Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Steven Matteo

Steven Matteo

  • Republican City Council Conference Confirms GOP Half of Board of Elections

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    Election happenings (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The Republican conference of the New York City Council quietly confirmed all five GOP commissioners to the New York City Board of Elections on November 17 in a hearing with little public notice or scrutiny.

    In a six-minute hearing just six weeks before the end of this Council term, the body's three-member minority conference voted to officially install the slate of Republican commissioners for the remainder of a four-year term ending in 2024.

    The ten-commissioner New

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  • Staten Island City Council Race One of Few Competitive General Election Contests

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    Council Member Matteo at a groundbreaking in CD50 (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Republicans currently hold only three seats in the New York City Council and District 50 on Staten Island is one of them. The mid-island district is currently represented by Council Member Stephen Matteo, the Council’s Minority Leader who is term limited and unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary for borough president. Three candidates are vying to replace him in the general election including a former City Council member, a top aide to Matteo, and a real

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  • City Council Votes For Suspension, Against Expulsion of Council Member Andy King for Extensive Ethics Violations

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    Council Member Andy King (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    The New York City Council voted on Monday to suspend Bronx Council Member Andy King for 30 days without pay and imposed several other disciplinary measures following repeated ethics violations by King that were recently substantiated by the Council’s ethics committee.

    King, a Democrat, was the subject of a monthslong investigation by the Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics, the Office of General Counsel, and outside prosecutor Carrie Cohen, who found that the Council member engaged in a

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  • Council Ethics Committee Issues Disciplinary Charges Against Council Member King

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    (photo: Emil Cohen/NYC Council)


    The New York City Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics on Wednesday voted to issue formal disciplinary charges against Council Member Andy King, a Bronx Democrat, for allegations that include sexual harassment and conflict of interest violations.

    Between 2015 and 2019, “Councilmember King either engaged in, encouraged, permitted, condoned or failed to prevent conduct that violated certain laws of the city, as well as the rules and policies of the Council,” said Council Member Steven Matteo, a

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  • Council Member Grodenchik Faces Formal Consequences for Harassment of Aide

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    Council Member Grodenchik (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)


    New York City Council Member Barry Grodenchik, a Democrat from Queens, will face formal disciplinary charges after a complaint of sexual harassment against him was found to be credible by the Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics on Thursday.

    Council Member Steven Matteo, chair of the standards and ethics committee, announced at a hearing Thursday afternoon that the committee would initiate formal disciplinary proceedings against Grodenchik regarding Section 10.80 of the Council’s

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  • City Council Investigating Diaz Sr.'s Use of Government Email for Political Messages

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    CM Diaz Sr., standing (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    The New York City Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics held a hearing on Monday concerning Bronx Council Member Ruben Diaz, Sr. and his alleged use of government email to send out political messages to colleagues and staffers across the Council, three knowledgeable sources told Gotham Gazette.

    The Standard and Ethics committee, chaired by Staten Island Council Member Steven Matteo, would not reveal the subject of Monday’s hearing and only noted on its agenda that the hearing was

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  • Three City Council Members Don't Support 'Fair Fares'

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    Speaker Johnson on the subway (photo via City Council)


    A budget proposal to provide half-priced MetroCards to low-income New Yorkers has the New York City Council’s full weight this year. Well, almost.

    Only three City Council Members -- Joe Borelli, Steven Matteo, and Ruben Diaz, Sr. -- in the 51-member body have so far declined to support Fair Fares, the proposal that would cost the city about $212 million to offer discounted fares to nearly 800,000 city residents living below the federal poverty line.

    City Council Speaker Corey Johnson has

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  • City Council Members Outline Priorities for New Term

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    City Council members (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    The New York City Council is gearing up for a new agenda under Speaker Corey Johnson, with several newly created committees and fresh faces in the legislative body. As the Council begins to schedule its first committee hearings and readies for the reintroduction of legislation from the last session, there are a number of priorities that Council members are planning to pursue. Returning members say they want to pass bills that have been pending and build on their work from the last four

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  • Cultural Affairs Funding One Point of Contention as City Budget Finalized

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    CM Van Bramer, Mayor de Blasio, & Dennis Walcott (l-r) (photo via The Mayor's Office)


    Members of the New York City Council have joined together with cultural institutions and advocates to petition Mayor Bill de Blasio to increase by $40 million the funding for cultural programming and organizations in the upcoming city budget. With a budget deal due by the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, final negotiations are underway between the City Council and the de Blasio administration, and outside groups are making their last

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  • City Council Passes Criminal Justice Reform Act

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    NYPD Commissioner Bratton with officers (photo: @CommissBratton)


    The City Council voted on Wednesday to pass the Criminal Justice Reform Act, a package of eight bills largely aimed at diverting low-level nonviolent offenses from criminal to civil matters.

    Offenses such as public urination, littering, drinking alcohol in public, and being in a park after hours are currently enforced as criminal misdemeanors and prosecuted in criminal courts, at times resulting in permanent criminal records for offenders. Under these bills, spearheaded by Council

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  • Questioning Importance, Council Members Spend Limited Time at Hearings

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    Council Member Van Bramer starts a hearing (photo: @JimmyVanBramer)


    On March 1, at perhaps the most important City Council hearing of the year, just three of the finance committee’s eleven members were present when the session began. The Council’s first hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $82 billion fiscal year 2017 preliminary budget began nine minutes after its scheduled time, at 10:09 a.m., more prompt than typical Council hearings. The City Council Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, arrived three minutes later, just after the finance chair, Council Member

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  • Hope Knight to Join City Planning Commission at 'Exciting Time'

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    Hope Knight (photo via @rorylancman)


    "It's an exciting time to be joining the City Planning Commission," City Council Member Brad Lander said Tuesday to Hope Knight, a mayoral nominee to the commission at the nexus of controversial housing-related policy being pursued by the de Blasio administration.

    "It's a tough time to be joining," Knight said during her appearance in front of Lander's committee, which is tasked with vetting potential appointees to several commissions. Knight, who is all but sure to be approved Wednesday by the

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  • The New Yorker's Guide To The New City Government

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    Photo by Bill Alatriste/City Council

    NEW YORK — The historic overhaul of New York City government this year goes well beyond the mayor's office.

    There are 21 new members of the City Council, four new borough presidents, and fresh, yet familiar, faces in the offices of Brooklyn district attorney, comptroller, and public advocate. With the city’s politics taking an increasingly liberal turn, there are few outright conservatives left in city government.

    “Reapportionment and term limits combined to make the City

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