Presented by

Sochie Nnaemeka told POLITICO she will step down as the director of New York’s Working Families Party next month as she expects her second child.

“I started this job and people were intent on counting the party out,” said Nnaemeka, who started at a time in 2019 when ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was pushing through changes to election rules in an attempt to destroy the progressive party that had given him headaches for years.

“The most powerful man in the state was determined to crush us whether through politics or policy, and I think we showed through advocacy and a robust infrastructure … that the party’s here to stay.”

The role of the party in the state’s elections has only grown since then: Cuomo received 114,000 votes on its line in 2018, while successor Kathy Hochul received 261,000 in 2022.

It has expanded its roster of state legislators in Albany in recent years, which has proven crucial in policy debates such as a 2021 increase in taxes on high earners and helped build a New York City Council where the majority of members are women.

One race that stands out the most during her tenure was Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s 2020 primary defeat of incumbent Eliot Engel: “I never thought in my time in Westchester, in the place I grew up, that we could have a Black working class champion representing us in Congress.”

The party is launching a search for its next state director.

EDUCATION BUDGET TALKS: Senate Education Committee Chair Shelley Mayer said she is optimistic that budget negotiations are going to move at a faster pace, particularly when it comes to education items. She said there have been preliminary talks with staff on education issues, such as charter schools, universal school meals, high-impact tutoring and universal pre-kindergarten, but they have yet to be resolved with leadership.

“I have been briefed on the status of negotiations, not with language but by the staff, and there’s a real acknowledgement that the school board budget votes are coming up. So I’m quite hopeful about the timing,” Mayer said in an interview.

“The outstanding issue really in the school space I think is charters,” she added. “I am strongly against the governor’s proposals…and I’m going to continue to take that to communicate to my colleagues and leadership.”

Hochul wants to lift the regional cap on the state’s 420 charter schools to allow more to be opened in New York City, but Democrats have largely been opposed. She also wants to allow about 20 “zombie charters,” one that were licensed but have since closed, to be able to reopened. — Katelyn Cordero

Other news:

• New Assembly maps released: New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission released a new set of maps for the state Assembly on Thursday, containing lines nearly identical to those approved by the Legislature in a bipartisan vote last year.
• Here today, gone tomorrow: The state Legislature passed its fourth extender Thursday morning to keep the state government operating, and they plan to do another one Monday as legislative leaders and Gov. Kathy Hochul appear far apart on a budget deal for the fiscal year that started April 1.

SHH, SIGNED CITY HALL: “Top lawyers for New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently held a private briefing coaching City Hall staffers on how to avoid unwanted public scrutiny of government information. The key? Be careful what you write down. Or pick up the phone instead,” writes POLITICO’s Joe Anuta.

POLITICO obtained a recording of the meeting of the mayor’s legal team that outlined the basics of the state’s Freedom of Information Law, but also “warned of the potential pitfalls of creating a paper trail paved with emails, texts or chats that could later be obtained by news organizations or sucked up as part of law enforcement investigations.”

CITY PLANS: The city on Thursday updated “PlaNYC,” the sustainability agenda former Mayor Mike Bloomberg created nearly two decades ago to advocate for congestion pricing and other measures to reduce emissions.

By law, The city must update it every four years, providing Mayor Eric Adams a first chance to put his stamp on the sweeping climate proposal that will guide the next several years of capital planning.

Adams said this year’s agenda focused on how to better implement existing projects.

“It can’t stay in just a plan,” he said. “It must be executed and impact the lives of people every day.”

All New Yorkers would live within 2.5 miles of a fast-charging hub by 2035, under the new climate pledge. Adams also wants to require parking garages and open lots to add electric vehicle chargers.

The Department of Environmental Protections will also assume oversight of resiliency work across the five boroughs, a move city officials said will help accelerate construction and provide greater management of multi-billion construction projects.

The city also vowed to subsidize solar panels for low-income homeowners and tackle pollution from heavy-duty trucks. — Danielle Muoio Dunn

HIGHER EDUCATION: City University of New York officials said they have prepared scenarios to account for the impact of any budget cuts on its Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), a popular academic support program.

When asked by City Council higher education chair Eric Dinowitz whether they anticipate having to cut back on the program amid the state budget not being passed yet and the city’s latest savings program, Christine Brongniart — university executive director of ASAP and Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE), another academic support program — said they aim to keep in mind ways to maximize efficiencies, noting they try to avoid reducing student supports, financial resources and financial supports the program offers.

“There’s a way to make slight modifications to realize some savings,” Brongniart said during a City Council hearing on Thursday. “There’s other personnel choices we can make in terms of pulling back say on our part-time staffing allocation. So I think we have prepared some scenarios where we could modify our operational budget in the event of a budget cut.”

Founded in 2007 with support from the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity, ASAP aims to graduate at least 50 percent of associate degree-seeking students within three years. To date, the program has served more than 88,000 students and has an average three-year graduation rate of 53 percent versus 25 percent for similar students who are not in ASAP.

Alicia Maria Alvero, a vice chancellor in CUNY’s Office of Academic Affairs, said: “We are planning for the enrollment of 25,000 students and actively recruiting under the assumption that we would receive full funding but well aware that if there was a cut, some services might have to change. But we are cautiously optimistic that won’t be the case.” — Madina Touré

— Onondaga Lake’s controversial bicycle path is not going to be reopened this spring. (Syracuse.com)

— Fifty chickens have been stolen from a farm in Niagara County. (Buffalo News)

— It’s online, the list of free events planned for this summer at Times Square. (WNYC)

— Via Times Union: Arts Society of Kingston pulls the plug on free-food fridge.