The governor's mansion in Albany. Photo from the governor's Flickr photostream. 

ALBANY, N.Y. – Most legislators know where they want to be tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., and surprisingly it isn’t back in their districts preparing for what might be a white-knuckle election in November. 

There will be a legislative stampede to the generally gritty and worn part of Albany where broken sidewalks jut up out of the earth, rusted metal fences line the neighborhood and the roofs of houses look as if they might never have seen an update in their 100 years of existence. It's not the view they will be racing to see, but one of the stately old homes of Albany’s Mansion Hill neighborhood: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ceremonial residence. 

Last year, legislators made the same trip. They had the triumphs of same sex marriage and the glow of a new relationship with a popular governor. But this year, things have changed. Cuomo didn’t get everything he wanted this year from the Legislature and, while lawmakers are working longer hours in a mad dash to pass hundreds of pieces of legislation, they aren’t working last minute on a grand deal. This session is more likely to fade away. There won’t be any fireworks this time. And Cuomo’s relationship with his here-to-fore close allies in the Senate majority is showing some signs of wear. 

So what will the photo op with Cuomo mean this year? What kind of tone will the end of this legislative session set heading into election season? 

The governor has deployed the mansion as a backdrop for political theater a number of times since he took office. A visit to the mansion and a photograph with the governor with an approval rating in the high seventies at the end of a session that has been labeled “successful” by Albany standards could be a big boost to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle – especially with the Senate majority up for grabs during a presidential election year. 

Cuomo has played well with the dominant Senate Republicans. Last year, Republicans were credited for passing the same-sex marriage act – a bill their votes and leadership had previously blocked. But thanks to pressure from Cuomo and donors, they relented and Cuomo got what he wanted and Republicans got their pictures taken next to a grateful Democratic governor. 

This year, Republicans helped Cuomo pass his budget, supported Tier 6 pension reform and moved immediately on his proposal for a "justice center" that would investigate abuse of the disabled. 

Cuomo also cut a deal with Republicans that preserved district lines that a number of good government observers have called extremely “gerrymandered.” Gleeful Republicans rushed to the governor's mansion to have their pictures taken with Cuomo after the district lines were certified. 

Senate Democrats did not attend, despite getting an invite.

But as the session comes to an end and legislative races heat up, two of Cuomo’s priorities remain unfinished: his plan to reduce charges for carry small amounts of marijuana that some experts say could lessen the impact of the city's stop-and-frisk policy on black and Latino youth; and campaign finance reform. Both were strenuously opposed by Republicans.  

Cuomo took to the airwaves yesterday to attack Republicans for blocking the marijuana bill, accusing them of bowing to pressure from conservatives. "I think there’s no doubt that the state Senate heard the conservative wing of the party and they’re reacting to it," Cuomo told Fred Dicker on his Talk 1300 radio show. The governor also went further, saying that Conservative values don’t appeal to most New Yorkers. “To the extent the Republican Party is successful, it’s because they are moderate… There is just no place in this state for extreme conservative theory.”

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos explained his position on the bill to reporters: “I’m not looking for the amount. The issue was in the city in particular if you’re stopped by a policeman, asked to empty your pockets, if you had a joint in your pocket, that would be a violation. But bringing out on the desk at his instruction that would make it a misdemeanor. That is wrong. It should be a violation. Your following the policeman’s order … But being able to walk around with 10 joints in each ear and it only being a violation, that is wrong.”

Passage of the bill would have been a major victory for Cuomo among liberals and minorities who have at times felt abandoned by the governor. 

Passage of some sort of campaign reform would have been a gigantic feather in the cap of the governor’s good government credentials – credentials that took a massive hit not only in the state but nationwide when he avoided vetoing the Legislature’s gerrymandered district lines. 

Some observers have said that they expect campaign finance to return as an issue next year when elections aren’t looming, but Republicans have turned their opposition to the issue into a campaign platform.

The Senate Republican Campaign Committee sent out a letter to supporters in May blasting Democratic support of public financing of campaigns.

“They’ve even hatched a new plan to use tax dollars to pay for their political campaigns. Why now? Because just as they couldn’t control spending when it involved the public’s dollars, they also overspent their own campaign budgets. They’re broke – mired in $1.5 million debt, with dim prospects for raising more money from private donors,” read the letter. 

But these two issues aren’t likely to spur Cuomo to heap his support on Senate Democrats. They are still scandal-scarred and their relationship with the governor hit an all-time low after he cut the redistricting deal. Senate Democrats continue to push with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to increase the minimum wage –something that Cuomo has waffled on and firmly said would not happen this session. 

In the end, Republicans are more likely to benefit from Cuomo’s support this coming election year. Even if the governor only gets involved in a few races, politically he owes more to individual Republican members than Democrats. But Cuomo has said he will sidestep politics. 

“I want to do as little politics as possible because I don’t find injecting politics particularly helpful to the process of getting legislation passed,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in May. 

Cuomo may not be planning to dive head-long into the battle for the Senate, but even his smallest moves could mean big things in the balance of the Senate – even a simple photograph at the governor's mansion.   

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announce the early passage of the 2012-2013 state budget on March 30, 2012. 

At the top of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legislative to-do list this session is a bill designed to reduce the arrests and stigma associated with the city’s stop-and-frisk policies, which would reduce the penalty for carrying a small amount of marijuana.

But with three days left in the legislative session it appears the measure -- and a number of others that reflect issues important to city residents -- will not be addressed.

Unresolved issues include campaign finance reform, a highlight of Cuomo's State of the State address; various rent issues; an increase in the minimum wage; and an agreement on preventing the full public disclosure of teacher evaluations.

Having suffered major criticism for rushing bills through their required aging process with messages of necessity, the governor has told legislators there will be no repeat -- so most of the big deals seems likely to be finished. 

Therefore, if Cuomo stays true to his word, any compromise legislation would have had to be introduced by late last night. That hardly seems likely, given that legislators are in a scramble to get back to their districts to start campaigning, as all seats are up for grabs this November. 

What Got Done 

The Legislature and the Cuomo administration did come to terms on the governor's proposal for a "justice center" that would investigate the abuse of vulnerable populations like the developmentally disabled and elderly.

The Senate Majority passed Cuomo’s proposal almost as quickly as he issued it while the Assembly negotiated for more oversight. The new agreement would create an oversight board and require an annual report on the center’s activity.  Other deals include a bill that would define cyber bullying, make looking at child pornography illegal and create a state thoroughbred racing board. 

Rent Issues

Tenant advocates had hoped that the expiration of the J-51 tax abatement would set up a scenario where Senate Republicans and real estate interests would be willing to negotiate concessions on pro tenant legislation with the Assembly Democrats in exchange for a renewal of the program. So far a deal seems unlikely.

The Senate passed a straight extender of the J-51 program on the 14th with only one opposing Democratic vote. Tenants groups had advised housing-minded Democrats to vote against the bill. Meanwhile, the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced legislation on the 11th that would extend J-51 but with a few tweaks.

A recent report showed that the program has been applied to condominiums and cooperatives; the administration’s bill would limit that and would be retroactive to the program’s expiration at the end of last year. However, the bill is still sitting in the rules committee.

Tenants advocates also want this bill to be voted down because they feel the program was not tweaked enough to focus on its original purpose, which was to fix up low income housing stock. The Assembly introduced its own J-51 legislation over the weekend that would drastically refine the program. 

Campaign Financing

Cuomo highlighted campaign finance reform as a focus of this legislative session earlier in the year, but has since eased back. Many capital observers thought a deal on the politically charged issue would be almost impossible this session while heading into election season. However, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced a voluntary campaign finance reform bill earlier this year. Senate Democrats introduced the “same as” legislation, but Cuomo quickly swatted the idea down.

“I normally don’t put out a bill when we can actually get an agreement and pass something,” he said.

An agreement this year now looks impossible. 

Microstamping

For the last three years, Democrats have pushed for microstamping, which allows for "fingerprinting" of bullets to make them easier to link back to the gun that fired them. A number of law enforcement groups support the technology because they say it will make solving gun crimes worlds easier.

The issue is contentious because some studies have found the technology is not reliable. Opponents also argue the price of installing the technology on handguns is prohibitive.

The National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups have lobbied hard against the legislation. Remmington Arms has threatened to move out of the state if the bill requiring becomes law.

Minimum Wage

It seemed like an issue that might have some potential heading into an election year, but at the moment a deal on increasing the state’s minimum wage will likely have to wait to an often rumored special session that could take place after the elections.

The Assembly Majority continues to push hard on the issue while Senate Republicans have opposed it.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has called the proposed increase “regressive,” saying it will hurt jobs. When pressed by reporters last month, Skelos said: “I’m just telling you, we will not pass the Speaker’s bill.” Teacher Evaluations  Unless the Legislature acts this week, teacher evaluations will become public to everyone.

Cuomo favors a plan that would make all the information public except for the teachers' names. However, parents would be able to access the evaluations and names of the teachers of their children's class.

Legislators are opposed to the full release of the evaluations and don't think Cuomo's plan goes far enough to limit access to the information.

By late last night, it was unclear where negotiations stood.

If there is no further negotiation, the Legislature will have to choose between Cuomo's plan and full disclosure of the reports.  

A state ethics commission is requesting feedback on guidelines it is developing that would require lobbyists working in Albany to disclose their efforts to shape policy in New York. But the commission has yet to make public any draft regulations. 

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to discuss the proposed disclosure regulations for lobbying groups. The process for creating the rules could drag on for months. 

David Grandeau, former head of the state’s old lobbying commission that was disbanded by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, said JCOPE's process for drafting the guidelines has been unusual.  

"They are asking for comments now, but what are we supposed to comment on? They haven’t shown us draft regulations," he said. "They have had three months to issue regulations. What have they been doing?"

Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters had similar concerns. "I was a little surprised they weren't able to come up with draft regulations for us to respond to," she said.

Bartoletti also said the process could delay the implementation of the regulations until the January 2013 disclosure period. "Our fear is this could be another six months to have these regulations," she said. "We feel there will be a vacuum."

John Milgrim, a spokesman for JCOPE, said the agency does not yet have guidlines of its own and is working off the 2011 statute. He said a 45-day comment period will follow JCOPE presentation of any regulations.

Discussions about how major lobbying groups disclose their donors generated attention this week amidst revelations that a major lobbying group formed at the urging of Cuomo, the Committee to Save New York, had received large donations from casino interests just before the governor began a very public push to legalize gambling in New York. One of the contributors to a planned casino in New York City, Genting, was among the businesses that donated through the New York Gaming Association to the CSNY. 

CSNY’s spokesman Michael McKeon said any groups that thought they were getting something extra from donating “are simply wrong.” 

Cuomo's representatives defended the governor's connection to CSNY. “To try to suggest an improper relationship between the governor and gaming interests is to distort the facts in a malicious or reckless manner,” the spokesman told the Times.

But watchdog groups slammed the relationship. "We are seeing a governor that seems to have put his editorial byline, his State of the State, and even the State's Constitution up for auction, with the most well-connected New Yorkers brokering the sale," said Wayne Starks from VOCAL-NY and Agnes Rivera from Community Voices Heard in a joint statement in response to the revelations by The New York Times. 

Legislation passed in 2011 requires 501 (c) (4) nonprofit social lobbying groups like CSNY to disclose anyone who donates over $5,000, but JCOPE has yet to spell out how it wants disclosures to be filed and whether those filings should be retroactive. CSNY has refused to voluntarily release its donors lists but says it will abide by the law. The law requires groups to disclose some of their donor information by July 16, but it isn’t clear how much because no regulations are in place. 

JCOPE got off to a rocky start. Legislators and the governor, who pick the members of the commission, didn’t announce their appointees to the board until the legal deadline on Dec. 12, 2011 -- announcing their picks in a news release.

Since then, JCOPE has faced major scrutiny over some of its members' ability to serve impartially.

Most recently, chairwoman Janet DiFiore, a Cuomo appointee who also serves as the Westchester County District Attorney, has been accused of improperly seeking benefits such as food stamps for her housekeeper. DiFiore has said that the accusations are politically motivated. Information was also leaked about JCOPE's ethics investigation into Senate Minority Leader Tom Libous. 

On May 18, JCOPE closed a public comment period on how the disclosure process should work. The commission sent out a message about the regulations to lobbyists Tuesday, and posted the information on its site. The message appears to indicate that JCOPE is fairly far away from having any concrete process for disclosure: 

“The Joint Commission on Public Ethics is developing guidelines and regulations relating to new disclosure requirements for lobbyists and clients of lobbyists pursuant to The Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011. As part of that process, the Commission is developing forms and instructions, both online and in hard copy, for lobbyists and clients to comply with the new source of funding disclosure requirement pursuant to Legislative Law §§1-h (c) (4) and 1-j (c) (4). As these forms will necessarily track the regulations the Commission ultimately develops, they will not be available until those regulations are enacted. Lobbyists and clients potentially subject to the new disclosure requirements should continue to maintain their internal records to be able to meet the new requirements once the regulations are in place. Notice will be sent when the forms and instructions are available.” 

Russ Haven, of The New York Public Interest Research Group, said NYPIRG submitted its interpretation of the disclosure laws and look forward to the Thursday hearing to see other interpretations. 

Haven said the best case scenario would be to “come out of this with clear guidelines so people know how to comply. A lot of the JCOPE law focused on disclosure as a tonic for Albany. In the end, this boils down to the fact that it makes sense that everyone has to disclose.”

Photo from flickr.

On January 24, 2012, state Sen. Neil Breslin, the man tasked with reinvigorating the Democratic caucus, attended an open house for the future location of the only library in the small mountain town of Berne, outside of Albany.

At one point, Breslin says, a close colleague leaned over to him and jokingly said, “You know, this place might not even be in your district by next week.”

The joke wasn’t particularly funny to Breslin, the deputy minority leader, who over nine terms had become particularly familiar with the rural side of Albany County that includes Berne.

Two days after the library open house, the legislative taskforce appointed to redraw district lines posted its draft maps on its website. Berne and its library would no longer part of Breslin’s district.

“I was shocked,” Breslin said last week. “I thought it had to be a mistake.”

Redistricting was one more punch in the gut for New York’s Senate Democrats, which lost control of the chamber to emboldened Republicans. It followed a year of embarrassing corruption trials of party members and the rise of a breakaway faction of Democrats willing to put up candidates to challenge incumbents.

Meanwhile, the state’s popular Democratic governor, who might have been considered a natural ally to the Senate Democrats, has signaled he plans to stay out of fractious party politics and instead focus on his policy agenda.

“I want to do as little politics as possible because I don’t find injecting politics particularly helpful to the process of getting legislation passed,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on May 7, after announcing he would introduce legislation to create a new state agency to investigate and prosecute abuses against people with disabilities and special needs.

In spite of all the bad news, Breslin and other Senate Democrats said they plan to capitalize on national issues to compete with their Republican counterparts and recapture control of the chamber.

“All politics are local, but national issues impact voters,” said Democratic state Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan. “Yes, I am trying to highlight the difference between Republicans and Democrats in the national scene and in the state. Republicans are saying, ‘We are sort of Democrats, we work with the governor!’ But look at who they are supporting -- they support Mitt Romney, who does not support same-sex marriage and a party that is leading an assault on women’s rights.”

But Doug Muzzio, an expert on public policy at Baruch College, said the Senate Democrats’ strategy was doomed. “All together it’s a losing strategy conducted by losers,” he said.

Many factors were to blame for why the Democratic leadership has failed to control the chamber, in spite of the overwhelming Democratic registration of voters in the state, he said. Poor leadership and redistricting were just two of the main reasons, he said.

“If I were a betting man, even with overwhelming Democratic registration and [the] assumption of Obama winning the vote, I’m still not going to be betting on Democrats winning that body,” he said.

Utter chaos

State Senate Democrats didn’t get to this nadir overnight. They spent a good chunk of their two years in the majority, between 2008 and 2009, in utter chaos. At one point, two of their members – Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate – joined with the Republicans to create a new conference.

The two sides feuded about who actually had control of the Senate for months until Democrats lured the pair back with promises of perks and power. Espada was named Majority Leader of the State Senate.

The move left the conference fractured and deadlocked until the 2010 elections. While Democrats blame anti-incumbent sentiment for their woes, Republicans say voters saw the mess Democrats caused when they were in the majority.

It was also in 2010 that a group of four Democrats, led by state Sen. Jeff Klein, broke away to form their own faction. They have since worked very closely with Senate Republicans on votes essential to the Republican majority

Democrats are concerned that the Independent Democratic Conference, as it is known, may be looking at trying to expand their ranks against a few Democratic incumbents across the state—or at the very least distracting certain members from working on other campaigns.

Meanwhile, in the months and years since, Democrats have suffered scandals -- including the tabloid headline producing indictments and trials of Espada, Monserrate and Carl Kruger. Monserrate was expelled from the Senate in February 2010 after he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. Kruger pleaded guilty in December 2011 to corruption charges and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Espada is on trial in Manhattan, accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a network of Bronx clinics.

A further embarrassment came in the winter of 2011, when state Senate Democratic Minority Leader John Sampson appointed Ravi Batra, a lawyer, to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, causing consternation inside and outside the Democratic conference. Sampson had failed to disclose that he had worked as co-counsel with Batra and that the two shared business interests.

It also didn’t help that the successful passage of probably the most significant civil rights legislation to be passed in a generation – the legalization of same-sex marriage – was attributed to the governor and the cooperation of the Republican conference, despite the fact that only 4 of their members voters for it.

Then redistricting happened. After months of negotiations among policymakers, the legislative task force overseeing the process put forward badly gerrymandered maps to protect incumbents in early 2012. One outcome was the enlargement of the Senate by one to 63 members. The governor approved the lines, and a deal was hatched to create a constitutional amendment that would revamp the redistricting process after the 2020 census.

Senate Democrats were dazed by Cuomo’s approval of the lines, and then later by a judge’s decision that the maps were constitutional.

If anything, the new lines have left Democrats in an even more tenuous position, said political analyst Muzzio. “The factor that has led Republicans to control the body in years past was even more egregious,” he said.

Liz Krueger said Senate Democrats were accustomed to running in districts that have been drawn against them.

“The district lines were a disappointment,” she said. “Having said that, we are going to run strong candidates who can win despite bad district lines. We won the majority with bad district lines.”

Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Senate Republicans, said Democrats only had themselves to blame.

“All you have to do is look back at their time in the majority and look at the results,” Reif said. “We are going to grow our majority. We are going to tout our accomplishments to the voters.”

When Democrats were in the majority, there was talk of reforming the redistricting process. But when then-Majority Leader Malcolm Smith was caught saying that Democrats would district Republicans into "oblivion," it demonstrated that the party's leadership was not focused on a solution. Democrats never moved on redistricting reform.

A plan for success

Part of the equation for a success for the Senate Democratic Conference is connecting their races to national politics.

Krueger has been spending a lot of time lately alerting her constituents to conservative legislation that has been introduced by Senate Republicans. She also founded the No Bad Apples PAC in 2011 to recruit what she referred to as "good government" Democrats. They are expected to only get involved in two races and would not primary any sitting Democrats.

Krueger said she has been fighting to get votes on a number of women's bills she and her colleagues introduced this year. The bills include measures that would ensure fair pay for women, ensure access to contraception, amend the constitution to strengthen a woman's right to choose and mandate mandatory minimum Medicaid coverage. The Republican leadership has forced the bills into the rules committee, effectively killing them.

Krueger and her colleagues have also called attention to a “Stand Your Ground” bill introduced by Sen. George Maziarz—a bill that looks awfully similar to legislation being pushed by conservative think tank The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

ALEC advocates conservative legislation around the country and was recently a focus of major media because it pushed the Stand Your Ground bill that is at the center of the Trayvon Martin killing. Another bill that is similar to ALEC sponsored legislation is currently pending in the Senate—that would force voters to display their drivers licenses to able to vote.

Last week, Sen. Daniel Squadron, a Democrat from New York City, called for a hearing into whether ALEC had been behind legislation introduced in the Senate.

In a letter Squadron wrote to Senate Investigations Chair Carl Marcellino, Squadron said it appears as though ALEC is functioning as a lobbying organization despite not being registered as a lobbyist.

ALEC has trumpeted the introduction of 39 pieces of “model legislation” in the state legislature since 2010.

Reif, the spokesman for the Senate Republicans, said he didn’t know whether his conference had had any official interaction with ALEC. He said it wasn’t something he was “focused on.” Instead, he said his conference was focused on touting what he calls the conference’s successes over the past two years as well as its close relationship with Cuomo. “We worked with the governor and produced solid bipartisan results,” he said.

Senate Democrats said they were going to do their best to push a gap between Republicans and Cuomo -- by focusing on policy.

Sen. Mike Gianaris, head of the New York State Democratic Committee, said Republicans were going to find it a challenge to attach themselves to Cuomo’s wagon and points to the recent decision by Republican Sen. Jim Alesi not to seek reelection.

Alesi was one of the four Republicans who voted to legalize same-sex marriage and was facing a divisive primary by a more conservative opponent.

“Middle of the road Republicans are being replaced by Tea Party extremists. Look what happened in Rochester,” Gianaris said. “You cant change the facts -- this is a Democratic state and going into a national election with a Democratic incumbent as president.”

Holding onto hope

As bad as the last two years have been for the Senate Democrats, they said they believe they still have a chance to gain seats and even take the majority back in the chamber.

“The anti-incumbent sentiment from two years ago just isn’t there,” Breslin said. “Looking at polls back then you could see that Democrats were saying they weren’t going to come out to vote.”

Breslin said he thinks Obama will turn out the youth, minority and women’s votes in large numbers.

But this year, the incumbent faces a primary challenger—Shawn Morse, an Albany County legislator who is backed by Breslin’s county opponents and who has at least met with the the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference.

Eric Soufer, spokesman for the IDC, said no decisions on primaries have been made yet. “We are taking a wait-and-see approach. There is still a lot of work to be done, signatures to be collected and petitions to be filed,” he said.

However, when asked if Klein had met with potential candidates to represent the IDC in primaries versus Democrats, he responded: “There's no doubt that Shawn Morse is a hard-working and dedicated public servant. He seems to have a bright future. As for other potential office holders, Senator Klein and his IDC colleagues will always welcome the opportunity to work on policy initiatives with like-minded elected officials from around New York."

With June’s filing deadlines still weeks away, both parties are scrambling to do their political math to come up with strategies to expand their conferences, while formulating strategy for those individual races.

Breslin said that even though the conference will be trying to capitalize on national issues, they will also be looking to tailor their messages.

“I’m not sure there will be one message for every race,” Breslin said. “But there is no denying that our objective is to connect national issues to these races. We have the minimum wage debate, we have women’s issues, we have campaign finance reform and transparency.” He paused for a moment, laughed and said: “You know, we won the majority during a presidential election.”

Before the Democrats won the majority in 2008, they hadn’t held it since 1964 and then they only held it for one session -- a session that was marked by Democratic infighting.

Photo provided by CCRB

The City Council, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Police Department agreed last week to let the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) prosecute all substantiated cases of police misconduct in court.

The decision is a dramatic expansion for CCRB, which has negotiated with city hall since November 2011, to hire a prosecuting attorney despite a citywide hiring freeze. Police and lawmakers hope that it will restore some needed credibility to the NYPD, which has been blasted for racially motivated stop and frisk policies, ticket fixing, aggression against protesters, surveillance against Muslim communities and lying to the media.

“Today’s agreement expands on our pilot program, empowering CCRB prosecutors, strengthening our strong monitoring and regulation of police conduct. We expect members of the NYPD to live up to their name – New York’s Finest – and I know they will continue to do so,” said Bloomberg.

But critics of the NYPD said that while this is a good step, it only addresses a small part of the problem. The new policy is an agreement between two agencies and is not enshrined in law. The Police Commissioner still has the power to stop investigations and the discipline the department metes out to cops, which critics say is nominal and insufficient.

CCRB Chair Daniel Chu praised the agreement. “This agreement is a milestone in the history of civilian police oversight in New York City. Public confidence in the disciplinary process will be strengthened by having the CCRB, an independent agency, prosecuting these cases,” he said.

NYPD attorneys handled all police misconduct cases until the 2008 launch of the Administrative Prosecuting Unit (APU) which gave a CCRB attorney the power to serve in a “second seat” capacity to prosecutors. Starting in 2010, the APU also headed the prosecution of a selection of police cases, about one in five. CCRB staff also put together pre-trial negotiations between accused officers and the aggrieved parties. The agency heard its first trial in May 2011.

The CCRB and its proponents say the board prosecutors’ independence from the police department lessens the chance that NYPD will drop substantiated cases before they head to trial. They also say that the practice improves communication between the board and the police and allows attorneys who investigate misconduct to give crucial and correct details to a judge.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn as well as council members often critical of the police such as Jumaane Williams, praised the agreement as very important step towards police accountability.

“I am certain it will also increase public confidence in the system,” said Quinn. “The public needs to know that when they file a legitimate, serious complaint it will undergo an appropriate process of review and — if substantiated — prosecution.”

Photo by Prospect Park

As far as political expos go, this one looked more like a science fair. Delegates packed into a room at the Park Slope Armory with twenty cardboard-mounted ideas of what their community needs.

The proposals ranged from road repair to a giant projector for showing films in the Prospect Park bandshell, to upgrading equipment for a junior high school’s broadcast journalism program. All these plans are on next week’s participatory budget ballot, to be held in four city districts.

The elections represent four months of the volunteer delegates’ work in turning the community’s thousand vague ideas into twenty concrete proposals. Residents will choose their top five and the favorites will become part of the council member’s spending plan, up to a value of $1 million, the amount allocated to capital spending per district.

“It’s been deeply inspiring and democratic,” said Councilman Brad Lander, who represents district 39 and came to the armory to answer questions and show support. Jumaane Williams of District 45 in Brooklyn, Eric Ulrich of District 32 and Melissa Mark-Viverito of District 8 also held participatory budget pilots.

The project, called participatory budgeting, is now in the final stretch of its first trial run in New York City, the second city in the United States to try the idea after Chicago. Despite many challenges that volunteers faced during the winter, enthusiasm was high at the Park Slope expo where people who knew nothing of local politics last summer spouted civic lore.

“I enjoyed it. I got to learn about how the council members have to interact with all the city agencies and the requirements and rules required to get things done,” said Michael Futtman, who lives in the small part of Boro Park that Lander represents. As part of his presentation, he had a rattling dashboard video of what it’s like to drive down a street in his neighborhood which some of his fellow delegates would like to repair.

Others had graphics showing what can happen, such as the projection of a tall monument to languages and a timer on bus stops which would feed into the buses’ new GPS and tell passengers their wait time.

Still other council districts’ proposals reflected the communities’ concerns. Williams’ and Viverito’s districts focused on public housing issues, while Ulrich’s district, in the Rockaways, concerned itself a great deal with the environment.

The process began in October, when thousands of community members met and brainstormed ideas. Groups of volunteers then formed into committees organized by topic and set to condensing the ideas.

It didn’t all run smoothly. Many delegates didn’t know the amount of bureaucracy that goes into budget proposals and getting projects done in New York City and had to balance learning about the process, reaching out to city agencies and, often, having a full time job. Even with the council members’ support, there was some attrition.

Another challenge came from the departments. Many were unused to the increased volume of proposals the delegates had submitted, many of which were unfeasible. Some proposals cut across multiple departments, such as the plan to fix “Lake Fort Hamilton,” a sidewalk dip near the entrance to the Fort Hamilton F train stop which routinely gets flooded during rain.

“The MTA said their jurisdiction ends a few feet from the station and the [Department of Transportation] didn’t really want to take ownership” of rebuilding a non-functioning drain and walkway, said David McGillan, a transportation committee delegate. “The parks department was the most receptive,” agreeing to plant some trees down the side of a hill where rainwater runs off. A spokesman for Viverito added that some agencies never called them back but declined to name the agencies.

Scott Gastel, spokesman for the DOT, didn’t comment other than to say that the department is always willing to discuss capital projects with all council members.

Lander painted the relationship in a more optimistic light. “It’s been really encouraging,” he said. “Agencies capital people were, for the most part, excited to engage with people.”

All the proposals have different price tags, ranging from $45,000 to $500,000 and beyond. Council members will act on the top proposals until they hit their limit of $1 million. If the amount exceeds the limit by a little bit, they can possibly work something out, said Lander.

Though it might be over a year before some of the top proposals get acted on, it has so far been a success, according to Josh Lerner of the Participatory Budgeting Project, a nonprofit organization, which tries to advance the practice in new areas. The real test will come next week when the public goes to the polls and turnout can be measured.

All four council members will try the project again this year and expressed optimism that more council members will follow suit.

“You see lots of people connecting the dots, lots of people from the community working together and that’s really impressive,” said Lerner.

On the heels of the announcement that the CityTime scandal would be laid to rest by a $500 million settlement, the City Council passed a bill yesterday to monitor significant changes in capital spending contracts.

“This legislation will prevent the next CityTime,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, before the costs skyrocket like they did with CityTime, an automated payroll system. That contract was supposed to cost the city around $68 million, but the bill surged to more than $700 million before the rampant fraud was exposed.

The Council also saw Councilman Jumaane Williams’ latest attempt increase police accountability, and and Speaker Quinn talked wedding plans.

More Contract Budget Oversight

The Contract Overrun Bill is the latest legislation in the Council’s continued battle with the Mayor over the contract budget, which has grown by more than 70 percent during the Bloomberg administration. Last Fall, the Council passed a bill that mandated the city to use city employees for contract work if it were cheaper than to hire contractors. Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the bill and the Council overrode his veto in December.

CityTime was a major blemish to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration — particularly as he styled himself as a business-savvy, cost-cutting manager — and yesterday’s bill is yet another way Speaker Quinn may be angling to distance herself from the Mayor as she prepares for her mayoral run.

The bill, which is sponsored by the Chair of the Contracts Committee Councilman Letitia James, mandates that the city notify the Council of contract revisions or cost overruns that represent 20 percent of contract valued at $10 million or more. Once contracts have been flagged, future revisions of 10 percent or more of the revised budget must also be reported to the Council. Ninety percent of city contracts cost more than $10 million dollars, Quinn said, and implementing a threshold means that the bill will be effective, without “over micro-managing” some of the smaller contracts.

Crucially, the bill mandates the city notify the Council on contract overruns as they occur — “and the 'as they' is very important,” she said, adding that it allowed the Council to weigh in on whether the City needs to walk away from a project or revise the contracts before the costs spiral out of control.

As for whether the information will be delivered in time to save the city from another CityTime, Quinn said that the information will speak for itself. The information “will tell us if we got the information too late. And trust us — and trust Tish [Councilman Letitia James] if we get the information too late, everyone’s going to hear about it.”

The Council will make the contract information public on their website as well.

Electing a Police Commissioner?

Getting detained by cops at the West Indian Parade last year did not sit well with Councilman Jumaane D. Williams. The Councilman, who represents parts of Brooklyn including Flatbush, has released six bills on police reform this year.

The most recent was introduced at yesterday’s meeting and went straight to the top cop: Res.1248 calls on the state to change the police commissioner from an appointed to an elected position.

Williams has released two other resolutions this year — one on prosecuting police misconduct and another on the state’s involvement in crimes committed by police officers Williams has also released three bills — on stop and frisk, police identifying themselves to the public, and racial profiling.

“I’m trying to figure out ways to make the police more accountable to the people who live in New York City,” Williams told Gotham Gazette. “If the Commissioner had to go before the people and explain, we might be able to get more responses.” Williams said; that police accountability has long been an issue for him, but his experiences at the parade — which many said was a product of racial profiling —have definitely aided his platform as an advocate. As to whether the resolution has a shot at being acted upon or is simply a political statement, Williams said.

“Nothing is impossible. It’s definitely about pushing the conversation,” he said. “Let’s explore it and if it’s something that needs to be done, let’s do it.”

Savoring the Date

Quinn even fielded a few questions on her upcoming wedding to longtime partner Kim Catullo. The pair recently announced a May 19^th date for their wedding.

Quinn, who opted not to discuss the details of the ceremony, said she was having “a lot of fun” planning her nuptials.

“You think you’re going to be too cool to care about the vegetarian entrees — but I care! I care a lot,” she said. “You hear people talking about their weddings all the time, but for LGBT people in this state and most of the LGBT people in the country, that’s never been an option.”

Quinn and partner Catullo, a corporate lawyer, will wed in Manhattan in a private ceremony.

“It’s a huge thing. Marriage is one of those few words in the world you don’t have to explain. Everyone knows what that means,” she said. “It does make you feel like a part of society in a more whole and real way.”

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