Mayoral hopefuls speak at DC 37 Mayoral Forum

On Thursday, May 19, District Council 37 held a "Mayoral Forum" at its downtown Manhattan headquarters. At the event, more than 700 of DC 37 members - who make up the city's largest public employee union - had an opportunity to hear New York City mayoral candidates speak to their issues.

Speaking at the forum were: Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City; Fernando Ferrer, former Bronx Borough President; C. Virginia Fields, Manhattan Borough President; A. Gifford Miller, Speaker of the City Council; Tom Ognibene, former Republican leader of the City Council; and Steve Shaw, Republican investment banker.

Our members are very interested and will be very active in this election because they will be electing their boss for the next four years," said DC 37 Executive Lillian Roberts. "This forum provides a significant opportunity for DC 37 members to evaluate the NYC mayoral candidates. Our members not only make this city work, but an overwhelming majority of them live and vote in the five boroughs."

DC 37's endorsement process is as follows: In coming weeks, the DC 37 Screening Committee will officially review the mayoral candidates and recommend an endorsement to the DC 37 Executive Board. Once the DC 37 Executive Board discusses and approves the Screening Committee's proposed endorsement, the recommendation then goes to the DC 37 Delegate Assembly for final approval.

District Council 37 represents 121,000 city employees and 50,000 retirees.