City Lawmaker's Intern Army Gets Things Done

The to-do list for interns in City Council Member Gale Brewer's Upper West Side office is long: repaint all defaced mailboxes, investigate a housing program, compile a list of every nonprofit in the area, study local public transportation, and wade through an ever-growing pool of complaints from residents in the district, to name a few.

Unlike other council members, who tend to snap up a handful of interns to help out during the summer, Ms. Brewer prefers to amass a small army to tend to her district's needs. This summer more than 30 interns are expected to join her six-person staff.

It's a crazy proposition, Ms. Brewer admits. Space in her two offices — one on Columbus Avenue at 87th Street and the other across the street from City Hall — is limited, and Ms. Brewer doesn't even have her own desk.

During a recent visit to her Upper West Side headquarters, she sat at a folding table in the middle of the room beside two interns working on laptop computers.

"This is my desk," she said, pointing to a bag stuffed with files at her feet. "We have so many people and I do not have a desk." Interns vie for desk space in Ms. Brewer's one-room storefront office, and those who don't find a sturdy surface make their way to the dreary office basement. Last week, a roving high school intern floated in and out of the office, alternating between clearing out the basement for a tenants' group meeting and tending to the stacks of free books Ms. Brewer was giving away out on the sidewalk.

The interns are not paid, but some earn money for their work through independent grants and other funding sources. Some come from local high schools and many are college students. This summer there are interns from Vassar College, Bowdoin College, Cornell University, and Barnard College, among other schools. Some commute as much as 90 minutes each way to get to the office.

One intern, Dominik Kolodziejczyk, is president of the Dartmouth College Republicans. He said he isn't concerned that Ms. Brewer is a Democrat.

"The work itself is largely apolitical," Mr. Kolodziejczyk, who lives on Long Island, said. "It's just really great to get into the New York City Council. It's like working for Congress, but at home."

Like many of the interns who land their internships because their parents are friendly with Ms. Brewer, Anna Edgerly-Moore, 16, ended up in the council member's office after her father, who lives three houses from Ms. Brewer, encouraged her to apply.

The senior at Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts is updating a list of nonprofit organizations in the neighborhood and compiling a list of local block associations for Ms. Brewer.

When the council member darted out to visit the Mickey Mantle School for disabled students earlier this week, Ms. Edgerly-Moore tagged along. A constituent had complained that the air conditioner at the school was noisy, but Ms. Edgerly-Moore said she didn't think it was all that loud. An intern who graduated from Queens College earlier this summer with a bachelor's degree in economics, George Lee, ended up in Ms. Brewer's office after a professor recommended him for the job. He said he never considered interning for a council member closer to his home in Queens.

Ms. Brewer's chief of staff, Bruce Lai, said he interviews nearly every intern who joins the summer staff and is in charge of recruiting the volunteers. He said the interns are treated like full-time staff members and are expected to finish their assigned work on time. He said the office would like to have even more interns, but noted there are "physical limitations." But even these seem to be surmountable.

"She's kind of voracious. She wants to know everything, do everything," Mr. Lai said of Ms. Brewer. "The only way we can even come close to doing what she wants to get done is to have more people."