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Q&A
Discussion on down-ballot effects of even-year elections and community board appointments
1:19:57
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173 sec
Commissioner Diane Savino engages the panel on their testimony.
She asks Michael Schnall about the potential for voter drop-off in local races if city elections move to even years; Schnall concurs, highlighting the difficulty local candidates would face competing for voter attention and advertising space against better-funded state and federal campaigns.
Savino then asks Frank Morano to expand on his proposal for community board appointments; Morano argues that making council member nominations binding would ensure broader representation and prevent borough presidents from blocking appointments based on political disagreements.
Diane Savino
1:19:57
be I'll be brief, but I I agree with you a %.
1:19:59
We really can't fix this statutorily.
1:20:01
On the on the issue that you raised, Mike, about even your elections, even though it's we we we admit that it would require a constitutional amendment, are you at all concerned about the impact on down ballot rate on down ballot candidates?
1:20:14
Because, again, if it's a if it's a year where it's a gubernatorial or a presidential year, all of the oxygen is sucked up by the top of the ticket.
1:20:22
Yeah.
1:20:23
And I can remember clearly as a candidate trying to remind people in those years, when it was just the state and the and the presidential, you know, start at the bottom and work your way up so you don't leave the local candidates off or the the judicial candidates because they don't have the same type of attention paid to them.
1:20:39
So how would how could you avoid that eventuality where you might have tremendous drop off from the top of the ticket?
Michael Schnall
1:20:44
Yeah.
1:20:44
So if I in my written testimony, which I submitted, we'll discuss this.
1:20:48
But having run-in an off year election, you're pretty much the only ballgame.
1:20:52
Right?
1:20:52
So you're you have 200 so candidates running, and they have unfettered access to all different channels, print, digital, and so forth.
1:21:02
If you're competing in an even year with a congressional candidate in your in your borough that has exponentially more money than you do, you'll never get a TV ad.
1:21:11
You'll never be able to buy digital.
1:21:13
You'll never get print.
1:21:15
And then forget about the fact that the voters will never hear about you because all they're looking at is the national issues that just the drumbeat keeps going.
1:21:23
So I think that there's legitimate fall off in communication.
1:21:28
And then if you think about just the format of the ballot, it it could be a really long ballot.
1:21:33
And I think people would literally just start checking off the the names that they know nationally and statewide and then not vote locally.
1:21:41
So I think that there's a real, disservice there if we go to an even year.
Diane Savino
1:21:44
Right.
1:21:44
And then finally for for Frank, you started to talk about the community board proposal.
1:21:48
So if you wanna finish.
Frank Morano
1:21:49
Yeah.
1:21:49
I'll I'll be very brief.
1:21:50
So right now, have a situation where the borough president gets to make all the appointees.
1:21:55
Now that's great if you have a situation where the borough president and the council member get along.
1:22:01
In my case, I happen to be running against the borough president's son.
1:22:05
We're not just in April, but in June.
1:22:06
Now do you think he's going to appoint anyone that I recommend or Cliff Cliff Hagen recommends if we win the election?
1:22:14
Of course not.
1:22:15
Because he'll view these people as doing rightly or wrongly, as doing my bidding or any council member's bidding on the community board.
1:22:22
If you made the council member recommendations binding, that would diversify the pool of people on the community board, and it would encourage diversity not only in, you know, gender and race, but in terms of opinion.
1:22:37
And I think it would be a much better, much more active community board and avoid a lot of the logistical difficulties we see now if someone happens to run afoul of whomever the borough president is.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
1:22:49
Thank you.
Diane Savino
1:22:49
Thank you.