1 2 CITY COUNCIL 3 CITY OF NEW YORK 4 -------------------------------x 5 THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES 6 of the 7 COMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE 8 And LABOR 9 -------------------------------x 10 June 24, 2008 11 Start: 1:20 p.m. Recess: 2:05 p.m. 12 City Hall 13 250 Broadway, 16th Floor New York, New York 14 15 B E F O R E: 16 JOSEPH ADDABBO Chairperson, 17 18 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Michael Nelson James Gennaro 19 Larry Seabrook Melissa Mark-Viverito 20 Jessica Lappin 21 22 23 24 LEGAL-EASE COURT REPORTING SERVICES, INC. 17 Battery Place - Suite 1308 25 New York, New York 10004 (800) 756-3410 2 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 CHAIRPERSON ADDABBO: Good afternoon, 3 everyone. Welcome to today's Committee on Civil 4 Service and Labor. My name is Joe Addabbo. I have 5 the privilege of chairing this Committee. 6 And today we will be voting on Intro. 7 702-A, which would amend the City Code in relation 8 to providing City employees a choice of receiving 9 their pay stubs, either by paper, as they currently 10 do, or electronically. 11 Not only would 702-A provide a choice 12 but it would also have a minimal impact to the cost 13 to the City, actually saving a couple of dollars, 14 and be environmentally friendly, as it would require 15 less paper. 16 I would like to thank the City 17 Council staff and the Mayor's office and Council 18 Member Lappin's and her office, for working on the 19 amendments to the bill, as we did have a hearing 20 back in April on this bill, and the basics, just to 21 go over a couple of the differences between Intro. 22 702 and 702-A: 702-A now includes all employees with 23 direct deposit and even those who do not have direct 24 deposit. There is a new provision for City agencies 25 to provide computer kiosks to some of their 3 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 employees who may not have access to computers and 3 so we will help those employees out. 4 Any employee who does not want a 5 paystub electronically an just opt to still get 6 their paper paystub, so there is a choice here. 7 And compliance with Intro. 702-A has 8 now been deemed to start December 31st, 2009. 9 The broad spectrum of employees now 10 included in Intro. 702-A, include elected officials 11 and their staff. Once again, I would like to thank 12 all of those who have put time and effort into this 13 bill. I thank them so much. 14 We have been joined by Council Member 15 Lappin, and we thank her for her efforts on this 16 bill and her diligence with this bill, and I 17 understand Council Member Lappin has a statement. 18 So, I introduce you to the prime 19 sponsor of this bill, Council Member Jessica Lappin. 20 COUNCIL MEMBER LAPPIN: Thank you, Mr. 21 Chairman. And first and foremost, the most important 22 thing I'm going to say is thank you to you, Chairman 23 Addabbo, and I see him chatting with counsel so I'll 24 say it again later. 25 But I also wanted to thank those who 4 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 have co-sponsored this bill, Council Members Brewer, 3 Felder, James, Liu, Weprin, Monserrate and our 4 Public Advocate, Betsy Gotbaum. 5 The Chair went through the specifics 6 of the bill, so I'm not going to repeat them. I 7 think the important things to know, however, are 8 that there is an opt out clause included in the 9 legislation, so any employees that choose not to 10 receive an electronic copy of their paystub will not 11 have to, but certainly our hope would be, and since 12 over 70 percent of City employees get electronic 13 direct deposit checks, that those employees would 14 most likely prefer to receive electronic paystubs. 15 They will be able to access them and print them when 16 they need to from a computer terminal. They are much 17 more secure than the paper stubs, in terms of 18 identity theft, and I think much easier to find when 19 you have them all in one place on-line. 20 But that said, those who decide that 21 they would prefer not to have an electronic paystub 22 do not have to. There is a phase-in of the bill to 23 make sure that people are comfortable with it. And 24 there is also going to be an implementation schedule 25 that really deals with each individual agency's 5 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 issues in terms of implementation. 3 So, with that, I think the main goal 4 here is to save money and to save paper, and 5 certainly I think that this bill will accomplish 6 both of those things. Since we introduced this bill 7 here in the City Council, I wanted to note that 8 there has been legislation introduced in Albany, in 9 both the State Senate and the Assembly, and in the 10 United States House of Representatives. So, I think 11 we're ahead of the curve in terms of our local State 12 and federal government. 13 And other states like Minnesota, 14 Florida, Kentucky and Idaho have already done this, 15 as has the City of Dallas. 16 So, I think we are taking the lead 17 here in New York and on the East Coast, I might add. 18 I think it will be a simple and effective way to 19 save the City money and paper, and now that we have 20 your full attention, I wanted to again sincerely 21 thank the Chair for all of his work on this. This 22 bill has taken awhile and a lot of effort from all 23 of those involved, and I'm very appreciative. 24 And I would urge my colleagues who 25 are sitting here today to vote in the affirmative. I 6 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 think it's an important common sense thing that the 3 City can do. 4 CHAIRPERSON ADDABBO: Thank you, 5 Council Member Lappin. 6 The Chair of this Committee, myself, 7 I urge my colleagues as well. You said it, you know, 8 it saves money and it obviously saves paper, and you 9 know, who could be against that. 10 Unfortunately, there are some of 11 those out there that are against this bill, 12 surprisingly so. But, you know, to make some things 13 very clear, this does not alter away a person is 14 paid, this does not alter any wages. All this does 15 is give somebody a choice, whether they want their 16 paystubs by paper or electronically. So, I never had 17 a problem giving people a choice, and once again, I 18 thank Council Member Lappin for her efforts, and 19 staff. And at this point, let me thank the staff, 20 who are part of this Committee. 21 To my left here we have Legal 22 Counsel, Tracy Udell. To my right here, our Policy 23 Analyst Shauneequa Owusu; my Legislative Aid, Jeff 24 Gottlieb; I want to thank Sergeant-At-Arm Nick, for 25 making sure everybody is orderly in this room. 7 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 I welcome my colleagues who are here 3 today. To my far right, Melissa Mark-Viverito. 4 Council member, thank you for being here. We have 5 two people over, we have Council Member Mike Nelson. 6 And I will introduce colleagues that do come in as 7 they appear. 8 Seeing that there are no witnesses 9 and this is a straight vote on Intro. 702-A, we will 10 call a roll call at this point. I'm also going to 11 ask that the roll call remain open to accommodate 12 colleagues who may be running late. There are other 13 hearings going on back at City Hall. 14 Billy. 15 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Proposed 16 Introduction 702-A. 17 Council Member Addabbo. 18 CHAIRPERSON ADDABBO: Yes. 19 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Nelson. 20 COUNCIL MEMBER NELSON: Aye. 21 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Mark-Viverito. 22 COUNCIL MEMBER MARK-VIVERITO: Yes. 23 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: By a vote of 24 three in the affirmative, zero in the negative and 25 no abstention, item is adopted. 8 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 Members please sign the Committee 3 report. 4 Thank you. 5 CHAIRPERSON ADDABBO: As I mentioned, 6 the roll will stay open for other colleagues to 7 vote. 8 I want to thank you all for being 9 here, and, again, thank all of my colleagues, 10 especially Council Member Lappin for her efforts on 11 this very environmentally friendly bill. Thank you 12 very much. Everyone have a great day. Meeting 13 adjourned. 14 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Council Member 15 Gennaro. 16 COUNCIL MEMBER GENNARO: Yes. 17 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: The vote on the 18 Committee on Civil Service and Labor now stands at 19 four in the affirmative, none in the negative and 20 zero abstentions. Thank you. 21 Council Member Seabrook. 22 COUNCIL MEMBER SEABROOK: I vote aye 23 on all. 24 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: The final vote 25 on the Committee on Civil Service and Labor, 9 1 CIVIL SERVICE AND LABOR 2 proposed Introduction 702-A, now stands at five in 3 the affirmative, zero in the negative and no 4 abstentions. Thank you. 5 (Hearing concluded at 2:05 p.m.) 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10 1 2 CERTIFICATION 3 4 5 STATE OF NEW YORK ) 6 COUNTY OF NEW YORK ) 7 8 9 I, CINDY MILLELOT, a Certified 10 Shorthand Reporter, do hereby certify that the 11 foregoing is a true and accurate transcript of the 12 within proceeding. 13 I further certify that I am not 14 related to any of the parties to this action by 15 blood or marriage, and that I am in no way 16 interested in the outcome of this matter. 17 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto 18 set my hand this 24th day of June 2008. 19 20 21 22 23 --------------------- 24 CINDY MILLELOT, CSR. 25 11 1 2 C E R T I F I C A T I O N 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I, CINDY MILLELOT, a Certified Shorthand 10 Reporter and a Notary Public in and for the State of 11 New York, do hereby certify the aforesaid to be a 12 true and accurate copy of the transcription of the 13 audio tapes of this hearing. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ----------------------- CINDY MILLELOT, CSR. 25