Filing is the final procedural action to advance the proposal that modernizes appointment process for voters to decide in the 2024 Election
Speaker Adrienne Adams, Council leadership, and Council Members filed the advice-and-consent ballot question with the New York City Board of Elections via the City Clerk, completing the final step for the proposal to appear on the November 2024 General Election ballot. The law (Int. 908-A) was adopted after the Council passed it in a near-unanimous, bipartisan vote of 46-4 on June 6, and it will now be subject to voter approval on Election Day.
Council Members urged that New York City voters’ right to vote on the proposal, deciding whether 20 additional agency commissioners should require advice-and-consent of the Council, be respected. Specifically, they called for the Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission to avoid rushing to develop new proposals that change the City’s constitution for the 2024 General Election to block New Yorkers from exercising their democratic right to vote on the existing advice-and-consent proposal.
The proposed language submitted for the ballot question can be found here.
“Advice-and-consent is a foundational pillar of democracy and New York City is out of step with cities and states across the nation that maintain this process to protect the public’s interests against the abuse of power within our government,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “The Council is filing the ballot question for voters to decide on the advice-and-consent law in this November’s General Election, so voters can exercise their democratic right to vote on this existing proposal. The Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission should refrain from blocking New Yorkers’ ability to decide on advice-and-consent by rushing to create new proposals, because that would be undemocratic. Advice-and-consent strengthens representative democracy and government by ensuring we have the most qualified and ethical commissioners to effectively deliver the services that New Yorkers deserve.”
Advice-and-consent is a well-established safeguard of democracy to ensure government prioritizes the public interest rather than those of individuals. It has long been used in many of the nation’s cities, as well as most state governments and the federal government, making New York City an outlier. Advice-and-consent can strengthen the city’s government and representative democracy by ensuring that the appointments for agency commissioners are based on qualifications and the public’s interests, rather than political loyalty or other motivations.
The Council’s advice-and-consent proposal takes an incremental approach, expanding the process to an additional 20 agency commissioners of more than 80 positions of a similar level appointed by the Mayor. The additional positions to be covered by advice-and-consent include the leaders of the departments of Health, Housing Preservation and Development, Parks, Sanitation, and Transportation. There are over 70 mayoral appointments that currently require advice-and-consent of the Council.
The advice-and-consent bill was introduced on May 23 and the Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission held its first meeting on May 29. The Mayor’s Commission has yet to produce final proposals and has established a schedule of less than two months of meetings to review the entire City Charter and propose changes to it. However, the law that authorizes the Commission allows it to operate until Election Day of 2025, providing ample time to conduct a thorough constitutional review and develop thoughtful proposals for next year’s General Election. In contrast, the last Charter Revision Commission in 2019 operated for nearly eight months to review the Charter and advance proposals to the ballot.
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