Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Frank Morano | Member of New York City Council | 07-08-26

Transcript

Frank Morano | Member of New York City Council | 07-08-26 · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Talking about congratulations. My next guest became a father for
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the second time just a couple of days ago. Carmine's
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: got a sister when him and his lovely wife Rachel,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: welcomed collect Celia Morano into the world. Former WABC megal
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: overnight superstar, now one of our five Republican City Council
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: members and in my estimation, the best, and now again
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a father for the second time. Mazoltov, my friend Frank Morano, Frank,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: good morning, buddy. Congratulations.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Jed, and I appreciate the fact
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: that you were the very first person that I'm not
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: related to to reach out and congratulate Rachel and me,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and we're just delighted. The only thing Colette has going
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: against her right now is a lot of people say
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that she looks a lot like me, which when you
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: picked your pretty girls, I'm not exactly the first image
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that comes to mind, so hopefully she'll grow out of that.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: But other than that, she's been delightful.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Now she's a buiful little baby house Rachel feeling.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: She's so a little sore and very exhausted. You know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Colette must have heard about my prior role doing overnights
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: at WABC, and she's trying to emulate that schedule, so
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: she sleeps. Yeah, she's up all night. But you know
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: she's only been alive for two days, so we got
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to cut her some slack.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: And Carman, he's excited. You know. Sometimes he's young. You're
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: lucky because when they're a little older and they're used
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: to getting all the attention, if they're five, six or seven.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I had this with Avan Gabriel. They're used to getting
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: all the attention. Sometimes at least early on, it goes
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: away to become the best of friends, but early on
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: there is some resentment. What is Carmine doing these days?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, is that the root of the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: problem between the relationship with you and your Trump hating
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: sister is that.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Where it all began started there? But who knows. No,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: we were really good at just ago a couple of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: years ago.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but no, in all Seriss, Carmin's great. He's very excited.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: He was feeding her yesterday. He kept trying to campaign
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: to have her sleep in his room. No, he's excited
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: to be a big brother, and he's just he couldn't
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: be better with her. He was helping feed her helping
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: change her even yesterday, and even though he's only four
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and a half, he's very excited and has a full
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: understanding of what's going on, and he's excited for our family.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: So it's great.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: All right. Frank and Rachel Morano now have a car
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Mine and a Collette, so they're in good shape. They've
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: got one of each. So I know that last week
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: when the budget got passed, and we all know that, Mom,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Donnie part of the reason why he got the budget
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: passed was the bailout help him, Kathy Hukl. But one
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of the real discussions centered around the back that about
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: six hundred cops was supposed to be added in this budget.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I had you on. You were great, always great, and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you seem very unhappy with the fat that the six
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: hundred cops were not added, as well as for Jowayne
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Ariola that fifth firefighter. So again with the opportunity to
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: aid the police and the FDN, why the mayor came
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: up short. But I think you told me, and I'm
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: putting words in your mouth correct me that your city
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: council's speaker, Julie Menin, was even not all that happy
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: that the cops were taken out the very last second
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: by mom, Donnie, correct me, tell me I'm right. What's
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the whole deal here?
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, No, To put it mildly, the only thing
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I would correct you is the level of unhappiness with
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Julie the speaker, Julie Mennon in terms of those cops
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: being taken out. So now let me be clear. So
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I voted no on the budget. I explained why, you
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: know last week, and you know, I certainly have a
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: lot of criticisms of the things that the council does,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: but on the cop issue. And you had a terrific
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: interview with Vincent vala Long, who's a close friend, and
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the SBA was the very first union to endorse me,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: and so I'm really in their debt. But I didn't
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: appreciate the fact that he and a couple of other
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: people were blaming the speaker in the council one iota
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: for what the mayor did. So the blame overwhelmingly belongs
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: to Zorn Mamdani. He is the one who pulled the
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: five hundred and eighty cops. He's the one who sprung
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: it on everyone after the budget was effectively printed, and
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: he's the one who caved to the anti cop activist
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: wing of his party. I've got plenty of differences with
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Julie Menin and the city Council. I vote differently from
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: them on a bunch of things. But this is the
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: first time in the history of the City of New
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: York where the council has been the adult in the
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: room in the mayor council relationship. It has never happened before.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It was the council that stopped the property tax like
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: it was the council that stopped the mayor from reigning
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the Raidy Day Fund. It was the council that stopped
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: him from raising taxes on high income earners. So on
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: the issue of cops, Mamdani is the villain, not Julie Mennon.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: The speaker in the council had been publicly pressing for
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: more cops for months. Mom Donnie made the decision to
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: yank those five hundred and eighty officers at the eleventh
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: hour after the budget was printed. People can disagree with
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: the speaker and a lot of things. I certainly do,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: but it is totally unfair to say she caused the
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: police cut. So just so people understand the history. Back
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: in March, the Speaker, and this is all documented. I've
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: sent you the audio and people can look it up
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: to themselves if they want to do the work. Back
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: in March, the Speaker was already pressing the NYPD and
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: the administration on headcounts. She specifically pointed out that the
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: mayor had removed funding that Adams put in that would
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: have added five thousand new officers. Then now there was
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: not a talk from March when she pressed Commissioner tish
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: on that to June about adding any new cops. Forget
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: about five eighty. They were ready to add zero. They
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: said they were doing an adequate job with staffing and
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: that the crime numbers were down. And then she pointed out, well,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: and I did, and others did, Joan Aariola did, and
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: others that look rapes her up. Hate crimes are surging
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: through the roof transit crimes are up. My colleague in
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: the Bronx Oswald Police not considered a conservative by any means,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: he pointed out that shootings in the Bronx are up.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Then in June, after all this that when the administration
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: floated this five hundred eighty cop increase, the Speaker didn't say,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: great problem solved she pressed them and said five hundred
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: eighty wasn't enough. Her public position was that the city
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: needed far more cops, not fewer, just to get us
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: back to where we were on nine to eleven. And
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: when Mamdani pulled the five hundred eighty cops, she publicly
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: said she strongly disagreed. But this was done essentially on
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: July first. So the council added roughly three hundred million
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: dollars for the NYPD in this budget. The five hundred
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: eighty officers would have cost about seventy million dollars, So
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: we can stop pretending that there was no money for it.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: The money was there. The council funded the department. Mamdani
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: chose not to use that funding to replenish the ranks.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: So if you're angry about police cut, and I am,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: that's why I voted no, be angry at the time.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: But you know what's great is you should really be
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the speaker. And this is not a shot at Julie
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: men And it's more of a compliment to you because
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you just laid it out so perfectly, and I know
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: what you're saying is right, you know, I know I
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: actually had a conversation with Jessica Tish the morning off,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and I spoke to you as well, so I know
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the real deal, and I know that Julie Menin is
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: on our side. I think some of the frustration is
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: what Julie, who again I've warmed up to and you
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: are right about this, she's on the right side, is
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: that she did not really say this publicly, and if
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: she did not, a lot of people heard it. So
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the only criticisms people may have is instead of standing
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: up there all smiley smiley with mom Donnie like Trump
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: does with him and Erdowan, how about not being so
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: smiley and how about delivering the same message you just
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: did because the truth is and Julie Menin's defense, that's how.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think she'd been pretty critical on
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the mayor on everything from the anti Semitism issues to
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: even yesterday when his Department of Health said the best
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: way with the legionnaire's outbreak is to essentially wait until
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: people get this.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I'm an idiotic.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: You've heard that you've got to clean all these things.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: So but I won't disagree with you that she could
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: be even more of a simperis. But I think as
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: far as being a Democrat, in New York City. I
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: don't know that there's a single Democrat that's intellective office
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: now currently putting up more of a fight against the mayor.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: And if you look at what Mandani did, though, it's
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: not just that he caved to the anti cop left,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: which is bad enough, and because the anti the activist
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: left screamed and he folded. And you see that with
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the tweets from my colleagues like council member to Tiffany
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Caban who's a member of the DSA, but his own
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: political base, the DSA and the anti COP is the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: same crowd that thinks adding officers is a moral climb.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: They put him under pressure and he cave. That's what
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: this was. It wasn't some new revelation about staffing needs.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: It was a political surrender. But what bothers me even
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: more is not just that he did it, but it
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: was the way that he did it. It wasn't just
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: a substance, but he waited until the last minute, after
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the budget was essentially printed, after members were operating under
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: the assumption that these five hundred and eighty cops were
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: in there, and then he acted it. So that's the
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: opposite of good faith, it's a bait and switch. So
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: had we known about this, according to Gothliness, they said
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: that this was known I think at least the Thursday
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: or Friday before we voted on the budget on Monday.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Had we known about this Thursday or Friday, it might
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: have been something that we could have negotiated for over
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: the weekend. But we didn't. He didn't tell us about
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: this until hours after all this other stuff. Now, again,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of other things in the budget that
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: weren't great mention the fifth Man. There's a couple of
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: other things. But I could have found my way to
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: voting for this if it included those five hundred and
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: eighty cops. So the mayor is totally the villain. He's
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: forgetting about whether this was right or wrong, and might
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: view it's clearly wrong. He was such so dishonest about it,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: and he caved. He caved to this crowd of ultra
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: left wing activists. So for all these folks that host
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: cop podcasts or live on social media and think, including
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: friends of mine, by the way, and think that oh, hey,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: this is their opportunity to score some points, that's where
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: the focus of all of us needs to be. Now
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: the council is going to work to find more funding
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: to hire these new cops. But the only reason they're
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: not there now is because of the mayor.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: So what do you guys do? This is a great
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Frank Morano father again, his daughter Collett born just a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: couple of days ago. He's got Carmine and collect. What
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: do you do if the mayor is going to continue
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: to push back, which he will because he hates cops,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and like you just said, the people around him hate cops,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: including Tippany Caban who actually ran on being physical with
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: cops in the street. She ran on that jet pamphlets
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: about that. How do you guys get the money? How
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: do you guys make this happen with zero cooperation from
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the mayor?
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question. First, we keep forcing the
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: issue in public, which is why I really appreciate the
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: opportunity to come on. Then we make the mayor own
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: the consequences of keeping the NYPD understaff. Every hearing, every
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: budget hearing, every purp that he visits in a hospital,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: every time that he wants to put out a statement
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: expressing outrage about XYZ crime, every oversight hearing, every TV
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: and radio appearance. We keep hammering the points that this
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: city needs more cops and that he's choosing not to
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: fund them. Second, the money is there. That's the important thing.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: The council already added about three hundred million to the
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: NYPD budget, so it's not this impossible math problem. It's
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: not that New York City can't afford new cops, it's
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: that the mayor doesn't want to prioritize them. Third, if
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: he keeps stonewalling, then the pressure has to become political.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Moderate Democrats, including that lady that's very brave when she's
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: bad mouthing Mom Donnie, but too afraid to come on
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: the radio with you, Melissa de Rosa, moderate Democrats, and
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: outer boroughs, business groups, parent groups, police unions. Everyday New Yorkers,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: everybody who actually wants saved streets has to keep making
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: clear that this is unacceptable because the only thing that
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: it's going to move Zeran Mamdani is this. The political
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: pain of not hiring cops becomes greater than the political
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: pain of angering the anti police left. So the answer is,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: the money's there, The need is there. We see that
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: by the fact that rapes and hate crimes are still
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: going up and if the mayor keeps refusing, we keep
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: the pressure on until he either changes course or he
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: is a serious political price for it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Lovely job. Yeah, they keep telling us the city is safer. Yeah,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: shootings are down in some borrows, murderer is down, but
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that's not the only crimes and every other crime seems
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: to be up. No disrespect to Jessica Tiss, who's doing
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the best she can. I love HER's.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Great, she's great, but she's been forced into this position
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: where the NYPD is the one agency in this city
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: that's constantly being asked, as my colleague, Minority Leader David
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: car said, to do less with less. Yep, they're asked
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: to risk fewer people, prosecute fewer crimes, and do fewer things,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: all with less money and less manpower. So we have
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: to We don't need to find the money. We need
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: to find the mayor's backbone, the money in the budget.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Which missing is the political will on the other side
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: of city Hall.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: All right, there you have it, folks. Today being July
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the eighth, in three days, we're going to be two
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: months away from the most tragic day in our country's history.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I wasn't around for Pearl Harbor. So for me, nine
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Levan was that day, but just about two months away
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: when so many of our brave cops and firemen and
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: first responders listen, can'tfully folks, they walked upstairs as the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: buildings were coming down. They walked up as the buildings
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: were coming down. It is unbelievable to me that there
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: are still people in this city, especially people in political office,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: that don't love these people, don't admire these people, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: don't take care of these people. And as you heard
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Frank just say, it ain't the city council, it's not
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Julie Mennin, it's not Frank Morano, it's the mayor. Mom
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Donnie Frank again, congratulations, thank.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: You, my brother. I love you. I appreciate the opportunity
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: to come on. And I'll just mention on the nine
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: to eleven front twenty five years ago, that's when I
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: first met Julie. She was a small business owner lotting
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: downtown Manhattan, had a restaurant down there, and I saw
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: the work that she was doing for free to help
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: support the first responders, and people were telling her, you know,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: their business was done forever, the same thing they was
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: telling everybody. And now what she's doing. She's still fighting
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: to get the records about where's the air safe to
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: breathe and did the city know? And tonight I'm actually
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: hosting the event at the Conference House in Staten Island
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: five pm to ten pm with fireworks and everything. And
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: you reminded me we're going to do a special event.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: It's for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: country because this is the anniversary of the day that
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: the Declaration of Independence was read publicly for the first time.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: But we're also doing a special nine to eleven remembrance
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: with the Carl V. Beanie Foundation, which was named for
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: a firefighter that was lost on nine to eleven. So
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: that's tonight five to ten at the Conference House. I
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: hope all your listeners come down.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: You are a great American and a great New York
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and I love you again.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Congratulations, congratulations again on the Hall of Fame. Thank you,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: thank you.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Sit in Friends in the Morning.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: You can hear SID and Friends in the Morning weekday mornings.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: It's six.
• 15:55
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• 15:57
  Speaker 3: and listen anytime at WABC radio dot com and download
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: the WABC Radio app.
• 16:03
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• 16:05
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• 16:12
  Speaker 3: and X see you next time for a new episode,
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: so you never have to wonder
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here