Guest Contributor

Eric Gioia

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.