NYC Council Charter Reform Weak on Transparency and Independence

NEW YORK, NY (04/11/2018) (readMedia)-- Today the New York City Council voted to create a commission to make changes to the city charter.

In response, Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY, issued the following statement:

"Common Cause/NY supports a transparent, comprehensive review of the New York City charter, but today's legislation fails to address crucial questions about how the commission should be funded and composed. Members of the commission must be truly independent and accountable to the public, not their appointing patrons and should be trusted to pick their own chairperson. There's also no such thing as a 'private hearing,' that's a meeting which should be public. For the sake of all New Yorkers, politicians should put their differences aside and come together to create one transparent, unified process."