The Manhattan Times

Fight for Small Business Survival bill ends, for now

by Daniel P. Bader

City Council Member Robert Jackson has ended his attempt to force a vote on his Small Business Survival bill, which called for landlords and commercial tenants to enter binding arbitration when they couldn’t agree on extending a lease.

On Mon., Dec. 7, in a short note to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Jackson formally withdrew his Motion to Discharge – a rare procedure that would have required the full Council to take a side, either with him or with Quinn, who opposes the bill.

“All things considered, it was absolutely clear to me [the vote on the motion] would be resoundingly defeated,” Jackson said.

The first indication that he no longer had wide support for his bill, which had garnered 34 co-sponsors at one time, was the poor attendance at a legal briefing for his bill on Fri., Dec. 4. He said his staff personally had handed notices to 35 Council members and faxed and emailed each of the 51 members’ offices. Only two Council members came to the briefing, newly elected Northern Manhattan member Ydanis Rodriguez and District 2 Council Member Rosie Mendez.

It was after a Democratic Caucus executive committee meeting that Jackson decided to withdraw the bill that was opening a schism in the Council.

“Coming out of the executive session it was clear to me we could not win,” Jackson said.

The next day, he discussed his decision with the leaders of the Small Business Coalition who grudgingly relented.

“Our official position is that because [Quinn] has no opponent [for speaker] and she’s going to be elected, it was just overwhelmingly clear we would lose the fight and she would be in a position to punish Jackson,” said Steve Null, the author of the 20-year-old bill and the most vocal leader in the Small Business Coalition, an umbrella organization for as many as 14,000 minority business owners.

Since the Council speaker appoints members to lead the body’s various committees, that punishment could be as severe as preventing Jackson from continuing his tenure as education chair when the new Council is seated in January. Jackson has built a strong reputation fighting for improved educational opportunities, particularly as the lead plaintiff in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit against the state.

“Some of our hard line advocates wanted him to fall on the sword,” Null said. While Null doesn’t believe Quinn would remove Jackson from the chairmanship, he said it was possible. “We didn’t want him to lose his career,” he said.

On Monday afternoon, the speaker’s office released the following statement: “Chris Quinn is committed to working with Council Member Jackson and all other Council members to find innovative and effective legislation to address the real problems faced by small business owners in the city.”

The fight to level the playing field between the city’s small businesses and their landlords may have ended, but Jackson said he would consider reintroducing the legislation later, particularly if he had the backing of the Small Business Coalition.

Jackson pointed to his experiences during the 2007 ING New York City Marathon, which he completed after tearing his calf muscle in the sixth mile, and his 150-mile walk to Albany to bring attention to the CFE lawsuit as examples of how he is not afraid to go the distance for what he believes in. But ultimately he used a poker metaphor to describe his present political situation, saying “I had three deuces – I know this person has more than that.”