MAYOR GIULIANI APPOINTS 13 MEMBERS TO THE CITY'S CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION
-- Former Corporation Counsel Paul A. Crotty To Head Commission Mandated to Review City Charter and Make Recommendations for Improvement--
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced today the names of 13 business and civic leaders who will serve on the newly created New York City Charter Revision Commission. Today's announcement furthers the initiative, first proposed last month during the Mayor's State of the City address, to establish a Mayoral Charter Revision Commission with a broad agenda to review and make recommendations to improve the City Charter. Paul A. Crotty, former Corporation Counsel, will serve as the Commission's Chair.
The Mayoral Commission will review the Charter to ensure that New York City government remains responsive and efficient. The Mayor has asked the Commission to focus particularly on ways to make the Charter more business friendly, to help the City maintain and expand its job base and remain a magnet for national and international businesses. Accordingly, the Commission will review Charter rules regarding procurement of goods and services by the City to pinpoint where improvements can be made. It also will review the provisions governing land use and economic development in order to streamline and refine the handling of those procedures, while at the same time maintaining appropriate community input.
"I am proud to appoint these 13 outstanding civic and business leaders to the Charter Revision Commission," Mayor Giuliani said. "The purpose of this Commission is to make New York City government more efficient and better organized. Just as the City was well-served by a Mayoral Charter Revision Commission in 1989, this Commission, too will offer ways to improve the City Charter and make better and streamline the overall government operations of the City."
"Over the past 10 years, many new ideas -- foremost the concept of reinventing government -- have made an impact on the way City government today should operate and deliver services. This Commission includes this reinvention agenda as part of its function to ensure taxpayer dollars are well-spent and that taxpayers get better services. The City has been well served by the allocation of powers and responsibilities in the current Charter, but I believe that we have an opportunity to make the Charter reflect the City government's ability to more effectively address the concerns of the City. I would like to thank Paul Crotty and the Commission members for giving their time and years of experience to this Committee.
In addition, the Mayor has asked the Commission to review existing Charter provisions concerning campaign finance to decide if they can be improved upon, including banning corporate contributions and to review whether the Charter should authorize non-partisan elections for Mayor or other City offices.
The Commission will also review the various reporting and other procedural requirements in the Charter to determine whether the arguments in favor of the requirements outweigh the expense and diversion of agency effort required for compliance.
The Commission members appointed today by Mayor Giuliani are:
- Paul A. Crotty, Chair
- Amalia V. Betanzos - President, Wildcat Services Corporation; and former member of New York City Board of Education
- Abraham Biderman - Executive Vice President, Lipper & Company, L.P. and former New York City Housing Commissioner and Finance Commissioner
- Monsignor Harry J. Byrne - former Chancellor of the Archdiocese; former Executive Director, Archdiocesan Commission on Housing and Urban Renewal; and Pastor Emeritus, Epiphany Church
- Michel J. Faulkner - Pastor, Central Baptist Church; and member of the Task Force on Police and Community Relations
- Michael P. Jacobson - Professor, CUNY Graduate Center and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice; and former Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections
- Vincent A. Marchiselli - Chairman, New York City Civil Service Commission; and former member, New York State Assembly
- Richard Ravitch - Partner, Ravitch Rice & Company, LLC; and former Chairman, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)
- Stephen Robert - Vice Chairman, CIBC Oppenheimer Corp.; and Vice Chancellor of Brown University
- Benito Romano - Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher; and former United States Attorney, Southern District of New York
- Mary C. Sansone - Founder and Executive Director, Congress of Italian-American Organizations, Inc.
- Spiros Tsimbinos - Attorney; former President of the Queens County Bar Association; and former Legal Counsel and Chief of Appeals, Queens County District Attorney's Office
- Howard Wilson - Partner, Rosenman & Colin, LLP; Chairman of the Board of Trustees, New York City School Construction Authority; and former Commissioner, New York City Department of Investigation
Under State law, the Mayor of New York City is empowered to create a charter review commission. The Commission will conduct public hearings. Any proposed Charter amendments proposed by this Commission must be voted on at a general or special election held no later than November 1999. The most recent Charter Revision Commission amendments were voted on as part of the November 1989 general election.
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