Tag Archives: New york Community boards

Tagged 2010 charter revision, 2010 NY charter, bloomberg charter, charter revision, Community Boards, Matthew Goldstein, New York City Charter, New York City government, New york Community boards, NY charter commission, NY charter revision, NYC charter, NYC Government

Charter Revision: Just Like Jury Duty

Posted on May 10, 2010 | 1 comment

Stephen J. Fiala

One surprise from Monday morning’s webcast meeting of the 2010 NYC Charter Revision Commission at the Tweed Courthouse was that Staten Island commission member Stephen J. Fiala emerged as a hard-liner with respect to the commission’s tight schedule. Here’s what happened:

Chairman Matthew Goldstein asked executive director Lorna Goodman to describe the five “issues forums” that the commission will convene starting later this month. These, she said, will center on land use; term limits, voter participation, including consideration of non-partisan elections; “balance of powers,” including the roles of the borough presidents and the community boards; and fiscal integrity.

Goldstein then turned to Fiala to read the resolution by which the commission would formally adopt the commission’s calendar, including another round of public hearings to be held during the summer. After those, he said, the commission will have to make a “pivotal decision” prior to September 2 as to “whether to cull a subset of issues” to be presented on November’s ballot. Continue reading →

Tagged 2010 charter revision, 2010 NY charter, bloomberg charter, charter revision, Community Boards, Matthew Goldstein, Mayor Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Charter, New York City government, New york Community boards, non-partisan elections, NY charter commission, NY charter revision, NYC charter, NYC Government, Stephen Fiala

Community Board Budgets to be Restored

Posted on May 6, 2010 | 2 comments

Mayor Bloomberg’s Fiscal Year 2011 Executive Budget calls for the restoration of community board funding to $198,895.

The restoration comes after almost $60,000 in reductions proposed by the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget earlier this year.

Those proposed reductions prompted many community board members to argue for “baseline budgeting” at April’s charter revision commission public hearings. Many boards also reached out for help to their borough presidents and City Council members. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in Community Boards

Tagged Borough Presidents, Community Boards, FY 2011 Executive Budget, Mayor Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City government, New york Community boards, NY charter commission, NYC community boards

Updates around the city

Posted on May 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

Brighton Beach Avenue

Just to remind us of the continuing battle between neighborhood preservationists and developers in NYC, Sunday’s NY Times Real Estate section’s “Living In” profile of Brighton Beach noted the beachfront neighborhood’s continuing high-rise development:

“In 2008, responding to community alarm, the city’s Planning Department proposed a 54-block rezoning of the area that would have capped the heights of many structures at four stories. But developers’ opposition proved overwhelming and last June the city withdrew the plan.”

Elsewhere, the city’s 59 community boards — favorite forums for neighborhood preservationists — continue to face severe cuts to their budgets. Our colleague at Bronx Board 12, Father Richard F. Gorman, writes that the latest reduction leaves each community board with a budget lower than the take-home salary of a single Bloomberg commissioner. Despite the infinitesimal impact on the city’s budget, the mayor has not rescinded the cuts.

Last Thursday, the Staten Island Advance reported on NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s address before a Staten Island economic development conference: “The City Charter Revision Commission ‘should grant borough presidents and community boards more of a say over how services are rendered,’ Silver said, adding, ’if there is a pothole on Hylan Boulevard, the borough president ought to be able to get it filled.’” The Advance did not say whether Silver acknowledged that the State legislature has the power to convene a NYC charter revision commission of its own. Continue reading →

Tagged 2010 charter revision, 2010 NY charter, bloomberg charter, charter revision, Community Boards, David Greenfield, Development, Mayor Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Charter, New York City government, New york Community boards, NY charter commission, NY charter revision, NYC charter, NYC Government, NYS Assembly, Sheldon Silver

Charter Revision: What to Expect in May

Posted on April 26, 2010 | 1 comment

Kingsbridge Armory

The populist image conveyed by the charter revision commission’s April public hearings will fade in May when invited “consultants, ” commission members, and staff publicly dissect the legalistic, technical, and detailed language of the City Charter at a series of “issue forums.” What are some of the technical issues the experts will examine?

According to commission chair Matthew Goldstein, one prominent goal of this year’s commission will be to find ways to improve “efficiency” in city government. Almost certainly, this will involve identifying procedural and structural changes that can create a more development-friendly environment and help future mayors control key land use decisions. Such changes would seek to prevent recurrence of events such as Mayor Bloomberg’s recent loss to the City Council on the Kingsbridge Armory Mall project in The Bronx, where a dispute over wage rates caused the Council to reject the initiative. Continue reading →

Tagged 2010 charter revision, 2010 NY charter, bloomberg charter, Borough Presidents, CBAs, CEQR, charter revision, community benefits agreements, Community Boards, Development, Hope Cohen, Kingsbridge Armory Mall, land use, Manhattan Institute, Matthew Goldstein, Michael Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg, Mort Zuckerman, New York City Charter, New York City government, New york Community boards, non-partisan elections, NY charter commission, NY charter revision, NY City Council, NYC charter, NYC Government, ULURP

April’s Charter Revision Hearings: What Did They Accomplish?

Posted on April 26, 2010 | 1 comment

Matthew Goldstein

A couple of days ago we posted a story about how the Daily News tried to convince its readers that mayoral aide Howard Wolfson was wrong when he told NY1 that Mike Bloomberg will dictate the agenda for the 2010 NYC Charter Revision Commission.

The News was protecting commission chair Matthew Goldstein and his colleagues — who have steadfastly insisted that the commission will act independently — from potential accusations that they are dupes or liars. It also was trying to bolster public confidence that public testimony matters at the commission’s hearings. Does it? The answer is “yes, but maybe not the way you think.” Continue reading →

Tagged 2003 charter revision commission, 2010 charter revision, 2010 NY charter, bloomberg charter, Borough Presidents, charter revision, Community Boards, Daily News, Development, Howard Wolfson, Matthew Goldstein, Mayor Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Charter, New York City government, New york Community boards, non-partisan elections, NY charter commission, NY City Council, NY Independence Party, NYC charter, NYC City Council, NYC Government, ULURP

Too Much Decentralization?

Posted on April 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

Pedro Espada Jr.

As our “About” entry indicates, in our other life we chair one of Brooklyn’s community boards. We’re believers in the utility of these 50-member local advisory bodies. We’ve seen them protect neighborhoods against City Hall excesses, assist elected officials when they needed to communicate with local residents, help agency people to coordinate local service delivery, and prevent wasteful municipal spending on projects that won’t work.

So our usual reaction when people from outside the community boards want to change the way boards operate is to ask whether they know what they’re talking about. We’re not completely sure that Huffington Post “writer, musician and New Yorker” Will Schwartz has the whole picture. Some of his assumptions about boards having “untrained, un-vetted leaders” and lacking “economists, public health officials, lawyers, hospital administrators, and other trained professionals” are without merit. But he knows enough about city government to understand that a recent charter revision proposal from controversial State Senator Pedro Espada is completely off the mark. Continue reading →

Tagged 2010 charter revision, 2010 NY charter, bloomberg charter, charter revision, Community Boards, Mayor Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Charter, New York City government, New york Community boards, NY charter commission, NY charter revision, NYC charter, Pedro Espada, Will Schwartz

DOE: A Gap in the City Charter

Posted on April 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

Adrienne Kivelson

Arguably, the speaker who got the closest attention from the staff of the New York City Charter Revision Commission at Monday night’s public hearing in Queens was Adrienne Kivelson, City Affairs Chair of the League of Women Voters of the City of New York.

Ms. Kivelson identified a glaring gap in the City Charter: the document’s failure to recognize the Department of Education as a mayoral agency, despite the control over DOE the state legislature granted to the mayor in 2002, and renewed in 2009. Proposing that the commission “codify the Department of Education in the City Charter,” Ms. Kivelson called for the agency “to be subject to the same oversight and accountability imposed on every other Mayoral agency. Continue reading →

Tagged 2010 charter revision, 2010 NY charter, bloomberg charter, charter language, charter revision, Community Boards, League of Women Voters, New York City Charter, New york Community boards, NY charter commission, NY charter revision, NY City Council, NYC charter, NYC Department of Education

Monday’s charter commission hearing: deceptively full

Posted on April 13, 2010 | 1 comment

Bronx Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, who spoke out against term limits

By Jonathan Berk

At the end of Monday’s Charter Revision Commission public hearing at Hostos Community College in The Bronx, commission chair Matthew Goldstein thanked the public for their “robust” participation over the almost-three-hour session. Indeed, the hearing was full of voices, with 37 speakers from The Bronx’s citizenry, electorate, and civic institutions, saying their part over the course of the evening. But if the chair also was referring to the session’s attendance—which we estimated at no more than 120 people—then “robust” was little more than an optical illusion. Continue reading →

Tagged 2010 new york charter revision, Celeste katz, charter revision, charter revision hostos college, hostos community college, Matthew Goldstein, New york charter revision, New york Community boards, NY 2010 charter revision, NY charter commission, nyc charter revision, NYC charter revision commission, Oliver koppell

Posted in 2010 NYC Charter Revision, Community Boards

Charter Panel Hears Pitch for Non-partisan Elections

Posted on April 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

Carl Paladino at NYC Charter Revision Commission Hearing 4/6/10

A surprise visit by Carl Paladino, millionaire Buffalo developer and newly-announced candidate for Governor, provided some media candy at Tuesday evening’s NYC Charter Revision Commission public hearing at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan. Paladino’s open disdain for New York’s partisan electoral politics brought passion to the dominant message voiced in Tuesday’s public testimony: Make NYC elections non-partisan. Continue reading →