The New York City Council’s Committee on Health held a hearing on Legionnaires disease and cooling-tower oversight after a summer cluster in Central Harlem that sickened 114 people, hospitalized 90 and resulted in seven deaths. Council Member Lynn Shulman, chair of the committee, opened the hearing and framed the discussion around enforcement of existing rules and three introductions before the committee: Intro 166, Intro 434 and Intro 1390.

Shulman said the city must “ramp up oversight, fill any gaps, and save lives,” and pressed the administration to explain lapses that allowed multiple cooling towers tied to the cluster to go uninspected for more than a year.

The hearing featured testimony from Dr. Michelle Morse, acting health commissioner and chief medical officer at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), who described the outbreak timeline and the department’s response. Morse said the cluster was first identified by routine surveillance on July 25; DOHMH sampled more than 40 cooling-tower sites within days and used rapid PCR screening followed by culture confirmation. She said 11 towers were PCR-positive and 12 ultimately produced live Legionella on culture. DOHMH published the list of culture-positive buildings on Aug. 14 and declared the investigation closed on Aug. 29 when case counts declined.

Morse said the agency required affected buildings to remediate within 24 hours and that four of the culture-positive locations were city-owned. She confirmed two genetic matches between tower isolates and patient samples: one at Harlem Hospital and one at a construction site contracted by Skanska USA for the New York City Economic Development Corporation. On the construction-site tower DOHMH found the unit was not registered and had lapses in maintenance; Harlem Hospital’s tower had been inspected in October 2024 and showed no violations prior to the cluster, Morse said.

Council members, the public advocate and community witnesses questioned why DOHMH did not release tower addresses earlier and why inspections and counts of water-ecology staff had fallen. Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and others noted inspection numbers declined from more than 5,000 in 2017 to about 3,000 in 2024, and to roughly 1,000 by mid-2025; committee members repeated testimony that seven of the ten buildings linked to the Harlem cluster had not been inspected in more than a year.

DOHMH officials acknowledged staff shortages and described triage-based inspection prioritization that factors in prior violations, positive tests and neighborhood risk. Deputy Commissioner Corinne Schiff said registration of cooling towers (required by local law) is critical to enable inspections and that a failure to register a new tower prevented timely oversight for at least one matched tower in the Harlem cluster. Morse said DOHMH supports more frequent cooling-tower testing during months when towers operate and welcomed discussion of related legislation.

Three council introductions received statements from sponsors and DOHMH: Intro 166 (council member Farrias) would require building owners to supply shower hoses and provide DOHMH informational materials to tenants within 24 hours of notice of a confirmed Legionnaires case in a building or a nearby building in a shared water system; Intro 434 (council member Sanchez) would require certain buildings to adopt water-safety management programs, strengthen landlord-tenant communication and create penalties for noncompliance; Intro 1390 (council member Shulman) would increase cooling-tower inspection frequency in periods of tower operation and mandate supplemental inspections following heat-related emergencies. DOHMH said it supports more-frequent cooling-tower testing (the change in Intro 1390) but opposed aspects of Intro 434 as drafted, saying the Harlem cluster was caused by cooling towers rather than by internal plumbing and that internal-plumbing–focused regulation requires further technical review.

Community speakers, tenant advocates, union representatives and public-health practitioners urged stronger enforcement, higher fines, expanded DOHMH capacity and faster, clearer communication to residents. Several witnesses said that existing laws were sufficient but not enforced; others urged the committee to strengthen requirements for third-party sampling, chain-of-custody rules and qualified-person definitions so building owners could not self-certify results without independent verification. DOHMH and multiple witnesses recommended monthly Legionella testing during tower-operating months instead of the current 90-day interval.

No vote was taken on any introduction at the hearing; the session served as legislative testimony and administrative oversight. Council members pressed DOHMH for a plan to clear inspection backlogs, hire additional water ecologists and deploy community health workers to improve neighborhood outreach. DOHMH said a posting to hire more water ecologists was active and the agency planned a resource fair at the Central Harlem Health Clinic to provide services and public information.

The hearing also included state-level context from State Senator Cordell Cleare, who urged city action and described complementary state bills she had introduced that would increase testing and reporting requirements and raise penalties.

The committee closed the hearing after public testimony and directed continued follow-up with DOHMH and other agencies on staffing levels, inspection backlogs, registration enforcement for new towers and communications strategies to reach affected residents.

Ending: The committee’s oversight session underscored bipartisan concern about uneven enforcement and capacity at DOHMH and produced agreement on several potential next steps — including more frequent summer testing, hiring more inspectors and better community outreach — while lawmakers and community groups pressed for additional rulemaking or legislation to close identified gaps.