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Successful Presidential Transitions Rely on Attitudes, Organization and Law


trump obama from trump facebook

President-elect Trump & President Obama (photo: Trump on Facebook)


President-elect Donald Trump visited The White House Thursday to discuss transition planning with President Barack Obama. While the election was just decided and it was Trump’s first public move in shifting from the campaign toward governing, the transition process has been underway for months -- both in the Trump campaign and the Obama administration. The period from Election Day to Inauguration Day, January 20, is brief -- just 73 days this year -- and the next President must be able to move quickly during the transition period in order to smoothly take the reigns of the country’s vast government and military apparatuses.

Unlike the ideological and, to some extent, personnel continuity that a Hillary Clinton win may have afforded, the Obama to Trump transition will be drastic. But, there are protocols and practices in place, mandated by law and not, meant to make for a successful presidential transition. On both Wednesday and Thursday, President Obama sought to assure the country that his administration is doing everything it can to ensure a smooth transition of power, despite the differences between the president and his successor, whom Obama has called uniquely unfit for the position.

Speaking in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, the day after the election, Obama told the country, “I have instructed my team to…work as hard as possible to ensure that this is a successful transition for the president-elect.”

Obama reiterated the point on Thursday when he and Trump sat in the Oval Office, with the president saying that his team must do its best to make Trump successful, because if the president is successful, so is the country.

The task for Trump and his top advisors, including post-election transition chair and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, is immense -- many thousands of positions to fill, a daunting amount of information to absorb, and important policy and protocol decisions to make. President-elect Trump is under the microscope perhaps to a greater extent than others in his position might be because he heads to the presidency as the first in United States history with no prior government or military experience. Trump immediately set off alarm bells when his first two appointments included Steve Bannon, who has a history of anti-Semitic, white nationalist, and misogynistic behavior, as his top strategic advisor.

While all of Trump’s top cabinet posts will be deeply scrutinized, as they would with any president-elect, there is also the vast bureaucracy of both the White House and, to a larger degree, the federal government, that must be filled and managed. A sound presidential transition relies on the preparation and attitude of the outgoing administration, the organization and execution of the incoming administration, and the laws in place to aid in the effort.

Prior to September 11, 2001, a few laws were already in place to govern the transition process, and others have been added since. In 1963, recognizing the need for a formalized transition process in the face of a more technologically advanced and rapidly moving world, Congress enacted The Presidential Transitions Act of 1963, which set the precedent for transition funding, allocating $900,000 of federal funds per team. The 1988 Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act increased funding, capped outside contributions to transition teams, and required that major donations be disclosed. Similar legislation, passed in 1998 and 2000, shortened Senate confirmation periods and addressed the digitalization of government records, but other than that, the scale and schedule of a transition was up to the two administrations.

"The national interest requires that such transitions in the office of President be accomplished so as to assure continuity in the faithful execution of the laws and in the conduct of the affairs of the Federal Government, both domestic and foreign,” reads the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. “Any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and well-being of the United States and its people."

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the transition period was identified as one of national vulnerability. This led to the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. Comprehensive security briefings for incoming high-level personnel became mandated, as was extensive contingency planning, crisis management training, and background checks.

Under Obama, further attention was paid to transitions. In March of this year, he signed into law the 2015 Presidential Transitions Improvement Act, which requires the executive branch to establish two transition panels, one for the White House operation and one to oversee the process throughout federal agencies. The panels must be formed six months before the general election. Prior to that, the 2010 Pre-Election Presidential Act required the General Services Administration to provide each major party candidate’s transition team with office space, desks, computers, and phones within three business days of the candidate’s nomination for president.

With these laws in place, the Trump transition team has a lot of resources, but also a lot of work to do.

According to the president-elect’s transition website, the team is setting up Agency Review Teams for each federal agency, and has begun the vetting and hiring process for the approximately 4,100 presidential appointees. As reported by Politico in October, the Chris Christie-led pre-election transition team had compiled a list of 400 appointees to push through Senate confirmation after the election. Though few other details were made available by the Christie team, Politico also reported that the Trump operation was holding private explanatory meetings for big donors and financial services leaders. One such “look inside” charged $5,000 per person.

Shortly after winning the election, Trump announced that Vice President-elect Pence would replace Gov. Christie as the chair of the transition, and also named a larger transition committee. Top cabinet positions are expected to be filled soon, and other high-profile positions will also have to be determined. The policy focus, political orientation, government experience, and demographic diversity -- racial, gender, religious, and more -- of top-level appointments to key administration posts will give an indication of what type of presidency is being planned.

The team that will be overseeing this work, Trump’s Presidential Transition Executive Committee, has just been announced. Under Pence’s leadership, committee vice chairs are Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Dr. Ben Carson, Christie, Senator Jeff Sessions, and retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.

The committee will also include Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Rep. Chris Collins, Tom Marino, Lou Barletta, and Devin Nunes, Rebekah Mercer, Steven Mnuchin, Anthony Scaramucci, Peter Thiel, Trump’s children Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, who was RNC chair and has been named Trump’s White House chief of staff, and Bannon, who was the campaign CEO for the home stretch after having led Breitbart News.

Rumors have started to fly about possible appointments for different cabinet positions, including some of the names from the transition team.

Along with the Bannon hire, there are other red flags being raised about the Trump transition, including the effects of the shift from the Christie-led team to the Pence-led team. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that “President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition operation plunged into disarray,” citing the resignation of key transition figures from the Christie team who had been integral to the process and a hold-up around Pence signing essential transition paperwork.

History, 2008, and Today
Smart, proactive transitions are the first step toward an effective presidency and begin long before the formal transition process that takes place between Election Day and Inauguration Day. Prepared candidates will often begin transition planning before the conclusion of their primary race, will have transition staffs in the hundreds, and can be expected to provide lists of presidential appointees as soon as they can be called president-elect. In 2008, the Obama transition operation consisted of 679 staffers and volunteers, and began before Obama had defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. 

Well-run transitions are important for several reasons. First, national security concerns necessitate a smooth handoff, a process that requires vetting and apprising new defense and high-level personnel well before they succeed their predecessors. The next-in-line officials must be brought up to speed on a wide variety of threats and operations. The President-elect is immediately briefed on the same information as the President.

Transitions are seen as a weak point in national security regardless of the quality of the transition, so it is expected that incoming and outgoing administrations will be as diligent and cooperative as possible. Ever since Harry Truman learned of the Manhattan Project a month into his presidency (which was not even by election, but by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death while in office), national security has been a foremost transition priority. Still, the events of September 11, 2001 dramatically increased the level of attention paid to national security generally and in transitioning. In the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, comprehensive security briefings for incoming high-level personnel were mandated, as well as extensive contingency planning.

Second, it is in the political interests of both incoming and outgoing administrations to oversee a smooth transition. From the outgoing perspective, it is politically expedient for a president’s reputation to include a well-executed departure from office. From the incoming perspective, a president’s early success hinges on his or her preparedness to take office.

“President Bush was very gracious to us during the transition,” President Obama’s former advisor David Axelrod recently told the New York Times, echoing a point Axelrod has stressed publicly in a variety of forums over the years.

Preparedness includes having appointees for all high-level positions ready for Senate confirmation, a working policy agenda ready to implement, and a set of priorities to follow. If appointees are not ready, then the confirmation process cannot commence, and agencies take longer to fully assemble. While the 2008-09 transition is heralded as the most successful in U.S. history, there were still hiccups, especially given the surrounding circumstances: a global financial crisis.

Because it was such a success, the Bush-Obama transition essentially serves as a template for the successful modern transition -- and it’s one that Obama has said his administration is working to repeat. Two hallmarks stand out when analyzing that transition: early and proactive planning from both sides; and dedication to conquering partisan concerns for the greater good of the country’s security.

In “The 2008-2009 Presidential Transitions Through the Voices of Its Participants,” Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor of political science at Towson University, provides a retelling of the transition based on interviews with several important players.

Recognizing the biggest obstacle to a fast and seamless transition to be the Senate confirmation process, the Bush administration set about reducing the length of FBI investigations into presidential appointees from 60 to 30 days. It also tasked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with performing investigations, so as to have more hands on deck. Though successful in making these reforms, the administration’s attempt to eliminate Senate confirmations for non-policymaking positions failed, Kumar explains. Regardless, it succeeded in streamlining the Senate confirmation process for the Obama administration.

Kumar outlines how the Bush Administration focused further still on personnel turnover, requiring that the transition teams from each federal agency collaborate to create a list of 150 crucial positions that needed to be filled as soon as possible. The list was then handed over to the Obama team after the election.

As mandated by the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, the Bush administration began holding one-on-one meetings with the incoming Obama team as early as Election Day, Kumar explains. Incoming cabinet officers and agency heads sat down with their predecessors to go over contingency planning for each sector of government. By December 4, 2008, the core national security teams from the president and the president-elect had met several times, discussed the administration’s operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East, and had handed over most contingency and crisis planning.

The Bush team, Kumar writes, also made it a priority to leave behind a record of their work and experience to help guide their successors. Led by Steve Hadley, the National Security Advisor, the Bush White House compiled a total of 40 memoranda, divided into two sets; one addressing national security and foreign policy, and the other domestic policy. The memoranda contained difficulties that the Bush administration had faced, advice for avoiding such issues, information about particular countries of interest, and an account of all the interactions that had taken place between the U.S. and countries of interest.

To ensure that “midnight regulations” --  legislation passed in the last months of a presidency and which, intentionally or not, often burdens the incoming administration with tougher regulations and policy changes they oppose -- did not waylay the new Obama administration, Joshua Bolten, the Bush Chief of Staff at the time, declared that proposed regulations had to be submitted no later than June 1, 2008, and that regulations could not be issued after November 1, 2008.

Obama’s team has placed a similar level of emphasis on transition planning, something that the president has cited in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s victory, and at the meeting the two had at the White House on Thursday, November 10.

Taking advantage of the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which states that presidential nominees may begin submitting names of personnel for national security clearance before election results have been determined, the Obama team, in the summer of 2008, began submitting names. Republican nominee Senator John McCain’s team submitted zero names, Kumar reports.

Around the same time, in August of 2008, Rahm Emanuel was informally appointed as Chief of Staff. Working with John Podesta, Obama’s transition director, Emanuel established several agency review teams to evaluate the state of each agency, gather information, and recommend appointees. Emanuel also cooperated with the Bush transition team on the personnel process to expedite the hiring process for the White House staff. Podesta, as the founder of the Center for American Progress, was able to draw from a wealth of experts for transition help and resources. They formed a core part of the transition policy team that identified executive orders that would be less complicated to prepare and sign, such as removing restrictions around abortion and stem cell research.

One of the pressing matters for Trump’s team is which Obama executive orders he wants to immediately undo, and which others of his own he may want to issue.

Though Trump himself is unpredictable and there is little clarity about how he will approach the job, the country is in many ways in a more stable place today than it was eight years ago when Obama was succeeding George W. Bush. At the time, the U.S. was in the midst of two wars and a financial crisis -- coordination between the incoming and outgoing administrations was paramount. Obama is often commended for having met repeatedly with then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Henry Paulson, Bush’s secretary of the Treasury. On issues such as the auto bailout and The Recovery Act, policy teams from both administration were influential in shaping the resulting stimulus package of 2009.

In “Presidential Transition Voices,” Kumar asserts that Obama’s relative success early in his presidency is largely attributable to his “early attention…to the need for transition planning and his assignment of experienced and knowledgeable people to handle studies of White House staff structure, agency operations, policy development, and staff selection.”

Despite their opposing views and past hostilities, Obama and Trump must now lead their best imitation of the Bush-Obama transition, putting aside their differences and holding the country’s safety and prosperity in the highest regard. As Obama put it, “the presidency is bigger than all of us.”

The 2016-17 transition will provide interesting insight into the style of the Trump presidency and will foreshadow the approach the new administration will adopt over the next four years. In his first public remarks after the election results were in, President Obama addressed the 2016 transition, saying he reached out to Trump “at about 3:30 in the morning…I had a chance to invite him to come to the White House...to talk about making sure there is a successful transition between our presidencies.”

Obama did not provide specifics, but he did reference the 2008 transition, saying he has instructed his team to emulate the “professional and gracious” approach taken by the Bush administration eight years ago.

***
by Luke Foley, Gotham Gazette

State Pay Commission Implodes as Cuomo Appointees Effectively Kill Salary Increases


pay commission shot nov 15 2016

State pay commission panelists at final meeting, Nov. 15, 2016


The final meeting of the state commission tasked with recommending pay raises for executive branch employees and state legislators was marred by disagreement and accusations, and failed to produce any results on Tuesday. It appears that the panel will be disbanded without taking any substantive action.

In a chamber at the New York City Bar Association in midtown, members of the New York State Commission on Legislative, Judicial, & Executive Compensation met on Tuesday to discuss recommendations on increasing salaries for members of the state Senate and Assembly and state agency heads and commissioners. It was the last public meeting of the commission, which was under a November 15 deadline to make its recommendations as mandated under the April 2015 statute that create it.

But the six members of the committee who were present could not find common ground and the meeting devolved into significant disagreement about the role of the commission and whether it should even take a vote on the one set of recommendations put forward. A vote was taken on whether pay should be increased by about 2 percent per year since the last increases, in 1999, and resulted in two yays and three abstentions among the five voting-eligible panelists. There was even a dispute over whether commissioners could simply not vote or if they were considered abstaining from the vote by doing so.

It was the two commissioners appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo who refused to record any vote at all while the chair was not given a vote under the statute establishing the commission. The two appointees by legislative leaders voted in favor of raises, and the representative of the judicial branch abstained.

The executive appointees, Fran Reiter and Robert Megna, said they would not approve any raises unless they were accompanied by substantive ethics reform in Albany, particularly a severe limit on the outside income of legislators. (Megna was recently appointed by the governor after another appointee, Gary Johnson, resigned from the commission. The third executive appointee, Mitra Hormozi, was out of the country, the chair said.) Reiter said the commission should not vote on any proposal and stay open in the hopes of lawmakers convening a special session in Albany to vote through such outside income limits.

Commissioners also took issue with the fact that members of the state Legislature did not appear before the commission to make their case for a raise and to answer the commission’s questions. The legislative appointees, on the other hand, argued that the commission was charged with making an independent decision that should not be unduly politicized, expressing disappointment that the executive appointees were effectively parroting Governor Cuomo’s position to force reform.

That the vote would fail was made clear right at the start of the hearing by Reiter, who began by saying that the executive appointees would refuse to vote on any proposal increasing pay for state legislators, while generally agreeing that employees of the executive, such as agency heads, deserved much needed pay raises. She insisted that legislators should first establish a cap on outside income, essentially making their jobs full-time, and follow the lead of other elected bodies that have done so including the United States Congress and the New York City Council.

“It is unfortunate that the good legislators who work full-time, ably and honestly represent their constituents and most assuredly deserve a raise will suffer because there is refusal to right systemic wrongs,” Reiter said.

Roman Hedges, an appointee of State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, refuted Reiters argument with a thinly veiled barb aimed at the governor. “I don’t know exactly where to begin,” he said, “except to say that the reason there is a Legislature is to resist the King and that’s why it was first created, that’s why it exists and that’s what I just think I heard, ‘Do it my way or don’t do it at all.’”

Insisting that pay raises for the Legislature -- where the base annual salary has been $79,500 since 1999 -- are necessary to attract “good people” to state government, Hedges instead proposed a 2.154 percent per year cost-of-living increase across the board, even suggesting that it include the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, positions outside the commission’s jurisdiction.

“It doesn’t change the relative status of anyone...it doesn’t change the balance of power,” he said. “The balance of power is part of the question and it needs to be incorporated in whatever it is we recommend.” Hedges’ proposal, which would raise salaries for state legislators from $79,500 to roughly $114,500, was later voted on but failed to garner the necessary majority.

Reiter and Megna were visibly exasperated as Hedges spoke. Reiter sighed deeply, threw her hands up from time to time and audibly scoffed when Hedges said, “I think it’s awful that the governor wants to be King. I think it’s awful that the governor’s representatives here think that he should be King.” Reiter later hit back at Hedges’ for questioning her independence. “I reject that notion and frankly, I’m insulted by it,” she said, announcing that she had not spoken to the governor since well before being named to the panel.

Hedges found support from James Lack, who was appointed by Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan. “I think [the percentages are] certainly fair and represent only an inflationary increase brought about of course by the political impossibility of having to vote for an increase yourself,” Lack said. 

The commission members also debated whether they could effectively continue their work after Tuesday, without a statutory mandate. Reiter posited that if they were to adjourn without putting any proposal to a vote, it would afford the state Legislature time to pass the reforms she was demanding before the end of the year and the commission could reconvene to move ahead with raises. But judicial appointees Barry Cozier and Chair Sheila Birnbaum both disagreed, as did Lack, saying that the commission would no longer have statutory authority and would have to be reauthorized by the state Legislature. Megna released a statement hours after the panel adjourned, saying that he believes the commission can still act before the end of the year and that he hopes the Legislature will enact outside income limits so that he and the commission will feel justified to vote through significant raises. He also said that he was open to small raises without such reform.

According to the 2015 law creating the commission, its recommendations would become law for the new year unless voted down by the Legislature. A commission is set to convene every four years according to the law, which sought to put the Legislature and Governor at some distance from ostensibly giving themselves pay raises. 

The commission’s failure to make any recommendations did not sit well with legislative leaders in Albany. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Republican, said in a joint statement that it was “unfortunate” that the governor’s appointees demanded legislation in exchange for approving pay raises. “This is completely unacceptable,” they said, “and far exceeds the mandate of the Commission, which was to evaluate the need for an increase in compensation based primarily on economic factors.”

But Governor Cuomo, who legislators say has been interfering in the commission’s work, seemed indifferent to the lack of a decision, telling reporters at an upstate event, “They have till December 31 to see if they come up with any reconciliation but the public of this state is decidedly against any pay raises for the Legislature.”

Cuomo is in favor of raises, but has argued for months that lawmakers should also cap outside income. Heastie made the argument in October that legislators deserve a pay raise and his chamber has been open to some cap on outside income. Senate Republicans have refused to consider any cap, citing the importance of a part-time Legislature and the ability for legislators to hold other jobs.

Good government groups also decried the commission’s decision, or lack thereof, but with a key difference. “No action is not an acceptable resolution,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, in a statement. “While we believe that any raise should be accompanied by a limit or ban on outside income, we also believe that the Commission must do its job and make a recommendation, just as the NYC Quadrennial Advisory Commission for the Review of Compensation Levels for Elected Officials did last year. Continued government dysfunction is not functioning for New Yorkers.”

The New York City Council recently passed pay increases for its members and citywide elected officials, while banning outside income and declaring the Council member position full-time.

Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union said, however, that the pay raises should have been recommended without any caveats. “Elected official pay decisions should not be subject to a quid-pro-quo negotiation,” he said, while reiterating support for new ethics reforms in Albany. “It appears that political interference played more of a role in this decision than the law provided for...The pay commission should have offered a modest salary increase based on the length of time lawmakers have not received a raise and increased it even more had the Legislature returned later this year to address the issue of outside compensation.”

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

The Week Ahead in New York Politics, November 14


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

Members of the media, people in politics, and many others continue to explain Donald Trump’s surprising victory in the Presidential race, and to monitor his transition efforts. There are many questions about the presidential race and the path ahead.

New York leaders, mostly disappointed Democrats, regrouped in Puerto Rico this weekend for the annual SOMOS conference. Mayor Bill de Blasio was there on Saturday night, giving remarks meant to reassure his like-minded colleagues that New York will continue on its more liberal path, including by protecting and welcoming immigrants. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also sought to convey the message that New York will fight a President Trump on any efforts that would undermine the state as a home to immigrants and liberal social values. Both de Blasio and Cuomo have said they are ready to work with Trump on things like infrastructure, but that they are ready to oppose him if he tries to execute certain campaign promises, like mass deportations.

De Blasio begins his week with two media appearances and two other events on his public schedule -- see details below.

In other events to watch this week, the City Council has a busy week of hearings, including one of its two full-body Stated meetings of the month, at which new bills are introduced and bills that have passed through a committee are voted on by the full Council. And the state commission on executive, legislative, and judicial compensation is due to hold its final meeting and make its recommendations. Additionally, Public Advocate Letitia James gives a policy address at New York Law School and Citizens Union and other organizations host a symposium on voter turnout in New York. See below for details and much more.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?

e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
On Monday at 9:40 a.m., Mayor de Blasio will appear live on Hot 97 radio. Later, the Mayor will host a closed-press roundtable with clergy and faith leaders. At about 7 p.m., the Mayor will appear live on NY1’s Inside City Hall. "After, the Mayor will deliver remarks at the Cities Thrive 2016 Reception," at 8 p.m. at Gracie Mansion.

At the City Council on Monday:

  • At 10 a.m., the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services will hold an oversight hearing “examining the implementation of Nunez Settlement in city jails.” The committee will also discuss a proposed law on “the investigating, reviewing, studying, and auditing of and making of recommendations relating to the operations, policies, programs and practices of the department of correction by the commissioner of the department of investigation.”
  • At 1 p.m., the Committee on Waterfronts will meet for an update on Governor’s Island.

On Monday and Tuesday, the New York State Board of Regents will be holding its monthly meeting.

At 8:30 a.m. Monday, the New York City Food Policy Center will hold a “Food and Health Technology Breakfast Seminar.” This event “will discuss the intersection and rising interest in food and health technology, learn about recent innovations in food technology for health, and gain a better understanding of how technology can work to improve consumers’ understanding of healthy foods.”

At 11 a.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks and accept an award at the Annual Meeting of the 47th Street Business Improvement District.

At noon Monday, Crain’s New York Business will host its annual “Hall of Fame” luncheon. This event will honor “those who have transformed the city in both their professional work and in their civic and philanthropic activities.”

At noon Monday, Healthy Food for Upper Manhattan will hold “Youth Participation and Leadership in Upper Manhattan’s Healthy Food Movement.” There will be “a panel discussion about youth food justice programs that empower youth to make positive changes in Upper Manhattan’s food environment.”

At 1 p.m. Monday, the City Planning Commission will hold a review session.

At 2 p.m. Monday at Brooklyn Borough Hall, "Borough President Adams will welcome to Brooklyn a delegation of leaders from Guizhou Province, an area home to nearly 35 million people in southwestern China, as part of a fact-finding mission about local government; Brooklyn is home to one of the largest overseas Chinese populations outside of China, and Borough President Adams has established sister city agreements with the Chaoyang district of Beijing and Yiwu." At 6 p.m., "Borough President Adams will celebrate the accomplishments of local student chefs that have won a cook-off competition, organized by Mapping Basilicata and the New York State Restaurant Association (NYSRA), which will grant culinary scholarships to study and train in the Italian region of Basilicata."

At 4:30 p.m. Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance ; Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters; and the Consul General of Mexico, Ambassador Diego Gómez Pickering will hold an event which focuses on construction safety and training. This event will be at the Consulate General of Mexico in New York.

At 6 p.m. Monday, the New York League of Conservation Voters will hold its 2016 New York City Cocktail Party. New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will be the keynote speaker. 

Tuesday
Governor Cuomo is making three announcements on Tuesday: at 10 a.m. at Schorr Family Firehouse in Johnson City; at 12:15 p.m. at Vanguard Collegiate High School in Rochester; and at 1:30 p.m. at Charter Communications in Henrietta.

At the City Council on Tuesday:

  • At 10 a.m., the Committee on Governmental operations will hold an oversight hearing on the 2016 Mayor’s Management Report.
  • At 10 a.m., the Committee on Transportation will hold an oversight hearing on “making cycling and walking safer and more efficient,” and to discuss several proposed laws.
  • At 1 p.m., the Committee on Veterans and the Committee on Higher Education will hold a joint oversight hearing on veterans in the CUNY system, and to discuss a proposed law “to establish a task force on affordability, admissions, and graduation rates at the City University of New York.”
  • At 1 p.m., the Committee on Technology will hold an oversight hearing on LinkNYC.

On Tuesday at 8:30 a.m., the Vera Institute of Justice will host “Public Housing Access: A Convening on Innovative Reentry Practices.” This event “will include discussions on the importance of public housing for people with conviction histories, lessons from the field, best practices, and opportunities for changes in policy.”

On Tuesday at 8:45 a.m., "Cities, Data, And Mobility: The NYC Experience", hosted by the Rudin Center at New York University. The event will include remarks by Meera Joshi, Commissioner and Chair, New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission and a panel discussion, moderated by Mitchell L. Moss, Director, NYU Rudin Center, including Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President; Cordell Schachter, Chief Technology Officer, New York City Department of Transportation; Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer, City of New York; and Anthony Townsend, Founder, Bits and Atoms.

On Tuesday at 9 a.m., the city Board of Corrections will hold a public meeting.

On Tuesday at 9:30 a.m., City Council Members Carlos Menchaca, Antonio Reynoso, and Brad Lander will hold a press conference on the steps of City Hall to support a bill on bicycle safety.

At 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, "Mayor de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray will deliver remarks at the Cities Thrive Conference. The Conference, which is hosted by the First Lady, brings together leaders from across the nation to discuss mental health."

At 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Public Advocate Tish James will hold a conference call to discuss “bad labor practices and real estate investing by Deutsche Bank and the Qatar Islamic Bank that have exposed investor assets and put workers at serious risk.” 

On Tuesday at 5 p.m., the New York City Bar Association will hold “A New President, A New Approach to Criminal Justice Reform.” Speakers will include Helen P. O'Reilly, Chair of the Program Committee and Task Force on Mass Incarceration; Carter Burwell, Deputy Chief Counsel to Senator John Cornyn (R-TX); Roscoe Jones, Senior Counsel to Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ); Nick Turner, President, Vera Institute; Molly Gill, Legislative Affairs Director, Families Against Mandatory Minimums; Gabriel Sayegh, Co-Founder & Co-Director, Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice; and Soffiyah Elijah, Executive Director, Alliance of Families for Justice will be the panelists.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, TWU Local 100, the transit workers union, will hold "a massive rally" and release its contract demands as it negotiates with the MTA ahead of contract expiration January 15. The rally will occur outside MTA headquarters in Manhattan, and both Public Advocate Letitia James and Comptroller Scott Stringer are expected to speak.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development will hold “Community Schools in New York City: Lessons from the Field.” Panelists are Christopher Caruso, Executive Director for Community Schools, Office of Community Schools, NYC Department of Education; Maritza Arroyo, Vice President, Education, United Way of NYC; and Mark Rush, Executive Director of Principal Pipeline Strategy, NYC Department of Education.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, State Senator Daniel Squadron will hold a Community Town Hall.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Council Member Mark Levine will host a “Post Election Community Conversation.” This election is meant to be a conversation on the concerns that have been raised by the election of Donald Trump.

On Tuesday evening, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence will hold its annual benefit. Actor and comedian Richard Kind will be the host, and artist Yoko Ono and City Council Member Jumaane Williams will receive awards from NYAGV. 

Wednesday
At the City Council on Wednesday:

  • The Committee on Finance will meet at 10 a.m.
  • There will be a Stated Meeting at 1:30 p.m. As usual, there will be a 12:30 p.m. pre-stated press conference led by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

On Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., the United Federation of Teachers will have a conference on the future of public schools in New York City. Dale Russakoff, author of "The Prize" about corporate reform efforts in Newark, N.J.; David Kirp, author of "Improbable Scholars" on the Union City, N.J. schools; Aaron Pallas, Columbia University; Amy Stuart Wells, a school integration and diversity expert; and Anastasia Raczek of City Connects will be among the speakers at the conference.

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Panel for Education Policy will hold a public meeting.

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, City Council Member Rafael Espinal will host a town hall in his district with Housing Preservation & Development “to inform the community on how to apply for affordable housing through housing connect.”

Thursday
At the City Council on Thursday:

  • At 10 a.m. the Committee on Parks and Recreation will meet for “an overview of the Department of Parks and Recreations’ Partnership for Parks Program.”
    At 10 a.m., the Committee on Health and the Committee on General Welfare will hold a joint hearing on “Part 1: Medical Health Services in the DHS Shelter System,” and to discuss a proposed law “to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, requiring in relation to requiring information on health services in shelters.”
  • At 10 a.m., the Committees on Immigration and Consumer Affairs will hold a joint hearing to discuss a proposed law that will “amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to preventing the unauthorized practice of immigration law.”
  • The Committee on Governmental Operations will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing on the “assessment of NYC’s language access services,” and to discuss a proposed law that will “amend the New York City Charter, in relation to improving access to city services for limited English proficient individuals.”
    The Committee on Aging will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing on the Department for the Aging’s core services. 

At 9 a.m. Thursday, “City & State’s Borough 50 Series will recognize top 50 community leaders from Brooklyn at a breakfast.” This event will recognize fifty powerful community leaders in the Borough of Brooklyn.

At 9 a.m. Thursday, the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute will hold “Urban Food Policy Forum: Immigrants and Food Access.” Panelists will be Sam Solomon, Deputy Director of Policy at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs​​​​​​​; Els de Graauw, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Baruch College, the City University of New York; and Jessica Hughson-Andrade, MPA, Director, Benefits Access, Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

"The next public meeting of the New York City Campaign Finance Board will be held on Thursday, November 17, at 10:00 AM."

On Thursday at 6 p.m., the Alliance for a Quality of Education will celebrate its Champions of Education. Betty A. Rosa, Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents; and Fred Frelow, Senior Program Officer of the Ford Foundation will be honored this year.

On Thursday at 7 p.m., the September 11, 2001 Memorial will hold “Covering Catastrophe: Reporting on 9/11.” At this event, Kristen Shaughnessy (NY1), Maggie Haberman (CNN and The New York Times), and Deepti Hajela (Associated Press) will examine the challenges covering September 11, 2001 and how coverage of the terrorist attacks changed the way future acts of terror were covered by the media.

Friday and the weekend
At 8:15 a.m. Friday, Public Advocate Letitia James will speak at the CityLaw Breakfast at New York Law School. 

At 9 a.m. Friday, Citizens Union and partners will host “The Only Way Is Up: A Citywide Discussion to Boost Voter Turnout in New York.” This half-day conference will include a variety of speakers and discussion sessions about New York voter turnout and how to increase engagement and participation.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, the National Organization for Women will hold its New York Annual Conference. It will be a “celebration of breaking barriers and setting a new feminist agenda.” This agenda includes the ending of child marriage, the election of women leaders, and the issue of rape.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail 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 Brendan Birth and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

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


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