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May 31, 2016

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EDITOR’S NOTE / Contents

Jon Lentz Senior Editor

In 1986, the rock band Europe released a single called “The Final Countdown.”

The song not only became a surprise hit – it has had remarkable staying power.

While few remember anything else about the Swedish rock band behind the song, it’s hard to escape the easily recognizable opening riff.

It’s become a standard during introductions and breaks at major sporting events. It was featured prominently in the television series “Arrested Development.” And it’s currently on rotation in a Geico commercial.

In that spirit, we’d like to appropriate the iconic song, too.

As we preview the closing weeks of the session in Albany and provide updates on key legislation, we hope you’re humming along with the song’s synthesizer-driven chords and jamming out on your air guitar.

It’s the Session Countdown!

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SESSION COUNTDOWN, PART I We look at some of the biggest issues state lawmakers will tackle in the coming weeks, including health care, education, criminal justice and real estate development.

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TOP 10 LOBBYISTS We reach out to the state’s most highly compensated lobbying firms and ask what makes them so successful.

30.

NEW YORK SLANT The Manhattan Institute’s Alex Armlovich proposes solutions for the rapid population growth in the outer boroughs.

31.

BACK & FORTH A Q&A with the filmmakers behind “Weiner,” the documentary chronicling the ups and downs of former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner.

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CityAndStateNY.com

City & State is the premier multimedia news organization dedicated to covering New York’s local and state politics and policy. Our in-depth, non-partisan coverage serves New York’s leaders every day as a trusted guide to the issues impacting New York. We offer round-the-clock coverage through our weekly publications, daily e-briefs, events, oncamera interviews, weekly podcast and more.

Editorial Director Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com Senior Editor Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com Managing Editor Ryan Somers rsomers@cityandstateny.com Associate Copy Editor Sam Edsill sedsill@cityandstateny.com Staff Reporters

CITY & STATE MAGAZINE Our award-winning print magazine delivers long-form cover stories, investigative exposés, indepth industry analysis and entertaining features on a weekly basis.

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Vol. 5 Issue 21 - May 31, 2016

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New York’s Hospitals and Doctors Have the Nation’s Highest Medical Malpractice Costs—That Makes No Sense Despite fewer adverse events and scoring high on numerous quality measures, New York’s world-class hospitals and doctors spend billions annually on medical malpractice costs—by far the nation’s highest. It’s stark proof of a deeply flawed system.

Let’s not make things even worse. We urge the NYS Legislature to reject any bills that would increase medical malpractice costs and weaken the ability of doctors and hospitals to deliver high-quality care.

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2016 CONTENTS 7 … CRIMINAL JUSTICE The chances of seeing Raise the Age and other prison reforms written into law 8 … EDUCATION The latest on mayoral control of New York City schools, the Education Investment Tax Credit, student discipline reform and funding for improved schools 12 … HEALTH CARE What New York is doing to ensure safe staffing in hospitals and to combat the opioid epidemic 18 … REAL ESTATE Is there any hope of seeing the 421-a tax incentive renewed?

In Albany each year, the action follows a script.

The governor lays out his priorities in January, budget talks pick up in March and

by April a budget is produced. This year’s state spending plan was jam-packed with everything from a $15 minimum wage to 12-week paid family leave legislation to substantial transportation funding increases – in upstate and downstate alike.

But there’s still several weeks of session scheduled. And although the Cuomo administration billed the budget as “the best plan we have produced in decades,” there’s still plenty of legislation that the governor and lawmakers would like to pass before the end of session on June 16.

In this two-part feature, City & State reviews the key policy debates, the postbudget funding fights and the political battles behind some of the legislative standoffs.

This print edition provides updates on health care, education, criminal justice and real estate development. Next week, we delve into infrastructure, labor, energy, ethics and more.

So whenever the session goes off script, you’ll be prepared.

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE

PRISON REFORM EFFORTS ON ICE

PHILIP KAMRASS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

By JUSTIN SONDEL

AS GOV. ANDREW CUOMO laid out his agenda for this year’s legislative session, he sounded a familiar drumbeat on the need for criminal justice reform, from raising the age of criminal responsibility to preventive programming to reforming prisons.

While he was able to fund some of the programs he pointed to as measures to help keep people from entering the system - community schools, urban youth jobs programs, diversion programs - most of the major legislative issues remain unresolved and key lawmakers say they may have to wait until next year.

One such issue is the “Raise the Age” legislation that has stalled in the Legislature in recent years. New York remains one of only two states in the nation where people under the age of 18 are tried as adults.

Through an executive order last year, Cuomo ended the practice of housing 16- and 17-year-olds in the general prison population, but the broader law remains the same.

Abbey Fashouer, a Cuomo administration spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that the governor’s office will continue to push for reforms as the session winds down.

“The Governor is committed to reforming the state’s criminal justice system and has advanced a number of initiatives, including raising the age of criminal responsibility, to do just that,” Fashouer said. “We urge the State Legislature to Raise the Age this year and join us in creating a fairer, more balanced justice system for all New Yorkers.”

Brooklyn Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, a Democrat who is chairman of the Codes Committee, said that with the many priorities still on the table as the session winds down, he

WHAT GOT DONE - Community schools funded in the budget WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET - Raise the Age - Wrongful conviction prevention - Prison safety reforms

Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with corrections officers and inmates at the Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie as part of his “Raise the Age” push last year. believes the legislation will have little chance of passing this year.

If that is the case, Lentol said he will come back next year just as committed to getting the bill passed into law.

“We’re going to still continue to fight for that bill,” Lentol said.

While Lentol believes Cuomo’s executive order is a step in the right direction, he said the Legislature needs to make sure that children in that age group are not treated as adults by the court system.

“I think we have to start by making it a permanent process so that we follow the rest of the states in the nation and we’re not lagging behind, and treating children like children instead of adults that committed crimes,” Lentol said.

State Sen. Patrick Gallivan, a Republican who is chairman of the Correction Committee, also thinks the debate over the age of criminal responsibility may not gain the attention it would need to come to the floor for a vote.

Gallivan, a former Erie County

sheriff, said that the opioid addiction crisis may take up the lion’s share of legislators’ attention in these final weeks of the session.

“I think it becomes a priority, not just of the Senate, but of the governor’s office and the Legislature, to try to deal with this crisis we’re facing in communities across the state,” Gallivan said.

Both legislators also pointed to a number of bills that have been put forth in an effort to prevent wrongful convictions.

Lentol is pushing for a requirement that custodial interviews be videotaped and for “double-blind” identification of suspects, which he said could go a long way toward preventing the horror stories of people losing decades of their lives to bad policing policy.

“We should be trying to even come to grips with the issues that can prevent wrongful convictions instead of correcting them after they’ve happened,” Lentol said.

Gallivan said that while these issues were often contentious in the

past, activists, law enforcement officials and legislators have come together in recent years to work toward solutions.

“I think if we ultimately deal with anything it would be dealing with things or discussing things in those particular areas,” Gallivan said.

Another of Gallivan’s priorities that looks unlikely to be addressed is safety in prisons. With violence and contraband on the rise in prisons across New York and the escape of two inmates from Clinton Correctional Facility last summer, Gallivan had hoped to see more movement in this area.

However, with the state Inspector General’s report on the prison escape yet to be released and so many other priorities on the table, Gallivan does not see those issues being resolved this session either, he said.

“We’re waiting on (the Inspector General’s report) before, I think, there are going to be any meaningful positive changes proposed as it relates to the department of corrections,” Gallivan said.

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EDUCATION

SCHOLARLY PURSUITS

Education funding, reforms on the table and make an educated decision on how to move forward,” state Senate Education Committee Chair Carl Marcellino said in statement.

“There is an opportunity to add more transparency, accountability and parental input to the existing law.”

State Senate Republicans are also focusing on passing the Education Investment Tax Credit, which has repeatedly failed to gain any support in the Assembly, and increasing school transparency. The Education Investment Tax Credit, which would provide tax credits to encourage donations to public or private schools, has drawn some bipartisan support, but not enough to secure its passage.

Marcellino said he will also push for legislation to make school district reserve fund details more available to the public and would provide Bill de Blasio testifies at a state Senate mayoral control hearing on May 4. a clear plan for how much money are in these accounts and how they AS THE END of the legislative mayoral control, which de Blasio will be spent. session approaches, the No. 1 has since said he would support.

“Every end of session is an opporeducation issue is the future of But the mayor, who campaigned tunity to achieve meaningful changmayoral control. unsuccessfully in 2014 for es for schools, students and teachLast year, the state Legislature Democrats to win the state Senate, ers,” he said in a statement. “I am failed to come to a long-term has struggled ever since to hopeful that we can come to an agreement on mayoral control of negotiate with state Senate agreement with the Assembly and schools in New York City, instead Republicans, who the governor on a choosing to renew it for a single year. control the state’s number of important New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio upper house. issues before session WHAT GOT DONE accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo and The state Senate closes.”

- Closure of the Gap state Senate Republicans of playing Republicans have The education priElimination Adjustment political games by not extending it not committed to orities of the Assem- CUNY and SUNY funding Increased funding for further. any extension. bly’s Democratic community schools This year, lawmakers find “Working side majority include themselves with the same options as by side with Senastudent discipline WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET before. tors Flanagan, reform, enhancing - Education Investment Tax Credit De Blasio has proposed extending Golden, Lanza and mental health servic- Extending mayoral control mayoral control of New York City Felder, our conferes in schools and de- Increasing school schools for seven years. But in his ence will be taking linking funding tied transparency 2016 State of the State address, the input and ideas - Student discipline reform to schools’ Annual Restoring funding for Cuomo proposed a three-year we received at our Professional Perimproved schools extension. The Assembly in May two hearings on formance Reviews. passed the three-year extension of mayoral control The Assembly also

is looking to restore funding to 70 “struggling” schools that improved last year.

Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Catherine Nolan and education advocacy groups have championed a bill that aims to reduce suspensions and keep students in school with the goal to reverse the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

The legislation was also a priority of former state Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who died in January.

“We have to change how we look at some of these things when you have a kid who’s disruptive, maybe there’s a better way than just sending them home into a situation that may be worse than the situation they left,” Nolan said. “We worked very hard with Judge Kaye on that, may she rest in peace, and the leaders.”

Additionally, the Assembly is continuing to push to de-link APPR plans to increases in state aid. Currently, school districts are required to have an approved APPR plan by Sept. 1 or risk losing school funding.

This year, 70 schools designated as “struggling” improved enough during the 2014-15 school year to be taken off the list. However, at the same time they have lost state funding to help them with their turnaround efforts.

“We also think they’re 100 percent wrong in trying to deny funding to the 70 struggling schools that improved. They want to penalize them for improving by denying them the struggling schools money,” Nolan said. “It’s even a higher priority in some ways because we’re talking about the summer now. Are we really going to deny children in the struggling schools summer school because the (state Department of the Budget) has decided they don’t deserve the money?”

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By ASHLEY HUPFL

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EDUCATION

SUBSTITUTE TEACHING

De Blasio delegates mayoral control pitch to business leaders, education officials

By SARINA TRANGLE

NEW YORK CITY Mayor Bill de Blasio spent just shy of six and a half minutes making the case for his continued control of the public school system during a press conference this month, then turned the pitch over to top education officials and city business leaders sitting beside him at City Hall.

It’s the same strategy de Blasio used at a second Senate hearing, having city Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña testify in support of mayoral control. The mayor said he believes the testimony he gave at a previous Senate city and state 2016.qxp_Layout 1 3/18/16 11:42 AM hearing on the matter was sufficient.

“To go to Albany and spend four hours answering any and all (questions) – literally every single question that was offered – I think that was a great show of respect and we covered the subject matter well,” de Blasio said, adding that he believed he had shared more information with the Legislature than his predecessor.

“In the case of 2009, when it was renewed for six years, there was no hearing that Mayor Bloomberg was part of.”

Without action from the state government, de Blasio’s control over the Page 1 public school system is scheduled to

lapse in June. Last year, de Blasio sought permanent control over the city’s schools, but his plan was met with resistance from the governor and the GOP-controlled state Senate.

He wound up with only a one-year extension of the school governance structure.

This year, de Blasio called for a seven-year extension, the same time frame granted to Bloomberg in 2002.

For the second consecutive year, the Democratic-led Assembly pared down this request and passed legislation that would grant de Blasio – or anyone voted to succeed him – an-

other three years of mayoral control.

State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan missed the chamber’s first hearing on mayoral control earlier this month, but nonetheless said he was displeased with the responses de Blasio gave and called the second hearing.

During the press conference at City Hall, de Blasio had several executives affiliated with the Partnership for New York City business consortium articulate the argument for mayoral control of city schools. The partnership’s co-chairman, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, said 100 CEOs

28,629 New York City families entrust 28,629 young lives to CSA’s Early Childhood Education Center Directors and Assistant Directors every day because they’re great teachers and love the work. Yet ECE members are paid HALF of what their similarly credentialed Universal Pre-Kindergarten counterparts make - and have not had a raise in a decade!

Demand PAY PARITY for Early Childhood Directors and Assistant Directors!

Great Schools Begin With Great Leaders!

Council of School Supervisors & Administrators LOCAL 1: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, AFL-CIO www.csa-nyc.org 40 RECTOR ST., 12TH FL., NEW YORK, NY 10006 TEL: 212 823 2020 | FAX: 212 962 6130 ERNEST A. LOGAN PRESIDENT MARK CANNIZZARO EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT RANDI HERMAN FIRST VICE PRESIDENT

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio gathered top education officials and business executives, including Richard Beattie of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, left, at City Hall to advocate for his continued control over city schools.

EXPERT OPINION

ERNEST LOGAN President of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators LATRICE WALKER Assembly member, 55th District

As president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators union, I often remind our members that most successful students recall a teacher or administrator whose attention and support had a lasting impact on his or her life.

Throughout my tenure in the New York City public schools I worked hard to be that teacher and principal.

Race and purported class have been and continue to be barriers to equitable government funding of public schools. Equitable funding would mean the schools in East New York and Brownsville, Brooklyn, where I was raised and later taught and ran schools, would have the same access to resources as any of the richest schools in the state.

That’s why when the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) launched in 1993, I was overjoyed that Black and Latino students,

affiliated with the group sent a letter to leaders in Albany urging them to grant the mayor control over city schools for at least another three years. Like all organizations, he said, school systems need stability and the ability to work on multi-year initiatives, which could be curtailed by another single-year extension.

Richard Beattie of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, senior chairman of the partnership, noted that he spent about a year on the Board of Education that existed before control of schools was centralized under the mayor. Beattie said reaching a consensus was difficult for the old board, which included two mayoral appointees and five members selected by borough presidents. Before 2002, the Board of Education made pedagogical decisions and oversaw high schools, while local school boards oversaw administration and budgets for elementary and middle schools.

“It was the worst governance structure one could imagine,” Beattie said. “I resigned after about 12 months in absolute frustration. And

by the way, it was not unusual in those days to have the mayor make one announcement about education and have the chancellor make another announcement the next day, 180 degrees different.”

Beattie and Fariña said it was difficult to secure multi-year grants and recruit employees without the security of knowing the mayor would have sufficient time to advance one set of priorities.

De Blasio described the old Board of Education system as rife with corruption and argued that a decentralized approach did less to ensure that students receive a comparable education regardless of where they lived.

But above all, he said, no one has come up with a viable alternative.

“Someone show me an alternative to the system we have now of mayoral control of education,” de Blasio said. “I have not heard a single person say – Democrat or Republican – say, ‘I have a better idea.’ So why don’t we ratify the thing that’s working and get back to work on helping our kids?”

regardless of their zip code, might finally receive the educational resources they deserved.

Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, who represents the 55th Assembly District, which includes the East New York and Brownsville neighborhoods, was in sixth grade at I.S 55 while I was principal. She was gifted then and now, able to use the resources at hand to ensure a better future for herself and now for her community.

college student, I had the good fortune to work with Fordham Law and Columbia Teachers College professors on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity fight.

There should be no disparity in education simply due to race or socioeconomic status.

In 2006 the New York State Court of Appeals agreed with CFE that equitable funding was needed to provide a sound basic education. Yet today my district is still owed over $30 million in governmental funding that was deemed the bare minimum needed.

Mr. Logan and I now share the heartache that comes with knowing children in East New York, Brownsville, and school districts like ours across the state are not receiving mandated CFE funding.

We demand that Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature fully fund CFE.

My relationship with Mr. Logan, paired with my experience in NYC public schools, fueled my determination to go to college.

I knew that my educational experience had been slighted, not due to the dedicated I.S. 55 staff, but due to the lack of computers, the bare-bones laboratory, the trips we never took.

I kept my junior high school experiences in mind when, as a

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EDUCATION

UNEXCUSED ABSENCE

De Blasio slammed for playing hooky during mayoral control hearing

By MONICA DISARE from CHALKBEAT NEW YORK STATE SENATE EDUCATION chairman Carl Marcellino ended his chamber’s second mayoral control hearing the same way he started it: by taking a shot at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for not being there.

“We needed to hear from him,” Marcellino said.

Marcellino’s comments reflected the tone of the two-hour hearing, where criticism of the mayor’s non-attendance overshadowed questions about the

school system. The hearing this month marked the second of two designed to determine whether de Blasio should keep control of city schools.

The mayor defended his decision to skip the hearing at a press conference, saying he had had a substantive conversation with lawmakers at a similar hearing just two weeks before. But by missing the hearing, he opened himself to an avoidable backlash.

In de Blasio’s absence,

lawmakers mocked him by asking him to raise his hand. They hinted he should check his ego at the door and grilled his replacement, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, on everything from school safety to closures. Even de Blasio’s natural allies expressed disappointment that he chose to appear on radio shows instead of attending the hearing.

De Blasio has said he wants education issues to remain apolitical, but mayoral control has

already become a tug-of-war between him and state lawmakers.

He needs support from state senators to secure a long-term extension, not another fight.

None of the lawmakers presented an alternative to mayoral control, but their comments signal that de Blasio could have trouble securing the three-year extension he wants. Last year they gave him only a one-year renewal.

Here are some of the critical comments senators made:

SEN. CARL MARCELLINO Republican, chairman of the Senate Education Committee

SEN. JOSEPH ADDABBO JR. Democrat from New York City

SEN. THOMAS CROCI Republican from Long Island

SEN. JOSE PERALTA Democrat from New York City

“I would have preferred, no offense, Mayor de Blasio be here.

His testimony, his answering these kind of questions in concert with you would have been much more helpful to this committee and would have spoken volumes about the system and about mayoral control. That was what we’re here about. What is the mayor’s input? How does the mayor handle this? What would the mayor be doing? How has it made a difference to have mayoral control? Your testimony was fantastic, I appreciate it, but we needed to hear from him.”

“It has been mentioned that the mayor is not here today. … We have 12 session days left up in Albany … what is your strategy over those next 12 days or so with the mayor coming back to Albany, answering questions, having meetings? What is the strategy for the mayor to convince the state Senate that mayoral control should be extended?”

“When there was an initiative important to the residents of my town and in my role as chief executive, if the legislators in Albany wanted to discuss policy with me, I got in the car and I drove to Albany. And if they wanted me to come back, I got in the car and drove back to Albany. I checked ego at the door particularly when it came to the welfare of the children and the families of our community. … It’s worth the chief executive coming out and appearing. It’s an indication to the legislator about the importance of the issue to the chief executive.”

“This is such an important issue, such a top priority for the mayor and yet, he is not here. He has chosen to be at radio shows and not be here at this hearing.

And I get your answer when you said that you were up in Albany for a whole day and you were at meetings and you testified. But as you know, one day of testimony and one day of meetings doesn’t move things in Albany.”

Chalkbeat New York is a nonprofit news organization that covers educational change efforts. Visit ny.chalkbeat.org.

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HEALTH CARE

DIVERGENT DIAGNOSES

Senate, Assembly pursue disparate health care agendas

WHAT GOT DONE - Paid family leave - Increased Medicaid spending - Creation of a Water Quality Rapid Response Team WHAT’S ON THE DOCKET - Making sure sexual assault evidence is tested - Increasing organ donation - Reforming the medical marijuana law - Regulating retail clinics - Resolving problems with I-STOP implementation - Addressing heroin and opioid overdoses ALICE DAY

IN THE FINAL weeks of the 2016 legislative session, the state Senate and Assembly have very different health care priorities.

In the state Senate, Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon aims to ensure all sexual assault evidence or rape kits get tested, increase organ donations and advance legislation to make sure the Medicaid Indemnity Fund is being administered as envisioned.

“My end of session priorities are many,” Hannon said in a statement.

“Making sure all sexual assault evidence or rape kits get tested, as the Senate adopted in our one house budget proposal, and the Finance Committee voted on today, is among my top priorities. I continue to work with the Assembly to make sure New York victims are assured their rape kits are tested.”

One of the state Senate Republican conference’s high-profile priorities this year has been addressing the rise of heroin and opioid overdoses.

In March 2014, the conference created a joint Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction, but state officials agree that more work still needs to be done. A recent report released by the state Health Department found there was a 47 percent rise in the number of opioid-related deaths between 2010 and 2014.

In May, Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a new 23-member task force to confront the growing problem, and the group will hold public meetings across the state.

“The Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Abuse has worked tirelessly to develop a package of legislative measures, several of which specifically impact the health care system,” Hannon said. “For example, the Senate has passed bills

By ASHLEY HUPFL

requiring prescribers to be educated in addiction and limiting scripts for acute pain to a five-day supply. These are important measures that should be everyone’s priority to make happen this year.”

Hannon also wants to address rising prescription drug costs and is hopeful the Legislature will pass a law allowing facilities to donate unused medications to those who cannot afford them.

As of March 27, New York state’s I-STOP law, which the state Legislature passed unanimously in 2012, requires health care providers to send all drug prescriptions to pharmacies electronically to help curb overprescribing and to better monitor potential abuse.

Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried said some problems have come up with I-STOP, such as how nursing homes order incidental prescriptions for residents or how a patient can arrange to transfer a prescription to a different pharmacy.

“Several problems have arisen in the implementation of the new law, resulting in a package of legislation to ease the burden on prescribers and patients,” Gottfried said in a statement.

Several of Gottfried’s end-of-session priorities are bills that he has been introducing for years. One of them, his “New York Health Act,” would enact a single-payer health care system for New York state.

“Last year the Assembly passed my New York Health Act singlepayer bill, to provide publicly funded, comprehensive health care to all New Yorkers, without deductibles, co-pays, or limited provider networks,” Gottfried said. “While Senate passage is unlikely, I am optimistic that a second consecutive Assembly passage can continue shifting the conversation from ‘a good idea that will never happen’ to a real possibility.”

Another long shot to pass the state Senate this year is an aid-in-dying bill, which would give the option of

physician-assisted suicide to any terminal adult patient who has the capacity to make health care decisions.

For the first time, the Assembly Health Committee passed the legislation.

“This is an important step towards giving New Yorkers real patient autonomy and control over their endof-life choices,” Gottfried said.

Also on Gottfried’s agenda: limiting the services provided by retail clinics to drop-in, episodic care, and reforming the state’s 2014 medical marijuana law to expand access to more patients. Gottfried has been critical of the narrow scope of the current law.

“Changes made in 2014 by the governor to the Compassionate Care Act severely limited the scope of the program and have made it difficult for patients to access critical medical care,” he said. “The program today is too narrow, with too few dispensaries and doctors serving only a small portion of the patients who could benefit.”

CityAndStateNY.com

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New York’s Hospitals and Doctors Have the Nation’s Highest Medical Malpractice Costs—That Makes No Sense Despite fewer adverse events and scoring high on numerous quality measures, New York’s world-class hospitals and doctors spend billions annually on medical malpractice costs—by far the nation’s highest. It’s stark proof of a deeply flawed system.

Let’s not make things even worse. We urge the NYS Legislature to reject any bills that would increase medical malpractice costs and weaken the ability of doctors and hospitals to deliver high-quality care.

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CityAndStateNY.com

HEALTH CARE

SAFETY FIRST

Nurses union spearheads campaign for ‘safe staffing’ bill THE NEW YORK State Nurses Association is ramping up its campaign for legislation that would boost its ranks, but despite substantial support among lawmakers it is unclear whether it has enough momentum to become law this year.

The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act, which has stalled repeatedly in New York, would require acute care facilities and nursing homes to set minimum staffing requirements and nurseto-patient ratios.

“To ensure the adequate protection of patients in health care settings, it is essential that qualified registered nurses and other licensed nurses be accessible and available to meet the needs of patients,” the bill text says. “The basic principles of staffing in the health care setting should be based on the patient’s care needs, the severity of condition and services needed and the complexity surrounding those services.”

Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther has sponsored the bill in the Assembly, while state Sen. Kemp Hannon, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, has sponsored the legislation in the state Senate. The bill has more than 100 bipartisan co-sponsors in

Members of the New York State Nurses Association rally for the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act.

both houses, with 33 co-sponsors in the state Senate and a majority in the Assembly also supporting the legislation.

Despite public support for the legislation from lawmakers, opponents argue that the bill has repeatedly failed to pass the state Legislature is because it contains overly broad language and would force astronomical costs on hospitals that would ultimately negatively affect patient care.

Hospital organizations have expressed concern with the bill, claiming that the extra funding needed could harm some hospitals.

They also argue Albany should not be dictating employment decisions.

In addition, Politico New York reported that the influential health care workers union 1199 SEIU is quietly opposing the bill, despite its public support for it.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been noncommittal. If the legislation is passed by both houses, a representative for the governor said he will review the bill.

In the face of such obstacles, NYSNA has held rallies all across the state in recent months to promote the bill.

“There’s no reason that New York state doesn’t have a minimum standards for care in our hospitals and all the studies show that the number of registered nurses that you have available in a hospital is directly related to a patient’s mortality and morbidity,” NYSNA Executive Director Jill Furillo said at a recent City & State event. “The fact that we don’t have standards like that in New York state makes no sense at all and we need to get that legislation passed.”

NYSNA

By ASHLEY HUPFL

CityAndStateNY.com

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EXPERT OPINION

JILL FURILLO Executive Director, New York State Nurses Association

As many nurses can tell you, New York is facing a health care crisis.

The lack of adequate staffing in New York hospitals means many patients will be left alone, not offered the care they so desperately need, or even a hand to hold. It’s time we made sure a nurse is there when you need them most. After all, do you really think profit-driven hospitals can take care of patients the way a nurse can?

Currently no law exists to limit the number of patients a nurse can care for at one time. In some cases, nurses are being forced to handle over a dozen patients at once. When that happens, patients suffer.

Studies show inadequate staffing levels contribute to increased risk of patient falls, bedsores, hospital-acquired infections and medication errors; and the odds of patient death

Always there to care.

New York’s hospitals and health systems are there when you need them, to provide the healthcare needs of your communities—from emergency and trauma services, to obstetrics and burn care, and more.

As the Legislative session concludes, HANYS continues to work with the Legislature and Governor to: •

Reject harmful new mandates—like unproven, arbitrary nurse stafng ratios;

•

Avoid piecemeal medical malpractice legislation and enact real reform;

•

Protect patients and providers from insurer abuses; and

•

Encourage more New Yorkers to participate in organ donation programs.

www.hanys.org

increased by 7 percent for each additional patient a nurse must care for at one time.

This is a crisis that can be easily solved. Hospitals need to have enough staff to give patients the care they need and deserve.

In a recent study, hospitals with adequate staffing levels had fewer readmissions, fewer infections and fewer deaths.

California passed safe staffing legislation in 2003. As a result, patients receive better care, nurses endure fewer workplace injuries, and hospitals are thriving.

Some say having safer staffing levels will cost too much money.

But it is a fact that no California hospital has closed because of safe staffing levels. They are actually in better financial shape.

The reform New York needs is simple: the Safe Staffing for Quality Act (S.782/A.8580-A). It’s

a bipartisan bill in Albany with wide support that calls on hospitals to maintain a responsible number of nurses to patients – ensuring better care and saving lives.

Support for the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act is growing every day. The legislation currently has 98 sponsors in the state Assembly and 31 in the state Senate.

Twenty-one municipalities have passed resolutions calling for the bill’s passage. And according to a 2015 Mellman Group poll, 85 percent of New Yorkers support a maximum number of patients a nurse can care for at one time, and 67 percent of those polled believe there are not enough nurses in New York hospitals.

On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of dedicated New York nurses, we call on Albany to take action today and pass the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act.

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EXPERT OPINION

KENNETH E. RASKE President, Greater New York Hospital Association

DENNIS WHALEN President, Healthcare Association of New York State

New Yorkers love a good argument, but virtually all of them would agree that New York’s hospitals and doctors deliver world-class patient care. Yet their medical malpractice costs are by far the nation’s highest.

Indeed, despite reducing their adverse events and scoring high on numerous quality measures, New York’s doctors and hospitals spend billions annually on medical malpractice costs. A recent Diederich Healthcare study found that New York had more than $700 million in total medical malpractice payouts in 2015, nearly double that of the next-closest state (Pennsylvania).

That’s more than $35 per New Yorker – a staggering amount for a state with nearly 20 million people. The study also found that New York alone accounted for 18 percent of all medical malpractice payouts in the entire country in 2015.

Does it make sense for the best

hospitals to have the highest malpractice costs? Something is clearly wrong.

Unfortunately, a few in Albany want to make things even worse by supporting legislation that would dramatically increase those already enormous costs and weaken the ability of hospitals and doctors to deliver high-quality care. One bill would extend New York’s medical malpractice statute of limitations to start running on the date the plaintiff claims to have discovered the malpractice. If enacted, the bill would raise malpractice costs for doctors and hospitals by hundreds of millions of dollars and compromise access to care.

But here’s what the bill’s supporters don’t tell you: New York’s medical malpractice statute of limitations is already among the longest in the nation, with important exceptions for children and patients undergoing continued treatment. And unlike

New York, most states whose statutes of limitations start running from the date of discovery also have reasonable caps on the amount that can be recovered for pain and suffering, and some even cap total damages.

Ironically, a study that has been widely cited to blame hospitals and doctors for medical errors – the Institute of Medicine’s “To Err is Human” – emphasizes that improving patient safety requires a shift away from a culture of blame. Other studies have concluded that the drivers of malpractice liability are varied and not necessarily related to the quality of care that was provided.

Medical malpractice is a complex issue that deserves thoughtful discourse. Albany should focus on comprehensive reforms that strengthen our health care system, not piecemeal legislation to erode it.

New York’s health care providers stand ready to do their part.

As New York’s health care providers reach a critical point in their health care transformation efforts, state leaders must continue to support these key programs and ensure continued access to care in every corner of the state.

While crafting the state budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature worked together to address the stark financial situations facing our hospitals and health systems, including muchneeded flexible capital funding and a way to recoup unpaid Health Republic claims.

However, as we approach the final weeks of the Legislative session, the health care community is urging state leaders to reject damaging proposals that

could dramatically impede the innovation and reform underway.

New York’s health care providers already have the nation’s highest medical malpractice costs, and proposed legislation would raise premiums. Instead of piecemeal legislation that would allow a lawsuit to be started as late as a decade after an alleged incident, the legislature should consider real medical malpractice reform that mirrors the national standard, while protecting patients and providers.

Another bill would mandate a one-size-fits-all approach to patient care, taking staffing decisions away from the health care professional at the bedside – the experts in caring for their patients, in their hospitals, with

their colleagues. Every patient is special; every hospital is different; every nurse is unique.

While statutory ratios have not been linked to improved care, an increase in nurse education has. When more nurses earn a bachelor’s of science in nursing, patient outcomes improve.

HANYS’ members continue to implement patient-centered care across various in- and out-patient settings, leading reform and creating the health care delivery system of tomorrow, despite regulatory hurdles and while fighting insurer abuses. We look forward to continuing our ongoing discussions with state leaders to make certain our providers can continue to serve their communities.

CityAndStateNY.com

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NEW YORK HOSPITALS NEED SAFE STAFFING! Make sure a nurse is there when it matters most.

Support the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act.

TAKE ACTION AT

CAMPAIGNFORPATIENTSAFETY.ORG NEW YORK STATE AFL-CIO

NEW YORK STATEWIDE SENIOR ACTION COUNCIL

NEW YORK STATE NURSES ASSOCIATION

CITIZEN ACTION OF NEW YORK

COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA, DISTRICT 1

NEW YORK STATE ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS

COMMITTEE OF INTERNS AND RESIDENTS / SEIU HEALTHCARE

NEW YORK COMMUNITIES FOR CHANGE

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FEDERATION

COALITION FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY

METRO NEW YORK HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

MAKE THE ROAD NY

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CityAndStateNY.com

REAL ESTATE

LACK OF INCENTIVE

Little progress and few expectations for the lapsed 421-a tax credit

WHEN THE 421-A program wasn’t included in the state budget this year, a top Cuomo administration official expressed optimism that the expired real estate development tax incentive would be addressed before the end of this year’s legislative session.

But with just a few weeks left until lawmakers are scheduled to pack up and leave Albany, some observers are feeling less confident about the chances of replacing the program this year.

None of the major players in the state Capitol – the governor, Assembly Democrats and state Senate Republicans – appear to have a strong incentive to cut a deal, legislative and industry sources told City & State.

The state’s 421-a program, which was aimed at spurring affordable housing development, was a critical component of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious affordable housing agenda. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo blocked a deal the mayor made with the Real Estate Board of New York, which represents real estate developers, by insisting on more generous terms for unionized construction workers on 421-a projects.

The program, which came under attack for the benefits it provided to luxury condo developers, is not a top priority for Assembly Democrats, especially in an election year. In the Republican-controlled state Senate, there’s little appetite for helping out de Blasio, who

campaigned unsuccessfully for Senate Democrats to win a majority in 2014. Meanwhile, de Blasio has his hands full trying to get the Senate to extend mayoral control.

Politics aside, the major sticking point for renewing or replacing the program remains: whether to require a prevailing wage for construction workers on qualifying projects. REBNY and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, a union group, were tasked with reaching a compromise on the program, but they failed to do so by the deadline set this past January. Both groups recently told City & State they had no updates on the negotiations.

Cuomo has again come down on the side of the building trades in

recent weeks, insisting that any deal protect labor and include a prevailing wage. The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the status of any talks or the chances that the issue will be resolved this year.

The real estate industry sees the governor’s continued support for labor as an impediment to resolving the issue. However, many developers already have projects in the works or underway that qualified for 421-a benefits before the program lapsed, easing the pressure on lawmakers to immediately find a solution.

The tax incentive could also get tied up in the governor’s broader affordable housing plan. The state budget included $2 billion for affordable housing, but there was no agreement on how the funds would be spent.

“It was always a long shot, in my opinion, that the Legislature was going to resolve the issue this year,” said Ken Fisher, a former New York City councilman who now specializes in real estate issues as an attorney at Cozen O’Connor.

“I think developments since the deal fell apart have only made it less likely that they’ll do it this year.”

But Fisher, like others, said that a breakthrough is still possible this year.

“It’s not impossible that the framework struck by the trades and REBNY could resurface as a legislative proposal in the endof-session madness that Albany experiences every year,” Fisher added. “But it’s hard to see where the political imperative would come from that would bring all of the parties together and translate that framework into an actual piece of legislation.”

TREVOR.PATT

By JON LENTZ

CityAndStateNY.com

NEW YORK STATE’S TOP 10 LOBBYISTS Not so long ago, a New York lobbyist made headlines for helping out a client by putting in a call to the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The payment? Half a million dollars.

These days the lobbying business is just as lucrative – more so, in fact. Since that famous $500,000 phone call, lobbying spending in the state has more than doubled, from $120 million in 2003 to $243 million last year.

But New York’s top lobbyists will tell you that to be successful in today’s environment, it takes much more than a long list of contacts and close relationships with the state’s power brokers.

In this special section, City & State reached out to the state’s most highly compensated lobbying firms last year and asked what makes them so successful.

For other insights from – and about – the state’s top 10 lobbyists, read on.

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WILSON ELSER MOSKOWITZ EDELMAN & DICKER LLP RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #1 PREVIOUS RANK: #1 COMPENSATION: $10,535,999 TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? From the moment it all started, we have had clients who stayed with us, right from the beginning. In order for them to come back to us every year, I guess we must be doing something right. That basically does it. People are not going to retain you, people are not going to spend the money, if they’re not satisfied with what you’re doing. We’ve been doing it for a lot of years.

KENNETH SHAPIRO Partner and regional managing partner of the firm’s Albany office

WHO ARE YOUR MA JOR CLIENTS? The major client would be the Healthcare Association, which was formerly HANYS. That’s the client I’ve had since I started lobbying back in 1989. We represent the four major accounting firms, had them about 20-some odd years, too. I would have

to say that those are the two major clients. After that, we have different people here who specialize in different areas. Lisa Morello would be involved in racing issues and OTBs, for example. You could go right down the line when you look at our client list. Those are the big ones.

WHAT IS ONE WAY YOU DELIVERED FOR A CLIENT? It’s difficult to get into right now, because at one point in time, your practice was based on how much you can get for a client, whether it’s for specific projects or not. But that basically was done away with under the Cuomo administration. We have had a lot of successes, but I’m not going to get into the specifics.

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING?

Informed.

Focused.

Effective.

Manatt is proud to be a part of the city and state of New York: as government advisors, as neighbors, as citizens.

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, llp

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Remember in my earlier years I was in government, and I had a position where I was lobbied a lot. I would say the biggest change I see is people who do it now are much more prepared, it’s much more professional. That’s the biggest difference I see right now. At one point in time, people got by. Now you have to be prepared because your opposition is going to be prepared.

HOW DID YOU GE T IN TO LOBBYING? When I left government at the end of the 1988 session, I was going to go back and do appellate work for the law firm I was with. Then a lot of people came up to me and said that they’d be interested in retaining me, and I wanted to go into lobbying. It’s as simple as that.

CityAndStateNY.com

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KASIRER LLC RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #2 PREVIOUS RANK: #3 COMPENSATION: $9,201,668

Michael McKeon

Thomas Doherty

Partner New York City

Partner New York City

Hon. Fernando Ferrer

Charlie King Co-Chairman New York City

Co-Chairman New York City

Patrick McCarthy

Jan Feuerstadt

Managing Director Albany

SURI KASIRER President WHO ARE YOUR MA JOR CLIENTS? I am currently working on online gaming with a broader team that I put together on the PR side, and we have some people in addition to me that are working on the online gaming for MGM. I’ve worked with them for a long time and have a long history with them. I also have been doing some work with RIOC, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, for Cornell University, and we worked with the governor’s office and RIOC to get some additional state land to the campus on Roosevelt Island. That was a big project of mine. We also represent the Motion Picture Association, so I again put together a team with some folks on the ground in Albany as well on film tax credit issues as they relate to the city and state. So there’s lots of implications for the city, both on the community side, dealing with the elected officials, and also dealing with the mayor’s film office, because a lot of the filming is obviously happening in New York City.

My strength is where city and state kind of interface. We do a tremendous amount of work with the MTA, so development projects that require

transit improvements or they’re above MTA sites. A lot of work with the MTA, the Port Authority, the ESD on economic development projects, dealing a lot with the authorities. The other is dealing with local elected officials on issues that relate to their local communities, whether it’s notfor-profit issues or real estate or corporate issues. Where the city and state intersect is really my strength.

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING? Transparency has become such a huge issue and continues to be an issue. I always think that’s helpful to people like me, because I don’t necessarily have that old boys’ network. More often than not I’m relying on the strength of the relationships I have, so that people would, on the basis of those relationships, grant me a meeting or a hearing – not necessarily because they know me but because they know I’m going to vet somebody and not put them in a situation where they might be compromised or uncomfortable. I’m going to vet the issues and make sure my clients are aware of how you approach government.

Managing Director New York City

Jonathan Greenspun

Patrick Halpin Managing Director New York City

Managing Director New York City

Lisa Reid

Ben Dublin

Senior Vice President Albany

Senior Vice President Syracuse

Marricka Scott-McFadden Vice President New York City

City & State’s Top 10 Lobbying Firm 250 Greenwich St, 36 Floor New York, NY 10007 (212) 681-1380

194 Washington St. Albany, NY 12210 (518) 650-8250 224 Harrison St, Suite 700 Syracuse, NY 13202 (315) 378-8873

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BROWN & WEINRAUB PLLC RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #3 PREVIOUS RANK: #4 COMPENSATION: $8,303,382

DAVID WEINRAUB Managing Partner

TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? First and foremost, we’ve got a lot of talented people here with senior levels of government experience.

Second, we have great clients and interesting issues. Third, we work hard to try to learn the geography, both in terms of understanding the issue from the client’s perspective and gathering as much information as we can from the government so that we can offer good counsel and advocate effectively. Lastly, for me personally, I was lobbied. I was in government for a while, and both from that perch and subsequently, I tried to learn from people for whom I had a tremendous amount of respect.

Some of them are still around, people like Feathers (James Featherstonhaugh) and Ken Shapiro and Mary Kopley. They were very, very effective representatives for their clients, and

I always made a note to understand how they conducted their business and learn from them.

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR CLIENTS? Airbnb is a client, and I always like to say there’s a reason they call them disruptive technologies.

We still represent the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and we were recently at the forefront of the efforts to regulate and authorize professional mixed martial arts in New York. It’s a very dynamic set of issues and a very interesting client.

We have a number of terrific health care clients and a good number of IT clients. We represent Oracle and Yahoo, to name a couple. So we’re fortunate, we have a pretty diverse group of clients.

WHAT IS ONE WAY YOU DELIVERED FOR A CLIENT?

It was a relief to finally get mixed martial arts done. Not only for the UFC, but we met a lot of really good people along the way: students of martial arts, amateur fighters, people that really wanted to make a go of it in the gym business. We really felt that in some ways we were really working for them, too.

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING? With the explosion in sowcial media coupled with technological advances, you have to have a communications component. It has to be part of the tactical set now.

More often than not, you end up working with one of the strategic communications firms out there.

That’s the biggest change. It’s not just a press person, necessarily. It’s someone who knows how to utilize social media.

BOLTON-ST. JOHNS RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #4 PREVIOUS RANK: #5 COMPENSATION: $8,279,464

EMILY GISKE Partner

TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? Bolton-St. Johns’ success comes from hard work and having a staff that really is remarkable out there.

We strive to provide the highest level of service to our clients, including enhancing the client’s experience outside of actual lobbying, from providing memos and political background, etc. Also, BSJ lobbyists are available to our clients 24/7.

tainment, labor issues, we do a lot of health care. So we’re very grateful to have a well-rounded group of clients that we have the privilege of working with each day to help build relationships with them and solve their problems. What sets us apart is that we also have at BSJ a very strong commitment to social issues that we believe in, such as family, homelessness, issues affecting the LGBT community, and immigration.

WHO ARE YOUR MA JOR CLIENTS? One good thing about being a large firm like ours, especially since we have a big market in New York City, Albany and also Western New York and Buffalo, is that we get to work on a lot of diverse issues and industries. We have tech, transportation, education, higher education, enter-

WHAT IS ONE WAY YOU DELIVERED FOR A CLIENT? We’re very, very proud to have secured city funding for not-for-profit clients, such as for HIV and AIDS, for daycare and daycare training for women who are trying to get back into the workforce, for example, and other important services helping our fellow New Yorkers.

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING? T h e ma i n c ha n g e i s what ’s happening in Albany with JCOPE and the courts with what qualifies to be a lobbyist and whether or not a lobbyist is a traditional lobbyist like at Bolton-St. Johns, or a media consulting firm as well. That’s still to be determined. We’ll have to see how that plays out.

Note: This Q&A first ran in City & State’s 2016 New York City Top 10 Lobbyists feature.

CityAndStateNY.com

We are a full-service New York lobbying and government relations firm.

We advocate on behalf of a wide range of clients who seek local expertise in navigating the City.

We advance our clients’ goals—building coalitions and consensus, influencing the decisions and the decision-makers in the dynamic political landscape that defines New York every day.

And our team of professionals whose career intersects at the location where politics, policy and government meet—achieve victory on behalf of our clients with an unwavering commitment to the highest standard of ethics within our industry.

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CAPALINO + COMPANY RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #5 PREVIOUS RANK: #6 COMPENSATION: $7,349,404

JAMES CAPALINO CEO

Lobbying, Consulting, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Crisis Management, Fire Safety and Emergency Response, Community and Public Relations

TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? As a general philosophy, our practice is built around recruiting people through our ranks who are really exceptional leaders, either in policy or operations, in their respective fields. For instance, we are very privileged to have as one of the senior members of our team Arthur Webb, who is a former official in the administration of the first Gov. Cuomo and is an acknowledged health care expert and has a huge amount of experience with the redesign of health care systems.

We have a former deputy executive director of the MTA by the name of Chris Boylan who served at the MTA for 25 years and he handles all of our transportation-related matters. Tunisha Walker runs our WMBE program. She was an official under this Gov. Cuomo where she coordinated WMBE compliance and policy development at the state Department of Labor. We have a very deep bench of experience of former government officials who understand in a deep way how government functions. And we have long-term relationships that can be very helpful in helping clients understand the government’s perspective.

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR CLIENTS? We rarely take on an engagement

where we’re directly lobbying the state Legislature. I don’t have an Albany office and I don’t have anybody posted in Albany. Our focus is basically the state agencies.

And it won’t surprise you that the state agencies that are most often the focus of our advocacy actively are the ones that have an impact on the real estate and construction industries. So it’s Empire State Development Corporation, the state Department of Transportation, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Department of Taxation and Finance. We also do a fair amount of work in the health care arena.

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING? One of the things that has happened is that where historically the practice of Albany lobbying was very much an extension of law firms, and in some cases major law firms, some of that has changed because I think law firms to some extent have shrunk their commitment to this area of service. On the other hand, you see the growth of independently owned government relations firms, principally as a result of people leaving state government and starting firms or joining firms. There’s been a little bit of a shift in the terrain.

CityAndStateNY.com

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PARK STRATEGIES, LLC RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #6 PREVIOUS RANK: #2 COMPENSATION: $6,949,829

TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? It really is a testament to the professionalism and the dedication to providing quality service to our clients, and it’s really the depth of knowledge and experience that Sen. D’Amato has brought to Park Strategies that really allows us to do that.

WHAT IS ONE WAY YOU DELIVERED FOR A CLIENT? One thing that was a big deal last session is that we represent one of the five dispensaries licensed for medical marijuana. That was complicated and required a lot of understanding of the process and challenges. It was obviously very

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DAVID CATALFAMO Managing director

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR CLIENTS? Obviously they’re all public, but Forest City Ratner, Verizon, Disney, Sony, Northwell, Microsoft – we tend to try to have leaders in market sectors, and we’re very proud of the folks that we represent. We have people who have experience in different areas, from Sen. Alfonse D’Amato himself to former Assembly

Speaker Mel Miller, to work across the board.

One of the things that is unique about us is our reach across the state. We have offices in Long Island, Manhattan, Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo. Because of that, we have a lot of reach, and we represent and have represented a number of municipal clients as well.

competitive, and we’re pleased we were able to help our client secure one of those licenses.

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING? The biggest one is obviously the legal one with respect to registration and public relations, where it’s now registered activity to talk with editors.

There’s also a continued trend of a need for expertise and professionalism and higher standards, especially with any conflicts and ethics.

The bar is continually raised, and that’s a good thing. There is value to firms like Park Strategies that have a lot of depth and a lot of intelligent people who have experience, and that is a trend that values knowledge.

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GREENBERG TRAURIG, LLP RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #7 PREVIOUS RANK: #8 COMPENSATION: $5,939,399 TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? I attribute our success to having good people who have a shared vision of how to work with government. Virtually every member of our team has worked in government in various capacities, certainly as lawyers but also as program experts and fiscal experts. When we hire, we look for people who not only are knowledgeable about how government works, but have an understanding of what good advocacy is and the right way to go about it, as opposed to the wrong way, and generally have a substantive expertise, which is very important to us.

HAROLD ISELIN Managing shareholder of the Albany office

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR CLIENTS? The general theme to our clients is that they are regulated entities who have a desire to work effectively with government. If you look

at our client base, which is all public in terms of specific companies, but one area is certainly insurance. I think we have the largest insurance regulatory practice in the state, and we represent all three areas: health, life and property and casualty. Real estate, we represent a number of companies and the Real Estate Board of New York. Technology, we have a large practice with companies in the technology space, both for legislative as well as procurement. Companies like AT&T and Microsoft. Education, we represent a number of higher education institutions but also schools that work with children with disabilities. And economic development, a number of companies, including Globalfoundries, that are interested in the state’s economic development and tax programs.

WHAT IS ONE WAY YOU DELIVERED FOR A CLIENT? Our approach is certainly about working on particular legislative issues, but our practice is much broader than just that. It involves regulatory work and sometimes litigation. In a whole range of areas we’ve been very involved in the implementation of Obamacare in New York from the outset. Every year there are new challenges related to that. I would point again in the health insurance area to all of the developments in Medicaid managed care. To me, the answer to that question is broader than we got that bill passed or we blocked that bill, although we certainly have plenty of that. But it’s a broader answer as to where we think we’ve worked effectively with government on behalf of our clients to effect change.

HINMAN STRAUB ADVISORS LLC RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #8 PREVIOUS RANK: #9 COMPENSATION: $5,365,440 TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? I would attribute the firm’s success to our unique combination of substantive knowledge, depth and political acumen. That coupled with creative problem solving has led to continued growth in the firm and long-term relationships with clients.

SEAN DOOLAN Principal

WHO ARE YOUR MAJOR CLIENTS? The firm is certainly known as having deep representation, both substantively and across the entire continuum in health care, whether it be providers, payers or other stakeholders. Likewise, education, primarily lower ed and school districts, BOCES, educational institutions. Then I would say a number of human services agencies. In general categories, on the telecommunications end, representing Verizon and Con Ed. That’s another

area. And then general corporate, whether it be Estee Lauder, Toyota, large corporate representation.

WHAT IS ONE WAY YOU DELIVERED FOR A CLIENT? The list goes on and on.

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING? Most definitely. I think the business has expanded dramatically, in terms of the number of competent advocates. Also, there’s been a dramatic expansion of what I would call indirect lobbying, such as grassroots lobbying. The use of social media has taken the business in a completely different direction, and technology overall has accelerated that component. I would say the public relations end, in terms of influencing the passage or defeat of legislation through earned or paid media.

H O W D I D YO U G E T I N T O LOBBYING? I came out of law school about 30 years ago and started working at the firm doing legal and health care work. After a year or two of doing that, the partner who ran our lobbying practice asked if I was interested in doing government relations. I said, well, sure, it sounds interesting. I don’t know anything about it, but it sounds interesting. So that was the stepping stone. In actuality, the firm is a law firm, but the law firm’s specialties all have an interconnectedness with government, in terms of litigation with government, whether it’s regulatory practice or administrative law in government, corporate law, tax in government, there is a common thread. The logical extension for me was adding the lobbying component.

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CityAndStateNY.com

MERCURY PUBLIC AFFAIRS RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #9 PREVIOUS RANK: N/A COMPENSATION: $4,685,613

TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? Talented people.

WHO ARE YOUR MA JOR CLIENTS? It ’s New York, right, so there’s always going to be real estate playing a prominent role for any of these businesses on the list.

It’s an eclectic mix.

MIKE MCKEON Partner

HOW IS THE LOBBYING BUSINESS CHANGING? There’s no question that it ’s change d a fair amount , and largely for the better. I think it’s gotten much broader. It ’s not

just about going and doing the meeting. You have to understand the politics, and there are plenty of things you can do from a public affairs perspective that are impor tant to success for clients. Relationships will always m a t t e r, b u t u n d e r s t a n d i n g politics and understanding the environment you’re working in and how to impact that is a lot more par t of the effor t these days – and I think that’s all for the better. Going in and asking someone for a favor because you’ve known them for 20 years, that ’s not a business model, and fortunately that’s more and

more in the rear view mirror.

That’s the stigma attached to the industry, and fortunately from my perspective, it’s less and less the reality.

WHAT ’S THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOB? Trying to figure out solutions.

Note: This Q&A first ran in City & State’s 2016 New York City Top 10 Lobbyists feature.

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MANATT, PHELPS &PHILLIPS RANK (BY COMPENSATION): #10 PREVIOUS RANK: #7 COMPENSATION: $4,498,399 TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS? We’re very proud of the team we’ve assembled here. We believe we have both substantive experience and expertise in a range of issues that has allowed us to grow this element of our practice. We have people in the firm who have worked in senior positions in the Legislature and in the executive branch. We pride ourselves not only on having the relationships and the knowledge of the process that helps our clients, but reasonably deep, substantive knowledge of the issues that we’re handling.

We also have a great relationship with our colleagues in the New York City off ice, and one of the things we particularly enjoy is representing clients at both the city and state level. We think we’ve been particularly effective where we’ve had the opportunity to not only guide clients on state issues

JAMES LYTLE Managing partner of the Albany office

but also on their issues at the city level as well.

WHO ARE YOUR MA JOR CLIENTS? Historically, we were very much fo cuse d and c ontinue to b e focused on the health care sector, which continues to be the largest area for lobbying activity in Albany.

In that sector, our relatively new clients include New York state’s me dical s cho ols and dental schools. We represent Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, two different coalitions of Medicaid managed care organizations, and a range of other clients in the health care arena. More recently, we’ve represented some significant higher education institutions, both New York University and the University of Rochester, as well as the New York Public Library and a number of other cultural and educational institutions. It’s a relatively diverse set of

clients now, not only in health care and education but in the housing arena and cultural activities and other businesses of various kinds.

WHAT IS ONE WAY YOU DELIVERED FOR A CLIENT? I’m very proud of the work we’ve done with the New York Alliance for Donation. It’s a consortium of the organ procurement organizations for organ transplant services.

Since we’ve represented them, we’ve secured legislation which requires the state to contract out the New York State Organ Donor Registry, which has been the worst performing organ donor registry in the country. We helped our client secure that contract, and we sought and achieved the enactment of a number of bills that will strengthen the organ donor registry in New York as well as increase funding for organ donation.

We are grateful to all of our clients.

Our Experience Drives Innovative Solutions.

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NYSlant.com

A fresh perspective on opinions / Edited by NICK POWELL

Bus lanes line either side of Webster Avenue in the Bronx.

NEW YORK CITY’S population is at an all-time high of 8.55 million, according to recent Census estimates, and the city’s Manhattancentric job market added nearly 200,000 jobs in the last two years. Due to zoning limits on residential floor area in Manhattan, however, most of the net population growth has been in the outer boroughs. The choke points on the subways are bottlenecking Manhattan-bound commuters, even as only slow local buses cover substantial chunks of the outer boroughs. Improving our Select Bus Service network would take pressure off the subways and ease land-use restrictions to allow job-housing balance where it’s in demand, thereby allowing growth around transportation constraints in the meantime.

The combined transit network enables a density, diversity and richness of

economic and social activity that would choke a car-oriented region. Yet this vast old system is filling up quickly. Admittedly, Manhattan could and should allow more residential floor area in Midtown, where more people would live within walking distance of work. Alas, Manhattan’s City Council members have decided through the zoning process to restrict anything more than a trickle of luxury towers. Manhattan also still has the vast majority of the office space and office demand. Most outer-borough workers must therefore commute into Manhattan.

It need not be this way for all growth. Demand exists for office space on the North Williamsburg waterfront, for example. An “enhanced business area” zoning proposal by the Department of City Planning, designed to protect politi-

cally untouchable manufacturing space while legalizing offices on top, was recently deferred by the City Planning Commission after a non-binding rejection by the Community Board. It’s a shame – more people exiting the L train at Bedford Avenue would mean more room for Manhattan-bound commuters. Furthermore, the off-peak direction L trains have lots of space for reverse commuters from Manhattan. And job growth in Williamsburg would enable thousands more residents to walk to work.

Census data shows some 40 percent of commuters near East Midtown walk or bike to work. In Williamsburg and Greenpoint, only 14 percent do so. Mixed-use neighborhoods will still have many or mostly transit commuters, of course – office demand depends on access to the regional labor market. Nonetheless, by “decriminalizing” mixeduse growth where rents and vacancy rates already portend pent-up demand for additional floor area, the outer boroughs can strive for Manhattan-like levels of convenient walking and biking.

In addition to land use liberalization, we should accelerate Select Bus Service deployment and aim for rail-like levels of service. True Bus Rapid Transit, with camera-enforced offset lanes and Transit Signal Priority, implemented consistently, delivers the capacity of light rail at lower cost and higher arrival frequency. Continuing to allow car traffic to

By ALEX ARMLOVICH

slow the most heavily used bus routes is absurd. Lowoccupancy vehicles should not run through scarce public space that could be so much more productive as a proper rapid-transit route.

Residents of the outer boroughs deserve the service frequency and convenience of transit that Manhattanites enjoy, along with opportunities to walk and bike where office demand allows it. Outer-borough job growth should no longer be unlawful, with pent-up demand seeking outlets as deep as the Morgan Avenue L stop. Select Bus Service, which is built by the city’s Department of Transportation instead of the state-controlled MTA, is affordable enough to be realistic borough-wide.

We can’t wait decades for projects like the threestation-long Second Avenue Subway stub line, delivered at costs per mile far in excess of peer projects in London or Paris. On the zoning side, easing restrictions on growth of mixed neighborhoods will be a tax revenue generator, perhaps enabling the finance of affordable SBS improvements.

Together these solutions can accommodate demand for our city comfortably and maintain New York City’s position as a national hub of social, cultural, and economic opportunity.

Alex Armlovich is a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute.

NYC DOT

MIXED-USE NEIGHBORHOODS, SBS OFFER SOLUTIONS TO NEW YORK CITY GROWTH

CityAndStateNY.com

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INSIDE THE SCANDAL

A Q&A WITH “WEINER” CO-DIRECTORS JOSH KRIEGMAN AND ELYSE STEINBERG

In just a few short years, Anthony Weiner went from congressman to national punchline to New York City mayoral candidate. Filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg were along for the last part of the ride, recording just about every part of Weiner’s unsuccessful comeback to electoral politics in 2013. Their documentary, “Weiner,” came out this month. Kriegman and Steinberg talked to City & State’s Jeff Coltin to discuss making the pitch, working with Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, and what it’s like to watch 400 hours of footage.

C&S: It’s the first line in the movie, and Anthony Weiner says, “I can’t believe they’re making a documentary about my scandal?”

How did you convince him to do this?

JK: The backstory is I actually met Anthony when I worked for him in Congress. I worked in politics and was his district chief of staff in Congress for a couple of years. I got to know him well through that work, and I left politics and moved into filmmaking and Anthony and I stayed in touch over the years. I started working with Elyse and when Anthony resigned from Congress, we of course knew that his story would be a pretty remarkable one to tell. I had known him well and knew what a dynamic and sort of fascinating character he is, and so I started a conversation with him that really went on over the course of a couple years about the possibility of making a feature documentary. We went back and forth about it – really sort of to the point where it looked like he was intrigued but probably wasn’t going to go for it – and then the morning that he announced he

was going to run for mayor, he actually texted me early that morning and said, “I’m running, I’m with my staff at home, do you want to come with a camera?” And I, of course, said yes. I literally ran over and started shooting, as you saw in the film, from the day he announced he was running to the end of the election.

ES: As for why Anthony allowed us to film, it’s a question we pose in the film and wondered about as well.

Anthony does give us an answer in the end, when he said he wanted to be viewed as the full person that he was and not as a punchline. And that was our intention with this film; wanting to show a complex and nuanced portrait of a person who had just been reduced to a caricature and a punchline.

C&S: Most of the time, Weiner seemed open to the cameras, while his wife, Huma Abedin, generally seems unhappy with their presence.

Did her disdain ever make filming difficult?

ES: Well, Huma is obviously more reserved and quiet than Anthony,

and what you see in the film is what we saw in the film. But I think just as Anthony was reduced to a caricature and a punchline, so was she, and I think she shared some of his desires of wanting a more fair and complete story told. And you can see in the film that judgment that was placed against her.

So our hope with this film is to show what it’s like for these two people to be at the center of a media firestorm and to show them beyond the headlines, show them as a relatable couple living in New York, raising a kid, but in front of a bank of cameras.

C&S: There’s another scene where you really show the tedium of making calls and asking for contributions – what’s the equivalent tedium of movie making?

JK: One of the realities of documentary filmmaking nowadays is that there’s no cost to shooting, unlike when you had to use very expensive film. Inevitably one of the big challenges is dealing with – well in our case we had 400 hours of footage. And we watched all of it and worked through it. Watching that many hours of footage back in real time, inevitably there’s some kind of tedium in going through it all. That’s often a fairly challenging part of the process.

C&S: Were there high fives among the documentary team when the news came out that he had continued sexting after he had apologized and left Congress? Is that when you knew, “Wow, we have a real story on our hands?”

JK: Certainly not high fives. I think as storytellers, as filmmakers, we know what makes an exciting story, and we knew that we were in a remarkable place to be able to watch this event as it unfolded. We were pretty excited about the film prior to the scandal breaking out. For the first half of the campaign as you see in the film, it was a remarkable comeback story, and for much of the filming that’s the story that we thought we might be capturing, which also was dramatic in a different sort of way. I think that we knew Anthony was an exciting character from the get-go, no matter what happened, and we were thrilled to be able to follow it through to the end.

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City & State

CityAndStateNY.com

N EW Y ORK S TATE T RIAL L AWYERS A SSOCIATION Protecting New Yorkers Since 1953

March 3, 2013

Many New Yorkers’ lives have been destroyed by medical malpractice, and then…they are victimized a second time by an absurd state law that prevents them from getting justice in the courts.

Victims of medical negligence Injured patients don’t deserve don’t deserve to lose their rights.

to lose their rights because of undisclosed medical negligence.

New York’s statute of limitations governing medical malpractice is one of the most unjust in the country: 2½ years from the date of the negligent act, even if the victim is unaware it has taken place.

Under current law, the victims of a misread test—such as a mammogram, smear governing or prostatemedical test—ormalpractice a botched New York’s statute ofPAP limitations is one surgical of the most unjustoften in theface country: 2½ years fromUncaught the date procedure fatal consequences. of the or negligent act. Onlya acurable handfuldisease of states have a shorter time misdiagnosed, becomes a symptomperiodfree in which a victim of medical negligence is allowed to bring killer. Treatment is foregone. When the symptoms do a claimappear, against negligent practitioner. thethe disease may be so advanced that treatment is futile.

Under current law, the victims of a misread test—such as a mammogram, PAP smear or prostate test—or a botched surgical procedure often face fatal consequences. Uncaught or misdiagnosed, a curable disease becomes a symptom-free killer. Treatment is foregone. When the symptoms do appear,

The law, however, says no one can be held responsible and victims lose their access to justice.

Only a handful of states (AR, ID, ME, MN, SD) are like New York—lacking some rule that says that the clock starts running when the wrongful action is discovered, either specifically to medical negligence all cases. the disease may be or so generally advancedtothat treatment is futile. The law, however, says no one can be held responsible and victims lose their access to justice.- SUPPORT THE DATE OF DISCOVERY RIGHT THIS WRONG LAW (A.1056 - WEINSTEIN / S.744 - FUSCHILLO).

Only a handful of states (AR, ID, ME, MN, SD) are like New York — lacking some rule that says that the clock starts running when the wrongful action is discovered, either specifically to medical negligence or generally to all cases.

It’s Time for a Change.

RIGHT THIS WRONG - SUPPORT LAVERN’S LAW for a fair Date of Discovery rule for medical malpractice.

It’s Time for a Change: Pass Lavern’s Law A message from the New York State Trial Lawyers Association Michael E. Jaffe, President 132 Nassau Street New York, NY 10038 Tel: 212-349-5890 www.nystla.org

S.6596 DeFrancisco / A.285A Weinstein

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