Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Following Meeting With President Trump, Governor Cuomo Announces Partnership With Federal Government to Double Testing Capacity in New York State


  We had a meeting at the White House this afternoon and it was very productive and it was positive and we got a lot done.

I've been talking for a number of days as have most governors about testing as the next phase that we have to enter into. We're starting to talk about reopening and planning reopening.

Everyone is obviously concerned about how you reopen and if you reopen in a way that is too rushed and you're not prepared you could actually see the infection rate go up which is the last thing that anybody wants. Testing is the best way to inform and educate yourself as you go through the reopening process so you can watch not just hospitalizations - which we'll have that data - but also testing so you can look at the infection rate across the state and see how the infection rate is increasing.

Also, testing for employees who want to go back, employers who want to know whether or not the employees are actually negative of the virus. Testing has been a very big task to undertake. There's also been a lot of back and forth between the states, my state included, and the federal government about who does what on testing and who is  responsible.

I said this morning that I think in many ways people are just talking past each other because the federal government is helping on testing and states are responsible for testing but testing is a very complicated issue with a lot of levels. To have a real progress you have to sit down and go through the various steps of testing and actually decide who does what and that's what we did this afternoon.

We agreed that the state government should be responsible for managing the actual tests in their own laboratories. We have about 300 laboratories in the State of New York. We regulate those laboratories. It's up to a state to determine how many tests, where those tests should be done, New York City versus Buffalo versus Long Island, et cetera, the staff to do those tests, how often you do the tests - those should all be state decisions and state responsibilities.

The antibody test, which is one of the tests, how do you use those, when - that should all be up to the states.

The tracing function - that is the function after testing that actually traces people who are positive, who did they come in contact with, to isolate them - that's all the state's responsibility.

The problem with testing and bringing testing up to scale has been the national manufacturers of the equipment who make the testing kits that they have to send to the state labs so the state labs can actually perform them. Those are done by national manufacturers. The national manufacturers have said they have a problem with the supply chain to quickly ramp up those tests. They need swabs, they need vials and they need chemicals, quote, unquote reagents.

That is where the federal government can help. States cannot do international supply chains. I guess they could, but not in this time frame and it's not what we do. You shouldn't have 50 states competing to do international supply chains. One of my colleagues, Governor Hogan the Chairman of the National Governor's Association who is the Governor of Maryland - Republican, good man - he was bringing tests in from South Korea. Very creative and proactive on his part, but that's not what state's normally do. Let the federal government take responsibility for that federal supply chain for the national manufacturers. That's what we agreed in this meeting.

That is an intelligent division of labor, in my opinion. Let each level of government do what it does best and it ends this back and forth, what do the states do, what does Washington do, who's responsible, et cetera.

To quantify that situation in the State of New York, we now do, on average, about 20,000 tests per day. Our goal, which is very aggressive and ambitious but set it high and then try, our goal is to double the 20,000 to get to 40,000 tests per day. We need several weeks to ramp up to that, but it is a very aggressive goal. That is our current system at maximum. Our current laboratory system, 7-days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day. The maximum our system, as it exists, can do is that number. That's our goal and it was a very productive conversation. Again, that is the biggest single task we have to do that is identifiable from today. It ends the whole back and forth and the finger pointing in a very fair and smart way. It's a smart resolution so I feel very good about that. If we could double our tests that would be a home run. That is a really, really big deal.

We also talked about funding to the states. The legislation that the Congress passed did not have funding for the states. It passed additional money for small business and that's great and we need that and that's a positive, but it did not fund state governments, which to me is just a mistake, frankly. Fund small businesses, fund airlines, but you don't fund police, you don't fund fire, you don't fund healthcare workers, you don't fund teachers, you don't fund schools, you cut the aid to schools in this state. You know the state governments are broke, to use a very blunt term. You know the state governments are now responsible for the reopening and the governors are going to do the reopening, and they have no funds to do it. So, we talked about that, the President said he understood the issue and that he would work very hard to get funding for the states in the next piece of legislation that passes. And we hope there is another piece of legislation.

I also told the President, from my parochial point of view, we had a conversation with Secretary Mnuchin and the President, that there is a match. What's called a local match for FEMA funding. When the FEMA does something, the local government should match that funding by twenty five percent. I said to the President there is no way New York can pay that match because we don't have the funding period and it is disproportionate to New York, because we've had such a much larger number of cases than any other state in the United States. That it falls disproportionately on New York, which disproportionately is dealing with this crisis in the first place. We get all the hardship and then we get a bill because we had the hardship. Makes absolutely no sense and as a practical matter we couldn't pay it anyway. The President said he understood and that he would work to waive the local match. Secretary Mnuchin said he understood. Secretary Mnuchin was very supportive and I thank him for his support and the President said that he understood and that he would take care of it and I believe that he will, because he did understand it and that's a big deal for the state of New York.

Again, the incongruity the state that had the most pain and death should get a bill because they endured pain and death. I mean it makes no sense. So, that was a lot and it was complicated, but vitally important and the resolution was good across the board.

We met not just with the President, but with members of his team because a lot of this is granular and detailed and if you don't work out the details there is no conceptual agreement, right? It has to be on the details, so people actually know what we're agreeing to and it was on that level. So, I thank all the people on the President's team who made themselves available and work this through with us in detail and it's a really positive, positive resolution.

No. 202.22: Continuing Temporary Suspension and Modification of Laws Relating to the Disaster Emergency


No. 202.22

E X E C U T I V E  O R D E R

Continuing Temporary Suspension and Modification of Laws Relating to the Disaster Emergency

WHEREAS, on March 7, 2020, I issued Executive Order Number 202, declaring a State disaster emergency for the entire State of New York; and
WHEREAS, both travel-related cases and community contact transmission of COVID-19 have been documented in New York State and are expected to be continue;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 29-a of Article 2-B of the Executive Law to temporarily suspend or modify any statute, local law, ordinance, order, rule, or regulation, or parts thereof, of any agency during a State disaster emergency, if compliance with such statute, local law, ordinance, order, rule, or regulation would prevent, hinder, or delay action necessary to cope with the disaster emergency or if necessary to assist or aid in coping with such disaster, I hereby temporarily suspend or modify, for the period from the date of this Executive Order through May 20, 2020 the following:

  • Article 5 of the Real Property Tax Law, and analogous provisions of any other general or special laws that require a tentative assessment roll to be filed on or before June 1, 2020, to allow the tentative and final assessment rolls to be filed, at local option, up to 30 days later than otherwise allowable, to allow an assessing unit to set a date for hearing assessment complaints that is at least 21 days after the filing of the tentative roll, to allow notice of the filing of the tentative roll to be published solely online so long as the date for hearing complaints is prominently displayed, to suspend in-person inspection of the tentative roll, and to allow local Boards of Assessment Review to hear complaints remotely by conference call or similar service, provided that complainants can present their complaints through such service and the public has the ability to view or listen to such proceeding;
  • Section 1212 of the Real Property Tax Law, to the extent necessary to allow the commissioner of taxation and finance to certify final state equalization rate, class ratios, and class equalization rates, if required, no later than ten days prior to the last date set by law for levy of taxes of any municipal corporation to which such equalization rate, class ratios, and class equalization rates are applicable;
  • Section 1512(1) of the Real Property Tax Law and Sections 283.291 and  283.221 of the Laws of Westchester County, are suspended to allow the County Executive to negotiate with any town supervisor or mayor of any city, to accept a lesser percentage of taxes, special ad valorem levies or special assessments which are otherwise due on May 25, provided that in no event shall any town or city be required to pay more than sixty percent. The County Executive is empowered to determine whether or not penalties for late payment or interest are able to be waived dependent on whether or not such town or city applies the County Executive’s criteria for determining hardship due to COVID-19;
  • Section 283.221 of the Laws of Westchester County is further suspended to the extent necessary to require the supervisor of a town, to waive payment of penalties for late payment of county and county district taxes under section 283.221 up to July 15, 2020, and waive payment of penalties for late payment of town and town district taxes and assessments in the same manner, provided such town applies the County Executive’s criteria for the determination of hardship due to COVID-19;
  • Section 1512(1) of the Real Property Tax Law and any penalty provision of the tax code of a city within Westchester County is further suspended to the extent necessary to allow the mayor of that City to waive the payment of penalties for late payment of county and county district taxes and to further waive payment of penalties for late payment of city and city district taxes and assessments in the same manner, provided such city applies the County Executive’s criteria for the determination of hardship due to COVID-19;
  • Section 5-18.0(2) of the Nassau County Administrative Code, to the extent necessary to allow the Nassau County Executive to extend until June 1, 2020, the deadline to pay without interest or penalty the final one-half of school taxes upon real estate in such county.

G I V E N   under my hand and the Privy Seal of the State in the City of Albany this twentieth day of April in the year two thousand twenty.

BY THE GOVERNOR         

Secretary to the Governor

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Criminal Charges Against Industrial Bank Of Korea For Violations Of The Bank Secrecy Act


Charges to Be Deferred For Two Years Under an Agreement in which Industrial Bank of Korea Admitted Its Conduct and Agreed to Pay $51 Million

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Jeffrey E. Peterson, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Anchorage, Alaska, Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced criminal charges against Industrial Bank of Korea (“IBK” or the “Bank”) consisting of a one-count felony information charging IBK with violating the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”) by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (“AML”) program at IBK’s New York branch (“IBKNY”), a failure that permitted the processing of more than $1 billion in transactions in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”).  The case is assigned to United States District Judge Denise L. Cote. 

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “As they have admitted today, the Industrial Bank of Korea and its New York branch enabled years-long access to and exploitation of the U.S. banking system for prohibited transactions.  As detailed in an extensive Statement of Facts, IBK failed to institute the effective anti-money laundering program repeatedly requested by its own New York-based compliance officer.  As a result, IBKNY failed to detect and report $10 million in illegal U.S. dollar payments from Korean entities to Iranian ones.  Nor did IBK report the balance of the $1 billion of such sanctioned transactions between those parties.  Banks conducting business in the U.S. have a responsibility to ensure that they establish safeguards against the exploitation of the banking system by sanctioned entities that foster, promote, or engage in terrorism.  This Office remains committed to enforcing the law against banks that willfully fail to do so.”
FBI Anchorage Special Agent-in-Charge Jeffrey E. Peterson said:  “Today’s forfeiture is another important step in the FBI’s investigation of the Industrial Bank of Korea’s illegal movement of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned Iranian entities. The FBI remains committed to protecting and upholding the integrity of the American financial system and ensuring global banking institutions adhere to U.S. laws, including sanctions against potentially hostile countries.”
Mr. Berman also announced an agreement (the “Agreement”) under which IBK agreed to accept responsibility for its conduct by stipulating to the accuracy of an extensive Statement of Facts, pay penalties totaling $86 million to prosecutors and regulators, refrain from all future criminal conduct, and implement remedial measures as required by its regulators.  Assuming IBK’s continued compliance with the Agreement, the Government has agreed to defer prosecution for a period of two years, after which time the Government will seek to dismiss the charges. 
The federal penalty shall be collected through IBK’s forfeiture to the United States of $51 million in a civil forfeiture action also filed today.  Of that amount, one half shall be transferred to the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, pursuant to the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act.  In addition, IBK has reached a separate agreement with the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) covering various regulatory violations, under which it shall pay an additional $35 million penalty.
The Government entered into this resolution due, in part, to IBK’s acceptance and acknowledgement of responsibility under the laws of the United States for its conduct, as exhibited by its undertaking of a thorough internal investigation and transactional analysis, providing frequent and regular updates to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, collecting and producing evidence located in other countries to the full extent permitted under applicable laws and regulations, and making employees located in other countries available for interviews in the United States.  These factors and IBK’s willingness to enter into the commitments set forth in the Agreement, along with all other relevant factors and considerations, collectively weighed in favor of deferral of prosecution, and outweighed in this particular case IBK’s failure to self-report the full extent of its involvement in processing transactions that violated United States sanctions laws, failure to preserve certain electronic evidence relevant to those transactions, and failure to remediate fully and promptly the deficiencies in its compliance programs, as described below.
According to the documents filed today in Manhattan federal court:
IBK and IBKNY’s Failure to Maintain an Adequate AML Program
From at least in or about 2011, and continuing until at least in or about 2014, IBK and IBKNY violated United States law by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate AML program at IBKNY.  Among other things, despite requests and admonitions from regulators and IBKNY’s own compliance officer (the “Compliance Officer”), IBK and IBKNY failed to provide the resources, staffing, and training necessary to maintain an adequate AML program by declining to take steps to implement an automated transaction review program or to provide the Compliance Officer with any support staff or assistance.  This failure permitted, among other things, the processing through IBKNY and other U.S. financial institutions of approximately $1 billion in transactions on behalf of one or more IBK customers that violated IEEPA.
From at least 2006 until approximately January 2013, IBKNY used a manual process for reviewing transactions processed by the branch.  By at least early 2010, both outside regulators and the Compliance Officer had come to view the manual review as insufficient and flagged the need to enhance the branch’s transaction monitoring system with additional resources.  In 2010 and 2011, the Compliance Officer made repeated requests, including to IBKNY’s branch manager and to IBK’s Compliance Committee for an automated transaction review system, at one point noting that the “current [manual review] process is manually intensive, excessively time consuming to complete and prone to error, thereby exposing IBKNY to significant Bank Regulatory Sanctions.” 
In 2010 and 2011, the Compliance Officer was the only compliance employee at IBKNY.  During the same time period when the Compliance Officer was documenting the deficiencies in the IBKNY transaction review program, the Compliance Officer also made “a formal request for one additional IBKNY professional compliance staff” member.  In response, IBKNY senior leadership, including IBKNY’s branch manager, first proposed assigning bank interns to assist the Compliance Officer, and ultimately assigned one of IBKNY’s IT employees to assist the Compliance Officer on a part-time basis while still maintaining responsibility for IT work.  That employee, who had limited English language ability, had no experience in compliance and was of limited use to the Compliance Officer.
In March 2011, the Compliance Officer wrote another memo, in which he highlighted the significant problems caused by the continued need to engage in manual review of all transactions, adding that he had fallen so far behind at that point that “it would take approximately six months to get caught up enough to meet regulatory expectations.”  The Compliance Officer thus wrote that “it is imperative that IBKNY immediately recruit additional experienced AML/BSA resources” and recommended that, given the delay in starting the automated review of transactions, IBKNY hire additional experienced BSA/AML staff.  No meaningful action was taken on the Compliance Officer’s request for additional personnel.  Rather, the Branch Manager agreed to authorize overtime for the Compliance Officer and the IT employee assisting him so that they could devote extra hours to the manual review process. 
Due to the lack of an automated screening program and the lack of sufficient, adequately trained compliance staff to engage in the manual review process, the Compliance Officer fell months behind in his review of transactions being processed on behalf of IBK through IBKNY.  As a result, IBKNY did not detect or flag significant suspicious transactions that were processed through the branch until months after those transactions had been completed. 
IEEPA-Violating Transactions by Kenneth Zong and His Co-Conspirators
In particular, IBKNY and IBK failed to promptly identify a series of transactions that violated the United States’ economic sanctions against Iran (the “Zong Transactions”):  From January 2011 until July 2011, Kenneth Zong,[1] an American citizen, and various primarily Iranian co-conspirators exploited bank accounts that had been established at IBK and at another bank to permit certain forms of trade between Korea-based entities and Iran (the “CBI Won Accounts”), to transfer U.S. Dollars (“USD”) unlawfully to Iranian-controlled entities.  In order to evade U.S. sanctions, Zong and his co-conspirators set up shell companies in Korea, Iran, and elsewhere, which engaged in sham trade transactions and submitted fictitious documentation to Korean banks, including IBK, in order to facilitate the transfer of Iranian funds from the CBI Won Accounts to Korean entities’ accounts, the conversion of the funds into USD, and the subsequent transfer of USD from those entities through U.S. financial institutions to other accounts controlled by Zong and his co-conspirators and/or for the benefit of Zong and his co-conspirators.
IBKNY did not review and identify the Zong Transactions as unlawful until more than five months after they began to be processed through IBK, after IBK had already processed more than $1 billion worth of such transactions.
IBK and IBKNY’s Continued Failure to Implement an Adequate AML Program  
Shortly after the Compliance Officer flagged the Zong Transactions, he again alerted IBK’s management to the dire state of IBKNY’s AML program, noting in a memo to senior leadership at IBK’s Head Office that:
[C]urrently the branch AML monitoring program is behind 8 monthly BSA reviews due to insufficient resources.  Branch management has refused to accept my repeated recommendation to increase resources. . . .  Regulation H of the Federal Reserve mandates a branch have a BSA program that includes an effective BSA review process with sufficient resources to be able to detect and report suspicious activity within a reasonable time frame.  Under these requirements, the branch is deficient in both areas.
Nevertheless, IBKNY did not take immediate steps to remedy these deficiencies.  While IBK initiated a process to select a vendor to install an automated system in August 2011, the system did not become operational for another 18 months.  Moreover, while the system commenced operation in January 2013, it was not validated by IBKNY’s external auditor until 2014.  Nor did IBKNY hire even a second full-time compliance employee until October 2014. 
Even after these fundamental improvements were made, IBK did not fully remediate IBKNY’s broader BSA/AML deficiencies for years, even after entering into a Written Agreement with their primary regulators to correct such deficiencies in February 2016.
IBK’s Failure to Disclose Its Wrongdoing in a Timely Manner
While IBKNY filed a suspicious activity report regarding the subset of Zong’s transactions that had been processed through IBKNY (approximately $10 million worth of transactions) and made a disclosure regarding those transactions to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) in August 2011, IBK never self-reported to OFAC its involvement in the remaining $990 million worth of Zong’s illegal transactions.  Similarly, IBK did not self-disclose its willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act prior to the Government’s investigation.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the Anchorage Field Office of the FBI.  He also thanked the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the New York State Department of Financial Services for their assistance with this matter.  The Office of the New York State Attorney General also conducted its own investigation alongside the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on this investigation.
[1] On or about December 14, 2016, Zong was indicted in the District of Alaska and charged with violations of IEEPA and money laundering offenses.  The entirety of the text of that indictment and the description of the indictment set forth herein constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.

New York City Council Announces COVID-19 Legislative Relief Package To Be Introduced on Wednesday


Package of bills include a NYC Essential Workers Bill of Rights

  The New York City Council will introduce a COVID-19 relief package that aims to protect tenants, help small businesses survive, and find creative ways to address the public health crisis brought on by the virus. Highlights include a bill that extends time for COVID-impacted tenants to repay rent and pay back debts, as well as new protections from harassment for all renters, including the City’s small businesses.  

This package will also include a NYC Essential Workers Bill of Rights. The bills would require premiums for non-salaried essential employees at large companies, prohibitions on the firing of essential workers without just cause, and paid sick leave for gig workers. 
All of the bills will be introduced on Wednesday at the Council’s first ever remote Stated Hearing.  The Council will hold hearings on each of the bills over the next week and a half.
“We are in the midst of an unprecedented crisis for our City, and mourning the loss of so many neighbors, friends and fellow New Yorkers. But even in this dark time, we must be laser-focused on helping New York City emerge from this crisis while prioritizing our public health. These bills provide relief where it is needed most right now, including protecting tenants from eviction. It’s essential that New Yorkers get the rent cancellation they need, but in the meantime, we need to give renters peace of mind that we won’t let them suffer irreparable harms. We’re also protecting small businesses and essential workers, who have been so hard hit. We must take these steps to help make sure that New York City remains the vibrant, diverse and exciting place it was before COVID ravaged our neighborhoods,” said Speaker Corey Johnson.  
NYC Essential Workers’ Bill of Rights
  • Premiums for essential workers (Sponsored by Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo and Speaker Johnson): The Council will consider legislation that would require large employers to pay premiums to certain essential non-salaried workers. The bill requires employers with more than 100 employees to pay hourly workers $30 for a shift under four hours, $60 for a shift of four to eight hours and $75 dollars for any shift over eight hours. The obligation would end when the state of emergency is lifted. 
  • Just cause rights for essential workers (Sponsored by Council Member Ben Kallos, Speaker Johnson, and Council Member Brad Lander): The Council will consider legislation to prohibit all hiring parties of essential workers from firing those workers without just cause.  This bill will help protect essential workers and enable them to openly identify their concerns on the job or organize with other workers without fear of retaliation.
  • Paid sick leave for gig workers (Council Member Lander):  The Council will consider legislation to extend paid sick leave to independent contractors. Independent contractors were not included in the paid sick leave bill passed by the New York State Legislature for employees, even if their work is controlled or directed by the company that hires them.  This bill would close that loophole and help give these front-line gig workers the paid sick leave they need to keep themselves, their families, the New Yorkers they serve safe.  
  • Resolution on misclassification (Council Member Lander): An estimated 850,000 low-paid independent contractors in New York State may be misclassified and should properly be classified as employees.  Some businesses intentionally misclassify these workers to avoid the burden of paying benefits to employees. As a result, many of these misclassified workers are working on the frontlines of this crisis without the safety net that should be available to them. The Council will consider a Resolution urging the State Legislature to put the burden of proof on employers to classify workers as independent contractors. 
Protecting New York City’s Renters 
  • Extending time for all NYC renters to repay rent, blocking evictions, and collection of debts (Sponsored by Speaker Johnson):   The State must act now to provide real relief to vulnerable renters. While Governor Cuomo’s statewide 90-day eviction moratorium provided renters with temporary relief, the City must ensure that its impacted tenants are protected from evictions in the long-term as they get back on their feet and recover from the harmful impacts of this crisis. The Council will therefore consider legislation that prevents marshals and the City’s sheriffs from the taking and restitution of property or the execution of money judgments.  This means that evictions and the collection of debt would be paused for all NYC renters, including residential and commercial tenants. It also means those renters would have additional time to repay their rent. This bar would apply to actions against all New Yorkers through the duration of this crisis. Further, for New Yorkers impacted by COVID-19, marshals and sheriffs would be barred from collecting debts and performing evictions until April 2021.  
  • Protecting tenants from COVID-related harassment and discrimination (Sponsored by Council Member Ritchie Torres and Speaker Corey Johnson): We must ensure that bad-actor landlords cannot use this crisis as an excuse to harass vulnerable tenants out of their homes. The Council will consider legislation that would make harassing a tenant based on their status as person impacted by COVID-19, including whether they are an essential worker or because they were laid off, or because they’ve received a rental concession or forbearance. Violations would be punishable by a civil penalty of $2,000 to $10,000.
Prioritizing Public Health
  • Providing safe shelter (Sponsored by Council Member Stephen Levin and Speaker Johnson):  Sheltering at home isn’t possible if you don’t have a home. The crowded conditions of our shelter system do not allow residents to take necessary precautions or observe social distancing. This is a danger to all New Yorkers during this public health crisis. The Council will therefore consider legislation that will require the City to provide each single adult homeless individual with a private room through the end of the pandemic and implement protocols to reduce risk of infection. In effect, this would require the City to temporarily close many shelters and move residents to hotels or other facilities with private rooms. 
  • Mandating open City streets (Sponsored by Council Member Carlina Rivera and Speaker Johnson): The Council will consider legislation to open city streets to pedestrians and cyclists during the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic to allow New Yorkers more room for social distancing as essential workers commute and while enjoying the short- and long-term health benefits of being outdoors. The bill will require the city to create more street space for pedestrians and cyclists throughout the five boroughs, with a citywide target of 75 miles of open streets.  
Protecting New York City’s Small Businesses
  • Commercial tenant harassment (Sponsored by Council Member Adrienne Adams and Speaker Johnson): With limited federal relief funds, many businesses affected by this crisis will be unable to pay their rent. We must protect the City’s small, independently owned, and immigrant-owned businesses from the threat of harassment, many of which were running on thin margins and struggling to pay rent even before this crisis.  The Council will consider legislation to make threatening any commercial tenant based on their status as a COVID-19 impacted business or person a form of harassment punishable by a civil penalty of $10,000 to $50,000. 
  • Suspending personal liability on commercial leases (Sponsored by Council Member Rivera and Speaker Johnson): The Council will consider legislation to temporarily suspend personal liability provisions in leases and other rental agreements of COVID-19 impacted businesses while the state of emergency is in effect, ensuring that City business owners don’t face the loss of their businesses and personal financial ruin or bankruptcy. 
  • Suspending sidewalk cafe fees (Sponsored by Council Member Andrew Cohen):   The Council will consider legislation to suspend annual sidewalk cafĂ© fees.  Reducing this fixed cost for the City’s cash-strapped restaurants, bars and nightlife is one common-sense step the Council can take to reduce the severe financial burden that has fallen on these impacted businesses.

MAYOR DE BLASIO on COVID-19 - April 21, 2020


  Mayor Bill de Blasio: We’ve got some important things to talk to you about today. And really what it comes to is understanding New York City, understanding who we are, understanding how we confront the challenges we face in normal times, but even more so in a time of crisis. There's something about the city that when the going gets tough, just the best comes out in people. And, you know, I've said before, but it bears saying again, this is a city where people make things happen. Folks don't shirk from a challenge, they meet it, and then they go farther than they ever thought they could. And it is part of who we are. It's in our blood as New Yorkers, there's a reason we are known as this great capital of entrepreneurship and creativity and ingenuity. It's been proven time and time again over generations and it's certainly been proven in the middle of this crisis. I've seen amazing things, and no one for a moment can underestimate how much pain there has been, how much loss there has been, but that has not stopped New Yorkers from doing things big and small to make a difference and to fight back and to prove that nothing and no one and no disease will ever stop us. New Yorkers, by our nature, we're resilient, we're tough, and we know how to take care of ourselves. Well, now, I think it's a time in our history where we're learning an important lesson about how self-sufficient we're going to have to be, going forward. We have watched in these last few weeks when we called for our federal government to help us, sometimes we got an answer, sometimes we didn't. When we went out on the open market, internationally even, trying to find the things we needed to protect our people – sometimes they were there, a lot of times they weren't. So, what we're seeing right now are the profound limits – limits to a globalized world. We were all told how many things would come from globalization that, in theory, are going to help us. We're starting to see the things that don't help us at all, in fact, have made our lives tougher, because so many of the things we need, the medical equipment, the medical supplies aren't even made here, not only in New York but in the United States anymore, and that's left us vulnerable. And we New Yorkers are learning that lesson and we're not going to be fooled again. We're going to be ready. We know we have to protect ourselves and we know we have to be ready for whatever comes next.

Now, I’ve got to tell you, even though it feels like this has been going on for months and months, it's only been six or seven weeks we've been in the thick of this, and what's happened in those six or seven weeks is absolutely remarkable. New Yorkers, creating products we didn't make here at all. New Yorkers, coming together to do things to protect our heroes, our health care workers, our first responders out of love, out of a deep, deep concern for those who protect all of us. And that compassion didn't just come out in words, it came out in deeds. So, we have seen amazing progress in just a few weeks, and I've taken you to some of those places to see the face shields being made in the Brooklyn Navy yard. I showed you the surgical gowns also being made in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but now more and more parts of the city are coming into the game to help out, more and more companies are doing remarkable things. I talked to you a few days ago about the fact that when we found, despite every attempt, we found we couldn't get the test kits we needed from the federal government. We couldn't purchase them anywhere in the quantities we needed. We said we're going to make them right here, and you're going to be seeing the results of that in just days. So, it has been a remarkable journey against a very painful backdrop. But now, today, I want to tell you about another important step and it has a lot to say with how we will protect ourselves now, but it also says a lot about how we will protect ourselves in the future. And today I want to talk to you about ventilators. You see one here and we're going to get a little demonstration in a moment, but as you can see immediately this is not a simple piece of machinery. This is something complex. This is something challenging to make. Nothing like this was being made in New York City just two months ago, even one month ago. Nothing like this was being produced here, but extraordinary entrepreneurs came together for the good of all New Yorkers and said, we can do it, we can do something. Whether it's seems possible or not, we're going to find a way.

So, I want to take you back just to remind you, just a few short weeks ago – and I use that specific day, Sunday, April 5th was the day where we felt based on every projection, based on all the evidence that we were going to be at a point where we might run out of ventilators. The number of people who needed them was growing every day and it was a very fearful time. Supplies were running short. We needed answers. At that moment, it looked like we could get to a point where there might not be that ventilator needed for the next patient. Thank God, right around then was when things started to improve and it's all because of everything you have done, all of you, the social distancing, the shelter in place, all of the things that are making a difference. So, today, we can say that, thank God, we have the ventilators get through this week. We have the ventilators for the immediate future. But as recently as the first days of April, the numbers were staggering. Approximately 220 more New Yorkers each day – more each day needed a ventilator. That's what it looked like at the beginning of April and that's when this valiant effort was going full bore to make sure that ventilators would be available and would be ready if they needed to be pressed into emergency service, these homegrown ventilators. And this is the epitome of that kind of wartime production model, people coming up with an idea and making it happen. Because if it hadn't been for these ventilators being ready, we might've been in a situation where there would not have been one for someone. By April 10th, we were still seeing an increase in the number of people needed them each day, 75 day, but it was slowing, thank God. Now, today, it's actually leveled off and we hope to see a situation where it really declines consistently the need each day. But having gone through that terrifying moment, I can tell you, I am determined to make sure that New York City never ever is in a situation in the future where we need ventilators and we can't get them. We have to protect our people. And so, these bridge ventilators that have been created are part of what will protect us now and into the future. This is something we now have that can never be taken away from us. This is something we make here that no one else in the world can deprive us of. We are now increasingly self-sufficient. We've got a long way to go, but this is a remarkable achievement. You're going to hear from some of the people who made it happen. I want to tell you, these ventilators, right now, ready to go being moved into hospitals so they will all have a reserve that need them. FDA approved – and I want to thank the FDA. I want to take a moment. I always try and give credit where credit is due. Dr. Steven Hahn and his remarkable team at the FDA. I spoke to him several times, I know Dr. Mitch Katz did as well from Health + Hospitals. They moved this process in record time and I will really want to give them credit. FDA is not historically known for speed, but they have in this crisis really stepped up and they were tremendous partners in getting this ventilator approved and ready.

Now, this story, again, it is about making something out of nothing, and that is a New York tradition, doing remarkable things against the odds. And there's three guys who deserve particular credit – Scott Cohen of New Lab; Marcel Botha of 10XBeta; and Charles Boyce, of Boyce Technologies. These individuals had a remarkable civic spirit, a remarkable desire to get something done. And I want to give special credit to Charles, because he also was one of the driving forces behind making those face shields that, right now, when you see them out there in our communities – in fact, just yesterday I was in Staten Island, deliveries of PPEs were being made to RUMC, to the in Staten Island, and there were those Brooklyn Navy Yard face shields being delivered. And that made me very, very proud to be there with those delivery workers, seeing the response from all the health care workers to that help coming. So, a special thanks to Charles for being a part of both these efforts. So, when we think of this city, we think about chutzpah, when we think about the incredible verve, the drive, the ability to do something no matter how brash or unlikely. So, literally, people who are part of this effort at to say to themselves, hey, we've never made a ventilator before, we're going to have to figure out how to do it, and then we're going to have to figure out how to produce thousands of them. You know, if you talked about a normal timeline to try and create a brand-new product like this, you'd think it would take a year. You know what they said? They said we have to do it in a month or less. And they went and did it. So, they put together a team, an extraordinary New York City team of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, physicians folks who knew the regulatory system, all sorts of folks who work together, nonstop work, literally alone, round the clock, 24-hour efforts over the past three weeks and they got it done.

So, what are these bridge ventilators do? Well, what they mean is, when someone needs that urgent help, that ability to breath without which they simply won't survive, these bridge ventilators are there to keep someone alive. They can play different kinds of roles. They can buy time to keep a patient alive who might need a more elaborate kind of help from a full-service ventilator. They can help to stretch out the capacity of a hospital so that as they're getting more of those full-service ventilators available at any given moment, they buy time to save lives. They also work with a number of different kinds of cases where there are less severe issues, but that people need that help breathing. So, there's many things they do. To make this possible, to save lives, to make sure we could be self-sufficient, we, the City of New York made the decision to work with these companies, to help coordinate their efforts, to work with the FDA on the approval, but also to make clear that we would fund the effort. And so, we placed an order for 3,000 of these ventilators – a $10 million order. And that raises of crucial point, that what these extraordinary New Yorkers did was not only create a great product and a necessary product, but a product that was affordable – $3,000 for each ventilator and that compares to $40,000 or $50,000 or more for a full-service ventilator. This means that we have already reserve in the event that this crisis continues, or, God forbid, this disease becomes stronger. It means we're in a position to protect ourselves and to help others who may need our help.

But it also is now the beginning of something much bigger that will help frame our future. Today, I'm announcing that we're going to create a New York City strategic reserve. We have learned the hard way that we cannot depend on the federal government in the future. I hate saying that, but I think it's quite evident. We certainly cannot depend on the global market. We can't depend on our nation to produce products that, tragically, are not being produced enough in this nation as we've seen in our hour of need. I hope that will change. I hope our country gets the message that we have to start producing these things all over the country again and be self-sufficient as a nation. But until that day comes, New York City, we will protect ourselves. With the leadership of the Economic Development Corporation and working with our health care leadership, we will create our own reserve. We will take the production that's now been created in those four areas, the facials, the surgical gowns, the test kits, and now the ventilators. We're going to create a ready supply of those so we'll always have enough in the future and we'll purchase what we need and create a stockpile so we will never be in a situation where we turn to those who are supposed to supply this and they say, sorry, we're all out. We, New Yorkers, will take care of ourselves. Now, I have to say this all was created from scratch. And I remember the day I first went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and I saw those face shields being made by hand. There's no machinery. It was all by hand. It reminded me that people would do whatever it took. We've seen it now for whole different kinds of products being produced in large quantities, protecting our health care workers, saving lives. This is our future to be able to take care of ourselves. And now, that we figured out we can do these things, whatever we need in the future, we can use as a blueprint to build more and different supplies and equipment, whatever the occasion may be, whatever the challenge may be.

I also want you to know that in the process of these good people figuring out how to create this ventilator, they found out that there was a lot of interest in this ventilator from hospital systems and absolutely in other parts of the world as well. So, in fact, there will be a market for hospitals and for parts of America and other countries that need lower cost ventilators. This has started to open up a new possibility of getting people help who aren't getting it right now because the cost is so prohibitive. And any of our fellow cities and states that need help, our reserve will be there to help them, just the way they've helped us. So, we've been so appreciative to other states, other cities that have stepped up to help New York City. Any of them that need our help in this crisis, we will be there for them, because we will have a reserve that's available and that we can depend on.

You're going to hear a little more in a moment about these ventilators, but let me give you a couple of other updates first, because we know – and this is part of why we want these reserves – we know we're not out of the woods by any stretch of imagination. We've got a lot more to do. And we also know that the impact of this disease is being felt right now. Still, too many people dying, too many people going into the hospital right now, too many people going into the ICU right now because of COVID-19. This fight is raging, and it's raging, especially in the parts of the city that have been hardest hit, that have unfortunately had the worst disparities, the biggest burdens, the least health care available historically – and that means our communities of color and our immigrant communities, our lower income communities. We need to fight back and we've got to do that in a lot of ways. We've talked about all the community outreach we're going to do, the telehealth programs, everything we're going to do to reach people, but, obviously, it also will take more and more testing at the grassroots level.

Yesterday – we, as of yesterday, had five community-based sites open in some of our hardest hit neighborhoods. Those sites will be performing 3,600 tests this week. So they're all up and running. I'll go over them in a second, but they will do 3,600 tests this week. Next week, we'll add five more sites in hard hit areas and we will get that total up to over 7,000 tests per week and we're going to keep growing from there. If we can get the supply of testing we need, plus the PPEs and the personnel, we're going to keep going farther and farther with the grassroots testing where it's needed most. The five centers are now open in Brooklyn, and they're all Health + Hospitals, I should say – the Gotham Health Center in East New York; in the Bronx, the Gotham Health Center in Morrisania; in Staten Island, the Vanderbilt Health Centerl in Manhattan, the Sydenham Family Health Center in Harlem; in Queens, at Queens Hospital, the testing center there. All of these are walk-in sites. So, I want to emphasize, anyone from the community – and these are targeted to the immediate community – you can walk up. We are prioritizing people who are 65 years old or older and who have those preexisting conditions that we've talked about so much, those serious conditions that put people in danger. So, please, if you meet those criteria, if you are someone who is in, particularly – in a particularly vulnerable situation, we want to get you tested. Go to one of those centers, walk up. That testing is starting – is started, I should say – has started, is available today, and then more will be announced next week.

And now, I want to talk about what we do every day, looking at the indicators that tell us where we are. And I keep telling people, it's going to be a long battle. We want to see them all move in the right direction, it’s not always going to work that way, but it doesn't change anything about how we approach this. We keep fighting, we keep sticking to what's working, and we will see progress. And overall, we have – even though these indicators have not been everything we wanted to be, we definitely see some real movement, and that's really good news. So, first, the daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19, well, that went down from 212 to 2-4 – that's good news. The number of people in ICU is across our Health + Hospitals facilities for suspected COVID-19, that went up, but by very little, from  853 to 857. The percentage of people who tested positive for COVID-19 also went up, but, again, by very little, from 34 percent to 35 percent. The number of people who tested positive through our public health lab test went down from 67 percent to 63 percent. So, again, you see some progress when some of the areas going up, they're only going up by a little. Overall, we are seeing definite progress. Not everything that we're looking for to get to the point where we can relax some of the restrictions but definite progress for sure. So, keep doing what you're doing, New Yorkers, it is working. Just let's keep with it, it'll take some time, but we can do it.

Now, I always want to offer my thanks to anyone and everyone who stands up from New York City. And, today, we're talking about great stories of New Yorkers doing things for their fellow New Yorkers, but also a lot of the time people have come to our aid so we could help ourselves. And I talked to you about surgical gowns yesterday – this is our toughest situation right now with PPEs and it got to the point where we couldn't get – it was just quite clear that the global market isn't functioning right no matter what you try, you can't get the kind of supply that we need. But we said, okay, if we can't get the gowns ready-made, can we get the fabric? I mentioned yesterday, we worked with the White House, particularly with Peter Navarro and his team who have been fantastic, and they put us in touch with leaders in the textile and garment industry who have been really helpful. A special thank you to Kim Glass, who's one of the leaders in the industry who has been giving us great help. They connected us to a health care supply company, Owens & Minor in North Carolina, and they went to bat for us. A special thank you to Chris Lowery and everyone at Owens & Minor. I was on the phone with them several times. They have already delivered – in a matter of days, they produced and delivered to New York City, 1 million square yards of American-made fabric. And I want to emphasize what a refreshing reality this is, that we're not searching for something in another country that may or may not let us have it. This is American-made fabric, waterproof fabric that we can turn into surgical gowns. So, 1 million square yards already here that will create enough for 400,000 more surgical gowns. And I have an update on the day by which they will be produced – they will all be ready and done by May 10th. And that production is going to be expanding constantly as we create more and more of these gowns in New York City. Special thank you to folks at UPS, Laura Lane and everybody at UPS, they jumped in immediately to make sure that the delivery from North Carolina – 570 miles away – and it happened a second, that the fabric came off the assembly line. It came to New York City in record time. So, incredible team effort to help us help ourselves. And we're very, very appreciative.

I want to say one more thing before I close. We gathered today and, you know, normally if our society was functioning as normal, there would be a very solemn remembrances today because it's Holocaust Remembrance Day. There'd be solemn ceremonies, moments to reflect, and not just for the Jewish community and our Jewish brothers and sisters, but for everyone to learn the lessons of the Holocaust, to think about what it means and to always gain strength from the incredible examples of people who fought their way through. You know, one of the most painful realities of these last weeks is some of the people we lost to the coronavirus were Holocaust survivors. Think about that. They lived through one of the greatest atrocities in human history and then succumb to the coronavirus. We have to learn a lesson from all of them, even those we've lost and certainly from those who still survive. And I have met so many of them, particularly in Brooklyn, in areas I used to represent in the City Council, where I constantly would meet people who would tell me their stories of fighting through and surviving the Holocaust. And it was extraordinarily inspirational. We’ve got to realize that there are people right now in our city who stared down unspeakable evil, who dealt with unthinkable pain and terror and overcame it and fought through it and decided that they would not only survive, but they would create a new life with new families, new hope, they would sustain their people, their beliefs, their faith, and they did it. And some of those stories, when you're talking to some of these individuals, you are humbled. I am humbled, I know it, because it reminds you of the greatness that's possible in each of us and what those who have gone before have done, and it inspires us. So, we need to endure right now. We need to overcome and we need to learn from all of those who went before, but particularly those extraordinary, noble Holocaust survivors. They're teaching us a lesson right now that we should take to heart in this moment.

Lastly, you know, the last days I've made it a point to be very straightforward, very honest with all New Yorkers, with all of you, about what we face, the fact we have a long battle, the things we can do and the things that we can't yet do. You know, it was no fun to have to tell you that May events had to be canceled and then June events had to be canceled, including some of the events we love the most each year, we cherish, we look forward to. It's no fun to tell you, you have to keep social distancing and staying home, but it's the right thing to do and you're doing it, again, with extraordinary ability. We had to say that those things couldn't happen, those parades, those concerts, those street fairs, we had to. I had to say it just isn't time for them yet, there's still too many unknowns, there's still too many threats. There's a lot we don't know, but there's one thing we do know for sure – the day is coming when this city will fight our way back, when this city will get back to normal. The day is coming when we will overcome this disease. The day is coming when I'm going to be able to tell you we can gather again. The day is coming when I'll be able to tell you, in fact, we will be having the concerts and the street fairs and the parades again.

But I want to guarantee you one thing, that when that day comes that we can restart the vibrant, beautiful life of this city again, the first thing we will do is we will have a ticker tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes for our health care workers and our first responders. We will honor those who saved us. The first thing we will do before we think about anything else is we will take a time, as only New York City can do, to throw the biggest, best parade to honor these heroes. And many, many great heroes have gone down that canyon to be appreciated and loved by millions of New Yorkers, but I think this will be the greatest of all the parades because this one will speak to the rebirth of New York City. This one will speak to a kind of heroism that is intrinsic to who we are as New Yorkers, to our values, to our compassion, to our strength, our resiliency. This parade will remark – well, mark, I should say – this parade will mark the beginning of our renaissance, but it will also be, most importantly, a chance to say thank you to so many good and noble people, so many tough, strong people. They're fighting right now, and they have to keep fighting and we have to keep supporting them and showing them our love and appreciation. But one day, we will be able to start back on the road and we will honor them as they deserve, and that will be a beautiful and joyous day in the city.

MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES PRODUCTION OF NEW LINE OF BRIDGE VENTILATORS FOR NYC HOSPITALS


Ventilators to shore up NYC Strategic Reserve, preparing City for next crisis

  Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19, with a City-convened effort producing a new line of bridge ventilators to support local hospitals and health care workers. Local manufacturers will produce at least 3,000 of these devices, which will be deployed to hospitals, helping to save lives by supplementing limited ventilator resources. This effort will also help the City shore up the New York City Strategic Reserve, a stockpile of medical devices that will be ready for any future crisis.   

“This is a story about doing the impossible – so it’s a New York story,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We’d never made a ventilator before – and so we made thousands. We learned it would take a year – and so we did it in a month. Our City is taking our future into our own hands. That’s how we’ll beat this crisis and prepare for the next.”

“During this unprecedented crisis, we’ve seen the strength, creativity and resilience of New York City,” said James Patchett, President and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “This city-led partnership demonstrates New York’s ability to act and innovate quickly. In record-time, we’ve been able to design and produce life-saving technology.  This project highlights the very best of New York City and we’re proud to be a part of it.”    

Development Of The Device

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) convened a partnership comprised of volunteer researchers from MIT and local innovators like Boyce Technologies, Newlab, 10XBeta and Otherlab to rapidly scale up production of a low-cost bridge ventilator.   

Inspired by the open-source design of MIT’s Emergency Ventilator (E-Vent) prototype, the consortium developed the Spiro Wave, a bridge ventilator that can replace manually operated bag valve masks and serve patients coming on or off traditional ventilators. These machines will free up critical care and ICU ventilators needed for those who are seriously ill. The Spiro Wave received Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 17 and has been successfully demoed in a hospital setting by New York City Health and Hospitals staff.   

Production Process 

EDC provided a seed grant of $100,000 to adapt and prototype the ventilator design, mobilized and coordinated with New York City Health + Hospitals, New York City Department Of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City Office of Emergency Management and local hospitals to vet the new technology, and provided regulatory support.

Boyce Technologies, which is leading a revival in industrial manufacturing at its high-tech factory in Long Island City has used machine automation and advanced laser-cutting technology to take the Spiro Wave from initial concept to a scalable manufacturable design in an unprecedented amount of time.

The devices are substantially less expensive than traditional ventilators. EDC has committed to purchase the first 3,000 devices on behalf of the City and distribute them to healthcare facilities and hospitals. Boyce Technologies is in the process of manufacturing hundreds of these devices. The first units will be ready to ship to NYC hospitals this week.

EDC has also secured the right to purchase 70% of all units produced to ensure the needs of local hospitals are met.  EDC is focused on getting devices to local hospitals – public and private – that are interested in using them to supplement existing full-scale ventilator resources.

This initiative builds upon a decade of work by the City to preserve and expand advanced manufacturing in New York City. EDC was an initial funder of Newlab, a firm that works to scale frontier technologies, and invested $3 million in its urban technology portfolio before its doors opened. Only a few years ago, through the New York City Industrial Development Agency, EDC helped Boyce Technologies build the state-of-the-art facility in Long Island City where the devices are initially being produced.