CM Morano questions panel on options for letter recipients and legal costs

Thank you, Councilman Murnar.

Did you have a question?

The thing is, the problem that I'm having right now is those folks that is not really a millionaire like many, you know, that we're talking about.

We're talking about average folks.

We heard it from Cal.

That is actually did everything they're supposed to do, like this young man said, coming.

That's what appealing in New York City.

This is a place you want to be.

They work all their lives.

And like my colleagues just mentioned, those are the people that.

We're concerned, really, how they're going to do it.

Do they give you in the letter that you receive?

Have you, any one of you received that?

Letters from Department of Finance already.

We've read them.

Okay, so it's not directly for you, right?

So what actually, for me, I'm asking, by the way, before I even ask my question,

We are not the one that's talking about Peter Terry's.

We're just trying to find out what can we do to help because you elected us to do our job.

So it's not us that came with that Peter Terry directly.

So we're trying to do our very best.

I just want to clear that out.

What is the kind of like those that received the letter, what is the option to leave you on the table?

Because we're talking about September 14th, what's the date?

18Th.

18Th.

So if you don't do that, do you find an organization, any organization listed?

Did you call, anyone call the mayor's office or the finance department, Department of Finance to see what is the option that you have?

Because when you receive letters, as bad as it may be, we disagree.

It should not be online for all those folks.

I'm concerned about seniors, the people that don't have no, now people knocking on their doors or sending them email.

I'm concerned about all that.

But I'm saying, do you have a nonprofit organization listed?

from Department of Finance that tell you this is what you need to do and how can you do it to make sure that you're not falling in the bucket because you work so hard, you don't have extra money, now you have that tax over your head, if you don't pay it, you're risking the...

You're risking your own livelihood, which is your home.

So do you have the list?

Let's see what they have to say.

Yeah, go ahead.

I think the letter was somewhat clear, but I think the messaging is the problem.

I think the communication style is so unclear to so many people.

And for others who are more adept to these matters,

It's pretty basic what you have to do and pretty obvious what you have to do.

But for a lot of people, it is overwhelming.

They're calling brokers.

They're calling lawyers.

And I think what needs to happen is there needs to be a very aggressive clarification of exactly action steps as to exactly what you should do.

And maybe that should come from the mayor himself so that he can explain to people, step one, do this, step two, do this, step three, do this.

And I apologize for this horrific public relations debacle.

Probably the most expensive public relations debacle in the history of New York City.

Anybody else want to comment?

Yeah, also, so for a lot of the people with the unintended consequences that are these use cases that are outside of your typical

very basic, just send out your, send your information verifying your residency status.

When you have that, you have to hire an attorney.

Attorneys are charging $2,500 just for the first initial call.

Some are charging success fees like 10% of the money that they save you.

And then some others are not able to give them the full total of their fees and charges depending on their case.

So it's becoming an instance where there's an attorney grab going on, but people don't have a choice because it's not clear and they don't know what else to do.

I would also just add, I mean, let's compare this to the norm.

Let's say local at 97, eight years of implementation, how many focus groups, how many, a specialty group was created to provide one-on-one customer service.

Containerization, right?

That was a sped up one, and that was still three, four years of explaining mailers, all these different things.

So in terms of the norm, I think we can see a very big difference between educating our taxpayers, educating our homeowners on what they have to do, how we normally do it, versus how we did it this time.

So there's no structure for you to follow to see how.

Because I know some folks, they're millionaire on paper, but they're not really having that extra we're talking about.

Getting a lawyer, if they have to do that, they're running the risk of losing their home.

And that's my concern.

Anyway, thank you so much for your time.

And we're going to do our best.

I can only apologize for the government in general, but in the city council side, it's not us.

I just want to be clear.