Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 25,1996

Release #298-96

Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Dwight Williams (212) 788-2972


MAYOR GIULIANI ANNOUNCES SWEEPING REFORMS OF THE CITY'S PUBLIC WHOLESALE FOOD MARKETS; SPEAKER VALLONE, OTHER LOCAL OFFICIALS SUPPORT PLAN

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, along with several other local officials, including City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone, today announced the City's new plan to regulate public wholesale food markets.

The Mayor will submit legislation to the New York City Council which would authorize the City to regulate all of the City's public wholesale food markets in the same manner that the City now regulates the Fulton Fish Market. Under the proposed legislation, the City will be authorized to conduct full background reviews and to license both individuals and businesses on "fitness" standards in order to do business in the City's public wholesale food markets. In addition to the Fulton Fish Market, the City's other major public wholesale markets include the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx, the Gansevoort Meat Market in lower Manhattan, the Brooklyn Wholesale Meat Market and the Brooklyn Terminal Market.

The legislation will be sponsored by Speaker Vallone, and Council members Kenneth Fisher, Jerome O'Donovan and David Rosado, all of whom attended today's announcement.

Mayor Giuliani said, "We now have a model for reform that we are successfully implementing at the Fulton Fish Market and in the private carting industry. Through this initiative we aim to address the corruption problems that have historically plagued our City's public wholesale food markets, to increase competition there, and to reduce consumer costs. That's a 'win-win' situation for honest businesses and consumers."

Speaker Vallone said, "We support this initiative, the intent of which is to increase competition, lower costs and root out corruption. We are very pleased that all sides involved -- from the City and law enforcement officials to the wholesale operators -- have cooperated in this endeavor."

Also supporting this proposal at today's announcement were Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White of the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney Zachary Carter of the Eastern District of New York, New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir, and James Kallstrom, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York City Field Office or their representatives.

Under this legislative proposal, the City's Commissioner of Business Services, whose department regulates public wholesale food markets, will be authorized to: