Transcript: Mayor de Blasio and Teamsters Local 237 Announce Tentative Contract Agreement, Implementing New Work Rules and Providing a Fair Wage to More than 5,000 NYCHA Employees

December 12, 2018

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good afternoon, everybody. Well, we've got some really positive news we're going to announce here. And I want to emphasize upfront that this was a process that went on for months – a lot of hard work went into it. Obviously, as with any negotiation, a lot of back and forth and disagreements that had to be overcome, but there was a very good-faith effort all around to get to an agreement that would be respectful of everyone involved – the people who live in public housing, the people who work in public housing and work hard to get good things done for the residents, obviously the taxpayers as well. So we really wanted to strike the balance. It took months of work, but it was, I think, an extraordinarily effective effort.

I'm here to announce with my colleagues that we have an agreement with Local 237, that this agreement will have a profoundly positive impact on the lives of public housing residents. This will be a difference-maker. The process, as always, when an agreement is set, it will go to the workers for a vote. That ratification process will happen over the next few weeks. But what it means, if ratified is that we will have the first work schedule changes of this magnitude – the first in 50 years. For the first time in 50 years, we will have a schedule that really allows everyone to get the repairs they need on a much more timely basis that allows the residents of NYCHA the maximum opportunity to be home to open the door for folks coming to make repairs in their own apartment. It's going to allow us to get a lot more done for our residents. And it means that we will have seven-day-a-week service – that's going to be a huge difference maker.

You're going to hear of course from President Floyd in a moment, and I want to thank him. I also want to thank all of my colleagues here. You'll hear from a few of them, but want to give a special shout out to members of my administration who worked intensely on this deal – of course, First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan; key folks in the administration, including the First Deputy Budget Director Ken Godiner; members of the OMB team; of course, members of the labor relations team who all work so hard to get us to this day. And of course, Greg Floyd's team, which put tremendous work and many, many hours into this effort.

Earlier today, I outlined a comprehensive plan to address the underlying challenges at NYCHA, to fundamentally improve the level of investment in NYCHA and to speed up the kind of changes and repairs that are needed. I'm happy to announce this labor deal, not only because it's a very big deal itself, but because it synergizes perfectly with the future of NYCHA. We put out the 2.0 plan and this labor deal will strengthen that plan instantaneously and allow us to get a lot more done than we've been able to in the past.

The work schedule for NYCHA staff simply wasn't working for the challenges we were facing in today's NYCHA. The basic schedule, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm just didn't cover the times that people needed help a lot and did not provide people with the services they needed when they needed them. And we knew that if we were to turn to overtime payments as a solution, that would lead to tens of millions of dollars more against the backdrop of an already very stressed NYCHA budget. As people know, just a few years ago, NYCHA teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and we put a lot of effort into getting it back to fiscal solvency. So, we needed to solve the problem in a way that didn't break the bank, and these respectful negotiations broke the log jam and helped us to move forward.

The new schedule will allow for work to be done seven days a week from 6 am to 7 pm. There is a one-time cost associated with this as part of the deal that was struck and that will amount to $5 million, and then there will be annual costs associated with this deal, which we estimate to be about $1.5 million. That's fair to the workers, that's fair to address their very valid concerns, but it's also a much better deal for NYCHA and the taxpayers compared to what the alternatives might have been.

The things that this will cover – the cleaning, the trash removal, the snow removal, the things that people really depend on can now happen seven days a week. It means people will not have to wait, it means they'll get service when they need it, it's part of treating the people who live in NYCHA with the dignity and respect that they deserve while also respecting our workforce.

Another very important element of this agreement – and I want to say that President Floyd, as per usual, bargains hard and also wanted to make sure that the workforce would continue to grow as needed, so we will be hiring 210 new caretakers. Importantly, the preference in those hires will be provided to NYCHA residents. And I want to affirm that that means literally all 210 of those jobs could go to NYCHA residents if there's enough people who are able to take up those jobs. It's not just – and this is – I'm going to give you a positive advertisement – a lot of people in New York City, a lot of people all over America who would love to be a member of Local 237 because they've put together over the years an extraordinary benefit package and the kind of security, healthcare, etcetera that people all over the City, all over this country can only admire. So the fact that there's going to be the potential for a first 210, but then many hundreds more later of NYCHA residents to get into this union, as many are already, and have that kind of future for their family is very, very exciting.

I'll wrap up by saying – look, I said it this morning but I want to repeat it for those who weren't there – people in public housing are the backbone of this city. There's a lot of stereotyping, I think, that goes on. There's a lot of typifying, but I can tell you from years and years of talking to residents of public housing, they're the backbone of our city, they're hardworking people without whom the City would not run. They're people who in many case – I said it this morning – don't get paid the way they deserve to get paid. That's a fight we will continue to fight to try and get everyone the wages and benefits they deserve. But I will tell you that every-day people who live in NYCHA do so much for New York City and they deserve a decent standard of living, and this is one of the things that's been necessary to get us to that day. This is going to change the lives of people in public housing. They're going to see changes, very visible, tangible changes that are going to make their lives better, and that's going to happen right away.

Every time I say the goal is to be the fairest big city in America, getting repairs when you need them is part of fairness. Being treated with dignity and respect even when you don't have a lot of money is part of fairness. And I want to thank President Floyd and everyone in the union for agreeing that that's the kind of thing we needed to do to move the Housing Authority forward.

I want to say, in the negotiations, there was always a really strong consideration given to the greater needs of the Housing Authority and the residents. And I know you bargain hard for your members and protect their interests, but I know you care deeply about the work and what it means for the people who are affected every day. And I want to thank you for that spirit of looking out for the bigger picture as well.

Just a quick few words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I want to turn to the Chair and CEO of NYCHA, Stan Brezenoff. I also want to say, he does not have his wingman with him today because Vito Mustaciuolo is attending to a family emergency, but I know Vito is extremely excited as the General Manager who will be implementing this plan, working with Greg. He's very, very excited about what this means. My pleasure to introduce Chair Stan Brezenoff –

Interim Chair and CEO Stan Brezenoff, NYCHA: This is a historic moment and I want to start with some thanks for getting here. To you Mr. Mayor, to Commissioner Bob Linn, First Deputy Dean Fuleihan – we would not have gotten through these many months without your commitment and your support.

I also, like the Mayor, want to especially thank Greg Floyd and the 237 union for their extraordinary collaboration and partnership. Yes, this has been a collective bargaining, there have been ups and downs, and this is a union and a leadership that vigorously advocates for its members and has continued to do so, but it did so while embracing a commitment to NYCHA, to a recognition that NYCHA needs to be supported in its mission of serving tenants and residents. A fair number of the workforce within 237 actually are NYCHA tenants, so it's doubling down on the commitment and you have my personal respect and admiration for the approach that you've taken, even with the ups and downs in the negotiation.

The Mayor mentioned my partner, my collaborator, Vito Mustaciuolo, and his team who on our side worked tirelessly and in a focused way, never failing to be optimistic about the outcome. My thanks to him and his team who are in the audience. And I know some of the team – Greg's team, who I'm sure he'll be talking about.

So, as the Mayor described, this is an important sea change virtually in the coverage at NYCHA developments. We will have personnel seven days a week doing very important, basic stuff that will improve resident's lives, whether it's snow removal or the handling of garbage, debris – day-to-day things at our developments will now be done – longer hours and on a seven-day-a-week basis. Earlier today, some of you may have been there or have heard, we announced something called NextGen 2 – it's a variety of things that are focused on making day-to-day life at NYCHA better, making NYCHA a better landlord. This partnership, this collaboration with 237 advances that cause in a tangible, fundamental way that will make a difference in the lives of our tenants.

Mayor: Thank you, very, very much, Stan, and congratulations again to you and your team, and thank you for all that you all did during this negotiation.

I'm going to turn to Greg Floyd now and say that we have known each other a long, long time and we have talked about not just NYCHA, we've talked about the City of New York and the realities and the challenges and the needs of people all over this city, and I know you love this city. I know even friends can have their ups and downs but we have a long history and we have come to a point today where I think we're doing something that people are going to look back on and say this was a long time coming – a half-century in the making. But it's going to be one of those decisive moments when things started to change for every-day New Yorkers who really needed our help. So, I want to thank you, I want to congratulate your team for a very good and successful negotiation.

It's my pleasure to introduce President Greg Floyd –

[…]

Mayor: Well, we have had press conferences many a-time to announce a positive negotiation and a positive outcome, and a common link in all of those is Bob Linn. I cannot thank him enough and his team. Over and over again, they get to the finish line and they create something good. Every time, I have to say, he started literally from scratch in the beginning of 2014 with not a single city employee under contract, took us up to over 99 percent in the first round. We're now well into the second round and the momentum has been extraordinary. So, Bob, I don't know how you do it, but I say, God bless you. It's my honor to introduce our Labor Relations Commissioner Bob Linn.

Commissioner Robert Linn, Office of Labor Relations: Thank you, Mayor. This administration, as the Mayor said, has now spent almost five years working on labor negotiations. We started with no labor agreements for all of the City workers, almost 340,000 workers in 144 labor agreements – labor units. Most of the contracts had been expired for either three years or five years. We achieved seven and nine-year agreements that covers actually 99.9 percent of the workforce at this point. And as part of those negotiations with the City labor unions with the Municipal Labor Committee, we achieved a paradigm shift in labor-labor-management negotiations over healthcare. And now, we have completed a new set of negotiations that covers over 60 percent of the workforce with new 43- and 44-month agreements, and our agreements have been recognized as reasonable, fair to the taxpayers, and the completed agreements so far have been ratified by overwhelming ratification votes after the contracts were settled.

In these agreements we again addressed healthcare cost containment and we reached innovative and an important labor agreement with the UFT just in the last couple of months, addressing a number of work-rule issues of mutual importance and significance. And today, we announce the new work schedules and the labor agreement with NYCHA with my friend Greg Floyd. And that we – people have talked about expanding service hours at NYCHA for almost half a century. We – labor and management together – agreed to new work schedules that will allow us to provide extended service rather than from 8:30 to 4:30 – we now extended from 6 am to 7 pm. The savings from dramatically reduced overtime will allow us to provide all sorts of additional service and extended hours into weekend and into the early mornings and the evenings. It'll allow for extended service in cleaning public spaces, hallways, elevators, stairwells, grounds and providing more timely waste and snow removal.

So, the concepts will undoubtedly form a patter for more negotiations that we will have to provide additional extended service at NYCHA. So, I think this is a terrific day and I want to thank Greg Floyd, the President of Local 237 and his team for their work – their tremendously hard and difficult work with us. And Vito Mustaciuolo, the General Manager at NYCHA, was tireless in his work. And [inaudible] Executive Vice President, for I like to appreciate her work. And I certainly want to appreciate my general counsel, OLR's Steve Banks, for the work, the tireless work and efforts that he put into this agreement. And finally, First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan for his constant and extraordinary support for our efforts. So, thank you, Dean.

So, with that, thank you all.

Mayor: Congratulations and thank you, Bob. We will now take some questions. Questions, do I see a hand anywhere, Gloria?

Question: So I just want to ask about this onetime bonus that the workers are going to get to work longer hours – you're really only asking them to work until 7 o'clock right? So I just want [inaudible] justify why that bonus has to be in it for the workers, was there no other way of working around when it's not that long of a schedule?

Mayor: I'll start and I'll turn to Bob. Look negotiation means you put a whole variety of issues on the table and try to get to something mutually acceptable. For us, trying to finally find a way to get the hours that would work was paramount. And understandably the union had a set of concerns as well and we had to balance all of those factors. In the scheme of things I think this is a fair way to address it. There's always going to be economic factors in any kind of labor deal. But as I said, the alternative of continuing with a system where the only option if you wanted to get that kind of coverage was to pay many times more, that would have made no sense at all for the tax payers. Do you want to add, Bob?

Commissioner Linn: Well we had a system where virtually all of the work was performed Monday to Friday, 8 to 4:30. People for years have been saying how important it would be to extend that schedule into early mornings, into the evenings and into weekends. We achieved that and we achieved that by redirecting costs, we achieved savings, and we are providing a differential as well. I think that is what collective bargaining is all about, is reaching a package that works for both sides and this certainly did.

Mayor: Please.

Question: For Greg, in the past this isn't similar to the pilot program that the former chair tried to install as part of the NextGen program right, to have these extended hours? But there was some opposition to that from the union leadership. Can you just tell us what finally made you come around to this?

President Greg Floyd, Local 327: Well, this is not the same program. Difference between that one and this one, this one allows our members to work four days a week. It also provides a differential and it's also done on a seniority bases, voluntary basis and they have at least six different schedules, so it's not the same thing. And this was negotiated, the other one was trying to be forced on the membership which couldn't be done. So there's a totally different situation, there's different hours, a different approach. So that's the difference between negotiations and somebody coming in and trying to force something. This was a conversation.

Mayor: Yes.

Question: Can you describe a little bit more about the differential and my read of it that it applies obviously on the weekend right? Also, does it also apply within that ten hour day so you work eight hours on whatever your normal rate is and then you get the 20 percent differential for those other hours?

Mayor: Bob do you want to speak to that?

Commissioner Linn: No it does not. It's only for weekend time.

Question: So just weekend time?

Commissioner Linn: Yes.

Question: Okay so what is the – if you didn't have this agreement and you had to just, and use this particular schedule which is –

Mayor: Previous schedule, the current schedule.

Question: No, no if you applied this thing without this agreement, but you did it with overtime?

Commissioner Linn: Yes.

Question: How much would that have cost?

Commissioner Linn: Tens of millions of dollars more.

Question: Do you know what the number is?

Commissioner Linn: It's probably an excess of $30 million, somewhere between $30 and $40 million.

Question: Annually?

Commissioner Linn: Yes.

Mayor: Questions, yes?

Question: So again a third of NYCHA lives in public housing, talked about that, Mr. President –

Mayor: Wait, wait you just said a third of NYCHA lives in public housing?

President Floyd: A third of our membership.

Mayor: Right.

Question: [Inaudible] concern about public private partnership and what that means for jobs. Do you still have that concern because you were talking about that earlier? What can you say to workers about that? About their fear of losing the jobs when public and private partnerships happen?

President Floyd: These are two totally different issues that you just mixed together. We are talking about a contract and you are talking about RAD. RAD hasn't been formulated yet. We don't know what that's going to bring. And we also know that we had RAD development and our members so far have been placed in other locations and we continue to see that as being the case. So those are two totally different –

Question: Do you still have those concerns and was that part of the talks?

President Floyd: No that's not part of the talks because we were talking about the contract, we weren't talking about RAD.

Question: What can you tell workers who live in NYCHA who are really focused on – there are so many families that will not [inaudible] touched by this and will not see the improvements, there is still so much that needs to be done. They wonder why did it take so long?

Mayor: Yes, I just want to jump in. I disagree with your characterization, I don't think that's a fair reading of what we announced today. Between all the elements of investment, which is as I said today, we predict will reach 175,000 people and then all of the elements of changing the way we manage and provide repairs, etcetera which is going to reach the entire rest of the Housing Authority, I believe everyone's life will be improved over time. I think the question that I often hear from the media and I do understand it, of why something wasn't done in the past – a lot of times I try to explain to people and I know you can't put yourself in our shoes and I know you can't see every detail of what we all try and do, sometimes the resources aren't there, sometimes the idea is not formulated, sometimes something didn't work in the past does work, sometimes a negotiation that was not successful in the past becomes successful. It's a constant moving situation. What matters is that now we have a plan that can actually address the problems across the board with real resources behind it. And we have a labor deal that unlocks one of the biggest missing pieces of the equation which is being able to provide the kind of service we need on a seven day a week basis. So I just want to strongly affirm this is a very different reality and I think it is going to reach all residents. Questions out there? Anyone else?

Question: When will hiring begin for the 210 new caretakers?

Mayor: When will hiring begin?

Interim Chair and CEO Brezenoff: Hiring will begin as soon as we can get the information out and so virtually immediately.

Mayor: Virtually immediately. I like that. Virtually – not immediately, virtually immediately. I'm just going to say immediately which I think is even better than virtually immediately. Let me see anyone besides Greg and Gloria who have gone already? Okay, Jillian?

Question: Can I get you with something else?

Mayor: Why don't we just do this first and then do a few others? Anyone back there, did I see someone, yes?

Question: I wanted to ask Mr. Floyd just about – your union's role in the annual inspections for lead paint. Did your union realize that at any point that these annual inspections weren't being conducted and therefore nobody was really looking at these apartments for lead paint and I guess you know, did you ever consider sounding the alarm or letting anybody know, you know by the way, because we are not doing these annual inspections, these apartments aren't being inspected for lead paint as required, during the whole four year stretch did that ever occur to you?

President Floyd: Now you are assuming that I am charge of the Housing Authority and that I get the records for everything which I don't. I'm a union labor leader, contracts, negotiations, grievances, not work schedules, not work records. I don't handle that.

Question: But you're not aware of what your union members are doing?

President Floyd: We have 24,000 members and it's impossible for me to know what they are doing and I'm not responsible for knowing what they are doing. It's not my responsibility so the answer in short is no.

Mayor: Other questions, see if there is anything else on – oh I'm sorry, go ahead.

Question: Yes, you guys have been claiming big success in improving the heating situation this winter as compared to last. Your administration has also you have trouble often times, and Stanley you have told the Post Editorial Board often times, you have trouble getting reliable information out of the bureaucracy, why should we trust these numbers are accurate?

Mayor: Well the two points I will start go together. I think Stan and Vito have looked at the data and found that a lot of times it was not what it needed to be and we know that there were times when people certainly down the managerial ranks did not provide accurate data upstream. Once you know that you are able to go and attack the problem and to create metrics that you can rely on and that's what they have been doing. So the whole heat situation is different this year. As we said we brought in a lot of expertise, we've brought in a lot more mobile boilers, the situation is being monitored daily and hourly in a war room. That's why we know the facts this time are accurate.

Question: Well just to follow up –

Mayor: And if you want to add on, I want to –

Interim Chair and CEO Brezenoff: No, not at all. You said it. We are counting everything.

Question: Is there a reason you guys can't make a list of the heating failures that were experienced last winter, public in response to FOIL requests which have been filed, so we can check your math?

Mayor: We're happy, again a FOIL request – I'm going to state the obvious, each one has to be looked at individually and I appreciate why folks in the media, folks in advocacy groups, send lots and lots of FOIL requests but I will also remind you that that leads to lots and lots of work for lawyers and lots of backlog, so they have to be looked at individually. On the question of if we can provide you a comparison to show you why we believe it is an accurate comparison – we can get you that separate from a FOIL request. Go ahead, Greg.

Question: This is caretakers, this is [inaudible] picking up trash, shoveling snow, but a lot of the problems that happen on the weekends that cause, and then exponentially become more expensive because they are not addressed on the weekend, if they are not addressed, are really the trades. And we all know about the trade overtime situation, so I guess this is a question for Stan, what are you doing about – how does that get fixed? And are you able to keep up with the trade repair requests after hours and on the weekends?

Interim Chair Brezenoff: So two – two things. We're very focused on our work orders and we announced today that we will be investing millions of dollars in attacking the backlog and aged work orders through a mix of in house staff and skill trade contracts where necessary and we anticipate bringing down the aged work orders by around 75,000 over a couple years because this backlog has accumulated over a long period of time. And that is the principle means that we are going to use the focus on the backlog in work orders. We're also focused on response to maintenance issues and you may have noted that a week or so ago we did a pilot blitz in selected developments. We're going to expand on that as well and do that on a regular – a regular weekend basis, to attack maintenance issues and bring down the delay in response that you're referring to.

Question: Overtime [inaudible].

Interim Chair Brezenoff: Some of that is overtime but some of it's not –

Question: Which direction is that going in [inaudible]?

Interim Chair Brezenoff: The work orders?

Question: Overtime, the trade overtime, [inaudible].

Interim Chair Brezenoff: I don't have in from of me. I'd be glad to share it with you.

Commissioner Linn: Mayor could I just add one thing –

Mayor: Yeah please –

Commissioner Linn: Which is – look, the way bargaining works in New York City who have 144 now, closer to 150 bargaining units, is you create an important settlement and that becomes the basis for other discussions. We did a settlement here that covered 5,300 workers and made some incredibly important changes in work schedules. We have further discussions ahead of us and skill trades and maintenance will be part of those discussions and my hope is that we will make – we'll reach similar innovations in those discussions and that we will also find a way to improve, increase services in a way that works both for the workers and for the city.

Mayor: Okay, Gloria?

Question: [Inaudible].

Mayor: Let me just see if there's anything else on this? Go ahead, Monica?

Question: Just so [inaudible] retaliation against workers, if they come forward and say there is retaliation if people complain that they put in work orders, if they complain, will you protect the workers who come forward and say there is retaliation?

President Floyd: I am kind of confused.

Question: Let's say workers are telling us, PIX-11, that when people complain about their apartments they will be retaliated against. They will be in trouble either if evicted, treated differently, or harassed.

Mayor: Can I start from –

President Floyd: Yeah, because I'm confused – is the employee is complaining about the apartment?

Question: [Inaudible] comes forward and says that there is an environment of retaliation when – that's why people are afraid to complain, a lot of viewers are afraid to complain because they feel that the environment – they will be retaliated against. You protect those workers who come forward and talk about it and say it and tell us.

Mayor: First of all I'm just going to jump in. We don't – I appreciate the concern, it's a real concern, but I don't want to accept the premise of the question because of this, no one has a right, nobody who works at NYCHA has a right to retaliate against a resident for raising a need for repair or saying there is a problem that's not being addressed or something that is being done wrong. That's, as I said to you earlier, that's not only a moral, that's against every standard of our work that if someone says I have a problem, you cannot retaliate against them because they have a problem. Equally a worker who comes forward with a concern or complaint, there are union workers who have a host of protections to begin with, plus there's whistleblower laws which we honor, so I am not saying to you that means no one ever has done anything wrong. I'm saying to you that there is a lot in place to stop that from happening. If there is a resident who feels that because they are bringing forward a problem that they are being treated wrongly, we need to know about it, and we would assure them confidentiality equally with a worker. So you can follow up with Stan and his team, but rather than put forward the fear – and I again know it's a heart filled fear – but rather than just talk about the fear, let's talk about how we solve it which is if people feel that is a danger, we want the higher levels of NYCHA to know about it.

Question: I just want to go back to Mr. Floyd, I don't mean to –

President Floyd: Can I ask you a question? Can I ask you a question?

Question: Belabor the point –

President Floyd: It's – I know who – you know who I am, I would like to know who you are?

Question: Yoav Gonen, I am with the New York Post.

President Floyd: Oh okay, we spoke on the phone, yes.

Mayor: Yoav where is your name plate, come on. I really find it really unfair of you not to be holding up your name plate.

[Laughter]

Question: I just didn't really understand your answer to the last question –

President Floyd: The answer to the last question is I don't have those records. They don't report those things to me.

Question: No not the records [inaudible] but obviously the head of the union knows what type the work the unit members are doing right? And, you know, for years and years and years they were doing annual inspections of apartments, including looking for lead paint hazards. In 2012 that stopped all the way through 2016. At no point –

Mayor: Yoav, respectfully he answered your question before, you're kind of repeating the same question.

President Floyd: You know I don't represent the painters? I don't. So that's painting work.

Question: No but the people who inspect apartments.

President Floyd: I'm just unsure who that was assigned to. I don't have every assignment to every employee in NYCHA. I don't have when they reassign people. I don't get that kind of information.

Question: My understanding was that it was the maintenance workers who would do these annual inspections –

Mayor: Again, I think this is getting circular. You can sure reach out to Mr. Floyd anytime you like but he's saying that he does not have answer to your question.

President Floyd: I don't have it. I don't have the answer.

Mayor: Let me see if there is anybody else on the NYCHA agreement. Last call, going once, twice. Jillian did you have something? Go ahead.

Question: Can you give us a sense of what happened or what's being investigated in regards to the FDNY Former Chief of Department James Leonard who I guess has been reassigned –

Mayor: Well there is an investigation going on so I don't think it's legally accurate to say former. He is – he has a role and a title and then issues came up that are being investigated and when the investigation is over we will announce what that means but it's like any other situation, there has to be an objective investigation.

Question: I don't know how closely you were following the Amazon hearing upstairs but I'm just wondering –

Mayor: I have not been there and I've been doing this all day but go ahead.

Question: Are you surprised at all about the apparent level anger there is over the deal?

Mayor: I think the surprise that I have had since the day of the announcement is what I feel is an imbalance in the discussion because you saw a poll come out that I honestly thought was going to be the result, that most New Yorkers and certainly most people in Queens, want the 25,000 to 40,000 new, good paying jobs. It stands to reason, just what everyday people want and need is not always the same thing as what elected officials and activists focus on and that's not an indictment, that's saying let's just be honest I've spent, you know, decades talking to everyday New Yorkers, I knew they would want those jobs because they think about themselves, their kids, their families, they think about the possibilities and as I said I'm really excited and I think a lot of those jobs are going to go to folks who come out of our – you know, kids who come out of our public schools, come out of CUNY. Really important point, half of all tech jobs do not require a four year degree, and that's true at Amazon as well. So, it does not surprise me that there are voices of opposition and critique, it does surprise me that more people are not saying "of course I want 25-40,000 jobs so I'm glad that they're coming here, now here's the specific concerns I still want to address." I think that would be a lot more fair. Yeah?

Question: Back on Amazon, so you're saying that the people who are against the plan are not every day New Yorkers, they're just specifically elected officials and activists—

Mayor: No, I'm saying –

Question: That their concerns are –

Mayor: No, don't put words in my mouth, I said it really clearly. I said what I felt was most New Yorkers, and most people in Queens would want the jobs. What does the poll show? Most New Yorkers, and most people in Queens want the jobs. That's just a very simple factual statement. I felt that long before we had the deal, I feel that today. At least one poll has provided some evidence. I'm saying I get that elected officials – for example, I understand elected officials who would have liked to have been part of the process. That is a different concern than what say an average community resident might have, or someone who hopes to get a job in the tech community might have. I understand elected officials who want to look at how a deal is structured, and that's fair but it's a different concern than people who I think are going to the bread and butter of the issue: we need more jobs, we need more good paying jobs. So all the other concerns, I'm not invalidating them. I'm saying I think they're a little out of balance – let's start with the thing that's actually going to affect every-day people's lives and then of course it's valid to discuss those other things and we will.

Question: Do you think the residents who have concerns over the up to $3 billion incentives, do you think that means that that's warranted, because a lot of people, even the poll said, they like the jobs but maybe felt that the incentives were unnecessary.

Mayor: Again, I'm not value judging warranted versus unwarranted. I'm saying, sort of, where you stand is where you sit. It's a classic American phrase. It means that your particular life reality determines a lot of your views. So for example if you're a student in our public schools who hopes to get a job in tech or you're a CUNY student who hopes to get a job in tech, you probably really like the Amazon deal, right? If you're a parent that hopes your kid will get a good job in New York City you probably really like the Amazon deal, and you're less focused on the other questions. If you're an elected official concerned about how the different parts of government play a role, that might be your first concern. That's not invalid, it's just a different viewpoint. If you're someone focused on the question of economic development programs, you might say, hey, I have concerns about how the subsidies are structured but I remind people, again, let's not be disingenuous – not you, people, everyone – the subsidy programs have been on the book for years and any company would have qualified for them and any real estate developer would have qualified for them. So it's a little after the fact for people to say how dare Amazon take advantage of existing subsidies that any company would have gotten. If you think the subsidy schema itself is a problem, let's have that conversation and that can be addressed in Albany. But that's not what I'm hearing from people, they're trying to treat something as if it was built out of whole cloth. It's not, it was taken advantage of what was existing already under state law.

Question: The Jazmine Headley incident. Have you been you been able to determine yet whether the police officers who were responding simply jumped to the conclusion –

Mayor: Again I spoke to this at length earlier at the previous press conference. Full investigation, both at NYPD and at HRA, and we'll have more to say in literally a matter of days.

Unknown: We have time for one more.

Mayor: I'll just do a few more.

Question: Just wanted – just on the same topic – just curious why you're able to make a determination about the HRA officers' conduct but not the conduct of the police –

Mayor: As I said earlier, I'm not going to – I really – I want to specific about not repeating all the answers from earlier so I'll just say this to set it all together. We really respect that there is an investigation process in any incident, and we have to value that because in the end that's the only way we can give you the full facts and the full determination. That said, I've also said there sometimes when something is a matter of common sense. The Deborah Danner case was an example as I said earlier, where even before the full investigation it was self-evident that the protocol was not followed. I'm doing a common sense point – there's no reason to put your hands on a woman holding a baby who did not pose a threat, period.

Question: And the PD officer who –

Mayor: Again, I'm just – that's all I have to say, that's how the incident started, that's all I have to say. Go ahead.

Question: Just to go back to the Commissioner Del Valle incident, I'm curious, do you know the OATH Commissioner well and have you ever seen anything in your interactions with him that would raise questions about his temperament?

Mayor: I know him pretty well for a long time and I've never seen anything like this, no indication. Okay a few more and we're going to get out, go ahead.

Question: I know you spoke to this, but you said earlier this morning that you believe that by the time the NYPD arrived to the arrest, the situation was already out of control. Can I ask you specifically if you think the NYPD played any role –

Mayor: Again, that, I could not be clearer, I've said what I'm going to say. At that point, from that point on I need the facts of the investigation. I've told you what I've seen and what I've said. Go ahead.

Question: Why do you think the NYPD is taking so much longer to take these officers who were involved at least off active duty –

Mayor: Not going to conjecture, there's an investigation, go ahead.

Question: Was the officer right to pull to the taser at the HRA Office?

Mayor: Again, I've said what I'm going to say on that. Last one.

Question: A comment that you made came up in hearing on the Amazon deal upstairs, and it was after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won in her primary, you made comment to the effect of she's from your wing of the Democratic Party. Now many of the people who supported her are now out in the streets in Queens opposing this deal. Do you feel any solidarity with them, and how do you understand their opposition given that that is your wing of the Democratic Party?

Mayor: I totally feel solidarity with them and they are my wing of the party and I'm honored to be in the same wing with them. It doesn't mean we agree on everything. I – look, when I was up in Burlington, it's something you can all see, I know NY1 got the footage of it. The question came up at one of the forums and here you had like some of the greatest progressive leaders of all of America assembled in one place, and it was a forum that I didn't happen to be a panel member of and Bernie Sanders said I want to speak to this issue, and he said, as a former mayor himself, he said let's be clear about what's happening here. That for decades, cities and states and counties have all been set against each other by Corporate America, and that needs to be solved once and for all but it's not going to be solved by unilaterally stepping away, it's going to be solved by some kind of national legislation or policy that stops that from happening. In the meantime, we had to decide, were we going to compete for 25,000 up to 40,000 jobs for New York City and we had to decide what we would do and what we wouldn't do. I've said very publicly, Amazon requested tailor-made, specific, additional incentives, we said no. But we did not oppose them taking advantage of those that were on the books and available to any company, and in the end I feel comfortable that that was striking the right balance.

Thanks, everyone.