Feliz questions on worker employment details and horse incidents

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair, for this hearing, and thank you, DOH and DCWP, for your testimony and for all the work you've been doing on this issue.

I just want to start by briefly speaking in favor of the

the legislation.

We've seen a lot of issues related to these horse carriages.

Animal welfare issues, including horses literally dying in our streets.

Also escalating public safety incidents, including the incident that we saw last month.

These are issues that cannot be resolved through legislation or reform or training.

We have to do what's right.

So just want to thank everyone who has joined today and also everyone who has been in this fight since day one.

So a few questions first about the workers and also then on the horses.

So you mentioned there's approximately 170 workers in the horse carriage industry.

I would say that there are 208 licensed horse carriage drivers.

My understanding from some reporting is that not all of those folks are actively engaged in the work.

And then I don't know if we have a count necessarily yet on the amount of folks involved in the stables.

Is this seasonal work or is it year-round work?

And also, what's the general salary?

What was the last part of the question?

I'm sorry.

What's their average salary for these workers?

I'm not sure if I'm aware of the salary.

I think that would be helpful to learn through this hearing process.

I think we see horse-drawn carriages out there throughout the year, albeit there are limitations when there are severe weather conditions that my colleague referred to on when they can operate.

There are also time restrictions that have been put in place.

There are geographic restrictions that have been put in place in this industry over the very many years.

Right, so what do you say this is seasonal employment?

Let's say like eight months.

Out of the 12 months per year?

I'm not sure if I can speak to if it's seasonal or not.

Would you say it could potentially be possible to, for example, if it's 200 workers, we obviously have a lot, as you know, we obviously have a lot of vacancies in almost every single city agency.

Do you think it could potentially be possible to bring all of these workers to our city agencies, or do we see any obstacles that are foreseeable?

I know that the city hiring process itself, I guess it would depend on what role, and certainly people can apply to positions that are available right now.

They can sign up for civil service exams right now.

This option already exists for workers across the city.

A few questions related to the horses.

How many incidents related to medical issues have we had in the last, more or less, two years that you're aware of?

So the administrative code does not require reporting to us of medical incidents.

So that is part of the challenge in responding to some of the data questions.

We certainly follow the news and get complaints that we follow up on and get referrals from NYPD.

The administrative code does not allow horses to be worked when they are ill or injured.

So that's part of why we don't have a count.

There have been counts in the press of incidents, and we would have those same counts based on our review of the news that we monitor.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

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