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Mayoral Charter Revision Commission Announces Preliminary Agenda


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The charter revision commission meets (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


Mayor Bill de Blasio’s charter revision commission announced its initial areas of focus on Thursday, hewing closely to the mayor’s mandate that the members look at campaign finance and electoral reforms as they review the city’s governing document.

The commission homed in on its preliminary agenda after public hearings across the city in the last two months where the commissioners heard from elected officials, various advocacy groups, and members of the public in each borough. They also sought insight from city officials and heads of agencies.

In a resolution passed at Thursday’s meeting, the commission decided to delve deeper into a few broad areas: voter participation and measures to improve elections, including instant runoff voting; reforms to the city’s campaign finance system; fair representation in city government, particularly through independent redistricting of City Council districts; and strengthening civic engagement, including through exploring the role of community boards.

Over the next month, the commission plans to convene three hearings with subject matter experts to testify and participate in panel discussions on the preliminary agenda, even as it continues to drill down on the hundreds of recommendations made in the last few weeks to find areas of broader public interest.

Commission Chair Cesar Perales acknowledged early on in the Thursday meeting, held at the Pratt Institute in Manhattan, that the commission has a tight deadline for its work since its proposals are to go to the voters on the ballot in November, meaning they must be in to the Board of Elections in early September. He speculated that the commission may have to hold a fourth issue-focused hearing.

“Maybe on further analysis, we might find that there’s another issue that we ought to be focusing on, because the comments keep coming,” he said.

Matt Gewolb, executive director of the commission, echoed that sentiment. He said the initial agenda had been derived from more than 400 recommendations made by more than 100 people at the various hearings, on social media, through phone calls, and even snail mail to the commission’s office. But he noted that the agenda was not just limited to the issues approved on Thursday. “While these themes have emerged as most central, we continue to systematically review and consider each and every comment received by the commission,” he said.

In particular, Gewolb said the commission is still analyzing testimony around land use issues, which he said has emerged as an area of interest both in public testimony and for particular commissioners. For instance, at some hearings, people have recommended that community boards should have a greater voice in the city’s land use review procedure and that their role in those decisions should be more than just advisory.

“As neighborhoods are fighting back against gentrification, is this part of the impetus for wanting to review land use?,” wondered Commissioner Una Clarke, a former City Council Member from Brooklyn.

Perales agreed that it was an important aspect of the conversation. “I take that as a recommendation that when we, and I think we should but we haven’t made that decision yet, when we make land use part of our expert analysis and discussion, that we include not just facilitating development or building but that we also look at the issue of gentrification,” he said.

Wendy Weiser, another commissioner, suggested that land use be discussed in the same vein as the role of community boards and fostering civic engagement, “because that will be one of the main issues that people will want to get involved in in their communities that might bring them to participate.”

Land use also seemed to be a priority for Carlo Scissura, secretary of the commission, who is also president and CEO of the New York Building Congress. He emphasized that the commission should do “something separate on it,” possibly at one of the expert panels in June.

Commissioners raised various other questions and issues. Scissura brought up nonpartisan elections, which Gewolb said needs more review. Commissioner Kyle Bragg, secretary-treasurer of labor union 32BJ SEIU, said the commission could also look at representation in community boards and, separately, the structure and functions of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which examines complaints about police misconduct.

“I’m scared to death of having 42 expert hearings,” Perales said as he prepared to close the hearing. “I’m going to force staff to see if they can do this in a manageable way so that we can get expert counsel and advice on as many issues as possible. And If they have to eliminate some issues, it’ll have to be those that were not raised very often. We have to be guided by what the community said they were interested in.”

The first subject matter hearing is set for June 14. Following those hearings, the commission will release a report of its preliminary recommendations and will again put those to the public with another round of hearings in all the boroughs.

The commission’s final recommendations are due by September 7.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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City Council Considers Requiring More Reporting on Required Reporting


City Council Cabrera Vallone

CMs Cabrera, left, and Vallone (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)


How does the New York City Council check city government agencies without legislating agency operations, which it sometimes does not have the power to do? Reporting bills.

The Council often passes legislation that requires an agency under the direction of the mayor to produce a report, like Local Law 47, which compels the NYPD to compile data on subway fare-beating arrests. This bill, and the NYPD’s response, quickly became another flash point in tensions between city agencies and the Council, which has mandated oversight responsibilities along with its legislative powers.

The intention behind the bulk of reporting bills -- which, like other legislation passed by the Council, are typically signed into law by the mayor -- is more transparency into agencies that then allows both the public and Council members additional insight into government function, effectiveness, and efficiency, and indications of operational or budgetary reforms that may be needed. But, reporting bills can also be onerous, requiring valuable resources at city agencies mandated to compile information, and there are questions about how often required reports are even produced or used by the Council.

Now, a new bill at the Council is aimed at bringing additional oversight and transparency to the totality of required reporting -- but that bill itself is the source of disagreement. A recent hearing on the bill, which is sponsored by City Council Member Fernando Cabrera and would add new requirements for an online database of all required reports, saw discussion of the bill as well as the practice of passing reporting bills. The bill would add new information about when reports are due and put public pressure on city agencies to produce required reports.

According to the listing for the bill on the Council website, the bill would require the city’s Department of Records and Information Services, “which is currently required to receive and post all reports required to be produced by local law or executive order on its website, to list all required reports, when they were last received and when they are next due.” It would also require DORIS to send a request “to any agency that does not transmit a required report, and would require the posting of such request on the website in lieu of the required report until such report is received.”

At the April 26 hearing, representatives of the mayor’s office and the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) testified in opposition to the bill, which also received a lukewarm public reception from some City Council members.

The bill currently has the sponsorship of only Council Member Cabrera, who chairs the Committee on Governmental Operations, which held the hearing, at which other Council members voiced concerns over the Council’s tendency to pass reporting laws and whether or not such laws do more to inundate agencies than substantially help the Council or the public.

If enacted, the bill -- known as Intro. 828 -- would enhance the DORIS-run digital database of reports required by local laws, executive orders, or mayoral directives. Currently, DORIS maintains the Government Publications Portal; however, the scope of this portal is limited by a mandatory keyword search engine as well as the fact that it lacks some of the most recent reports from city agencies. For example, the portal does not provide any reports from the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) past the year 2014, despite reports being published as recently as this year.

Additionally, other recent reports by agencies such as the Department of Buildings, including those on gas utility risks or construction safety, or the Department of Criminal Justice, such as annual reports on jail population or crime rates, are similarly not accessible through the current portal.

DORIS and the Mayor’s Office of Operations cited unnecessary burden and premature planning as to why the bill should not be passed.

“With the continuous addition of legislated reports required of city agencies, we recognize the need to ensure strong administrative practices to support agency compliance,” said Emily Newman, the acting director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, at the hearing last month. “However, we do not believe that Intro. 828 identifies the most effective approach and that it is not in the city’s best interest to mandate a new process in advance of any relevant recommendations of the Report and Advisory Board Review Commission.”

The Report and Advisory Board Review Commission, which reviews reporting requirements and assesses the usefulness of such reports, among other objectives, was set to reconvene this month. The last time the commission met was in 2012, despite the city charter mandating that it has annual public meetings.

“Intro. 828, as drafted, includes requirements that would be onerous for DORIS to undertake in real-time,” Pauline Toole, the DORIS commissioner, said at the City Council hearing. “Some agencies submit reports on a weekly basis, some monthly, some quarterly, and updating the list for each submission would require extensive resources and, ultimately, not provide the public with a worthwhile service.” Toole said DORIS currently updates the site on a “regular basis.”

Toole also cited an increase in the number of reports submitted to the government publications portal, where over 21,000 reports have been submitted to the current DORIS portal today, a jump from 7,000 reports submitted in 2014.

Both Toole and Newman reaffirmed a desire to work on another possible solution in concert with the City Council in order to update the accessibility of all governmental reports online. Meanwhile, other concerns were additionally raised by Council members.

“I am as big on transparency as anything, but when we make demands out of agencies to do their jobs in other ways, I do worry that we are adding in so much onto them that is unfunded,” Council Member Keith Powers said at the hearing. “You know, we don’t fund new staff for that.”

Council Member Kalman Yeger also raised the concern of finances by considering what the potential savings would be if DORIS had a smaller annual quota for reports it must make available, which, according to Toole, currently stands at about 400 reports per year. “I’m curious to know how much we can save the taxpayers if we perhaps were to stop legislating the various agencies of this city to prepare information that is probably readily available by simply asking the agency to give the information out,” Yeger said at the hearing.

Alex Camarda, a senior policy advisor for Reinvent Albany, a government reform group focused on increased transparency, testified in support of the bill at the hearing – albeit, with some tweaks.

While the bill currently says that DORIS would send a letter of request of transmission to agencies ten days prior to a report’s deadline, and subsequently post that request on the website until the actual report is submitted, Camarda suggested that such a letter should be sent at the beginning of the fiscal year and that a seperate column listing all the agencies that did not yet transmit a report be created. Other proposed amendments to the bill include identifying which part of the charter administrative code requires the report as well as providing a brief summary of the report in the online database.

“We think government generally needs to move away from providing information that’s locked in static PDF reports and report data in an open, usable and dynamic form,” said Camarda.

Council Member Cabrera’s office did not respond to multiple requests to discuss the hearing and any modifications that he might consider making to the bill.

***
by Chelsey Sanchez, Gotham Gazette
@chelseynsanchez  @GothamGazette

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The Week Ahead in New York Politics, May 29


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

We're less than a month from New York's congressional primaries, to be held Tuesday, June 26. This Friday, June 1, is the deadline to register to vote to be able to vote in those primaries.

As those congressional primary races hit the home stretch, we're also now fully into campaign season for the state-level primaries that will be voted on September 13. Most party nominee designations are set for governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller and attorney general. There will be a handful of primaries for those statewide posts, assuming that candidates who plan to collect signatures to appear on the primary ballot attain the needed totals. That group includes Cynthia Nixon, who is challenging Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, and Zephyr Teachout, who is running for attorney general against Public Advocate Letitia James, who won the Democratic state committee's designation at last week's convention. Leecia Eve is also competing in the Democratic primary for attorney general.

Not to be overlooked, the Democratic primary challengers to the members of what was the state Senate's Independent Democratic Conference, or IDC, continue. A small handful could be competitive heading into September's vote.

Speaking of the state Legislature, the two houses are scheduled to be in session on Wednesday and Thursday this week, two of the final 13 scheduled days of session. It is unclear if the Legislature will even meet for all 13 of those days and how much, if anything, will get done before the end of session and lawmakers committing all of their time to their districts and, for many, their reelection campaigns.

As always, there's a great deal happening all over the city, with many events to be aware of - see our day-by-day rundown below.

***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
Monday is Memorial Day.

Tuesday
On Tuesday at 10 a.m. “New York State Senator Kemp Hannon (R, Nassau), Chair of the Senate Health Committee, and Senator Tom O'Mara (R-C-I, Big Flats), Chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, will be holding a joint roundtable discussion tomorrow on the sale and use of nonagricultural low-nitrogen fertilizer on Long Island...The discussion will include representatives of various perspectives to explore issues related to the damaging effects of excess nitrogen on the region’s water quality and recently proposed legislation (S8170) which would limit nitrogen levels in fertilizer sold and applied in nonagricultural applications on Long Island.”

On Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Westchester, the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions and Committee on Energy will hold a joint oversight hearing on “The power outages following recent winter snow-storms in the Hudson Valley.”

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams "will introduce dozens of students from PS 327 Dr. Rose B. English to the Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket, following an assembly on nutrition that he led at the Brownsville elementary school a couple weeks ago; this visit is part of Borough President Adams' ongoing mission to instill healthy eating habits in young people." At 10:30 a.m., Adams "will cut the ribbon at the grand opening of Nostrand Pharmacy, a new small business serving the Bedford-Stuyvesant community." At at noon, Adams "will attend a flag-raising ceremony with foreign dignitaries at Bowling Green that celebrates the centennial of the Republic of Azerbaijan; Brooklyn is a sister city with the Sabail district of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, under an agreement Borough President Adams signed in 2014."

“Eastchester Bay has a long history of pollution. So a non-profit, Save the Sound, is expanding its groundbreaking water testing study into the Bronx to increase the available data on Long Island Sound's health. A water testing demonstration will be conducted dockside at Minneford Marina in City Island, Bronx on Tuesday” at 11 a.m.

At 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will attend the UFT Retired Teachers 55th Annual Luncheon. At 6:15 p.m., Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James will attend the Agudath Israel 96th Annual Dinner. At 7:45 p.m., Stringer will attend the Mill Island Civic Association Installation of Officers in Brooklyn.

On Tuesday at 1 p.m. outside City Hall, New York Taxi Workers Alliance “members will rally to demand that the City Council pass meaningful legislation ASAP to stop the financial crisis that has pushed five drivers to suicide in recent months. On Saturday, a body found in the East River was identified as Yu Mein Kenny Chow, devoted husband and father and a yellow cab owner-driver, who had been missing since May 11.”

At 2 p.m. Tuesday in Rochester, "Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul Delivers Remarks at the Landmark at Sibley Square Ribbon Cutting."

On Tuesday evening, “Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and the Dominican Day Parade, Inc. will co-host a "Dominican Day Parade Reception," in collaboration with Congressman Adriano Espaillat, Council Member Fernando Cabrera and Assembly Member Victor M. Pichardo, honoring the 2018 Dominican Day Parade Leadership and individuals who have contributed to the growth and promotion of their community and culture.”

On Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., Assemblymember Robert Carroll will host an MTA town hall featuring New York City Transit President Andy Byford, at the John Jay Educational Campus in Brooklyn.

On Tuesday at 8 p.m. “Mayor de Blasio will deliver remarks at the annual Ramadan Iftar Dinner at Gracie Mansion.”

Wednesday
The state Legislature is scheduled to be in session in Albany on Wednesday.

On Wednesday beginning at 8:30 a.m., “City & State’s Urban Development Summit will bring together housing, development and infrastructure professionals from across the state, including elected officials, real estate developers, engineers, construction managers, and innovators from both the public and private sectors. This forum will address current trends, big projects, major issues in an effort to expand and grow local neighborhoods and the overall economy.” Featured speakers will include James Patchett, President & CEO, NYC Economic Development Corporation; City Council Member Robert E. Cornegy, Jr.; Nicole Ferreira, Senior Vice President of Multifamily Finance, New York State Homes and Community Renewal; Molly Park, Deputy Commissioner for Development, Commissioner, NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development; and City Council Member Donovan Richards. Panels will discuss “The Future of Housing Development in New York”; “Rezoning NYC”; and “Buildings and Infrastructure Ideas that Better NY.”

On Wednesday, schools "Chancellor Richard A. Carranza will visit Uncommon Schools Excellence Girls Elementary Academy in Brooklyn and deliver brief remarks. After, he will visit Mott Haven Academy Charter School in the Bronx and deliver brief remarks. In the afternoon, he will visit The Bronx Charter School for Excellence. There will be brief remarks and Q&A."

On Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Albany, a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Committee on Labor “To examine the Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises program, and consider potential legislative solutions to create a more effective and efficient program to enhance New York’s business climate.”

On Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Buffalo, "Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul Participates in Groundbreaking for Historic Landscape at Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Darwin Martin House."

On Wednesday in Albany beginning at 10 a.m., "Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Minority Leader Brian Kolb will address the luncheon of the Assembly’s 38th Annual Legislative Disability Awareness Day to highlight the accomplishments of individuals with disabilities and their advocates. Among the Assemblymembers who are scheduled to deliver opening remarks are Task Force on People with Disabilities Chair James Skoufis, Mental Health Committee Chair Aileen M. Gunther, Michael J. Cusick, and Melissa Miller, Ranking Minority Member on the Committee on Mental Health. The all-day event will include opening ceremonies, award presentations, exhibitors, seminars, the art work of school children entered into the Assembly’s Disability Awareness Day Poster Contest and also an exhibitor fair, featuring information about the latest most popular products, technologies, programs and services that are of interest to people with disabilities. A legislative package aimed at addressing the concerns of the disability community is expected to be taken up by the Assembly."

On Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., "Mayor de Blasio will deliver remarks calling on Albany to extend and expand speed camera legislation, and will reveal new plans to redesign 9th Street in Park Slope. This event is open press. There will be no Q-and-A."

"New York gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro will preview a major anti-corruption initiative that will end crooked pay-to-play practices that have garnered Andrew Cuomo tens of millions of dollars in tainted political donations over the past eight years, at a news conference on Wednesday, May 30th at 11:00 at Fountain Plaza 580 Main St. in Buffalo."

On Wednesday at noon, "First Lady Chirlane McCray will be joined by NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson and LGBTQ advocates to make an announcement about the City's investment in services and supports for LGBTQ young people. This event is open press. There will be Q-and-A."

On Wednesday at noon, Public Advocate Letitia James will deliver remarks at NYPD Detective Michelle Randall-Williams’ Walkout Ceremony, in Brooklyn. At 7 p.m., James will deliver remarks at the Shorefront Democratic Club 46th Assembly District Annual Awards Dinner in Brooklyn.

"In her first press conference since being appointed, New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood will announce charges in a major financial fraud case" on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m.

On Wednesday at the City Council: the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet at 9:30 a.m. and the Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions and Concessions will meet at 2 p.m.

At 3: 30 p.m. Wednesday in Geneva, Governor Cuomo will make an announcement at the Finger Lakes Welcome Center.

The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) will meet Wednesday night at Taft Educational Campus in the Bronx. DOE Chancellor Richard Carranza will give remarks.

Mayor de Blasio will host a town hall at P.S. 6 in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, beginning at 6:30 p.m. City Council Member Mathieu Eugene will co-host.

On Wednesday at 7 p.m. at The Cooper Union, “Open House New York will host Redefining Safety and Justice for the 21st Century City, a special conversation about the future of New York's justice system,” the “launch event for Spaces of Justice, a new yearlong series about the architecture and infrastructure of our city's criminal justice system, the program includes a presentation by Elizabeth Glazer, Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, followed by a conversation with Stanley Richards, Executive Vice President, The Fortune Society, moderated by Rosalie Genevro, Executive Director, The Architectural League.”

Thursday
The state Legislature is scheduled to be in session in Albany on Thursday.

On Thursday at 10 a.m. at the City Council, the Committee on Higher Education will hold an oversight hearing on “Admissions, Graduation Rates, and Affordability Study – Eliminating Tuition at the City University of New York.”

On Thursday at 12:30 p.m., "Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) will join local high school students, gun control activists and other community members for a conversation on reducing gun violence. The forum will provide an opportunity for students to speak directly with the Congresswoman and community groups about efforts to reduce gun violence."

At 1 p.m. Thursday at Pratt Institute, “The City’s Charter Revision Commission will hold a public meeting...The Commission will identify key issues raised by the public that may warrant further study. This is an organizational meeting and does not include public testimony.”

On Thursday at 6:30 p.m. "the Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC (SDNYC) will host its 2018 Annual Event at Raise New York,(416 3rd Ave, Manhattan) and will recognize outstanding LGBT advocates: Hon. Corey Johnson, Speaker of the NYC Council; Earl Fowlkes, Chair of the Democratic National Committee LGBT Caucus; Cecilia Gentili, Director of Policy for GMHC; Kris Kohler, Deputy Director of the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater NY - PAC; and Rose Christ, Former SDNYC President / Principal in the NY Government Practice at Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies."

Friday and the Weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday morning at 10 a.m.

On Friday, the second annual Summit on Latin@s in New York City (SOL NYC) will be held by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Hunter College- CUNY), the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, the Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute at CUNY, the Hispanic Federation, and the Council of the City of New York, “to examine the challenges and opportunities facing the City’s Latinos, assess policy priorities, and develop an action agenda for today and tomorrow.”

“On Friday, June 1, New York University’s Institute of Human Development and Social Change (IHDSC) will host a one-day summit to address how researchers, New York City government agencies and practitioners can work together to improve the systems and opportunities that support vulnerable youth in New York City. The summit will assemble leaders, scholars and policy makers from multiple sectors including the NYC Department of Education’s Office of School Health, NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, NYC Department of Probation, New York Community Trust, Advocates for Children of New York, Volunteers of Legal Service, and the Vera Institute of Justice. There will be a keynote speaker and three panel sessions, each of which will focus on a specific sector: immigration, juvenile justice, and special education and mental health.”

On Saturday at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, “The New York State Democratic Party is hosting a Volunteer Grassroots Summit this year in order to engage activists from across New York City and surrounding areas. We are looking to unify activists groups and provide a clear pathway to victory for Democrats in 2018. The purpose of the summit is to share 2018 strategy and goals with the New York grassroots community, then spend time training on skills we will use in order to engage and persuade voters from Buffalo, to Albany, to Long Island. Our aim is to build a positive culture within the grassroots community and create a centralized place for Democrats to work together on red to blue races this year.” "The New York State Democratic Party is partnering with the National Democratic Training Committee (@traindems), Swing Left (@swingleft), Emerge America New York (emerge_ny), OFA NY (ofa_ny), New York Democratic Lawyer's Council (@nydlc), and Stonewall Democrats of New York (@sdnyc) to train fired up New York residents on skills they need to help us win in November."

***
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 Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette



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