thank you. And of course, as we know, a lot of those services and folks who come to your library systems are receiving a lot of other social services, and I know you all partner with our offices as well. So thank you for that. My last question is just around the capital funding, which we know is not enough, because

(03:00:41)

there is an additional $212 million which is in the capital commitment plan, which is great, in FY27. I just wanted to know what the limitations are in the $212 million. If you could each walk us through what specifically the increase in the capital plan for the Executive Budget includes for each of the branches, and is this driven by new projects, rescoped existing projects or re-estimated costs?

(03:01:14)

Sure, I can jump in. I am actually not familiar with the $212 million number, but I can share with you that Queens Public Library received $15 million from the administration in the Executive Budget and that will support our Sheepshead Bay library project. We are seeking for FY27, I believe, a total of about $48 million in order to meet our full needs in FY27. So with

(03:01:47)

Queens, we received — and we are appreciative — $18.5 million for Broad Channel, and Broad Channel is our smallest library. But again, internally what we do is we have a ranked priority order as far as the libraries that have capital needs, especially emergency capital needs. Any new monies go to the particular libraries in our rank order as far as priorities, and we have submitted it to OMB in a variety of different ways and we would be glad to have it reinforced as well by the City Council.

(03:02:25)

The New York Public Library's active capital portfolio is roughly $332 million with 30 projects currently. The Executive Budget is $21.3 million for capital improvements. The Mayor provided $16.5 million as well as funding from the Bronx Borough President for City Island, the Manhattan Borough President for Hamilton Grange, Washington Heights and Schomburg. We are grateful for all of that and there is so much more work to be done.

(03:02:57)

The projects that are currently being looked at — do any of the facilities have they been flagged for critical infrastructure, health, safety or ADA compliance needs, and if so, can you identify them for the record? I can say that

(03:03:22)

we have only four branches that are not yet fully compliant. We have plans, I believe, on two of those. One of those is really hard for us. We have been working with City agencies on the physical realities, Landmarks, et cetera.

(03:03:40)

So we currently have 37 active projects with the Department of Design and Construction and part of that includes some ADA work as well. We have one in your district, Chair, that is several years off — that is East Village, which has ADA compliance issues as well — and that is on our drawing board. There are a number of projects that we are looking at as far as moving forward with our capital infrastructure work.

(03:04:14)

Okay. Brooklyn Public Library has $40 million in critical infrastructure needs going forward. I do not actually have that broken down by specific projects, but we can get that to you. Perfect. And I am going to pass it on to

(03:04:28)

our Deputy Speaker. Thank you so much, Chair. I just want to talk a little bit about State funding. What did libraries get in total in State operating aid and what did each system get?

(03:04:51)

Brooklyn Public Library received $8.7 million in this fiscal year in operating dollars and $3.5 million in State capital dollars last year, FY26. The FY27 budget has not... yeah, right. I guess she can tell us what you got last year. Queens is roughly the same. Total State expense and capital funding in FY25 was $21.9 million, and we know that the Governor has proposed a budget with a very small increase in expenses for us, as well as capital aid which is currently being proposed at a slightly lower amount. Thank

(03:05:43)

you. Because of the budget impasse, if she could share what you got last year in total in State construction aid — is this the same thing as capital? Okay, so we can skip

(03:05:54)

that. The Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Plan includes a total adjustment in light and power. Can you tell us which branches needed this adjustment? So light and power is centrally managed by the City and they budget for it in our budgets so that they can track usage, but the needs are managed citywide and so we do not really have insight into which branches. But it is actually probably just the rate increase and it is applied equally to all the libraries.

(03:06:45)

To add to that, I know that we are also working with DCAS to make sure we are more efficient as well. They have a couple of special projects with us as far as managing the heat and the power, so there has been a lot of collaboration back and forth with DCAS and some special grants to help us manage it. But as Karen indicated, it is essentially managed by the City itself.

(03:07:16)

So the same is true for the New York Public Library. OMB makes adjustments.

(03:07:23)

The same is true for the New York Public Library. OMB makes adjustments and they do not give us the exact details on that. I am pleased that we are also continuing to address sustainability in our branches, working with DCAS. The Bronx Library Center has solar photovoltaic at least five branch locations and we hope to do more of that. The more questions I ask, the more I realize I do not know anything at all, which is, you know, the old saying. I am like, what are they managing? Okay,

(03:07:55)

so that said, you all have no idea on utility invoices — all of that is managed by DCAS. Okay, good to know. Thank you for the enlightenment. Okay, new needs. Please describe any new needs submitted to OMB for FY27 that were not funded in the Executive Budget.

(03:08:21)

Right. So we had a $17.5 million operating gap going into FY27. We are grateful that we received $8.8 million in

(03:08:35)

the Executive Budget, and we hope through adoption that leaves us with $8.7 million. The need basically for us breaks down to increasing health care costs as well as increased minimum wage for part time workers, increased number of service points in our libraries, building maintenance needs that continue to grow and our collection.

(03:09:07)

The cost of buying our collection continues to increase. Queens Public Library requests $15.2 million to meet additional expense funding and to address unmet needs. As I mentioned, that includes library collections — $5.1 million, as the cost of books has gone up and we need to make sure that we have more diverse books in all of our neighborhoods. Non-capitally eligible emergency facilities repairs that allow us to ensure that we do not have emergency closings — when we are closed we cannot provide any of our services — as well as, most importantly, operating costs, new unfunded mandates, cybersecurity, core technology costs and incremental services.

(03:09:53)

I do want to add that we hope to continue to work with the Mayor and with you all to get to his goal of 0.5% of the City's budget. We are now at 0.42%, so we are only talking about 0.08% of the budget. That $43 million for the systems would get us expanded services, more branch hours, services for all ages, research hours would expand, education programs would expand, more library materials and additional Sunday locations that have been so important to the City Council.

On the capital front, we have nearly $330 million in capital needs over the next five years. That includes $125 million for comprehensive renovations of libraries as we have done with our five Carnegies previously, $80 million in state of good repair projects, $70 million for prioritized critical maintenance. We are accordingly requesting $150 million in transformational investments so that, as Dennis said, we can plan and we can execute, we can work with the City, get this done on time without delays and really provide what the citizens of New York need and deserve.

And this goes again to the deferred work and other items that are important around our critical services — the unfunded wage growth, the library materials, the PICA expense — again reinforcing that it comes to $9.6 million.

(03:11:34)

And Chair, if I just pick up on a point that I wanted to mention in response to the Chair's question before — we have to always remind ourselves that the library systems got a PEG on the capital side that was never restored. That has impacted us as well, and that

(03:11:51)

PEG was two years ago. As a result of that we have had to really adjust accordingly with our capital work because that PEG is catching up with us each year that we move further into our capital planning. So I just wanted to reinforce the point on the capital side — while we have some capital money, that money is getting shorter and shorter as a result of that PEG that was never restored. The PICA expense that you all have been talking about today is the one expense that you all did not intend to have to pay. Because this is the first time I am hearing about it, I just want to understand a little bit more.

(03:12:32)

The PICA expense. Yeah, so this is basically an enhanced prescription drug benefit for the union employees. Historically the libraries were not required to cover this monthly expense. We received notification from OMB that starting January 1 we would have to pay — I believe it is about $120 per union employee per month to cover it. Our staff deserves

(03:13:11)

excellent benefits, so we have no concern about this benefit being offered to our employees. It is that the requisite funding to support this unfunded new need was not

(03:13:29)

yet provided. It has yet to be provided to the libraries. We are in conversation with OMB and potentially those funds will be made available to us in adoption.

(03:13:41)

It was shifted to us, quite frankly. Yeah. And as a result of that, while we appreciate the money that we have received in the baseline, it is an added expense to us. As a result of that added expense, that has to come from somewhere else, and so that is the key part of this. It has everything to do with the expense absorption, not what we want to provide to our staff. Correct.

(03:14:08)

So let me just put this in context. We would love — I think we would all love — to see our colleagues who do amazing work be paid more. That is not within our control. Those are negotiations between the City and the union. We really hope for great results there. The good news is when the City comes to a contract agreement on wages, we get the funding to cover that. This is an example that does not work in the same way for us. $1.7 million of PICA coverage, which again we are delighted that our employees and colleagues are getting, is simply required of us without any funding for it. That of course creates shortfalls. And what was the amount? We have it... so everyone: $1.2 million for Brooklyn. Ours is different. We are $1.7 million. Okay.

(03:15:05)

Yeah. Thank you. New York has always... noted. If we want to be able to ask OMB about this when they come before us as well.

(03:15:13)

Okay. What are the current vacancies across each system, particularly for librarians, custodial staff, security personnel and maintenance workers? Okay. Currently we have 87 vacancies. I would have to get back to you on the breakdown among the titles. I will say that all of those librarian titles, public safety officers and custodians are actually difficult positions to recruit for. It is actually a very competitive market, given of course the salary that we are offering. So we are constantly recruiting for those positions. I would say we need quality in each one of those.

(03:16:05)

Similar to Brooklyn, I do not have a breakdown but we can get that to you. What we can see right now is around 80 individuals, and all of those are union employees. With that being said, I do know without giving the specifics that they are all across the board from librarians to custodians to customer service individuals. We have been doing a really better job — the marketplace has been very kind to us, but I think our team has also been great and the collaboration, both in internal promotions as well as the recruitment of others. I will give you one quick example for my Queens Council members: we have a strong partnership with the Queens College library program and one of the professors there is also a full time employee at Queens Public Library. What she has been doing is holding her classes at the library itself and it has really provided a great opportunity for them to be up close and personal, and for all of us to go to Queens College but also, when they come to the library, to be able to talk to them directly. She just had her final class presentation a week and a half to two weeks ago and that has allowed us also to draw from the people who are the graduates as well as the trainees.

(03:17:34)

New York Public Library's current vacancies are a total of 113, though I should note that 54 of those are in the branches and 59 are in the research library, which is again somewhat different. Hats off, particularly to your HR function that does incredible work. I also want to say that in years past, where we have been doing the budget dance and not had certainty as to funding, we could not hire reliably because we did not know if we would have the funding. That put everything off and increased vacancies. Layoffs were part of how we filled the gap until we knew what was coming. The fact that we do not have to do this this year means we can continue to fill the vacant

(03:18:17)

positions to meet the needs of every branch and all New Yorkers. Thank you, and that was a really important point. Dennis, you started to talk about some of the recruitment tactics, which is super awesome that you all are doing that. Do you have any other challenges you want to share? I know you said it is a competitive market. I am interested in where librarians are going if not to our libraries, but I am guessing other institutions is part of it. But yeah, any other challenges you want to share on recruitment?

(03:18:56)

Retaining staff. Sure. Actually, I would like to highlight a response to that challenge, which is our Pathways to Leadership program. That is a program where we identify existing staff who are not in librarian titles. So maybe they are clerical or custodians, or basically anyone who has not received the credentials to be a librarian. We support, I think, five

(03:19:30)

people on staff each year to pursue their Master's in Library Services.

(03:19:37)

And we provide them with tuition support but also wraparound services, because we know that working and going to school at the same time and raising families is very, very challenging, and a lot of people fall out of their goal attainment because of those stressors. So we have privately fundraised in order to provide those staff the support that they need in order to complete their degrees. You know, 30 new librarians to add, sort of homegrown, and so we are hoping that that is something we can expand upon going forward, because these are people who love libraries. And love urban librarianship, right? They want to do it. And so being able to invest in them has been really gratifying for the community.

(03:20:37)

So Chair, I want to take this opportunity to personally thank you for representing us a week ago Friday at the gathering at the Brooklyn Public Library with the Mayor. I say that now because we had roughly a thousand of our team members at a location in Queens for both staff development and also the opportunity to see each other, which they have not done in a while. I mentioned that in the context of your question because it was a great team building opportunity but also a morale building opportunity for people to get together and to enjoy themselves but also take part in professional development.

In addition to that, we have employed a recruitment process which makes it a little more transparent and also increases the timeliness of our hiring. We have a tuition support program in place as well. We also have it as part of our strategic plan as far as our visioning and the recruitment and involving our team in that process as well. So all the things that Karen talked about, I think we were all somewhat modeling each other in that regard, but trying to just create an environment of being a true public servant to the public at large.

(03:22:00)

So I think the simple answer to your question is the cost of living in New York is the major constraint that we all face. That is the reality, which is why we hope that the City, together with the unions, will find a way to increase the salaries for our wonderful colleagues. One of the other examples of ways in which we assist our colleagues is tuition assistance, as you have heard from others. We have, I think, roughly 70 staff every semester. That is about $160,000 per semester, almost all of those going for degrees.

There are places where we are seeing if there is a way, working within the constraints of the union et cetera, to find some private support to expand tuition assistance, because we know that there is even more interest and demand, which is fabulous. We also celebrate our page program, which provides incredible opportunities for anyone who is currently in high school or in college to work in the branches. It is often their first employment, and so many of those pages, I am delighted to say, are now regular employees of the system. So that is part of our pipeline efforts. Thank

(03:23:13)

you. Just a few more questions on capital funding, and then I will turn it over to my colleagues who I know have additional questions for you. Everyone's favorite topic: capital funding and capital commitment plans. This Executive Capital Commitment Plan includes an additional $212 million when compared to the Fiscal Year 2027 Preliminary Capital Commitment Plan. So does this increase address any facilities that have been flagged for critical infrastructure, health, safety or ADA compliance needs? If so, please name them for the record. I know you did talk about some new needs and things that are not funded in the exact plan. So if you could just give us more details on that.

(03:24:02)

We received $15 million for the Sheepshead Bay library in the Executive Budget. Looking at next fiscal year, we have just under $13 million in shortfalls. Those are projects that are in the pipeline that cannot move forward because we are lacking enough funding to meet the current estimates. So those would be the most urgent need going into next fiscal year on our capital side. We did ask for $276 million in the 10-year plan, and of course you know those projects that money would go towards are new projects that would be initiated, not projects that are currently in process.

The New York Public Library has $21.3 million in funding in the FY27 Executive Budget for capital funding. The largest single item is the $16.5 million the Mayor has provided for the comprehensive renovation of the Great Kills library in Staten Island. We are excited about that, but we are also excited about the projects that are currently in planning, and that includes Hamilton Fish, Westchester Square, Woodlawn Heights, Castle Hill, Seward Park, Tompkins Square, West New Brighton, and a total renovation for Great Kills, which is five.

(03:25:40)

For Queens Public Library, $18.4 million for Broad Channel. Our total capital need is roughly $253 million. With that being said, the capital piece is so important and it gets so much attention because it allows us to provide critical services. Without the capital investment that has been made by the Council as well as others, meaning the Mayor's Office, it just allows us to grow our libraries and deal with the needs that we have. Again, just to reiterate Karen's point around the value of what you bring to us with your allocation to help us meet our shortfalls, that way we do not have to stop our projects and that helps us

(03:26:32)

tremendously. Can I just reiterate what Dennis said? To the degree we get investments in capital in the 10-year plan, that is great. Any of those investments allows us to plan so that we can do the great work... I mean, our team does amazing work in capital improvements, but we have to know what we have to work with.

(03:26:56)

That is step number one. Step number two, as I have already signaled, is we need to work with the administration. I know they are interested in this. I know the City Council is interested in this, in making sure that we do not face the delays and the additional paperwork. I know that there is eagerness to find some solutions as well. We want to work together so that there is funding that is sort of set, that we could plan on, and then we can find systems to spend that money that provide the best outcome for those dollars. Thank you.

(03:27:34)

And yes, I look forward to hosting the roundtable that the Commissioner said he would host, both with the libraries and the cultural institutions, to get into the details and try to come up

(03:27:45)

with some solutions for the issues that have been raised for quite some time. So the three library systems' request for significant capital funding — is this the $150 million? Okay, great. So just if you could share, what is the current estimated backlog of state of good repair needs across your systems, including roofs, ADA accessibility, elevators, facades and mechanical systems?

(03:28:22)

Hold on a second.

(03:28:22)

Okay, so for us, we require $400 million in additional funding to bring all 62 branches up to a state of good repair. Of that, $130 million is for critical infrastructure, so that is failing roofs, heating and cooling systems and fire and life safety enhancements. I can give you a breakdown of the $130 million as a follow-up.

(03:29:00)

And just to go back to the point that I made earlier, excuse me, ours is $253 million, but again we have a very detailed breakdown of all the capital work going forward, including critical capital work, and we will be able to provide that information to you. I think it is a really excellent educational tool because it shows the hard work of our respective capital teams and our library teams in doing the analysis and having the backdrop of why these issues are being raised from a capital point of view. So we would love to participate in that because I think there is a lot of rich material there that would be extremely informative to the Council.

(03:29:44)

So again, the New York Public Library's unfunded capital needs total $330 million over five years. I just want to be clear. That includes $125 million for comprehensive renovations, particularly at Francis Martin, Soundview and some other branches. I just want to be clear.

(03:30:03)

We are asking for $150 million in transformative capital investments so that we can plan and so that we can find a better way to get the results of that investment, working with whatever reforms are necessary that could be agreed on. We are asking the City Council for a $10 million capital ask per system, which enables us to move forward and not have branches closed. Thank you. Can each library system provide an overview of its current vehicle fleet, including the number of vehicles, vehicle types, average age and the percentage of the fleet that is beyond its useful life? I think we need to get back to you on

(03:30:51)

that one. So I know there have been a number of questions about our fleet, and I would be glad to share the exact details. I can say that we are replacing our entire fleet. We have a number of our book transportation vehicles on order. We have had one new delivery — as a matter of fact, I saw it just before I left to come here — and we have several on order as well. So we are constantly trying to upgrade our fleet so our drivers are in vehicles that represent the newest fleet.

(03:31:36)

Thank you. That is good to know, because I had a conversation... I know I spoke to you, Dennis, about this. I had — I do not have your cell phone numbers, I would have reached out — but I did meet with the unions at a meeting with them last week and they mentioned that some of the fleet vehicles did not have proper air and heating. So I just wanted to ask the question. I am happy to know that you are getting a completely new fleet, and this is the purpose of the question. We want to make sure that you have up-to-date and good-use vehicles so that the workers can have proper air and heating when they are using the vehicles.

(03:32:21)

Just to reinforce the point, we have budgeted the replacement of our vehicles. That is the issue I think the union was representing. Again, we have one delivered and several that will be in in a couple of months. Several are going through the procurement process now. So we are very conscious of that, and if they should break down, then we will have those vehicles repaired as far as the systems are concerned. So we have been in ongoing discussions with our union partners around this issue and we look forward to continuing that discussion.

(03:32:59)

Thank you. I will turn it back over to the Chair before going to members.

(03:33:03)

Yeah, sorry, I just had a really quick follow-up. So with PICA...

(03:33:09)

Okay, so my

(03:33:11)

understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, I think it might actually be higher than $120 per month. Either way, it is an unfunded mandate. So my question and understanding, and please correct me if I am wrong, is that when the City was contracting and working with DC 37 to renegotiate the contracts, they worked on the health insurance piece first and then said, okay, for the injectable psychiatric piece, we are going to wait for that the following year. So we are halfway through the year. Have you heard anything — and I know that this was an issue brought up also by Henry Garrido, and he had a conversation, so he is advocating on the cultural institutions' and libraries' behalf for the staff — and so I just wanted to know, have there been any conversations? Have you heard anything about whether that is going to be on time and if we are going to have that done so that you are not having to pay this out of pocket every year? So do you know where it is in the process?

(03:34:09)

I have to say my information is limited. We raised this mostly with OMB. I am hoping that they would be able to provide us more information and of course provide us with funding. We have not really received much context, and so actually you are providing me with more context right now and I really appreciate it. So I would love to hear more.

(03:34:37)

From you. I had the same with me. You know, we have not heard anything. It is very limited.

(03:34:42)

Yes, right. And look, we have a great relationship with DC 37 and we need that relationship to be strong so that our colleagues, their members, continue to get what they need and even more. I will just say that we were not part of the discussions on that, which is why we were surprised to find ourselves with an unfunded

(03:35:03)

mandate. Got it. Okay. And I believe the totals across the board between libraries and cultural institutions will be a decent amount, and so we need to figure out how we are going to get that covered so that it does not come out of your baseline funding that we fought so hard to get. So okay, thank you for the clarification and of course we will be following up on this as well.

(03:35:26)

Alright, sorry. So next we have CM Brooks-Powers, followed by CM Schulman.

(03:35:36)

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the leaders of our amazing public library systems. The first question I have is: the administration has announced that $31.7 million in library funding will now be permanently baselined. Can you speak to how this long-term stability will change staffing, branch operations and program planning across the library systems, particularly in historically underserved communities like Southeast Queens and the Rockaways?

So as Tony indicated in his testimony, or in response to a question, it allows us to plan properly, knowing that the money is baselined, on hiring. So we are not always on edge as far as what the budget will look like. Now that we know that, it allows us to do even more active recruitment so we are working toward fully staffed libraries. Again, I think it is important that we are not necessarily moving ahead per se, that it is basically been baselined at a level that is basically the same, but at least it is a constant. I think that is critical for us because as a result of having it as a constant, we know what we are working with, and we know that as far as what Karen and Antonio talked about, as far as our internal systems and how our team members are able to do active recruitment and

(03:37:04)

recruiting people for the jobs, and that impacts those areas that you identified in Southeast Queens, but for us the entire library system where there is a need.

(03:37:15)

That is the same for us at QPL. What it gives us is stability and allows us to plan for hiring year over year. Just to further expand on Dennis's point,

(03:37:28)

without the funding in place for FY27, we would have started to restrict hiring, right? So in April and May, our HR would have started to pull back because they would have had to start planning for the lack of funding in the following fiscal year. This year, we are able to continue recruiting and filling those vacancies. So from a service perspective, we are going to have people in those positions when we were not able to before, and you know that should translate into more programming system-

(03:38:06)

wide. So I think Karen has said it well. Remember, this is not an increase. This is keeping us steady, but it is also not the threatened decrease that in other years has meant we could not hire during these months, so vacancies increased because that was the way we were trying to prepare for the possibility of the cut. We do not need to do that this year, so we can continue to hire. We can continue in particular to meet the challenges of hiring in higher-needs neighborhoods, whether it is in the Bronx or elsewhere. We are eager to do that and we can now do that, but it is not the additional funding. We are requesting your help on that so that we can do more hiring and more services. Thank you, Chair.

(03:38:51)

Can I just ask one final question? While I believe I know the answer, I just want to have it on the record. The administration highlighted that more than 30 branches will now be able to maintain Sunday service because of this investment. Can you discuss how expanded hours and more consistent service impact working families, students, seniors and residents who rely on libraries as one of the few free and accessible public spaces in their neighborhood?

(03:39:24)

So I love looking at our Sunday numbers, and we also added one Saturday at Kew Gardens Hills. Kew Gardens Hills was six days a week, but out of respect for the observant population in Kew Gardens Hills, we did not have it open on Saturday. Now it is open Saturday, so that is a seventh day. And why I love looking at our Sunday numbers is because I love to see how people are flowing into our libraries on Sunday, in addition to those libraries that already had Sunday service as well.

Right now, with all due respect to Chair Lee, while Glen Oaks is one of them, Jackson Heights and Hunter's Point are really battling right now for who has the highest Sunday service, and we take that very seriously as far as making sure that both the actual library is open and we have program services there as well, which has benefited the community. We have obviously children's programs and adult programs. And just as a reminder, and I think this applies to Brooklyn and New York as well...

(03:40:27)

Sunday is a day where people are able to make time and a half, so for our staff it is a tremendous benefit as well. The term we use is "volunteer" — it is not that they are volunteering, but we put it out to the people who want to work on that particular Sunday. They step forward and then they get selected for that. So it has been both beneficial to the community and the people that we serve, and it has also been very beneficial to our staff and the union members who are those who are benefiting from that.

(03:41:02)

I will just say again, we love having more facilities open on Sundays. That is when so many New Yorkers have time to come to the library. We also acknowledge the reality that Sundays are part of our union contract, so there is some tension there, but we are so grateful to the City Council. I know Gale has been working on this for...

Years. Twenty years. Gale, you are young, you know? So last year we added five more locations: Baychester, Kingsbridge, Mott Haven, Harlem and St. George. We made those selections based on where there were existing Sunday services close by, public transit, number of visits and school proximity. Again, we would love to do more. As Dennis also said, we also depend on our great staff. This is voluntary for them to do the Sunday work. Thank you, Chairs.

(03:42:01)

Thank you, CM Schulman, followed by CM Brewer.

(03:42:04)

Thank you. And I want to thank all of you at the library, particularly Dennis, because I am a Queens girl. Thank you. And Louisa, I am going to wave to you over there. So you are someone who a lot of us, a lot of the members, work with on a regular basis. The public library system has been very instrumental in my career and in my learning and in my growing up and all of that. Dennis, what I did not hear was the update on what is happening with the Richmond Hill Library. That is a very important library for the South Asian community in my district and there have been off and on issues with it over the years in terms of the construction and all of that. So can you give an update?

(03:42:57)

Richmond Hill is a joint project between... and we have been working collaboratively around that. I know there have been some stops and starts.

(03:43:07)

Yes, the Richmond Hill... but we are very pleased that it is definitely moving forward. And specifically, I want to make sure I give you all the detailed information about Richmond Hill, because Richmond Hill is a gorgeous library that obviously needs significant improvement as well, and so it will be a full renovation. I was told page 16, so give me a second.

(03:43:37)

That way I want to give you...

(03:43:39)

...accurate information about Richmond Hill. It is a comprehensive renovation, building a site. Total funding obligation is $24.2 million. Design documents are now complete. We are in the bid packaging phase, which is expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal year, Fiscal Year 26, and they forecast a construction notice to proceed in early 2027. So it is finally moving along. Please keep us posted on that and I am very much looking forward to that.

I just want to put into the record that DC is forecasting substantial construction completion in the winter of 2029. So for the community, for the community board, and again you thanked her but I will thank her as well — Louisa and our team, you know, they have been very important in working with your office as well as the local community board as well.

(03:44:51)

I appreciate that, and we will light a fire there as well. Thank you very much for that. That is all the questions I have. Thank you.

(03:44:58)

Great. CM Brewer.

(03:45:01)

Thank you very much. So in terms of... I know that is about five years per device, maybe, that you can last. So what are your technology budgets? Maybe you talked about this a little bit. I know it is under capital. And then how much more do you think you need? Is that something that you are asking for? I know when we did participatory budgeting and people in the community put that in as one of their high choices, so we will be adding that to the amount for New York Public Library. But technology seems to be a...

(03:45:37)

...challenge. Thank you, CM Brewer. Yes, technology is always a challenge. We always have to keep them up to date. We have more than 5,000 desktops and 4,000 laptops. We have 1,200 Wi-Fi access points. We get E-rate funding that is from the federal government, but that is my formula. Thank goodness. But we know that in addition to the ongoing requirements, there is still something like a million and a half New Yorkers who do not have broadband at home. They come to the library. They know they can rely on the library.

(03:46:11)

Well, we are working very hard to change that. We have a new neighborhood internet program with three and a half million dollars. We have also gotten an additional $2 million appropriation through Representative Ritchie Torres. Representative Torres and the Mayor celebrated this combined effort. In effect, what we are trying to do is find a way to see whether the library's provision of Wi-Fi can be made available in people's homes, so that we can provide, ideally, a free utility-level neighborhood Wi-Fi for everyone in New York. In this day and age, think about the pandemic — if you had been home without Wi-Fi, you could not go to school, you could not do your work, you could not do anything. That is crazy. New York deserves better than that.

(03:47:03)

So you are trying to do that in different areas, to basically be the place where it bleeds out so they do not have to sit outside and...

(03:47:14)

You have heard that story, right? We do not want people having to sit outside our doors. They should be in the comfort of their homes doing their schoolwork, their required work. Gale, I am sorry, did I miss that? We have $15.1 million in capital projects for tech at the...

(03:47:30)

...moment. All right. And then... okay. And then we have E-rate, but that will not allow you to do that. So I know you have to find other funding.

(03:47:37)

We are figuring out other...

(03:47:38)

...funding. Right. Okay. And we are grateful to the Mayor and to Representative Torres for that funding as well.

(03:47:43)

...three million.

(03:47:46)

The issue of how many branches in New York Public Library have Sunday service out of the total — what is the amount that does have Sunday service?

(03:47:58)

Hold on one second, getting that for you.

(03:47:59)

I am not bothering with Queens. Where are you at? No, I do not love the other boroughs. Nothing like Manhattan.

(03:48:11)

We are... we are.

(03:48:12)

What, did you know that already? Wait, wait... did you know that already? Definitely. Dennis, go ahead. I am sorry.

(03:48:23)

Seven. I totally missed that. I am sorry. I was looking for the answer. We will get you that, Tony.

(03:48:28)

Look, so...

(03:48:29)

We are currently at 13 branches open on Sundays. We added five last year with the support and encouragement — essential support and encouragement — elicited.

(03:48:38)

One more strange question. So I went to the... I would say garage warehouse of... it is huge and there are a lot of... I just do not know — does the library have storage, in addition to the buildings that you warehouse and pay for, or is everything covered in your current libraries now? Would you have storage other than the libraries?

We do not have storage other than the libraries, though the research library has offsite storage. But...

(03:49:10)

That is the only exception. Okay. All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Councilmember.

(03:49:16)

CM Restler. Thank you so much, Chair, and Deputy Speaker Williams for your great leadership. It is great to see each of you. I firstly just want to wish Elizabeth Gilroy a happy birthday — much to her chagrin, happy birthday. I hope all the NYPL team has also done the same. And I wanted to apologize because we had a hearing on capital project reform a month or so ago and we were rushed on the library panel, not because we do not deeply care about capital project reform at the libraries. Your testimony, especially... was very insightful and it was really helpful. So thank you for each of your library systems coming before us and sharing your insights.

If I heard you all right, I heard that $400 million in outstanding unfunded capital needs, that NYPL has $330 million and QPL has $253 million. Did I get those numbers right?

(03:50:11)

So I am not great at math, but together that is just shy of a billion dollars.

(03:50:18)

Billion, billion, billion. No, I said the billion part right? I got that? I am not overstating my math skills, but I got that? I got the B...

(03:50:25)

...number. So we are talking about $983 million to be precise. In the current capital plan there is only $943 million of funding. So what we are really saying is that half of your capital needs — for every failing library, for every failing HVAC system and roof — one out of two is funded. Is that right?

(03:50:50)

Fair analysis. That is correct, though it also includes the major renovations, not just the age repairs, et cetera. All of it? Yes, of course. And look, I... you know.

(03:51:00)

Well, are you going to add something? No. So you know, I...

(03:51:03)

I think it is just really important for us to note that when we wildly underfund the capital programs at your library systems, it really means that our clients suffer and that our libraries close. My district is a couple of blocks from the Leonard Street branch in Williamsburg, where we have dealt with extended closures because of flooding and different challenges. When we fail to maintain our capital infrastructure, the buildings deteriorate, the libraries close and our communities suffer.

When we know that we are funding one out of every two roofs that are leaking, one out of every two air conditioners that are broken, one out of every two failing libraries, we are failing our library systems. So we have to look at ways that we both expand resources and capital investments in our libraries, but also how do we make these resources go further. And I was particularly impressed by your testimony a few weeks ago when you highlighted that when self-managing projects, rather than having the City do it, you are able to get those projects done faster and for less cost.

So I just wanted to ask the question — I know that our library systems are not in a position to take over the entirety of your capital needs and you cannot do all these projects — but could the library systems do more in leading more of your capital projects to help get them done faster and maybe stretch those dollars further?

(03:52:28)

So thank you so much.

(03:52:31)

Councilmember, I would say we are currently at our capacity for the capital construction grant program, because the capital construction grant program requires the cultural institution and the library to have some additional funding on hand in addition to the City capital dollars. It is also on a reimbursement basis, so the cultural institution and the libraries that participate in that program need to basically front every single bill and wait for reimbursement, and that reimbursement can take several months and potentially years. So for projects in the works, we are really proud of them and we hope that as one of them gets completed, we are going to bring on another one. That is something that we are very, very committed to doing, but we are likely at our capacity to take on more capital construction grants.

(03:53:42)

That being said, if there was... so if it was not a reimbursement-based...

(03:53:45)

...model — well, that is what I was just going to suggest.

(03:53:47)

If there was a way for the libraries to directly bill the capital budget for smaller projects, like we do when we buy technology and when we buy furniture for the libraries and when we initially outfit them — we actually can submit all of that as a direct payment from the City. So if there was a way for the libraries to apply that model to HVAC repairs and roofs, then that would really open the door.

(03:54:21)

Not for a whole library reconstruction, but thank you for a very specific... standardizing repair work that is needed in your branches and that you all do time and again across the diversity of your system. That is...

(03:54:31)

...correct. And there is some appetite. Of course, the devil is in the details, and there is a tremendous amount of oversight that would be required. And I think...

(03:54:44)

...we are still in the early stages of those conversations. That is very helpful. Anything you want to add?

(03:54:48)

Anything you want to add?

(03:54:50)

I will just reiterate — thank you, Karen. Look, it is pretty straightforward. We need additional capital allocations and commitments so that we can plan and then we can deliver.

(03:55:04)

We want to do more of this ourselves. The New York Coast Foundation Public Library at 40 is an example of that, but that was a big financial stretch for us that we could do but we cannot do system-wide. That means we need additional funding from the City allocated so that we can plan. It also means that we need to deliver on time and on budget. That has not been the case in the past. Those projects were typically twice as much and took twice as long, sometimes more than that. We had to work to find other partners.

What we did with the five Carnegies — those came in on budget and on time — so there is clearly an example that we can do better. We know we are welcome. Both the City Council and the Mayor and the Deputy Mayors are open to this conversation. It is something we have raised in all the years I have been at the library and yet we have never gotten to what seems like a pretty straightforward reform of the system, so that New Yorkers are not spending twice as much to get the same delivery. That just seems crazy for everyone. And then lastly, we do not only pay twice as much for our parks and our schools and every other project in the City.

(03:56:27)

Well, let us fix it for the libraries. I mean, I have gone and we also get creative, which is the co-location project. So we try to be helpful to the City. We know the City needs more housing generally and affordable housing. We never used the air above us before. Now we are doing that. So we are also happy to be innovative and we are happy to continue to be innovative, working in partnership with the City Council and the Mayor.

I just want to add one small point. I always use this example when I am testifying before the City Council: we had a boiler go down and if we had to rely on using capital dollars it would have taken so long that the library would have been shut for a long period of time, which was unacceptable. So we had to use our expense dollars to do that project and we...

(03:57:23)

...did it quicker and we were able to open the library sooner. But at the same time, that took money away from our expense budget. As a result of having a great team and also the monies that you provide, it allows us to have some of that flexibility. But at the same time...

(03:57:41)

...as Karen indicated, we are at capacity as far as the projects that we self-manage. But at the same time, the flipping of expense dollars to the capital side takes care of something that really should be capital-eligible, and what it requires is something that is just unacceptable to us and to the public at large, because we cannot afford to have our library closed for those long periods of time.

(03:58:06)

Thank you, and thanks for the extra time. Oh my gosh, every time I hear about capital projects I get like trauma because I lived through it myself as a former executive director. I think our organization got funded in 2018 and they just got their certificate to proceed, yes, from like last month, this month actually. So it takes so long and again costs increase, so you have no choice but to decrease the scope. We were just constantly fundraising extra dollars to cover those costs. So I hear your pain when it comes to that process.

Thank you, Chair Restler, for your work on contracts because I know that that is something that we would desperately love to try to reform. And I remember what you had said, Dennis, to all of the library chairs about when it comes to design-build and capital projects — yes, it works better on new projects, new builds, but not necessarily on the current infrastructure projects. So I did remember that from the preliminary budget hearing, so thanks for making that point.

And lastly, we are going to have... I am throwing it back to the Deputy Speaker for a couple of follow-up questions before we close.

(03:59:17)

Just two good questions. We just want to know if any of the libraries that flooded last week had to close, if so for how long, and then just a general question for the three library systems: do you still see an elevated demand for Wi-Fi access, device lending and digital learning support?

(03:59:37)

Only one library in Queens closed, for just one day, and that was Ozone Park. Other than that we had leaks and our folks were running around addressing that, but we were able to keep almost all of our libraries open. It was only closed for one day.

(03:59:54)

We were fortunate we were able to open our libraries. They were actually sort of the usual suspects — they were the ones that every time we get a deluge we are going to have an issue. We were able to respond very quickly the next day. Sorry, do you want to go?

(04:00:16)

I can say that New York Public Library did not have any flooding issues.

(04:00:21)

Thank goodness, we like to keep it that way. We need the funding to keep it that way. We did see from 2024 to 2025 a 12% increase in wireless sessions in the libraries. Computer sessions and Wi-Fi sessions continue to grow and we continue to try to meet those needs.

(04:00:40)

But as I said we are also trying to get creative so that people — people are not always at the library, sometimes in the evenings or nights or Sundays libraries are closed. That is why we are working to see if we can ensure more Wi-Fi services for folks, particularly in the high-needs neighborhoods, at home.

(04:01:01)

Our Wi-Fi is 24/7. We have seen a 51% increase and 90% of our libraries have extended Wi-Fi services, and people are taking advantage. But I hear loud and clear what Tony and Karen are saying as well. People have been taking advantage, and our wireless sessions last year — the last full year of numbers — we are on track this year. It is a program that we are constantly looking for ways to further explore and further support those needs.

(04:01:41)

So I should note the Wi-Fi sessions at New York Public Library in 2025 were 7 million and continue to grow. Do you hand out hotspots?

(04:01:53)

Yes, 24 hours.

(04:01:55)

Okay, I am sorry, you said that your Wi-Fi is 24 hours?

(04:01:58)

Yes, we do not turn ours off.

(04:02:00)

Right. So you would be able, if you were in proximity to any library, you would be able to access Wi-Fi even if we are closed.

(04:02:09)

Up to how far? Like how far...

(04:02:12)

Ours extends to 150 yards — 150 yards within the range of the 90% of libraries that have the Wi-Fi networks.

(04:02:24)

People will take advantage now. Thank you so much and thank you for all you do. Thank you for our library system. Thank you.

(04:02:31)

Thank you. Thank you, Chairs. Thank you, Counselor. Great. Thank you.

(04:02:47)

Aaron, thank you so much.

(04:02:49)

Okay, just a quick five-minute recess while we switch over to Cultural Affairs.

Good afternoon and welcome to the final hearing for our first day of the Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget, focusing on the Department of Cultural Affairs. I am still joined by Council colleague Deputy Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Relations. Welcome, Commissioner, and your team. Thank you all for joining us today to answer our questions.

On May 12, 2026, the administration released the Executive Financial Plan for Fiscal 2026 through 2030 with a proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget of $124.7 billion. The Department of Cultural Affairs' proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget of $239.6 million represents an increase of approximately 11% from what was originally budgeted in the Fiscal Year 2027 preliminary plan. This increase results from several actions, mostly $10 million of which is baseline beginning in Fiscal Year 2027 to support the Cultural Institution Group, the CIGs and Cultural Development Fund organizations, and baseline beginning in Fiscal Year 2027 for the adjustment to energy costs for the CIGs.

As of March 2026, the agency was two less than their Fiscal Year 2026 budgeted headcount. The Executive Plan includes a baseline savings of $300,000 beginning in Fiscal Year 2026, which represents a reduction of five positions. In the Council's preliminary budget response, we called on the Mayor to add $30 million to the agency's budget for cultural institutions to provide necessary organizational support to the cultural community. Cultural organizations remain fundamental pillars of New York City neighborhoods and underlying support is crucial in maintaining the rich cultures which make New York City truly live up to its title as a melting pot of culture. We were pleased that $10 million was baselined for our cultural institutions but remain hopeful that our full request of $30 million is included and baselined into the plan. I will now turn it over to my co-chair for this hearing, Deputy Speaker Dr. Nantasha Williams, for her opening.

(04:18:59)

Good afternoon and thank you to everyone joining us today for the Committee on Finance jointly with the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Relations Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget hearing for the Department of Cultural Affairs. I would like to welcome the Commissioner and team as well as representatives from our cultural institutions, the community organizations and my colleagues in the Council.

New York City's cultural sector is one of our greatest assets. Our museums, theaters, cultural centers, teaching artists and community-based arts organizations not only enrich our neighborhoods but also drive economic activity, support tourism, create jobs and provide spaces for education, healing and civic engagement. Cultural organizations are an essential infrastructure in our City.

Today's hearing comes at a particularly important moment for the cultural sector. Organizations across the City continue to face mounting financial pressures, including rising operating costs, affordability challenges, workforce retention concerns and uncertainty surrounding federal funding. Many organizations, particularly small and mid-sized institutions serving historically underinvested communities, continue to struggle to maintain programming and operations while meeting increased demand for services.

The Council appreciates that the Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget includes baseline funding of $10 million for cultural programming and operations, alongside what we see as our greatest ability to advocate for the sector. Baseline funding is critical because it provides organizations with predictability and allows them to plan beyond one fiscal year. However, this investment falls short of the Council's priority of $30 million in baseline cultural funding. While the $10 million commitment represents progress, cultural organizations continue to communicate that the need far exceeds what is included in the Executive Budget. If we are serious about preserving New York City's cultural vitality and ensuring equitable access to arts and culture across all five boroughs, we must continue working toward a funding commitment that reflects the true needs of the sector.

Today we seek to better understand how the agency intends to allocate these investments, support cultural affordability, strengthen the Cultural Development Fund and ensure resources are reaching organizations of all sizes in all communities. We also hope to discuss the agency's capital commitments, including support for aging cultural facilities and the long-term sustainability of the City's cultural infrastructure.

Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge my colleagues who fought hard for their work on this hearing, as well as my committee staff Alejandro and Regina for their support. Finally, I want to thank my staff as well. I am also going to ask my colleagues who are not here to limit their questions and comments to five minutes. I will now turn it over to committee counsel to administer the oath to members of the administration.

(04:23:57)

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Lee, Deputy Speaker Dr. Williams and members of the committee. I am the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. I am here to testify today in regards to the Mayor's proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget.

Even amidst a major financial crisis facing New York City, I am very proud that our budget includes a $10 million increase to the agency baseline. As the federal government attacks our sector and other funding sources contract, a sadly common trend is to cut arts and culture first when times get tough politically and economically. We are doing the exact opposite here. A budget is a statement of values and this investment shows that Mayor Mamdani and this administration understand that our vibrant and accessible cultural life is critical to the wellbeing of all New Yorkers.

For context, for a full decade from 2015 to 2025, there was no change to funding for the 1,000-plus groups receiving support through the agency. This new $10 million in baseline means more stable, long-term funding for the thousand-plus organizations who rely on funding to deliver incredible cultural programming for all New Yorkers. I am grateful to our partners in the Mayor's Office for making it possible.

Now I will review the numbers. Mayor Mamdani's proposed budget allocates a total of $239.3 million for the agency in Fiscal Year 2027. This includes $57 million for the Cultural Development Fund, $104.4 million for Cultural Institution Group operating subsidies, $68.8 million for energy costs at CIG properties, $1.17 million for creative initiatives and $7.9 million for agency staff and operations.

Note that these figures do not include one-time items typically added at budget adoption, such as City Council member items and initiatives. Council initiatives like the Cultural After School Adventures, Su Casa and the Coalition of Theaters of Color provide critical support for programs that reach New Yorkers in every Council district and we are honored to administer this support in partnership with you.

At this same point in the budget process last year, the Executive Budget allocated $214.7 million for the agency, about $25 million less than the Mayor's proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget. We recognize that this is a moment of precariousness for our cultural institutions and for the residents they serve. The budget is also a recognition of rising costs of doing business and the impact of the affordability crisis on our sector. It demonstrates the administration's priorities even through a difficult budget year. This is part of looking at our sector through an economic justice lens, ensuring that all New Yorkers have the time and resources to enjoy a full and vibrant life, which includes experiencing joy, community, imagination, curiosity and...

(04:24:35)

MAYBE AGAIN. THANK YOU. GOOD AFTERNOON CHAIR, LEAD DEPUTY SPEAKER DR WILLIAMS AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE. I'M EJ, COMMISSIONER OF THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF LTURCUAL AFFAIRS. I'M HERE TO TESTIFY TODAY IN REGARDS T OTHE MAYOR'S PROPOSED FISCAL YEAR 2027 BUDGET FOR EVEN AMIDST A MAJOR FINANCIAL CRISIS FACING NEW YORK CITY. I AM VERY PROUD THAT OUR BUDGET INCLUDES A $10 MILLION INCREASE TO THE AGENCY BASELINE FOR MAYOR MAMDANI AS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ATTACKS OUR SECTOR AND OTHER FUNDING SOURCES CONTRACT A SADLY COMMON TREND IS TO CUT ARTS AND CULTURE FIRST, WHEN TIMES GET TOUGH POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY WE ARE DOING THE EXACT OPPOSITE HERE. A BUDGET IS A STATEMENT OF VALUES AND THIS INVESTMENT SHOWS THAT MAYOR MAMDANI IN THIS ADMINISTRATION UNDERSTANDS THAT OUR VIBRANT AND ACCESSIBLE CULTURAL LIFE IS CRITICAL TO THE WELLBEING OF ALL NEW YORKERS FOR CONTEXT FOR A FULL DECADE FROM 15 2 2 5, THERE WAS NO CHANGE TO FUNDING FOR MORE FOR THE 1000 PLUS GROUPS RECEIVING SUPPORT THROUGH AND THIS NEW $10 MILLION IN BASELINE MEANS MOR ESTABLE LONG TERM FUNDING FOR THE THOUSAND PLUS ORGANIZATIONS WHO RELY ON FUNDING TO DELIVER INCREDIBLE CULTURAL PROGRAMMING FOR ALL NEW YORKERS. I'M GRATEFUL T OOUR PARTNERS IN THE MAYOR'S OFFICE IN FOR MAKING IT POSSIBLE. NOW I'LL REVIEW THE NUMBERS. >MAYOR MA'AM DONNY'S PROPOSED BUDGET ALLOCATES A TOTAL OF $239.3 MILLION FOR UCLA AND 27 .

THIS INCLUDES $57 MILLION FOR THE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT FUND $104.4 MILLION FOR CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS GROUP OPERATING SUBSIDIES $68.8 MILLION FOR ENERGY COSTS AT GROUPS ON PROPERTY $1.17 MILLION FOR CREATE INITIATIVES AND $$7.9 MILLION FOR AGENC YSTAFF AND OPERATIONS. >NOTE THAT THESE FIGURES DO NOT INCLUDE ONE TIME AND TYPICALLY ADDED A BUDGET ADOPTIONS SUCH AS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER ITEMS AND INITIATIVES COUNCIL INITIATIVES LIKE THE CULTURAL AFTER SCHOOL ADVENTURES SU CASA AND THE COALITION OF THEATERS OF COLOR PROVIDE CRITICAL SUPPORT FOR PROGRAMS THAT REACH NEW YORKERS AND EVERY COUNCIL DISTRICT AND WE'RE HONORED TO ADMINISTRATOR THIS SUPPORT AND PARTNERSHIP WITH YOU AT THIS SAME POINT IN THE BUDGET PROCESS LAST YEAR, THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET ALLOCATED $214.7 MILLION FOR UCLA, ABOUT $25 MILLION LESS THAN THE MAYOR'S PROPOSED 27 BUDGET. W ERECOGNIZE THAT THIS IS A MOMENT OF PRICK CARROT E FOR OUR CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS AND FOR THE RESIDENTS THEY SERVE THE BUDGET IS ALSO RECOGNITION OF RISING COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS AND THE IMPACT OF THE AFFORDABILITY CRISIS ON OUR SECTOR AND IT DEMONSTRATES THE ADMINISTRATION'S PRIORITIES, EVEN THROUGH A DIFFICULT BUDGET .>>YEAR. THIS IS PART OF LOOKING AT OUR SECTOR THROUGH AN ECONOMIC JUSTICE LENS ,ENSURING THAT ALL NEW YORKERS HAVE THE TIME AND RESOURCES TO ENJOY A FULL AND VIBRANT ,VIBRANT LIFE, WHICH INCLUDES EXPERIENCING THE JOY COMMUNITY , IMAGINATION, CURIOSITY AND

(04:27:28)

Wonder the arts and culture affords this baseline. It shows our commitment to be a solid, stable partner for the entire ecosystem, for large and small organizations. I believe this diversity of scale, discipline and geography of our cultural organizations keeps the density of cultural life that New York City is globally recognized for, and which would not be possible without robust public funding to support it. We look forward to working with the Council toward adopting a budget that continues to build on the strong foundation of support.

As part of the citywide savings initiative, this included a vacancy reduction of $300,000 and a reduction of $2.6 million in funding held in reserve due to volatility at the federal level and the City's challenging fiscal outlook. But thanks to smart budgeting and a better than expected fiscal outlook, we are preparing to distribute $4 million in supplemental funding. The vacancy reduction savings are also paired with the lifting of the hiring freeze, which means that we are moving ahead with filling five vacant positions across the agency. This will make a major difference for a lean agency and I am grateful for OMB's partnership in making sure we have the staff needed to deliver for our constituents. The $2.6 million in savings for fiscal year 2026 was a one-time reduction. This means our baseline was not reduced in the out years. As I have mentioned, it was increased by $10 million, a huge boost for the field.

While fiscal year 2027 capital additions are not included in the budget until adoption, I would like to share an update on the process and where it stands. This year we received capital funding requests from 97 organizations for 110 projects totaling $651 million. The capital team is currently reviewing requests. Capital requests are often made after collaborative dialogue between the organization and the capital team to ensure better outcomes for the organizations. As you know, the Council and the borough presidents are crucial partners in making targeted capital investments in our cultural sector. We will have workshops in July for organizations that received funding.

I really appreciate the hearing that Deputy Speaker Williams recently held on cultural capital construction projects, which has accelerated the dialogue between our agencies and your office to prioritize ways we can improve the capital funding and construction process to deliver these essential projects better and faster. Commissioner Chela and I are working to convene a roundtable with cultural organizations, our respective teams and Deputy Speaker Williams in the near future to continue to listen to the issues and find solutions. I believe this would be the first time our agencies have held this type of dialogue and I look forward to continuing this interagency partnership, inclusive of those receiving our services.

I will now turn to agency programs and operations that make distributing this funding possible. I am pleased to report that panels officially began last week, with now 220 panelists from across the cultural field to review a total of 775 applications for grant support. We have an additional 689 organizations that would be in a renewal cycle. More than 175 of this year's applicants were new to the process or had not applied in recent years. We appreciate the Council's partnership in sharing the funding opportunity with your constituents. Together, we can make sure that first-time applicants and emerging organizations are supported, which is critical to elevating new voices, reaching new audiences and building the field of tomorrow.

I understand my mandate as Commissioner is to address the affordability crisis for our sector in ways both visionary and operational. The Cultural Development Fund payment delays from the previous administration have had a significant negative impact on the field. Fiscal year 2024 CDF notifications were not sent until halfway through that fiscal year. For fiscal year 2026, notifications were set in mid-year. I am pleased to report that we are on track to get award notifications out several weeks earlier this year, and by the fiscal year 2028 cycle we are working toward a notification date even earlier in the fall, more in line with historical timelines. The earlier groups get their award notifications and receive initial payments, the earlier they begin to plan and pay for their programs and operations. It also prevents them from having to take out bridge loans to support programs that take place earlier in the year. This administration is committed to delivering excellence in our City's public services and advancing these timelines is one key way we can do that for our constituents.

The CDF also includes support for our partners in the borough arts councils, which distributes City funding to individual artists and grassroots organizations on our behalf. In recent weeks I have participated in three of the arts council grant celebrations, giving me a chance to meet the artists and arts workers who rely on this support to maintain their art practice and public offerings. In fiscal year 2026 we provided $3.4 million for the councils to distribute, reaching nearly 700 working artists across the City. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the program as a standalone, and the relationships with the arts councils stretch back to the very beginning of our work. As Commissioner, I am deeply committed to these historic partnerships and I am working with the arts councils to deepen our support for New York City artists, to make it more possible for them to live and make work in the City they love.

The fiscal year 2027 budget also includes funding for CREATE initiatives, which provides support for, among other things, the CUNY Cultural Core Workforce Development Program. This fall will mark the tenth anniversary of the program, which this year placed 151 students in paid internships with dozens of cultural partners across the City. As we know, CUNY students represent the breadth of New Yorkers. This program creates a vital pipeline for CUNY students to enter careers in arts and culture at no cost to cultural groups.

The Public Artists in Residence, or PAIR program, also comes out of CREATE. I am proud to have launched and directed this program just over a decade ago under then-Commissioner Finkel. PAIR embeds artists in City agencies where they are invited to use their practice in service of seeding creative bureaucracy, to re-envision how the City serves and communicates with its residents and, in turn, how residents can activate their civic imaginations to build a City that holds all of us with care. One of our current PAIR artists recently installed a mural called "From Root to Bloom" in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, growing from her tenure as PAIR with the Mayor's Office of Equity and Racial Justice. The mural traces the history of movements for racial justice, whose work we continue to build on today. PAIR artist Caitlin McCain, in residence with the Commission on Human Rights, is working on "Know Your Rights" live performances and videos for housing tenants to uplift the New York City Fair Chance Housing Law, which prohibits housing discrimination for people with criminal records.

Our public art team has made major progress on commissioning a permanent public artwork honoring the great Billie Holiday on the grounds of the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens. Last week we released six very different proposals from a fantastic group of artists sharing their vision for what this monument can look like. We are collecting feedback from New Yorkers on the six proposals, which are also on display at the center through the end of the week. You can visit our website for more information and to share thoughts on the proposed designs. We thank the Deputy Speaker for her ongoing partnership on this exciting project in her district. Last and certainly not least...

(04:35:01)

Materials for the Arts in Long Island City, our beloved material reuse program, has had a record-setting year for donations, which are, as you know, provided free of charge to arts groups and public schools across the City. Over the last 12 months it has collected donated materials valued at a total of $16.6 million. These items are essential to the bottom lines of member organizations. Last fiscal year, 2,500 active members received an average of $6,800 worth of supplies completely free of charge, a huge boost to schools and organizations dedicated to providing affordable, accessible arts programming.

Recent donations include a beautiful set of instruments provided to Queens High School, the Central Park Zoo received palm trees and tropical plants from the Javits Center, a sewing machine was donated to the Latin American art triennial, and designer suits from a Netflix production went to a nonprofit helping residents prepare for job interviews. Added up across the City, each of these donations means items that found a new life outside the landfill in an organization that was able to sustain or level up its programming, all at no cost.

In just a few weeks the World Cup will come to our region and we are thrilled to see the way that our cultural sector is working to make this a citywide event that can welcome every New Yorker into the excitement, whether they are soccer fans or not. Announced earlier this month by Mayor Mamdani, the New York City Neighborhood Passport is one way that the City is highlighting this programming. The citywide passport program will encourage people to explore New York City's immigrant communities, cultural institutions, small businesses and community events throughout the tournament. Beginning June 11, the passport will be available at every public library branch in the City and at certain events. Participants will be able to collect stamps from hundreds of cultural institutions, community organizations and public events. Dozens of grantees will be featured and I encourage everyone to sign up.

I am just over two months into the job, but I have been energized by the level of enthusiasm and eagerness to collaborate on some of the existential challenges our cultural sector faces, most urgently a troubling national political climate and the affordability crisis we are collectively facing. I appreciate the Council, in particular Chair Williams, for joining us with a keen interest in listening to our constituents and finding ways we can make public services work for them. I have been meeting with groups directly and participating in dialogues and listening sessions around the City, including just this morning at a gathering of organizations of color.

We may be a lean agency — 97% of our agency's budget goes to support the field directly — but we are part of a powerful network of cultural practitioners who care deeply about artists, audiences and their role in bringing them together. I believe our ability to meet the challenges of the day and shape a sustainable, equitable and courageous future requires transparent and ongoing dialogue with artists, cultural workers, cultural organizations and audiences. Our listening tour will continue, our work and collaboration with the Council will continue, and we look forward to working toward adopting a budget that continues to invest in and support our incredible cultural sector. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

(04:38:15)

Thank you so much, Commissioner, and welcome again and congratulations on two months in. So I am just going to ask a couple of questions for clarification before I pass it off to our Deputy Speaker. So in the Council's budget response we had asked for baseline funding of $30 million and we are grateful that we received $10 million of it, but just wondering, have you had or have been having conversations with OMB to add the additional $20 million in baseline funding into the adopted plan, and how are those conversations going?

Yeah, thank you. We are really — like you — really proud of that $10 million additional baseline funding. As you know, it is a really tough climate right now and so to receive that is really a mark of the administration's priorities. It is really exciting to be Commissioner knowing that the administration really cares and values the work that we do in the sector. We are in constant conversations with OMB and we look forward to working towards an adopted budget soon. Okay, hopefully we can get them there.

(04:39:28)

And in general, does the financial plan implement annual cost adjustments, or COLAs, year over year to support staff wages and increased costs connected with inflation for arts and cultural organizations?

(04:39:44)

Currently, it does not

(04:39:47)

include COLA increases. Okay, so that is something that hopefully we can also try to advocate for.

(04:39:54)

Then in terms of the savings and vacancy reductions, I know that you went over some of these numbers in your testimony. So in terms of the agency's budget headcount, now that you have been given the green light for filling those five vacant positions, what does that total bring you to for the headcount? It brings us up to 53. Fifty-three, okay, and is that what is budgeted? Yes. Okay.

And then actually — okay, sorry, I am answering these questions for myself as I am reading them because I feel like you actually already answered, so that is why I am just going through them. Sorry. Okay, for the executive plan, it includes a proposed fiscal year 2027 budget of more than $215.9 million. In the preliminary plan, which I know you went over some of this already, what specific programs or initiatives account for the increase from the preliminary plan to the executive plan and what outcomes are expected from this additional funding?

(04:41:09)

Yeah, the $10 million baseline is included and then there was about $15 million increase towards energy costs, which is to account for kind of unpredictable and changing gas prices for all of the City properties.

(04:41:28)

All the cultural organizations on City property. And that is really what those two items reflect. Those two items.

(04:41:39)

Perfect. And then just my last question, which I had asked and you may have overheard if you were here for the libraries portion: I know that there is this unfunded mandate that is potentially coming down for cultural institutions and libraries about the SLIPA — I think we are debating over how to pronounce it — but the supplemental insurance for prescription drugs for psychiatric injectables, chemotherapy and I think asthma. So just wondering, have you been having conversations with OMB about this in terms of what kind of financial impact this is going to have on the cultural organizations? Because we are trying to get a better understanding. I know that Henry Garrido from DC 37 is working on this as well, but we are trying to get an understanding of when the City is going to be ready to put those contracts out so that it does not come from your pockets, and also how much of a financial impact that is going to have.

(04:42:37)

On the groups.

(04:42:38)

Yeah, thank you for that question. I am also learning about this new cost and I am going to be in conversation with the cultural organizations, especially to understand what those costs will be organization to organization, and then we will continue to advocate and talk to OMB about what those increases will be. But it is new information to me, I have to

(04:43:02)

be honest with you. Okay.

(04:43:04)

Yeah, just because I am worried that it is going to be another cost that is going to fall down to the cultural groups that will impact their operating budgets. So if you hear anything, or also if we hear anything, let us be in communication, because I am hoping that the City also sticks to its timeline of getting out

(04:43:26)

those contracts so it does not impact cultural organizations this year.

(04:43:30)

But in the meantime, we have got to figure something out, so I will leave it at that. Okay.

(04:43:36)

Deputy Speaker. Thank you. Just a few questions on the savings expense estimates. So the fiscal year 2027 executive plan included a $2.5 million reduction in fiscal year 2026 only under expense estimates. Which budget areas are associated with this reduction — OTP grants or contractual services?

(04:44:02)

So, you know, I think good budgeting and prudent budgeting had kept $5 million in reserves, hoping to meet needs of reduced federal funding for the arts and emergency situations. So this $2.6 million was removed from that reserve. We are actually distributing $2.4 million across fiscal year 2026 still, and so there is no cut in the

(04:44:36)

okay. Does this re-estimate reflect delayed contracts, underspending or reduced programmatic activity? No,

(04:44:41)

because it was just the savings. Okay.

(04:44:46)

We understand that budget cuts are really detrimental to our organizations, so this is the way that we can offer additional funding at the end of the year. Okay. Since these funds were set aside in reserve in the event of an emergency fiscal condition, as you mentioned, and given the ongoing financial pressures facing cultural organizations, can these funds instead be restored and redirected for disbursement to cultural organizations in need of support? And it sounds like that is what you plan to do?

(04:45:14)

Yes.

(04:45:14)

Yeah, there will be an even distribution across the field, and we are still deciding the allocation.

(04:45:22)

In fiscal year 2026. Okay. So some

(04:45:24)

questions on new needs. The fiscal year 2027 executive budget included $10 million in additional baseline funding for cultural organizations. How will funding be distributed between the Cultural Institutions Group and the

(04:45:39)

each... We are waiting until budget adoption to make more specific allocations.

(04:45:48)

Okay. Can you provide us with any additional amounts each Cultural Institutions Group will have with their total fiscal year 2027 funding amount, given what it is at this point?

(04:45:59)

After the additions? Yeah, we are going to wait until budget adoption to have a clear view of the full budget before we make those decisions.

(04:46:06)

Does the budget of the Cultural Institutions Group already reflect this additional money in the executive plan, or are you still just kind of waiting?

(04:46:14)

It is adopted right now. It is in like a holding code and so it has not been allocated to individual six. Okay, to the...

(04:46:23)

The exact budget included a proposed fiscal 2027 budget of $239.6 million, and $23.6 million more than its $215.9 million fiscal 2027 budget in the prelim plan. Is this increase due to new City priorities or newly identified needs?

(04:46:46)

This increase is both... I think it is a clear priority of the administration to support arts and culture. The $10 million baseline add and then the $15 million energy add is really a reflection of anticipated needs as gas prices are increasing and kind of volatile due to the global situation.

(04:47:06)

Recently added new organizations to the cultural institutions group. What is the total fiscal 2027 funding allocated to newly added cultural institutions group organizations and how does that compare to funding provided to existing members?

(04:47:21)

It is a $3 million total across the five cultural institutions groups and the agency worked very closely with them to make sure that the individual allocations were aligned with other subsidies.

(04:47:36)

And how did you determine their operating subsidies? Like, what is the methodology?

(04:47:40)

So each has come into the group at different times, from like the 1870s to today, so they at that moment in time had an agreement with the City. For the last five or six that were added, they each received the same allocation. We looked at their existing funding and spending and kind of allocated from there, their current funding, and then we looked at their overall budget.

(04:48:22)

So there is no... I guess there is no standard way that you assess subsidies, because different cultural institutions groups came in at different times with different agreements, so there might not be...

(04:48:38)

...consistency. So I just want to make sure that that is accurate, that there is no real consistent way that you determined operating subsidies.

(04:48:46)

Yeah, and also before these five or six were added, Phil was added a few years prior, but it had been — I can get you the exact amount of time — but a few decades since another was added to the group. So it is not a common practice for the agency in contemporary times to be adding to the group. So yeah, they do reflect whatever moment in time they were brought into the...

(04:49:10)

...group. So do you all ever think about, I do not know, standardizing how you assess operating subsidies across the cultural institutions groups? It seems like it is kind of subjective by way of whoever brought that organization in.

(04:49:27)

I am absolutely open to having a conversation with the Council to see if that is something we can work towards. Okay.

(04:49:37)

The fiscal 2027 executive plan includes an increase of $5 million for the Cultural Development Fund. How much funding is currently allocated to the Cultural Development Fund in the...

(04:49:48)

...fiscal 2027 executive budget and how does that compare to fiscal 2026? I think you covered that in your testimony.

(04:49:56)

Yes, you did — $57 million.

(04:49:59)

What is the average and median Cultural Development Fund award amount and how has that changed over time given rising operating costs for...

(04:50:09)

...cultural organizations? In fiscal year 2026 we have 1,178 grants. About 39% of them — 454 — had an income of under $250,000, which means a huge portion of very small organizations receive our funding. 724, or 61%, had an operating income of $250,000 or higher. The average award for those under $250,000 was $26,701. The average award for those at $250,000 and higher was $79,730. In fiscal year 2025, so one year prior, the average award for those under $250,000 was $24,130 and the average award for those at $250,000 and higher was $74,035. So the average award for groups under a $250,000 budget had an 11% increase for fiscal year 2026 over fiscal year 2025, which is largely because of the baseline funding increases we are proud to build on for fiscal year 2027.

(04:51:32)

Thank you. The deadline for fiscal year 2027 was April 2nd. How many organizations applied?

(04:51:40)

We received a total of 828 applications. 179 of those applications were completely new or had not submitted an eligible application in three years or more. This year we have 694 organizations in renewal for fiscal year 2027, so more than 1,500 organizations in total.

(04:51:58)

What is the anticipated number of organizations to receive grants?

(04:52:04)

We cannot predict that because it is a peer panel review process, but typically we fund 72 to 85% of all applicants. In fiscal year 2026, 84.2% of total applicants received some form of support, for a total of 1,171.

(04:52:21)

Thank you. And about that peer panel — I know that you all are excluding the Council this go-around because of lack of participation, but I will say internally my office has participated. I would say the promotion of it, I do not know if it was the former commissioner or whomever within the Council, but it really was not promoted properly to members. So I do encourage you all to reconsider. I do think it is important to have Council members involved. Council members were involved and I know we tried really hard to be included. So it is a little unfortunate that we are now going back to being excluded from the panel process.

(04:53:04)

I hear you, but I would just reframe that — it is not an exclusion. We are still inviting Council members to participate as observers, and we hope that that means without having to do all the prep work and the pre-trainings and sit through a full eight-hour day of the panel, it actually makes it more possible for more Council members themselves or their staff to join these. We would love afterwards to get feedback on the process from you. I still really want to encourage the Council to...

(04:53:32)

...participate in the process and to also note that the Council is not a voting member either. It really is a peer review process. We are really proud that practitioners in the fields get to review their own colleagues and allocate funding. So we would love for the Council to still be involved and offer feedback on the process and be in dialogue around that. And of course this is the first year we are trying it, so happy to be in continued conversation. Okay.

(04:54:04)

I believe I had emailed you all to send me the information to promote to my colleagues. I am not sure if you all sent the actual tangible information with the details so I can do my part in sharing it with my colleagues. Because if I do not know, it is hard to promote it. I want to also play a role in helping to promote it. Absolutely, yeah. If we have not, we will absolutely send it later today or tomorrow morning at the latest.

Okay, the fiscal 2027 executive capital commitment plan includes an additional $123 million when compared to the fiscal 2027 prelim capital commitment plan. Can you walk us through what specifically accounts for the $123 million increase in the capital commitment plan from the prelim?

(04:54:53)

From the preliminary to the executive plan — is this due to new projects, existing projects, or re-estimated costs? This reflects a shift of funding from one year to another as capital projects take a long time to complete, and also adds that come in along the way. Is the agency confident it has the project management and administrative capacity to absorb this increase without slipping commitments into future years?

(04:55:26)

We are confident, and due to the lifting of the hiring freeze we were able to bring on an additional capital project manager. How much of...

(04:55:42)

...have rolled over into subsequent years unspent, and what steps is the agency taking to prevent that pattern from continuing with this expanded plan?

(04:55:57)

Capital funds are not typically spent in the year they are allocated because projects have to be designed, procured and completed. So this kind of rolling of funds is quite typical and routine. It is not something that needs to be prevented, but it is a process that is managed really carefully among managing agencies. Their role is to reflect the schedule of construction.

(04:56:30)

I am just laughing because the City's capital process across the entire City is crazy, you know. Cultural organizations across the City continue to face rising rents, utilities and operating costs. How is the agency assessing the affordability challenges facing nonprofit cultural organizations in New York City? It is obviously a huge crisis facing our sector, like it is facing every New Yorker across the City.

(04:56:55)

I have been in really deep dialogue with the field since I started two months ago, doing meetings, round tables and town halls almost two to four or five times a week. So I am hearing anecdotally, and we are absolutely measuring how this affordability crisis impacts our field. We also have a program called Create where we work with organizations who are at risk of losing their space to help facilitate everything from pro bono legal services to capacity building, and we get a really kind of real assessment of what people are facing through that program as well.

(04:57:34)

Many artists and cultural workers are increasingly being priced out of New York City. How is the agency incorporating artist affordability into its planning and funding priorities?

(04:57:44)

This is a really important priority for me in particular and I have already met with our local arts councils. They are our sole way of how we reach individual artists with direct grants — they re-grant on our behalf — and I am looking forward to deepening that collaboration with them. There is no arts and cultural sector if we do not have artists in the City, so it is of our utmost priority to make sure that that is not our future.

(04:58:12)

Yes, and I love to quote that CUNY report that talks about how many people in the creative sector are leaving New York City, so it is a big problem. You mentioned arts councils — this is not a prepared question, but you also mentioned them in your testimony and as you noted it is a priority for you. I have met with all of them and I think the analogy they use is like the City does not want to commit, like they do not want to firm up the marriage, which presents a ton of issues. And as you know the Queens Arts Council does not exist, so Flushing Town Hall is doing that work. So we would love to understand how you plan to strengthen and improve the local arts councils, which, to your point, are literally the only entity that is funding artists directly.

(04:59:08)

Yeah, and just to clarify — the New York Foundation for the Arts is actually re-granting for us in Queens currently. I have a meeting with the Queens Borough President later this week to start talking about...

(04:59:19)

...what it looks like to establish, or how we select, a Queens Arts Council. I am working really closely with the arts councils themselves to understand what it looks like to deepen our collaboration based on their own capacity needs, what they are currently doing for granting directly to artists, where the administrative overhead can be streamlined and where we can be more helpful in those practices.

Something else I have learned is that they are so on the ground. Each of these boroughs is their own little... their own major city, actually. So when there are things like the Red Hook fire, for example, the Brooklyn Arts Council is the most equipped to move emergency funding to artists affected or small organizations affected in a way that we just cannot as an agency. So I am currently working with them to figure out what it looks like to get married, or to deepen our collaboration, but it will be a months-long process to determine what that could be. And what is... what is the New York Foundation for the Arts?

(05:00:26)

Okay, and this year they are re-granting. Yes. Okay, because it was previously Flushing Town Hall. Right, that is... the New York State Council for the Arts re-grants to artists in Queens through Flushing Town Hall. But for the City, it was the New York Foundation for the Arts. Oh yeah, okay.

(05:00:44)

Thank you.

(05:00:45)

What percentage of the fiscal 2026 contracts for the cultural initiatives has been registered? So we do not register contracts — we are able to issue grants, which are managed differently from...

(05:00:59)

...contracts. The process is a bit different and we paid out 90% of initial payments across all initiatives. What is the average processing time from the point a Council initiative is awarded to the execution of a grant agreement with the recipient organization, and how does that compare to the citywide benchmark?

(05:01:22)

Because it is not a contracting process, the citywide benchmarks are not related. So for us, in our grant-making process, once an organization is notified of their award we are relying on the organization to respond with the necessary paperwork that they need — like a signed, executed grant agreement, an updated accounts entry in their pay portal, Charity Bureau requirements, doing business data forms, insurance requirements. There are also City Council requirements around lobbying certification. So once we receive everything, our program officers review it and make sure it is complete. Concurrently, the awards have to be cleared by the Council and OMB. If there is any delay in the process from any of those parties, the process just delays. Our goal — our ideal timeline — would be around 30 days, but again it has a lot of requirements along the way. How many fiscal 2026 Council...

(05:02:24)

...funded organizations are still waiting for executed grants, and what are the primary issues? Is the delay occurring at the...

(05:02:35)

...Law Department or the Comptroller's Office?

(05:02:37)

Yeah, so in our process we are able to administer these grants in house. So what we need most is allocations to be made by the City Council, and the earlier they are made in the fiscal year, the faster they can get out. But they come on a rolling basis, which I understand — needs change and new organizations seek funding — but that can make it feel like the funding is rolling out all across the year. Many allocations are paired with schools or senior centers, and when these designations change the timeline changes also. So we have about 1,300 designations, and you can imagine as they are being shifted, that is a lot to keep track of and to make sure that things move out in time. So it is a combination of us being able to move things out in 30 days and also the Council designating earlier in the...

(05:03:43)

...fiscal year. What specific steps has the agency taken since last year's hearing to accelerate the granting process, and can you point to any measurable improvements in processing times? And just a follow-up question — when you say the Council should make the designations earlier in the year, which part of the fiscal year are you talking about? Are you talking about like the summer before the plan? Like what part of the year are you talking about in terms of the Council's role?

(05:04:16)

Yeah, I think designating sooner, and then yeah, any improvements you have made?

(05:04:25)

I think right after adoption would be amazing, and those months following. Just for example, just last week we received three new designations with six weeks left in the fiscal year. So the closer to the adoption, the better for the organizations and for...

(05:04:43)

...all of us. We are continuously trying to improve the process on our end. These Council initiatives really are a collaboration between us and Council Finance and OMB, so yeah, look forward to continuing to work together.

(05:05:02)

I think a lot of those designations that you are referencing probably come through during transparency resolutions, which is not like our typical designation process. Which is making me ask another question — I do not know if you are prepared to answer, and it is probably impossible to do, but I am just wondering what types of issues does that cause the agency. I am wondering if there should be a readjustment, because I know for a fact this is what we just did — a transparency resolution. This is probably a readjustment where maybe the group cannot do the work, or maybe the member did not really check in with the group to make sure that group was connected to a school or properly connected to a senior center, which is more of an internal Council logistics issue. I am just wondering, again trying to make sure we are taking accountability for what we can do better on the Council side so that we do not...

(05:06:11)

...create delays in the process.

(05:06:12)

I really appreciate that question. I think if the Council is open to a cutoff date, that would be really helpful for our staff to be able to plan. It is a capacity issue to be making these payments throughout the year while we are also doing all kinds of other procurement and grant-making to organizations.

(05:06:31)

And we of course understand that things happen across the fiscal year — things change, organizations cannot fulfill the work, or a new senior center comes up that you want to support. So...

(05:06:39)

...we fully understand that those changes will happen throughout the year. But if the bulk can be towards adoption, we would be able to streamline the process. It would really help us and our capacity.

(05:06:56)

I have a lot more questions but I am going to pause and defer to CM Restler. Okay, so we have CM Restler followed by Brewer.

(05:07:08)

Thank you, Chair and Deputy Speaker Williams, for your great leadership. Commissioner, nice to see you.

(05:07:14)

I wanted to ask about one issue in particular that was a policy change under Eric Adams and Laurie Cumbo. Capital funding from Council members for organizations to acquire buildings — under Mayor Adams that stopped all acquisitions cold altogether. With rising lease costs, acquiring space is critical to keeping high quality arts organizations in our communities, especially in one like mine which is deeply gentrifying and stupidly expensive.

(05:07:51)

I understand there have been some past projects where the agency felt burned and just stayed away from this altogether. But I think it is a stupid policy — to be diplomatic — that we have money available to purchase buildings to keep organizations in our community permanently and affordably, and just rejects the money out of hand and says we will not cooperate, no matter the specifics. We have had some instances where we have had organizations take out loans on a mortgage and then we got OMB to agree to pay back that.

They would cover the mortgage, but they would not support the project until the entity had already taken the mortgage and then was at risk, and so that was the only way we could get the money out the door. So I have spent a lot of time on this and been incredibly frustrated by the lack of cooperation, and I think it is a really backward policy. I would love for you to revisit it. Is this on your radar? Did you know that the agency no longer supports cultural organizations acquiring their own buildings, and would you be willing to revisit this and help cultural organizations stay in our communities permanently by purchasing their homes?

(05:09:04)

Well, first of all, hello and thank you for your question, CM Restler. I did know about this change in the previous administration. I am not very familiar as to how it came to pass. I know that there are unique challenges, as you mentioned, to each building acquisition. But yes, I am happy to revisit and have a conversation about it.

(05:09:25)

I really appreciate it, because I think that sometimes bureaucrats get burned by a bad experience, or they think there is going to be a lot of extra work involved in being involved in a purchase versus just other types of capital expenditures. But I do not think either of those are good reasons to discontinue the policy altogether. So we really need leadership. I think that we did not have leadership that was willing to push back previously, and we need leadership that will, because we need organizations to stay in their homes.

I can give you half a dozen organizations in my district alone. Borough President Reynoso announced a whole initiative about helping cultural organizations purchase their buildings across Brooklyn. He put a ton of money aside and then it mostly got blocked because the agency would not work with them. So I really want to underscore how important this is.

(05:10:12)

Last question, if I can have one more. So we will see what we end up with at adoption. I heard your responses to Deputy Speaker Williams that...

(05:10:26)

You are not yet sure how the $10 million that was allocated by the Mayor in the executive budget will be spent. Can I try to ask the question a different way? If there is a $20 million cut and the Mayor and the Speaker do not identify the additional resources to sustain that one-time funding that we have in place right now, what types of cuts might we see to the Cultural Institutions Group and the Cultural Development Fund? What are the types of real-world implications that would happen if we do not have that funding in place?

(05:10:58)

Well, we are able to increase baseline support to the Cultural Institutions Group...

(05:11:09)

...because of the $10 million baseline funding. So they will see an increase — from $5 million to $10 million — in their baseline support, which is great for planning purposes moving forward. One hundred percent.

(05:11:23)

And then once budget adoption comes, we will have to assess what it looks like for each organization. We are really grateful that we have a bigger pool year to year now for the application process, and once adoption comes, we will work with what we have to deliver cultural funding to the field.

I really appreciate that. And, you know, it was a diplomatic answer to not give specifics and not put anyone on notice. But I will just say there are many organizations in Brooklyn that are struggling and that have been struggling coming out of the pandemic and have not yet fully stabilized. When I look at a place like BAM, which is in CM Hudson's district across the street from us, it is a cultural mecca for New York City and beyond. They are going to suffer in very dramatic ways if the Council and the Mayor's side do not come up with additional resources for them. We were able to do that in this current fiscal year and we need to continue to do it.

I know BAM is just one example, but I do not want to see people laid off. I do not want to see programming cut at these organizations. A place like BAM is just such an extraordinary place, and I hope that we will be able to work together to find some additional resources. If we do not have as many resources as we did this past year, I hope that you will look out for places like BAM that really depend on us.

(05:12:51)

Thank you. Great. CM Brewer.

(05:12:58)

Thank you very much. I was encouraged when you talked about working with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the others. I was listening but did not quite understand — one of their challenges has been, you know, they have all these artists they are trying to support, but they do not have the administrative staff to do that. So is that kind of what you are looking to help them with?

I am looking to understand the capacity they currently have, where they think they are feeling inefficiencies, what it looks like to meet their current operations, but also what it might look like down the road to help expand them.

(05:13:32)

Okay, because they do the best they can, but that would be fabulous. Also, when I went to their fundraiser and I saw the... the cockroach, I was very excited. That woman was fabulous.

(05:13:43)

I love that cockroach. So I would second the fact that I had staff who were there who were in the past very, very knowledgeable. It is not easy to get Council staff to go. However, for those who do go, I have to say they add something, because having been part of this process for about 30 or 40 years, the peers and superiors are fine, but they are clueless on politics, clueless on community outside their world. Just clueless. And so it helps to have somebody with a bigger picture in the group. I am just saying, if it is the right Council member and if it is the right staff. So you might want to think about that. I mean, it is really kind of scary what they do not know, as artists, with all due respect. And so you might find that lacking.

(05:14:32)

I appreciate the feedback and I am looking forward to working together on a solution. You are right. There were several Council members that were very involved and very helpful. I was one of them and you absolutely were one of them. It remained difficult to fill all of the panels, and we do hope that Council members will still observe the panels and will be in dialogue with us afterward to offer feedback. I do not think we will see... I mean, when you do not have a role specifically, you are less likely to attend. That is just life. I am just saying. So I think you should look at that, because I was a little shocked at some of the questions from the peers. They are wonderful, but they do not know anything beyond their own life. So be...

(05:15:12)

...aware of that, because people get left out, you know, because they do not have that bigger picture about what a group has contributed beyond their expertise as an artist. So that is a problem.

(05:15:25)

Okay, the other question I have is about capital. The Met Opera is in trouble, and some of the big ones... the Academy of Music is fine, it is across the board different. But who is looking out for these big institutions? I have, I do not know, 35 huge nonprofits. Better cultural... Lincoln Center, you hear about that. There are many others. So my question is, how do you evaluate the application but also the economic opportunity that they bring to the City, because that is often what happens? How does that play a role?

And is there anyone... I have to thank the Manhattan Borough President because he has done a great job giving money this year to the capital needs of the cultural community. But are you going to... how do you try to get more money for capital, or what is your proposal for this year? Because they are desperate.

(05:16:20)

Yeah, I actually just met with the Met Opera director Peter Gelb to discuss the upcoming capital project around the stage, and I am looking forward to reviewing that application with the team. I hear you about need — I think that is across the board. I hear that, and we are looking at all the tools we have in our toolbox to help figure out how we help the field meet the challenges of the day.

(05:16:48)

Pretty much. They are being squeezed on space. As CM Restler brought up, there are a lot of faith-based institutions, and the way you can do it — it takes work, but I have done it — is to make that cultural institution a co-op or condo in the building, and then we can give them City money. But we really need to think of more places and space for artists. At least in Manhattan, it is desperate. Is that something you have thought about?

(05:17:16)

Yes, and I agree with you. Finding space for artists to work, to make work, to be in community — showing how that work is...

(05:17:22)

...paramount. Okay, it would also be helpful to have organizations like Shack or others get more support for going into the vacant spaces. The City never says anything. There are those of us in our neighborhoods who know there is a space or somebody who could use it. I am just saying it would enliven the streetscape and at the same time provide individual artists the opportunity to do their craft.

So I am just saying I do not get a lot of support when I say we need to get space, because it is such a hard process. But I think if we were to look at which religious or faith-based organizations have space, and then work with them and try to get... I would just prefer to have a cultural organization, or maybe some other nonprofit, and see if you can do this condo situation. There are a lot of the big faith-based institutions that have space, but this idea is not something that they are knowledgeable about.

(05:18:16)

I am happy to look into that. And then we need more — there are a lot more opportunities on land that is owned by the City. Are you thinking more about that in the future? More sinks... I know it costs money. I am aware.

(05:18:31)

It is an expensive investment, and there are so many ways that the City can support organizations through energy coalitions, through capital reforms and better processes to help them with the spaces that they are in. Yeah. And then South Street Seaport...

(05:18:48)

...needs John Street a lot. Are you familiar with that issue?

(05:18:53)

South Street Seaport Museum. And I was told... I think it is... that they did not get the lot. We want the lot — they were promised a lot. Okay, I will look into it. Thank you.

(05:19:08)

I know about every cultural institution in Manhattan. This is a lead issue. Okay. Hello. Should not...

(05:19:15)

...like that. Growth? No. Okay, going back to CM Restler. Great.

(05:19:21)

I have been encouraged to check in on some admissions policies at the Cultural Institutions Group. When I was involved in helping to design the program at the beginning of the de Blasio administration, I negotiated — I was involved with Ryan and others in the Cultural Institutions Group — and I remember how impressively complicated it was, because every organization had their own different admissions policies and they were all negotiated individually.

So the Preliminary Mayor's Management Report from fiscal year 2026 identified that 39% of Cultural Institutions Group visitors took advantage of the free admissions policy. Are you able to disaggregate that by institution?

(05:20:14)

Yes, absolutely. And I am happy to... yes, we would love that. Can you share that with the committee? Absolutely. Okay.

(05:20:20)

I can ask... I am not going to ask questions without looking at it, but we will look at it and we would love to dissect that and get some more information. Just for clarity, it says total number of visitors and then total number of free visitors, but it does not... we cannot say where they are coming from when they are free...

(05:20:36)

...visitors. Do you know what I mean? You mean if they are from New York City, or where they are from?

(05:20:40)

Yeah. Oh, yeah, totally understood. But it does tell us the percentage of visitors at a given institution who took advantage of the free policy. Great. And that includes all ticket sales, in person at the counter, everything — that should cover everybody that is coming in the door.

(05:20:59)

I believe it does. Every institution tracks their own data in a way that matches how they track it. Got it. Yes. But there is no breakdown of City residents versus non-City residents for free admission. Got it.

(05:21:14)

Because some institutions have specialized policies just for City residents, like the Met. And some... it is not just the Met — it is the Museum of Natural History and a few others as well. Great. Free for New York City residents and tri-state. Have you, in your three months, received any complaints about New Yorkers that were denied entry because of a refusal to...

(05:21:44)

...pay? I will say there are millions and millions of admissions to our institutions all the time, and of that there might be a few complaints. So it is a small percentage, but it does happen. When it happens, we work with the institution individually to identify what that problem was and how we might solve it — whether that is a refund to that person, better signage, or what the right path is.

(05:22:10)

That is great. And I recognize that each Cultural Institutions Group institution has its own admissions policy that they negotiate with you. When you negotiate with them, do you consider things like their placement on public parkland, whether they pay rent or do not pay rent? How do you evaluate the different factors in determining those admissions policies?

(05:22:32)

Yeah, I mean, I think a great example is the Met Museum and their admissions...

(05:22:39)

And when I was working at the Department of Cultural Affairs last time, we negotiated with them that a percentage of admissions goes back to fund smaller institutions. So in the subsidies, there is actually a line for Met admissions. I think that is a great example of how we can kind of elevate everyone together. That is great. Okay, I think that covers my admissions questions that I was asked to ask, and I was happy to ask them. So thank you for answering them so helpfully. Thank you.

(05:23:08)

Great. I want to toss it back to our Deputy Speaker. Thank you. Just a few...

(05:23:14)

...more. Well, actually, one follow-up question going back to the $5 million set aside for a fiscal emergency. Can you tell me why the savings — we like to say "piggy bank"...

(05:23:25)

...was taken from there instead of looking for savings within your own office? I mean, I gave partial credit to the agency as a savings, so we just want to know why it was taken from the organizations and not from within the agency itself.

We are a very lean agency. I think I mentioned in my testimony that 97% of our budget goes directly to the cultural field. So we do not have major contracts with vendors to cut. We do not...

(05:23:56)

...there is not a lot there to find savings in, outside of our personnel costs and rents and the essentials. So that is where we identified where we could do our part, along with our sister agencies, to participate in savings. Yes. A very smart person is encouraging me to ask why the funds were not identified earlier if they were already there...

(05:24:29)

...to give out to the groups. Do we wait until the end of the fiscal year and either do it by... this particular year we were...

(05:24:37)

...considering doing it based on federal funding cuts and how we might be able to support organizations in that way. In the past...

(05:24:43)

...we have done things for disability access, or it is supplemental funding. It is quite common for us to do it as an add at the end of the year based on a program initiative or a need from the field.

(05:24:59)

Thank you. Now, just some questions on the racial equity plan, which was written by each City agency and is supposed to be examined during budget hearings to make sure that the budget can support the work being promised. With that in mind, I would like to ask some questions about the racial equity plan, which was recently submitted as part of the Mayor's Office of Equity and Racial Justice preliminary racial equity plan.

(05:25:21)

And I do hope that we could continue to ask these questions. This is the first...

(05:25:28)

...day of executive budget hearings. But as long as I am concerned, if I am at the hearing, I do anticipate that we will ask questions on the racial equity plan for each City agency. So, how important do you think racial equity is in planning for and delivering arts and cultural activities...

(05:25:47)

...to New Yorkers? I think it is foundational. In just my first two months here, I have already met with the Coalition of Latin Organizations, El Museo — this morning I was at the Coalition for Theaters of People of Color — and many more examples of that. It is completely central to the way that we can have a city where arts and culture thrive in all five boroughs.

(05:26:11)

And how important do you think racial equity is in awarding grants? Incredibly important.

(05:26:20)

What was your involvement in the agency's preliminary racial equity plan? To be candid, the plan was released upon my arrival at the agency, and I am really looking forward to digging in and making changes. When I was at the Department of Cultural Affairs last time, I was part of the policies and plans that were developed. I have spent most of my career thinking about equity in the arts and really look forward to making substantial changes to the plan. That said, are you happy with the plan as prepared? I think they have done a good job making a plan that is nuts and bolts, and I would love to turn it into something that is aspirational.

(05:27:11)

I love that political response. You mentioned that in your previous role, which I read about, you helped create essentially the implementation plan of the Senior Culture Plan. What is the status of some of those things that you worked on from your

(05:27:35)

vantage point? I heard the question and was just thinking about it. Now you are back. How are you doing? It has been years. It has been nearly 10 years. Some really amazing things came out of it that continue, like our Disability Access Fund and Language Translation Fund, and a lot of that work that was seeded then just turned into their first ever DEI plan that they submitted to the agencies. So that part of the work I am really proud of. There has been a real change in point of view coming out of the agency, that equity really is at the core of conversations around our work, which emerged from the internal committee at the

(05:28:19)

Department of Cultural Affairs. So I think that a lot of that equity work that was built into the cultural plan did a lot to reorient how we talk about our work and how we think about it, and hopefully moving forward, how we evaluate its impact. In his letter introducing the racial equity plan, Mayor Mamdani explained that the equity plan exists because in 2022, through the charter revision process, New Yorkers demanded that the City take a harder look at where inequities persist, how government contributes to them, and what it will take to change course. He said that the indicators in the plan are designed to identify where disparities persist, where our systems are falling short, and where agencies must do better. But many of the indicators in his plan focused on activities such as outreach events, training, participation and recruitment efforts, not actual measures of equity.

(05:29:17)

Can you point to any specific metrics in this plan that will tell us whether disparities in access to cultural funding have actually decreased? Our funding is rooted in this panel process, so where we can make interventions is

(05:29:36)

in the process. We do not have discretionary funding to allocate outside of that panel process, so that is where you are seeing a lot of the goals from within this plan. I think that we can absolutely provide more data around where we currently are, where we see our funding currently going, and hold ourselves accountable to evening out the balance of inequities in the future.

(05:30:10)

Okay, I have a follow-up, but because I have so many questions, I will not ask the whole

(05:30:17)

question. Does it collect and analyze baseline figures for funding awarded to organizations led by or primarily serving historically underrepresented groups? We do collect that data in applications from various parts of the application, from their mission to their audiences to the kinds of programming that they are applying for. So yes, we do have that

(05:30:41)

data. Is it accessible, though? Or is it not shared with the public?

(05:30:47)

It is not shared in its entirety, but the mission of the organizations can be found with the

(05:30:56)

organizations' names released. But I will say that I am committed to data transparency and I am already working internally with the agency to figure out what we can start sharing, how, and in what accessible formats that can be made alongside what advocates have been

(05:31:11)

requesting. Yeah, because I mean, the next question I have, or comment or statement, is that those baseline figures should have been included in the plan. It would be helpful to know what data you already have, or at least for New Yorkers to understand

(05:31:27)

the current state of inequity. So I am turning to the goals in the plan. Goal one is about outreach. The racial equity plan includes five goals. Each goal is accompanied by outcomes related to the goal and indicators by which success should be measured in achieving the goal. I would like to talk about some of those goals, outcomes, strategies and indicators. Let us look at the first one.

(05:31:56)

Your first goal is to increase awareness of grant opportunities in racially diverse and historically underserved communities to support access to cultural experiences. To achieve that, the plan says that it aims to participate in at least two outreach events by the end of 2026. We live in an extremely diverse city of more than 8 million people across five boroughs, each with various communities comprised of historically underrepresented individuals. What analysis led to the conclusion that two events is an adequate yearly benchmark for advancing racial equity?

(05:32:33)

I cannot speak to what led to the two events, but I can say that that will be increased significantly. That is something else I am excited about: the process now has a panel advisory group with cultural workers from across the City, a lot of whom are leading or part of organizations of color that are doing a lot of work around where bias lives in the process and how to address it. I am looking forward to expanding that and reporting out on that. So yes, there will be many more goals associated with

(05:33:07)

this. I love that. One of the things that I am most excited about, now that we finally have the racial equity plan's preliminary plans, is the slow process of normalizing equity when we think about auditing and accountability. My biggest thing is that this should be tied to our budget, so if we have these equity goals then collectively we need to advocate for the resources to achieve those goals.

If the two outreach events identified in the plan are conducted but the racial distribution of grant awards remains totally unchanged, the outcome as written in the plan will be essentially achieved but the goal of increased racial equity in grants will not come any closer to being achieved. I am sure you agree. Which is, I think, why I asked some of the original questions around what actual metrics determine whether or not we are making the process more equitable, if the only outcomes are based on almost like material things like hosting events.

The plan also discusses increasing awareness of grant opportunities and increasing applications from underserved communities. Why does the plan stop there, rather than establishing goals related to quality applications that are actually good enough to be funded, or having increased funding

(05:34:37)

amounts? I am looking forward to digging into that more. I think there is an opportunity to also think about what a strong application even looks like. Our interventions will be in the process, so what does that mean? How are we defining it now in a way that might have unintended consequences that are contributing to racial inequity, and how can we reverse that? I will say our team is really dedicated to doing that work also. Thank you. I acknowledge that you are new.

(05:35:07)

Unfortunately, you have inherited this. So turning to your short-term goal on unconscious bias training: the second goal of the racial equity plan is to take steps to reduce any unconscious bias in the grant-making process. The outcome you have listed for that goal is that by the end of 2026, over 80% of the staff in the programs unit complete unconscious bias training, and that the external decision makers involved in the grant-making process are aware of and encouraged to participate. First, is not 80% a low bar? Should you not hold yourself to 99 or 100% of your staff? Are you able to commit to that?

(05:35:51)

I am okay with committing to that. Great. We

(05:35:54)

love that. Second, if the training goal is reached but the racial distribution of grant awards remains totally unchanged, the outcome as written in the plan will be essentially achieved but the goal of increased racial equity in grants will not come any closer to being achieved. I think you agree with me. Also, what evidence will be used to determine whether that training results in different funding decisions or otherwise contributes to the reduction in disparities that the plan is supposed to bring about?

(05:36:24)

I am looking forward to establishing what that baseline data looks like and being able to measure ourselves against it moving forward. Thank you. So just

(05:36:37)

turning to your mid-term goals and then just concluding. The mid-term goal is about capacity building. It states that by 2028, support cultural organizations that are led by or serve communities of color in identifying and applying to grant opportunities. First, why do we have to wait two years to do this? Is this not a part of creating the wonderful 10-year comprehensive cultural plan that you were part of, which was adopted in 2017? Yes, it is,

(05:37:08)

and I will say that the team is actively doing this and will continue to bolster these efforts. Yes, government is very slow. In my very brief conversation with the Commissioner, he acknowledged that government is slow and that politics gets in the way, because unfortunately we have changing administrations. So in his eyes, what looks like 10 years does not feel like 10 years to him, because essentially there was a gap between when he did the plan under one administration and another administration came in, and sometimes they do not have the same priorities. I 100% agree with him. It is why I actually absolutely hate politics, because it gets in the way of the actual work. So

(05:37:57)

we do hope that you can expedite on that, because it was a part of this 10-year plan. But again, based off of what the former Commissioner said, politics gets in the way. Second, is it enough to say that the indicator of success for this goal is the number of cultural organizations led by or serving communities of color that apply for support? Would not the more meaningful measure be whether those organizations are submitting strong, quality applications such that they ultimately receive funding and strengthen their long-term sustainability? I think I would love to be checking ourselves against baseline data and seeing if in the aggregate we are able to move more resources

(05:38:37)

to underserved neighborhoods. The future goal of diverse grant-making panels proposes increasing recruitment efforts for grant-making panels, but the indicator of success is the number of recruitment events attended. How will we know whether those efforts actually result in more representative decision-making bodies rather than simply more recruitment activity? I think you hear a theme from us that the indicators do not actually indicate whether or not you are doing a better job at being more equitable. I appreciate the line of questioning, and it is important to me that we are accountable to reaching goals of racial equity across the City. So this

(05:39:23)

will also be an area where we are revisiting our goals. I love that — revisit.

(05:39:27)

Thank you. In conclusion, just two more questions. Much of the plan is focused on processes: holding events, offering trainings, et cetera, but does not in any way try to set goals, outcomes or indicators that directly measure whether inequitable outcomes are changed. Will you commit to adding outcome-based targets to this plan so that the public can assess whether equity has actually improved?

(05:39:57)

Yes. As I have mentioned, because this is a process-oriented grant-making structure, our interventions will be in the process. We will also be using metrics towards racial equity across the City to understand whether those interventions have worked. So yes, I think we understand that the tools that you have are in the process.

(05:40:22)

But yes, it is more about how you then measure your success. Will you commit to including baseline data and specific deadlines alongside each indicator, so the public can assess where it is starting from and whether it is actually improving outcomes with respect to the metrics it says it will measure itself on?

(05:40:44)

I will absolutely be working with the team to understand and revisit that baseline data and on what timeline we will be able to provide that. Okay.

(05:40:59)

I have one more question, and it is for our arts educators. New York City public schools reported 900-plus cultural organizations partnering with schools in the 2024-2025 school year, increased from 449 in 2019-2020. That is a lot. 23% of schools reported use of funding from arts organizations for arts education. How many funded programs are currently operating in New York City public schools? And would you consider adding DBAs — I do not even know what "libyans" is — what is that? Doing business

(05:41:36)

as. So "doing business as" names — it is the same thing. The name that they register their business under is not always the name that we know them as. So it helps researchers. I love hearings. For me, I just said this is the last hearing, but the more I ask, the more I realize I know absolutely nothing at all. So anyway, 72% of schools — it is pretty remarkable. And of course when you add it up, it is even more than that. That is something I think we are all really proud of in the cultural sector. I am looking forward to working with the team to be able to release the New York City Arts and Education report on New York City teaching artist compensation and employment.

(05:42:34)

The roundtable found that teaching artists in New York City face significant financial challenges. The report emphasized the need for sustainable models of funding and the importance of contracting reform. I know we were just at that breakfast event last week together. So how can you support more sustainable salaries for teaching artists, and what is the department doing to ensure that City Council discretionary funding is distributed faster and in a more consistent manner? I think we have some thoughts on that based off of this hearing, but if you have anything else to add, please share.

(05:43:08)

I will just note that I appreciated being at that roundtable last week and being able to talk about this very real challenge that arts educators and cultural workers who are specifically in education face, with being often the most contracted workers of an organization. They do have a kind of precarious paycheck and a precarious standing within their organizations. I look forward to working with them and the cultural organizations to

(05:43:40)

do better. Yes. This is another question I know you personally also care about, and I do look forward to continuing to work with you and internally in the Council to figure out what we can do. The report also found that access to critical benefits, particularly medical insurance and retirement plans, are lacking across the field. While 88% of teaching artists reported having health insurance, only 6% received it through an employer. Would you consider supporting a portable benefits

(05:44:05)

benefits pilot for freelancers and self-employed artists, as described in the Center for an Urban Future's Creative New York report, or potentially a pooling benefits program to support

(05:44:16)

smaller organizations? Yeah, this is a really serious issue that artists and cultural workers face, and I am very much looking forward to working with the Commissioner and other City agency partners to understand all of the tools that are at our disposal to help come to a solution. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you.

(05:44:43)

What is the district borough number?

(05:44:45)

That is the video code used to identify schools.

(05:44:47)

So I was wrong. Yeah, clearly we are both wrong. Thank you for educating us. So yes, we hope

(05:44:56)

you could look into that and consider adding it to the CASA and CDF reports. That is what they want us to do, which makes sense because then we can better quantify where they are operating if we also include those reports. Yeah.

(05:45:16)

Okay, look into it. I think

(05:45:16)

that is it. Thank you so much for coming, and I look forward to working with you on many issues. He is coming. He loves cultural affairs. He said he is getting all his capital money into cultural, so he is coming. He wants to testify. Yeah, he is walking in. So he is walking in. Okay, great. But I think you are done, unless the Chair has any other questions. No, no, we are good. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, you all. Brad

(05:45:54)

yeah, okay. The Manhattan Borough President is going to testify. Yeah, if you have to go talk to Williams Club... yeah, yeah. You already know how that goes. But it is like... she will hold, right? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. How many times... Wildman is going to give us five minutes. Well, what did she do? Five. Yeah, I would hold. Yeah, I might ask some questions. Okay. Yeah, there is testimony to address. Oh, well, and also for me... I was here, Adrienne. After that number and then the next number, I think, come back, he said. I do not know what other... yeah. Oh, I am actually, he is right here. You know, from now we are waiting for you.

(05:49:01)

Get ready. We discussed how passionate you are about cultural affairs and how personally I am very appreciative that you have come to so many of my hearings. I feel so special. So the floor is yours.

(05:49:16)

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and it is good to see Council colleagues and your team here. I really appreciate the opportunity to testify as Manhattan Borough President. I represent a borough that anchors much of the cultural economy of the City, from Broadway and Lincoln Center to the Jewish Museum to El Barrio to the Studio in Harlem to the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas. I could go on and on, but I am here to join your efforts, including Speaker Menin's call for a $30 million baseline increase for cultural programming in the Department of Cultural Affairs. I want to acknowledge the real progress in the Mayor's Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget. As you know, the FY27 budget has been raised, which is an increase over the preliminary plan. Ten million of that increase is dedicated to supporting the Cultural Development Fund organizations, and that is a very important step. I want to thank the City administration for moving in the right direction.

But even with this restoration, and again I do not have to tell you, the FY27 budget still falls $60 million short below the $299.7 million the Council secured at adoption for FY26. An additional $20 million increase for cultural programming, completing the Council's and advocates' $30 million ask, would give cultural organizations the stable, predictable support they need to plan, hire and serve our communities.

The stakes could not be higher. You know that arts, culture and freedom of expression are under attack. Already, compared to peer nations, the United States invests significantly less public funding in the arts. In Germany, roughly 80% of arts funding comes from public sources. France spends over a billion euros annually on national cultural subsidies, but U.S. federal arts funding amounts to only about $4 per capita each year. To compound this, the Trump administration is dismantling our federal cultural infrastructure right before our eyes, institution after another.

Thousands of previously approved NEA grants have been abruptly canceled. The President's budget even proposed eliminating the NEA and the Institute of Museum and Library Services outright. He has already signed into law a $1.1 billion clawback from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, defunding the local public media stations that serve our communities and, frankly, report on local political events. At such a dangerous moment, local government must step up, both as an expression of New York values and as a matter of fiscal self-interest, because what is under attack in Washington happens to be one of this City's most important industries.

The creative sector employs 326,000 New Yorkers, a larger workforce than the finance and insurance sectors combined. It is one of our City's core economic engines and a defining competitive advantage. In fact, the density of artists itself feeds directly back into our economic vitality, enabling a gallery and museum ecosystem to flourish in a way that only a few peer cities can match. Research published just last year shows that authors strongly increased their publication output after moving to New York City because of the presence of publishing houses and other authors. This is the virtuous circle of the creative sector, and it is the reason why talent moves here, it is the reason why tech giants expand here, it is the reason why tourists fill our hotels.

So in these difficult moments, we gather in our theaters and our galleries and our museums. They become really the safe harbors where movements are born, where communities are built, where activists become engaged and where our collective resilience is forged. We need them now more than ever. That is why this fiscal year I am dedicating the entirety of my FY27 capital funding allotment to affordable and accessible arts and cultural projects. We are calling this the Manhattan Multiplier for Arts and Culture, and we want to leverage the Borough President's capital funds with private and philanthropic matches, prioritizing projects that expand access to, preserve and strengthen long-term cultural infrastructure. The operative question here is: how can I turn my $50 million of capital taxpayer dollars into a combined $75 or $100 million with private philanthropy? But capital alone cannot fund programs. Programs need staff. A $30 million baseline increase for the Department of Cultural Affairs could be the operating-side companion to the capital investments we all make as elected officials. If New York intends to remain the cultural capital of the entire world, we must support that culture with commensurate resources and policy. So thank you again for your leadership in this budget. Thank you, Chair Williams, for everything you are doing to elevate this conversation throughout the City and, I would argue, the entire nation, because New York is leading the way in arts and culture.

(05:55:37)

Thank you. Like I said, I do appreciate your support of cultural institutions in your borough. I have been promoting your announcement that all of your capital is going to cultural institutions this year, and your insight on the subject. I told the team that we should work with you because you have some very pointed feedback. So I just appreciate your partnership thus far and look forward to continuing to partner with you. Thank you so much for testifying.

(05:56:06)

Thank you very much, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. Thanks so much. Thank you.

(05:56:14)

And with that we are done with day one of the hearing. Thank you.