Recently I was appointed to NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer’s RED TAPE COMMISSION.  The Comptroller did a city-wide campaign to hear from members of the community about issues concerning the difficulties of doing business in NYC due to the bureaucracy.

I invited a colleague, Joseph Votto, to address the need to have 50(h) hearings in Staten Island.  These hearings are required to be held whenever a person sues the City of New York, but the problem is that the City attorneys schedule them for Manhattan.  If a litigant lives in Staten Island, he is forced to travel to Manhattan to complete the hearing.  This is unfair for many reasons, but especially because public transportation is terrible on the Island and injured persons would find it difficult to make that long trip.

I urge you all to exercise your Constitutional right to elect the most qualified officials and to ask those elected officials to create laws that are fair and just.