Cindy Hsu: Two NYPD officers recovering this morning after exchanging gunfire with a suspect during a domestic violence call in Brooklyn.
Dan Mannarino: Yesterday's encounter eerily similar to the deadly shooting of two officers in Harlem nearly two years to the day. Mayor Eric Adams joining us this morning to update us on the officer's conditions as well as the suspect; plus, to talk about the budget. So, Mr. Mayor, good to see you on a very busy Wednesday morning.
Mayor Eric Adams: Yes, thank you. Good to see you both. And you're right, as the song says, baby, it's cold outside.
Mannarino: That's right.
Hsu: Mmm…
Mannarino: My goodness, it is cold. It's bone‑chilling cold.
I want to begin right now, Mr. Mayor, with an update on those two officers this morning. We understand they have been released from the hospital, so good news there. And what's the very latest?
Mayor Adams: Yes, and the suspect was apprehended. And you know, I just went back to January, 2022, when I first took office, we lost Officer Mora and Officer Rivera. This was a really scary one as I looked over the information. Thank God these officers are going home, the suspect is apprehended and we don't have other officers that were harmed in this incident.
Hsu: Yes, and as we mentioned in the intro to your introduction, we're preparing to mark the two‑year anniversary of Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, who were shot to death during a similar call in Harlem, back in 2022.
So, the question now is, how is the city addressing the rise in domestic violence calls and actually violence against officers?
Mayor Adams: No, so true. And this was a domestic violence incident, just as in the Officer Mora and Rivera situation. The call was one would consider a routine call, it just goes to show you there are no routine calls. And the goal is to really focus on responding to what we call DIR— Domestic Incident Reports— doing a follow‑up investigation, giving people the support and counseling they need.
And really, when it comes down to assault on police officers, we have to be very clear. When you're assault a uniformed, you're not assaulting just the individual in that uniform, you're assaulting the symbol of our public safety, and our courts must take that seriously.
Mannarino: Mr. Mayor, I want to pivot right now to the other big story; and that, of course, is the budget. You released your $109 billion budget yesterday, reinstated many of those major cuts that you've been right on this program talking about to departments and agencies.
Now, you spoke many times about dire terms regarding the budget, just really at the end of last year. So, what changed between then and now, and this money that you found that you didn't expect?
Mayor Adams: No, it wasn't that money that we found, what we did in November in what was called, called our November plan, we identified the problem. After several visits to Washington, D.C., I realized the calvary was not coming immediately. And so the goal was to bring down the projected 100,000 people we thought were going to be in our shelter system; instead, we had 168,000.
But while we were managing the fiscal part of it, we put a real plan in place to decrease the number of people in our system, and we were successful in doing that. That difference in cost allowed us to look at some of those projections and reinstate some of those dollars. So, it was really fiscal management that you saw make this happen in the correct way as we moved people out of our system.
Mannarino: But did it have anything to do with the fact that the council and the finance chair had said, we're not going to vote on the budget the way it is with the cuts that were coming in, and so you had to make the changes to get it maybe approved moving forward down the line.
Mayor Adams: No, not at all. We have to balance our budget by law. The money that's coming in must equal the money that's going out. We knew we wanted to invest in people, public safety and spaces, as I stated, and continue the success of bringing down crime, increasing jobs. And so what we had to do was put in a real plan.
We were able to transition close to 60 percent of the people who came through our shelter system and have them self‑sustaining. That is the focus on how we were able to accomplish that task so we did not have that multi‑billion dollar budget...billion dollar problem that we were facing.
Hsu: Yes, we're talking about $2 billion right? $2 billion more than last year? So, does that mean the hiring freezes at city agencies will actually be lifted?
Mayor Adams: Now, we are far from out of the woods. We're continuously receiving thousands of migrants and asylum seekers that are coming each week. We must be smart and fiscally responsible. Think about when I first came in office, I immediately put in cost efficiencies, day one. This is even prior to the migrant and asylum crisis.
And that's why bond raters [are] increasing our bond rating in the city because how we were managing the city, becoming more cost efficient— and that showed the results of successful management by this team here at City Hall.
Mannarino: So, you said you're far out of the woods, right, and you said that you could potentially avoid further cuts come this April when the next round would kick in. Governor Kathy Hochul's budget included $2.4 billion to help the city with the migrant crisis. Is that sufficient enough to avoid the April cuts?
Mayor Adams: First of all, we want to thank the governor and the lawmakers for understanding that this is a real crisis we're facing. Jacques Jiha, my budget director, is going through those exact numbers in the budget, and he's going to do a real analysis to determine exactly what the dollar amount that we're getting,
You know, we don't want to just look at numbers, we want to look at, the devil's that's clearly in the details of the budget.
Mannarino: So, too early to tell if the April cuts could be avoided.
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Mannarino: Okay.
Hsu: But are you concerned that the help you're getting from this state will affect any possible federal funding you'll get for the migrant crisis?
Mayor Adams: No, not at all. We need help from the state and the federal government to accomplish this task. But I think the real story here that's being missed is the fact that we knew help was not coming right away from the federal government to solve this national problem.
So, we identified that problem in November and came up with a two‑phase plan: number one, put those efficiencies, cost efficiencies in place; and number two, cycle people out of the system. If we would have been still sitting on 168,000 people in our system, that would have cost us great harm in not only this year but in the out years.
Mannarino: You know, Mr. Mayor, when you look at the migrant crisis in totality, besides the budget, you didn't implement this curfew for a few of the shelters. Do you, when you look at that, has it been working for you in terms of reducing some of the violence overnight; and, do you plan to expand it to other parts maybe city wide?
Mayor Adams: Yes, that's what we're looking at. We want to really stabilize the areas around the shelters as well as give clear directions on what's expected if you are in one of our shelters.
And that is part of this reality that we're facing. We believe this problem is going to be here for a while, and so we want to make sure that we do not destabilize communities or harm communities or create the right environment for those who are trying to take the next step in their journey.
It's so important, the overwhelming number of migrants and asylum seekers are doing the right thing, trying to participate in the American dream, and you just have a few who are being disruptive, and we want to create that clarity for them.
Hsu: And before we let you go, we want to switch from migrants to education. You're asking the DOE to tighten its belt to the tune of $100 million, now that's on top of the $600 million that is already cut, the cuts you made in November, the universal 3K program being scaled back. What other programs will or could it be impacted by that?
Mayor Adams: Here's what the problem is— and that's a great question you're asking— because many of the programs that were put in place, they were put in place based on stimulus dollars. Those stimulus dollars sunset in this fiscal year, fiscal year '24, and without the proper funding in place.
These were permanent programs using temporary dollars. Now we have to go in and find those dollars to make sure that we can continue some of those great programs. We did it with the Summer Rising program, putting in millions of dollars for the first time, we are paying for the full cost of the Summer Rising program because the stimulus dollars are running out.
Mannarino: Got it. Mr. Mayor, we're out of time. I know you'll love to do this, we made headlines last time. So, if you had to describe this year, 2024, in one word, as you look ahead to the year, what would that word be? And is it one word?
Mayor Adams: That is a great question. You know what? I think my three‑point is working well, so this is going to be my Steph Curry year.
Hsu: All right, Mr. Mayor. Thank you again for taking the time to talk to us this morning. We so appreciate it.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.
Hsu: You, too. Stay warm.