Voting Open Now Through March 28th for DFNYC Endorsement for Attorney General

Voting is now open for DFNYC's early endorsement vote for NY State Attorney General.

You are eligible to vote if you have been to 2 DFNYC events since Nov. 15 of 2011.

Click here for the ballot. (Apologies for the broken link in the March 18 email; we're having a problem with Constant Contact.)

Click here for more information.

Feb. Linkup UPK Special Event re-scheduled for Tuesday 2/18!!

DFNYC's February linkup, a special forum on the UPK legislation and the activities of the UPKNYC coalition, has been re-scheduled for Tuesday Feb. 18th.  Our guest will be Josh Gold, the political director of UPKNYC, who will talk to us about what is going on in Albany and how we can help make Mayor De Blasio's vision of free Universal Pre-K for all of our city's children a reality.

Join us at Bunga's Den, 137 W. 14th St (near 7th Avenue)

Tuesday at 7 p.m.

rsvp to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or just come, and if you can't come, feel free to email us with any questions you would like to ask our guest about this effort.  We will also be providing information on how you can be part of the upcoming day of action in Albany where we'll be taking buses up there to make our voices heard.

Comptroller Questionnaire - New Questions Based on Your Feedback

Democracy for NYC will be holding an endorsement vote in the race for Comptroller of New York City. Voting will open after our August 13th forum in Manhattan. For endorsement rules, click here.

The Democratic primary will take place on Sept. 10th, and the candidates in that primary are Scott Stringer and Eliot Spitzer.  (The Democratic nominee is highly likely to win the general election on Nov. 5th)

DFNYC leadership, after talking with our active members and friends in the progressive community, has put together this candidate questionnaire. (We previously had a draft here, asked for feedback, and made changes.)

~~~~~~~~

Democracy for NYC's 2013 Candidate Questionnaire - Comptroller

1. Shareholder Power. One of the most significant powers of the NYC Comptroller is management of NYC’s five pension funds, valued at approximately $140 billion, which are invested in stocks and other assets.  Would you seek to use this power as an activist shareholder, for the purpose of making corporations and Wall Street more responsible and ethical? How would you seek to accomplish this? Each pension fund has its own Board of Trustees with decision making authority. Please include in your answer your experience in working with Boards or other groups to change or improve policies.

2. Qualifications. The role of Comptroller will require expertise in financial strategy and investing, knowledge of markets, as well as experience in effective management and cooperation with others, including shareholder groups, Boards, and government agencies to effect positive change. Please briefly give your qualifications for the position of Comptroller.

3. City Contracts - Accountability. Would you seek to actively use the power of the Comptroller's office, as currect Comptroller John Liu has done, to review city contracts (including those entered into before his tenure), to ensure they remain within budget constraints, at the most competitive pricing, and that vendors are paying their fair share of taxes to the city? 

4. Relationship with State & Other Comptrollers. As City Comptroller, how would you view your relationship with the New York State Comptroller, and the officials that control pension funds in other States? Do you feel these relationships could be used advantageously for common goals, such as curbing irresponsible risk taking on Wall Street or supporting sensible budget policies for properly funding pensions (as opposed to simply redoing the math to assume the market will go up)?

5. We can’t believe we have to ask this.  In light of some of the past scandals with pension funds in New York State, do you agree not to accept personal favors and gifts from people or corporations that are likely to be seeking favorable treatment from the Comptroller’s Office?

6. NYC Council Member Items – Slush Fund. Do you think the powers of the City Comptroller should be used to change or improve the use of City Council member items, including the “slush fund” as described in a NY Times OpEd, to make it more fairly distributed, properly used, and less dependent on the discretion of whomever holds the position of Speaker?

7. Protecting Tenants - Divesting in "Predatory Equity".  Former Comptroller Bill Thompson
stopped the city's pension funds from investing in "predatory equity"; specifically private companies that would buy buildings with rent-regulated apartments at inflated prices, with the goal of trying
to evict rent-regulated tenants who have lived in these apartments for several years, most of whom cannot afford market rate rents. Do agree with this ban on investing city pension funds on firms that seek to undermine affordable housing laws?  (City Limits article - March 3rd, 2008)

8. Cable & Internet Companies - Options & Customer Service.  There are many areas of NYC that still lack quality options for cable television and internet service.  In addition, many customers have had
horrible service experiences, for example waiting at home during a 4-hour "window" for a cable technician who never shows up, only to be told that the appointment can't be rescheduled for a week, and the customer will receive nothing more for this trouble and lack of service than a small bill credit. The Comptroller's office has significant regulatory authority over telecom companies, including auditing and approvals of upgrades and expansions to existing systems. Would you use this power to ensure that broadband companies expand service to all areas of NYC and actually provide better customer service, (not just transparency about their service) and face real penalties when they fail to do so?

9. Your Ideas. Are there other ways you would seek to use the Comptroller's office to help push and support a progressive political agenda in the city?

Bully Pulpit Questions: Issues where the Comptroller has a voice but not a vote:

10. Home Rule for NYC. One of the biggest obstacles to enacting policy for New York City is that we do not have "Home Rule"; so many issues that affect New York City are actually decided by Albany, leaving NYC in the precarious position of begging Albany for action.  Examples include rent-stabilization laws that protect tenants, congestion pricing, taxation, and even some parking policies. Will you advocate for stronger home rule for NYC? Both Democratic candidates have served in state government. Please tell us what, if anything, you did during your time of service in favor of Home Rule for New York City.

11. Getting Big Money Out of Politics. Large donors have a huge amount of influence in local and national politics due to their campaign contributions. While NYC’s matching funds program is seen as one of the most innovative public funding campaigns in the country, many DFNYC members feel that big money donors still have too much influence, candidates still spend too much time fundraising, and the matching funds come to the campaigns too late to make a real difference in how we run elections.  Would you support a change to full public financing of campaigns, similar to the Clean Money Clean Elections programs in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine? Do you feel that Citizens United, the Supreme Court case that strengthened corporate personhood and struck down many campaign finance laws, was wrongly decided?

12. Tax Against High Frequency Trading. In NYC, Wall Street is Main Street; protecting the markets means, in some sense, protecting the economy of New York City.  In December, DFNYC members met with staffers at the offices of both U.S. Senators from New York. One of our proposals was a federal financial transaction tax that would strongly discourage the risky practice of high frequency trading (which has cause flash crashes and other market disruptions while only benefitting a few) that would be very small – fraction of a penny per share – so that it would not discourage regular trading, only HFT.  If such a proposal is raised again at the federal level, would you publically support it?  (For more on this issue, lease see Lee Sheppard’s article in Forbes.)

DFNYC Transition Memo for Mayor-elect de Blasio

To:                   New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio

From:              Democracy for NYC, a grassroots coalition group of Democracy for America

Re:                  Our Proposed Policy Ideas for the New Administration  

Date:              December, 2013

We were very proud to endorse your campaign in April and to be a part of your historic victory.  We have reached out to our members and the greater NYC political community for ideas to push forward the progressive agenda that inspired us to support your campaign, and we include some of those ideas here.

1. Police & Civil Liberties - Longer assignments in neighborhoods

From stop & frisk to unlawful arrests, there are a lot of problems with the way the N.Y.P.D. interacts with New Yorkers. Jerome Rice, who is part of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and the NAACP, has suggested that there would be far fewer civil liberties violations by police officers if their initial assignment in a precinct was lengthened to a year or longer. Right now, an officer can transfer in 6 months, creating little incentive for the officer to form connections in the community. If the initial assignment in a precinct is lengthened to a year or even 18 months, there is more incentive for that officer to go to community meetings, listen to residents’ concerns, and get to know people in the neighborhood, which will likely decrease the problem of the same innocent young men being stop-and-frisked multiple times.

Feasibility:  We believe this would not require a change to existing law, but likely would require a change in the union contract with NYPD officers.  We look forward to working with Commissioner Bratton.

2. Voting - Easier, Quicker, Better Organized

A. Two Bottlenecks Creating Lines at the Polls & Two Easy Solutions

i. Bottleneck 1 - Voters Finding their ED - Big Maps with Election Districts

When voters arrive at the polls, if they do not know their election district (“ED”), they must wait in a line while a poll worker looks up their address.  We propose that at each poll site, the BOE put up a detailed neighborhood map that voters can look at and determine their ED.  This will greatly reduce the first line at the polls.  Another possibility is volunteers with smart phones helping people in line, but we are concerned that there may not be enough volunteers to cover all hours at all poll sites.

ii. Bottleneck 2 - Get rid of voter cards

The second bottleneck is at the second line a voter must wait in – at the desk for their election district. After signing the book in this most recent election, voters had to wait while a poll worker filled out a card with their information. Voter cards are necessary with lever machines, a voter must show the operator of the lever machine that s/he has signed in. But with paper ballots going to the scanner, the fact that the voter has a paper ballot is the proof that s/he signed in. Most fair elections groups believe that voter cards do not reduce the risk of voter fraud with paper ballots.

Feasibility:  We have confirmed with elections experts that that these two can be implemented without changing existing law; just BOE policy.  We believe the Mayor’s office can be very influential here.

B. Early Voting & Appointments to the NYC Board of Elections

Two other proposed solutions to voting problems in NYC are (1) Early voting (opening up some poll sites for up to two weeks before an election, as other states do) and (2) changing how we appoint leaders to the NYC BOE. The current process, where leaders come out of county parties, should perhaps be changed to a non-political process that focuses on a candidate’s qualifications first, similar to the Campaign Finance Board. However, both of these will require legislation in Albany, which we will work toward in 2014.

3. Jobs Portal for the Tech Sector – Helping the Unemployed & Small Business

NYC has seen a growth in the tech sector – internet and new media companies. Many of these businesses are creating jobs, including for people without a college education. However, for many of these startups, finding good talent is difficult and expensive. NYC government has a unique opportunity to create a tech-centered “jobs portal” that would make it easy for these small businesses to find and hire talented un-employed or under-employed New Yorkers, as well as connect those looking for education and training to companies offering internships and on-the-job training programs.  DFNYC’s friends in the tech sector are talking with people on the Transition Team about this idea.  

Feasibility: This does not require a change in existing law, and could use existing city resources.
 
4. Surgery Checklist - Reducing death, complications & infections

The Safe Surgery Checklist is a common sense approach to healthcare that could help save lives and reduce surgical complications for New Yorkers and their loved ones.  Proper use of the checklist, developed by the WHO in 2008, was found to reduce major complications from surgery by 36%, reduce infection rates by nearly 50%, and reduce deaths by 47%. (New England Journal of Medicine, 1/29/09.)  Unfortunately, this checklist is often not used, or used inconsistently, due to medical culture and other factors. (Harvard School of Public Health, 2/7/13.) NYC’s DOHMH could improve healthcare by increasing use of the checklist by surgery teams at local hospitals. In fact, many NYC hospitals could also benefit financially, as there are incentives for healthcare quality improvements under Obamacare.  More details and links to sources can be found at this page here at the DFNYC website. 

Feasibility:  We believe this would not require a change in existing law, but coordination with the state DOH is advisable. Dr. Atul Gawande, who developed the checklist as discussed in his 2010 book The Checklist Manifesto, has set up a non-profit to help hospitals with implementation. 

5. City ID Card that is also a Debit Card – Help for Underbanked Communities

We are very happy that Mayor-elect de Blasio has voiced his support for city ID cards.  We propose that NYC follow the lead of Oakland, CA, which has unveiled a new city government ID card with a debit card feature designed to assist low-income, “underbanked” individuals who pay high fees for debit cards.

Feasibility:  From a political perspective, the city will have to be clear that this is not a benefits card; this would be a debit card to which users would add their own money, to be used in situations where cash is unaccepted or not practical.  More details are in the website version of this memo at DFNYC.org.

6. Living Wage Bill – No Big Loopholes! 

Simply put, we feel if tax payer money is going to fund real estate projects, then the jobs in those buildings should pay a living wage, a key step to ending poverty and hunger in NYC.  In 2011, the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act was before the City Council.  The bill proposed to require hourly wages of $11.50 (or $10 with benefits) for workers in real estate development projects that receive $1 million or more in city money.  Developers would essentially just have to charge cheaper rents, passing the tax subsidy on to the commercial tenant, which can pass it on to its employees. There will be much advocacy and debate on details of a living wage bill. DFNYC would just like to strongly encourage Mayor-elect de Blasio not to cave in and allow huge loopholes to be added as a compromise, such as exemptions for developers who build affordable housing.  Loopholes mean far fewer people will earn a living wage; we would like to see benefits for as many workers as possible.

Feasibility: Because this is not an across-the-board minimum wage hike, NYC does not need Albany's approval. The previous bill had wide support in the council, which will likely continue in 2014.

About DFNYC:

We are a local progressive grassroots group that came out of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. We support social progressive fiscally responsible candidates and issues. We volunteer and fundraise for candidates at all levels of government, from Democratic District Leader to U.S. President.

Contacts:  (Replace -at- w/@)

Richard Wallner              Ousman Laast                Max Smith Jr.              Tracey Keij-Denton

rwallner-at-dfnyc.org   olaast-at-dfnyc.org       msmith-at-dfnyc.org    tdenton-at-dfnyc.org