House GOP passes first big whip test, ousting Omar

With help from Shawn Ness

New from New York

Happening now:

• Gov. Kathy Hochul and regulators took steps to bolster the failing recreational marijuana industry.
• A Buffalo Senate seat vacated by now-Rep. Tim Kennedy will remain empty through the remainder of the year.
• Mayor Eric Adams kicked off his trip to Italy by offering praise of the Pope.
• Hochul told reporters that she’s hopeful a deal can be reached to address the ills of social media on children.

TROUBLE IN THE WEED WORLD: Chris Alexander, the executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management, will leave at the end of his term to “pursue other opportunities,” Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters today during a press conference announcing an overhaul of the state’s cannabis agency.

Meanwhile, the Cannabis Control Board was meeting at the same time to approve additional licenses and a shift in how licenses are processed.

The overlapping press conference and agency meeting were the culmination of years of New York’s troubled cannabis rollout amid an effort to redress the harms of past cannabis enforcement.

Entrepreneurs have long spoken out about the botched program, outlining the financial consequences of the slow licensing process.

Hochul acknowledged how those hardships have affected specific applicants who were supposed to be positioned to take advantage of an economic opportunity in the recreational marijuana industry, only to have suffered devastating financial consequences.

She told reporters about an applicant who invested more than $40,000, but still has yet to hear any news on their application — a story that is familiar to anyone who has been listening to public comments at the board meetings.

Staffing issues: Office of General Services Commissioner Jeanette Moy, who led a review released today on the system, told reporters that the state is recruiting additional staffers to review licenses in hopes of speeding up the process.

Agencies need to prioritize requests for staffing, she said.

“If the idea is that the office was sitting there not asking for additional staff … and all of a sudden somebody's saying that we need to ask for additional staff, it sounds like that's not accurate,” said Cannabis Control Board member Adam Perry during Friday’s meeting. “It sounds like the office has asked for additional staff.”

Perry was also critical that the board wasn’t provided with a draft of the report ahead of its public release, as is customary for external reviews.

Board Chair Tremaine Wright said the board had not been presented with a report and that she had requested that it receive an update on the findings of the audit. A spokesperson for the governor said that Wright was briefed on key information from the report on Wednesday.

Other new developments: The governor also announced a task force to crack down on the illicit cannabis market, as well as a $5 million grant program to help entrepreneurs impacted by past cannabis enforcement.

The board approved more than 100 additional licenses today, though only 31 more retailers. Cannabis regulators are also changing the licensing review process, and they plan to review significantly more applications than from the general application window last fall.

Not everyone was happy about the change.

Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said during the board meeting that the licensing process was supposed to be protected from the whims of the governor.

“People want to ask why folks of color do not stand up to be in these positions as elected officials… It's because we get set up and then they cut our heads off in public. And that is what is happening to the OCM.” Frederique said of the state Office of Cannabis Management.

“It is not lost on me that for the first time we have Black leadership … We're changing the goalposts and the cannabis board was supposed to be independent to protect the intentions of the work.” — Mona Zhang

NO SPECIAL EXPECTED IN BUFFALO: Rep. Tim Kennedy took the oath of office for his new job on Monday evening, which leaves state Senate Democrats one vote shy of the 42-member supermajority they’ve enjoyed since 2021.

But senators are predicting there won’t be a special election to fill the seat before the November elections.

A 2021 law overhauled the rules for calling special elections. Governors now need to quickly call them, but they’re not allowed to do so if a vacancy is created after April 1 of an election year — unless there will be a special session sometime before January, in which case calling one is mandatory.

But that begs the question: How do we know there won’t be a special session later this year?

Albany doesn’t hold special sessions anymore. There are occasional “extraordinary” sessions — when the governor calls lawmakers back to Albany. And there are plenty of times when lawmakers come back to town to vote on issues like pay raises that are colloquially called “special sessions."

But technically, those aren’t special sessions.

Those only occur when the Legislature comes back after adjourning for the year. And the Legislature hasn’t formally adjourned before New Year’s since the 1970s, thanks to members like state Sen. Neil Breslin holding two-minute sessions in the off weeks. — Bill Mahoney

NYC IS THE ROME OF AMERICA: Mayor Eric Adams today lauded Pope Francis’ calls for migrants to be treated humanely as he kicked off a multi-day visit to Italy that will culminate in an audience with the pontiff.

“His voice on these topics will cause those who would probably traditionally ignore the topic to sit up and take note,” Adams said in a news conference from Rome, adding the pope urges people to “just look at your fellow human being as your fellow brother or sister.”

He described the pope ahead of their meeting as a “credible messenger” in parts of the world struggling with influxes of newcomers, including New York City, where 195,000 migrants have come in the past two years.

The pope has challenged anti-immigration postures in Europe and in March penned a letter to migrants in Panama calling them “the face of Christ.”

Day One of Adams’ Roman holiday has been far from restful as he toured a subway tunnel under construction near the Colosseum, a slaughterhouse that was converted into an arthouse and sat with a roundtable of Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

The Democratic mayor is visiting Rome for the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, and his travel bill is being footed by the pope’s Fondazione Fratelli Tutti, according to City Hall. — Emily Ngo

CULTURE CLUB CRIES CUTS: Do you really want to hurt them? The cultural institutions that get direct city funding say Adams didn’t restore nearly enough of their cuts, and they need another $53 million in the upcoming budget.

“Mr. Mayor, our city’s recovery is significant but fragile — and it cannot withstand uncertainty and continued cuts to culture,” reads the Culture for All petition from the Cultural Institutions Group, made up of 34 organizations ranging from Carnegie Hall to the Staten Island Zoo.

Adams cut $12 million from this year’s budget and the next in November, and another $13 million in January. The second cut was restored to fanfare last month, but the institutions want the initial cuts restored too, plus the same $40 million boost to baseline funding they fought for, and got, for last year’s budget.

The city allocated the Cultural Institutions Group about $141 million total in operating expenses for fiscal year 2024 budget.

The mayor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment, though they have previously defended their commitment to culture, while saying across-the-board cuts were needed to balance the budget.

A City Council spokesperson said the council will be prioritizing the full restoration in the budget. — Jeff Coltin

SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: New figures released by the New York City school system shows a projected increase in enrollment for the 2024-25 year.

An additional 778,000 students are expected to be enrolled, making it the first time enrollment increased year-over-year since before 2016.

"The proof is in the enrollment projections — through a mix of new and innovative programming, engaging academics, and genuine family and student engagement, our system is bouncing back from years of declining enrollment and leading the nation in public school education,” Schools Chancellor David Banks said in a statement.

Banks attributed the increase to three programs: NYC Reads, Student Pathways and the Summer Rising program. — Shawn Ness

JAMES SIMONS, 86: Hedge fund manager James Simons passed away at the age of 86 today. A former math professor at SUNY Stony Brook, Simons made a fortune in hedge funds in recent decades.

He had become a major figure in New York state politics and policy. During Gov. David Paterson’s administration, he lobbied the state for tuition hikes for SUNY to place it on sounder financial footing. He appeared with Gov. Kathy Hochul last year to announce $500 million for Stony Brook, one of the largest charitable donations in American history.

“Jim was a brilliant mathematician and understood the important role science and math play in our future,” Stony Brook alum Carl Heastie, the Assembly speaker, said in a statement. “Throughout his life he donated billions of dollars to support grand scientific endeavors and lower barriers of access to all those dreaming of innovation.”

Simons has also repeatedly been the top donor to New York Democrats.

He and his wife have given at least $7 million to state and local level candidates and parties since 2011, including $3.9 million to the state Democratic Committee, $370,000 to Andrew Cuomo and $205,000 to Hochul. — Bill Mahoney

HOCHUL’S SOCIAL: The effort to limit kids’ exposure to social media algorithms is getting some personal involvement from Hochul.

The governor today told reporters that the measure, which is meant to block social media firms from providing algorithmic feeds to the accounts of children, is her top end-of-session priority.

And unlike some bills that pass without involvement from the governor’s office, Hochul said her legal team is working with lawmakers to craft the final details of a potential agreement by June 6.

“We will find the right balance,” she said. "We want to make sure we protect the interests of children, number one, and make sure we’re creating an environment where these companies can thrive, but within limitations.”

Opponents believe algorithmic-powered feeds can be addicting and lead to mental health problems. But social media companies have warned the proposal would create free speech violations and likely face a court challenge. — Nick Reisman

HER NO WORRIES ERA: New York Democrats want a proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution to galvanize turnout this election year. A Republican-backed challenge to its ballot status is putting a question mark on those plans.

But Hochul told reporters she is not concerned the amendment would be blocked from the ballot this November over procedural grounds.

The proposal would enshrine a broad array of rights such as the right to an abortion in the state constitution. Republicans won the first round of a lawsuit over the amendment’s placement on the ballot in a ruling that’s almost certain to be appealed.

The amendment is considered a key piece of the Democratic efforts to retake the House with the party trying to flip five seats in New York and take power in the narrowly divided chamber.

But even if the amendment is taken off the ballot, Hochul believes Democrats have a stable of issues to run on, including housing, anti-retail theft measures and cracking down on illegal cannabis businesses.

“There will be plenty of messaging that the Democrats can and will lean on — not the least of which is our strong support of reproductive rights,” she said. — Nick Reisman

— A newer, bigger, better bottle bill is facing the same old problems. (POLITICO Pro)

— Orange County is the latest county to sue the state over proposals to host local elections in even-numbered years. (Times Union)

— State Democrats are sure that the decision to toss out the Equal Rights Amendment will be challenged in the state’s highest court. (POLITICO Pro)

Donald Trump made a transactional offer that reportedly "stunned" top oil executives at an event last month at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

One executive complained about environmental regulations they continued to face despite spending $400 million to lobby President Joe Biden's administration, and the former president pitched what some attendees perceived as a blunt and transactional offer, reported the Washington Post.

"Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House," the Post reported.

"At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation."

The presumptive Republican nominee has already asked the oil industry to help craft his environmental agenda for a possible second term that would roll back Biden's mandates on clean energy and electric vehicles, and Trump told attendees over chopped steak that he would allow new offshore drilling, fast-track permits and relax other regulations.

“You’ve been waiting on a permit for five years, you’ll get it on Day 1,” Trump told the executives, according to one attendee.

ALSO READ: Trump’s Manhattan trial could determine whether rule of law survives: criminologist

Oil executives had hoped Florida GoV. Ron DeSantis or some other Republican would challenge Biden, and so far oil donors and their allies have given only $6.4 million to Trump's joint fundraising committee in the first quarter of this year, but oil billionaire Harold Hamm and others will host a fundraiser for him later this year that's expected to generate larger amounts of money.

“Biden constantly throws a wet blanket to the oil and gas industry,” said Dan Eberhart, chief executive of the oil-field services company Canary. “Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ philosophy aligns much better with the oil patch than Biden’s green-energy approach. It’s a no-brainer.”

Oil executives are intrigued by Trump's pitch, which Alex Witt, a senior adviser for oil and gas with Climate Power, said shows that "everything has a price" with the former president.

“They got a great return on their investment during Trump’s first term," Witt said, "and Trump is making it crystal clear that they’re in for an even bigger payout if he’s re-elected."

This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat. You can sign up for Civil Beat's newsletter here and support the nonprofit newsroom here.

The agency has found available housing but is struggling to get people to move in. On Friday, it ends its support for the emergency hotel program.

Nearly 500 empty condos, apartments and houses are being paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of its program to house Maui wildfire survivors.

A Civil Beat review of federal contracting records and interviews with FEMA officials show the agency has so far committed to pay nearly $200 million to three out-of-state property management companies. Those companies oversee 1,335 direct leases with Maui property owners to house people who lost their homes in the Aug. 8 fire in Lahaina.

Each month, FEMA is writing checks to North Carolina-based Aesthetic Home Investments, California-based Lima Charlie and Florida-based Fedcology/Parliament to cover the costs of all the properties participating in the program, regardless of whether anyone is living in them, according to FEMA officials. Those companies keep a percentage of the money in fees and other costs and then in turn pay the property owners who are leasing their homes out, generally under one-year contracts.

FEMA officials would not provide a breakdown of how the money is being spent or how much has been paid to date. Civil Beat has repeatedly asked FEMA why public money is still being spent on so many empty units.

The Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa in Kaanapali is one of many resorts that has been housing Aug. 8 wildfire survivors for months through FEMA’s emergency sheltering program. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)

As of last week, fire survivors had moved into 835 of the 1,335 units the agency has leased directly from property owners, Curtis Brown, FEMA’s deputy federal coordinating officer, said in an interview with Civil Beat.

That left 500 vacant units at that time that FEMA was paying for. Brown has said at public Lahaina recovery update meetings for the past few months that people are still getting paid for empty units.

Data posted on the federal website usaspending.gov indicates total costs including rent, property management fees, utilities, maintenance and other expenses average more than $12,000 per month per unit.

One of the contracts with Lima Charlie, for instance, shows FEMA has paid the company $59,000 since January. The agency has committed to pay up to $420,000 through next January, according to the federal data. But it’s unclear how many properties that includes, where they are located or if anyone lives in them yet because FEMA would not provide the individual contracts.

Federal data online shows one of the numerous contracts FEMA has awarded Lima Charlie to house Maui fire survivors through its direct-lease program. (USASpending.gov/2024)

With 500 or so vacant units as of last week, FEMA would have spent more than $5 million on empty housing in April alone.

There were roughly 600 vacant units one month ago being paid for by FEMA as the agency tried to quicken its pace. And most of the vacancies date to January or February when the majority of the contracts were signed, the point at which the payments begin.

The program started in November as an interim solution to move thousands of fire survivors out of pricey and cramped hotel rooms and into longer-term, more comfortable homes with kitchens. Property owners signed up for the relatively lucrative deal, but it was still a challenge to get people to move into the units — largely because most are outside of West Maui, away from jobs, schools, doctors and their community.

FEMA officials, property managers, fire survivors and others say it has taken months to successfully match survivors with units.

In addition to location issues, overly strict federal regulations governing living arrangements have been a problem. In some cases, larger families have been required to have units with more bedrooms even though they would accept smaller places. Some people have been unable to pass background checks or had problems getting them.

Roughly 13,000 people were displaced by the Aug. 8 fires in Lahaina and Upcountry Maui. Nearly 1,600 are still living in hotels set up as emergency shelters while hundreds of other households have moved into FEMA’s direct-lease units. (Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat/2023)

FEMA would not provide the individual contracts with the companies, but Bob Fenton, who has been leading FEMA’s Maui fire recovery efforts since August, told Civil Beat last month that property owners in the program were being paid an average of $6,000 per month.

But without the contracts, it’s impossible to tell how much is going to the property owner versus the management company and other costs.

Local property managers say the average monthly rate for property management of long-term leases on Maui is 10% to 15%, with a higher first month rate for setting up the account, conducting background checks and inspections.

“Obviously, anything with government has additional costs; we have to meet certain protections,” Fenton said when asked why FEMA was paying so much more than the going rate for property management.

FEMA would not provide a breakdown of the number of units managed by each company, but according to federal data, the agency has committed to pay Lima Charlie $128.3 million, Fedcology/Parliament $46.9 million and Aesthetic Home Investments $23.7 million for a total of $198.87 million. That figure fluctuates day to day based on how many property owners are contracted, as some have dropped out of the program and new ones have been added.

Curtis Brown, FEMA’s deputy federal coordinating officer, says of about 1,300 units contracted with the direct-lease program, about 500 were still sitting empty as of this week. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)

David Greenburg, who heads Fedcology/Parliament, and David Waldbauer, president of Lima Charlie, did not respond to repeated calls and emails. Iesha Carmichael, president of Aesthetic Home Investments, declined an interview request.

R. Austin Oyler, an attorney representing Aesthetic’s president, said in an email last month that “AHI processed over 180 units in the prior three months, which it believes to be a tremendous result.”

All three companies provided property owners a list of requirements to make sure their unit could pass a FEMA inspection — including changing out double beds for single beds in some rooms, providing a specific type of fire extinguisher and installing smoke alarms. Several property owners said they took care of these requirements themselves before a lease was signed.

An owner of a two-bedroom, 1.5-bath home on South Kihei Road received two rent payments of approximately $9,000 each while the property was sitting empty. Fire survivors have since moved in, the owner said. The owner asked not to be named for this story.

With about 13,000 people losing their homes in the fires on Maui, which already was experiencing a housing crisis, the direct-lease program was set up to convert short-term rentals into long-term housing fire survivors for at least a year, and possibly up to two years, while new housing projects are built in Lahaina and elsewhere on Maui.

County, state and federal officials have said for months that the biggest reason many units have sat empty is the challenge of getting fire survivors to move away from West Maui.

Gov. Josh Green said last week at a press conference about housing that some people have turned down matches “four, five, six times.”

From left, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen listens to Gov. Josh Green as an ASL interpreter relays a message from FEMA’s Bob Fenton during a press conference in October in Wailuku. The state will have to pick up the tab for housing fire survivors in hotels after Friday unless FEMA again extends the deadline. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2023)

In an effort to more quickly move survivors out of the resorts, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency on March 14 announced a policy that limits the number of times survivors can turn down federal or state-provided housing options and still remain in the emergency temporary program.

“We’re just at a point now where more people are engaged in filling out the paperwork,” Fenton said. “We have the units. It’s a matter of them completing the background checks. It’s a matter of matching people up. It’s a matter of them being responsive.”

The direct-lease program also has had difficulty securing enough units that could accommodate pets and people with disabilities.

Brown, of FEMA, said the process is now being expedited by having all three property management companies use the same background checks and a “deeper communication with the survivor.”

He said about 27 households per day are now being moved into a direct lease home.

People like Joy Newman, a 71-year-old with medical problems whose Lahaina apartment was destroyed in the Aug. 8 fire, have appreciated what the program offers. She said she had tried to find a place on her own, but after a fruitless search, she gave up and went through the FEMA process for a direct lease.

It took months, but finally two weeks ago, Newman, who uses a walker and had recently undergone surgery for cancer, was matched with a unit in West Maui that could accommodate her needs and her Chihuahua named Malia. The unit had been sitting empty for a couple of months.

Fire survivor Joy Newman, 71, and her dog Malia were happy to move out of a resort hotel and into a condo in West Maui through FEMA’s direct-lease program. (Cammy Clark/Civil Beat/2024)

While Newman wishes it had happened sooner, she said it has been a relief to move out of the hotel room at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa, her sixth lodging since the fire, and into a condo along the beach with turtles.

“Oh my heavens,” she said. “I can cook the food I can eat. With my rheumatoid arthritis, there’s so many things I can’t have. This is making a huge difference in how I feel. And my dog is finally settling in.”

It almost didn’t happen because FEMA personnel were concerned about Newman having to negotiate three stairs into the condo. But Newman said she convinced them she could handle it.

And while she is planning to have her bed moved into the living room because the wind and street noise in the bedroom make it difficult to sleep, she said everything else is wonderful.

“It’s not the perfect system, but it’s a system we’ve been able to make work,” Fenton said.

Meanwhile, FEMA is also funding approximately 135 households still living in the resorts through its temporary emergency housing program that it contracted with the state and is being run by the American Red Cross. The program was at one point costing an estimated $1,000 per day per household, but likely is less now that the survivors are being provided two less meals per day.

Green said last week that the state thinks the remaining households eligible for the FEMA program living in the hotels is closer to 400 and is continuing to discuss this with FEMA. For months, the state has been paying for the households who are not eligible for FEMA housing.

As of Tuesday, there were 629 households representing 1,596 people and 149 pets living in the hotel program at seven locations. Friday is the deadline for FEMA to stop reimbursing the state for its eligible households in this program.

FEMA has extended the deadline several times, but it has not said if it will do so again, which would leave the state to pick up the tab while it tries to find homes for those still staying in the hotels.

Green has said he expects to have almost everyone out of the hotels by July 1.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.