| | | | |  | | By Nick Reisman, Jeff Coltin and Emily Ngo | | Presented by |  | | | With Timmy Facciola
| 
Gov. Kathy Hochul will host meeting Tuesday with state law enforcement officials and corporate representatives to discuss security resources. | Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul | State officials want to calm the nerves of New York City’s business elite after the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson sent shockwaves through the corporate world. Gov. Kathy Hochul will broker a virtual meeting Tuesday with state law enforcement officials and about 175 corporate representatives to discuss sharing security resources. State Director of Operations Kathryn Garcia is managing the effort, and Kathy Wylde — the CEO and president of the Partnership for New York City — has been the business world’s point person. In an interview Thursday with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Hochul said the meeting will be “proactive.” State officials plan to show how they can provide law enforcement intelligence in case a specific sector is being targeted. “We protect everybody on the streets of New York, not just CEOs,” Hochul said. “Everybody deserves the protection of our law enforcement.” Wylde told Playbook that the discussion will include the State Police as well as state Homeland Security and counterterrorism officials to show how intelligence can be shared with corporate security. “It's a demonstration that New York really has the most prepared and informed counterterrorism capacity in the country,” Wylde said. “There’s nowhere safer to be.” Hochul has already spoken to Wylde, a key business ally, about the worries coursing through the corporate community after Thompson, 50, was shot dead earlier this month before he was due to appear at an investor meeting. “She understood how serious the impact of both the killing and the hateful reaction to it is, and she wants to make sure that the state resources, specifically the domestic counterterrorism resources, are focused on being supportive, sharing information,” Wylde said of her initial conversation with Hochul. Police have arrested Luigi Mangione, 26, who was reportedly found with a notebook that described targeting a “parasitic bean-counter convention.” The executive’s shooting has unleashed social media catharsis over the killing and rage over the health insurance industry — alarming corporate leaders who have beefed up private security efforts as a result. “Demonization of corporate executives is not new,” Wylde said. “It was part of the rhetoric in the financial crisis of 2008-09. The real estate industry has obviously been subject to it. It’s not new. Translating peoples’ anger from rhetoric into shooting someone is new.” It’s not clear which firms will send representatives and a spokesperson for the governor declined to comment. But the meeting is being held as state officials remain fearful private sector leaders will have more impetus to leave New York — with tax revenue suffering as a result. Business leaders have long complained the state’s tax climate has made New York a difficult environment. The effects of Covid and the spiraling concerns over crime in the city have stoked memories of post-Sept. 11 New York — a time when corporate leaders questioned their presence in the city. Thompson’s shooting has only heightened those anxieties. “We live in a country where you have many ways to exercise your right to protest and be heard both legally and peacefully,” said Heather Mulligan, the president and CEO of the private-sector boosting Business Council. “I would encourage any person or group who feels the need to be heard to choose a more sensible approach than violence to make their lives and this world a better place.” — Nick Reisman HAPPY FRIDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
| | A message from Alibaba: U.S. businesses are growing global sales on Alibaba’s online marketplace. In just one year American businesses sold billions of dollars worth of goods internationally on Alibaba. These U.S. global sales also supported hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs and billions in U.S. wages. Learn more about how Alibaba positively impacts New York’s economy. | | | WHERE’S KATHY? In Erie County. WHERE’S ERIC? Calling into GMGT LIVE’s “The Reset Talk Show” and making a public safety-related announcement. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We’re going to have a tremendous run. We have to straighten out some problems, some big problems in the world.” — President-elect Donald Trump, ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
|  | ABOVE THE FOLD | | | | 
“I applaud Eric for his tireless efforts to find better ways to run the city by challenging stale orthodoxies which must be reexamined and in many cases changed,” real estate developer Bruce Teitelbaum told Playbook. | Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office | YOU LIVE AND U-LURP: Before Mayor Eric Adams announced his second charter revision commission would focus on housing, folks on the City Council side of City Hall started fretting over whether the mayor would try to limit the council’s power over land use. The commission’s response: yeah, maybe. “I’ll be interested to see what people say about that, what people think about that,” a person close to the commission, granted anonymity to speak frankly about the nascent plans, told Playbook. “I would be surprised if people aren’t bringing up that issue.” The Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is laid out in the City Charter. That process culminates in a council vote, and the body adheres to an unwritten practice of deferring to members’ wishes for their districts — giving the council immense influence over real estate development. It’s arguably the greatest power granted to a council that is structurally far weaker than city mayors. Council members love “member deference,” but real estate developers like Bruce Teitelbaum blame it for costing the city new homes — particularly after former Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan torpedoed his Harlem proposal in 2022. “I applaud Eric for his tireless efforts to find better ways to run the city by challenging stale orthodoxies which must be reexamined and in many cases changed,” he said to Playbook. The source close to the commission also floated the prospect of examining the section of the charter laying out community-led rezoning proposals or city financing of affordable housing, but emphasized it’s early in the process. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams told PIX11 that she believes the mayor is trying to take power away from the council. “We have seen the erosion,” she said, “of the authority of a City Council that is there primarily to protect New Yorkers with the checks and balances when it comes to a mayoral administration.” — Jeff Coltin
| | | | Billions in spending. Critical foreign aid. Immigration reform. The final weeks of 2024 could bring major policy changes. Inside Congress provides daily insights into how Congressional leaders are navigating these high-stakes issues. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | CITY HALL: THE LATEST | | | | 
Mayor Eric Adams met with incoming Border Czar Tom Homan yesterday. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office | OPEN (BORDER) DIALOGUE: Adams focused Thursday on an area of agreement with Trump’s incoming border czar: undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes, POLITICO reports. And the mayor revealed no daylight between him and Tom Homan after their meeting in the country’s largest sanctuary city. Instead, Adams — visibility irritated and uncharacteristically laconic — unleashed his ire on the reporters who cover him, accusing them of distorting his message on migrants. The centrist Democrat has sought to sidle up to the president-elect despite mass deportation plans that would hit New York City. But he made no mention of Trump’s broader agenda. And he certainly didn’t criticize it. Adams declared that his own agenda was simple, straightforward and the same as it ever was, declining unsurprisingly to reference that he now stands federally charged with fraud and in potential need of a presidential pardon. “We will not be a safe haven for those who commit violent acts,” the mayor, a retired NYPD captain, told reporters curtly, hours after the sitdown in the mayor's official residence of Gracie Mansion. “We don’t do it for those who are citizens, and we’re not going to do it for those who are undocumented.” Municipal laws strengthened by former Mayor Bill de Blasio currently permit the NYPD and the Department of Correction to release detainees into ICE custody only if federal officials have a judicial warrant or if the individual has been convicted of one of 170 serious crimes in the past five years. — Emily Ngo More from the city: — New York Army National Guard troops will stop assisting city officials next week as the migrant crisis cools off. (New York Post) — Ydanis Rodriguez, the city Transportation commissioner, could run for his old City Council seat, per speculation. (City & State) — What we know about the Eastern District of New York’s probe into Adams’ orbit. (THE CITY)
| | | | A message from Alibaba:   | | | | | NEW FROM PLANET ALBANY | | |  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared at a 2019 rally in downtown Albany to blast legislation that ended a religious exemption for vaccinations. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | THIS ONE’S FOR BOBBY: A bill to expand vaccine reporting is getting renamed to cheekily acknowledge Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Manhattan Democratic state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal told Playbook the measure has been rebranded as the Registry for Keeping Justified Records, or the RFK, Jr. Act, for short. It’s a clear swipe at Robert Kennedy, Jr., the vaccine skeptic, former presidential candidate and Trump ally who has been nominated to oversee the nation’s sprawling health care bureaucracy. The bill would require health care providers to report the immunizations of people 19 and older to the state Department of Health — an effort to gather more information on vaccination rates and track where people have been immunized in order to boost public outreach efforts. Hoylman-Sigal also believes the measure would give health care providers accurate information on a person’s vaccination status. “Our statewide vaccine infrastructure is more important than ever as we face the threat of vaccine skeptics like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. taking the helm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and dictating vaccine policy at the federal level,” Hoylman-Sigal said. RFK Jr. is no stranger to New York vaccination efforts. He appeared at a 2019 rally in downtown Albany to blast legislation that ended a religious exemption for vaccinations. “Unlike Kennedy, New Yorkers trust the scientific research that shows immunizations are essential to the primary prevention of disease from infancy through adulthood,” Hoylman-Sigal said. A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment. — Nick Reisman More from Albany: — The Hochul administration is not following through on plans to reduce energy usage in state buildings. (POLITICO Pro) — Litigation expenses in New York are costing taxpayers and companies nearly $90 billion. (New York Post) — A new law will require health insurers to cover EpiPens. (Spectrum News)
| | KEEPING UP WITH THE DELEGATION | | | 
Rep. Adriano Espaillat will lead the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. | Mike Groll/AP | MEET THEM IN THE MIDDLE: The Democrats’ election losses this year stemmed largely from the superior job Trump and the GOP did appealing to everyday Americans struggling economically, including in the middle of the country. The House Dems’ top three leaders, however, hail from the West and East coasts. And three of their most influential caucuses will be headed by New York City Democrats. “I plan to visit many of the districts outside of mine, and regions, throughout the next two years,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who will lead the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told Playbook. “We’ll have a new effort called ‘Hablando Claro,’ talking straight or talking clear, that would allow us to go to, for example, border districts or even in the West coast or other states, and have honest discussions with constituencies there.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters this week that Democrats as a whole reflect the United States. “The House Democratic Caucus is broadly reflective of many parts of the country, and there’s no circumstance where we would be at 215 incoming members if that, in fact, weren’t the case, if it was just a caucus that was dominated by members from New York and California,” Jeffries said, adding, “We’re not going to give up on the heartland of America when it’s our policies and our values that are consistent with making life better for people.” In addition to Espaillat, Jeffries will have fellow New Yorkers leading the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus — Reps. Yvette Clarke and Grace Meng, respectively. Meng in a statement noted that having a trio of New Yorkers lead the three caucuses wasn’t planned and her caucus was founded to ensure “AANHPI communities are heard and represented” throughout the country. Clarke’s office added that she, too, plans to travel the country as part of her outreach. Her caucus is set to have a record 62 members in the House and Senate. — Emily Ngo More from Congress: — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is working to defeat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s bid to be ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. (Punchbowl News) — Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Westchester County Democrat, delivered a farewell speech on the House floor, focusing on affordability and the wealth gap. (Forbes) — Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand press the FBI for answers on mystery drones. (Journal News)
| | | | Write your own chapter in the new Washington. From the Lame Duck Congress Series to New Administration insights, POLITICO Pro delivers intelligence across 22+ policy areas to help you anticipate and navigate change. Discover how a Pro subscription empowers you. Learn more today. | | | | | | | NEW YORK STATE OF MIND | | — Biden has commuted the sentence of a former investment broker in Albany who was convicted of defrauding people of their life savings. (Times Union) — The National Guard will be pulled from migrant shelters starting next week. (New York Post) — Congestion pricing tolls could still be killed in the courts. (New York Times)
| | A message from Alibaba: New York companies of all sizes are partnering with Alibaba to reach over one billion international consumers. They’re generating big sales and it’s having an impact back home.
In one year alone, American businesses sold tens of billions of dollars worth of products on Alibaba’s online marketplace. These sales not only added billions to New York’s economy but also supported thousands of local jobs and billions in wages for New York workers.
Explore how Alibaba benefits local businesses and New York’s economy. | | | | | SOCIAL DATA | | Edited by Daniel Lippman MAKING MOVES: David Berger has resigned as chief executive of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. (POLITICO Pro) WELCOME TO THE WORLD: Meghan Swiber, a managing director at Bank of America, and Patrick Swiber, an associate at Cleary Gottlieb, on Nov. 29 welcomed Clayton Edward Swiber. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone … Aaron Mendelsohn of the NYC Council … DMV Commissioner Mark J.F. Schroeder … Westchester County Board of Legislators Chief Dylan Tragni … DCAS’ Marty Preston … Empire Advisors’ George Haggerty … Manhattan BP Budget Director Amy Slattery … Todd S. Purdum … Jeffrey Schneider of The Lead PR … Trish Regan … former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke … CNN’s Haley Talbot … Norbert Funke … (WAS THURSDAY): Eric Maskin ... Abigail Sussman Missed Thursday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here. | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
