BetaNYC · Council District 4

Your district,
on the record.

Grounded AI over New York City's own open data. Built by BetaNYC, in the open.

Prepared for Council Member Virginia Maloney and staff. Every figure carries the date it was verified. Six questions, then we want to hear yours.

Opening

"Rather than tell you what this does, I'm going to ask it six questions your office actually gets, and show you what a web search returns for the same question."

⚠️ In 311 queries the district is the string '04', zero-padded. Querying '4' returns zero rows with no error. Districts 1 to 9 only.

⚠️ Her first discretionary budget is FY2027. FY2026 was adopted before she was seated, and querying it by her surname correctly returns nothing. Don't let that read as a tool failure.

Runtime is about 20 minutes. To land in 12, cut Act 5 (calendar) and the digital equity thread. Never cut the profile slide — conceding the easy case is what makes the rest credible — and never cut Act 4, which is the sharpest contrast in the deck.

Each act carries an "Also here" strip naming what else that connector does. Don't read them aloud. They're for the staffer photographing the screen.

What we plugged in

Seven connectors, straight into
the city's own records.

Council legislationBills, hearings, sponsors, votes 21,743 bills

Charter, Code & RulesFull text, by section 22,185 sections

City budgetCouncil discretionary expense designations 156,544 designations · FY2009–FY2027

311Service requests, status, calendar live

The City RecordProcurement and public notices live

NY State legislationBills, laws, members 231,107 bills

Open data catalogAny dataset on the portal SoQL

A web search cannot reach inside a portal's search form. Crawlers see the search box, not the results.
It cannot join four of these in one question.
It cannot hand you a citation you can put in a letter.
It cannot tell you when the answer last changed.

Ninety seconds, then move

This is the "what did you actually build" slide. Do not explain what MCP is. Nobody in a council office needs the plumbing. Name the seven sources, then read the four bullets, then get into the questions.

"Seven pipes into what the city already publishes. The interesting part isn't the list, it's the four things underneath it that no amount of searching gets you."

⚠️ Citywide spending (Checkbook NYC) is not on this slide. It was blocked by bot protection from around 2026-07-16. It is working as of 2026-10-19; re-test before the meeting. If it answers, you can mention it. If not, say it's built and access has been intermittent. During an outage it returns total_records: 0 and an error, so read the error before the count.

⚠️ Don't say "Google" from the podium unless you re-ran it on Google yourself. These were run through a general web search. The point holds either way and the precision costs you nothing.

Start with the easy one

Who is the member?

›

A web search run 2026-10-19

Virginia Maloneywikipedia.org
Biography — Virginia Maloneycouncil.nyc.gov
Inside Government: A Q&A with Council Member Virginia Maloneypoliticsny.com
Committee chair, background, educationassembled from several pages

Honestly? This one it does well. A bio, a background, a committee.

The connector verified 2026-10-19

PersonId 7894 · active · District4@council.nyc.govthe key that joins to everything else
Committee on Economic Development — listed contact, 7 membersindependently confirmed, not taken from the web
Legistar profile, linkablelegistar.council.nyc.gov · PersonDetail 329369
Chair of Economic Development per council.nyc.gov; our field says listed contacttwo sources, each citable

Same facts, plus the ID that joins them to everything that follows.

Also here get_council_member any member list_committees all 73 bodies get_committee roster and volume

Concede this one. It buys you the next five.

Do not oversell the left column here. A web search is genuinely good at "who is this person." It found her committee chair, her background and her education. Say so out loud. Conceding the easy case is what makes the room believe you on the hard ones.

"I'm going to start with the one question a search engine handles well, so you know I'm not selling you something. Now watch what happens when we ask what she's done."

The right column's real content is the first line. PersonId 7894 is the key that joins her to 459 voted matters, 188 FY2027 budget designations and a committee.

⚠️ Say "listed contact," not "Chair." The Legistar field is BodyContactNameId, which for council committees is conventionally the chair but does not literally say so. council.nyc.gov lists her as Chair of Economic Development. Two sources agreeing is good; overstating what our field says is exactly the failure this deck is about.

Act 1 Your district, right now

What are people calling about?

›

A web search run 2026-10-19

Complaints — Brooklyn Community Board 4 — a community board, not your districtnyc.gov/site/brooklyncb4
311 agencycouncil.nyc.gov/data
City Council: "Surprising Number" of 311 Requests Not Addressedcbsnews.com
City launches online map of 311 complaints — 2011dnainfo.com
NYC Council Introduction 478 — a bill, not dataintro.nyc
+ 5 more

Community boards, a 2011 story and a bill. Not one current number.

The connector 311 verified 2026-10-19

Illegal Parking

783

Homeless Person Assistance

444

Vendor Enforcement

321

Noise

315

Encampment

210

Noise - Street/Sidewalk

187

5,418 requests, ranked. The answer, not the door to it.

Also here get_calendar alternate-side parking and collection get_service_request one request by number get_status agency status socrata any dataset on the portal

Act 1

The left column is the whole point here. Every result is a place you could go to look it up yourself, or a story about one. Brooklyn Community Board 4 matched on the "4", and the search summary says the Council's own 311 page shows 2018 figures.

"Ten results, and every one of them is a door. Not one of them walked through it."

Where to linger on the right. Homeless Person Assistance at #2, with Encampment at #5, is a distinctive signature. District 10 uptown has no homelessness category in its top five at all. Same city, same thirty days, completely different constituent pressure.

⚠️ Don't editorialize past the data. This measures what residents called 311 about, which is complaint behavior as much as underlying conditions. Say that out loud if the room starts drawing policy conclusions.

⚠️ These counts are from 2026-10-19 (2026-09-19 to 2026-10-18). Re-run the morning of the meeting, or say the date aloud.

Act 2 Your roll call

One returns pages about you.
The other returns your votes.

›

A web search run 2026-10-19

Carolyn Maloney is running for reelection — a different Maloneygreenpointers.com
Carolyn Maloney, still standing — Congress, not Councilcityandstateny.com
Sean Maloney, public statements — another different Maloneyvotesmart.org
Congressional Record, May 10, 2007gpo.gov
+ 6 more

Ten pages, zero votes, and none of them about her.

The connector verified 2026-10-19

459 matters, each with a file numbermatters introduced 2024-02-28 through 2026-10-08
Res 0551-2026 — Expense budget designationsAffirmative · the resolution behind Act 3
Res 0546-2026 — FY2027 tax levyAffirmative
LU 0112-2026 — East Harlem/El Barrio Article XIAffirmative
Int 0972-2026 — Unincorporated business tax creditAffirmative · intro.nyc/0972-2026

Every one citable. Plus the full 51-member split on any matter.

Also here co_sponsors who she signs on with most get_bill_history every action, in order get_bill_hearings where a bill was heard aggregate_bills counts by sponsor and session

Act 2

Left column. Point at the orange lines. A search for her voting record returns Carolyn Maloney, who served in Congress, Sean Maloney, and pages from the Congressional Record. All rank because the words match.

"Ten results, not one of them a vote, and not one of them about you. It isn't lying to you. It has no idea it missed."

Right column. vote_breakdown("Int 0983-2026") returns the full split: 51 recorded, 42 affirmative, 6 negative, 1 abstain, plus the committee stage. Named negatives, named abstention, named absences.

⚠️ Int 0983-2026 is the elected-official compensation bill. Public record, and she voted Affirmative, but leading with her own pay raise in her own office reads as a gotcha. Drill down on Res 0551-2026 or Int 0972-2026 unless she asks.

⚠️ 536 Affirmative, 2 Absent, no Negative or Abstain. Real, not an artifact: the same sessions show named negatives from other members. Most Council votes are consensus items. Do not characterize it as a voting philosophy.

⚠️ get_voting_record defaults to 50 rows and gives no total. Pass a large limit (1000 returned 538) and check you got fewer than you asked for. Treat "returned exactly N against a limit of N" as truncation. Rows repeat across committee and full council: 538 rows, 459 matters. Dedupe by file_number before saying a count aloud.

Act 3 Your first budget

The headline is public.
The list is not.

›

A web search run 2026-10-19

FY27 Budget Breakdown — totals onlycouncil.nyc.gov/virginia-maloney
FY2027 Funding Opportunities — Phil Wongcouncil.nyc.gov
Budget — Crystal Hudsoncouncil.nyc.gov
Overview of the FY2027 Adopted Budget cccnewyork.org · citywide
FY27 community project funding requests — a member of Congressocasio-cortez.house.gov

Her office's headline totals and other members' pages. Not one organization by name.

The connector verified live 2026-10-19

$1,927,000

FY2027 cleared

166

Cleared
+22 pending, $221,000

$200,000	Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless	NYC Cleanup
$70,000	Department of Sanitation	NYC Cleanup, Council District 4
$40,000	Justice Innovation, Inc.	Community Safety
$35,000	City Parks Foundation	Parks Equity

By name, initiative, agency, and whether it has cleared.

Also here search_council_capital Council-funded capital, by district search_disclosure_awards by EIN, one org across all members compare_capital_to_omb Council list vs OMB list_available_fiscal_years what each year holds

Act 3

Be fair to the left column. A search for what she funded now finds her office's own FY27 budget page. It gives headline totals and no recipients. Then it returns other members' pages and a member of Congress.

"It found your headline number and two of your colleagues. Not one of the organizations you funded."

"Here are the organizations, by name, by initiative and by agency: about $1.9 million cleared so far."

⚠️ Quote the Cleared figure. This is the Council's discretionary funding disclosure, its own award-level list. It is a later snapshot than the adopted budget's Schedule C, so it includes designations made after adoption, each marked Cleared or Pending. Pending rows move; say "discretionary awards," not "Schedule C."

⚠️ Her office's page counts its totals differently, and we have not reconciled the two. Don't quote her page's figures or compare them with ours in the room. If asked, offer to reconcile.

⚠️ council_member matches as a substring, but the tool now names every person matched and splits the totals. Use council_member_id 7894 for exactly her. Query by member, never by district number: the tool has no district filter.

The STPCV Tenants Association's $50,000 Speaker's Initiative award is attributed to the Speaker, not to her. Her own STPCV award is $30,000 (Local).

Act 3 The digital equity thread

$80,000 into digital inclusion,
in a first budget.

$20,000	Fund for the City of New York [AI Training Program]	this is BetaNYC
$20,000	Older Adults Technology Services (OATS)	Older Adults Digital Literacy
$20,000	Simon Wiesenthal Center	Digital Equity Program
$20,000	WNET	Arts Broadcasting

All four under the Digital Inclusion and Literacy Initiative, administered by DYCD. BetaNYC is a project of the Fund for the City of New York, so our awards appear under its name.

Handle this one with care

The strongest version is not leading with "you already fund us." Run the demo straight, let the agent surface the award from the public record alongside the other three, and only then note that one of those lines is us. The tool finding your own funding in the same query that found everyone else's is far more persuasive than saying so up front, and it keeps the meeting about her office's data rather than about an ask.

⚠️ Do NOT characterize how that decision was made. Nothing in the data supports a claim about her office's internal process, and BetaNYC is the grantee of the line in question. Say what the record shows and stop.

The data subtlety, if the room is engaged: FCNY carries dozens of programs under one tax ID (EIN 13-2612524). "Fund for the City of New York" in the recipient column doesn't tell you which program; the [AI Training Program] program name does. Filtering by organization alone would silently merge unrelated grantees. This is exactly what makes a naive spreadsheet analysis wrong.

Act 4 The Charter, Code and Rules

Looking at NYC's Laws

Roughly right is not citable.

›

A web search run 2026-10-19

NYC Council passes tougher limits on sidewalk shedsyahoo.com
NYC sidewalk scaffolding reformsnbcnewyork.com
New Rules Aim to Speed Removal of Sidewalk Shedshabitatmag.com
NYC Sidewalk Shed Rules (2026 Updates) — marketing blogskybriz.com
City Council Takes Aim at Overabundance of Sidewalk Sheds — a firm's blogcoleschotz.com

Nine secondary sources. Two different clocks. Not one is the law.

The connector verified 2026-10-19

§ 28-105.8.1 Duration of permit"Sidewalk shed permits shall be issued for a period of 90 days and may not be renewed until department penalties… are paid."

§ 28-220.1 Penalties$10 / $100 / $200 per linear foot per month by shed age, capped at $6,000. Exception: one- and two-family homes.

The section, the amending law (L.L. 2025/048), and the date it took effect (1/12/2026).

Also here get_section any citation, exact list_titles browse the Code by title get_version what the corpus is current through Rules as well as Charter and Administrative Code

Act 4 — the sharpest contrast in the deck. Don't cut it.

This is the subtle one, and the strongest. Re-run 2026-10-19, the web search says a Council package makes the limit three months, then that a DOB proposal penalizes sheds up "more than 180 days," then that it can't confirm which is in effect. Resist the urge to say it failed. It's roughly right, it's uncitable, and it's unsure in a way that costs you.

"It told you three months, then 180 days, then said it couldn't confirm either. And look where it got them: news stories, a trade magazine, and company blogs. You cannot put any of those in a letter to DOB."

Then the precision point. The web summary says penalties apply to sheds up "more than 180 days." The statute says something different: penalties begin at the second renewal, and only where work is not in progress, tiered by how long the shed has existed. Roughly 180 days is a blog's paraphrase of a rule whose actual test is the work, not the clock.

"Close enough to sound right in a meeting. Wrong enough to lose the argument when the owner's lawyer shows up."

And the exemption. One- and two-family homes are exempt, as are sheds up for new building, enlargement, or demolition. The search mentions it only as an "earlier" provision it can't confirm still applies. The statute is current. It is exactly the detail a constituent letter has to get right.

⚠️ Charter search is keyword matching, not semantic. sidewalk shed returns 34 results at limit 50 (10 at the default), including Rules § 102-07, the DOB rule on shed permit renewals and penalties. noise nighttime construction and heat season residential temperature both return zero (checked 2026-10-19). Rehearse your queries. Improvising a phrasing in the room will demo an empty result set.

⚠️ Always read the legal disclaimer if anyone treats this as advice. It's research material, not legal advice, and the corpus is current through Local Law 2026/147 (enacted 2026-09-12), Rules through 2026-10-04, not necessarily through today.

Act 5 What's in front of the Council

Agendas before the meeting,
not minutes after it.

›

A web search run 2026-10-19

City Council Public Hearing Schedule, week of March 5 — 2018capalino.com
City Council Public Hearing Schedule, week of September 24 — 2018capalino.com
NYC housing calendar, March 10–17 — 2025citylimits.org
+ 6 more old weekly schedules

Hearing schedules from 2018 and 2025. No agenda for this week.

The connector verified 2026-10-19

2026-10-20 Committee on Economic Development agenda finalCommittee Room, City Hall
2026-10-21 Committee on Land Use agenda final250 Broadway, 8th Floor, Hearing Room 3
2026-10-21 Committee on Public Safety deferred250 Broadway, 8th Floor, Hearing Room 2

Body, room, date, and whether the agenda is actually settled.

Also here get_event_bills what's on a given agenda get_upcoming_hearings full agenda text search_events past meetings nyc-record-mcp public hearing notices citywide

Act 5

The honest detail is the third row. Public Safety shows Deferred, not Final. The first row is her own committee. The tool distinguishes a settled agenda from an unsettled one, so you know which meetings you can plan around.

"Two of these you can plan around. The third one it's telling you not to trust yet. That distinction is the difference between a calendar and a guess."

"For any office planning its week, this is the least glamorous and most immediately useful thing here."

⚠️ get_upcoming_hearings is extremely verbose — land use items run to hundreds of block-and-lot references. Use upcoming_events for the overview, as shown, and only drill into a single event's agenda on request.

⚠️ Re-run the morning of the meeting. These are 2026-10-20 and 10-21 events; if you present after those dates the slide is simply wrong. The index can lag 1 to 7 days.

Closing

As your record grows, the
empty answers fill in.

In July, the voting question came back empty. Today it returns every vote you've cast this term. That is what building in the open looks like.

What is the constituent question that takes your office the longest to answer?The product specification
Where do you go now, and what breaks?Usually: email the agency and wait
What would you need to show the member for this to be worth ten minutes of your day?The adoption bar

github.com/BetaNYC/grounding-ai-with-ny-open-data · beta.nyc

Web searches run 2026-10-19 and summarized. Budget verified 2026-10-19 via @betanyc/nyc-budget-mcp v2.0.0 (the Council's discretionary funding disclosure, FY2027 workbook of 2026-09-14). Votes, Charter, calendar, committee and 311 figures verified 2026-10-19. Charter and Administrative Code current through Local Law 2026/147; Rules through 2026-10-04. Legal material is for research purposes only and does not constitute legal advice; verify current text at codelibrary.amlegal.com.

Close, then shut up and listen

"BetaNYC built these connectors and guides in the open. Any office can point its own AI at the real city and state record instead of trusting it to remember."

Write the answers down. Every question they try today, working or not, becomes a test case. The failures are worth more than the successes.

⚠️ Do not recite District 4's boundaries as authoritative. The neighborhood list in district-04.md is inferred from award recipients, not from a districting source.

Backup prompts if one falls flat: alternate-side parking suspensions (311, always returns something) · FY2027 Digital Inclusion awards citywide · what the Charter says about Council oversight powers · NYC legislation on broadband access (returns Int 1122-2024, enacted 2025-11-08).

Your district,on the record.

Seven connectors, straight intothe city's own records.

Who is the member?

A web search run 2026-10-19

The connector verified 2026-10-19

What are people calling about?

A web search run 2026-10-19

The connector 311 verified 2026-10-19

One returns pages about you.The other returns your votes.

A web search run 2026-10-19

The connector verified 2026-10-19

The headline is public.The list is not.

A web search run 2026-10-19

The connector verified live 2026-10-19

$80,000 into digital inclusion,in a first budget.

Looking at NYC's Laws

A web search run 2026-10-19

The connector verified 2026-10-19

Agendas before the meeting,not minutes after it.

A web search run 2026-10-19

The connector verified 2026-10-19

As your record grows, theempty answers fill in.

Your district,
on the record.

Seven connectors, straight into
the city's own records.

One returns pages about you.
The other returns your votes.

The headline is public.
The list is not.

$80,000 into digital inclusion,
in a first budget.

Agendas before the meeting,
not minutes after it.

As your record grows, the
empty answers fill in.