Gotham Gazette

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Scott Stringer

Scott Stringer

  • Elected Officials Present Broad Proposals to 2019 Charter Revision Commission

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    Comptroller Stringer testifies at the 2019 Charter Revision Commission (photo: @NYCComptroller)


    The charter revision commission created through New York City Council legislation concluded its first round of public hearings last month, receiving dozens of suggestions about improving the functions and structure of city government. Unlike the commission established by Mayor Bill de Blasio, which has three proposals on this November’s ballot, the Council-created commission is set to propose changes to the city’s central governing document via the 2019

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  • Advancing an Inclusive Approach to School Meals

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    School food inclusivity rally (@safest)


    We as faith leaders are most privileged to cooperate on a project that will benefit our respective communities. For far too long, students who follow religious dietary guidelines have found their public school cafeteria lacks sufficient accommodation in the food offered. Typically students who require a kosher or halal meal have very limited options in school lunch offerings, often choosing to eat nothing. At this time in history, with persistent and growing incidents of discrimination based on religious and racial animus, New York

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  • Fixing the City's Broken Approach to Nonprofit Contracting

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    Comptroller Scott Stringer, a co-author (photo: @NYCComptroller)


    From housing for homeless families to meals for our seniors, non-profit organizations are on the front lines of our city, supporting our most vulnerable neighbors. Yet these groups are surviving hand-to-mouth when it comes to funding and often it’s our own city government that’s stalling the contracting process and delaying payments that thousands of nonprofits rely on.

    In a new report, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office looked at thousands of human service contracts, and found an astounding 90

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  • New York Democrats’ Season of Choosing

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    Corey Johnson endorses IDC challengers (photo: Gotham Gazette)


    As progressives aggressively attempt to wrest control of the Democratic Party from the hands of those they call centrists and establishment politicians, elected Democrats across New York find themselves in an unenviable position. Abiding by their self-professed progressive values to support insurgent Democratic primary challengers could mean bucking the state party establishment and its leader, Governor Andrew Cuomo, while, on the

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  • Scott Stringer on His ‘Agency Watch List,’ De Blasio’s Housing Plan & Restructuring NYCHA

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    Comptroller Scott Stringer and Deputy Comptroller Marjorie Landau (photo: @NYCComptroller)


    Comptroller Scott Stringer, the city’s chief fiscal officer who placed three city agencies on a new “watch list” in February due to concerns about their escalating spending and questionable return on investment, said recently that his office will be holding public hearings to provide stronger oversight, better transparency, and more urgency for reforms.

    “We need more robust public hearings to the agencies, we need to demand more accountability from our

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  • What's The [Data] Point? $225 million, with Comptroller Scott Stringer

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 44 -- $225 million, with Comptroller Scott Stringer [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

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    City

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  • Mayoral Charter Revision Commission Hears Expert Testimony on Community Boards and Land Use

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    A community board meeting (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    The mayor’s Charter Revision Commission met on Tuesday at the Pratt Institute for the third of its four expert advisory issue forums, this time discussing potential changes to community boards and the city’s land use process. The first meeting, held last Tuesday, ...

  • Added Scrutiny of City’s Delinquent Contracting Practices

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    Council Member Levin (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    The new city budget does not do enough to address the tremendous backlog of city contracts with nonprofit groups that have been left languishing by city agencies, the groups say. This comes after a recent report from the city comptroller that shows

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  • Created in Budget, State Pay Commission Off to Slow, Rocky Start

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    Carl McCall (photo: Governor's Office)


    The pay commission tasked with proposing salary adjustments of New York State legislators, statewide elected officials, and top executive branch employees, created in this year’s enacted budget, appears to be in a state of disarray.

    The appointed chair of the commission, New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, announced in May that she could not serve on the commission, citing what she believed to be the unconstitutionality of a judge determining matters that could end up before her in court. She has not been

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  • Elected Officials, Advocates Push for Instant Runoff Voting

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    Tuesday's press conference (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


    Several prominent Democratic elected officials and voting reform advocates on Tuesday assembled outside City Hall to call for instant runoff voting in citywide primary elections. Specifically, they said that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Charter Revision Commission, which just began a series of public hearings across the city, should include it among the proposals it puts before voters on the ballot this November.

    Instant runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting, allows voters to rank primary

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  • De Blasio Points to Cuomo’s NYCHA Order as ‘Potentially Dangerous’ to City Budget

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    Gov. Cuomo with top NYC officials and others (photo: Governor's office)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order earlier this month to impose an external monitor on the crisis-plagued New York City Housing Authority has turned into a potential budget boondoggle for the city, with Mayor Bill de Blasio warning on Thursday of the “unforeseen consequences” the order could have on the city’s fiscal future.

    The governor’s

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  • De Blasio Presents $89 Billion Executive Budget Plan

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    Mayor de Blasio presents a budget (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled an $89.06 billion executive budget proposal for the 2019 fiscal year on Thursday, decrying new spending that the city must undertake to meet shortfalls and unfunded mandates imposed by the new state budget approved last month, and cautioning of federal actions that could affect the city’s fiscal future.

    The latest budget proposal reflects a net spending increase of about $390 million from the mayor’s preliminary budget released in

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  • Trump Administration Attacks on Title X Could Result in Even More Deceptive Women’s Health Clinics

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    Comptroller Stringer with Planned Parenthood (photo via @NYCComptroller)


    The Trump-Pence administration just took aim at the Title X program—the nation’s long-standing program for affordable birth control and other sexual and reproductive health care that more than four million people nationwide, including 150,000 New Yorkers, rely on each year.

    The administration issued a new call for funding applications that radically changes the program's priorities—and that will shift funding away from expert sexual and reproductive health care

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  • City Council Begins Examination of De Blasio Budget Plan

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    Council Speaker Johnon (photos: John McCarten/City Council)


    City Council members pressed budget officials from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration for more transparency and a better accounting of spending and revenue plans at a Monday hearing on the mayor’s $88.67 billion proposed preliminary budget for the 2019 fiscal year, which begins July 1. It was the first hearing of what will be weeks of public discussions, and the first under the new City Council speaker and new Council finance committee chair.

    “I want to focus on what will

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  • Comptroller's Analysis of De Blasio Budget Plan Includes New Agency 'Watch List'

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    De Blasio and Stringer, right (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)


    Comptroller Scott Stringer on Friday released his analysis of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s preliminary budget for fiscal year 2019, which begins July 1. Stringer said that the administration does not have enough of a “budget cushion” to rely on as economic prospects look gloomier going forward, urged de

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  • Comptroller Again Calls Out City on Vacant Land; City Again Punches Back

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    Comptroller Stringer press conference at a vacant lot (photo: Sam Raskin)


    Comptroller Scott Stringer held a press conference Monday morning in front of a vacant lot on West 115th Street to criticize the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) for “dragging its feet” on creating affordable housing on empty city-owned land.

    Stringer released an update to his 2016 audit on vacant lots, which initiated a reshashing of a yearslong dispute between the comptroller and the de Blasio administration over

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  • Candidates File Final Campaign Finance Reports of 2017 Election Cycle

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    Mayor de Blasio at inauguration (photo: NYC Mayor's Office)


    The recent citywide municipal election saw more than $53 million in spending, with nearly $42 million in private funds raised by candidates and more than $17 million in public matching funds disbursed by the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Candidates just filed their final campaign disclosures with the Board, which were due Tuesday, showing the last weeks of activity as the

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Big Political News to Start 2018

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    January 3, 2018 - Max & Murphy:  Big Political News to Start 2018

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    2018 has started with a bang in New York politics: already this week we've seen the re-inaugrations of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Public Advocate Letitia James, and Comptroller Scott Stringer; the election of new City Council Speaker Corey Johnson; and

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  • Sworn In for Second Term by Bernie Sanders, De Blasio Claims 'New Progressive Era'

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    De Blasio is sworn in by Sanders (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, was sworn in for a second and final term at City Hall on a frigid Monday afternoon, in a ceremony attended by nearly a thousand people and starring United States Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

    De Blasio’s oath of office was administered by Sanders, the popular progressive leader who has championed policies to benefit middle- and working-class Americans, similar to the mayor’s own

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  • City Eager to See Cuomo Sign M/WBE Contracting Bill Now on His Desk

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    Gov. Cuomo signing (photo: Philip Kamrass/ Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)


    A state bill to enhance New York City’s ability to award discretionary contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses (M/WBEs), which was passed by both houses of the state Legislature in June, was delivered to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s desk on December 19.

    The bill, which received unanimous support in the state Senate and passed the Assembly with a vote of 115-15, would allow the city to spend up to $150,000 on M/WBE contracts

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  • Renewed Push to Pass State Homelessness Subsidy in 2018

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    Assemblymember Hevesi and activists (photo: @mkink)


    Legislation to create a statewide rental supplement to curtail the growth of homelessness in New York, while generating savings for local social service agencies, is the focus of a renewed campaign ahead of the 2018 budget and legislative session.

    Despite support from the Democratic Assembly majority, as well minority state Senate Democrats, and the Independent Democratic Conference, which forms a ruling coalition with Senate Republicans, Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi’s Home Stability

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  • 2017 New York City General Election Results

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    (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


    Mayor Bill de Blasio won reelection on Tuesday, earning about two-thirds of the vote in another low-turnout election -- about 1,070,000 voters cast ballots in the mayoral race. De Blasio's fellow incumbent citywide Democrats, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James, also won reelection, each with about three-quarters of the vote.

    Among the most notable other votes cast in New York this Election Day, the constitutional convention ballot question -- proposal one on

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  • Ahead of Election Day, Comptroller Audit Highlights Board of Elections Dysfunction

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    Comptroller Scott Stringer (photo courtesy of Comptroller's office)


    Just four days before voters head to the polls on Tuesday, November 7, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a damning report highlighting the dysfunctional election operations of the New York City Board of Elections, a quasi-city agency that administers elections in the city.

    Stringer’s audit was launched in response to the BOE’s purge of more than 117,000 voters from the rolls in Brooklyn last year, ahead of the April presidential primary. The purge prompted widespread outrage, triggering an investigation by the

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  • Following Up with Comptroller Stringer on Several Debate Moments

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    Faulkner, left, and Stringer, at the Comptroller debate (photo via @NYCVotes)


    It appears that a relatively small number of people watched the lone debate in the election for New York City Comptroller, which occurred on Tuesday, October 17 between incumbent Democrat Scott Stringer and his Republican challenger, Michel Faulkner. It is one of three citywide races, along with those for Mayor and

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  • Top City Electeds Skip Letter Wooing Amazon

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    One World Trade Center lit up orange for Amazon (photo via NYC EDC)


    New York is laying out the red carpet to entice online retail giant Amazon to locate its new corporate headquarters in the state. Governor Andrew Cuomo promised a slew of incentives to support four official proposals from different regions that were submitted to the company on Wednesday, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio lit up the city in orange at night as a fawning branding appeal.

    New York City’s own ...