The Independent View: Future of the NYC Council

Tonight I attend a roundtable discussion on the future of the New York City Council with six of the seven candidates for Council Speaker.

The event took place at the New York Law School and was sponsored by the Law School, Common Cause/NY, and the Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center (HRP).

The round table answered questions about various proposals to change Council's rules and the future of the Council. The opening remarks was given by Anthony Crowell, Esq., the Dean of the New York Law School and Shani Jamila, the Director of Human Rights Project at the Urban Center.

The round table was moderated by Fordham University Assistant Professor of Political Science, Christina Greer and Common/NY Executive Director, Susan Lerner.

The City Council members running for the Speaker position were:

Inez Dickens - 9th District, Manhattan
Daniel Garodnick - 5th District, Manhattan (my Council member)
Melissa Mark-Viverito - 8th District, Manhattan and Bronx
Annabel Palma - 18th District, Bronx
James Vacca - 13th District, Bronx
Mark Weprin - 23rd District, Queens

Jumaane D. Williams - 45th District, Brooklyn (schedule conflict)

My Notes:

- This will be the first time in 50 years the Mayor and the City Council will be Democrats and the Mayor-Elect was a City Council former member.

- With only 22% voter turnout in the General Election, I do not know how they can say they have a mandate.

- How will term limits affect the selection? Mark Welpern and Jumaane D. Williams have two terms left, the others are on their last term. A term is four years.

- The process to bring a Bill to the floor. Bills should be tested for its impact to the budget, constitutionally, and should have public hearings.

- How should Committee size be determined?

- There is a need for a Committee Scheduling system with an agenda distributed in advance of the meeting.

- How should the Member Items (Member money for the district) be determined?

- Department oversite is not working with no transparency to how money is spent.

- Participate Budget: 14 members are doing a pilot project that allows the citizens of a district determine how to spend $1m dollars of the budget.

- There are 20 new members and how will they get tutored into the Councils process?

The Speaker vote will be Jan. 8, 2014 at 12 noon. At this time, the Council still have not decided how the vote will be taken: secret, voice, or raised hand.