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| Betsy Combier |
On April 6, 2022, Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office secured $125,000 from a contractor that skirted diversity requirements in the Rochester Schools Modernization Program (RSMP), and she called on the National Football League (NFL) to address recent allegations of workplace inequity.
On April 8, 2022, The CITY published an article that described how Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander would block Wells Fargo Bank from any new contracts for banking services after the Public Bank of NYC complained that Wells Fargo disproportionately denied Black homeowners' mortgage refinancing applications. (see below)
Ok, so we ask Attorney General Letitia James to prosecute Mayor Eric Adams and suspend him without pay until he ends the Covid Vaccine Mandate and stops discriminating against municipal workers who cannot get vaccinated because of medical or religious contraindications and were denied exemption. We argue that it is discriminatory and unfair that he allows performers and athletes to do what they do without getting vaccinated yet terminates policemen/women, firemen/women, and good, hard-working employees of the NYC Department of Education who cannot get the vaccine.
Mayor Adams' actions show disparate treatment and are unconstitutional. Give everyone requesting an exemption a full hearing in front of an impartial arbitrator chosen by the employee and Department, not appointed by the City, and give them telework or administrative positions until the COVID panic is over and/or routine testing is done on a weekly basis at all schools, to assure parents and students that they are all safe.
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| City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli. (Staten Island Advance/Joseph Ostapiuk) |
Published: Apr. 09, 2022, 5:45 p.m.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --- NYC Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) will be introducing a resolution calling on Mayor Eric Adams to rehire city employees who were fired because they did not get the mandated coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine by the February deadline.
Borelli plans to introduce the measure, which has bipartisan backing from at least seven other councilmembers including Democrats Councilmember Farah Louis (Brooklyn) and Councilmember Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn), on Thursday.
“I think we will have more people signing on, there’s broader support in the council than people think,” Borelli told the Advance/SILive.com.
About 1,430 city employees were fired as a result of the mandate, however, that number could rise as thousands of city workers who applied for a medical or religious exemptions are waiting to find out if their waivers have been accepted or denied.
The overall message, Borelli said, is they believe it’s unfair that thousands of city workers remain unemployed while professional athletes and other performers are able to work because Adams made them exempt them from the mandate.
City employees who did not receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 by Feb. 11 were terminated.
The Feb. 11 deadline also applies to new hires – employees who were hired after Aug. 2 and agreed to vaccination as a condition of their employment – and unvaccinated employees who have been on unpaid leave who did not request a continuation of healthcare benefits.
“There must be rules and we must follow them. The rule is to get vaccinated if you are a city employee. You have to follow that. And if you have a reason you can’t, there’s an avenue,” Adams said at the time. “But if you didn’t do that and didn’t follow the rules, we sent a letter out to you,” he continued.
When asked during a media briefing in Queens last month if he had considered rehiring the estimated 1,400 municipal workers who lost their livelihoods over the city’s vaccine mandates, Adams said “not at this time.”
“I want to take my hat off to those countless number of New Yorkers, municipal employees that understood what we were going through as a city, and they stood up and they did the right thing,” the mayor said. “At this time we’re not entertaining it [rehiring unvaccinated workers].”
The group of councilmembers are also calling on private businesses to rehire employees who were fired for failing to get vaccinated.
“We want our people to get back to the workplace, whether that be in the private sector or public,” Borelli said.
Employees in state government or New York State employees in agencies controlled by the governor were not mandated to get vaccinated-- they have a weekly testing option if they’ve chosen to not get vaccinated.
POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION SAYS POLICE ARE TREATED AS SECOND-CLASS
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch issued a statement saying that cops who were on the frontlines during the early days of the pandemic don’t deserve to be treated as second-class citizens.
“We have been suing the city for months over its arbitrary and capricious vaccine mandate — this is exactly what we are talking about. If the mandate isn’t necessary for famous people, then it’s not necessary for the cops who are protecting our city in the middle of a crime crisis,” Lynch, who heads the city’s largest cop union, said.
"While celebrities were in lockdown, New York City police officers were on the street throughout the pandemic, working without adequate PPE and in many cases contracting and recovering from COVID themselves.”
Harry Nespoli — the president of Local 851, the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association and chair of the Municipal Labor Committee — also expressed disapproval of Adams’ decision, and said he hoped for a re-entry program so workers can get their jobs back.
“When New York City shut down, many workers were mandated to come in every day without vaccines to keep the city running. These workers often got sick, and when they got better, came right back to work,” he said.
“There can’t be one system for the elite and another for the essential workers of our city. We stand ready to work out the details with the mayor, as we have been throughout this process.”
Borelli plans to introduce the measure, which has bipartisan backing from at least seven other councilmembers including Democrats Councilmember Farah Louis (Brooklyn) and Councilmember Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn), on Thursday.
“I think we will have more people signing on, there’s broader support in the council than people think,” Borelli told the Advance/SILive.com.
About 1,430 city employees were fired as a result of the mandate, however, that number could rise as thousands of city workers who applied for a medical or religious exemptions are waiting to find out if their waivers have been accepted or denied.
The overall message, Borelli said, is they believe it’s unfair that thousands of city workers remain unemployed while professional athletes and other performers are able to work because Adams made them exempt them from the mandate.
City employees who did not receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 by Feb. 11 were terminated.
The Feb. 11 deadline also applies to new hires – employees who were hired after Aug. 2 and agreed to vaccination as a condition of their employment – and unvaccinated employees who have been on unpaid leave who did not request a continuation of healthcare benefits.
“There must be rules and we must follow them. The rule is to get vaccinated if you are a city employee. You have to follow that. And if you have a reason you can’t, there’s an avenue,” Adams said at the time. “But if you didn’t do that and didn’t follow the rules, we sent a letter out to you,” he continued.
When asked during a media briefing in Queens last month if he had considered rehiring the estimated 1,400 municipal workers who lost their livelihoods over the city’s vaccine mandates, Adams said “not at this time.”
“I want to take my hat off to those countless number of New Yorkers, municipal employees that understood what we were going through as a city, and they stood up and they did the right thing,” the mayor said. “At this time we’re not entertaining it [rehiring unvaccinated workers].”
The group of councilmembers are also calling on private businesses to rehire employees who were fired for failing to get vaccinated.
“We want our people to get back to the workplace, whether that be in the private sector or public,” Borelli said.
Employees in state government or New York State employees in agencies controlled by the governor were not mandated to get vaccinated-- they have a weekly testing option if they’ve chosen to not get vaccinated.
POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION SAYS POLICE ARE TREATED AS SECOND-CLASS
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch issued a statement saying that cops who were on the frontlines during the early days of the pandemic don’t deserve to be treated as second-class citizens.
“We have been suing the city for months over its arbitrary and capricious vaccine mandate — this is exactly what we are talking about. If the mandate isn’t necessary for famous people, then it’s not necessary for the cops who are protecting our city in the middle of a crime crisis,” Lynch, who heads the city’s largest cop union, said.
"While celebrities were in lockdown, New York City police officers were on the street throughout the pandemic, working without adequate PPE and in many cases contracting and recovering from COVID themselves.”
Harry Nespoli — the president of Local 851, the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association and chair of the Municipal Labor Committee — also expressed disapproval of Adams’ decision, and said he hoped for a re-entry program so workers can get their jobs back.
“When New York City shut down, many workers were mandated to come in every day without vaccines to keep the city running. These workers often got sick, and when they got better, came right back to work,” he said.
“There can’t be one system for the elite and another for the essential workers of our city. We stand ready to work out the details with the mayor, as we have been throughout this process.”
NYC Cuts Off Wells Fargo From New Bank Contracts Following Discrimination Claims
Mayor Eric Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander have publicly promised that New York City will block Wells Fargo from any new contracts for banking services, following claims the financial giant racially discriminates against Black homeowners.
The pledge comes on the heels of a letter Adams and Lander received on Monday from Public Bank NYC, an advocacy coalition campaigning for a government-run municipal bank, which slammed Wells Fargo for disproportionately denying Black homeowners’ mortgage refinancing applications last year.
Wells Fargo is one of 30 financial institutions approved to compete for contracts to host municipal bank accounts, which city agencies use to hold payroll, fees, and other pots of money.
Adams and Lander are not officially revoking that designation, as advocates originally demanded, but the duo’s promise will have a similar effect: preempting the bank from winning any contracts to hold city deposits.
In a letter sent to the bank’s CEO on Tuesday and made public Friday, Adams and Lander justified the move by pointing to the bank’s refinancing disparities as well as older allegations of discrimination.
“These disparate mortgage practices, layered upon a checkered history of steering homeowners of color into subprime mortgages, rejecting mortgages in redlined neighborhoods, and numerous outstanding consent decrees pertaining to mortgage practices, require a swift response by both your bank and stakeholders,” the two officials said. “In light of this persisting track record of discrimination, New York City will not be opening any new depository accounts with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. as we continue to investigate these troubling findings.”
BY GEORGE JOSEPH, the CITY, APR 8, 2022
Mayor Eric Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander join forces to say they will not put city deposits into accounts with the financial giant, after advocates point to disproportionate denials of mortgages to Black applicants.
The pledge comes on the heels of a letter Adams and Lander received on Monday from Public Bank NYC, an advocacy coalition campaigning for a government-run municipal bank, which slammed Wells Fargo for disproportionately denying Black homeowners’ mortgage refinancing applications last year.
Wells Fargo is one of 30 financial institutions approved to compete for contracts to host municipal bank accounts, which city agencies use to hold payroll, fees, and other pots of money.
Adams and Lander are not officially revoking that designation, as advocates originally demanded, but the duo’s promise will have a similar effect: preempting the bank from winning any contracts to hold city deposits.
In a letter sent to the bank’s CEO on Tuesday and made public Friday, Adams and Lander justified the move by pointing to the bank’s refinancing disparities as well as older allegations of discrimination.
“These disparate mortgage practices, layered upon a checkered history of steering homeowners of color into subprime mortgages, rejecting mortgages in redlined neighborhoods, and numerous outstanding consent decrees pertaining to mortgage practices, require a swift response by both your bank and stakeholders,” the two officials said. “In light of this persisting track record of discrimination, New York City will not be opening any new depository accounts with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. as we continue to investigate these troubling findings.”
Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
betsy@advocatz.com
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