Six Rejected Bills Resurrected
New York City Council voted last Tuesday, Feb. 4, to override six vetoes Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued during his last days in office.
Passed by an overwhelming majority, the overrides signaled the end of the Bloomburg era, council members indicated.
“It is closing that chapter” said Council Speaker Melissa Mark- Viverito.
One bill requires the NYPD post quarterly reports on hit-and-run data. The legislation compels the department to report the number of incidents resulting in critical injury, note whether arrests were made in any cases closed during the period, and describe investigative steps taken.
A second bill directs the NYPD to compile data on crimes committed in parks larger than one acre. Previous laws instructed the NYPD to do so only if it did not create a hardship on the department. The bill removes that language and sets up a new timetable for the NYPD to report park crimes to the Council and post the information online.
Another bill tweaks the Earned Sick Time Act, requiring employers that are exempt from the act to instead offer unpaid sick time. It also caps the number of paid sick hours workers can carry over from year to year and requires employers inform all workers of their rights.
The council also exempted all nonprofits from paying the FDNY for inspections, permits and equipment performance tests.
The department once waived such fees for all nonprofits, but a local law passed in 2009 restricted the gratis services to religious and educational institutions. The new law essentially undoes the 2009 local law .
Another bill would create a registry of animal abusers and make it a crime for anyone on the registry to live with or have contact with an animal.
The final bill vetoed creates a program to register master environmental remediation technicians.
