At the Commission’s final meeting at 110 William Street in Manhattan, the Commission adopted what will appear on the November 8, 2005 ballot as Questions 3 and 4 and approved its final report: “Advancing Accountability: Balanced Budgets and Administrative Ethics.”

“We had serious work to do, and we did it over the course of the past 11 months, and I know we can be proud of the work we did,” Chairwoman Ester R. Fuchs said. “It is substantive and it is important and it’s something that needed to be done for the future functioning of the City of New York.”

She also thanked each member of the Commission and praised them for their service to the City. “I feel very fortunate that I managed to serve on a Commission with some extraordinary, extraordinary New Yorkers,” she said.

Other Commissioners also said they were grateful for having received the opportunity to serve on the panel. “We don’t know what the scholars will say, but we know we did important work,” said Commissioner and Secretary Stephen J. Fiala. “We dealt with those non-sexy issues that will insure continuing fiscal stability and improving judicial ethics at the administrative level, and that’s important work … I will miss this.”

QUESTION 3:

These changes to the City Charter, as proposed by the New York City Charter Revision Commission world require the Mayor and the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) to jointly issue rules establishing a code or codes of professional conduct for the administrative law judges (ALJs) and hearing officers in the City’s administrative tribunals.

Shall the proposed changes be adopted?

QUESTION 4:

These changes to the City Charter, as proposed by the New York City Charter Revision Commission, would establish as Charter requirements the following fiscal mandates that, in general, now apply to the City through a State law enacted in response to the City’s 1975 fiscal crisis. The changes would add these mandates to the City Charter so that they would continue to apply after the State law expires. The changes would:

• Require that the City annually prepare a budget balanced in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and end each year not showing a deficit in accordance with those principles;
• Require that the Mayor annually prepare a four-year City financial plan, to be based on reasonable assumptions and modified on at least a quarterly basis, and that the plan provide for payment of the City’s debts and a general reserve of at least $100 million to cover shortfalls;
• Impose additional conditions on the Charter’s current restrictions on short-term debt (which may be issued by the City to fund a projected deficit or in anticipation of the receipt of funds from taxes, revenues and bonds). These conditions generally limit the duration and amount of the short-term debt; and
• Impose additional conditions on the annual audit of the City’s accounts. These conditions relate to application of generally accepted auditing standards and access by auditors to records so that the audit may be issued within four months after the close of the City fiscal year.

Shall the proposed changes be adopted?

* Ballot Questions 1 and 2 are statewide referendum questions.

The City’s administrative tribunals are among the few places where New Yorkers come into contact with City government. The ALJs and hearing officers who oversee these court-like proceedings represent the face of justice in the City, settling such matters as parking violations, municipal employee discipline, dirty sidewalks, building and fire codes and illegal dumping.

Hundreds of thousands of City residents often form their opinions of their government based on their experiences with these tribunals. It’s critical, therefore, that New Yorkers perceive the proceedings and those who oversee them as fair and ethical. Although they’re required to follow citywide rules on conflicts of interest, ALJs and hearing officers are not bound by any code or codes of professional conduct that address the quasi-judicial nature of their work. Subjecting them to a uniform code of conduct or ethics is intended to enhance accountability and instill confidence in the public that it’s being treated ethically and fairly. Question 3 would require the Mayor and the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings to jointly issue rules establishing such a code or codes.

Question 4

Prior to 1975, the City regularly issued large amounts of short-term debt to pay for expenses it couldn’t afford and failed to adequately report and account for revenue and spending. Banks and other financial institutions lost confidence in the City’s ability to pay its debts and shut off access to credit markets, precipitating a major financial crisis. To help the City restore fiscal stability, the State Legislature enacted the Financial Emergency Act (FEA).

Among other things, the FEA essentially required the City to prepare a four-year financial plan each year; adopt a balanced budget, end the fiscal year without a deficit of more than $100 million, conduct an annual audit according to generally accepted accounting principles, and imposed strict limits on short-term indebtedness. Some of the FEA’s provisions are set to expire in 2008, while others will expire at a later date.

“The City has a responsibility to import those provisions of the FEA that all agree are positive financial planning and management tools directly into the Charter now,” the Commission said in its final report. The Commission has proposed making these practices permanent in the Charter -- with appropriate modifications -- with the intention of demonstrating the City’s commitment to sound financial practice in advance of the State discussion about appropriate State oversight of the City’s finances that will likely take place when certain FEA provisions expire in 2008.

On August 2, 2005, the New York City Charter Revision Commission adopted two proposals to amend the City Charter, with the appropriate ballot questions.
Read the ballot questions and related abstracts (in PDF)
 (Ballot questions in Korean -- translations in other languages to come shortly)
(Ballot questions in Chinese)
(Abstracts in Chinese)
Read the final report (in PDF)