Chief Climate Officer and Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala, Department of Environmental Protection: I got to open, I'm sorry. Missed my cue there. Always so dazzled when the mayor walks in.
Mayor Eric Adams: Good to see you.
Commissioner Aggarwala: Good morning. I'm Rit Aggarwala. I'm the chief climate officer for New York City and commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Three months ago, the Mayor launched an amnesty program to help struggling New Yorkers, many of whom fell behind during the pandemic, save money and catch up on unpaid water bills. The program offered to forgive interest payments for customers who paid their bills in full, and offered discounts for those who entered into payment plans. To tell you more about how this program is going, I'd like to introduce our mayor, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you, Rit. And I really want to thank the assemblyman who really brought this to our attention. After a community meeting, Assemblyman Burgos stopped us, stopped me, and pulled me over to the side. He was talking about one of the residents in his community, a large co-op where middle-income New Yorkers were really behind in the payment of their water bill, because of the amount of interest. And he stated that if we can just get the interest under control, the Shorehaven community in the Bronx would be able to deal with the underlying amount.
And between the assemblyman and Council Member Farías, we were just able to put our thoughts in the right direction. And when you talk about just the Shorehaven area alone, you talk about $400,000. And so really kudos to you, assemblyman, for being on the ground and creating the partnership that's needed. councilperson as well, as we deal with the essentials of water. And so Rit and his team over at DEP wanted to come up with a very thoughtful way of how do we ensure people receive the necessities that they deserve. Water, clean water. New York City has some of the best water in the country. And we want to continue to allow that water to flow. But at the same time, we needed the payments for that water to flow. We're able to keep the cost of water down, even in the increase that you're seeing, around 4 percent is below the inflation, because of what we are doing here where all New Yorkers chip in to make sure we have adequate water.
And the major projects that we are experiencing, it costs money. And when you have particularly large locations like the one you see here, that are several thousand dollars behind in water payment, it hurts fellow New Yorkers. New York's municipal water, as I stated, is something that we should all be proud of. And unlike other municipalities, believe it or not, we only pay 1 cent per gallon for water. That helps us maintain the critical infrastructure that we need. Every time you go to your faucet, you turn it on, there's not a 9 to 5 operation of your water flow. It's 24 hours, seven days a week. And that is an amazing feat when you think about a large municipality like New York.
We want to make sure that every New Yorker can pay their water bill. So DEP has extended the amnesty program by one extra month, May 31st. And we're going to continue the outreach that we have been doing, but we're also going to really partner with our local electeds so they can do an analysis within their districts to see who needs to be part of the amnesty program. Although we're doing a massive outreach on several different methods, we want to make sure we can reach as many New Yorkers as possible, because the amnesty program saves dollars. What this amnesty program means, if you pay the principal of your unpaid bill in full, we will forgive 100 percent of your interest. All of your interest will be forgiven. This allows New Yorkers to pay off their debt and save in paying interest. That's more money in working people's pockets. That's what we have stated over and over again. And we have been successful thus far.
The current amnesty program has brought in nearly $80 million so far and has helped New Yorkers save more than $12 million in interest. So for those who continue to fail to pay their bills or sign up for a payment plan — because you can also get a payment plan — you don't have to pay your bill all at once. If you can't for whatever reason, we could put you on a payment plan. But if you refuse to do so, we have to take stronger steps. Because if we don't, it's going to fall on the backs of your fellow New Yorkers. And we cannot allow mega builders in particular and mega mansions who fail to pay their water bills anymore. A notice was placed on one of these structures this morning, around 7:30. Approximately around 10:30 we received a response of attempting to rectify the outstanding amount. And if you can see, a decoration and design building that's worth over $250 million, all of New York City, more than $400,000 in unpaid water bills. Those are real dollars. And we have to recoup them to continue the water service that we are providing.
We also want to be clear on something that's very important. We don't want to shut off anyone's water. The goal is to keep water on. But we can't overburden taxpayers who are following the rule. And we have put in place many different initiatives because we want to help. We know these are tough times, but with having good programs, we could overcome these tough times. And we will set up a payment plan, we'll assist in the payment. And there are other services out there for low-income or struggling New Yorkers.
We are really proud to work with Assembly Member Burgos and Council Member Farías and the residents of Shorehaven community in the Bronx. And by doing so, as I stated, we saved them $400,000. We're making sure every New Yorker knows about our amnesty program with our aggressive outreach and the goal is to get as many people as possible signed up, so we can keep your water flowing and at the same time keep the money flowing, so we can have a system that we all can be proud of. Rit, great job for you and your team. Great partnership with our local electeds. Thank you.
Commissioner Aggarwala: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. For those of you who are Ted Lasso fans, you know the phrase football is life. But really water is life. It's a part of all of us and it's everywhere in our environment. It's critical, and yet we often take it for granted. To deliver New York City's clean, world-class water each day requires massive infrastructure and labor, and money. That's why we have water bills.
Many New Yorkers don't appreciate that our water infrastructure is not funded by taxes, it's funded by the water bills that 800,000 buildings pay. New Yorkers, frankly, like me who live in rental apartments, they don't know because they never see the water bill, but that's how we pay for it. And each day we supply 1 billion gallons of water to more than 9 million people in the city and a few upstate.
While the average New York City household uses 70,000 gallons of water per year, as the mayor said, you pay just a penny per gallon for both water supply and sewers. But when people don't pay, it impacts all of us. Because it is a closed system, and every year we have to balance our budget, if people do not pay their water bills, that means the rates have to go up higher for those people who do. And so for this amnesty program, we believe it's a good deal to bring those people who are delinquent back into paying on time, take the burden off the rest of the ratepayers so that we don't have to increase rates extensively.
And I'm very pleased to say we've had great success. 86,000 customers across New York City, roughly 40 percent of the people who owed money and roughly 10 percent of all New York City accounts, were able to use this program to save some amount of money. The $80 million that we recouped came largely from seriously delinquent customers who had owed more than a thousand dollars for more than a year.
And we're really glad to see this program help people get out of debt and make a fresh start. But as the mayor said, we are going to take action against those who aren't willing to take advantage of this program. Because we have got to ensure that we protect the rest of the ratepayers. By not paying, you aren't merely cheating the city, you're taking money out of your neighbors’ pockets. This money goes directly back into the water system. This fall, we'll be repairing the main water tunnel that brings water to the city, the Delaware Aqueduct. We're expanding ways to make our water treatment plans part of our organic system.
We're consistently looking for ways to deal with climate change. And as the mayor announced last September, my agency is working on a comprehensive strategy around stormwater to deal with the new challenges of resilience. And as the mayor mentioned, part of this program includes a targeted effort approved by the water board, to help HDFCs and other low-income housing complexes, come into the green in terms of their debt. And we are really excited that not only were we able to help the Shorehaven houses, but I will say there's another 19 HDFCs that we have been able to assist already. And we are working in conversation with more than 20 additional ones.
So this is a really exciting program, both to bring down the hammer on the folks who haven't paid and probably can, but also to make sure that we are helping the people who genuinely have trouble.
And with that, I'd love to invite Assembly member Burgos to say a few words.
State Assembly Member Kenny Burgos: Thank you. Good morning. First off, I want to get off a few thank yous. Of course, a huge thank you to our Mayor Eric Adams, who throughout this, we wouldn't be here of course. I want to thank Deputy Mayor Joshi. I want to thank soon-to-be Commissioner Oddo, who also was very instrumental in this. Commissioner Aggarwala, I hope I'm not mispronouncing. Deputy Commissioner Jeff Lynch, good friend of mine. And the entire team at DEP who was hugely helpful. My councilman, Amanda Farías. And one of my favorite constituents, Haydee Rosario, who is the president of Shorehaven. And even without her, we couldn't even get to this point. Because if it were not for her and her board, Shorehaven wouldn't even be in the financial standing to pay this bill. So thank you.
And this program, listen, it's simple, but it's transformation for so many families. Because it's for one of the most basic needs: water. I came to the mayor last fall with a problem. Shorehaven being a working class community, probably the picturesque community of the middle class here in New York City. And they were struggling, ironically, with water. And for years they faced this sky-high, insurmountable water debt that went into the millions due to previous mismanagement, unforeseen circumstances, and of course the Covid-19 pandemic. When it came to me, they didn't ask for forgiveness, they didn't ask for a handout. They asked for a more manageable way to pay this debt. Because they knew they could. But the interest was obviously a huge problem.
There were meetings, financial plans, lawyers, letters, Zooms. But all of that proved to be insurmountable. Until I spoke to Mayor Adams last fall. He put me in contact with Meera Joshi, with Jimmy Oddo, and himself, and simply said, "Find out if it's a law or a policy. If it's a policy, we fix it." And they did.
In a matter of months, a problem that had persisted for years was resolved, and this forgiveness program will save the residents of Shorehaven. I know it stated $400,000, but I think our president will put another number on that based on some future numbers. But again, so we talk about solving the affordability crisis here, and this is what we're talking about, programs like this. We know this is an expensive city, but when we work together in government, from state and city and local electeds, this is government at its best, saving New Yorkers’ money. New Yorkers who fuel this city every single day.
And I just want to put a shameless plug in here, Mr. Mayor, if you wouldn't mind, I hope to see this exact program rolled out in the state. Because there's another issue we have in the State of New York when it comes to tolling, when it comes to the Thruway Authority, MTA, and the Port Authority of New York, and New Yorkers being hit with countless bills and tolls and fines and fees that are putting them into huge debt.
And I hope, looking at this program, we can prove that if you let New Yorkers just pay their bills, take away the interest, take away the fines and the fees that we always hit them with, we can keep this city and state rolling and New Yorkers will pay their bills. So thank you.
Commissioner Aggarwala: Thank you Assembly member. And next I'd like to invite Council Member Amanda Farías.
City Council Member Amanda Farías: Good morning everyone. And I'm going to reissue the sentiment of the thank yous to everyone that was in partnership to get this done. And also to my assembly member who worked really hard on this, and made sure that we worked a partnership.
Overdue water bills and the interests they accrue have long been a point of stress for my district, especially in the Clason Point and Harding Park communities that Shorehaven is encompassed. Mayor Adams and the Department of Environmental Protection have recognized that communities and homeowners like mine around the city are struggling to keep up each month. I have seen homeowners and homeowner associations alike trying to recuperate and save money for future planning, while also clearing debt and delinquent bills.
These are New Yorkers who are working class, middle income, and folks with fixed incomes, who really needed assistance and the city to step up. And here we are. We did. The water amnesty program has been transformative for New York City residents, helping to relieve the burden these bills imposed and put money back into the pockets of New Yorkers. The nearly 86,000 New Yorkers who have signed up for the program have saved over 12 million in interest so far. We're not just putting back money into the pockets of our neighbors, but also back into our city using the money recouped through this program, to invest in our water system's resilience and to keep water rates low long term.
Thank you to Mayor Adams. Assembly Member Burgos and I are super grateful for hearing our calls to action and calls for concern for our community, and ensuring that you've made a priority of the Shorehaven community in the Bronx. Thank you to the Department of Environmental Protection for extending the amnesty program through the end of the month of May. And I hope to continue working with all of you, and DEP specifically, to create more innovative solutions to help our city residents and infrastructure alike. And maybe even creating something in the state, since we're going to lead by example.
Commissioner Aggarwala: Thank you. And before I invite our final speaker, I did just want to express my own gratitude to my direct boss, Meera Joshi, who's constantly supportive when we come up with crazy and innovative ideas, and helps us figure out how to get it done. And I will echo the Assembly members' gratitude to Jeff Lynch, our deputy commissioner for customer services who's done a tremendous job of not only figuring out how this program could work, but getting it done. And his team, including people like Albert Kramer standing there. And with that, I'd like to invite Haydee Rosario, the president of the Shorehaven Homeowners Association.
Haydee Rosario, President, Shorehaven Homeowners Association: Thank you. Good morning everyone. And thank you for giving us the opportunity to share this moment and to share the success of the program.
And I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Shorehaven community, to express our appreciation for the leadership, the commitment, the hard work of Assembly Member Burgos, Council Member Farías, and especially the office of Mayor Adams, for putting this program in place. Which, as it was described, allow the Shorehaven community, this is not a handout, it allows the community to meet our obligation to pay our bill. At the same time, of not putting at risk our financial stability or jeopardizing our ability to move forward.
This is a success that did not happen overnight. It's a success that shows, and I'm going to say that twice, that leadership matters. Representation matters. Who is at the table matters. We struggled with this for over three years. Assembly Member Burgos has been helping the Shorehaven community way before he was Assembly Member Burgos, trying to figure out a way, a viable way, a reasonable way, for us to meet our obligation without holding us back.
As soon as Council Member Farías was elected, she jumped on board. And both of them brought the issue to the attention of Mayor Adams. And it is amazing how swift the response is, which is why I say that leadership matters. We were surprised that our efforts, that were consistent, relentless, for three years we fought it, served as an inspiration for a program that is not only going to help the Shorehaven community, but it's going to help others throughout New York City.
And I totally express, on behalf of our community, which is the best kept secret in the Bronx. We have 899 members and a community of about 3,000 residents. We cover about 40 acres. So this has a real impact in the community. It's way over $400,000. But it's not only the money that we saved, it's that we shortened the life of the agreement to only three years. That means that we are going to be able to fix our infrastructure, our sidewalk, our pavement. And really keep moving forward with an association of hardworking homeowners. That is what it's all about.
When you help hardworking homeowners and workers, it really helps everyone. So thank you again everyone, I don't want to overextend my time. But I really want people to get a clear sense that what happened with the amnesty program didn't fall out of the blue sky. It was the work of leaders who heard us, who heard the nature of our request. Who understood that we were not asking for a handout, we were asking for a reasonable way to meet our obligation. They stepped up to the plate, and for that we are grateful. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: And before we do that, I think that what you laid out was so important, and what the assemblyman and the Council person was able to accomplish. Yes, it helped Shorehaven, but what they did is going to help working class people across the city. It's a game changer.
When you can get rid of the burden of an interest payment, it really keeps money in your pocket. And this is local government at its best. And he said something else that my team knows so well, and you will hear often in our administration. I follow the law but I make policy.
And so whenever a problem is brought to me, the only question I ask, "Is it the law or is it policy?" If it's policy, we're fixing it. We are not going to be stuck in the bureaucracy of what we can't do. This is a city of yes. We need to find ways to do it. And that is how we operate, law or policy. We follow laws, but policy, I make sure that we use them appropriately. And that is how we got this problem solved in such a short period of time. Anybody could come and say why you can't do something.
When Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi went to Rit, and came with one thing, "The mayor's clear. We need to find a way to get this done." And they got stuff done. So we are open to a few questions.
Question: Hey Mayor Adams.
Mayor Adams: How are you?
Question: I'm good, thanks. I guess it's a question for the commissioner. Is there any data on how many other buildings are like this D&D building, especially maybe the most egregious that people drowning, pun intended, most in the highest bills. Especially for buildings like this where it's clearly wealthy commercial buildings and they owe a lot of money?
Commissioner Aggarwala: So we do have some data. And I can certainly share for example that we have a list of about 50 office buildings that owe us a cumulative $7 million. And that's one of the lists that we will be proceeding. We started, as the mayor said, with the shutoff notice to this property and to two single family homes that owe more than $100,000 for a single family home. Where as the mayor said, we're really talking about mega mansions here. And interestingly enough, the top 50 single family homes actually owe more than the top 50 office buildings. They owe $8.7 million.
And one of the things that's happened is that what we see — And it's interesting, it's a direct contrast to kind of the eagerness of Shorehaven, as the president said, not to ask for a handout but just to ask for a way to make good. But some of these higher end properties, they just don't want to talk to us. And they are using their water bill as a form of cash management. Which is just not fair, because that means they are, without consent, they are borrowing money from their neighbors. And so we will be proceeding, as the mayor said. This is good news because we never want to shut anybody's water off. There's a long train of things we do, the number of outreaches we make, the phone calls, the letters, the warnings. This building received a certified letter a week ago, they ignored it. They only responded when we put a sticker up this morning. Other buildings, whether it's a single family home or an office, the stickers are coming for you.
Question: Hi. Yes. Question for the mayor. You just recently released your executive budget. When buildings like these are owing so much money when it comes to enforcement, how important is it to recoup this money when this goes into the budget and how you balance that budget?
Mayor Adams: It is extremely important. Because we have to use the projections of our water bill as part of our overall analysis of how we balance the budget. And so when you have 50 buildings owing such a substantial amount of money, 50 mega mansions owing even more money, it impacts our ability to provide goods and services to the people of the city.
Now you have just the overwhelming number of New Yorkers, they look at the water bill, they understand, "We have to pay it so that we can have the services we want," and kudos to them. We commend them. And we want to make sure that everyone is doing their share. As the commissioner stated, we don't pay the water based on taxes. We pay the water based on people paying for the use of water.
Question: On this bad actor, 979 Third Avenue. You say you got a call three hours after putting up the sticker. Did they cut a check for the 25 percent that you're asking to avoid the shut off, or was it just like, "Hey commissioner, let's talk"?
Commissioner Aggarwala: Look, I know secondhand, they actually didn't call me personally.
Question: The mayor personally?
[Laughter.]
Commissioner Aggarwala: No. People like the assembly member get to talk to the mayor personally, but not a bad actor like this. No, they called our call center. They said they are interested in making a payment and asked for instructions on how to do so quickly. We shall see. The water shutoff notice is in effect until the check clears.
Question: Quick follow up. There might be some skeptical viewers who are saying to themselves, "Yeah, right, you're going to shut off the water at a big corporate Midtown client on May 15th." How [inaudible] is it that if they don't pay at least 25 percent, you're going to shut off the water?
Commissioner Aggarwala: Well, I've asked the mayor a couple of times, and he keeps backing us up, so I'm going to say 100 percent.
Mayor Adams: That's right.
Commissioner Aggarwala: We are not kidding around here. Because if we don't do this, our bond rating is at risk and that'll drive up our interest rates and that means water bills go up for everybody. Our ability to invest in maintaining the system will decline. There are all sorts of consequences here. And this is the problem. There's so much debt that went uncollected during the pandemic. We know some people were struggling during the pandemic, and that's why we did the amnesty program. We also know that there are some people who are just making a business decision that they don't think DEP will ever follow up. And if somebody wants to call our bluff, I think the tables will be on them.
Question: Is there a total count of buildings that haven't paid in over a year? And what is the total amount that's owed?
Commissioner Aggarwala: We can get you a fact sheet with some of the statistics. The total outstanding debt is roughly $800 million. So we have a long list of buildings. As you would imagine, there's a long tail of folks, like, as I mentioned, the bulk of the people who have made use of the amnesty, who owe $1,000 or $5,000.
And our goal is, again, we're not looking to shut anybody's water off. But our goal is to make sure that people appreciate that paying your water bill is not an optional activity, it is a requirement.
Question: Thank you. Question probably for the commissioner too. Is there a parameter for which buildings are going to get this shut off notice if you owe over, say a certain dollar amount? Is that how it works?
Commissioner Aggarwala: We do. We have a set of criteria that sequences it. Basically anybody who's more than 180 days overdue with their water bill is potentially at risk of water shut offs. Now, we are not going to shut off everybody's water at the same time. So we are prioritizing. And we are prioritizing those buildings that owe large balances, starting with buildings that owe more than $100,000, that have owed it for more than 180 days, because that's obvious. And we are starting targeting buildings with very high property values. Because our goal here is to get the money in the door. So we are starting with buildings where we believe there's an ability to pay. But we will be working down that list.
Question: Kind of a follow-up to Katie's question too, is there then a specific amount for how many buildings that owe more than $100,000…
Commissioner Aggarwala: Again, I can get you… It's a total pool of tens of thousands of buildings that have some debt. It adds up to about $800 million. And so we can get you lots of different ways to slice and dice it. But the point is, overall it's a large number. A lot of them have big balances. And a lot of them have, absolutely, the ability to pay.
Mayor Adams: Okay, thank you.
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