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REMARKS
Chair Richard R. Buery Jr. on the commission's work and proposed ballot questions
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8 min
Chair Richard R. Buery Jr. opens the final public meeting of the Charter Revision Commission, summarizing the commission's work and the five potential ballot questions before them.
He explains that the commission focused on the city's housing crisis, leading to four housing-related proposals designed to speed up the creation of affordable and small housing projects.
He also notes that while issues like nonprofit contracting, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), and open primaries were considered, the commission is not advancing proposals on them at this time for various reasons, including to avoid conflicting with other city initiatives or a lack of consensus among commissioners.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
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And welcome to the final public meeting of the twenty twenty five Charter Revision Commission.
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My name is Richard Burry, and I'm honored to serve as our chair.
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I wanna ask the commissioners and everyone speaking to please remember to use your mic when you're speaking.
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Just hit the button.
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The mic will go green.
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We are relying on the audio recording to produce our transcript, so it's important that we have clear audio.
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So please remember to speak into the mic, and to speak clearly.
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And I will try not to speak at 40 miles an hour as I usually do.
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Since this commission was announced in December, we have undertaken a thorough review of the city charter to find ways to make city government more transparent and responsive with a particular focus on the city's housing crisis.
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Joining me in this task have been 12 other commissioners, our vice chair, Sharon Greenberger, our secretary, Leila Buzorg, Grace Bania, Sham DeBaron, Anita Lermott, doctor Lizette Nieves, Anthony Richardson, Julie Samuels, Diane Savino, Carl Weisbrod, Valerie White, and Katherine Wilde.
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Over the course of this year, we have heard from thousands of New Yorkers from all walks of life and every corner of the city.
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We have endeavored to make our commission as accessible as possible, holding 10 hearings across the five boroughs.
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We've updated the public along the way, releasing preliminary and interim reports, reflecting what we've heard and the potential reforms that we have been considering.
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We have released written comments to every to the public every month and made recordings, transcripts, and summaries of all of our meetings available on a nearly immediate basis.
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After a complete review of the city charter, consideration of the public testimony, and research and conversations with experts from across the city and across the country, we are here today to vote on five potential questions to forward to New Yorkers on the November ballot as well as our final report.
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Before we get to that, I wanna start by expressing my deepest thanks to a dedicated staff of the commission.
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They have worked long hours to coordinate hearings, draft the charter language changes, produce the interim and preliminary interim and final reports.
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As well as answering a lot of off hour phone calls, from at least one commissioner.
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I especially wanna thank our executive director, Alex Sheerenbeck, who's truly a remarkable, organized, smart, caring, thoughtful, and engaging leader.
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It has really been, if for no other reason the last six months, a pleasure to get to know you and to call you a colleague.
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Thank you, Alex.
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I also wanna share thanks to my fellow commissioners, some of whom I've known and worked with for years, some of whom I've got to know during this process.
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It has truly been a pleasure to wrestle through such complex questions with such a talented and committed group of New Yorkers.
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I am honored to have my name among your number.
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And finally, I want to express my thanks to the more than 800 New Yorkers who came out to hearings before our commission and the thousands more who submitted written comments.
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You reflect the boundless passion that New Yorkers have for building a more affordable and responsive city and have been our honor to serve you over these past few months.
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A quick note on process.
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In a minute, I will open the floor for any comments from other members of the commission and about the slate of proposal proposals before us.
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I will ask the commissioners to take this time to express any comments they have about any of the, proposals so that, when we go to proposal proposal, we can be focused in that part of the agenda.
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I will then ask our executive director to read each of the five ballot proposals before we vote on the ballot proposals and the final report.
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We will vote on each proposal individually and then voting on the report and then on a final resolution.
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There will be a motion on each ballot question.
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And after the motion is seconded, discussions can be held.
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After discussion, I will ask for a roll call vote on each ballot question.
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And after each of the votes for the five ballot questions, we will then have a roll call vote for the final report.
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Finally,
Dr. Lisette Nieves
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I
Richard R. Buery Jr.
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will call for a roll call vote on the resolution that delegates to staff the responsibility for filing these materials with the city clerk and taking whatever other technical actions are needed to make sure that the proposals appear on the ballot in November and that voters are educated about the proposals.
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With that out of the way, I'd like to share a few of my own comments before moving forward.
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When we had the honor of joining this commission, we were charged with tackling our city's deep housing crisis.
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No one can deny that the status quo is not working.
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We have worked exhaustively to find solutions that meet this moment, and I am proud to say that we have a set of proposals before us that can set us on the path towards a more equitable and affordable city.
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The four housing proposals before us today would speed up the types of housing that New Yorkers say they want the most, but which suffer the most under the status quo, affordable housing and small projects.
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These changes will help our city address the most pressing citywide needs like our housing and climate crisis while maintaining local voice and land use decisions.
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We have learned after thirty six years of ULURP, which will continue to be the primary vehicle for land use changes in New York City.
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These proposals are meant to fix a process where it is not working, but also to sustain it where it is working.
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Beyond affordable housing, we had also planned to consider a range of reforms to the way New York City contracts with nonprofit organizations.
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The city depends on nonprofit organizations to deliver a range of vital services to New Yorkers, Yet the city is frequently late in paying those organizations for the services they deliver, at great risk to the organization themselves and the New Yorkers they serve.
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However, in view of recent actions by the city council to address these concerns and to avoid conflicting with those initiatives, we ultimately decided not to advance amendments on these subjects to voters at this time.
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Similarly, we heard compelling testimony recommending changes to the civilian complaint review board, which plays a critical role in promoting a which plays a critical role in promoting public trust in law enforcement and thus public safety in our city.
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While we believe that this work is critical, we also understand that our sister charter commission, the New York City Commission to strengthen local democracy, may seek to forward CCRB reforms to voters.
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But this commission is declining to advance proposals on that subject at this time.
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Finally, I am proud that we are tackling the issue of New York City's chronically low voter turnout by promoting by proposing switching New York City elections from odd years to presidential election years.
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Increasing voter turnout gets at the root of so many of our other challenges of the city, and I am grateful to the passionate New Yorkers who put this issue on our agenda.
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However, we are declining to propose changes to the New York City's closed primary process.
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Notably, this reform was not in our agenda when we began this process, but it was a subject on which we received the most testimony.
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We heard compelling testimony on all sides of the issue, and I remain personally convinced that it is time to open our primary system to independent voters.
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However, while there was significant consensus among commissioners on the benefit of some on the benefits of some type of reform, there was not consensus on what type of open primary system would work best for New York City or whether now was the time to advance such proposals to voters.
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So, unfortunately, we are not advancing open primaries at this time.
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I strongly urge future commissions to take up this issue, and I am personally committed to advocating for future reform.
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Throughout this process, we, the commission, have strived to fulfill our responsibility of independent commission, considering ideas on their merits regardless of who propose them and regardless of who supports them.
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In making our recommendation to the city's voters, I am confident we have lived up to that charge.