NYC NOW - April 17, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey faces "abuse of authority" charges from the department’s oversight agency, New York City Council demands higher arts funding for public schools, and legislation aimed at regulating batteries in e-bikes and e-scooters in NYC is in the works after recent fires. And lastly, 9,000 Rutgers faculty members resume work as their three unions end an unprecedented 5-day strike. WNYC's Michael Hill and reporter Karen Yi discuss.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, April 17th. Here's your midday news from Lance Lucky. The NYPD's Oversight Agency has issued a single charge of abuse of authority against Chief of Department Jeffrey Madri. The Civilian Complaint Review Board determined that Madri abused his power when he called off the 2021 arrest of Officer Krathoff Forrester,

a retired cop who was apprehended after threatening three teens with a gun in Brooklyn. Madri was serving as the NYPD's Chief of Community Affairs at the time he revoked the arrest. Madri faces the loss of up to 10 vacation days, according to the CCRB. By disciplinary action will ultimately be up to police commissioner Kishant Sewell. The New York City Council is calling on Mayor Adams to increase funding for the arts in public schools. It comes after many schools were forced to reduce programming because of budget cuts last year. Rita Joseph leads the council. Council's Education Committee.

I still have my music notebook from middle school till today. So those skills are lifelong skills. If we really use the model educating the whole child, music, theater, dance, art should also be incorporated. The Council is calling for an additional $80 million to pay for arts in schools. Lawmakers also want to see more funding for the city's free preschool program. But earlier this month, Mayor Adams said all city agencies must find ways to reduce spending because of higher costs in an uncertain economy. And today, the City Council will address the recent fires and deaths caused by e-bike and e-scooter batteries when it hears two pieces of legislation. One would establish a program to provide reduced cost or free lithium-ion batteries.

The other would require businesses to store batteries in fireproof containers. There have been 59 battery-related fires this year. Five people have died. Michael Hill. As you've been hearing after a historic five-day strike, Rutgers University teachers are returning to the class from this morning. Three unions representing 9,000 faculty members announced they were suspending the strike over the weekend after reaching an agreement with university officials. W.W.WIC's Karen Yee joins us now with the latest. Karen, good morning. Good morning, Michael. What a week it has been. What can you tell us about what Rutgers University and the unions have agreed upon? Yeah, it was quite a historic, unprecedented week of picketing and protests and these marathon negotiation sessions that were taking place at the statehouse in Trenton.

And then the news hit that the unions were hitting pause on the strike that came in around one in the morning on Saturday. Governor Phil Murphy, who has really put his weight on this scale in these negotiations, announced the framework agreement. And that's important to note that this is not actually a tentative agreement that the faculty members will be voting on. There's still a lot of bargaining left to do this week. But university administrators agreed to meet the core of many of what the unions were asking for, better pay and better job security, particularly for adjuncts and graduate workers. speaking during a union meeting this weekend, Amy Higer, the president of the adjuncts faculty union,

called this a historic win. Those in our community at Rutgers who have the most on the faculty, who get paid the highest, who have the most job security, were in this fight, not for themselves, but for those who had the least. That is really important, and we should all know that. So to be clear, the strike is merely on pause, and the unions can hit that unpause button at any moment if they feel that the university isn't following through on this generally agreed to framework. Karen, what are some of the wins for the unions and what remains unresolved? A lot of the big wins are for the adjuncts who are called part-time lectures,

and they teach about a third of the courses. Their pay per credit will increase 44% over the life of this four-year contract, from a base of about 5,800 per class to 8,300 for three-credit class in 2025. And that also comes with job security. Adjuncts who have taught a certain number of credits for two years will get a year-long contract instead of having to reapply every semester, and longer-term adjuncts will get two-year contracts. Graduate workers are also winning more money. They'll get about $40,000 for an academic year appointment in 2025. That's up from $30,000.

There's also job security and more pay for non-tenured full-time professors. But the unions are still negotiating trying to get health care for adjuncts and the biomedical health faculty. union that represents medical faculty really did not get the core of their demands met. And that includes parental leave. Here's Kathy Montalione, who's the president of that union. Unbelievably, they won't give doctors, researchers, health care professionals parental leave. I mean, how they did offer to give us parental leave and take away much of our sick time. That is an insult to doctors who were on the line in COVID. So many biomedical union members couldn't strike last week because they were treating patients or doing essential lab work.

But Montalione urged the Redker's community to continue to support them as the negotiations continue this week. Karen, we know, as you reported, that Governor Murphy was involved in this process. Tell us more about that, his role. Right. On the first day of the strike, Murphy called both sides to negotiate under his watch. But he was clear that he wasn't just overseeing the negotiations, but that he was playing a support. substantial role, including considering giving state funds. The governor's office has not specifically said how much or confirmed that money will come from the state, but obviously anything that would be coming from the state budget would need to be approved by the state legislature.

Now, based on what you're telling us, Karen, is that not everything has been solved at this point. So what should we expect this week? Right. Negotiations are continuing between the unions and the university, but they're going to happen in New Brunswick, no longer at the statehouse in Trenton. students are back after a week off from classes. And once this tentative agreement is secured, that will then go to the members for a ratification vote. And then that could trigger retroactive raises. And I'm not sure how quickly that could happen.

Karen, you covers New Jersey for WNYC. She's keeping an eye on the Rutgers situation there. Karen, thanks for your reporting. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WN. NYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.