Terri Liftin (D)
As Comptroller, what are your top 3 policy initiatives related to increasing jobs in NYC?
1. Supporting local businesses, especially with COVID recovery and becoming competitive in the digital marketplace. 2. Matching education and infrastructure to labor market needs of the current economy. 3. Ensuring a safe and clean New York to bring back tourists and commuters, which are a vital part of re-building NYC’s economy.
What will you do to enforce and expand prevailing wage and benefit rates for companies doing business with NYC?
As Comptroller, I will commit first to ensuring that the data collected from private-sector employers accurately reflects the prevailing wage. Second, I will ensure that contractors hired by City agencies are paying that wage. The keys to enforcement and expansion are to publish widely the prevailing rate, audit third-party contracts as part of City agency audits, maintain a viable complaint process for workers who are being treated unfairly, and require follow up in the Comptroller’s office, including imposing penalties for contractors who fail to comply with prevailing wage requirements.
How will you use the power of the Comptroller to decrease discrimination and increase diversity throughout workplaces NYC?
To decrease discrimination and increase diversity in NYC workplaces, I will use my role in the City’s contracting process to give support to Minority and Women Owned Businesses (MWBE) to help them gain these contracts. This will include offering coaching to help them navigate the difficult bureaucratic process of getting certified, as well as encouraging agencies to re-scale contracts so they are accessible to MWBEs. I will also revamp the request for proposal (RFP) process to diversify the hiring of fund managers. As someone who has filled out consultant RFPs for investment mandates, I am very familiar with the process: it is cumbersome and unnecessarily bureaucratic. It also favors large managers with ample resources since RFPs take time and expertise to provide the requested information. Additionally, the screening process is easier for existing managers, which reinforces their continued selection. I will look to streamline the process and bring more control to the investment teams inside the Comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management. This will allow my office to decrease systemic discrimination and increase diversify in this area.
How will you support new businesses and encourage existing employers to stay in NYC to provide living wage jobs for NYC residents?
I believe that local businesses are the heart and soul of New York, and they are key to providing good jobs and a living wage for NYC residents. My particular focus in helping these businesses will be to aid those that were not able to leverage a digital infrastructure during the pandemic. These are small businesses and local retailers. They are strangled by bureaucracy, harassed, fined and taxed, and then burdened by more regulation. These businesses have never had a true voice and have really suffered over the last year. Specifically, I will work with each local chamber of commerce to examine the bureaucratic burden of a typical small business in each borough, and then unwind the unnecessary, expensive, and burdensome regulation. I will also push for the creation of a local business revival fund for a post-Covid recovery, which will be administered in conjunction with neighborhood advocates, ensuring that community needs are met with localized solutions. This fund will provide expert resources to help small businesses establish and operate more profitably: a type of a corporate mentorship program. Additionally, to encourage employers to stay in New York and to bring back the tourists and commuters that are so vital to supporting local jobs, we need to invest in ensuring our city is safe and clean. Quality of life should not be considered a taboo subject. Without safe streets, we will not recover. The challenge will be to ensure that the police department’s mission of serving and protecting is tailored to meet the needs of the specific community. As Comptroller, one of my first acts will be to engage in a top-to-bottom audit of the NYPD budget that includes overtime spending and patrol strength. I will ensure that spending is directed to those activities that keep our communities safe and secure. I will also look at whether some resources are better reallocated towards other services like those for mental health, drug abuse treatment, affordable housing, community support, public health, and education. We need to recognize that police are not the only part of the equation in keeping our streets safe. We need to invest in mental health care, affordable housing, improved schooling, and other areas proven to provide individuals with the circumstances and tools that lead to successful lives.
How will you encourage retraining and developing a workforce to meet the demands for skilled workers?
Our City needs an infrastructure or database to match education and skills to labor needs. There are over 300,000 new job openings in NYC, but the bad news is that many of those who are out of work do not have the skills or required education level to fill many of those positions. The City should be investing in efforts to retrain our current unemployed workers to meet the requirements of the open positions. On the corporate side, we need to reinforce the message that not every professional services job requires an ivy league degree. CUNY has been a leader in this area -- partnering with the private sector to offer apprenticeships and internships that provide real experience, mentoring, and networking. I will encourage this type of public-private partnership. Finally, we need to recognize that college is not for everyone. I will use my platform as Comptroller to support trade and technical colleges. Vocational training provides real upward mobility and stability in jobs that cannot be outsourced to another country or completed by a computer.
Education: A.B. Barnard College, M.A. New York University, J.D. Brooklyn Law School
Background:
- Worked as economic analyst at Port Authority of NY & NJ.
- Held positions in law firms in litigation department and in investment management and broker-dealer regulatory practice.
- Former Chief Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at West LB Mellon Asset Management.
- Chief Legal and Chief Compliance Officer at multi-strategy private investment firms.
- Member of NYC Bar Compliance Committee.
- Barnard Student Mentor.
Work Related Proposals (gleaned from Candidate website):
- Review investments in City pension funds and develop investment strategy to sustain retired NYC workers.
- Increase the return on investments to decrease high percentage of City budget needed to maintain the pensions and reallocate funds to be used for needed City services.
- Create a small business revival fund for a post-Covid recovery, administered in conjunction with neighborhood advocates, ensuring that community needs met with localized solutions.
- Provide a corporate mentorship program with expert resources to help small businesses establish and operate more profitably.
- Streamline the certification process for doing business with the city and cut red tape.
To learn about Terri Liftin's campaign: https://liftin2021.com
