Heshy’s Agenda

Heshy’s long experience working with city government on behalf of people has given him a unique perspective on what has to be strengthened and what should be changed — or dropped entirely.

Heshy rose to national prominence when he restored ownership of New York City’s parks to its citizens. He will therefore be looking into reorganizing the Parks Department — there is too much bureaucracy there and not enough action for residents of the five boroughs.

The City Council makes way too many laws, putting additional burdens on our citizens. There are an average of two dozen new laws enacted by the legislature every month. We should be looking to repeal laws, not make the city a more regulatory place. There is also too much bureaucracy. Heshy will cut the red tape to make it easier to live and do business in the city.

As an experienced expeditor who has helped many people with government kn95agencies, Heshy will take a hard look at the agencies and whether all of them are need. There are 312 government agencies — some of them have to go. Heshy will look to fold five agencies into each other. Millions of dollars can be saved by merging the departments of Sanitation, Buildings, Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), Finance, Transportation (DOT) and Health and Mental Hygiene.

Heshy also wants to reform a few big agencies. The Buildings Department, for example. This agency has no oversight whatsoever and they do whatever they want. They’ve been abusing residents with frivolous violations for too long. Heshy will reimagine it in a way that makes them accountable to the people.

The Mayor’s Task Forces are like unelected lawmakers — they have the power to shut down anything they want but are not elected. Heshy wants them shut down.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development. This agency is full of corruption and a lack of transparency. For example, it has a few commissioners that do the same thing, making them redundant.

In addition, there should be one inspector for all departments instead of having separate ones show up for the Buildings department, Sanitation or Health. All inspectors must be trained in the specific industry they are inspecting and have been licensed in the past for that industry. We can’t continue to hear of horror stories of buildings inspectors with no idea what a two by four is.