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The Week Ahead in New York Politics, May 16


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

As has been the case for weeks, we enter this week looking for more information on the investigations into Mayor de Blasio, his administration and allies, and into Governor Cuomo's administration and allies. [Read: Buffalo Billion Probe: Bad Apples or Broken System?]

On Thursday, de Blasio is expected to testify at the second of two state Senate hearings on mayoral control of city schools, this one in New York City - the first one was held earlier this month in Albany [Read: In Albany, De Blasio Argues for Mayoral Control Extension]

Neither the mayor nor the governor has a public event scheduled for Monday as of the Sunday evening releases of their schedules.

In Albany, the state Legislature is due to be in session on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Including those days, there are just 15 scheduled session days remaining before legislators leave the capital for the rest of 2016. There is still a lot on the agenda, though it is unclear whether more than a small number of high-profile issues will see legislation.

The City Council will continue executive budget hearings this week.

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
At 8 a.m., the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee will host a breakfast honoring City Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland and Larry S. Bulman, of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will attend.

At 10 a.m. Monday at City Hall, “Progressive Caucus members and the City Council are kicking off National Bike to Work Week in partnership with leaders in cycling advocacy and engagement. This 3rd annual event aims to bring representatives from across the City to share their local perspectives and priorities for supporting the “exploding popularity of cycling with more than 750K New Yorkers riding regularly, a growth rate of 49% in last five years.,” according to the NYC Department of Transportation.” Participants include “Council Members Reynoso, Kallos, Rosenthal, Rodriguez, Lander, Menchaca, Cornegy and advocates from Bike New York, StreetsPAC, Citi Bike and Transportation Alternatives.”

At the City Council on Monday at 10 a.m: the executive budget hearing for the education committee.

On Monday at 10:30 a.m. in Albany, the Senate Standing Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs will hold a hearing “To explore tax policies, housing programs and consumer protections aimed at assisting our current service members and our veteran population.”

At 10:30 a.m. Monday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks at the New York City Office of the Actuary Centennial Dedication. At 5:30 p.m., Stringer will deliver the keynote address at the Union Square Partnership annual meeting.

On Monday at 11 a.m. at City Hall, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and partners will "announce policy and budgetary recommendations" for the Young Women’s Initiative. Speakers will include Mark -Viverito, City Council members; Ana L. Oliveira, President & CEO of The New York Women's Foundation; Joanne Smith, Founder & Executive Director at Girls for Gender Equity (GGE); Danielle Moss Lee CEO of YWCA of the City of New York; and others.

At 1 p.m. Monday at City Hall, City Council Member Mathieu Eugene, chair of the Youth Services Committee, is hosting a rally “to urge Mayor Bill de Blasio to restore crucial summer camp program funding for more than 34,000 children in neighborhoods all across the city. In less than two months, School's Out New York (SONYC) summer programs are scheduled to start--but these programs have still not received funding in Mayor de Blasio's Executive Budget.”

At 1:15 p.m. Monday, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will be the keynote speaker at Generation Citizens “Civics Day” at The National Museum of the American Indian. Mark-Viverito will also appear on Inside City Hall on NY1 Monday evening.

Both houses of the state Legislature are in session in Albany Monday afternoon.

At 6 p.m., the New York League of Conservation Voters will hold its annual Spring gala, a fundraiser which supports the NYLCV’s mission to protect and improve New York’s environment. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will speak. Comptroller Scott Stringer is among the other elected officials who will attend.

Tuesday
Both houses of the state Legislature are in session in Albany Tuesday.

At 9 a.m., the New York Law School will hold its 22nd Annual Citywide Seminar on Ethics in City Government. Topics to be offered include Emerging Issues in Chapter 68; Enforcement; Transparency and Open Data in the Information Age; Discussion of Recent Criminal Cases in NYS Legislature; Political Activities; and Training: Engagement Strategies for Your Compliance Content.

At the City Council on Tuesday: the executive budget hearing for the committees on youth services and immigration at 10 a.m.; and for the transportation committee at 11:30 a.m. There will also be meetings of the zoning subcommittee at 9:30 a.m. and the planning subcommittee at 1 p.m.

At 12:30 p.m., City & State will host its annual luncheon honoring Albany’s "Power 100," which will debut a special publication ranking the Power 100 and gather leaders in politics, media, business.

The next public meeting and hearing of the New York City Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC) will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Lower Manhattan. “We want to hear from you. New Yorkers are invited to testify on the following topics: The problems city voters experienced on the April 19th presidential primary; Your experience advocating for election reform as part of the Vote Better NY coalition; Other improvements to elections in New York City; Comments on the 2015–2016 Voter Assistance Annual Report. RSVP through Eventbrite.”

Also at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the city Department of Education’s Panel for Educational Policy contracts committee will meet, Tweed Courthouse.

Wednesday
Both houses of the state Legislature are in session in Albany Wednesday.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday at Long Island City High School, the city Department of Education’s Panel for Educational Policy will meet.

Thursday
At 8 a.m. Thursday, City & State will host its annual “On Health Care” event, which will feature a variety of panels on the state of the health care sector. Deputy Mayor Herminia Palacio will give keynote remarks. Panelists will include Dr. Ram Raju, president of NYC Health + Hospitals; Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, chair of the Committee on Health; Yevgeniy Feyman, health policy scholar from The Manhattan Institute; Jill Furillo, executive director of New York State Nurses Association; and others.

At the City Council on Thursday: the executive budget hearing for the committees on technology and land use at 10 a.m.; the executive budget hearing for the cultural affairs committee at 11 a.m.; and the executive budget hearing for the public housing committee at 2 p.m. There will also be meetings of the land use committee at 11 a.m. and the rules committee at 1:30 p.m.

On Thursday at 11 a.m. at 250 Broadway, the state Senate education committee will hold a hearing on extending mayoral control of New York City schools. Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Carmen Farina are expected to testify, as they did in Albany earlier this month. Groups and individuals who did not testify in Albany are expected to testify afterward.

Friday and the weekend
At the City Council on Friday: the executive budget hearings for the parks committee, the higher education committee, and the veterans affairs committee.

***
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 Max
@GothamGazette

NYCHA's 'Core Challenge'


torres twin parks west nycha

Council Member Torres & "VP Nelson" at Twin Parks West (photo via NYCHA on flickr)


In a special edition of "Max & Murphy on Housing," our weekly discussion of New York housing politics, City Council Member Ritchie Torres joined Jarrett Murphy and me to discuss the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, which Torres has oversight of as chair of the Council's public housing committee. Torres also grew up in NYCHA housing in the Bronx. The Democratic first-term Council member talked with us about the challenges facing the system that houses at least half a million New Yorkers, saying that NYCHA's "core challenge is not funding a funding challenge...ultimately, it's a political challenge." With more political support, Torres says, funding and many other NYCHA-related services would improve.

Why is NYCHA so lacking in political support even considering that Mayor Bill de Blasio is giving it more attention than his predecessors? Listen to our discussion of that question and several others, including whether NYCHA should be phased out, if the City Council is giving enough prioritization to public housing, and more. Listen (find prior episodes of Max & Murphy on Housing here):

***
by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Board of Elections to Face City Council Questioning


bill de blasio voting april 2016

Voting (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


When the presidential primaries hit New York last month, they landed with a frenzy and, in New York City, something of a thud. Not only did the Democratic and Republican contests include candidate competition around the city and state, but the city Board of Elections added an entirely other bit of far less welcome drama.

Over 100,000 missing Brooklyn Democratic voters from the rolls and widespread complaints of mismanagement - nothing new for the long-maligned BOE - caused an uproar as New Yorkers saw their first competitive presidential primaries in decades. So far, two employees of the board have been suspended, pending investigation, over their role in the error-filled voter purge.

As problems became clear, Comptroller Scott Stringer announced an audit and then Mayor Bill de Blasio announced millions of dollars in added funds if the BOE agreed to a reform plan. The BOE will administer three more election days this calendar year, with Congressional primaries coming up June 28.

While reliant on city funding, the city BOE is actually governed by state law. De Blasio has little he can do to change its governance structure, which he and many others call outdated and in need of drastic change. But, de Blasio is trying to improve BOE operations by offering a carrot.

When de Blasio released his executive budget plan on April 26 - a week after the New York presidential primary vote - it included a significant increase in Board of Elections funding, both guaranteed and conditional. In his preliminary budget, the BOE was allocated $88.4 million, which increased to $123.7 million in the executive budget. Although this may seem like a steep increase, it was largely expected since the administration has employed the same tactic three years running of lowballing the BOE in the preliminary and funding it more fully down the line.

City Council Member Ben Kallos, chair of the governmental operations committee that has oversight of the BOE, criticized this practice at the relevant preliminary budget hearing and vowed to hold the city budget office’s feet to the fire if it happened again.

What makes the BOE’s funding even more muddled is that de Blasio announced an additional plan, allotted the BOE $1.5 million in the executive budget to study systemic problems and said another $18.5 million would be available in the adopted budget if the BOE agrees to a plan of reform by June 1.

It is not yet clear how the BOE will respond to de Blasio’s offer.

At an April 27 meeting, a day after the mayor put forth his proposal, BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan said, “Given all of what’s swirling around this particular election event, our singular focus is making sure that the votes are counted and that the certification is accurate. Once we complete that process, I’m sure we’re going to have time to pick our heads up and focus in other areas and we will get to that at the appropriate time. We’re just not in a position to speak either intelligently or publicly on any proposals that are made by anyone right now because we have to, like a laser, focus on getting this election certified and certified properly.”

A spokesperson for the BOE declined comment on Thursday. On Friday, the BOE will be before Kallos’ committee for the agency’s executive budget hearing.

Put together, if the BOE agrees to the mayor’s terms, its adopted budget would be $142.2 million for fiscal year 2017, which begins July 1. This year’s adopted budget was $140 million for the BOE.

While next year’s BOE budget could be almost identical to this year’s, a bump in funding is actually clear, said de Blasio spokesperson Karen Hinton, pointing to the fact that there are only two election days in fiscal 2017 - the September state-level primaries and November general elections - compared with the four in fiscal 2016. Therefore, the associated total costs of running elections - poll worker pay, transportation, supplies and voting machine servicing - are projected to be lower. BOE would have more money to spend on better services.

That doesn’t explain why BOE’s Ryan had estimated in the preliminary budget hearing that the board would need at least $138.5 million in fiscal 2017. And that was before the mayor promised additional funding for reforms.

On Friday, the governmental operations committee will explore these issues at the executive budget hearing where Ryan will testify. Council Member Kallos, a longtime proponent of BOE reform, intends to take the BOE to task over its handling of the April primary, the details of which are still emerging. Just this week, it was revealed that the BOE had rejected 90,000 out of 121,000 affidavit ballots cast in the election. There may not be anything wrong with those rejections, many New Yorkers went to the polls thinking they were registered but may not have been. The results were certified on May 6.

“I’m concerned that the Board of Elections is underfunded and setting up the democratic process for failure,” Kallos told Gotham Gazette. At Friday’s hearing, he will press the BOE for more details on “whether they have enough money to run an election, whether they have enough to hire poll workers, to advertise, and to do an audit of why 90,000 affidavit ballots were rejected in the primary.”

One of the major changes Kallos is pushing for is the elimination of patronage positions. The BOE has a bipartisan structure and its commissioners and employees are selected based on their affiliation with the two major political parties on a borough by borough basis. Kallos takes issue with this and said BOE funding should come with “terms and conditions” such as the hiring of professional employees through an open hiring process to replace patronage positions, and required audits of “who’s doing what and where.”

Referring to the mayor’s offer of extra funding, Kallos said, “I think the BOE needs to do everything they can to improve their image and to assist voters. They need to accept all the help that’s offered.” He also rejected the administration’s rationale that the BOE budget is lower this year because of fewer elections. “The general election is the superbowl of elections,” he said, referring to November.

At a City Council press conference on May 5, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito did not give much detail in answering a question from Gotham Gazette on the BOE budget and the mayor’s proposal. “We’re going through budget negotiations,” she said. “Whatever proposals of additional money is something that we have to discuss and has to be adopted by us, so we will engage in those conversations. It’s preliminary to discuss any details on that.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.



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