NEW YORK CITY-In the past year, New York City has experienced an earthquake, a tropical storm, record amounts of snowfall and torrential downpours. But going forward, the city’s government is better prepared for what Mother Nature throws at them, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn explained at the Building Owners and Managers Association’s annual conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon.

“We have to make decisions about what should be changed or renewed and what needs to evolve,” Quinn said. Part of that response, she explained, depends on the real estate community. “On the legislative side, we don’t have people on our staff who are experts in all of the technical issues of buildings. It would kind of be a waste of taxpayer dollars quite frankly to have all these people on staff, because there’s where entities like BOMA and REBNY and others are so critical to us because you can get us that information.”

Describing the city’s response to the post-Christmas blizzard as “unacceptable,” Quinn said she worked to push through a package of legislation that increases transparency and communication for city agencies such as the Department of Emergency Management and Department of Sanitation during a time of crisis. “The city tried to ignore the snowstorm last winter, and that didn’t work out so well,” she said. “Not everybody gets what they want with their taxpayer dollars, but there are some core services you have to receive, and certainly snow removal is one of them.”