February 25, 2021Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good afternoon, everybody. A lot going on today at City Hall and now we have some other important pieces of legislation we""ll be talking about today here at this hearing, and it""s a historic day because there""s another step-in terms of closing Rikers Island once and for all leaving that history behind and working towards a new reality on Rikers Island. This is really an important historic moment, and this will immediately start the process of transferring parts of Rikers Island to the Citywide Administrative Services Department, more will come over the years ahead on the way to fully leaving Rikers Island as a place for incarceration and creating it as a place that will play an important role in a positive future for this city. So, we""re going to write the wrongs of the past as we leave Rikers Island behind and legislation today is going to help us do it. It""s going to help us re-imagine the spaces on Rikers Island and how they""ll contribute to the future of this city, and we""ll do so because of this legislation in a way that focuses on environmental justice, that focuses on social justice, that focuses on sustainability. This is why this is so important today. It""s not just about leaving Rikers. It""s about replacing it with something better for our future. That""s what two of the bills are about today. We also have a third bill on a very different topic, but a very important topic, which is about public integrity and protecting the integrity of our election system and of public service in general, and this bill will ensure that corrupt individuals are not able to hold public office again in the future. So, let me go over the legislation. Intro 1592-A and this bill will transfer a portions of Rikers Island now to Department of Citywide Administrative Services beginning in July, and then all of Rikers Island would be transferred by 2027 as we""re ready to close down all the Correction activity. It establishes the Rikers Island advisory committee which includes members in the committee who we""re at some point in custody on Rikers Island. Members of the committee will also be immediate family of those who were incarcerated, on top of that environmental justice advocates, sustainability experts, this committee is going to do a lot to determine resilient, sustainable use for Rikers Island going forward. And then Intro 1593-A would require the Mayor""s Office of Sustainability to study the feasibility of constructing renewable energy sources on Rikers Island. This is really exciting, as our biggest challenge going forward is going to be fighting climate change and protecting the city, protecting our people, protecting the earth, Rikers Island could be an important part of that as a place we could potentially create a lot of renewable energy for this city. So, this is a very important bill. And as I mentioned in the effort to protect public integrity, Intro 374-A disqualifies – this bill would disqualify people from holding city elected office if they have been convicted of felonies or convicted of an attempt or conspiracy to commit a felony related to public corruption.
I want to thank everyone who""s been a part of the process of preparing this legislation, bringing it forward. Our Correction Commissioner, Cynthia Brann, DCAS Commissioner Lisette Camilo, Chief Climate Policy Advisor Daniel Zarrilli, and, of course, from the City Council, Speaker Cory Johnson. And now I want to let the sponsors speak for themselves. First, my pleasure to introduce someone who""s done so much to fight global warming here in this city. It""s a passion for him. He is chair of the Environmental Protection Committee and sponsor of Intros 1592-A, and 1593-A, Council Member Costa Constantinides. Council Member, can you hear us? Maybe on mute? He""s on mute. Let""s try again. Council Member?
[…] Mayor: Thank you so much, Council Member. Thank you for your good work on this issue. And now, again, turning into a very different issue, but also crucial for our City, fighting against corruption and ensuring integrity in public life – someone who epitomizes real public service and stays connected to the people of his district. And I""ve always admired his real sense of the grassroots. I""ll tell you, folks in the grassroots really don""t want to see the wrong folks in public service. So, I appreciate Council Member Justin Brennan, you""ve brought forward this legislation. We want to hear from you. […] Thank you so much, Council Member. Really appreciate the heart you""re bringing to this. And I can tell this is something that really strikes you, as someone who knows we have to do this work the right way and especially, you""re right, at a moment where there""s a lot of distrust. This is one of the things we do to restore trust. So, thank you for your leadership. Now, we""ve got folks who have signed up for public testimony. I""ll just call out each one in turn. […] Thank you. That""s very nice of you, I appreciate it. And yes, today we""re going to do something wonderful. Let me just summarize quickly, a few sentences in Spanish to summarizing everything we""re doing here today. [Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish] And with that, we will sign the bills. Ten pens – [Mayor de Blasio signs Intros 374-A, 1592-A, 1593-A] These bills are now all law. I congratulate everyone who worked so hard to get us to this day. Thank you for your great efforts. And, with that, this hearing is adjourned.