Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Standing with Sen. Schumer, Appoints Sandy Recovery and Rebuilding Leadership Team, Announces Major Changes to Rebuilding Process to Speed Funds to Homeowners and Cut Red Tape

March 29, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: It is an honor to be here today for a series of announcements that are really going to make an impact on people’s lives. I want to say – before I acknowledge the wonderful leaders who have gathered here to be a part of this. I want to say that for all of us who spent time in the Rockaways in the days after Sandy, for all of us who were in Red Hook and Coney Island and Canarsie and places all over this city – the Lower East Side – areas that were hit so hard by Sandy and we saw the human reality from the very beginning of what Sandy did to people’s lives. The dislocation, the devastation, the sense of the unknown ahead – just want to emphasize from the beginning, we’re here today to provide the beginning of answers and solutions. But the human crisis of Sandy is deep, it is lasting, it will continue, and we will stand by the people affected until everyone is back on their feet. That is what the announcements today are about. That is what everyone standing beside me is committed to. I want to thank everyone who is here. I particularly want to thank United States Senator Chuck Schumer, the reason we have the amount of Sandy aid we have.

[Applause]

Mayor: The reason we’re going to be in a position to reach people, the reason we’re going to be able to get better is because someone stood up when it mattered, and made sure that we got some fairness from Washington. I guarantee you, if Chuck Schumer had not been there, protecting the people of New York, the outcome would have been very, very different. And Senator, I said it a week ago, I say it again – God bless you for being the guardian of this city and this state in Washington.

[Applause]

Mayor: We’re here with my partner in city government, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, thank you so much.

[Applause]

Mayor: Congressman Greg Meeks, thank you.           

[Applause]

Mayor: Councilmembers Carlos Menchaca, Mark Treyger and Donovan Richards, thank you.

[Applause]

Mayor: Senator Joe Addabbo and Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny, thank you.

[Applause]

Mayor: And there’s so many wonderful and committed community leaders who are here. I particularly want to thank Natalie Alegre of the Alliance for a Greater New York, Pastor Gutierrez of Faith in New York. Jonathan Weston of New York Communities for Change, and all of our friends from Make the Road New York, thank you to all of you.

[Applause]

Mayor: Now it has been seventeen months – seventeen months – since Sandy made landfall on our shores. We all remember vividly the hours leading up to it. There was a sense that we were about to experience something that we had not experienced before, but until it hit, the totality and the enormity of it did not become clear. And then in the aftermath, we realized that we were in the midst of the greatest natural disaster in the history of New York City. And again, the human toll was shocking. And what’s equally and deeply troubling is that toll continues for so many people. For many New Yorkers, it’s been the worst seventeen months of their lives, and so much uncertainty, so much difficulty throughout those seventeen months. Surviving the storm and its devastating aftermath was one thing, but people had to then survive for months and months with the uncertainties. And yet, what we saw all over the affected areas was the resolve to rebuild, to stand and fight, to reclaim that which had been lost. And unfortunately, after the obstacles created by nature came a whole series of different obstacles, bureaucratic obstacles – sadly, manmade obstacles. So many good people, so many struggling people, hard-working people, filled out reams of paperwork, went through hours and hours of meetings. And still, did not see a dime of money. So many people are still in that situation. And they’ve lost – or are in the process of losing – all of their savings, and everything they have, because that help has not arrived. And that – to all of us – is an intolerable situation.

So we’re here today at Seaside Library to announce that help isn’t just on the way, that help is already here. I want to first thank this library for hosting us. I can’t think of a better place to make these announcements. Thanks – in part to the federal funding won by this man – the library is back and better than ever after having been severely damaged in the storm. And this is an indication of what can be as we move forward. And I hasten to add – I want to always acknowledge the herculean efforts of Senator Schumer – I want to thank Senator Gillibrand, I want to thank Congressman Meeks and all the members of the House delegation. It was not easy. And I dare say – Senator you’ll tell me if I’m being a little tough on the Washington, D.C. dynamic – I dare say in previous disasters in other parts of the country, the impulse to help was a little quicker and a little clearer. This time, our representatives in Washington had to fight doubly hard just to get the fairness we deserve. But they succeeded. And this library is an example of what has happened so far and of how far we have to go going forward.

So we’re announcing today three very important milestones to begin. First, this week the City of New York mailed out the first reimbursement checks and ground has been broken on the first home rebuilding efforts. Finally, real action.

[Applause]

Mayor: Today, we’ll be announcing a new team of proven leaders to lead the city’s efforts at rebuilding and resiliency. And we are announcing a new set of policies to improve and accelerate the delivery of Sandy relief and the rebuilding aid to people in need. This is what people have been waiting for. And from day one of my administration, this has been a priority: to figure out what happened and didn’t work for people, to fix it, to put a team in place that can make things right, and to get to work. And finally, critical Build It Back funds are finally going where they belong – into the hands of deserving New Yorkers so their homes can finally be fixed.

[Applause]

Mayor: So here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve accomplished in the last three months leading up to this day. Working with homeowners, we’ve completed 7,000 damage assessments. Now previously, there had only been 3,000 completed. In the last three months, we’ve completed 7,000 more, bringing the total to 10,000. We’ve completed nearly 2,500 option review meetings with homeowners – that is a six fold increase from the 500 that were completed in the previous 14 months. So 14 months after Sandy, only 500 review meetings have happened. We’ve now added 2,500 more. And these review meetings resulted in $275 million worth of offers being made. Real money being offered to people in need. We’ve also completed calls to more than 5,000 people who applied to Build It Back but had not followed through on the requirements. We’ve identified 1,200 people who had applied originally on time and can be helped to fulfil the requirements of the program.

This is only the beginning. Because what we’ve found after having done the analysis over the last weeks is we understand exactly how much still has to be done and how much farther we have to go. And we know that a lot of people worked very hard – I want to emphasize this, I am thoroughly dissatisfied with what happened in the last months before we came into office, but I want to also note a lot of good people worked very, very hard. And the fact that – despite the efforts of our colleagues in Washington – the federal government made the legislation particularly difficult to navigate. That’s not the fault of the good people who tried to make it work on the ground. But we know that we can’t accept that status quo, and we’re going to work to make sure that resources reach people who haven’t gotten them. And we know that an adequate plan for helping people requires taking care of them while they’re in the process of rebuilding, making sure they have options – and that that didn’t happen sufficiently.

So we know that some of what we inherited didn’t work, we know that some of the plans and ideas we inherited were quite good, particularly in the area of resiliency. We also know we are committed to outlining to all New Yorkers exactly the steps it’s going to take – starting with those today – to right this ship and move forward. This is one piece of what we’ll be doing, in a couple of weeks we’re going to be offering a very comprehensive analysis on where we will proceed from here. What we’re ready to do right now is reallocate more than $100 million from programs that currently aren’t working well enough to programs that rebuild people’s homes. I have to say again – the collaboration with Senator Schumer has been crucial to our planning. One thing I will tell you is that he has been particularly strong in voicing the fact that there’s so many things we have to do in the aftermath of Sandy. We know it. Recovery efforts and resiliency efforts both, but nothing’s more central than getting people back in their homes. And that’s why we’ve moved $100 million to that effort right now, to get people back where they belong.

We’re also going to increase the staff of the Housing Recovery Office by 35 percent – starting now – by transferring skilled personnel from other agencies and plugging them directly into the HRO. This will represent approximately 105 people dedicated to improving the service of the Housing Recovery Office to New Yorkers in need. And we will accelerate the design process for home repairs and rebuilds by moving design consultation to immediately after an offer is given to a homeowner – a common sense move. Offer is made, and you immediately, right then and there in the room, start the discussion on what the design will be, so that we move immediately into the next step. We don’t adjourn, we keep going. We’ll work with the City Department of Buildings to speed up the permitting process. And in two weeks, as I mentioned, we’ll come before the public and issue a more detailed strategy with a diagnostic of all that has happened up to now and specific recommendations of how to further improve the recovery effort and the resiliency effort. In order to make this happen efficiently and effectively, we need a team with the capacity to look at the big picture and make things move. That’s why we’re launching the Office of Recovery and Resiliency. The office will work with HUD and FEMA to coordinate the city’s federally funded rebuilding and resiliency efforts. We’ll also lead the planning on long-term infrastructure initiatives.

Before I introduce the new leaders of our effort to address the aftermath of Sandy and get people back on their feet, I’d like to turn to the man who I’ve already said is the reason why we have the chance to do so much good work. And the great news about Senator Schumer is he is not only legendary for his persistence and his energy, he is legendary for caring about the bottom line. He wants to make sure help gets to real people in real time. We had the honor a week ago last Sunday of announcing a real big step forward for folks who live in public housing. Over 100 buildings that had been damaged as a result of Sandy but weren’t getting the help they needed to get their boilers fixed and repaired or replaced – because of Senator Schumer, $100 million more from FEMA is going into those boilers. That’s another crucial piece of our rebuilding, and I want to thank him for that.

[Applause]

Mayor: And because it was Senator Schumer, I can tell you that in a very unusual act for anything involving Washington, D.C., that money is coming ahead of schedule.

[Laughter]

Mayor: So, I can’t think of a better introduction than noting he may have achieved a miracle here with that simple act. With that, I welcome our Senator, Chuck Schumer.

[Applause]

United States Senator Charles Schumer:  Thank you, Mayor. Well thank you very much, Mayor. It’s great to be here. Thank you, folks. And first I want to thank the mayor. I’m going to talk a little more about him in a few minutes. But I want to thank the mayor for really caring and really understanding that we’ve got to do this better, that it hasn’t worked up to now for New York City, for homeowners in New York City. Here in the Rockaways, in Staten Island, in Brooklyn. And he has resolved to make it right. We sat down and talked about things that could be done differently. And here we are a week late, where he’s announcing some of these changes. And that’s great.

I want to thank the people of the Rockaways - I love the Rockaways. It’s in my blood. It’s in my bones. I grew up as a little boy not far from here. I would - the highlight of our summers was getting in the car, waiting on line for three hours at the Riis Park parking lot, and finally getting to the beach over there. Then when I was a little older I’d ride my bike over here to the Rockaways, over the then-Marine Park Bridge. I had the honor of renaming it for a great Brooklyn legend, Gil Hodges.

Mayor: Gil Hodges, yes.

Schumer: And by the way, we named the other bridge, the Cross Bay Bridge, for Joe’s father, Joe Addabbo Sr., who was so wonderful and kind to me when I got to congress back in 1980. But the Rockaways is an amazing place, just an amazing place. And the one thing that ties the whole Rockaways together - it’s very diverse, racially, religiously, economically - but people love this place and resolve never to let it go down the drain. So - so that is one great thing.

I want to thank all our clergy for the great job they have done. And they have stuck with us through thick and thin. Thank you, pastors and fathers and bishops and priests. And a lot of that housing money for the boilers that the mayor mentioned is going to come here to the boilers here in the Rockaways.

And I do want to mention some of the community leaders I’ve worked with, not just on this issue, but on issues from the time I was a congressman and represented this area. I may be leaving some people out but still - the heart and soul of Broad Channel, head of Broad Channel Civic is Dan Mundy Sr., who’s back there. Somebody who’s been on the community board longer than I’ve been in public office I think, Dolores Orr. John Cori and Eddy Pastore, friends of Rockaway. Rockaway Beach. Joe Lynch and Denise Neibel of the co-op, the Breezy Point co-op, which by the way is federal land - I had to get their lease renewed for a lot of years before the feds took it away. And Hank Iori of Bell Harbor Civic, where we sit right now. Bell Harbor homeowners. And there are many more, cause this place is blessed, from one end of the Rockaways to the other. And one other person I thought I would mention - we have our great legislators here, Congressman Meeks and Joe Addabbo and many of the others who care about the Rockaways from other places - but, you know, Phil Goldfeder has done - my - the guy worked in my office - he can’t be here today because of religious observance, but we owe him a debt of gratitude as well.

So, we all know how Sandy affected us. I was here a day later. It was just incredible - I’ve never seen anything like it. The power of God - we saw that, and we know there’s a wisdom to his ways that is beyond we mere mortals figuring it out. But to see it was just heartbreaking. To see all the buildings burnt, some of them still smoldering in Breezy Point. To see the water come in from the bay and the ocean in the Rockaways. To see the people in public housing without food, without heat, without water. To see, in Far Rockaway, the water go all the way up - it just took your heart out. But even then the people didn’t give up. And so we know that we have to do things.

Now, I really liked Mayor Bloomberg. I worked very closely with him. I think he was a very good mayor. But I’d argue with him. And one of the places I argued with him is on Sandy recovery. I thought there were two - well, three problems. One - homeowners didn’t get a high enough priority. When we wrote the Sandy bill, number one priority was getting the homeowners money so they could fix their properties and he didn’t give it as high a priority. And then when it came to homeowners he made two mistakes, in my opinion. First, the process was so overly bureaucratic - check and re-check and check again and check again - that no one in New York City has still gotten a single nickel. And second, they had levels of people. You know, they said they’re just going to fund the poorest people, priority one, before they’d even give a nickel to priority two and three. Well it would take five years to finish priority one. We want to help poor people - we also want to help a school teacher whose house is wiped out or a cop or a firefighter who aren’t rich. And to say that they had to wait, and go to the back of the line, didn’t make any sense. We put enough money in the Sandy bill to fund every homeowner. And to do it flexibly and freely. We saw what happened with Katrina and we didn’t want to make those mistakes again. And so one of the first things I did when Mayor de Blasio became mayor is I sat down with him. And I said to him, we’ve got to talk about Sandy. We’ve got to change the system. Frankly, for homeowners, it’s working better on Long Island than here. You can’t blame the federal bureaucracy - it’s the same federal bureaucracy. And I said we’ve got to change it. And, you know, the mayor is somebody - he doesn’t have just a set idea. He listens. And he understood. And within a few weeks of us sitting down to a brass tacks discussion, today we’re announcing several things. And that is just great for homeowners.

And the three main things we’re announcing are these. First, the mayor’s allocating $100 million right now, out of the CDBG money, of which we hope there will be $4 billion - there’s $3.2 now, there’s one more traunch - we’re going to get the other $800 million. But out of the money he has now, $100 million to start going to priority two and three, who have been told you’ve got to come back and wait for a few years. So those people, who are priority two and three, who are cops, who are teachers, who are firefighters, are going to start getting some funding now.

Second, as the mayor mentioned, for everyone - priority one, two, and three - this has been a nightmare of bureaucracy. And he’s going to speed up the process in two ways. First, by adding more personnel. And you heard him announce that a 35 percent increase would occur. But second, we’re going through this with a fine tooth comb and all these bureaucratic hoops that the city imposed - not the feds - that the city imposed, they’re going to reexamine them and get rid of the ones that are duplicative, triplicative, and quadruplicative. Once is enough. Find out that the money’s going to the right place. But you don’t have to make people do a minuet before they see a nickel. Lots of these folks, who don’t have much money, laid it all out themselves cause they wanted their homes back in the Rockaways. And in Staten Island and in Brooklyn - the same thing applies there. It’s no different. And they can’t get any money and they’re not rich people. And they borrowed from relatives. And they scrounged so they could rebuild their homes - not stay out of their homes for two, three years - kids have school, people have obligations. And so that is going to happen as well.

So, first, we’re going to make homeownership a priority once again and $100 million. Second, priorities two and three will be funded at the same time as priority one. And three, we’re going to clear out the bureaucratic weeds so people can get money faster. And I thank the mayor for instituting all of those changes - they’re great.

I also want to say that Shaun Donovan - I’ve talked to him about this. He’s a New York boy and he is HUD Secretary and he - you know, and we were so delighted when the president took our request and made him the coordinator of all the Sandy relief. He’s aware of this and he’s with us all the way in doing these things. So that’s good. We’ve got the imprimatur of him. And, again, like the mayor, I want to thank all those who’ve worked on it in the past. But I also want to say to his new team, you’ve got a partner - wherever they are, there they are - you’ve got a partner in Chuck Schumer and if there’re any federal problems with the things you want to do, we’ll do everything we can to clear those out of the way.

So, this is really a good day. It’s a turning point for all the people - the homeowners - who were wiped out in Sandy. We’re making good progress in other areas. And I give the city credit for that - in transportation, we’re making credit. In reimbursement of services, we’re making credit. Obviously in clearly up debris, we’re making progress. But the one place we haven’t been  making  progress is homeownership and getting people to build it back. And I think today is a turning point in that regard. Thank you.

Mayor de Blasio: I have to tell you, as the Senator was speaking, you know, his love for this peninsula is quite evident. And I was so struck, as I went all over the Rockaways in the days after, I have to say, I’ve had the same experience in Broad Channel, I’ve had the same experience in Howard Beach. You know, people could’ve thrown up their hands but they pitched in and helped each other. I just to take a moment to recognize the human courage, the unheralded heroism of so many people who helped their neighbors, wouldn’t give up. A lot of folks from the city of New York did great things to help. I always commend our sanitation workers. I heard from people all over the city that sanitation workers helped them put their lives back together. Our first responders, who did extraordinary things in the midst of, again, the worst natural disaster. So many levels of courage, heroism, people doing the right thing, people doing the selfless thing. I think it’s sometimes as simple as this - we, in government, have to be as good as the people we serve. Certainly when it comes to the people in this room. And all that you did. I think that’s all you’re asking of us. Just be as good as what you’ve done. Take the resources we have, apply them the way you would. And that’s what we are setting upon doing today. Well, first, for a long time people have said, who has the talent and the history to make this right and bring these strands together and break through the red tape. And to me, it was clear, we needed a Sandy czar - we needed someone who really could make sure all of the pieces of the city’s efforts worked together to get people back on their feet. And, to play that kind of role, you need extraordinary experience. Bluntly, you have to have been to the movie before. You have to have done things like this. And there aren’t many things like this, but you have to have done something that gave you the ability to really lead and cut through the problems and move mountains.

Well the person who’s up to that job is Bill Goldstein. And he will serve as my senior advisor for recovery, resiliency, and infrastructure. And Bill has an extraordinary career. I’ve watched and admired his work for a long time. And he is someone up to this extraordinary task. He’ll oversee all aspects of our Sandy recovery, including housing recovery and building a more resilient infrastructure. Bill is coming to us from the Metropolitan Transit Authority, where he served as Executive Vice President of Capital Construction. That’s only his most recent example of taking on big, difficult projects and bringing them successfully to completion. His recent work has involved overseeing the extension of the MTA’s $16 billion-dollar mega-construction projects, which include the number 7 subway line, the Second Avenue subway, and the Fulton Street Transit Center. All of those have been his responsibility and he has been working to make all those pieces move forward. I saw Bill’s work when he was president and CEO of the School Construction Authority. I’ll say this gently, Bill - an agency that a lot of us who care about parents and kids watched for years with frustration as schools weren’t built quickly enough, they weren’t rehabilitated quickly enough. And then Bill Goldstein became the head of the School Construction Authority and I saw a minor miracle take place, where that organization was made strong and efficient. And it became a common assumption that our school building process would be faster and better.

He has had experience after disasters helping to get the physical infrastructure back together. He’s someone who knows how to drive projects through to completion. And I can tell you from having worked with Bill, this is someone who says what he means to do and does what he says he’s going to do. And that’s exactly what we need for a leader of our efforts to get people back on their feet after Sandy. It’s my honor to welcome Bill Goldstein.

Bill Goldstein: Thank you, Mayor de Blasio, Senator Schumer. My entire career in New York City has been involved in some aspect of the city’s infrastructure. I’ve managed major rebuilding programs, as the mayor said - at the MTA, at the Port Authority - and was President and CEO of the New York School Construction Authority. So I’ve been involved in almost every element of the built environment. But I know what recovery after loss means. I was working at the Port Authority in ’93 during first terrorist attack down there. And was heavily involved over the next many months of getting those two buildings, which are now, sadly, lost to us, back online within a few months, which I don’t think anybody thought we could do. I was also involved with the beginnings of the rebuilding after the 9/11 disaster - the beginnings of the rebuilding at the Trade Center and also with the memorial, which you can now see the park and I think, very recently, the museum has opened. So I know what it takes to come back after loss. It’s not easy. And it takes dedication. But rebuilding New York has been my life’s commitment and you can say that I live and I breathe it because I’ve been involved in almost every aspect of it. So it’s with great anticipation, excitement, gratitude, that I take on this critical new rebuilding challenge that the mayor has asked me to lead. At this point in the city’s history, completing the recovery work that remains as a result of Superstorm Sandy and planning for future weather events is critical to its future. We have to get that right now. And implementing this agenda will require coordinating the work of many city agencies and other governmental agencies outside the city. And I am honored to have been asked to work with the mayor on this. It’s an ambitious agenda and I can’t wait to get started. So, thank you very much.

Mayor de Blasio: I want to emphasize that as we name these new leaders - I’m going to introduce Amy Peterson and Dan Zarrilli in a minute - the goal here, the idea here, is that I will be meeting with them regularly. We’ve named Bill Goldstein as Senior Advisor to the Mayor for a purpose - that these activities, these efforts will be directly coordinated from City Hall from the highest level. Because we are committed to getting it right. There’s no way we can say it’s someone else’s responsibility. It’s our responsibility to get this right. And so this extraordinary team will be spending time with me regularly. When they need something, it will be my business to get it for them. When there’s red tape that needs to be cut through, it’ll be my business to cut through it. When we need a little more fairness from Washington, D.C. call this guy. And he will be there. He will answer the call.

Now, I think everyone in this room knows - the city’s housing recovery office was launched in November of 2012. And its guiding objective was fixing properties that had been damaged by Sandy and helping New Yorkers to return to permanent sustainable housing. Well, there’s a lot of work to be done, a lot of problems to fix, and we needed someone to run this office, who had both the history and the experience of getting things done but also the heart, the understanding of what people have gone through, the desire to fix it, because she understood what the human cost of Sandy had been and how further delay was not acceptable. And we found exactly the right person in Amy Peterson. She has a resumé that is extraordinary in terms of making things happen through physical projects, but she also knows an immense amount of helping people who have been through dislocation, who have been through pain, to get back on their feet.

First and foremost, she served with extraordinary distinction in the days after 9/11 as a crucial element of the city’s recovery effort in lower Manhattan. While working at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, she launched and managed a $281 million residential grant program that provided funding to 40,000 community residents who had been deeply affected by that tragedy. She also managed $2.8 billion from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The - I keep saying, the aftermath of Sandy reminds us, this was the greatest natural disaster we have ever experienced in this city. Well, 9/11 was the greatest man-made disaster and the aftermath was so painful for the people of lower Manhattan, and, obviously, for all of us. Amy was on the front line - solving people’s problems, helping them back on their feet, cutting through red tape. She earned a reputation as someone who would not allow people to suffer without help. That she found solutions for people in need.

Most recently, Amy has served as the President of Non-Traditional Employment for Women - an extraordinary organization that helps women to participate in the construction trades. She is respected throughout the construction trades for her integrity and effectiveness, for making sure there’s opportunity for all. As Director of the Housing Recovery Office, Amy will report to Bill Goldstein and will oversee all Build it Back efforts and all other elements of the housing recovery. And I’m charging her with pursuing a key priority within that - not only making sure that we work closely with local residents and listen to them - something she, again, has an extraordinary history of having done in the aftermath of 9/11 - and her recollections to me of working with folks who had been through so much, and listening to them, and helping them find solutions, was so moving to me - it’s one of the reasons she’s standing her today. But, in addition to that, she wants to make sure that local residents have every opportunity for jobs in this process as well.

Before I bring up Amy, I just emphasize, 17 months is a long time. And, as Senator Schumer said, we’re not going to tolerate people who have lost their homes entirely not getting their homes back. It’s why we have made the decision to - anyone who’s lost their entire home, anyone who’s home was entirely destroyed, we’re going to reach them - it doesn’t matter what priority levee they’re in, we’re going to reach them. Period.

But we also know, 17 months has been a long time economically for people. A lot of people shelled out all that money I referred to earlier, a lot of people had their businesses destroyed or their work interrupted, their employment, their salary - it’s a series of things that happened to people. All you have to do is talk to people affected and it quickly becomes obvious that a series of dislocations occurred. Amy understands that while we’re getting the physical reality back together, we also can help people get their economic reality back together at the same time - and that’s crucial.

It’s my honor to introduce Amy Peterson.

Amy Peterson: Hello. Thank you, Mayor de Blasio, for giving me this opportunity to help this community and this city recover and rebuild. I've been privileged in my career to work with amazing people, and to help other communities following disaster, and have witnessed the impact that government can have on helping people get past the suffering that they've had. After September 11th I worked with a team of people, both at all levels of government, and community and volunteer organizations to ensure that the much-needed releif and help got to those residents. And I'm committed to doing it for you also. I know how complicated it can be to get funds out the door, I certainly witnessed that after September 11th, but every day matters in the lives of the people who've been hurt, and I am excited that steps are already being made and I am committed to working with the community and the government to continue to ensure that we get the money out to you. Every day does matter, and it's really important. I've spent thirteen years in city and state government before my recent Non-Traditional Employment for Women non-profit job, and I have been honored to work closely with public servants who are committed to helping people. I'm excited to be back in government, because I think it can work for you, and can work for the people. And I'm very excited to be in this administration, who is committed to helping all New Yorkers in every way possible. And in every job I've had I've been with the building and construction industry. I know them. They step up when there's a crisis and they help people. They did after 9/11 and after Hurricane Sandy, and I'm looking forward to working with them to rebuild your communities. I'd like to thank my family, who supports me every day, and my daughter, who is here. So, thank you very much. 

[APPLAUSE]

Mayor: Dan Zarrilli is no stranger to addressing the effects of Sandy, but now he will be doing it in a new role as our Director of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency. For the last 10 years, Dan has been working to strengthen and rebuild our city's waterfront. He's been leading the implementation of the city's resiliency plans, including initiatives to strengthen our coast, upgrade new and existing buildings, and protect infrastructure. I've often said, I was not satisfied with what's happened over the last almost year and a half in terms of serving people, but I was impressed and comfortable with the larger resiliency vision, as a separate matter of where we need to go from here, I thought the previous administration did leave us a very important blueprint in terms of resiliency. Dan was a crucial player, as much as anyone, the architect of that vision, and we were very pleased to have him continue with this administration to build upon that vision. He is a proud resident of New Dorp, Staten Island, and he certainly knows what Staten Island went through after Sandy. He's an alumnus of MIT and a professional engineer. Like Amy, Dan will report to Bill Goldstein in terms of all his efforts, and I just want to say I'm thrilled that Dan will be staying on to help us build a more resilient future for the city of New York. Let's welcome Dan Zarilli.

Dan Zarilli: Thank you Mayor de Blasio. I'm honored and humbled to be standing here again, looking forward to helping the city of New York. And thank you also to Senator Schumer, we've had no greater friend than Washington for all of our resiliency efforts in the past several months. And a big thank you to the staff at the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, who continues to lead the charge in a lot of these efforts. And finally, a special thank you to my wife Christine, she couldn't be here today, and to my two young sons. It's their support that allows me to be here today in this position. As an engineer, I'm driven by the challenge of finding solutions to challenging problems, and there may be no greater challenge today than the risks that a changing climate can bring to our city. I've spent nearly 15 years working on New York City's infrastructure, the last ten of which within the city government, working on the city's waterfront. And we know that the city's waterfront is one of our greatest natural resources. It enables us transportation, it brings commerce, it's recreation. But we also know, unfortunately, that it can bring much worse things as well. And when Sandy hit, my home, personally, was fortunate not to be directly impacted by the floodwaters and wave action that devastated coastal communities across the entire city, but I saw it with my own eyes. It was clear what that destruction was like to my neighbors in Staten Island and across the entire city. What was also clear was that the city would need to reimagine its relationship with the water in some ways. We couldn't do so in a way that limited our ability to enjoy and bring all the other benefits to the city, and we needed to continue to be able to connect with our waterfront. I stepped forward at the time, to put my education and experience to work on the rebuilding and resiliency effort, and I haven't looked back. Since then, we've worked tirelessly to advance the city's efforts to recover and rebuild, making sure that we were rebuilding not just what was, but better and smarter, so that we have better coastal communities as a result. Now the lessons and pain of Sandy may be with us for many months and years to come, but we can and will put in place stronger coastal communities as a result. I'm personally driven by my two young boys in all this. They'll inherit this city that we make for them, and I know that the opportunity to make a better city is currently within our hands. You've got a great team in front of you, and I'm thrilled to be part of it, and I'm looking forward to getting to work. So, thank you very much, I'm looking forward to rebuilding a stronger, more resilient New York.

Mayor: Now, I'm going to say a few more things, and then a few words in my attempt at Spanish, and then we'll call forward the City Council speaker who will be more eloquent than I am, both in English and Spanish.

[LAUGHTER] 

But, as I mentioned, in about two weeks we'll be announcing some additional measures. We emphasize that the news today is important and significant but is only a beginning. This is going to be a central area of foxus for me and my administration. Our work will not be over until everyone is situated again. That is our goal. In the meantime, more checks will land in people's mailboxes, more hammers will strike nails, as more homes are rebuilt, and more lives will return to normal. What drives us is a clear knowledge that we can't let one more month go by, after the 17 months that have already happened, we can't let one more month go by without making significant progress. That's what we're going to hold ourselves to: every month, making it better. And we know the road will not always be straight and easy. There will be bumps along the way, but that will not stop us from getting the job done. And we could not be more honored by the incredibly talented folks who have agreed to join us in this endeavor. En Español:

[The mayor speaks in spanish]

Muchas gracias a el Senedor Schumer.

[LAUGHTER]

And now, we're about to get a major upgrade, Speaker Mark-Viverito.

[City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito speaks]

Mayor: That was truly an example of truth in advertising. Her Spanish was much, much better. I want to just say one more thing about our Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. I think a lot of you saw in the days after the tragedy in East Harlem, she really led from the front, she was up with the people of her community, constantly helping them, and that's the energy she's also brought to the question of how we serve people affected by Sandy. She has been constantly raising, to all of us in the administration, ideas for getting things done with a real urgency, and the Council has already proven to be a tremendous ally in this effort, and all the council members have been really vocal about the changes we have to make, and their ideas have also informed our efforts today, so I want to thank all of them. They're really serving the people of these communities well. 

With that we're going to do on topic questions first. On topic. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, Dan Bowens from Fox 5 News. There are probably thousands of people all across the city who were affected by Sandy. They watch the news tonight and they might think, you know, we’ve seen political leaders stand up there and say these types of things before, and 17 months they haven’t seen the results. What can you say to those folks out there tonight to reassure them that this time it’s different?

Mayor: Because right now checks are starting to arrive at peoples’ homes, because you’re going to see in these coming weeks homes starting to be rebuilt because there’s a new team of leaders—proven leaders—who are taking over with a mandate from the top to get things done. I mean—I quote Harry Truman who said, “The Buck stops here.” You know, I’m very clear about the fact that this is my responsibility to fix, and we have the right team to do it, and we have the best ally in the world in Washington to help clear the way, and make sure that resources continue to flow, so it really is a new beginning. We’ve moved a lot more money over to homeowners, which is crucial. We’ve said very clearly: If you are a homeowner who has lost your home entirely, whatever your priority level, your home will be rebuilt, period. And that is a different approach, and that is going to be something that people feel very tangibly, very quickly.

Hold on. Let me go—I’m going to go back to front.

Question: Mr. Mayor, there is an AP story today about a string of artificial islands that could be built off the coast of New York and New Jersey for $10 - 12 billion. Any thoughts about that?

Mayor: I’m—in all of this questioning there’s going to be areas I may not have the most up-to-date information on, like the string of islands. That’s a new one to me.

[LAUGHTER]

But, I will always welcome Senator Schumer if he wants to comment.

Senator: Yeah, one of the the things we did in the Sandy bill is provide money not to actually to do it, but to do the research, the study, the proposals. What do we do to prevent another Sandy? Islands are one proposal. There’s a proposal for gates that go through—block off the whole harbor. There are proposals that are happening here that are more specific, for dunes and for groynes and for things like that as well. But to have a long-term, major program that will prevent another Sandy from hurting us, and will deal with the rising waters that Global Warming brings about is part of the plan, but it’s very long-term, and as I said, there is money in there to study it, but not to implement it. And there will be a lot of ideas, not just these islands. That’s one. And we’ll have to see which one is best and whether it’s worth the cost. It probably will be.

Mayor: One other point. The template we’re using is the resiliency plan passed onto us by the previous administration. Again, I think it’s very strong, and I think it’s fair—and I’ll look at Dan who had so much to do with the writing of it—I think it’s fair to say that it first emphasizes the more organic solutions, like wetlands and dunes that are obviously proven, and second, looks at the kind of barriers we can put up that are easier and more affordable, and the kind that can have a temporary impact on one place and be moved to another place, so I think we have a lot of immediate solutions that we are going to focus on implementing. I think the Senator is exactly right. There are some bigger solutions that will be looked at constantly. They may be very costly, as you said. It may take a while. But right now, the beauty of that resiliency plan is that there are some things we can get to work on right now that will make an impact in terms of resiliency.

Question: Hi, [inaudible] here in Rockaway two of the largest protective measures, the Boardwalk and the sand replenishment project have been delayed. In fact the sand replenishment project has been delayed to the point where three miles of beach can’t get replenished until September, to protect federally-protected piping plovers. How, you know, how have you worked to speed up these two projects in the [inaudible] we have another hurricane season coming up, and these projects are pretty crucial to the peninsula here for protective measures, and they just haven’t gotten started yet?

Mayor: I’m going to start and then, if the Senator wants to jump in or any of my colleagues. Look, the federal dynamics always create a challenge. Let’s be blunt. And a lot of times, again, the person who cuts through that red tape is standing by my side. What we do know is, for example, the city has a role through Economic Development Corporation in the Boardwalk. I very clearly instructed EDC to find a way to speed that effort up. We’re waiting for a report back on how they’re going to do that. So what we control, we are adamant about moving forward as quickly as possible. Bill Goldstein and I are going to be talking constantly about how to do that, and again, he has a real track record of fixing bureaucratic problems, and speeding construction in places that people didn’t think it was possible. So here’s going to be a great opportunity to apply your talents. But, I want—so what we control, we’re going to focus on, is a speedier timeline and have updates as we go along. The federal side, a little more interesting. Senator Schumer:

Senator: Yeah. On the specifics you mentioned, on the Boardwalk, when the city submits a plan there will be money for it. Already the Long Beach Boardwalk was built, under the same federal guidelines. And there will be money—FEMA money—to replace what has happened, but more importantly than that—and here I just want to underscore what the Mayor said: Mayor Bloomberg did a very good job on resiliency, and trying to get resiliency done, and I agreed with him on that. And there will be money in the bill that there is in the law that will allow us to build the Boardwalk back better, so god forbid there’s another storm we don’t have the same problem here. In terms of the sand, the problems are there are lots of problems, but it’s starting, as you know. I believe [inaudible] is the first. The second traunch of sands start in April. And that’s going to start moving. There are already studies for the groynes, which I know people want, and we hope to get those moving rather quickly. Things did not move quickly enough. The money is there, and now the will is there from the city, and the—you put those two together and I think you’re going to see some really much quicker movement than in the past. 

Question: [Inaudible] piping plovers. 

Senator: Well, it’s an endangered species and it’s a federal law, and you’d have to repeal it.

[LAUGHTER]

I do think there should be some flexibility on it. That’s for sure.

Mayor: Grace, behind you, and then you.

Question: [Inaudible] if you think the previous administration is to blame for a lot of the red tape and getting [inaudible]?

Mayor: Look, it’s simple. There was too much red tape. It wasn’t cut through. People didn’t get the help they needed. We’re looking forward though. We don’t really—I don’t think any of us want to waste time and energy to talk about the past. We have to move forward. And I think we have the right people to move forward. I think we have the right mindset. We’re absolutely convinced that a lot of that red tape can start to be cut right now, and you’re going to see the physical evidence of that. And we’re also convinced that some of the money had to be used differently and directed over to homeowners because they just need more help, so…

Senator: The one thing I wanted to say there is that in some areas Mayor Bloomberg—I thought the previous administration did a really good job. On resiliency, on transit, on getting the city so tax—our local taxpayers wouldn’t have to pay reimbursed. The area where there’s a weakness, and I’ve stated it publicly before and I’ll state it again, was money to homeowners. And the Mayor is correcting that, and correcting that in a very quick and strong way. 

Mayor: Grace.

Question: We’ve been hearing from families on Staten Island that the Department of Investigation is telling them that they are investigating the Build It Back program. Can you tell us if the city is doing some—if the Department of Investigation is conducting an investigation, or your administration is doing—taking a closer look at what happened with this program?

Mayor: I don’t have an announcement for you on that. You know, that there are many situations where very specific things have to be looked at, in terms of any contract. There might be a specific problem with a specific contractor for example, so I don’t want to comment beyond that. We’ll get you a more full accounting of that.

Question: Can you be more specific about where the $100 million that’s being reallocated will come from, what programs weren’t working that will [inaudible] have money moved over, and can you give us kind of a timeframe for homeowners whose houses were destroyed—like what are we looking at for maybe when things really start in earnest? When are they going to be back?

Mayor: Okay, I’ll frame by saying that two of the folks who have played a really big role in getting us to this point over the last few months are here: James Patchett, who is the Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, and Dom Williams, who’s the Chief of Staff to First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris. I have to tell you, Tony Shorris and Alicia Glen have been absolutely nonstop in their efforts to get this first element of progress moving, and then, again, the additional report that you’re going to hear in about two weeks time. So James and Dom have been central to this effort. I’ll start, and then you jump in on, on the question.

I think the two simplest answers to the question are: One, the impact is going to be felt starting now. this is a rolling dynamic where we’re going to immediately get some checks in peoples’ hands, immediately start rebuilding. As you heard, the kind of work we do with homeowners has been sped up already. It hasn’t been evident to the public, but the numbers I recited earlier are quite extraordinary: The number of assessments we’ve done, the beginning of coming to the point where we can start the design process with people and make real decisions right now. The whole ethic of this approach is changing rapidly. Even before the new leadership has come in to place, the fact that we have these new leaders is going to speed it up further. So I think you’re going to see real impacts in the weeks and months ahead. How are we able to move $100 million dollars? One, because we found some ways to tap into federal funding that were not yet being tapped. So we saw opportunities to get some additional funding. Two, we thought some of the previous efforts had not really been that efficient. Other elements of the overall plan hadn’t been that efficient. And we thought the money would be better spent on homeowners. To add - ok. 

Question: You can’t say which of those efforts it was? I mean, there were business efforts, [inaudible] tapped money to businesses? Like - 

Mayor: James.

Unknown: Sure. Yeah, [inaudible] there were some programs that were under-subscribed where we had less interest from applicants than we expected or than the previous administration expected and, as a result of that, we aren’t  going to need the funds there. And in addition to that, as the mayor said, the availability of alternative sources to CDBG at other FEMA funds that we can reallocate smartly and the use the overall funds more efficiently.

Question: Two questions off the bat about money. So that’s money that already is in the city budget, you don’t have to apply for it, right? The $100 million?

Mayor: So - separate - so, again, there’s one pieces where we’re reprogramming the resources we have. There’s another piece where we’re finding money that had not yet been tapped into before. 

Unknown: We can do it - we can start immediately but it is going to require a HUD amendment to our plan. But we have the flexibility in our current plan to start the action on serving every home that was destroyed immediately. 

Question: Quick follow-up - what is that number of homes that the $100 million is supposed to rebuild?

Mayor: So think of it - so, let’s be clear about, roughly, I want to say something - James, you’re coming right back up, don’t go far. The $100 million is one piece of the overall effort but let’s be clear about the number of homes fully destroyed that we expect to be fully rebuilt as part of this across priority areas. While he’s getting that number I just want to note, echoing Senator Schumer, Sean Donovan has been a blessing in this process. I want to urge, in the future, that every presidential administration name cabinet officers all from New York City because it’s really coming in very handy to have someone who understands the city, cares about the city. And wherever he could find a way to be flexible, he has been. And I know the Senator feels this too - we are really looking forward to working with him with a different approach, a more aggressive approach, a more aggressive team, I think will match very nicely with Secretary Donovan’s willingness to work with us very creatively.

Schumer: Just one more point here. 

Mayor: Please.

Schumer: The city has received $3.2 billion of CDBG money, which is where the flexibility for a lot of this homeowner stuff comes from. But there is  another traunch coming. And if it goes as expected, there’s another $800 million of CDBG money coming. They should get a total of $4 billion after the three traunches and that’ll give them more flexibility to deal with the homeowners as well. 

Mayor: You want to jump in on the number? Or anything you can say. 

Unknown: Yes - we have the specific number, we’ll get it to you right afterwards. 

Mayor: Yes, sir.

Question: Yes, early on all the bureaucracy was kind of overshadowed - there was less bureaucracy because there was an emergency situation from the state of New York. Can we go back to that emergency situation and start from square one? Because the urgency is a big key. Melissa Mark-Viverito mentioned it. Urgency has been lost. There’s no urgency at all. I mean this - you guys are great, you’re here. Are we going to go back to the same as if it was the day after the storm and go back to that sense of urgency?

Mayor: I think we feel that urgency. In terms of the legalities around the emergency status, I can’t speak to them effectively enough so I’ll welcome the senator in as well on this question. I would say we feel profound urgency about this, which is why, as I mentioned, some of the actions we’re talking about today have been going on for weeks now. And the team is charged with making things happen every day, every week. There’s no lack of urgency. Thank god, in large measure, due to the senator’s efforts, there are substantial resources available. But they have to be used in a better way. They have to be used with that sense of urgency. So we think it’s - 

Question: [inaudible] emergency situation took out that bureaucracy - 

Mayor: Again, again, I can’t comment on the specifics I can’t fully describe. I can comment on how we want to approach it - we don’t accept the notion of bureaucracy that stops us from serving people on the ground. We don’t think it has to be that way. We understand there’s complexities in the federal law - I didn’t ask for them, the senator didn’t ask for them. You know, we’ve got some curveballs in that federal law. But, even with that being said, we believe we can get a hell of a lot more done within existing reality with the right leadership and the right approach. 

Mark-Viverito: No, I mean I think, you know, speaking to what you’re saying, as we were getting ready to start our new term in January, and obviously based on conversations with the incoming colleagues - that’s why the city council also decided to create a committee specifically on recovery and resiliency - so that we can really talk about what is the progress, right, that was going on, that we can have oversight, inform this process along the way, be in partnership with the administration - but we’ve got incredible leadership and the councilmembers that represent the areas. And not to say that they’re the only ones fighting this - no, now the council has added that committee and we’re going to do oversight and we’re going to be aggressive. I’ve been telling the mayor in our meetings that this is an area where we really want to be in true partnership with him and take leadership and really make some recommendations moving forward. As I said, the work - this is an incredible leap forward. And the work is on-going. So it will be informed by the feedback we get from all of you, from those that are living, right, the actions that have been laid out by the mayor and letting us know where it’s working, where it may not be. 

Question: [inaudible] thank you for being here and doing this. That’s one thing - it’s like, it’s amazing you guys are finally here. Thank you so much for finally seeing the secret of Rockaway. It’s the best place in the world. 

Mayor: That was an editorial comment. But heartfelt. I do want to say one thing, picking up on what the speaker said. You know, there’s an accountability reality now that is also new. We’re all trying to push each other to get a lot done. The senator’s been extraordinary about saying, look, here are things we can do differently right now. The speaker’s been extraordinary about saying - the members of the council, hearing from the people in their neighborhoods that they want action now, how can we help, what can we do. So there’s a collaboration here, a sense of everyone pushing each other for the best possible performance - that’s a new piece of the landscape. One or two more on-topic. Yes.

Question: [inaudible], Rockaway Civic. I thank you all, so. But the whole process is HUD-driven in its matrix of priorities and everything. And I know, at least three different families who are priority 3 - firemen, school teacher, and a cop - houses substantially damaged, to the point they can’t live in them. Department of Buildings is holding up their permits to demolish. They’re priority 3. And my question is in re-looking at this you said the substantially damaged will be reshuffled - does that mean prioritize and take away the AMI associated with the HUD process? Because these people are really - these are the backbone of our city - these are your cops - these are your teachers - these are your firemen - who are homeless now. Homeless. And, furthermore, nobody is - it may be innovative but - go to the lenders and say, stop, we’re working out these people’s problems. But they can’t pay rent and they can’t pay mortgage. They’re going to walk away from homes that their life savings were put into and this is the thank you from our government and our city? That they’re allowed to lose their homes because they would get caught in the shuffle? The other thing I suggest is, for your staff, that they know the process. You go into, people in the offices – I've been by the office just looking. They sit around for hours doing nothing. Sandy money. And then when you ask them qualitative questions, they have no clue. It's scary that you're employing people to help people in a process, and they have no clue about the process–

Mayor: Let me jump in. Your passion is well-placed. A lot of people have been hurting, and I couldn't agree more, people who are the backbone of this city. And I'm honored to spend a lot of my day with people who make this city work every day – our cops, our teachers, our firefighters, our sanitation workers, and I say to each and every one of them, I thank them for what they do for this city, and that means thanking them in every way we can and supporting them in every way we can. On the point about the office not working from your experience, and I believe everything you said you experienced, and that's not acceptable to me. So, new leaders charged with not only increasing the staff so it can serve people more effectively, but obviously getting the quality level to the point where we make things happen with people. Those numbers that I laid out before about what we are doing with people right now, before anyone heard a press release, that's because we can't abide by the notion of people not getting help who should get help. We just can't live with it, any more than you can't live with it. So, you're going to grade us as these leaders come into place, and bring in more people, and bring in the kind of people who represent our values, and let us know how we're doing. On the question of the homes, and I'll start, and then the – James, or Senator, or whoever wants to fill in the blanks here….What we're saying is, first, there are people who have lost everything. Just listen to the progression here. There are people who lost everything. Our first obligation is to reach all of them, doesn't matter what priority level. If you lost everything, we're coming to help. We then proceed to reach as many people possible with the money we have now, and then keep going, because, as Senator Schumer said repeatedly – in all of our meetings, I tell you, it was refreshing to meet with someone who says, we need to do x, y, z, and then we need to go get more resources as needed.

Senator Schumer: And the $100 million will apply to people whose homes are substantially damaged as well, which is the people you're talking about, and then when we get the next traunch, people who have lesser damage, who are living in their homes but who laid out the money, will get it back. And so I think what we're doing covers everyone you're talking about. Did it go quickly last times? You know it didn't. I know it didn't. I have not been shy about saying why. I did it three times here today. But it's going to change. And the mayor is committed to doing that. I sat down with him, I said just what you said – someone's a firefighter, someone's a cop, they deserve the same help as somebody who is – who doesn't have a little bit of resources. And he's going to do it, starting right now. All the people you mentioned are part of the $100 million which we reallocated, which can go out right away.

Mayor: Thank you, OK, let me get –

Question: Your team here is, would they think about regional directors, because sometimes you go into that office, and maybe it's your calvary there, but you really need somebody who has that, so to establish regional directors which civic leaders like myself – I took my life savings, and they didn't even go into building it back, I'm sorry to say, because I didn't believe in it. I was going to be the third traunch that never saw the money, but my husband spent 33 years serving this city, and everything we have, we couldn't believe in this city that he served all his life. I'm not looking for it now, but to the parents, the young parents that are trying to keep their lives together, I ask all our politicians, sit down with the lenders – Chase, Citi, and everything, and say, listen these are priority 1, but we have to work on something. Because they can't pay rent and they can't pay a mortgage. It's just not doable.

Mayor: Thank you. So the bottom line on the question you started with is a very powerful one – will there be people who understands the neighborhoods they're serving and the people they're serving. Part of why Bill and Amy and Dan make so much sense is that they have already done this kind of work effectively – as you heard – not in fun and easy situations. After tragedies, after crises, going in and finding a way to help people right there at the community level. So that is the worldview, that is what they believe in, and when they choose the people under them, that's what they're going to be looking for. I think as Amy said very clearly, part of how you test if that is working, is to talk to people and say, are you seeing a different result. We've said very clearly now, we won't accept anything but a different result. And we're going to choose people who feel the same way. Anything to add? Ok. One last thing there, young lady. And then we'll go to off-topic. Go ahead.

Question: I'm actually one of those city workers, because I'm a teacher –

Mayor: Thank you.

Question: –and one of the areas that hasn't been mentioned is parts in Brooklyn, specifically Canarsie, we have a lot of problems getting people to look at us, to pay attention to us, even in the time following Sandy. We live in a [inaudib;e which is right on the waterfront, completely driven by electricity, and a lot of our property was damaged. We applied to Build it Back, it's a multipurpose dwelling, and we found that we were I think 3 percent off the original cutoff for priority 1, and were told that we would not qualify. People are walking away, so I want to [inaudible] because we have a board of managers that don't understand and don't really want to support us, so we are thankful for Allen Reisel ?? our councilman who has been working with. However, what is happening now is no Build it Back money, no communication, people are now, and have already walked away. Their properties are going into foreclosure. We need your help, and we understand the priority for people who have nothing, people who have been living in hotels and whatever else. But at the same time, to be 3 percent off, and to be told no, we cannot help you, that too is unacceptable.

Mayor: I'll make it simple, and I appreciate the question very much, and I appreciate what you do for the City of New York in your career. We are adamant about reaching people. The first are the people who lost everything, and we keep going from there. We're going to use every dollar available, and as you already heard, we're taking dollars that were coming in, and we're reprogramming them towards people who have real challenges like everyone in this room. We're finding money that had not yet been tapped into. We're going to keep going and keep going, to get to the point where we've used every last dollar the way everyone in this room would want us to, and when we need more, we're going to go to Washington and say, look, every dollar's been exhausted. We need more. But the first – it begins with helping people who have been entirely devastated and then going from there.

Question: [inaudible]

Phil: We had time for just one more question, folks.

Mayor: I'm sorry, hold on. We're going to off? Ok. But before we – so, let her finish, and then we're going to off, and I know some people may have to leave.

Question: The people who had already gone through the process, when you're giving out more information in two weeks, I hope it's going to include those of us who have reached that level, how we can – what we need to do to be able to get back into that Build it Back –

Mayor: Well, we also want to make sure that people who were told they didn't make the cutoff actually didn't make the cutoff. So that's another point in this, is that we're – what did Ronald Reagan once say? Trust but verify. We want to go back and look at folks who may have been left out, and see, in fact, if there was something.

Senator Schumer: Just– ma'am, if you are close to level 1, this $100 million, if your house was substantially damaged, applies to you. If your house wasn't substantially damaged, but you still had to lay out tens of thousands of dollars, under the new plan, you're going to get reimbursed a lot more quickly, because they're not going to have to wait until every priority 1 is taken care of before you're taken care of. So we're trying to cover everybody. That was my goal in the original bill, there was a lot of frustration for 17 months. Hopefully yours, mine, and all of ours will change.

Mayor: I know Senator Schumer has to go on to another appointment, but I want to just give him a round of applause and thank him.

[APPLAUSE]

Mayor: Okay, we are now - we are now - and I know some of our colleagues - yes, we have time for just a few - just to clarify - hold on, hold on, everyone. I just want to say, media only - media only. Help us, I’m sorry - the media have to speak to all the people. So, media only - thank you’s are nice but I’ve still got to do - we only have a little bit of time left, so, media, off-topic. Media, off-topic. Yes.

Question: I wanted to ask about charter schools. The budget plan, to my understanding, requires you to either provide free space for charter schools or to support them financially in finding a space. How will you do that?

Mayor: The fact is, with the state budget, all we have right now is a very preliminary understanding of what has been agreed to. So, we’re waiting. It would not be responsible to go into any kind of deep dialogue until we see exactly what it is. From what I can tell, the core concept that the city of New York will make decision about our public school buildings is just exactly the way it was. Clearly, I said, we want to work with every kind of school. What I’ve talked about, for example, in terms of pre-K and afterschool will not only involve traditional public schools - it will involve charter schools and religious schools. We want to work with every kind of school because we want to reach every child. So, I’m waiting for more details but my strong understanding is that the way we are approaching things, which will be a different co-location process that’s fair to all the schools involved, is going to continue exactly as we envisioned it. Sally and, over here, okay - Sally.

Question: Mr. Mayor, are you able to share with us any details of your conversation with President Clinton. Either about charter schools or pre-K, anything you two might’ve talked about? 

Mayor: I’ll be very broad - and President Clinton, I’m honored to have a personal friendship with President Clinton. And one of the greatest honors of my life was that he swore me in the day I became mayor of this city. He has been an extraordinary source of wisdom and advice as I’ve started out in the mayoralty. We had a wonderful conversation about education, which is one of his passions, and about how to really start to right the ship in terms of public education. And some of the ideas we talked about were certainly reflected in my speech at Riverside Church last week. I think the bottom line is, like me, he believes, fundamentally, we have to have a new approach that brings all parts of the educational spectrum into the solution. And that’s broadly the advice that he gave. 

Walzak: Two more quick ones, please. 

Question: Mr. Mayor, can you talk a little bit about whether you consider the pre-K allocation of $300 million from the state a victory even though you didn’t get your income tax that you [inaudible]

Mayor: Well, again, I'm going to be very careful until everything is clear about the state budget, so I'll just give you a very brief first assessment. What we're seeing so far constitutes an extraordinary and historic step forward for New York City. It's clearly the resources we need to create full-day pre-k for every child in this city. That's what we set out to do. So, from what we're seeing so far, it's an incredible beginning. It will affect every neighborhood in this city, tens of thousands of children and families, starting this September. And we're incredibly excited about this step forward, but still more details to come. 

Phil: Last question, guys.

Question: Mandatory co-locations, a ban on charging rent, how much of repudiation happened in Albany of your educational policies on charters?

Mayor: Again, we have to see all the details. The state of New York clearly sets policies in some areas related to education, and then under mayoral control of our school system, we set a number of policies as well. If Albany makes certain judgments, we respect them, we'll work with them. What we came here to do continues. We came here to do full-day pre-k and afterschool. We came here to change the co-location process and make sure it worked fairly for all involved. We came here to engage parents in the education of their children in a very different way. We came here to do teacher retention. All of that continues unabated, and we're going to be able to work with Albany to get that done.