2024 New York City Charter Revision Commission Releases Final Report

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2024 New York City Charter Revision Commission Releases Final Report

Report Presents Five Ballot Proposals Related to Cleaner Streets, Fiscal Responsibility, Public Safety, Capital Planning, Minority-and Women-Owned Businesses, and Modernization of City Policies Related to Film Permitting and Archival Review

Final Ballot Proposals Follow Full Review of City’s Charter, Expert and Elected Official Testimony, Public Feedback, Staff Research, and Public Hearings Attended by More Than 700 New Yorkers in All Five Boroughs

Commission Will Vote to Adopt Report’s Ballot Proposals at Final Public Meeting July 25

NEW YORK – Following a review of the entire city charter, 12 hearings across all five boroughs, and testimony by members of the public, including experts, elected officials, good government groups, and academics, the 2024 New York City Charter Revision Commission (CRC) released its final report today. CRC members received testimony from more than 240 New Yorkers at public hearings. Additionally, the CRC received more than 2,300 written comments and public hearings were attended by more than 750 New Yorkers in-person and virtually. The CRC will vote to adopt the final report — which contains five ballot proposals that will benefit working-class New Yorkers — at its final meeting to be held on Thursday July 25, 2:00 PM at the Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library at 10 Grand Army Plaza. After the CRC’s vote, the ballot proposals will be placed on the November general election for New Yorkers to vote on.

The five ballot proposals address:

Clean Streets: The CRC proposes an amendment to expand and clarify the New York City Department of Sanitation’s (DSNY) authority to keep the city clean. The amendment would:

Enable DSNY, at the mayor’s direction, to clean any city-owned property.

Clarify that DSNY has the authority to require garbage to be containerized.

Extend DSNY enforcement authority over street vendors to other types of city property, instead of just streets and sidewalks.

Fiscal Responsibility: The CRC proposes an amendment to improve how the city assesses the fiscal impact of proposed local laws and address certain outdated and inefficient budget deadlines. The amendment would:

Require that an initial fiscal impact statement be prepared prior to a public hearing on a proposed local law.

Require an updated fiscal impact statement prior to a vote on a proposed local law by the full City Council.

Require that fiscal impact statements for proposed laws contain an estimate by both the City Council and the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget.

Update several budget-related deadlines, including moving the preliminary budget deadline from January 16 to February 1 in years following a mayoral election and extending the deadline for submission of the executive budget from April 26 to May 1, in order to ensure the executive budget reflects crucial information about tax collections and revenues obtained at the April 1 tax deadline.

Public Safety: The CRC proposes an amendment to promote public input and deliberation in the consideration of local laws affecting public safety. The amendment would:

Establish additional procedural requirements for the City Council’s consideration of proposed local laws affecting the public safety operations of three city agencies: the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the New York City Department of Correction (DOC), and the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY).

Require that prior to a vote by the City Council on a public safety proposal for those three agencies, the Council, or the relevant committee, would hold a public hearing; give notice of an intention to hold such a hearing to the public, the mayor, and the commissioners of affected agencies at least 45 days in advance of such a hearing; and allow the commissioner of an affected agency or their designee the opportunity to testify at a hearing on the proposed law.

Allow relevant agencies to file with the Council a “public safety impact statement” — a submission outlining an agency’s views on how a proposed measure will affect public safety — and require the Council to include that statement as part of the public legislative record.

Require that if, after a hearing, the Council intends to proceed to a vote by the full Council on a covered public safety proposal, the Council or the relevant committee would be required to give an additional notice to the public, the mayor, and the commissioners of affected agencies at least 50 days in advance of a vote. During the period between the notice and the ultimate vote, the mayor and affected agencies would be permitted to hold one or more additional public hearings on the proposal in order to solicit additional public input. These hearings could include, where appropriate, public hearings in all boroughs to facilitate input from impacted communities.

Capital Planning: The CRC proposes an amendment to improve the city’s capital planning process by promoting transparency and ensuring the city collects critical information to inform capital planning. The amendment would:

Promote transparency by ensuring the city publishes more information about the state of repair for facilities.

Ensure that the New York City Department of City Planning and the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget consider city facility conditions and maintenance needs, together with other factors such as geographic distribution, impact on resiliency, and the criticality of an asset to an agency’s function or mission when developing the 10-Year Capital Strategy.

Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBEs) and Modernization of City Operations: The CRC proposes an amendment to update several charter provisions to improve city government operations. The amendment would:

Enshrine the chief business diversity officer in the charter and provide that this position will serve as the point of contact for M/WBEs, evaluate the efficacy of city policies to address disparities in procurement, and propose needed changes to city policy.

Empower the mayor to give the office that processes film permits — the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment — the power to issue those permits.

Combine two charter-created boards that share the same mission of reviewing municipal archives.

“I’m grateful to our commission staff for their thorough research of the city’s charter, thoughtful ballot recommendations, and steadfast commitment to our fellow New Yorkers,” said CRC Chair Carlo Scissura. “Thank you as well to every New Yorker who testified or submitted written comments because they are the most essential part of this process. I’m fortunate to have now served on a New York City Charter Revision Commission for the third time, and leading this esteemed group as commission chair has been an incredible honor. I look forward to our fellow New Yorkers flipping their ballot this November and making their voices heard once more on these significant issues. No commission can address every issue brought forward from the multitude of opinions we hear from the public, which is why final reports always include issues that require further study for potential consideration by future commissions.”

“Never before have three Black women had seats at this important table, with the opportunity to revise our city’s charter to ensure it is more efficient, transparent, and beneficial for every community in our great city,” said CRC Vice Chair Dr. Hazel N. Dukes. “The diversity of representation on our commission and among the thousands of New Yorkers who engaged in this process in-person, virtually or in writing — from the village of Harlem to the borough of Staten Island, and every community in between — have made this such a rewarding experience and ensured that this commission’s legacy is one of better representation in the decision-making process of our city’s government.”

“This final report is the culmination of outstanding work by our staff, diligent service by our charter revision commissioners, and, most of all, the strong opinions of our fellow New Yorkers who showed up and made their voices heard,” said CRC Executive Director Diane Savino. “We’re grateful to the elected officials, community groups, experts, and working-class New Yorkers whose time, insight, and passion for our city led to these strong ballot proposals that will improve our city’s charter and lead to a safer, cleaner, more fiscally responsible city.”

A full list of the public hearings held by the CRC is available on the CRC's Public Meetings and Hearings webpage. All meetings were open to the public, live streamed, and 10 of the 12 hearings were held in the evening to accommodate as many New Yorkers as possible. Language translation services and American Sign Language interpreters were available, and each meeting was held in an accessible space. The public was alerted to CRC public meetings through legal notices, media outreach — including through ethnic and community media — and by utilizing messages through organizations with large distribution lists, including community boards and elected officials. Public notices for each meeting were published in the city record and made available on the CRC website. All notices were translated into Bengali, simplified and traditional Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

All the CRC’s public documents — including its preliminary report, press releases, translations of commission materials, and other notices — as well as recordings of all the commission’s public hearings may be found online on the CRC's website.