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APRIL 5, 2024
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Challengers fall short in lifeguard local’s leadership election BY DUNCAN FREEMAN
clewis@thechiefleader.com
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Mayor Eric Adams, City Hall officials and community advocates held a press conference March 27 at the Brownsville Community Justice Center to announce the Jobs NYC initiative. To help connect New Yorkers to jobs, the city is bringing back its hiring halls, the first of which was held at the community center that same day, which will now include both public and private employers.
Mayor introduces city jobs initiative, revamps hiring halls As of last December, the Administration for Children’s Services counted 809 fewer employees than The Adams administration an- in January 2020, while the Law Denounced last week that the city partment had 285 fewer workers, will be relaunching its hiring halls according to data from the state – which paused last fall following comptroller’s office. A February a hiring freeze – as part of its plan report from the city Independent to connect New Yorkers to work Budget Office found that the hiropportunities. ing freeze did not have “an appreLast week, Mayor Eric Ad- ciable effect on active city headams unveiled Jobs NYC, a three- count.” pronged initiative to help New Yorkers, particularly those in Looking to close the gap neighborhoods with high rates of unemployment, find jobs. The city In late February, City Hall sushas revamped the hiring halls to pended the hiring freeze and ageninclude opportunities with private cies instead adopted a two-for-one employers. The events will be held hiring model, according to which monthly. one employee can be hired for ev“We did hiring halls for city ery two departures. jobs, now we’re adding hiring District Council 37, which rephalls for private sector jobs as resents many of the titles facing well. We’re going to connect New staffing shortages, celebrated the Yorkers to well‑paying public- and return of the hiring halls. “We apprivate-sector jobs,” Adams said plaud any effort the City makes to during the March 27 hiring hall fill more than 22,000 vacancies facin Brownsville where city officials ing our public workforce,” a union unveiled the initiative. spokesperson said. City agencies including the AdAlthough New York City has ministration for Children’s Ser- recovered the jobs lost during vices, the Fire Department and the pandemic — there are curthe Department of Transportation rently nearly 28,000 more jobs were among those recruiting. Pri- in the city than there were in vate employers such as NYU Lan- February 2020, according to the gone and Goodwill NY/NJ were Center for New York City Afalso there. fairs — the unemployment rate To address widespread munic- for Black New Yorkers is three ipal vacancies, the city last year times larger than that of white hosted more than a dozen hiring residents. As of the last quarter events, where nearly 2,200 pro- of 2023, the unemployment rate spective city workers were offered was 9.3 percent for Black city jobs. But they came to a stop after residents, compared to 3 percent Adams announced his adminis- for white New Yorkers. tration’s “Program to Eliminate “We’ve got to interact and find the Gap” budget cuts along with a out, what’s the hurdle? What’s hiring freeze for nearly all depart- the barrier? Why aren’t you emments. Positions supporting public ployed?” Adams said. “We have health, public safety and revenue generation were excluded from the See HIRING, page 2 freeze. BY CRYSTAL LEWIS
clewis@thechiefleader.com
The president of a District Council 37 local representing the city’s lifeguards was re-elected on March 29 but reformers pushing for union democracy made inroads into the union’s executive board. According to the results released to candidates by Local 461’s election committee on Saturday, Alma Diamond was reelected president, beating back a challenge from lifeguard David Lucena despite what members of the reform slate said was a coalescing around the challenger’s candidacy in the days preceding the election. But Stephanie Reiter, a lifeguard supported by the reformers, won the union’s secretary-treasurer position and Bryant Colon, another reformer, won a seat on the union’s executive board. Lifeguards intent on ousting the union’s current leadership had initially supported Kristoff Borrel for
Ex-IBEW members’ suit against local goes ahead
Charter settlement could be subject of class action, p. 3
City Council staffers get first-ever contract deal
Nearly 400 would be covered by ‘historic’ agreement, p. 8 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, p. 4 EXAMS FOR JOBS, p. 13 LABOR AROUND THE NATION, p. 14
127th Year — Vol. CXXVIII, No. 6 Print and web subscriptions 212-962-2690 | thechief.org
union’s constitution is arbitrarily applied president, but he and others on an insurgent slate were barred by the local’s election committee from running because they were not in good standing for the entire preceding year, forcing the lifeguards to regroup and find other candidates to support. Another insurgent lifeguard, Jose Polanco, tied with lifeguard Gavin Erickson in the vote for an executive board seat, necessitating a runoff. In an email announcing election results, Local 461’s election committee did not include information
‘The corruption keeps going’ Edwin Agramonte, who organized the original reform slate, was barred from running in the election because he worked as a chief lifeguard in 2023 — a supervisory role — and his union dues were sent to a different lifeguard union, Local See LIFEGUARDS, page 3
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
NYPD pallbearers carried Officer Jonathan Diller’s casket into St. Rose of Lima R.C. Church in Massapequa for his funeral.
Thousands came to salute, mourn NYPD’s Jonathan Diller BY RICHARD KHAVKINE
richardk@thechiefleader.com
INSIDE
Reform slate claims
about how many lifeguards voted in the election or how many votes each candidate received. “I want to thank everyone who came out to vote, we had a great turn out,” Carlos Adames, the head of the committee, wrote in the email. The results were sent out late Saturday night, and only members who ran in the election received the results, several lifeguards told The Chief. The election was held at two different polling sites, one in Queens and one in Manhattan, throughout the day Friday.
On a windy and cool Holy Saturday morning on Long Island’s South Shore, family, friends and thousands of fellow cops bid goodbye to NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller, the married father of a 1-year-old boy, who was shot and killed in Queens March 25 by a career criminal. During funeral services for the 31-year-old officer at St. Rose of Lima R.C. Church in Massapequa, not far from where he, his wife and young son Ryan were building a life, mourners spoke of their gratitude for having known Diller as a friend and as a cop, as a husband and as a father. They spoke of his passion for hockey and lacrosse, of his dedication to the department and its mission, of the respect he engendered and of his love for his wife and son. Noting that Diller was in his late 20s when he joined the NYPD, Commissioner Edward Caban said Diller “had done some living by that point.” “And he brought both his life experience and his big personality to his 50,000 new brothers and sisters,” Caban continued. “When you talk to
the cops who work with Jon, they’ll tell you there was a time in their career before they’d worked with him, and then there was everything that came after. He was special. He left a lasting impression. And after you met him, everything was different. Everything was better…. He loved this work and he was darned good at it.” But they also spoke about resolve and responsibility, Stephanie Diller most of all. Recalling the January 2022 killings of NYPD Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora in a West Harlem apartment by a heavily armed ex-con, the officer’s widow implored city officials. “It’s been two years and two months since Detective Rivera and Detective Mora made the ultimate sacrifice — just like my husband, Jonathan Diller. Dominique Rivera stood in front of all the elected officials present today pleading for change. That change never came,” she told the hundreds of mourners inside the church, her 14-month old son in the arms of an officer standing just behind her. “How many more police officers and how many more families need to make the ultimate sacrifice before we start protecting them?”
Diller, a member of the 105th Precinct’s Community Response Team, was shot and killed after he and other officers approached an illegally parked car in Far Rockaway, Queens. Police said Diller was shot once in the stomach by a man with 21 prior arrests. Officials said Diller, mortally wounded, was still able to wrestle the gun away from the shooter before the man was shot by police. Diller was taken to Jamaica Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The suspected killer, Guy Rivera, 34, has since been arraigned on charges of murder of a police officer, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
‘He saved lives’ Mayor Eric Adams saluted the young officer, calling him a bulwark against chaos and disorder, “a hero to all New Yorkers and all Americans.” “He ran towards danger, taking risks, making arrests and undoubtedly saving lives,” the mayor, a former 22-year New York City cop, See DILLER, page 8