Queens newest councilmember talks COVID vaccines, JFK jobs plan and NYPD funding

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Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers was officially sworn-in March 19. Photo via Brooks-Powers/Twitter

Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers was officially sworn-in March 19. Photo via Brooks-Powers/Twitter

By David Brand

New York City’s newest elected official is pledging to expand COVID vaccine access in Southeast Queens, cut funding to the NYPD and monitor commitments to minority contracting at the massive JFK Redevelopment Project.

Veteran government strategist Selvena Brooks-Powers was officially sworn into the city council on March 19 after winning a special election to represent Queens’ Council District 31. Brooks-Powers gave her first interview as a councilmember to WBAI’s “City Watch,” hosted by Eagle editor David Brand, on Sunday. 

She discussed the many issues affecting the district, which covers Southeast Queens neighborhoods of Laurelton, Springfield Gardens and Rosedale, and Rockaway peninsula communities of Far Rockaway, Arverne and Edgemere. The district features one of the world’s most important airports, New York City’s lone private jail and many miles of coastline at risk from the climate crisis. There is a large middle class, predominantly Black community, a high concentration of public housing tenants and a sizable Orthodox Jewish population — not to mention gentrifying beachfront sections.

Listen to the interview:

“What I love most about the 31st council district is that we are one of the most diverse districts in the city,” Brooks-Powers said. “And we have a lot of pressing issues.”

Take, for example, that major international airport. 

A massive, $13 billion overhaul of JFK is underway, but has stalled as a result of COVID-related restrictions and budget deficits. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last month that the program would soon speed up, and that the city would hold the Port Authority and terminal developers accountable to a community agreement package that guarantees thousands of jobs for local residents. The agreements also mandates that at least 30 percent of contracts go to minority and women-owned business enterprises, or MWBEs. 

Before the election, Brooks-Powers served as head of MWBE contract compliance at the JFK Redevelopment project. She said Sunday that she would continue to oversee those commitments as part of the community advisory board.

The project “sets out to be one of the largest transformative projects in recent history in our community,” she said. “My expectation is for us to be able to not only achieve goals set forward by the port authority and the terminal developers but also to exceed it and I think from the very onset, the terminal developers have been at the table.”

The big capital projects have yet to take off, however. 

“The program is doing what it set out to do, obviously on a smaller scale. The program was expected to be much further, but no one knew COVID-19 was going to hit,” she said. “As things start to open up and the program moves forward, we know the commitment still stands.”

Campaign photo

Campaign photo

Council District 31 covers some of the communities hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Far Rockaway, which has accounted for the second-highest death rate of any zip code in the city. Despite the deadly impact of the coronavirus, neighborhoods in the district have also had among the lowest vaccination rates in the city. 

Brooks-Powers said officials often use the excuse that people of color are averse to getting vaccinated to justify the disparity. She called that a cop out obscuring bad policy.

“I was very disappointed in seeing the community was not prioritized,” she said. “People were saying, ‘Well people in the minority communities did not want to take the vaccines.’ And while there were some people I heard skeptical of the vaccine, there were many more saying that wanted to get the vaccine, especially our seniors.”

She said she would partner with more small community venues, like churches and parks, to facilitate vaccine sites at more locations in the district. She said a mass vaccine hub at York College in nearby Jamaica was an important development, but similar sites must be established in her district.

“York College opening was a step in the right direction,” she said. “So looking forward to doing more around this area.”

Brooks-Powers takes office as budget season heats up in City Hall. She said her main goal is to secure more funding for her district, and equitable funding to low-income communities of color citywide.

To accomplish that, she said she favors cutting funding to the NYPD, an issue that dominated last year’s budget negotiations. Her predecessor in District 31, current Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, voted against last year’s budget in part because it did not adequately trim the police budget, he said at the time. Brooks-Powers has agreed with that assessment in past interviews.

“There are spaces where we can save money from the NYPD budget,” Brooks-Powers said Sunday. “I’m looking to have those conversation with colleagues to ensure we are cutting back where we can on the NYPD budget.” 

The race was New York City’s first real test of ranked-choice voting — a format that significantly benefited Brooks-Powers. 

After holding a narrow lead on Election Day, Brooks-Powers picked up more than 1,000 votes from residents who ranked her as their second, third, fourth or fifth choice. In contrast, second-place finisher Pesach Osina picked up less than 200 additional votes. Seven other candidates were eliminated and voters who picked them had their ballots allocated to their next choices. 

Brooks-Powers ended up capturing about 59 percent of the 6,515 ballots that counted in the final tally. Another 936 ballots did not rank Brooks-Powers or Osina and were discarded, or exhausted, after the other candidates were eliminated.

Brooks-Powers had declined to discuss her own ranked ballot in the days leading up to the election, but she said Sunday that she won because she was able to “build coalitions upon coalitions.” 

“I’m always looking to bridge those divides that may exist in our community and that was a big component to how I approached ranked choice voting,” she said. “I was working to be everyone’s number one but appealing to people who may have had number ones already.”