Chair Lee reads CM Ariola's statement on privacy and security concerns

And now Chair Lee is going to read a statement from one of our colleagues, Council Member Arrola.

Great.

So thank you so much.

This statement is from Councilmember Joann-Ariola because she could not be here and we do not have quorum for her to say it over Zoom.

So I'm reading it on her behalf.

Thank you, Speaker Menon, Chairs Brewer and Lee, for hosting this hearing, as well as all who have come to testify.

As mentioned by my colleagues and many of those who testified, the Department of Finance published a database covering roughly 900,000-plus properties'valuations.

The city says the underlying property information was already public, but I argue that compiling the list and making it easily accessible subjects the list of people to appear to be potential tax targets.

That creates substantially different privacy and security concerns.

It can incorrectly label people as tax cheats or wealthy targets.

Additionally, this doxing may be misinterpreted by the public into believing that if this person is on the list, it must mean they own the pied-à-terre tax.

They owe the pied-a-terre tax.

That's potentially damaging to the integrity of innocent homeowners.

Publishing the names and locations of people associated with, in some instances, wrongly identified as very expensive properties can create obvious concerns such as burglary and targeting, stalking or harassment,

political intimidation, scams, identity theft, unwanted media attention.

It also puts the burden of proof on the homeowner and will cause them to incur legal costs to prove what they already know.

The home listed is their primary home.

The disrespect that the mayor has shown the council, the committees, this hearing, and the residents of the city by not showing up tells me that they could not defend their actions.

So again, that's a statement that I just read from Councilmember Joann-Ariola for the record.

Thank you.