Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
REMARKS
NYC Charter Revision Commission Vice Chair Sharon Greenberger's opening remarks on the commission's purpose and hearing procedures
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5 min
Sharon Greenberger, Vice Chair of the NYC Charter Revision Commission, welcomes attendees to a public hearing, emphasizing the commission's role in reviewing the city's charter as New York City celebrates its 400th anniversary. She highlights the commission's independence and its commitment to hearing from a broad spectrum of New Yorkers to make the charter a more effective tool for an inclusive and affordable city.
The commission is particularly focused on housing, planning, and addressing chronically low voter turnout in city elections. Greenberger outlines the hearing procedures, including testimony limits and how to submit testimony if unable to speak.
Sharon Greenberger
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As New York City celebrates its four hundredth anniversary, this is a fitting moment to take a fresh look at our city's governing charter.
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How can we ensure that New York City remains a cradle of opportunity?
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How can we revise the charter to make it a more effective tool for building the more inclusive and affordable city that New Yorkers deserve?
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It is this commission's responsibility to review the entire charter and suggest changes for the voters' consideration.
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Only if the voters agree to those changes at an election will any changes to the charter go into effect.
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I know that I speak for my fellow commissioners when I say that we are committed to hearing from a broad spectrum of New Yorkers and to pursuing the best ideas we can find.
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This hearing is just one of many public hearings across every borough to hear ideas from experts, community leaders, elected officials, and indeed any member of the public who wishes to testify.
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Importantly, this is an independent commission.
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In making our recommendations to the city voters, we are bound only by our judgment and our values.
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We will pursue ideas regardless of who proposed them and regardless of who supports them.
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Joining me in this task are 12 other commissioners, some of whom are attending today's hearing virtually.
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Chair Richard Burry, who unfortunately is not able to attend today's meeting, secretary Lila Bozorg, Grace Bonilla, Shams de Barron, Anita Larmont, doctor Lizette Nieves, Anthony Richardson, Julie Samuels, Diane Savino, Carl Weitzbrod, Valerie White, and Katherine Wilde.
0:01:53
Although as I said, we will be considering the entire charter, the commission is looking in particular at our charter's approach to housing and planning.
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From my perspective, there is no more urgent challenge for this body to take up.
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Our city is in the midst of a profound affordability crisis.
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For millions of low income New Yorkers, housing costs are the central struggle of their lives.
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For millions more, especially low income New Yorkers, our housing crisis severely limits where New Yorkers can live, what schools they can attend, how they can get to work, and whether their families can stay together.
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Our commission is also taking a close look at the problem of chronically low voter turnout in city elections.
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Although our city has a vibrant civic life, we suffer from consistently low turnout in local elections.
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We welcome proposals from the public to boost voter turnout and have identified moving local elections to even numbered years and reforming the city's closed partisan primary process as potential avenues for reform.
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The commission staff recently released a lengthy preliminary report summarizing what our commission has heard at public hearings so far and identifying areas to explore going forward.
0:03:08
That report is available at nyc.gov/charterslash.
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As the reporter reflects, your thoughtful testimony has as the report reflects, and all of us as reporters, your thoughtful testimony has driven and will continue
Kathryn Wylde
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to drive this process as it unfolds.
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Testimony on any topic is welcome at today's hearing.
Sharon Greenberger
0:03:29
So let me say a few words about how this hearing will run.
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For members of the public, we will first hear from those who have attended this meeting in person.
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We will then move to testimony from those attending the meeting virtually.
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Members of the public are asked to testify for no longer than three minutes.
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We will call for testimony from three people at a time, followed by any questions from the commission.
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We do have a timer on that three minute mark.
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I will ask commissioners to hold their questions until an entire panel has finished.
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If you wish to testify virtually, there is a form online.
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You can find it on the meeting page for this hearing.
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Go to nyc.gov/charter, click on the meetings tab, and select the Brooklyn hearing.
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We will also drop a link to the form in the chat.
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We will do our very best to hear from everyone who wishes to speak today.
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This meeting is scheduled to run until 8PM.
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I will say in the event that we don't hear from you this evening, there are many more opportunities to submit testimony.
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This is just one of the many public hearings that have been announced.
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Again, you can visit nyc.gov/charter to find information about all of our public hearings and read all of the testimony.
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You can also submit written testimony to the Commission by emailing chartertestimonycitycharter.
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Nyc dot gov.
0:04:54
If you cannot attend a hearing, each of the commission hearings will be public, live streamed, and recorded for archival purposes.
0:05:02
I would also like to say, I think we have ASL abilities virtually only tonight.
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Sometimes we have most other hearings, we've had people in person.
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If you need assistance, please feel free to either come up front so that you can see more directly.
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You can also go on your phone so that you can follow virtually.