NYC NOW - October 7, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Police in Jersey City will start working with medical professionals to respond to 911 calls involving mental health crises. Meanwhile, embattled Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks has resigned, adding to the high-ranking departures from Mayor Eric Adams’s administration. WNYC’s politics editor Maia Hibbett explains the impact on the city. Plus, a key congressional race in the Hudson Valley may be influenced by a lesser-known Working Families Party candidate. WNYC’s Brigid Bergin reports.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news and and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jared Marcel. Police in Jersey City will begin partnering with local medical professionals to respond to some 911 calls where people are experiencing mental health crises. It's part of a state program called Arrived Together that launched in 2021. Plainclothes officers and mental health providers from Jersey City Medical Center will initially team up two to three days a week to respond to calls when appropriate. Jersey City is the second municipality in Hudson County after Bayonne to join the program. The city's police department is currently facing a lawsuit from the family of a man who was shot and killed by police last year while he was experiencing a mental health crisis.

As you've been hearing, Philip Banks, the embattled deputy mayor for public safety and a longtime confident of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, has been the latest high-ranking official to resign from the administration. His departure comes as multiple investigations swirl around City Hall. To help us break down the latest developments, we're joined by WNYC's politics editor, Maya Hibbitt. Hey, Maya. Hey. So remind us who Banks is his background and how he came to be deputy mayor for public safety. Yeah, so Philip Banks is a longtime cop.

He was in the NYPD for 27 years. and he's also the brother of the school's chancellor, David Banks, who, like Philip, is on his way out. The family goes way back with Mayor Eric Adams. And it was actually kind of controversial when Adams first appointed Banks to his job as deputy mayor for public safety. Because about a decade ago, Philip Banks was the top uniformed officer in the NYPD when he resigned very suddenly in 2014. As it turned out later, he was an unindicted co-conspirator in this broad scandal. And at trial, the evidence came out that he had accepted numerous gifts and he had traveled abroad with two Brooklyn businessmen who were ultimately convicted of bribing high-ranking

police officials. Right. So Philip Banks' resignation comes amid several ongoing federal investigations. How was he connected to these investigations? And what can you tell us about the circumstances? surrounding his departure. So even with everything that's come out in the past couple weeks, it's still kind of limited. We know there are at least five investigations into Adams administration officials, four of them federal and one of them is local. And the Banks brothers appear to be

ensnared in at least one of the federal ones. The New York Times reported it's a bribery inquiry that's focused on the younger brother, Terence Banks. He's not in the Adams administration, but Terrence ran a consulting firm that boasted a lot of business with clients who had business before the city. Now, Terrence is alleged to be involved in some bribery scheme, and as we know, Adams was indicted on bribery charges. But we don't know if that's the same scheme or the same scandal or if they're totally separate. Now, let's zoom out for a bit. With Banks being the seventh senior official to head for the door in recent weeks, What does his abrupt exit mean for Mayor Adams and the broader fallout from these scandals?

So it means perhaps kind of obviously that Adams has a lot of empty chairs right now. He's had several people either resign or announce their plans to resign in the coming weeks. And it might be difficult for him to fill those jobs given how much scandal and scrutiny there is of his administration. At the same time, it could actually be indicative that Adams is doing what the governor of New York, Kathy Hockel, has wanted to see. Hockel has been saying that Adams needs to clean house and get rid of some of these problematic officials who are embroiled in all of these potential investigations and may themselves be found to have done something wrong in the future. That's WNYC's politics editor, Maya Hibid. Up next, a key congressional. race in the Hudson Valley could be influenced by a little-known candidate.

That story after the break. A super-competitive Hudson Valley congressional district is one of six seats New York Democrats are banking on to deliver them a majority in the U.S. House. In the Valley, former Congress member Mondair Jones, a Democrat is trying to oust Republican incumbent Mike Lawler. The race is so close that a little-known candidate on the working family's party line could win enough votes to determine the outcome of the race. So WNYC's Bridget Bergen went to ask why he's running.

In a leafy stretch of suburban Rockland County, I pull onto the street where Working Families Party candidate Anthony Frescone lives, and I talked to one of his neighbors. Hey, hi, how are you? I'm so sorry to randomly show up at the door. Julie Salis lives across the street with her teenage son and husband. They have a blue Harris Wall sign in their front yard and a beat-up white minivan with bumper stickers for a film trade union and The Grateful Dead.

She seems like a possible working family's voter. I'm reporting on her congressional race, and she knows the major party candidates immediately. Mike Lawler and Mandar, they're not new candidates to us. So I ask if she knows her neighbor, Anthony Frescone, across the street. Oh, yes, in the house. It's like over there. It's like this, but it looks like... Yeah.

more modern or whatever, like tan and pinkish. So he is the candidate for the Working Families Party? You're kidding me. No. No wonder he's been walking. Not walking to campaign, she says, just exercising more. I didn't even know that he was the flipping working family party candidate. What's he doing? Why is he doing that?

He's trying to take the votes away his name. He wants to split the vote. I'm going to try and ask him that. She offers to introduce me, so we walk together to his door. There are Halloween decorations on the porch and a ring doorbell so they can hear and see us. We can't answer the door right now, but if you'd like to leave a message, you can do it now. Shelly? Hey, Anthony, this is Julie from up the street, and I was just coming by to introduce you to someone.

Her name is Bridget. As we turn to leave, Salis waves to some neighbors further up the street. man over here is Pete, and we call him the mayor, because he knows everybody. Did you want to... Yeah, I'd love to. I figure maybe someone else knows about Frescone's campaign. Hey, Pete. I want to introduce you to Bridget. Peter Zelensky is standing in his driveway, getting ready to mow his lawn. Does he know Frescone, his neighbor, is running for Congress on the WFP line? I didn't know that, yeah. Did you know that? No, no.

I didn't either. No one seems to know. Co-director of the New York Working Families Party, Anna Maria Archela, says that's because he's on the ballot but not running an active campaign. He's a former Republican. He got on the ballot because he won a primary in June by just 90 votes. And now he has no fundraising and no website. Archela says Frescone is trying to confuse voters who normally vote on the Working Families Party line. Confuse them so that Mike Lawler, the Republican in this district, wins. But back on the street in Rockland, I'm still looking to talk to Frescone, so I'd go back to his door one more time alone, and someone answers through the doorbell.

I was looking for Anthony Friscoan. He's not home. Do you know when I might be able to reach him? Not this week, no. Okay, I'm just wondering, he's running for Congress, and I just wanted to ask him, you know, what his plan was, why he was running. I've been trying to reach him by phone. I can leave my card here if he wants to give me a call.

Sure, sure. Leave the call. We'll make sure he gets it. The person declined to identify himself. And Frescone hasn't called me back yet. But if you're listening and want to talk about your campaign, you know how to reach me. That's WNYC's Bridget Bergen. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day.

I'm Jared Marcel. We'll be back tomorrow.