MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG RELEASES
CAMPAIGN ACCOUNTABILITY REPORT
LISTING THE STATUS OF EVERY CAMPAIGN PROMISE

Mayor Challenges Fellow Elected Officials To Let
The Public Know Where Their Campaign Proposals Stand

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today released a report listing every proposal made during his 2001 campaign, and the status of each proposal – good and bad, big and small.  Mayor Bloomberg released the campaign accountability report in the hopes it would promote greater accountability in government, encouraging all New Yorkers to hold their elected officials accountable for fulfilling their campaign promises. 

“When I ran for Mayor, I said, over and over again, that if there’s one principle I would successfully bring to city government, it would be accountability,” Mayor Bloomberg said.  “Just because a campaign ends doesn’t mean that the themes and principles that guided it should end too.  The people of this city have a right to know what I said I would do in the campaign.  They have a right to know what I have done about those proposals as Mayor.  That’s what accountability is all about.

“Our system only works if there’s someone we can look to for answers and results.  In the business world, shareholders hold the CEO accountable for the bottom line.  The same needs to be true in government.  Someone needs to set the example.  The goal of a public official shouldn’t be escaping scrutiny and review.  We should embrace it, because the more the people hold us accountable for results, the better we’ll do.  That’s been my experience in the private sector.  Now I’m doing my best to make it the standard in the public sector.”

Along with the campaign accountability report, Mayor Bloomberg released an open letter to all New Yorkers, outlining his efforts to bring accountability to city government (please see attached).

Of the 380 proposals made by Mayor Bloomberg during his campaign, approximately 80% have either been implemented, launched, or will be launched in 2003 (304 of the 380).  Approximately 15% do not yet have start dates but the administration is still pursuing, and approximately 5% were ideas that the administration seriously considered and eventually decided against.  

“Considering we’ve only completed our first year, 80% is a very good start,” Mayor Bloomberg said.  “We’ve come a long way in thirteen months, and it’s gratifying to know that hard work and innovative thinking really can make a difference.  But it’s only a start.  There’s not a single proposal on this report that we take lightly.  We’re going to keep working to accomplish every single one of them, and if we don’t succeed, it won’t be because we didn’t try.”

The Mayor’s campaign promises cover a wide range of agencies, topics and ideas. 
Some are major changes in policy (for example, abolishing the Board of Education).  Others are intended to make the city a more pleasant place to live (for example, finding asphalt areas appropriate for artificial turf to alleviate the shortage of ballfields or removing municipal uses from the waterfront).  And while many of the proposals implemented, launched or planned for 2003 are in the traditional areas of education, health, economic development and public safety, many others revolve around concepts and ideas that aren’t as familiar to city government: improving customer service, implementing new technology, and bringing state of the art practices and ideas into the public arena (for example, creating 311 or computerizing all HHC medical records or even creating an open office plan in city government).  These principles represent the core themes of Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign and will continue to be a focal point of the Bloomberg Administration.

Mayor Bloomberg challenged his fellow elected officials to release the status of their campaign promises.  “Every elected official should be accountable for keeping their promises and for letting the public know where their campaign promises stand,” Mayor Bloomberg said.  “I challenge my fellow elected officials to follow our lead and report on the status of their campaign promises.  In fact, we’d be delighted to let them know exactly how we went about doing this. The more seriously we take our campaign promises, the more honest and realistic our campaigns will be, and the more effective our government will be. And ultimately, we’ll restore faith in a system that sorely needs it.”

The campaign proposal report can be viewed at www.nyc.gov/campaignpromises, and it will be emailed to everyone on the city’s email list.  If any New York City resident would like to receive a copy of the database, they can email campaignpromises@cityhall.nyc.gov or call (212) 788-7766, and a copy will be sent to them.