Charter Commission Hearings
March 31st, 2010
The city Charter Revision Commission has decided on a schedule of public hearings to be held during April in each of the five boroughs. The commission said it “will receive testimony from members of the public on any aspect of the charter” part of the general theme that this time around, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg has put it, “every issue will be on the table.”
As to whether the hearings will actually affect the commission’s recommendations, stay tuned. The final meaning, on April 20 in Brooklyn Heights, will precede the commission’s next public meeting.
In other charter commission news, The Staten Island Advance is reporting that Francis Barry, a close aide to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, will get the job.
Like his boss, Barry is a big fan of non-partisan elections, an idea proposed by the 2003 charter commission only to be resoundingly rejected by the voters. Barry served as research director for that commission.
The appointment also could indicate that the charter will take more steps to strengthen the mayor’s office and departments at the expense of local control — something else Bloomberg tends to support (see mayoral control of schools.)
“If they choose someone from inside the mayor’s circle, we are going to get exactly what the mayor wants,” Jeffrey Kroessler, a historian, author and political science professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice told the Advance.
“Someone who is fed by the administration is going to have an awfully difficult time professing his objectivity,” City Councilmember Vincent Ignizio said to the paper. “It’s like a new book on the Titanic. Maybe it’s got some new pictures, but the ending is the same.”
The hearing schedule is after the jump.
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