NYC NOW - Midday News: City Council Asks Elections Board to Block Housing Ballot Questions, Gov. Hochul Weighs Bill Requiring Two-Person Subway Crews, and EMS Worker Shortage Lengthens 911 Response Times

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

City Council leaders have asked the Board of Elections to block three proposed ballot questions that could speed up housing development while limiting Council power. Meanwhile, Governor Kathy Hochul must decide whether to sign a bill requiring two-person crews on subway trains, a move the Transport Workers Union says is critical for safety but the MTA warns could raise costs. Plus, New York City is struggling to keep enough ambulance workers on the streets, with union leaders warning that record turnover and stalled contract talks are driving longer waits for 911 emergency response. Vice president of the FDNY EMS officers union Anthony Almojera joins us to explain.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, September 8th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A political tariff war over New York City housing decisions has a new front of the city's board of elections. WNIC's David Brand reports. The board usually plays a procedural role. If a city commission proposes rule changes, the board rubber stamps them and they appear on the ballot is questions for voters to decide. Not this time. City Council leaders have asked the board

to block three ballot questions that, if approved, could speed up housing development and limit council power. The board's now weighing whether it has the authority to do that and will decide at a meeting tomorrow. Supporters of the ballot questions say the board does not have that power and that the changes are needed to address the city's housing crisis. It is now up to Governor Hockel whether to halt efforts to bring automation to New York City's subway system. double-addle-bein-my-Case John Campbell reports. The governor has until the end of the year to sign or veto a bill that would mandate two-person crews on New York City passenger trains.

That's how most of the city's trains operate now. But other cities have one-person or even fully automated trains, something that transport workers' union opposes. Union President John Samuelson says it's a matter of safety. To think that one person could evacuate several hundred hundred of people off a train on a bench wall or across the tracks to safety is absolute insanity. Hockel and the MTA haven't taken a position on the bill. But in June, MTA CEO Jan O'Leber raised concern about its cost.

67 and sunny right now. Sunny in 73 for a high in the city today. And then tomorrow sunny and 74, Wednesday, partly sunny 72. Thursday, we shoot up to near 80 degrees. Stay tuned for more after the break. It's all things considered on double Ewen YAC. I'm Sean Carlson. New York City is struggling to keep enough ambulance workers on the streets, and that's impacting how long New Yorkers have to wait to get emergency medical attention when they called 911.

Turnover is hitting record highs, and it comes as EMS workers are going on their third year without a contract. That's according to Anthony Alamajara. He's an FDNY EMS lieutenant. and the vice president of the FDMI EMS Officers Union, one of the two unions that represent FDMI EMS workers in New York City. A heads up, this interview includes discussion of suicide. So Anthony, EMS workers have been fighting for better pay for years.

Can you just tell us where negotiations stand right now on that? At the moment, they're at a bit of a standstill. There isn't any negotiating going on, in our opinion, from the city side. They are sticking to a civilian pattern offer of, 16.25%. They're not even offering us the uniform patterns as they offered the cops and firefighters and sanitation workers, et cetera. This has led to tremendous pay gaps. Can you talk about the differences between civilian and uniformed services? So civilian service are what other city workers do, such as 311, et cetera. Uniform services are the people who actually are considered first responders

are essential. NYPD, firefighters, sanitation workers, corrections, and we have been uniformed since 2005 approximately. We have never been offered the uniform wage package. We have never been treated as uniform service. We respond to emergencies. We have same training as firefighters and cops. We've been killed in the line of duty. We had members at 9-11 who continually die. We lost 10 members to COVID. I've had another additional 14 suicide since 2020. So everything that we do points to us being in the same group as the other uniformed services, except that the city and the fire department refused to recognize that.

Now, the stalled contract negotiations, are they affecting ambulance response times in a real way? Is it a public safety concern? 100%. the lack of adequate pay and benefits has led to a massive rate of attrition. According to the fire department, we're losing 10 to 15 people a week. For the first time, since I've been on the job, we have not been able to fill the academy classes to backfill the people who are leaving this job. You combine that with a doubling of the call volume since when I first started.

We are averaging between 5 and 6,911 EMS calls a day. It's a recipe for disaster. Your major cardiac arrests, motor vehicle accidents, strokes, heart attacks, etc. The response time now, I think, is between 9 and 10 minutes. And just to give you a frame of reference, biological death is after 6 minutes. So if you go into cardiac arrest, you want us there within the first 6 minutes. It's doing our intervention, CPR, et cetera. You pointed out that EMS workers were on the front lines of the pandemic.

It was a very traumatic time, of course, for everybody, but in particular, EMS workers and other folks in the healthcare industry. What has been the long-term effect of that on the workers? So the effect on EMS workers since the pandemic has been a tremendous burnout. I myself am monitoring 40 other people who have reached out to me that's stating they had thoughts of hurting themselves or committing suicide. I myself went down that road shortly after the pandemic. I was going to kill myself. And it was only when I thought about the people I love and how I never gave them the opportunity to at least hear me and let them know that I am struggling.

And they deserve to hear that. And that snapped me out of that. You mentioned all these reasons why it is so hard to retain EMS workers. And you've spoken about your own struggles very eloquently. So I want to ask you, why do you stay? Why do you keep doing it? Because I'm crazy. To go to somebody's house and they're not breathing. And by the time you get to the hospital, they're talking to you. To deliver a baby, which I've delivered 16 personally and many others, of course, have delivered them.

I'm not there to arrest you. I'm there solely for you and you're suffering. And sometimes you don't want me there. We have been assaulted. I'm upwards of 400 times this year in counting. The reason why I do this job is because, in its essence, it is truly being there for your fellow human being. And there's no other job like it. And it's a beautiful job.

And it deserves to be seen that way by the others. And we've come to the conclusion that the reason why it's not seen by that by the city of the department is because my service is 60% roughly minority and growing. and about 40% female, and that's the basis of our lawsuit. We have proven that all things are equal. The only thing that's different is we're really diverse. We reflect New York City. That was Anthony Alamajara, an FDNY EMS lieutenant and the vice president of the FDNY EMS officers union,

one of the two unions that represent FDNY EMS workers in New York City. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. A city hall spokesperson said in his statement that the Adams administration has a proven track record of reaching fair labor agreements with represented employees and the city remains in negotiations with the EMS union. FDNY said in a statement, they are always working to ensure EMS members get the help they need, such as through their counseling service unit. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call 9888 or visit NYC 988 online.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday. three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.