On the morning of Friday, May 18 over 200 people turned out to hear London 
Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron and distinguished panelists and guests discuss the most
hotly debated part of Mayor Bloomberg's recently revealed plan for a greener New 
York - an $8 congestion fee for driving into Manhattan's Central Business district 
during peak hours.  
 
As Deputy Mayor, Nicky Gavron plays a key role in London government. She has 
responsibility for the environment, strategic planning and children and young 
people. She led for the Mayor in preparing the London Plan. In particular, she 
promoted sustainable design and construction. Nicky is now leading for the Mayor 
on climate change, including implementation of the London Climate Change Action 
Plan and the establishment of the C40—large cities climate leadership group. 
Nicky is an elected member of the London Assembly and the only Deputy Mayor of 
London. As Chair of the London Planning Advisory Committee in the 1990s, Nicky 
oversaw initial research into the proposal for a Congestion Charge in London. 
 
NICKY GAVRON
Deputy Mayor, London
   
Introduced by
KATHRYN WYLDE
President and CEO
Partnership for New York City
  
A panel discussion on what New York City can learn from London's congestion 
pricing will feature:
 
ED OTT  
Executive Director, Central Labor Council 
 
HON. ERIC GIOIA
Member, New York City Council 
 
HON. JOHN C. LIU
Chair, New York City Council Transportation Committee  
 
Moderated by
ANDREA BATISTA SCHLESINGER
Executive Director, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy 
 
FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007  8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Kimmel Center at New York University
Rosenthal Pavilion
60 Washington Square South, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10012
 
Space is limited. RSVP and pre-registration are required. Admission is free.
Please RSVP by e-mail to: dmi@drummajorinstitute.org
 
Light breakfast will be served.

Nicky Gavron, Deputy Mayor of London, plays a key role in London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s administration. She is the Mayor's strategic planning adviser and leads in the development and implementation of the mayor’s environmental policies, including the establishment of a Climate Change Agency for the capital, focusing primarily on CO2 emissions and energy policy. She is an observer on the Transport for London Board and the Mayor’s nominee on the Inter-regional Forum. She is also a board member of the London Development Agency.

Nicky Gavron also leads on the agenda for women in London, as well as on children and family policies, leading on London’s first strategy for children and young people. She contributes at a senior level to the Mayor’s work with the London boroughs.

She has been responsible for shaping the London Plan which sets out the long-term direction of London, and was Deputy Mayor of London for the first three years of the Greater London Authority’s existence. From 2000 to 2004 she represented Enfield and Haringey on the Greater London Assembly and was a Haringey Councillor for 16 years representing the Archway Ward.

Before being elected to the GLA Assembly, Deputy Mayor Gavorn had a decade’s experience of strategic policy for London and the South East and chaired the London Planning Advisory Committee and Chair from 1994-2000. In this role she commissioned much of the research and formulated the policies which underpin the GLA’s work today (e.g. the congestion charge, affordable housing and the environment).

Deputy Mayor Gavron has a long track record of working at local, regional and national level stimulating initiatives to develop sustainable communities within cities. She is a member of the Government’s UK Sustainable Development Commission. She was formerly a member of the Commission for Integrated Transport from 2000 to June 2002 advising the Government on transport. She was an adviser to the Secretary of State’s Urban Task Force chaired by Lord Rogers. Her work for the Local Government Association included serving as the first Chair of its Planning Committee (1997-1999) leading its work on reforming local planning and chairing of the National Planning Forum.

In 2001 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from London Guildhall University for her work in London. 

Ed Ott is the Executive Director of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, the largest such central labor body in the U.S. representing over one million working men and women.

Ed began his union career 37 years ago when he became active in the historic drive by 1199 Hospital Workers Union to organize New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He went on to become an 1199 union organizer, and to hold leadership positions in the Public Employees Federation, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, and he served as political director of Communications Workers Local 1180.

Prior to his appointment as Executive Director, Ed served as the Central labor Council’s Public Policy and Worker Education Director, joining the organization in 1996.  In this position, he was responsible for directing and establishing the political and legislative agenda for the labor council and for coordinating citywide political and electoral labor initiatives. In addition, Ed has continued to work closely with the Consortium for Worker Education in support of labor workforce development programs. These programs are designed to prepare and train hundreds of thousands of workers for jobs in today’s turbulent economy.

Ed Ott is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He received the “Man of the Year” award from the Mt. Sinai Occupational Health Center for his efforts immediately following 911. He is also a founder and editorial board member of the New Labor Forum, a journal dedicated to labor issues.  It is the official publication of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Labor, Community and Policy Studies, City University of New York.

Finally, Ed is a Board member of New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, the New York Industrial Retention Network, and a founder and board member of Urban Agenda, the policy and research arm of the NYC Central Labor Council.  Most recently, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Ed to the Mayor’s Advisory Board on Sustainability, in recognition of Ed’s interest and work with the Apollo Alliance and the environmental justice movement.

Ed is married and the father of two sons.  

Eric Gioia brings to the New York City Council a wealth of experience at all levels of government. He has distinguished himself as a tireless worker and a tenacious advocate for all New Yorkers.

A native of Woodside, Queens and a product of local public schools P.S. 11 and I.S. 125, as well as St. Francis Prep. High School, Gioia worked his way through NYU and Georgetown Law School working nights as a janitor, doorman, and elevator operator. He served in the Clinton White House and practiced law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.

As Chair of the City Council's Committee on Oversight and Investigations, Gioia has exposed inefficiency, waste and mismanagement, and worked to make government cost less and work better. His investigations have focused attention on persistent hunger in New York City and helped cut the bureaucratic red tape keeping hungry children and families from receiving food stamps. He has uncovered deplorable living conditions for homeless New Yorkers with AIDS, excessive wait times for mammogram screenings and the limited availability of emergency contraception for victims of sexual assault. His investigations have discovered defective bulletproof vests sold to the NYPD and exposed the unlawful charging of sales tax on clothing. Gioia's hard-hitting hearings have shined light on egregious worker safety violations and have resulted in a massive whistleblower education program for City workers and more diverse hiring practices for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Called "energetic" by The New York Times, Gioia visits every public school in his district each year, and each year gives every graduating elementary school student a real, hardcover dictionary. With innovation and hard work, Gioia has made education his top priority, securing $4 million for computers and technology in his district's schools to ensure that each school is wired for the Internet and prepared for the 21st Century. Gioia has worked to increase access to higher education by supporting free college counseling and SAT preparation, and he successfully expanded extracurricular opportunities by founding a youth basketball league and the first ever youth baseball league in Queensbridge, New York's largest public housing development.

Councilmember Gioia is a prolific lawmaker. He wrote and passed the Young Adult Voter Registration Act, a law that will introduce thousands of New Yorkers to the rites of citizenship by providing a voter registration form to every graduating high school senior. Over the next decade, his legislation will register an entire generation of New Yorkers. Gioia has also written legislation that would drive down the high cost of prescription drugs by creating an easy-to-use website to notify seniors and other consumers of the lowest prices for needed medications.

Using the findings of his investigations, Gioia worked with his colleagues to pass laws ensuring the wide availability of emergency contraception to all women in New York. He wrote a bill to strengthen the Tax Payer Bill of Rights, which forces tax preparers to provide important information to their clients, and he has introduced legislation to make it easier to collect child support from deadbeat parents. He has authored clean beach legislation to give the public better information about sanitary and health conditions on the City's beaches.

In addition to chairing Oversight and Investigations, Councilmember Gioia has served on the Finance Committee, the Land Use Committee and the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, as well as the Committees on Economic Development, Cultural Affairs & Libraries, Fire & Criminal Justice Services, Standards & Ethics, Waterfronts and Civil Service & Labor. Councilmember Gioia also serves (ex officio) on the boards of the Museum of the Moving Image, the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center and City Year.

Councilmember Gioia was reelected in 2005 to represent Long Island City, Woodside, Sunnyside, Astoria and Maspeth. He and his wife Lisa Hernandez Gioia were married in October 2004 and live in Queens with their newborn daughter Amelia Hernandez Gioia.