Mayor Eric Adams lauded the $112.4 billion budget which was approved by the New York City Council in a near-unanimous vote for fiscal year 2025 and also discussed NYPD misconduct at his weekly media press conference at City Hall on Tuesday.
With just a couple hours left to spare, the Council “landed the plane” and voted to adopt the upcoming 2025 city budget on Sunday.
“Every child that wanted access to the seat is going to have that. Our libraries are open seven days,” said Adams. “Go speak to those cultural [institutions] and ask them about the conversation they had with me.”
The plan restores some of the cuts proposed by Adams in April of this year, mainly to libraries which will be returning to a seven-day schedule going forward.
The budget also allocated $2 billion in new capital investments to build and preserve more affordable housing through the New York City Housing Authority and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
$112 million has been allocated towards 3-K and Pre-K to replace sunsetting federal dollars and add seats to guarantee placements for students. As of today, there are 1,400 seats left to fill and the city is “working with the Department of Education” to have zero vacancies by the beginning of the new school year, according to Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar.
The new budget also plans to fully fund the restoration of cultural institutions and expand social services and programs such as Fair Fares and Community Food Connection.
The mayor and his administration were also questioned about police reform and transparency following a piece published by ProPublica regarding Police Commissioner Edward Caban. The article outlined Caban's use of retention which allows him to retain cases of police misconduct originally set for adjudication through the Civilian Complaint Review Board and determine disciplinary measures himself.
So far, the police commissioner has retained 54 cases of police misconduct and prevented them from going to a CCRB trial since his appointment on July 17, 2023-- far more than any other commissioner in a single year.
“This process is transparent,” assured Chief Counsel to the Mayor Lisa Zornberg. “The police commissioner provides a written explanation … explaining why the decision was made for the police commissioner to retain the case, and that communication gets posted quarterly on the CCRB's website.”
At least 40% of the cases retained by Caban resulted in no discipline ordered for the officer in question. The harshest punishment was doled out to an officer who knocked a phone out of someone’s hand who was recording him, which resulted in the docking of 10 vacation days according to the piece.
“I have committed my life to police reform and proper policing, public safety and justice,” said Adams. “We are moving to close the gap of how long it takes to identify those officers who are not suitable to do offices. It was taking years.”
The city paid out more than $115 million in police misconduct settlements in 2023 alone.
The mayor also lent his support to President Joe Biden in his run for a second term, despite hushed rumblings in the Democratic Party calling for the president to withdraw from the race following a poor showing in the first presidential debate last Thursday.
“He started out slow. I think he started to move forward as he went on," said Adams. "People want to make the worst day of your life your entire life,” said Adams.
“I'm a superdelegate and my vote is going to go for President Biden.”
