“This has never been, to me, about a committee or a stipend or chairmanship,” Monserrate said. “I had three things that I had to achieve here: change of leadership, which has been achieved, rules changes, which we have commitment on both sides to do, and a legislative package which deals with the needs of the constituents I represent. ... I’ve gotten a commitment to put these on the floor.”
   The senator said he remains a staunch Democrat. “I never joined the Republican Party,” he said. “I never will join the Republican Party or their conference. ... I voted for leadership change, and I voted for reforms to the rules that will make the New York State Senate more transparent and a place that operates much more in an equitable fashion.”
   Monserrate, who represents Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst and Woodside, said a variety of bills he co-sponsored were pigeonholed under the previous leadership. As a result of the Senate shakeup in the last week and a half, he said, those bills will finally come to the floor for discussion.
   Asked why he thinks GOP leaders will introduce liberal bills when Democratic leaders did not, Monserrate said Republicans made promises when they were negotiating with him and Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx), the other Democrat who switched party lines in favor of installing Republican leadership.
   Monserrate said Republicans, like some Democrats, were frustrated that their bills weren’t coming to the floor, so GOP members put forward rules changes that would make it harder for either party’s bills to be stalled.
   “We’ve now put the Republicans on the spot because of their own agenda and their own bills being bottled up and not coming to the floor,” Monserrate said. “They put forward rule changes in writing.”
   Key among the bills Monserrate wants passed is legislation that would end vacancy decontrol — in other words, he wants to re-establish regulations that would keep rent prices below market rates for thousands of apartments across the city.
   Monserrate also wants legislation that would further restrict the activities of industrial developers, which he said is key to ensuring that development in places like Willet’s Point and Dutch Kills is in the public interest.
   In addition, the senator seeks to pass legislation that would make it easier to take emergency leave from work, and legislation that would require police officers who have discharged weapons to undergo drug and alcohol testing.
   “The reason why I took this very bold and dramatic act was to ensure that some of the progressive legislation that I support ... has a fair chance of getting to the floor,” Monserrate said. “I didn’t see the change happening any other way.
   “If it took voting with Republicans and Pedro Espada to get to the point where we disclose the fact that incredibly important bills were being held up becuase of interests outside the interest of the people I represent, then that is major victory,” he added.
   Asked if it was always his intention to return to the arms of the Democrats after the Senate leadership was replaced and rules were changed, Monserrate said, “The overarching plan all the time was reform. Reform, reform and reform. ... This was a necessary means to get to an end.”