Charter changes up for discussion

This is to let you know that the city's Charter Review Commission is having a series of meetings in the boroughs next week, Queens' turn is Thursday evening, July 26 at Queens Borough Hall. The Charter is basically New York City's "constitution" that lays out the broad parameters for administration and operation of the city. Please see the attached flyer for additional information. - Jessica Douglas, Queens Borough Director of the Mayor's Community Affairs office

Community Boards:
1) Whether to place term limits for Community Board members as a method to encourage diversity.
2) How to Standardize and enhance the existing appointment process
3) Provide additional support in resources; particularly as it relates to urban planning
4) Things to adopt methods to ensure Community Boards are representative of the community they serve.

Campaign Finance:
1) The Reduction of spending limits (no amounts provided).
2) Increasing the public match ( no ratio provided).
3) Look into the timeline for implementation given that candidates are raising money under the current system.

Elections
1) Language accessibility ( providing interpreters, translation of ballots and materials, and community advisory groups)
2) Instant Runoff Voting - Look to implement within local primary elections and for citywide elections (where runoffs is provided) or to extend to all offices (Borough Presidents and City Council offices)

A Citywide Civic Engagement Program
1) how such an entity or office could support, supplement, or coordinate the City’s existing efforts in this area, including the recently announced DemocracyNYC initiative.
2) how such an entity or office could facilitate the expansion of participatory budgeting while working within legal and operational constraints
3) where such an entity or office should be situated;.
4) whether such an entity or office should be independent and non-partisan.

Redistricting for City Council Seats
1) In light of the lack of DOJ oversight, solicit testimony from experts and affected communities about the effects of districting process on racial and ethnic minorities and their voting power.
2) Look at altering the Districting Commission to promote independence, including the appointment process.
3) Studying whether there are ways to counteract effects of an undercount in the next census.

DeBlasio uses a loophole to pay for lawyers

From the Daily News:

City politicians aren't allowed to use their campaign cash to pay lawyers representing them in criminal matters, but Mayor de Blasio has found a way around this problem.

The mayor — now facing multiple investigations of his campaign fund-raising tactics — is using an obscure loophole in campaign finance laws to pay the lawyers defending him.

He’s taking advantage of the fact that while city law mandates donations for primary and general elections can only be used for lawyers handling non-criminal matters related to a campaign, funds raised for run-off elections face no such restriction.

That’s because run-offs fall under state law, not city law, and the state allows campaign funds to pay for criminal defense lawyers. Convicted Albany leaders Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos both took advantage of that this year.

Since everything is covered with cement...

From DNA Info:

The city is building more than 300 rain gardens on streets in western Queens, part of a $7.3 million project to help curb pollution flowing into nearby Newtown Creek, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

The 321 gardens — also known as bioswales — are being built in Sunnyside, Maspeth and Ridgewood, largely clustered east of the Kosciuszko Bridge and in neighborhoods around the Queens-Midtown Expressway in Queens Community Boards 2 and 5.

Built into the sidewalks, the gardens are designed to collect and absorb rain that would otherwise go into the sewer system, potentially overwhelming the city's wastewater treatment plants and overflowing into local waterways, including Newtown Creek, a notoriously polluted Superfund site.

And why is there so much runoff into the Creek?

Bring on the bioswales!

From the Queens Chronicle:

If you have driven around Rego Park, Forest Hills or even College Point this week, you may have noticed large blue trucks drilling into the roads.

These trucks are not repairing street damage or straightening sidewalks, they are being used for geotechnical investigative work in preparation for citywide bioswale installations.
Bioswales are landscape elements designed to remove pollution and minor flooding from storm water runoff.

They consist of a drainage course with sloped sides. Vegetation and compost fill in the space.

“Essentially they are a measure of keeping storm water out of waterways,” Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Edward Timbers said. “They won’t solve the problem entirely but are more of an added measure.”

While these installations will improve street drainage, they are not designed to prevent street flooding, a problem many residents of Forest Hills, Maspeth, Glendale face.

With the new system, storm water is absorbed by the sandy soil that sits on the swale surface and seeps into the ground underneath in a process called infiltration until it reaches a stone layer underneath.

The water is then absorbed by the trees and vegetation in the swale where it is then released into the air as water vapor in a process called evapotranspiration.

Over the next few years, at least 100 of these swales will be placed throughout the borough. Together, they are expected to reduce the amount of runoff that filters into Flushing Bay.

Lever machines may make comeback this year

From the Daily News:

It’s now officially up to Gov. Cuomo to decide whether old-fashioned lever voting machines can be used in city elections this year.

Legislation granting the city Board of Elections authority to use the machines for this year’s primary and runoff elections was sent to Cuomo’s office Tuesday. He must decide by July 13th whether to sign or veto the measure, which was approved by the Senate and Assembly before the close of the legislative session last month.

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said the governor is still reviewing the bill and has not made a decision on whether to sign it.

City elections officials have been pushing to use the older machines because of fears they would not be able to complete recounts in time if modern, optical scan voting machines were used for the primary or runoff. The optical scan machines rely on paper ballots for each voter, creating tremendous amounts of paper that would need to be hand-checked if a recount were required.

Instant runoff voting may be coming in 2017

From the Daily News:

A new City Council effort would eliminate costly and cumbersome runoff elections in favor of instant runoffs in which voters would rank candidates to choose their favored contender in a primary election.

Backers of the proposal plan to introduce a bill in the Council on Wednesday that would put the matter to a voter referendum. It could take effect as early as 2017.

Supporters say the new system could avoid the difficulties expected this year as the Board of Elections warns that it won’t have time to reset new electronic voting machines in the two weeks between the September primary and the runoff expected if no candidate receives at least 40% of the vote. It could also save taxpayers about $20 million.

Why green yards are important

From the Wall Street Journal:

New York City, in the public imagination, is a land without yards. The relative scarcity of private residential green spaces is one of the many ways home life in the densely-packed city is thought to differ from the spacious suburbs.

So it’s something of a shock to learn that residential yards make up 27% percent of the city’s total area — and that’s not counting parks or the greenery found adjacent to sidewalks or on street medians. That finding comes from the work of a group called Sustainable Yards, whose founder, Evan Mason, used satellite images to tally the yard space in all five boroughs.

Mason describes her research, conducted with help from the City University of New York, in an interview with science blogger Emily Anthes. The discussion hits on the importance of these yard spaces, including ways they can help the city save money. Green yards, which absorb rain and moisture, are better than concrete from an economic view, Mason explains:

Very simply said: Soil is good. It costs $127 a gallon to treat water in our water treatment system. So what we’ve done is actually gone into as many backyards as we can in one particular block. With CUNY, we’re actually measuring the square footage, how much is permeable, how much is impermeable. So if a whole set of backyards, is, say, 90 percent permeable, then you can start making a calculation of how many gallons are diverted from the water treatment system and how much money that saves the city.

This is technically not true. Homeowners must, by law, maintain storm water runoff on their own property. By obeying the law, they aren't "saving" the City a dime. People who pave over their yards are in effect breaking the law, are the ones who are overburdening the sewer system, costing the City money and should be fined accordingly.

Are runoffs a waste of time and money?

From the NY Times:

Here is how the primary runoff in New York was supposed to work: To avoid nominating a politically vulnerable fringe candidate for the general election in November, a second election would be conducted between the top two vote-getters if no one received at least 40 percent of the vote.

Here is how it has worked since the first runoff, in 1973, in a city where enrolled Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 6 to 1: More often than not, the citywide candidate who finished first in the primary but failed to win by 40 percent won in the runoff and then went on to easily win the election in November.

This year, too, whoever wins Tuesday’s runoff in the public advocate and comptroller races is virtually assured victory in November.

Still, the city’s Board of Elections will spend about $15 million to mount the runoff, and the four candidates competing in the election can legally spend a total of nearly $8 million. Fewer than 10 percent of registered Democrats are expected to vote.

So the question among some government watchdog groups is whether runoffs, at least in New York, are superfluous.

Johnny the poster boy

Somehow I doubt there's an "Alliance for Asian-American Civil Liberty."

But I like the poster nonetheless.