Press Room

The New York City Council will vote today on legislation from Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams which would prohibit employers from discriminating against a job applicant or current employee based on pending charges or unsealed violations. The bill is an expansion of Williams' 2015 legislation with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, the Fair Chance Act, which "Banned the Box" on job applications and prevented the consideration of criminal history in hiring practices prior to a conditional offer of employment.

Intro 1314-A, the Fair Chance Act 2.0, builds upon existing employment protections to include adjournments in contemplation of dismissal (ACDs) and other pending criminal charges. It would also extend existing protections to current employees convicted of a violation after the start of employment. Adverse actions can still be taken if a structured "fair chance" analysis ultimately determines that there is a direct relationship between the job and the pending charge or that employing the worker would involve an unreasonable risk to people or property. The bill is expected to pass overwhelmingly after a unanimous vote through the Committee on Civil and Human Rights on Thursday morning.

"When we banned the box in New York City, it was the strongest such legislation in the country, and created access to employment for thousands of New Yorkers - benefiting applicants and employers alike." said Public Advocate Williams. "Now, amid a public health and economic crisis, we need to go further in removing unnecessary barriers to employment and opening up opportunities closed off by arrest record or criminal history. I thank the committee members for their unanimous vote to advance this legislation, and the Council for their support of its goals ahead of a full vote. The right to a fair chance - often a first chance - is an issue of the justice system, the economy, and economic justice."

While 'innocent until proven guilty' remains a stated central tenet of the legal system, and nearly 80% of New Yorkers charged with a crime are never found guilty, employers can often presume guilt on the basis of an arrest itself. Because current anti-discrimination law protects people with convictions but not people with pending cases, workers are presently economically incentivized to plead guilty.

This economic issue disproportionately impacts people of more color, who are subjected to arrests and presumptions of guilt more than any other population. New York City recorded 806,669 misdemeanor arrests for Black individuals compared to 216,643 white individuals from 2010 to 2017. As the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on New York City, it is crucial to open access points to employment.

Additionally, The Fair Chance Act 2.0 would help end the employment discrimination faced by transgender women of more color by closing a loophole in the Human Rights Law. Current law prohibits employers from discriminating against people on the basis of a sealed, noncriminal violation - the only charge currently ineligible for sealing is the anti-loitering provision known as the Walking While Trans law. While this law is deeply discriminatory itself, and must ultimately be repealed on a state level, the Fair Chance Act 2.0 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of this offense.

"Today's passing of the Fair Chance Act 2.0 signals the City Council's commitment to decreasing the record unemployment rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Melissa S. Ader, Staff Attorney in the Worker Justice Project of The Legal Aid Society. "The Fair Chance Act 2.0 will increase employment opportunities for all New Yorkers, and especially for overpoliced communities of color and transgender women of color. We thank Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Speaker Corey Johnson, and the City Council for standing with New Yorkers, and call on the Mayor to sign this legislation, codifying it into law."

"I want to wish a Happy Hanukkah, Chag Hanukkah Sameach, to all in the Jewish community who begin celebrating this evening. This holiday demonstrates the incredible power of perseverance, faith, and the miracles that those values make possible in our lives.

"Today, many of us in the city and around the world are feeling uncertainty and fear in the face of darkness. It is in these moments that the message of Hanukkah is crucial - a message of light over darkness, liberty over persecution, and the power of miracles in the most desperate times. In our darkest moments, we look for the light, and are sometimes called to create it, to be the beacon for others in need of support. By that light, and the light of the menorah, we can overcome the greatest of challenges, the most daunting of obstacles."

"This year, we cannot gather in person, but we can be united in common spirit to do good for one another. As reflected in the letters on the dreidel, great miracles can happen here - in unity and faith, strength and perseverance, we can make miracles happen in our lives and in our world."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams called on the incoming Biden-Harris administration to take bold action on a number of priorities for New Yorkers and the nation as the 100-day agenda takes shape ahead of Inauguration Day.  In a letter to the transition, the  Public Advocate highlighted the need for action to extend beyond Washington D.C., asking that the President and Vice President-Elect collaborate with "state and local officials like myself, to create substantive reforms and systems of accountability together."

Among the expansive list of recommendations and requests, Public Advocate Williams proposes the creation of a national Office of the Public Advocate, tasked with requiring additional public awareness and engagement during agency rulemaking processes and using public input to make recommendations on improving agency programming and spending. This follows a plan from Senator Elizabeth Warren to create a similar office.

In addition to this proposal,  the Public Advocate identifies specific requests in the following policy areas:

Expanded Public Engagement

Federal Stimulus for Localities

FEMA AidHealthcare Access

Infrastructure and Transportation

Public Safety and Criminal Justice

Voting Rights

Environmental Justice

Immigration

Education

Access and Equity

Housing Equity

Employment and Opportunity

The full letter to the President and Vice President-Elect is below, and can be downloaded here.

RE: Federal Funding and Legislative Needs 

Dear President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris, Please allow me to first congratulate you on your well-earned victory. Your election has raised the spirits of millions longing for leadership that embodies decency and reason. I look forward to your administration working with Congress, as well as state and local officials like myself, to create substantive reforms and systems of accountability together.  As you know, there are countless issues throughout our nation that are long overdue to be addressed, and I applaud you for focusing the policy efforts of your transition on COVID-19, economic recovery, racial justice, and climate change. In addition to these critical areas, I request that within your first 100 days (and beyond), efforts also be directed toward the following issues that greatly impact millions of New Yorkers:  1. 100%  FEMA Match for Cities and States due to COVID-19 Related Expenditures a) Authorize 100% FEMA match for states and cities, including New York City, due to response and recovery efforts as a result of COVID-19. 2. Improve Awareness of Public Engagement Opportunities in Agency Rulemaking a) Create a national Office of the Public Advocate, with the mission of: 1) requiring additional public awareness and engagement during agency rulemaking processes, and 2) making recommendations to executive branch agencies on improving agency programming and spending, based, in part, on this public input. 3. Federal Stimulus  a) Take immediate legal action, as President-Elect, to block Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's transfer of $455 billion in unspent CARES Act funds, and support the Heroes Act, which would provide states and cities with additional support. Approximately 50% of black-owned small businesses nationwide have closed, since March, 2020, due to COVID-19, according to the New York Federal Reserve; b) Increase funds allocated to states, including New York State, to support Americans suffering unemployment due to COVID-19. Second, incentivize states in high-cost areas to increase weekly payment amounts; typical payments in these areas don't meet cost of living need; 4. Health a) Fully utilize the Defense Production Act to ensure that all hospitals, health clinics, and nursing homes have at least a three month supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). b) Promote the partial replacement of N-95s with durable and sustainable reusable PPE for our frontline health care workers in city and state-level procurement initiatives. c) Establish a manufacturing PPE resiliency project, to determine ways that NYS and NYC-based manufacturing, linked with academic institutions for technical assistance, might encourage the manufacturing of N-95s, elastomeric respirators, PAPRs, and other PPE. 1. Support repeal of the Hyde Amendment. 2. Support and pass H.R. 6142 and S. 3424, the Black Maternal Health omnibus. 5. Infrastructure & Transportation a) Restore full funding to the Gateway Program to what was proposed in 2017 appropriations legislation ($900 million).  b) Allocate additional funds to New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in order to help it remain solvent through 2021.  c) Streamline the process of allowing cities to implement congestion pricing without years-long delays. 6. Immigration a) Restore DACA operations and provide a pathway to citizenship. b) Increase U-Visas for domestic violence survivors and victims of crime. c) Rescind Safe Third Country agreements. 7. Housing a) Increase Section 8 voucher allowances. b) Provide emergency rental assistance and an extension of the federal eviction moratorium. Where viable, allow cities maximum authority to administer.  c) Allocate maximum financial support for public housing across the country, including the New York City Housing Authority ("NYCHA"). In New York City, NYCHA developments have long-standing, needed repairs and renovations. Additionally, our team would like to tour several local developments with your HUD officials.  d) Increase federal first home buyers grants, including low-income co-ops, from $10,000 to $15,000, and lower credit score requirements to 600. e) Preserve the National Housing Trust Fund (HTF), which the Senate recently termed "duplicative." f) Increase federal funding for the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program and the Continuum of Care (CoC) program. 8. Criminal Justice a) Optically, reframe the conversation from simply "policing reforms" to redefining public safety. b) Equitably legalize marijuana, ensuring that criminal records for recreational use or possession are expunged, and that communities most severely impacted by drug laws are prioritized for licensing and related federal funding. c) Support the examination and implementation of equitable reparations. d) Support repeal of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 ("Crime Bill"), including abolishing mandatory minimum sentencing. Sections related to Violence Against Women and the Assault Weapons ban should remain intact.  e) Expand on the success of the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program, by reinstating Pell Grant funding to prisons nationwide. States will likely follow suit. f) Support and pass H.R.7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. g) Support  legislation to prohibit law enforcement's use of chokeholds. h) Support legislation to prohibit law enforcement's use of "no knock raids". i) Formalize and incorporate recommendations made by President Obama's 21st Century Policing Task Force including, but not limited to:  1. Scientifically supported identification procedures;   2. Reformed mass demonstration policies; 3. Eliminate/ban quotas for "tickets for revenue"; 4. Establish National Register of Decertified Officers; 5. Required officer identification and reason for stops;  6. Prohibit profiling and discrimination, in particular, as it relates to LGBT and gender nonconforming populations. 9. Voting Rights a) Support and pass legislation strengthening the Voting Rights Act. b) Support and pass H.R. 1 to modernize, simplify, and expand voting access for all Americans. 10. Environment a) Reverse regulatory rollbacks and restore federal protections, including the Clean Water Rule and the National Environmental Policy Act. b) Reverse the U.S. Department of Energy's  not "inconsistent with the public interest" statutory test in approval of LNG export permits.  c) Mandate all new federal vehicles purchased to be electric vehicles. d) Streamline federal approval processes to facilitate the development of new renewable energy projects. e) Grant more Bureau of Energy Management leases for offshore wind. f) Support and advance the framework of the Green New Deal. 11. Education a) Invest additional funds for Title 1 schools.  b) Reimburse school districts for technology costs. For example, New York City Department of Education spent $330 million on providing remote devices to all students. c) Incentivize cities and states to establish and fund 3-K and Pre-K programs, to improve educational outcomes particularly for under resourced communities.  d) Ensure adequate federal funds so that every school in New York City (and across the country) hires at least one counselor. e) Reinstitute discipline guidelines, meant to reduce suspensions of students of color. 12. Jobs a) Restore $30 million in Learn to Work funds.  b) Expand the $1.4 million Restaurant Revitalization Program, which subsidizes the wages of workers in restaurants in immigrant neighborhoods. Provide additional funding to MWBEs across New York City.  I'd love my team to connect with yours on this list; we've also shared it with the Mayor's office and with our Congressional delegation. Certain items will require additional information, which we're happy to provide. Your team can follow up with First Deputy Public Advocate Nick E. Smith, at nsmith@advocate.nyc.gov. I look forward to hearing back. Thank you. Sincerely, Jumaane D. Williams Public Advocate for the City of New York

"The framework that the Mayor is now pursuing to re-open schools includes many elements that I and others have said for many months would be essential for a re-opening that is guided by science and framed in justice and equity. A phased-in approach beginning with younger students and students most in need, paired with a large increase in testing has always been essential to the goal we share of safely returning students to the classroom- but we can neither prioritize a schedule over safety, nor wait for the Mayor to come to the right conclusions at the wrong moments in time. As a second wave rises and much remains unknown about the specifics and scope of this re-opening, I would seek clarity and urge caution. 

"With cases and uncertainty rising, this is not the time to overextend our resources and expand risk. I do not want the city to go too far, too fast, and potentially lead to further spread of the virus and further trauma-inflicting changes to the system. As testing increases, so too must transparency about how localized data and trends inform both this framework and its inevitable updates. Students, parents, teachers and administrators need clear guidance, increased resources, and tenable plans that they have too often been denied. This includes the hundreds of thousands of students who will remain fully remote, and still need more information and resources. A safe, equitable, effective education should be the right of all of New York City's students, regardless of whether they are comfortable or able to return to school buildings."

"This Thanksgiving, I want to wish a blessed and reflective day to all New Yorkers. I know that this year has already seen so much hardship for so many, that the collective and individual losses which we have suffered weigh heavily upon each of us, and that the ongoing crisis is present today as many of our loved ones cannot be.

"And yet, I am thankful today. I am thankful for my loving family and friends, for my incredible team. I am thankful for the people of New York City, who have shown the depths of their kindness and empathy throughout this year, and I am thankful for the privilege to continue to serve the city as its Public Advocate.

"I am thankful for the frontline workers who have risked their safety and security, whether to give us access to healthcare in this time, or fine foods to share on this day. Today we must give thanks for their sacrifices with our own - to follow public health guidelines and forgo our traditional gatherings. I thank New Yorkers for putting each other's health and safety first.

"It is impossible to separate Thanksgiving from its origins of injustice perpetrated against Indigenous peoples, which must be recognized. At the same time, it is important to take time for personal thanks. Gratitude is an essential act, to give humble thanks for the gifts we have been given and the people we have in our lives. I have been and continue to be profoundly blessed, and I offer my gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving."

"As many New Yorkers prepare to mark Thanksgiving in their homes, the city has been cleared to continue its effort to forcibly remove New Yorkers who are homeless from their shelter and neighborhood in a demoralizing decision with dehumanizing consequences. The contrast could not be more stark, and the moral obligation could not be more clear.

"I implore the Mayor to halt this action and abandon this attempt to placate a few privileged individuals by displacing homeless New Yorkers in need. Relocating homeless populations does nothing to address the homelessness crisis, it only makes it harder to see, and benefits people who would prefer to turn a blind eye. To continue to carry out this eviction would be unconscionable, but also unsurprising from an administration that promised to address the tale of two cities but has repeatedly made decisions to exacerbate it. As we face a second wave of COVID-19 while 5,500 New Yorkers remain in potential super-spreader congregate shelters, it is again clear that they have failed to pursue real, progressive solutions to the homelessness crisis."