Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. I want to thank all those who have joined us this morning at City Hall: the survivors of the horrific Sept. 11 terror attack; the first responders who gave so much to so many for so long; the advocates and activists who have fought passionately on their behalf; the elected officials who carried their voices into the halls of power; and the families of those who fell ill from 9/11-related health complications.
Each of you have showed a rare courage, a deep selflessness and an unwavering love for New York and for New Yorkers. We are together today only because of you. And I wanna take a moment to recognize Corporation Counsel Steve Banks and countless others in the Law Department for working so tirelessly on behalf of survivors.
We are joined today by leaders both inside and outside of City government. Within our administration, our DCAS commissioner, Yume Kitasei; our DORIS commissioner, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz; FDNY first deputy commissioner Daniel Flynn; DOB commissioner Ahmed Tigani; DDC commissioner Paul Ochoa. We have alongside us elected officials who have been at the forefront of this fight: Congressman Jerry Nadler, former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Council Member Gale Brewer.
And we also have those who have been advocating for years on end to ensure that finally we could live up to what it meant to never forget: Jon Stewart; Ben Chevat, the executive director of 9/11 Health Watch; Tom Hart, first responder activist and president of IUOE Local 94; Phil Alvarez, brother of Detective Luis Alvarez; James Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association; John Feal, founder of the FeelGood Foundation; Bobby Eustace, incoming president of the Uniform Fire Officers Association; and all first responders and families of 9/11 victims who are here with us.
We thank you, and once again, a round of applause for everyone who has made this day possible. On Friday, we will mark 25 years since the worst tragedy to ever befall our city, the darkest day New York City has ever known. And yet the devastating truth is that the suffering did not end once the smoke cleared and the dust settled.
For so many New Yorkers who lived or worked or studied near Ground Zero, and for the thousands of others who worked on the pile, recovering those we lost and clearing the rubble, that was only the beginning of years of hardship and illness that would follow.
Thousands of ironworkers and firefighters and office workers and so many more remember Sept. 11 not just each time we mark the passage of another year, but as Congressman Nadler once said, "Each time they take a struggling breath, each time they have to swallow a pill, each time another chemo dose is administered."
And as the years pass and the human toll grows, we reckon with the cost of Sept. 11 whenever another New Yorker is stolen from us too soon. Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day itself. It would be one thing if government had stood alongside survivors and provided them with everything they needed every step of the way, and yet we know that could not be further from what actually happened.
People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air. And then, when they began to contend with the symptoms of the illnesses that followed, the government that had not hesitated to send them into harm's way was nowhere to be found.
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which provides survivors with the compensation they so deeply deserve, exists today because of those on this stage and beyond who returned to Washington again and again for nearly a decade, often while struggling deeply with the illnesses they could not afford to have treated, to beg their government to come to their aid as they had come to ours.
We are together this morning to stand steadfast alongside survivors and their families and to deliver the [kind] of accountability around City government's response to Sept. 11 that New Yorkers have been denied for years. I am proud to announce that our administration has settled two lawsuits between the city and 9/11 Health Watch, ending what has been a multiyear legal battle and restrictions on New Yorkers' ability to access information that can shed valuable insight on air quality and health concerns.
Administration after administration has ignored those calling for answers and clarity, instead choosing to bury them in legal arguments and in red tape. We will do no such thing. As we mark 25 years, it is time for this painful chapter to end. As part of our commitment to governmental transparency that has too long been absent, City Hall has made a more than $34 million commitment to create a new public portal, providing information about our city's response to the horrific attack.
This will be a vast resource with hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from numerous city agencies, including sought-after records like the Harding Memo, the 68 DEP boxes discovered a few years ago and information about 7 World Trade Center.
These are documents that show what the city knew about the toxic air around Ground Zero, when they knew it and how they acted to limit liability. They contain details about DEP's response. They show how asbestos was found nearly everywhere that inspectors tested. And they will help New Yorkers access the health care they need.
The 170,000 pages posted today are only the first release. More will be shared over the next 12 months. Every document on this portal will be accessible to every New Yorker free of charge. The only information omitted will be personally identifiable information and security evaluations of Lower Manhattan buildings that, if published today, could still pose security risks. Nothing else will be redacted.
We worked carefully to make sure that this first tranche of documents included those that advocates and activists have been calling for decades, using the search terms they have requested, such as "asbestos" and "cancer." This is only the beginning. Over the coming months, we will continue to release updates to the portal.
And as part of our commitments described in this settlement, we will appoint dedicated personnel at both DCAS and New York City Public Schools to assist New Yorkers for whom these documents can serve as the proof of presence in the New York City exposure zone needed to obtain VCF assistance.
I will close with this. Seven years ago, a New Yorker named Luis Alvarez traveled down to our nation's Capital to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Alvarez was a retired NYPD Bomb Squad detective who had served in the military. In his photos from when he was younger, he was a picture of health, strong and muscular.
And yet when he sat before the committee that June day, he was frail, his cheeks sunken. As he told the panel, his 69th round of chemotherapy was scheduled for the next day. I think today about the words he directed in his testimony to the members of Congress sitting before him: "You all said you would never forget. Well, I am here to make sure that you don't. I am here because others cannot get here. I would rather be back at Ground Zero again than be here, working together." Less than three weeks later, Detective Alvarez was dead. One of thousands of New Yorkers whom we have lost over the past 25 years to 9/11-related illnesses.
It is an honor to have his brother Phil here with us this morning. We hold an obligation to each of those New Yorkers to ensure that "never forget" is not just a platitude but that it is something material, to lead with the honesty and responsibility that have too long been lacking, and to fight for those who were there, devoted to the city that they loved. Thank you. I will now call to the stage our corporation counsel, Steve Banks.
Corporation Counsel Steven Banks: Good morning. Thank you, mayor, for your support in making today possible. For too long, information about the aftermath of Sept. 11 has not been provided to the public. For years, families, city workers and survivors have been asking for more transparency from their government.
Today, under the leadership of you, this lack of transparency and accountability comes to an end. You've made a historic investment to give New Yorkers access to information and documents that were never made public before. With the release of this portal, we are settling two lawsuits against the city and ending this multiyear legal battle that has hurt those who've already been hurt enough.
The portal fulfills a commitment I made when I was appointed as the 83rd Corporation Counsel in February. I'm proud to say the mayor and I have always been aligned in wanting these documents to be made available to bring this chapter to a close for the families, the first responders [and] the survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on our city.
Today is a testament to what is possible when government chooses to solve the difficult problems as opposed to ignoring them. Today is a testament to leadership that refuses to forget or dismiss the scale of the horrors that were faced on Sept. 11 and in the years since. Today is a demonstration of our commitment as an administration to a city where transparency, accountability and honesty are the foundation.
Today we demonstrate that "never forget" is hollow if it is not met with action. This is only the beginning of our efforts. Now, I wanna take you through a brief tour of the portal to illustrate what we are launching today. By way of background, it's a little hard to see, but it's right back there. There's a portal website. Put it right in there.
The documents that you will find when you get to the website are 173,000 documents. As the mayor said, this is only the beginning. There'll be documents rolling out over the course of the next 12 months. In this first tranche, it's the 68 boxes. You hear every morning on WINS AM radio about the 68 boxes. New Yorkers have a right to know what is in those boxes, and today we are giving New Yorkers access to see what is in those boxes.
[The] second tranche of documents in today's launch are the records from the Mayor's Office, Mayor Giuliani's office. They were in the city archives. And the third tranche involves records relating to 7 World Trade Center.
One of the most important parts of the portal are frequently asked questions. You can see there's a series of questions explaining to you what the records are, how did we determine what documents to review and post, information about the 68 boxes, other documents that are there, information about personally identifying information.
Next slide, please.
Every time we launch documents, there will be an update on what's up there when you get to the portal, and you can see on the screen the documents that are up there right now are from the Department of Environmental Protection, documents from the Records and Information Services, records from the Citywide Administrative Services, Fire Department records, Design and Construction and Department of Buildings records. As we make new releases, there will be updates that will be provided.
Next slide, please.
We've taken great effort to make sure that personally identifying information is not posted. Somebody's name, somebody's address, somebody's phone number, somebody's date of birth, somebody's Social Security number. If you should see such information, we've given you a way to immediately advise us, to click on a link and give us the information that you have seen so we can take it down immediately. Again, we've gone to great lengths to try to make sure that such information is not posted, but in the event that you discover a mistake, we want to know right away.
Next slide, please.
We've also provided a way for the public to post comments, give us advice so that we can improve the portal that we're providing.
Next slide, please.
There is also a button that you can click on for information about programs, the Victims Compensation Fund and other programs where New Yorkers can get help. And we encourage people to get help.
Next slide, please.
There is a button for documents of interest. Among the documents that are posted on the portal today that are of particular interest is the Harding Memo. Yes, it was released in litigation previously. But everyday New Yorkers have not had access to this document. The document describes discussions that the Giuliani administration was having about liability and health hazards.
In addition, there's a document reflecting information that Congressmember Nadler provided during the Bloomberg administration about concerns of residents in Lower Manhattan and conditions in their apartment and concerns that Congressman Nadler was raising about the need to do more to protect the public health in that time period.
And a third document that's posted in this first launch is a May 2002 document about the cleanup protocols that were in place. As we determine additional documents, we will be posting them on the portal as well. We want to make sure that the public understands how to search for documents. So, we've given hints about how to construct a search for documents.
Next slide, please.
The landing page is a statement from me, but more importantly, there are four ways you can find a document. It all leads you to a search, but we give you four different ways to start your search right in the statement that I explain what are the documents being posted.
There's a button at the top of the page that you can click on and navigate around. And as you can see, you can get right to the Harding Memo by clicking on - by putting the words "Harding" and "Memo." And then the document will pop up. You can click on it, you can download it [and] you can print it. And you can do that for any of the documents that you're interested in.
Again, there was a comment button that we encourage you to use if you have challenges or if you have suggestions in how we can improve this. As we go forward, we'll be meeting with Ben Chevat and 9/11 Health Watch. I wanna just commend Ben, who I've known for many years in many different roles, has been tireless, the organization's been tireless and we wouldn't be able to be doing what we [are] doing today without their support and help.
We've come up with agreed-upon search terms. We'll be posting what those terms are on the portal, and we will continue to work together monthly over the course of the rollout of all the additional documents. Thank you very much. Part of the prize for doing all this is to be the emcee. So, let me call on Jon Stewart next.
[Crosstalk].
Jon Stewart: First of all, thank you to the mayor and to his office for getting this done. I want to be fair to the city. If you look at the Harding Memo, they didn't find out - they didn't recognize that the air that everyone was breathing in Downtown Manhattan was toxic until October of 2001. So, to be fair to them, they only buried that information for 25 years.
And I just want to say that the people that made them uncover that and made it be released to the public are the people who are standing behind me. They're the ones on the tail. They are first responders; they are families of loved ones that were lost. They were legislators; they were legislative aides. The city began covering their [] three weeks in. In a memo, the memo is entitled "Legislative Alternatives to the Fiscal Responsibility for 9/11."
These people had to fight, sick and dying, for years. And I'm not saying that the information may have changed the outcomes, unfortunately, for their families. But I guarantee you it would not have been the struggle that it was to get people to recognize that what they all knew and what we all knew who live in Downtown Manhattan is that there was poison in the air and on the ground and in the windowsills and in your air conditioners and covering your pets and your clothes, and it stayed there for months. Everyone knew.
And now it's very clear that the city knew as well. And rather than take the steps to ameliorate the damage that that would cause to its citizens and to the people that were down there, they instead covered it up to get back to business as usual. But unfortunately, after 9/11, business will never be usual again.
And so, I just want to say that the people that are standing up here are heroes. They are, and it's not just about the past. It's not about just going into the files and relitigating how we all knew what we knew was there. It's about the future. And people like Ben Chevat, who is a giant pain in the []. And I say that in the best of ways. He is the best of us. Never open his emails. I cannot stress that enough. You will be reading for hours.
This is about making sure these guys, like John Feal and Gale Brewer and Nadler and Maloney, they've done a great job at making sure all the first responders that were down there, they all understand their sicknesses to get in the program, but residents of this city, students that were down at Ground Zero that were brought back to do that. They need to sign up for the program.
We've lost three times as many people to 9/11-related illnesses as we did on 9/11, three times as many, almost 10,000 people. There's more work to be done so far, and it continues. So, thank you very much, and I just want to say what an honor it is to be standing with just giants. So, thank you.
Corporation Counsel Banks: I'd like to call up Tom Hart, Local 94 president of the Operating Engineers.
Tom Hart, President, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 94: Good morning. Thank you for coming out. My name is Tom Hart. I'm the president of the Operating Engineers Local 94 New York City. Who are we? We're the anchor. We're not the first responder. We're not the last responder. We're the anchor.
We're men and women in the buildings that when the first responders show up, they look for us. We're the licensed individuals that take care of the safety of each and every city person that comes to work in our commercial buildings, our city schools, our office buildings, as I said, our housing projects, our hotels, pretty much everything on the skyline. We're responsible for the safety and operation of that equipment and that building every day.
We're 6,000 members strong. I'm here on behalf of our outgoing business manager, who just retired, Mr. Kuba Brown, and our incoming business manager, Mr. Raymond Macco, who's taking over, myself as president and Vice President Mike Gadaleta.
We were all there on 9/11. We all responded, our men and women. I have a member here, Mr. Joe Sheeran, in fact. Joe, wave. Joey is an operating engineer. He helped evacuate the tower the day of the attack. Joe went to New Jersey via a boat, and then he walked to Brooklyn to get home. And he's been with me every step of the way, as is John, Phil, Ben Chevat, Matthew, Andrew, Michael Barasch, Matt Baione, all the elected officials, all the people that vowed never to forget.
We never forget because we've held these people in our arms. We've seen them. We've testified with them. We've held them. And then we buried them. And it's still going on every day, every single day. I got another call from a young lady last week. I knew her dad. I have to link his time down there with his death. His brain cancers are all linked to what we now know. The exposures to what was going on down there. "The dust" - and I'm taking this from Michael Barish and his publication, which I received this morning in the mail before I left - "The dust, the lingering legacy of 9/11."
And then I'm going to steal another quote. It quoted the lives of the children that lived there and went to school there. "Twenty-five years later, we need to know who you are. We need to know where you are." This, today, allows us to take a look.
I thank the mayor. I thank Steve. I'm indebted to Ben Chevat. He's one of the most humanistic, human people I've ever met. He's relentless. He genuinely cares. And he never rests. You can't heal what you don't reveal. So, today's the first step in moving towards getting to the people that we haven't been able to reach yet.
I represent working men and women, all men and women, not just unionized men and men. We believe that we raise the standard of life for everybody. We also advocate for the folks that live down here. Why? Because like our engineers, they're here. They're here to stay. They're not going anywhere.
So, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Banks, Mr. Chevat, and everybody up here, thank you very much for this step forward today. We're optimistic. We're an angry group, and we reserve the right to be angry. We're upset. In this venue, we haven't been here yet. This is the first time here, but we've been in this venue and a venue down in Washington. We've made two steps forward, then we get knocked back. Today we're going to walk away hopeful. So again, Mr. Mayor, thank you very much.
Corporation Counsel Banks: It's a pleasure to introduce Ben Chevat of 9/11 Health Watch. We all owe you a great debt.
Ben Chevat, Executive Director, 9/11 Health Watch: Thank you, Steve. Following Jon Stewart is hard, but it's actually harder being ahead of my former boss, Mr. Nadler as a Hill staffer. You usually don't do that. But thank you, Steve, and Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for being the mayor who after 25 years begins to answer the question, what did the city know about the toxic cloud at Ground Zero? And when did it know it?
And to Steve Banks, who has changed the Law Department, getting to do something revolutionary to resolve our lawsuit, which I didn't think they would, although, to be honest, we were winning, and to actually comply with New York public records law, that is revolutionary for the city.
Since 9/11, four different mayoral administrations worked to keep the answer from the public, even as City officials at the time continued to say that the air was, quote, "safe and acceptable." But today's announcement is not only about the online portal. The city has agreed to take steps that might help thousands of current and former city employees, public school students, obtain the records they need to enroll in the two federal programs that I was honored to work for Congressman Maloney in the bill that's [inaudible] to create.
The mayor is also going to help recruit for the new youth research cohort. Recruiting those who are under 21 - you know, people of his age group - who will allow for real research on the population for the first time that should have been done long ago.
But I wanted to just be clear, as Jon said, 9/11 Health Watch didn't do this on its own. First, I need to thank some people. I want to thank the labor unions, including the state AFL-CIO, which actually created 9/11 Health Watch. After the bill was created, a lot of people have been struggling for this, including my own mother, who was a resident when she was 74 of Gateway.
The first building by the World Financial Center was there when the towers collapsed, was covered in the dust, evacuated over the seawall, ferried to New Jersey and hitchhiked to my brother's house. And then who moved back in the spring of 2002, with the help of a congregation of Baptists that were volunteering to help clean apartments with mops and pails from, I think, Mississippi, who obviously didn't have adequate protections and are back home probably suffering from that impact today.
I wanna thank the families of Louis Alvarez, Charles Flickinger, Robert Klingon and Robert Fitzgibbon, some of whom are here today, who let us use their names in our original litigation. All who lost loved ones from 9/11-related cancers.
So many others have helped and worked over the years. Kimberly Flynn of 9/11 Environmental Action, who's here today. Lee Clarke of DC 37, who was the health and safety officer who has a 9/11 cancer. David Newman of NYCOSH, who helped us look through the document. Micki Siegel de Hernández of the Communication Workers, Wayne Barrett. And I especially want to shout out to Juan González, who I believe is watching. He was then a columnist for the Daily News. He was the first journalist in the beginning asking questions about the air quality and the 9/11 cough.
I obviously want to thank Congressman Maloney for his exposure, my former employer, and Congressman Nadler for starting this most recent effort in 2021, Council Member Brewer, who using a provision in the City Charter for the first time ever, got the Council to pass a resolution that ordered the Department of Investigation to investigate what the city knew and when it knew it. Speaker Menin, who helped fully fund the DOI investigation and, along with Gale, raised the topic for Steve's confirmation, which I think set us on the road to being here today.
I really do want to thank my two lawyers, Andrew Carboy and Matthew McCauley, who volunteered several years ago to do this just as a flyer. And we really are pretty amazed that we got here today. And I especially want to thank New York State Supreme Court Justice Clynes for his ruling that the Adams administration violated the law when they denied us the papers. And we don't have to show up in his court tomorrow.
9/11 Health will work with the mayor and his staff to fully implement this agreement. But I do want to say thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.
Corporation Counsel Banks: Next is Congressman Nadler, who was prominently featured in one of the sensitive documents.
Congressman Jerry Nadler: Thank you very much. We're here today to remember the innocent lives that were devastated in the days, weeks and months following the deadly terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
We're here to honor the heroes who ran toward the towers as the planes struck, who combed through the rubble to save survivors, and who worked tirelessly to clean up the wreckage. We're to honor men, women and children who did not know the danger they were facing as they slept in their homes, went to school and returned to work.
When our communities were at their most vulnerable, people turned to trusted sources, including their government, to guide them through this crisis. Government officials betrayed that trust by suspecting and later knowing the environmental hazards from the catastrophe and failing to tell the public.The air was unsafe. It was filled with toxic substances that sickened the people who breathed it in. And 25 years later, our neighbors and heroes are still falling seriously ill because of these toxins.
My colleagues and I who represented Ground Zero and the surrounding communities immediately warned local and federal officials about the health risks posed by the toxins in the air. I was screaming at the top of my lungs to protect our communities, my constituents. But officials like EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Mayor Giuliani denied claims like mine, saying the air was perfectly safe.
Blasphemous.
The failure of government officials to share this information with the public and adequately respond to the dangers has had devastating and, in too many cases, fatal consequences. Now we in the public know that City Hall, led by former Mayor Giuliani, predicted that thousands of responders and community members would face devastating long-term health consequences from these toxins.
Despite this, he stayed silent on the hazards. Eventually, the air became safe to breathe again, but officials continued to withhold the truth about the environmental hazards from the people who had been exposed. Their decision to deny the toxicity of the air that people had breathed in was a slap in the face to the heroes and community members who were exposed at Ground Zero and in schools, offices and homes throughout the surrounding area.
By hiding the truth, our fight in Congress to secure funding to address the health needs of 9/11 victims was an uphill battle. As a result, too many people faced unnecessary delays in accessing the health care they needed, sometimes with fatal consequences.
For years, and across multiple city administrations, I have led leaders in Congress to demand the release of these files. I am glad that this is finally happening. The damage to the health of 9/11 victims and the suffering they have endured and will continue to endure cannot be erased. But I am grateful to the Mamdani administration, specifically to Steve Banks, to Speaker Menin, to Council Member Brewer, to Ben Chevat of 9/11 Health Watch and to Kimberly Flynn of 9/11 Environmental Action for making today possible.
Thank you for your commitment to release these files so that victims and their loved ones can finally have the transparency they desire. Officials in the future will know that actions have consequences. The truth will always come to light.
I am proud to be here today as we take this monumental step toward justice. My heart is with those who are sick today. My heart is with those who have lost loved ones. My heart is with our community who still reels from the pain of September 11, 2001. May the memories of those we lost be a blessing.
Corporation Counsel Banks: Congressmember Maloney, longtime advocate to address these issues, thank you.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney: Wow. Thank you, Steve, for all your hard work and for settling the case. What a great honor it is to be here today. And it is really an amazing day for the 9/11 community. Thank you, Mayor Mamdani, for doing what no other mayor has done before. Opening the files on 9/11. Thank you for having the courage and for doing it. Thank you. Thank you.
Believe me, our job in Congress would have been so much easier if we had released these files earlier. I was there the first night, driving all the way from Washington, and it is still seared in my soul. It was one of the darkest days in American history. We lost almost 3,000 Americans and later over 10,000 more from the deadly toxins.
It was also a great recovery and rebuilding effort. No other city in the world could have responded as well as the great City of New York. We are a city of champions. From the true twin towers of New York, our firefighters, officers and police, our unions, advocates, volunteers, survivors, and my own staff headed by Ben Chevat, who worked every day on this issue for years and is still working every day on 9/11. Thank you, Ben, for your extraordinary work.
Responding to the health impact of the toxic chemicals, I worked with my staff and the 9/11 community to get the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Bill passed. I know it would not have taken so long and been such a struggle if the city had admitted that there were issues and released the information.
We would not have been working so hard and struggling to get the programs renewed in 2015 and again in 2019 and even this year getting the health program fully funded to 2090. We would have had a youth cohort 15 years ago and not just starting to start one up now if we had had this information.
Mayor Mamdani has shown courage, good values and good decisions, not only by releasing the files, but he also funded the portal and staff and research into how to prevent this kind of disaster in the future.
We had to fight so hard for the funding of the 9/11 Commission report to even hire staff. He just did it. And working with great leaders in our city, like Speaker Julie Menin and City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, he's trying to promote participation in the Zadroga Act, and his staff has done a remarkable job, I think, with the portal so far.
Our journey is not over. The 9/11 community will continue to work with the mayor to implement the agreement and to show by our actions that we will never forget. Thank you.
Corporation Counsel Banks: And last but certainly not least, Gale Brewer, who needs no introduction.
Council Member Gale Brewer: Thank you very much, Steve Banks. Mr. Mayor, congratulations. You picked a good Corporation Counsel. That's what I would say. And I do also want to thank Ben Chevat, like everybody else, and the amazing legal team, all the unions, all the families.
In my situation, I know more people die now than I did then, and it's almost weekly in my case. But this is a great day, but a day that took too long to arrive. For 25 years, the responders who came to Ground Zero, along with those who lived, worked and went to school around Ground Zero and their loved ones, have lived with the health consequences of the collapse of the World Trade Center, as we know.
For those two and a half decades, three consecutive mayoral administrations have kept critical pieces of the city's own record buried, stalling and denying repeated FOIL inquiries, saying the city knew nothing about the health effects of just breathing the air as New Yorkers tried to get on with their lives in the weeks and months and years after the attacks.
That's why I introduced and passed legislation along with the many people here on this podium, and also I want to thank Jon Houston, a colleague, because we all call for an independent DOI investigation using a never-before-used provision, as Ben said, of the City Charter to finally compile and report on what the government knew, when it knew it, and what decisions were made.
And thanks to Speaker Menin, that investigation, and to the mayor, it's now fully funded in this year's budget. The budget is the mayor and the City Council. And we should see the fruits of that investigation in the not-too-distant future. And I want to thank the Department of Investigation, which has reached out to us. It's also partly why I've introduced reform to the FOIL process to make Ben happy, to build a dashboard showing the status of all FOIL requests.
Today's portal announcement is a crucial first step toward getting the public access to that record, one that had been denied until Steve Banks and Mayor Mamdani got involved. It's likely that everyone in this rotunda knows someone or knows someone who knows someone who died as a result of the attacks, and just as likely others who are coping with illnesses brought on by the attacks, but may not have registered or may not know it. Today, we get to honor their lives and bring the truth into the sunlight. Thank you, everyone who's here.
Question: I have two questions. The first is, you know, many mayors before you lied, either obviously or just in the case of maybe former Mayor Adams prevented these documents from coming out. I wanted to get your take on the idea that a mayor and the many people who worked for those mayors willfully misled the city at a time when there should have been unity.
My second question, which maybe is a little bit more wonky, former Mayor Bloomberg and many of his staffers, it was reported that they used Bloomberg.net servers for a lot of their emails and messages, and not all of them had made it over to the municipal archives. I don't know if there's a possibility that there could be more documents within these emails and other things that were on the third-party server, and if there is a chance there could be 9/11-related documents there and if there was any effort to get that?
Mayor Mamdani: So, I will answer your first question, and then I'm going to pass it over to our Corporation Counsel to add some details for the second question.
I think for the first, I just want to echo what so many have said on this stage, which is that today's announcement is a testament to everyone here, to having persevered through mayoral administration after mayoral administration after mayoral administration after mayoral administration.
And we are doing this today because it is the right thing to do. And we are doing it because, as so many have said, "never forget," there have also been many who have willfully prevented the release of these kinds of documents. We are talking about more than 170,000 documents that are live on this portal as of now. We are talking about a universe in the millions.
And I want to also just say thank you again to the partners on the stage, to Ben. Because the release of these documents is not simply a blanket release of every document that we may have and therefore people do not even know if it is relevant to their concern. Rather, what this is, is a release of documents, having worked with advocates on this, that are related to the very search terms that so many have been concerned about. Search terms like asbestos, search terms like cancer.
I think you've heard it here, but we are now at a point where so many more New Yorkers have lost their lives as a result of 9/11 health-related consequences than were killed on that day. So, just once again, thank you to everyone here for all that you have done to make this day possible. I'll pass it over to our Corporation Counsel.
Corporation Counsel Banks: As the mayor said, there are documents after documents after documents that we're going to be reviewing. And we're doing it together with the 9/11 Health Watch. We'll be meeting regularly. And if we start to reach dead ends, we'll be collectively looking at those dead ends and figuring out how we can go around them.
You've got a tireless advocate over here in Ben Chevat. I think in my past, I wasn't too shabby as an advocate either, and we were really going to be focusing on how to get the answers that New Yorkers have been waiting for 25 years.
Question: Has there been any consideration to the fact that there could be some documents hidden in these things that were never really spent on?
Corporation Counsel Banks: Absolutely. I would never want to take your opportunity, Ben. We're going to look at everything that we've got, and if we can't find things, we'll look for other things. Ben, happy to -
[Crosstalk.]
Chevat: Just to be clear, it wasn't just the Adams administration, every administration has resisted this actively. The Adams administration just did it badly. And the only other thing I would say is, yes, Steve's right about the documents, but ultimately, I think what you have to remember is the DOI investigation that Gale got, the speaker and the mayor has funded, that hopefully is going to answer any questions, because they can talk to people. They're the equivalent of a prosecutor.
I mean, they're really the reason why the Adams administration produced the 68 boxes, because once the City Council passed the DOI investigation, they sent out a missive to every agency: Produce your documents. And then three weeks later, the Adams administration informed the court they found 68 boxes that they had lost because they had carpeting problems.
So, I think that that's really - the real issue is the documents are one thing, but the DOI investigation is really going to hopefully answer the question.
Question: I just want to follow up on Katie's question. You know, it looks through - from my read of these documents, like city officials under Giuliani and under Bloomberg definitely knew that there were increased levels of asbestos and benzene, other carcinogens. They reported that to the EPA. You said trusted officials lied. Who specifically are you referring to? Did those mayors lie? And if so, could you just kind of say specifically - I know broadly we're talking about lied about air quality - but what did you see or get briefed on in those documents that show they lied?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think - I wish there was a limited number of people who misled the public, that I could describe them in just a few names. But the truth is that, as we have heard, this goes across a multitude of those that New Yorkers have trusted. And we are here to release these documents today because for a long time New Yorkers have known the truth and yet they have been unable to see the truth in any document that's been presented to them.
Even when we speak about the Harding Memo, for example, this is the first time that the city is releasing the memo. This is the first time that we are putting forward documents that so many on this stage and beyond have fought tooth and nail to get any kind of a glimpse of.
And it does come back a lot to the question of air quality. It also comes back, as we heard from Congresswoman Maloney, to the fact that our federal representatives had to fight relentlessly over years without being able to get the support from the city to underline what the consequences were for so many.
And I recently met with a number of New Yorkers who lived in the area around Ground Zero. I met a young woman my age who was at school at the time. And we are now going to use every tool we have to reach out to those who may be eligible to be a part of this fund, but who for too long haven't even been spoken to about this. And, you know, you heard it earlier, there are people - you said people came from Mississippi?
Congresswoman Maloney: From every congressional district.
Mayor Mamdani: From every congressional district, we have New Yorkers who don't know that they could be eligible for this fund, leave alone those who don't live in this city. And so, today is a long time coming and also now our focus has to turn to how do we reach out to every single person to ensure that we have a truly accurate sense of what the consequences are.
Question: Very quick follow-up, either for you or Steve Banks, does this - I know obviously this is intended to help people get the services that they might be eligible for. Does it also create the possibility of legal risk for the city? Could people continue to sue? I know you're settling this suit.
Corporation Counsel Banks: I fought City Hall for a lot of years. This is my second time in City Hall. If you're in City Hall and afraid of taking action because somebody is going to bring a lawsuit, you're probably not going to take the action [that] needs to be taken.
Question: You were just making this point toward the end of your last answer, but I want to ask you again, just kind of talk about how the city is expecting that more people may be eligible for the resources that are available.
For so long, rightfully, the focus had been on first responders, but today - everyone here today mentioned the people who lived downtown, students who continued to go to school, the people who were there who just went back to work. What's the expectation about how many more people could come forward? And then I have a second question.
Mayor Mamdani: I would say it's not that more people may be eligible, more people are eligible. We know that more are eligible than those currently enrolled. We know especially for those who lived in the area but have yet to receive the kind of sustained outreach. And it's not for a lack of trying of some of the city workers who have frankly also been heroes.
You know, when I was at this meeting, there was a man who told me that he was called six times before he finally said, "Fine, I'll join the fund. I'll come to H+H nd I'll have my meeting." And he said, "Why do I need to do this? Because I am so healthy. I am in great shape." And then he talked about how within a year, two years after, his body started to deteriorate. And he was so thankful that he had doctors who knew exactly the kinds of 9/11-related health consequences that he should come to expect. And he was able to fight that complication off.
And so, this is going to be something that we finally provide support to so many on this stage who have been doing it without City government support, and also to make it very clear that to anyone who lived in that area, if they are developing any kinds of health complications, they should understand that there is potentially a relationship between the horrific terror attack of 9/11 and what they are currently going through.
Question: My second question for you is, you know, now that these documents are out, I just wonder if you think that the legacy of some of the leaders - I know you said the blame can't be pinned on a single person perhaps, but I wonder if this opens up a need for perhaps revising the legacy left behind by the previous administrations, namely the Rudy Giuliani administration, you know, and their immediate response to the attacks and the recovery, but also the Bloomberg administration and how they handled, you know, everything that came after.
I think the legacy that they have is that they responded and, you know, America's mayor and the reconstruction of the city. Do you think that legacy needs to be restudied, knowing what we know now?
Mayor Mamdani: I will leave that to New Yorkers to make that judgment.
Congressman Nadler: There's another problem that the legislation does not address. When we wrote the legislation, we had to make arbitrary limits. We limited it to nine - you know, it had to be below Canal Street. You could have said 14th Street. The poison certainly wafted into Brooklyn, but because we only had Charlie Rangel said $4.5 billion dollars to work with, we wrote those limits.
We also had to limit it to people who are in the area between September 11th and May 30th of 2002. We know that there were people, for instance, who went back to work in the municipal building after May 30th, and the municipal building hadn't been cleaned up. And it was very dusty. And a lot of the people who went to work then, there, have certainly - have come down with many, many different cancers.
So, this is a problem. It's not under the purview of the legislation we passed, but this is a problem that we're gonna have to deal with somehow.
Question: Aside from the importance of truth and transparency and government accountability, all of which are extremely important, what else do you think we might learn from these previously undisclosed documents that we didn't already know?
For instance, is there anything new that you're seeing that could change the way we look at 9/11 medical illnesses, either medically, scientifically, that could change our understanding of exposure? Or what illnesses might be linked to exposure that day? And then I have one more question.
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think with 170,000-plus documents in the portal today, and as Steve mentioned, many more tranches to come, I think that there's going to be a lot to learn from these documents.
I also think beyond doing the right thing, beyond making it easier for New Yorkers to make clear their eligibility for this fund, it is also important that those who faced such sustained pushback for years finally be told by the City of New York, "You were right. You were right to push. You were to demand." And that the city is finally catching up to that.
And I also just want to thank people on this stage, because the tenacity to fight for something over 25 years in opposition of any kind of administration, it is remarkable. And I truly think that you have done the words "Never forget" proud.
Question: Mr. Mayor, do you have a sense of how many people have not signed up that could be eligible, what that is? I know personally, Michael Barasch can tell you, I interviewed him once a long time ago, 15 years ago. I was a reporter who covered the early days of the 9/11 health, and even when I developed 9/11-related illnesses, had no idea that it was linked. And, you know, so you have to wonder what a typical civilian who doesn't know anything about this. What do you think in terms of the exposure? I know it's a federal responsibility.
And separately, maybe Steve or Ben, you could answer. Are there other documents that should be released that are still not, say, from other agencies, the Port Authority, other documents that you believe hold more facts that we don't have access to yet? Thank you.
Mayor Mamdani: I think I would first just say thank you for sharing your story because in doing so you also give others courage to understand that they too are a part of exactly what we're speaking to. I'll be frank with you that I think the number of those who are eligible but have yet to enroll, it is a staggering number. I don't have an exact one.However, I know that City government thus far has not even tried to the fullest extent of its ability. And that's going to change moving forward. Steve, I don't know if you have additional details.
Corporation Counsel Banks: Thank you, Melissa. I would just add that in looking at the documents just in the first tranche, there are some federal EPA documents, and as we go through other documents there may well be documents from other agencies, and hopefully that will shed light on New Yorkers' interest in seeing what non-city agency records may or may not show.
Chevat: I'll add just one thing. The borough president recently wrote to Governor Hochul asking Governor Hochul to do the same thing that the city is doing. And I don't think the borough president has got a response.
And obviously I think Congressman Nadler, you know, the experience with the EPA, the federal government probably has a lot of documents as well. The interactions with, at the time, the Giuliani administration - much of them had to go through the Pataki administration to go to the Congress. So, there's a record somewhere.
Question: Steve or Mr. Mayor, can you take us through two or three of the smoking guns that were uncovered in these documents that hadn't been known before today? And second, how specifically does the release of these documents help expand the number of folks who could be eligible for VCF or whatever?
Corporation Counsel Banks: I mean - depends how you define smoking gun. There are a lot of documents that clearly indicate what so many speakers today have talked about, which is that there was information known about the prevalence of carcinogenic materials, whether it's in a particular building, whether it was general air quality.
On some level, those things have been known, but actually seeing them and having the specificity, I think sheds light on what was known then. And there are more documents that we'll be reviewing and we'll be putting them up, I think, with that same view to make sure that people can see with particular knowledge what it is that people knew at a very time when the city was reopening.
You know, residents that were left, as Congressman Nadler sounded the alarm, left with, you know, rags and mops to clean asbestos out of their homes. Those are the kinds of documents in this first tranche that you will see.
Question: Is there one document that stands out in your mind that has a particularly damning quote?
Corporation Counsel Banks: I think the ones that are the most damning in my mind are not the ones that are communications among people, although they're certainly the Harding Memo and the memo in relation to Congressman Nadler's concerns. To me, though, they're the ones who show the test results and show the knowledge of what the air quality was.
Question: How do these documents specifically help folks who are not enrolled yet enroll? What evidence does it provide?
Corporation Counsel Banks: My hope is, just like Melissa's question raised, is people will think about where they were then and what these records show about what they were breathing then, and it provides knowledge to all New Yorkers, but particularly those that were in the affected zones. And this is an opportunity for people to specifically see what was the air quality while they were over there.
[Crosstalk.]
Mayor Mamdani: We're just gonna have a couple people add in.
Question: [Inaudible.]
Corporation Counsel Banks: They don't need to do that; they just need to establish their presence downtown at that particular [time].
Chevat: The documents that are in the portal are not necessarily the documents that the mayor is committed to working on. They are personnel documents that already exist, but there's no real help in accessing them.
So, DOE, Department of Education, documents to prove presence. So, it's a different conversation. The conversation about helping people is less about what is in the portal that hasn't been seen. Although there may be things in there - that Matt, who was a NYPD 9/11 responder, saw that might help.
But it's really, the mayor has committed, and it's going to take time to work on it, to try to help people. And that doesn't mean that we were going to find those documents, but the mayor's committing, I believe, according to our agreement, to try to help those people, like cops, going to the personnel office to get the records that they need. And it's different than the records that are in the portal.
Hart: So, I'd like to comment on a couple of questions about who's going to come forward and how do we know. I've been doing outreach since year one from many different organizations. And the number one question is: how do we get out to those people that have been affected?
You've got to understand the construction workers, the firemen, the policemen, these are different people.
I have had people come up to me within the last six months that didn't know what I did - in church, in Connecticut, where I live - and say to me, "I saw you on TV." And I jokingly said, "How'd I look?"
I don't go out and look for people. We are there as a vessel to get them to where they need to be. So, the message should be to those people, certainly the cohort for the children, untapped, I was asked to speak about the [inaudible]. There are issues that we haven't even looked at. To give you a number is impossible.
I personally have friends - I had a woman reach out to me; she's coming into town on Thursday. She was a responder from the American Red Cross. I haven't seen her in 23 years, but she had a need to come back here, and I will be there for her. And she will attend our mass on Friday, because she's part of that community.
And there are people from Hawaii, to Canada, to South Florida, all across this country that responded here. For those of us that were there, those illnesses, we don't talk about the mental health issues. We don't talk about that. All we talk about is the dust.
We don't talk about trauma and the nightmares leading up to the next two weeks that people live with. Many of these people will not come forward; it's not who they're made of. Many of the people that were down there were the Vietnam generation. They're not coming forward. We go out and we find them. Their families reach out.
As I said to you, I had a young woman call me Thursday. Her dad's been dead two years. I gotta put Humpty Dumpty back together and see if I can help that family. So, there is no right answer. There is no number. We vowed never to forget. And one thing I can tell you about the people behind me, we're never going away.
So, let's take this information forward and use it for the right reasons. Because it's what we needed to move forward. As I said earlier, if you don't reveal it, we can't heal it. So that's the message for today. Thank you.
Congresswoman Maloney: Can I just add - there are only 140,000 people registered in the 9/11 Health and Compensation, the health program. You know it's many more than that. I've lobbied with people in Washington who say, "I'm well. I'm just here helping my friends who are sick." And then later they have become sick and have passed away.
There are an increasing number of members of the press that are coming forward. I remember every press conference I had, I would say to the press, "sign up, sign up." None of them signed up. Now they call me; they're coughing, they're sick, they're signing up.
So, I am thrilled that we are raising awareness, and we'll find more people who need help. Thank you.
Question: Maybe one for the corporation counsel and one for you, Mayor. Under [the] previous administration, the argument has long been that these records can't be released because of the fear of how much this could cost the city in legal settlements. Do you have any sense of how much this could actually end up costing the city in legal settlements, if there's a ballpark dollar figure?
And then for - I can wait with my second question if that's -
[Crosstalk.]
It sounds like you're saying Rudy Giuliani lied. Given that that's the case, do you think he should stay away from Friday's memorial service?
Mayor Mamdani: I think that the focus of memorial services should be on the New Yorkers who were killed that day, their families, the survivors, the first responders. I don't think it should be on politicians.
Question: Do you think he lied, though?
Mayor Mamdani: I leave it to New Yorkers to make their judgments, and what we want to do is finally allow them the documents that they have long been demanding.
Corporation Counsel Banks: Look, as I said before, we're very focused on making these records available to close this chapter on the City having documents with information and not providing it to New Yorkers.
Might there be lawsuits in the future? There have been lawsuits to release the documents. Could there be lawsuits relating to the release of the documents? Sure, but that's not a reason not to release the documents.
Question: We're wondering if there's an assessment of how much it could cost, because under previous administration that was always the claim, right? "We can't release it because it's going to be so expensive."
Corporation Counsel Banks: You have to look behind those claims and understand what's real and what's not about potential future litigation, and that's the result that we've gotten to today.
Question: To you and to anyone else who wants to answer this, was this a cover-up?
Mayor Mamdani: This was multiple mayoral administrations refusing to release documents that New Yorkers were owed. And we would not be here today were it not for the dogged tenacity of all those on this stage, in this atrium and beyond, who have refused to accept no for an answer, who have refused to accept any variety of technical justification that in the end was simply an attempt to deny New Yorkers what they were owed.
Question: [Inaudible] 15,000 signatures on a petition demanding a criminal investigation of events before, what was known, what happened during, including Mayor Giuliani, who had never really clearly said where he was at the time of this event and what he knew, and then what happened with the poison air - which was my idea, I was going to use that term, you used it for me. The poison air that people died, 10,000 people died. Who's going to go to jail for this?
Mayor Mamdani: When it comes to criminal investigations and district attorney's decisions, I will leave it to those attorneys to make that determination. I don't know, Gale, do you want to-
Council Member Brewer: I mean, the great news, as you heard earlier, is the Department of Investigation can do their investigation, and they can refer to the district attorney if appropriate. And they've done that in the past and they could do it now.
