NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Judge Denies Mayor Adams’ Bribery Dismissal Request, CUNY Pay Up for Vote, Domestic Violence Transfer Delays, Winter Village Debate, and Real Estate Lobby Fights Broker Fee Ban

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

A federal judge has denied Mayor Eric Adams’ request to dismiss a bribery charge in his five-count indictment, ruling it’s up to a jury to decide if he broke the law. Meanwhile, more than 30,000 CUNY faculty and staff could see raises and bonuses under a new agreement awaiting union approval. Also, Bryant Park’s Winter Village is sparking fierce debate online as some New Yorkers call it a “tourist-filled nightmare.” Finally, the city’s real estate lobby is suing to block a ruling that shifts broker fee costs onto landlords. WNYC’s David Brand has the latest.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jared Marcel. A federal judge has denied Mayor Eric Adams' request to throw out the bribery charge in the five-count indictment against him. Prosecutors say Adams traded his political influence for over 100,000 in travel perks. The mayor's lawyers argue those were gifts and not illegal. Judge Dale Hull ruled Tuesday that it's up to a jury to decide if Adams broke the law. Either the mayor's office nor his attorneys has responded to a quest for comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office also declined to comment.

More than 30,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York are set to get raises and bonuses under a new labor agreement. If union members are proven, CUNY's Board of Trustees signed off on the deal Monday night. It would cover full-time, part-time, and adjunct faculty, offering raises of about 3% per year retroactively and through 2027. It also includes a one-time bonus of up to $3,000 for each employee. The agreement now goes to the union's Delegate Assembly on Thursday, where they'll decide whether to send it to a full vote. A new report finds some 2,000 New York City public housing residents are awaiting emergency transfers due to domestic violence. The nonprofit legal services NYC says survivors of domestic violence should be getting priority treatment. Instead, they often are waiting years to move despite the safety risks.

The organization is urging the New York City Housing Authority to give survivors this same priority level as other residents who need to move because of dangerous conditions. A NYCHA spokesperson says they're transferring people into new apartments as fast as possible. They say emergency transfers take an average of nearly 800 days to complete. New Yorkers are very divided over one holiday tradition. At least if you believe TikTok, a username Charles Greenwald went viral earlier this month for his hot take on a news. Bryant Park's Winter Village. He called it, quote, a tourist-filled nightmare. And he said he could, quote, barely walk.

It is so crowded. It is a very tight space. It is insanely expensive. And yet there are a lot of interesting and delicious things that are there on offer. And so you show up kind of grouchy. And by the end, you're like, that was pretty fun. And I think I'm in the Christmas spirit now. You can learn more about the flurry of hot takes around this seasonal experience at our news website Gothamist.

Up next, a top real estate lobbyist is suing New York City to try to stop the implementation of a new law that would make landlords responsible for paying broker fees. That story after the break. New York's top real estate lobby is suing to prevent the state. city's broker fee ban from going into effect. The Real Estate Board of New York has filed the lawsuit Monday to stop the Fair Act from going into effect in six months. My colleague Sean Carlson spoke with WNYC reporter, David Brand, who's been covering the story. Okay, David, before we get into the lawsuit, remind listeners what the Fair Act actually does.

All right, Sean. Well, renters listening probably know all about this. You probably had to do this. Most renters in New York City have to pay an upfront fee to a broker. who maybe they've never even met, but as a condition of signing the lease, that could be the equivalent of a month's rent or up to 15% of your annual rent. You hand over a check to the broker. If you sign your lease, you move into the apartment.

The Fair Act, which was approved by the city council just last month, was trying to overhaul that system. And instead, stick whoever hires the broker with the fee. And so that's usually the landlord or the property manager. and it could save tenants thousands of dollars, according to its supporters. Okay, so the Real Estate Board of New York, Rebony, filed a lawsuit. Why do they say that the ban should be disallowed? Sure.

So Rebony, Real Estate Board of New York, just filed this lawsuit along with a group of some of the biggest brokerages that employ these brokers, these agents across the city. They have three main arguments here. So the first is they say it prevents brokers from doing open listings where they're not explicitly hired. by a landlord, but they find a listing. They post it on some type of platform, usually like Craigslist or maybe even Facebook. Some of the other platforms actually prohibit these types of listings, but they're still common elsewhere. So that's one. Second, they say this law will violate existing contracts between brokers and landlords.

So some of these brokerages have exclusive contracts with bigger property owners where there's actually language that says, will represent you, the tenants will pay our fee. So they say now that would be invalidated. And finally, they say this shouldn't be for the city to decide that this is a state requirement. Also should note that this would take effect in June. So it's not like it was going to take effect tomorrow anyway. We still have six months here. Yeah. Have you heard from any legal experts about what they think about this game? Not quite. I mean, the law department says they're reviewing the case. The city law department is now going to be tasked with defending it. It's interesting. situation because Mayor Adams, he was kind of skeptical about it. He didn't sign the bill and he didn't veto it. He let it automatically become law over the weekend. So we'll see what position the law

department takes. So where is this case going to go from here? And what does it mean for the broker fee ban that was passed like you said by the city council? Well, in the lawsuit filed by Rebney and those brokerages, they say they're seeking an injunction to block implementation while it's being litigated. Again, there are still six months here. So this has this has some time to go. It's going to go through the court process. A judge will have to weigh in. I guess it's really unclear what's going to happen. We'll note, though, that a few years ago in 2019, state lawmakers passed a law that was supposed to end broker fees, but it was kind of vaguely worded. And New York's Department of State interpreted it as a ban on broker fees. Rebney immediately

sued and got that injunction while they litigated that case, they ended up winning. The State Department of State retracted their interpretation. And, you know, for rest is history. As we know, we still are playing broker fees. That's WNYC's David Rand in conversation with Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday. Three times a day. I'm Jared Marcel. See you tomorrow.