 Good morning or afternoon, whichever it is, I live in dog years as mayor, so it goes rather quickly. So, today, I'm holding a hearing in bill signings that support our small businesses that fulfill the commitment and promise that I made on the campaign trail, we're actualizing it today with these important assignments, small businesses we hear over and over again, they are the heartbeat of our community and for far too long they've been overlooked. We are here to really change that conversation and lift up our small businesses by these important pieces of legislation or bills that we're signing. A few months ago I outlined my blueprint for economic recovery and I spoke about restart in our small businesses and our large corporations, they go hand in hand to improve our economy. Later on, a plan to strengthen our commercial corridors across the five boroughs, it is so important that what our bids are doing on our local communities, particularly as you see more and more businesses are moving into neighborhoods, those neighborhoods were often overlooked. We are pleased with the plans that we're doing to really strengthen these small businesses and all of our agencies are aware that we're zeroing in on how do we keep doors open. Historically, you got agita. Every time an agency walked into your business or small business in our city, those days are going to end. We must figure out how we keep the doors open and that's my commitment and promise. And I promise that I would expedite the creation of business improvement districts in the city. You heard this saying over and over again, promise made, promise kept. Today we're signing one of those promises into existence. Intro 47 creates the Castle Hill Business Improvement District in the borough of the Bronx. And so if you're from the Bronx, you'll understand when I put up the X. Intro 73 establishes the West Village Business Improvement District in the borough of Manhattan. So it's so important to do so. We are, what's your symbol? We are sure that the bids launch this July in time for the start of the fiscal year. So businesses in Castle Hill and the West Village can thrive. We cannot have an economic recovery unless our neighborhoods recover at the same time. It must be the equity that we have been looking for for far too many years. And this is a huge win. And for all those who have advocated for this, we heard you were responding. And that is how government should work when you get stuff done. The law will reinvent our city and our economy today, tomorrow and generations to come. And turning to, which is an important bill, many of the advocates have pushed for a long time, and I want to thank the commissioner for your advocacy on this issue. Intro 134, which will strengthen our pay transparency laws and clarifies the law applies to employees who are paid hourly or through an annual salary. We heard far too often how this law was not clear. And as Justin Brennan walks in, I noticed it was something he pushed for for a long time. Congratulations to you, the finance chair. This means that every listing for a job that is paid an hourly wage or an annual salary must disclose what the minimum and maximum salary wage is. This is an important bill. And advocates have pushed for it. And Assemblyman, what are you doing sitting there? Come on, come on, come on, come on and join us, come and join us up here. And what you got, two earrings in one, I got to get my other earring, man. This means, this is an important meaning for the advocates who have pushed for this. Employers who promptly submit, this was the piece that was important. We were not trying to be punitive. We were trying to change the mindset of those who were not listing the minimum and maximum salaries. So the important part that we were able to come to and resolve, employees who promptly submit proof of current, their first violation will not be subject to civil penalties. But we're not going to play the game that you could keep saying, oops, I forgot to do so. No. We're not going to use that to state, if you do it again, then we would take those actions to send the right message for any future violations. This classification, make sure that the law works for both workers and employers. And so I want to thank all who are part of bringing these bills to the signing. Councilmember Williams, Councilmember Brennan, Councilmember and Chair of the Economic Development Committee of Councilwoman Forrest, Councilmember Farrell-Lewis, Councilmember Eric Botcher, Tony DeRosa and Brooks Scowley, Chair of the West Village Bid Steering Committee, and the Castle Hill Bid Steering Committee as well. So now I would like to turn it over to Councilwoman Williams, the sponsor of 134, to say a few words. Thank you. And thank you, Mayor, for holding this very important bill signing, and I also just wanted to acknowledge Commissioner Palma, whose agency will be tasked with implementing this important measure. Again, I'm Councilmember Natasha Williams, representing the 27th Council District in Southeast Queens, not the Bronx. It's official. And as I stand here before you today for the signing of my first bill, this is a significant moment because it expands on landmark measures which were critical to the fight in economic equity. This work would not have been possible without the value partnership of both the advocacy and business community. My colleagues here at the Council, as well as my co-sponsor, Councilmember Justin Brennan, and of course our history-making speaker, Adrienne Adams. With this legislation, we are leaning on Shirley Chisholm's words. Everybody is getting a folding chair, so no one has to worry about not having a seat at the table when it comes to pay equity. To my small businesses, these changes were common-sense amendments, and this will ensure that you do not face undue harm. So the advocacy community and the unions who fought so hard for this measure let us use this to build up the moving path of enclosing the deficit of $10,000 that we as women share or, in contrary to what our male counterparts make on their salaries. For those who may have missed the opportunity to hear the adjustments we've incorporated and conveyed during our prior public hearing, I'm excited to reshare what our signed legislation really means. And I know the mayor mentioned a lot of this already. So we have clarified that jobs paid in hourly wage be subject to salary transparency requirement. We have also removed general notices that state employees can hire without reference to a particular position. We insured that nearly all virtual jobs performed in New York City or for a New York City employer can be covered under this bill. Lastly, we have worked to keep an extension to allow viable time for small businesses and our agencies to comply with this new law. Seeing the foundation to enable women to be at a space where they can truly compete with men means a lot to me. And this moment makes me truly value even more the hard work that it took to galvanize women across this nation, NDC, as a national organizer of the Women's March. In closing to all my women out there, you deserve this moment. As a black woman standing before you who recognizes the hurdles that we have constantly absorbed because who we are, I understand you and I see you. But I am a conscious optimist and I believe our future looks bright. I look forward to working with you all, the mayor's office and my colleagues as we ensure that we continue to build past this point and beyond. Thank you. Thank you. Let's say. Thank you for that. We needed that and want to also bring on Councilman Eric Botcher. This is about the West Village bid. I am so happy today that after many years of effort, we are witnessing the creation of a business improvement district in what I call an overloved part of the village. The 7th Avenue South Corridor, parts of 6th Avenue South and the side streets. This area gets a lot of foot traffic from residents, tourists, commuters. And that's great, but it generates a lot of litter, a lot of wear and tear and other issues and we've really struggled a lot for many years to keep up with that. And the small businesses on this stretch have also struggled historically. And bids provide help on all these fronts. They provide supplemental sanitation services, beautification and landscaping, social services for unhoused New Yorkers and they are a great partner to elected officials in solving issues as they arise, which is why I'm a big fan of bids and to all my constituents watching. If you would like a bid in your neighborhood, I will support you and help you. In Hell's Kitchen, for example, I feel strongly that 9th Avenue and 10th Avenue could benefit greatly from bid coverage, also Chelsea as well. And the residents here today have shown how it can be done. One of the unique things about this West Village bid is that it came from a true grassroots effort. It started with a meeting in Brooke's schoolies living room a few years ago and Brooke and her fellow residents hit the pavement, reaching out to thousands of property owners in the proposed bid area and presenting to the community board, block associations, hosting community presentations and more than once they were told that it could not be done, that it wasn't going to happen. But here we are and soon we're about to see the creation of West Village bid and we're going to see real improvements in sanitation and quality of life in the West Village. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank my staff, Patrice Comerford, Sean Coughlin, Wynn Pariasami, everyone in the council and at SBS for making this happen. And thank you, Brooke, to you and to our neighbors for all that you're doing for our community. Thank you. Thank you. Well said. We have a different model here from it can't be done to it will be done. That's the way we have to look at it. We're going to bring up a council member, the chair of the Economic Development Committee, a council member, one of my favorite people. Councilwoman Amanda Parias. Thank you. I am, hi everyone, council member Amanda Parias is previously mentioned by the mayor. I'm thrilled to join Mayor Eric Adams today as he signs these critical pieces of legislation into law. These bills have a huge impact on New Yorkers across all five boroughs with open and transparent salary range disclosures and also in my own district with the creation of the Castle Hill bid. I look forward to supporting our employers in the successful implementation of intro 134. I am a co-sponsor. Ensuring all businesses have the time and resources to find the right talent we have here in New York City. This is an exciting moment for black and brown New Yorkers, both in our businesses and whom are looking to bring their skillset to the workplace. Our communities have so much to offer and building up one another in our neighborhoods is really the only way to improve all of us. Additionally, and why we're really here today. I'm excited to see intro 47, the Castle Hill Business Improvement District, come to fruition after the years of organizing. Truly, the steering committee headed by Tony DeRosa and our leadership at the Westchester Square bid, and I'm super lucky to have one of my predecessors, former council member Annabel Palmer, who really have worked tirelessly over the years to bolster one of our community's most important commercial corridors. Coming in this year, I'm proud to be able to close the organizing chapter, pass through the agencies with the help of SBS, and get this passed in the council. Today's signing is meaningful as it helps start the real investments going to be made in Castle Hill that it truly deserves. I look forward to working with Mayor Eric Adams, my colleagues in the council, and my local businesses to pass more legislation that focuses on equitable recovery, supporting small businesses, and most importantly, protecting our hardworking New Yorkers. Thank you so much. Councilman Farias is all over the place with us. Is this your second bill with us? I thought you went earlier. We're not your mob, you know? And I know Councilman Justin Brennan, please say a few words. Councilman. Thank you, Mayor. The salary transparency bill is a really big deal, and as they say, as goes New York City, so goes the nation, it's important that we got this right. I was the co-sponsor of the original bill, and we did something pretty groundbreaking. We brought everyone to the table and heard everybody out. We're ending the era of my way or the highway politics. We're bringing everyone in, everyone around the table led by my colleague, Natasha Williams, to really get this done. The business community, the small business community, the advocates, we got together and we didn't come up with a compromise, we came up with a better bill. And that's what this is all about, getting this right. This is the first in the nation law. We already have people from other states reaching out asking for the text, because they want to steal it and do it in their town. So that's why it's so important that we get this thing right. And I remember when I first became a lawmaker, I wondered what was there left to do? It feels like, and how many hundreds of years, it seems like everything has been done before. What could there possibly be left to fix? And then you find that there's a lot of stuff that still needs to be fixed. But you don't want to walk around with a handful of solutions looking for problems. You don't want to have the problem come to you and then find a way to fix it. And that's what we did here with this bill. And we're confident now that you're going to see in other cities and states across the nation, they're going to be copying what we're doing here today. So, thank you very much. Thank you. And I'm talking about fixing things. No one does it better in Brooklyn than our Councilwoman Farrell Lewis. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. I know you love me. So, first, I just want to congratulate my colleagues, Councilmember Williams, Farias and Batra on the first bill signing. I'm so proud of all of you. I'm a co-prime on intro 47. And I think this mayor got it right. It's the rebirth of small businesses in New York City. His plan for the recovery of all small businesses is the way to go with these bids. So, I'm really excited about what's coming in Castle Hill as well as Middle Village and look forward to seeing as well as Middle Village and look forward to continuing to support the mayor's plan to rebuild New York City and our small businesses. Thank you. Thank you so much. Please come say a few words. Let me sneak it up in the house. I know many of you are wondering what the hell is a state lawmaker doing in City Hall. But this really is a full circle moment for me personally. For those of you who don't know, my career started here in City Council. Right here, former councilwoman Ann Bopama. And I tell folks, literally the first day that I started in government was working on the Castle Hill bid. First day in government was walking the streets of Castle Hill, talking to business owners, meeting Tony, meeting Yasmin, and talking about how we can improve that area. That was once so fruitful, had so many fruitful businesses, people walking the streets, it's kind of falling to disrepair. But now today, thanks to our new councilwoman, Fadia, thanks to the mayor but now we're what? Five months into administration and this bid is done. So I want to thank all of you who have worked on it, thank SBS, really thank you to Yasmin as well, Tony, Annabelle, Amanda, everyone who's worked on this bid. But this is a full circle moment for me and I'm just proud to be here to see it done. Thank you. Love it, love it, love it. So we want to now open and invite the public for comment. Okay, don't need to do that. So I guess I'm going to I got a couple of pens here. You know, signing a team so I can get this right. We're my lawyers. Where am I signing exactly? Down in the front please. I'm sorry. I got my, you know, it's never known how much we need a pinky. Okay, thank you. I'm going to take my bandages off for the first time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. To I'm going to say one word for my auntie. I'm going to say one word for my auntie. Since you started from the bottom, now you're here. I love you. Have a good one. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.