A panel discussion on what New york, and the nation, can learn from San Francisco included: 

HON. CAROLYN MALONEY 
Member, U.S. House of Representatives
Co-sponsor of the Healthy Families Act, a national paid sick leave bill

HON. GALE BREWER 
Member, New York City Council

DAVID R. JONES 
President & CEO, Community Service Society of New York 

Opening Remarks delivered by:



REV. DR. JAMES A. FORBES
Healing of the Nations Foundation

Moderated by
ANDREA BATISTA SCHLESINGER
Executive Director, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy

SARA FLOCKS

Sara is the co-founder and current Board Member of Young Workers United (YWU), a membership organization in San Francisco, California that organizes young and immigrant workers to improve conditions in low-wage service jobs. Under her leadership, YWU won campaigns to raise the city minimum wage, mandate paid sick days for all workers and won hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages for workers. Before YWU, Sara worked at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center where she ran the Young Worker Research Project and Labor Summer, an organizer training program. She began her career in the labor movement as a community organizer for the United Farm Workers. Her publications, co-authored with Stuart Tannock, include “I Know What It’s Like to Struggle: The Working Lives of Young Students in an Urban Community College” and “On the Backs of Young Workers: Taking Stock of the New Supermarket Labor Wars." She is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Time Magazine has called her a “tenacious, resilient legislator.” The New York Sun said “her entire career has been marked by a kind of personal courage.” The Village Voice characterized her as “a tiger in the House on every dollar due New York.” And The New York Times said, “New York's Congressional delegation stands out for their moxie, kind of the way New Yorkers themselves often do. Among the brashest members is Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat of Manhattan.”

New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is a strong voice for New Yorkers, and a national leader with extensive accomplishments on security, financial services, the economy, and women’s issues.

As the co-founder of the House 9/11 Commission Caucus, Maloney helped author and pass legislation to implement all of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations for improving intelligence gathering. And in the wake of the Dubai Ports debacle, she helped craft successful legislation to reform the system for vetting foreign investment in the United States.

As a renowned champion for domestic and international women’s issues, Maloney helped passed legislation to target the demand side of sex trafficking and provide annual mammograms for women on Medicare. Maloney also authored the Debbie Smith bill to process DNA kits, which has been called the most important anti-rape legislation in history. The story of the legislation was made into a movie by Lifetime Television, A Life Interrupted: The Debbie Smith Story, with actress Lynn Adams portraying Congresswoman Maloney.

New York City has no stronger advocate in Congress than Maloney. She has doggedly fought for full federal assistance to help the city rebuild from 9/11, most recently helping secure the very first doses of federal money for the health care needs of those made sick by the toxic air at Ground Zero. She has also delivered significant federal funding for the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access transportation projects, both of which run through her district.

Maloney’s career has been a series of firsts. She is the first woman to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District, the first woman to represent New York City’s 7th Councilmanic district, and the first woman Vice-Chair of the Joint Economic Committee, a House and Senate panel that examines and addresses the nation’s most pressing economic issues. She was also the first woman to give birth while serving on the New York City Council.

In addition to her work on the Joint Economic Committee, Maloney is Chair of the House Financial Services Committee’s Financial Institutions Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the nation’s banking system. As Subcommittee Chair, she has worked to modernize financial services laws and regulations, strengthen consumer protections, and institute vigilant oversight of the safety and soundness of our nation’s banking industry. Maloney is also a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Brewer chairs the Committee on Technology in Government, where she works to make better use of technology to save money, improve City services, and make government more open and accessible to residents, businesses and non-profits. Other committees on which Gale Brewer serves include: Aging; Finance; General Welfare; Higher Education; Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse & Disability Services; Oversight and Investigations, and Waterfronts. In addition, she co-chairs the Manhattan Delegation and sits on the Council's Rules Reform Task Force and the Budget Negotiating Team. Brewer has been instrumental in passing numerous laws, including legislation establishing a citywide Broadband Advisory Committee; a bill protecting domestic workers; two bills aimed at eliminating graffiti and unwanted stickers; and legislation requiring City publications as well as all 311 data to be made available via the Web. She also brokered an historic Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers (ANHD) to pilot a program to conduct roof-to-cellar inspections on buildings known to have multiple serious violations and dated inspections.

Prior to her election, Brewer served as Project Manager for the NYC Nonpofits Project and worked with the Telesis Corporation, a private firm that builds affordable housing. As Deputy Public Advocate for Intergovernmental Affairs (1994-1998), Brewer promoted legislation, wrote policy, and monitored the implementation of the National Voter Registration Act. Her web site, the first in City government, won an award from New York Magazine. As director of the Mayor's Federal Office in New York City (1990-1994), she assisted the Dinkins Administration with its legislative agenda and initiated private funding for a technical assistance program for community-based organizations seeking federal funds. On the West Side she served for over a decade as Chief of Staff to Council Member Ruth Messinger.

Brewer has received numerous awards for her service on over two dozen neighborhood and nonprofit boards as well as her work in the City Council. In 2000, she was cited by the Daily News as "One of 50 New Yorkers to Watch." She has taught urban policy at Barnard, Baruch, Brooklyn, Hunter, and Queens Colleges. Gale has an MPA from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and did her undergraduate work at Columbia University and Bennington College. She is married to Cal Snyder and has raised adopted children.

Mr. Jones has led CSS since 1986.  From 1983 to 1986, he served as Executive Director of the New York City Youth Bureau.  Mr. Jones was Special Advisor to Mayor Koch from 1979 to 1983 with responsibilities in race relations, urban development, immigration reform, and education. 

 A highly respected New York City leader on issues of urban poverty and economic advancement, Mr. Jones was recently appointed to several prominent New York City commissions.  He was Co-Chair of the City Council Commission on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity that made recommendations for the distribution of state funding to city schools.  Mayor Bloomberg recently appointed Mr. Jones to the Task Force on Career and Technical Education Innovation and the Commission for Economic Opportunity, a task force to attack poverty and unemployment.  He was also a member of the Construction Industry Opportunities Commission that addressed inequities in employment opportunities for people of color.  Mr. Jones is Vice Chair of the Advisory Board of New York City’s Independent Budget Office.  He serves on the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Policy Advisory Committee.

Mr. Jones is an active participant in many New York City civic and cultural institutions.  Amongst his board affiliations are the New-York Historical Society and the Scherman Foundation.  Mr. Jones is also Chairman of the Board of the Nation Institute and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a leading philanthropic watchdog organization.

From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Jones was Chairman of the Board of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest African-American managed bank in the nation.  He served for 12 years on the board of trustees of Wesleyan University and is now a Trustee Emeritus.  Mr. Jones also served on the board of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and was Vice Chairman of the Primary Care Development Corporation, which finances health care programs and facilities in medically underserved communities. 

Mr. Jones was a founding member of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and for seven years was President of Black Agency Executives, a group of black leaders of major New York City human service agencies.  For over 10 years he served as a member of the board of directors of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. 

While receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, Mr. Jones interned for the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C.  He received a Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School in 1974, afterwards clerking for Judge Constance Baker Motley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Jones was a recipient of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.  Prior to his nonprofit and public service careers, he specialized in corporate antitrust cases and contract litigation at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community of Brooklyn on April 30, 1948, Mr. Jones is the son of former Assemblyman and Judge Thomas R. Jones.  He is married to Dr. Valerie King, a clinical psychologist.  They have two children.  Mr. Jones is a member of the New York State and Federal Bars.