QUESTION
What requirements should be implemented to verify the accuracy of policymaker lists at city agencies?
1:00:54
·
117 sec
The Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) has not required agency heads or deputy mayors to sign off on the accuracy of policymaker lists at their agencies.
- The COIB has not experienced agencies being reluctant to add people to the policymaker list when suggested by the COIB or its staff.
- There is little incentive for agencies to limit the policymaker list due to the relatively minor restrictions it imposes.
- The main issue is agencies not revisiting the policymaker list after reorganizations to ensure it accurately reflects current roles.
Lincoln Restler
1:00:54
And in addition to potentially requiring organizational charts, which I think would be helpful for verifying the accuracy of these lists.
1:01:01
Have you considered other requirements such as agency heads or deputy mayors signing off on the accuracy of these policy making lists.
Ethan Carrier
1:01:11
The board hasn't
Lincoln Restler
1:01:12
been found there's, like, wild discrepancy from agency to agency on who gets added to these lists and who doesn't.
1:01:18
And so we think it would be helpful for there to be some senior officials who have more global views verifying the accuracy of who is actually on this essential policy making list?
Ethan Carrier
1:01:27
Right.
1:01:27
The the board hasn't contemplated that because it hasn't been our experience that agencies have been reluctant to add people to the policy maker list win the board or even board staff suggests that they should be on there.
1:01:39
So the truth is there's just not really much of an incentive for a city to limit that list at the moment.
1:01:45
Because the restrictions that the additional restrictions that those public servants are subject to are not that are not particularly onerous as a fundraising restriction and a restriction on holding very high offices for political parties.
1:02:03
And while it would also mean that they would have to file an annual disclosure report, almost all of the people who are designated as Paul policymakers are already annual disclosure filers anyway by virtue of the the managerial level of position that they're in.
1:02:21
So there's there's there's just not agencies don't really push back on on on on those lists.
1:02:30
I think at the moment, it's mostly just a matter of when agencies have reorganized, they maybe have not looked again at whether or not the new organization The people in their new roles in the agency really match up with the way the rule would require into it.
1:02:46
There's a little bit of cleanup that probably needs to happen, and that's most what we've been aiming at.