Statement from a Council Spokesperson on the Mayor’s Office Requesting Submission of Forms for Communications between Elected Officials and Agency Commissioners and Staff

 

In response to recent reports about a request form for elected officials to communicate with agency officials, the New York City Council released the following statement from spokesperson Rendy Desamours.

“While there have been media reports and sporadic communication on a requirement for elected officials to submit a form to communicate with executive staff of city agencies, the Council has received no official communication from the Administration on this. The Council will not be adhering to this excessively bureaucratic and inefficient process that will only undermine the work of city government on behalf of New Yorkers. Elected officials often communicate with city agencies multiple times a day to pursue solutions to issues faced by their constituents. Requiring a form for various types of communication is the height of government inefficiency. This contradicts the pledges by this Administration to improve the efficiency of city government, and only threatens to leave New Yorkers waiting longer for a resolution to their problems. If the Administration wants to better manage coordination with its agencies, it should improve its own internal communication in a streamlined way rather than attempting to issue directives to other branches of government for communicating with public officials, which is highly inappropriate, inefficient, and can interfere with oversight.”