Q&A
Mastro's defense of his actions in past Charter Revision Commissions
6:30:15
·
177 sec
Randy Mastro defends his actions during the 1999 and 2001 Charter Revision Commissions, emphasizing his independence and the positive outcomes of the 2001 commission.
- Mastro claims he stood up to Mayor Giuliani by refusing to change the line of mayoral succession
- He highlights lessons learned from the 1999 commission that were applied in 2001
- Mastro discusses the legal basis for mayoral charter commissions and offers to help the Council explore potential changes to state law
Randy Mastro
6:30:15
I'll start with the second half of your question, which is that, in fact, that charter commission didn't do what the mayor wanted done.
6:30:25
I stood up to the mayor.
6:30:27
It should give you confidence as a counsel that I will stand up to authority when I disagree because the mayor announced that he appointed that commission to try to change the line of Merrill's succession during his term to deny Mark Green the opportunity to succeed him, and I refused to do that.
6:30:47
I did not put that on the ballot.
6:30:50
But I learned lessons from that charter revision commission.
6:30:53
And we built on that work when we reconvened in 2001, Anthony Crowell, the dean of New York Law School, worked with me on both those commissions, We put the same individual propositions, but not changing the marrow line of succession on the ballot separately.
6:31:11
Every one of them passed, including making the mayor's office of immigrant affairs, a charter agency banning guns and increasing penalties where they were possessed near schools and making ACS, mayor's office to combat domestic violence, so many other city agencies that hadn't been enshrined in our charter, making them permanent city agencies.
6:31:35
So, yes, I learned from that experience, and I built on it, and we achieved some quite extraordinary and positive things for the city as a result in 2001, and you asked me about charter commissions like the one that has been appointed.
6:31:51
This is a matter of state law, and I, you know, I I know the council has its concerns.
6:31:58
It's something that could be worked on as a matter of state law, but state law currently permits mayors to do charter commissions under these circumstances.
6:32:08
That's something that really should be studied as a matter of state law and whether to amend state law.
6:32:14
And if this council wanted to look into that question, I would help them with that tiny legislation.
6:32:21
I have
Diana Ayala
6:32:21
to say the level
Randy Mastro
6:32:22
for the state legislature.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
6:32:23
I'm just gonna jump in because I I wanna move us along.
6:32:25
I hear you on on being proud of what you learned and how how you took the lessons from that first commission.
6:32:31
But the question is, right, maybe even divorce it from from the experience.
6:32:35
Do you think that attempting to amass executive power and take retribution or appropriate ways to utilize a charter revision commission?
6:32:43
Yes.
6:32:44
No.
Randy Mastro
6:32:44
Well, that wasn't what happened there.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
6:32:46
Because I refuse What happened there?
UNKNOWN
6:32:48
I refuse
Pierina Ana Sanchez
6:32:49
Do you believe that it is an appropriate use?
Randy Mastro
6:32:53
It's not what I would do.
6:32:55
It's not what I did.
6:32:57
It's not why I would call a charter commission, and I'm not saying that that's why any mayor called any charter commission, except Rudy Giuliani said publicly that he wanted to do that to Mark Green.
6:33:08
I refused to do it.
6:33:10
Mhmm.
6:33:10
And today I have Mark Green's support.