Office Of The Mayor Of New York City: Transcript: Mayor De Blasio Appears On Inside City Hall

Press release from Office of the Mayor of New York City:

September 13, 2021

Errol Louis: Welcome back to Inside City Hall. The city’s1.1 million public school students are back in the classroom as of today for the first time since the start of the pandemic with no remote option. Here now to talk about the first day of school and more, we've got Mayor de Blasio, joining us from the Blue Room inside City Hall. Welcome, Mr. Mayor.  

Mayor Bill de Blasio: It's good to be with you, Errol. Happy recovery day.   

Louis: Recovery day –  

Mayor: Kids are back – kids are back.   

Louis: Well, let's figure it out. How did the first day go? What's your sense of the numbers so far? I know it's early, but as far as who showed up and who stayed out.  

Mayor: Yeah. We're waiting for the formal reports, but I can tell you I just spoke to the Chancellor a few minutes ago and she's hearing great things around the city. I mean, very smooth opening, numbers seem strong. We're waiting for, you know, more and more information as the day goes by, but it's – I'll tell you, I was at P.S. 25 in the Bronx this morning, incredible energy, kids definitely ready to get back to school. I talked to kids that hadn't been in school in a year-and-a-half, and they're ready, parents ready to see their kids go someplace else for a little while, and a lot of staff, a lot of teachers really excited to have kids back. But, so far, we're hearing really, really good things.  

Louis: As you may know, a lot of parents had problems trying to do their morning health checks. The system apparently crashed. I guess that's what happens when you ask over a million people to check in within a short timeframe, but you're asking them to do that every morning. Do we have that problem fixed? Do we have the literal bandwidth?      Mayor: Yeah. As I understand it, and I'll get more information on it, but, you know, while I was in the Bronx this morning, it had already been fixed. So, by the time I left that school around 8:30, 8:45, something like that, it was already fixed. So, I think we had a little challenge this morning. We immediately instructed all schools, just do, you know, the paper version of the screening and check in with kids, make sure if any child isn't feeling well to go to the nurse's office immediately. That apparently worked fine, but it is up and running again. We'll keep checking on it. I think we're going to be able to handle it okay, going forward.      Louis: Okay. Let's talk about some other City offices, not just the schools. Today's the day that City workers are all supposed to be back at their desks. The unions for some municipal workers have criticized the idea, they're saying that there's no particular reason to bring everybody back. Is this being driven by productivity issues? Or has there been any rethinking of what can actually continue to be done remotely?      Mayor: Well, that's a bunch of things at once. I mean, right? First and foremost, the level of vaccination – 5.6 million New Yorkers have had at least one dose. So, we're now at the point of two-thirds of all New Yorkers – 78 percent of all adults have had at least one dose and that number is climbing regularly now. So, it's a very, very different environment. And you can see what's happening, the trend line with COVID with the Delta variant. We've had some really good weeks. We feel confident this is the right timing for that reason. Second, productivity absolutely – impact. We could not achieve the same thing remote that we could in person. And now, things are really heating up in terms of recovery. The whole City is coming back off the summer. The schools are back. It was the right time to get our employees back. Third, it encourages vaccination that people be in person. You know, we now have for all City employees, as of today, depending on who they are, either a pure vaccination mandate, or vaccination or test mandate. For those in the latter category, being in person with their supervisors gives us much more ability to make sure that's being done rigorously. And what that's going to mean is if it's done rigorously, a lot of people are going to choose the vaccination option because testing every week is a challenge. So, it's systematic. It was time for this moment, because we saw the right trend with COVID and the right moment to maximize the impact.      Louis: While you control the vast majority of City employees, the City Comptroller and the Public Advocate are both saying that they're not going to abide by that guidance. Does it undermine your mission when the other two citywide elected officials are going in a different direction?      Mayor: No. It's politics in one way, obviously. And, look, I'm not saying there aren't people that don't have that view, but I guess they're out of step with the President of United States and 78 percent of New York City adults who have already gotten one dose. I mean, it’s just – I don't buy it. I think the productive thing, the smart thing, the thing that will actually help is for all elected officials, everyone in a position to make their voice heard should have one message – everyone get vaccinated, everyone come back to the workplace and do it the right way, which is by getting vaccinated. If everyone's vaccinated, we're not even having the same COVID discussion anymore. So, it just should be one singular strategy – vaccination.      Louis: Out of all the municipal workers who are covered under your requirement to either get vaccinated or tested, among the lowest is the NYPD – they've got a little more than half of the employees vaccinated so far. Officials were forced to at least revise some of their directives concerning how officers get tested and whether they can work while they're waiting for their results. How was the mandate going over in the Department? And there are other agencies as well with pretty low rates.      Mayor: I think you're going to see some real changes in these next days as a result of the mandate. I mean, this is why mandates are so important. President Biden has bought into mandates deeply and in a lot of what he's doing follows the work that New York City started with mandates for public employees or mandates in terms of indoor dining, entertainment, fitness. And we proved it on the ground, it's having an impact. Right now, in New York City, we’ve got 78 percent of adults have had at least one dose. When have you ever heard 78 percent of New York City adults agree on anything else, Errol? And, on top of that, we're seeing really impressive movement in terms of more and more communities coming forward. Right now, the Latino community, for example, went from a community that was very underrepresented in vaccination to now being very strong, in fact, by our records, an even higher rate of vaccination in the white community. That's crucial. That means all of these mandates and incentives are working. We intend to go deeper and deeper. So, in terms of NYPD, this'll be the first week that people are dealing with vaccinate or test. You're going to see a lot of people come forward with proof of vaccination. If they got vaccinated in the suburbs before and we didn't have that record, we'll now have it. You'll see other people are going to make the decision to get vaccinated, because it's a hell of a lot more convenient and safer. And then some will go through the testing approach, but we think a lot of people over time are going to make the decision to come forward and get vaccinated.      Louis: Okay. The other category, of course, are indoor vaccine requirements. Enforcement begins today for a requirement for indoor dining and for gyms. Although the policy's been around since like mid-August, I think at least a month now, and COVID cases began to slowly kind of level off here in the city, is the policy already showing signs of success, do you think?      Mayor: Oh yeah, there's no question. Look, when you look at the rate recently, you know, we had a period where things slowed down with vaccination, for sure. And then when we put the mandates in place, and the hundred dollars incentive, very, very important, we started to see those numbers jump up. And so, now a typical day, you're talking 20,000 or more, 30,000 or more – people getting a shot, either the first or second shot. You do that often enough, that's really going to add up. We've passed 11 million doses. 5.6 million people have had at least one dose. I mean, these are staggering figures, but they're going to keep growing intensely. And, I think, the indoor entertainment, food, fitness mandate that had a real interesting, positive, double effect. It's the customers, of course, particularly a lot of younger folks for whom – they weren't against the vaccine, they just, you know, maybe they felt a little invincible, maybe they had questions. But once they found out this is where some of the things that they really want to be a part of – you know, this gets decided by whether you have a vaccination or not when you go to the restaurant, the bar, or the concert, that's moving a lot of young folks. Also, employees – a lot of employees were willing – they didn't necessarily want it yet, but they were willing. And once it was a matter of making a decision related to their job, they're making that decision in favor of vaccination. So, this is why we use incentives and mandates and, clearly, the numbers are proving the strategy works.       Louis: Okay. Let's take a short break right now. Stand by, Mr. Mayor. We'll be back in a minute with more questions for the Mayor. Stay with us.      […]      Louis: Welcome back to Inside City Hall. I’m once again joined by Mayor de Blasio, who's coming to us from the Blue Room. Mr. Mayor, we reported on Friday that Ross McDonald, the Chief Medical Officer for the City's Correctional Health Services, that's part of Health + Hospitals is asking the City Council to request State or federal assistance, specifically says that there is a “new and worsening emergency that has developed over the course of the last year.” He's referring to the suicides and other health issues that are going on there. And he says that failing to get outside help would be “gross mismanagement.” So, I wanted to get your reaction to that.     Mayor: I haven't seen the details of that statement. I want to see it. Correctional Health has done really extraordinary work in the last year-and-a-half, incredibly difficult circumstance. And, last year, Errol, we worked very closely – City Hall with Correctional Health to determine how to get about 1,600 prisoners – I should say, inmates – out for humane reasons. And, since then, a lot of great work has done to protect everyone, employees and inmates alike from the challenges of COVID, and they've actually done a very good job with that. But we've got a lot going on because of COVID. There's been a lot of horrible, negative multiplier effects because of COVID that we have to deal with. So, I've certainly – we've already been talking to Albany about a lot of changes we need and legislation that we need. We're ready to work with any other level of government to get help to address the issues we're facing, for sure.      Louis: There were a number of local officials who went to visit, just today, as a matter of fact, and they're also calling it an emergency. They're saying that as an emergency stop gap measure, more people, perhaps, need to be released, I imagine particularly those who are being charged with non-violent offenses. Is that possible?      Mayor: Look, right now, I think the way to solve this that would be the fastest and the most effective is to get some support on the State level, and we're talking to our State partners about that. That would immediately lead to hundreds and hundreds of inmates leaving Rikers, that's the single biggest impact and the right way to go about it. Of course, we need the court system to start moving. You’ve got people that have been waiting a long time for trial. Their cases get adjudicated. They either go home or go wherever they're sentenced. Those are the pieces that would move the picture overwhelmingly. That's where we want to focus. We'll look at, obviously, a variety of tools, but those are the two where you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of inmates at a time who would no longer have to be in Rikers.      Louis: Let me switch topics. There's a man under arrest in connection with a car crash yesterday in Brooklyn, where an infant was killed after a driver went the wrong way, collided with another car, and so forth. The car involved that over 160 traffic violations tied to it, including, I think, 90-plus violating speeding restrictions in school zones. There's – surely, there's something that can be done here. And I'm thinking, by analogy, of the law at the height of the crack epidemic that enabled the government to seize or take action against landlords that seem to be completely negligent as to what was going on in their property. The owner of a car that has, you know, over a hundred violations of this kind, is there nothing that you or the State can do?      Mayor: So, some great legislation from the City Council that I supported strongly allows us now to seize vehicles, but there has to be a process first. That process is starting now for the first time because the legislation has taken effect. I want to see those vehicles seizures for folks who just recklessly, consistently disobeyed the law and put people in danger. We need help at the State level. The Crash Victims Act, which is passed one house in Legislature and we needed to pass the other house. We need it to get signed. It would be immensely helpful. We need to increase penalties. So, there's a real, painful situation out there – some horrible, reckless people. We've got to make the laws much, much tougher so they're held accountable.      Louis: And, by the way, this was somebody who was doing the old insurance fraud hustle, apparently, using Pennsylvania plates to drive around New York. Is there – is that part of this in any way, shape or form?      Mayor: I would love to see that issue addressed unto itself, because, you know, in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, I see an extraordinary number of people with Vermont license plates, and I don't believe they all live in Vermont, Errol. So, I would love to solve that problem. We need our partners in other states to help us. We probably need stronger penalties there too. I do think it's a related problem. But the most central problem is, folks who are reckless, folks who injure and kill don't sense that they're going to suffer the worst consequences. We have to see the actions taken with the vehicle as the same as with a weapon when they're done recklessly. When there's, you know, reckless endangerment, the worst possible penalties should be available. And, obviously, if it's the lower-level infractions, but it's a consistent pattern, take away the vehicle. We've got progress, again, with that new City law. I want to put that into effect right away, but I'm looking for that to be even strengthened on a City and State level. I think we have to show that there's going to be real consequences.      Louis: Okay. Different topic now – the Civilian Complaint Review Board of the NYPD recently filed charges against two police officers involved in the killing of Kawaski Trawick, the Bronx man who was tasered and then shot to death in his apartment. This was back in 2019, all captured on video. The NYPD has to officially serve the charges so that an administrative trial can begin. When is that going to happen?      Mayor: I don't have the exact timing, but it should happen very quickly. I've seen the video. It's very troubling. It's very sad. There needs to be a full trial here to determine what the truth is and what the right outcome is. We have the discipline matrix now that would determine very specifically penalties if either officer, or both, were found guilty. But we need justice swiftly. I'll certainly get you an answer, because I want to see that proceed quickly.      Louis: Have you ever had a conversation with Commissioner Shea about this specific case?      Mayor: We talk about a number of cases. I'm not going to go into details. Obviously, it's something that's about to go through a judicial process. What I can say is, the Commissioner fundamentally agrees with – he’s one of the people that helped make possible not just the discipline matrix, but the MOU between the CCRB and NYPD. That means everyone will abide by the decisions within the rules set by the discipline matrix. So, it's – and those rules are very tough. Anyone can go online and see them. So, we need this trial to happen. And then we'll follow through according to what the discipline matrix tells us.       Louis: Yeah. I mean, there's a distinction to be made between what happens to individual officers – and, certainly, they need to be accountable and make sure that they follow the rules and so forth. But the NYPD refused to show Mr. Trawick’s family the footage of him being killed, the footage that you just referred to. They didn't let his own family see it for a year. They seem determined to cover up the facts of the case.      Mayor: I don't – I've never heard that, honestly. And I don't have reason to believe that it was anything in the way of coverup. There are sometimes very specific reasons why footage isn't shown, but I don't have those details. I don't want to assume. I'm happy to get you an answer on that as well. I want to make sure there's transparency. We have – this is exactly, again, why we went through a very thorough process for years – it started with Commissioner O'Neill – to fundamentally change and speed up the discipline process, to have a public matrix that said exactly what the penalties will be, to further empower the CCRB with a lot more resources and power to move these cases. We, obviously, release body camera footage regularly. We want to get to the truth in each case and the public to see that there's a public trial and then there's an outcome determined by the matrix.      Louis: But, Mr. Mayor, you don't release body camera footage regularly. We’re in the middle of a lawsuit with your administration because your department won't ever release anything.       Mayor: No. Errol, we've been over this before – “won't ever” is just not accurate. There is a release of body camera footage –      Louis: When it favors the interpretation that the department wants to put out. But I mean, in this specific case, Kawaski Trawick, they didn't show any footage to the family for a year. So, a year has gone by –      Mayor: Errol, I don't know that. Respectfully, I don't know that, and all I’m going to say to you is –      Louis: It has been reported and I’ve brought it up to you before.       Mayor: There's going to be a trial and that's where everything will come out.      Louis: The trial won't begin until after you are no longer mayor, because they delay –       Mayor: I don’t know that, Errol.      Louis: They delayed the process for two years now, Mr. Mayor. It’s over two years since the man was killed.      Mayor: I don't know that that is true about when trial begins. I want to see it begin as quickly as possible, bluntly.      Louis: Broadly speaking, the man was killed in April of 2019. Don’t know what you think there might be something wrong if we're over – like, we're two-and-a-half years later and we’re just starting –      Mayor: Errol, if there hadn't been a global pandemic in between, I would agree with you, 110 percent. But, let's be fair, a huge amount happened in the meantime. A lot has been done to change and improve the process. I agree with you if you say, doesn't it need to be a hell of a lot quicker and better, going forward? Yes. But we've only now gotten a whole new set of better rules, a much stronger CCRB, a discipline matrix. We're in a whole new reality. But that – you know, we lost a lot of that year-and-a-half in that intervening period to a global pandemic. That's just the truth.      Louis: Okay. I guess before we say good night, [inaudible] audience doesn't know this, but we're taping this a little bit early, because you're going to the Met Gala. This is your first appearance at this gala. Did you – is this, I guess, what? Trying to get it in before you before you leave as mayor? Or did Chirlane McCray convince you that it might be fun?      Mayor: It's really about our recovery. I want us to tell you, everyone, a part of the Met Gala is committed this year not only to New York City by holding it, which I appreciate deeply, but the message, the goals of this gala really celebrate diversity, inclusion, the things we need to focus on, the things that make this city great. And it's important, this is an event looked at around the country, around the world. I wanted to support it because it's another example of New York City coming back strong.  

Louis: Okay. Well, this is one of those occasions where it absolutely fits to say, have a ball.   

Mayor: Well played, sir. Well played.    

Louis: We'll see you next week.

This press release was produced by Office of the Mayor of New York City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.