8 The Queens Courier • march 27, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com politics TAKING THEIR TEMP: Queens reacts to paid sick leave BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA ctumola@queenscourier.com @CristabelleT Mayor Bill de Blasio signed his first piece of legislation on March 20, extending the right to paid sick leave to more New Yorkers. BY MELISA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com/@MelissaCourier The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will double its sound monitors and create an office to address soaring noise complaints, under a string of new orders announced by the governor Monday. “Airport noise is rightly an important concern for residents of Queens, the Bronx and Nassau County,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said. “We will listen to local residents and ensure their input is used to make both JFK and LaGuardia airports better neighbors.” Gripes have been pouring in since the Federal Aviation Administration approved a new flight pattern in 2012 that brought on a barrage of lowflying planes over parts of northeast Queens. “There have been days I felt so hopeless,” said Susan Carroll, of Flushing. “I get the takeoff. I get the landing. Flushing never gets a break from the airplane noise. We never get any peace.” Carroll said she lodges so many complaints Rob Bennett for the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio with the Port Authority’s hotline — at least one a day, since last summer — operators mistake her for an aviation expert. “I actually cried tears of joy when I heard the news,” she said. “This is tremendous for all of us.” Within the next few months, the Port Authority will implement a series of new measures that include monitoring flight tracks online, establishing regular roundtables with elected and federal officials and conducting extensive noise studies. More portable noise monitors will be placed in communities currently without one, the governor said. And the new noise office’s sevenmember staff will collect and review data while responding to community complaints. “We are committed to working with all communities we operate in to address their concerns, while bringing JFK and LaGuardia airports into the 21st Century and maintaining the viability of our airports as major economic engines for the metropolitan region,” Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye said. Jackson Heights coffee bar owner Afzal Hossain doesn’t like the city’s new paid sick leave law, but he believes we should all follow the law, no matter the burden. His business, Espresso 77, is now required to provide paid sick leave to employees under the city’s newly enacted law, which affects businesses with five or more employees, expanding previous legislation that applied to businesses with 15 or more workers. “I know it’s going to be hard for us, but I understand if it’s the law, we have to follow it,” Hossain said. Although he’s willing to comply, he isn’t happy about it. Business owners like him could be financially hurt under it, Hossain said. Most of Hossain’s employees are part-time and he believes the law should apply to individuals working at least 40 hours a week. Under the legislation, workers earn sick time for every 30 hours worked, according to legal advocacy group A Better Balance. Part-time workers will earn paid sick time based on hours worked. Councilman Paul Vallone, a partner at his family’s Astoria law firm and member of the City Council’s Committee on Small Business, voted against the bill when the Council passed it on Feb. 26. “The continued cries of our small businesses for more support and reduction in the already exhausting fines and regulations that burden them must be heard,” he said in a testimony before the Council. Some Queens businesses see paid sick leave as a benefit and have already been offering it to employees. “Paid sick leave is something that we felt was the right thing to do,” said Julio Isidor, office manager of Clinica Dental Latina, located in Corona. The business, which also has a Howard Beach office, Cosmetic Dental Image, has been offering its employees two annual paid sick days for over a year. As a dental office it’s important that its employees don’t come to work ill and spread their sickness to the patients, Isidor said. CUOMO ANNOUNCES STRING OF MEASURES TO ADDRESS PLANE NOISE POLS: STEM THE TIDE OF HIKES BY MELISA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com/@MelissaCourier City lawmakers want the mayor to stop surging water rates from running residents dry. “I’m urging the mayor to honor his commitment to eliminate these hidden taxes and not charge residents for a cost greater than what the system’s infrastructure requires,” Councilman Rory Lancman said. Rates have gone up 78 percent since 2005 to prop up the city’s general fund, Lancman said. The increases weigh heavy on middle class homeowners like Yolanda Delacruz-Gallagher, who sits on the board of Fresh Meadows Homeowners Civic Association. “Years ago, you paid $30 to $50,” she said. “Now, you have to watch every drop that comes from the faucet.” Councilmen Mark Weprin, Paul Vallone and Lancman have penned a letter to hold Mayor Bill de Blasio’s feet to the fire, calling on him to keep a campaign pledge he made last year to put an end to the surges. “We need the mayor to stop this back door tax once and for all,” Weprin said.
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