Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection meeting
March 19, 2026, 11:30 AM
The Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection held its FY2027 preliminary budget hearing on the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. The committee took testimony and recorded no votes.
What was discussed
- Committee gavels in for the DCWP preliminary budget hearing Chairperson Harvey Epstein opened the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection's Fiscal 2027 preliminary budget hearing on the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and counsel administered the affirmation to the agency panel.
- DCWP Commissioner presents the agency's budget and recent enforcement Sam Levine, Commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, delivered the agency's testimony, citing recent work including implementation of the Safe Hotels Act and the city's hotel junk-fee rule, and flagging a long list of new responsibilities that will require additional
- What is DCWP's real working headcount, and how many lawyers enforce the law? Pressed by Chairperson Harvey Epstein, Commissioner Sam Levine with Carlos Ortiz and Michael Tiger said DCWP has 484 authorized lines but about 387 active on its own work (58 lines are funded by an intercity grant for DOHMH licensing), and that enforcement rests on roughly 20-25 consumer-protection
- Can DCWP keep up with consumer fraud across the boroughs? Asked by Council Members Chi Ossé and Kamillah Hanks about fraud, deed theft, and borough coverage, Commissioner Sam Levine and Michael Tiger said malicious businesses understate the harm consumers face, that DCWP is a civil agency that refers criminal cases to district attorneys, that it pursues
- Can DCWP meet savings targets while protecting enforcement and licensing? Asked by Finance Chair Linda Lee, Commissioner Sam Levine said DCWP's original Chief Savings Officer became SBS Commissioner and a new one is in place, that the agency is examining every contract while most of its budget is hard-to-cut personnel, that he hopes enforcement and licensing are held
- How does DCWP collect fines, and how much goes uncollected? Asked by Council Member Gale Brewer, Michael Tiger and Carlos Ortiz said DCWP does its own initial collections rather than relying on the Department of Finance, collecting about $16 million last calendar year, and Elizabeth Wagoner cited OLPS figures of $4.5 million collected on 525 complaints, with
- How is DCWP handling hotels, scams targeting seniors, and outreach? Asked by Council Member Gale Brewer, Commissioner Sam Levine said DCWP now licenses hotels and is coordinating with NYC Tourism and hotel industry groups ahead of FIFA visitors, that social-media-driven scams increasingly target seniors (citing reporting that Facebook earns about 10% of its ad
- Is DCWP under a hiring freeze, and how many staff do the new laws require? Asked by Council Members Shaun Abreu, Shekar Krishnan, and Chairperson Harvey Epstein, Commissioner Sam Levine and Carlos Ortiz confirmed DCWP is subject to the 2-for-1 hiring restriction until savings targets are set, and said the Council's recently passed laws require roughly 302 new lines in all
- How long do workers wait for wage cases to be resolved? Asked by Chairperson Harvey Epstein, Elizabeth Wagoner and Commissioner Sam Levine said there is roughly a six-month backlog from a worker's complaint to an assigned investigator, that outreach to affected workers draws response rates of about 10-30% but that everyone identified in a successful case
- How much does DCWP recover for workers and consumers? Asked by Chairperson Harvey Epstein and Council Member Shirley Aldebol, Commissioner Sam Levine and Elizabeth Wagoner said 2025 was DCWP's biggest year for worker-protection restitution at $44.4 million, with notices sent to more than 55,000 workers, and that the agency sets revenue targets
- Is DCWP positioned to pursue cases like the Radiant Solar fraud? Asked by Chairperson Harvey Epstein, Commissioner Sam Levine and Michael Tiger said the Radiant Solar lawsuit affects at least 370 consumers, that just two staff counsel handle it while each also juggles five to ten other cases, and that many similar bad actors go unpursued for lack of resources.
- What is DCWP's role in NYC Kids RISE, financial literacy, and student-loan help? Asked by Chairperson Harvey Epstein, Commissioner Sam Levine and Carlos Ortiz said DCWP is only a roughly $12.7 million pass-through for NYC Kids RISE, which is administered by the Mayor's Office of Equity and has many unclaimed accounts, that its youth financial-literacy program uses 15 educators
- Why is tobacco and e-cigarette enforcement revenue down? Asked by Chairperson Harvey Epstein, Michael Tiger and Commissioner Sam Levine said cross-agency efforts cracked down on a surge of unlicensed smoke shops, that DCWP collected about $2.1 million in 2025 for unlicensed tobacco and e-cigarette activity across more than 4,000 violations, that DCWP has
- Legal-services and worker advocates urge full funding for DCWP Advocates including Rebecca Cook-Mack of the Legal Aid Society, Paul Sonn of the National Employment Law Project, Tito Sinha of TakeRoot Justice, Magdalena Barbosa of Catholic Migration, and Winston Berkman-Breen urged the Council to fully fund DCWP enforcement and to enhance support for the Legal
- Street vendors, delivery and taxi workers, and co-ops testify Mohamed Attia of the Street Vendor Project, Gustavo Ajche of Los Deliveristas Unidos, Bhairavi Desai and Zubin Soleimani of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Nilbia Coyote of NICE, and worker-cooperative advocates testified on implementing the street-vendor licensing expansion, deactivation
- Hearing closed After hearing in-person and remote public testimony, Chairperson Harvey Epstein made a final call for witnesses and closed the hearing with no vote taken.
Agenda
1 item
- T2026-1370 New York City Council Budget and Oversight Hearings on The Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2027, The Preliminary Capital Plan for Fiscal Years 2027-2030 and The Fiscal 2026 Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report 11:30 a.m. Department of Consumer and Worker Protection 12:30 p.m. Public Hearing Held by Committee