With a new state legislative session comes a new leadership team.
New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx native, announced new leadership positions and committee chairs on the first day of the 2023 session, which began on Jan. 4.
The speaker said he plans to focus on two primary areas this session, with the help of the leadership team.
“The two biggest challenges I think that we face right now is affordability, and the fact that even though statistically New York state is one of the safest states when it comes to crime, people don’t feel safe,” Heastie told the Bronx Times in an interview.
He said he wants to focus on addressing people’s safety concerns, as well as start exploring more ways to increase affordable housing — and property ownership — in New York City.
“I think that the conversation can’t just be about affordable rentals, I think we need to look at everything,” Heastie said.
The speaker said he feels confident in his leadership picks, and emphasized that all members of the Assembly play a “vital role” — whether they’re in leadership positions or not.
The group announced last week is a historic one, Heastie said: For the first time, there are more women in leadership roles than men. While overall fit and seniority played a role in his choices for leadership, the speaker — who broke institutional barriers by becoming the first African American to hold that post — also said he wanted to take diversity into account.
This will be Heastie’s 9th legislative session as speaker. Prior to this position, he served as the chair of the Assembly Labor Committee — which worked to increase the minimum wage and prevent wage theft and illegally withheld earnings.
He said that while each session sees different legislation, the process is similar every time.
“After eight years of being speaker you’ve been through the wars, you know the highs you know the lows,” Heastie said. “But there are some core issues that are always important.”
New leadership positions and committee chairs representing the Bronx:
| Vice Chair, Majority Conference | Kenny Burgos |
| Chair, Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force | Karines Reyes |
| Chair, Codes | Jeffrey Dinowitz |
| Chair, Education | Michael Benedetto |
| Chair, Labor | Latoya Joyner |
This article was updated on Jan. 17 at 6:33 p.m.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
