Public Advocate Begone

 

 

NY Post 

A pair of City Council members are pushing to abolish the public advocate office because they feel it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Queens Councilman Robert Holden told The Post he plans to team up with fellow moderate Democratic Councilman Kalman Yeger of Brooklyn and introduce legislation in the coming months that would force Democratic socialist Jumaane Williams to find a new job.

The public advocate’s $5 million-plus office budget could go to “more essential services” like funding cops and firefighters, added Holden, who’s butted heads politically with “defund the police” supporter Williams for years.

“We have to tighten our belts as a city – especially with this migrant crisis – so that office should be the first to go,” said Holden. “The office does nothing anyway, and no one is ever around to pick up the phone when you call because Jumaane has so many of them working remotely.”

The public advocate oversees 63 staffers and is mostly seen as a watchdog for city government. 

Office holders also get their own taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail with a private driver.

Under Williams, the office has been primarily used as a bully pulpit, including when he infamously stoked Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 by pushing anti-cop rhetoric, critics say.

Holden said the City Council “already has oversight over the mayor,” making the public advocate office duplicative.

 Feels good to be an influencer. Thanks CM's Holder and Yeger (who actually tried to get rid of this earlier but had no chance with the confederacy of fauxgressive dunces that have been occupying City Council for the last decade.)

You're gonna need bigger borough tower jails

When asked about how to address the increasing jail population (which is too large to meet the requirements of the borough based jail plan), the @NYCMayor said today “we need a plan b.” He then suggested sending some detainees to state facilities. pic.twitter.com/r65ZrV1U7Y

— Courtney Gross (@courtneycgross) August 29, 2022

 

NY1

 In about five years, smaller jails in four boroughs are supposed to replace Rikers Island after it shuts down.

But on Monday, Mayor Eric Adams questioned whether the city would need more space thanks to an increasing jail population.

“We have to have a plan B, because those that have created a plan A that I have inherited obviously did not think about a plan B,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference.

The mayor’s remarks came after the city comptroller, the public advocate and the chair of the City Council’s criminal justice committee made an unannounced visit to Rikers Island on Monday morning.

And surprisingly, after months of chaos, a staffing crisis and violence, these officials said the jail’s conditions appeared to be improving.

“I do want to say that it is demonstrably better than a year ago,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

“Immediately upon arrival we did notice improvements,” said Councilwoman Carlina Rivera.

That said, they reported some detainees were not receiving medication, and many officers were still working double shifts to make up for staffing shortages.

On top of that, the officials saw at least seven individuals in what the department is calling involuntary protective custody — where the city says some of the most violent inmates have been isolated.

Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, questioned whether this unit violated a state law requiring several hours of out of cell time.

Adding on, it was the city comptroller who after their visit questioned whether the city would be able to meet its deadline to close the troubled jail complex.

“Staying on the path to close Rikers is critical, and I’m not confident that we’re on it,” Lander said. “Numbers were coming down and down over many years. They got as low as 4,000 during the pandemic. They’re back up to 5,700.”

The mayor did not offer many details about how he thinks the population could drop.

“What was the plan B that stated if we don’t drop down the prison population the way they thought we were, what do we do?” the mayor asked. “We have to look at everything from state facilities. We have to see if we can get help from the governor. We have to sit down with the chair of crime and correction. We have to see what’s available.”

Melinda Katz and Juamme Williams celebrate cheap victories in pathetic low voter turnout election

 NY Daily News

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams cruised in his bid for a full term, and Melinda Katz easily won her race for Queens District Attorney Tuesday after a slow Election Day with dismal voter turnout.

New Yorkers trickled to the polls in an off-year election in which the biggest draw might have been a ballot question that proposed a change in the way local races are decided.

Voters approved a city charter change allowing voters in future elections to rank candidates and eliminate costly runoffs.

Under the newly-approved plan, which will begin in 2021, voters will list candidates by preference in case no one wins a clear majority.

Among the measures supporters was Williams, who was celebrating a victory on both fronts.”

"It’s a great validation,” said Williams, who won with 77% of the vote. "People came out and their voices were heard. Over the next two years we’re going to continue our work to reshape the city. 
There is so much left to do.”

Williams, who defeated Staten Island City Councilman Joe Borelli, a Republican, won a special election last winter to replace Letitia James, who won election as state attorney general.

Also celebrating was Katz, who is currently Queens Borough President. Her general election road to the Queens DA seat was much easier than her primary election path, which ended in a court-battle win over insurgent Tiffany Caban.

Katz was elected by a nearly 3 to 1 margin over little-known Republican opponent Joe Murray
 

“We are an unbelievable borough,” Katz said in her victory speech. “We all want a better life for our families than we had ever dreamed for ourselves. We need to make sure there is an infrastructure of support for our young people. Young people need to know it is safer not to pick up a gun than it is to pick up a gun.”

“We are facing here an opportunity to make a national model for criminal justice reform,” Katz added. “We need to make sure we get it right here”

Great validation??

AMNY


Early voting apparently made little difference in shaking off the indifference of New York City voters.

The recent trend of remarkably low voter turnout in the five boroughs didn’t seem to get a boost from nine days of early voting, according to figures from the city’s Board of Elections. What started out on Oct. 26 only yielded a cumulative total of 60,110 voters by the time early voting closed on Nov. 3, the Board of Elections reported.

Less than 40% of registered voters in New York City participated in the 2018 midterm elections, and just 23% turned out for the 2017 mayoral elections. Early voting is expected to help reverse the downward trend in voter turnout in the years to come.

But the program didn’t appear to make a positive impact on the 2019 race, and some recognized early on that the rollout of early voting was not without its flaws.

Mayor Bill de Blasio had called the state legislation to adopt early voting “a chance for us to reinvigorate our democracy,” at a Queens County Democrats pre-election party on Oct. 29 and touted how easy it was for to vote himself.

“I glided into my poll site in Brooklyn and I was out of there in like, five minutes, and it is going to open up a world of opportunity where a lot of people previously thought that voting was not something that they could focus on or take time for, now they’re going to have every opportunity, weekends and weekdays and all sorts of different times when they can vote,” de Blasio said.
Few New Yorkers, however, took the mayor’s advice, as the BOE data indicated.

Manhattan came in with the highest number of early ballots cast at 19,865, followed by Brooklyn at 17,976, Queens at 13,129, the Bronx with 4,893 and Staten Island garnering 4,247.

Those numbers are a far cry from the total number of active and inactive registered voters in the five boroughs, according to state Board of Elections data. The totals are as follows: Manhattan, 1,197,797; Bronx, 833,172; Brooklyn, 1,637,055; Queens, 1,282,887; and Staten Island, 319,473.

When analyzing the city and state data, amNewYork determined that only 1.14 percent of all registered New York City voters participated in early voting across all five boroughs this year.










 

Jumaane Williams spent a million dollars for public advocate campaign

 NY Daily News

The race for public advocate is already the most expensive special election in New York City’s history — and candidates are just getting started.

More than $4 million has been spent by candidates vying for the open seat, according to the latest data available from the New York City Campaign Finance Board. That figure is expected to skyrocket between now and the Feb. 26 election as the remaining candidates have some $2 million in their combined war chests.

Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) outspent all other candidates through Feb. 11, the latest date covered in the CFB’s most recent reporting period. The campaign has doled out more than $767,000 on the race, including $280,000 in TV ad placements.

 This is a lot of cash for a position that has no real power, except as a stepping stone for higher office for the last two public advocates, being our dumb mayor and new state attorney general.

Williams could do lot more with the position he currently has. Being an official advocate for the public who voted for him