By Vito R. Pitta, Esq.
The New York State budget was approved by the state legislature on Wednesday, May 27th. Since it was 58 days late, negotiations over the New York City budget got a late start, so the New York City Council’s Executive Budget hearings are just beginning.
Despite the uncertainty about the City budget, there are many state items that should be of interest to Local 237 members, along with some City issues on which we can still report. Throughout this busy spring, President Gregory Floyd continued to fight for the safety, healthcare, and employment stability of sister and brother members.
School Safety Agents
That fight was clearly demonstrated with President Floyd’s submission of very strong and compelling testimony on behalf of Local 237’s 3,600 School Safety Agents to an April 29th City Council meeting examining school safety and crossing guard operations in the City’s public schools. Convened by the Chair of the Education Committee, Council Member Eric Dinowitz, and the Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Council Member Oswald Feliz, the meeting examined the turnover of school safety agents and the deployment of crossing guards across the public school system.
President Floyd’s testimony illustrated the demands and risks assumed by our ranks of understaffed and short-handed school safety agents, and how that has added to the safety concerns of agents, students and school staff. As President Floyd referenced in his testimony, the ranks of school safety agents have numbered 5,500, but today, we face a shortage of roughly 2,000 agents. That shortfall has made it harder to perform basic school perimeter checks and makes it extremely difficult to keep school campuses open after normal school hours to accommodate extracurricular activities.
Though the lower headcount of school safety agents can be attributed in part to the impact of the pandemic and normal attrition, President Floyd brought to the Council’s attention that this was an acute crisis that unfolded over the course of the last 5 years and despite the increasing rates of violence committed against teachers, principals, students, and agents, the City chose to ignore the problem.
“Indeed, I provided testimony to this City Council at a hearing in January 2021 about the impending dangers caused by a shortage of school safety agents, hoping this legislative body would not allow a reduction in the workforce. But it was at this hearing that a decision was made to cancel a class of 500 School Safety Agents and not hire additional agents for at least two years, creating the shortage we have now,” wrote President Floyd in his testimony.
President Floyd demanded in his testimony to the City Council that they not double-down on their past mistake and urged them to do everything in their power to restore school safety agent levels to pre-pandemic levels. Fortunately, he was joined in his urgent appeal by the Chairs of both committees and the other Council Members, who challenged the representatives from both the Department of Education and the NYPD School Safety Division throughout the four-hour meeting. The Chairs and Council Members shared numerous anecdotes about one agent being left to secure a school of 1,000 students, and students made late to class because of massive delays with unmanned or broken metal detectors and scanners.
President Floyd reminded the Council Members in his testimony that school safety agents are on the frontline in protection of schools, students and the communities they serve, and are deserving of their respect. Read Floyd’s Testimony
Buffer Zones
This past April Mayor Mamdani allowed City Council law, Intro 1-B, to become law, establishing buffer zones around houses of worship. The law requires the NYPD to establish security perimeters to guard against protest-driven obstruction or intimidation at houses of worship. Despite concerns about violations of the first amendment and the right to public protest, the law was passed by the City Council with a veto-proof majority.
A similar City Council bill, Intro 175-B, which would have established buffer zones restricting protests around educational facilities, was vetoed by Mayor Mamdani, who referenced the same constitutional concerns over the passage of Intro 1-B, and the overly broad definition of educational institutions. In instances of both laws, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and a majority of the City Council believed public safety outweighed constitutional concerns.
Instead of attempting to override the veto of Intro 175-B, the Speaker, along with Council Member Elsie Encarnacion, introduced a scaled down version of the bill – Intro 175 – which they hope will pass the City Council with a veto-proof majority. The narrowed bill would limit the establishment of protest buffer zones to only public and private K-12 schools, and early childcare centers, and exclude colleges, museums, libraries and teaching hospitals.
Further complicating the landscape, the state legislature approved a sweeping buffer zone law proposed by Governor Hochul. The state law contrasts with the City law allowed to pass by Mayor Mamdani in that it establishes at 50-foot security zone around houses of worship and education centers in anticipation of a protest. The law makes it a Class B misdemeanor for protestors that engage in conduct that causes an individual a reasonable fear for their safety. The law also has a broader definition of houses of worship and encompasses community centers and schools used for religious services and observance. Opponents of the restrictions are sure to seek legal challenges.
All this legislation could prove integral to the workplace safety and the rights of Local 237 members. We will continue to follow this issue and work with President Floyd to ensure the protection of all members.
Tier 6 – “Fix the Six”
As part of the pending state budget, Governor Hochul and lawmakers approved additional reforms to Tier 6. After teaming up in a long advocacy campaign with public sector unions, the Governor, along with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, improved the benefits and made additional fixes for the public employees hired after April 1, 2012.
All public employees hired after April 2012, including Local 237 NYCHA employees, school safety officers, Health and Hospitals employees and campus peace officers will see a boost to their pensions, along with thousands of public-school teachers who will see their retirement age lowered from 63 to 58, after 30 years of service. The effort to “Fix the Six” is in response to the controversial reforms made to Tier 6 in 2012, which cut pension benefits, and raised the retirement age to 63 from 55 for teachers, and 62 for other civil servants.
These changes, which would benefit over 487,000 employees hired after 2012, come on the heels of other recent revisions - in 2022, the vesting period was reduced to 5 years from 10, and in 2024 the salary calculation was modified to be more generous.
As our Local 237 members know, these reforms are negotiated with the intention of navigating the delicate path between addressing local governments’ struggle to recruit and retain public employees and the State’s ability to cover the costs. We believe this budget does much to address those concerns while helping to rectify the unjustness of the 2012 reforms to Tier 6.
NYCHA Chelsea Complex/Isaacs-Houses in Yorkville
Because of a lawsuit that accused NYCHA and its private partners, Related Companies and Essence LLC, of circumventing regulatory reviews, an appeal court in March paused demolition of the NYCHA Chelsea Complex. A hearing for the lawsuit is scheduled for late May, but the effort could further delay the plan to demolish and rebuild 2,000 public housing units in Chelsea, which was scheduled to begin in December 2025.
Residents of the Isaacs Houses in Yorkville in late March voted to reject the two financial mechanisms to fund millions in repairs. Opting to remain in the existing Section 9- NYCHA funding, residents participating in the 30-day election declined to accept either the Housing Preservation Trust or the RAD-PACT program, both of which raise money for public housing repairs through private investors. The 61-year-old Isaacs Houses was the first NYCHA complex in Manhattan to hold a vote, one of eight citywide. The election results thus far have been mixed with some complexes voting to stay in Section 9 and others opting for Trust or PACT.
Vito R. Pitta is a partner at Pitta LLP, a firm whose practice consists primarily oftraditional union-side labor law, employment law, employee benefits law, and campaign finance compliance law. The firm counts more than forty local and international labor unions as its clients. Mr. Pitta’s practice consists of counseling the firm’s clients on traditional labor and employment matters, as well as advising the firm’s political campaign and political action committee clients with respect to federal, state, and local campaign finance laws. Mr. Pitta is also a Partner in Pitta LLP’s affiliated personal injury firm, Pitta & Baione LLP, which represents victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks; and a member of Pitta LLP’s affiliated lobbying firm, Pitta Bishop & Del Giomo LLC.
