Mayor Bill de Blasio’s staff is ready to revolt.
In a historic display of dissent from within city government, hundreds of current and former city employees under de Blasio took to the streets Monday to express their frustration with the mayor. The action, which an organizer says came together in just three days, was inspired by an open letter current and former members of the administration released last week condemning the mayor’s tone-deaf response to ongoing protests against police brutality and demanding more concrete action.
But those who joined Monday’s march from City Hall to Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn made it clear that this was only the latest in a string of letdowns from de Blasio, who they say doesn’t listen to members of his administration when they speak up internally.
"We came to this administration because we saw someone who was listening,” said Catherine Almonte, one of the organizers of Monday’s action who has served in various roles in the administration, including special assistant to the mayor. “We saw someone who shared our values and we showed up to do the work. And we are not happy right now. This is not what we signed up for."
The city has never before seen this level of mobilization against a current mayor from within his own administration, says George Arzt, who was Mayor Ed Koch’s press secretary and has spent years working in and covering city government.
“This is very much unprecedented,” Arzt said Monday afternoon. “It’s never happened in the city’s history to have employees protest the policies of the current mayor en masse.”
The city also has never had a mayor run as a leftist before, which created a new level of expectation for de Blasio, Arzt noted. “He’s the first person from the progressive wing of the [Democratic] party to have become mayor and so within that wing of the party there was great hope,” Arzt said. “And the results haven’t been there.”
When de Blasio ran on a platform of reforming the police and addressing the deep, longstanding iniquities plaguing New York City in 2013, he not only attracted a progressive base of voters, he also attracted more progressive staff to work in his administration. Now, some say they feel disillusioned by his lack of follow-through.
"I was inspired by his campaign of a Tale of Two Cities,” a current city employee working on economic development initiatives, who asked to remain anonymous, told Gothamist. “I was inspired by the fact that he’s a father of black children, that he’s married to a black woman."
A Dominican immigrant who grew up in Harlem and the Bronx, the city worker says she hoped to be able to effect change through her role in local government and has felt her efforts stymied in the past. But only over the past week, when she saw the mayor’s response to the police protests, has she considered resigning.
“I understand there are hierarchies and I can’t really change shit up,” she said. “But right now we’re asking him to speak up, we’re asking him to stand behind his campaign, we’re asking him to stand behind his mission of equity, we’re asking him to just support us. He isn’t listening to us.”
She added that she has other colleagues who wanted to join the march Monday but didn’t want to put their jobs at risk.
“The NYPD, yes, they work for you, but we also work for you,” she said. “And we’re larger in numbers. This is our cry. Hear us out.”
Asked about the protest at a press conference Monday, de Blasio was dismissive of the participation of his former staff, but said he was trying to open up lines of communication with people who currently work for him.
“Look, there's a very big difference between former staff and current staff,” de Blasio said. “Current staff, we had a good conversation yesterday. I intend to spend time with staff. I want to hear their concerns. I want us all to work together.”
Despite the more conciliatory tone the mayor has adopted over the past couple of days, those who marched from his administration were not yet convinced he would heed their demands, which include reducing the NYPD budget by $1 billion in the coming fiscal year (some other activists and the city comptroller have set a goal of cutting $1 billion over a multi-year period).
“I feel like there’s a 50 percent chance he will follow through, but to what extent and what amount he will defund [from the NYPD] is still to be seen,” a NYCHA staffer who wished to remain anonymous told Gothamist as she marched over the Brooklyn Bridge Monday.
Almonte says Monday’s action is just the beginning.
“The budget will be finalized by July 1st,” she said in a speech to her colleagues at the end of the march at Cadman Plaza. “There are three weeks. We will continue to organize, to mobilize and to hold our mayor accountable.”
Afterwards, multiple city workers came over to thank Almonte for helping to give them a voice.
