Name of Council Candidate: Andrea Veras Name and Title of Person Completing Questionnaire: Andrea Veras, Candidate Campaign

Website: www.verasforcitycouncil.com

2013 CITY COUNCIL HUMAN RIGHTS QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Many in the United States think of international affairs when they think of human rights. Our work emphasizes the applicability of the human rights framework here in the United States. Please share your thoughts on the domestic applicability of human rights, and discuss why human rights are important to you in the context of New York City and the City Council. New York City is the most cosmopolitan city in the United States, and the same human rights issues that are global concerns, would apply to the population in NYC. Such has already been recognized by elected officials in New York City. Any discriminatory act against the morals, safety and welfare of the city and its inhabitants regarding prejudice and bias against residents because of their actual or perceived differences, including those based on race, color, creed, age, national origin, citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, status as a victim of domestic violence or status as a victim of sex offenses or stalking has been codified in the NYCs Human Rights Law. Human rights are important to me in the context of New York City and the City Council because I would be able to exercise my power to ensure that NYCs Human Rights Law is duly enforced against prejudice, discrimination and bias or harassment. I would also do my best to eliminate and prevent discrimination related to employment, public accommodations and housing. 2. How have you used current or previous professional positions to advance human rights? As a community advocate, I have been able to empower the residents of my community to raise their voices against the issues that affect all of us. I have brought the people together to work on safety, environmental, educational issues towards the betterment of the living conditions of all residents. I have acted as a liaison between government agencies and Police Precinct 107 and the community. As an employee with The Legal Aid Society, I have had the opportunity to help first hand to the vulnerable population of New York City seeking for legal assistance in different matters, such as immigration, housing, health insurance, foster care and youth delinquency services, and more recently, in adult criminal defense. 3. What will your top 3 legislative priorities be in your first term as Council Member? My top 3 legislative priorities as a NYC Councilmember would be to: 1. To enact a Minimum Wage law applicable to both private and public enterprises in New York City inclusive to all employees as an effort to raise the quality of life and working conditions in New York City. 2. My second order legislative priority would be to expand NYCs housing code to ensure that low-income

New Yorkers are protected against consumer fraud committed by residential property owners or managers. A key part of the legislation I would seek to advance is the inclusion of an increase in the price of penalties to be executed against landlords who, within 5 business days, fail to correct lapses in the provision of essential health, hot water or gas services in occupied apartment units. 3. My third order legislative priority would be to reintroduce Intro 0433-2010 that requires all NYC taxis that conduct street hails to drive American Disability Act compliant vehicles. 4. What will your top 3 budget priorities be in your first term as Council Member? As a NY Democrat, I belief that New York Citys municipal government must protect the welfare of our metropolis most vulnerable groups; such as the elderly, the infirmed, and the youth. As such, I would strive to make some of the most popular and cost-effective programs for these cohorts of New Yorkers to be baselined in annual budget allocations by the NYC Office of Management and Budget. As Councilwoman, I would prioritize the baselining of the following two NYC programs. 1. Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption /Disabled Rent Increase Exemption programs. I would also work to generate enough funding to facilitate establishing parity between the income eligibility caps for both programs. That is, I would work to ensure income caps for both SCRIE and DRIE were set at $29,000 rather than $29,100 for SCRIE and $20,148 for DRIE. 2. Out-of-School-Time: The city-funded program that provides a mix of academic, recreational and cultural after-school activities during summer vacation for young people enrolled in grades K-12. Is a component of New York City governments expense that in recent years have been the target of annual budget cuts. I would advocate for the city council to ensure that the program is fully funded every fiscal year (unless inefficiencies are identified) so that agencies providing Out-of-School-Time services for New Yorkers may project long-term operation expenses and programs to truly harness the productive potential of our population. 3. I would work in conjunction with the NYC Mayor and the Commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services to explore the costs and benefits of referring increasing number of homeless individuals to NYCs Housing Authorities apartment buildings. Advocates for homeless New Yorkers; such as the Coalition for the Homeless, have asserted that referring homeless individuals to NYCHA is the most cost-effective and beneficial way to treat homelessness in our city. 5. Do you plan to use participatory budgeting to allocate your discretionary funds? Why or why not? Yes. I fully intend to use participatory budgeting in my district. I believe the use of participatory budgeting process allows for a districts residents to become involved in the high volume (roughly $1 million) budget allocating decisions, is both democratic and economically efficient. A government official on her own has a difficult time identifying all of the most important priority areas for the investment of collective tax funds. The collaboration with vetted leaders in the community, adds diversity of perspectives for an increasingly efficient allocation of capital. 6. Please provide examples of recent legislation in Council that you believe promotes human rights. The two pieces of legislation that bolstered both the social and economic rights of New Yorkers this past legislative session in the City Council is the Community Safety Act and the Paid Sick Leave bill. The first one ensured that civil rights protections for African American and Latino were relevant amidst policy changes within the NYPD which expanded the grounds and process by which New Yorkers could be stopped and questioned by NY police. The

number of unreasonable searches and seizures reached the highest numbers in New York history. The latter, expanded the protections for NYC workers regarding to requiring that all employers be acknowledgeable of the new law and willing to accommodate the health related needs of their employees over the course of their relationship with an employer. Both laws are excellent examples of how the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights can be reinforced through the codification of complementary local law. 7. Legislation is only one of many ways in which Council Members can work to advance human rights. What ways other than through legislation will you advance the human rights of New Yorkers as a City Council Member? A NY City Councilmember has power to launch initiatives or taskforces in conjunction with colleagues in NYCs mayoral agencies over quality of life issues that affect NYC residents, specifically in the Human Rights Commission and the Office of the NYC Public Advocate. For example, this past year the Public Advocate released its Stop-andFrisk and the Urgent Need for Meaningful Reforms report which shed light on the fact about the disproportionate number of stops and frisks made on African American New Yorkers and Latinos when compared those less frequent stops made on Whites. Findings from this report allowed advocates against the Stop and Frisk policy in the City Council to devise compelling legislative arguments for the passage of the Community Safety Act and the creation of an Inspector Generals Office within the NYPD. Therefore, it established a civil standing by which New Yorkers subject to discriminatory NYPD Stops and Frisks may sue NYPD for the receipt of monetary compensation for any civil damages found. As a City Councilwoman, in addition to access to timely advocacy reports produced by the NYC Public Advocates Office, I could also request certain investigative reports prepared in partnership with NYCs Commission on Human Rights to respond to any human rights challenges which may emerge in NYC throughout my time in elected office. 8. Some advocates contend that the position of the Council Speaker has too much power over the progression of legislation. Please use this space to respond to that critique. I believe that all legislators elected by the Citys voting population should have the same right in shaping the legislative process in NYs City Council. However, the City Council Speaker does have a disproportionate quantity of discretion over the timeline, and nature of bills that are introduced to NY City Council committees and to the full-floor for hearings and/or votes. Rather than having a system of first-come-first-serve in which each committee considers a bill according to the objective of bills to be introduced into committee and the floor for consideration, both Committee Chairs and the Speaker, can determine which bills are to be appraised and in which sequence they may be evaluated by the larger legislative bodies. Similarly, the Speaker has almost unilateral discretion over the timing of full-council votes for a bill that triumphantly makes it out of committee. Thus, at both the introductory, through final stage of a bills consideration by the deliberative procedure, the Speaker exerts an inordinate direct and indirect influence over the outcome of deliberative process.

For more information, please visit www.urbanjustice.org.