Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning, New York, and today I am holding hearings on three bills: the move or city vehicle fleet to zero emissions, the other brings dyslexia screening to our city jails, and creates a one‑time waiver for the maximum age requirement for EMS workers to become firefighters. All three good bills. Two of the bills I'm signing today and one at a later date.
We're clear that we need to contribute to improving our climate, if it's from storms or the wildfire that we saw the smoke cover our skies. There are long term, short term and middle term ways that we can improve our environment, and we're doing our part. Our vehicles play a major role in moving us and driving us towards a greener future.
Last fall, we announced that the city had met our 2025 New York City Clean Fleet Plan three years early; and today, we are super charging our fleet with Intro. 279‑A. The bill requires that all light and medium duty vehicles procured by the city after July 1st, 2025, be zero emission vehicles. Zero emission vehicles mean cleaner air for New Yorkers, fewer greenhouse emissions and cost savings on fuel and maintenance. Climate change is here, and we're put in New York City in the driver's seat to reduce emissions. This is an extremely important bill that we are putting in place.
Second is something that I'm extremely proud with. And I want to thank the commissioner of the Department of Correction and the chancellor who has been focused on this issue, and that's dyslexia. Many people know that I had dyslexia as a child and went undiagnosed, and I think it had a major impact on my life trajectory. We are looking at not only our students but we're looking at those who are incarcerated, because learning your learning disabilities any time in life can allow you to place yourself on the right pathway if you get the help that you need.
Education is important. Learning disabilities undiagnosed is a way to prevent a child or an adult to get the proper education you need. If you don't educate you will incarcerate. 80 percent of the inmates at Rikers Island don't have a high school diploma or equivalency diploma. It is a major driver of incarceration if we don't correct it early.
And too many young people are part of the pipeline to jail because of lack of literacy and dyslexia screening. And who would have thought two entities, Department of Education, Department of Correction, New York City public schools partnering with our chancellor and our commissioner to really zero in on this upstream mindset.
Our goal with Intro. 349‑A requires that the Department of Correction offer to screen for dyslexia and refer to intervention for those in custody between the ages of 18 to 21 years old in custody who do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent.
During our city's darkest days, this last bill we're doing, we witnessed FDNY, EMS frontline workers have been there for us: 9/11, Sandy, Covid‑19, we could go on and on. Their contributions are always on the frontline responding.
Now many of our EMS workers had their firefighters civil services examination delayed due to the Covid‑19 pandemic. We want to intro a bill, Intro. 1190, pre considered, creates a one‑time waiver from the maximum age requirement for certain employees of the FDNY Bureau of Emergency Medical Services so they can take the civil service test. Our lives were on hold for two years during Covid‑19, and we need to go back and try to make people as whole as possible so that they can continue on with their lives.
These are three great bills. Two of them we'll be doing today, one we will be signing in the future. And I just want to thank all who are involved, particularly Speaker Adrienne Adams, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Councilwoman Brewer and Councilmember Powers for their efforts in getting these bills moving forward.
I'll invite the public for any comments? No public comments. Was that no public comments, or cut my head off? Okay. All right. So.
I want to now turn it over to Public Advocate Jumaane Williams to talk about Intro 349‑A. Public advocate.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams: Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Honored to be here with a group of folks who always agree on everything.
As a student, I struggled with Tourette Syndrome, which is very visible, and ADHD, which, like dyslexia, is not. Both undiagnosed until high school. I, too, got into a little trouble, probably still get into trouble now. Once I could put a name on it and develop a learning plan, it immensely improved my education outlook.
Many adults struggle with undiagnosed dyslexia disproportionately in our criminal justice system. Criminal legal system. This legislation will require the Department of Education to screen all incarcerated people who do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent for dyslexia within 72 hours of intake beginning with those under the age of 22 before expanding to all incarcerated people. They will then be required to offer evidence‑based programs to treat identified individuals.
I think everyone here will agree that there's a lot of work that remains to be done at Rikers, and I know that this legislation is far from a panacea. I do want us to recognize that the reality is that the foundation on which the system was built was not designed to truly support the needs or well being of people inside.
Dyslexia is already under discussed and likely underdiagnosed in our city, and evidence suggests that this problem is exponentially worse among incarcerated people. While studies vary, data has shown that as many as one third of half of incarcerated. One third to half of incarcerated people in some prisons may struggle with dyslexia; as many as 80 percent may have difficulty with reading comprehension.
By screening and servicing affected people, we can provide better support for incarcerated New Yorkers and help prevent them from reentering the criminal legal system in the future, and for some of them, give them a first chance, not even a second one. Identifying and addressing dyslexia and illiteracy through trained educators will make them while incarcerated more positive, and employment after incarceration more accessible.
This follows the kind of work that I've been trying to do since the Fair Chance Act in 2015 to ban the box on job applications with.
Councilmember Gale Brewer: Yes, yes, yes. I have to always remind him.
Public Advocate Williams: But look, it wasn't here, that's what I'm saying. [Inaudible].
With Councilmember Gale Brewer, then borough president. This will help correct an educational service gap that should have been addressed long ago. If we had done a better job as a city of meeting this need early in New Yorkers' education, it may have prevented many people from contact within the system in the first place.
And I'm thankful for the chancellor, I'm thankful for the commissioner and the mayor for their leadership on this and having an administration. We introduced this bill, I think last term, and I'm glad we have this administration working with us to get this done.
So, I also want to thank the speaker and the council for passing the bill. The mayor, hopefully, for signing it in just a few moments, and my staff including Nick Smith, Veronica Aveis, Rosie Mendez and Gwen Saffran in particular who is here among others, for working to make this moment happen. Thank you so much.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You know, and I think that, you know, just listening to Jumaane — and chancellor, I'm sure you could sort of understand that — you know, growing up with a learning disability is a challenge. And I can only imagine life for Jumaane growing up as he was moving through having to deal with the cruelty of what young people can do sometimes. And so for him to be able to be the public advocate, pushing through all of that and still coming out whole and fighting on behalf of those who are coming up through that same level of childhood mischief, this is, it's just really, it's admirable.
And you know, I really hold him at a high level of appreciation. He's a symbol to so many people of, you could not see my dyslexia, but you can see every day his movements and what he has gone through. And I just really take my hat off to you. You know, keep doing the things that you are doing, because you're leading from the front. And I appreciate that so much.
And so, the next is forever a borough president, now councilmember, Gale Brewer.
Councilmember Brewer: Thank you very much. Jumaane's okay, but his mother is even more fabulous, I just want to let you know.
Mayor Adams: That's true.
Councilmember Brewer: I know her very well, and.
Public Advocate Williams: She's trying to run against me. [Laughter.]
Councilmember Brewer: She'd win. Anyway, I'm honored to be here today talking about 1190. I want to thank certainly this passage thanks to not only Speaker Adams but also the chair of the Fire Committee, Councilmember Ariola. And we have two heroes with us today. I want to thank [inaudible] and I want to thank Michael Cavanaugh, with a C. We have the wonderful commissioner with the K. But they're both fabulous. Thank you very much, Commissioner Kavanagh, also.
What we have is a bill that these individuals and some of their colleagues fought very, very hard for. They came to all the hearings. They testified eloquently. And what it basically says, as you heard from the mayor, is that those individuals who in March of 2020 were supposed to take the promotional exam from EMS to fire were not able to do so, for obvious reasons.
This exam is given every four years, so they didn't have the opportunity to take it, because then they turned to be over 29 years old, and you cannot take it under current circumstances if you're over 29. So, this is a one‑time exemption, although there are folks, as the commissioner knows, and others, different discussion about what the age should actually be.
But for this today, we thank the mayor for signing it. It will be an example of two heroes sitting here in front of us, but there will be 300 others who will have the opportunity to take the exam. And if they pass, they will have all of the expertise they gained at EMS to bring to the Fire Department. And if these two are any example of what is. Those who will be taking the exam or who'll be able to apply and take it, we are in for great, great firefighters. Thank you very much.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. And Councilman Powers is not here, but he's the sponsor of Intro 279‑A. We will now sign the bills.