NYC Council Member Calls out Speaker’s Inaction As Retirees Continue to Suffer Uncertain Future

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams [c] with Council Members Rita Joseph, Lynn C. Schulman, and Joann Ariola looking on [ l to r]. Photos/JOE MANISCALCO

By Joe Maniscalco

The New York City council member championing a bill to protect the Traditional Medicare benefits of retirees from privatization this week rejected the idea that it’s okay for his colleagues to continue sitting around and letting the courts decide what happens next.

"Opponents of Int. 1096 want to wait for the courts to settle the issue of retiree healthcare,” Council Member Chris Marte [D-1st District] told Work-Bites on Thursday. “But if we've learned anything from the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it's that we can't leave decisions of basic rights to the courts. Retirees have the right to Traditional Medicare, and a court victory now does not stop a future mayor and future court from overturning that victory. We must pass Int. 1096 so all current and future retirees are guaranteed true public Medicare.”

Marte was reacting to comments made earlier the same day by New York City Council Speaker Adrienne [D-28th District] when she was asked about allowing Intro. 1096 onto the floor for a public hearing.

If intro. 1096 bill were enacted, the City of New York would have to offer Medicare-eligible municipal retirees and their Medicare-eligible dependents at least one Medigap plan with benefits equivalent to or better than those available to City retirees and their dependents as of December 31, 2021.

At the time of this writing, however, Intro. 1096 has just seven sponsors in the New York City Council—all of them, save Marte himself, either a Republican or conservative Democrat.

New York City Council Member Chris Marte meets with NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola and other retirees in the lobby of DC37 earlier this week.

“Our retirees are also a priority of this council,” Speaker Adrienne Adams told Work-Bites during a Thursday afternoon press conference at City Hall held ahead of the last stated meeting of 2024. “We are watching the court proceedings and the way that the courts are working through the different cases coming through. Those court processes are not done yet.”

The head of the New York City Council reiterated that position when pressed, saying “we are going to continue to do our part to monitor the situation.”

Of course, the speaker and her fellow colleagues in the New York City Council are doing a lot more than “monitoring the situation” in the courts. Whatever that means.

They’re also getting a earful from District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, who just a few days earlier on Dec. 16, held a closed door meeting with members of the New York City Council to urge them to reject Int. 1096 and embrace the profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan he and Mayor Eric Adams continue to push. All that despite a string of 10 court victories in favor of municipal retirees insisting that the city cannot strip them of their Traditional Medicare benefits.

“If that is the speaker’s response, it doesn’t deserve a reply from me,” New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees President Marianne Pizzitola later told Work-Bites.

A day after Garrido’s closed door meeting with members of the New York City Council, the highest court in the state delivered the retirees’ latest victory when judges unanimously ruled in a 7-0 decision that the City of New York must continue paying for its retired employees’ Traditional Medicare and can’t offer them only a private Medicare Advantage plan.

New York City municipal retirees fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push occupy DC37’s lobby on Monday, December 16.

Mayor Adams signed a five-year Medicare Advantage contract with Aetna in March 2023, which he hasn’t been allowed to implement.

Two other existing court cases involving the impasse and the meaning of section 12-126 of the City Charter pertaining to retiree healthcare remain to be fully adjudicated with no indication of when they might finally be resolved. 

“Speaker Adams should move Intro. 1096 to the next round of committee hearings and invite retirees and legal experts to testify on behalf of the bill so we can address the Council’s misinterpretation of collective bargaining and the issues resolved by the recent state Court of Appeals unanimous decision regarding the meaning of Administrative Code 12-126,” Stu Eber, chair of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations [COMRO] told Work-Bites.

Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee member Lizette Colón called Speaker Adams’ remarks “just another clear example of how our elected officials keep avoiding the role that they were elected for.”

“They were not elected to talk endlessly,” Colón later told Work-Bites. “They are supposed to legislate. The entire Council sounds like a choir of spineless people echoing each other’s hollow remarks. They keep delaying action with a false narrative of problems with the language of Intro. 1096, claiming false issues of legality, pretending that they care for our issue—when it is obvious that they care more about their political careers and relationship with the leaders of the top powerful unions.”

Ninety-one-year-old retiree activist Evie Jones-Rich said Speaker Adams’ continued support for the mayor’s plan to “delay, deny, and ultimately terminate retirees’ earned and promised quality health care a disgrace.”

New York City municipal retirees continue to press the fight against Medicare Advantage while members of the New York City Council continue to oppose their bill protecting Traditional Medicare from privatization.

“It betrays issues of fairness, right and justice,” she told Work-Bites. “It rejects and disparages the work contributed by hundreds of thousands of soldiers in an army of poor and working class municipal employees who built this City over the years. Retirees are NOT her priority. Retaining power and collaborating with colleagues across this City who care about themselves drive her actions.”

The speaker’s remarks do, indeed, sound particularly hollow, considering they followed immediately after Council Member Rita Joseph [D-40th District] talking about her own healthcare bill on Thursday—and the pain she experienced when her coverage was threatened while making the transition from education to the New York City Council.

That legislation—Intro. 0265—seeks to improve the benefits enrollment processes for city employees.

“For far too long,” Council Member Joseph said on Thursday, “workers and their families have faced unnecessary delays and confusion during these transitions—delays that can jeopardize their health and financial stability.”

With the passage of her bill, the council member continued, “We Send a very powerful message that New York City cares about the people who keep our city running…we are upholding a core principle of fairness. We are demonstrating that the health and wellbeing of our workforce are not afterthoughts—but priorities. Our public servants deserve nothing less.”

Colón called Council Member Joseph’s  comments “ironic.”

“Her remarks should reflect the same fairness that she claims for the employees to be applicable for the retirees,” Colón further told Work-Bites. “Just imagine her previous quote being applied to the retirees. It would read as: ‘We are demonstrating that the health and wellbeing of our retirees are not afterthoughts—but priorities. Our NYC retirees deserve nothing less.’ She should be reminded that at one point in time, the retirees that are now fighting for their health rights are the same ones who were public servants of this city. So, if she cares for the NYC retirees—she should bring along those 32 council members who have endorsed her bill and join forces with Council Member Marte and make it happen for the retirees—now!”

New York City municipal retiree Roberta Pikser also blasted Speaker Adams’ remarks this week.

“This meaningless drivel is what costs our council members the respect of their constituents,” she told Work-Bites.

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