NYC NOW - December 5, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

The Uniformed Firefighters Association is pushing back against budget cuts approved by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Also, a new report finds the number of millionaires living in New York has grown by about 30 percent since the start of the pandemic. And finally, WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen talks with Yoav Gonen, a reporter for "The City," about an investigation into Mayor Adams’ Director of Asian Affairs, Winnie Greco.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. The increase in fires will continue well into the spring. There couldn't possibly be a worse time for this cut. The Uniformed Firefighters Association is pushing back against budget cuts approved by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Members say the department is removing the position known as the fifth firefighter from 20 engine companies, cutting up. the staffing by 20%.

City Council member Joanne Ariola is chair of the committee on fire and emergency management. Fifth firefighters are crucial because they help take the strain and stress or fellow engine crews and thereby reducing the likelihood of injury.

The union says having that additional fifth firefighter can cut the time it takes to put a fire out. Adam says the cuts are necessary to bridge the city's deficit driven by migrant care spending and the expiration of federal pandemic aid. Researchers continue to examine the exodus of New Yorkers during the early days of the

COVID pandemic and whether that trend has come to a halt. WMYC's John Campbell reports on a pair of new reports issued this week. State Comptroller Tom DiNaple's office found more than one out of every hundred taxpayers moved out of New York State in 2020. A separate report from the nonprofit Fiscal Policy Institute found the exodus was driven by wealthier people from New York City who could work from home. But the left-leaning think tank also says the rate of wealthy people leaving the state leveled off in 2022, and now lower income people are leaving at higher rates. The Institute says that's evidence New York's high taxes aren't driving the wealthy out.

Governor Kathy Hochel has already said she won't raise income taxes in next year's state budget. Stick around. We'll be back after the break. New York City's Department of Investigation is looking into allegations that the director of Asian affairs, Winnie Greco, inappropriately benefited from her government job. Joav Gonen is a reporter for the city. He helped break the story last week and talked with WNYC's Tiffany Hansen about it. First of all, tell us a little bit more about Winnie Greco's background. How did she get into Adams' inner circle? Her road to his inner circle was a little bit unusual. She was an unpaid volunteer for Adams while he served as Brooklyn Borough president for eight years. And this was a volunteer, not like somebody who comes in, you know, a handful of hours a week and chips in. But she was kind of a ubiquitous presence at his side. Whenever he attended Chinese American events in the borough, and there were a lot of these. She spent many hours.

essentially introducing him to business people, setting up meetings and events for him, including with some Chinese government officials. She even took him on a couple of trips to China that a nonprofit that she's set up helped pay for. Even in this unpaid role, she was kind of an unofficial fundraiser for Adams, but she was very prolific at it. She raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his mayoral campaign in 2021. and seemingly got no compensation for her work.

The campaign says she played no official role and that she was not paid by the campaign. Fast forward. She's now in the Adams administration. So talk about her role as Asian Affairs Director. What does that involve? It appears so far that it is not as much kind of a policy role as one might think,

you know, when it comes to addressing issues like, you know, Asian hate. but she's essentially kind of serving as a gatekeeper for members of the Asian community who want to access the mayor either for events or meetings. She's a go-to person. So let's talk about the investigation you reported on. Where does that stand? What do you know about it so far?

We reported a number of what I would describe as ethical concerns about conduct that we heard from a number of people. one is that, you know, in order for people to access events at Gracie Mansion with the mayor, these are government events with the mayor, she requested donations to the nonprofit I mentioned earlier, the one that she launched is essentially an entrance fee to these government events. And we're talking not small donations, but more, you know, in the $10,000 range. And she also required a 33-year-old tech worker who spoke. to us. He told us he wanted a job in the administration, and she said, if you volunteer with the mayor's

campaign at the end of it, if he wins, you're going to get a job. When that moment came in and the mayor won, she said, actually, you're going to need to do one more thing for me, and that involved helping out with renovation work at her home in the Bronx. And this was unpaid work for two months, according to what the tech worker told us. Any idea what kind of penalty she could face from this investigation, depending on how it all lands? You know, we asked the Department of Investigation, and we asked City Hall for, you know,

which aspects of her potential misconduct were referred to DOI for its investigation, and neither of them would say. So we're not entirely clear on what they're investigating, but certainly the issue with the tech worker, is she did land him a job after he did the renovation work. But she continued to ask him to do work on her home, including during work hours as far as a tech worker told us. And she also required him, you know, in the middle of his workday,

to come to her office and help her translate her work emails from Chinese to English and to respond to some of these emails for her. And the worker said that when he started refusing, some of these requests, their relationship soured. And after one year in his job, he was terminated. So, you know, her relationship with a subordinate and making certain requirements, that's certainly a violation of conflicts of interest rules. The board can do anything from impose a fine, you know, of several thousand dollars. It could also, in theory, recommend termination. Have we heard anything from Mayor Adams or Greco herself on this?

Through City Hall, she denied any wrongdoing, and the mayor is essentially saying he's known her for a long time and he's never known her to do anything, you know, unethical or out of the ordinary. They have a very close relationship. So I guess it's not surprising that he would stand by her. I can't overemphasize what a prolific fundraiser she was. And again, seemingly for no compensation, She's definitely made very good connections with the mayor and the Chinese American community. And that was integral to the mayor winning the Democratic primary, which he only won by about 7,000 votes. That's Yulav Gonen, a reporter for the city talking with WNYC's Tiffany Hanson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Junae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

Thank you.