On Thursday, June 28th, Borough President James Oddo and Council Member Steven Matteo will partner with OATH Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law Judge, Fidel F. Del Valle, to bring the first-ever Staten Island Neighborhood Pop-Up Court to the District of Council Member Matteo.  The event will take place at the Staten Island JCC, located at 1466 Manor Road, Staten Island, NY 10314. 
 
Neighborhood Pop-Up Courts is a brand new initiative offered by the NYC Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), which is the City’s independent administrative law court and where all City agencies file their regulatory and enforcement summonses for hearings.
 
“This pop-up court will make it easier for Staten Islanders to fight summonses in a location that is convenient for them,” said BP Oddo. “Thank you to OATH for working with my office and Council Member Matteo to bring the pop-up court concept to the Mid-Island. I hope all Staten Islanders who are eligible take advantage of this unique opportunity.”
 
“As the City’s central independent administrative law court, OATH’s top priority is to make it as easy as possible for those who have been issued summonses from City enforcement agencies to have their day in court,” said OATH Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law Judge, Fidel F. Del Valle. “Pop-Up Courts is just the latest innovative program OATH has employed and joins other established programs such as our Hearings Online, Video Hearings, Hearings by Phone, and Hearings by Mail, all of which aim to make fighting a summons from a City agency as convenient and time-efficient as possible for New York City residents and small businesses.” 
 
“For Staten Islanders, trying to get to the OATH court room in Lower Manhattan to contest a summons, especially during work hours, is anywhere from extremely difficult to impossible. That is why we advocated for OATH to hold a neighborhood “pop-up” this month, to make it easier and more convenient for Islanders to appear at a hearing and to give our constituents a better chance to get a fair shake. I urge any resident or business owner with Sanitation or Health Department summonses with upcoming hearing dates to take advantage of this opportunity and attend this event on June 28,” said Council Member Matteo.
 
Through this brand new initiative, OATH will be traveling to neighborhoods across the five boroughs with Hearing Officers in order to conduct hearings directly in the community at Community Boards, libraries, offices of elected officials and other civic organizations in an effort to increase response rates to City-issued summonses and to make it more convenient for people to access justice at the City’s administrative law court.  There are various negative consequences that can occur if a summons is not responded to in the manner required; among them is that if a summons is not responded to on or before the hearing date then a higher penalty is typically imposed.  This is due to the fact that all City enforcement and regulatory agencies set their penalties in law and most agencies make the penalty amounts higher for summonses that default or are not responded to in the correct, timely way.
 
OATH’s Neighborhood Pop-Up Court initiative involves a case-specific, mail marketing outreach campaign that targets recipients of summonses issued by the Department of Sanitation and certain summonses issued by the Health Department that have upcoming hearings dates and that have not already been paid.  These types of cases do not require that the issuing agency or inspector be present at the hearing, so respondents are able to meet one-on-one with the OATH Hearing Officer and tell him or her why they believe that the summons should be dismissed.  After the hearing, the decision will be mailed within 10 days to both the summons-issuing agency and the person who received the summons. 
 
OATH’s Public Affairs and Communications Office is estimating that more than 300 letters will be sent out to recipients of summonses that are eligible to have their case heard at the upcoming Pop-Up Court on Staten Island on June 28, 2018. In addition to alerting respondents that their case is eligible to be heard at the Pop-Up Court, the letter also informs the recipient of their right to fight the summons remotely online, by phone, by webcam or by mail if they choose not to attend the Pop-Up Court to have their hearing in person.  Of course, recipients of summonses can also go to the Staten Island OATH Hearing Office located at 350 St. Marks Place on the North Shore of the Island on the day of their scheduled hearing should they want to contest the summons in person there. 
 
OATH is the independent administrative law court where nearly all City enforcement agencies file their summonses for hearings.  The agencies that file summonses at OATH for hearings include the Departments of Sanitation, Buildings, Health, Parks, Environmental Protection, Consumer Affairs, FDNY and NYPD, among many others.  Last year, OATH received approximately 850,000 summonses from the City’s various enforcement agencies and during that time 44% of summonses that were fought at OATH hearings were dismissed by OATH Hearing Officers. 

​On Monday, June 18th, BP Oddo joined with staff at Staten Island University Hospital to cut the ribbon on the new cardiac rehab facility at the hospital’s South site. Cardiac rehab is a medically supervised program consisting of exercise training. It is recommended for patients who have had a heart attack, bypass surgery, heart failure, and other cardiovascular disease. SIUH’s cardiac rehab will also include educational programming, psychological support, smoking cessation, pulmonary rehab, and other services.
 
There has been no cardiac rehab facility on Staten Island for several years, forcing recovering heart patients to go to other boroughs or New Jersey for this important service. The initial request to open a cardiac rehab on Staten Island came out of one of BP Oddo’s Heart Health Roundtables in 2016. BP Oddo then worked with those in the health and wellness community and allocated taxpayer funds to turn this idea into a reality.
 
BP Oddo said, "I'm very grateful for this. Staten Islanders should have this. If we can build on this, once it's successful, we are committed to doing that."
 
Richmond University Medical Center will also be cutting the ribbon on their own cardiac rehab in the near future.

​On Wednesday, June 13th, Borough President Oddo joined with members of the NYPD to congratulate the 7th grade students who participated in the "Too Good For Drugs" program at I.S. 34 and Our Lady Help of Christians School. The “Too Good For Drugs” curriculum is co-taught in the classroom by a police officer and a teacher. The program, which is in its fourth year, takes place in 5th, 7th and 9th grade classes in public and parochial schools across the borough.
 
This is the first year that “Too Good For Drugs” was taught to all 7th graders. These students had already been part of the program in 5th grade.
 
Officer Hadley, who taught the Too Good For Drugs program at IS 34, told the students, "It's been so great to teach you in 5th and now 7th grade. It's been an honor to watch you grow and learn. We are proud of you for making good decisions."
 
BP Oddo addressed the students about the importance of speaking up if they see a friend or loved one making bad decisions involving drugs and alcohol, "Your voice is the most important one in the mission to help those who are struggling from this epidemic."
 
At the end of the ceremony, students took a pledge to abstain from tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

On Tuesday, June 12th, Borough President James S. Oddo joined with literacy advocates to announce that the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York voted to approve the charter for Bridge Preparatory Charter School. The school will open on Staten Island beginning in the 2019-2020 school year. As a result of the Regents’ approval, Bridge Prep will be the first public school in New York State and one of only a few nationwide, designed to specifically meet the needs of students with dyslexia and other language-based disabilities.
 
The ability to read is not one that comes naturally to anyone and many children and adults have had their lives altered by reading difficulties, which know no class, race, or intelligence level. The schools that children attend make a difference in their reading and academic achievement.   Bridge Prep will offer Staten Island students suffering from dyslexia or other language-based learning disabilities and their families a unique educational choice. Through a needs-based support structure, expanded learning opportunities, and creative educational experiences, the school will provide rigorous instruction based on a balanced, cross-cultural, and multisensory instructional approach to improve academic outcomes for all of its students. In addition to the use of the Orton-Gillingham approach to literacy, the school will have several other unique features, including a daily emphasis on Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Executive Functioning skill development, an emphasis on physical fitness, and specially designed creative learning extensions for student learning. 
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The school will open with 86 seats across grades 1 and 2, and will add a grade and new seats each year until it reaches its initial grade span of 1-5 by the 2022-2023 school year, serving approximately 242 students. A final location for the school in the borough is yet to be finalized and will be determined in the coming months.
 
BP Oddo said, “Our journey in opening Bridge Preparatory Charter School has been a long and consistent effort as we heard from parents, advocates, and students and began to understand the frustration that many of our children were feeling—they were bright and intelligent, but could not seem to learn to read and process as easily as their peers. It has been with these children and families in mind, and with an extremely dedicated team of people who knew we had to connect children to literacy in a manner in which they can learn, that we announce the New York State Board of Regents’ historic decision to approve Bridge Preparatory Charter School for opening in 2019. I am grateful that the Board of Regents has approved the charter and that struggling readers will soon have a dedicated school to help them learn and succeed.”

“The Regents’ decision was a bold and equitable step toward ensuring a better educational experience for so many students who are left behind in the traditional school structure and will provide students and families on Staten Island with a unique and specially designed learning environment, that is truly designed with all students in mind.” said Bridge Prep Founder Tim Castanza. “Providing all students with a caring, supportive and inclusive school community is critical for the success of public education and is embedded in our core. At Bridge Prep, our community can expect an educational experience that builds student resiliency and fosters social and emotional growth, where they all students, families and staff feel valued, safe and respected. So many members of the Staten Island community were instrumental in helping Bridge Prep become a reality and our journey to becoming a school was a result of incredible collaboration between families, community members and local, City and State leaders. While there is a seemingly endless list of people to thank, we are especially grateful for the support and leadership of Borough President Oddo, whose commitment to assuring that the needs and voices of students on Staten Island were heard and met with action, is unrivaled and to Dr. Christine Cea, Staten Island’s representative on the Board of Regents, for her continued advocacy and belief in our mission.”

Beginning in November of 2014, Borough President Oddo began meeting with parents, advocates, and students children to better understand the challenges they face every day. In early 2016, the Borough President and his staff became convinced that the best course forward to help address the needs of this cohort of students would be the creation of a new public charter school, and to that end, the Borough President convened a Planning Team for the school, consisting of literacy experts, advocates, educators and parents. The group began working on the charter application for the school in 2017.

On Saturday, June 9th, BP Oddo once again hosted “Kids Day at the Carousel” in Willowbrook Park, a free event for children and their families. This event featured inflatable attractions, chalk art, crafts, temporary tattoos, photo spots and music.
 
The Staten Island Zoo presented animals from their educational unit, the NYPL hosted story time for the younger children, and Rock-A-Silly band performed. 
 
“It is wonderful to see families out enjoying everything our parks have to offer,” said BP Oddo.
 
Over a thousand people attended the event.