News From Comptroller John Liu

MAYOR’S BUDGET MATH DOESN’T ADD UP

 

“The Mayor’s math doesn’t add up. The facts are clear, not only will the next Administration not inherit a balanced budget but it will also be greeted on Day 1 with a fiscal mess of historic proportions – 300,000 employees working with expired contracts.

 

“Mayor Bloomberg’s final budget modification continues to conceal huge fiscal risks and rely on one-shots like selling City property and depleting the Retiree Health Benefit Trust. His budget may seem balanced on paper, but the fiscal reality points to multi-billion-dollar budget gaps on the fiscal horizon.”

 

Background:

 

There is a multi-billion dollar budgetary risk associated with the fact that all City unions are currently working under expired contracts. The Bloomberg Administration’s negotiating position with the unions does not include retroactive pay for any contract settlement. The current financial plan includes funding for a settlement of a five-year contract in which the first three years would have no increases followed by two years of 1.25% increases. The unions have all rejected this proposal. Any wage increases above and beyond the funding already in the financial plan would need to be funded through increased revenues or decreased services. 

An analysis by the Comptroller’s office has found that if all unions agreed to a minimal 1% increase a year over the five-year term of the contract, the City would need to fund $1.3 billion in retro pay.  If the wage increase were instead linked to inflation, this number could balloon to $3.1 billion. These numbers are on top of the potential $3.5 billion in retroactive wages that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators (CSA) members are seeking.

 

 

NYC PENSION FUNDS CALL ON ADVERTISING GIANTS TO PROVE COMMITMENT TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

 

As Two Ad Firms Prepare for Mega-Merger, NYC Funds Ask Them to Disclose Their Employee Composition and Demonstrate Diversity

  City Comptroller John C. Liu today announced that he has called on the boards of two advertising firms, Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) and Publicis Groupe (PUB: FP), to disclose the makeup of their employees across a range of titles by gender and ethnicity before shareowners vote on their proposed merger. 

“These companies operate in an industry with an abysmal record of hiring and promoting women and minorities, particularly African Americans.  They claim they care about diversity and are making progress, but unless they disclose the actual makeup of their employees it’s impossible to know whether it’s just empty talk,” Comptroller Liu said.  “Studies have demonstrated that workplace diversity leads to innovation and innovation increases value.  We want these firms to prosper by hiring the best and brightest and we expect them to demonstrate that they pay more than lip service to equal opportunity employment.”

The advertising industry, like the financial services industry, has a history of wide and pervasive employment disparities, particularly among senior positions.  One 2009 study found that racial disparity is 38 percent worse in the advertising industry than in the overall U.S. labor market, and that the “discrimination divide” between advertising and other U.S. industries is more than twice as wide as it was 30 years ago. 

Omnicom and Publicis have both declined Comptroller Liu’s past requests that they disclose the composition of their workforce by race and gender.  The pending Omnicom-Publicis merger heightens the need for disclosure.  The merger will not only create an advertising behemoth; it will create the least transparent major ad firm in the world, by combining the two firms that have consistently refused to demonstrate their commitment to equal employment opportunities.

Despite the companies’ assurances that they have existing diversity programs, their refusal to provide employment data makes it impossible for shareowners to determine managements’ effectiveness in this important area.  Meanwhile, the other global ad giants, Interpublic (NYSE: IPG) and WPP Group (WPP: LN), have taken steps to disclose annual data on the diversity of their employees.

BACKGROUND

In Nov. 2011, on behalf of the NYC Funds, Comptroller Liu wrote several advertising firms — Omnicom, Publicis, Interpublic, and WPP — to ask they disclose employment data. 

When Comptroller Liu filed this request in the form of a shareholder proposal at Omnicom, the company tried and failed to exclude it from their 2012 annual meeting.  At that meeting, 33.8% of voting shares backed the NYC Funds’ proposal, which was the highest ever vote on such a proposal.  Despite broad shareowner support, Omnicom declined to provide employment disclosures even as its peers have done so.

Comptroller Liu and the NYC Funds have also engaged numerous financial services firms — Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), MetLife (NYSE: MET), AIG (NYSE: AIG), BNY Mellon (NYSE: BK), and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) — all of which subsequently agreed to provide comprehensive employment disclosures. 

The NYC Pension Funds hold a combined 829,714 shares in Omnicom and Publicis with a market value of $61 million.

LIU ON PASSAGE OF COMMUNITY SAFETY ACT

  Comptroller John C. Liu stated the following today on the vote in the City Council’s Committee of the Whole to override the Mayor’s veto of the racial profiling bill, the passage in the full body of which is now a foregone conclusion:

“The Council is doing the right thing in overturning the Mayor’s veto and standing up to his bullying. Ultimately, stop and frisk should be abolished. In the meantime, we need protections against racial profiling by police. Police should be working with communities to keep everyone safe, instead of treating innocent New Yorkers as if they are criminals.”

 

 

Comments About the Massive Gun Bust

Massive Gun Bust Reveals Chilling Account of Criminals’

Stop and Frisk Fears

Criminals know what the Democratic mayoral candidates don’t: stop, question and frisk keeps illegal guns off our city streets, today charged former deputy mayor Joe Lhota. Mr. Lhota highlighted the recent bust of the largest gun-running ring, where criminals were caught on tape discussing the need to keep the illegal weapons outside of New York City over fears of being stopped and frisked.

One of the alleged gunrunners was heard saying: “I can’t take them . . . to my house . . . I’m in Brownsville . . . We got like, whatchamacallit, stop-and-frisk.” According to reports, the weapons were stored in South Carolina to avoid the risk of being stopped.

Mr. Lhota, who served in the Giuliani Administration during the city’s remarkable transformation from more than 2,000 murders per year to the safest big city in America, has been an ardent supporter of proactive policing strategies such as stop, question and frisk, and has warned of the dangers of the effects of a handcuffed police department.

“First, I want to commend the NYPD on their superb work in the takedown of this massive gun-running operation and stopping the distribution of these highly destructive weapons into the hands of violent criminals,” said Mr. Lhota. “The tapes revealing these criminals’ fears about stop and frisk is a sobering account of how this policing tactic has helped to save thousands of lives. It’s deeply disturbing that criminals know what the Democratic mayoral candidates fail to acknowledge: stop, question and frisk keeps illegal guns off our streets.”

Mr. Lhota once again applauded Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to appeal Judge Scheindlin’s decision and reaffirmed his commitment to continuing a laser-like focus on crime reduction and ensuring the NYPD has the tools it needs to keep New Yorkers safe. 

LIU ON GUN BUST AND STOP-AND-FRISK

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  Comptroller John C. Liu stated the following today on Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of the City’s largest seizure of illegal guns:

“We applaud the City’s record gun bust, but we are nonetheless outraged that the Mayor is using it as a scare tactic to justify the unconstitutional stop-and-frisk police tactic. Stopping and frisking innocent New Yorkers never has been, never is, and never will be the answer.”

 

LIU TO HOLD SERIES OF TOWN HALL MEETINGS ON STOP & FRISK, PUBLIC SAFETY

   Events Planned for New Yorkers to Air Civil Rights, Security Concerns

   City Comptroller John C. Liu today announced that he would be holding three Town Hall Meetings on the NYPD’s stop & frisk policy and public safety issues, with more planned in the near future so that New Yorkers can voice their concerns on civil rights and security issues.

“Stop and frisk has driven a deep chasm between communities and police, which makes everyone less safe,” Comptroller Liu said. “Furthermore, it diverts police resources from strategies proven to reduce crime in other cities that do not resort to stop and frisk. As stop and frisk has increased, we have also seen a marked increase in lawsuits and claims against the NYPD, bills that taxpayers are on the hook for. These are among the issues we will discuss, with an eye toward promoting greater involvement of the community in policing.”

“When the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who are stopped and frisked are people of color, it’s hard to avoid calling stop and frisk what it really is — racial profiling.  Being stopped and frisked is not a minor inconvenience; it is deeply humiliating and absolutely offensive when based on skin color.  There’s simply no place for racial profiling, by the police or anyone.  It’s not what New York City is about.”

The meetings are co-sponsored by local elected officials and civic groups, including the National Action Network, NAACP, Legal Aid Society, and the John Jay College Center on Race, Crime & Justice. Meetings will be held:

·         In Queens on Wednesday, March 13, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Greater Springfield Community Church, 177-06 129^th Ave. in Jamaica.

·         In The Bronx on Monday, March 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Latino Pastoral Center, 14 W. 170^th St.

·         In Brooklyn on Wednesday, March 20, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ, 833 Gardner C. Taylor Blvd.

“The police are stopping hundreds of thousands of law-abiding New Yorkers every year, and the vast majority are Black and Latino. More than eight out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports. The unusually high number of youths age 14 to 24 (51 percent of stops) that are stopped and frisked by the police will result in these kids having some sort of a record that will affect them in the future,  including obtaining gainful employment,” said State Senator James Sanders Jr. of Queens.

“The practice of stop and frisk has had a disproportionately negative impact on the Latino and African-American communities, especially the youth within these communities.  It is my belief, and the belief of many others, that this has made our communities less safe by creating a wedge of mistrust between law enforcement, whose job it is to protect our streets, and the very people they should be protecting,” said State Senator Jose M. Serrano of The Bronx.

“Stop and frisk has been an unfair practice that has been used against minority communities. Let’s put a stop to it once and for all. Treat all communities with dignity and respect,” said Assemblyman Eric A. Stevenson of The Bronx.

“I am glad to join in efforts to make our City streets safer. From street harassment to gun violence, public safety remains a serious issue on Brooklyn streets and Citywide,” said City Council Member Letitia James of Brooklyn.

“The current stop and frisk procedure initiated by our NYPD undoubtedly is a masked form of racial profiling. This is a tactic that has proven to be unsuccessful and unproductive in producing a better community, in addition to creating more friction between citizens in minority neighborhoods and police officers. New York needs a police structure that understands the respect of the people comes from first giving respect to the people,” said the Rev. Phil Craig, President of the Queens Chapter of the National Action Network.

“Every day, in every borough, front-line Legal Aid Society lawyers and professional staff see New Yorkers who are improperly stopped, questioned, and frisked and who are then wrongfully arrested,” said Steven Banks, Attorney-in-Chief of The Legal Aid Society.

“Innocent New Yorkers have the right to walk the streets free of police interference,” said Delores Jones-Brown, Director of the John Jay College Center on Race, Crime & Justice.

“Communities of color want to live in a crime-free community but the price should not be the violation of one’s civil rights,” said the Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera of the Latino Pastoral Action Center in The Bronx.

Visit www.comptroller.nyc.gov for the latest news, events, and initiatives.

Follow Comptroller Liu on Twitter. To receive Twitter updates via text message, text “follow johncliu” to 40404. View the latest Comptroller’s office videos on YouTube.

LIU STATEMENT ON MAYOR’S EXECUTIVE BUDGET

 

  After City Comptroller John Liu’s budget meeting with Mayor Bloomberg this morning and in response to questions about the Mayor’s FY 2013 Executive Budget, Liu issued the following statement:

“In this challenging economic environment one of the best ways to maintain critical services for New Yorkers like daycare, fire protection, and libraries is to strengthen our fight against the waste of taxpayer funds and wasted subsidies to large corporations.”

Note: New Yorkers who wish to report waste and abuse of taxpayer funds are encouraged to call Comptroller Liu’s 212-NO-WASTE (212-669-2783) hotline. All calls are confidential. 

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Statement by Council Member Annabel Palma

In Response to the Mayor’s FY13 Executive Budget Proposal

The Executive Budget outlined by Mayor Bloomberg this afternoon is extremely disheartening.  This budget again underfunds vital services and programs that benefit low- and moderate-income New Yorkers and includes the loss of child care and after-school services for approximately 47,000 children.  This is simply unacceptable.

Of particular concern, are the continued drastic cuts to child care and after-school programs, which are slated to lose approximately $170 million combined.  The Executive Budget proposes just 26,000 child care slots, down from over 53,000 in FY09.  The Executive Budget also offers only 27,000 after-school slots through the City’s OST program, down from approximately 85,000 in FY09.  These programs offer critical early childhood educational opportunities that have been proven to enhance students’ academic futures.  Moreover, they provide safe and affordable care that allow parents to stay in the workforce and stay off of public assistance.  At this point, far too few working people have access to these critical services and this budget will only continue to bleed the system.

Another area of serious concern is the approximately $6.2 million in cuts to the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) that will devastate supportive housing and nutritional programs that literally save lives.  While this may save the City money in the short-term, it will only shift these individuals into programs that are more costly in the long-term.  The City Council has continually restored cuts to these programs over the last couple years, but the Administration has again chosen not to baseline this funding. 

The Mayor has often sought to portray himself as a fiscal conservative who has taken an axe to wasteful spending.  However, the reality is that the programs slated for cuts in this year’s budget are programs that invest in low- and moderate-income people and serve as key tools for promoting economic growth.  Once again, it will fall on the shoulders of the City Council to engage the Administration in negotiating a responsible budget that will make necessary investments in our City’s future.  

 

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Liberty Democratic Association "Spring Fling"

  The annual Spring Fling  by the Liberty Democratic Association (based in the 80th A.D.) was a huge success, as over 75 people and many elected officials came to cheer on the LDA.

  New York City Comptroller John Liu, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Councilman Jimmy Vacca, State Senators Jeff Klein and Gustavo Rivera, State Assembly Members Jeffrey Dinowitz, Marcos Crespo, and Honoree Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson. Conspicuously absent was 80th Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, while her announced challenger Mr. Mark Gjonaj was in attendance. 

  All the elected officials praised the LDA in one way or another for their joint or individual help, as all the members of the LDA joined together to say that it is a team effort that makes the LDA so successful in what they do. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Members of the LDA pose with honoree Assemblywoman Gibson

Bronx County Committee Chair Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz with 80th A.D. District Leader Kenny Agosto and Assemblywoman Gibson.

Left Senator Klein  -----  Right Councilman Vacca  Address the LDA.

Manhattan Borough President and 2013 candidate for Mayor Scott Stringer listens as Kenny and the LDA sing happy birthday to him.

Left-Comptroller John Liu shakes hands with 80th A.D. candidate Mark Gjonaj. Right- Members of LDA pose for a photo with 80th A.D. candidate Mark Gjonaj. 80th A.D. Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera did not attend the event.

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