legislative record (CITY and state laws)

Responding to COVID-19

• Authored the State of Emergency Response and Recovery Task Force legislation (pending). If passed, it will create a task force that would be responsible for reviewing each City agency’s emergency plan and issuing an annual report with recommendations should any concerns be identified.
• Co-authored a law that eliminated penalties for non-payment of property taxes due to COVID-19.  It provided significant tax relief for property owners, and applied to 99% of Class 1 homes, including 87% of condos. 

Reforming Our Criminal Justice System

• Co-authored the Fair Chance Act (also known as “Ban the Box”) law, which prohibits public and private employers, citywide, from denying New Yorkers jobs just because they have a criminal conviction or arrest record. 
  • In December 2020, the Council passed Fair Chance Act 2.0, an expansion that also shields unsealed violations, including loitering for the purpose of prostitution and pending, unsealed ACDs.
• Co-authored and passed legislation to prohibit pre-employment marijuana testing.
• Authored and passed legislation to reaffirm New Yorkers’ Right to Record Police activity in public places, from a safe distance. The law was unique in that it allows judges to issue punitive damages to victims. 
• Co-authored and passed legislation to require the NYPD Inspector General to review police misconduct cases and develop recommendations to improve the discipline, training and monitoring of officers.

Protecting Women’s Rights

• Co-authored and passed the Domestic Violence Victim Protection Act, which prohibits landlords from discriminating against victims of domestic violence.

Cracking Down on Illegal Commuter Vans, especially in South East Queens and Brooklyn:

• Co-authored and passed legislation to remove unlicensed, uninsured, dangerous commuter van drivers off of the road, while ensuring that legal owners are treated like legitimate outer borough transit options. Also passed legislation to allow the TLC to regulate vans with 20 or more passengers.
• Worked with the Taxi and Limousine Commission to establish an official Commuter Van logo for use by licensed, insured vans.

Maximizing Affordable Housing Opportunities

• Co-author of law to require Racial Impact Studies prior to rezonings.
• Worked with Picture the Homeless to pass the Housing, Not Warehousing Act.  Then-Council Member Williams’ bill, with Nick as negotiator, requires HPD to report on vacant buildings or lots under HPD jurisdiction for their potential to be developed or using the buildings for affordable housing.
• Heard legislation that would require landlords to post a statement as to whether the building has rent regulated units in the building. (Pending)
• Co-authored and passed legislation to require HPD to report annually on certain information regarding the waiting lists of Mitchell-Lama housing developments.

Protecting Tenants Against Harassment and Lack of Repairs

• Co-authored and passed a law cracking down on individuals that harass home owners into selling their homes. 
• Co-authored and passed a law increasing the minimum apartment temperature to 62 degrees at night, during heat season. 
• Co-authored and passed a law defining as “tenant harassment,” the following behavior by landlords: lying about whether an apartment is occupied, lying about whether a unit is rent stabilized when applying to perform construction work, several failures to make major apartment repairs, falsely certifying that work was done to a unit.  
• Co-authored and passed a law requiring HPD to audit buildings that receive tax payer subsidy (421-a of Real Property Tax Law) to ensure that the landlord registers units as rent stabilized.
• Authored and passed a law doubling fines for landlords who engage in tenant harassment.
• Co-authored and passed a law to increase the number of DOB inspectors that help ensure that our buildings are safe and structurally sound.
• Co-authored and passed a law to make it easier for New Yorkers in need to prevent sudden eviction from ¾ houses. The law establishes tenancy by allowing residents to show a valid ID, government record, medical record, notarized statement, utility bill, or similar proof.
• Co-authored and passed a law encouraging landlords to keep buildings in a state of good repair by increasing the interest rate for emergency repairs performed by HPD.

Protecting Character of our Neighborhoods

• Authored and passed a law to require that DOB notify residents when a developer applies for permits to build a new hotel.
• Co-authored and passed a law to require that a building’s street number be displayed at each entrance/exit used by residents or visitors. 

Improving Immigrant Rights

• Co-authored and passed a law to require that all city websites include a language translation feature. The feature must be available in, at least, speaker of the city’s top-seven languages, including Haitian-Creole, Spanish and Russian.

Reducing Construction Site Deaths and Injuries

• Co-authored (as Council Legislative Director) and negotiated (as a Mayoral aide) the Construction Safety Training Act, aimed at reducing construction site deaths, by requiring at least 40 hours of OSHA (or equivalent) training. Negotiated to provide several million dollars to provide courses through M/WBE course providers and experienced day laborer organizations.  

Protecting the Environment

• Authored and passed the Catch Basin Clean Up Act, which require the Dept. of Environmental Protection to inspect every catch basin the city at least annually, and to unclog/repair clogged basins within nine days of complaint filing. The law aims to help alleviate flooding, especially in South East Queens and Brooklyn.
• Co-authored and passed the Bike to Work Act, which discourages driving to work. Allows employees to store their bicycles at designates places in the office building, and transport bikes on designated elevators.
• Co-authored and passed laws to ensure that New York City’s energy conservation codes are stricter than our state code.

Protecting Consumers

• Co-authored and passed the Used Car Fee Transparency Act, which requires used car dealers to post the full selling price of a car, including previously hidden dealer fees, along with the cost of any extras that run with the car.
• Co-authored and passed state legislation prohibiting the marketing or sale of e-cigarettes to minors.
• Authored and Introduced the Credit Non-Discrimination Act, which would outlaw the practice of creditors discriminating in the issuance of credit on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, or any of the protected classes. (Pending)

Supporting Our Veterans

• Authored and passed the Veteran and Active Duty Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing (rental or sale), public accommodations, lending, and license issuance, due to actual or perceived military service. For example, no longer can employers fail to accommodate New Yorkers deployed to war, nor can veterans be told that they can’t rent an apartment due to possible PTSD bias. 

Protecting Small Businesses:

• Co-authored and passed a law to prohibit law enforcement from using the Nuisance Abatement Law to arbitrarily shut down bodegas, small businesses that New Yorkers patronize.

Improving Transparency in Government:

• Co-authored and passed a bill requiring the Conflict of Interest Board to maintain record of compliance with the annual conflict of interest law for candidates participating on the city’s public matching campaign finance program.
• Co-authored and passed a bill to require more than 18 city agencies to report biannually on efforts to help New Yorkers register to vote.
• Co-authored and passed a bill to require the disclosure of anyone with a ten percent or greater, ownership in an entity doing business with the city.