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News 12 Staff

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Thanks for being with us on this episode of Power and Politics. I'm Amanda Bossard. The race for mayor didn't end the way city comptroller Brad Lander would have liked, but now, as he prepares for his term to end, I spoke with him about his accomplishments on the job and whether he has any plans to run for office again in the future. Comptroller Brad Lander, thank you as always for the time here on News 12, especially as we wrap up the year, and I know you are preparing to wrap up your time as comptroller. So we just saw this meeting between Mayor Eric Adams and Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani, and it makes me wonder, are you having any similar conversations right now with your successor, Mark Levine? Absolutely, we started working with the Comptroller elect right after he was elected. We had actually been working on transition for months before that to be able to give him and his incoming team a really detailed playbook on how you underwrite the city's bonds and manage the pension funds and register the contracts in the city's financial management system, uh. You know, there's a lot of detailed work in the office and we're excited to hand it over to Comptroller-elect Mark Levine and his team. It's a this is a stewardship job, lots of parts of the controller's job. Nobody will ever really see, but they hold the city up doing its audits, managing the budget, managing the pension funds, and. Uh, I've loved doing it and I'm really excited to hand it over to Mark and see where he takes it. To all of those points, this job has a lot to do with money, numbers, audits, investigations as you reflect on your time as controller, are there any accomplishments, any work in particular that you're Especially proud of. Uh, first, we held the Adams administration to account time and time again. We got that corrupt half billion dollars dollar doco contract canceled, prevented him from pushing seniors on to Medicare Advantage, and provided the check and balance New Yorkers rely on. We made some great pension fund investments. They've grown to over $300 billion and we made the biggest investment in affordable housing ever, saving 35,000 rent stabilized units that were put at risk when Signature Bank failed. We bought those mortgages so they wouldn't be picked up by a speculator, and they're beating their 11% hurdle rate. So that's uh one of my, one of my favorite moments and uh. Yeah, we're really proud of the work we've done. I think federal funding also became a focal point of a lot of the work with the Trump administration threatening and at times actually pulling funding from the city. Any words of wisdom having gone through that to your successor on how to manage that uncertainty? Yeah, that day when we discovered that Elon Musk had gone into New York City's bank account and stolen $80 million was certainly one of the shockers of this administration. Um, the advice there is to have a great team, you know, I got a first rate budget and accounting team in place, and they were the ones who caught it that morning and came to me and said, Controller, um, we're not sure if the Department of Finance is yet aware, but we believe that $80 million has been taken out of our bank account. Um, there's no substitute for building a first rate team. We've got one here in the Controller's office. Most of the offices. 700 people, most are civil servants who continue. Experience pays off in dividends for sure. You've also emerged over the last few months as a really leading voice in the pushback to the immigration crackdown that we've seen here in the city and the ICE raids in particular, and specifically at that federal building in Manhattan, just a few weeks ago, you alongside other lawmakers were arrested while protesting at that building. I know others who were arrested have accepted a plea deal. You have not. You want this case to go to trial. Why is that? Yeah, look, the crime was not us sitting and singing on the floor of the, the 10th floor elevator lobby. The crime is what ICE agents are doing on the other side of those locked doors where our neighbors are being detained in conditions a federal judge has called inhumane, so. I want the chance to do discovery and to ask questions of the ICE agent who arrested me about what they're doing on the other side of those doors. It really has been heartbreaking. I've watched family separations. I've watched unaccompanied kids get taken. Um, thankfully I have seen New Yorkers rise up, lawyers who filed habeas proceedings to get those families reunited and those kids like Joel Camas back out of detention. Um, in recent weeks, the, the things have really shifted. There's still um ICE agents in the hallways of 26 Federal Plaza, but many more of the detentions are taking place out in the neighborhood. This is a strange moment with dark, you know, uh uh fascism with authoritarianism ascending. From the White House in Washington DC grabbing our neighbors in this immigrant city without the rule of law, but we have some real hope and energy here. Our first immigrant mayor coming in in generations and New Yorkers showing we know what it means to fight for the soul of the city. Perfect segue to where I was going next because I was gonna say this is something that the incoming mayoral administration is certainly gonna have to deal with and Zoran Mamdani is a friend of yours. I wonder what you made of that meeting with President Trump about a week ago and uh the Q&A that came afterwards that we all were able to witness. Yeah, that was quite remarkable. Uh, you know, a lot of things that this whole the Mayo campaign obviously didn't go quite as I mapped it out. I didn't see in advance, you know, just how much Zoran would inspire New Yorkers to fight back against the affordability crisis and build a welcoming city and Um, you know, I, I, I think I, I might have been, uh, I think I would have been a competent mayor, but boy, I never could have done what Zoran did in the, in the White House. Um, I think it's good for New York, obviously not having federal troops sent here, at least at the beginning of the administration, is great. Uh, hopefully they'll actually be some focus on affordability if if the president will not cut the housing vouchers that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers rely on and kick people out into the streets, um, that would be great. Uh, so I was encouraged at the same time we're gonna have to keep standing up. Fighting back those ICE agents in Jackson Heights this morning work for Donald Trump, the ones that took a 6 year old earlier this week, worked for Donald Trump. That $80 million he stole from us. We still don't have back and so what we'll need is, as Mayor-elect Mamdani has said, somebody who can work with the administration when it's willing to be a partner on affordability, but somebody who stands up and organizes us together to fight back when they break the law. Next, Lander addresses rumors that he might run for Congress and primary an incumbent. More power in politics in just a few minutes.

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Welcome back as we return to our conversation with City Comptroller Brad Lander and what could be next for him as he prepares to leave office. What do you make of this moment that we have Mayor-elect Mamdani about to lead New York City in this new year, and what it means for progressive politics? You both align on a lot of issues and share a lot of the same values when it comes to those progressive topics in particular. Do you think that this is the future of the Democratic Party? And do you want to be a part of it? I mean, this is a critical moment for New York City and of course for the whole country, we've got authoritarianism in the White House and we have to show something different, something better. And of course that means rallying around our neighbors and not letting them be abducted and dragged away, but it also means building something better neighborhoods where people can't afford housing and where their kids get good childcare, so they're not. Uh, just every day struggling to get by, that's the key. We know this city is great and how much people love it, and if we can show, here's how we make it more affordable so everybody can um have a place here, that's what will be powerful. And look across the country there's different ways to do that. There's more progressive and more moderate parts of the country, and you got to represent the part you're from. But everybody needs an affordable home, needs childcare for their kids, needs food and transportation they can afford. And I think if people have that, then they're more able to welcome new neighbors to share the benefits of this extraordinary country. Um, and to fight hard for a democracy that can deliver those things and yeah, I think at this, um, at this fascinating moment, New York has a really critical role to play, and I'm excited about the mayor-elect, but I'm excited about what we all get to do as part of that, and I'll be looking forward to, uh, continuing to serve New York however I can. So I have to ask because there have been rumblings about a potential congressional run, is there anything that you can share on that front? Uh look, I'm very, very seriously considering running for Congress in New York's 10th congressional district. I'll, I'll let you know when I make a final decision. Um, as we've discussed, this is an urgent moment, and we need leaders in Congress who are going to fight and not fold, who are going to put their bodies on the line to stand up. For their neighbors, uh, you know, who will be an ally to the mayor and this affordability, uh, work, um, and can build the city and the country that we all deserve. And that's all for this week on Power and Politics right here on News 12. Thanks so much for watching.

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State Assembly Member Amanda Septimo and City Comptroller Brad Lander join the show.

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