A Vision for the City and
A Practical Blueprint for Leading District 8
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By Melissa Mark Viverito
Democrat for Council Member District 8
A Council member’s primary responsibility is to represent her constituents. In today’s environment, a responsive council member must work to improve the governance of the City Council, expand citizens’ access to their government, and work vigorously and effectively to improve her district. A council member needs to listen to her constituents and address local concerns. For example, 17 percent of District 8 speaks Spanish only, and their elected representative needs to be able to hear their concerns. This paper will examine needed City Council reforms that promote good government and practical ideas for leading District 8.
Building a Strategic Vision:
Shaping Citywide Reform and Sustainable Development for District 8
District 8 needs a City Council member who will work alongside her colleagues to form and enact a strategic vision leading citywide political institutions to operate with greater public accessibility and accountability. Equally, District 8 needs a representative on the City Council who will proactively shape a vision for development of her home district that is sustainable on multiple levels, prioritizing long term residents and businesses, transportation infrastructure and environmental and public health. On the citywide level, the City Council should move to decentralize the power of the Speaker’s office and invest more power with individual Council members.
Many problems in my District can be addressed through the better use of existing resources. The implementation of a strategic plan for development that matches interests and coordinates resources will offer a practical approach to addressing District 8 issues.
A district wide strategic plan with broad consensus will provide a disciplined way to coordinate resources effectively in our community. Our objectives will be clear for the multitude of public and private efforts to understand how best to fit into District 8’s future.
Citywide Reform: Expanding Access
Easier Access to the Electoral Process
I support state legislation that will: 1) allow for early voting and extended voting hours and 2) allow for election-day registration.
These changes will help increase the ability of candidates and parties to get on the ballot and assist and encourage more New Yorkers to vote.
Allow Competing Charter Measures
I support revising the city charter to allow for other charter measures to appear on the ballot at the same time as a charter reform proposal initiated by a mayoral charter commission.
Charter Reform should be a more open process, allowing charter measures that are not proposed by the mayor equal priority with those which are. The Charter Revision Commission should not be a mechanism for the mayor to bypass a dissenting council.
Campaign Finance Reform
The campaign finance system needs reform to lessen the advantage for incumbent politicians. The current system allows incumbents in non competitive races to raise funds with a four to one match. This allows incumbents to build war chests which discourages challengers. It is a poor use of scarce City resources. I would like to authorize a study and audit of the match funding system to find ways to reduce or eliminate the four to one match in non competitive races.
Voting Rights for Legal U.S. Residents
The democratic process needs to be as inclusive as reasonably possible. In our city in particular, with its primary role as a base for new Americans, all legal residents deserve a voice in our city’s political life as voters. U.S. residents have a similar stake in their community’s direction and future as that of any citizen. U.S. residents are subject to all our laws and pay the same taxes, work in and/or own local businesses, send their children to local schools, serve in the military and can be drafted, and participate in all aspects of daily society, yet they lack representation from their City Council member. Other municipalities, in Maryland and Massachusetts, have extended the right to vote in local elections to non citizen legal residents, and New York City should move to do the same.
Supporting Greater Accountability
Supporting Greater Transparency and Independence at the City Council Level
The operations of the City Council need reform on several fronts. As a City Council member I will strengthen accountability and support the decentralization of power. Currently, the City Council is structured in ways that concentrate power in the Office of the Speaker, to the detriment of a broader and more representative government. I will support changes that give more responsibility to council members and increase participation for individual members. For example, to be both effective and impartial, Council committees need to be able to function more independently of the Speaker. Committee meetings are often essentially meaningless because the Speaker’s office will schedule hearings on major issues with just two days’ notice.
Committee staff should be hired by and report to committee chairs to more appropriately distribute power in the City Council. Committee staff, like committee members, need to be able to operate independently and impartially to do their jobs effectively. This ability is hampered under the current practice in which the Speaker hires committee staff.
Committee hearings and votes should be scheduled at the direction of the chairs. The chair of a committee should have the ultimate responsibility over the functioning of that committee, including the scheduling of hearings and votes.
Term Limits
The voters have spoken clearly on terms limits, and I will support the voting electorate’s decision on this matter. Any major modifications to the current rule should pass voter approval first rather than be decided in the halls of the City Council. However, I will support staggering terms so that we maintain important institutional memory rather than all members’ terms expiring in the same year.
Policy Issues of City wide Importance
In general, I support greater inclusion and greater participation by the community. In my district, many residents have spent years building our community into vibrant neighborhoods. This vibrancy is now attracting new development dollars and threatening to destabilize the lives of many who built these neighborhoods. Many districts across the City are confronting these issues, along with related housing concerns. I will advocate processes that balance the needs of current residents with the upsurge in development and that prioritize the stability of community members who have made a long term investment in the district. For example, I will support:
- Inclusionary zoning standards for all new large scale residential developments that will allocate 40% of housing units to affordable housing.
- Community Benefits Agreements for all major development projects.
- Ensuring the appropriate use of eminent domain to seize property for development. Eminent domain should only be used to seize property for projects with clear and primary public benefit and then only with ample community input.
- Strengthening the City’s anti discrimination laws regarding co-ops. I support amending the City’s Human Rights Law to require that co-ops provide applicants with a written statement of the reasons for rejection at the time of rejection.
- Elevating the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) to a commissioner level agency. As a city we have a long way to go on making full access a reality for all. Therefore, elevating this office will be a way of acknowledging this reality and making a true commitment to rectifying this disparity.
- Establishing minimum standards for health insurance coverage for working New Yorkers. We need to stop large employers from shifting costs onto the Medicaid program by failing to provide employees with adequate insurance coverage. Large employers need to provide health insurance coverage for employees. The Health Care Security Act currently before the City Council is a positive move in this direction.
Education and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity
The City Council has limited input on educational policy, but a City Council member’s office should serve as a bully pulpit on education issues and draw attention to needed changes. For example, New York City should not pay toward the amount required to comply with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision. The State should cover the entire amount. We already pay our unfair burden of taxes and the State should return these funds for education.
INSIDE DISTRICT 8
A Practical Approach to Improving District 8
Along with working in the chambers of City Hall, a council member has a significant and equally important role in her home community. As the elected representative of the district, a council member is entrusted to lead and provide focus on a number of issues and can be most effective by encouraging greater coordination of various public and private entities.
Practical Approach Number One:
Work with the Community Boards, Borough President, Economic Development Corporation, City Planning Commission as well as the Mayor’s Office and State and Federal Agencies to Strengthen Agreements with Developers
In and near Council District 8, large scale development is reshaping our neighborhoods. These projects indicate a promise to revitalize our district, however our current residents need access to re shaping their own community.
Usually negotiated through the Community Board, community benefit agreements are critical means for our community to participate in the revitalization of our district. To make sure the community shares in the benefits of economic development, Community Boards need to strengthen new agreements especially those which require zoning variances, changes, or approval through ULURP (the city‘s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure) to create economic success for developers as well as sustain and improve the quality of life for district residents and local businesses. I will work with various constituents to expand:
- Job training and Employment
- Small business opportunities for minority and women owned businesses
Strengthen Community Benefit Agreements
To achieve this goal, I will push to strengthen Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with developers and operators to prioritize local jobs and local hiring. The Harlem Park agreement, for example, contains various commitments from the developer, construction firm, and hotel operator to hire local residents. Under the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone conditions, the developer will pursue “a 25% goal of community jobs, and minority and women business enterprises participation.” I will revisit this agreement with the developer to insure their targets are being met. In future agreements, I will push for stronger review or audit language to ensure that developers and their partners are reaching their stated goals.
Using models from other accountable development successes across the country, such as Los Angeles’ landmark Staples Center agreement, I will work with constituents to negotiate employment standards that ensure that all development in our district creates quality jobs for local residents and fits into existing community development, complementing rather than replacing pre existing businesses and meeting gaps in community needs rather than duplicating efforts.
- Assure Job Quality – on wages, hours, health care, union neutrality, project labor agreements for construction jobs
- Guarantee Local Hiring – a portion of jobs in development need to be reserved for local residents; better coordination of existing training or apprenticeship programs for community members to gain qualifying skills and experience
- Create opportunities for local businesses, particularly small, independent, women and people of color/minority owned businesses
I will push for transparent enforcement mechanisms, so that we can hold developers and operators accountable to prioritizing community hiring and quality employment.
Practical Approach Number Two:
Promoting and Supporting Small and Local Businesses
City Council District 8 currently suffers a number of problems stemming from a lack of community based businesses that provide jobs for district residents. Across the district, there are more than 300 vacant storefronts. These represent potential opportunities for our community. We also need to remedy the staggering 14% unemployment rate in our district. I support conducting a study of how best to implement coordination of job training with small business development.
Often the problem in City government is not a lack of effort, but a lack of leadership and focus on coordinating and advocating smart and sustainable neighborhood development. As council member, I will work to ensure that city resources are better implemented to support small and local businesses and appropriate job training programs, and that new large scale developments include agreements that support these business and job training efforts.
Practical Approach Number Three:
Retaining and Increasing Affordable Rental Units and Home Ownership
Since the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), every major publicly traded residential mortgage bank has developed a CRA division. In the private sector, billions of dollars are currently being committed to provide affordable housing in the multi family rental market. This is an area where resources to help our district exist. Inertia resulting from a lack of aggressive coordination, discourages potential CRA partners from working in our community. I will meet with CRA bankers and seek out opportunities to help banks reach their CRA goals by expanding affordable housing in our district.
I will also look for opportunities to coordinate private affordable housing projects with public loan guarantee programs. I will foster capacity building in the non profit community to find opportunities connecting private sector dollars and public assistance to add affordable housing in District 8.
Practical Approach Number Four:
Protecting Families through the Mitchell Lama Condominium Conversions on the West Side
Since 1955, the Mitchell Lama program has provided affordable housing for lower and middle-income residents in New York State. Mitchell Lama developments are state and federally subsidized but privately owned. Because of buyouts (prepayment of assisted mortgages), increasing numbers of developments are leaving this vital program. Conversions are leaving moderate income renters without affordable housing in an already tight and expensive housing market.
New York City is a city of renters, not homeowners. Therefore, we need to see that renters are protected as increasing numbers of Mitchell Lama developments buy out. Landlords should recognize that these investments have been publicly funded and that they are beholden to the broader community.
Notification of buy outs should be extended to two years (from the current federal policy of one year), allowing tenants and the community sufficient time to respond. I will encourage landlords to participate in community group discussion to determine the effects that large buy outs have in displacing residents. I will use my office to call greater attention to finding solutions for displaced tenants.
The recently passed (not yet signed by the Mayor) Tenant Empowerment Act that allows certain tenants associations the opportunity to purchase their buildings is a step in the right direction. I will facilitate this process by working to connect public and private lenders with tenants to ensure that affordable home ownership remains a reality in our community.
Mitchell Lama developments that buy out should be forced to adhere to existing Rent Stabilization Laws. The New York City Housing Authority should maintain strong oversight of any proposed buy outs.
I will facilitate communication between local tenant groups and landlords as well as local and state housing authorities. One model for building strong protections for tenants exists at Independence Plaza in TriBeCa where a successful deal negotiated with the landlords provides vouchers and subsidies for those who choose to remain and face increased rents and those who choose to leave. |
