Res. No. 96 Title Resolution calling upon the Department of Consumer Affairs to establish a Passover Products hotline and if possible, to conduct its annual Passover Price Survey and calling upon the State Attorney General and State Legislature to do everything in their power to investigate and stop Passover product price gouging. Body By Council Members Felder, the Speaker (Council Member Miller), Nelson, Reed, Sanders, Koppell, Liu, Baez, Davis, DeBlasio, Diaz, Fidler, Katz, Lopez, McMahon, Quinn, Recchia, Reyna, Rivera, Weprin and Brewer; also Council Member Gioia Whereas, The Jewish holiday of Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, March 27, 2002; and Whereas, Passover runs for eight days, ending Thursday, April 4, 2002; and Whereas, Consumers need to buy Passover foods that are certified Kosher for Passover for the holiday; and Whereas, Stores have been known in the past to take advantage of consumers during the Passover season by unreasonably raising prices on Passover products; and Whereas, Consumers bear the brunt of this greed by paying more money at the supermarket check-out line; and Whereas, In years past the Department of Consumer Affairs has done an annual Consumer Affairs Passover Price Survey; and Whereas, The Department of Consumer Affairs usually goes into stores approximately one month prior to Passover to survey the prices of Passover foods; and Whereas, The Department of Consumer Affairs will then return to the same stores one month later as Passover is approaching and survey the price of the same Passover foods; and Whereas, The Department of Consumer Affairs then issues its Annual Passover Price survey which arms shoppers with the latest information on prices for Passover foods; and Whereas, The Department of Consumer Affairs then continues to monitor prices throughout the Passover holiday to ensure that consumers are charged fair prices; and Whereas, This year Passover falls very early in the calendar; and Whereas, If time allows for a survey to be done this year, it would be of great benefit to consumers; and Whereas, A Department of Consumer Affairs Passover Products hotline should be established so the consumer has a quick outlet to report price complaints; and Whereas, The Department of Consumer Affairs should publicize the existence of said hotline; and Whereas, Although prices on many items in New York City rise during Passover, prices tend to rise dramatically on poultry, fish and meat for Passover; and Whereas, One reason for the rise in price is that wholesalers outside of New York City raise their prices for the Passover season; and Whereas, The State Attorney General and State Legislature should do everything in their power to investigate and stop this practice of price gouging during Passover; and Whereas, The consumer must be armed with all the protections government can provide so they are not unfairly taken advantage of during the Passover holiday; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Department of Consumer Affairs to establish a Passover Products hotline and if possible, to conduct its Annual Passover Price Survey and release the information as soon as possible to consumers and calls upon the State Attorney General and State Legislature to do everything in their power to investigate and stop Passover product price gouging.