Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and Speaker Menin Cut Red Tape to Expedite Payments for Up to 800 Nonprofits
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
- 16 passages
- 2,800 words
- 2026-10-08
Passages
Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here in Bushwick alongside friends, nonprofit leaders and partners in government. I want to acknowledge we have leaders both inside and outside of City government here with us today. We have Speaker Julie Menin. We have Council Member Lincoln Restler, City Council Member Linda Lee and the in-district representative of this Council district, City Council Member Sandy Nurse. We also have leaders from within the administration, our deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, Dr. Helen Arteaga; our Mayor's Office of Nonprofit Services executive director, Annie Minguez; our Mayor's Office of Contract Services director, Kim Yu; and I also just want to give a special shoutout to the Bushwick Starr. If we can have a round of applause for the Bushwick Starr. Truly. And for Noel Allain, co-founder and artistic director, and all of the nonprofit organizations who are gathered here today, what you do, helps to make this city so special for all those who call it home, and we can't thank you enough, truly. Now, our city has long been fascinated by those who go fast. In October of 1904, New Yorkers took the very first ride on a subway, sitting in awe as they shot underground across our city. In 1969, we watched in wonder as our country won the race to the moon, only slightly resentful that Buzz Aldrin had grown up across the river in New Jersey. And half a century later, we leapt to our feet on Randall's Island as Usain Bolt broke the world record for the 100-meter dash at Icahn Stadium. Today, we add one more groundbreaking chapter to that story of speed as we celebrate a new feat of civic agility: expedited discretionary grant funding. I'm proud to announce that together with the City Council, City Hall is expanding a pilot program from last year that will make it easier and faster for nonprofit organizations to access the money that they are awarded. And while this has not yet been described as one giant leap for mankind, it is certainly one not-so-small step toward cutting unnecessary red tape, making City government more efficient and supporting the nonprofits that enrich our communities every day. Here's how this will work. Every year, thousands of nonprofit organizations receive discretionary funds from the City Council. Many of the awards they receive can be as small as $5,000, the little bit they need to keep vital programs running. But no matter how small the grant may be, for years nonprofits have been treated as if they are entering into a large contract with the City, like those needed to construct a new municipal building or provide an extensive service across the five boroughs. As a result, they have been forced to fill out mountains of documents and endure months of delays. This one-size-fits-all system creates a huge backlog for our city and often forces nonprofits to wait for more than a year to access funds that they've already been promised, all while they are already struggling to make ends meet on razor-thin budgets. The discretionary grant pilot seeks to solve that. By cutting out nine steps from the traditional contracting process, it will treat nonprofit discretionary funding of less than $25,000 as what it actually is: a grant, not a contract. And it will allow City government to dispense funds in a fraction of the time. When the first iteration of this pilot was launched last fall, more than 100 organizations participated and received their awards in fewer than 90 days. That is nine months faster than the traditional wait time for discretionary funds. Now, with the expansion of this pilot, up to 800 nonprofits will stand to benefit. That means they can spend less time tracking deadlines and filing paperwork and more time providing essential services to our communities. The Parodneck Foundation can skip the tax affirmation documents and focus on helping low-income New Yorkers access the housing resources they need. Bronx Giants can stop filling out lobbying certification forms and keep teaching football, cheerleading and the skills needed to succeed on and off the field. And Bushwick Starr can spend less time on agency self-registration and more acting and writing with the men and women of Palmetto Garden Senior Club. In the coming weeks, City Hall will notify the 800 qualifying nonprofits that they are eligible for this pilot. After a much simpler clearance process, one that City government hopes will help these organizations navigate, they can expect to start receiving their payments come winter. This expansion reflects the call of nonprofit leaders who spoke up during our Commission on Government Efficiency hearings. It represents one critical step in the work of getting nonprofits the funding they need when they need it. And it is a step that we will continue to build upon in the years to come. It will be felt across our city. It will be felt in every neighborhood, in every difference that nonprofit organizations and their workers make every single day. In food pantries that feed the hungry. In after-school programs that enrich our children's lives. In the arts and culture that is the beating heart of our city. Today we are standing together to support our nonprofit partners in the work of building a better, more livable, more beautiful New York. And making sure that when it comes to streamlining City government and delivering services to New Yorkers, no one has to wait. And Usain Bolt, in case you are tuning in for this press conference on discretionary grant timelines, we would love to have you as our spokesperson. Please let me know. Thank you. Now I will be serving dual duty as also the emcee for today. So, with that, I would like to introduce the speaker of the City Council, Julie Menin.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThank you, Speaker Menin. We will now hear from the Finance Chair of the City Council, Council Member Linda Lee.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThank you so much to the Finance chair. And now we will pass it over to Council Member Lincoln Restler.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourcePlease join me in welcoming the representative of this district, City Council Member Sandy Nurse.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAnd now last, but most definitely not least, The Bushwick Starr co-founder and artistic director, Noel Allain.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAbsolutely. So, I'll just also invite MONS and MOCS and our deputy mayor as well to come up to add some additional details here. But what I will first say just broadly is that to affirm the central premise of your question, which is that nonprofits are a critical partner in delivering services across the city. I also say that as someone who used to work at a nonprofit in Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill, and so often I knew that if I wasn't working with my client, then there might not be anyone that they would be able to work with because of the language fluency that came in that organization. And so, today's announcement, it is in large part thanks to the advocacy of nonprofits, because it's scaling up an approach that has worked. But there's also larger systemic issues at hand. And right now, what we've been focusing on is how do we process as many contracts as possible on a much faster timeline. So, when it comes to the timeliness initiative within our administration, agencies submitted about 96 percent of all fiscal year 2027 human services contracts for comptroller registration by Sept. 1. That then allowed nonprofits to start to receive advances. When it comes to this work, it has to continue. It has to scale up. I think what we've also shown is that it worked for 100 nonprofits, we're expanding it to 800. We're going to keep taking that approach across the board. Anything that works to expedite these payments, we will do. I don't know if there's anything you want to add.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI can actually offer one early diagnosis, is that nearly 70 percent of our city's human service contract backlog consists of discretionary contracts. That then leads to payment delays for providers. And I actually think that Council Member Restler was quite apt in his description that a program like this is not only meaningful for 800 nonprofits that are receiving grants of less than $25,000. It's also meaningful for MONS and for MOCS to be able to process the larger-scale contracts that are typically being responded to in kind with this scale of a $5,000 or $10,000, what would be a grant.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I was proud to attend last night's vigil, as I did last year, to listen to testimonies from family members of those who were killed on Oct. 7 and those who have been killed in the three years since. And all of whom united in a vision for peace and an end to the genocide in Gaza. And when we're speaking of that genocide, we're speaking of one that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians in the last three years. As for those protesting me, I am the mayor of New York City, and this is what I signed up for.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe've seen our city come together many a time, and we know that we will also continue to do so, all while understanding the fact that this is a city of eight and a half million people, and if we didn't have eight and a half million opinions, then we wouldn't be in New York City. And when it comes to my responsibility, I've said is not only to deliver for New Yorkers but also to be honest with New Yorkers about what I think. And I've been very clear, both as a candidate as well as the mayor of our city, of my firm belief that we have to extend human rights to all people and that that has to include Palestinians. And that as Americans we have a special responsibility given our federal government's complicity in funding so much of the weaponry that has been used over these last three years. And we also know that when we are commemorating the anniversary, three years of horrific war crimes, three years since Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted hundreds more. Three years of an anniversary that has brought unthinkable devastation to so many. That also the Israeli government used and continues to use that day, those war crimes, as a justification for an ongoing genocide against Palestinians. And that this is something that has shattered the lives of so many New Yorkers. Whether in those who I was standing alongside at the vigil, recounting their own family members who were killed; or reading the testimonies of Palestinians whose family members had been killed; or the Palestinian New Yorkers that I met soon after that vigil, who shared with me, for example, a Palestinian Christian nurse here in New York City sharing with me that she lost 17 of her family members when the Israeli military bombed a church. It has devastated people's lives across our city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYesterday was a day of profound grief for so many New Yorkers. When it comes to that proposal, our administration is reviewing it, and I'll let you know once we actually get through that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceTo your first question, I think that there has to be engagement from the Parks Department when it comes to the creation of a monument like this. That's my understanding at this time. That is why the review is critical. Once that review takes place, then I'll have better thoughts to answer the second question.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo those discussions are ongoing. What I would also say is just a slight addendum in that in some of the bike lane projects that we have restarted that the prior administration had indefinitely paused, in some cases, we've also expanded the scope of those projects. I used to have the privilege of representing Astoria and Long Island City. The bike lane that was proposed in Astoria that was then paused in litigation is one that we've actually been able to expand. And that, I think, is incredibly important because safety should be something that every New Yorker is afforded no matter what street they're on, no matter whatever mode of transit they're using. And personally, as someone who used to avoid biking down 31st Street purely out of safety concerns, going out of my way to try and stay safe as a cyclist, I think it's incredibly important that that project is also moving forward. To your first question, the importance for us when we're talking about an approach to Vision Zero Reimagined is to be data-driven. And when it comes to that kind of data it means focusing on whatever kinds of incidents are putting New Yorkers in danger, not privileging any one mode or the other on anything except for the statistics of what the actual impacts are. And that is, to us, you know, we've seen progress in the time that we've been in office. We're looking at, even just since the beginning of Vision Zero, progress since the de Blasio administration of about 28 percent decline, and yet we also know the point is in the name. It has to be zero. So long as there are traffic deaths in the city, there's more work to be done. But thank you for fighting.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI don't think we have to pick what kind of enforcement needs to be done. I think we have to address anything that puts New Yorkers in danger, and that's part of our belief that there shouldn't be a hierarchy of safety based on what mode of transit you use.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I believe that there must be room to mourn every single life. There must be room to mourn the lives of the more than 1,100 Israelis that Hamas killed three years ago. There must be room to mourn the 74,000 Palestinians that the Israeli government has killed since. There must be room to reckon with the ways in which so many New Yorkers' lives have been shattered. And that, to me, is a part of what it means to believe in a sense of humanity, that we need not choose between which death we will mourn and which we will ignore. That we can reckon with the fact that all of it is to be opposed. And what I so appreciated about being at the vigil yesterday evening, as I had been the year before, is that it was a vigil that brought together and brings together New Yorkers to read testimonies of their own family members, testimonies of others who have been killed either on the day or in the genocide since, and ends with a shared vision for peace and for an end to the genocide. And that, to me, is the future that we have to fight for.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that Oct. 7 is a day that is immensely painful for our city and is a day of mourning. And so, whether in the statement, whether in the attendance of the vigil, as I had done the year before, or whether in meeting with Palestinian New Yorkers after that, all of it is part of reckoning with what that day has meant for this city and the fact that we know that it brings up the most horrific memories for so many in the city. And also for others, it is a day that is continuing in the Israeli government's use of it as a justification for a genocide. And so, to me, it is critically important to be able to mourn for all of those who were killed and have been killed since, especially given that we know this is ongoing, as opposed to something simply that was three years ago. I think that the statement, the attendance, the meeting, it all speaks to a reckoning with horror. And a horror that devastated the lives of New Yorkers three years ago, and it also continues to devastate New Yorkers today.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, I've said this over the course of the campaign and also as mayor, is that I am just as committed as I was at the very beginning in the importance of disbanding the SRG, the importance of decoupling response to protests from counterterrorism, which, as we know, [is] what SRG was founded for a little more than a decade ago. And what we have been working on over the time that I've been in office is how to ensure that that decoupling is one that doesn't come at the expense of New Yorkers’ safety or at the expense of the protection of their constitutional rights. And it is something that is a priority, has been a priority, and we will have more to share soon. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and Speaker Menin Cut Red Tape to Expedite Payments for Up to 800 Nonprofits.