Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On CBS News New York’s Streaming Network

April 25, 2024

Mary Calvi: Mayor Eric Adams released his $111.6 billion executive budget proposal for fiscal year 2025. The budget restores funding to several agencies, including public safety and education.

Chris Wragge: Joining us now live to discuss is Mayor Eric Adams himself. Mr. Mayor, welcome. Thanks so much for joining us.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful skyline back there.

Wragge: I know. It is a beautiful day to start the day as well. Let's also talk about the budget in just a moment. First, we want to just talk about some of the big story that we have been following all week. A nationwide story covering the protests over the war in Gaza.

It started at Columbia, spread to other schools like NYU, and now we've seen it spread to different schools across the country. Many students have been arrested. Students at Columbia say they're not going to stop until the school meets their demands. Just yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson was there, called for Columbia's president to resign. First question to you is, do you think the president should resign?

Mayor Adams: The determination of who's going to lead an institution is determined by the board. That is not my determination. The goal is to create an environment where children are educated and they're kept safe. That is the role of the New York City Police Department. If the school calls us in, as they did a few days ago, we're going to take necessary action. They have not done that yet, but we're waiting. Just as NYU called us, we were able to resolve the issue there.

Calvi: Mayor, there have also been calls for the National Guard to be brought in. Do you think the governor needs to send in the National Guard on this?

Mayor Adams: Not at all. If you look at the actions of the Police Department, over 500 protests in our city stemming from the October 7 actions. We have this handled. You don't see destruction of property, injury to people. We're controlling this in the New York City Police Department. No one does it better. We do not need the National Guard.

Wragge: Let me ask you this, Mr. Mayor. Yesterday, you had the speaker of the House joined by other Republican colleagues on the steps at Columbia University. He's calling for the National Guard you just mentioned. He's calling for the president to resign. Does that hurt or help what everyone's trying to accomplish here, which is a resolution?

Mayor Adams: That's a great statement. What we must do, regardless of the noise that is taking place around us, we must stay focused on ensuring that people can have their constitutional right to protest without harming innocent people. That is what we're going to do.

We're going to have many visitors that come in and use this as some form of platform. If we do not stay focused on our mission, we will not be able to accomplish the goal. That's what the Police Department is doing. That's what the city is doing. Look, we have even the Trump trial going on right now. We have Earth Day protests taking place right now. This city is one of the best places of maintaining discipline and law and order, and we're going to continue to do that.

Calvi: We'll be staying on top of the latest developments on the protests as they continue. Let's move on to the budget. Can you tell us your main priority here, the number one priority that you want to bring to the public in regard to this budget?

Mayor Adams: Public safety. That's the prerequisite to our prosperity, public safety and justice. I wanted to make sure we could have that uniformed personnel, make sure our law enforcement officers stay to the appropriate ranks, and make sure that our children are educated. We had to deal with fiscal cliffs from the previous administration, that great programs. We wanted to make sure to stay in place like Pre-K, Summer Rising, and others. It all starts with a safe city. If we're not safe, we can't get to school, our place of business, our work, and we can't enjoy this great city.

Wragge: The budget does not make any cuts to several agencies, including the NYPD, as you just mentioned. How is this funding going to further help support officers?

Mayor Adams: The number one, getting our officers in the police academy, I'm sharing with many, even my colleagues across the country, we're seeing a real hemorrhaging of public safety personnel, everything from the Department of Correction, police departments, school safety agents.

My colleagues across the country are sharing the same thing. I must show up that for the years to come. We knew we had to give our officers appropriate salary by settling 100 percent of our union contracts, but at the same time, give them the tools that they need to respond to some of the things that's taking place in our city now.

Calvi: Mayor, pre-K and 3K programs, is the funding fully restored?

Mayor Adams: No, here's what we're doing, it was really dismaying to me when I became mayor that we used the pre-K, 3K as just a slogan, a bumper sticker of saying that we have a program in place. Do we had over 23,000 seats that were empty, and we were paying for them. What our team did, we went in, re-evaluated, and stated every child that wants a seat must have access to a seat, but taxpayers' dollars should go to putting children in the seat.

We allocated $5 million additional dollars to go out, recruit the parents and children to fill the seats, and if those 23,000 are filled, we're going to make sure that every child that wants seats will have access, we'll put more online.

Wragge: Mr. Mayor, we'll talk about libraries, we did this story this morning, we talked to some people who are obviously not very happy about the cut to libraries having to only be open five days a week. $58.3 million cut from the public library systems. Any chance they see any of that money back, or is that something that is going to be a done deal?

Mayor Adams: Love my libraries, and I used them a lot when I was a child, and we know how important they are, and they're a great equalizer to all communities, and we're looking forward to going to the negotiation table with Speaker Adams and her team.

I want to be clear, it was never a decision by City Hall to tell libraries to close on Saturdays or Sundays. We told all the agencies and entities that everyone has to find efficiencies. We saved over $7 billion in efficiencies. That is what allowed us to get here now, but we're going to go to the table with the Speaker and her team, and at the end of the day, we're going to shake hands and come with an agreement like we've done two times before.

Calvi: Of course, so much concern about rising rent continues to be an issue for so many New Yorkers. How will this budget help low- to moderate-income renters and communities as a whole?

Mayor Adams: I think one of the greatest philosophers of our time said the rent is too damn high. We're clear all over the city, people are talking about high rents, but we were able to secure an unbelievable time in Albany with the Governor and the Speaker and Majority Leader.

They're giving us the tools to build more because we have an inventory problem, 1.4 percent vacancy rate in our city and even less for affordable units, and so we're hoping our City of Yes plan passes the City Council like we got the support from Albany. We have to build more. The lack of inventory will continue to drive up rents, and so our goal is to get these initiatives in place so we can build more in our city.

Wragge: Jimmy McMillan, one of the all-time great philosophers, Mayor Adams, thank you very much. Most people would say the rent is too you-know-what high. All right, Mayor Adams, thank you very much. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Take care.

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