Transcript: Mayor Adams Restores Funding for April 2024 NYPD Recruit Class, Fifth Firefighter at 20 FDNY Engine Companies

January 10, 2024

Deputy Mayor Philip Banks III, Public Safety: Good afternoon and welcome. Today we're here to make a pretty significant public safety announcement. Of course, we're joined by the mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Adams. We have the fire commissioner, Laura Kavanagh, Police Commissioner Eddie Caban, our budget director, Jacques Jiha. We have our chief of personnel for the NYPD, John Benoit, and we have the chief of training for the NYPD, Olufunmilola Obe. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thanks so much, Deputy Mayor Banks and this entire team that's here to deal with law enforcement. We continue to follow the narrative that I've stated over and over again, public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity. From day one, this administration has been driven by that clear mission of keeping New Yorkers safe. I learned with Bill Bratton many years ago that is the real economic stimulus package, when you create safe streets.

And the results speak for itself. What Commission Caban has been able to do, driving down crime, five of seven major crime categories we were able to bring down. But specifically, what I focus on were the shootings and homicides, double‑digit decrease in both those areas, and removing a substantial number of illegal weapons off our street, and that includes ghost guns.

Jobs are up, crime is down. Our streets are safer, and the tourists are back. Over 60 million tourists are in our city and they're doing something that I asked them to do over and over again, and that's to spend money. But by driving down crime, we have saved lives and laid the foundation for this great economic recovery. More private sector jobs in the history of this city.

We have done all this while caring for more than 168,000 migrants and asylum seekers, more than 69,000, almost 70,000 of whom are still currently in our care. We have done a successful job, over 57 percent we have moved them to be self-sustaining. But the door continues to be open and thousands are coming in every week.

As a result of federal Covid‑19 stimulus funding drying up, tax revenues growth slowing and labor contracts, this administration inherited a real financial crisis moving into not only 2023 but 2024. And the growing cost of the asylum seeker crisis. Our city has faced real fiscal challenges including a $7 billion budget gap; and consequently, last year we were forced to make some tough choices, real difficult choices in our November financial update and prepared for the worst.

But thanks to our strong fiscal management, something that we started out at the beginning of the administration with our PEGs, managing our costs, looking ahead to make sure that we can keep the city on financial solid ground and better than anticipated tax revenues and savings we will achieve through a 20 percent asylum seeker PEG by the end of this fiscal year, I'm happy to say that we'd be able to reverse some of the cuts to the NYPD and FDNY that we initially announced in November.

First, I am really pleased to announce that we have been able to restore funding for the April police academy class. This means 600 additional police officers will be on the streets protecting New Yorkers coming this fall. And these officers will join three additional police classes that were already scheduled to graduate this year. Meaning thousands of additional cops on our streets in 2024 under this administration. More police officers mean safer streets, safer subways and a safer New York City. 

But in addition to that, we've heard a great deal of conversation about the fifth firefighter. I'm proud to announce that we have good news to the FDNY as we restored the fifth firefighter at 20 of the city's engine companies. More firefighters on the job is always a good thing as we deal with all the various aspects that our firefighters play in ensuring to be part of the first responder apparatus in the city. We will maintain 190 firefighters on payroll who are not expected to be able to return to work in full duty status.

Last August when we announced new projected asylum seekers costs, we provided estimates based on the increasing number of arrivals, increasing cost per household and an analysis of the help coming from our state and federal partners. We said the cost would be roughly $12 billion over three fiscal years if circumstances did not change. And while we are grateful to the state and federal support we have received thus far, it is sadly not enough. If they do not change the circumstances… And it did not change our circumstances, we did. And really want to take my hat off to Budget Director Jacques Jiha for constantly bringing together the team to deal with these real fiscal challenges we are facing.

Today's measures and reasonable restoration to the NYPD and FDNY are due in large part to just strong fiscal management that allowed us to receive a AA bond rating and would allow us to continue to navigate us through this crisis. This is about looking at the asylum seeker cost and really finding ways to reduce the cost, and this is something we're doing dealing with each household.

And helping our migrants on a path to self sufficiency through initiatives like the 30‑ and the 60‑day notice. Where would we have been right now if Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom did not bring her team together and do the 30‑day notice. Over 80 percent of those who were part of the 30‑day notice, single males or single adults, 80 percent are self-sustaining, 20 percent came back through the system and we're going to continue to do intense case management. And that is the same concept that we have for the 60‑day notice. And we have been extremely clear and I will reiterate over and over again: no child, no family will sleep on the streets of the City of New York based on our policies. It is our policies, the goal is to have families and individuals to be self-sustaining.

So, today, these steps help bend the cost curve below the forecast we released in August, and thanks to the exceptional work of our public servants, we have continued to move forward to running the city efficiently throughout this entire crisis that we are facing. But I want to be clear, we're not out of the woods, but we still have a massive budget gap in fiscal year 2025. And on Tuesday, we will talk in more depth about our steps to close it. We need help from the federal and the state government. I am extremely looking forward to the governor's announcement, and we've had a series of conversations with her. But we do need Albany to play a role, but most importantly, we need our national government to treat this national crisis as it deserves.

But today's a good day. It's a day when something that's dear to me, and that's public safety, we can put our police officers through the academy classes and ensure we get our police officers back on patrol as quickly as possible. Every day we'll continue to build a city focused on supporting working people, a cleaner, greener and safer city, and we will continue to move in that direction to accomplish that task. Deputy Mayor Banks.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You've heard the mayor when he was on the campaign trail, public safety's the prerequisite, right, to prosperity in this particular city. You heard it yesterday, you heard it today, you will hear it tomorrow.

So, to the New Yorkers out there, the administration knows that you need to be safe, you need to feel safe, you deserve to feel safe. And we will never, ever take our eye off of the prize. As the police commissioner of the City of New York said to me on December 31st, promises made, promises kept.

I'm sure you would like to say, I said, absolutely, a fantastic job. And with that, I'd like to introduce the police commissioner of the City of New York, Eddie Caban.

Police Commissioner Edward Caban: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Banks; and thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know, word came out a few months ago about future police academy classes being canceled due to budget constraints, I immediately thought about how the fallout would affect both our cops and our collective safety. You know, just last week we stood at One Police Plaza announcing the tremendous crime reduction efforts by the members of the NYPD in 2023: murders, shootings, robberies, burglary and overall crime were all down in 2023. That progress does not simply happen without the men and women of the NYPD.

As we look to further improve our public safety in 2024, we need every officer we can get, which is why today is a great day for the NYPD and all New Yorkers. There is no greater investment in public safety than an NYPD officer. Time and time and time again, your cops go in harm's way. They answer the call, millions of times a year, in fact. They make the arrests, they restore order, hold criminals accountable and help our communities.

The NYPD officer is a dynamic, determined crime fighting tool; and beyond the many types of services provided by the cops that we track with data, there is one vital category of service our cops provide that no data could ever track, and that is prevention. A cop on a footpost not only brings order to the corner but also defuses a fight without saying a word. The police car driving by the restaurant reminds the person who had one too many to take the train. And the officer riding that train waves hello to the parent with their child, providing the presence of safety and order alone.

These are the type of intangibles that leave a lasting impression to every New Yorker. They are woven into the fabric of our public safety and that simply fade away the moment the office is gone. So, I want to thank the mayor and his team for working hard to find the funding for restoring our next police academy class and for his own wavering, unrelenting support of public safety and the people who uphold it. Thank you very much.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you, commissioner. Now we're going to hear from the fire commissioner. Before I introduce the fire commissioner, this restoration of this next cut which she'll go into detail about is critically important. The fifth firefighter in certain firehouses, I think we should look at it this way. The quicker we can get water into a fire the safer New Yorkers are going to be.

And with the challenge that we're facing with the increase of lithium batteries, I think this is a very important one. So, I'm very happy, I'm actually happy I think it is the benefit of the city that we restored the fifth firefighter in these 20 and this will be for the public to understand is the fifth firefighter, water gets on the fire a lot quicker, New Yorkers live. With that, I'd like to introduce Laura Kavanagh, who is the fire commissioner of the City of New York.

Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh: Thank you, deputy mayor, and thank you to the mayor and his team and the budget director for making this happen. As the deputy mayor mentioned, I think it might not be known to New Yorkers in part because our members are so great and so professional and they get there so quickly, but call volume for fire operations is ever increasing. They are busier than ever, our units, it's especially true in the winter months where fires and especially dangerous fires go up.

And certainly in this time, in addition to confronting increased workload we're also confronting new modern challenges. Climate change has brought new weather emergencies that tax our members, and the challenge of lithium-ion batteries has definitely increased the number of fires and the number of extremely dangerous fires. So, we need the additional personnel, the additional experienced personnel and resources to tackle some of these new challenges that we're confronting, and this will do exactly that.

So, we're incredibly thrilled to have this and especially during these particularly difficult winter months, we definitely know that our members and New Yorkers will feel safer and see us arrive even faster to emergencies. So, thank you so much.

Mayor Adams: We'll take some questions.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. How are you today?

Mayor Adams: Good. How are you?

Question: I'm just fine. I just want to ask, so you hit the goal of 20 percent that you set in the budget. So, what has changed with the money situation? I know that the fifth man, there was no problem cutting it when it was just a $1 million of savings two months ago. And you know, the police academy class.

What changed in the last two months, because you seem to hit all the goals you've set, so you've said you were cutting those regardless. And how much… Is it just this one police academy class or is it the other ones that were already cut [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: 2024, we're going to have four police academy classes going in in 2024. And so as we, what Jacques, what he has done, which I really want to thank him for. When we did our first few PEGs in the beginning, we sent out a clear message that everyone has to participate. After we got everything in we started from there and said, okay, where can we take back? How do we, instead of using a butcher's knife but scalpel. Some of the services we thought were important and he gave us the opportunity to look at that, and that's where we are right now.

We did the November plan. We didn't have any clear understanding of what the fiscal outcome was going to look like, so we wanted to be as fiscally prudent as possible so that we, instead of having to go back to the team and tell them we underestimated, we wanted to make sure we were getting the right numbers. He did that, and he says, here's some of the things that we can do in restoration.

Question: So you overestimated? So, how much did you overestimate [inaudible]?

Mayor Adams: Well, I don't know if the term over estimate is a lot...I mean, is the right term, because we're still, we're not out of the woods. We still are unclear, we are basing a lot of decisions we make on the promises that we're going to get the financial assistance we need from Albany.

We want to make sure that those cuts we had to do in November based on, number one, the revenue projection how well we've done, how well we've been fiscally prudent, how well we have managed taxpayers’ dollars. It gave us an opportunity to look at these two areas and whatever else we could restore.

Question: Hi, mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good! Good to see you down here instead of up in Albany.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: And you made the drive safely. So, I'm just looking for what sort of specific cuts did you make to migrant services? I know you guys said about 20 percent, where exactly did that come from? And then, you think this will also trickle to other areas like library services, be able to restore Sunday services for some people?

Mayor Adams: What Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom did and Tim Pearson and the entire team, we looked at, okay, where did we spend, how much did we spend, how do we go back and renegotiate contracts? And when you're dealing with an emergency it's different from if you have a long term already contract in place. Emergencies are a different flavor.

And so we looked at that, and hats off to the DM and her entire team, Chief of Staff Camille, they looked at what we were paying and said, how do we go in and do cost savings, cost efficiencies. And our goal in fiscal year 2025 is come up with a 20 percent saving, and everywhere. Everywhere from food, to the cost of housing, to laundry, to security. Everything is on the table of how do we get a better price for it. So, we're not leaving anything off the table to bring down the cost.

Question: Do you see this trickling to like libraries and stuff like that, to other areas besides just FDNY… 

Mayor Adams: Tuesday is Jacques' Super Bowl. He's going to be giving us the deep dive and deep briefing into the budget. He lives for this time of the year, and so I don't want to take away his thunder. He's going to go deep into all of that.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Good. How are you doing?

Question: I'm doing okay. Thank you for asking. Can you give us a specific example of a migrant cost before and after, what it is? And then second, I think you may have answered with Morgan, but are there any other agencies that can expect restoration?

Mayor Adams: Again, Jacques is going to go over that on Tuesday on exactly what we're doing. A specific example is food cost. I can just take that as an example. We were looking at, we looked at how much we were paying in food. We brought in some good partners and we're going to bring down the cost of food.

Because remember, the migrant and asylum seekers, whatever a human being needs we were supplying: cleaning clothing, feeding, cleaning the facilities that they are in, creating a humane environment. We had to pick up the entire cost. And now we're at a place of saying let's look at these contracts, let's see what we can renegotiate these contracts. And so whatever you could think of what you would provide for an adult, we are providing for the migrants and asylum seekers.

Question: ...has the food changed at all, like is there, like no cheese on a hamburger? What exactly… I know [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: Yes. No, and that's, believe it or not, that's a great question, because taking away certain items like cheese on the hamburgers is a difference, and I hope it's with vegan cheese on a hamburger. But taking away those items or simplifying the menu more to make sure we don't have food waste, which we, you know, people talked about it, but 90 percent of the food that we were serving was consumed by the migrant and asylum seekers.

But we want to look even at that 10 percent. You know, how do we bring down costs, and that's where Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom has been focusing on. How do we get to that number, Jacques gave us a number, 20 percent, and we're going to reach that number, 20 percent.

Question: Can you talk a little bit about the fifth person and in these 20 different engine companies what type of a practicable role that they have in terms of their operations?

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: So, as the deputy mayor mentioned, the fifth firefighter in its most simple terms gets water on a fire faster. A lot of why that is is it's an incredibly labor intensive effort to get a hose line from a hydrant into a building on various levels of complication, various levels of height. And so that fifth firefighter aids in that. That certainly does get water on the fire faster, and I think that's particularly important in this moment when we're talking about these lithium-ion batteries where they are unusually fast in how quickly they catch fire, how much volume of fire is there.

You've seen a lot of these videos where arriving companies were getting there in 90 seconds or seeing the building be fully consumed by fire by the time they get there. So, that will be very important. We also use the fifth firefighter for certain types of weather emergencies, so a lot of the weather that we've had lately and typically have throughout the winter months we can also use them in specific ways during those emergencies.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: What's happening?

Question: I have two questions for you.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: So, when the PEG was announced in November, it still was a couple billion dollars short of covering the gap. So, we were going to do this PEG, and you said we still have to look to more cuts. So, I'm wondering how it's possible that we can some of the PEG cuts even though the PEG wasn't even going to cover the shortfall.

And then secondly, it sounds like you're saying some of the extra money is from migrant savings and some is from new revenue. Could you give us the detail, any more details about is migrant spending still projected to be $12 billion or is it a different number? Do you have any new [inaudible].

Mayor Adams: You want to get into that?
  
Jacques Jiha, Director, Office of Management and Budget: Regarding the migrant budget, we're cutting it by 20 percent. So, multiply 20 percent by 12, you know, that gives you a sense of the number. And what was your other question?

Question: Do you have new revenue projections that… 

Jiha: Yes, we have new revenue projections, and we will disclose them next Tuesday.

Question: And then the last one is, could you just explain, are those enough to make up for the shortfall? I think the PEG's five‑ish billion and the gap is seven‑ish billion. So, how are we cutting the PEG when it wasn't even enough to close the gap?

Jiha: What the mayor is deciding is, the decision the mayor is making is this is a very small, very modest restoration. Okay? And if you look at the context of the PEG, which is about like $3.7 billion in November plan, this restoration is about like… On fiscal year '24 is about some $37 million. Okay? So, this is not a big thing, a big ticket item in the context of a $3.7 billion cut that we did.

Mayor Adams: And just, you know, what Jacques said is so important because listen, I can't get any clearer, at the heart of what's important to me is that this city is safe. And I said to Jacques, I need to find a way to get those classes. And so we, you know, I want to be real. We're going to have four graduating classes this year. Two started last year and two are starting this year.

I have to make sure our police officers are on the streets continuing the success that Commissioner Caban has put in place. We have to continue that success. We cannot go backwards. And that is why I focus so hard on anything that's going to erode our ability to keep this city safe.

Question: Mayor, you kind of touched on this a little bit, but it sounds like you're not going to tell us whether or not you're going to restore any other cuts. Can you go into your logic a little bit on announcing this before announcing any other potential reversals? Why is this one so important to reverse?

Mayor Adams: Yes. And we didn't say that we're not going to… Whenever we do any restoration, we're going to announce it, we're going to let you know. We are in day‑to‑day analysis. The direction I gave the budget director is, you know, alleviation of pain. You know, how do we do that?

And as we have them, we're going to announce them. And so it's important to… What I hear a lot while I'm moving around the city is the concern to continue the success that Commissioner Caban has put in place. And that's why we're going to immediately notify New Yorkers that those academy classes are coming in. People think the commissioner is doing a great job, and I want to let him know that we're going to do everything possible to give him the resources that he needs.
  
Question: Thanks, hi. Twofold. So, I know it's been asked, but is there any details about where this new revenue is coming from? And then secondly, I know your office and the council can sometimes be at odds over the budget projections. Is your side restoring some cuts to the PD and the Fire Department, does this sort of show that maybe they're more in line with, you know, what their projections are and maybe they said that the cuts being made are not necessary, that there is more money. Is this sort of where you’re sort of meeting in the middler with the council?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that when you look t the roles of both the council and City Hall, I think that the forefathers, the architect of putting together this relationship where one would look at and give their projections, I thought it was a smart one. Because we have a responsibility to make sure that whatever the vision is that's coming from our various council persons, that the taxpayers can actually pay the tab.

And if you would look at the many requests that people want to spend, we just don't have the books to balance that. We have to always make sure whatever the desires are. If we had an endless amount of money, trust me, we would like to do a whole lot of things. We don't want to see any of these cuts.

But the reality is we have an awesome responsibility to look at the revenue coming in, must balance the revenue that's coming out. And we need to be thoughtful when we look at our revenue projections, and that's what OMB has done and will continue to do. So, sometimes their projections are more larger than ours, but we have to get it right all the time. We cannot make a mistake, and that's what the OMB director has done.
  
Mayor Adams: What's up, Liz. How are you?

Question: I was wondering if you could comment and give us more details on the bomb threat at James Madison High School… 

[Crosstalk]

Mayor Adams: Although we do Off Topics on Tuesday, I think it's important for us to talk about the James Madison, the weather that we were experiencing. The commissioner will talk about specifically the bomb… Did your people brief you on… Okay. Okay.

But I do want to say, I cannot say enough about Commissioner Iscol, Deputy Mayor Williams‑Isom, Tim Pearson, Molly. That whole team, they moved close to 1,700 children and families from an area that we, with an over abundance of caution, we wanted to make sure those children were in a safe place.

They moved them to the school. I was there last night. I was going to stay the night with them, but we found out the winds dropped around about, I think it was around about 1:40 a.m. when I got the call from the commissioner, and we started to move them back to their location.

So, a couple of things. I have been doing this for a long time when you have these major crises. Our school buildings, they are the focal point of our community and they're part of our community assets. I have witnessed buildings collapse, I have witnessed fires, I have witnessed floodings. And what we do, we use our school buildings.

So, whomever is saying, January [9th] was the anniversary of the horrific fire that happened in 2022 when I was elected, in January [9th.] Those family members went to a school building. This is what we do. And I'm sure the commissioner, the fire commissioner, the police commissioner will tell you that when you have these emergencies, you utilize all of your assets, and our school buildings are part of our assets. They're the focal points of our community.

And so whenever someone states that why are you using a school building, this is what we've always done. So, if we would have had a major fire that would have taken place on Bedford Avenue near James Madison High School, are we saying those residents who lost that… Who were displaced from that building should not use the school building?

And I hope people are not saying we can't use a school building if it's dealing with migrants. I hope that's not what people are saying. Because what I saw yesterday at James Madison, I saw children. That's what I saw, I saw children. And this city is never going to do anything that is going to put children in harm's way.

And yesterday our team did an amazing job. There was a threat coming into our city of a real weather emergency, and we were able to use one of our community assets. And I take my hat off to Principal Jodie and her team. Sometimes we focus on those who were the loudest, but you should speak to Principal Jodie and see about her staff that called to say, can we come in and help, because they saw children as children. And that's what I see children as. You want to talk about the bomb threat?

Police Commissioner Caban: So, thank you very much. You know, the New York City Police Department gets bomb threats every single day, and we'll always do our due diligence. ESU will always respond, make sure that the safety of everyone, every resident inside the school, every resident around the surrounding areas. And after that, it was cleared, and there were no issues at all. 

Question: ...calls, what were those specifically about? I mean, towards migrants?

Mayor Adams: Which call?

Question: He said there were hate calls. What were those specifically, who were they targeted at, were they targeted at the migrants?

Police Commissioner Caban: So, that I'll have to get back at you. But the Intelligence Bureau investigates every allegation and every call.

Mayor Adams: Yes, and because this is a very important conversation that we're having. The loudest do not represent the majority. And that is like, it's really challenging for us to understand that in that community there are hundreds of thousands of people there.

We get, whatever, three, four people that call and say something hateful, and all of a sudden that becomes the narrative. The real narrative is the number of teachers that called that principal and said, we want to help, the number of people who came to deliver food. People who were part of Rethink Food.

And I just want to tell New Yorkers, don't let the fringe groups hijack who we are as a city. This is a compassionate city that has always given back during difficult times. This is who we are, and we can't allow because someone wants to spew a hateful term across a telephone to define us as New Yorkers.

We are not that. And whenever there's an emergency, New Yorkers step up. New Yorkers step up. As a child, our house was burned down, our neighbors kept us. We were able to move next door with our neighbors. And this is who we are as a city. So, those hateful people, all I can do is pray for them. That's all I can do. But they are not representative of this city. This city is a compassionate, caring city. Thank you very much.