Morano questions fairness of amnesty for those who paid on time
Morano raises a fairness concern: one business owner pays a $1,000 violation while another waits and pays $750 under amnesty. Lee acknowledges the tension but says the goal is getting people into compliance, noting the program is run sparingly with no guarantee of future amnesties.
Thank you, Majority Leader.
Commissioner, it's good to see you again.
We've definitely missed you on this side of City Hall, most of the time.
I know you're somebody who takes these issues seriously, like the ones that we're looking at in this bill.
I want to start with the basic fairness question.
Suppose two Staten Island small business owners get the same $1,000 violation.
One pays the $1,000 because that's what the law requires.
The other doesn't pay, waits long enough, and under this program could potentially pay $750 and have the interest waived.
What do I tell the first guy?
Well, there are going to be respondents in that situation.
And that's why we're trying to strike a balance between that.
We want to ensure that those unanswered violations do become in compliance.
So that is the primary goal of this.
We're going to have better outcomes for the city if more people are in compliance with any judgments that they might have.
How do we provide a second chance without sending the message that the financially smart thing to do is just to wait City Hall out?
So this program, again, isn't a program that we run normally or regularly.
We come to the city council for authorization of such.
There's also no guarantee we will have another ECB-MDC program in the future.
So I would say that this is a program that we administer sparingly, but it is to ensure that we have better outcomes for individuals in the city.
If people are addressing their outstanding violations, it is a better outcome.