It took a new mindset and a new regime at the City Council to produce a series of badly needed reforms. Credit goes to Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Rules Committee Chair Brad Lander for delivering a package worthy of passage.
Despite a few big blind spots that we’ll get to, the proposals democratize the Council and empower individual members. No more will the body be ruled by the heavy hand of the speaker, as under Chris Quinn for the last eight years and her predecessors before her.
First, the good stuff:
– The reforms would give all members, not just the speaker’s pets, the ability to have their ideas drafted into formal legislative language.
– Bills would be allowed to move through committees and to the floor on their own merit, not only on the speaker’s whims.
– All committee chairs would have latitude to hire staff, set agendas and conduct hearings without having to wait on the speaker’s say-so.
– No longer would slush fund allotments to local Little Leagues, literacy programs, soup kitchens, senior centers and whatnot — politely called member items — be determined based on a member’s relationship, good or ill, with the speaker.
Add it up, and you have the makings of, dare we say it, a grownup legislative body.
Here’s the downside: Though given two new coats of paint, member items — an abuse of taxpayer dollars, any way you slice them — remain.
There’s nothing wrong with the vast majority of groups receiving the cash. Most community groups do great work, and are more than welcome to apply for government and private-sector grants, of which there are plenty.
But putting unilateral power to disburse public money in the hands of elected officials eager to spread magic dust and win the gratitude of their constituents (and reelection) invites corruption.
Ex-members Larry Seabrook, Miguel Martinez and Hiram Monserrate are all behind bars for stealing member items. Dan Halloran’s trial starts next month.
Which explains why a former councilman named Bill de Blasio, who smelled the stench of the slush up close, wants all $ 400 million in yearly member items banned.
That, of course, is a no-go with the Council, which would rather get a round of applause for reform while continuing to tap a huge kitty of cash.
The way out: De Blasio must use his power on the obscure Procurement Policy Board to flatly outlaw the practice by requiring that all contracts be competitively bid.
Neither the mayor nor the Council dispute that he has this authority. He has to use it.
Besides wrongly wanting to keep the slush funds, Mark-Viverito also punted on the extra cash payments, called lulus, that she hands out to members for running committees and holding leadership posts. Though a majority supports a ban, the speaker went only so far as to recommend that an advisory commission due to be appointed next year take up the matter.
That’s a dodge. Ban lulus. Ban member items. Go the distance on reform.
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