Council Member Ben Kallos (photo: @NYCCouncil)
A bill heard by the City Council’s Committee on Governmental Operations on Thursday aims to further limit the influence of big-dollar donations and special interests in city elections. The bill, co-sponsored by Council Member Ben Kallos, who chairs the committee, would tweak the city’s public campaign finance system by removing a cap on public funds disbursed to candidate campaigns by the Campaign Finance Board (CFB).
The city’s campaign finance system is held up as a national model that incentivizes small dollar donations by matching them with public funds. Each qualifying contribution up to $175 is matched 6-to-1 by the city, through the CFB, allowing candidates with a lack of access to personal wealth or deep-pocketed donors to run competitive campaigns. Currently, the CFB only matches public funds up to 55 percent of the spending limit for a particular seat.
For instance, in a City Council race, for those participating in the matching system, the 2017 spending limit is $182,000 each in the primary and general election, so a candidate could receive up to $100,100 in public funds by raising about $16,800.
Intro. 1130-A, co-sponsored by Council Members Kallos, Brad Lander and Fernando Cabrera, would increase that public funds payment to a full match against the spending limit, minus the amount of matchable contributions raised by the candidate. Effectively, a Council candidate who raises $26,000 could receive a maximum of $156,000 in public funds, for a total budget of $182,000 (in the primary and/or in the general).
If passed by the Council and signed by the Mayor, as written the bill would go into effect in 2018, after this year’s municipal elections.
The current system, says Kallos,, creates a “big money gap” of more than one-third of the spending limit, that would need to be filled through private contributions. For a City Council race, this gap is $65,000 while for mayoral candidates, it is about $2.5 million. “If it works, anyone could run for office entirely on small dollars,” Kallos said in his opening statement at Thursday’s hearing. “If it doesn’t work, candidates could still continue to pursue big money and there would be no added cost. There is literally no downside.”
The hearing drew a large audience outside of the usual good government advocates, including tenant and community preservation groups, immigrant advocacy organizations, NYCHA residents, current City Council candidates, and women’s groups. “This is because no matter what your cause, the road to victory starts with campaign finance reforms that amplify the voices of residents over special interests,” Kallos said.
Amy Loprest, executive director of the Campaign Finance Board, said the bill would have a significant impact on future elections, albeit with a moderate increase in costs, about 17 to 20 percent. In 2013, she noted, 129 council candidates received public funds, and 83 of them received payments within 10 percent of the maximum. In citywide races, however, she said the impact would be minimal since candidates tend to rely on larger contributions, and it would in fact aid established candidates with stronger small-dollar fundraising operations.
Loprest said the Board agreed with the aims of the bill, but she offered a number of alternatives that could effectively accomplish its goals and even go further. She suggested lowering contribution limits across the board, reducing the thresholds for qualifying for public funds, and floated the idea of higher matching funds for those who choose to only receive small-dollar donations. She also pointed out potential inadvertent consequences of the bill, noting that there are strict criteria for qualifying expenditures under the public funds program, and more public funds could make it harder for candidates to justify spending on non-qualifying purposes such as defending a ballot petition in court. Candidates would also have to repay higher amounts of public funds left over after a campaign.
When asked by Kallos how the bill might affect participation in the system, Loprest emphasized that participation has consistently been high, but future behavior is hard to predict. “You want to make sure you have a system where it’s flexible, so you have as many people joining as possible and that they can choose the way they want to participate,” she said. “Allowing people to kinda have the option of the way they can participate in the program is an important aspect to encourage participation.”
A number of government reform advocates came out in favor of the legislation including Common Cause New York, EffectiveNY, Reinvent Albany, and Demos, among others.
“It’s very clear that the campaign finance system here in New York City has successfully encouraged more small-dollar contributions,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York. “but for the long range goal of diminishing the power of large contributions, it is not as successful as we would like it to be.” She said Intro. 1130-A would be a “significant and strong first step” in strengthening the system.
Bill Samuels, chair of EffectiveNY, said the bill would encourage participation by women candidates, who tend to rely more heavily on small-dollar contributions because they don’t have the access to deep pockets that men often do. EffectiveNY, with Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, recently launched the “21 in ‘21” initiative to elect at least 21 women Council Members in 2021 (there are currently 13 in the 51-seat Council). Moira McDermott, executive director of the initiative, said fundraising is often a significant barrier to women running for elected office. The gap between public funds and the spending limit, she said, is tough to cover through small contributions. “This leaves wealthy donors, political institutions, PACs and special interests, which after decades of the male-dominated structure, few women have the same connections to, and even fewer women of color.”
The bill also received supported as a means to increase class and racial diversity in the Council. Murad Awawdeh, director of political engagement at the New York Immigration Coalition, said, “Perhaps the most important potential impact of this legislation is that it would empower immigrants, low-income earners and people of color, and women, to run for office and seek adequate representation of their communities.”
One testifying organization seemed to demur on the proposal: Citizens Union, a government reform group, which is questioning the timing of the proposal and the financial and documentation requirements it would impose on the CFB. “Despite its intent,” said Rachel Bloom, director of public policy and programs, “the introduction of the bill at this late stage in the municipal election cycle is a deviation of the carefully measured process by which the program is updated and revised.” The group did not state support the proposal, nor did it oppose it. “There are serious issues being raised by this bill that need greater time to evaluate,” Bloom said. “We would be better off looking at the issue right after our 2017 city elections.”
Speaker Mark-Viverito has not yet taken a position on the bill, and said Tuesday that she would wait until after the hearing. In a statement Wednesday, she said, “The city's campaign finance law is one of the strongest in the nation. We continue to look for ways to make it even stronger.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has in the past expressed support for full public financing of elections. At a March 16 appearance on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show, he said, “I believe we should go to full public financing of elections on the city level, on the state level, on the federal level....I think the system is fundamentally broken. And you know, if there are little tweaks around the edges that’s nice, but we’re not being serious about money in politics if we don’t get it out of politics entirely. We should just go to public financing of elections with very stringent spending limits.”
At Thursday’s hearing, Kallos read out part of written testimony submitted by Henry Berger, special counsel to Mayor de Blasio. “After nearly three decades of experience with the city’s matching public funds, this bill starts an important discussion about how to reduce the influence of money in elections,” the statement read. “This is one good step in that direction.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
City Council Member Vacca (seated)
The Technology Committee of the New York City Council held an oversight hearing Monday on the city’s data privacy policies and data security protocols. A broad variety of more specific topics were covered during the hearing, chaired by Council Member James Vacca, including unauthorized data usage and security breaches; risks related to the expansion of high-speed internet availability and sidewalk wi-fi kiosks; the Worker Connect program that allows New Yorkers to search and apply for public benefits; new efforts at data exchange among city agencies; and the ‘Internet of Things,’ which refers to interconnectivity of various applications, devices, and information.
As expected, a number of questions were raised at the hearing, only some of which were answered, about data privacy for New Yorkers and data security for city agencies.
“I do think we came across some needs to have more of a formalized process on how we protect people’s privacy,” Vacca said after the hearing. “There should be an agency that’s tasked with this specific issue of privacy.”
The main city agency tasked with data privacy concerns and security is the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, or DoITT. Commissioner Anne Roest testified Monday and told Vacca and the committee that the city is constantly experiencing hacking attacks. Since the current administration took office in January 2014, there were two instances when city data was stolen, Roest said, once from the Fire Department and once from the Administration for Children’s Services.
“We’ve had, and I don’t have a number in front of me, but hundreds in the past year, of incidents where malware got into our system, but didn’t get anything out,” Roest said, emphasizing the quality of agencies cybersecurity threat response and prevention.
A substantial part of the hearing revolved around LinkNYC, a network of interactive kiosks spread throughout the city, often where payphones used to be, providing free, fast wi-fi, access to various public services, and free phone calls anywhere in the United States. In January 2017, LinkNYC had over 1 million subscribers. Meanwhile, the latest data published on the city’s Open Data Portal indicates over 7 million sessions for the week of April 10.
While the Link network is being used and expanded, there are privacy concerns. DoITT takes pride in the latest version of the privacy policy negotiated with the franchise partner, CityBridge LLC. Roest emphasized in her opening statement that LinkNYC does not track users’ browsing history and location, and therefore does not store or sell it.
According to the privacy policy published on the LinkNYC website, the software does collect unique information about the device and browser being used, such as, for example, IP and MAC addresses, time zone settings, and other data (According to the privacy policy, this information is needed by LinkNYC to be able to provide internet connectivity). The storage period for this information varies from 60 days to a year. Each booth is also equipped with two cameras used to prevent or track vandalism, Roest said. The video is stored for seven days and then deleted.
“Many national studies indicate that lower income people are disproportionately burned by data collection and privacy violations,” said Vacca in his opening statement at the hearing. He continued: “Last month Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that his office received approximately 1,300 notifications regarding data breaches of non-governmental systems in 2016. That is a 60 percent increase from the previous year.”
“Privacy is not a luxury item, but a fundamental right of all people. With the recent federal repeal of the data privacy measures for internet service providers this discussion takes on added importance,” Vacca said about the decision to roll back a set of privacy regulations that obliged Internet providers to request consent from users before sharing and selling sensitive information, such as, for instance, healthcare and financial data, obtained by tracking their browsing behavior.
The city’s Chief Technology Officer, Miguel A. Gamiño Jr., added during testimony that his office is planning to conduct a legal review to investigate the city’s potential to protect the privacy of New Yorkers, given ongoing reconsideration of Obama-era FCC regulations. “Specifically, this review includes an evaluation of the authority the city may have over the privacy policies of internet service providers, how and to what extent the city is exercising this authority currently, and whether the city can expand the exercise of its available authority to achieve, at minimum, the privacy protections for internet service consumers that Congress and the President have recently repealed,” said Gamiño.
Officials identified public education as one of the key measures in preventing hacking attacks and data breaches in New York. Gamiño announced an “interagency work group on internet health and human rights” that will look for ways to educate consumers and businesses on how to protect their privacy. He also mentioned the city’s cooperation with public libraries on digital literacy materials for citizens and collaboration with Mozilla Foundation on a series of digital security workshops for organizations. Mozilla, a technology company known for its Firefox web browser, runs a nonprofit foundation that promotes open and accessible internet.
Another topic covered by several meeting participants was an interagency data exchange strategy. Better data exchange among city agencies can improve transparency, efficiency, and broader accessibility to information for New Yorkers, but necessitates establishment of security and privacy protocols.
DoITT Commissioner Roest discussed the importance of classifying collected data and applying safety protocols to the resulting categories. For instance, all data characterized as confidential cannot be stored or transferred unless it is protected by a special encryption technology.
Finally, the Council committee discussed existing guidelines and a future strategy for the ‘Internet of Things’, where New York City claims to be one of the global pioneers, and a recent launch of the Neighborhood Innovation Lab initiative, aimed to connect government, technologists, and communities in a joint effort to innovate and improve local communities.
“Data privacy is a wide-ranging issue and seemingly touches almost every aspect of our city’s services,” Vacca concluded.
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by Natalia Erokhina for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (photo: @NYCCouncil)
Local legislators from large cities across the country will gather at the New York City Council chambers at City Hall on Friday and Saturday, in a first-of-its-kind conference to exchange ideas on policy, governance and, perhaps most significantly, the challenges cities face under the presidency of Donald Trump.
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito first spoke of the conference in her final State of the City speech in February, when she struck a defiant tone against divisive politics and the threats to local administrations from federal policies. “We’ve reached a critical point in our nation’s history,” she said from the stage at the historic Kings Theater in Brooklyn, “and it’s imperative that we create opportunities to rise above divisive rhetoric and learn from one another.”
Partnering with the National League of Cities, an advocacy organization that represents more than 1,600 cities, towns and villages, and over 18,000 communities through 49 state municipal leagues, the New York City Council will host local legislative leaders from Tampa, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, St. Louis, and San Francisco.
The two-day conference will cover a broad agenda that includes infrastructure, public safety, criminal justice reform and economic development, among other issues. “Just imagine dozens of Criminal Justice Reform Acts and municipal identification card programs instituted in every big city across the United States,” Mark-Viverito said in her February speech, referencing two signature achievements of the City Council in her tenure as speaker. “The possibilities for national solidarity on almost any issue are endless.”
The conference comes amid uncertainty, at the state and local levels, about the potential impact of the unpredictable proposals of the federal administration. President Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to cut funding to so-called sanctuary cities such as New York unless they cooperate with federal officials in implementing immigration policies. The order has since been blocked by a federal judge, who ruled it unconstitutional this week, but other federal proposals could still affect local jurisdictions. Among those is the reduction in funds allocated to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency, both of which would have adverse effects for large cities.
The conference will address these general issues and the legislative strategies they can employ in response.
The local representatives will also do their fair share of introspection, examining the internal challenges in running a legislative body, pulling lessons from their counterparts on effective governance, constituent communication, and budget management.
The summit, in effect, mirrors efforts at the municipal executive level by the United States Conference of Mayors, which convenes leaders from 1,408 cities to formulate urban agendas and to help drive federal policies. The weekend conference, as Mark-Viverito said, will be the start of “a new, national effort to build lasting partnerships with legislative leaders across the country.”
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette