Last week we were again on the frontier of the city small business legislative space in passing a permanent commission cap and a licensing scheme to regulate the third-party food delivery industry, which has presented a challenge to the recovery of our small business restaurants throughout the city. As chair of the New York City Council’s Committee on Small Business I am proud to stand up to Silicon Valley and demand fair business practices between them and our mom-and-pop shops.
This package of bills awaits legislation from the mayor, and follows on the heels of a package also passed several weeks ago, dictating, amongst other things, that apps must have the consent of restaurants they deliver from, and provide transparency in how they list phone numbers. These have since been passed into law, some becoming effective as soon as 90 days.
On the constituent services and community affairs side of things, we held a town hall with the administration, including the Small Business Services commissioner, to go over the Key to NYC vaccine mandate program in detail and field any questions from business owners, community leaders or any kind of stakeholder. This was a well attended meeting and informative not just for the community attendees, but also for the representatives from the administration, who will internalize the comments and questions made to improve the implementation and clarity of this program.
Throughout the week, we will continue with services and events in the vein of what we’ve been providing so far this summer — book bag giveaways, PPE distribution and more.
For further questions or assistance from my constituent services staffers, please contact me either at (718) 931-1721 or at MGjonaj@council.nyc.gov. Thank you and continue to stay safe.
