Liz Roberts testifies for Safe Horizon on concerns with restructuring

Thank you, Chair Farias, Speaker Manon, members of the committee.

My name is Liz Roberts.

I'm the CEO of Safe Horizon.

We're the nation's largest nonprofit victim assistance organization.

We're very grateful that the council is examining this issue so carefully.

We will say, having met with both Deputy Mayor Francois and Commissioner Delaney Brumsey, we have found them to be thoughtful leaders with a deep commitment to creating safer communities for all New Yorkers.

We recognize the value of placing NGBV within the Office of Community Safety, but we have many concerns about the way this decision was made and the impact it is having.

We feel strongly that the leadership of NGBV should not

have been downgraded from commissioner to director, and that the new organizational chart adds additional and unnecessary layers between the leadership of this critical office and Deputy Mayor Francois.

I also have serious concerns having listened to the testimony of the administration a few minutes ago

with what will happen to the staffing, the current staffing of experts at NGBV when their titles change and when their salaries potentially change, as was indicated was possible.

I think it will be hard to recruit people with that level of expertise and experience at the lower titles that are envisioned for the office in the future.

And so while the work of NGBV has continued uninterrupted, that may not be the case going forward because of the plan to downgrade titles.

I think, you know, our biggest concern has been that this new structure sends a message that addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, other forms of gender-based violence simply isn't a priority for this administration.

And the mayor's silence has only added to that message.

So I would be remiss if I fail for seconds very quickly.

The Crime Victim Assistance Program, RFP, issued at the beginning of September, actually is asking the organization that staffs the precincts to do more work with less funding.

It will have a very serious impact on the level of staffing, coverage, and responsiveness that the CVAP program can provide to people who have reached out to the police for assistance.

We were reaching 50,000 people before the Adams administration's peg.

That went down to 40,000 because of the peg.

It will go down even more because of this RFP.

It adds new requirements while reducing the funding for the precinct-based advocate in a very significant way.

And we think that we've asked the administration to reconsider, and we think that the council should look more closely at that issue as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.