Fresh Air at City Council
By Kenny Schaeffer

As 38 new members get ready to take their places alongside 13 returning incumbents in the City Council on January 1, a breath of fresh air is wafting through the body.

With the term-limits-forced retirement of Speaker Peter Vallone, a majority of the new members have banded together to form the Fresh Democracy Council (FDC), demanding rules changes to transfer power from the speaker’s office to the chairs of the Council’s standing committees, and, ultimately, its 51 members. Under Vallone and his iron-handed predecessor, Thomas Cuite, the Council endured decades where members’ salaries, staff allowances, committee assignments and even the right to introduce legislation were at the speaker’s pleasure.

No more, if the Fresh Democracy Council gets its way. Joined by several returning members, including Bill Perkins of Harlem, Margarita Lopez of the Lower East Side, Christine Quinn of Chelsea, and Gifford Miller of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, FDC is calling for changes in the Council’s rules and procedures, including the right of members to introduce bills and have them considered by the appropriate committee, the power of committee chairs to hold oversight hearings on issues within their purview, and an end to the speaker’s unilateral control over the Council’s budget and member items affecting vital programs in individual districts, used in the past as carrots or sticks to force members into line with the speaker’s objectives.

"We’re making history," declared Robert Jackson, an FDC member elected from the 7th District (West Harlem, Washington Heights). The new members are "smart, committed to our city, and interested in working cooperatively," added Gale Brewer, elected from the 6th District on the Upper West Side.

The FDC’s four-point program, released at a Nov. 1 City Hall press conference, calls for:

• - Enhancing the ability of individual councilmembers to speak for and represent their constituencies
• - Enhancing the power and independence of Council committees
• - Enhancing public participation and open, thorough debate
• - Creating a more open a responsive budget process.

The selection of the new speaker on January 9 will be critical to the success of the Fresh Democracy Council, which the savvy and confident members keenly recognize. For this reason, they have stated that they will not announce support for any of the speaker candidates until grilling them on where they stand on the FDC program. In addition to a series of private meetings, FDC also organized a public forum of the speaker candidates on Dec. 5 at the union hall of Local 32B-J, cosponsored by the New York Public Interest Research Group, the Working Families Party, Citizens Union, and a group called Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century.

Avoiding the Mistakes of the Past

With the new Council facing the daunting task of dealing with New York’s deepening economic crisis, worsening housing shortage, and growing hunger, unemployment and homelessness, while standing up for the city’s communities against a billionaire businessman in City Hall, more and more people have recognized that the Council must emerge from the top-down, undemocratic Vallone era.

The failings of the old Council were typified by Local Law 38, nicknamed the Lead Poisoning Act of 1999, which weakened protections against childhood lead poisoning while insulating landlords from financial liability when children are poisoned. Vallone rammed it through the Council in a matter of days, in the face of universal opposition from the scientific and health community and advocates for children. Because the Council failed to look at the health impact the law would have, particularly in the low-income communities of color making up the "lead belt," the statute was struck down by state Supreme Court.

The new speaker will preside over the Council’s efforts to revisit and improve efforts to confront this critical issue. Several of the members who are seeking the position were among those who voted against Local Law 38, including Bill Perkins, Phil Reed and Tracy Boyland. Others, including Gifford Miller and Angel Rodriguez, voted with Vallone and the real-estate industry. Had the Fresh Democracy Council’s rules been effect, Local Law 38 would never have been passed, because most councilmembers were aware of its defects and only voted for it out of fear of retribution from Vallone.

"I’m very impressed with the new class of Council members," declared policy expert Liz Krueger. "They are bright and interested in learning their jobs. The Fresh Democracy Council is on the right track."