NYC NOW - February 5, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

Dwayne Montgomery, a retired NYPD inspector, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge after being accused of orchestrating a "straw donor" scheme for Mayor Eric Adams' 2021 campaign. Plus, a special election is underway in New York's 3rd District to replace George Santos. And finally WNYC’s David Furst and Elizabeth Kim discuss last week’s showdown between the New York City Council and Mayor Eric Adams over two criminal justice reform bills.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. A retired NYPD inspector accused of orchestrating a straw donor scheme for Mayor Eric Adams' campaign has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge. Prosecutors say Duane Montgomery arranged to circumvent campaign donation limits by having people contribute to the Adams campaign in exchange. for money. He's one of six accused in the scheme. Two others already pleaded guilty. The Adams campaign has said it's cooperating with authorities. Montgomery is not expected to serve jail time

and will be sentenced in April. A special election is underway in New York's third district to replace George Santos. But it's not the only special election happening. WNYC's Tiffany Hanson has more. Assembly member Latoya Joyner announced last month that she'd accepted a job outside government. Joyner, who represented the Bronx 77th Assembly District, had been in office since 2015. She quickly rose in the ranks to become the chair of the Powerful Assembly Labor Committee.

Voting is underway in a special election to name Joyner's replacement for the district, which includes Claremont, Highbridge, Mount Eden, and Morris Heights. On the ballot, our Democrat Landon Days and Republican Norman McGill. In-person early voting ends Sunday, February 11th. Election Day is 50. February 13th.

The New York City Council is feeling empowered after last week's battle against Mayor Adams over two criminal justice reform bills. More on that after the break. Last week, the City Council overwrote Mayor Adams' veto of two major bills, dealing with his signature issue, public safety. My colleague David First talked with WMYC's Elizabeth Kim about the showdown with the City Council and the impact the two bills will have on New Yorkers. Before we get to the politics, let's talk about these bills.

What can New Yorkers expect now that they're becoming law? The police stops law is about getting more data to track discriminatory policing. Police will now be required to report perceived demographic information for all stops involving an investigation. What this legislation does is it adds what's known as a level one encounter that does, doesn't involve criminal suspicion of the person. And another veto that was overridden, the bill to ban solitary confinement comes after years of debate in New York City. Talk us through what the new rules are. This sets new rules on when and how long a person in jail can be isolated from the general population.

As you said, there's been years of debates and efforts by the city to limit the use of isolation in jail. that comes from expert testimony that the practice essentially amounts to torture and horrible stories from inmates who've experienced isolation. Listeners might remember Khalif Browder. He was a 16-year-old who was placed in solitary confinement for two years at Rikers after being accused of stealing a backpack. After he got out in 2015, he hung himself, and that led the city to ban solitary confinement for all detainees.

21 and younger. Under this new law, there will be a four-hour limit on isolating all detainees who are a risk to themselves or others. And it also puts in new rules for the use of what's called restrictive housing. This is an area where detainees who are deemed to be dangerous had been isolated from the general population for as long as 23 hours. Now, all people in jails, must have at least 14 hours of time outside their cells in shared spaces. Okay. And why did the mayor want to prevent these bills from becoming law? The mayor says these bills will make the city less safe. With respect to the police transparency bill, he says having to report low-level stops will overly burden officers.

Counsel Speaker Adrian Adams has said that the NYPD is a police force with the greatest technology in the world. She argues it shouldn't be that hard for police officers to fill out some demographic data using their smartphones. And regarding the solitary confinement bill, Adams has spent less time opposing this legislation, but nonetheless, he has maintained that the city doesn't use solitary confinement. Now, it's a little bit of semantics, but in the end, his concern that placing restrictions on how to manage violent detainees will only end up hurting jail staffers and other detainees. Well, the mayor of New York City has a lot of power, according to the city charter and a pretty big megaphone, right? What did Mayor Adams do to try to stop these bills?

Depending on how you look at it, it was a lot. The mayor spent weeks attacking the bill, and he chose some unusual settings. He talked about it at a bar mitzvah. He talked about it at a gala for real estate executives where he scolded the audience for not doing enough to help him fight the bill. And of course, he did a media blitz on the bill. But it was also too little too late when it came to directly lobbying the people that mattered. And that's the council. The mayor did not get involved in the bill until nearly 10 months after negotiations had started between his legislative team and that of the speaker. By then, the bill had already aged, meaning that it couldn't be changed. If you talk to City Hall experts,

that was a blunder. If the bill was that important to him, he needed to have conversations with the speaker and other members much sooner. This is actually the second time the council has overridden the mayor's veto. Tell us about the first. And is this pretty unusual? Yes. Last year, the council proposed a package of bills that would make it easier for low-income people. to access rental subsidies. The mayor said that it was just too expensive, but the council passed it overwhelmingly. The mayor then vetoed it and he got overridden. A veto override has been a rare occurrence in recent years.

De Blasio never issued a single veto over his two terms. This is a return to the Bloomberg error where there were more clashes between the two governing bodies in City Hall. Still, I've talked to one long-time political expert who tells me that there is something different about this council. It's certainly the most diverse council we've ever had and also the most progressive. So you'd expect more pushback to a mayor who, you can argue, is right of center on certain issues. So really asserting their power, what does this mean going forward? Is the mayor losing his ability to govern without counsel approval? Being defeated by the council not just once but twice now is never a good thing for a mayor.

There are some people who have argued that this moment might turn into a win for the mayor because it solidifies his status as the law and order mayor who's tough on crime. And that was essentially what got him elected. So he can show he fought for his side. Yes. And if in fact there is an uptick in crime, he can blame the council and say, See what happened? I oppose these rules. And, you know, this is making the city less safe, just like I warned you. But it's undeniable that he is politically vulnerable now. His campaign is facing a federal corruption investigation. Now, he personally has not been implicated, but it is casting a shadow over his mayoralty. He has historically low approval ratings. And part of that is tied to his handling of the migrant. crisis. And the council knows all of this. The bill override demonstrated that they are willing to stand together against an unpopular mayor and not be cowed by him. We're going to find out very soon how emboldened this council really is. The two sides have budget negotiations coming up,

and the council wants to restore cuts the mayor made. That's WMYC's Elizabeth Kim, talking with my colleague, David Furze. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.