Committee on Parks and Recreation

Hello, good morning. Welcome to today's New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Parks and Recreation. At this time, please silence all phones if you wish to speak in today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card with one of the sergeants. Moving forward, no one is to approach the dais. Chair, you may begin.

Good morning. Thank you. Good morning, all. My name is Ty Hankerson. I serve as the chair, uh, on the Committee of Parks and Recreation. Today's hearing will focus on the process the Parks Department uses to determine the types of events that take place within our city's parks, and what the resulting costs and benefits are to the park system.

The occurrence of cultural and recreational programming such as art festivals, films, and concerts have always been a core feature of the city park system. Most of these events are free and sometimes run by Parks itself, or through its numerous public-private partners. However, some of these events are also pay-for events. That include thousands of participants and often run by event promoters that have a permit with the parks.

There's a multifaceted process for approving these various events. For example, any event with more than 20 participants at minimum requires a special event permit for a nonrefundable $25 fee. As the event grows more complex, so does the process. In the case of large events that involve more than 500 participants or may be commercial in nature, Parks imposes additional requirements that must be fulfilled before a permit is issued.

These can include fees based on the concession for— sorry, concession fee schedule and additional insurance or bonding obligations. Furthermore, depending on the scope, location, and size of the event, additional permits from agencies like the Department of Buildings or PD, Police department for potential security concerns may be necessary. Aside from the substance of the event, other requirements can factor in too.

If food or merchandise is expected to be sold, a temporary use authorization, TUA, permit is required. A fee for this permit is negotiated with Parks based on several factors including the number of vendors at the event, estimated attendance, and the prices of the items being sold. Once all the requirements have been met by the applicant, Parks will issue a special event permit at their discretion.

The complexity of this process can sometimes be problematic from both the side of the event applicant and the Parks Department, as it must walk a fine line towards maintaining a vibrant parks environment that also prioritizes equitable access to all New Yorkers. Event applicants, especially smaller community-based ones, often cite issues with not being able to fully understand what is required to secure a permit, not understanding the reasons as to why they may have been denied one.

Historically, they have— excuse me, there have been concerns raised about the amount of parkland used for large-ticketed events, the amount of revenue being generated for the event, and the condition the park is left in after the event concludes. Damage resulting from large crowds, vehicles, vendors, and bad weather during some of these events has sometimes left sections of parkland unusable for extended periods of time.

This has sometimes left many community members concerned that some large and commercial events can deprive New Yorkers of quality access to green space. I hope this hearing results in having a better understanding of how Parks goes about approving special events, what the overall costs and benefits are to the city's open space, and whether there are ways we can improve the process to ensure the events are accessible to all and are always respectful— excuse me, always respectful to the parks where they occur and to the communities they occur in.

I'd also like to note that we will consider a bill unrelated to this topic, but an important one regardless. Intro number 927, sponsored by my colleagues Councilmembers Brooks Powers and Councilmember Lynn Schulman, would officially rename Shorefront Parkway between Beach 32nd Street and Beach 56th Place as Edgemere Avenue. This would restore the street to its original and historical name and clear up a lot of confusion specifically relating to mail delivery that has arisen over the years.

I'd like to welcome the administration and the advocates that are here to testify today. Thank you again. I do have a statement from Councilmember Brooks Powers regarding her bill. I'm going to read it verbatim. Thank you, Chair Hankerson and members of the Committee on Parks and Recreation, for hearing Intro 927 today. Intro 927 is a simple bill renaming Shorefront Parkway to Edgemere Avenue between Beach 32nd and Beach 56th Place in Far Rockaway, Queens.

We are requesting that Shorefront Parkway be renamed back to Edgemere Avenue, the name it held until a 2024 renaming, because the current street name is not consistently recognized by USPS, Google Google Maps and other address systems. This address discrepancy results in failed deliveries of mail and packages, challenges for emergency responders and city service responders— excuse me, city service providers to locate properties quickly and accurately, and disruptions to essential services that rely on validated addresses, including utility and insurance providers.

Restoring the street name to Edgemere Avenue would align the address with commonly recognized mailing and mapping databases improve public safety, and eliminate operational issues for future residents and businesses. Notably, this stretch of street runs along the future site of Arverne East, a multifaceted development that will transform 116 acres of vacant land into 1,650 new housing units, including 80% affordable housing.

We like to hear that. As well as co-op homeownership opportunities. This change will address future challenges for the developers, future residents, and businesses at Auburn East. Thank you. Sylvina Brooks Powers.

All right, with that, uh, we want to swear in the, um, administration before they testify. Thank you, Chair. Would the representatives of the Parks Department please raise your right hand if you're able? Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in your testimony before this committee and to respond honestly to councilmember questions?

Thank you very much, and you may begin when ready.

Thank you. Good morning, Chair Hankerson, members of the Parks Committee, and other members of the City Council. My name is David Cerrone, Deputy Commissioner for Activation, Environment, and Planning for NYC Parks. I'm joined today by Erin— Anne McTiernan, our Director of Citywide Special Event Permits and Policy, and Gabriella Capo, from our citywide legislative affairs team. We are pleased to be here to testify today.

As you may be aware, this past summer season was an exceptionally exciting one for NYC Parks, as our beaches, pools, parks, athletic fields, and playgrounds were as busy as they've ever been. In addition to experiencing once-in-a-lifetime celebrations like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Sail Forth 250, or taking advantage of the free recreational summer programming offered by the agency throughout our parks.

New Yorkers also made the most of our shared public spaces to enjoy family picnics, barbecues, and birthday parties, concerts, festivals, and other special events. We're very proud of the role that our parks play in the city's cultural landscape. And we believe that special events are an incredible way to bring New Yorkers out to enjoy their local park, which helps keep those spaces activated and vibrant.

For the purposes of today's oversight hearing, we'd like to offer a brief overview of our agency's special events permitting process. We recognize that special events can provide tremendous added value to our park system, so we strive to make the permitting process as transparent and efficient as possible. Our permitting staff works directly with event organizers to make their events a reality, while ensuring that proposed events are appropriate and avoid negative impacts on our beloved open spaces.

Any park event expected to have more than 20 attendees is required to have a special event permit, though permits are also available for groups of any size hoping to reserve a specific area in a park. Anyone can apply for a special event permit from the agency, from organizations planning a large event for the public to families looking to host smaller birthday parties, weddings, reunions, or barbecues.

And it is this latter category of smaller events that makes up the vast majority of permit requests submitted to the agency. Permit applications are typically submitted through a dedicated page on our agency website. There is a $25 processing fee for permit applications, which allows the city to recoup some of the costs of processing applications and helps discourage attempts to monopolize permits citywide.

And for the majority of permit requests, this nominal fee is the only cost for an applicant to be able to hold their event. Most special event permit requests are processed by staff in our permit offices in each of the 5 boroughs. To ensure there is ample time to properly review and discuss proposed event details with all necessary stakeholders, which might include other city agencies or construction contractors working on-site, we require permit requests for typical permit events to be submitted at least 21 days in advance.

The duration of the request review for each permit, from submission to approval, can vary depending on the scope and complexity of the event being submitted, the volume of permit applications being processed by the permit offices. Similarly, it is not uncommon for an event proposal to evolve and iterate as event organizers provide more information to our staff, which sometimes requires additional additional dialogue with other entities, such as the use of amplified sound for an event, which requires NYPD approval.

As such, we ask that people apply with as much lead time as possible to ensure they can secure their desired dates, and keep in mind that the final permit approvals and issuances are typically not issued until closer to the event date. However, The agency does everything in its power to expedite the review and approval of permit requests, and even though applicants are asked to submit requests at least 21 days in advance, this does not mean that a given request will take that long to approve.

We are pleased to report that outright denials of special event permits are exceedingly rare, making up less than 1% of the permits processed by the agency. And in the event that proposed event location is already permitted for another event, we are nearly always able to work with the applicant to identify alternative locations or dates for their event to carry forward.

Though the majority of our thousands of special event permits each year are issued for small picnics, barbecues, and birthday parties, our parks are also serve as a location for larger events with a more expansive reach, such as concerts and festivals. Though these larger events present additional considerations for the agency review, we feel that activating our parks with a wide range of recreational and cultural activity helps make them more robust and dynamic public spaces for everyone to enjoy.

To ensure that larger event permit requests can handle— can be handled consistently and fairly, any event expected to have over 500 attendees is permitted through our citywide special events team. Given that these events are considerably more complex than a typical small event, potentially disrupting access to a park or even resulting in damage to the park, permit applicants for large events need to provide additional information to the agency.

Thank you. Agency, including a preliminary site map and production schedule, proof of commercial general liability insurance, submission of a security bond to be held against damages incurred, and payment of a site fee on the concession fee schedule established by agency rules. Additionally, depending on the proposed components of the events, applicants may need to secure ancillary permits other city agencies, such as the Fire Department for use of a generator, Department of Buildings for installation of a large structure, the Police Department for safety, or the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for food distribution.

We collaborate often with our sister agencies and are in constant communication with them when it comes to moving permit applications forward. We always try to work with applicants toward an outcome that works for everyone, but our agency is ultimately responsible for the care and protection of our city parkland for all New Yorkers. So we're not able to accommodate every aspect of each request for each park.

If the requested location is inappropriate for the proposed event activity because of the park size, configuration, or natural features, or if the proposed activity is likely to harm the park or significantly interfere interfere with the enjoyment of the park by other users, then the agency may have grounds to deny the permit application. But this is relatively rare.

Admittedly, the matrix of permits and approvals can be daunting for some to navigate, especially those less familiar with the city government. So we have undertaken a dedicated effort to make our permit process more transparent and user-friendly. In early 2025, we hosted a series of 9 partner input forums in all 5 boroughs related to our special event permit process and invited representatives from park partner groups and other frequent permittees to offer feedback.

Over 140 distinct partner groups participated in these forums, providing invaluable perspective about their experience connecting directly directly in person with our managers and permit coordinators, and sharing recommendations and knowledge with their fellow partners. With this feedback in mind, we redesigned our agency websites for special events permit page to display key information more clearly to applicants, including the creation of a special events guide with key links to other agencies for ancillary permits to ensure greater consistency and the interpretation of agency rules and guidelines across all 5 boroughs, we have centralized our Special Events Permit Policy Office and our citywide Athletics Permits and Policy Office, working in close coordination with our borough permit offices.

We are also working on additional process improvements to come, including finalizing an informational handout that will be available in multiple languages to clearly outline things applicants should keep in mind when applying for special event permits from NYC Parks. In closing, we are committed to helping New Yorkers plan fun and creative special events in parks, because we know a park with robust activity is safer and more enjoyable for everyone.

But we must still uphold our primary responsibility as the caretaker and steward of city parkland. Our shared spaces need to be protected and used appropriately, and access must be fair. We seek to accommodate the desired outcomes of the permit applicants while protecting the needs of everyday park users to access and enjoy the open spaces they love. Thank you for allowing us to testify before you today and for your continued advocacy and support for our city parks.

We would now be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you so much. I do want to acknowledge that we are joined by Councilmember Frank Morano and of Staten Island, the Borough of Parks. I got that right? All right. Councilmember Ong is also joining us via Zoom. Okay. Let me just state this disclaimer before I go into questioning.

I love parks, and I'm grateful for the work that you all do. Given that it's only 2 of us here today gives me more time to ask more questions. So, um, I, I do want to just ask a few questions, and I'll turn over to Councilmember Murano, and then I'll jump back in. Just from your testimony, um, you stated in your testimony, as such, we ask that people apply with as much lead time as possible to ensure they can ensure their desired dates and keep in mind that final permit approvals and insurance issuances are typically not issued until closer to the event date.

Do you not see that as problematic? And if not, why not? Thank you for the question, Councilmember, and thank you for this hearing. We really appreciate your attention to this matter. I think as a baseline, we always want to do the best we possibly can for the public, and that means each person that submits submits an application has to have a wonderful experience.

That's our goal. We have so many permit applications. Last year, we had over 24,000. This year, we're actually tracking slightly ahead of that. I think we might get close to 25,000. So, we've got to do our best each time. Sometimes, we're going to do better than others, honestly. And I think as part of that, I just want to highlight some of the work that my colleague, Anne McTiernan, is doing with the citywide special events.

When she started in this role, she sought feedback from as many different stakeholders as she could about the permit process. And one of the things that she heard and that we heard from, you know, as an agency is that applicants felt like they needed more time to apply for a permit. And there wasn't enough time to apply for, you know, for events that they wanted to plan.

Mm-hmm. So for an example, here we are in 2026. A few years ago, if you wanted to apply for a permit in 2027, you couldn't do that until the second week of November. Hmm. What Ann did is she worked with our council's team and made a rule change so that now people can apply the second— the Tuesday after Labor Day.

So really, by about a little bit more than 2 months, extending the time that permit applications, you know, that permit applications can be submitted to the agency. So, we do hear you. I think, you know, our goal is to be able to get back to everybody as quickly as we can. And in some cases, we're going to be able to do that.

In other cases, it's going to be a little bit tougher. Mm-hmm. I think in the case of being able to allow the public to submit permit applications earlier, in theory, if someone were to submit for an application in 2027, and they submitted on that Tuesday after Labor Day, they would be applying for a permit application up to 14 months in advance.

So in instances like that, you know, that's on the extreme end, of course. But they're going to, you know, the permit staff in each borough is going to focus on what's coming up sooner. So they're still going to be focused on September, October, and so forth. Sure. And then also, depending on the time of year, In the months of June and July, just those few weeks, we're roughly going to process probably close to 20% of our permits, maybe in like, you know, 8 or so percent of the time.

So, you know, and it's going to depend how quickly we're able to respond. But our goal is to be as responsive as possible to everyone who submits an application. I mean, I appreciate that, but if it's typical for you all to not approve or deny until closer to the date. Let's just say if I'm a community-based organization, a small group, and we have limited resources and we've worked hard to plan this event that's supposed to happen within our local park, and then it's not until a few days before that we hear, hey, you can't have your event, it's been denied, does the Parks Department not see that as problematic?

So I, I think in instances like that, when we think about denials, uh, denials have been, uh, historically, we've, we've looked back over the past several years, it's been less than 1% of the permits, uh, that, that we've, uh, that we processed. So we're in the range, um, actually my eyes are not as good as they were, I'm realizing today.

No worries. Um, in 2020, In '22, we processed 23,948 permits. 47 were denied. In 2023, we processed 23,844 permits. 18 were denied. In 2024, we processed 23,507 permits. 37 were denied. And in 2025, we processed 24,241 permits. Thank you. permits, and 23 were denied. So it's a small percentage. Okay. I want you to know that when we approach a permitting, our goal and the directive from our commissioner is to find a pathway to yes.

So we work as hard as we possibly can to find alternatives so that we don't have to deny. But it's true, Councilmember, there will be instances exactly like the one you described. We want to keep working to make sure that we're doing better and doing as well as we can. And to that end, you know, one thing that we're proud of, and I know the Commissioner is proud of, is that if you were to look up us— if you were to look us up on the website and you wanted to find your borough office, right away you would find a phone number.

You would find a person to call. And you could get on the phone and you could speak to a special event coordinator. you know, a special event coordinator, and ask them about your permit. And they would tell you what the latest was. And so, and try to work with you to a solution. But also, if you know, if there's an organization that you're working with that has called you, please tell Ann and I, and we want to work with them because we deeply care about them having the best experience.

And we're going to, you know, we want to make things work for them as well as possible. I appreciate that.

Given the less than 1% of denials, Does the data demonstrate the locations of those denials by borough? So, yeah, that can be one of the instances in which it comes up. You hit it exactly. If someone applies for an event in a park, and I think this would be like a bigger event, so I'm not talking about a picnic or like, you know, a family gathering or even a wedding.

But if they wanted to do something that was larger, you know, it just was too big for the park, or it was inappropriate for the landscape. You know, the example that comes to mind is, I think a year or two ago, we got a request to do a polo match with horses on the Great Lawn. And we couldn't approve that.

We had to deny that, because it was just— it was not appropriate for the landscape. Sure. To have the horses there. Can Parks provide the data, um, based on location of denials? Yeah. Yes, sir. Okay, awesome.

I want to just acknowledge that we've been joined by Councilmember Berlinda Leake. Um, all right, I, I do want to— before I, I go to Councilmember Marano, um, you mentioned that folks can pick up the phone and call the permit office and speak to a permit representative. representative. I do want to talk about the permit offices just really briefly.

How many folks are assigned to each permit office by borough? Bear with me just for a moment. In Staten Island, there are 3 permit offices. 3 coordinators. In Queens, there are 6. In Manhattan, there are 8. In Brooklyn, there are 5. And in the Bronx, there are 8. 8? 8. Okay. I just want to make sure I have this correct.

Staten Island, there are 3. Queens, there are 6. Manhattan, there are 8. Brooklyn, there are 5. The Bronx, there are 8. Is that correct? That's by borough, yes. Okay. Out of curiosity, Why does Brooklyn only have 5? So I would have to get back to you on the precise amount. You know, there are fluctuations in staffing. I can tell you in Brooklyn, they had a longstanding director, Nancy Milicis, who was a wonderful, wonderful colleague and so knowledgeable about Brooklyn Parks.

And she had spent decades working in Brooklyn doing the permitting system. And she recently retired. And then one of her colleagues moved on to become the director of the Permit Office in Manhattan. So they may be a little bit lower because of that staffing transition, but we're happy to follow up with your office and get back to you with more precise answers.

I appreciate that. Given the Permit Offices tend to be the front-facing division or unit within the Parks Department engaging with community members, various cultures. Are they required to take any type of cultural training? So every, every employee that, that starts with Parks goes through an orientation for 2 days, and part of that orientation involves sensitivity training and cultural training and, you know, and wanting to make sure that we're always interacting with the public in the, in the most positive way possible.

And I can tell you, um, Councilmember, that is a, a top priority for the, uh, for the Commissioner. I can also say that with regard to our citywide special events, uh, training, as, as, as soon as this— this— after the, after the parade and the marathon, the, the— there's, there's a little bit of a better, a better time to do retraining, and we're going to be retraining, uh, with our staff in the citywide event.

So it's not just when we start, but it's making sure that we're updating those trainings and refreshing them and doing that time and time again. Our goal is to be the best that we can possibly be as public servants, and that means when the public or when a councilmember interacts with us, that they feel good about that experience.

Are the trainings led by outside organizations or Are they conducted in-house? They're conducted in-house. We have a dedicated team that is the Parks Training Academy that does trainings on customer service and several other areas where we want to make sure that our staff is able to constantly get that kind of update. And I can say they're very accomplished and they take their job very seriously and they continue to look at best practices for teaching for teaching agency personnel and updating them on how standards evolve.

You know, I can promise you that this committee is much larger than the two of us. Would you— would the agency be willing for the committee to sit through one of the trainings? I believe so. But Gabriella, I turn to you. Yeah, thank you, Councilmember. That's something I'd have to check with the Parks Academy. I'm not sure what our track record is of doing it in the past, but I'm happy to get back to you on that.

Okay. Thank you.

I believe you mentioned Anna represents Citywide. Anna, how are you? I do have a question for you, and then I'm going to turn it over to my colleague for some questions, and I'll jump back in. Elected officials tend to host several events within parks across the city. One of the events that we tend to host, particularly around August, September, are back-to-school giveaways, partnering with local nonprofits, CBOs, and sometimes some private partners as well to give book bags to the community.

Typically, when you all are reviewing such a permit, what are the questions that are asked of the elected official's office or whomever may be hosting this back-to-school giveaway in the park? Thank you, Councilperson. We ask questions about their site layout, their production schedule, when vendors are going to be arriving, If there's any, like, run of show, any speaking portion, when they're setting up the location for the giveaway, making sure that they're sufficiently staffed and there's, like, a queue line set up so that there's an orderly way to receive the backpacks by the public.

So questions like that. Is it— Is it common practice for the department to ask the applicant the value of the book bags? That's— that is a question that we do ask. What's the reason for it? Just to understand the price point of the item that's going to be given away. But really, a lot of times with giveaways, the value is is not as important as making sure you have enough for the public that's going to be coming to the giveaway so that there's not a point during the event where we've run out and you have a long line of people waiting.

We want to make sure that folks are receiving the giveaway and able to, you know, partake in the actual— Experience. Sure. So those sort of questions are asked, and they're a lot of times asked by our security partners at NYPD as well, and the mayor's office. These are common questions. NYPD and the mayor's office tend to also ask about value of items being distributed.

And then to make sure you have a quantity that is sufficient for the expected attendance of your event. Excuse my short memory. What was the reason for asking the value of the book bags? To just make sure that, like, there's an understanding of, like, the value of the item that's being given away? Councilmember, if I may, I think, you know, in certain instances, you know, when a— you know, every event has different components.

There will be some judgment calls, notwithstanding anything that my colleague said. But I think the key sentiment here is, like, if we're Whether it's an elected official or a member of the public, our goal is we want that person to have a positive takeaway from their experience. And if they're asked a question that makes them feel less than positive, we want to understand that and we want to do better next time.

And, you know, I think, you know, a lot of our special event associates are early on in their career. You know, they're learning this complicated work. There is a lot to know here because each event is a little bit different, and I can assure you that these, you know, if a question like that comes up, it's not coming from a bad place, but it doesn't mean that it's necessarily the right question in, you know, in that moment and in that situation.

So in any instances, whether it's an elected official or whether it's a member of the public, we want to do our best every single day to make sure that the way that they're experiencing, you know, that interaction with the public servant is positive. And, you know, I suspect, you know, if we were to talk about it, there are probably other questions we could have asked to, you know, to get the same amount of information.

Yeah. And to have that person feel better about it. So, just know that everything we do is, you know, is trying to come from the best place. But we also want to learn from things that we haven't done correctly in the past and be better in the future. And, you know, I personally am dedicated to working with you, any of your colleagues, and Anne is as well, or any other, you know, any other stakeholders, event applicants, so that we're able to, to help them proceed with their event in the best way possible, but also in a way that people feel positive about.

I appreciate that.

I just want to kind of moonwalk back a little bit to the Parks Academy training. Yes. When we're talking about questions that are posed to applicants that are applying for permits, is that process— does that process go through the Parks Academy sensitivity training as well? Is that reviewed by any staff members, or is it just something that's made up within the that team or division or unit of people?

That's a good question, Councilmember. We'll have to get back to you on the exact layout of the training and the different areas and scenarios that are covered during the training. Okay. Thank you for that. I want to acknowledge that we've been joined by Councilmember Chris Marte. All right.

I don't want to take up all the time, so I'm going to turn it over to Councilmember Murano. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Deputy Commissioner, for your testimony. I want to start with something that I wouldn't have thought to ask you about, But for your testimony, something that I actually think is good news. You said that fewer than 1% of special event permit applications are denied, and I'm certainly glad to hear Parks is generally willing to work with people rather than looking for reasons to tell them no.

Because obviously if you're a civic association or a veterans group, a youth group, whoever, or just a family trying to have an event in your neighborhood park, the last thing you need is another city bureaucracy making your life more difficult. But the one question that I guess I never thought of is that statistic raises somewhat of a different question for me.

If the system is designed to get almost every applicant to yes, who in the process is representing the person who never submitted an application? The applicant has somebody advocating for their event, obviously. Who's advocating for the kid that shows up Saturday morning wanting to use the field or— The senior who is walking the same path every morning?

Who's advocating for the family that shows up at the park and discovered that the place that they normally use isn't available? Where does that person exist, if anywhere, in the permitting process? So that's an excellent question, Councilmember, and, you know, it's something that we think about. We really do rely on the public to tell us if there is, you know, if there's concerns about an event.

You know, generally that does happen. It tends to be with bigger events. You know, I kind of— the example of the kid who wants to use a field, most of, you know, it's admittedly it is separate from this office. Ann and her colleagues do the special events. Our other colleague, you know, Ken Conyers does athletic fields and permits.

But I know in that system they do prioritize youth permits. So in instances like that, if it's a field, chances are it's, it's being used by a youth group, and, and so they would, you know, for like baseball, it's harder to do kind of like a pickup game, but that doesn't mean that someone wouldn't be there with a friend or parent just to kind of hit the ball around or play catch.

So we do want to strike a balance. Certainly, you know, we also, you know, are in close contact with the Borough Permit Offices who are, you know, they're not separate from the rest of the Borough team, so they're there with the Borough Commissioner They're there with, you know, the park managers, and they're always talking about what they're seeing in their parks.

So, you know, it could come up through there. It could also come up through the public calling us, either calling the borough office, either through 311, calling the Special Events Office. But generally, if there's feedback about like, hey, this is a little bit too much, it would be around some of the larger events.

I think it's particularly important in the outer boroughs, in places like Staten Island, if you lose access to a particular field or park space, there isn't necessarily another comparable facility 3 blocks away. So does Parks actually measure displacement beyond the anecdotal example that you cited? Do you know how often permitted events cause regular park programming or ordinary recreational activity use to be moved or canceled?

So, uh, thank you for that question. It's another, I think, really good question that is, um, you know, I can't tell you that I've, like, I've, I've had that question posed to me before. Um, it's, I think, offhand, it would be a hard thing to measure. But one thing we do before we permit is we look for conflicts.

And that is something that can, you know, uh, you know, can add a little bit, Chair, to the, to the process. Is, so we will look to see, is there other programming here? Is there another you know, permitted event here? Is the agency doing something? So that we're not inadvertently kind of making a mistake and, hey, we're going to program your event, but we were also— our colleagues in public programs were doing a shape-up program.

So we can avoid those things. I think it's harder to look at displacement without knowing, you know, who the user was that had wanted to use that space. But if there's a specific park, a specific field, or other amenity that you're hearing about that maybe we haven't heard about, we will work with your office, we will work with your team, we will be in touch with that individual if you want to share their information to figure out what's happening and to try and find the right balance for that.

In that vein, the committee's briefing says that Parks considers not just the event itself, but preparation and cleanup time when determining the impact on ordinary park users. So here's a number that I would really like to know, and I think you probably do have access to. How many park days do New Yorkers lose every year to special events?

And by park days, I mean the entire period when the public can't fully use that space— setup, the event itself, breakdown, and restoration. Do you track that? And if not, you know, I think we should. Yeah, that's another, another good question. These, we track the events, so we know when the event starts and when the event ends.

If it's a smaller event, they're gonna, you know, there's probably not going to be much set up for a birthday party or things of that nature. If it's a larger event that involves bringing infrastructure into the park, then we will track it. I think where it might get a little bit tricky, but Councilmember, not that we couldn't start to kind of figure something out, is oftentimes it's not the entire park that is being taken offline.

It's just a portion of the park. Understood. But I also just want to mention, you know, in the testimony, apologies, I didn't really get into the specifics, but Just for reference, and this, we have found that this tends to hold true over the years, 75% of the permits that we process are going to be for 100 people or less. 95% of them are going to be for 500 people or less.

And even though 500 people, it's not like a tiny amount of people, or a little bit less than that, you know, those are events that we have generally found are going to be less impactful. the experience of other park users. But not to say that that can't happen, and also to your very good point, not to say that that couldn't happen with an athletic field or those permits.

But I just want to stress, we are ready and willing to work with you, your team, and any constituents if they have concerns about being displaced, because as much as humanly possible, we want a system that works for everybody. Thanks very much. Thanks, sir.

I am— before I go to Councilmember Lee, I do want to just kind of jump on that bandwagon really quickly and ask a couple of follow-up questions. You mentioned that Parks Department has to collaborate with other city agencies oftentimes for permits. What does that collaborative process look like between the agencies? What does that look like? Thank you for that question, Councilmember.

What it looks like could change from time to time. Generally, it's for the events that are going to be larger in scale, that will be over 500 people. And what it looks like is a site visit with other agencies that are impacted. Many times it's it's the NYPD. If there are generators or things like that being used for the event, it could be FDNY.

If there's food, it could be DOHMH. If there is a stage or a tent of a large size, I want to say 10 to 12 feet, but don't hold me to that, it could be the Department of Buildings. If it's more involved than that, it will involve interagency meetings with CECM, the Mayor's Office for Citywide Event Coordination and Management.

And, you know, and that could be kind of like a series of meetings where we have one meeting that will focus on security, another meeting that will focus on transportation— how are we getting everybody there? And of course, the MTA and DOT would be part of that. Another meeting that would talk about how they're, you know, they're getting, you know, they're advertising and promoting the event.

And then there will be subparts to that. For an event that is a large-scale event, you know, we have to share the talent and the performers with NYPD so that they can also review and make sure that they, you know, they are comfortable with it. It varies. Thank you. Just from my own understanding, and then I'm going to turn it over to Councilmember Lee, if I'm applying for an event, for any— yeah, an event application, I'm applying and I am serving food.

I may have amplified sound. Is that going to require me to apply for a permit from the Parks Department, a sound permit from the Police Department, a vendor permit from Department of Health and Mental Hygiene? and let's say I'm selling merchandise, t-shirts or something, a TUA from Parks. Is that going to require all 4 permit applications? Or is there a centralized location where I just put in one application and it kind of just checks off the boxes?

It's the former, unfortunately, Councilmember. We haven't reached that level of of sophistication. You know, I would say perhaps the only caveat that if you are working with the food element, if you are working with, let's just say, like a mobile vendor, they may already have their DOHMH, you know, permitting in place. They probably do. And in which case, then it would just be a matter of sharing that documentation with Parks as part of the TUA— the TUA process.

Got it. Okay. Thank you for that. Has the agency considered working with— I want to say it's DeWitt— OTI? Yeah. to potentially, or to explore ways to maybe centralize everything? Because— We? Sorry. No, no, no worries. I've received a number of calls, and since being in this particular role, calls from across the city now from CBOs who tend to have a difficult time applying for a permit, especially given that they have to go to these different places and locations, and then they get frustrated, and then ultimately they just throw up their hands and say, forget it.

And then the community loses out on what I think would be valuable services and/or community events because the process seems like it's working against them and not necessarily working for them. So is that a conversation that has been had or could potentially be had to see if we can kind of centralize this permit application process? Thank you very much for that question. for the question.

I don't believe that's a conversation that we've initiated with them yet. We have focused on a lot of other process improvements, and I just want to say, you know, first and foremost, if there are CBOs, Councilmember, in your district or in a district of one of your colleagues, we're happy to either in person to give a presentation on the process and, you know, and have our borough colleagues join us as well.

Happy to do that remotely, depending on someone's schedule. We can do that during the day. We can do that later in the day to help walk them through that process. And we're continuing to make enhancements to the application system itself, similar to some recent enhancements that have been made under the ball field and athletic permits side of the application process, so that people have a better sense of when they submit an application if that location is already reserved. with another special event permit.

But yeah, we can certainly look into what the process would be to try and simplify things for like an amplified sound permit or maybe a permit from the fire department. Thank you for that. I want to just mention that we've been joined by Councilmember Salam online and now Councilmember Pierina Sanchez in person. At this This time I'll turn it over to Councilmember Lee.

Hello. I just want to second Chair Hankerson's request to try to look into, you know, joining applications and, you know, making it more efficient. And I would love to do that in other agencies as well, not just Parks. But yeah, so I just want to second that one.

And also I have the great fortune to have amazing parks in my district. I have Alley Pond, Cunningham. We're actually doing a health fair in Cunningham Park this Sunday, which should be exciting. But I asked my staff in particular if they had any, knowing the topic, like as members of our office, you know, when you guys are applying for these permits, what are some pain points potentially or things that even as elected offices that you sort of run into with challenges?

And so, but before I ask that question, just really— I'm sorry. Can you go back to— I know that Chair Hankerson asked this, but how many folks are in the events permitting in Queens again? One moment, Councilmember. Okay, sorry. In Queens, it is 6. 6, okay. And then for the larger events that need to go to the citywide special events team, how many folks are there?

8. 8, okay.

So these are going to be oddly specific questions, sorry, because I didn't even know what a Wanger Wagon was. And then, so, so I know that, um, there's now a fee of the $721 that we would be charged that we would have to use from our office budgets if we wanted to have a Wanger Wagon at one of our events.

And so just wondering when that charge was added, why, um, if you could go a little bit into that. Thank you for the question, and I have to admit, before I started doing this work, I did not know what a wanger wagon was either. So, you know, you're not alone in that. The policy, I believe, was updated in the prior fiscal year.

But if it's okay, I'd kind of like to walk you through what the kind of rationale was at When you have a Wenger wagon, which for your other colleagues, it's a mobile stage, and they are sizable. I don't recall— Yeah. Off the top of my head, you know, the exact dimensions, but it's kind of like you're driving a trailer truck.

So you need a vehicle that's called a totter to bring the Wenger wagon from one location to another. And to drive that, you need a special license. special driver's license. Okay. The CDL, commercial driver's license. License, yeah. And so there's only a select number of people in each borough who have that, and they tend to be the, I think, the park supervisors.

And, you know, generally speaking, on any given day, we have about one park supervisor in a district, and those are the people that drive our packers, And our heavy-duty vehicles. So what we realized as we were kind of looking at our park ratings and our ability to clean our parks is that we were taking these people out of the park effectively for an entire day.

Because when you're getting a Wenger wagon, you have to get the totter first. Right. Then you have to drive it over to the wagon because they tend to be in separate places because the totters are used for other activities as well. Then you have to drive it to the event location. And not only that, you have to take an additional staff person with you.

Mm-hmm. Because when you're driving that around, you know, it's not unusual for the location where the Wenger Wagon would be kind of unfolded to be in an interior of a park. And that means we need someone else out there making sure that no one is injured, there's no kids, you know, driving by on scooters or anything. And so you're effectively taking 2 staff people for the entire day, and it is just, you know, it has become something that is a big time commitment.

And we take those people out of the day, so they're not driving our heavy-duty equipment, they're not driving our packers, they're not able to pick up the trash or respond to any other needs within a park district. Okay. So what we've had to do is We have to call people in on overtime in order to provide those services.

We still want to provide them, and we do that with you and your colleagues in the City Council and with other agencies, but it had just reached a point where operationally it became challenging. No, that makes sense. And then obviously for staffing requirements and the fact that it does require such a special limited license, that makes sense.

Thank you for clarifying that.

And then also for events that our offices host, like for example the one we're doing on Sunday with our health fair, or family fun days, that kind of thing. I know that, you know, if we have bouncy houses or other things like that, it requires that 500-person threshold. But can you go a little bit more into why that 500-person threshold is needed for things like bouncy houses, and also what other things sort of trigger that 500-person threshold?

Thank you for bringing that up, Councilmember. That is something I wanted to mention, and Anne or Gabby, please correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that we've lowered that number, and it is no longer 500. I believe that it is, you know, meaning it's 200. And so it, you know, so that it's, it's much more, so it's much more accessible for, for, for smaller events.

And we had heard from you and from your colleagues that that was a little bit of a challenge, and we took another look at it, and we've changed it. I can tell you, I, you know, I'm a very, you know, proud parent, and, you know, when my kids see a bouncy house, it's like there's like this gravitational pull, you know.

Yeah. There is. You can't tell them no. Yeah. And so, like, we— but we have also— what we found is, like, when we've permitted these teams, it really depends on who the contractor is or who the— and, like, we've had times when, like, these things have tipped over. And, like, there's been, you know, kids have gotten hurt and broken bones.

And so we're trying to kind of manage that. But with council members, you know, It is something that is continuing on. There is not a— and I think in a previous iteration, there was a limit on the number of bouncy houses. That is not something that we're utilizing, and we've lowered the capacity to 200. So I hope that that's helpful.

But, you know, I think our team, our public programs team that does bouncy houses internally, you know, was starting to see the instances tick up. where, you know, not certainly through a councilmember's office, but just when people were having them, there were accidents that seemed preventable. And we wanted to try and have a little bit more kind of regulation around it.

No, I appreciate that. And my staff will be very happy to hear that. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I also want to mention that we've been joined by Councilmembers Santisuosso, Krishnan, Ung online, and I think that's it. All right. I'm going to turn it over to Councilmember Sosa. Thank you, Chair, and good morning. Thank you for being here. Prior to— well, many years before becoming a councilmember, I worked at a community-based organization where I had the unfortunate responsibility of having to apply for all of our permits when we were having events in parks and whatnot.

And, you know, as always, just a general love for the parks staff and all that they do with the limited resources that we will have until the parks budget gets to 1% of the budget, which I still think we should be fighting for every day. But I do have 2 questions related to the process. So the first is, I know you all ask for 21 days in advance.

Sometimes that 21 days, it takes a full 21 days for the permit to be approved. Sometimes it does not. Is there an expectation set when you start working with an organization Saying, here's the outline of what this permitting process looks like, here's the stage we're in now, sort of here's what you can expect as you go through this process?

So when— thank you very much for the, for the question. I think when, when someone applies for a permit, they're going to get a response from the agency the same day acknowledging receipt of that permit and letting them, them know that we're working on, on processing. There is some ancillary information that talks about what comes next, I believe.

But I think depending on, you know, on the applicant, if it's an applicant that's less familiar with the process, it may not be quite as much. One thing that, you know, that we have done over the last year is we've done, you know, this kind of like roadshow where we've met with partner groups and with other stakeholders who are producing events.

And it's It's the team from citywide, it's the borough team, it's the park managers, it's the borough commissioner. We really try to come with everybody from the agency who is involved in events to answer questions. And we're happy to do that with any of your stakeholders. We're happy to do it in person. We're happy to do it remotely, whatever you find to be convenient.

And if through that process there's other things that we could do, maybe it's adding information to our emails. We've recently changed our website to make the process more clear and easy to understand. I think, you know, I've been here for many, many years, and like, you know, when you've been in government for a while, like, there's some good things about it, right?

But there's also some bad things about it. Sure. Because you see these policies and you're like, yeah, okay, I know what this means. But like, you know, that doesn't mean that someone who is applying for an event for the first time or even the third or fourth time is really like trying to, you know, like they've memorized this stuff.

And so we want to make sure like we're keeping that in mind and not just like in the back of our mind but at the front of our mind. So, you know, feedback from you and from your colleagues on the council and from your stakeholders about what else we can do, I want you to know we've like in each one of those instances we've taken it and we've tried to incorporate it.

We've updated our website. We've changed the the application periods to allow applicants to apply earlier on for events that they're planning in the future. You know, we have— we're working on a bilingual pamphlet to kind of, you know, help people who English is not their first language understand the intricacies, you know, what they need to do for a permit.

And so any other feedback that you have, you know, we want to try to incorporate and make this process better and better. I'm happy to hear that about this sort of roadshow approach that I didn't know existed. Have you ever partnered with councilmembers' offices to sort of like sit in the offices and then have organizations come that regularly apply for permits to go through that with you?

I believe that we notified councilmembers when we're doing it, and I know that some of my colleagues earlier this year did one for the Queens Queens Borough President Mitchell. But we are happy to partner with your office or others to amplify the message and get the word out. I can't be the only one. I'm sure— I'm looking at my colleagues.

Organizations that regularly hold events come to us almost every year going, will you help us apply for a permit? So it sort of indicates to me that maybe a model where I mean, obviously with limited time and limited resources, a model where you all were to come to our offices and there could be organizations that could have appointments just to sit with you and go through it themselves and kind of learn how to do it so that, you know, they could do it themselves as opposed to coming to our offices would be something.

We would be happy to do it. It would be logistically, it would be helpful if, yeah, if you would work with us to, you know, help them know, get the word out, and then perhaps do one meeting where like, you know, You know, we present the process, and then they ask— they can ask questions, and, you know, we will do— we will answer them.

I love that.

And then pivoting a little bit, my other question was about general liability insurance, which I— if I recall, is required in the process of applying for the permit. Have you heard feedback recently from any organizations that the cost of that, or anything about that process, is preventative for them in terms of applying for a permit or securing a permit?

Thank you for that question. Yeah, that insurance comes up quite a bit. I do want to emphasize, 95% of our events that we process permits for are for people, for events with attendees under 500 people. Right. So that means that there's, you know, like if you want to do a birthday party, if you want to do a picnic, there's no insurance.

You get the permit, and that's it. So we are talking about 5% or less of the permits where insurance is going to come up. But yeah, people have shared that information with us, and like, we've worked with our colleagues in our General Counsel's Office. When it comes to insurance, it is something that is a little bit out of our hands in the Special Events Office.

Sure. Because it's— our counsel then talks to the Law Department about coverages, and they collectively determine whether or not there's flexibility about whether something requires insurance, and if it does require insurance, what that coverage amount should be. But yeah, we do hear that. It's not unusual. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. And just with my last few seconds, I'm just going to go on record and apologize to whoever Nancy is in the Special Events Office from 2013 to 2016 who had to deal with me.

Doing last-minute permits for large events. Thank you. Was it Brooklyn? It was Brooklyn. It was Nancy Melissa's. Yes. Thank you, Nancy Melissa's. I'm so very sorry. She recently retired after 30 years. Oh, good. I'm so glad. Okay. Good for her. And congratulations, Nancy Melissa's. I probably did make her retire. So sorry. Thanks for all your work.

I do want to just go back to your testimony Again, you mentioned that in early 2025 you hosted a series of 9 partner input forums in all 5 boroughs. Just out of curiosity, who was invited to these forums? So we had over 140 attendees. It was our partner groups. Citywide, 140? Yeah, citywide, citywide. Yes, it was a lot of our partner groups, of which there are many.

We would be happy to share the list of invitees. How would they determine the invitees? We worked with our partnerships team and our lead on strategic partnerships to help make sure that we were getting all the people who had expressed interest in the event process. So I can get back to you on that. I didn't do the outreach element of it personally, but I know there was a broad outreach.

And then to other stakeholders, who we know do events and have raised questions with us in the past. Because I'm just thinking that it may have been helpful to invite all those who had applied for permits in the previous year, you know, whether they were approved or denied, just so that, one, they can get a better understanding, because even if they were approved, they may have had, you know, a set of challenges that could have been addressed in the forum.

So it's just a thought. Oh, Councilmember, just— I think— I was just going to say we did. Oh, you did? Oh, great. Great. We did it last year for 2025, so we did the last 3 years of applicants. Got it. Thank you. That's great.

How common is it for impermanent events to occur, and what is the enforcement practice that is implemented when one is taking place? That is a good question. It's hard, being forthright, it's hard to know exactly how many, you know, unpermitted events there are. Yeah. Because people would not have, you know, would not have gone through the application system.

Because of social media, you know, we do hear about these things. from time to time. Sometimes it's, it's a, you know, very, you know, very sudden and, and, and late. When we do, when we do learn of something and, and we can identify the, the person or the, the entity that is promoting that event, we, we reach out to them and we work with our, our counsel's office and we, we you know, send them a cease and desist letter.

Wherever possible, if we can get in touch with them, we will call them first to let them know that we have to send this letter and to let them know they can apply for a permit. I don't want to speak— I don't want to kind of say anything that's incorrect, but I think, you know, in a number of cases, it's— they're not trying to do anything like illegal.

Yeah. They just, they just don't, they just don't know. Sure. We see that oftentimes with like runs, you know, and— Runs? Like running, running events. Like, apologies, I just don't remember the name of the store, but there's like sneaker stores. Yeah. And they do runs, but the run is at the park and it's like, you know, 100 people or 200 people.

It's like, hey, you need a permit. And, you know, also with social media, if a whether it's an individual or an organization, they have a lot of followers. And while they can ask their followers to register so they can, you never know how many people are gonna show up. And that if you have too many people show up, Yeah. that can create other obstacles.

And then on top of that, they could be planning a run when there's already an event planned in that area that would, add to congestion and kind of impact each other. I do have a follow-up to that. And you're right, I have seen some of the runs happening, to which I say I need to join and I don't.

But I do have a follow-up to that. If an event is permitted within a park and they see another event happening that is unpermitted or is making use of bouncy houses or things that they're not supposed to, is there a number for them to call to complain? I'm only asking because recently we received a phone call from an organization that, for lack of a better term, went through hell to get a permit.

And then, you know, they were denied certain things like a bouncy house, et cetera. And then they were in the park on the day of their permit— the day of their event. And there was another event happening that all of the works, and they called me and said, you know, what can you do? And I wasn't really sure what to tell them.

They wanted to know who they could call other than 311. Is there a line for them to call? Is there any type of notification in the park that says, hey, if you need assistance with something, call this number? Thank you for that question. That's a— I'm really sorry to hear that that happened. That's disappointing. You know, we have— I think we informally, we have a system, but, you know, I couldn't tell you that if you asked this question of like 3 other people that you wouldn't get, you know, 3 slightly different answers.

So, like, I think you're raising a point that we could be, you know, we could be stronger. But I think, You know what I would suggest is the person that issued their permit, if they're in Queens, you know, you know the Queens team. Maybe it was it was they were working with with Mira or or others. They would call them, and then we would get in touch with our with our our parks enforcement and and and speak to the event organizer.

But I think you you raise a point of. of, you know, something that we should look into more and see what kind of system we could develop, because that's very disappointing. And I apologize on behalf of the agency for that experience that the gentleman had. No, I appreciate that. And I'd love, with my limited experience, to, you know, if possible, be part of that conversation on what we can do, because it does happen quite often.

Does the department keep track of event promoters that have some sort of negative history attached to their event promotions? And if so, how does that factor weigh in in determining whether they are approved for a permit? Thank you for that question. We have a lot of events that we, you know, that are permitted throughout our parks, as you know.

And there is not, as far as I know, there is not in the rules, you know, there is not language related to kind of like, you know, who has a history or who doesn't have a history of kind of problematic events. So it's not something that we can point to in the rules. I can tell you that we do rely on firsthand experience when there are instances when there are instances of, of an event holder that has clearly not met the requirements of their, of their, of their contract, when they do have a contract.

So, oh, I should stop for a moment and just say again, I'm putting this in context. We're talking about the minority of the events where it's like a larger event. You know, if it's a, if it's a birthday party, if it's like, you know, a family gathering and they got a permit, like, this is not what we're talking about.

We're talking about the larger events. If someone is having an event and, you know, they're inviting 3,000, 4,000 people because there's going to be music acts, there's going to be food, and then at the end of the event, they don't clean up and they just leave everything there, you know, that's where we work very closely with our borough offices.

We've had instances where, you know, we had to pay for overtime for roughly a dozen parks employees to stay past midnight to clean up because the event producer did not pick up the garbage. They did not bag the garbage. They didn't hire anyone to take away from the garbage. And so in instances like that, we will suspend the applicant and not allow them to— And that is a violation of the ordinance?

to submit for a period of time. Like, you know, I think roughly it's a year, and then if they could do that again, it could be more. Do you want to— No, I was going to say, like, if there's park staff on site, they'll take pictures so there's photographic evidence, and then we'll follow up with a violation letter after the fact if it's a permitted event to let them know that they were in violation of their permit and share the photo documentation.

And then it is taken into consideration for next year if they apply again. If it's really egregious, it could be up to 2 years suspension. But most of the time, the violation letter is to serve as like a physical documentation, put it in writing, share this with the applicant, and work with them so they can do better next time.

I see. So that they can be welcomed back to Parkland. And, you know, if they weren't cleaning up, that they're hiring perhaps either having volunteers or hiring like a cleanup crew to actually be dedicated to cleaning up the event. How would that work for groups that aren't permitted? You know, is there any type of reprimand for them, or is it difficult to kind of figure out who they are because they don't have a permit?

Is there any type of Is there any measure in place to reprimand those type of groups? We would have to take a look at that and get back to you, Councilmember. Thank you for asking that. I mean, I think we would have to know about the event in order to document it. It's possible that we would have staff at the park that observed that, and then in those cases they may call our— or I suspect they would call our Parks Enforcement Office to issue summonses.

But if we're at a point where, like, the event happened and we didn't know about it and we didn't document it, uh, it becomes much harder for us to, to hold people like that accountable. Understood.

I'm going to speed it up a little bit because I know we do have public testimony and we're going on 90 minutes now. So I'm going to ask a few more questions and then I'll open up for public testimony, uh, and then we'll close this hearing. Um, How does the department and NYPD determine the security needs for a certain event?

How often are PEP officers or park rangers assigned to work events? Thank you, thank you for that question. As I had mentioned, you know, the vast majority of our permits, 75%, are less than 100 people. 95% are less than 500 people. In almost all of those cases, there's very unlikely to have a need for NYPD or for Parks Enforcement.

Depending on staffing availability and depending on other factors, it's possible that we would ask our Parks Enforcement to be present. That's for larger events, certainly like a a Global Citizens or a city marathon, you know, there will be kind of all hands on deck for parades as well. For smaller events, you know, oftentimes we're going to look for the event producer to provide a certain level of security and a ratio.

And then, you know, we will consult with NYPD. For other events, NYPD would, you know, would assess during the site visit. you know, what their proper, you know, staffing level should be. When it comes to matters of security, admittedly, we are pretty deferential to the Police Department about what they believe is necessary. Thank you. No, I mean, just to add, for the very large-scale events, they all have to provide private security, and those private security companies have to work with NYPD to create a robust security plan. plan.

What are the most common reasons that the department has typically denied applications? Thank you for that question, Councilmember. I think the most common reason— I know, I believe actually we are following up with your office as one of the items, I think, on the denials. But I think it's, you know, probably the most common reason would be the the location, and just that, like, if someone wanted to do an event for 20,000 people and the park historically has not done an event for more than 2,000 people because of its size, that would be an area where we would, you know, ultimately need to deny if they did not want to relocate the event to a more appropriately sized park.

Understood. What factors determine whether the department has to shut down an event? How often has this happened in the past for large events, and how many instances in the last year has DPR prematurely closed? That is a good question, Councilmember. You know, we have not tracked it on an ongoing basis. We could certainly do that looking back.

As, you know, as was in the press, the Global Citizens event of last weekend, was canceled due to weather. And I think weather is, you know, is the most common occurrence as the reason for why an event would be shut down or be, you know, be in any way, you know, impacted in terms of its plan. You know, even with all the technology we have, sometimes, you know, the weather surprises us.

And I can say, you know, that's happened to us a number of times. And so we work really closely with the event producer and with other city agencies, including Office of Emergency Management, with NYPD, with CECM. And depending on what the forecasts are— oh, and I should add, for larger events, we, over from years of experience, we've now required larger events to have a meteorologist on site.

Oh, wow. So that they can, you advise us of exactly what the weather is. And if there's like cloud-to-ground lightning, that's a very big concern for us. So there's times when we've advised to hold the opening of the show. And fortunately now with social media, a lot of the event producers, like they can blast out messages in a matter of moments.

Yeah. And so their attendees know Oh, the show is going to start a few hours later. There's been other times when we'll end early because we see that there's a storm coming. And so we, you know, we'll work with the event producer to kind of, you know, they may have to cut some of the acts, but they, you know, they end the show a couple of hours early in order to avoid a storm.

Who hires the meteorologist? Is it Parks or is it the applicant? It's the applicant. Really? Yeah. Where do you find a meteorologist? Oh, I don't— so there's one meteorologist who used to work for New York One. Really? And he's— yeah, he's there. He's a nice, nice guy. You know, they're, they're interesting. I, you know, but it's always, it's, it's always tricky knowing the weather.

Like, even if you have like a storm cloud over you, the meteorologist will say, oh, I, I think this is gonna pass. It looks like it's gonna pass. But whether it passes in an hour Whether it passes in 20 minutes is harder to know. That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing that.

What is DPR's review process after an event has concluded to determine whether it was successful or not? So, thank you for that question. You know, for, you know, again, for the smaller events, there's not much of a process. We just, we want those events to happen. We want people to have fun. And, you know, and so that's, you know, that's kind of like, you know, we issue the permit, and then, you know, they have the event, and there's no, there's not really a follow-up.

For larger events, you know, we'll do, we'll do site inspections. And we seek to do those site inspections immediately after loadout. So they're, you know, they're contemporaneous in terms of you know, the timeline, so we know that there's no other things that could have caused damage if there was damage. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, we'll do those sometimes with our colleagues who do park inspections.

We'll do those with the event producer themselves. We'll do those with the park administrators and park managers in the borough. We'll do them with our partners if there's a partner organization. Helping to care for the park, and always documenting it through photos, and, you know, and kind of like comparing them to the conditions before. The expectation and the standard is that the park be returned to the public in the same condition that it was before the event took place.

We also, for very large-scale events, do interagency debriefs with all the city agencies that are part of the planning of the event. So the same group that was part of the planning leading up to the event and who are on site during the event, we all debrief virtually after to talk about, you know, lessons learned and things that we could do to improve for next year.

Okay. Thank you.

Final few questions, and then I'm going to go into public testimony. Do any conservancies or alliances have the power, or groups that have license agreements, have the power to hold events and determine the content of the event without DPR's direct input or approval? Thank you for that. I want to just add another piece to that question. Do they— do any of them have the right to approve events from outside applicants without DPR's DPR's input or approval?

Thank you for that question. To the best of my knowledge, the answer is no. None of them. Okay. Do all event contracts require the promoter to repair grass or other damage that results from their event? Prior to coming to the council, I worked for an organization that was located within a park. It wasn't quite a conservancy per se, but they did have a license agreement and they were the determining— they determined which organization— I'm sorry, which applicants received permits.

So that kind of was the basis for that question. But they also— they ran into an issue with a number of the groups because— What was the issue? depending on the type of event, the grass would be impacted in a negative way. So do all event contracts require the promoter to repair grass or other damage? Yes, sir.

Thank you for that question, too. And that's a— you know, that comes up more and more that we see with large-scale events because they are impactful on the grass and on the park landscape. And I think That's part of the balance that we have to do as public servants working for Parks. But yes, if there's a contract, it has to be— the park has to be returned in the condition that it was prior to the event taking place.

Thank you. Can Parks provide applicants with a comprehensive checklist identifying the approvals and additional agency permits that may be required for their particular event? Or is that something that's already in practice? Yes. It's in practice already? For an event that's coming to Citywide, we have an outreach email. It's a templated email that outlines all the documentation that we're looking for.

That's the first contact that the Citywide coordinator will have with the applicant once the application is assigned to our office. And that outlines the all the documentation, site map, production schedule, insurance, and then it also has links to, if you need an amplified sound permit, it links to the NYPD precinct dashboard where you can find your precinct to get your amplified sound permit.

FDNY, DOB, it has links in that email. So it is a checklist. Thank you.

I want to acknowledge that we've been joined by Councilmember Phil Councilmember Wong, do you have any questions? Yes, I do. All right. I want to turn it over to the councilmember for questions. Okay. I'll ask a couple more questions and then I'll turn it over to the councilmember. I want to go back. I probably want to end my questions on this.

I want to go back to the sensitivity training and the customer service piece. I know you mentioned that all parks staff have to go through sensitivity training and/or customer service training. training when they are hired. If someone is hired, let's say, in 2010, would they be required to go through training again? Let's say they've been on the job now for 10 years.

Is it annual or is it just that one time at the, you know, the point to— excuse me, the point to which they were hired? That's a really good question. I think it's going to depend on the office and how often that office is interacting with the public versus doing something internally. But I can speak, as I mentioned, for the citywide team.

We will be doing that training again at the end of this year, and, you know, that's something that we will also talk to all of the boroughs about to make sure that we have, you know, renewed training and— and continue to keep it updated from there. Is it uniformed? Would it be uniformed? The training? I believe it would be, but I think we would have to discuss the exact kind of like parameters of the training with our Parks Academy.

Okay. As I mentioned before, I think it would be a good field trip for this committee. As you see, we did have more than 2 members for this committee to sit in on Parks Academy, if allowed, you know, just to see what the training is like, you know, and to really just kind of get a different perspective.

I think for many of us, whether it is the CBOs that we're dealing with or our offices, our office staff that's working with the permit offices, whether it be borough or citywide, we do run into challenges. And one of the things that I would be remiss if I did not mention, in Southeast Queens in particular, we have received a number of complaints from CBOs when dealing with the permit offices.

And that's disheartening. Especially because these groups do great work within the community. Many of them have recurring events every year. And to be faced with what they consider a level of disrespect, I think is unacceptable from the City of New York, is unacceptable from the Parks Department. And so I would love to, again, be part of the conversation to see how we can just do better. you know, and serving the people of this city.

So with that, I want to turn it over to Councilmember Wong.

Thank you, Chair. Today my question is regarding permits and organizations that booked fields and either they don't use them or they don't show up. But thank you, Chair. First, I'm going to give an intro. Our parks and athletic fields belong to the public, but access to them depends on permitting system that too often creates uncertainty instead of opportunity.

Community organizations plan entire seasons around these permits, and they rely on them to have access to the fields. And my problem in my district quite often is when field time is reserved, but often little or never used. And when a permit is changed or canceled without enough notice, or when the field is technically available but its lighting makes evening play impractical, children lose playtime and nonprofit clubs are forced to spend significant money on renting out private facilities.

And today I hope to hear whether the Parks Department is doing enough to confirm that permitted space is actually being used. And then quickly returning unused time to the public, communicate changes, and keep facilities usable during the hours for which permits are issued. And we need to get some lighting in places like my district, Brennan Field. Now, we're not— the purpose is not to favor one organization over another.

It is to create a fair, transparent, reliable system that rewards responsible community use and make the best use of our limited fields. So my first question is to Deputy Commissioner Sarin. Park rules allow the agencies to inspect fields and reduce or revoke permits when organizations do not use their allotted time? And how many unused permits did Parks identify last season?

And how many resulted in a warning, reduction, or revocation? Hi, Councilmember, and thank you very much for that question. And I think we are 100% with you in making sure and ensuring that we have a fair, transparent, and reliable system for permit applicants. So I just want to start there. We are in full agreement. Today's hearing, we had prepped mostly for citywide special events, but we work very closely with the athletic field permitting team led by Ken Conyers.

And so unfortunately, I don't have the numbers available at this moment regarding, you know, hours that have been given back or permits that were unused but reserved for athletic permits. But I'm happy to work with you or with someone in your office and with Ken to look at the athletic fields and other, you know, activatable spaces within your district and figure out, you know, if there are instances where we've taken away permits from people because they were not using them for their organized sports.

And if there's specific fields that you have in mind that you want us to focus on, We will absolutely do so and make sure that we're able to figure that part of it out. Yes, I can provide the information and please, you can work with my office. We can identify soccer fields, softball fields that supposedly are reserved for a certain event and people never showed up.

And then other groups are like, you know, well, what's going on? Why can't we get in? All right, so thank you. My second part, my follow-up question is, why should enforcement depend on another league or resident filing a 311 complaint? Will Parks Department establish a use-it-or-release-it system that would automatically make unwanted or repeatedly unused field time available to other organizations?

Thank you for that question as well, Councilmember. We will look at that. part of our conversation with the athletic field permitting team in your office. We can look at those— at the fields that are being permitted but not used. And we can also have discussion about what the rules say, or in this case, don't say, with regard to people who may not be following through on the permits that they have.

Thank you. Final question. May I? Do I have time? Yeah. When Parks Department cancels or changes a permit, How much notice must it provide, and why isn't the affected organization guaranteed a written explanation and comparable replacement time? I'm sorry, Councilmember, I'll have to get back to you on that part. I imagine you're talking again about the athletic fields?

Yes. Yeah, I will have to get back to you on that. I don't have that information. Okay, so I'll reach out. We will reach out to your office. These are all fair, appropriate, and good questions, and we want to make sure that we're getting you answers.

Apologies if we can't get back to you right now. And as a related question, may I? Lighting is a problem on certain fields, as we all know, when the sun sets at 4:30 this time of the year and stays that way until March. Before you issue an evening permit, Does Parks verify that the lighting is there or is on before the event?

I mean, how does it work? Yes, thank you for that question. Lighting is paramount for our Commissioner. She wants to expand lighting. It increases the number of playable hours citywide. We did a pilot program this summer extending lit hours for Parks, which was well received by the public and, you know, and something that, you know, we were really excited about to be able to do.

So, you know, when we have our lit fields, a number of them— apologies, I don't remember off the top of my head what that number is— are, you know, can be activated remotely and set. You know, in some cases it will depend on the lighting fixture that they are used, and some, some of the older lighting fixtures, you know, kind of just go out a little bit more.

So, you know, we do work very closely with the boroughs to ensure that they're available and that the lights are functioning correctly. In the cases that I've been involved with, you know, we've always been able to get the lights on. But if the light is out, it sounds like maybe that is the case in one of the examples that you have.

It may be that the the bulbs need to be replaced. But we're happy to look into it. Again, like, you know, we can have a conversation about the specific athletic fields in your district. Mm-hmm. And when they're not, you know, when they're being permitted but not used, we can have a conversation about the rules. And then in addition about the lighting infrastructure at those parks.

And if there are instances where you expect the lighting to be on and it is not on. I think we need to find out, is it not on because of a systematic problem? Where for some reason the you know the the you know the the timer isn't working, or is it not on because some of the lights are out and we need to get a contractor in to replace them?

When we're replacing those lights, Parks doesn't have the capacity to do that. We do rely on a contractor. You need to get excuse me. You need to get pretty high up, and then and it is you know it is relatively you know expensive. But you know doesn't mean that we we we won't do it and that we can't do it.

It just is a little bit more involved in terms of the agency can't do it directly. So is there a go-to person I could reach out to if there's a lighting problem on a specific field? It's our colleague Ken Conyers, who's the Director of Athletic Field Permitting and Policy. But we will reach out to your office, Councilmember.

We're happy to work directly with you or with anyone on your team. And Gabriella and I will set up that call. and she or I will join as well. We want to make sure that we're getting answers to all of your questions. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chair.

No, thank you. I do want to apologize to my colleague and to the department because I know that committee counsel and the agency, we did mention that we wouldn't talk about athletic permits. So I do want to apologize. I didn't notify the committee. the agency as well. So my apologies.

Uh, all right, given that, uh, we are going to move into public testimony. Thank you to the agency, uh, for testifying today. Thank you. Now we're going to open the hearing for public testimony. I remind members of the public that this is a formal government proceeding and that decorum shall be observed at all times. As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times.

The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the sergeant-at-arms for inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card with the sergeant-at-arms and wait to be recognized.

When recognized, you will have 2 minutes to on today's hearing topics, an overview of the Parks Department's events permitting process, and Intro 927. If you have a written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the sergeant-at-arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony@council.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing.

Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. Thank you for flying with New York City Council today. All right. So we're going to call our first witness— our first 2 witnesses. Okay. We have 2 today. Heather LaBeouf and Christopher Leon Johnson.

Uh, yeah, hello, my name is Christopher Leon Johnson. I know she want more time, that's why I'm gonna go first, cut you off, give you more time. So I'm here to, uh, talk about this right now, right, about this park stuff. Department issue. I want to say this right now, that I, I think that you should invite OEM to speak in this too, because, um, one thing I'll say about Maldonado is that unlike the last mayor, he's doing his job when it comes to shutting down certain events that shouldn't be happening in the city outside.

And I think we all know what we're talking about. Um, I think that going forward, I think the city council need to have a program to where that, uh, people should get paid to report Any event that they've seen that is not safe. Because I think once that happens, these people start doing their job way more. I think going forward, the city council needs to find a way to make it where that if you want to do a basketball tournament, you need to put up to $2 million in bond, like a bond thing and insurance and have like real adequate security because what happened summertime with that basketball player.

I'll say this right now that This system is not the best. It's always some politics involved with people getting permits, but they abuse them. And then when people start calling them out, people, it's always like, you get accused of being racist, you get accused of being this and that. I think it's ridiculous. So I think going forward, this need to be, next time you do a hearing like this, you need to invite an OEM and ask them like, what are they doing about this?

Because they have responsibility too with these permits too, because they oversee everything, especially with the grid of the city of New York. I know that the city council, the subpoena power is really weak and they could pick and choose not to come out. But I think going forward with this permit process, OEM needs to be getting involved more because if they shutting down every club event with nightlife, I know that's an economic They need they could do they they need hope.

Talk to them about like what's going on with the parks because there's certain events that's happening shouldn't be happening in the park. So that's all I gotta say. I know she moments. I'm gonna go. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take that into consideration. Thank you, Mr. Johnson.

I feel so lonely here. Hi, I'm Heather Lubov. I'm the executive director of City Parks Foundation. Foundation. Thank you for holding this hearing. We are an organization that has, for nearly 40 years, partnered with all the folks who were just here from NYC Parks to bring free community-centered programming to parks across the city, including environmental education and sports lessons for kids, performing arts, and community engagement.

Today, I'm going to focus on Summer Stage and our free— 50 free concerts in 13 parks. And I really appreciate you holding this hearing. It's a very unsexy topic, and I know that. But the Parks Department has really made some significant improvements in the last few years. Faster approvals, clearer policies, fee waivers, better online guidance. And I know that they're working on more.

The permit team is dedicated. They are understaffed. And the system and the rules itself is what remains too rigid. Programs like SummerStage at our scale depend on reliable, timely access to park space. And our permitting experience is honestly no different from anyone else's. So, if it's hard for us, I can't imagine, as we've been talking about, what it's like for a volunteer group trying to plan a small event.

As the Design Trust's recently untaped report documents. You need the park permit. You need the separate sound permit. You have to go in person. You need a money order. It's crazy. It's too complicated.

So with that, I have 3 suggestions. First is to account for scale and investment. At Summer Stage, even though we are free of charge, we want to make sure that we are bringing the most important artists to New Yorkers for free, and we raise millions of dollars to do that. Most concert venues book 1 to 2 years out, but as you heard in terms of the timeline, we're lucky that we can plan 9 months ahead.

And permits are only approved 4 months before we announce the season, so artists are often booked elsewhere and we can't get them. I think another example is, although it's not special events, In January, we applied for an August tennis clinic, and by late July, we still had not heard anything. So we can absorb the uncertainty, but small groups can't.

Second, make the process more flexible and transparent. There's a whole system of grandfathering dates in Central Park that— those dates, in my 12 years at CPF, have not ever changed. even though the whole world around us has changed. We hold dates for— we hold permits for dates we can't ever use, but if we exchange them, we'll lose our tenure.

We get bumped even though we have tenure, and it's practically a full-time job to keep track of all the trades and swaps. And in the end, it just means that we lose artists because we don't quite know when dates are really going to be available. And then third, don't charge fees for free programs, and we've been hearing some rumblings about that.

All that does is take resources away from free programs for New Yorkers. The answer is really 1% for parks, not charging nonprofits. I can say that we are eager to work with NYC Parks and others to help improve the process. I know that a more effective, user-friendly system is within reach, and I look forward forward to working with the council and the Deputy Mayor's Office on a soon-to-be-formed interagency task force for the public realm that will be looking at permitting— at permitting reform.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. All right. With that, the Parks Permitting Hearing of September 30th, 2026 is now adjourned.