Tag Archives: Gale Brewer

A 311 Bone for Community Boards, or a Snow Job?

Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith

Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith said today that “we’re 30 days away” from giving community boards “real-time 311 data,” but that he would have to confirm this.

He made his comment in response to a question by Councilmember Gale Brewer at today’s City Council hearings on the Blizzard of 2010.

But a Brooklyn community board district manager who has seen a prototype of the system cautions that the 311 data will not be what the boards had requested.

Despite some incisive questioning, especially by Councilmember Jumaane Williams (45CD), the mayor’s representatives toughed it out and protected Bloomberg by saying that they, not he, had made the crucial decisions.

Sanitation Commissioner John J. Doherty

But when it came time to specify which managers had made which decisions, no one took responsibility. Goldsmith called himself a “coordinator” who had left it to commissioners John Doherty (DSNY) and Joe Bruno (OEM) to make the critical operational calls. They said the decision-making scenario was a group process.

No one admitted City Hall had erred in delaying declaration of a snow emergency.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s political operatives are working in Albany on their real agenda: gutting the civil service merit system.

Who is Brad Hoylman?

Brad Hoylman

The strongest push to hobble NYC’s community boards by forcing them to hire dedicated planners and revert to a narrower “planning board” role (an idea we strongly oppose) came not from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, but from the former chairman of Manhattan Community Board 2, Brad Hoylman, who was one of five invited “experts” who spoke at the Charter Revision Commission’s June 10 session on Government Structure in Staten Island. Why the commission chose Hoylman as a featured guest became evident upon examination of his credentials. Continue reading

Parks Group Charter Alert: Community Boards Threatened

In an essay they call “The Five Cs,” the concerned New Yorkers who head the parks advocacy organization, “250+ Friends of Parks,” remind our readers about the possibility that a charter revision this year could try to eliminate community boards. Our own take is that ultimately, a Bloomberg 2010 charter revision commission will not move to eliminate community boards entirely, but can be expected to propose changes that will limit their scope or effectiveness.

The Five Cs piece is after the break, linked to a City Hall News article by Dan Rivoli about new City Council Government Operations Committee Chair Gale Brewer. As Rivoli notes, Brewer may be in favor of eliminating Council lulus, a change we think could strengthen mayoral power at the expense of the Council. Continue reading