The pomp and pageantry that usually accompanies a ceremony like an inaugural was muted and replaced with an air of dignified speechifying on Sunday as four statewide officeholders took their oaths of office at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany before a crowd of fewer than 2,000 onlookers. The ceremony was live-streamed, which may have resulted in a less-than-capacity turnout.
The two-hour ceremony seemed mechanical and bureaucratic as the four statewide officeholders took their ceremonial oaths of office.
After the invocations from three members of the clergy from different faiths, the presentation of the colors by the New York National Guard, the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat, administered the oath of office to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, 68, a Democrat from Great Neck, Nassau County.
DiNapoli is beginning his fifth term, with 16 years as the state’s fiscal watchdog. He is the second-longest tenured person in that position, only surpassed by Arthur Levitt, who served for 23 years – six terms, from 1955 to 1978.
“We haven’t beat Arthur Levitt’s record yet but who knows,” DiNapoli quipped during his six-minute opening remarks.
“We continue to live through a time of unprecedented challenge, upheaval and economic uncertainty. We New Yorkers are resilient. We confront daunting challenges with an unending reservoir of generosity, grit and grace. We welcome the year 2023 with perseverance as we continue on the path of recovery,” DiNapoli concluded.
As comptroller, DiNapoli is the sole trustee of the $233.2 billion pension fund. As of the end of September 2022, the second quarter of the state’s fiscal year, the pension fund showed a loss of 3.85 percent from the previous quarter.
“Even through a difficult investment environment, New York’s pension fund is among the strongest, best-funded retirement systems in the nation, and as trustee of the fund my commitment is to keep it that way to protect our defined benefit pensions.”
After a brief musical interlude by the Albany-based Metropolitan Music Ministry, United States Senator Charles Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader in Congress, administered the oath of office to Attorney General Letitia James, 64, a resident of the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Before administering the oath to James, Schumer, 72, acknowledged he will be sworn into office during a Washington ceremony when he will officially become the first U.S. Senator from New York serving five terms in the upper house. Schumer defeated incumbent Alfonse D’Amato in 1998, taking office in 1999. Schumer has two grown daughters, Jessica and Alison. He and his wife Iris Weinshall reside in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn.
“In the Senate, we just finished the most productive legislative session in decades that benefited all Americans and in particular we made sure it benefited New York. It’s good to have the majority leader from New York,” Schumer quipped as he began to run down a long list of accomplishments during his tenure as Senate leader. “That’s what we’re able to accomplish in Albany and in Washington when we fight unapologetically for our values. Nobody embodies that fighting spirit more than our attorney general, blazing a trail for progressive prosecutors across the nation. I know I’m not alone when I say I can’t wait to see what Tish is going to accomplish over the next four years given how much she has done already. Tish was made for this moment. She worked her way up the ladder, she earned it.”
During her 13-minutes of remarks, James, who is beginning her second term as the state’s legal eagle, began by commenting that the word “history” should be changed to “herstory” in honor of Governor Kathy Hochul becoming the first female chief executive in New York.
My office has “secured more than $7.5 billion for New York from those who tried to take advantage of our residents and to skirt our laws. That includes more than $2.5 billion from the companies responsible for the scourge of the opioid crisis,” James touted as she crowed about various positive impacts her office has had during her first term. “That money has already started flowing to communities for treatment, prevention and education. We stood up to big tech and predatory landlords, gun traffickers, and rooted out corruption. We took down dangerous drug and drug trafficking rings. We removed more than 4,000 guns off the streets of New York state. We cracked down on companies illegally selling ghost guns. We protected access to reproductive health care because, ladies, it’s our bodies and our choice.”
After James finished, eight-year-old Harlem resident Kayden Hern, given the title of Poet Laureate of the 2023 Inaugural ceremonies, recited a two-minute poem he wrote, “In My Mind.” The poem has received more than 700,000 views on YouTube.
Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres then administered the oath of office to Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado. The Schenectady-born Delgado, 45, who now lives in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, began his 13-minute remarks by saying, “I’m grateful.” He acknowledged his Cape Verdean and Latino roots and touted “a lot of history is being made today.”
Then Delgado, a one-time rapper, became philosophical.
“What does it mean to make history if it doesn’t lead to real change in the present? Change doesn’t happen unless you get things done. That happens when you foster cooperation rather than conflict,” Delgado declared. “Change happens when you work together. All of us. I believe that it is this day-to-day practical work born to a commitment to excellence, responsiveness and effectiveness that in fact leads to a world of possibilities. Another way to put it is, ‘What good is the dream of what’s possible if you’re not willing to do the work.’”
Delgado also spoke about his upcoming role as chairman of the newly-established Hate and Bias Prevention unit within the state’s Division of Human Rights.
“The unit is charged with leading public education and outreach efforts to promote acceptance, inclusion, tolerance and understanding of diversity,” Delgado said. “We cannot allow ignorance, fear and hatred to damage the enormous amount of work we’ve done to move our state forward. The partnerships we are building within communities across the state will ensure that what we know today to be true will prevail, which is that love always prevails over hate. This is my commitment.”
Hazel Dukes, 91, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, administered the oath of office to Governor Kathy Hochul. Dukes, a Harlem icon, recommended scandal-scarred state Senator Brian Benjamin, of Harlem, to be Hochul’s first running mate in 2021. Benjamin was forced to step down after serving for seven months as Hochul’s number two before Delgado, a former congressman, stepped into the picture.
In her remarks, Hochul combined prose with policy, although she said, “I won’t go into policy today.”
“You heard of the man in the arena. There is now a woman in the arena,” Hochul said. “I didn’t come here to make history. I came here to make a difference. And to pursue worthy causes and pursue them together.
“As I approach the next four years with the energy and the sense of purpose and optimism, I know I am not alone. I am joined in that arena with others who will fight the good fights and the worthy pursuits that [Teddy] Roosevelt spoke of. Let us use these coming years to truly make a difference for each other and to make this state stronger than it has ever been in our glorious history,” Hochul concluded.
Then Hochul started to talk about the issues.
“Right now, there’s some fights we just have to take on. The affordability crisis in housing and energy. It’s making life just too damn hard for New Yorkers. The gun violence epidemic, my gosh. The loss of lives goes on and on. The rise in hate crimes. What happened here? Especially antisemitism, Asian hate, anti-LGBTQ hate and the systemic racism that still persists to this day. Those are the fights we are called to take on. We must,” Hochul said.
“We’re still dealing with the lingering effects of the pandemic that disrupted every aspect of our lives. The loss of learning for our children, the loss of jobs for our workers, the tear in the social fabric that led to mental health challenges and increases in crime. We’re still reeling from all this. While we’re doing it, we still have to fight back against the Supreme Court’s hostile assault on basic rights such as a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. We are in this fight. We’re in this fight to the end.”
Hochul then veered back to the prose she began with in her remarks.
“Whether we took the torch that was passed to us from those trailblazers and made it burn even brighter before we passed it off to the next generation, they’ll ask whether we advanced the causes of social justice and the progressive values that have set us apart from all the rest. Standing before you, I know the answer is yes because obstacles don’t define us. Rather, it is the unparalleled courage and character that defines us as a people. My confidence in the future is steeped in our glorious past. In the face of adversity, we always persist, we persevere, we prevail.
“This day belongs to little girls and to young women who will grow up knowing that from this day forward, there are no barriers they can’t overcome. The next four years our sole mission will be to lift up every New Yorker and make a difference in their lives, so their tomorrows will be better than their yesterdays,” Hochul concluded.
In attendance were Kew Gardens Hills resident and Democratic District Leader Shimi Pelman, CEO of Union Plaza Nursing Home in Flushing and president of Tomchei Shabbos of Queens; the head of the New York Board of Rabbis, Joseph Potasnik; state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs; David Greenfield, CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty; Chestnut Ridge, Rockland County, Village Trustee Chaim Rose; Izzy Spitzer, mayor of New Square, Rockland County; Rabbi Moishe Indig, the head of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Williamsburg, Brooklyn; and a dozen other representing ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Orange County and throughout downstate New York.
Hochul’s State of the State message to a joint legislative session will take place on Tuesday, January 10, in the Assembly Chamber.
