Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on NY1's 'Mornings on 1'

August 30, 2024

Rocco Vertuccio: Mayor Adams, he joins us this morning on the program. Alongside the mayor, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar. Great to have both of you with us this morning.
Congratulations on this. This is quite an achievement, so important for so many families, a lot of families counting on this. Mr. Mayor, I know you said everyone who submitted a request by the deadline received an offer for a seat, and I guess an offer and an actual seat are two different things. So what happens now as school gets…

Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: Absolutely and good morning Rocco, good to be with you. Well, you know, the system now has expanded to 150,000 seats throughout the city, thanks to the mayor's investment in the work that the administration has done throughout this year.

We have made 42,000 offers at the beginning of May, and we worked throughout the spring and the summer to make sure that an extra 2,400 families got offers as well. And in the end, all those families who made an application and submitted it on time, 100 percent of them got an offer. We went back into the system looking at every application that came in since then, and we made an extra 8,000 offers throughout the cities for families to access those seats.

We had been working with families directly, our colleagues at the Department of Education are calling families to make sure that they access those seats, and the seats match their needs. The Department of Education, with the team there, went looking at the data and looked at zip codes and areas in the school where we have available seats, and then matched those families who needed those seats specifically to have a seat as close to their home as humanly possible.

And this is a percentage that the mayor mentioned throughout the conversation we had yesterday in the press conference, is that 94 percent of those who apply on time, they received an offer on time. That is 42,000 of those families. In total, we have 51,000 families and their children who have been giving an offer for this school year.

And you mentioned at the beginning of the segment, the work that we have done and the investment that the mayor made on our special education seats, $25 million specifically this year, and working with the schools and our Department of Education, looking at what can we do, since we have an expected number of about 300 families that will need a seat, and we have been able to open about 450 seats for those students, and continue to work throughout the year to make sure that those kids who are identified to have a special need will be able to have a seat when that happens..

Vertuccio: Deputy mayor, thank you for that. Mr. Mayor, for those families watching who were a little frustrated at the process previously, what do you want to say to them, especially some of those who still might be a little bit leery and not sure how this is going to work out in this new school year?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that we have to understand the complexity of this process and how we simplified it in so many different ways. As the D.M. acknowledged, the first round, it has never been done before in the history of the city to get 94 percent of individuals who applied to get those first calling, and then reach 100 percent. This has never been done before.

Frustration was in previous methods that were being used. We're reaching the largest number, as well as the 450 additional seats for those with disabilities. You're seeing the moving target of matching families with seats in localities. You're seeing the constant evolution that's including $5 million with outreach. All of these new methods that we're putting in place is in alignment with what we committed to, and we lived up to that promise.

Vertuccio: And for the deputy mayor, you mentioned the children with special needs. How does this bring you closer to helping those families and sort of moving the ball forward? Because again, a lot of those families were also very frustrated at the process.

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: And the numbers that keep showing up, right? It is a number that we know, the 450 is more than it will be needed for the beginning of the year. But we know the number of children that will be assessed to have a special need will be identified. We'll have to have a match for that need throughout the year.

So we continue to work, opening seats, working with the State Department of Education to make sure that we can get those seats available for those families as they need it, not only now, but throughout the school year, all the way to June. And we're looking forward, working towards our goal to have 700 seats available for those families at the end of the year in June.

Mayor Adams: And Rocco, we have to keep in mind, remember, we're still getting anywhere from 700 to 800 new families coming in, new arrivals, I should say, many of them are families with children that are part of the migrants and asylum seekers.
So this is a constant movement and adjustments as we have additional seats, about 1,000 for children that are part of the migrant and asylum seekers with Operation Open Arms. This is a constant readjustment. And that's what we did when we found those 1,500 additional seats close to families that were not open. And it's a very, very complicated process that we simplify using the chief technology officer by using technology to do so.

Vertuccio: Again, congratulations on that achievement, Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, going to change topics here. And I want to talk about your nominee for city corporation counsel, the city's top attorney, Randy Mastro, facing a tough confirmation process in front of the City Council this week.

Just your thoughts on any regrets on making a nominee that is going to have a tough time getting through the Council? You know, why Randy Mastro? Why not someone who probably could have been just as equally qualified, and probably would have caused you maybe less political grief?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, the goal is not to do what's easy. The goal is to do what's right. We had a candidate that was extremely qualified, former corporation counsel, former governor, we had a former men and women of the legal profession, good government groups that came forward. This [is] the right person. And we should not sit back and say, well, let's try to find a way to do something that's frictionless. We should try to do what's right in the city. He [is] the right person.

And this is our system of democracy, where you have different branches of government that will look at your nominees and make a determination. My job is to put up a great nominee. I did that based on editorial boards and based on other experts. It's the City Council's job is to determine that nominee's ability to carry out its function. If they make a determination it's not, then we go to the next step in the process. I just strongly believe our democracy is great, and we must follow the process of our democracy. I did my job, they have to do their job, and we move to the next level.

Vertuccio: Mr. Mayor, this week will mark three years before the city law mandates that the jail complex at Rikers needs to shut down. A lot of people don't believe that that will happen. A lot of skeptics here. What do you think is going to happen here forward? Is that plan going to be realistic at all?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, again, there's a partnership. The City Council passed the law under the previous administration on when the timeline is for the jail to shut down. That law, we have to follow that law. There is a reason that it changes. The City Council must do that.

We briefed the speaker and her team on the numbers we're looking at. The new jails would fit a little over 3,000 people. The jail population right now exceeds that. We have to make sure that this city is safe, and we must make sure that we house those that commit serious violent felonies. And so we're going to continue with the process that's in place. And right now it calls for the jails to be closed.

Vertuccio: Yeah, Mr. Mayor, we just have a little bit of time left here. You're ramping up your reelection. Curious as you face this federal investigation into your campaign fundraising in your first campaign. Of course, you have not been charged with anything. You're cooperating with the investigation. There's been no indication of any wrongdoing, but I'm curious. Are you doing anything differently in this campaign because of this investigation?

Mayor Adams: You know, listen, if anyone who continues to do the same thing the same way under different circumstances is just not moving through life with the eyes open. We always modify what we do to produce a better product. We learned from any reviews that come from the campaign finance board on how we could do things better. We're going to continue to do that. Have a great compliance team that we have zero focus and always evaluate "How do you do a better process as you move forward?" That continues with everything I do in life.

Vertuccio: Mr Mayor is a pleasure to have you on this morning. Always good to talk to you, deputy mayor. Thank you again and congratulations on that very important agreement on early childhood education as the kids get ready to go back to school. Thank you again.

Mayor Adams: Yes, thank you.

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: Thank you.

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