Local council members put stamp on new legislation

A wave of legislation is now heading to the mayor after a city council meeting on Nov. 25, where members pushed measures on everything from mental health and gender-motivated violence to artificial intelligence and voter education. 

Of the fifteen new or amended bills, and seven resolutions, local lawmakers Council Member Eric Dinowitz and Council Member Pierina Sanchez made their own headway.

Dinowitz’s bill aims to make city documents more accessible for people with disabilities. Though a current city law requires accessibility guidelines for website content, Dinowitz’s bill would amend it to include printed documents as well. It also covers documents posted online with the purpose of allowing the public to print, such as applications or waiver forms.

The mayor’s office must create a set of guidelines that consider formatting, visual appearance, and other standards that make documents easier to read. 

Council Member Pierina Sanchez also found success with a resolution that calls on the United States Congress to introduce and pass a law that incorporates mental health into workplace safety training. 

The training refers to a worker and a supervisor course required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, a federal agency that sets standards for high-risk industries like construction or manufacturing. 

The bill cites a soaring rate of suicide among male construction workers, 75 percent higher than men in general populations, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It also says about 6,000 construction workers died by suicide in 2022, compared to about 1,000 workers who died from a construction-related injury, according to the Center for Construction Research and Training. 

Several factors contribute to the high suicide rate, including poor access to healthcare, job instability and long-term chronic pain from injuries. Part of it is also stigma, as construction is a heavily male-dominated field where seeking mental health treatment could be seen as weak. 

Making mental wellness a part of mandatory OSHA training could help lower the suicide rate, as it would educate workers as well as normalize it as a topic of conversation.

The council also targeted a major loophole in the Gender Motivated Violence act, which was passed in 2000 so survivors could bring a civil lawsuit against their perpetrators.

In 2022, the law was updated to hold those who helped commit the crime accountable, but a court ruling this summer found that some survivors’ claims — especially those made before the law was changed — were not covered. 

The new bill, sponsored by Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers, gives survivors the right to sue any person who committed, directed, enabled, participated, or conspired in a gender-motivated crime that occurred before Jan. 9 2022. Recent claims can also be refiled under the new protections. 

Council Member Linda Lee also sponsored a bill to aid survivors. It requires the Mayor’s Office to End Gender-Based Violence to provide hair, nail and skincare salons with posters containing information about gender-based violence services available in the city. 

Artificial intelligence was a key focus, with three of the bills aimed at increasing accountability in the city’s use of technology. One would create an Office of Algorithmic Accountability, a department that analyzes AI software agencies use, gathers public input and addresses any issues. Two additional bills set guidelines for the office. 

Some measures centered on the Department of Education. Under the bill sponsored by Council Member Althea Stevens, a Bronx representative, the agency would be required to distribute voter-registration forms and other materials to young adults. 

The Department of Corrections, DOC, was also a point of interest, as Council Member Sandy Nurse pushed for consistent tracking of a work release program that applies to those serving sentences less than a year long. The program has been effective so far, as only six of the 115 people released from Rikers Island between 2022 and 2024 returned to the jail. 

The bill would require the DOC to publish a biannual report with greater detail — how many are eligible and agree to participate, how many finish the program, their sentence length, age and race — without including information that could reveal the person’s identity. 

Mayor Eric Adams has thirty days to take action on the bills passed by City Council. At press time, nothing had been signed into law.