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Up In Smoke: Government Funding Vanishes, Smoking Rates Rise


smokeout


After years of decline, smoking is on the rise in New York City. While pointing to reductions in state and city spending on anti-smoking campaigns, advocates hope this Thursday, November 20, will be a turning point as smokers in New York and elsewhere are encouraged to decline lighting up for American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.

Anti-smoking groups hope smokers will keep their resolve going after Thursday and bring down New York City's smoking rate, which crept up from 14 percent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2013 despite bans on smoking in bars, restaurants and other places, and one of the highest taxes on a pack of cigarettes in any municipality.

To blame, some say, is the reduction in funding toward tobacco control programs in the state. This has led to a drop in airing graphic anti-smoking commercials, which anti-smoking groups say were effective in bringing the smoking rate down last decade.

Ads show a man coughing violently while blood drips in a sink, a woman discussing her various amputations, and photos of Terrie as a pretty young cheerleader who is now shown putting on her voice box and adjusting her wig. A postscript at the end of the commercial tells viewers she died at age 53.

"They are very effective," said Michael Burgess, director of government relations in New York for the Cancer Action Network of the American Cancer Society. "Most people want to quit smoking. The more that you bring people face to face with it, that brings them to the point where they think, 'I better do something about this.'"

Just a few years ago, the anti-smoking commercials were blitzing the airwaves. "You're seeing them less often because the state, as well as the city tobacco program, have cut their funding dramatically over the last 5 years," said Kevin O'Flaherty Northeast region advocacy director for the Campaign for Smoke-Free Kids. Five years ago, the state allocation for tobacco control programs was $85 million. This year, the amount dropped to $39.3 million. The amount for 2015 has not been released.

In New York City, the Department of Health has seen its budget cut incrementally in the last five years, from $13.5 million in 2009 to just over half that amount at $7.1 million for this fiscal year.

Fewer airings of the anti-smoking commercials also result in fewer calls to the New York State Smokers' Quitline. Data from the Quitline for 2009 to 2012 show that calls from the Bronx dropped 23 percent and calls from Queens saw a 21 percent reduction. Overall in the city, there was a 22 percent decline in the number of calls.

Taxes and the tobacco industry
Ironically, the tobacco industry funds New York's and most other states' tobacco prevention programs. In 1998, the Attorneys General of 46 states reached an agreement with the four largest U.S. tobacco companies (Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard), as well as the industry's trade associations and PR firms, to settle lawsuits against the tobacco industry regarding the medical costs associated with treating tobacco-related illnesses.

The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement left the tobacco industry immune from future state and federal suits and required the participating tobacco companies to pay approximately $200 billion to the states over the next 25 years to help cover healthcare costs associated with smoking. But much to the chagrin of anti-smoking advocates, the agreement did not place any restrictions on how states spent the funds.

"In 1998 when the master tobacco settlement agreement was signed, all the states acted like they were going to take the lion's share of this money, if not all of it, and dedicate it to tobacco prevention," said O'Flaherty. "And almost immediately they started spending it on anything but prevention.

They take the check and put it in the general fund. There's really no way to say what of this money is going toward prevention and what is going for golf courses or pot holes or anything else that the state, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to spend money on over the last 15 years."

Smokers also fund anti-smoking programs through the state tax of $4.35 and New York City tax of $1.50 per pack of cigarettes. City residents paid the highest state and city taxes in the country until the Chicago City Council approved a city tax hike on cigarettes last fall, making their combined state and city tobacco taxes $6.16, the highest in the nation.

According to the Council of State Governments, New York State collected $1.632 billion in cigarette tax revenue in 2013. However, the funds are not all earmarked toward tobacco control programs. With the last state tax increase on cigarettes in 2010, $440 million was allocated toward healthcare programs, including subsidies for AIDS drugs, money for tobacco cessation programs, and $71.6 million for the state cancer research center in Buffalo.

"Research shows that if the State were spending more money on smoking cessation activities, not only would we have a lower smoking rate, but the State would be saving more in terms of what it spends in long-term health costs," said O'Flaherty. "These programs literally do pay for themselves and they do it in a way that morally make sense."

Higher tobacco prices should also bring down smoking rates. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces consumption by 3 to 5 percent and deters youth from picking up the smoking habit. Last November, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed what became known as local law 97, which created higher prices for cigarette and tobacco products in New York City and required age restriction signs stating that some tobacco products cannot be sold to people under the age of 18, and for some, 21.

But increasing the price of cigarettes (to about $14 a pack) can also backfire with smokers who may seek out other ways to get cheaper smokes. According to a 2013 report by Pew Charitable Trusts, states with high tobacco taxes lost about $5 billion in 2010 revenue because of cigarette smuggling. The report notes that most of the black market in cigarettes occurs when smugglers purchase cigarettes in a low-tax state and transport them to a high-tax state. They then sell them at a discount to smokers, pocketing a healthy profit. The loss of revenue due to smuggling also affects the monies states receive from the Master Settlement Agreement since the amount is based on legal consumption figures.

To combat the loss of revenue from cigarette smuggling, local law 97 defines a retail dealer as any person who possesses or transports more than 400 cigarettes, prohibits the sale of cigarette or tobacco products for less than the listed price and from anyone other than a manufacturer or licensed dealer, and requires retailers to post a sign stating that all cigarettes sold in New York City must be in packages bearing valid New York City and State tax stamps.

Some smokers have also responded to the higher prices by smoking fewer cigarettes per day. The Department of Health reports that while there has been a decrease in the proportion of heavy smokers, there has been an uptick in the numbers of non-daily and light smokers who smoke 10 or fewer cigarettes per day. That group now makes up 76 percent of the New York City smoking population, compared with 64 percent in 2002.

Non-daily smokers are now the target of the Health Department's new media campaign, Imagine for Life, which was produced at a cost of $835,700.

"There is no acceptable level of smoking," cautioned Burgess. "Even if you consider yourself a social smoker, there are health risks and your level of smoking can increase."

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by Hayley Camacho for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette

New York's Part-Time Legislators Look for a Raise


cuomo silver skelos

Skelos (left), Cuomo, and Silver will determine if pay raises move (photo: @melissadderosa)


New York's legislative leaders think it is far time they got a raise. They will tell anyone who will listen that it has been 16 years since their last raise, yet they remain one of the highest-paid legislatures in the country. Only California and Pennsylvania pay their legislators more and unlike in New York, both of those legislatures are full time.

Legislators came to Albany for session a total of 55 days from January and June of this year. Each member of the State Senate or State Assembly brings home a base salary of $79,500 a year, with the opportunity to earn more through leadership and committee positions. Lawmakers are allowed reimbursement for their trips to and from stays in Albany.

Their state salary is only the tip of the income iceberg for a great deal of electeds who also work as consultants, lawyers, or home builders. The Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, reportedly made at least $650,000 in 2013 from his "second" job.

Legislators in California take home $90,526 annually but they are full-time legislators not allowed to hold other jobs. Legislators in Pennsylvania make $83,801 a year and are also full-time.

"The legislature needs to give an indication they are interested in reforming themselves before we talk about giving them any pay raises," said E.J. McMahon of The Empire Center, a right-leaning public policy think tank. McMahon said that Legislature needs to reduce the number of pay-bumping leadership titles it hands out as rewards to loyal members, increase the transparency of what is spent internally, and "show an intent to perform."

"I don't know how necessary pay raises are given that New York has the third highest paid legislature in the country," said McMahon.

New York City-based legislators argue that their price of living continues to increase and that not everyone has a high-paying second job with a law firm. They say they dedicate their time in their districts to working with constituents.

With only six weeks left in the year, legislative leaders are sending major signals that they want to make a deal with Governor Andrew Cuomo to get themselves a pay raise. Problem is, they need to pass it before the year is up because state law forbids a sitting legislature from giving itself a pay raise. Legislative staffers are skeptical that a deal will be reached before the end of the year. Multiple sources indicated that it would have made sense for Senate Republicans to call for a special session this week as they were already in Albany on Monday for a post-election conference meeting. Going forward, leaders will be hesitant to call members back around Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or Christmas.

Regardless of the odds, a number of issues have been linked to a possible pay-raise deal.

As rumors of a pay raise built earlier this year a number of advocacy groups saw an opportunity for the governor to deliver on the progressive policies he promised on the campaign trail that will likely be blocked by the incoming Republican Senate majority.

Citizen Action of New York demanded that legislators "Raise the Wage Before Your Pay," insisting both houses approve a new minimum wage that is higher, indexed to inflation, and allows municipalities to set their own rates - an item that has major backing from Mayor Bill de Blasio.

On Monday Republican Senate Leader Dean Skelos acknowledged that a pay raise was a focus issue, but shot down the idea that he would bargain for one by passing liberal agenda items. "We're not doing the DREAM Act. We're not doing minimum wage, we're not doing taxpayer financing [of electoral campaigns]." He did say he was open to supporting "other reforms we could come up with."

Good government groups would like to see the Legislature agree to more outside income disclosure and increased transparency in how both houses operate.
Speaker Silver, a Democrat, said on Tuesday that he didn't think a pay raise should be tied to a minimum wage increase, noting that both chambers passed a wage increase last year that was not tied to their own salaries. "I believe the members work very hard...and I believe they're entitled to [a raise] after 14 years."
The Legislature passed a bill last year that will introduce staggered increases to the minimum wage until it reaches $9 an hour in 2015. Advocates want the wage raised to $10.10 immediately and indexed to inflation for further increases.

Silver indicated that he would consider moving on per diem reform in exchange for pay raises. A number of legislators have been caught falsely reporting trips to Albany as a way to bolster their pay.

Legislators, including Skelos and Silver, admit that there haven't been any serious discussion about a pay raise deal with the Cuomo administration at this point.

"I'm delighted there are discussions about pay raises," said Democratic Sen. Neil Breslin of Albany. "I believe it is important for legislators based in and around [New York] City who face an escalating cost of living. I think it is important that it be tied to tightened restrictions around per diems."

Deal making for pay raises has had a long and impactful history in Albany. The last time the Legislature got a pay raise, its members allowed Gov. George Pataki to institute charter school programs in the state.

In 1998 the Legislature had gone a decade without a pay increase. With the threat of a veto Pataki traded a 38 percent hike for the institution of charter schools and the threat that legislators would not be paid if they failed to pass a budget on time. The charter plan let an unlimited number of public schools convert to charter schools and allowed for the creation of many new charters.

This time around Cuomo appears interested in securing pay raises for executive staff as he has mentioned a few times during his first term that it is hard to attract talented individuals into state government at the current pay scale.

Good government groups say it would be distasteful for the Legislature to barter a pay in a quid pro quo manner. Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union, has advocated per diem reform and limits on outside income to accompany any pay raise.

McMahon of Empire Center said that in general the Legislature has slowed its rate of performance over the years: more bills are introduced while there is little debate over the few bills that actually come to a vote.

"Per diems aren't necessarily the problem," said McMahon. "It's the extras like the leadership stipends that keep people under the thumb of the leaders that need to be reformed. We need them to demonstrate they are intent on earning what they are already paid. I think they could be here [in Albany] less and get more done. The end of session has become such a scam, where the leadership just waits to cut a deal on whatever the governor has got. I don't think the Legislature functions deliberatively," said McMahon.

Some rank-and-file legislators feel the same way. They would like to see more debate and democracy in general and aren't happy that the leadership appears uninterested in moving major policy points before the end of the year. But they also don't want to upset the applecart when so many other members would like to see a pay raise for next year.

A pay raise deal might not be the only thing on the agenda if the Legislature manages to come back before the end of the year. Both Skelos and Silver have said they would like to create a spending plan for the State's $5 billion surplus created from bank settlements. The two legislative leaders have indicated they would like to see the cash used in one-shot investments in infrastructure - a sentiment Cuomo has echoed. But as legislators and insiders point out, it is unlikely all three men have the same definition of "infrastructure."

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by David King, Albany editor, Gotham Gazzette
@DavidHowardKing

Looking for 411 on 311


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Celebrating 311's birthday (photo: @nyc311)


NEW YORK—The City's 311 system has become a model platform for citizens to give non-emergency complaints to their government. New Yorkers are able to voice concerns by calling, filling out a website form, text messaging, and using a mobile app to report issues like potholes or noisy neighbors. They are also able to get information about a wide array of city services through 311's various platforms.

Launched in 2003, New York City 311 has received over 190 million calls and interacts with over 100,000 residents on a typical day. Thanks to the 2012 Open Data Law, information about the requests are now placed on the Open Data Portal and updated daily.

Information about 311 calls has not only been useful to the public, members of which can map requests in their neighborhood, but also to the City itself. The Mayor's Office of Data Analytics (MODA) incorporates 311 data into its projects and city agencies are also utilizing 311 data to improve operations.

MODA recently worked with the FDNY on its Risk Based Inspection System, which selects buildings to schedule for inspection. The FDNY was able to incorporate 311 data related to building complaints and move those buildings up on the list.

While the 311 system has been largely heralded, there is always room for improvement. Advocates at a city council oversight hearing on Tuesday noted that while you can plainly see what requests were made using the 311 data on the Open Data Portal, you cannot see how the City responded. The data only shows if the issue is open or closed.

That information is kept by the City using a system called DataBridge. Information from DataBridge can be obtained through Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests, however it is not published publicly.

"New York City should not have a two-tiered system with public data sets for the public to use, and private data sets for internal use only," Dominic Mauro, staff attorney of Reinvent Albany, said at Tuesday's hearing. "To realize the maximum value of this data, it needs to be shared with the public."

Reinvent Albany estimates it would cost $5 million to publish DataBridge in an open data format, but said the benefits of seeing that data would outweigh the cost.

Leaving out NYCHA
While comprehensive, 311 data does not include complaints at NYCHA, the city's public housing system. With its over 615,000 residents, NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in North America, according to data on the NYCHA website.

Complaints to NYCHA are kept by the agency but not made publicly available. After damaging media reports in 2013 showing tenants waiting months, sometimes over a year, for basic repairs, NYCHA put a small set of metrics online. They do not show complaints by date, building, or borough.

"If complaints to NYCHA are missing from 311, then this is a grave disservice to NYCHA residents, whose concerns and issues are not being represented and fairly evaluated," Lucille Songhai, director of community affairs for Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer's office, testified on Tuesday.

Songhai, who was testifying on behalf of Brewer, suggested a special code be devised for 311 agents to continue to send the complaints to NYCHA, but allow for the information to at least be tracked in the 311 data.

Anonymous 311 Requests
The majority of calls to 311 are legitimate: my neighbor is having a party at 3 a.m.; where can I sign up for food stamps?; please fix this pothole in front of my house. But in some cases neighbors with beef to settle choose to anonymously call 311 and make false reports on their neighbors instead of privately hashing out their differences.

As the 311 system is set up now, there is no way for the call center to identify or try and curb the problem. They can't see in real time if, for example, the address they are receiving a complaint about has also had 15 other anonymous complaints. If a call comes in anonymously, it must be answered and if an action is needed, the proper agency must be notified.

Council Member Steven Matteo of Staten Island brought the issue up during Tuesday's hearing saying it has become a big issue in his district. In February he introduced legislation that would address the problem of harassment using 311 complaints.

"I know it is difficult to come up with a solution because we want people to be able to call anonymously about potholes and we want people to call about construction sites that are dangerous," Matteo said at Tuesday's hearing. "The problem is, it is becoming every day."

Joe Morrisroe, executive director of New York City 311, did not offer much in the way of a solution (largely because the hearing was not regarding the proposed legislation), but did say he could provide the Council with data on anonymous calls. The bill has not had a hearing and one is not currently scheduled.

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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

With Announcement Expected, Students & Advocates Continue Push for Change in School Discipline Code


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Rally on the steps of Tweed (photo: @UYC_YouthPower)


Annual revisions to the disciplinary policies for New York City public school students are typically put into place before the start of each school year. Students in the midst of the 2014-2015 year, however, continue to wait for an updated version as the new Department of Education administration has stalled on its first revision to the code of conduct.

While advocates say that an announcement is imminent, those seeking a key change to the disciplinary code continue to put public and private pressure on officials.

Last week, the Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC) led another rally to call more attention to the barriers they say are created by one especially controversial element of the disciplinary rules. Many students, teachers, and advocates argue that infraction "B21" must be removed from the new version of the code. They say that enforcement of B21 has raised serious questions and caused a great deal of damage to young people. They ask: at what point does a disciplinary policy become too stringent? And: if a policy is disparately burdening already marginalized students, is the policy not inherently flawed?

According to Kesi Foster, coordinator of UYC, disciplinary code changes are expected within the next several weeks, before the end of the calendar year. UYC has focused intensely on B21, part of the Citywide Standards of Discipline and Intervention Measures, under which students can be suspended for "defying or disobeying the lawful authority."

"Policies like B21 target black and Latino students, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ students. I know not just because of the research, but because I have experienced it," said Markeys Gonzalez, a high school student who spoke of his experience with school disciplinary policies at the rally, which took place on the steps of Tweed Courthouse on Veterans Day and attracted about fifty students, teachers, and advocates.

Gonzalez was suspended for a week under B21 when he refused to take off a "rainbow bracelet" during LGBTQ Pride Week. Gonzalez chose not to divulge the name of his school for fear of being targeted.

Matthew Garcia faced the same punishment when he disobeyed a teacher who wanted him to remove his hat. Alana Cooper was similarly suspended for not eating in the lunchroom, where she felt her personal safety was compromised by bullies. All three students are youth leaders of UYC, an umbrella coalition that organizes for education reform. Recently, UYC has mobilized behind adoption of a comprehensive college preparation program in schools, a movement backed by the City Council last month, and also for reducing the levels of racial segregation in schools.

Now UYC is back to addressing the rate of suspension in schools, which it characterizes as excessive and applied in a discriminatory fashion. In documenting the racial disparities in the number of suspensions, UYC reports, "Of 53,504 suspensions last year, black and Latino students made up 89% of all students suspended. Black students make up only 26% of the student population, but accounted for 53% of all suspensions."

This data echoes a study released by the U.S. Department of Education in March, indicating that the racial disparity begins in preschool nationwide. Research has also revealed a correlation between student suspension and the chance of dropping out, in addition to impeding academic engagement. The Civil Rights Project reports that "being suspended even once in ninth grade is associated with a 32% risk for dropping out, double that for those receiving no suspensions."

The pushout that results from policies like B21 is said to drive the school-to-prison pipeline; students being pushed out of school by punitive measures can make them more vulnerable to becoming ensnared in the criminal justice system. Since some schools have zero tolerance policies that directly involve police officers, minor in-school incidents can lead to arrests. The growth in police presence in schools has been partially attributed to the rise in school shootings since the eighties.

During the mayoralty of Michael Bloomberg, the number of annual student suspensions in New York City more than doubled, "from less than 29,000 in 2001 to nearly 70,000 in 2011," according to a report by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU).

"The de Blasio administration inherited a school system that oversaw unprecedented increases in exclusionary school discipline—suspensions, arrests and summonses," said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU's Executive Director, in a press release.

Similar exclusionary practices to infraction code B21 have also been prevalent in cities around the country, but have been on the decline. Last September California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill banning suspensions for "willful defiance." The bill made California the first to enact a statewide ban on suspensions that involve "defiance" from students, replacing punitive measures with restorative justice practices, which include peer mediation and conflict resolution. Results have been staggering in some places, like school districts in Los Angeles and San Francisco where restorative justice practices were adopted even before the bill was passed. At Garfield High School in Los Angeles, for example, suspensions dropped from over 600 annually to just one suspension over the course of three years, while attendance and graduation rates increased.

Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland similarly reduced suspensions after formalizing discipline policies in a move toward restorative justice, resulting in a 37 percent drop in suspensions and expulsions in the last year. Chicago Public Schools also passed a revised code of conduct last June, stressing remediation instead of suspension. Data revealed that Chicago had more than 50,000 suspensions over the last year, comparable to the 53,504 suspensions in New York City public schools for 2013-2014 (though New York City's student population is much larger).

Amid the calls for changes to disciplinary codes, some point out that the disputed rules may indicate how well a school, as a whole, is serving its students. "Changing the discipline code doesn't get at the root of the problem. High rates of suspension are often a reflection of other problems within a school: disengaged students, strained relationships between teachers and students, a weak or dysfunctional school culture," said Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at NYU.

Moreover, some see dysfunctional school culture as a symptom of a larger issue. "Our schools are often a microcosm for the society and communities around them," said Foster of UYC. Foster also notes the correlation between stop-and-frisk activity in the larger society and the rate of suspensions in schools, which was detailed in a report by NYCLU. In East New York, Brownsville, Mott Haven, Jamaica and Harlem—areas with comparatively higher numbers of stop-and-frisks performed by the NYPD—students were most likely to be suspended from school.

Foster said he believes the new administration, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, is "prioritizing how to change our approach to school discipline. I think they're engaging advocates...we've identified the policy shifts that have to happen for that to be effective and we hope they follow through." Both the mayor and the chancellor have expressed support for moving away from suspensions and toward restorative justice practices, and there has been action in this direction.

Advocates are not only calling for a complete end of suspensions for "defying or disobeying authority" under infraction code B21; they are also looking to enact a more thorough protocol for guidance interventions, wherein all stakeholders are engaged. Such interventions follow the restorative justice model and include meetings with students and teachers, counseling, mediation, and community circles. A reformed protocol, in the eyes of advocates, may alleviate the concern that rescinding B21 would be a hindrance to teachers who are sometimes required to manage disruptive students.

"We want the education process not to be impeded," said Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers, when asked by Gotham Gazette what the UFT wants to see in the new disciplinary code, "but we need an approach where if students are acting out, there is a system in place at the school level, dealing with the students' issues on why they're acting out and not impeding the educational process for the rest of the students."

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by Alex-Quan Pham, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette

City Announces Payphone Wi-Fi Deal


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image: NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications via link.nyc


NEW YORK—Blazing fast wireless internet speeds. Updated digital advertising. Free phone calls to anywhere in the United States. Cell phone charging stations. What has been impossible for the old payphones that currently dot the streets of New York City will, over the next few years, become a reality.

On Monday the City announced CityBridge, LLC as the winner of the franchise agreement which will bring the city's payphones from the 20th century boldly into the 21st. The agreement, which will extend through June 24, 2026, will create LinkNYC, a first of its kind communication network aimed at bringing Wi-Fi hotspots to all corners of the city.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine the payphone and develop a revolutionary new technology for the citizens of New York and its visitors," Scott Goldsmith, chief commercial officer for Titan and a managing member of CityBridge said at a press briefing. "It's a chance to make the lives of each and every New Yorker better."

CityBridge is a consortium of companies including Titan, Control Group, Qualcomm Incorporated, and Comark; with extended team members Transit Wireless and Antenna Design. Each company brings expertise in advertising, technology, or hardware design to ensure the units will be able to withstand the rigors of New York City, and the ever-changing landscape of technology.

While they will still be able to make phone calls, the new units — called Links — will not resemble the current payphones. Slender and modern in design, they will use a touchscreen tablet interface and keypad for making calls.

Gone are the phone receivers of today's payphones, which often end up broken or vandalized. Users can simply plug in their headphones to the links to make calls and those without can use the microphones and speakers installed on the units. Calls to anywhere in the 50 states will be free.

Links will also allow users to gain access to information on city services and see maps. If there is an emergency, the City will be able to push area-specific notifications to the displays. These could be anything from evacuation orders like in the case of those issued during Superstorm Sandy or notice of where the nearest shelter is in the case of a bad storm.

The links will offer up to gigabit of Wi-Fi service, putting to shame the current offerings of internet service providers most New Yorkers have in their homes. At gigabit speed a user could download a two hour HD movie in roughly 30 seconds, a task that can take hours on traditional home Wi-Fi speeds. The Wi-Fi will extend up to 150 feet from the units. The City has a good deal of information available at its new link.nyc website.

The new technology could be a boon to a city that continues to stay on the leading edge of the technology industry. But much like the old payphones, if they are not monitored, they could end up being outdated long before the franchise agreement runs out.

City Council Member Mark Weprin, along with 28 other council members, wrote a relevant letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio in the spring. The letter expressed concern for the payphone Wi-Fi selection process and took exception to the fact that only one winner would be selected. The council members argued the lack of competition might lead to the new technology going out of date, especially in poorer neighborhoods.

Following Monday's announcement, Weprin said he thought the new design was great and that he is open-minded about what it will bring to the City.

"I am hopeful, given the scrutiny we put them under, they are making sure that they operate in a way that won't make [the units] obsolete in a very short period of time," Weprin said by phone Monday. "Hopefully they will continue to become state of the art as we go through it."

Where these links will be placed has yet to be determined, but the agreement does require equitable distribution of the up to 10,000 units in all five boroughs. This was a crucial sticking point for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has made it one of the tenets of his administration to get broadband access to all New Yorkers.

"To be able to walk by a kiosk and access a signal on your cell phone, given the disproportionate reliance on wireless and on mobile [for people of color]...this is a going to be a critical step towards more access and we are very proud," Maya Wiley, counsel to the mayor, said at the press briefing.

Getting access to all, particularly those in the city's poorer communities may take a while. Construction will begin in late 2015 and the contract stipulates 500 links must be installed one year and four months after the Franchise and Concession Review Committee (FCRC) approves the contract. A public hearing of the FCRC is set for December 8, with a vote scheduled for December 10.

The contract gives CityBridge four years to build the first 4,000 links which will replace the existing payphones, mostly advertising structures at this point. They must be distributed equally among the boroughs, something that is not done currently.

Advertising dollars will power not only the build-out of this project, but will also create a long-term revenue stream for the City. Under the current payphone structure, the majority of the units are in Manhattan where ads generate the most money.

But in order to ensure equity among all five boroughs and live up to the promise of bringing wireless access to all New York neighborhoods, these units will need to branch into areas currently not highly sought after by advertisers.

Wiley said she did not think it would be a problem.

"There is an assumption that poor people don't spend money. They actually spend a lot of money and arguably they spend more money on some of the goods and services we buy," Wiley said. "One of the tricks is to figure out the advertising that actually are providing the things that folks in all communities are buying and pay for."

LinkNYC is projected to generate more than $500 million in revenue for the City over the next 12 years. Wiley said like the current payphone ad revenue, some of that money will go to pay for internet upgrades in NYCHA, the city's public housing.

The City Council will assume a role in ensuring the links are equitably distributed around the city. Council Member James Vacca, chair of the Council's technology committee, will lead that charge for the next three years, the rest of his final council term. In the spring, Vacca also wrote a letter to Mayor de Blasio expressing his concern about having only one company win the franchise.

While the winning bidder was a consortium of companies, it is technically only one entity that won. Vacca said he does feel having one company with a citywide contract will incentivize a more equal distribution, but it will need to be monitored.

"The monopoly issue still bothers me," Vacca said by phone Monday. "My concern, and it continues to be a concern — and I will be using my oversight power to make sure it is monitored — is that these new kiosks would be concentrated in those areas of greater wealth or more pedestrian traffic."

Monopoly or not, everyone can agree, the new links beat the old payphones.

"I think the new design is very compact and I'm excited about that. I think the people will be excited about that when they see what they can do," Vacca said. "From a technology prospective I think it brings the city into the next century in a big way."

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by Kristen Meriwether, Gotham Gazette
@MeriwetherK

Note: this article has been updated

Balancing More Than Just the Books: Scott Stringer's First Year as Comptroller


Stringer presser flex time

Comptroller Stringer at a press conference (photo: Comptroller's Office)


A look at Scott Stringer as City Comptroller - which is what again?

Thanks to Eliot Spitzer, a lot more New Yorkers know the city has a Comptroller.

That's what the man who defeated the former governor in a dramatic 2013 Democratic primary says, anyway, as he intently discusses his efforts to engage the public during his first year as the city's chief financial officer.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer reveled in his surprising victory over Spitzer last September and his subsequent general election win to become one of three city-wide elected officials. And now, almost a year into his tenure, there's no indication Stringer has anything but relished his new role.

"There is real opportunity to maximize helping people in the city in so many different areas, in all five boroughs from all backgrounds, from kids to seniors," Stringer said of his position in a recent interview with Gotham Gazette.

Stringer appears enthusiastic despite comptroller having been his second choice of new jobs after deciding to leave the Manhattan borough presidency after two terms to briefly run for mayor. Embracing the vast powers of his new office, which employs well over 700 people and has an operating budget of $88.3 million, Stringer is able to make an impact, raise his profile, and even let a little steam out of his bottled mayoral ambitions.

2014 has been a prolific year for the new comptroller and his team, even as it has included a major learning curve for Stringer and much of the staff he brought with him from the borough president's office. The job of Comptroller can be highly technical and requires command of a wide range of financial, investment, and accounting knowledge; it touches virtually every aspect of city government and public life.

Quick studies who have been able to lean on many highly-experienced auditors, economists, and analysts, Stringer and his team have unveiled a handful of headline-grabbing initiatives and announcements while regularly rolling out less flashy but highly important reports.

"We are pushing a responsible progressive agenda," Stringer said. "In the first year I'm going to be able to point to some real success on behalf of the people of the city."

Stringer quickly rattles off achievements: provoking new City funding of arts education by identifying major gaps in its offering; sounding the alarm on limited City business going to firms owned by women and people of color; holding Sandy rebuilding forums around the city and exposing problems with the Build it Back program; saving taxpayers millions of dollars by refinancing debt; and holding the mayor accountable on budgeting and pre-kindergarten-provider contracts. He's made the city's public housing system a major focus, saying that a full audit of NYCHA (the New York City Housing Authority) will be unveiled by year's end.

Stringer said he and his staff have approached their first year on the job with a serious sense of urgency, adding, "We increased the capacity of what the Comptroller's office can do."

Along with reports and audits, Stringer has leveraged interactive technological tools. He's launched Vendor Roadmap: A Guide for Doing Business with the City as well as the new ClaimStat system whereby claims against the City are tracked, with patterns identified in an effort to show agencies trouble spots and, ultimately, save the city money. Stringer has also enhanced Checkbook 2.0, the site by which city expenditures are shown publicly, a tool started under former Comptroller John Liu.

"Scott's off to a very strong start," Liu said when asked to assess what he's seen from his replacement thus far (Liu opted not to seek re-election, running for mayor instead). The former comptroller added that "it's too soon to tell" if Stringer is approaching the office much differently than he did. Both Stringer and Liu are unabashed liberals with a bend toward taking an activist approach to the duties of the office. Stringer has also continued to make a priority of interacting with constituents at public events around the city.

It has not been all smooth sailing for Stringer, of course, as the year has also been marked by the development of a public rift with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Speaking at an October event, Stringer explained his approach: "Part of what I'm trying to do in the comptroller's office is hold the city government to that same [high] standard - to issue provocative reports; to sometimes break some eggs; sometimes agitate at City Hall. And I think that's the best of being a progressive reformer. You see if we all agree all the time and we're all sitting around congratulating ourselves about the next big idea then we're not gonna move the debate."

Stringer has 'agitated' at City Hall a few times this year and quickly embraced the "independent" moniker that is essential to his job as a fiscal watchdog. Stringer, however, has found himself in a unique situation from that of his predecessors, being a Democratic comptroller alongside a Democratic mayor.

Most notably on the egg-breaking front, Stringer challenged the mayor's accounting of certain aspects of a contract deal with the teachers union and very publicly called the administration out over the slow pace with which pre-kindergarten provider contracts were being submitted to his office for review.

Stringer was also critical of the mayor's issuance of an executive order to expand application of the City's living wage, paid to many workers involved with City-subsidized development projects.

Stringer has received praise for sticking to essential accounting and other principles, and for showing his independence. As self-branded progressives swept into power in each of the city's highest political positions, some worried there would be no checks or balances. While Stringer continues to agree with the mayor on the underlying goals of these initiatives and others, where he has taken issue and felt compelled to act has been in terms of process, as is incumbent upon someone in his position.

Critics wonder, though, if Stringer has approached his oversight of the de Blasio administration in the best manner, with grumbles throughout political corridors about the ambition the comptroller has shown, perhaps at the expense of teamwork.

Politics aside, praise for the merits of Stringer's work comes from important places.

"I think he's done a very good job in his first year," said Carol Kellermann, President of Citizens Budget Commission (CBC). Speaking recently with Gotham Gazette, Kellermann added that Stringer "got the ball rolling by requiring that the mayor attribute the money to be paid to teacher retirees be booked in the current year - that was a challenging situation in which he had to go and meet personally with the mayor and he didn't back down. I realize that's an insider issue in a lot of ways, but that was very important."

Kellermann added, "He established he was going to follow generally established accounting principles and wasn't going to allow any shortcuts or avoidance."

Others see a less rosy picture. Nicole Gelinas, a financial analyst and fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, says that Stringer's "biggest mistake so far - and it could come back to haunt us - is going too easy on de Blasio in this first budget."

While fairly complimentary of the comptroller in totality, Gelinas says that Stringer allowed the administration to account for retroactive payments to teachers in out-year budgets down the road when the money must have been included in the current budget. It is "not very good accounting, to put it mildly," Gelinas says of what she sees as paying for operating costs with debt, "[Stringer] should have pushed back on that much harder."

On the issue of the pre-k contracts, which deals with the mayor's signature program and Stringer brought to public attention on the eve of the city's opening of hundreds of new sites, Liu is among those who applaud the comptroller.

"Stringer was totally on the mark pointing out that so many contracts were so late," said Liu. "[The Comptroller] has to ensure proper checks and balances, he has to have time for fraud detection and to ensure safety measures. He was totally on point, you need these contracts."

On the comptroller's side of the issue, the story is that there was ongoing dialogue about the need for contracts to be submitted for review and that Stringer only went public when he absolutely had to. The flip side has people saying that the administration has followed standard operating procedure - that City business often gets done before contracts with providers have been completed and reviewed - and that the comptroller jumped at an opportunity to make headlines. All of the above may be accurate, of course.

Regardless of who you side with, the outcome is that Stringer and de Blasio are on much more distant terms than they were a year ago. Politically speaking, it is unclear if the distance will turn out to hurt Stringer or help him, but in practical application for the city, it mostly appears a benefit to have the Comptroller and the Mayor with a bit of healthy friction between them.

"Sometimes you have to stand alone in the name of being progressive and sometimes you have to be collaborative, and that is the balance I think about in this new role," Stringer told Gotham Gazette.

Double Dichotomy
In interviews and public appearances Stringer regularly hits on or hints at the two major dichotomies at play in his work: first, he aims to be both a responsible fiscal steward and a progressive reformer; second, he must both work collaboratively with the mayor and hold the administration accountable.

In conversation with Gotham Gazette, Stringer was quick to point out that his office has already worked with the mayor's Office of Management and Budget to refinance city debt and save "almost $1 billion," something Kellerman of CBC praised.

Stringer also notes that his office worked successfully with the administration (and the City Council) on addressing funding for arts education and on issues related to claims against the City. The comptroller said that he sees the new ClaimStat tool as something that will be an ongoing source of positive collaboration.

There is likely to be a continued question of style, though, which could keep things icy between Stringer and others in city government. The battle for headlines among politicians is as old as time, of course, and not unlike other elected officials, Stringer clearly wants to see his name in bold. A lifelong politico and an elected official since his 1993 move to the State Assembly, Stringer is no stranger to the media marketplace. Conversations with former Stringer staff members paint the picture of a passionate, caring public servant who is highly attuned to the PR value of virtually every action.

As Stringer pointedly told Gotham Gazette, he feels an "urgency of now trying to make a big impact," adding that term limits don't give you that much time (city officials are limited to two four-year terms).

Additionally, while most of his audits and reports thus far - such as Stringer's scathing profile of City contracting with women and minority-owned businesses (he gave the City a "D") - have mainly elucidated problems from the Bloomberg years, they will soon start to show deficiencies more attributable to the de Blasio administration.

Stringer said that the wisest new agency heads under de Blasio came to his office to request comptroller review, though he noted that few had done so.

Activist Approach
In terms of being a progressive reformer, Stringer is well on his way.

In early November, Stringer announced the Boardroom Accountability Project. It is "a national initiative" he is leading "to improve the long-term performance of American companies by giving shareowners the right to nominate directors using the corporate ballot," he explained in a recent Daily News op-ed.

The "progressive coalition" Stringer brought together has put on notice an initial group of 75 companies including Netflix, Urban Outfitters, and ExxonMobil. The companies, which public pension systems invest in through Stringer and similar officials elsewhere, have been targeted for action around "excessive CEO pay," a lack of "gender or racial diversity on their board," and negative environmental impact.

"I am investment adviser and a trustee of the city's $160 billion pension funds," Stringer wrote. "These funds own shares in nearly 3,500 U.S. companies, and we have a stake in ensuring that each one of them is making decisions that promote long-term, sustainable value."

Stringer and other investment officers around the country are responsible for protecting the pension funds of current and former municipal employees, as well as their beneficiaries. The number of these stakeholders in New York City's pension funds sits at about 700,000. The bottom line for most of these people is, well, the bottom line - but Stringer certainly has room for such shareholder activism, as long as the money continues to flow - and he argues that his progressive push will be beneficial both ethically and financially.

Neither Kellerman of CBC nor Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute cared to comment on Stringer's activist approach, saying that it is all well and good as long as the numbers shine in the end.

It is on pension fund management that Kellermann said she'd like to see pointed action in the near term. Former Comptroller Liu, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and candidate for Comptroller Scott Stringer all said in the past that consolidation of management of the city's five pension funds should be a priority. Kellermann said she hasn't heard anything from Stringer about this recently and that CBC will continue to urge the comptroller to take steps in this regard.

Managing the pension program is perhaps the New York City Comptroller's most important task. Though it is hard to say considering the vast and essential functions of the office that also include reviewing all city contracts and auditing every city agency.

The role has many mandates, but it also includes flexibility. Take audits, for example: the Comptroller must audit each city agency every four years, but it may be just one function of an agency that is audited, it mustn't be a full, top-to-bottom audit.

The Comptroller's website explains of the audit department, "Our mission is to: Reduce the cost of City government; Improve the quality of City government services; and Maintain the integrity of the City government environment."

"You do have room in the office to focus on the issues that you care about," Stringer told Gotham Gazette, explaining that he came into the role knowing that he'd home in on NYCHA, recovery from superstorm Sandy, the city's library systems, arts education, and more. Even in what is a very technocratic position, "you do have your own imprint," Stringer says.

With the discretion that the position allows, it can be unclear why and how certain decisions are made. Stringer and Liu both shed light on the answer. Stringer indicated that you want to make choices that are sure to have an impact, but that with audits it can be difficult because they can take seven months to a year to complete - a timeframe Liu echoed.

Both men said that it was key to encourage deputies and to cultivate office cultures where auditors and others feel empowered. They also said that being out in public and interacting with New Yorkers is essential.

According to the Brooklyn Downtown Star, Stringer recently laid out his audit decision-making process as such: "We don't only respond to the heat of the moment, because something that may be an issue today may not be an issue a year from now," he said. "So we try to come up with the right mix of agencies and boroughs. And when somebody gets to the steps of City Hall and says, 'Hey, Comptroller, we want you to look at this,' we certainly discuss it."

Liu explained that he elevated the audit function in the office and said, "my top leadership would discuss issues and prioritize reports, often times leading on an issue or responding to an issue in the public discourse." He noted minimum wage as one such issue of his tenure.

Whether in regard to audits or less formal reports, Stringer explained that he hears about issues and gets ideas from a variety of sources: New Yorkers on the street or at one of the many public events he attends or at which he speaks; other city officials; and his many deputies and staffers. The day-to-day of Stringer's office is run by First Deputy Comptroller Alaina Gilligo, who convenes regular meetings of the eight deputy comptrollers and other top officials to coordinate operations and discuss ideas.

The comptroller also employs a chief of staff, a general counsel, and a chief investment officer, among others. In speaking with Gotham Gazette, Stringer specifically highlighted Gilligo's work and also boasted of naming the city's first Chief Diversity Officer, who is central to the work Stringer is doing on MWBEs, corporate board diversity, and more.

These top appointees and many other hires make the office go, and bring ideas to the fore. Provocation also comes from elsewhere.

Earlier this year, as part of a budget deal state officials empowered Stringer to audit city charter schools. Stringer's team got to work creating a new protocol and announced at the end of October that audit notices had been sent to four operators, including the highly controversial Success Academy network led by Eva Moskowitz, who Stringer defeated in a crowded 2005 Democratic primary for Manhattan Borough President.

In the press release announcing the commencement of audits, Stringer said, "Nothing is more important than the education of our kids. My office is going to make sure that taxpayer dollars are being used appropriately and that proper controls are in place to ensure that all young New Yorkers are getting the quality education they deserve."

On to Year Two
Many will eagerly await the results of those charter schools audits, which Moskowitz and others have already pushed back on.

Before news from those hits, though, expect more from Comptroller Stringer on NYCHA, diversity and environmental issues, and more. For year one in his new role thus far, Kellermann says, "he gets good grades for showing that he's independent and doing the day to day work of the agency in a thoughtful, consistent way."

As Stringer and his team set eyes upon year two, watch for more on the Green Bonds initiative that Stringer announced in September and told Gotham Gazette we'd be hearing more about soon.

The bond sale would be aimed at funding key environment-related infrastructure projects, Stringer said in announcing the proposal, on which he will have to work with the mayor's Office of Management and Budget.

In a recent interview with Corporate Knights, "the magazine for clean capitalism," Stringer said, "We are working very hard on a green bond initiative, which aims to make us the first major city in the nation to offer the products. New York's market size and presence means that any bond action that we take sets a precedent for the municipal marketplace. We're fielding strong investor interest in a green bond program for NYC, so we're currently working with the mayor's office to come up with a plan."

And there they are again: Stringer working as a progressive trendsetter and his relationship with the de Blasio administration. It has been some time since we've seen the comptroller and the mayor next to each other at a public event, perhaps an announcement on Green Bonds will be the next occasion.

Speaking at a recent event, Stringer noted their shared philosophy: "We had a progressive election," Stringer said, "the citywide elected officials certainly come from that place, we have a mayor who has championed progressive politics and we have a City Council that is very strong in that."

He added, "We should be able to tackle all of the challenges that people talked to us about throughout the campaign."

***
by Ben Max, executive editor, Gotham Gazette
@TweetBenMax
@GothamGazette

The Members' Speaker: Mark-Viverito on Her Council Leadership


MMV selfie w CMs

Speaker Mark-Viverito, right, with fellow council members in Taiwan (photo: @MMViverito)


Friday was a huge day for New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. The speaker, closing in on the end of her first year in her new position of leadership, saw Mayor Bill de Blasio sign into law two pieces of legislation that she had sponsored.

The bills focus on reducing New York City's cooperation with federal immigration authorities, aiming to limit the number of deportations taking place. The bill signing came on the heels of a strongly worded statement from Mark-Viverito excoriating the U.S. Congress and President Obama for a failure to act on immigration reform and urging the president to use his powers accordingly.

In a statement about her legislation, the speaker said, "This is an important moment for our city's immigrant community. This bill sends a strong message that while our nation's leaders have dragged their feet on immigration reform - New York City can and will lead."

In an interview with Gotham Gazette on Friday evening, Mark-Viverito was asked to put her bills becoming law into the larger context of her first year as Speaker.

"Personally, the immigration work is really dear to me - the municipal ID program, now this," said Mark-Viverito, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico. "It's things that help families," she added, "like universal pre-k, the work addressing inequality, injustice."

Mark-Viverito went on to name several other pieces of legislation she sees as highlights of her tenure thus far, including the expansion of paid sick leave, which was the first legislative action the Council took under her leadership, and the Astoria Cove real estate development deal, which, along with her immigration-related bills, is among the most recent work of the body.

"I'm very proud of the time that I've been the Speaker in the change that we've implemented," Mark-Viverito said over the phone Friday evening, "we are working to make New York City a model of how government can work on behalf of those we represent."

While she demured on the question of what she may have done differently this year, saying, "Life - personally and professionally - is always a work in progress," the speaker had a lot to say about what she's proud of in her first year in the position.

Last year at this time, Mark-Viverito was campaigning to become the Speaker of the City Council. As New Yorkers braced for life with Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio and to say goodbye to Michael Bloomberg, members of the City Council prepared for their own leadership shift. A consensus emerged among new and returning members, who would be voting in January on a new speaker to lead the body: they were looking for a change not unlike the one taking place in the mayor's office.

The majority of council members wanted a "progressive" and they were eager for reform of the Council's internal rules whereby the Speaker would not wield power over members in a stifling or vindictive manner, as some, including Mark-Viverito, had alleged was the practice of outgoing Speaker Christine Quinn.

As the candidates for Speaker engaged in a series of public forums and an exhaustive number of private conversations, a coalition emerged behind Mark-Viverito and she was ultimately chosen by her colleagues in a unanimous vote on January 8. In the ensuing months, Mark-Viverito has been largely praised by her colleagues, with the main criticisms of her coming from commentators who see her as too close with the mayor, too far to the left, or both.

Not only does Mark-Viverito feel positively about the progressive legislation she has helped enact since taking the helm, but she also believes the desired procedural and cultural shifts have taken place too.

"Changing the organizational culture has been challenging," she said, but adding that major progress has been made. "Some of that work is reflected in the rules reforms we made, the way we consider legislation...the way committees are run; discretionary spending, of course."

Mark-Viverito also pointed to more informal changes, noting that she has "engaged with my colleagues one-on-one, more so than I've seen in the past."

"I'm making a personal effort to touch my colleagues as much as I can, having one-on-one time with them," she continued, "I'm going into the districts with them...having dinner, meeting with community leaders, hearing from them first-hand."

Again drawing a distinction with her predecessor, she said, "I've been on the other side of how districts were treated unequally and that's been something really important to me."

While she said that she believes the Council is more transparent than it was in the past and that it is engaging with constituents more than ever, including through a major expansion of participatory budgeting and by holding council hearings in the field, Mark-Viverito also foretold that there is much more to come on these fronts.

"We're creating mechanisms...to engage more directly with constituents," she said. "We want to improve the [council] website, expand the capacity of the website, and use it more as a tool to ask constituents for feedback, make it more of a proactive site than a passive site."

Mark-Viverito said more on this could be expected in the new year and that it would be done in phases, partly due to financial limitations, but that the details are being fleshed out. Reform of the Council site was a part of rules reforms passed earlier this year.

On what else to expect moving forward, Mark-Viverito said a wide net will be cast, but she did say that there would be a focus on low-wage workers and new policy agendas akin to the climate-related package that the Council released and acted on this fall. She indicated that one such "legislative and policy agenda" was likely to be unveiled this week.

On the topic of encouraging open discussion around policy, the speaker said, "There's been a lot of inclusive dialogue on any agenda we develop, how we discuss bills, a lot of healthy debate....A bit different than what it was when I was not speaker."

The key to much of the work, Mark-Viverito explained, has been developing relationships.

When asked if the position was more demanding than expected, she said "Look, I clearly understood that this was a big responsibility, especially when you're dealing with 50 other individuals and their priorities and particularities (laughs), it's a lot."

***
by Ben Max, executive editor, Gotham Gazette
@TweetBenMax
@GothamGazette

The Week Ahead in New York Politics, November 16


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

After a quiet weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio starts his week with a Monday morning press conference "to make an announcement at the Brooklyn Navy Yard," according to his public schedule. "In the evening, the Mayor will attend a dinner with a group of leaders from the Jewish community in Manhattan."

While the mayor is in Brooklyn, the Campaign for Latino Representation will be rallying at City Hall, calling on de Blasio to "respect the Latino community, expressing displeasure over what ralliers believe is inadequate hiring of Latinos by the mayor.

Comptroller Scott Stringer starts his week touring facilities at Rikers Island with Department of Correction Commissioner Joe Ponte.

There's lots of interesting action at the City Council this week, including Wednesday hearings on legislation to regulate costumed characters and over the controversial 'plastic bag tax,' plus a Thursday hearing on the state of bicycling in New York City.

There's also other council action, starting with a rally of council members in support of their colleague Debi Rose on Monday at City Hall: "On Friday, it was revealed that a special prosecutor is targeting Council Member Debi Rose's 2009 campaign, despite the fact that the case was investigated and closed without charges by the U.S. Attorney. In response to this development, eleven of Council Member Rose's colleagues rose to her defense and issued a statement, which can be read here. Tomorrow her council colleagues will publicly speak in her support at City Hall."

Participating council members are "Margaret Chin, Corey Johnson, Brad Lander, Stephen Levin, Mark Levine, Carlos Menchaca, Rosie Mendez, Ydanis Rodriguez, Ritchie Torres, Jimmy Van Bramer, and Jumaane D. Williams."

New York City's controversial new policy on policing marijuana possession goes into effect this week, on Wednesday.

City Hall and the Sergeants Benevolent Association are set to meet again on contract negotiations this week - a meeting which is coming at a time of quite fraught relations between the city's police unions and many elected officials - Mayor de Blasio and much of the City Council, members of which just re-introduced several pieces of legislation aimed at changing NYPD protocol in several ways.

On Tuesday, another charter school-related rally in Manhattan - but not one being organized by the larger charter management organizations. See below for details.

And, on Thursday, Ready for Hillary comes to NYC.

The run of the week in more detail:

Monday
On Monday afternoon there had been a planned rally in front of Staten Island Tech High School, "Assemblyman Joseph Borelli, Councilman Steve Matteo, members of the Staten Island Tech Alumni Association, members of the SI Tech PTA, and students of Staten Island Technical High School are holding a rally against proposed changes to admissions criteria for Staten Island Tech and other specialized high schools." NOTE: this event has been postponed due to weather.

Monday's City Council schedule will include: the Committees on Community Development, Housing and Buildings, and Land Use will convene for a joint oversight hearing on "Building Homes, Preserving Communities: A First Look at the Mayor's Affordable Housing Plan" - Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will deliver opening remarks; the Committees on Immigration and Aging will convene for a joint hearing regarding the oversight of: "Serving A Diverse Aging Population-Improving Immigrant Seniors' Access to New York City's Senior Services"; the Committee on Higher Education will convene for an oversight hearing regarding "CUNY Graduate Programs - A Focus and review"; and the Committee on Youth Services will meet jointly with the Committee on Mental Health, Developmental Disability, Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Disability Services, for an oversight hearing on "Services for Mentally Ill Parents and Their Children."

City Council Member Andy King will host a "Domestic Violence Legal Outreach" event in his Bronx district office on Monday to help victims of domestic violence: "To help victims of domestic violence, NYC Council Member Andy King and the Urban Justice Center will be holding Domestic Violence Legal Outreach counseling."

Monday and Tuesday, "The New York eHealth Collaborative's fourth annual Digital Health Conference will bring together 850 senior-level professionals from across the healthcare ecosystem to learn about cutting-edge innovations and foster dynamic conversation addressing how healthcare is being redefined through these technologies."

Monday evening, the New York League of Conservation Voters, NYC Chapter, will host "Celebrate a Greener Skyline." "From cutting carbon emissions to building resiliently for the future, now is an exciting time for the environment here in New York...In addition to Patrick Foye, Executive Director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Enterprise Community Partners, NYLCV will honor the critical work of Build it Back."

Also Monday evening, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will testify at the Department of Education's public hearing on the proposed re-siting of Beacon High School to a new building, to be co-located with P.S. 35 beginning in the 2015-16 school year.

And Monday evening as well, Council Member Mark Weprin holds a Vision Zero Town Hall with "representatives from the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT); and representatives from the New York City Police Department (NYPD)...a town hall meeting to give the residents of Eastern Queens an opportunity to learn, ask questions and voice concerns about the Vision Zero traffic safety initiative, as well as the new 25 MPH citywide speed limit," according to a release from Weprin's office.

Council Members Costa Constantinides and Jimmy Van Bramer will hold neighborhood assemblies to discuss participatory budgeting in their districts at 7:00 p.m. on Monday.

Tuesday
According to Chalkbeat NY: "Tuesday, charter-school advocates will host a demonstration calling for the state to provide facilities funding for existing schools, which didn't benefit from the new law. The event, being organized the Northeast Charter Schools Network, the New York City Charter School Center and the Coalition of Community Charter Schools, will set the stage for one piece of the sector's upcoming fight for more favorable legislation."

On Tuesday morning at Foley Square in Manhattan, "Zephyr Teachout, along with Josh Fox, Peter Yarrow, Michael Premo and others, will speak against the Keystone XL pipeline at a rally tomorrow in Manhattan. The rally, hosted by 350.org, will occur ahead of a historic vote in the US Senate on whether to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline. NASA scientist James Hansen has said approval of Keystone XL would mean "game over for the climate,"" according to a release from Teachout's camp.

The de Blasio administration and the Sergeants Benevolent Association are set to meet again on contract negotiations, according to a previous report from Capital New York: "The city has asked that we refrain from providing details regarding contract talks to the media. In the interest of good faith between both parties, we will continue our negotiations with the city, with our next meeting scheduled for November 18," S.B.A president Ed Mullins said in the statement."

Tuesday's City Council schedule includes: a meeting of the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises to review land use applications; a meeting of the Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses to review Land Use Applications; a meeting of the Committee on Technology for an oversight hearing regarding 311 Data Use and Collection; a meeting of Committee on Education regarding multiple resolutions:

  • "Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign A. 518/S. 4860, to require dating violence education and dating violence policies in schools.
  • Resolution calling on the New York City Department of Education to require that all public school students receive age-differentiated anti-bullying instruction and complete an anti-bullying course focused especially on cyberbullying.
  • Resolution calling on the New York City Department of Education to bring more mentoring programs into schools to combat bullying and violence, as called for in the Stop School Violence online petition campaign by Anthony Vargas, a local high school student.
  • Resolution calling upon the New York City Department of Education to establish an awareness and prevention program in the public schools athletic league to combat intimate partner abuse.
  • Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature to mandate that the New York State Education Department include intimate partner abuse awareness and prevention programs in all public middle school and high school athletic programs";

and a meeting of the Subcommittee on Planning, Disposition and Concessions regarding overview of Land Use Applications.

Tuesday morning, Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) will host a breakfast event with NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation President and CEO Ram Raju. "He will discuss the priorities and fiscal challenges of the Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), which plays a pivotal role in the life of the city. In 2013, HHC's 37,000 employees served 1.4 million New Yorkers at 11 acute care hospitals and other facilities. The Citizens Budget Commission recently issued a study titled "Fiscal Challenges Facing the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation." The study analyzes HHC's current fiscal condition and identifies four major challenges to be addressed."

Also on Tuesday morning, City & State NY will host City & State on Tech, asking experts about NYC use of technology and data for large-scale (city) projects; the de Blasio administration's work to enhance high-speed internet access across the five boroughs; and NYC work to ensure technology literacy among its school students. The event will feature an interview with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

Also Tuesday morning, the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College will host "NYC Health Technology Food Forum: How Can Technology Help (and Hurt) Public Health Initiatives?" on Tuesday morning to address the question of how can health technology be implemented to improve quality food access and security, as well as to "decrease health inequalities and diet-related diseases."

The Manhattan Young Democrats will hold its monthly general meeting on Tuesday evening, this time with special guest Council Member Corey Johnson.

On Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will host his second "The City Speaks" forum at Brooklyn Borough Hall. "Visit Brooklyn Borough Hall on Tuesday, November 18th to listen as "The City Speaks", our second forum that is bringing residents and agencies together in order to learn about the policies and guidelines of the services that they provide. Meet with representatives from the NYC Department of Transportation, in order to learn more about street light outages, speed bump requests, installation of stop signs and traffic lights, sidewalk issues and Vision Zero."

The Center For An Urban Future, a think tank, will host its 2014 Gala on Tuesday to honor Managing Director in the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs, Margaret Anadu; Executive Vice President at Dragados USA, Christopher Ward; and "one of New York's largest and most innovative startups" - ETSY.

Citizens Union is holding another in its series of forums on non-citizen voting on Tuesday evening at 6:30 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at El Puente.

Council Member Ritchie Torres will hold a neighborhood assembly to discuss participatory budgeting with his district members on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday
On Wednesday, the city's new Chief Technology Officer, Minerva Tantoco, will speak at the Smart City Expo in Barcelona, Spain: "In governance terms, working towards the smart city concept means citizens participating more closely in government decisions, governments opening data, and cities integrating innovation. How are cities responding to these challenges, the challenge of developing better cities, improving citizens' quality of life and generating open and transparent organizations?"

Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio will be in Washington, D.C. for an early morning interview with POLITICO's Mike Allen. It is likely the mayor will travel to D.C. the night before at the latest, more on his Tuesday and Wednesday schedule is not yet available as of Monday morning.

New City rules around marijuana possession go into effect on Wednesday.

Wednesday's City Council schedule will include: a meeting of Committee on Governmental Operations jointly with the Committee on Civil Service and Labor "examining the diminishment of the civil service system"; a meeting of the Committee on Consumer Affairs to introduce a new bill regarding "licensing of solicitation by costumed individuals"; a meeting of the Committee on Housing and Buildings to discuss a new bill on "Conforming the NYC energy conservation code to the NYS energy code with amendments unique to construction in the city and repealing section 28-1001.2 in relation thereto"; and a meeting of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management to see the introduction of a new bill aimed at "reducing the use of carryout bags."

Wednesday morning, Chancellor of CUNY James Milliken will headline an ABNY breakfast event to deliver a speech about "CUNY's essential role in the future of our City and State."

On Wednesday, the Empire Center is hosting leading transportation policy experts to speak to the updates in the state's five-year transportation capital program at "The Road Ahead: Renewing New York's Highway Infrastructure" forum in Albany: "The upkeep of New York's 113,000 miles of roads and 17,000 bridges is the largest component of the state's five-year transportation capital program, which must be updated soon. That makes this an ideal time to address such questions as the following:

  • What is the condition of New York's state and local highway system?
  • Is New York's dedicated transportation fund capable of adequately supporting the next capital plan?
  • How have the Thruway Authority's finances been affected by construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge?
  • What's in the latest federal transportation bill "patch" for states like New York?
  • Can technological innovation help the state meet its infrastructure needs in the context of exceptionally tight fiscal constraints?
  • What are our options for financing road and bridge capital projects in the future?
  • What role could public-private partnerships (PPP) play in renewing New York's highway infrastructure?"

Wednesday night will see the "first-ever New York City edition of Capital Pro Trivia Night," featuring questions "on all things New York policy, politics and media" from Capital reporter Azi Paybarah.

Council Members Ritchie Torres, Jimmy Van Bramer and Costa Constantinides will host neighborhood assemblies to discuss participatory budgeting with their constituents on Wednesday evening.

Thursday
Thursday afternoon, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is acting on a new law: "I am an advocate for increasing youth engagement in our borough's civic life, which is why I encourage young Brooklynites to attend a meeting on Thursday, November 20th, from 4:00 PM until 6:00 PM, in the Al Vann Library at Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Students ages sixteen and over can come and learn about how they can join a community board in the coming year."

Thursday morning is the November meeting of the Manhattan Borough Board, chaired by Manhattan BP Brewer.

Also Thursday morning, City & State NY will host "The Art of Advocacy," a forum "convening leaders in media, public relations, and advocacy to discuss the multitude of ways organizations can advocate and mobilize around their cause."

And Thursday morning, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen will keynote "Crain's Future of New York City Conference: Innovation Central," examining "New York's strengths as an innovation center as well as its competitive challenges" and exploring "how business leaders and policy makers can make a difference for the future of New York City." Featured panelists will also include: NYC School's Chancellor Carmen Fariña; CUNY Chancellor James Milliken; and several other leaders.

Thursday's City Council schedule includes: a meeting of the Committee on Recovery and Resiliency jointly with the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services to discuss two new bills in relation to "a communications access plan for certain emergency events" and "distribution of localized emergency preparedness materials"; a meeting of Committee on Land Use to review "all items reported out of the Subcommittees" and other necessary business; and a meeting of the Committee on Transportation for an oversight hearing, "Leading the Way for Bicycling in America: Where is New York City Now and How Can We Improve?"

Thursday evening, Council Member Torres will hold a "Fordham Assembly" to discuss participatory budgeting.

Also Thursday evening, Ready for Hillary takes New York City by storm.

Friday and the weekend
MTA CEO & Chairman Thomas Prendergast will headline the CityLaw breakfast event Friday and address the MTA Capital Program for the next five years.

Also Friday morning is this year's NYU Steinhardt School's Education Policy Breakfast Series Part I: Early Childhood Education and Closing the Achievement Gap: "This year, we will address an issue that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has made a priority: early childhood education.

Over the course of the series, we will look at key issues in early childhood education:accessibility, quality, and affordability. What are the merits and weaknesses of providing universal pre-K vs. targeting at-risk students?...We begin the series with a broad look at the role early childhood education plays in improving student success."

Council Member Torres will hold a "Van Nest Assembly" to discuss participatory budgeting with his constituents on Saturday.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? Email Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Rati Mukhuradze and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

Note: this article has been updated

Is New York Campaign Finance Reform Dead?


cuomo skelos silver

Can Silver, Cuomo, & Skelos make a campaign finance reform deal? (photo: @GannettAlbany)


"Band-Aids on multiple bullet wounds" is how Governor Andrew Cuomo described public financing of political campaigns just before Election Day this year, referring to the influx of millions in dark money or independent expenditures into state races.

Despite that characterization, in his election night victory speech Cuomo listed campaign finance reform among the top three things he would deliver during his second term. But that was before it was clear that everything had come tumbling down for Democrats in the State Senate, before it was clear that Senate Republicans, who have long opposed campaign finance reform - especially public financing of campaigns - had cemented their majority for the next two years, before it was clear that Cuomo's entire progressive agenda was in jeopardy.

That is, of course, if you take the governor at his word that he is truly behind campaign finance reform, including a meaningful public matching funds program. Even if he does believe in reform, it has been widely agreed upon that Cuomo does not mind the Senate outcome and it is unclear exactly what he really wants to accomplish during his next term. While the governor has expressed repeatedly that he believes in "public finance," as he likes to call it, he may already be backtracking by saying that the outside spending so dwarfs what is spent by candidates' campaigns that regulating the latter won't really do much to get the money out of politics.

Even when expressing support for reform, the governor has mentioned that public opinion polls show the majority of voters against public financing of campaigns. When asked in October about campaign finance reform's place on his agenda, Cuomo said, "I support it, we need a legislature that supports it, we don't have that now. If New Yorkers really care about public finance, what I've been urging them to do is elect legislators who support it."

For many, there is good reason to believe that campaign finance reform is a dead issue.

In the days following the election good government advocates began assessing their priorities for the next two years and some of them are following Cuomo's take on the impact of dark money in a post-Citizens United world, looking at the Republican Senate majority, and deciding that the issue of campaign finance reform is essentially a lost cause for the next two years. Others are taking Cuomo at his word and are ready for the uphill battle the next two years will likely bring.

"It was a difficult issue to get addressed even in 2014 when we had a more open State Senate than we will have in 2015," said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union. "There is a much tougher road ahead now that the chamber is controlled totally by Republicans, who are opposed to campaign finance reform. It depends largely on the governor's commitment and leadership as always. Advocates need to come up with a strong plan of attack."

One of those brave souls is Jessica Wisneski, legislative and campaigns director at Citizen Action of New York. Wisneski said she was heartened to hear Cuomo list campaign finance reform in his victory speech and thinks it is an important sign that when he is asked about the issue he now tends to refer to it as "public finance." "It indicates the governor agrees with us that public finance is the real solution for campaign finance reform," said Wisneski, who added: "If I take the governor at his word in his acceptance speech, campaign finance reform was one of the top three things he said he wanted to achieve this term."

Others in Albany take Cuomo's choice of phrasing as an indication that he is focused on the Republican argument that taxpayers do not want to foot the bill for public elections. Again Wisneski says that if you take Cuomo at his word those concerns should not be an issue. She points to the state budget deal reached last spring that contained a public financing pilot program for the state comptroller's race. Good government groups and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli himself rejected the system as a ramshackle red herring that was doomed to fail. And yet Wisneski says Cuomo repeatedly told her and other good government representatives that by having Republicans sign off on the pilot, which was supported by unclaimed funds, Republicans were effectively signing away their concerns. "Senate Republicans took "taxpayers footing the bill" out of the equation with the pilot program," said Wisneski. "The governor said that to us multiple times."

Dadey is skeptical of that argument: "I think that was their strategy to wiggle out of the bigger issue. That the creation of a pilot program that was doomed to fail whether or not it was using uncollected funds has somehow led Senate Republicans to find religion on this issue is hard for me to believe."

Wisneski insists that voters are more keyed into the issue this year because of how much dark money flowed into local Senate races. "People are appalled," said Wisneski, citing the political mailers, TV spots, and robocalls that inundated battleground districts. She says that advocates on other issues are also keyed in to how much of a role special interest cash played in the elections and they plan to track the issue in the coming session, which begins in January.

In April a judge rejected the State's $150,00 individual donation limit to super PACS, which allowed the groups to have an even larger impact on state elections this year.

Outside groups poured over $13 million into hotly contested State Senate races.. One of the biggest spenders was the real estate industry that was spooked by Mayor Bill de Blasio's efforts to win the Senate for Democrats and his promise to return control over rent regulations to the City. The state's rent control laws are set to expire in 2016 and tenant advocates fear the real estate industry has purchased its support in Albany.

The largest independent expenditures this year came from close Cuomo allies in the charter school sector. New Yorkers For a Balanced Albany, which is backed by major charter school investors, spent over $3 million on Senate races and got the outcome they were looking for, partly aided, many say, by the governor's lack of effort behind Democratic candidates.

"I think New Yorkers will see outside money driving the 2015 agenda," said Wisneski. "From privatizing schools to real estate we see these groups bought a Republican Senate. We will be taking every opportunity this session to point that out."

Supporters of New York City's public financing program say that not all is lost because of independent expenditures, in fact they say they are making major progress toward perfecting their system. The City recently passed a law requiring that groups involved in independent expenditures disclose their top donors. Meanwhile, the Campaign Finance Board has made it easier for small donors to contribute over the Internet and through text message donations. Many hold up the city system as a model for the state.

Dadey said that advocates and legislators need to examine the environment dark money has created in Albany and come up with a comprehensive solution. "Public financing of campaigns was a slam dunk fix five years ago," said Dadey "Now with giant [independent] expenditures we need to assess how public financing will have a meaningful impact on a system that is flooded with outside money. I wish it were otherwise, but the growth of dark money has led to that change."

***
by David King, Albany editor, Gotham Gazette
@DavidHowardKing

Note: Gotham Gazette is an independent publication of Citizens Union Foundation, sister organization of Citizens Union

Forty Years of Freefall in New York Voter Turnout


cuomo voting primary

Gov. Cuomo voting in September's primary (photo: @WSJNY)


Voter turnout in New York State is in freefall. Last week's gubernatorial election saw the smallest number of voters make it to the polls in the four decades since the state Board of Elections was formed and began tracking voting. Few reports have noted the extent of the decline: Cuomo's 52.5 percent of the vote on election night may have seemed like the typical erosion of an incumbent's margin - down from 61 percent in 2010 - but it obscures a fall of nearly one million votes.

"New York has always been lousy," says New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) legislative director Blair Horner. "It's getting worse."

It's especially acute in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio's landslide victory a year ago came without the participation of many voters of cycles past. While de Blasio racked up more votes than his predecessor did in any of his three elections, the turnout for mayoral contests has steadily declined since 2001, now hovering at just over 1.1 million voters.

And, the percentage of city voters turning out for gubernatorial elections has been consistently lower than the statewide turnout.

According to figures obtained by Gotham Gazette from the State Board of Elections, 75.4 percent of registered voters went to the polls to vote for governor in 1974. Since then, voter registration has vastly outstripped turnout, with the number of registered voters rising from 7.4 million in '74 to 11.8 million today, while the number of voters who show up on Election Day has declined from 5.5 million in '74 to an anemic 3.7 million this year.

Still, these numbers actually paint a rosy picture: political scientists often measure turnout in relation to the voting eligible population (VEP) or the voting age population (VAP), both of which are inevitably larger than the number of registered voters. Dr. Christina Greer, assistant professor of political science at Fordham University, says that VEP "is the calculation that needs to be used."

Since VEP tells you the number of people who eligible to vote, registered or not, Dr. Greer says it is "a more accurate measure of... a democratic, participatory election."

Using VEP, as The New York Times editorial board did this week, paints an even more dismal picture. Taking stock of turnout nationally, the Times wrote, "In 43 states, less than half the eligible population bothered to vote, and no state broke 60 percent. In the three largest states — California, Texas and New York — less than a third of the eligible population voted. New York's turnout was a shameful 28.8 percent, the fourth-lowest in the country, despite three statewide races (including the governor) and 27 House races."

Governor Cuomo was asked in a post-election interview why he thought turnout was so low in the state he's been re-elected to lead. On with Susan Arbetter of WCNY's Capital Pressroom, the governor himself declared there was nothing to see here: "The temptation is to view the world through the lens of New York. Sometimes it's not about us, sometimes it's not about New York....It was an historically low turnout nationwide. Something like not since 1942...has the turnout been that low."

Jerry Skurnik, a partner at Prime New York, a political consulting firm that supplies data to electoral campaigns, agrees: "There's a national trend. It's not Andrew Cuomo's fault that turnout in California dropped, and it's not [California Governor] Jerry Brown's fault that turnout in New York dropped."

"There's no denying that's true," says NYPIRG's Horner, "but New York is consistently ranked among the worst states in the country, and that is what's different about New York."

Both Horner and Greer argue more debates might have invigorated turnout; there was just a single general election gubernatorial debate, two weeks before the election. "Did Cuomo inspire people to really be passionate about this particular race?" asks Greer, rhetorically. "No. Most Democrats, and even a lot of Republicans, felt like this race was over before it began."

[Related: Solving Our Voter Turnout Crisis]

On the radio with Arbetter, Cuomo added that his race was uncompetitive and that there weren't really major issues at stake, though he said otherwise when he campaigned on the Women's Equality Agenda. The governor said, "There was no real state issues or state excitement or state energy. My race was never close, there were no big issues that were driving a state turnout that would overwhelm the national phenomenon."

Skurnik is skeptical on the role of debates: "I doubt more debates would have made a difference," he said. "The people who pay attention to debates; those aren't the people you have to motivate to vote."

Of Cuomo's lack of interest in a series of debates, he said, "You can't blame a candidate for following a strategy that helps get them elected. Their goal is to win, not to increase turnout."

On that count, Greer questions whether the major parties have any genuine incentive to get voters to the polls. "Yes, in theory, everyone says they want more people to participate," she says. "If we step back and look at counties across the state, how many elected officials who are in their second, maybe third decade – no matter what party, Democrat or Republican – how many of them really genuinely want more people in the political process? They don't. Because they're winning their districts solidly. They're keeping their incumbency advantage."

The effects of the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United only skew the playing field further, with nominally "independent" groups shoveling $17.8 million into state legislative elections. Instead of mobilizing new voters, they inevitably focus on energizing the base, and one of the surest ways to do that is by demonizing opponents. Horner sees the discourse as "increasingly toxic," and says that "For the vast bulk of voters, who are not driven by ideology, they end up looking at the campaign as the choice between two demons. I think it turns voters off."

As Skurnik puts it: "Voters turn out for exciting, competitive elections. This [New York gubernatorial] election wasn't either exciting or competitive."

Unfortunately, as NYPIRG's Horner observes, "You can't legislate competitive elections." Advocacy groups such as NYPIRG and the Brennan Center have inevitably focused on an array of familiar reforms: Election Day and online registration, early voting, and pre-registration, to name a few.

Nonetheless, as Horner says, "You can legislate a fairer redistricting process, you can legislate campaign finance systems, but in some parts of the state there are more cows than there are Democrats, and in some parts of the state there are more telephone polls than there are Republicans. In those parts of the state, competitive elections, if they occur at all, occur in the primaries. And most people can't vote."

The Brennan Center's DeNora Getachew sees the whole problem as more straightforward: "The reason that they [turnout rates] keep falling is that New York has one of the most onerous requirements for voter registration."

The Brennan Center, which advocates for voting rights, has backed the Voter Empowerment Act of New York, which would modernize the state's voter registration procedures. The bill was introduced to the state Legislature in 2012 but killed by the Republican-controlled State Senate's election committee. Prospects for reform with a state Senate now firmly under Republican control seem distant at best.

Dr. Greer points to another factor in the decline of voter participation: sheer exhaustion. Voters have gone (or been asked to go) to the polls several times a year for the last three years, and the ensuing voter fatigue means many are less inclined to bother choosing between demons.

"New York has historically been at the bottom of the national pile," when it comes to turnout, says NYPIRG's Horner, "and that's something that has to be fixed."

***
Nicholas Jahr is a freelance reporter based in Brooklyn. He has worked as an election observer in west and north Africa. You can read more of his work at his website and follow him on Twitter.

Graph prepared by Casey Tolan



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