1 2 CITY COUNCIL 3 CITY OF NEW YORK 4 -------------------------------x 5 THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES 6 of the 7 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 8 -------------------------------x 9 10 June 25, 2008 Start: 12:45 p.m. 11 Recess: 1:00 p.m. 12 City Hall Committee Room 13 New York, New York 14 B E F O R E: 15 DAVID WEPRIN 16 Chairperson, 17 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Joel Rivera 18 Diana Reyna Maria Baez 19 Gale Brewer 20 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 2 A P P E A R A N C E S 3 COUNCIL MEMBERS: 4 5 Leroy Comrie Bill DeBlasio 6 Lewis Fidler Alan Gerson 7 Eric Gioia Robert Jackson 8 Oliver Koppell Helen Sears 9 Peter Vallone, Jr. James Oddo 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 2 CHAIRPERSON WEPRIN: Sergeant, can we 3 start? Good. 4 Good afternoon. I apologize for those 5 who were waiting since 11:00, but we have unusual 6 circumstances in light of the attempt to wrap up the 7 budget prior to the deadline of July 1st. 8 Welcome to today's Finance Committee 9 hearing. I'm David Weprin, and I chair the Finance 10 Committee. 11 Let me introduce my colleagues that 12 are here. We have Council Member Bill DeBlasio, from 13 Brooklyn, Council Member Helen Sears from Queens, 14 Majority Leader Council Member Joel River from the 15 Bronx, Council Member Maria Baez from the Bronx, 16 Council Member Gale Brewer from Manhattan, Council 17 Member Peter Vallone, Jr. From Queens, Council 18 Member Lew Fidler from Brooklyn, Council Member Alan 19 Gerson from Manhattan. Council Member Oliver Koppell 20 from the Bronx. Council Member Diana Reyna from 21 Brooklyn and Queens. And Council Member Leroy Comrie 22 from Queens, and Council Member Robert Jackson from 23 Manhattan. 24 The first item we're going to, we 25 have several Land Use items on our agenda. The first 4 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 2 item we will consider is Baisley Park Gardens, which 3 contains two multiple dwellings that together 4 provide 210 units of rental housing for persons of 5 low-income. 6 The owner and sponsor, Baisley Park 7 Housing Development Fund Corporation, will finance 8 the acquisition and rehabilitation of the property 9 with a loan from the New York State Housing Finance 10 Agency and low-income housing tax credits. 11 Baisley Park Gardens in in Council 12 Member White's District and he supports the project. 13 The next Land Use item is the Courtlandt Corners 2, 14 which will contain three new multiple dwellings that 15 will provide 252 units of rental housing for 16 low-income families. 17 The owner and sponsor of the 18 Courtlandt Corners 2 Housing Development Fund 19 Corporation will finance the acquisition and 20 development of the project with a loan from HPD and 21 bond financing from HDC. 22 Courtlandt Corners is in Council 23 Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo's district, and she 24 supports the project. 25 Third, we have the Council Towers 5 5 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 2 residents, which will be a new construction project 3 consisting of an 11-story building that will provide 4 69 units of rental housing for elderly persons of 5 low income. 6 The sponsor, Council Towers 5 Housing 7 Development Fund Corporation will develop under 8 Section 202 Supportive Housing Program for the 9 Elderly with financing and operating subsidies from 10 the United States Department of Housing and Urban 11 Development and tax exemptions from the City. 12 Council Towers is in Council Member 13 Larry Seabrook's district and he supports the 14 project. 15 The last Land Use item we have is the 16 Poco South Bronx Condos, which will consist of one 17 to four-family homes that will provide 21 units of 18 affordable home ownership to persons of low-income. 19 The sponsor, Bronx Condo Owners, LLC 20 purchased City-owned land under HPD's New 21 Foundations Program to develop the project. 22 The Poco South Bronx Condo is in 23 Council Member Foster's district and I am told that 24 she supports this project. 25 In order to keep all of these 6 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 2 projects financially viable, and provide affordable 3 housing for persons of low income, HPD is requesting 4 tax exemptions pursuant to Section 577 and 696 of 5 the Private Housing Finance Law. 6 After we vote on the four Land Use 7 items, we will stand in recess, and not adjourn, and 8 there may be another item that we will actually come 9 back for immediately after or during the budget 10 negotiating team meeting. 11 I'd like to couple all the Land Use 12 items. Do we have somebody to take the vote? 13 Okay, if you could all just bear with 14 us a minute, we have another item that's on its way, 15 so before we take a vote, if everybody could just 16 stay here for another minute or so? 17 In addition to the four coupled Land 18 Use items I referred to a few minutes ago, we will 19 also be voting on a preconsidered introduction. 20 Currently Section 11-220 of the 21 Administrative Code of the City of New York provides 22 that the Council cannot fix the property tax rates 23 on a Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday. This 24 introduction will add an unconsolidated provision to 25 allow the Council to set the property rate on such 7 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 2 days for Calendar 2008 and Fiscal Year 2009 only as 3 a precaution. That does not mean that we will be 4 doing that on a Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday, 5 it just means that we will have the option to do 6 that in the event it's necessary to vote on the 7 budget. 8 If I can call a roll on the four 9 coupled Land Use items, plus the preconsidered 10 introduction about allowing the vote on Saturday, 11 Sunday, or a legal holiday as a precaution. 12 Call the roll. 13 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Council Member 14 Weprin. 15 CHAIRPERSON WEPRIN: Aye on all. 16 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Rivera. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER RIVERA: I vote aye. 18 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Reyna. 19 COUNCIL MEMBER REYNA: Aye. 20 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Baez. 21 COUNCIL MEMBER BAEZ: Aye. 22 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Brewer. 23 COUNCIL MEMBER BREWER: Aye. 24 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Comrie. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER COMRIE: Aye. 8 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 2 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: DeBlasio. 3 COUNCIL MEMBER DeBLASIO: Aye. 4 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Fidler. 5 COUNCIL MEMBER FIDLER: Aye. 6 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Gerson. 7 COUNCIL MEMBER GERSON: Aye. 8 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Gioia. 9 COUNCIL MEMBER GIOIA: Yes. 10 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Koppell. 11 COUNCIL MEMBER KOPPELL: Aye. 12 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Sears. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER SEARS: Aye. 14 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Vallone. 15 COUNCIL MEMBER VALLONE: Aye. 16 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: By a vote of 13 17 in the affirmative, zero in the negative and no 18 abstentions, items are adopted. Members, please sign 19 the Committee reports. 20 Thank you. 21 CHAIRPERSON WEPRIN: Okay, we're going 22 to stand in recess. We're not adjourning. And those 23 members on the budget negotiating team, please go 24 immediately to the lounge, and sign the Committee 25 report. 9 1 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 2 COUNCIL CLERK MARTIN: Council Member 3 Jackson. 4 COUNCIL MEMBER JACKSON: Aye on all. 5 (Hearing recessed at 1:00 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 25th 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