EDC Preliminary Budget Hearing March18, 2010

1
CITY COUNCIL
CITY OF NEW YORK
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TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES
of the
JOINT COMMITTEES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

AND SMALL BUSINESS
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March 18, 2010

Start: 12:00 pm approx.
Recess: 4:31 pm approx.
HELD AT: Council Chambers

City Hall
B E F O R E:
DIANA REYNA
Chairperson, Small Business
COUNCIL MEMBERS:
Council Member Margaret S. Chin
Council Member Mathieu Eugene
Council Member Julissa Ferreras
Council Member James F. Gennaro
Council Member Sara M. Gonzalez
Council Member Letitia James
Council Member Brad Lander
Council Member Stephen T. Levin
Council Member Melissa Mark-
Viverito
Council Member Annabel Palma
Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez
Council Member Larry B. Seabrook
Council Member Albert Vann
Council Member Mark S. Weprin
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A P P E A R A N C E S [CONTINUED]
Diana Reyna
Opening Statement Re: Economic Development Corporation
Chairperson
Committee on Small Business
Seth W. Pinsky
President
New York City Economic Development Corporation
Jason Wright
Chief Financial Officer
Diana Reyna thanks the staff of Committee on Small

Business and Committee on Economic Development
Diana Reyna read letter from Lucky's Real Tomatoes

into the record
Sara Gonzalez, through Brad Lander, thanks Deputy

Mayor Lieber, staff at EDC especially Ashley Cotton,
Andrew Genn, and Josh Nachowitz
Bomi Kim
MWBE Program
Diana Reyna
Opening Statement Re: Department of Small Business
Services
Chairperson
Committee on Small Business
Robert W. Walsh
Commissioner
Department of Small Business Services
Andrew Schwartz
First Deputy Commissioner
3
Angie Kamath
Deputy Commissioner of Workforce Development
David Margalit
Deputy Commissioner
Business Development and Agency Strategy
Anne Rascon
Deputy Commissioner
Division of Economic and Financial Opportunity
Gregg Bishop
Assistant Commissioner
Buyer Services
Jeremy Waldrup
District Development
Katy Gaul
Workforce1 Training
Tracie Abbott
Strategic Initiatives and System Integration
Shanna Gumaer
Workforce1 Career Center System Performance
Zenon Walcott
4
Bernadette Nation
Director
Customer Service Center
Business Express Unit
Don Giampietro
Business Incentives
Christina Shapiro
NYC Business Solutions
Colleen Galvin
Vendor Services
Daria Hirsch
Chief of Staff
Other Deputy Commissioners and Staff

Glenda M. Self
Project H. I. R. E.
Janet Torres
Director
Government and Community Affairs
Wildlife Conservation Society
Cultural Institutions Group
Appearing with Janet Torres

Colleagues from Cultural Institutions Group:
El Museo del Barrio
New York Botanical Garden
Brooklyn Museum New York Aquarium
5
Leah Archibald
Executive Director
EWVIDCO
Calvin Archibald
President
Tremont Business and Community Organization
Sarah Crean
Deputy Director
New York Industrial Retention Network
Presented written testimony:

Greg Mays
Downtown Jamaica Open Space Coalition
Josephine Infante
Founder
Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation
Stephan Hyacinth
Coordinator
Port Morris Industrial Business Zone
South Bronx Overall Economic Development
Justin K. Rodgers
Director
Economic Development
Greater Jamaica Development Corporation
Claudia Fitzpatrick
Owner
Prestige Environmental Services
Pete Mestousis
Mestousis Enterprises
Owners of several businesses
Hunts Point area in the Bronx
6
Gayle Baron
President
Long Island City Business Development Corporation
1 COMMITTEES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND 7
SMALL BUSINESS
2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Good afternoon.
3 I apologize for being a little late. A lot's
4 happening and I just wanted to welcome our
5 Economic Development Committee. My name is Diana
6 Reyna and I chair the Small Business Committee but
7 I am filling in for our Chair of Economic
8 Development Thomas White who could not be here
9 today due to other health commitments. And so I
10 wanted to just fill in the opportunity to chair
11 this hearing, the Fiscal 2011 Preliminary Budget
12 for the Economic Development Corporation.
13 In this hearing the Economic
14 Development Committee would like an explanation on
15 how EDC's capital budget is affected by the
16 Administration's decision to stretch out the
17 capital plan from four to five years, reducing the
18 current year's capital plan by nearly 20%. In
19 addition the Committee would like to know the
20 current status of EDC's capital access program
21 which will assist small businesses in accessing
22 credit to allow them to start, expand and/or
23 maintain their businesses.
24 Lastly the Committee is interested
25 in knowing about the current status of the Mayor's

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2 Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses,
3 one of my very most important priorities. Will
4 the Office stay in the Department of Small
5 Business Services and if not can it be returned to
6 the Economic Development Corporation's portfolio?
7 What would happen to the contract
8 service providers? Obviously our service
9 providers are a key component to maintaining the
10 IBZ's and I would like to thank our President,
11 Seth Pinsky for joining us here today and we will
12 now hear testimony.
13 MR. SETH W. PINSKY: Thank you
14 very much Chairwoman Reyna and members of the
15 Economic Development Committee. My name is Seth
16 Pinsky. I'm the President of the New York City
17 Economic Development Corporation and together with
18 Jason Wright our Chief Financial Officer and other
19 members of my staff, I'm very pleased to present
20 EDC's Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2011.
21 I have a brief presentation on our
22 agency's agenda for the coming year. And I will
23 also go through the operating capital budget which
24 should support our plans. After the presentation
25 I will of course be happy to take questions.

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2 As you well know over the last year
3 or so the City has faced a number of economic
4 challenges. Today the City's unemployment rate
5 stands at 10.4% which is 2.9 points higher than
6 the same period last year. In fact the latest
7 statistics from the State Department of Labor
8 reported that over the past 12 months the City
9 lost some 78,100 private sector jobs.
10 We've also dealt with a very soft
11 commercial real estate market. Total Manhattan
12 Class A office vacancy rates stand at 8.5%, an
13 increase of 2.1 points from the same time last
14 year. Meanwhile in January the number of building
15 construction project starts citywide decreased
16 both in number, dropping 53%, and value, declining
17 40%, versus the same time period the prior year.
18 Despite these challenges we are
19 seeing the first signs of recovery in our City's
20 economy. For example according to the
21 Administration's latest projections it is now
22 estimated that job losses in the City from the
23 peak of employment prior to the downturn to the
24 recession's trough will come in at a figure that
25 is about 100,000 fewer jobs lost than had been

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2 projected last June.
3 Among the reasons for this
4 improvement in outlook at the continued stimulus
5 that the public sector, Federal, State and City
6 are pumping into the economy, reflected in the
7 number of infrastructure projects started
8 citywide. These starts have increased 80% in
9 number and 139% in value since December of last
10 year.
11 As a result, as difficult as the
12 downturn has been and it certainly has been
13 difficult for many New Yorkers, the silver lining
14 is that New York City has generally performed
15 better than the rest of the country with the
16 percentage of jobs lost during the recession here
17 currently at 3.4%, a figure that is roughly half
18 the equivalent figure for the nation as a whole.
19 Not surprisingly as with the City's
20 operating budget, EDC's operating budget has been
21 impacted by the economic downturn. When I
22 testified before you last May our projected Fiscal
23 Year 2010 operating deficit stood at approximately
24 $21 million. To address this gap we instituted a
25 number of cost saving measures while also

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2 leveraging resources to keep projects moving
3 forward and generating significant new revenue.
4 Due to our efforts our Fiscal Year
5 2010 deficit is now projected to come in at $12
6 million. Going forward we will continue to look
7 for innovative ways both to generate new revenue
8 and cut costs and hope that during Fiscal Year
9 2011 we will succeed in reducing our operating
10 deficit even further.
11 While working to reduce our
12 operating deficit during Fiscal Year 2010, we have
13 continued to make substantial contributions to the
14 City's efforts to reduce its budget gaps. As you
15 can see during Fiscal Year 2011 we project that we
16 will be making additional payments to eliminate
17 the gap or PEG payments to the City totaling $2.1
18 million, an increase of $1.8 million over Fiscal
19 Year 2010.
20 By Fiscal Year 2014 we project that
21 this figure will have risen by yet another $6.9
22 million to a total annual figure of $14.9 million.
23 As you are aware the reason these so-called PEGs
24 hit New York City Economic Development
25 Corporation's budget in the form of payments

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2 rather than expense cuts is that unlike City
3 agencies, EDC does not generally rely on tax levy
4 funds from the City for its operations but instead
5 generates the lion's share of its revenues from
6 its own activities.
7 As a result of the foregoing,
8 between Fiscal Year 2010 and Fiscal Year 2014,
9 EDC's total PEG payments to the City are projected
10 to come in at $80.3 million. Together with the
11 other annual payments that we make to the City
12 which come in the form of payments in respect of
13 our annual contract with the City and one-time
14 extraordinary payments received in Fiscal Years
15 2009 and projected to be received in Fiscal Years
16 2013 and 2014 resulting from land sales
17 transactions, by Fiscal Year 2014 we project that
18 the total amount that EDC will have paid over to
19 the City of New York during the Fiscal Year '10 to
20 '14 period will equal more than $200 million.
21 Turning now to our capital budget,
22 you can see from this slide that approximately
23 $2.3 billion is now allocated for all EDC managed
24 capital projects for Fiscal Year '10 and '11. The
25 majority of our budget, about $1.4 billion or 50%

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2 consists of capital for commercial and mixed use
3 development initiatives. These include projects
4 to strengthen our central business Districts such
5 as Downtown Brooklyn, Downtown Jamaica, 125th
6 Street and Long Island City.
7 These also include neighborhood
8 redevelopment projects in areas like Willets
9 Point, Coney Island, the Staten Island Home Port
10 and Hunts Point as well as waterfront development
11 projects at facilities like the Brooklyn and
12 Manhattan Cruise Terminals.
13 Meanwhile $212 million or 9% of our
14 capital budget is allocated to improvements to
15 City owned industrial sites managed by EDC,
16 including the Brooklyn Army Terminal, the Hunts
17 Point Food Distribution Center and Bush Terminal,
18 markets like Essex Street and La Marquetta and
19 waterfront bulkheads and structures throughout the
20 five Boroughs.
21 Another 6% of our capital budget or
22 $140 million funds improvements by the Brooklyn
23 Navy Yard Development Corporation which manages
24 its own capital projects but is funded through
25 EDC. A further $114 million or 5% of our capital

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2 budget is allocated to investments in community
3 projects that support commercial and local
4 development including streetscape improvements and
5 the remaining 30% of our budget, about $676
6 million is allocated to projects that EDC manages
7 on behalf of other City agencies.
8 These are typically projects that
9 are tied to an economic development initiative
10 with the majority involving the Department of
11 Parks, Cultural Affairs and Housing Preservation
12 and Development. Projects in this category
13 include capital investments aimed at creating
14 recreational access to Randall's Island, expanding
15 the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, and
16 building affordable housing at Hunters Point South
17 in Long Island City as well as the Seaview Senior
18 Living Center in Staten Island.
19 As we continue to expand the City's
20 economy for the future we in the Bloomberg
21 Administration are well aware of the fact that the
22 world is changing and indeed has already changed
23 around us. Technology has lowered barriers to
24 entry that traditionally kept competitors out of
25 industries in New York, in which New York was

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2 dominant. We live in a far more mobile world,
3 giving the best and brightest, our greatest
4 natural resource, the ability to pick up and
5 choose among cities, states and even nations.
6 And the dominant role that the
7 United States has traditionally played in the
8 world economy is not something that can be taken
9 for granted any more. But in times past when New
10 York has been at similar inflection points where
11 its dominance has been threatened the City has
12 always risen to the occasion, made the right
13 decisions and reinvented itself in a way that
14 allowed it to emerge a better and more prosperous
15 place than it had previously been.
16 Today we believe that the time has
17 come for our City to do this once again. We must
18 transform our City into the capital of 21st Century
19 innovation. This transformation must happen along
20 two axes, physical and economic. The first way in
21 which the City, we believe, must transform itself
22 involves physical transformation.
23 Put simply, our City cannot compete
24 with 21st Century rivals using a physical plant
25 that in many cases is decades or more old. And

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2 this is why in the next several years we at EDC
3 will focus our attention both on restoring what
4 was and on creating what has not yet been. Not
5 just through investments and basic infrastructure
6 like pipes and wires but through investments in
7 amenities like parks, cultural facilities and in
8 some cases whole new neighborhoods.
9 When I last testified before you, I
10 told you about our aspirations for several major
11 development projects. And I'm happy to report to
12 you today that we are making good on those
13 promises. In Brooklyn the Administration's vision
14 to restore the iconic character of Coney Island
15 has passed significant milestones since our last
16 appearance before you in May. Thanks to the
17 support of the Council, the Administration's plan
18 to create a 27-acre amusement and entertainment
19 District together with 4,500 units of new housing
20 and 500,000 square feet of new retail space
21 successfully completed the rezoning process in
22 July. Following that we closed on the acquisition
23 of a 7-acre amusement parcel located on the
24 waterfront bringing the total amount of property
25 the City now owns with the amusement area to 90%.

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2 Meanwhile just last month we
3 announced the beginning of construction of a $30
4 million interim amusement park to be developed by
5 an affiliate of an Italian-based company called
6 Central Amusements International, the first 3
7 acres of which are set to open in Coney Island
8 this summer.
9 Finally we plan to break ground on
10 a 120-unit affordable housing project including
11 South Brooklyn's first YMCA this year. In Staten
12 Island we announced in September 2009, a deal for
13 a 7-acre development at the long dormant Home Port
14 site which is to include 30,000 square feet of
15 retail space, a new waterfront esplanade, and 800
16 residential units aimed at retaining young Staten
17 Island professionals. The project, in which a New
18 Jersey developer, Iron State Development, is
19 investing $150 million, is expected to generate
20 more than 1,000 construction jobs and 150
21 permanent jobs. We're now working on
22 infrastructure design and relocating City agencies
23 from the site and expect to break ground in 2011.
24 Here in Manhattan, we're currently
25 undertaking site preparation on the first phase of

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2 the 1.7 million square foot East Harlem Media,
3 Entertainment and Cultural Center. This
4 development will eventually include 800 units of
5 housing, 600 of which are to be affordable, as
6 well as a hotel and new retail, office, open and
7 cultural space. The project will create 1,500
8 permanent jobs and 4,000 construction jobs. We
9 hope to break ground on the first phase which
10 includes nearly 50 unites of low income housing
11 and 5,000 square feet of retail space in the
12 coming weeks.
13 Meanwhile in Queens at Willets
14 Point, we have now reached agreements with owners
15 of more than 70% of the project site. As you know
16 the goal is for the project site to be developed
17 to create 5,000 units of new housing, 35% of which
18 will be affordable, as well as retail, office and
19 open space, a convention center and a school. In
20 October 2009 we started the offsite infrastructure
21 design work and expect offsite infrastructure
22 ground breaking to commence in 2011. We also
23 expect to issue an RFP for a developer on the site
24 this year, after receiving a robust response to an
25 RFQ issued in October from 25 developer teams.

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2 The City has also started the ULURP
3 process for the Flushing Commons projects in
4 Central Queens. This project which is expected to
5 come before the Council in July will, if approved,
6 create a 5.5 acre mixed used development that will
7 result in new housing, new retail and new open
8 space as well as job opportunities for the
9 Downtown Flushing community.
10 And we're not simply completing
11 projects that we have already announced. We're
12 also launching ambitious new projects. These
13 include working with the co-op that operates the
14 woefully antiquated produce market in the Hunts
15 Point section of the Bronx to finalize renovation
16 plans and also developing an alternative fueling
17 facility for trucks making deliveries to the
18 market.
19 In addition to our own capital
20 investments we're also using money made available
21 through the Federal stimulus to advance projects
22 across the 5 Boroughs. To date EDC has received
23 approximately $114 million in stimulus funding for
24 infrastructure and energy projects. We've also
25 been busy allocating benefits from the stimulus

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2 plan through 2 different tax-exempt bond programs
3 both of which we believe to be unique in the
4 nation and each of which has served as a model for
5 other cities and states across the United States.
6 For instance, in the first round of
7 the Recovery Zone Facility Bond Program, which
8 makes benefits of tax-exempt financing available
9 to stalled commercial projects, we allocated $35
10 million in bonding capacity to 3 projects in
11 Brooklyn and Queens. The second round involved
12 the allocation of nearly $40 million in bonding
13 capacity to 3 additional projects in the Bronx,
14 Manhattan and Queens. We expect to make our final
15 allocations under this program in the coming
16 weeks.
17 The Nimble Bond Program meanwhile
18 offers tax-exempt financing to manufacturers,
19 including for the first time companies that
20 produce intangible products like software. In
21 November 2009 the Board of the Capital Resource
22 Corporation approved a $4.4 million issuance under
23 the Nimble Program to Stellar Services, an IT
24 developer for construction projects. This
25 issuance which we believe to be the first anywhere

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2 in the United States contemplated under this new
3 authority will allow Stellar to expand its
4 operations on Manhattan's West Side, increasing
5 economic activity and employment in the City.
6 At the same time that we address
7 our City's 21st Century infrastructure needs, we
8 must also focus our attention on the fundamental
9 way we as a City do business. This is because
10 what made our economy tick in the past, what gave
11 us our competitive advantage during much of the
12 last century, relied upon a model whose best days
13 have come and gone.
14 We remain the world's financial
15 capital, the world's fashion capital, the world's
16 media capital and so on. But on every front our
17 status is under siege. That is why over the past
18 year we have launched an aggressive slate of
19 programs aimed at diversifying the City's economy.
20 First we want to attract emerging
21 industries in which the City has competitive
22 advantages but in which we have historically hit
23 below our weight. These are industries like new
24 media, green services and bioscience. In the
25 latter industry for instance we have made

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2 significant progress in addressing the lack of
3 viable commercial lab space in the City. This
4 summer our private development partners,
5 Alexandria Real Estate Equities, expect to open
6 the first 300,000 square foot phase of the
7 Alexandria Center for Science and Technology at
8 East River Science Park where we have already
9 secured an anchor tenant, IM Clone that is
10 expected to occupy a third of the building space.
11 We're also moving towards--forward
12 on what will eventually become a 500,000 square
13 foot commercial lab complex at the Brooklyn Army
14 Terminal. We expect to make an announcement on
15 our progress on this important project in the
16 coming weeks.
17 In addition to attracting new
18 businesses it is also incumbent upon us to help
19 so-called legacy industries transition to 21st
20 Century business models. Take our efforts in the
21 industrial sector as an example. While it is true
22 that this sector has been declining for a long
23 time, a trend that is consistent with many major
24 cities across the country, it still has a vital
25 role to play in the City's economy and we believe

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2 presents significant opportunities for us.
3 This is underlined by the fact that
4 between 2004 and 2007 the latest years for which
5 this data is available the industrial sector in
6 the City actually outperformed the rest of the
7 country, growing by 0.6% versus a national decline
8 of 0.5%. That is why we're making investments to
9 expand this important sector.
10 For example along the Sunset Park
11 Waterfront at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal,
12 we're working on 2 projects totaling $120 million
13 with Axis Groups and Sims Municipal Recycling that
14 will bring this long dormant port facility back to
15 life and result in the construction of a new
16 break-bulk shipping facility and recycling plant.
17 Together these projects will create 400 high
18 paying jobs and eliminate 168,000 truck trips from
19 the City's roads each year.
20 The final way in which we are
21 seeking to transform the City's economy is by
22 working to foster entrepreneurship in the City
23 generally regardless of industry. The more than
24 50 initiatives underway include, for instance:
25 incubator spaces, providing hundreds of low cost

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2 work stations and business development services to
3 startup companies; an angel investments fund that
4 is expected to increase seed capital for City-
5 based startups by as much as 2%; and international
6 competitions aimed at spurring innovative ideas
7 through the creating of new business plans and
8 smart phone applications using long neglected
9 government data.
10 Of course we recognize that while
11 we transform the City's economy, we must ensure
12 that in doing so the benefits of this
13 diversification are felt in all communities and by
14 people of all backgrounds and creeds. This is why
15 we are so focused on our efforts relating to
16 minority and women owned business enterprises or
17 MWBEs. We do this not just to comply with Local
18 Law 129, the City's landmark MWBE mandate relating
19 to subcontracts under $1 million on City-funded
20 projects, but also because we believe that MWBEs
21 provide new opportunities for the traditionally
22 disadvantaged while spurring competition and
23 reducing costs.
24 To this end over just the past
25 several months, we have hosted outreach efforts in

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2 Jamaica, Hunts Point and Bedford Stuyvesant to
3 introduce local contractors to the opportunities
4 presented by EDC's many development projects. We
5 are proud to report that nearly 300 firms attended
6 these programs alone.
7 In addition we are pleased to
8 report that we continue to surpass our agency MWBE
9 goals of 20% MWBE participation on applicable
10 construction project's subcontracts and 22% MWBE
11 participation on applicable professional services
12 contracts. With actual year to date participation
13 rates so far in this fiscal year of 23% and 31%
14 respectively.
15 But as well as we have performed in
16 recent years we know that we can do better on this
17 front. That's why we at EDC are currently
18 exploring additional ways to enhance and expand
19 our MWBE program. And I hope to have much more to
20 report on our efforts in this front in the coming
21 weeks.
22 Though we know that we have a big
23 task in front of us, we also know that we have no
24 choice but to succeed. With the continued support
25 of your Committee and the rest of the members of

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2 the City Council we at EDC are confident that the
3 City will, as it has repeatedly done throughout
4 its history, make the tough decisions and wise
5 investments that need to be made to ensure its
6 success.
7 In so doing I remain a firm
8 believed that we will all, together, usher in a
9 new era of prosperity for our City, a new era of
10 innovation and a new era of greatness. I'm happy
11 to take your questions.
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you
13 President Pinsky. I just wanted to commend your
14 vibrant testimony of such progress at EDC.
15 Certainly at a cost. I'm not happy to hear that
16 there's a deficit but you're certainly addressing
17 that as we move along.
18 I want to just introduce the
19 Committee members who are here today. I'd like to
20 introduce Sara Gonzalez from Brooklyn; Brad Lander
21 from Brooklyn; Margaret Chin from Manhattan; and
22 Mark Weprin from Queens. I'd also like to just
23 read into the record, since I'm chairing, take
24 advantage, and before I do so, I'd like to thank
25 the Committee's staff, both Economic Development

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2 and Small Business Committee who have done a
3 tremendous job in preparing for this particular
4 hearing.
5 Dear Mayor Bloomberg:
6 We write this letter to tell you
7 just how instrumental the Industrial Business Zone
8 Program has been in helping businesses like ours,
9 Lucky's Real Tomatoes, in providing resources to
10 assist us in succeeding in today's challenging
11 economic times. Lucky's Real Tomatoes moved to
12 Brooklyn in 1985 where we purchased our warehouse
13 and have employed hundreds of residents from our
14 community over the course of the last 25 years.
15 For the past several years the
16 amazing staff at EWVIDCO in particular has
17 assisted us in filing for Empire Zone benefits and
18 has referred us to programs that have reduced
19 costs and kept us lean which has enabled us to
20 stay in New York, to save and provide jobs of so
21 many in Brooklyn. They have become an essential
22 partner in the many business challenges we have
23 faced and have steered us to the various
24 departments and agencies that have assisted us.
25 Protecting and developing our

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2 industrial sector is crucial and essential to the
3 City's economic development as it constitutes
4 nearly 15% of the City's workforce and it
5 contributed $1.7 billion in tax revenues.
6 I'm happy to have received this
7 right before our hearing today. It was addressed
8 to myself and others as Council Members and this
9 particular business is located in my District, 29
10 Meserol Avenue. And I shared it with you because
11 I wanted to just give you a highlight of how the
12 IBZ's play and their service providers play such
13 an integral role in the economic development of
14 the City of New York. And I'm sure you know that.
15 But if you can just share with us the future of
16 the IBZ as it is being evaluated, whether to stay
17 within the portfolio of the Department of Small
18 Business Services versus coming into the portfolio
19 of Economic Development Corporation.
20 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well as you know
21 the Mayor's Office of Industrial Policy is
22 located, now, in the Department of Small Business
23 Services as you said and there's no specific plan
24 to move it out of the Department of Small Business
25 Services.
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2 That being said we are actively
3 engaged with our partners at the Department of
4 Small Business Services as well as the Department
5 of City Planning and also at the Mayor's Office in
6 evaluating the City's policy with respect to
7 manufacturing more broadly. And we're hoping that
8 as a result of this interagency effort that we
9 will be able to better streamline the services
10 that we provide to manufacturing businesses, that
11 we can make changes where those changes make
12 sense, and that we can continue to offer the kinds
13 of investments that we are currently offering.
14 And we're making very significant investments in
15 the manufacturing sector now.
16 We, through the IDA in the last 8
17 years have helped nearly 150 businesses and
18 encouraged investment of nearly $1 billion. We're
19 making investments as I mentioned in Sunset Park
20 as well as Red Hook. We're looking to expand the
21 New York Container Terminal in Staten Island as
22 well as the Hunts Point Produce Market in the
23 Bronx. So we take this sector very, very
24 seriously.
25 The specific location of the

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2 specific office that you were referring to, as I
3 said, there's not current plan to move it. But we
4 want to make sure that the services that we
5 provide continue to serve this industry the way
6 that it needs to be served. And I'd like, by the
7 way, just to commend specifically the work of
8 EWVIDCO which we've actually worked on a number of
9 projects with. I think they do a phenomenal job
10 and they and other providers like them are
11 certainly worthy of support.
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And so, you
13 know, I appreciate the comment on their behalf.
14 And I wanted to just express to you the budget
15 currently eliminates the service providers'
16 contracts. How is your commitment going to
17 continue if what we're proposing is
18 counterintuitive?
19 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well as I
20 mentioned, that is in this Department of Small
21 Business Service's--
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: [Interposing]
23 Um-hum.
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --budget so you
25 would have to ask them specifically--

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3 Um-hum.
4 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --that question.
5 What I can assure you though is that we continue
6 to make very substantial investments in the
7 manufacturing sector, hundreds of millions of
8 dollars. And to the extent that we determine that
9 there are additional services that are needed
10 after the results of this interagency work is
11 done, then we would certainly have to look at the
12 budget and figure out how to define those
13 resources.
14 But again the specific cut that
15 you're referring to is one that you'll have to ask
16 the Department of Small Business Services about.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And as far as
18 your community block grant, development block
19 grants, is there money identified in CDBG for
20 service providers under your portfolio to be
21 picked up, you know, so that it's a budget line
22 dedicated for service providers through the EDC
23 portfolio?
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: We don't have
25 any money allocated out of CDBG for that. Our

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2 CDBG funds are fully subscribed at the moment for
3 a number of different economic development
4 requirements.
5 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Can you mention
6 some of those?
7 MR. JASON WRIGHT: We do have CD
8 earmarked in 2011 for the Graffiti Program.
9 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: For the what
10 program? I'm--
11 MR. WRIGHT: [Interposing] the
12 Graffiti Free NYC Program.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: But that's also
14 being eliminated.
15 MR. WRIGHT: That is not being--
17 No?
18 MR. WRIGHT: --eliminated.
19 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Okay. How much
20 of the CDBG money goes into the Graffiti Program?
21 MR. WRIGHT: Well at full capacity
22 the program is just under $3 million.
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: $3 million?
24 MR. WRIGHT: $3 million.
25 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Um-hum.

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2 MR. WRIGHT: And there was tax levy
3 for the 2010 budget and the anticipation is that
4 we'll be able to access CD funds next year as well
5 as some transportation funds.
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And what is the
7 total amount of CDBG money for EDC?
8 MR. WRIGHT: It's just under $1.3
9 million.
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So the
11 combination of a total of $3 million is in
12 addition to the tax levy dollars?
13 MR. WRIGHT: It's not--we had tax
14 levy this year.
16 MR. WRIGHT: But with no CD. Next
17 year the budget is being funded through $1.3
18 million of CD.
20 MR. WRIGHT: And the balance with
21 Federal transportation funds.
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And there is no
23 other CDBG money that would qualify for IBZ
24 service providers to have a budget line under EDC.
25 PRESIDENT PINSKY: None that we

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2 have at our disposal.
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And has that
4 been requested from the Federal government as
5 perhaps a particularly contract that could qualify
6 for CDBG money?
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I don't--
9 On behalf of EDC?
10 PRESIDENT PINSKY: We have not
11 applied for that. As I mentioned the office is in
12 the Department of Small Business Services--
14 Um-hum.
15 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --they may have-
16 -I don't believe that they have but you can ask
17 them.
18 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Okay. I just
19 want to make sure that I understand from EDC's
20 point of view what have you attempted to do
21 because Small Business Services currently
22 eliminates their budget line to support the
23 service providers and so I want to understand what
24 attempts has EDC done in order to support perhaps
25 finding ways to bring solution to the cut. And so

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2 obviously CDBG money is not available. You have
3 identified any available funding for the
4 opportunity to bring in the portfolio of the 11
5 service providers, 11 correct?
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: That sounds
7 right to me, I'm not positive.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And it's
9 important that we continue to see the service
10 providers contracted, whether it's through SBS
11 and/or EDC. I hope to continue to have these
12 discussions with you, President Pinsky, because as
13 you already mentioned in your testimony, the
14 growth in the industry level and that is due to
15 all the efforts and investments that we have made
16 collectively to the growing economy of our
17 industrial spaces and their parks.
18 So I hope that we can figure ways
19 in which we can be creating in requesting perhaps
20 additional CDBG money where there's an opportunity
21 to do so.
22 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And we'll be
23 happy to continue that conversation.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you. I'd
25 like to recognize Julissa Ferreras from Queens.

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2 And I wanted to just--I know that Sara Gonzalez
3 was here and she has left you the question,
4 fabulous, so Council Member Brad Lander, please.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Madam
6 Chairwoman, thank you. President Pinsky, I like
7 the sounds of that. It's nice to see you today.
8 So yes, let me start by being Council Member Sara
9 Gonzalez. And on her behalf I would like to thank
10 you for the upcoming Forum for Industrial
11 Businesses in Sunset Park and to thank you Deputy
12 Mayor Lieber and the staff at EDC, especially
13 Ashley Cotton, Andrew Genn, Josh Nachowitz, for
14 their attention and increased dialog about the
15 issues important to Sunset Park and the 38th
16 District. She left a long list of questions but I
17 will focus in on--
18 [Laughter]
19 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --Bush
20 Terminal Park. I wonder if you could start by
21 giving us an update on the progress there please.
22 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yes. We're
23 currently performing remediation work at the park
24 site. We expect that once the remediation work is
25 completed that we'll be able to do a

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2 groundbreaking. And we're hoping to begin the
3 actual construction work following the completion
4 of remediation sometime late this summer.
5 So we are moving ahead with that
6 project. We consider it to be a very important
7 one for Sunset Park and for all the people of
8 Western Brooklyn and we are committed to moving
9 forward with it.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Super. And
11 now much is--is the funding for the construction,
12 how much of that funding is in place?
13 PRESIDENT PINSKY: There is $32
14 million in place. The issue with the park is that
15 the remediation has turned out to be more
16 expensive than had been anticipated. And so we're
17 building now in a phased basis so the entire park
18 will be remediated, the entire park will be built
19 out, though parts of the active recreation
20 facilities that were originally planned will, at
21 least initially, be passive recreation facilities.
22 And as we find more resources in the budget we
23 will look forward to building out the later
24 phases.
25 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Just

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2 because I have to report back to her, can you--so
3 I mean how much is the remediation costing?
4 What's left for phase one for this passive
5 recreation and how much will be needed to get the
6 active recreation in phase two?
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The remediation
8 is about $22 million and that's split between
9 State and City funds. And the remaining roughly
10 $10 million, again, is split. There's a City
11 contribution, a State contribution and a Federal
12 contribution. And we think that what we won't be
13 able to build in the first phase will be a couple
14 of ball fields. But we think it's going to be a
15 fabulous resource nonetheless and we're certainly
16 going to work with the Council to see if we can
17 identify additional sources.
18 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: And so just
19 the phase one passive recreation will be what?
20 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It will be
21 fields, trails and other landscaping elements like
22 that.
23 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Okay. And
24 do you have some rough estimate of how much would
25 be needed for the ball fields in phase two?

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2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It's probably a
3 few million dollars.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Okay. I'm
5 sure the Councilman's appreciate but also would
6 love to know, as you guys have a more precise--
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: [Interposing]
8 Yeah and we're happy obviously to speak with her
9 at greater length--
10 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER:
11 [Interposing] Super.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --whenever she's
13 free.
14 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Thank you.
15 Madam Chairwoman, can I resume the role of Council
16 Member Lander?
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Of course.
18 Council Member Lander. Thank you Council Member
19 Gonzalez.
20 [Chuckling]
21 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: So I first
22 want to echo what the Chair said about the
23 importance of support for our manufacturing
24 services. I want to give you credit for the
25 increased attention that EDC is giving to

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2 manufacturing and industrial businesses. I see
3 it. It's to your credit. I think the work you've
4 done through Nimble and having EDC's attention on
5 manufacturing more than has always been in the
6 past is to your credit. But I do want to echo
7 what Chair Reyna said that even though SBS
8 obviously is directly responsible for the service
9 provider contracts, those really are essential.
10 I share your point of view that
11 EWVIDCO and South Brooklyn and other providers
12 have done a great job and thing we need to keep
13 them doing it. So I'd be glad to ask the
14 Department of Small Business Services that
15 question but I'm distressed to hear that they
16 might be zeroed out and would love your help as a
17 supporter of manufacturing to help preserve those
18 important services.
19 A few, so I have a couple of
20 questions about specific projects and then want to
21 ask about how we can do even more to link our
22 economic development strategy and our job
23 creation, job placement, workforce development
24 strategy.
25 On specific projects, let me see.

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2 I will start, well let me start with one, with
3 Javits, I guess. I see that Javits it still in
4 the budget. It's my understanding that's largely
5 a placeholder and that, you know, negotiations are
6 taking place both around Governor's Island and
7 around Brooklyn Bridge Park. And that maybe when
8 you come to us with an Executive Budget we'll have
9 a clearer idea about what that money is for and
10 how it's being used. Is that?
11 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah I hope to
12 be able to report in much more specificity then.
13 There are ongoing discussions on that topic.
14 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: So I have
15 expressed to a number of members of the
16 Administration my concern about Brooklyn Bridge
17 Park in particular where I only know--well I guess
18 I know a little more than what I read in the
19 papers now because the MOUs that are being signed
20 between the Mayor and Senator Squadron and
21 Assemblywoman Millman on the one hand and the MOU
22 with the term sheet between the Mayor and the
23 Governor are now, you know, are public.
24 It's concerning to me that what
25 seems to be contemplated is that an allocation of

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2 City capital, you know, which the Council will
3 have to vote on for a park in which for the first
4 time unlike parks at the Parks Department, the
5 Council has a severely constrained legislative
6 oversight and administrative role. There's not
7 enough details to ask you any questions today but
8 I just want to let you know that if you come to us
9 asking us to put money into that park which I hope
10 will be a great park, I will have a lot of
11 questions about the structure which troubles me.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And I'm sure
13 that at that time we'll be more than happy to
14 answer those questions.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Great.
16 Thank you. A small thing, the BQE Mitigation
17 Study is referred to in the budget. That's a
18 Federal grant that I think Congresswoman
19 Velasquez, just for the stretch of it that kind of
20 has the cut-through--
22 That's correct.
23 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --Carol
24 Gardens. Is that all Federal money? Is there a
25 local match? Are we providing anything for--?

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2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: [Interposing] I
3 believe that--and I'll have to get back to you to
4 confirm this, I believe it's all Federal. And
5 we're undertaking a study using those Federal
6 funds to see if there are ways that the damage
7 that that cut has done to the surrounding
8 communities can be mitigated in one way or
9 another.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Okay that'd
11 be great. I mean obviously--
13 I'll - - on that.
14 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: -if it's
15 all Federal money then, you know, our role is more
16 limited but I would love to know if there's any
17 City money.
18 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I have just
19 confirmed that it is all Federal.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Okay.
21 That's great. I mean the Congresswoman is working
22 on it. I appreciate your being the grant conduit
23 and we look forward to working with a contractor
24 on it.
25 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Great.

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2 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: The
3 Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, are we, I know in
4 the past the City has provided resources to them,
5 and I'd love to know the status on that. Are we
6 continuing to do that? How much? Obviously the
7 real estate climate has changed pretty
8 substantially. What's the current story or the
9 current plan?
10 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well we think
11 that the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership plays a
12 very important role in the development of not just
13 Downtown Brooklyn but also the BAM Cultural
14 District and the surrounding communities. And so
15 the Administration has supported the Partnership
16 in the past.
17 I know that there are ongoing
18 discussions between City Hall and the Partnership
19 about the nature of that support going forward but
20 my assumption is that we will continue to support
21 them on, you know, something roughly equivalent to
22 what we've done in the past, maybe less, but that
23 there will be some ongoing support that will be
24 provided. And when I have a little more
25 information I can certainly share that with you.

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2 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Do you know
3 what was--I mean I should know what was in the
4 budget last year and what if anything is in the
5 Preliminary Budget but I don't know--
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: [Interposing] It
7 was $500,000 a year. My guess is that the number
8 will probably be lower just because of budgetary
9 pressures that we're all facing. But there will
10 be I think some sort of ongoing support. And
11 whether that will be City tax levy money or EDC
12 funds that we'll have to work out.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Okay.
14 Thank you. And then certainly on the project
15 question front, last but definitely not least, and
16 I hope we'll be able to have a hearing on Atlantic
17 Yards now that, you know, there's been a
18 groundbreaking and the project is moving forward.
19 There's a lot of questions that the
20 Council would like to ask. So I'm hopeful that we
21 can do an Economic Development Committee hearing
22 just on that project. But just strictly from a
23 budget point of view, can you tell me what's the
24 status of the money that the City has allocated
25 for acquisition, infrastructure?

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2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The original
3 investment that had been agreed upon when the
4 project was first envisioned was $205 million. It
5 was $100 million that could be used for land or
6 infrastructure and I think the agreement early on
7 was that it would be used entirely for land. And
8 then $105 million in the City's capital budget for
9 City capital projects relating to the Atlantic
10 Yards Project.
11 As a result of the negotiations
12 that took place since that project was originally
13 envisioned, as well as changed financial
14 situations, we restructured the City's
15 contribution. But the bottom line is that we
16 ended up with a smaller contribution to the
17 project in the amount of $179 million.
18 And that consists of the original
19 $100 million for land, plus another $31 million
20 that was allocated to land, $24 million to
21 infrastructure that the City was previously going
22 to do but now Forest City will do on behalf of the
23 City and that money will go in as Forest City
24 actually performs that work. And then another $24
25 million remaining in the City's capital budget for

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2 its own infrastructure work relating to the
3 project.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: So a
5 decreased overall commitment but an increased
6 allocation of resources to Forest City for both
7 acquisition and some infrastructure--
9 That's correct.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --that had
11 been envisioned--
13 That's correct. And all of these investments are
14 tied to requirements on Forest City to perform in
15 various ways on the project.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Okay. I
17 have here, you won't be surprised, I have a lot
18 more Atlantic Yards questions but I'm going to
19 save them in the hopes that we can do an Atlantic
20 Yards hearing now that the project is rolling
21 forward. So I won't ask those now.
22 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And again we're
23 more than happy to participate.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Thank you
25 very much. I'm happy to wait for a second round

SMALL BUSINESS
2 to ask some of my questions about linking jobs and
3 economic development. Okay.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I appreciate
5 that Council Member Lander. I did have a question
6 myself concerning jobs. And it was in relation to
7 your testimony President Pinsky because you had
8 mentioned in your testimony wherever there was an
9 opportunity to mention certain amount of
10 construction jobs or permanent jobs. And it
11 totaled 5,000 construction jobs and 1,650
12 permanent jobs but there were few projects that
13 you mentioned without any figures as far as
14 whether it was construction jobs versus permanent
15 jobs.
16 So in particular I wanted to
17 understand amongst the thousands of jobs that are
18 the potential of all the projects you mentioned
19 and the ones that already have begun, what
20 correlation has there been with the Workforce
21 Centers or any service providers in the employment
22 training and job placement industry where there's
23 collaboration between your agency and SBS?
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The answer is
25 there's been a significant amount of workforce

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2 training that's been connected to our projects.
3 And I would say that that has been increasing--
5 Um-hum.
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --over the last
7 several years and I think as much as anything
8 else, the thanks for that is owed to the Council
9 which has made very clear as we've gone through
10 the ULURP process the importance of this linkage.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And so, you
13 know, with each project we hone the model and we
14 make it, I think, more effective. I think a good
15 example of where it's worked very well so far has
16 been in Willets Point where we have had hundreds
17 of workers in the Willets Point community who have
18 gone through our training programs both with
19 LaGuardia Community College as well as with the
20 Greater New York Auto Dealers where individuals
21 have not only gotten professional skills but many
22 of these people who are not proficient in English
23 have learned to speak English, have been given
24 very important business and interviewing skills.
25 And that's a model that I think we

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2 would like to replicate in other areas. Similarly
3 we're working on a number of workforce related
4 programs in Coney Island, for example when the
5 circus came to town last year, a very large
6 percentage of the workers that they hired were
7 people from the immediate community. And in all
8 of these cases we're also working in addition to
9 working with private companies and private
10 organizations, we're also working with SBS. We
11 work hand in glove with them.
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And who is the
13 person to coordinate from your office with SBS for
14 identifying actual jobs and placement?
15 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well it really--
16 it would be the project manager on each project.
17 What we're working on now actually--
19 Um-hum.
20 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --and we don't
21 have completed yet--
23 Um-hum.
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --but I'm hoping
25 we'll get this completed shortly is trying to

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2 regularize this process. Because the way we've
3 tended to do it has been on an ad hoc basis. And
4 I think it's been successful. But, you know,
5 we'll develop a project, we'll talk to the
6 community, the community will make it clear to us
7 and we'll believe as well that it's important that
8 we ensure that the benefits of that project were
9 down not just to the City generally but to the
10 community specifically.
11 And we'll come up with a program
12 that addresses that. But I think what will be
13 more effective going forward is if we create a
14 suite of programs that we always attach to our
15 projects. And that's what we're working on right
16 now. And we'll have, I think, more to talk about
17 on that front in the next couple of months. I had
18 a briefing on where we were about two or three
19 weeks ago. And there's still some work left do to
20 but I think we're coming to a pretty good proposal
21 that we'll bring forward.
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I look forward
23 to reviewing that proposal and I hope that it will
24 include an Excel database of, you know, job
25 postings and necessary requirements, what type of

SMALL BUSINESS
2 training would be required for job placements so
3 that under your portfolio of projects out there so
4 that we can measure, have a metric system of
5 actual placements and actual jobs related to those
6 placements.
7 And, you know, I know that Council
8 Member Lander will perhaps ask further questions
9 concerning that area but it is of interest to this
10 Council to see more collaboration so that we're
11 dealing with statistics. And I just wanted to
12 share some of these statistics with you from North
13 Brooklyn in particular.
14 40% of North Brooklyn residents
15 work in industrial jobs. 15% local residents walk
16 to work. 36% local residents live at or below the
17 poverty line. And 20% local residents do not
18 speak English. 30% foreign born. And so these
19 are statistics that we can deal with if we are
20 actually understanding how is the City providing
21 in the local economy, jobs--
23 And--
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --to deal with
25 unemployment.
SMALL BUSINESS
2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And I think
3 those are very important statistics. And they
4 show that, you know, we all still have a lot of
5 work to do.
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And it's very
8 important that we make sure that the benefits of
9 all the economic development that's taking place
10 are spread across the broader City.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I think the City
13 has done a phenomenal job of increasing its job
14 training programs. And I think the Department of
15 Small Business Services deserves a lot of credit
16 for that. You know, we have done, I think, a good
17 job linking our projects with their programs but
18 we always can do better and we are more than happy
19 to get good ideas from the Council on this front.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you very
21 much. I just wanted to welcome Council Member
22 Albert Vann who has joined us from Brooklyn. And
23 I'd like to go to our next Council Member Margaret
24 Chin who has a question.
25 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Thank you

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2 Chairwoman. President Pinsky, welcome, and I look
3 forward to meeting with you later on. I have a
4 couple of questions about projects in Lower
5 Manhattan in my District. And I'm concerned
6 whether the cuts proposed by the Mayor on the
7 capital plan will have any affect on these
8 projects.
9 The first one is the Governor's
10 Island redevelopment and the second one is the
11 East River Waterfront.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The Governor's
13 Island redevelopment, as I mentioned to Councilman
14 Lander, is the subject right now of ongoing
15 negotiations with the State. I think that if
16 those negotiations are successful, there will
17 likely be a specific commitment that's made to the
18 State by the City in which case I would imagine
19 that the cuts would not impact that project but it
20 will be hard to say that for certain until those
21 negotiations are completed.
22 With respect to East River
23 Waterfront, the East River Esplanade project, I
24 believe, again, that that project is primarily
25 Federal money. And therefore it would not be

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2 subject to City budget cuts.
3 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Okay. The
4 other issue is I know our Speaker Quinn mentioned
5 about regional markets at the Fulton Street
6 Market. So that's one of the projects that we're
7 looking at. And so in Lower Manhattan where we
8 have tested it out during the summers and during
9 holiday season and that is a project that I wanted
10 to see what's your view on that. Will EDC help us
11 work on bringing that regional market to the old
12 Fulton Fish Market at the Seaport?
13 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well we
14 definitely agree that a public market is a good
15 use for the South Street Seaport. And it's
16 something that had been included in GGP's earlier
17 proposal for redeveloping the Seaport. As I'm
18 sure you very well know, the situation with GGP is
19 a little bit up in the air right now. They've
20 been in bankruptcy for a number of months. It
21 looks like they're going to be emerging from
22 bankruptcy and they have indicated to us that they
23 remain committed to the redevelopment of South
24 Street Seaport which I think is good news.
25 But until they come out of

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2 bankruptcy, since they actually control the
3 buildings that we're discussing, it's going to be
4 a little bit difficult for us to reach that goal.
5 But we are certainly more than happy to work with
6 you to try to figure out working with GGP as well,
7 how we can bring a market to the South Street
8 Seaport area.
9 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Okay. Thank
10 you.
12 Council Member Chin. Council Member Mark Weprin.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER WEPRIN: I was going
14 to have Brad Lander do my questions but he left
15 the room.
16 [Chuckling]
17 COUNCIL MEMBER WEPRIN: Thank you
18 Madam Chair. President Pinsky, thank you for
19 being here. I had some questions about Willets
20 Point and I know Council Member Ferreras is here
21 and I'm sure she may have interest in that topic
22 as well as well as Council Member Koo is. Well
23 it's all of us in Queens. You mentioned the
24 status just briefly that you have 70% of the land.
25 Could you elaborate specifically on what's

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2 happening with those negotiations?
3 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah. We are in
4 active negotiations with a number of the land
5 owners whose land we don't currently have
6 agreement with. And as you mentioned, that's
7 about 30% of the land in Willets Point. You know,
8 some of them obviously are more interested in
9 selling than others. We've continued to make
10 deals with the land owners and we would ideally
11 like to reach consensual agreements with everyone.
12 And that certainly would be our strong preference.
13 There are though a few land owners who are less
14 interested in selling and we'll have to see how
15 those dynamics play out.
16 In many cases with respect to our
17 acquisitions we've actually reached deals that I
18 think land owners were very happy with. Thanks to
19 the support of the Council we were able to move a
20 number of very large businesses in Willets Point
21 to College Point where they not only will be able
22 to continue their business but many of them plan
23 to expand which I think is good news for everyone.
24 And we would love to strike more
25 deals like that with other land owners.

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2 COUNCIL MEMBER WEPRIN: The 70%
3 that you have deals with, are they in a specific
4 area of Willets Point or are they spread around?
5 PRESIDENT PINSKY: They're spread
6 around. Although they've tended to be focused in
7 the southwest corner closer to the subway. And
8 that's consistent with what our plans for
9 development are. As you know the original plan
10 had been that we were going to go out and RFP the
11 entire development to a single development team.
12 And what we've concluded is that
13 with the change in the economy and the difficulty
14 in financing very large acquisitions that what
15 probably makes more economic sense both for the
16 developers and for the City is to have a rolling
17 development where we would start in the southwest
18 which we think is the logical place for
19 development to start and over time develop all of
20 it without, you know, in any way ceasing
21 development during the process and still intending
22 to develop the whole project site in the timeframe
23 that we originally proposed.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER WEPRIN: The Queens
25 Chamber of Commerce had raised concerns about

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2 doing piecemeal development to me out of fear; a
3 lot of the sites that are already sold are along
4 126th Street? A lot of them are over there.
5 There's a fear that, you know,
6 because that is such a focal point of Citi Field
7 that there may be a desire to sort of clean that
8 up but then not worry about the rest of the
9 project and to forget about the global plan that
10 you've talked about including housing, including
11 the convention center, including other projects as
12 well, commercial space in there. You know,
13 that's, you know, everyone gets paranoid in times
14 like this. And they just want to make sure that
15 this isn't--that the big picture is still clear.
16 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Absolutely. No.
17 We fully intend to develop the whole site. You
18 know, when we were advocating, when the
19 Administration was advocating for the rezoning of
20 Willets Point, what was made clear was that in
21 addition to wanting to develop the area, in
22 addition to wanting to create jobs, one of our
23 prime motivations was to clean up the environment.
24 And if you only develop along 126th
25 Street you haven't succeeded in cleaning up the

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2 majority of the environmental damage that that
3 site is causing to the Flushing River and the
4 surrounding communities. So we remain 100%
5 committed to the full development. It's going to
6 start in the southwest but it will continue on a
7 continuous and ongoing basis throughout the entire
8 development area.
9 COUNCIL MEMBER WEPRIN: I'll wrap
10 up in a minute. So when do we feel, if you're
11 going to take, I won't call them the low-hanging
12 fruit, but start with the ones you already have
13 under control, when is that going to start? Is
14 infrastructure money there to start doing
15 infrastructure problems that are there?
16 PRESIDENT PINSKY: We have selected
17 the developer, the construction manager for the
18 infrastructure, the offsite infrastructure that
19 the City is going to be primarily responsible for.
20 There's, I believe, $150 million package that
21 we've signed with the construction manager and
22 design work is underway there. And we're
23 expecting to break ground in 2011.
24 The work on the onsite cleanup and
25 infrastructure will progress with the development.

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2 We issued an RFQ. We got 29 responses; developers
3 are very enthusiastic to start this project. And
4 the timing specifically of the RFP which will be
5 necessary before we can actually begin development
6 on the site will depend a little bit on the market
7 but our hope is that it will be some time later
8 this year perhaps that we can go out to the
9 development community so that we can have then the
10 onsite work starting roughly in parallel with the
11 offsite.
12 COUNCIL MEMBER WEPRIN: Thank you.
13 Well as I mentioned, this is an issue of great
14 concern to people throughout Queens, especially
15 those who live very close to this site but also,
16 you know, in Districts that are nearby. Obviously
17 when Citi Field is open, the eyesore of Willets
18 Point becomes very obvious across the street
19 there. And I know a lot of people expressed--were
20 very concerned that, you know, we get moving as
21 fast as possible and I'd be happy to help anyway I
22 can in trying to move that along.
23 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I appreciate
24 that. Thank you.
25 COUNCIL MEMBER WEPRIN: Thank you.

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3 Council Member Weprin. And Council Member Julissa
4 Ferreras is next followed by Albert Vann.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: Good
6 afternoon President. So clearly I represent
7 Willets Point. And it's probably the topic of
8 conversation at every community event that I
9 attend from civic associations to church meetings
10 and their biggest question is when will there be a
11 groundbreaking. And I understand the process.
12 And I tried to explain it. But before we talk
13 about groundbreaking there's some issues that we
14 still have to address. And my question is on the
15 relocation. We had some monies put in for
16 relocation, oh this doesn't work? [Off mic].
17 Okay. We'll move over.
18 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Now you're
19 Council Member Lander.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: I'm
21 relocating.
22 [Chuckling]
23 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: So if we
24 could talk about the relocation packages and
25 what's happening with the tenants over at Willets

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2 Point. And it's kind of a two-part. I know that
3 you've purchased a large part of, you know, 70%.
4 There is kind of a confusion between the
5 transition from landlord to HPD and in some cases
6 back to the landlord. Can you speak to that?
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: There are a
8 couple of different types of parcels at Willets
9 Point. There are parcels that are owned by one
10 party and occupied by the same party. And then
11 there are parcels that are owned by one party and
12 occupied by someone else. So you have an absentee
13 landlord who leases the space to a company. In
14 the case of many of the owner-occupied parcels,
15 when we've reached a deal with those businesses,
16 we've agreed on a period of time during which they
17 will remain at the site. And then they've agreed
18 that they would like to begin the transition
19 process. And that's what was described in College
20 Point by way of example.
21 With respect to the parcels that
22 are owned by one party but occupied by another,
23 the way that we've approached those is that we've
24 taken title, the City has taken title, to the
25 property and then steps into shoes of the

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2 landlord. And we have not asked any tenants to
3 leave the land. And we have pledged to all of the
4 tenants that we will give them very sufficient
5 advance notice to allow them to make the
6 adjustment. We're working with a relocation
7 specialist to help them with that adjustment.
8 But we have not asked any tenants
9 to leave. We've simply continued to charge them
10 the rent that they were paying before. Now in a
11 few cases, some of these tenants have chosen not
12 to pay their rent. In those cases HPD which is
13 managing the properties has sent them notice as
14 any landlord would, saying you owe rent and at a
15 certain point if you don't pay rent, you can't
16 stay. But those are the only instances where we
17 have even contemplated changing the tenancy at
18 these parcels at this point.
19 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: Okay. My
20 other question is when it comes to the relocation;
21 I know we had had several meetings that were very,
22 I think, very positive in my office. And in those
23 meetings we had Cornerstone sit in. And what was
24 explained was that in the early part of the new
25 year we were going to start having these

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2 conversations about relocation, where they're
3 going to be relocating to, what the options are.
4 Do we have a start date or what we're looking like
5 at this point?
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well we think
7 that it doesn’t make sense to, let me take a step
8 back, Cornerstone has had discussions with all of
9 these businesses and is beginning to get a sense
10 as to what their needs are and is starting the
11 process on their side. We don't think that it
12 makes sense to have really active discussions with
13 the businesses until we're closer to the time when
14 they actually will need to leave. It, you know,
15 most of these businesses, I think, would like to
16 stay where they are for as long as possible.
17 So Cornerstone's timing is
18 partially driven by the timing of the actual
19 development which comes to your question of the
20 groundbreaking. To get to the groundbreaking we
21 need to finish our offsite infrastructure design
22 work and we also need to select a developer for
23 the first parcel. And to get to the selection of
24 the developer we need to do the RFP. And the RFP,
25 as I mentioned, is going to be partially driven by

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2 the market. We think at this exact time it
3 probably doesn't make sense to go out to the
4 market because we don't think we'll get the best
5 response.
6 But with the market continuing to
7 improve, we're hoping we can start that process
8 which will be a multi-step process some time in
9 later part of this year maybe early next year but
10 our hope would be the later part of this year.
11 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: I was
12 looking here where it says the approximate funds
13 that you would need for 2010 at $194.5 million.
14 And I guess that's a chunk from the $381.7 million
15 is that correct?
16 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Correct.
17 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: So the
18 $381.7 million is that majority of the money for
19 acquisition?
20 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It's a
21 combination of acquisition and infrastructure.
22 And what we tried to do is make conservative
23 assumptions about what we would need for
24 acquisition. You obviously, you never know what
25 you're going to need until you're done with the

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2 negotiations 'cause it's not entirely within our
3 control. But we've made what we think is a
4 conservative assumption. So far we're on budget.
5 There will be a large portion of that that will be
6 needed for the infrastructure work and that we're
7 reserving for the infrastructure work.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: Okay.
9 And I just have two other questions. I know that
10 you made reference to the training program over
11 with LaGuardia Community College. And although I
12 think in theory it's really a good idea, I want to
13 know what has really been the success rate. How
14 many people have we transitioned out of Willets
15 Point into real jobs?
16 Because the other issue that we
17 have which we came across later was immigration
18 status. So we can take them there. We'll have an
19 intake. You meet a number of quotas and you can
20 say okay we have 200 people. But of those 200
21 people if we're only placing 5, yet the project
22 has $3 million or $1 million, how are we
23 evaluating the success of this program?
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well again many
25 of these businesses have not actually moved or

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2 gone out of business. So in most cases the people
3 are going through the training program are staying
4 in their current jobs which is good as far as I'm
5 concerned. Eventually when relocation occurs that
6 will be when we'll be able to measure whether
7 individuals got new jobs or not. I think that
8 it's a very valid request and it's one that I'll
9 have to talk to the team about how we can do the
10 measurements.
11 The measurements that we have so
12 far are participants. And that number is in the
13 hundreds. And I think the participants have been
14 very pleased. We're offering these services
15 regardless of immigration status as you know. And
16 we're in fact assisting people with their
17 immigration status in some cases.
18 But I won't be able to give you a
19 really good answer to your question until we're a
20 little farther along in the process. But I hear
21 your request for providing the data and we'll have
22 to figure out what we can measure and how we can
23 measure it.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: Thank
25 you. I'm looking forward to a really good answer.

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2 And then in this, as we allot this
3 time, so it's 2010 and it seems that it goes
4 through 2019. At what time or at what process, in
5 this--well, at what time during this entire
6 process do we see that we can have more
7 involvement with the MWBE?
8 PRESIDENT PINSKY: That will really
9 start with the construction itself. Now we're
10 using City capital money for the offsite
11 infrastructure. And so we'll be subject to all of
12 the standard MWBE goals. And as I mentioned in my
13 introduction, EDC has a very good record of
14 achieving those and we would plan on achieving
15 them in Willets Point as well.
16 There will also then be a developer
17 who's selected and when we select the developer,
18 we'll have a better sense from them and certainly
19 one of the things that we'll be looking at is what
20 their MWBE plan is. So as we go through the RFP
21 process for the developer, we'll be able to, you
22 know, better explain what the developer's goals
23 are and how the developer plans to achieve those.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER FERRERAS: Okay.
25 Thank you.
SMALL BUSINESS
3 Council Member Ferreras. I wanted to just
4 recognize Council Member Mathieu Eugene and
5 Council Member Stephen Levin both from Brooklyn.
6 And now we have questions from Council Member
7 Albert Vann.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Thank you
9 Madam Chair. Good afternoon Mr. President. I
10 apologize for being late. I had another hearing.
11 And you may have answered this question already
12 dealing with MWBEs. And if you have I can take a
13 written response later so we won't have to go over
14 that time but have you answered a question in
15 terms of how many WMBE companies are receiving
16 contracts and/or private contracts and the average
17 amount of those contracts with WMBEs? And again
18 if you have responded to that already I'll take
19 something in writing.
20 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I have in part
21 but not in total.
22 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Okay.
23 PRESIDENT PINSKY: So let me give
24 you the broad answer and then Bomi Kim I believe
25 is here who runs our MWBE program and she can give
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2 you--
3 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: [Interposing]
4 Okay.
5 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --in a little
6 more detail. The response that I've already given
7 is that we adhere to the same goals as City
8 agencies which include a 20% MWBE participation
9 rate on applicable construction project's
10 subcontract which are subcontracts of $1 million
11 or less, and 22% participation on applicable
12 professional services contracts. This year, year
13 to date, the 20%, the standard with the 20% hurdle
14 rate, we're at 23%. And the standard with the 22%
15 hurdle rate, we're at 31%. So in both cases we're
16 beating our goals. And we've consistently beaten
17 them for the last several years.
18 The total amount that's been
19 awarded in both subcontracts and prime contracts
20 since our MWBE program was launched in 2006 is
21 somewhere close to $80 million. And what I
22 mentioned in my testimony was that as good as we
23 think this is, and it's not just awarding the
24 contracts it's also the events that we sponsor
25 that bring subcontractors together with prime

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2 contractors, it's the events that we sponsor where
3 we help MWBE businesses to understand what the
4 opportunities are and how you navigate the City's
5 process. As good as all of those have been, we
6 believe that we can do better.
7 And so a priority for me this year
8 has been to challenge our MWBE group to come up
9 with more innovative programs that can help us not
10 just exceed the goals that we have but really make
11 a difference. And what we really want to do is we
12 want to get to a point one day where MWBE
13 businesses don't need special assistance. And we
14 think to do that we need to create a whole new
15 generation of MWBE businesses that are more robust
16 and more successful.
17 And so I hope that the next time I
18 come back and testify but certainly at some point
19 this year I'll be able to go over with you in much
20 more detail what that more robust program is.
21 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Thank you
22 I'll look forward to that. And thank you for that
23 answer, rather positive. Capital Access Program,
24 what is the current status of that program? And,
25 you know, which banks and financial service

SMALL BUSINESS
2 sectors are in that program?
3 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Capital Access
4 is a program where we've taken $5 million of City
5 capital and we've offered guarantees of up to 50%
6 on loans made by private lenders. And the private
7 lenders that we've partnered with are Citibank,
8 Seedco Financial, the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal
9 Credit Union and the Nonprofit Finance Fund.
10 To date we've made loans that total
11 somewhere between $3 million and $4 million. And
12 those loans are in allocations of $5,000 to
13 $250,000. And they're in all of the 5 Boroughs.
14 We think though that we can do better than that
15 and that we need to do better than that. And so
16 we've issued an RFP recently to reallocate some of
17 the money that we had given before and to seek new
18 lenders for some new money that we've gotten from
19 the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone.
20 And what I would say is that the
21 success of this project relies on peoples'
22 understanding that it's out there. And so to the
23 extent that you or any of the members of the
24 Council know of events where we can go out and
25 explain to the people how this program works, we

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2 would love to come and join you and explain to the
3 business community in your Districts what the
4 opportunity is.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Okay. It
6 seems if it needs to be buffed up somewhat. And
7 you do have plans to do that.
8 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yes.
9 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Increase
10 that, as you say. Finally the last area of
11 concern deals with ARRA funded projects.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Um-hum.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: When you
14 testified in May, you indicated that you had
15 received $66.6 million in ARRA Federal stimulus
16 funding. So can you tell us, have you received
17 that money and what capital projects have received
18 that funding and how many jobs have been created?
19 PRESIDENT PINSKY: We have 3
20 different stimulus related programs that we're
21 working on right now. The first stimulus program
22 that we're working on is a bond program where the
23 Federal government has allocated the ability for
24 nontraditional--I'm sorry, the ability for private
25 companies to access tax-exempt bonds which is

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2 something that they're normally not able to do.
3 It's not where the City or anyone
4 else is giving money but it's allowing them to
5 borrow money cheaper. And it's mostly a Federal
6 benefit. That program, we got $122 million in
7 allocation. Something like $80 million of that is
8 already out the door and we're looking to allocate
9 the rest of that by the end of the next month or
10 two.
11 And the reason why we're moving so
12 quickly is that under the Federal rules, if those
13 bonds aren't issued, they can't be used. They
14 have to be issued by the end of 2010.
15 The second stimulus program that
16 we're involved in is called the Nimble Program.
17 Nimble, N-I-M-B-L-E. And what that's taking
18 advantage of is a change in the Federal tax law
19 that allows small manufacturers to issue tax-
20 exempt bonds to support their businesses in ways
21 that they previously weren't able to and also
22 expands the definition of manufacturer, in this
23 case to include people who not only manufacture
24 tangible goods like clothes or tires or whatever
25 but also intangible goods like software.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 And as far as we know nobody in the
3 entire country has taken advantage yet of this
4 expanded definition with the exception of New York
5 City where the CRC Board which is an affiliate of
6 EDC approved an issuance of about $4.5 million for
7 a Manhattan based company.
8 The third area of Federal stimulus
9 that we're involved in is about $114 million in
10 capital money that we're using for infrastructure
11 and energy projects. And those are across the
12 City. And I can certainly give you a list. There
13 are somewhere around 15 or 20 projects that are
14 involved with those. In each of those cases we
15 are on schedule with them. We need to break
16 ground by the end of 2010 on all of these and
17 that's exactly what we're on track to do.
18 So in most cases because these
19 projects are longer term projects that we've had
20 to accelerate, we don't yet have shovels in the
21 ground, but we expect to have shovels in the
22 ground on all of them before the end of this year.
23 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: The
24 requirement is that you have shovels in the ground
25 by the end of this fiscal year or this--

SMALL BUSINESS
3 2010. The calendar year.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Calendar
5 year.
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah.
7 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: Okay. and
8 it's a one-time allocation of the $6 million?
9 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It's now $114
10 million.
11 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: $114 million?
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah. And again
13 I'm happy to give you the full list of what in
14 that $114 million.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER VANN: That would be
16 fine. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: you're very
18 welcome Council Member Vann. We have been joined
19 by two more colleagues, Council Member Annabel
20 Palma and Letitia James from Brooklyn. We want to
21 just be able to go to a second round. And before
22 we do so, we have questions from Mathieu Eugene,
23 Annabel Palma and Letitia James.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: Thank you
25 very much Madam Chair. Could you please give us a

SMALL BUSINESS
2 little bit more detail about the requirement and
3 the rules in terms of the Capital Access Program?
4 Could you talk a little bit more about the rules
5 and the requirements of the applicant, you know,
6 in terms of the size of the budget as a business
7 or what are the requirements and the rules to make
8 them quality to get to this program?
9 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah. The rule
10 is there are two different types of businesses
11 that are eligible. There are small businesses and
12 micro businesses. And micro businesses are
13 businesses that are under 20 employees. And small
14 businesses, I forget the exact number; I think
15 it's something around 100. And I'll get you the
16 precise numbers. But it's something like 100-
17 employee businesses or smaller.
18 And the way that the program works
19 is that in exchange for our agreeing to guarantee
20 loans at these financial institutions, the
21 financial institutions that promised us that they
22 will only use our guarantee on loans to companies
23 that for one reason or another wouldn't otherwise
24 have qualified for loans from them.
25 So in some cases for example they

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2 have a minimum credit score of X and if a company
3 comes in below X they will use our guarantee and
4 then say okay we'll give you this loan even though
5 normally we wouldn't give you this loan. And the
6 loans, as I mentioned, are between $5,000 and
7 $250,000 each depending on the needs of the
8 company.
9 The median so far has been a
10 $10,000 loan that we've made under this program.
11 But we do have significant additional capacity and
12 so if you're aware, as I said, of other small
13 businesses that could use this help, I would love
14 to talk to you or I could have my colleagues talk
15 to you and explaining much more detail how it
16 works.
17 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: All right.
18 Thank you. I've got another question. We know
19 that there are so many services available in this
20 City of New York and the State and Federal, but
21 some of the time, people don't benefit from them
22 because they don't know--
24 Yes.
25 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: --about

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2 them. What type of outreach, how do you reach the
3 people to let them know, the small business
4 people, to let them know the existence of this
5 type of program?
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: We do a
7 significant amount of outreach using a number of
8 different methods. One that's probably the most
9 obvious is that we go out into the communities and
10 we meet with small businesses. We use every
11 opportunity we have to speak in front of Chambers
12 of Commerce, community organizations and we always
13 are available to do more of that. I do that
14 personally. I was at a Chamber of Commerce in
15 Upper Manhattan yesterday. I've met with Chambers
16 of Commerce in Queens and Brooklyn and in the
17 Bronx and Staten Island repeatedly over the last
18 several months.
19 The second way in which we try to
20 get the message out is by talking to elected
21 officials like yourself, letting them know,
22 because you have much more contact with local
23 businesses than we do. And so we rely on the word
24 spreading that way.
25 We also have a website that has in

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2 detail all of the programs that we offer. That
3 website is www.nycedc.com. We have a You Tube
4 page, a Twitter account, and also a Facebook page
5 that we're using to try to reach people. But we
6 welcome suggestions from you for how we can do a
7 better job of getting that word out because I
8 agree with you that it's amazing how many programs
9 are offered and when you talk to businesses and
10 they say here's my problem. And you say but we've
11 had this program for three years. And they say we
12 never even knew it existed.
13 It's obvious that we need to do
14 even more. So I am really open to suggestions and
15 I would love to come out to your District and
16 speak to as many businesses as you might be able
17 to pull together.
19 very much. Let me ask my last question. We know
20 that small business, you know, represent the
21 backbone of our economy. But most of the time,
22 the people, you know, they open a business. They
23 want to do good. They want to be part of the
24 fabric, the economic fabric of the country. But
25 some of them, they are not qualified really.

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2 But do you have any type of program
3 or training to help them qualify to benefit from
4 those programs?
5 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah. We--
6 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE:
7 [Interposing] Any training or assistance--
8 PRESIDENT PINSKY: [Interposing] --
9 first of all the Department of Small Business
10 Services has a very robust set of training
11 programs and services that are available at their
12 centers throughout the five Boroughs.
13 At EDC we also have several
14 training programs. We've launched a series of
15 training programs, for example, where we've
16 brought small business people together with PR
17 professionals, marketing professionals, lawyers,
18 so that they can understand what you need to do as
19 a small business owner and what some of the
20 challenges that you might encounter are and what
21 are the resources that are available. And we're
22 continuing to have those on a regular basis and we
23 can get you more information on that.
24 We also have launched with the
25 Department of Small Business Services and with the

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2 Kaufmann Foundation a program where we teach
3 people who have never been entrepreneurs before
4 what you need to do to become an entrepreneur.
5 And then people who have been entrepreneurs but
6 are having a hard time of it during the downturn,
7 we teach them how to navigate the downturn. And
8 again I can get you much more information on that
9 if you're interested.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: So you're
11 going to forgive me, I've got one more question.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah, as many as
13 you want.
14 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: You know in
15 New York we are blessed and fortunate to have
16 people from, you know, different ethnic
17 backgrounds, talking different languages. Do you
18 have people trained in different languages to--?
20 know--
21 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: --address
22 the issues, you know, that other, different
23 communities are facing like Spanish and Spanish
24 Creole, you know, Chinese, you name it.
25 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It's a very good

SMALL BUSINESS
2 question. And I think that in our programs, our
3 training programs for entrepreneurs, they have
4 been almost exclusively in English. And maybe
5 that's something--
7 [Interposing] Hum.
8 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --that we need
9 to think about. I believe that the Department of
10 Small Business Services in their programs offer
11 services in multiple languages. But I think
12 that's a really good point that you make. And
13 it's one that I'm going to look into.
14 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: And I want
15 you to, you know, contact my office and let me
16 know what are the different steps you are going to
17 do to address this issue because this is a very
18 important issue for us in New York. Because we
19 have so many people from different ethnic
20 backgrounds doing business in New York. They are
21 not proficient in English. I think that they
22 deserve also to be part of or to benefit from that
23 program.
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: That's a very
25 good suggestion.
SMALL BUSINESS
2 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: And would
3 you please contact my office and let me know?
4 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yes.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: And I want
6 to invite you to my District also to let the
7 people know, you know--
9 look forward to it.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: --to, you
11 know, to help them better their businesses.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I can't promise
13 I'll speak in Creole though.
15 very much.
16 [Chuckling]
17 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: I will help
18 you on that.
19 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Okay.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER EUGENE: Don't worry
21 about it. Thank you so much.
23 Council Member Eugene--
25 [Interposing] Thank you Madam Chair.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you.
3 President Pinsky, you have many invitations and
4 I'd like to be on the list as well as bringing you
5 over. I know that you just had a celebration in
6 my District with a ribbon-cutting. We'd love to
7 just continue our discussions and I could not be
8 there for, you know, such an important event.
9 I did want to just before I go to
10 Council Member Palma and James, the issue of the
11 study, the mitigation study for the BQE.
12 Congresswoman Velasquez also represents a portion
13 of the BQE in my District in Williamsburg. And
14 she has been working in collaboration with us to
15 do the same thing. Can you just elaborate exactly
16 what the amount of funding is? How much exactly
17 because I saw that there was a reduction--
19 Yeah. I--
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --if I'm
21 understanding.
22 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --I'm not sure
23 that that's correct. I just don't know one way or
24 another--

SMALL BUSINESS
2 Um-hum.
3 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --I don't
4 believe there has been but I'll confirm that for
5 you.
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I just have been
8 handed a correction. There is in fact some City
9 money in the study.
11 PRESIDENT PINSKY: There's about
12 $66,000 of City funding. And there's about
13 $260,000 of Federal funding. So--
15 Um-hum.
16 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --the total is a
17 little over $320,000. But I'll get back to you on
18 whether there's been a reduction. I don't think
19 so but I'll confirm that.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And then second
21 of all, is this going to only concentrate a
22 mitigation study concerning one section in
23 Brooklyn or is this going to take into
24 consideration multiple sections in Brooklyn? I
25 ask because of the prelude I gave you as far as

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2 the Congresswoman representing also the
3 Williamsburg section of the depressed BQE section.
4 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It's certainly
5 not the entirety of the BQE--
7 Um-hum.
8 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --I'll, again,
9 get back to you with the exact scope--
11 Um-hum.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --I just don't
13 remember off the top of my head where it begin and
14 where it ends.
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Um-hum. And
16 has that particular study already been procured?
17 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I believe it has
18 but again I'll have to confirm for you. The
19 answer is yes.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: It has. And
21 who is the contractor?
22 PRESIDENT PINSKY: We'll have to
23 get back to you with that.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I also had a
25 second question concerning the discussions

SMALL BUSINESS
2 concerning MWBE and I appreciate all the
3 improvements that EDC is making but in addition to
4 MWBE percentages I'd like to know the LBE, Local
5 Business Enterprise, and EBE, Emerging Business
6 Enterprise percentages in EDC.
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I'm not sure if
8 we track those numbers. But I would have to get
9 back to you with than information.
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I would very
11 much appreciate that. And Council Member Palma is
12 the next…
13 COUNCIL MEMBER PALMA: Thank you
14 Madam Chair. Thank you for indulging me. I am no
15 longer a member of the Small Business Committee or
16 the Economic Development Committee but I'm
17 interested in the work that continues to be done
18 through both these Committees and the agencies
19 that are doing the work out there.
20 And I'm, Mr. President, I'm
21 particularly interested in the potential transfer
22 of the IBZ providers and, you know, I'm a great
23 advocate for the IBZs. I think that they're doing
24 great work in making sure that the businesses,
25 local businesses in the community are receiving

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2 the services that they need and organizing them.
3 And so I'm interested in knowing in
4 terms of that potential transfer, is that transfer
5 in place? Is it actually going to take place?
6 And when is it scheduled to take place? And if
7 I'm asking questions that have already been asked,
8 pardon me for being late.
9 PRESIDENT PINSKY: No. We have
10 discussed it but I'm more than happy to discuss it
11 again. As I mentioned we have a very robust set
12 of programs in the Administration to support the
13 industrial sector. In addition to the IBZs, the
14 zoning that has been put in place, as well as the
15 support that we've given over the years to the IBZ
16 administrators, as well as the investments that
17 we've made in capital for projects and through the
18 IDA, the benefits that we've given to the
19 manufacturing sector which numbers in the scores
20 upon scores of businesses.
21 We have been very actively
22 supporting this sector. With respect to the
23 specific office that you're referring to, I see
24 that Commissioner Walsh just walked in. That
25 office is in the Department of Small Business

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2 Services.
3 There is no plan to move it out of
4 the Department of Small Business Services. But we
5 are working together with the Department of Small
6 Business Services, with City Planning, to come up
7 with a new and even more robust plan within the
8 Administration for dealing with industrial
9 businesses and we hope in the next few months to
10 be able to report back on the results of that
11 work. But that office is not, at least at this
12 point as far as I'm aware, moving out of Small
13 Business Services.
14 COUNCIL MEMBER PALMA: So it's not
15 going to move, it's just going to run under the
16 direction of SBS? And no longer--
18 Yeah and we all coordinate very closely with one
19 another. I speak to Rob frequently. I speak to
20 Amanda Burden at City Planning. And we know that
21 this is a very important issue to the City's
22 economy and we are heavily focused on it.
23 COUNCIL MEMBER PALMA: And will
24 there be a set budget for the Industrial Business
25 Solution providers or?

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2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: That you'll have
3 to ask--
4 COUNCIL MEMBER PALMA:
5 [Interposing] Okay.
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --Commissioner
7 Walsh about.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER PALMA: And so I
9 guess in terms of budget questions and I'll wait
10 until Commissioner Walsh comes up. Thank you
11 [chuckling].
13 Council Member Palma but I have to share with you
14 that President Pinsky did mention the fact that he
15 will explore the possibilities of seeing some
16 solutions of applying for CDBG money and
17 specifically President Pinsky it was through HUD
18 that there's a workforce services portion that
19 could qualify for a CDBG money through your
20 offices to support the service providers.
21 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And I just want
22 to make sure that I'm being clear--
24 Um-hum.
25 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --and not making

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2 promises that--
4 Um-hum.
5 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --I can't keep.
6 What I'm happy to do is to work with you, work
7 with Commissioner Walsh, to hear creative ideas
8 that--
10 Um-hum.
11 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --you have for
12 expanding funding for this sector and for these
13 services. I can't promise you that we can apply
14 for them. I don't know about our eligibility or
15 what other--
17 Um-hum.
18 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --requirements
19 that we have for those funds. But I'm more than
20 happy to work with you to hear your ideas and to
21 see if we can be creative.
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And currently
23 the only CDBG grant that EDC manages is for the
24 Graffiti Removal program. I have a question
25 concerning IDA. What percentage of the IDA

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2 funding that is allocated goes to small businesses
3 with 10 employees or less? And how much is
4 allocated for these small businesses?
5 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I don't have
6 exactly those statistics but let me give you the
7 information that I do have which I think--
9 And is IDA here, President Pinsky?
10 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I'm the Chairman
11 of the Ida.
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Okay.
13 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The IDA is a
14 public benefit corporation that's created by State
15 law. And every county in New York State has an
16 IDA. In the case of New York City, the 5 counties
17 have 1 IDA, the New York City Industrial
18 Development Agency. The agency is chaired by me.
19 The Executive Director is an employee of EDC and
20 we operate under a contract with the IDA to staff
21 the IDA.
22 What the IDA is able to do is it
23 can offer four different benefits to companies.
24 One is it can offer them tax-exempt bonds. And
25 when it's issuing tax-exempt bonds it's not using

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2 City money or obligating the City in any way.
3 It's just allowing people who wouldn't otherwise
4 be able to borrow on a tax-exempt basis to do so
5 cheaper.
6 The second thing that it can do is
7 to abate real estate taxes. The third thing it
8 can do is to abate sales taxes for construction
9 materials. And the fourth thing it can do is to
10 abate mortgage recording taxes. And that's all
11 permitted under State law. And the decisions are
12 put to a Board by the staff of EDC working on
13 behalf of the IDA. And then that Board which
14 consists of Mayoral appointees as well as
15 appointees of all five Borough Presidents and the
16 Comptroller will vote on whether to give the
17 benefits or not.
18 The IDA in the past was able to
19 offer benefits to three different kinds of
20 projects. One was not-for-profit companies which
21 tended to be smaller not-for-profits. Two was
22 industrial companies. And three was commercial
23 projects; those are the larger projects that tend
24 to get the headlines.
25 In the Bloomberg Administration

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2 we've done 329 transactions.
4 PRESIDENT PINSKY: 158 of these
5 were for not-for-profits. Now we're no longer
6 able to do projects with not-for-profit companies.
7 And the reason for that is that the law in the
8 State law which allowed IDAs to give benefits to
9 not-for-profits expired and has not been renewed.
10 So we're not able to give what's largely a Federal
11 benefit to these not-for-profits.
12 The industrial companies that we've
13 helped are 142 of this 329. And then the rest,
14 the commercial projects have been 29.
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: 29.
16 PRESIDENT PINSKY: 29. So--
18 29 properties.
19 PRESIDENT PINSKY: 29 projects.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Projects.
21 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And those--
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: [Interposing] I
23 apologize--
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --yeah go ahead.
25 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: The industrial

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2 was how many out of?
3 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It was 142.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: 142 out of?
5 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Out of 329.
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And so just to
8 be clear 'cause this can be a little bit
9 deceptive, by dollar volume, the 29 have been a
10 very large percentage, probably closer to, it
11 looks like two-thirds--
13 Can you give me the figure?
14 PRESIDENT PINSKY: It's roughly $8
15 billion in dollar volume of these entities versus
16 about $1 billion for manufacturers and about $2.5
17 billion for not-for-profits. The number though
18 that I just gave you includes Liberty Bond
19 projects which were a very special uses that only
20 existed for a short amount of time after September
21 11th. If you strip those out the number is
22 smaller, not significantly smaller but it's
23 smaller than that--
25 Smaller, affecting which category of the three?

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2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The first
3 category, the smallest--
5 The not-for-profit.
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: No, no.
7 Smallest in numbers, biggest in dollars.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Okay the $8
9 billion.
10 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The 29, yeah.
11 With respect to your question, the reason why I
12 would imagine the number of very, very small
13 businesses who have accessed IDA benefits is
14 relatively small is that in order to access these
15 benefits there are costs that you have to incur.
16 Under the State law you have to structure your
17 deal in a very specific way. And so normally you
18 have to hire lawyers--
20 Um-hum.
21 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --and
22 accountants to help you with that. And the cost
23 of that only makes sense if you're doing a project
24 over a certain size and it's somewhere between $1
25 million and $1.5 million. So unless you're doing

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2 a project that's a least a $1 million or $1.5
3 million, or sorry unless you're getting benefits
4 that are at least $1 million or $1.5 million,
5 you're not likely to use IDA because you'll be
6 paying more than you're actually getting back.
7 So the companies that have been the
8 dominant companies that have received IDA benefits
9 would probably be what you would call midsized
10 companies.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: As opposed to?
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: As opposed to
13 the 10 or under that you were asking. There are
14 some that are very small but not a lot--
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: [Interposing] So
16 you consider the 29 projects to be midsized
17 companies?
18 PRESIDENT PINSKY: No, no, those
19 are large--
21 Okay, okay.
22 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --those would be
23 large projects.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So the midsize
25 would fall under?

1 COMMITTEES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND100
SMALL BUSINESS
2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: The 142
3 industrial and then the 158 not-for-profits.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Which consume
5 $1.5 billion.
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: About--no about
7 $3.5 billion--
9 $3.5 billion.
10 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --it's $2.5
11 billion for not-for-profits and about $1 billion
12 for industrial. And I'll get you the exact
13 numbers but those are roughly the orders of
14 magnitude.
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Okay. And I'd
16 like to continue this conversation in relation to
17 job opportunities, what is the City getting in
18 value as far as what we're providing to the
19 billions of dollars in one of the four benefits.
20 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Yeah. And I
21 also want to clarify one thing. The numbers that
22 I was giving you is the size of the project.
23 That's not the value of the benefits.
25 PRESIDENT PINSKY: So what we have

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2 actually given to these companies--
4 Um-hum.
5 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --is much, much,
6 much smaller.
8 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Than this. It's
9 just that the amounts that we have given have been
10 for projects that are of a larger size. And what
11 I'll do because I think there's a lot of confusion
12 about IDA and how it works--
14 Right.
15 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --is what we
16 should do is put together a chart--
18 Right.
19 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --that explains
20 to you in these categories what the size of the
21 projects are, what the size of the benefits were--
23 Right.
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --and then break
25 them down into these categories.

SMALL BUSINESS
3 that. And I just wanted to share with you; it's
4 not a very friendly site to go through. There's
5 no one Excel or Access database. When you go into
6 IDA to understand all of this. So it would be
7 helpful if we can upgrade much of what is posted
8 on the website to be more friendly in order to
9 understand all of this. Thank you.
10 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Okay.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I'd like to ask
12 Council Member Letitia James.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: [Starts off,
14 off mic] Thank you. Madam Chairman--Chairwoman, I
15 hope that you would provide me with some latitude.
16 I have a number of issues that I need to discuss.
17 As you know--
18 [Off mic]
19 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: --the
20 District that I represent has more capital
21 development going on--
23 That microphone, stop, Tish. Just take a
24 different microphone.
25 [Arranging the microphone]

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2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Council Member
3 James, I will definitely make sure that you have
4 sufficient time. I just want you to understand
5 that you have another colleague who wants to ask a
6 question.
7 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: Sure.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And we have our
9 Commissioner of SBS and we're running behind
10 schedule--
11 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES:
12 [Interposing] Oh okay. And he's--
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --by 30
14 minutes.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: --looking at
16 me with a stare and a glare--
18 Thank you.
19 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: --okay.
20 [Laughter]
21 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: Okay, got
22 it.
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you so
24 much.
25 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Something tells

SMALL BUSINESS
2 me--
4 You brought the sun with you so--Commissioner
5 Walsh--
7 [Interposing] No I will try to run through these
8 questions as soon as possible--
10 And something tells me he may be happy to have me
11 taking more questions--
12 [Laughter]
13 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: I'm going to
14 ask a question Commissioner Walsh and then I'm
15 leaving so I'm going to--you know, we have
16 Brooklyn delegation hearings going on upstairs.
17 I'm Co-Chair.
18 [Off mic]
19 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: No we got to
20 8:00 o'clock tonight. There's about 2,000
21 organizations upstairs and so I apologize.
22 First IDA reform. Could it be that
23 the legislation pending in Albany is because it's
24 my understanding that members want some reform
25 with IDA with respect to benefits to those who

SMALL BUSINESS
2 receive these tax breaks?
3 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well there have
4 been a number of different proposals that have
5 been put on the table over the last few years to
6 change the way IDA does benefits, does business,
7 sorry. Some of those changes have related to
8 things like can IDA provide benefits to--
10 [Interposing] Right.
11 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --not-for-
12 profits or not. Some of those changes have
13 included transparency requirements which
14 incidentally we do more than we're required under
15 the law on that front. And some of them have
16 related to tying requirements to the provision of
17 IDA benefits.
18 The Administration's position has
19 generally been that we don’t think it's wise to
20 tie these requirements to IDA benefits. And the
21 reason for that is that the benefits that we give,
22 the way that we approach IDA benefits, is that we
23 consider that to be an investment in a project.
24 And we take very seriously the fact
25 that we're taking taxpayer money and we're putting

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2 it into a project. And so when we look at that
3 project, we ask ourselves is this--first of all,
4 is this anything needed to make something happen
5 that wouldn't otherwise happen. If something we
6 believe based on our analysis and discussions is
7 needed, the next question that we ask is what is
8 the very least amount of money that we can put
9 into this project in order to get that something
10 to happen, to actually happen.
11 The third question we ask then is
12 if we make an investment are the people of the
13 City going to get a positive return. Are the
14 benefits of that action going to be greater than
15 whatever we put in? And then the final question
16 that we ask is what happens if the person that
17 we're doing this transaction with doesn't do what
18 they're supposed to do? And what we've done is
19 we've put very significant claw-backs into our
20 agreements.
21 Now the reason why we think that
22 it's not wise to attach--especially in many of the
23 transactions that we do, it's not wise to attach
24 requirements is first of all everybody has their
25 own idea of what we should be getting in exchange

SMALL BUSINESS
2 for these benefits. And some people say it's
3 certain wage rates. Some people say it's union
4 representation. Some people want green
5 construction. Some people want MWBE
6 participation. And all of those are extremely
7 important.
8 I'm not in any way saying that we
9 shouldn't have those as goals but the problem is
10 that many of those requirements have cost
11 implications on the projects. And as a result of
12 that you'll get one of two results. Either the
13 projects will need significantly more benefits so
14 the City will end up paying more for these
15 projects or the projects simply won't happen. And
16 you'll find developers saying you know what it's
17 not worth the hassle to do a project here in New
18 York.
19 And so it's figuring out how to
20 balance those two things. And I'm not saying that
21 we've found the perfect place where to strike the
22 balance. But it's very tricky. And a lot of
23 these projects as we went through the numbers,
24 many of these projects involve small not-for-
25 profits or they used to involve small not-for-

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2 profits, they involved small manufacturers. And
3 these are marginal businesses with marginal
4 projects at best.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: Let me just
6 say that I support the efforts that Albany is
7 attempting to negotiate and believe that some of
8 these businesses who get these tax breaks should
9 do more for the citizenry of New York. And so I
10 understand your position but I humbly disagree.
11 Let me also go on to say, and it's
12 my understanding that is why the new Comptroller
13 of the City of New York from what I understand has
14 voted no on all of these IDA applications.
15 PRESIDENT PINSKY: No. He has
16 voted no so far on the IDA proposals that were put
17 before him. The reason that he and his
18 representative have given so far is that they are
19 trying to review the process and before they
20 understand the process better they are going to
21 vote no. They haven't said that they are opposed
22 to the process--
24 [Interposing] No.
25 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --or that

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2 they're opposed to the benefits specifically. And
3 we've been working very closely with them. We
4 spent actually three or four hours I was over
5 there myself going through exactly how we do
6 business at IDA to help them understand it. We've
7 sent them a significant amount of data to help
8 them analyze what we do. And we're looking
9 forward to working cooperatively with them.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: It's just
11 that what has happened is the result of not having
12 benefits attached to the IDAs is that you have all
13 of these Community Benefit Agreements all over the
14 City, no consistency and it's ripe for fraud.
15 PRESIDENT PINSKY: But I don't
16 think that's the reason. I--
18 [Interposing] Okay.
19 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --respectfully
20 disagree with that. I think that first of all
21 there are benefits that are--requirements that are
22 attached to our benefits. The requirements are
23 usually that you have to produce a certain number
24 of jobs in the City and maintain those jobs. And
25 also that you have to make certain investments in

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2 projects, many of them in neighborhoods that don't
3 see a lot of private sector investment. So
4 that's, from our perspective, the most important
5 benefit that you can get.
6 Also I think in most cases our IDA
7 projects are not the projects where Community
8 Benefit Agreements have been instituted. In most
9 cases the Community Benefit Agreements have come
10 with the projects that we have taken through Land
11 Use review, through the ULURP process.
12 And in that case what our position
13 has always been, we agree with you, we don't think
14 that unenforceable CBAs are a good idea, we want
15 to see communities benefit from their projects.
16 We don't want separate Community Benefit
17 Agreements negotiated. We think that the right
18 way to get communities their benefits it to work
19 with the elected officials through the legislative
20 process to ensure that there's a proper balance
21 that's struck between the costs of those benefits
22 and the benefits themselves.
23 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: Thank you.
24 We can have a further discussion about that.
25 WMBE, Downtown Brooklyn is now becoming Shangri-

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2 La, very monolithic. There's a need for
3 affordable housing. We talk about how we
4 celebrate diversity but in fact there is a crisis
5 in affordable housing in Downtown Brooklyn and the
6 absence of businesses of color, women and local
7 businesses. Local Law 29, as you know, does not
8 apply to your agency. It applies to SBS. It only
9 applies to businesses below $1 million.
10 My position is I want to create
11 wealth in communities of color. And unfortunately
12 in the City of New York this Administration has
13 not done so. In Downtown Brooklyn there was on
14 developer of color. Unfortunately he declined
15 because of all of these attachments. Arcadia from
16 what I understand is a minority firm, I think, I
17 guess, I don't know. But there is a total absence
18 of businesses of color in the redevelopment of
19 Downtown Brooklyn. And that I believe is a shame.
20 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Well as you know
21 most of the development in Downtown Brooklyn
22 doesn't involve EDC in any way. And we certainly
23 can't choose who develops parcels that we're not
24 responsible for.
25 With respect to your point about

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2 affordable housing, we entirely agree on the
3 importance. That's why we're working very closely
4 with you and we appreciate your cooperation on
5 ensuring the maximum amount of affordable housing
6 possible at City Point, at the BAM South site as
7 well. I think that your involvement has been
8 extremely constructive and we appreciate that.
9 And we're also working at the City
10 Point project to offer with the developers, space
11 to local businesses and also to work with the
12 local community groups to try to encourage as much
13 community hiring as possible. And the developers
14 have committed to a specific plan in connection
15 with City Point.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: Community
17 hiring is one thing. I want businesses of color
18 to actually get these major contracts, not
19 subcontracts, but I want them to be prime. And
20 this argument that there is not a sufficient
21 number of WMBEs do to prime work, they don't have
22 the experience, you know, we don't know who they
23 are: I reject.
24 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Okay. Well I am
25 not even making that argument. But I think the

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2 point is a good point. And it's something that
3 we'd like to see as well. You know, we have beat
4 in every year in the last several years the MWBE
5 goals that are set by the City. But we also agree
6 with you that it's not good enough just to beat
7 those goals, that we need to do even better. And
8 I am hoping in the next month or two to be able to
9 announce a much more robust set of MWBE--
11 [Interposing] I would hope so.
12 PRESIDENT PINSKY: --programs.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: For
14 instance, the new BAM Annex. I asked about a WMBE
15 conference and they looked at me like I was crazy.
16 The developer in question is not even from New
17 York. I just asked BAM upstairs with respect to
18 the WMBE component and they told me they would get
19 back to me. Again, City Point, Arcadia I believe,
20 I don't know for sure, is a minority firm. Again,
21 hopefully we can do a WMBE conference with that.
22 Myrtle Avenue, again, the developer
23 there, Catsimatidis, looked at me like I was crazy
24 with respect to WMBE. And he said that I was a
25 WMBE. So, you know, this is what I am facing.

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2 Navy Yard has done good things. I
3 thank Navy Yard because the employment in Navy
4 Yard reflects the City that I appreciate and
5 respects diversity. Navy Yard just testified
6 upstairs ten minutes ago. They have a plan for
7 WMBE. They are one of my heroes.
8 City Point, I still have a question
9 with regards to, BAM I still have a question,
10 North Side I still have a question, TEFANA, the
11 Theater for a New Audience which is coming in
12 Downtown Brooklyn, I still have a question.
13 So these developments, you are
14 involved and to that extent the WMBE component
15 sorely lacking. We could have another discussion
16 about this outside of this room. I don't want to
17 take up the time because I see the Chair looking
18 at me from the side. But there's a number of
19 issues that I have in Downtown Brooklyn. And my
20 last series of questions is a project which as you
21 know--
23 I'm sorry, can I just--
25 [Interposing] Sure.
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2 PRESIDENT PINSKY: We're involved
3 in many but not all of the projects. And I'd love
4 to have the opportunity to sit down with you.
5 Because as I said, we've developed a lot of the
6 programs that we have thanks to the feedback that
7 we've gotten from the Council. And so the more we
8 can talk about this and the more good ideas you
9 can bring to us the better we can do. So I'm
10 looking forward to that discussion--
12 [Interposing] And lastly Atlantic Yards, I do not
13 support, will never support because it's just an
14 arena for the worst team in the NBA. I want
15 housing--
16 [Laughter]
17 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: I want
18 housing. I want housing. And I want housing.
19 That CBA is totally unenforceable, despite the
20 hype. It's not about hoops and housing and--what
21 was the other one, I forget. I need affordable
22 housing at that site. I understand Council Member
23 Lander and I are requesting, are demanding or
24 urging, not demanding, urging hearings in the City
25 Council. I look forward to you at a hearing on

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2 the update of that project which unfortunately has
3 resulted in at least three small businesses
4 closing on Dean Street as of yesterday. Thank
5 you.
6 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And just in
7 response to that. There is a significant
8 affordable housing component that is also in
9 specifically enforceable under a separate
10 agreement the City has with the developer. The
11 developer has promised, thanks to our efforts,
12 that the first building will be an affordable
13 housing building with at least 50% affordable
14 units. But we'll be happy to talk to you in much
15 more detail about the affordable housing.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: And the
17 housing is two years out, correct?
18 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Correct.
19 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: [Speaking
20 off mic] My people, the residents in my District
21 are being displaced today--
22 [Crosstalk]
24 But the problem is you can't--
25 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: --and that -

SMALL BUSINESS
2 - arena cannot solve the problems.
3 PRESIDENT PINSKY: But you can't
4 build on the site until you put the infrastructure
5 in. But we'll be happy to talk to you about that
6 in your meeting--
8 Thank you very much. Thank you very much Council
9 Member James.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES: Thank you.
12 Levin followed by our last Council Member asking
13 questions, Council Member Lander.
14 COUNCIL MEMBER LEVIN: Thank you
15 President Pinsky. I'm going to make my--it's just
16 a very quick--
17 [Laughing]
18 COUNCIL MEMBER LEVIN: Just going
19 to make my very quick comment. There are, I
20 believe, three IBZs and this might be directed as
21 well to Commissioner Walsh, there are three IBZs
22 in the 33rd District which I represent. And I just
23 want to reiterate my colleagues' expression of
24 concern and support for Industrial Business Zones
25 as they exist in the City.

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2 They are essential to retaining
3 industrial business. A lot of the workers and the
4 employees that they have walk to work, they're
5 local. And it is, I just want to reiterate and
6 back up their calls to make sure that the City is
7 doing everything it can, that EDC is doing
8 everything that it can, to make sure that these
9 IBZs continue to thrive. So.
10 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Thank you. And
11 that's certainly been noted and as I've mentioned,
12 we strongly support this sector of the economy and
13 we look forward to working cooperatively with you
14 on figuring out how to do even more.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER LEVIN: Great.
16 Thank you.
18 much Council Member Levin. Council Member Lander.
20 So my earlier questions were primarily project-
21 focused and I just do want to ask a couple of
22 questions about some of the bigger picture issues,
23 some of which Council Member James referred to.
24 A couple of quick notes, first I
25 want to say thank you for a couple of things, the

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2 investment that you referred to in the Brooklyn
3 Cooperative Financial Credit Union, that's my
4 credit union so I'm glad we're supporting them.
5 And in particular, you know, I
6 recognize that some of what you presented here
7 reflects something of a shift from a more narrowly
8 focused sort of real estate development oriented
9 approach to thinking more about a wider range of
10 job creation and diversity on the manufacturing
11 side and on other issues which you spoke about in
12 your presentation but which we haven't asked that
13 much about.
14 I think there's still a long way to
15 go in that direction. And the IDA numbers I think
16 reflect that as well. I appreciate the move that
17 has been made thus far; want to urge its
18 continuance and we'll keep pushing on it. So
19 thank you.
20 I guess the questions--and I guess
21 another area where I think you've taken some good
22 steps but where I really think more than
23 incremental change is needed is in how we think
24 about linking our economic development investment
25 strategy with the creation of good jobs for people

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2 who need them and the training and placement and
3 services that they need to get them. So you
4 referred rightly to some projects where you've
5 done more of that, to Willets Point. And I have
6 had the privilege to work some with both EDC and
7 SBS on making that a little more like a standard
8 process than one-offs. And I think both agencies
9 have had interest in doing that and taken some
10 good steps forward.
11 But I do think they are modest
12 steps taken from the point of not doing much of
13 it. And I think what the Council believes is that
14 ought to be the primary mission of our economic
15 development strategy is that we make decisions
16 about where to invest. And in every project,
17 those questions of who good are the jobs, who's
18 getting them, how are we preparing people for the,
19 that's on the MWBE side but on the employment side
20 as well. And that the system still isn't where it
21 needs to be.
22 And so when the opportunity for
23 stimulus investment comes along, we don't have a
24 system in place and we've got to move those
25 dollars out the door quickly and so the

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2 opportunity to get as much as we could out of
3 employment, out of MWBE, out of job creation and
4 placement, was largely missed. The Recovery Zone
5 Bond decisions were made based on what
6 neighborhoods need jobs and economic investment
7 but we didn't really have a system in place to say
8 how are we going to get jobs for people in those
9 neighborhoods in the projects we're investing in.
10 Similarly a bunch of stimulus money
11 was used for transitional jobs but in ways that as
12 far as I can tell are entirely disconnected to our
13 economic development strategy. And so I mean I'm
14 glad to put this in the form of a question but I
15 guess I'm hopeful that what we can do is not just
16 continue to take steps forwards but really think
17 about a systems transformation where we are
18 focused as we make decisions about where to use
19 IDA or whatever future bond capacity there is and
20 as we make City capital decisions that these
21 questions, what's the strategy.
22 Who's going to get the jobs? How
23 are we going to make them good jobs? What's the
24 strategy for enabling people who wouldn't
25 otherwise get them to get them? These are front

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2 and center and standard operating procedure for
3 how we make decisions and how we move the process
4 along so that it's not only what projects are
5 happening that wouldn't otherwise be happening but
6 how is our economic development strategy really
7 creating good jobs for people who need them as the
8 centerpiece of our strategy.
9 PRESIDENT PINSKY: And I appreciate
10 the spirit in which the question or comment was
11 offered. And, you know, we've already spoken
12 about this a little bit. And I would be more than
13 happy to talk to you further. I think the only
14 thing I would say is that I think that we're all
15 starting from the same place which is asking
16 exactly the question that you're asking.
17 There may be a difference in terms
18 of hypotheses for how we can best achieve that
19 policy goal. But I do think that we're all
20 starting from the same place which is that the
21 primary goal of our economic development policy
22 needs to be getting people employed and getting
23 people the best jobs that we can get for them.
24 And I think that there's always room for further
25 discussion about strategies. And we are very

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2 happy to have them.
3 One just factual point I wanted to
4 make is that on our stimulus projects, you know,
5 the stimulus program was put in place by Congress
6 to get as many people working as quickly as
7 possible. And as a result of that the rules that
8 Congress put on those dollars were really tailored
9 to ensure that outcome. So I don't think it
10 should be surprising that the jobs that we are
11 able to create, many of them, turn out to be, as
12 you described them, transitional jobs. Because
13 that actually was what the Federal government
14 wanted.
15 That being said we actually have
16 been very successful through a number of our
17 programs in creasing permanent jobs as well. And,
18 you know, just for example in our Recovery Zone
19 Bond program, we've created, we believe, over 500
20 permanent jobs on top of the roughly 900
21 construction jobs that we've also created. But
22 again, you know, would it be even better to do
23 better? Absolutely. And are we happy to talk to
24 you about strategies for doing better?
25 Absolutely.
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2 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Great. And
3 I appreciate the spirit of the answer. Just two
4 things to follow up. I wasn't criticizing
5 transitional jobs at all, I love transitional jobs
6 programs. I think they're a great use of stimulus
7 operating dollars. As far as I could tell we've
8 kind of multiplied them and we have five or six of
9 them in different agencies.
10 We're cutting the one in Parks but
11 HRA, Sanitation, Center for New York City
12 Neighborhoods and Green Job Pilot are all
13 flourishing. And it's just not clear to me that
14 those programs, our workforce development strategy
15 and our economic development strategy are talking
16 to each other so when somebody's transitional job
17 ends, they've been prepared for and have a good
18 shot at moving into a new permanently created job.
19 And I'd like to see us do more.
20 And what I would say about stimulus
21 is yes we had to move very quickly and we didn't
22 have time to develop project-specific criteria.
23 But to me that's all the more reason, for example,
24 for developing a first source hiring requirement
25 on--
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3 But--
4 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --
5 investment so that we have a system in place where
6 we were already--everyone knew, if you come to IDA
7 for funds, here's how you're going to be required
8 to link with the--hire out of the Workforce1
9 Centers and our pipe, making that--and again I
10 know you've taken good steps in this direction. I
11 just think I would like to see it be the rule more
12 than a lot of very good exceptions.
13 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Okay. And as I
14 said, I think that's a fair point. We are always
15 open for improvement and ideas for improvement and
16 we'll be happy to have that conversation--
18 [Interposing] Thank you.
20 Thank you.
21 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Thanks very
22 much.
24 much Council Member Lander. And Council Member
25 Chin, we'll follow up with you on a specific

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2 program, Jump Start after this hearing. And I
3 wanted to just express to you because I'm missing
4 all of my Brooklyn delegation, 5,000 members
5 asking for money, I just wanted to remind EDC that
6 Brooklyn Historical Society in Weeksville has a
7 grant for the last two years that has not been
8 able to proceed. And so if we can just pay
9 attention to that specific request, just to see
10 what problems there are--
12 Yeah.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: -- that we need
14 to fix.
15 PRESIDENT PINSKY: I actually met
16 with the Executive Director of the Brooklyn
17 Historical Society a couple of weeks ago. And
18 we're, I think, we're now close to resolving the
19 issues. So.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Excellent.
21 Every project out there equivocates to another
22 job--
24 Absolutely.
25 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --so we don't

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2 want to delay anything. And I just wanted to
3 thank President Pinsky. It's always a pleasure
4 speaking to you and the progress that you have
5 been making and we look forward to just making it
6 even better for the City of New York.
7 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Thank you very
8 much.
9 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you to my
10 colleagues.
11 PRESIDENT PINSKY: Thank you, all
12 of you.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: We will now
14 proceed to Small Business Services. We have been
15 joined by Commissioner Walsh. When you're ready
16 we'll begin. And I'd like to thank the public who
17 is here, waiting to testify. I apologize that
18 we're running 40 minutes late but I encourage you
19 to remain. We will listen to every testimony
20 possible.
21 [Pause, Background conversations]
22 [Witnesses getting settled]
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I'd like to
24 welcome everyone. Good afternoon. I am joined by
25 Council Member Margaret Chin from Manhattan;

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2 Council Member Steve Levin from Brooklyn. And all
3 others who will be trickling in we will introduce
4 as they enter the room.
5 My name is Diana Reyna and I am
6 Chair of the Small Business Committee. This is
7 the hearing on the Fiscal 2011 Preliminary Budget
8 for the Department of Small Business Services,
9 SBS. In this hearing the Small Business Committee
10 would like to learn the details of how SBS spent
11 the $31.73 million Workforce Investment Act, WIA,
12 Federal stimulus funding.
13 How many New Yorkers were served?
14 How many jobs were created or retained? And which
15 community based organizations, otherwise known as
16 CBOs were selected by SBS to use the WIA Federal
17 stimulus money to provide job training and job
18 placement?
19 In addition the Committee would
20 like to learn about the current status of the
21 Mayor's Office Of IMB, Industrial and
22 Manufacturing Businesses. I am a strong advocate
23 of keeping and saving manufacturing in New York
24 City. Funding for the IMB has decreased from $2
25 million in the Fiscal Year 2010 January plan to

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2 $358,000 in Fiscal Year 2011 Preliminary Budget.
3 This is a reduction of $1.64 million. The
4 Committee would like to know if SBS would continue
5 to fund this office and what would happen to the
6 service providers if SBS does not fund the IMB?
7 And if you were here Commissioner
8 Walsh we did proceed to ask perhaps, every member
9 of this Committee took advantage of highlighting
10 the IBZ providers to the President Seth Pinsky of
11 EDC. Naturally both of you work in tandem and it
12 would be beneficial for the service providers not
13 to be eliminated nor reduced. It cannot afford
14 to. And considering that the sector of
15 manufacturing and industrial has been growing in
16 comparison to national percentages, we are more
17 committed than ever to making sure that we work
18 together to save this.
19 I would like to thank SBS,
20 Commissioner Robert Walsh and his wonderful staff
21 for joining us. I know that there are 18 members
22 of your staff here. I don't know who's left
23 behind. But we will now hear testimony from your
24 Department. Thank you.
25 COMMISSIONER ROBERT WALSH: Thank

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2 you very much and good afternoon Chairwoman Reyna
3 and Council Member Chin and Councilman Levin. I'm
4 Rob Walsh. I'm the Commissioner of the Department
5 of Small Business Services and I am without a
6 PowerPoint today. But more importantly I am with
7 the First Deputy Commissioner Andy Schwartz to my
8 right; Angie Comet to my left; and a number of
9 other Deputy Commissioners and most of the agency
10 of Small Business Services, all 18 of them.
11 This afternoon what I wanted to do
12 was, one, obviously answer your questions and some
13 of the issues that you put on the table, whether
14 it's industrial manufacturing or workforce issues.
15 But also, talk about the strides that we're making
16 to make it easier to open, operate, expand small
17 businesses and connecting New Yorkers to jobs.
18 I want to highlight the
19 accomplishments over the past year and outline
20 some of the initiatives and challenges that we
21 have going forward.
22 New York City's 200,000 small
23 businesses are without a doubt the backbone of our
24 economy. And we're doing everything we can to
25 help them. Through New York City Business

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2 Solutions we help small businesses in a variety of
3 ways including financial assistance, business
4 courses, incentives, navigating government, legal
5 review of contracts and leases, and recruiting
6 employees, training employees and selling to
7 government.
8 More and more people are coming
9 into our centers because they need money, they
10 need capital. As credit markets have tightened
11 SBS strengthened its focus on helping small
12 businesses access the financing needed to weather
13 the difficult economic conditions. In the last
14 year New York City Business Solutions helped 404
15 businesses secure more than $22 million in loans
16 from institutions ranging from large commercial
17 banks, credit unions, to small micro lenders.
18 Our services are designed to help
19 businesses navigate every step that it takes to
20 secure financing. We help our customers prepare
21 and compile the full package of information that
22 lenders need to see before they award loans. We
23 help customers identify which lenders would be
24 most likely to finance their businesses by
25 leveraging our relationships with a wide range of

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2 banks, credit unions and nontraditional lenders.
3 We work hard to understand the varying lending
4 criteria of each of these partners. If needed we
5 refer businesses to partners who can help them
6 improve their credit scores.
7 Taken together these services help
8 businesses identify a broad range of options and
9 put their best foot forward while seeking
10 financing. We are continuing to expand these
11 efforts. Over the course of this calendar year we
12 expect to help more than 500 customers secure
13 financing. And I just want to pause for a second
14 and say this is probably one of the most dramatic
15 impacts that we have had. The agency is a fairly
16 new agency when it comes to business services.
17 This whole issue of small businesses who have been
18 turned down by traditional banks, you know, over
19 the last couple of years, having no place to go,
20 and the service the Deputy Commissioner Dave
21 Margalit and his staff has done has been
22 remarkable.
23 They do not quit. If a small
24 business comes to us, we look to see if we could
25 help with preparing credit. We look to match what

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2 nonprofits; we go out of our way to help with a
3 business plan. A customer walks in that door; we
4 do everything we can possibly do to help that
5 small business get some capital and money. And I
6 just want to have people keep that in mind as they
7 come across small businesses that need our help.
8 We also offer a variety of business
9 courses for both startups and operating businesses
10 at our New York City Business Solution Centers.
11 Last year we did something new. We partnered with
12 SUNY's Levin Institute and the Kaufmann Foundation
13 to launch two new business courses: Fast Tracks
14 Growth Venture which is an 8-session classroom
15 training for companies that seek to grow or adjust
16 their strategy; and we also have Fast Track New
17 Ventures that helps aspiring entrepreneurs launch
18 a new business.
19 More than 4,000 New Yorkers took
20 advantage of courses offered by New York City
21 Business Solutions in 2009 and again if I could
22 pause a moment here. What we saw were many people
23 whether they were laid off in the financial
24 services out of Wall Street who were looking for
25 new opportunities and new places, what we did

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2 through these courses opened their eyes to
3 possible new opportunities as entrepreneurs or
4 small business owners.
5 We also helped businesses access
6 City, State and Federal incentives that lower the
7 cost of doing business in New York City through
8 tax credits and rebates. Businesses may be
9 eligible for government incentives if they invest
10 in new equipment, purchase or improve property, or
11 hire employees. Last year we provided more than
12 200 businesses with hands-on technical assistance
13 to help them access incentives.
14 Our Business Outreach Team helps
15 businesses handle issues that require follow-up
16 from City agencies. Working with representatives
17 from all City agencies, we help our customers cut
18 through red tape and recover from emergencies as
19 we saw this week in Staten Island and other
20 neighborhoods throughout the five Boroughs that
21 were impacted by the storm.
22 I was out with this team this week.
23 They went door to door in Staten Island. A number
24 of businesses that were affected by the storm,
25 their power was out. Their phones were out. And

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2 working with the utilities and others to get
3 things lined up again.
4 At the forefront of our efforts to
5 help businesses navigate government is the City's
6 New York City Business Express website. Available
7 at NYC.GOV/BusinessExpress. NYC Business Express
8 provides all of the license, permits, tax,
9 incentive information and applications businesses
10 need to run a business in New York City. More
11 than 20 City agencies are working together to
12 fundamentally change the way companies do business
13 with the City by enabling them to start, operate
14 and expand a business through a single online
15 point of contact.
16 New York City Business Express also
17 includes customized advice and information for 18
18 sectors which represents over 96% of businesses
19 operating in the City, providing a single source
20 where businesses could go to access, update
21 information and step by step instructions for
22 meeting government requirements: an incentive
23 estimator that allows customers to assess
24 eligibility for 44 City, State and Federal
25 incentives; 33 applications available to the

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2 public online allowing businesses to provide
3 information to the City only once and when it's
4 needed; customer accounts that provide status,
5 balance and fine information about a customer's
6 business; and additional advice and information
7 about sectors' online applications and customer
8 account information will be rolled in throughout
9 this year.
10 Again this is one of the great new
11 gifts to small businesses. It is something that
12 we have heard over the last eight years.
13 Businesses coming to us, wanting to open up a
14 restaurant, a café, a new retail store, and
15 finding out, you know, when they have to go about
16 it the number of places that they would have to
17 visit personally at the various locations and I
18 think what Dave Margalit and his team has done in
19 leading the 20 other agencies has been pretty
20 remarkable.
21 The step now is what the Mayor has
22 said, and we can talk more about this, is, you
23 know, where do we go from here and how do we build
24 off of something like Business Express in getting
25 the word out about Business Express to many of our

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2 small businesses.
3 We are also now providing legal
4 assistance to customers through a network of
5 attorneys working with us on a pro bono basis. In
6 2009 295 customers used this service to receive
7 advice on choosing a legal structure, assessing a
8 business contract, or reviewing a lease.
9 New York City Business Solutions
10 Recruitment Services assists customers in finding
11 the qualified staff they need to run their
12 businesses. We work with businesses to identify
13 job openings and then develop a customized
14 recruitment strategy by partnering with the City's
15 Workforce1 Career Centers to review resumes,
16 identify and screen candidates and find the right
17 employees for the job. I will talk more about the
18 Workforce program later in my testimony.
19 We also work with businesses to
20 improve the skills of their employees through
21 training with the goal of making the company more
22 profitable and productive. New York City Business
23 Solution Training Funds covers up to 70% of
24 training costs. Over 75 companies have been
25 awarded grants to train over 4,400 workers. Our

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2 investments have been matched by over $6.4 million
3 in employer contributions.
4 Finally we help businesses lean how
5 to sell their goods and services to the government
6 so they can take advantage of Federal, State and
7 City contracts. At the forefront of these efforts
8 is our Minority and Women Owned Business
9 Enterprise Program, better known as the MWBE
10 program which promotes and fosters the growth of
11 MWBE firms and helps them do business with the
12 City.
13 It's been just over 4 years since
14 the Mayor signed Local Law 129 and we're seeing a
15 steady increase both in the number of businesses
16 participating in the MWBE program and in the
17 number and the value of the contracts that they
18 have won. In the first 3 years of the program,
19 MWBE firms were awarded nearly 19,000 prime and
20 subcontracts valued at over $1.2 billion.
21 Businesses that certify with the City as an MWBE
22 can take advantage of networking events with City
23 buyers, tailored procurement assistance, free
24 advertising to City buyers, and an online
25 directory, and expanded opportunities to bid on

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2 City contracts.
3 In Fiscal 2009, City spending
4 decreased by 25% from the previous year. Despite
5 this decline the overall value of contracts
6 awarded to City certified MWBEs increased by 4%.
7 These contracts represent $487 million's worth of
8 business that MWBEs did on City projects. In
9 Fiscal Year 2009 more than $180 million's worth of
10 subcontracts were awarded to certified firms, a
11 30% increase from the $127 million awarded in
12 Fiscal 2008.
13 The success rate in contracts
14 awarded stems in part from our ability to certify
15 more MWBEs. Beginning in January businesses can
16 now apply for MWBE certifications online and track
17 the status of their applications using New York
18 City Business Express. Today we have 2,635
19 certified firms compared to 1,035 when the program
20 began in June of 2006.
21 More businesses are staying
22 certified, an indication of that is the fact that
23 the recertification rate has increased from 1 out
24 of 4 in 2006 to 3 out of 4 in 2009. SBS has
25 worked hard to build out many aspects to improve

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2 our program. These efforts include building a
3 program that provides customer service to both our
4 certified firms and our City agencies and prime
5 contractors, obtaining more information on the
6 certified firms to better market their goods and
7 services; improving our technology; developing
8 targeted strategies for increasing MWBE
9 utilization; and increasing the accountability and
10 the transparency by publishing agency progress
11 reports which give details on each agency's
12 performance, their efforts to increase utilization
13 and some of the challenges that they have.
14 We also have a quarterly e-
15 newsletter that includes tips on selling to the
16 government, information on upcoming training, and
17 profiles on successful firms and agencies. The
18 newsletter is sent out to each of your offices as
19 well as to 3,000 subscribers including certified
20 firms, agencies and community partners.
21 Much of the work we do is with the
22 help of partners such as the City Council funded
23 MWBE Leadership Association. This partnership has
24 been instrumental in promoting the program and
25 increasing the number of businesses getting

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2 certified. Now in its fourth year, SBS worked
3 with the City Council to establish broader
4 objectives for our MWBE Leadership Association in
5 Fiscal Year--I'm sorry, in Fiscal Year 2010.
6 Our community partners provide
7 certified firms with capacity building services
8 including helping applying for bonds and loans,
9 preparing bids and proposals. and marketing to
10 both public and private sectors. This change
11 comes in response to requests from our firms;
12 businesses have been telling us the need for
13 capacity building services.
14 That's why this spring SBS will
15 launch a new Executive Management Program designed
16 to strengthen MWBEs and their ability to compete
17 for City contracts. The program will be offered
18 at New York University where professors from the
19 Stern School of Business will serve as instructors
20 and guest speakers. In fact last month Speaker
21 Christine Quinn announced the City Council's
22 partnership with SBS on this initiative in the
23 State of the City Address.
24 Through this program each firm will
25 create a customized 3-year growth plan and learn

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2 the skills needed to implement it including
3 financial management, marketing and staff
4 development. While the primary goal of the MWBE
5 program is to connect certified firms with
6 procurement opportunities we also recognize that
7 not all MWBEs will win City contracts. However
8 these firms may be able to take advantage of other
9 business services.
10 And we're working hard to make sure
11 that our certified MWBEs know about all the
12 services available through New York City Business
13 Solutions whether it is SBS, whether it is EDC,
14 other, you know, agencies, I think this is another
15 important point, I think in the past what we did
16 and I think this is a mistake that we made in the
17 past, is that we'd get a firm certified. And I
18 guess to Councilman Lander's point, is looking at
19 our firms holistically and looking at, you know,
20 there are firms that we work with that, you know,
21 the over 2,000 firms that are now MWBEs, some of
22 them will not get contracts with the City.
23 But we could help them with
24 capital. We could help them with incentives. We
25 could help them with real estate. We could help

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2 them in so many other ways make those connections.
3 And I think this credit goes to Andy Schwartz and
4 Anne Rascon and Gregg Bishop and the team that has
5 been put together. We are treating each and every
6 one of the people who come as MWBEs as a customer.
7 And I think that point that you
8 made Councilman is a good point, it's the cross-
9 selling that is so necessary and that's the
10 conversation we had, you know, for a number of
11 hours, you know, recently, is looking at that.
12 And where could we help. If that firm cannot
13 complete for a larger contract, what can we be
14 doing at our agency and other agencies to help
15 them, you know, compete at a greater level. And I
16 think that's an important point.
17 In the past year the Mayor has
18 announced three major policies to further reduce
19 barriers for MWBEs to access contract
20 opportunities. And I think these are large steps.
21 The City's bonding policy was reformed to enable
22 small businesses to participate in the Federal
23 Surety Bond Guarantee Programs, opening up
24 contract opportunities worth over $500 million a
25 year.
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2 The New York State WICS law was
3 reformed which has expanded subcontracting
4 opportunities for MWBEs on prime construction
5 contracts under $3 million. And the Project Labor
6 Agreements are being implemented that will enable
7 greater participation of MWBE subcontractors on
8 public work projects. SBS will continue to
9 advocate for policies that support the MWBE
10 community.
11 In addition to providing businesses
12 with direct assistance, SBS works in commercial
13 corridors throughout the five Boroughs to
14 strengthen neighborhoods and make them more
15 attractive places to do business. Business
16 Improvement Districts continue to grow.
17 Over the past 8 years we've created
18 20 new BIDs, I hope over 20 new BIDs; 18 of them
19 have been in Boroughs outside of Manhattan.
20 Collectively BIDs contribute more than $98 million
21 in supplemental services, keeping the streets
22 clean, safe, marketing the streets. While we've
23 seen the number of BIDs increase over the past two
24 decades we also want to make sure that we focus
25 our work in developing and strengthening them,

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2 creating transparency for BID stakeholders.
3 SBS recently launched profiles of
4 each BID on its website which provides an overview
5 of the accomplishments and goals, District maps,
6 budgets, and contact information. We release an
7 annual report highlighting the impact of the BID
8 programs and services and spotlighting innovative
9 initiatives occurring in BIDs throughout the City.
10 Our work in the New York City
11 neighborhoods goes beyond BIDs. Our Avenue NYC
12 Program provides critical support to community
13 based organizations that work to create vibrant
14 commercial corridors throughout the City. In
15 Fiscal 2009, Avenue NYC enabled 40 commercial
16 organizations to accomplish a diversity of goals
17 and this is included, as I point out, websites and
18 storefront improvements and building
19 organizations.
20 In Fiscal 2010, Avenue NYC is
21 investing close to $2 million in the commercial
22 revitalization programs of 54 neighborhood
23 organizations. We're expanding the technical
24 assistance that we provide to organizations,
25 offering new capacity building workshops like

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2 marketing, managing capital projects, business
3 attraction, place making. SBS' goal is to
4 increase the ability of these organizations to
5 successfully plan for and implement commercial
6 revitalization programs, raise additional funds to
7 support current and future revitalization
8 activities, and build their corridors.
9 This is another point I'd like to
10 make and just pause before I talk about jobs. You
11 know, what I've noticed and many of you know that
12 I come from a background; I ran a Business
13 Improvement District and a local development
14 corporation. And what I see in my travels
15 throughout the City is many of these organizations
16 of one, two people; they're struggling during
17 these times.
18 They're getting less money from the
19 government. The banks have cut back on their
20 support. They have cut back on staffing but
21 they're so vital and so important in many of these
22 communities. And we need to do a better job,
23 quite frankly, of sharing the information. And I
24 think of, you know, neighborhoods that you know
25 well, Grant Street or Myrtle Avenue or Flatbush

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2 Avenue, Canal Street, where many of these
3 organizations are new or there's been a leadership
4 change and they could benefit from the innovations
5 or creativities of other places that have done it.
6 And what we haven't had is a place where people
7 could end up turning to quickly to get some of
8 that information.
9 We have a gentleman on our staff, I
10 don't know if he's here today among the 18, Jeremy
11 Waldrup who's done a phenomenal job in reaching
12 out to many of these groups and being proactive in
13 providing technical assistance and workshops. And
14 we're going to step that up in the coming year and
15 continue to do that. And I would also say that if
16 there are corridors that you would like me to see
17 personally, I never hesitate to do that,
18 especially on days like today.
19 [Laughter]
20 COMMISSIONER WALSH: So I wanted--
21 but all kidding aside, I think it is an important
22 point to make in terms of the sharing of
23 information.
24 Now let me turn to jobs. With New
25 York City's unemployment rate at above 10%, our

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2 work at SBS has taken on greater urgency. The
3 Mayor has made it clear that getting New Yorkers
4 back to work is a top priority. Despite the
5 recession our Career Centers placed New Yorkers in
6 25,128 jobs in 2009, a nearly 45% increase from
7 2008. Over the past 5 years the Career Centers
8 have made over 90,000 job placements. We've
9 increased the number of job placements to 7,800
10 last quarter from just 127 in the first quarter of
11 2004, when the agencies were consolidated.
12 When SBS took over--this is when
13 SBS took over the programs from the Department of
14 Employment, we have expanded the total number of
15 Workforce1 Career Centers from 3 in 2004 to our
16 current portfolio of 10. In 2009 we added 2
17 sector-focused centers: the Health Career Center
18 in partnership with LaGuardia Community College;
19 and the Manufacturing Career Center in Downtown
20 Brooklyn. We helped over 10,000 New Yorkers
21 access training grants last year.
22 To help our customers make informed
23 decisions about which type of training and which
24 school is best for them we created the New York
25 City Training Guide, an online tool that publishes

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2 information about courses, training providers'
3 track records, and student reviews. The New York
4 City Training Guide has received over a half
5 million hits since its launch in 2008. And I
6 would encourage you to take a look at the Training
7 Guide. This is a Training Guide for the
8 commercial and vocational schools throughout New
9 York City.
10 We are also making greater
11 investments in partnering with community based
12 organizations. Throughout the City the number of
13 partners placing people in jobs through the
14 Workforce1 Career Centers continues to grow. In
15 2009 we made 4,500 job placements through our
16 community partners, up from 4,200 in 2008.
17 In February of last year we
18 received a 1-time stimulus award of $31.7 million
19 in the Workforce Investment Act to serve New
20 Yorkers impacted by the recession. Despite short
21 implementation timelines SBS was able to put
22 innovative and successful programs in place.
23 Using stimulus funds SBS will provide services to
24 more than 10,000 unemployed New Yorkers through
25 June 30th, 2011.

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2 I'll tell you about how we invested
3 the money. SBS has utilized stimulus funds to
4 launch the Workforce1 Health Career Center which
5 specializes in training and preparing New Yorkers
6 for careers in the growing sectors. The Center
7 will give hundreds of New Yorkers the chance to
8 begin careers as medical technicians, nurses and
9 EMTs. We also continue to invest in career
10 advanceman services to help working New Yorkers in
11 low wage jobs access career coaching, training and
12 specialized financial planning.
13 The goal is to help these
14 individuals find better jobs and increase their
15 income. We contracted with 20 community
16 organizations to provide preparation, training and
17 job placement services to 3,000 New Yorkers facing
18 barriers to employment. These specialized
19 services included training and placing ex-
20 offenders; helping individuals with low literacy
21 gain educational instruction; and enabling
22 immigrants to access higher wage work through
23 training.
24 Stimulus funds allowed SBS to
25 increase the availability of individual training

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2 grants in 2009. Our centers issued an additional
3 4,000 vouchers last year to pay for job training
4 in high demand occupations for New York. CUNY is
5 also providing longer term training for over 300
6 individuals in high paying, health care careers
7 such as nursing.
8 I would also like to highlight two
9 new partnerships made possible by stimulus
10 funding. The Department of Education is currently
11 training 150 adult education students for careers
12 in health care, automotive, culinary and
13 information technology. I was able to join the
14 Fire Commissioner recently for the graduating
15 class of the 77 emergency medical technicians in
16 January. And again this was stimulus money that
17 we were able to put to use real quickly.
18 Through the Federal and State WIA
19 allocations we aim to make 25,000 placements in
20 2010. This is an ambitious target given the
21 economic climate but we believe we have a proven
22 model and the resources to achieve this.
23 I'm going to cut down some of my
24 testimony to get to questions. Our system has
25 come a long way since 2004. In the last 6 years,

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2 while we are proud of what we have accomplished,
3 we know we will have fewer resources going forward
4 to meet the sustained demand for workforce
5 services. This is not a new story for us as we
6 absorbed a 37% cut in Federal workforce funding
7 over the past 5 years. But there is no doubt we
8 will need to do more with less in the years ahead.
9 I am confident that the gains that
10 we have achieved, including credible employer
11 relationships, stronger partnerships through the
12 five Boroughs, and more jobs for New Yorkers has
13 given us a solid foundation to meet the challenges
14 ahead.
15 And I also think that we've been
16 blessed, quite frankly, with I think the, you
17 know, the strongest workforce team in the City led
18 by Angie Kamath who is our Deputy Commissioner and
19 Katy Gaul and Tracie Abbot and Shanna Gumaer and
20 so many others, Zenon [phonetic] Walcott who's the
21 new Assistant Commissioner. They have been
22 phenomenal. They are dedicated. They work. They
23 get out to the communities. And you can see the
24 fruits of their labor in the number of people we
25 place.
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2 I would be remiss not to thank the
3 Council for all of your help in supporting our
4 programs, whether it's partnering with us on the
5 workforce initiatives which you have done, whether
6 it's been supporting the growing networks of
7 Business Improvement Districts or Local
8 Development Corporations, or helping us build an
9 even stronger MWBE program. We're working harder
10 for small businesses and jobseekers during these
11 difficult times but we are fully aware that
12 there's so much more to be done.
13 We're constantly looking for ways
14 to improve our services, spread the word and work
15 with partners in the community. Again I want to
16 thank you for your support. Thank you.
18 much Commissioner Walsh. I know that we have
19 questions from colleagues and I will certainly
20 begin while I give them time to tell our Policy
21 Analyst that they're interested in asking
22 questions. I wanted to just touch base with you
23 on a matter that perhaps is separate but helpful
24 to you. The small business community in the
25 billboard industry apparently is in discussion

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2 with City Hall concerning a deadline to meet
3 criteria on March 22nd for permits. And I
4 oftentimes, you know, referred to the lack of
5 marketing.
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yeah.
7 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Or the
8 improvement that can be done in marketing your
9 services, whether that's on an individual basis or
10 a business--
11 COMMISSIONER WALSH: [Interposing]
12 Yeah.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --face to face
14 opportunity to connect with your Department. Have
15 you, do you have any ads on arterial billboards
16 currently?
17 COMMISSIONER WALSH: We have been
18 using the bus stop shelters. In the past we have
19 used the terminals, I think, in the Staten Island
20 terminals. George Fertita has been helping us,
21 you know, on that front from NYC & Company when
22 there has been opportunities. But on billboards,
23 I can't think of any.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Is this
25 something that you can look into?

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2 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I'd like to
3 look into that, it's a good idea--
5 I'd really appreciate that.
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --yeah. You
7 bet.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I know that the
9 arterial billboard obviously is going to be more
10 visible because it's along the highways--
12 Yeah.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --and so just--
15 Especially on jobs.
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --within my
17 District. Yes.
18 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I could think
19 of the BQE, yeah--
21 Correct. And so, you know, if we can--if you can
22 give me feedback as to what your discussions have
23 been concerning that, I know that the industry is
24 in discussions with City Hall--

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2 Yeah.
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --concerning
4 other matters.
5 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Do you know?
6 Are they setting aside a percentage on nonprofits
7 or?
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Perhaps--those
9 are the details that right now--
11 Yeah let me find out and I'll get back to you,
12 okay.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --they're still
14 trying to negotiate. And so if you can certainly
15 take advantage of those discussions that would be
16 very helpful.
17 COMMISSIONER WALSH: We have done
18 it quite well on our workforce programs and
19 getting the word out about our career centers and
20 some of the other services. And the other thing
21 that I think is going to be particularly under
22 Commissioner Katherine Oliver's leadership will be
23 the NYC TV.
25 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And recently

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2 you may have seen this, the whole show on Job
3 Hunt.
5 COMMISSIONER WALSH: We teamed up
6 not only with NYC TV but also with the Daily News
7 that has just been pounding away on this. And
8 they set up a phone bank this week which took
9 1,200 calls in a matter of hours.
11 COMMISSIONER WALSH: So, you know,
12 we're looking, you know, every which way we can to
13 get the word our about our programs. And you're
14 right, it's something you pointed out recently in
15 a discussion, a lot of our programs and I think of
16 Business Express, you know, quickly, are best kept
17 secrets and we've got to get over the hump on
18 that.
20 that. And I just wanted some clarity in your
21 testimony regarding MWBE--
23 Um-hum.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --you had
25 mentioned $180 million in subcontracting for MWBEs

SMALL BUSINESS
2 out of $1.2 billion. So the question is what is
3 the amount for prime contracts?
4 COMMISSIONER WALSH: you want to
5 take a stab? I'll talk to--Andy Schwartz--
6 MR. ANDREW SCHWARTZ: [Interposing]
7 Yeah Commissioner Andy--
8 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Go ahead.
9 MR. SCHWARTZ: Yeah the $100--
11 Introduce yourself Commissioner--
12 MR. SCHWARTZ: Andrew Schwartz,
13 First Deputy Commissioner for Small Business
14 Services.
16 MR. SCHWARTZ: The $1.2 billion is
17 the total amount awarded to certified companies
18 during the 3-year period so far covered by Local
19 Law 129. $180 million of that was in subcontracts
20 awarded in Fiscal Year '09.
21 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And to prime
22 contractors?
23 MR. SCHWARTZ: $307 million in '09.
24 I could give you--and primes, okay, well just
25 taking it through the 3 years, prime contracts for

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2 '07 was $194 million.
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: $194 million in
4 '07.
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: In '08.
8 That's prime contracts.
9 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Well the $307
10 is during--also during the time where we saw a
11 reduction in--
12 MR. SCHWARTZ: [Interposing]
13 overall City spending on procurement.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --yeah, right.
15 MR. SCHWARTZ: And the subcontracts
16 for those 3 year periods are $59 million in '07,
17 $120--
19 $50? I'm sorry $59 million?
20 MR. SCHWARTZ: In '07.
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: $128 million in
24 '08.
25 MR. SCHWARTZ: And the $180 million

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2 in subcontracts for '09. [off mic] Yes. Which
3 is, you know, an expanding area. This is, as you
4 know, many of the contract opportunities at a very
5 small level but the large contracts are often--
6 yield a lot of subcontracts that we're seeing grow
7 over time.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Sure and--
10 And I would just add that the new initiatives that
11 we talked about--
13 Um-hum.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --which was
15 the changes in WICS or the other initiatives--
16 MR. SCHWARTZ: [Interposing]
17 Project labor agreements--
18 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --project
19 labor agreements. We should see that number, you
20 know, jump even more dramatically in the next
21 year.
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And the fiscal
23 year's not over for '10 so--
25 Yeah.
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2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --I'm sure
3 you're going to see dramatic changes--
5 We hope so.
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: The, I just
7 wanted to note, although President Pinsky had
8 recognized that there could be improvement within
9 EDC, you're far exceeding EDC's sub prime,
10 subcontracting procurement percentages and the
11 value of $80 million is what they have contracted
12 out with subcontracts which is far less
13 considering the amount of money that is under EDC.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Um-hum.
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And so we
16 wanted to just take that comparison and hopefully
17 communicate back to him that there has to be
18 significant improvements over the course of Fiscal
19 Year '11 considering the difference between SBS
20 and EDC.
21 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Right.
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: The, I wanted
23 some clarification concerning the outreach team.
24 It's fabulous that your Department has had face to
25 face time with these businesses--

SMALL BUSINESS
3 Yeah.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --so that they
5 know that they're not alone. How were the
6 business aware of your assistance program?
7 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Through our
8 Business Solution Centers, through the Business
9 Improvement Districts, through our Local
10 Development Corporations. There seems to be…
11 every room I walk into in this City, a community
12 based--you know, Bernadette Nation is probably the
13 most recognizable person on our staff. She's been
14 everywhere. I'm convinced she has give sisters
15 that look just liker Bernadette Nation.
16 And she has done a remarkable job,
17 you know, with a small staff particularly when it
18 comes to times when, you know, the City is on its
19 knees. Blackouts, the steam pipe explosion, the
20 terrible storm that we had, you know, in the last
21 year. And there's a remarkable network that
22 Commissioner Bruno has set up, you know, during
23 these times, you know, the Bronx recently got hit
24 by a rash of fires that wiped out commercial
25 corridors.
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3 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And we worked
4 day and night, you know--
6 Um-hum.
7 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --one, on
8 insurance claims--
10 Right.
11 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --and getting
12 buildings boarded up and in, you know, doing
13 whatever we can do to help--
15 Right.
16 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --some of
17 these small businesses.
18 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And I just
19 wanted to ask you, how many 311 calls came from
20 business, do you know of, have you accessed those
21 calls concerning the impact of the storm?
22 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I'd have to
23 get back to you on that number--
25 Okay.
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2 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --I don't
3 know.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: That's one of
5 the reasons why I wanted to understand--
7 Yeah.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --how did the--
10 Yeah.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --business
12 outreach team respond to--
14 Yeah. And I highlighted Staten Island and it's
15 not fair that I did that. It's, you know--
17 didn't say it, you said it.
18 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --you know,
19 'cause I, you know, I saw it in Brooklyn, I saw it
20 in Queens--
22 Um-hum.
23 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --I saw the
24 impact, you know, throughout the City. Yeah I
25 just happened to be, you know, out there--

SMALL BUSINESS
3 Um-hum.
4 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --with her,
5 you know, walking, you know, wanted to--we were
6 right off Highland Boulevard, you know, and I'm
7 aware of the impact in many of those other places
8 also--
10 Um-hum.
11 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --so I was--I
12 miss-stepped on that, not to highlight--
14 Right.
15 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --some of the
16 other places. But--
18 you're forgiven.
19 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --thank you.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And--
22 We will get that number for you in terms of--
24 Absolutely.
25 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --the impact.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I just wanted
3 to understand--
5 Yeah.
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --the
7 correlation between the calls and perhaps your
8 ability to respond to those calls--
10 Yeah.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --you know, did
12 311 serve the small business community?
13 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I will get
14 back to you on that.
16 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I just don't
17 know them off the top of my head.
18 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And as far as
19 training is concerned, obviously, you know, we can
20 continue to claim that we're providing services to
21 a population of New Yorkers--
23 Yeah.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --but time and
25 time again we're listening to New Yorkers telling

SMALL BUSINESS
2 us where are the jobs. You know, you can get
3 trained but so much.
5 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Until you land
6 an actual job. And so how many actual jobs of the
7 4,400 have been trained? Actually that was the
8 Business Solutions; over 75 companies have been
9 awarded grants to train--yes. How many trained
10 individuals have received services? And how many
11 actual jobs have been landed of those trained
12 individuals?
13 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Okay. I look
14 to my right. The last time I'm going to look to
15 my left.
17 COMMISSIONER WALSH: To our
18 Workforce pro on this, to shed more light on that.
19 MS. ANGIE KAMATH: Sure. Hi, Angie
20 Kamath, Deputy commissioner of the Workforce
21 Development Division at SBS. So in terms of our
22 training investments which we call Individual
23 Training Grants, ITGs, we measure performance in
24 terms of both completion, so we are lucky enough
25 to have completion rates of over 90% for

SMALL BUSINESS
2 individuals who we make a training investment in.
3 And then in terms of job placement we average as a
4 system over 55% job placement.
5 And so what we do know about the
6 training investments that we make is that the
7 wages are considerably higher for those folks who
8 receive a training investment than those folks who
9 don't. And so average wages for individuals
10 receiving Individual Training Grants is, you know,
11 anywhere from $13, $14 on the low end upwards to
12 the mid-$20 per hour. So it's a service that we
13 really believe in.
14 It's a service that we definitely
15 increased over the last year, knowing that our
16 foot traffic increased by over 50% within the
17 Workforce1 Career Centers and it's an area that we
18 remain really committed to. And it's one of the
19 three focus areas that we chose to really invest
20 in, in terms of our Federal funding, the ARRA, the
21 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act--
23 Um-hum.
24 MS. KAMATH: --last year.
25 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Um-hum. And as

SMALL BUSINESS
2 far as the 55%, Commissioner, what was, of the
3 55%, full time positions versus part time?
4 MS. KAMATH: I'd have to get back
5 to you on the exact breakdown just for training
6 investments.
8 MS. KAMATH: But I'd venture to
9 guess that the vast majority of those training
10 investments were going towards full time
11 placements but we can get back to you with the
12 specific breakdown.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I would
14 appreciate that. And, you know, in reference to
15 full time and part time, you know, the
16 understanding of whether or not there's a pension
17 plan that comes with this position, is there a
18 health care package that comes with this, health
19 care benefits that come with these positions, so
20 that we can understand what type of job placements
21 are out there. And obviously 55%, I wish it was
22 higher but it's a work in progress.
23 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And I think,
24 you know, we've come a long way on the whole issue
25 of providing resources, you know, getting the

SMALL BUSINESS
2 vouchers out to New Yorkers who are looking to get
3 trained. Commissioner Kamath has done a fabulous
4 job. There's another person in the audience,
5 Assistant Commissioner Katy Gaul has done this.
6 You know, we used to give out, you know, vouchers
7 at $5,000 a pop, you know, no questions asked.
8 People would see the ads, you know,
9 whether it's a subway, you know, the back of the
10 Daily News or whatever of vocational or commercial
11 schools that made some lofty promises. I have to
12 tell you Commissioner Gaul has been tough about
13 this issue. We did something that some of these
14 schools quite frankly did not like. And it is if
15 it was not a growing sector, we were giving less
16 money.
18 COMMISSIONER WALSH: In those
19 areas. And we focused where the jobs are and
20 we're making a requirement now, you know, of those
21 schools when they do get a voucher, you know, on
22 their placement rates. And the website I
23 mentioned also where people could take a look at,
24 you know, I think it's, you know, some of the
25 truck driver training programs in Red Hook.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Right.
3 COMMISSIONER WALSH: It's a good
4 one and it works, you know, people get placed.
5 But before someone uses a voucher, you know, for
6 Red Hook, you know, they could check to see what's
7 the placement rates like.
9 COMMISSIONER WALSH: You know, were
10 other people satisfied, you know, with the
11 training they got--
13 Um-hum.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --and if not
15 they could take it and use it some place else.
16 And that's exactly what we set up. This did not
17 exist anywhere else. It did not exist in New
18 York, and today, to this day, does not exist in I
19 don't think any other municipality, you know, to
20 the level that we have it.
22 MS. KAMATH: Can I add just one
23 other piece of context to training. It's
24 important obviously to understand those folks who
25 come in unemployed looking for training and then

SMALL BUSINESS
2 getting placed. But 30% of folks who receive
3 training and investments from us are working. And
4 so it's really important to recognize the value
5 that training has for individuals who are working
6 but potentially stuck in a dead-end job and the
7 ability that training has to--
9 Um-hum.
10 MS. KAMATH: --upgrade those
11 workers, to help those workers potentially retain
12 their job--
14 Um-hum.
15 MS. KAMATH: --or advance. And so
16 that's also part of that--it's not necessarily
17 part of the number in terms of the 50% to 55% net
18 - - placement but there is--
20 Um-hum.
21 MS. KAMATH: --definitely a
22 promotion angle to it that again is really
23 important for our system in terms of being
24 relevant to a wide--

SMALL BUSINESS
2 Right.
3 MS. KAMATH: --variety of--
5 And is that in--
6 MS. KAMATH: --individuals.
7 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I'm sorry
8 Commissioner. I just wanted to understand, is
9 that 30% on top of the 55% Or within the 55%?
10 MS. KAMATH: We can get back to you
11 in terms of the breakdown of--
13 Um-hum.
14 MS. KAMATH: --the total of folks
15 that we trained last year and which percentages
16 were employment versus promotions.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I would
18 appreciate that. And I just wanted to get a clear
19 understanding as far as the 10% unemployment rate
20 in New York City, that my understanding is that
21 the 10% only reflects those applying and
22 qualifying for unemployment benefits. So this
23 percentage could be higher.
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yes it is and-
25 -
SMALL BUSINESS
3 And do you have?
4 COMMISSIONER WALSH: In some
5 Boroughs the number is higher. Bronx is higher
6 than 10%. Is it 13%--
7 MS. KAMATH: [Interposing] It's
8 high 13, nearly 14%.
9 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And do you have
10 a breakdown by zip code or by Council District,
11 even better, of the unemployment?
12 COMMISSIONER WALSH: We get it from
13 the Department of Labor, State Department of
14 Labor. We'd have to get that from them.
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And--
16 MS. KAMATH: [Interposing]
17 [Speaking off mic] It certainly exists by Borough.
19 MS. KAMATH: [Speaking off mic] And
20 then yea, we use them as the primary source for
21 the entire--
23 Right.
24 MS. KAMATH: -- [Speaking off mic]
25 City - - our self.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So is there any
3 analysis, you know, whether that's through zip
4 code or, you know, a smaller community District,
5 in order to understand where the highest needs are
6 as opposed to lesser needs? To target services?
7 MS. KAMATH: So what I can talk to
8 you about in terms of not necessarily at the macro
9 level--
11 Um-hum.
12 MS. KAMATH: --but I know what we
13 do is we work with a community partner program.
14 So we try to work with--we work with, rather, 200
15 community based organizations that are
16 particularly or they tend to be specifically
17 located in communities of need.
19 MS. KAMATH: So we partner with
20 those organizations to make job placements. And
21 so last year we partnered with 200 organizations
22 and made 45 job placements, 4,500 job placements.
23 This year we’re hoping to partner with those same
24 organizations and we're hoping to make 6,000 job
25 placements. In your District, specifically, we

SMALL BUSINESS
2 made about 500 placements across our Career Center
3 system and we worked with about 9 organizations
4 just in your District alone--
6 Um-hum.
7 MS. KAMATH: --so we're certainly
8 able for the work that we do within the Workforce1
9 Career Centers to run zip code analysis to
10 understand who we're actually working with to
11 reach out into communities of need. But in terms
12 of larger citywide mapping--
14 Right.
15 MS. KAMATH: --that to the best of
16 my knowledge doesn’t occur.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: That would be
18 helpful for us just to see where the gaps are, to
19 fill the gap, and just collaborate better with
20 you, with our service providers locally. And
21 specific areas that perhaps we can target as
22 communities within community.
23 The Mayor's Office of Industrial
24 and Manufacturing Business, we… please explain to
25 the Committee the current situation with the

SMALL BUSINESS
2 Industrial Manufacturing Business Office.
3 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Okay.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: How does the
5 funding work in terms of allocation? And how much
6 of the IMB's funding for Fiscal 2010 and for
7 Fiscal 2011 in the amount that you see as far as
8 the Preliminary Budget is concerned.
9 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Right.
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Versus Fiscal
11 Year '10.
12 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Right. A
13 couple of things that we have done internally with
14 the budget cuts that we faced and looking at how
15 we have served internally. And then we should
16 talk about externally with some of the partners
17 that we have.
18 What we did internally is we ended
19 up consolidating the Mayor's Office of Industrial
20 Manufacturing with an existing office that we had
21 on incentives that is headed up by Assistant
22 Commissioner Don Giampietro who's with us today.
23 That enables us to have, I believe is it 10
24 people? I don't… He has about, is it roughly-?

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2 10? 11.
3 COMMISSIONER WALSH: 11? 11. See
4 I was close. It's 11 people. Don has been with
5 the City for a number of years. He probably knows
6 the incentive programs better than anybody else I
7 know. Most of the people that he deals with is
8 manufacturing and industrial. It's not solely
9 those areas but the Energy Cost Saving Programs;
10 the Empire Zone Programs has all been part of his
11 portfolio. So faced with some of the cuts that we
12 faced, you know, we had, you know, one of the
13 first steps we did was, okay, you know, where
14 could we do more with less or--
16 Um-hum.
17 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --or where
18 could we do better. So we consolidated our--
20 Um-hum.
21 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --our existing
22 staff to serve. The other is, you know, some of
23 the outreach that we have, we've been using our
24 Business Solution Centers and some of the
25 outreach, you know, through our Business Solution

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2 Centers to complement some of the work that Don
3 has done.
4 Getting to the issue of our
5 partners, you know, throughout the IBZs, with
6 regard to money in the budget right now, with the
7 Preliminary Budget, it is zero. We do not have a
8 funding source to date to provide, and many of
9 the, you know, many of the groups do fabulous
10 work. I saw Leah Archibald in the audience. They
11 are phenomenal. They do great work. They're a
12 strong voice. They help us in so many different
13 ways.
15 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And one way or
16 another we just got--we have to figure out how to
17 get resources their way--
19 I--
20 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --we just have
21 to.
23 that. I asked President Pinsky if he had ever as
24 an agency through EDC applied for CDBG money
25 through HUD to receive workforce services as being

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2 one of the applicable ways of receiving CDBG--
4 Yeah. And I'm a little concerned. I think it's a
5 good… it's a good--
7 He said no he hasn’t.
8 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yeah. It's a
9 good resource to look at. But it's one of these
10 things of, you know, stealing from Peter to pay
11 Paul. And it would have to come--
13 Where are we stealing from?
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I don't know.
15 I'm not going to point out any agencies; I'm just
16 going to get myself in trouble that way.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Okay.
18 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I don't want
19 to do that. But it's, you know, the other concern
20 I have with Community Development Block Grant
21 money is, you know, more and more there's been
22 restrictions put on the use of Community
23 Development Block Grant money. And for example if
24 the IBZ--

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2 Um-hum.
3 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --doesn't meet
4 the requirements under the census track.
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Or, you know,
7 I know that there's been, I'll just give you an
8 example on the Community Development Block Grant
9 money, just through our own Avenue NYC program.
11 COMMISSIONER WALSH: There's been
12 limitations on planning. You know, some of the,
13 you know, in some of the neighborhoods. So I'm
14 not sure that's the best route. We have talked to
15 EDC. We have talked to City Hall. I know you've
16 reached out to Deputy Mayor Lieber on this. You
17 know, we're looking under every rock.
19 COMMISSIONER WALSH: If you will to
20 see, you know, what we could end up cobbling
21 together, you know, to provide some of these
22 necessary services.
24 that. And we'll have ongoing conversations. And
25 just to shed some light on specifically the IBZ

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2 zones, how much square footage has been preserved
3 because of the IBZs? And its service providers?
4 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I'm--
6 It's an important question and if you don't have
7 an answer--
9 I don't--I don't have--
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --I'll
11 understand.
12 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I don't have
13 it and I will get it back to you. But we know--
15 And it only means that we have a lot of work ahead
16 of us.
17 COMMISSIONER WALSH: We do. And,
18 you know, I know when this office was created, now
19 head of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Karl
20 Hom, you know, I could remember him going, map by
21 map--
23 Um-hum.
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --block by
25 block--
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3 Um-hum.
4 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --borough by
5 borough, you know, putting all this stuff
6 together--
8 Um-hum.
9 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --so we have
10 it somewhere, someplace, somehow.
12 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And we'll need
13 to get back to you on that question.
14 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And obviously
15 if it's an outdated document, can it be upgraded
16 to current times--
18 It--
19 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --because it's
20 important to know where we were--
22 Yeah.
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --when we first
24 started and where we are today--

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2 And--
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --in reference
4 to the threat posed--
6 Yeah.
7 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --when we talk
8 about real estate exclusively being economic
9 development.
10 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yeah. And I
11 caught a bit of President Seth Pinsky's--
13 Um-hum.
15 testimony. We have been sitting down over the
16 last couple of months and it's not just an issue
17 of IBZs because not all of our manufacturing and
18 industrial companies fit neatly into the--
20 Correct.
21 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --Industrial
22 Business Zones. I think of College Point as an
23 example that doesn't have an IBZ. And there are
24 some incredible companies that have been there for
25 generations.
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3 COMMISSIONER WALSH: That are doing
4 phenomenal work and they're an essential service
5 here. And we have, you know, we're having
6 productive, you know, conversations of where we
7 go, you know, with this, whether it's zoning,
8 whether it's, you know, issues of loopholes in the
9 zoning. You know, how do we keep this going, you
10 know, beyond the Bloomberg Administration? What
11 kind of workforce programs we have?
12 Some of the quality of life, you
13 know, issues that Leah and so many other people,
14 you know, face day in and day out. What kind of
15 services? How do we link up to our services? How
16 does EDC and SBS, you know, to Councilman Lander's
17 point, you know, make a clean handoff on some of
18 our services? These are all things that we've
19 been looking at, you know, over the last several
20 months in a much more intensive way.
21 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Well I
22 appreciate, you know, that you will go back--
24 Yeah.
25 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --and review

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2 all of this and continue to work with--
4 Yeah.
5 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --our Committee
6 as well as EDC President Pinsky--
8 And I think there's, you know, we don't have to
9 debate about the value--
11 Correct.
12 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --and the
13 need. All you have to do is look at the training
14 funds program that Christina Shapiro and Dave
15 Margalit, you know, set up. If you look at the
16 training funds that I talked about briefly, it is
17 primarily, it's been primarily manufacturing and
18 industrial companies that have taken advantage of
19 that.
20 And if you look at it, it's the
21 wages start higher--
23 Um-hum.
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And with
25 training go much higher.

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3 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And when you
4 start talking about language barrier or education
5 barriers, if you have a skill and you can get a
6 greater skill, you could go even further. And I,
7 you know, you look at data like that and I think
8 one of the things is we need to present it even
9 better.
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you. I
11 appreciate your commitment. And I--
13 Well thank you for your sport of this.
14 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Absolutely.
15 And I hope that there will be an answer and
16 obviously the cut is not acceptable considering,
17 you know, the hype we're promoting as to it
18 functions, why are we not going to support it.
19 And so I hope that we can come to a realization
20 that we have to find money here for the IBZ and
21 service providers.
22 I'd like to just take an
23 opportunity to ask Council Member Chin and Council
24 Member Lander to ask their questions. Thank you
25 very much.
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2 COMMISSIONER WALSH: It's, okay,
3 stay, stay, stay.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Good
5 afternoon. I have a couple of questions. Is this
6 thing on? Right. In terms of the capital
7 financing program, the financing assistance. Are
8 you guys working together with EDC 'cause they
9 also talked about Capital Access Program--?
11 Yes. Yes we are.
12 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Is that the
13 same program or?
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: No Capital
15 Access is a piece of that.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Um-hum.
17 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I think in
18 addition to the Capital Access Program, we've
19 taken it, you know, quite frankly, beyond the
20 Capital Access Programs, reaching out to some of
21 the credit unions and some of the other nonprofit
22 organizations. You know, I quickly think of the
23 Brooklyn Credit Union. I think of Axiom. I think
24 of SEED CO, Project Enterprise--is it Project
25 Enterprise? Project Enterprise and a number of

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2 others. Dave Margalit can give you a little bit
3 more detail in terms of ours in addition to the
4 Capital Access.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Yeah because
6 in… yeah because it looks like they were--'cause I
7 just want to make sure it's not the same program
8 and--
10 It is not the same thing--
11 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: --you put
12 together, you're serving a lot more small
13 businesses.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: We have that
15 material available at all our Business Solution
16 Centers. Do you want to shed more light on it?
17 Go ahead.
18 MR. DAVE MARGALIT: Hi. Dave
19 Margalit, Deputy Commissioner of Small Business
20 Services. I would look at Capital Access as one
21 option and a really important option that the
22 Mayor and the Economic Development Corporation
23 created to allow for more small business lending.
24 And so what we do, when a business comes to NYC
25 Business Solutions, whether it's in person or

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2 calls us by phone, what we do is we try to get an
3 assessment from that business person about what
4 kind of loan he or she needs. And then we take
5 them through all of the options available to them
6 including Capital Access.
7 We don't do any of the lending
8 ourselves. And so Capital Access where they've
9 injected money to create more liquidity and more
10 lending for Small Business Services has been a
11 fantastic option but we look at it as one option.
12 If a business isn't going to be able to get a
13 Capital Access loan, that doesn’t mean that we're
14 done with that business. We want to be able to
15 work with that business person to see is a credit
16 union the appropriate vehicle. Is a micro lender
17 the appropriate vehicle? And so on.
18 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Okay. The
19 other program that I was going to ask President
20 Pinsky earlier was this Jumpstart Program. And it
21 looked in your business course program; you have
22 the same funding source. And so are they also
23 working together on the same program?
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I'm not sure
25 exact what you would mean by--

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2 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: [Interposing]
3 The Jumpstart program?
4 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --the funding
5 source--
7 Because of the?
8 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --but I can
9 tell you that we work with some of the same
10 partners--
12 Yeah.
13 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --and we're
14 serving a different audience. What Jumpstart does
15 is, if I'm thinking of the right program and I'm
16 pretty sure I am, is Jumpstart looks at people who
17 have been laid off or who are looking for work who
18 want to go and work for a venture-backed startup
19 in the City of New York.
20 And The Levin Institute which is
21 also our partner in the Fast Track program trains
22 them for--imagine you've been working in a large
23 bank and you're used to working in a certain way
24 with a certain corporate culture with certain
25 rules and what not. And all of a sudden you find

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2 yourself on your own.
3 Well what Jumpstart does is it
4 teaches them well here's how you work in a
5 startup. Here's how you take those considerable
6 skills that you have and apply them to working for
7 a startup and then places them in a startup.
8 What our programs do, Growth
9 Venture and New Venture, that we're also doing
10 with the Levin Institute which is related to SUNY
11 and is in Midtown, what those programs do is they
12 work with the entrepreneur business owner who
13 either wants to start a business, that's what New
14 Venture is all about, or who wants to change their
15 business model to adjust to the realities in the
16 economy or the markets around them.
17 And so there we found some of the
18 same appropriate partners but they are funded
19 differently and we target different customers.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Do you have
21 some statistics about your New Venture program in
22 terms of how many entrepreneurs actually started a
23 business through this support that they received
24 from your Department?
25 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yeah. We do

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2 have those statistics. I can't rattle them off
3 but what I can tell you is that we now offer it
4 to--we have a class that runs every month. New
5 Venture offers 30 entrepreneurs a month the chance
6 to join. We've been essentially at full capacity
7 since we've been running.
8 We're about to go into our 2nd year
9 of programming. And as you can imagine whether or
10 not the business launches lag a little bit, but
11 the preliminary data is pretty good, people are
12 taking the information they get, the course is
13 very practically focused, and they are not only
14 walking out of that course with the business plan
15 but they are starting to put that plan into
16 action, starting to generate revenue, starting to
17 develop marketing.
18 And then the other thing that we do
19 with these businesses, one of the reasons that we
20 try to stay engaged with them is as they grow, we
21 think there's a lot of value we can offer through
22 the NYC Business Solutions suite of services
23 whether it's hiring through us, whether it's
24 taking additional financing through us, whether
25 it's jumping into other courses at points in time

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2 when it makes sense.
3 So we can get you that data but I
4 can tell you that we've been very encouraged by
5 what we've seen even in these early stages as
6 we're learning in the implementation of this
7 program.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Yeah. I
9 think it's important to have those data to see how
10 successful those programs are, whether it could be
11 expanded, duplicated. The last question I have is
12 on your incentive program. I mean you said last
13 year you provided more than 200 businesses with
14 hands-on technical assistance.
15 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Um-hum.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: How many of
17 them actually did get the benefits from these
18 incentive programs?
19 COMMISSIONER WALSH: More than 200
20 businesses, I think would be--maybe we should have
21 phrased it as got incentives as a result of our
22 hands-on technical assistance. We have really two
23 amazing ways to get technical assistance for--if
24 you are seeking to access incentives.
25 One is through NYC Business

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2 Express. We now have something called an
3 Incentives Estimator which allows the business
4 person the ability to make sense of 44 different
5 Federal, City and State incentives. And so to see
6 what they might be eligible for, what they might
7 not be eligible for, so you can see, you know, if
8 I move here I might be eligible for these
9 incentives. If I invest in this kind of equipment
10 or this kind of facility I might be eligible for
11 these incentives. And you can play around with
12 different scenarios to see what the bottom line
13 is.
14 But we know that's not enough. I
15 mean some of these incentives can be very dense
16 and difficult to navigate. So we also have, led
17 by Don Giampietro, a team of people who will
18 provide hands-on, one on one technical assistance
19 to really help the business get to the bottom of
20 those scenarios and really figure out, you know,
21 when the rubber hits the road how much they're
22 going to save, what they have to do, how to get
23 through the applications.
24 In the context of our industrial
25 and business service providers many times

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2 manufacturers also seek through incentives and
3 organizations like EWVIDCO and South Brooklyn
4 Development Corporation will help with the same
5 kinds of things. So you can get kind of the
6 automated 10,000 foot view and then you can also
7 get the hands-on-hand technical assistance one on
8 one through our team via NYC Business Solutions.
9 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Yeah 'cause I
10 think what a lot of the small businesses, that's
11 sort of like the item that attracts them, at least
12 to start--
14 Um-hum.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: --the
16 conversation and to engage them to get help. And
17 also within my District in terms of Lower
18 Manhattan, we have a lot of small businesses who
19 might not see themselves as a business--
21 Yeah.
22 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: --we have a
23 lot of nonprofits, cultural institutions, even
24 small private school facilities. I just met with
25 one earlier today. They have a wonderful program.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 But a lot of time they don't see themselves as a
3 business, as a small business, 'cause they're
4 creating jobs.
6 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: And so I mean
7 one of the things is to really bring them in to
8 see what else or what kind of incentive or
9 government support that we can give them so that
10 they can sustain those jobs and grow.
11 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Well you could
12 help us, you know, I'd love to come into your
13 District with our team and, you know, give you a
14 wide array of what we could offer. You know, some
15 of the things as, you know, some of the different
16 programs. And I've worked with a number of
17 different, you know, organizations in your
18 District. You know, I see Wellington Shannon in
19 our office on a pretty regular basis but, you
20 know, I know that there's, you know, so many other
21 organizations that we're not reaching.
22 So anything you could do to help us
23 on that, that would be appreciated.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Yeah
25 Wellington is getting the BID going--

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3 I know.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: --and once
5 that happens--
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --he
7 understands, he understands.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: --then
9 hopefully there'll be more resources.
11 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: But
12 definitely I would welcome working--
14 That'd be great, anything--
15 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: --with you.
16 Because a lot, I've meet a lot--I joined this
17 funding process and there were a lot of arts
18 institutions and they're creating jobs. And
19 they're generating revenues for the City but
20 they're not really getting the benefits or the
21 help that they really need.
22 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Well I'll say
23 it because the Chair has done this well. She has
24 had us in her District on a regular basis whether
25 it's been on MWBE issues or workforce issues or

SMALL BUSINESS
2 the Business Improvement Districts, you know, on
3 Grant Street. And it helps us when the Council
4 Member is championing it under your banner, you
5 know, bringing us, you know, into the District to
6 provide support.
7 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: Okay.
8 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Thank you.
9 COUNCIL MEMBER CHIN: I look
10 forward to working with you.
11 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Thank you, I
12 look forward to it too, thank you.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Don't fail
14 Council Member Chin, Commissioner Walsh.
15 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I'm sorry
16 what?
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Don't fail her,
18 thank you.
19 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I won't. I
20 have to face her again.
24 Lander.
25 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Thanks very

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2 much. Thanks for your testimony. I've been
3 surfing both the training guide and the Biz
4 Express. So they both look great--
6 Right now?
7 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: So thank
8 you.
9 COMMISSIONER WALSH: The Business
10 Express is remarkable. I mean it is, you know,
11 what this gentleman and his team has done on that,
12 it's hard to believe that we did not have a
13 resource like that, you know. Restaurants is one
14 of the best examples. There's over 4,000
15 restaurants that opened in New York City last
16 year. And the fact that you have to go to, you
17 know, in some cases up to 18 different City
18 agencies.
19 A year ago, most of that was
20 waiting online at, you know, Consumer Affairs, the
21 Health Department and Buildings Department, Fire
22 Department, and then going from place to place to
23 place. What we may end up doing is putting a
24 couple of expediters out of business. You know,
25 the tradeoff of that might be, you know, that more

SMALL BUSINESS
2 businesses will open or won't hesitate because of
3 what we're doing--
5 [Interposing] I think we would take more jobs in
6 small business and fewer jobs in expediters so--
8 But we have some retraining programs.
9 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --the
10 Expediter's Union, I think, are organizing a rally
11 tomorrow on the Courthouse steps--
13 Well they probably are but the problem--
14 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --but we'll
15 take that risk.
16 COMMISSIONER WALSH: They're
17 probably going to picket, you know, in front of
18 110 William, you know--
20 [Interposing] [Laughing]. I do, I actually want
21 to dive in a little more on the website on
22 childcare but I may want to follow up with you
23 because, not as a small business or an economic
24 development initiative but the number of either
25 not-for-profit and for-profit child care centers

SMALL BUSINESS
2 that have approached me on all of these same
3 challenges. And that's not just job creation,
4 that's trying to create child care. So that's not
5 so much a subsidy issue by just a--
7 In terms of setting up?
8 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --in terms
9 of the Department of Health dealing with the--
11 Yeah. I--
12 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --yeah, the
13 business questions.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Bring them in.
15 And we've been doing this on a regular basis. You
16 know, Dave and his team, you know, did it well
17 with the restaurants as an example. One of the
18 more complicated and challenging ones. But bring
19 them in and if we could do this and if we could
20 put some of the other agencies also at the table,
21 if we could be the convening point, it would be
22 helpful for us to know.
23 I have no idea how many child care
24 centers there in New York--

SMALL BUSINESS
2 [Interposing] Yeah I mean there's--
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: [Off mic]
4 [Interposing] Providers.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --yeah.
6 Well we should--let's talk more about it because I
7 think it's another area--
9 Yeah.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --where the
11 Chair and my interests overlap but it's--partly
12 that's job creation and partly it's coming up with
13 childcare slots. And it turns out there are a lot
14 of business barriers that we put in front of that.
15 And that's whether they're, you know, not-for-
16 profit or, you know--
18 Home based.
19 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --and home
20 based or whether they're, you know, just trying to
21 do it. I've got one small business woman in my
22 neighborhood who's opened three and just the
23 stories she told me about the pains of getting
24 open and, you know, making it clear to me why
25 there's not that many entrepreneurs in that field.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 Also want to say thank you to the
3 Fifth Avenue BID is up and running--
5 That's great.
6 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --in Park
7 Slope.
9 She's great.
10 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: She is
11 great. Okay. So a couple of things. First I do
12 want to echo and I know that you were here for
13 some of our colleagues' questions in EDC, the
14 strong support that the Council obviously has for
15 the Industrial Business Zones--
17 Yeah.
18 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --and the
19 providers there. It's great that we're on the
20 same page on how important that is. It would be
21 wonderful if we could be on the same page in
22 trying to provide those resources so the Council
23 doesn't wind up having to restore them alone by
24 trading, you know, robbing the Peters of like
25 lawyers for low income people or after school

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2 programs--
4 Yeah I hear you.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --we need
6 some help on this. So it would be great if you
7 could help us and I know it's not going to be
8 easy.
9 One thing you mentioned that I was
10 really intrigued by and tried to find online but
11 couldn't is you guys do agency compliance reports
12 on MWBE--
14 Yes we do.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --
16 performance.
17 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yes we do.
18 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: I was
19 trying--maybe it's online someplace I couldn't
20 fine but…
21 MR. SCHWARTZ: Yeah that should be
22 on our website. We may have to take you through
23 the MWBE section of the website. There's a
24 biannual reporting to the Council and there are
25 new agency by agency reports. [Off mic] Yeah.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 The Mayor's Office of Contract Services--well they
3 have the Procurement Indicators Report which
4 breaks down all the contracting by dollar value,
5 by industry category, by agency, by ethnicity.
6 And we can help you locate that.
7 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: I, you
8 know, was trying to find it and I couldn't, so if
9 someone could send me the URL that would be great
10 or just send me the report that would be great.
11 MR. SCHWARTZ: Okay.
12 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Any--
13 MR. SCHWARTZ: [Interposing] Will
14 do.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --stellar
16 performers and any less than stellar performers
17 amongst the agencies in meeting MWBE goals?
18 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Off the top of
19 my head and Ann Rascon and Gregg Bishop who are
20 part of the leadership there could probably tell
21 you more. The area that we've had the biggest
22 impact on has been the micro purchasing. That's
23 where we've seen the greatest impact. And I
24 quickly think of agencies like HRA. I think what
25 Robert Doar has done at Human Resources Services.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 HPD has done a phenomenal job on a number of
3 different areas. DCAS under Martha Hearst has
4 done a pretty remarkable job and have done a good
5 job.
6 And what we've been doing is what
7 we have now organized, Gregg Bishop heads up this
8 effort, is we now have a staff that has a
9 portfolio of different agencies. So when we find
10 out about the different procurement opportunities
11 in different places, you know, we're shooting
12 emails to folks who sell that product.
13 And I think under Anne and Gregg
14 and Colleen Galvin, I don't want to leave Colleen
15 out, she'll be mad at me later, is, you know, it's
16 that relationship building that has made, you
17 know, a heck of a difference. Who am I missing?
18 Because this is being taped and if some
19 Commissioner is doing a job, they're going to get
20 me later on.
21 [Off mic]
22 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I'm sorry. I
23 know Colleen's here but what agencies. Huh? Who?
24 What agency, what other agencies are highlighted.
25 [Off mic]
SMALL BUSINESS
2 COMMISSIONER WALSH: So I got them.
3 Okay.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: So I'm not
5 going to ask you on tape--
7 Yeah.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --to name
9 the folks that are at the bottom of the list--
11 I'm not--I can't--we're not--
12 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --but we
13 have learned--
15 We're not.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --from the
17 Bloomberg Administration--
19 Yeah.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --from
21 CompStat and from the way we evaluate schools that
22 the value of accountability is to see who's not
23 doing--
25 How about we do it--how about--

SMALL BUSINESS
2 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --well and
3 push them to improve. So I'll read the report and
4 I will look to find that--
6 Yeah. How about we do it--how about we do it this
7 way? Where we need to make greater impact is some
8 of the larger capital agencies. And it's a little
9 bit of an issue of capacity. You know, some of
10 the organizations, you know, when you have some of
11 the larger contracts that fall out of, you know,
12 Local Law 129, you know, and it's something that
13 we have, you know, we've been pushing this. It's
14 not just about those $1 million or less contracts.
15 It's those larger contracts where
16 there are subcontract opportunities. And you
17 know, Andy Schwartz just told you, what we're
18 seeing is the increase in the subcontracts. Now
19 we want to get more--
21 [Interposing] That's good.
22 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --primes. But
23 that's been an area, you know, as Anne Rascon
24 likes to say, the sweet spot, where we've been
25 able to, you know, line up many more subcontracts.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 I think it went from 120 to 180, was that the
3 number?
4 MR. SCHWARTZ: Right, right.
5 COMMISSIONER WALSH: You know, in
6 the last year. And that's something we've got to
7 do even more.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Great.
9 Well this is helpful. And what I might suggest to
10 the Chair and we can maybe do it jointly with
11 Small Business and Economic Development, maybe we
12 can do a hearing where we'll have read the
13 biannual report in advance and can drill down a
14 little on those areas that need improvement--
16 Yeah.
17 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --as well
18 as those that deserve calling out for doing well
19 and think about what we can do to kind of push
20 those folks who could be improving to, you know,
21 it won't be like--
23 Thank you.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --you know,
25 we won't look to close them down just because

SMALL BUSINESS
2 they're not doing well in their MWBE but maybe we
3 can push them to do better. So that would be
4 great.
6 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Just a
7 couple more questions. I spoke earlier and you
8 referred to it and Deputy Commissioner Kamath has
9 been, I know, doing a lot of work on these linkage
10 questions.
12 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Both
13 linking, you know, what you're doing through the
14 Workforce1 Centers and the CBOs with EDC's
15 projects. So I'm glad to hear that and Seth gave
16 a little bit of an update--
18 Um-hum.
19 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --but I'd
20 love to get an update from the SBS side. And then
21 in addition to the SBS/EDC linkage, a concern that
22 I expressed before or many an opportunity more
23 than a concern is there's been something of a
24 proliferation of small transitional jobs programs,
25 at least in the Preliminary Budget if not in

SMALL BUSINESS
2 reality. I mean Parks continues to have theirs
3 although that's going to be, is proposed in the
4 Preliminary Budget to be cut in a significant way
5 but now HRA has one and Sanitation has one and
6 there's a program with the Center of New York City
7 Neighborhoods and a Green Jobs transitional jobs
8 program.
9 And in some ways it's great. I
10 mean I love to be using stimulus funds and it's
11 great that all these agencies want to do it.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: But it
14 feels to me like it might not be as coordinate-d-
16 Yeah.
17 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --as it
18 could be so that those folks when they hit the end
19 of their transitional jobs program, someone is
20 making sure that program prepares them well so
21 that if that transitional job doesn't become a
22 permanent one in the Parks Department, say, they
23 are prepared. They've connected to the Workforce1
24 Center.
25 So if you could speak to kind of

SMALL BUSINESS
2 linkage in both directions, both how you're doing
3 with EDC but also how you're doing with some of
4 these other transitional jobs programs within the
5 City that would be great.
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I think, you
7 know, starting with EDC, you know, Seth Pinsky
8 said it, you know, earlier today, you know, we
9 work hand in hand on a lot of projects. And I
10 think we're doing that, you know, a lot better
11 quite frankly.
12 We are setting up standing meetings
13 that we, you know, it's not only on the industrial
14 and manufacturing but on so many of the other
15 issues, the Jumpstart programs, the, you know,
16 other efforts, commercial revitalization. I know,
17 you know, Dave and Daria Hirsh our Chief of Staff
18 was, you know, with them today talking about
19 commercial revitalization issues.
20 But it's, you know, we're doing a
21 lot better. And when we see a larger project, you
22 know, the DDC, you know, is going ahead on, where
23 could we be of help. And a number of years ago we
24 couldn't do that because our program, our
25 workforce program, quite frankly, as you know, was

SMALL BUSINESS
2 broken. And it becomes more and more as an
3 economic development tool.
4 On the issue of transitional work
5 and turning those into permanent jobs, it seems to
6 be on a lot of peoples' minds. The hearing next
7 week that the Council has, you know, on this issue
8 of a lot of different agencies, you know, having
9 workforce programs, is there a coordinating head.
10 I think there is. I think we have
11 the right guy in Phil Weinberg who heads up the,
12 you know, Workforce Investment Board. You know,
13 at the last meeting, myself, Commissioner Doar,
14 Commissioner Mullgrav, you know, all at this
15 meeting, it's become the table we all sit around.
16 And you know, one of the things I get concerned
17 about is often what happens is when we see an
18 issue like this we're ready to create another
19 Office Of.
20 You know, let's use the Workforce
21 Investment Board and the resources. Labor is
22 there. Nonprofits are there. Government is
23 there. They meet on a regular basis. They've
24 gotten credibility. And you know, let's put them
25 to work in tackling and dealing with some of those

SMALL BUSINESS
2 issues.
3 I'll give you one example and then
4 I'll stop. You know, it came to Phil Weinberg's
5 attention about this gap on the
6 vocational/commercial schools. You know, that
7 some of the students, you know, are college bound,
8 many of them are not, but they have skill. They
9 come out of Aviation. They come out of Grady.
10 They come out of, you know, some of these other
11 places.
12 What Phil Weinberg did in his
13 capacity as the President of the Workforce
14 Investment Board is he lined up the schools, he
15 lined up the Department of Education, he lined up
16 one of our, you know, our better heads of our
17 career centers and put a program together, you
18 know, for 30-some-odd, you know, students as a
19 pilot. We need to do more of those types of
20 programs where we cross the line and look to, you
21 know, innovate. And I think that's what he's
22 going to do.
23 So I, you know, one word of caution
24 is before we end up creating something else, you
25 know, the workforce czar, you know, the Office Of,

SMALL BUSINESS
2 you know, whatever the flavor is of the day, is,
3 you know, let's look to what we have.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Sure. And
5 I wasn't proposing--
7 Yeah.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --a new
9 office to coordinate--
11 Well there are some others that are so--
12 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --I was
13 just intrigued, you know, to hear about--
15 Yeah.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --this
17 proliferation of programs--
19 Yeah.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --and so I
21 will try to go to next week's hearing. My last
22 question is on preserving neighborhood retail.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: So, you
25 know, I think you guys have obviously been working

SMALL BUSINESS
2 very hard on a range of things and it's clear
3 there's great progress on some innovations to help
4 folks get open. Right--?
6 Yeah.
7 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --and so
8 Business Express really helps you get open in some
9 great new ways. And, you know, BIDs and LCDs are
10 very important--
12 Yeah.
13 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --you know,
14 tools and they're getting better and I think
15 you're right, that having them network with each
16 other could be a great help.
17 At the same time what I think a lot
18 of us are seeing in our neighborhoods and one
19 challenge is we were seeing it during the boom as
20 well as the bust, right? As boom years, rents
21 were rising on a lot of our commercial strips;
22 small businesses were really feeling the pinch.
23 And now they may still have the high rents--
25 Yeah.
SMALL BUSINESS
2 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --the
3 landlords who renegotiated in those years, and
4 their business is down.
6 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: I don't
7 have any magic silver bullet to offer on what we
8 could do to be strengthening our efforts to
9 preserve existing mom and pops on our neighborhood
10 retail strips, you know, the Speaker outlined a
11 few ideas in her State of the City. I just
12 wonder, you know, I'm sure you--and you know,
13 obviously Council Member Jackson last session had
14 a bill that would try to get at some of this. But
15 I just wonder if you have any ideas for things we
16 might be doing to strengthen our ability to
17 preserve, you know, preserve neighborhood retail
18 in challenging times? That's not really a budget
19 question so it's not fair to ask you but--
21 No but it is a budget--
22 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: --and I
23 don't have any good answers.
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --it's about
25 the neighborhoods. And, you know, this is where

SMALL BUSINESS
2 we could end up using Community Development Block
3 Grant money a lot better and directed. We will
4 have an additional $500,000 this year to get an
5 initiative off that I'm passionate about.
6 And that is how do we end up
7 creating and developing more programs like what we
8 saw on Myrtle Avenue, an area that you know, you
9 know, that had Jennifer Gerran [phonetic] and then
10 Blaise Backer now and Tom Schutte, you know, from
11 Pratt, engaging a university, you know. If you
12 look at, you know, that as an example and I've
13 been using this example so much my staff is tired
14 of hearing me talk about Myrtle Avenue.
15 But, you know, you look at it's, I
16 believe, the numbers are three-fourths African
17 American, primarily women, who have opened up
18 shops. They're 500 square feet. They're 1,000
19 square feet. They're 1,200, you know, now how do
20 you take something like that and you emulate it
21 again?
22 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Yeah.
23 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And they went
24 out of their way. They got Pratt to do a lot of
25 their designs, their websites; they were very

SMALL BUSINESS
2 aggressive on Saturday mornings. They opened up
3 the vacant storefronts of many of their places and
4 they've said to some of the folks, you know, from
5 the neighborhood I live in and Carol Gardens is
6 you have a place; you want to open another place
7 in this area, why don't you come look at that.
8 I think that's what's happening on
9 Grant, you know, quite frankly. You have a, you
10 know, a new generation of entrepreneurs. Maybe
11 they were priced out in Manhattan. Maybe. But,
12 you know, they've invested. You know, they put
13 everything they had into the area and they're
14 engaging, you know, more so.
15 Crime has been, you know, at an all
16 time low. I think that's been to our advantage.
17 I think what we have to do and I've talked to Adam
18 Friedman, you know, at Pratt.
19 I've talked to a number of other
20 universities, is we have to, you know, at the
21 agency, do a better job in taking all these
22 resources and looking at, you know, what works on
23 Myrtle Avenue, can it work on nearby Fulton, you
24 know, on Fulton Street where Mike Rafferty is now
25 heading, you know, one of the Business Improvement

SMALL BUSINESS
2 Districts. And if not, why not. And what are
3 some of the extra things that need to take place?
4 And are there things that hold back a particular
5 area? And if there is a sore point, you know,
6 going at it and being, you know, real proactive.
7 You know, with all these, you know,
8 community based organizations, we had not been in
9 the past been in a position to provide that type
10 of leadership, you know, on budgets. And I've
11 talked to Mary McCormick on this at Fund for the
12 City. You know, the problem on many of these
13 organizations is that they're spending so much on
14 administrative costs that there's not enough on
15 the program cost. And we've got to figure out a
16 way to get, you know, some of that reduced and
17 also get more resources into some of these
18 neighborhoods.
21 much Council Member Lander. I just wanted to ask
22 you, since our last conversation before this
23 hearing I had expressed to you that the first and
24 last hearing I had chaired as Small Business
25 Committee, there was a suggestion from the public

SMALL BUSINESS
2 testimony of refreshing your site to include home
3 as an option for a location. Have you done so?
4 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Here we go.
5 He better have.
6 MR. SCHWARTZ: It's in our
7 development cycle. It should launch I think the
8 first week of May--
10 Fantastic.
11 MR. SCHWARTZ: --thanks to you. It
12 would--had it not been for you it would have been
13 the first week of June so thanks.
14 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I won't take
15 the credit for it.
16 MR. SCHWARTZ: Okay.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: you were
18 already on it.
19 [Off mic]: We're going to name it
20 after you.
22 that. And--
23 MR. SCHWARTZ: [Interposing] Yeah,
24 actually there's a lot of usability enhancements
25 that are coming up including home business.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 COMMISSIONER WALSH: That was
3 great. That was a terrific, you know, we wish it
4 were part of the earlier focus--
6 There's more where that came from.
7 [Laughter]
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I just wanted
9 to make sure that Brad understood, you know, the
10 home care--
12 Yeah.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --providers,
14 child care services, has grown exponentially and
15 whether it's group or home based, where individual
16 providers have, they're creating jobs out there
17 where you have assistant program, program
18 assistants within the child care arena. And
19 obviously we want to be able to nurture this
20 sector appropriately so that they can be growing.
21 And where there's room to improve that we do so
22 because we're flagging it as part of your Business
23 Express Website.
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Well if the
25 two of you want to do this, we will host a

SMALL BUSINESS
2 meeting--
4 Um-hum.
5 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --and bring
6 the, you know, the agencies that--
8 Bring Department of Health.
9 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Bring
10 Department of Health, bring, you know, whoever
11 else needs to be there. You did this effectively
12 in a District that I'm aware of on the education
13 issues. You know, and just get people in a room
14 together. And if we could figure out, you know,
15 okay these are some of the obstacles that are
16 holding it back.
17 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: It's really
18 a great, I mean--
20 But I'm also thinking on the workforce side, you
21 know, this is where I get in trouble with my own
22 staff, you know, without--but, you know, is there
23 a possibility on the workforce end. You know,
24 what could we be doing on that end to sweeten the
25 pot if you will.

SMALL BUSINESS
3 COUNCIL MEMBER LANDER: Sounds
4 great. I…
5 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: It's
6 interesting you said that. According to New York
7 State Department of Labor, the unemployment rate
8 in the City is 10.4%. And I just want to make
9 note that the nation's is 9.7%.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Are there any
12 job sectors that are currently hiring? What is
13 SBS doing to get people back to work identifying
14 those particular job sectors for--
16 Yeah.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --individuals
18 who go through Workforce1 Centers?
20 There's a number of places that are hiring. You
21 know, we're still seeing, you know, many retail
22 shops opening up. You know, I was with
23 Councilwoman Viverito not too long ago. She has a
24 large development in her area that is a collection
25 of retail businesses.
SMALL BUSINESS
2 It's a reason we opened up the
3 Health Care Services, a lot of the health care,
4 whether it's a shortage of nurses, lab techs, home
5 health care, you know, across the board, emergency
6 medical, you know, technicians, you know, all in
7 those areas.
8 You know, transportation around
9 some of our airports, LaGuardia and Kennedy, we
10 opened up a Transportation Sector outside of
11 Kennedy Airport that's doing well. And it's not
12 just about the airline jobs, it's about the
13 support services for the airlines, whether it's
14 trucking or food or, you know, folks who are doing
15 the deicing of planes.
16 You know, so we have been looking
17 at where are the growth sectors and how can we end
18 up tapping into. Something Leah Archibald
19 probably could write a thesis on is, you know,
20 food processing, you know.
21 A lot of people talk about
22 manufacturing and industrial, you know, and the
23 jobs going, you know, if you look at it in a
24 holistic way, you'll see the number of
25 manufacturing jobs have gone down, you know,

SMALL BUSINESS
2 that's because apparel has basically moved out.
3 But if you look at particular areas of
4 manufacturing and industrial, there have been
5 growth areas that we need to take better advantage
6 of.
7 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So are you
8 creating a database concerning what you just
9 mentioned--
11 We have teamed up with the City University of New
12 York. We now get a Labor Market Information
13 Report that highlights those sectors, you know,
14 where there's growth. You know, the challenge now
15 is to take that information and, you know, connect
16 it with our career centers. I will tell you that
17 some of our career centers are using it well.
18 Others are not.
20 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And, you know,
21 the question is, you know, why and why not. You
22 know, is it a little bit too removed?
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: You know, but
25 it has influenced us going into this whole area of

SMALL BUSINESS
2 sectors--
4 Um-hum.
6 and focusing on sector-based job centers.
8 COMMISSIONER WALSH: And I think
9 it's something we should do more of. One that,
10 you know, I would like to see opened is, you know,
11 I mentioned that 4,000 restaurants opened up last
12 year.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Food,
15 hospitality, customer services is probably one
16 area that we should be doing more, you know, more
17 work in and much more of a focus.
19 COMMISSIONER WALSH: You know,
20 across the board. I'm not talking about the
21 dishwashers. I'm talking about the chefs. I'm
22 talking about the entrepreneurs who are opening up
23 new places.
25 COMMISSIONER WALSH: These are some

SMALL BUSINESS
2 of the things that, you know, I guess you've got
3 to crawl and then sort of walk and run--
5 Right.
7 when we're running a little bit harder--
9 Technology is also another area--
11 Yeah and you mentioned that--
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --where we have
13 to--
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --when we did
15 sit down. Yeah, yeah.
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And I don't
17 think there's a connection, almost as if--
19 Yeah.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --EDC is going
21 to be the leading agency on technology--
23 Yes.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --but that
25 doesn’t mean that exclusively EDC should be taking

SMALL BUSINESS
2 a look at this. And so in the area of--
4 Yeah.
5 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --technology
6 making sure that where we can create 55 Broad
7 Street--
9 Yeah.
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --examples.
11 Where you dedicate a building for incubation space
12 or hubs where technology industry can come in and
13 take advantage of being able to start up
14 companies.
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Nanotechnology-
17 -
19 And--
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --is also an
21 area within technology that we're not moving
22 forward fast enough--
24 Yeah.
25 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --and so, you

SMALL BUSINESS
2 know, taking advantage of our universities, the
3 CUNY system, to be able to--
5 Polytech is very--yeah--
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --correct.
7 Correct.
8 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --Polytech,
9 you know, with the consolidation--
11 Not too far away from IBZs.
12 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --yeah, yeah.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And so I want
14 to make sure that we take advantage of not just
15 the growing sectors but sectors that we're not
16 taking advantage of because we just don't give
17 them the appropriate space, incentives, workforce.
18 I wanted to just ask you, the New
19 York City and Company's funding for tourist,
20 $15.87 million in--
22 Yeah.
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --Fiscal Year
24 2011. For the past few years the Mayor has
25 launched a program to open New York City tourism

SMALL BUSINESS
2 offices--
4 Right.
5 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --in different
6 countries to attract international tourists to New
7 York. What are these--where are these
8 international offices located? And how much money
9 is allocated for the international markets versus
10 the domestic tourist markets?
11 So I really specifically want to
12 know is there City tax levy dollars--
14 Yeah.
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --dedicated to
16 these international offices and where are they and
17 the obviously, international versus domestic
18 tourism.
19 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yeah. Here's
20 where I want to be a wise guy and tell you I don't
21 know but if you want to put me on a plane to find
22 out where they are and if they're working I'd be
23 happy to do that.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Well it is
25 under your portfolio.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I know that.
3 We are the fiscal agent--
5 thought you already traveled.
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I did. I went
7 out to--well. But the…
8 MR. MARGALIT: He was on his own
9 time.
10 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I was on my
11 own time. Thank you Commissioner Margalit.
12 [Laughter]
13 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I really
14 appreciate that. And it was only Thursday and
15 Friday of last week. Let's make that clear. I
16 had to get some rest before this hearing. But we,
17 just like the Film Office, we're the fiscal agent-
18 -
20 Um-hum.
21 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --for the--
22 their contract passes through.
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: But George
25 Fertita would be in a much better position, you

SMALL BUSINESS
2 know. I don't know where he has opened up his
3 offices.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Well I just
5 wanted to make sure--
7 Yeah. You know what I will do, I will call George
8 and get the list and I'll get it to you quickly.
9 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And we will
10 certainly--
12 Yeah.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --formulate a
14 letter to you--
16 Yeah.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --to go through
18 the list of questions that--
20 Yeah.
21 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --perhaps we
22 need to continue to follow up with for the record-
23 -
25 And I think he has done, you know, whether it's,

SMALL BUSINESS
2 you know, we talk about the international and the
3 domestic. One of the things that George and I
4 often talk about on a regular basis is how do we
5 end up promotion and marketing our local
6 neighborhoods much more.
7 And I think it's worth a, you know,
8 the two of us, you know, tag-teaming, you know, on
9 this issue of, you know, people are coming to New
10 York and he talks with a great deal of commitment
11 on this issue, is, people want to see, they want
12 to see the Grants Streets. They want to see
13 Bedford Avenue--
15 Right.
16 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --they want to
17 see, you know, Downtown Brooklyn. They want to
18 see other areas. And that's been part of his
19 tourism, of getting the word out. In fact his
20 wife just wrote a book about many of these small
21 businesses, you know, in our 300 neighborhoods
22 throughout the City. And I think it's well worth
23 sitting down. And I'm happy to arrange, you know,
24 such a meeting like that.
25 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And more

SMALL BUSINESS
2 importantly I want to make sure that we're not
3 spending City dollars on offices that if we can
4 arrange for there to be a hospitality upon the
5 country's--
7 Yeah.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --efforts to
9 partner with us at no cost--
11 Yeah.
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --that would be
13 preferable.
14 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Yeah. He is
15 an amazing guy. And I hope this is being taped
16 but--
18 Free advertisement.
19 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --he has done
20 a remarkable job. If you look at a lot of other
21 cities on tourist, they have plummeted. And he
22 has been able to keep it above the 90% number--
24 Um-hum.
25 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --and I think

SMALL BUSINESS
2 part of that is the word on New York in a lot of
3 places that there are neighborhoods, that it is
4 safe.
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: That it is
7 diverse. And it's fun to get around and--
9 Right.
10 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --you could
11 get around, you know, in a very accessible way.
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Well
13 Commissioner we're in the final stretch--
15 Sure, okay.
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --and I want to
17 make sure that I ask the last three questions. We
18 haven't been joined by any further Council
19 Members. How many community based organizations
20 received WIA Federal stimulus funding to help the
21 unemployed? Please provide the Committee with a
22 list of CBOs if you can with how much funding each
23 one received.
24 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Okay. Well--
25 MS. KAMATH: [Interposing] I can

SMALL BUSINESS
2 tell you that there's about 13 community based
3 organizations that received funding and we can
4 just follow up with the exact dollar amount for
5 each of those.
7 much. I appreciate that. And if you could just
8 run through--do you have the list in front of you?
9 MS. KAMATH: I do have a list in
10 front of me, yeah--
12 Just by name at the very least right now.
13 MS. KAMATH: Okay sure. Not in
14 alphabetical order but Wildcat Service
15 Corporation, SEED CO and through SEED CO we worked
16 with 8 of their subcontractors--
18 Um-hum.
19 MS. KAMATH: --Good Will
20 Industries, Agudeth Israel [phonetic], Community
21 Services of America, Cooperative Homecare
22 Associates, Fortune Society, Nontraditional
23 Employment for Women, Per Skullis [phonetic],
24 Restaurant Opportunity Center and the Educational
25 Data System. So you have within SEED CO, the

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2 subcontracts included CAMBA, Citizens Advice
3 Bureau, Henry Street Settlement, St. Nick's.
5 MS. KAMATH: Chinese American
6 Planning Council--
8 Um-hum.
9 MS. KAMATH: --and a few others.
10 So we can just get the details for you.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So we will
12 receive that list with a comprehensive
13 understanding as to--
14 MS. KAMATH: [Interposing] The
15 funding, sure.
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --what the
17 awards were--
18 MS. KAMATH: [Interposing] Yep.
19 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --and what the
20 milestones…
21 MS. KAMATH: They're all training--
22 the ultimate milestone is placement. So some of
23 them include a fairly intensive training model--
25 Um-hum.
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2 MS. KAMATH: --some of them include
3 more of a career coaching and placement model.
5 MS. KAMATH: But the outcome for
6 all of those is job placement.
7 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And we would
8 love to get that specific information.
9 MS. KAMATH: Sure.
11 What would happen to these programs after the WIA
12 Federal stimulus money is depleted?
13 MS. KAMATH: Unfortunately it was
14 one-shot funding and we had pretty strict
15 guidelines from the New York State Department of
16 Labor even though the Federal government gave us--
18 Right.
19 MS. KAMATH: --two years to spend
20 it, New York State Department of Labor mandated
21 75% of it to be spent within 1 year--
23 Um-hum.
24 MS. KAMATH: --so ending this June
25 30th, so unfortunately for a lot of these really

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2 excellent organizations it was a one-shot. So
3 once the Federal stimulus is gone, we don't have
4 any ability as Commissioner Walsh talked about,
5 we're facing pretty serve cuts from the Federal
6 government just in terms of our overall WIA
7 portfolios.
9 MS. KAMATH: So unfortunately we
10 don't have a plan to continue support.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And that ends
12 December 31st of this year?
13 MS. KAMATH: The contract start
14 dates depend upon when they were registered with--
16 So they vary.
17 MS. KAMATH: --Comptroller's
18 Office--
20 Um-hum.
21 MS. KAMATH: --but the majority of
22 these contracts end this fall, so between
23 September and December.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Okay. Along
25 with the Mayor's program to eliminate the gap, the

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2 PEG adjustments, SBS has proposed 2 layoffs, 3
3 vacancy reductions, 2 position transfers and 2
4 attrition savings for a total of 10 positions for
5 Fiscal Year 2010 and 2011.
6 Could you please explain to the
7 Committee where the 2 layoffs, 3 vacancy
8 reductions and 2 transfers are? Which positions
9 were eliminated as well.
10 MR. SCHWARTZ: Right now the cuts
11 that were proposed, we were able to take a 4% PEG
12 in Fiscal Year '10 which for SBS was about
13 $400,000 and we met that without any layoffs.
14 We've been getting attrition so the reductions we
15 have to make for '11 are about $600,000 for SBS.
16 And right now we're looking at
17 attrition. We're looking at not backfilling
18 vacancies, using vacancies in the Federal area
19 where we might put staff. So we have not yet made
20 layoffs. There was one actually in the Film
21 Office during this fiscal year.
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And that was a
23 layoff or attrition?
24 MR. SCHWARTZ: It was one layoff
25 and then there was one attrition in the Film

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2 Office.
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So further
4 decisions have not been made. Are you waiting for
5 the State budget to kick in?
6 MR. SCHWARTZ: We're not--we're
7 balancing our City budget now in the remaining 3
8 months of this fiscal year to see where we'll
9 enter FY '11 and trying to close that gap working
10 with OMB and seeing whether we'll have to make any
11 actual layoffs if we don't get the type of
12 attrition reductions we need.
13 COMMISSIONER WALSH: If we could do
14 it through a regular turnover of staff and not
15 fill a position I would much prefer to do that
16 than to lay one person off. I mean it's, you
17 know, it's sort of what we did on the
18 Manufacturing and Industrial Office and the
19 incentives.
20 You know, faced with an $800,000
21 cut and a small budget, you know, what you end up
22 doing, you know, and how can you end up making it
23 better. And, you know, it's been hard. You know,
24 we put a plan out there. If we have to, you know,
25 make layoffs we will but, you know, knock on wood,

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2 you know, to date we've seen a little bit of, you
3 know, flexibility, you know. And--
5 And--
6 COMMISSIONER WALSH: --you know, my
7 hope is we don't get to that point.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Commissioner
9 the three vacancy reductions, what is the value of
10 that?
11 MR. SCHWARTZ: That are proposed?
12 Approximately $150,000 with--and then the OMB will
13 add fringe to that.
14 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Um-hum. And so
15 that has already been eliminated as part of the
16 one layoff, one attrition in the Film Office?
17 MR. SCHWARTZ: That's probably
18 approximate. I don't have the exact figures--
20 Um-hum.
21 MR. SCHWARTZ: --in front of me.
22 But what we're looking at now is what our tax levy
23 funding is going it be for FY '11 and how we're
24 going to get to that. We're okay for this fiscal
25 year in terms of staying in balance.

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2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I hope that,
3 you know, there's three vacancy reductions before
4 we go into service providers that--
6 Yeah.
7 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --or
8 programming that we look at what you have vacant
9 in order to understand that we don't want City tax
10 levy dollars to go to vacant positions--
12 Sure.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --and just hold
14 onto all this money--
15 COMMISSIONER WALSH: I agree.
16 MR. SCHWARTZ: Yeah. I mean OMB
17 looks for recurring cuts--
19 Um-hum.
20 MR. SCHWARTZ: --and unfortunately
21 for us that's all in the PS area.
22 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Right. Well
23 Commissioner thank you very much--
25 Thank you very much.

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2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --to the staff
3 of the Department. We appreciate all the time you
4 have dedicated to this Committee.
5 COMMISSIONER WALSH: Appreciate it.
6 Thank you for your help. Thank you.
7 [Witnesses leaving]
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So now we will
9 continue this hearing with the public. And we
10 will try to do this with panels. We have Calvin
11 Jackson, thank you…
12 [Witnesses leaving in the
13 background]
14 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Project H. I.
15 R. E.; Glenda M. Self. Janet Torres from the
16 Wildlife Conservation Society and Leah Archibald
17 from EWVIDCO.
18 [Pause]
19 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: If you guys
20 could just squeeze in further so that we could
21 have a panel of four. Leah, you're the fourth,
22 okay. You have two mics so at the very least…
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Calvin, would
25 you like to start or ladies first?

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2 [Crosstalk]
3 MR. CALVIN JACKSON: I'll let the
4 ladies go first.
5 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: you're a
6 gentleman.
7 MS. GLENDA SELF: Okay.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And I'm not
9 going to put the clock on unless I see that, you
10 know, it's taking too long, I'll let you know.
11 But we just want to make sure that we hare able to
12 limit testimony so that way if there's any
13 questions or comments that we're able to entertain
14 them. Thank you.
15 MS. SELF: Okay. Can you hear me?
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Yes.
17 MS. SELF: Oh okay. I would like
18 to begin by saying that as part of economic
19 development I see workforce development as key.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Did you turn on
21 your mic?
22 MS. SELF: Is it on?
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Sergeant at
24 Arms, can you help?
25 SERGEANT AT ARMS: Yes. What's the

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2 problem?
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: I don't hear.
4 MS. SELF: She can't hear me.
5 [Adjusting the mic]
6 SERGEANT AT ARMS: Speak into it.
7 MS. SELF: Hello? Hello, testing,
8 can you hear me? Okay. Can you hear me now?
9 Okay. I want to begin by saying that key to
10 economic development is workforce development
11 because the human beings who are the capital that
12 drives the economy…
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Calvin can you
14 just do me a favor--
15 MR. JACKSON: [Interposing] Sure.
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --can you
17 change your mic to hers. Because.
18 MS. SELF: You still can't hear.
19 You can't hear me?
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: It's just very
21 low.
22 MS. SELF: Okay.
24 Calvin.
25 MS. SELF: Is this better?

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2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Did you turn it
3 on? Right there.
4 MR. JACKSON: I'll turn it on for
5 her. There we go.
6 MS. SELF: Okay I can hear the echo
7 now, okay. I want to begin by saying that key to
8 economic development is workforce development
9 because it's the human capital that drives the
10 economy. As I see it, we need a commitment to
11 funding workforce development, a committed revenue
12 stream targeting job career skills development.
13 Number two, we need to monitor
14 trends in job erosion so that the workforce
15 development community can respond to impending
16 layoffs. We need to support unemployment
17 insurance reform, specifically the 599 program.
18 It would be to our advantage to
19 look to community colleges for short term skill
20 development and academic upgrading. We need to
21 support a living wage that accurate reflects the
22 cost of living in New York City. Projects that
23 need the approval of the City Council should have
24 workforce development initiatives.
25 When there is not a steady stream

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2 of financial support, training programs are forced
3 to cut back on staffing and shut down.
4 Experienced training staff leave. We lose
5 contacts in the employer community because we are
6 not able to provide them with workers on demand.
7 Prospective participants become discouraged when
8 we are constantly telling them we are waiting for
9 funding.
10 Also there are missed opportunities
11 for employment in sectors that are moment-driven,
12 for instance, big projects like the Yankee
13 Stadium, the Croton Water Filtration project and
14 Bronx Terminal Markets. Those presented
15 opportunities that were moment-driven. If we
16 didn't get in it while it was going on, those were
17 lost opportunities.
18 Along with the career and job
19 development, it's very important that we find a
20 way to incorporate into the new job market,
21 entrepreneurs, because it is the smaller, newer
22 companies that are going to hire most people.
23 Also we need to find a way to expand the workforce
24 in existing industries so that folks who are
25 currently unemployed can go back to work and at

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2 the same time we're creating what's called new
3 jobs because there are folks who have historically
4 not participated in the job market fully or who
5 are new entrants. And unless we create new jobs
6 these folks will stay out of the job market and
7 not be able to contribute to the tax base.
8 For the new green industries that
9 we are all anticipating, we need to look, to find
10 ways to bring green manufacturing into the City,
11 to make sure that the raw products are used by the
12 industry locally rather than bringing it into New
13 York City, to try to revitalize our manufacturing
14 industries.
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And if you
16 could just mention your name.
17 MS. SELF: Oh I'm sorry.
18 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: For the record.
19 MS. SELF: Okay. My name is Glenda
20 Self, as in myself, yourself.
22 much Ms. Self. Calvin, you're working hard up
23 there.
24 MS. JANET TORRES: Good afternoon.
25 My name is--
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3 Behind it. Janet, behind it. Up further, up, up.
4 Yes. Yes.
5 MS. TORRES: Is it on?
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Yes.
7 MS. TORRES: Sorry about that
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: That's okay.
9 MS. TORRES: Good afternoon. My
10 name is Janet Torres and I'm Director of
11 Government and Community Affairs for the Wildlife
12 Conservation Society. Thank you Council Member
13 Reyna for the opportunity to speak before you
14 today.
15 I'm here on behalf of the 33
16 members of the Cultural Institutions Group. As
17 you know this coalition includes some of the most
18 respected art, science, and performing arts
19 institutions in the world. And I'm joined here
20 with some of my colleagues from El Museo del
21 Barrio, the New York Botanical Garden, the
22 Brooklyn Museum and our own WCS's New York
23 Aquarium.
24 All CIG institutions and their vast
25 constituencies in every Borough are most grateful

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2 for the City for its past support. We're fully
3 aware of the fiscal realities that the City faces
4 this year and do not underestimate the difficulty
5 of balancing competing needs in this time of
6 diminished revenues. We ask that you consider the
7 need for adequate resources for a sector of the
8 City that contributes significantly to its
9 economic diversity.
10 And I'm going to just talk briefly
11 about and I'm going to deviate a little bit from
12 my submitted testimony to talk about some examples
13 of some of the CIGs, the Cultural Institutions
14 Group that are across New York City and how we are
15 part of the economy. We're stabilizers to local
16 economies. We provide jobs. We work with local
17 vendors. So I'm going to start with the Wildlife
18 Conservation Society. And like I said I have some
19 of my colleagues here but this is testimony on
20 behalf of all the CIGs.
21 The Wildlife Conservation Society
22 manages the Bronx Zoo, the Central Park Zoo,
23 Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo as well as the New
24 York Aquarium. WCS generated over $400 million in
25 economic activity in Fiscal Year 2008, creating

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2 jobs, purchasing goods and pumping money into the
3 cash registers of local businesses and many in
4 underserved areas. And we're talking about we're
5 located in the Bronx and we're located in Coney
6 Island with the New York Aquarium.
7 As one of the largest employers of
8 youth in the Bronx, WCS is a launching pad for
9 next generation of conservationists and green-
10 oriented professionals in all sectors. And you
11 had Commissioner Walsh here in front of you and I
12 just wanted to let you know that we are one of
13 those partners with the New York City Business
14 Solutions and Workforce1 Centers.
15 So year to date, WCS has hired 100
16 referrals from New York City Business Solutions
17 across New York City. And this number is growing
18 by the week. In addition New York City Business
19 Solutions helped us to hire 225 staff from other
20 sources by providing pre-screening and support.
21 So we are already one of those partners and
22 understand that we are part of making sure that we
23 hire from all 51 Council Districts.
24 Another example is I have a
25 colleague from El Museo del Barrio and from July

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2 2004 through June 30th, 2008; they had a total
3 economic impact of more than $127 million
4 including estimated $120 million impact on New
5 York City. So when you're talking about--these
6 are not-for-profits. And, you know, we are, for
7 the small investment that the City has made, makes
8 for us through the Department of Cultural Affairs
9 and I know, you know, you represent the Department
10 of Small Business Services and you work pretty
11 much with them.
12 And we don't get our money from
13 them but we truly feel that this is an opportunity
14 for us to talk with you, for you to understand and
15 take back to your colleagues, not only to your
16 Committee but the Community of Economic
17 Development and to your delegation to let them
18 know about how we are able to move across the
19 different sectors, not only in education, youth
20 services but also jobs and economic development.
21 We also have, in your testimony, we
22 also have noted the discussion about the Queens
23 CIGs, especially the New York Hall of Science.
24 And there again, they work with local mailing
25 houses, caterers, contractors. In Brooklyn, the

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2 Brooklyn Museum works with Urban Samaritan,
3 Incorporated. And they're a not-for-profit
4 organization that benefits the homeless by
5 providing job skills.
6 And one of the things that this
7 organization has done with the Brooklyn Museum
8 which I think is a great story is that they
9 recycle used advertising banners. And they've
10 made them into products such as tote bags that are
11 sold then in the museum shop.
12 And also the Brooklyn Museum works
13 with local artists and other small businesses,
14 clothing designers and others, and they are things
15 that are sold in the museum shop.
16 And then my last example is of the
17 American Museum of Natural History. And they too,
18 are working with the local community and providing
19 opportunities in their local community with
20 businesses. During the period of July 1st, '09
21 through March 11th, this week, last wee, the museum
22 contracted with approximately 300 New York City
23 suppliers, providing millions of dollars to these
24 local suppliers.
25 So overall the message is, again,

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2 the message is that we are part of the economy.
3 At a time of economic crisis, when other sectors
4 are failing and people are losing their jobs, this
5 is the sector, the cultural sector of New York
6 City, is continuing to grow. But with the cuts
7 that are proposed on the City level, I don't know
8 how much more we're going to be able to do.
9 Others have faced layoffs, furloughs.
10 And one of the things that we would
11 love for you to take and I'm going to wrap up
12 right now is Council Member Reyna, is that we
13 would love for you to take back to your colleagues
14 our requests. And we respectfully request that
15 the Council restore the Mayor's proposed cuts to
16 the City's cultural sector.
17 And that request is the restoration
18 of $26.7 million. And that may seem a lot right
19 now but it's less than one-quarter of 1% of the
20 City budget. And that's a small investment. It's
21 a comparatively modest investment in my opinion,
22 translating to very substantial economic returns,
23 contributing to local jobs and support of small
24 businesses. So.

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2 MS. TORRES: Thank you very much.
4 Janet. And if I may just ask for a two minute
5 break. I haven't gotten up from this seat so I
6 will be right back. If you can just put that on
7 hold.
8 [Pause]
10 much. Thank you Janet for that testimony. And
11 now our last lady before Cal.
12 MS. LEAH ARCHIBALD: Okay. Thank
13 you so much for being such a gentleman. Here I'll
14 pass out my armload of stuff here, just in case
15 you haven't got this memorized. In the unlikely
16 event that you haven't gotten that document
17 memorized. My name is Leah Archibald. I'm the
18 Executive Director of EWVIDCO, the East
19 Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development
20 Corporation. We're the local development
21 corporation that works with the industrial
22 businesses in North Brooklyn.
23 You have graciously already covered
24 our neighborhood demographics as we serve the same
25 neighborhood. So allow me just to say in the

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2 community that we collectively serve, there are
3 about 1,000 industrial businesses employing over
4 15,000 residents. Our community needs these jobs.
5 As you've already noted, we've got
6 a high degree of folks that don't speak English as
7 a first language. And we work with the
8 manufacturing business that offer a lot of
9 employment opportunity to our community. In fact
10 this is borne out with statistics as we see that
11 the unemployment rate in our community is actually
12 lower than it is citywide. It's a true
13 demonstration of the fact that our local
14 neighborhood benefits from having these jobs in
15 our community.
16 Our organization, as you know,
17 works really hard to serve these folks. In 2009
18 we served almost 300 different firms, a total of
19 over 650 different times. We've obtained over $10
20 million in financing for 4 different firms; place
21 20 local residents in jobs; and developed over
22 13,000 square feet of real estate; and we're in
23 contract to develop another almost 20,000 square
24 feet more.
25 I want to say thank you from the

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2 bottom of my heart for not just chairing this long
3 hearing but asking questions on behalf of the
4 industrial businesses and the working class
5 residents that they employ. I, you know, I guess
6 I would close with, you know, we know you're
7 dedicated to finding funding for the Industrial
8 Business Zone program and for my organization.
9 We know that your colleagues are
10 supportive. We know that the City wishes to find
11 this money. So I guess I would close with, you
12 know, why. Like the answer, why fund us? Well
13 I'll tell you. It's good to have organizations
14 like ours doing this programming. We're your eyes
15 and ears on the street. We help leverage the
16 City's investment with other investments. You
17 know, as you know, we get 58% of our funding from
18 the City's IBZ program. But we pull in grants
19 from foundations and other government support. So
20 we help leverage the investment that the City
21 gives us with other money to provide a wide array
22 of services.
23 We know and I agree that it's
24 important to be investing in the workforce here in
25 the City. I mean we're all here because we're

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2 community developers. Our bottom line is jobs. I
3 mean everyone in this room would agree. It's of
4 penultimate importance in our community and for
5 the growth of our local economy.
6 And the City has made a very large
7 investment on, you know, what I would consider the
8 supply side of jobs. And that is workforce
9 development training, training grants, different
10 sectoral training programs. We're asking you to
11 think about investment on the demand side, helping
12 encourage demand for these folks that are coming
13 out of training programs.
14 And finally I'd ask you to think
15 about, you know, what sort of a City do we want to
16 live in? It's important that the finance and real
17 estate industries stay here. It's important that
18 hospitality and cultural institutions be
19 supported. But the 250,000 families in the City
20 that depend on these industrial jobs are important
21 too. And our main export industries depend on
22 them. You can't have hotels in Midtown without
23 fresh baked bread that's trucked in a couple of
24 times a day, like Viola, and Tomcat. I don't want
25 to leave my Queens friends out on this one.

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2 But there's--our main export
3 sectors in the City depend on manufacturing. So
4 it's important for the economy. It's important
5 for our communities. Thank you for your support.
7 Thank you Leah.
8 MR. JACKSON: Good afternoon.
10 MR. JACKSON: My name is Calvin
11 Jackson. I'm the President of the Tremont
12 Business and Community Organization. Today I'd
13 like to talk to you about the Industrial Business
14 Zone program and the impact that it has on the
15 residents and the business owners in Tremont and
16 Bathgate neighborhoods in the Bronx.
17 The Bathgate IBZ is unique in that
18 it has been a blend of commercial and industrial
19 properties for decades. Long before IBZ came into
20 existence, as you know, one of our primary goals
21 of the IBZ program is to insulate industrial and
22 manufacturing firms from the real estate
23 speculation that can often accompany residential
24 and commercial development. It often seems that
25 if a developer had their way, this City might be

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2 nothing but a forest of high rise condominium and
3 big box retail stores with no room for industrial
4 and stores that create high quality jobs without
5 forgetting the community in which they reside.
6 Despite the traditional conflict
7 between the commercial and industrial interests,
8 something remarkable has happened in our
9 particular community. The IBZ actually allows
10 these traditional interests to work in tandem
11 because of the grass root networking and technical
12 assistance capacity of the Bathgate IBZ, SOBRO,
13 the manufacturers in Bathgate and the retailers on
14 Tremont Avenue actually came together and had a
15 real discussion about what changes would most
16 benefit all parties: sanitation services for
17 instance, and graffiti cleanup and removal along
18 with better lighting.
19 These simple efforts that make a
20 big difference in our ability to do business in a
21 wider community coalition especially the unlikely
22 coalition of retailers and manufacturers, business
23 is better for everyone. The next step for the
24 TBCO is to receive a BID status, an initiative
25 that SOBRO has helped coordinate with the

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2 industries of Bathgate. With its greater
3 collective strength will ensure that economic
4 activities and jobs will never desert our often
5 overlooked corner of the Bronx.
6 These successes highlights what is
7 possible when good policies and programs are
8 informed, caring local agencies and interest in
9 jobs, prosperity is the number one issue in the
10 minds of Americans. So please take this into
11 consideration when you draw up the City funds
12 budget and thank you for your time.
14 much Calvin. And you know my position as you have
15 heard me all afternoon, mentioned my dedication to
16 the market of a growing sector both the supply and
17 demand as Leah has just mentioned, lots of
18 training leading to no jobs is no good for anyone.
19 MR. JACKSON: Yes.
20 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And abandoning
21 our businesses is no good for everyone. And so
22 just as much as a cultural institution is in the
23 hospitality or tourism sector it's still a sector.
24 And so I appreciate all the service that you've
25 provided and your testimonies this afternoon, but

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2 most of all your patients for waiting around and
3 giving us this particular afternoon, your wisdom
4 of what you see day in and day out. Thank you.
5 MS. SELF: Thank you.
6 MR. JACKSON: Thank you.
8 call in Sarah Crean from the New York Industrial
9 Retention Network. Justin Rodgers from the
10 Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. Steven
11 Hya--
12 MR. STEPHAN HYACINTH: Hyacinth.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --you needed to
14 give me an opportunity. Hyacinth from the South
15 Bronx Overall Economic Development. And Greg Mays
16 from the Downtown Jamaica Open Space Coalition who
17 I believe has left the building but has left his
18 testimony to be read into the record. And I just
19 wanted to make note of that. I'd like to call
20 Josephine Infante from the Hunts Point Economic
21 Development Corporation. So that's four.
22 [Pause]
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Whenever you're
24 ready.
25 MS. SARAH CREAN: Oh okay, great.

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2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Absolutely.
3 MS. CREAN: Thank you.
4 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Thank you. I
5 see we still have gentlemen in the room.
6 MS. CREAN: Thank you very much for
7 having the hearing and for allowing us to testify.
8 I'm name is Sarah Crean and I'm Deputy Director at
9 New York Industrial Retention Network. I'm not
10 going to read my testimony. I'm just going to
11 make a couple of comments for 45 seconds.
12 I just want to tell you that we
13 strongly support your focus on both the demand
14 side and the supply side in terms of planning for
15 the economy in New York City. And we're really
16 here today to support anything that the New York
17 City Council can do to work with the City to
18 maintain the budget that supports the industrial
19 business service providers.
20 We think it's absolutely crucial we
21 work in tandem with them. And I actually just
22 want to say one thing about why is this question
23 so important right now and the context in which
24 all of this is happening. Because not only,
25 obviously as you well know, not only has the

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2 budget been zeroed out at this money for the IBSPs
3 but also the Empire Zones have lost their
4 administrative support. That has happened at the
5 same time. And then I think an equally serious
6 issue is this question of the Mayor's Office of
7 Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses.
8 In my opinion it's not so--the
9 critical question is not where it's located but
10 the critical question is that there is a dedicated
11 space within City government that looks at the
12 needs of New York City's industrial sector.
13 There's been a lot of time that's been spent
14 looking at the loss of manufacturing jobs and the
15 loss of businesses but the types of companies, and
16 I know you know this, that are here today are very
17 much locally owned. They serve niche markets and
18 they make products that are very high value added.
19 And these companies are the types
20 of companies we want in New York and obviously
21 these are the types of jobs that we need. And if
22 we don't have a place within City government that
23 is focused on developing policies for growing
24 those jobs and growing those businesses, I think
25 we're at a loss. And we're actually far behind

SMALL BUSINESS
2 other cities in the United states.
3 So we're here to fully support the
4 IBSPs but we're really also here to drive home
5 this question of having a space within City
6 government to plan for and grow an industrial
7 economy which is really necessary especially with
8 an economy that is in such a precarious state as
9 it is in New York, you know, in this moment in
10 time.
11 So thank you very, very much.
13 Sarah. And I just want to refer to you that
14 before there were IBZs or an office in the Mayor's
15 Office, there was New York Industrial Retention at
16 work. And we've always depended on your efforts
17 and supportive services to be able to align
18 ourselves diligently in how do we preserve the
19 industrial parks of our City. And I know that
20 I've learned a lot from you in the aspect of what
21 we have preserved.
22 MS. CREAN: Um-hum.
23 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And what we've
24 lost.
25 MS. CREAN: Um-hum.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And it's
3 shameful that the City of New York doesn’t have
4 that updated. And if there's documents out there
5 that you know of that perhaps you've made efforts
6 in bringing up to date your database--
7 MS. CREAN: [Interposing] Uh-huh.
8 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: --I would love
9 to see that information.
10 MS. CREAN: We're doing that right
11 now. We're analyzing--
13 knew you were.
14 MS. CREAN: --[chuckling. The
15 glasses.
17 MS. CREAN: We're analyzing
18 employment rates and firm rates within the IBZs
19 and outside of the IBZs to measure the performance
20 of these IBZs and what they've been able to
21 accomplish in five years which is actually not a
22 lot of time.
24 MS. CREAN: So when we complete
25 that we will deliver to that your office to take a

SMALL BUSINESS
2 look--
4 And please keep a note of the square footage.
5 MS. CREAN: Okay.
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: That perhaps
7 ten years ago we had versus in the last five
8 years.
9 MS. CREAN: Okay.
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Because it's
11 important. I think we lose site of the fact that
12 we've gone from industry to real estate. And we
13 will never come back to industry if we continue
14 that pace. Thank you. So the next speaker, I
15 leave it up to you guys.
16 MS. JOSEPHINE INFANTE: Thank you.
17 Councilwoman I'm so proud of you.
18 [Chuckling]
19 MS. INFANTE: that you've lasted
20 that long. We've been watching you here and
21 saying what incredible energy and passion.
23 MS. INFANTE: My name is Josephine
24 Infante. And I'm the founder of the Hunts Point
25 Economic Development Corporation 23 years ago.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 And at that point, well this is really--at that
3 point the one program that we started out with
4 which was the Industrial Park Management.
5 And one of the things that happened
6 there before I read that, there was no identify to
7 this wonderful community called Hunts Point that
8 how as flourished tremendously and has focused in
9 on food distribution and manufacturing and has
10 grown tremendously in the last 20 years.
11 And it's a shame that the
12 Industrial Park Management piece, the IPIPs don't
13 have the respect that the other parts of the City
14 has because there are a lot of jobs that are
15 created there and you don't have to go to
16 Manhattan all the time. You have high end jobs in
17 the industrial parks that pay very well. And
18 they're evolving all the time.
19 In Hunts Point we're very lucky
20 that we have a niche market, the food distribution
21 center, and all the small companies that have just
22 located themselves around there. Yesterday I'm
23 dealing with one company from Columbia, Miami,
24 wants to move into Hunts Point. I have another
25 from Ecuador of plantains that wants to move into

SMALL BUSINESS
2 Hunts Point.
3 It is a big focus. And we know
4 that Hunts Point feeds over 20 million folks here.
5 But what we don't know is that there are many jobs
6 that are created throughout the northeast because
7 of these companies due to the way that food
8 distribution now is just regenerating and
9 developing itself. And there are so many
10 opportunities that we haven't looked at for Hunts
11 Point and New York that's not happening down the
12 food chain. We really need to look at that
13 industry as one that's extremely important and
14 vital.
15 Hunts Point is the largest in the
16 United States. And yet we're having trouble
17 accessing money to rebuild the old market.
18 Philadelphia is now completing their market in
19 three months and it will be bigger than Hunts
20 Point.
21 That means it's going to take away
22 the businesses from Hunts Point or New York City,
23 jobs. It means… I really know that you--we're
24 all on the same team. And I really would like you
25 to encourage you and urge you to use your power to

SMALL BUSINESS
2 really continue to fight for us because we are an
3 important sector and very vital to New York City.
4 Thank you.
6 much Ms. Infante. I do want to visit your IBZ and
7 see wit my own eyes all the productivity there.
8 So I look forward to a tour with you in the near
9 future.
10 MS. INFANTE: It's the largest in
11 the world at this point. We want to keep it that
12 way.
13 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Absolutely. We
14 won't let Pennsylvania get further than us.
15 MS. INFANTE: Yes.
16 [Laughter]
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: The next
18 speaker.
19 MR. STEPHAN HYACINTH: Good
20 afternoon Councilwoman.
22 MR. HYACINTH: Hi. My name is
23 Stephan Hyacinth. Before I go into my spiel, I am
24 deeply, show some type of gratitude towards you
25 and the Council that was here. I'm definitely

SMALL BUSINESS
2 encouraged by your guys, the support that I hear
3 from you guys as far as the Industrial Business
4 Zone program is definitely something that I'm
5 going to take 'cause give the current state of
6 everything and especially, you know, being
7 discouraged with the politics, it's good to see
8 that there's politicians who definitely do care
9 and are willing to fight for the Industrial
10 Business Zones.
11 I work as the Port Morris
12 Industrial Business Zone Coordinator. We're a
13 little bit south of Hunts Point but next door
14 neighborhoods. And like Ms. Infante just said,
15 we're all in this, in the same fight.
16 Back in 2005 when the Mayor first
17 announced the IBZ program as a successor to the
18 sorely outdated in place Industrial Parks, he said
19 this his new program would "encourage long term
20 investment in manufacturing and other industrial
21 businesses in order to create opportunity and jobs
22 for all New Yorkers". He said it would stem the
23 loss of industry that has drained this City of
24 countless jobs over the last half century and
25 hopefully grow this vital sector of the economy.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 And he has done just that.
3 Now five years later that promise
4 for long term investment is already under attack.
5 Strong manufacturing and industrial sectors are
6 critical to providing the maximum number of New
7 Yorkers with a decent quality of life and
8 combating the wealth disparity that has come to
9 characterize far too much of this City.
10 Industrial jobs typically go to low
11 and middle income workers, those most affected by
12 the current economic downtown and astronomically
13 high rates of unemployment. The Bronx
14 unfortunately has the highest in the State
15 according to a recent report by the New York
16 Times, especially in the area that I work in which
17 is the zip code 10455, 10444, which is the
18 southern tier.
19 So what sense does it make to
20 establish this program when the economy was at its
21 peak only to dismantle it right when the most
22 vulnerable members of our community need it the
23 most? The Bronx, if you don't know, recently lost
24 Stella D'Oro Cookie Company. They were outside of
25 my zone and that came with 100 jobs along with it.
SMALL BUSINESS
2 And that company has been in New York City and in
3 the Bronx for over 75 years. And the only jobs
4 that are coming to replace them are relatively low
5 paying and insecure retail jobs.
6 Another aspect of this program that
7 makes it so successful it its ability to
8 coordinate and leverage the resources of other
9 programs in the centers. At our organization
10 SOBRO for instance, we are able to approach IBZ
11 businesses with real, tangible assets that can
12 help them succeed and prosper.
13 Aside from the immediate benefits
14 of the IBZ, we also run a minority and women owned
15 business certification program that has allowed
16 our clients to attract millions of dollars in
17 investment that would otherwise be out of their
18 reach.
19 Along with SOBRO, we also brought
20 along a local business, Prestige Environmental,
21 and they'll be able to speak. I'm going to keep
22 it real short and they're going to talk about how
23 we've been able to assist them and the assistance
24 of the IBZ program.
25 The threats facing New York

SMALL BUSINESS
2 industrial job base as laid out in the 2005 report
3 used to justify the IBZ program are greater than
4 ever. As the Mayor said at the program's
5 inception, this is our best tool to stem the loss
6 of high quality industrial jobs and diversity our
7 local economy.
8 I urge you to maintain funding for
9 the IBZ program in next year's budget. Doing so
10 is the best way to ensure job growth and stabilize
11 local economy in the years to come. Aside from
12 the IBZ, SOBRO and all the local development
13 corporations are in the community, we're from the
14 community, and we have relationships with our
15 local businesses that go beyond the IBZ program
16 and help us make them better. Thank you for your
17 time.
19 much.
20 MR. HYACINTH: Okay.
21 MR. JUSTIN RODGERS: Good
22 afternoon. I know it's been a long day--
24 Yes - - .
25 MR. RODGERS: --I'm cutting this in

SMALL BUSINESS
2 half. All right?
3 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: [Laughing]
4 MR. RODGERS: I mean I really would
5 just like to discuss CDBG funding but I would just
6 like to say that prior to my role now, Justin
7 Rogers, the Director of Economic Development, I
8 was the Empire Zone and IBZ Zone Coordinator for
9 Greater Jamaica and we administer the IBZ and
10 Empire Zone program and to find funding is
11 essential.
12 Greater Jamaica along with all the
13 other IBZs have a very hands-on approach that many
14 others can't do. And we've developed
15 relationships over the years with these businesses
16 and they feel very comfortable dealing with us.
17 So whatever you could do, and I applaud your
18 stance today and staying awake and alert, but
19 whatever you could do to get funding for the
20 program would definitely be a great help, not only
21 to these organizations but the businesses
22 directly.
23 I'm going to just talk about CDBG.
24 I just have some interesting numbers. The
25 Community Development Block Grant program for many

SMALL BUSINESS
2 years has been an essential source of financial
3 support for the Greater Jamaica Development
4 Corporation. Last year President Obama signed the
5 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which
6 provided increased CDBG resources to local
7 governments.
8 In the 2010 Fiscal budget, the City
9 is receiving $48.315 million in ARRA funds to
10 augment CDBG program. We understood that ARRA
11 funds, however, are to stimulate job creation and
12 economic development activities including job
13 retention. However of the $48 million in ARRA
14 funding received by the City, only $2.9 million or
15 6% was allocated for economic development, all for
16 graffiti removal.
17 The City is receiving $277 million
18 in Fiscal Year 2010 in community development
19 funding, exclusive of ARRA funds, a very small
20 share, $4.5 million or 1.6% has been budgeted for
21 economic development.
22 Madam Chair we believe the
23 Department of Small Business Services is
24 substantially undefended for small business
25 services and economic development activities. We

SMALL BUSINESS
2 respectfully recommend that CDBG funding to DSBS
3 is increased, in particular using ARRA stimulus
4 funds that are intended by Congress for economic
5 development. This will enable this capable
6 improvement agency to increase support programs
7 that enhance local economy and small businesses at
8 a time when jobs and economic activity warrant
9 priority and needs stimulus and assistance. And
10 that's all I'm going to say.
11 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Justin, it's
12 not fair that you have a testimony in front of you
13 and you don't give us a copy. So I'm going to
14 take your piece of paper.
15 MR. RODGERS: Oh, no problem.
17 [Chuckling]
18 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: So I want to
19 thank this panel. It's been enlightening just to
20 hear you and you have my word that we're going to
21 continue to press upon City Hall as to the
22 devastating reduction and elimination of the IBZ
23 service providers and what that will equal to as
24 far as jobs and businesses. Thank you. Justin.
25 MR. RODGERS: I've got you.

SMALL BUSINESS
3 call the next panel, and last, but not least,
4 Claudia Fitzpatrick. Thank you so much it's good
5 to see you. From Prestige Environmental Services.
6 Pete Mestousis from Mestousis Enterprises and Gay
7 Baron from Long Island City Business Development
8 Corporation.
9 [Pause]
10 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Gayle. I
11 apologize, I wasn't too sure and I was going to
12 say that.
13 [Pause]
15 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Please begin.
16 MS. CLAUDIA FITZPATRICK: Good
17 afternoon Council Members. My name is Claudia
18 Fitzpatrick. I am the owner of Prestige
19 Environmental Services, an environmental
20 remediation company that has recently located to
21 the Port Morris IBZ in the Bronx.
22 With the help of the Port Morris
23 administrator SOBRO we have been able to take
24 advantage of a wide range of incentives and
25 programs. From the hub zone and the Empire Zone

SMALL BUSINESS
2 programs to minority and women owned business
3 certification with the State of New York and the
4 City of New York as well as DASNE [phonetic].
5 This last item in fact has allowed
6 us to secure a $1 million contract which would
7 remarkably allow us to hire an additional 3
8 employees even in the middle of this tough
9 economic climate and these new positions will be
10 created in prestigious high demand field of
11 expertise, asbestos, lead and mold remediation.
12 Our environmental cleanup services
13 are not the industries that are quickly shedding
14 jobs or shipping them overseas. They are here to
15 stay. But the strict guidelines that the Federal
16 government imposes on the removal of such
17 hazardous materials there is a high demand for a
18 competent contractor that adheres to all Federal,
19 State and local guidelines. Without New York
20 City's bold and innovative IBZ program, Prestige's
21 relocation to Port Morris from the Tremont section
22 of the Bronx would not have been possible nor
23 would the expansion that is currently allowing us
24 to hire in the midst of a recession.
25 And SOBRO with their intimate

SMALL BUSINESS
2 knowledge of their community, its businesses,
3 neighborhoods, real estate and residents has been
4 instrumental in helping us to utilize the
5 incentive programs available to us to their
6 fullest and thrive in the process. How can a
7 program that is bringing in attractive, high
8 quality jobs and industries into the New York City
9 economy be considered an unsustainable liability?
10 How could anyone consider changing a program that
11 has results in such tangible and undeniable
12 success?
13 We need this program now more than
14 ever so please consider these facts as you make
15 your decision regarding the Mayor's proposed
16 budget. Thank you for your time.
18 much. Next.
19 MS. FITZPATRICK: Go ahead.
20 [Off mic]
22 MR. PETE MESTOUSIS: I'm sorry.
23 Hi. Good afternoon Councilwoman. My name is Pete
24 Mestousis, I'm from--I own a number of companies
25 in the Hunts Point area of the Bronx.

SMALL BUSINESS
2 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Get closer
3 Pete. I just want to make sure I hear you and
4 it's into the record.
5 MR. MESTOUSIS: Okay.
6 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Don't be
7 afraid.
8 MR. MESTOUSIS: How about now?
9 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Loud.
10 MR. MESTOUSIS: Is that a little
11 better?
12 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Better.
13 MR. MESTOUSIS: Okay. My name is
14 Pete Mestousis. I own a number of companies in
15 the Hunts Point area of the Bronx. Myself, my
16 family, we've been doing business there for over
17 20 years right now. And without the help of the
18 economic development program that we have with
19 Josephine Infante and Jeremy, we would not be able
20 to be there.
21 We're also involved in development
22 and a lot of our tenants that come in, one of our
23 selling points, of course, is to introduce them to
24 them. Josephine will show them that they can
25 actually get a lot of support and lot of help by

SMALL BUSINESS
2 working and being in the Hunts Point market.
3 Okay.
4 I believe without this program,
5 without having Josephine and the other people
6 involved there, I think a lot of the companies
7 will not exist, not only in the Hunts Point area
8 but in the New York City area altogether. A lot
9 of people would lose a lot of jobs. We need them.
10 It's a necessity. It's not even a discussion
11 about it really. It has to be done. They need to
12 be here. That's the only way we're going to be
13 able to survive. That is our future. And that's
14 the only way that I see it. I do thank you very
15 much for your time.
17 MS. GAYLE BARON: Good afternoon.
18 Gayle Baron, I'm the President of the Long Island
19 City Business Development Corp. And I wanted to
20 add my voice to my colleagues that manage other
21 Industrial Business Zones.
22 In way of background, LICBDC has
23 actually managed the in place industrial park for
24 over 20 years before the current Industrial
25 Business Zone program came in place. It was

SMALL BUSINESS
2 interesting, I'll submit my testimony but I wanted
3 to divert to another thing. This morning
4 Katherine Wilde who is the President of the
5 Partnership for New York City addressed about 120
6 various community leaders, businesses in Long
7 Island City and she basically was addressing the
8 state of the economy.
9 And what was interesting was
10 talking about all the innovation, the new jobs
11 that we should create, what's really essential for
12 New York to become vibrant and exciting. And yet
13 we forget about job retention. And to us when we
14 realize that we've been reaching out to this
15 industrial community for over 25 years, they have
16 come to depend on us.
17 For example we were able to help
18 over 30 companies take part in the shared work
19 program as a way of paying employees, keeping them
20 on board. And I really think more than anything
21 else it's jobs, jobs, jobs. And I know that the
22 way in which my colleagues reach out, we're the
23 foot soldiers.
24 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Yeah.
25 MS. BARON: We go step by step,

SMALL BUSINESS
2 door by door. We knock on facades to find out
3 what businesses are even there. And 14% of all
4 the businesses in Long Island City remain
5 industrial in nature no matter what is happening
6 with all the very exciting economic development.
7 So I'm so appreciate because when I came here
8 today, I was feeling rather depressed--
10 [Chuckling].
11 MS. BARON: --certain a third of
12 our budget is dependent upon this IBZ funding. I
13 don't want to have to lay staff off. So I was
14 just really elated to hear the responsiveness from
15 yourself and I thank you very much.
16 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Absolutely Ms.
17 Baron. And I appreciate the time you've taken to
18 be here with us. I am familiar with all the
19 environmental remediation demand that's growing in
20 the City.
21 I know that my District received a
22 $500,000 grant from the Federal government to
23 train and immediately place individuals thereafter
24 that training program and so we hope to duplicate
25 those efforts because obviously with the

SMALL BUSINESS
2 development throughout the City and elsewhere,
3 some of those workers were deployed during the New
4 Orleans catastrophe after Katrina to do
5 remediation work. So it's not just about
6 contaminated land but even after disasters there's
7 remediation necessary. So it's a growing sector.
8 And, you know, Pete, I'm assuming
9 that from your testimony you have a marketing
10 effort, international, that brings to domestic
11 efforts in placing companies to actually move into
12 Hunts Point. And so I value that type of effort
13 and I know that Ms. Infante is a key component of
14 that to ensure these companies to come and spend
15 their money and invest here in New York City.
16 MR. MESTOUSIS: Yes.
17 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: And Ms.
18 MS. BARON: It's Baron.
19 CHAIRPERSON REYNA: Baron. Gayle,
20 I just wanted to thank you because I know that
21 Long Island City has been under the gun in
22 redevelopment, primarily residential. And that is
23 the fight that you can't compete with. There's no
24 way that a market in the industry sector can
25 compete with the prices at $600 per square foot in

SMALL BUSINESS
2 the residential. And so I applaud all of your
3 effort. I look forward to working with you. And
4 let's just triumph this battle so that we can
5 continue to preserve our jobs, our job market and
6 our businesses. Thank you.
7 This meeting or hearing as been
8 adjourned.
9 [Gavel banging]
10 MS. FITZPATRICK: Thank you.
11 MR. MESTOUSIS: Thank you.
12 [END 1002.MP3]
290
C E R T I F I C A T E
I, Laura L. Springate certify that the foregoing
transcript is a true and accurate record of the
proceedings. I further certify that I am not related
to any of the parties to this action by blood or
marriage, and that I am in no way interested in the
outcome of this matter.
Signature ____Laura L. Springate_______
Date _______April 19, 2010___________

EDC Preliminary Budget Hearing March18, 2010

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EDC Preliminary Budget Hearing March18, 2010

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1

TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES

JOINT COMMITTEES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

March 18, 2010

HELD AT: Council Chambers

Diana Reyna thanks the staff of Committee on Small

Diana Reyna read letter from Lucky's Real Tomatoes

Sara Gonzalez, through Brad Lander, thanks Deputy

Other Deputy Commissioners and Staff

Appearing with Janet Torres

Presented written testimony:

3 I apologize for being a little late. A lot's

4 happening and I just wanted to welcome our

5 Economic Development Committee. My name is Diana

6 Reyna and I chair the Small Business Committee but

7 I am filling in for our Chair of Economic

8 Development Thomas White who could not be here

9 today due to other health commitments. And so I

10 wanted to just fill in the opportunity to chair

11 this hearing, the Fiscal 2011 Preliminary Budget

12 for the Economic Development Corporation.

13 In this hearing the Economic

14 Development Committee would like an explanation on

15 how EDC's capital budget is affected by the

16 Administration's decision to stretch out the

17 capital plan from four to five years, reducing the

18 current year's capital plan by nearly 20%. In

19 addition the Committee would like to know the

20 current status of EDC's capital access program

21 which will assist small businesses in accessing

22 credit to allow them to start, expand and/or

23 maintain their businesses.

24 Lastly the Committee is interested

25 in knowing about the current status of the Mayor's

3 one of my very most important priorities. Will

4 the Office stay in the Department of Small

5 Business Services and if not can it be returned to

6 the Economic Development Corporation's portfolio?

7 What would happen to the contract

8 service providers? Obviously our service

9 providers are a key component to maintaining the

10 IBZ's and I would like to thank our President,

11 Seth Pinsky for joining us here today and we will

12 now hear testimony.

13 MR. SETH W. PINSKY: Thank you

14 very much Chairwoman Reyna and members of the

15 Economic Development Committee. My name is Seth

16 Pinsky. I'm the President of the New York City

17 Economic Development Corporation and together with

18 Jason Wright our Chief Financial Officer and other

19 members of my staff, I'm very pleased to present

20 EDC's Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2011.

21 I have a brief presentation on our

22 agency's agenda for the coming year. And I will

23 also go through the operating capital budget which

24 should support our plans. After the presentation

25 I will of course be happy to take questions.

3 or so the City has faced a number of economic

4 challenges. Today the City's unemployment rate

5 stands at 10.4% which is 2.9 points higher than

6 the same period last year. In fact the latest

7 statistics from the State Department of Labor

8 reported that over the past 12 months the City

9 lost some 78,100 private sector jobs.