New York Mayor Bill de Blasio this afternoon said the time is now to “to restore democracy” in the state as he gathered with members of the New York State County Executives Association for a press conference livestreamed via Zoom from the Dutchess County Village of Rhinebeck.
County executives convened to reflect upon their efforts in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic since the early days of 2020, and to let the public know about a book that chronicles the challenges they faced, called "Our Darkest Hours: NY County Leadership and the COVID Pandemic."
de Blasio spoke of the past, present and future as he urged lawmakers in Albany to loosen the restrictions tied to the pandemic and give county officials the unbridled ability to “do their jobs.”
“The fact is that something extraordinary happened in this last year and more because people worked together, and all of those notions that we get told all the time -- that we can’t work together across regional lines or party lines -- we’ve been disproving that through our actions,” de Blasio said.
The mayor called county executives “heroic” in fighting COVID – coming together and sharing their experiences and struggles.
“But it was not only COVID that brought us together,” he said. “This is the path that needs to be understood. We were already engaged. Sometimes it was to stop things that were not fair to our people (such as) when the state of New York tried to hoist Medicaid costs on us in a way that was unsupportable. We all banded together; it didn’t matter if you were Democrat or Republican, Upstate or Downstate.”
de Blasio said that COVID gave county leaders a “deeper kind of common cause.”
“We needed each other … to innovate together. Sometimes, we cried on each other’s shoulders a little bit because we were all going through so much,” he said.
He said county action over the last year reflects a model of what should be in the state and beyond – “where people can actually sit in a room in a true sense of fellowship. That’s what we experienced and it helped to save lives.”
Then he called upon the governor and legislators in Albany to “to restore democracy in the State of New York.”
“We need to restore local control. It’s time,” he said, adding that the progress against COVID represents a signal that localities have the ability “to do our jobs fully and navigate what we have to do now for our people.”
We are closest to our people, we hear our people, we meet them at the supermarket and on the corner. We understand and we need to be able to do our jobs again fully.”
de Blasio mentioned the spirit of cooperation among county executives, adding that it’s time to put COVID in the rearview mirror.
“We have to stop thinking through COVID because we’re defeating COVID. We have to start envisioning what we’re all going to do together in a new and better situation ahead,” he said. “We all talked about things like opening up our schools and all the other things that will people back to a normal life. We, as leaders, have to show that that path can and will be done.”
Marc Molinaro, Dutchess County executive and president of the NYS County Executives Association, said that in light of an emergency situation it makes sense to centralize decision-making.
“However, we’ve been through the crisis. We’re well along in responding to this emergency, and restoring that state and local balance is very much about restoring democracy,” he said. “Government closest to the people … is generally the most effective. And, you can’t from the second floor of the state capitol anymore than you could from a distant land, make decisions that for how to respond on the ground.”
He said Albany needs to rely on “the professionals in the local governments who have been given a great deal of authority … and have a huge amount of public health infrastructure to respond in these very moments.”
“Centralization of decision-making in one person, whether it’s the mayor, county executive or governor, is not good for very long.”
Molinaro opened the briefing by praising his colleagues for rising to the challenge presented by the pandemic.
“Many times, throughout these 16 months we have talked about seeing light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “Well, we are in the light. Hope is on the horizon. Light has met darkness.
“We have seen not only the decline in hospitalizations, thankfully, and the slowing of the loss of life, but also vaccines are working and the positivity rate has been on a steady decline.”
To obtain a copy of the book, click here.
All proceeds will go to food banks across the state.
