Thread by @macfathom

"I know a lot of people are disappointed," @NYCSpeakerCoJo says now of the NYPD budget cuts, which he says he won't pretend add up to $1B, "I tried really hard." council.nyc.gov/livestream/#pr…

Johnson says his "north star" in negotiating the police budget has been listening to African-American council members.

@NYCSpeakerCoJo says he expects a lot of no votes from people who wanted to cut more from NYPD budget, but that he still expects it will pass when it's voted on tonight.

Johnson wanted to cut all four NYPD academy classes this year, he says, but de Blasio and other council members didn't. They settled on eliminating two classes.

"Let's have all the people who are now calling themselves activists" who have been calling their council members for the first time step it up, move beyond hashtags, and actually engage with their communities and join their community boards, says @cmlauriecumbo

Council members lives have been threatened and their family members have been called, @cmlauriecumbo says, but they have persevered in producing a budget.

"There were a lot of opposing views inside the council, even inside the budget negotiating team," @NYCSpeakerCoJo reiterates. "I understand people are going to be disappointed, but we did our best, we really did."

Will there be the customary budget handshake between himself and the mayor? @NYCSpeakerCoJo is asked. "He had his press conference, we're having our press conference," he says. "There are a lot of things I'm not happy about."

Asked about #FairFares, @NYCSpeakerCoJo says it isn't being cut in the sense that fewer people will have access to it -- rather, its usage is being reestimated in light of diminished subway use. He thinks de Blasio's favored ferry subsidies should have been cut. They were not.

What's next for re-imagining the NYPD? @katie_honan asks. "We want to have a hearing on school safety," @NYCSpeakerCoJo says. Also look at @nypdtrafficsqu1 other squads. "This is the beginning and not the end."

Answering the same question, @cmlauriecumbo talks about using community spaces to host police retrainings, and reexamining when police carry weapons. "We can't be so narrow on the dollar amount," she says.

There have to be changes at the state and federal level as well, @NYCSpeakerCoJo adds, including legislation to make it easier to discipline and fire officers.

Circling back, @NYCSpeakerCoJo corrects himself: Ferry subsidies have been cut, he says, to the tune of $10 million. He wanted more.

Is it a contradiction to say police cuts should have gone further but you support your colleagues of color on the council? @JeffCMays asks. "As speaker I have to synthesize and find consensus," Johnson says. Mays: Then how does your personal commitment translate into policy?

Interesting dynamic emerging here, where @NYCSpeakerCoJo holds on to being the guy who wanted more, and puts the blame for not getting more both on the Mayor and on African-American council members.

"These are individuals who have never been seen before, been active before," @cmlauriecumbo says, circling back to her critique of the activists who she calls gentrifiers. "This is not being led by the black community or black voices. It's really unfortunate. It's disrespectful."

"If you really cared about this, we'd see you at NYCHA, at homeless shelters," @cmlauriecumbo says. "Work under the existing leadership of the communities that are already there." The development of this movement feels like colonization, she says.

Council members @Dromm25 and @Vanessalgibson chime in to say that the phone calls they have been getting on their private cell phone numbers have been entirely inappropriate and crossed a line.

City Journal writer @SethBarronNYC challenges @NYCSpeakerCoJo about why he's "apologizing" to police abolitionists when they're a tiny minority and working people like the police. "I'm not an abolitionist," Johnson says.

Answering the same question, @Vanessalgibson says residents in her district want more police in the neighborhood to respond to calls, but also want more jobs and services.

Nobody really wanted the increase in police headcount the council voted through in 2015, @cmlauriecumbo says, but it was part of the budget the mayor and the speaker negotiated, "and we accepted it begrudgingly" because there were other worthy programs funded in that budget.

This budget was a test for you as a leader, @joeanuta tells Johnson. How do you feel about it? "I'm proud of the progress we've made on the PD stuff" Johnson says, and of the restorations made to threatened cuts to important programs, but "to be honest, I'm really exhausted."

"If we didn't do a negotiated budget, which we were willing to do, money would have been impounded," threatening critical program funding, @NYCSpeakerCoJo says.

When can City Council save money by firing cops with bad histories, @soniamoghe asks @NYCSpeakerCoJo. State law prevents Council from doing that, he answers. "We need those changes."

This budget looks like it zeroes out spending for the city plans to close Rikers, @samarkhurshid says, and asks Johnson what's going on there. "I don't have the facts now to answer that," Johnson says.

And with that, the press conference ends.