Monthly Archives: August 2010

NYC Charter Revision Proposals: A Hobson’s Choice

Posted on August 25, 2010 | 4 comments

The proposals being placed on November’s ballot by the New York City Charter Revision Commission don’t offer voters real choice. The commission has restricted options by lumping the changes into just two ballot questions, putatively because this year’s new paper voting forms are too small to show the proposals individually. Following each proposal are our preliminary comments and recommendations. Continue reading →

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We Regret to Say We Told You So

Posted on August 24, 2010 | 1 comment

On January 28 — two months before Michael Bloomberg convened a 2010 New York City Charter Revision Commission — we predicted that his charter panel would take advantage of voters’ resentment towards the 2008 Mayor/Council term limits putsch to motivate them to endorse charter changes to increase the mayor’s power.

The commission’s August 23 decisions prove we were right. Continue reading →

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Charter Revision Revisions?

Posted on August 23, 2010 | 1 comment

photo by killingdenouement.wordpress.com

Expect some fireworks tonight at the August 23 meeting of the NYC Charter Revision Commission. It seems that the commission didn’t finish its homework before it published its Draft Proposed Amendments to the New York City Charter on August 17.

Attorney Laurence D. Laufer, writing the next day in the Corporate Political Activity Blog, cited several proposals that could produce donnybrooks tonight:

  • When the City Council extended term limits from two to three in 2008, it specifically said any subsequent charter revision to repeal this would simply restore the old two-term limit.  It did not provide for current third-term office-holders to be exempted from this provision. The charter revision commission’s August 17 draft would afford this exemption. Continue reading →

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Mayor Takes All

Posted on August 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

Unless the details of the NYC Charter Revision Commission’s final ballot questions deviate sharply from what was in the commission’s July 9 staff report, the final tally from Wednesday’s voting session will be: mayor all, City Council and public, none.

Every one of the commission’s key decisions will ask voters to expand the mayor’s powers, or will try to draw voters to the polls to achieve this end. Continue reading →

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Non-Partisan Elections? Nah!

Posted on August 5, 2010 | 1 comment

Commission members Taylor and Scissura

We respect Adam Lisberg, but we think he’s making too big a deal about non-partisan elections. His DN piece suggests that pressure from Mike Bloomberg could force the 2010 NYC Charter Revision Commission to place “top two” or another form of non-partisan elections on November’s ballot. We disagree.

What’s more, we think Lisberg’s employer is using this piece to confect a chance for commission chair Matthew Goldstein and his colleagues to prove their independence from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Continue reading →

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Technical Difficulties

Posted on August 3, 2010 | 1 comment

NYC Charter Revision: We missed portions of Monday’s webcast NYC charter revision commission hearing when our Internet access crashed. Here’s what we managed to see and hear: Continue reading →

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