 Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Brennan McGuire. I'm the Chief Council here at City Hall. Thank you all for joining us today on what is a very, very special occasion. As we swear in the Commissioner of Oath and our City's Chief Administrative Law Judge. I'm going to say a couple of remarks. I never like to speak before the Mayor because you always look terrible by comparison, so I'm not even going to try. I was going to try to come up with a joke about Oath. It's a tough agency. It's a tough agency to joke about. And you just got to be careful because there's a lot of judges over there. But I will say that as we were coming in to the new administration during the period of transition and thinking about who to find to lead this incredibly important agency, it was clear that we really needed someone with special talents because Oath is an agency that is so vast in scope that I think it is, it's one that I think most New Yorkers don't actually fully comprehend how much they actually do. And so I went back and looked it and got a couple numbers to communicate, to help communicate, to paint this picture of how much Oath actually does for the city and for New Yorkers every day who receive summons and other contacts from city agencies. And I found the following three numbers, which I thought were kind of jaw-dropping and I thought I'd share them with you to give you a sense of the scope of the responsibility that Awesome is going to face. And this is pre-pandemic because I wanted to be giving the pandemic numbers to me deserve an asterisk. Pre-pandemic, the total number of summons processed at Oath in a single year, 663,327. The total number of hearings conducted by the hearings division at Oath, 340,563. And then with that number in mind, the average number of days from the hearing to when a decision is entered for those parties who appear before Oath, 5.9 days. That's about getting stuff done. And that's what this administration is about. And so what we knew we needed is someone who was going to run to challenges, someone who was not going to shrink from this incredible responsibility, and someone who would treat all New Yorkers with the fairness and respect that they deserve. And that's why this was not a difficult decision for us, for all of you who know Awesome. And so I'm going to let the mayor speak in a bit more detail about him. But just for me personally, I couldn't be happier to be here today. And I'm incredibly proud to have awesome joined us as a teammate in this administration. But without further ado, I will give you our 110th mayor, Eric Adams. Brendan said it right as we look around this room, the people sitting in the chairs. While you're sitting here in the room, look at the look around in this room also the pictures on the wall. See the difference between the people who are sitting in the room and the pictures on this wall. And then you walk through government. And historically, the pictures in government and decision making position, they look like the pictures on this wall. And they don't look like the people in this room. And so the journey for this administration was to start to ensure that the people that will be on the walls of the future, they are going to reflect the people who they were supposed to serve. And it's an uphill battle. It's an uphill battle. Because right away people state that we don't have qualified people to fit the mold. And the qualification far too often is used based on ethnicity. But I told my team, you're going to dig deeper. You're going to go outside to a span of who you play golf with, the people you hang out at dinner's parties with. You're going to go far beyond just English. You're going to be able to walk in the room and say, Asalaamu alaykum, hijab, wearing sisters. You're going to be able to say bonas noches. You're going to be able to say all the different languages should be communicated. And that is our goal. And I'm just so pleased that when I sit down with my chief counsel, Brendan, who always come up with the qualified people of different ethnicities in the city and understand this is our mission. We can't govern a city as diverse as this. If the leadership of the city is not as diverse as who we are governing. And then when you find a match and you become intentional and state this is our mission, we're going to find the best, then you're able to come up with someone like Asalaamu alaykum. You're able to see right before our eyes in plain view, we had these qualities. But you have to take the binders, the blinders off. And we have said this so much in this administration. The first time ever, the first time ever, the first time ever, first time ever. Send it into the Department of Correction with Lewis Molina. We said it with the five women we appointed to be deputy mayors, one of them is the first Filipino American to actually hold that position. We're sending over and over and over again. Because when I went to your community, I was clear that I did not want you just to vote for me. I wanted you to govern with me. I wanted you to be my partner. And we set this to communities over and over again. And we are only six months in. I know people think we're six years in, but we only six months in. And we are making so many changes. And many of those things we are doing is not being noticed because we're fighting against the perversive guns that all over our country. But once we get crime under control that we are, people are going to start noticing that in six months we have done so much to change the lives of everyday people. And this is one of them. And so when you look at the fact that we needed someone that was going to ensure fairness, to be heard, those of us who walk into government to buildings, oftentimes we're used to it. All of us. We don't feel any late level of anxiety because we're used to accessing government. But think about those people where English is a second language. Think about the storekeeper who received the summits and he has to walk in. Think about someone that comes from one of the Yemeni's Bodegas. And they have to come in and look across and see you. See, at least they know they're going to be heard. They're going to have an opportunity to present the case and not be judged merely by who they look like or what they sound like. And so our job in city government is to treat people fairly and to ensure that they trust government. There's an erosion of trust in government. People don't trust government because of how government treated them so long. And the key player in that is a person who's that old. Those hundreds of thousands of cases, each one of those cases is representative of an individual. How they walk out is going to determine how people feel about government. Even when I did something wrong, and I know I did it wrong, and I have to pay my fine, at least treat me with dignity and respect. At least say, I hurt you. I'm going to give you an opportunity. That's what people are asking for. People know when they didn't do what they were supposed to do, but they don't want to pay a fine and then be treated with a level of indecency in the process. And that is why we had to pick the right person to be in charge of oath. The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings is the city's independent administrative law tribunal. Independent. They must make the right decision. When a person has a dispute on a civil summons issued by city agency, they go to oath. When an employee is facing discipline and wants a fair trial, they go to oath. And in a broad range of cases where individuals, businesses, and people, and public servants, when a fair and impartial hearing in a manner involving city government, they go to oath. Oath is the judge's duty of city government. They got to make the decisions, you know, and they have to do it in a fair way. Oath has a 40-year history of professionalism and thoughtful and impartial decision-making. It has kept us focused and is deep-rooted in the culture of independence. And the Chief Administrative Judge, Lord Judge, is a steward of oath. He's a reflection of who we are and what we represent in an impartial, fair, and just and timely decision. You blew me away bringing it with five days. Think about that for a moment. End it out of getting it done in five days, and I'm so pleased of that. And that is why we're happy to appoint Assam Rotman as Commissioner and Chief Administrative Lord Judge of Oath. Assam matches the qualities of the agency he has been selected to lead. He's a man of deep integrity. He's a well-rounded attorney with a stellar professional record, with senior roles at the Lord Department and the Department of Correction. And I'm particularly proud to have selected him as the first Asian-American and Muslim-American to lead this position and this agency. And he is going to be one of the senior leaders of our administration, something that we talked about over and over again. Yes, we know you can be a clerk. We know you can be a personal driver vehicle. We know you can be a bus driver. We know you can do all those other positions. But how about being at some of the senior spots? Because you're an ambassador for your community. You're representative of what this community is and the richness of this community. And our goal is to walk through city government with a hammer and shatter every glass ceiling we see and make sure that no one else has to wait to 2022 before we use the term first again. It's time to make sure that the first can't be the last. And I'm proud to swear you in today, if you will raise your right hand and repeat after me. I say your name. Don't say Mayor. Come on. Do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York and the New York City Charter and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. According to the best of my abilities, I now present you to you the Chief Administrative Law Judge, Assam Rotman. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Brendan, before I start, I have to do a wardrobe upgrade. Always moms never dads. This looks nice. Mr. Mayor, maybe maybe I have a little swagger too. Well, well, thank you, everyone. And it's wonderful to be here with all of you. Last week, I was telling the staff at oath, my colleagues, that every year around this time, I go back and reread the Declaration of Independence. And I did that on Monday, the 4th of July. And each time I read it every year, different words leap off the page for me. And this year, it was the following, quote, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. From the consent of the governed. Now, those were different times and those were different people. As the mayor said, you look around the paintings on the walls and you look at the people in this room. And the statement I quoted, it only refers to men. And I don't think the founding fathers ever anticipated a scene quite like this. An African American mayor of the city of New York swearing in a Pakistani American Muslim judge. It's very much a New York scene. But the principle, the people were different, but that principle from the Declaration of Independence, that we, the government, we get our power and we get our legitimacy from the consent of the people, that is an enduring principle. And with all that we're seeing right now in our nation, it could not be more important than it is today that government is of the people, that government is accountable to the people, and that we in government, we hold our positions in trust. And that is why I am so very humbled and so very honored to be entrusted with this position as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. My dedicated colleagues at Oath work tirelessly to ensure that we deliver justice and fairness and we do it with independence. And the numbers that Brendan talked about, I'm happy to lead the agency but it's the staff. It's all of the employees working together, working hard to achieve those numbers. And we want to ensure, as both the mayor and Brendan said, that when people come before us, that they leave feeling that they were heard, no matter what the ultimate result. Because the experience that New Yorkers have with Oath will impact their view of government and it'll impact their trust in government. So as Chief Administrative Law Judge, I pledge to protect and honor that trust, to do all that I can to further Oath's mission of providing individuals with fair and impartial hearings and timely decisions, and to make sure that we are accessible to everyone. And in our great city of immigrants, accessible to everyone means everyone. It means making our hearings process accessible in every borough to people no matter where they are from or whatever language they speak. I am tremendously grateful for this opportunity. I would not be here but for the grace of the Almighty. And for that I say, Alhamdulillah, praise be to God. I would also not be here but for my family, my daughter Asha, who wanted me to specifically say her name, my wife, Brenda, and my parents, Khaled and Sabiha. Now, you know, when I was in a fairly comfortable private sector job and this incredible opportunity came along to join city government and do police oversight, I really expected my parents to provide the very typical Desi South Asian response. Beta, why? Why beta? You have a comfortable job. You're doing well. You're making a good salary. Keep that job and just do this work as a volunteer. But not my parents. Without hesitation, they said, do it. Take this job. It's important. Serve your city. And then again, my start as an employee of the greatest city on earth. So thanks, mom and dad. And thanks to all my family and friends and colleagues who are here and who are not here who have supported me along the way. And most recently, my new colleagues here at City Hall and at Oath. And of course, Mayor Eric Adams, you've built an incredible team that reflects the talent, the drive and the diversity of all New Yorkers. Thank you for putting your trust in me. I will do my best to make my city proud. Thank you.