Monday, May 21, 2018

True News' Civic Handbook Occupy : Insiders Guide to How NYC Government and Politcs Really Work


The City's Election System Has Been Taken Over by Special Interests

New Yorkers stopped voting because the public feels that their Government No Longer Serves Their Needs.  Many residents feel disconnected from city politics because they do not understand how their government works.  Adding to the lack of understanding newspaper no long cover politics beyond the horse race (who is winning). Problems including homelessness, poverty, lack of affordable housing and the closings of small businesses have been proliferating for years with no solutions. Pay to play corruption is everywhere. Voters have no clue on how to elect leaders in our government to fix these and other problems? Most incumbents in NY run unopposed or with weak opposition.  How is NYC progressive if it has suppressive voting laws that keep low voters turnout?

NYC's dwindling voter turnout hits new low - NY Daily News

Turnout of Mayoral Elections has Dropped Nearly Every Election 4 Decades
How the NYS Election Law Suppresses Voter Turnout, Helps Incumbents and Takes Power Away from the City's Neighborhoods



Finally A Shocker Election That Exposed the Machine  Crowley Loses to Ocasio-Cortez

Now Reporters Have Discovered the Party Bosses and Political Machines

Joe Crowley Says Millennials Kicked Him Out Of Congress

Ghosts in the Queens machine: Rep. Joe Crowley's profiteering ... (NYDN)


Both Joe Crowley Brother and the Manhattan Democratic Boss Works for the Lobbyists Firm Davidoff Hutchen and Citron

How People Close to Joe Crowley Have Gotten Rich While the Queens Boss Has Risen in Congress (NYDN)  Sean Crowley serves as a partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, a powerhouse law firm with offices in Albany, New York City, and Washington, D.C., that advertises its ability to connect clients with congressional leadership. Over the last decade, clients with interests before Congress have retained Sean Crowley through his lobbying firm, paying more than $4.5 million to influence and monitor government policies, according to a review of contracts by The Intercept.

Keith Wright might have to give up job at lobbying firm - New York Post

Wright works for the lawyer-lobbying firm Davidoff, Hutcher& Citron and is listed on its website as “director of the firm's government relations group” in the New York office focusing on “city and state” issues “as part of a seasoned team of lobbyists.”


Former assemblyman Keith Wright joins Davidoff Hutcher & Citron

Crowley’s Loss Heralds an ‘End of an Era’: Last of the Party Bosses  *  Ocasio-Cortez backers call on Crowley to resign as party boss * New York City political leaders grapple with life after the machine * Ghosts in the Queens machine: Rep. Joe Crowley's profiteering political partners * Bronx Machine Gathers to Sort Through Post-Joe Crowley Wreckage

 


A Lobbyist Is Now Running Manhattan's Democratic Party | Village Voic




New York's Election Law is Designed to Lower Voter Turnout


The New Tammany Machine is Made Up of Old Time Party Bosses and the the New Lobbyists Campaign Consultants

Low Voting Caused by NY’s NY's Election Law has Given New Power to Political Party Machines, and has Empowered A New Political Bosses the New Un-elected Campaign Consultant Lobbyists into A New Pay to Play Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall Still Runs NYC's Political Parties in 2018


The Manhattan Boss is A Lobbyists   * Lobbying Firms hired by de Blasio earned at least $10M from campaign and non-profits * Mayor de Blasio's Hired Lobbyists Guns: Private Consultants Help Shape City Hall * More about Brooklyn Boss SeddioTammany Hall Is Alive and Well in the Bronx | | Observer* Democratic machine pulled in real estate cash while deciding City Council speakership  Rudin Management, BFC Partners, Brodsky Organization and others gave to Queens power broker * Former lobbyist re-elected to head Manhattan Democrats(NYP) * Queens Machine, Part 1: You've Got to Pay Your Dues - WNYC News ... * Queens Machine, Part 4: Meet the Boss - WNYC News - WNYC

Almost Nobody Votes in Party Elections  . . .   Most Party Bosses and Power Brokers (Underbosses) Stay in Power for Decades with No Challenges













More About Low Voting Party Elections (True NEWS)Three lawyers control Queens Democratic Party ... - NY Daily NewsIn Queens, Political Center Is in Surrogate's Court - The New York Times * NY Corrupt Party Boss Crowley

 




Many Local Activists and People Involved in Their Local Community Groups Do Not See How the Effectiveness of Their Causes Will Benefit If Their Add Their Voice Inside the Democratic Party to the Issues They Care About. 

Who Should Run for County Committee?
Groups Working for Issues in NYC Should Not Do It As Outsiders in the Democratic Party 
Run for Your County Committee! - Veterans Alliance
Affordable Housing and Tenant Leaders Must Run for County Committee
People Working for Better Schools Should Also Be Running for County Committee
Groups fighting for Seniors Should Have their Members Run for County Committee
Groups Fighting for Property Tax Relief Should Have their Members Run for County Committee
Groups Seeking to improve the Subways Should Have their Members Run for County Committee
Neighborhood Associations Seeking to Improve Their Community Quality of Life

 

Lobbyists Campaign Consultants Funded by Developers and City Contractors Have Centralized Politics, Sucking the Power Out of the City's Neighborhoods . . .  Blocking Local Leaders From Running  


Low Turnout Elections Has Enable, Given More Power to Lobbyists, Party Leaders Who are Funded by Developers, Unions and Other City Contractors to Control Who Gets Elected in Local Elections
Local leaders who want to solver the real problems like affordable housing, better schools and help for mom and pop businesses have a very hard time getting elected. 

Berlin Rosen and A Group of Their Consultant Lobbyists Co-Conspiracy Walmartization of NY's Politics

 

Shadow lobbyists Corruption Were At the Center At the Both the Skelos and Silver Trials

The Lobbyist's Shadow Government

Corrupt Money Pours Into Incumbent Pols

"Governor pulls in real estate contributions through 'egregious' loopholes"

Mr. Right Now: de Blasio Continues Wooing Real Estate ...

De Blasio 'doesn't recall' $100K donation in alleged pay-to-play scheme

 

The Rise of Berlin Rosen







NYC's government and elections are now controlled by big money and powerful interests, developers, lobbyists-consultants and party bosses.  The city's low voting turnout trend, that stated about 20 years ago, gave control over the elections and the local government to special interests rather than neighborhoods and the voters.  In low turnout elections the majority of voters fail to participate and the limited number of votes the political machine controls is enough for them to win.  This kind of voting only serves the political insiders, does not represent the needs of the public and is a subversion of the democratic process.  Community involvement is the only way to shift power back to the people.




Lobbyists Were At the Center of the Pay to Play Corruption in the Silver, Skelos, Percoco Trials and de Blasio Has His Secret Agents Lobbyists 


Hundreds of Democrats rally to oust Manhattan Democratic Chair Keith Wright











Hundreds of Democrats rally to oust Manhattan Democratic Chair Keith Wrigh

The Forgotten Virtues of Tammany Hall - The New York Times

Party Leaders Have Now Been Joined by Lobbyist Sometimes Working Together to Control Who Gets Elected

Old Tammany Party Bosses Joined by Lobbyists Campaign Consultants

Old time Tammany Halls' Boss De Sapio lobbied for affordable housing, protecting neighborhoods from developers and for lower subway fairs.  Political Boss De Sapio kept his power by delivering votes to politicians.  District Leaders in the Tammany Hall era needed to not only deliver government services and jobs to voters in their districts.  They also needed to protect their neighborhoods to keep their deliverable votes high, from the developers who were trying to raise rents and displace residents.  Today's Gentrification displacement and low voting in local elections created a campaign consultant lobbyists shadow govt that has taken power out of the local community by controlling who gets elected.  A cabal of developers, government contractors and unions elect local candidates who then run the government to benefit the groups that helped elect them.

undreds of Democrats rally to oust Manhattan Democratic Chair Keith Wri


Consultant Lobbyists Have Turned NY Into A Pay to Play Candy Store
The lobbyist-consultants gain power by using money from the developers and city contractors to drive out local candidates.  They use the Walmart model of destroying local competition of independent candidates who can fight the pay to play corruption for the needs and concerns of the community.  This Walmart-like takeover of local political campaigns sucks the power out of NYC's once strong neighborhood control.  Super tall buildings all over and no leaders to fight the special interests that are destroying affordable housing, mom and pop stores and ignore homelessness, poor education, broken subways and other 

quality of live problems.   As Jack Newfield, the late great journalist wrote in his book The Permanent Government:  to fix NYC, we need to empower the people of New York to take back the control over political parties from party bosses bottom up, block by block, electing candidates who will fight for the needs of the people and the neighborhoods they live in. 

 


Only By Occupying the Local Democratic Party Can We Begin to Take Back NYC's Govt and Elections 



Community involvement is also the only way to fight pay to play corruption in Albany and City Hall.  Albany refuses to change NY's Suppressive Voting Laws because low voting helps  incumbent politicians, consultant lobbyists and party bosses win re-election.  Voting in NYC is at its lowest--only 13% voted in the Democratic Primary in 2017 for mayor or city council.  By comparison, in 1951 voter participation was over 90% for these seats.  In 2016, only 4% of new Yorker's voted in the 2016 democratic primary for their district leader, county committee and democratic party chairman.

In other words, party elections are undemocratic elected, because eligible voters do not participate in the elections, turning these elected party seats into lifetime appointments.  Fix NYC wants to make our political parties now run by the special interests, more inclusive.  Fix NYC wants YOU to run for your County Committee, Judicial Delegate and other party positions.  By running for these important local party positions you will have a say as to who gets nominated by the party to run in primary elected offices and judgeship's.  This will give control over political parties including who gets elected and how their government is run to average New Yorkers.  Elected officials only care about getting re-elected and it needs to stop!

NYC had an abysmally low voter turnout in Tuesday's primary election

Jimmy Breslin on His Mayoral Run With Norman Mailer ... - NYMag




NYC Needs to Empower the Neighborhoods and Its People Like Mayor Lindsay Tried 50 Years Ago

"Mv plan is to open Little City Halls in the neighborhoods of our city, manned by the people in those neighborhoods, will stimulate a new citizen involvement in the life of our city" Mayor Lindsay 1966
The 1963 City Charter, adopted during Wagner’s third term as Mayor, extended the neighborhood governance concept to the other boroughs, establishing 'Community Planning Boards' throughout the city. Eventually, these came to be known simply as 'Community Boards.'   In 1989, the voters of New York City ratified new Charter provisions, changing how City government deals with the budget, land-use matters, and service delivery. The Community Board’s important roles in all of these areas were either expanded or reaffirmed by the new Charter.














How the County Committee Works


Occupy the Democratic Party in 2018

The NY Democratic Party is governed by committees of citizens who are registered Democrats, from the state level down to the block you live on.
The largest national parties (Democrats and Republicans) are mandated by the state to have a committee of party members in each of New York's 62 counties. In NYC, there are separate County Committees for each party in Kings, Queens, Bronx, New York, and Richmond Counties. County Committee Members Are Elected by Voters In Each of the City's Elections Districts (EDs). There are Almost 10,000 EDs in the city.

How the Bronx County Committee Has Been Abused 

Squadron Departure Spotlights Importance of County Committee







Every two years, Democrats in each assembly district elect two district leaders: one male and one female







Today's District Leaders Choose the Party Boss
Who Serves Their Needs Not the Communities 
Fix NYC wants the county committee to pick the party leader

OLD TIMES DISTRICT LEADERS  benefited their followers in many ways. They got their constituents work, brought their community together at picnics and on steamboat excursions, and, even cared for them when they were sick.  The old time district leaders were ready to help their voters in trouble with the representatives of the law. These district leaders thus had a very strong influence over a large class, the members of which were ordinarily decent, hard working people, who worked in various trades, but never got far ahead.  The people who at times fell into want, and who sometimes were kinsfolk of semi-criminal type. These voters were apt to regard saloons as their club-houses.  Often, the saloons were the headquarters of local political organizations and were the true social centers of neighborhood life.

District Leaders Today

The District Leaders of today give out poll worker jobs on election day to supporters who collect petitions signatures, putting their district leader and his or her political and judicial candidates on the ballot.  Today's district leaders do not advocate for community needs to Democratic elected officials, fail to organize the local get-out-the-vote operation, and do not represent the neighborhood on the county party executive committee like the old time district leaders did.  The District Leaders of today neglect basic, grassroots community-building activities and instead focus on getting their favored candidates elected to local judgeships, increasing their political power to run for higher office, and  getting government job appointments and well as court appointments from the judges they elect. Today very few district leaders face primary and many have been in office for decades.    

No, Seriously: What’s a District Leader

 

The Reason Why You're Voting for a Male and a Female District Leader



The New York State primary is on Thursday, September 13th. And you may see candidates running for some lesser-known positions on your ballot, like Male or Female District Leader.

A quick primer: District leaders are unpaid party officials, elected by voters who are registered with their party to oversee the county committee in their assembly district. They aren't legislators, so they don't handle laws. They're mostly in place to run the party's activity in their district.

So why the distinct Male and Female District Leader roles? The reason can be traced back to Eleanor Roosevelt and the League of Women Voters.

Sarah Steiner, an attorney who practices election law, says the two roles were created in 1920, at around the same time as women's suffrage. Eleanor Roosevelt, a vocal advocate for women's rights, had just joined the League of Women Voters. Her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was running for Vice President (this was before he served as governor of New York). Eleanor Roosevelt believed that women had a crucial role to play in understanding and leading their localities. Steiner says it was largely thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt and the League that this District Leadership role was created for women to gain an entry-level position in political party leadership. "It was her idea, and their idea, that politics ought to be more opened up to women, and that giving women the vote would help the reform of the entire political process," Steiner told WNYC. What if two women want to become district leaders in the same assembly district? Well, there's only room for one. Steiner says she doesn't see that as a limitation of the rule. If anything, it's a good problem to have. "To have an entry level position, a position of some power in the party, of some influence in the party, is a very important thing," Steiner said. "Otherwise we might still be baking cookies instead of making policy." https://www.wnyc.org/story/reason-why-youre-voting-male-and-female-district-leader/


 


The District Leaders and Boss Make Up the Executive Committee of the County Committee That Pick Judgeships
Fix NYC plan would transfer the power of the executive committee back to the county committee.







There are 21 Assembly District in Brooklyn . . . The Executive Committee Has 42 Members 

Fix NYC believes that the party executive committees are controlled by the political bosses who have too much power. 


 











County Committee Members are Elected by Election Districts 


The County Committee
Each election district (or ED) is made up of a small number of city blocks.  Each ED has two (2) to four (4) seats in the general membership of the county committee; so when all the seats are filled, there are approximately 3000 members. 

 

 

6 EASY STEPS TO RUNNING                        FOR COUNTY COMMITTEE

Occupy the Brooklyn Democratic Party 2018
 Step 1: Identify your Assembly District (AD) and your Election District (ED)
(This can easily be done by looking up your address on the NYC Doitt Map or on the BOE’s website) Step 2: Figure out if there is a vacancy. You can reach out to the Board of Elections or your local Democratic County Office. If there is not, you can run in any ED that falls within your AD.  Step 3: Calculate how many signatures you need. You will need 5% of the registered democrats in your chosen ED, which usually amounts to 5-60 signatures.
Here are some quick links where you can find the number of registered Democrats in your AD/ED for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.  Step 4: Create your County Committee Petition under your chosen party. You can begin collecting signatures from voters within your party only during petitioning season. Getting signatures outside of that window is illegal.
Petitioning starts on June 5 and ends on July 8. Go with a friend. Meet your neighbors. It’ll be fun!
Step 5: Submit those signatures you collected. You will need to create a cover sheet & bind your pages before submitting.  You can submit by going to dropping them off to the NYS Board of Elections Office. You can do that between July 9 and July 12. Step 6: If you were running unopposed, congratulations! You are now a county committee person!
If not and you are running against someone, Step 6 means going back to those neighbors and getting them to vote for you in the Primary.

Squadron Departure Spotlights Importance of County Committee


Our Un-Democratic County Committee
The political bosses ensure that a vast number of the seats on the county committee are left unfilled, undermining our goal of broad participation in the county decision-making. These political bosses usurp the power of the county committee by using proxies of county committee members they elect to control what the county committee does.  Instead of representing the needs of Brooklyn residents, the county committee operates as a private country club by representing the interests of political bosses. 

As the New York Post reported, the election by executive committee members only happened by voice vote at a diner. This, after Crowley lost the Congressional primary in June to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Bronx County Democrats also meet tonight and will potentially discuss judicial nominees. Many of you have asked how nominees for judgeships end up on the ballot. The answer is complicated, but county committees play a central role.






  • Select Judicial Candidates
  • Select the Democratic Party's Nominee in Special Elections 
    • This one is particularly important, since one (1) in three (3) current New York state legislators were chosen in a special election! 
  • Help Create the Democratic Party Platform (currently not being used at all):
    • Spearhead Ethics Reforms in Both City Hall and Albany
    • Reforms to NY's Voter Suppression Election Laws Ethics
    • Fight Developers
    • Push for Better Schools and Health Care 
    • Fight Air Pollution and Traffic Safety/Congestion
    • Neighborhood Planning and Zoning
    • Education and Police Oversight
    • Reduce Sanitation and Parking Tickets
    • Fight for Low Income Reduced Subway Fairs
  • Organize local neighborhoods
  • And more! 
  • They also choose which candidates to run in a special election. This is incredibly important considering that one-third of state Assembly members were first sent to Albany through a special election, according to a 2017 report by Citizens Union. In the state senate, 19 percent of lawmakers were initially elected this way.  



 







You Need Petitions to Run for County Committee and Other Party Offices

Petitions Start June 5th and Run Through July 12th 2018 


How to Run for County Committee  
you will only need 3 to 20 signatures from the ED!
5% of the registered Party Voters in That ED

You could be on the Bronx Democratic County Committee and not even know it


How to Run for District Leader  
1 male and 1 female from each of the Assembly Districts need only
500 Signatures from the AD

Maps of the Assembly Districts 
Look Up What Election and Assembly District You Live in 


Who Chooses Supreme Court Judges 
Judicial Delegates Pick Supreme Court Judges From A Convention Held Right After the Democratic Primary. 

To become a Judicial Delegate you will only need 500 Signatures from your Assembly District! All 6 of the Judicial Candidates From the Same ED Can Appear on the Same Petiton
A Convention Made Up of Winning Judicial Delegates (about a 100 delegates) Meets Once After the Primary to Nominate Supreme Court Judges 

Who Really Picks New York's Judges? | Brennan Center for Justice

 

Voter Suppression in Deep-Blue New York - Bloomberg

 


“The whole system of elections in New York State is rigged,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Special Elections just exacerbate the existing problems because no one knows it’s happening.” The whole system of choosing a party nominee and getting on the ballot in a Special Election is so complex and inexplicable that even trying to explain it might kill off some of our readers (which we don't want to do; if you want a detailed explanation, you'll have to click here.). Under Albany rules, special elections are rigged. Party bosses pick their nominees who cost to victory in our one party state.

Not-So-Special Elections - Gotham GazetteHow Party Bosses, Not Voters, Pick Candidates in New York - NY Times*It's Party Bosses — Not Voters — Who Often Fill Vacant Seats in the State Legislature * Brooklyn Democratic Party Boss Handpicks State Senate Candidate ... * Special Election Spotlights Machine Politics in The Bronx

Special delivery:Time to consign undemocratic boss-driven special elections to history (NYDN Ed) Let these be the last two contests conducted under New York’s grossly undemocratic special election law. That statute cuts out the usual party primaries, thereby empowering Democratic and Republican bosses to put whatever loyal soldiers they choose on the ballot. Voters get no real choice about who represents them — especially in places where one party dominates, as Democrats do in most of New York City.

How Party Bosses, Not Voters, Pick Candidates in NY (NYT) * Brooklyn Democratic Party Boss Handpicks State Senate Candidate .. * Party Leaders Override Local Dems, Select Kavanagh for Squadron's Seat



New York's Multiple Primaries are Designed to Lower Voter Turnout

McGoven's 1 Primary Lesson Still Rules

40 Years Ago George McGovern's Presidential Race Pulled Out Tens of Thousands of New Voters in A Primary, Causing Albany Lawmakers and Congressmen to Lose.  Since 1972 Albany has Split Primaries to Two Sometime Three Separate Primaries A Year to Lower Voter Turnout
As the New York Times wrote in An Expensive and Unnecessary Election (March 9, 2014) --"the extra New York State primary will cost state taxpayers $50 million for their trouble. New York State is poised to put voters through another needlessly expensive election year. Instead of taking the sensible route — one primary to pick party candidates and one general election to pick ultimate winners — New York is scheduled to have an extra primary. That means three elections when two are enough. Albany, however, has yet to agree to a single June primary. Its members want a federal primary in June and a separate state and local primary (which would include their own primary elections) in September. It’s been that way for 40 years, and the Senate, which is now almost evenly divided between the two major parties, seems intent on resisting change."   The turnout for the 2016 federal primary was 8% 8%! New Report Shows Shockingly Low Voter Turnout in NYC




 

New York's minor parties are controlled by inner circles that elect the same leaders for decades.  For instance, the Conservative Party Leader Michael Long has run his party for over 30 years. The Working Families Party has the same leaders since it was founded by labor bosses 27 years ago.  An addition to New York's election law written in the Tammany Hall era of 1947, Wilson-Pakula law, was aimed at defeating left wing Congressman Vito Marcantonio.  The law gave party bosses the power to cross-endorse, or choose not to endorse, a very useful tool for party leader to get favors from incumbent mayors, governors and other law makers.  Without Wilson-Pakula, the right wing conservative party would not have been able to deliver it 328,605 votes in 1995 to Pataki, the margin of victory in defeating Mario Cuomo.  Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor in 1993 with the help of the votes he received on a Liberal Party line, before the boss of that party was convicted for pension fraud.  Mike Bloomberg paid off five pro-gun GOP bosses to approve him to run as a Republican, even though he was not registered in the party.  In the 2013 election, Senator Malcolm Smith tired to buy the GOP line using the Wilson-Pakula law. Smith and GOP party leaders are now in jail for their plot to buy and sell the party.  In 2009, After Bloomberg changed the term limit laws, to allow him to run again, he still needed the Wilson-Pakula Law to add the Independence Party's 150,073 votes to win.  A party operative John Haggerty went to jail for buying himself a house with the millions of dollars Bloomberg gave to an upstate county committee controlled by the independence party.  





Party Machines Have Total Control Over Picking Judges At Judicial Conventions

Political Bosses Sausage Factory Electing Judges in NYC
"I attended the Kings County Democratic judicial nominating convention Tuesday.  It was orchestrated "Soviet-style." Short, sweet, lady- and gentleman-like, the script called for the eight candidates to be designated or re-designated without opposition, even for supposed "open" seats. Before adjournment, each judge candidate got up and gave a short thank-you speech. Every one of them expressed gratitude to the party district leaders for their support, and they also expressed effusive thanks to and praise of County Leader Vito Lopez. One 're-up,' John Leventhal of the Appellate Division, Second Department (after inquiring if the press was present) thanked now-imprisoned county leader Clarence Norman as well, and another called Lopez "the greatest county leader ever." After adjournment, I spoke with a number of delegates who voted "automatically" and didn't seem to know for whom they were voting. They didn't know, and were just told for whom to vote." - Daily News 2008

 

The Brooklyn Boss Made Millions Closing A Hospital for A Development and Dumped A Judge Who Tried To Keep the Hospital Open

The uninitiated might imagine that judges in New York City ascend to the bench by destiny, the only sound the swishing of their black robes. But the selection of judges may be one of the few areas of local politics where back-room deals are still the rule, and where the county political leaders exercise the greatest control

Judge Jacobson Who Tried to Keep A Hospital Open
is Suing Brooklyn Boss Seddio and His Fake Screen Panel for Dumping Her  * More on Closing Long Island College Hospital* Boss Seddeo * Judge Jacobson's Case Update  Brooklyn Democratic Boss Seddio

5 Million Dollar Lawsuit filed By A Judge Jacobson Who Was Dumped By Boss Seddeo

 

The Brooklyn Boss Made Money Off of Closing A Hospital to Build Affordable Housing

Million $ Lawsuit filed Against the Brooklyn Machine By Judge Laura Jacobson Who Was Dumped By Boss Seddeo and his Judicial Screening Panel For Trying to Keep Keep LICH Open, People in Their Homes, More . . .

 
The Supreme Court is a trial court and is not the highest court in the state. The highest court of the State of New York is the Court of Appeals. Second, although it is a trial court, the Supreme Court sits as a "single great tribunal of general state-wide jurisdiction, rather than an aggregation of separate courts sitting in the several counties or judicial districts of the state." There is a branch of the Supreme Court in each of New York's 62 counties. Under the New York State Constitution, the New York State Supreme Court has unlimited jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases, with the exception of certain monetary claims against the State of New York itself. In practice, the Supreme Court hears civil actions involving claims above a certain monetary amount (for example, $25,000 in New York City) that puts the claim beyond the jurisdiction of lower courts.[3] Civil actions about lesser sums are heard by courts of limited jurisdiction, such as the New York City Civil Court.
 
The Civil Court of the City of New York is a civil court of the New York State Unified Court System in New York City that decides lawsuits involving claims for damages up to $25,000 and includes a small claims part (small claims court) for cases involving amounts up to $5,000 as well as a housing part (housing court) for landlord-tenant matters, and also handles other civil matters referred by the New York Supreme Court.  It handles about 25% of all the New York state and local courts' total filings. The court has divisions by county (borough), but it is a single citywide court. An regular election occurred for civil and surrogate courts candidates. Candidates for the supreme courts are chosen indirectly by delegates and appear only on the general election ballot.



Political Bosses Use Judicial Back Fills to Control Who Becomes A Civil Court Judge and Even the Bronx DA by Cutting the Voters Out
The sleazy deal that allowed Robert Johnson to trade his Bronx district attorney’s job for a judge’s seat in state Supreme Court will come with a mega payday. Johnson, a Bronx native, announced plans to resign almost immediately after winning the Democratic primary on Sept. 10.   That allowed the county’s party leaders to choose his replacement on the November general-election ballot, Appellate Division Judge Darcel Clark.  In the heavily Democratic Bronx, the Democratic nomination is tantamount to election.  Johnson denied widespread reports and criticism that he was approached by fellow Democrats to time his resignation to avoid a possible primary.  But government watchdogs said his actions and those of Bronx Democratic leaders smelled.  “They want to be able to control who holds that office if you open it up to the voters, which is the Democratic way, you can’t control who goes in there,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union.  “That ability to determine who is representing their interests in law enforcement is being undermined by this electoral process.”
Johnson presided over a DA’s office that perpetually had the worst conviction rate in the city for major crimes. When it came to government corruption, it was US Attorney Preet Bharara who brought cases that sent Bronx politicians to prison — not Johnson.


Below the law as Bronx pols Rob Johnson and Darcel Clarke break the rules (Daily News) * NYC’s Dumbest Elections: Races for DA in a Year When No One is Looking (City Limits) * In Queens, Political Center Is in Surrogate's Court - The New York Times * Family of Queens Democratic Boss Snatches Up Supreme Court Appointments * Fire Boss Crowley - Queens Against Crowley * Dem boss calls primary 'waste' • Brooklyn Daily

Three lawyers control Queens Democratic Party while one rakes millions from Surrogate’s Court wills

Crowley's brother, Sean Crowley, received appointments with startling regularity for about a decade beginning in 1995 — until new anti-nepotism laws forced him from the court. Sean Crowley netted about $400,000 for his work as a guardian and court evaluator. Once he was barred, as the brother of the county leader, from landing appointments, he left his law practice and became a lobbyist for Davidson, Hutcher and Citron, a leading New York firm.  Sean Crowley's law partner was Scott Kaufman, an attorney who has served as Joe Crowley's campaign treasurer. Since 2006, records show, Kaufman has earned $550,000 in fees from Surrogate's Court appointments.

 Bronx Machine

Close Ties Among Bronx Electeds, Campaign Consultants, Lobbyists and Donors (Gottham)

 Bronx Lobbyists MirRam Group





"The Surrogate Court is A Political Toll Booth Exacting Tribute From Widows and Orphans" 
                      - Robert Kennedy, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia 
In the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called Surrogate's Court "the most expensive undertaking establishment in the world." He believed it was control of the Surrogate's Court of New York County, more than any other factor, that kept the Tammany Hall political machine alive through the lean years when he deprived it of city jobs and President Franklin Roosevelt denied it federal jobs. All wills are probated in this court and all estates of people who die without a will are handled in this court. Unclaimed property of the deceased without wills is handled by the Judge of this court. It also handles adoptions. There is a Surrogate's Court in each county in the state.

Senator Kennedy Serious Try to Reform Surrogate Court

Queens  A Court, Not Votes, Sustains a Political Machine in Queens (NYT, 11/28/11)

Bronx  Bronx Surrogate Judge, Facing Discipline (NYT)

Brooklyn Lawyer makes millions with no details on fees - New York Daily News

Staten Island Expose Corrupt Courts: Cover-Up Continues in Surrogate's Court 

Facts About Manhattan Surrogate Court 2008: Feinberg Disbarred ...How insiders snatch millions from estates in the scandal-scarred Surrogate CourtsTo clean up corrupt Surrogate Courts, wake up and vote - NY Daily ...The Fall of the Phillips Empire | Local Brooklyn News and Features ...A TRAIL OF SWEAT, TEARS  Jimmy Breslin    *For Cleaner Courts in Brooklyn (NYT)* Brooklyn New York Surrogate Court Judge Michael Feinberg Ousted For Corrupt Practices State Commission Seeking Ouster of Surrogate Judge in Brooklyn ... * Surrogate's Court And Why It Should Go (True News)

 


Party Puppets Rubber Stamp The Political Bosses Pick for Supreme Court Judges

"A dozen delegates, in recent interviews, said they could not even remember the handful of candidates they had nominated for the State Supreme Court last year. They said the convention, as always, had been a carefully scripted event lasting less than an hour.  Whether the candidates were potentially outstanding judges, the delegates said they never knew. Before the convention, the party never makes an effort to inform them about which candidates are going to be nominated. In fact, the names are often secret." NY Times 2003

Picking Judges: Party Machines, Rubber Stamps - New York Times 2003
For decades in New York, the law has required that political parties nominate candidates to run for State Supreme Court at judicial conventions, not in primaries. The conventions are attended by delegates who are elected on the neighborhood level and who are supposed to evaluate candidates before offering the best ones a spot on the November ballot. In theory, the conventions are intended to help achieve the civic goal of allowing citizens, through their votes, to decide the makeup of the state's highest trial court. But in practice, according to legal experts, prosecutors and even the delegates themselves, the conventions have long been highly cynical exercises, just another cog in the operations of political party machines. There is, for instance, often no debate about candidates, and party leaders wind up dictating nominations, frequently handing them to loyalists who have donated to the party or worked on campaigns. In fact, the nominating conventions have received so little attention that the City Board of Elections says it does not even keep an official record of those who serve as convention delegates -- the people legally charged with helping determine who gets on the bench.

Judicial Selection for Supreme Court Justices December 2006   * Who Really Picks New York's Judges? | Brennan Center for Justice 2015  * 'Smoke-Filled Rooms' Still Rule New York Judicial Elections - WNYC ... * NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS ET AL. v. LOPEZ TORRES ET AL.Longtime Bronx DA Secures Nomination for Judge - Norwood News * Judicial Sausage Factory Continues, Almost Nobody Noticed

 Who Watches the Watchmen DAs, AG

Who Watchers the Watchman, Lobbyists, Grand Jury, AG - DAs Conflict of Interests With NYPD and Elected Officials

The new lobbyists consultants work for the DA's and AG who turn their backs on these same lobbyist operating a shadow pay to play govt, that elects their candidates with the PACs they work in and Illegally coordinate with the campaigns they run. 


Most of the DAs and AG Have Been Elected With the Lobbyists Berlin Rosen and Red Horse Who Work for the Mayor's Campaign for One NY PAC
True News Has Learned: Red Horse Working for Bronx DA Candidate  Darcel Clark and A Queens DA Candidate and Has Worked for the Brooklyn and New York DAs Political consultant Red Horse worked for Brooklyn DA Thompson campaign along with Berlin Rosen.  Both Red Horse and Advance Group worked for the UFT's PAC United for the Future (the UFT attempted to covering up Advance involvement by paying them through a fake company) Red Horse worked for Manhattan DA. Red Horse worked for Brooklyn BP Adams, Bronx BP Diaz and PA James. Red Horse worked for Manhattan DA Cy Vance. Red Horse worked for Pitta Bishop for Brooklyn BP Adams. Red Horse worked with George Arzt in the Queens BP campaign.

 

 





Convert the 59 Community Boards into 
100 NYC Local Town Halls
There are currently two charter commission proposals that could be on this ballot this year.  One is controlled by the mayor's commission would come up with change for increase public funding for elections and enhance voter outreach. The council commission wants a top-to-bottom review to make city government more efficient. The council would look at giving more independence to offices like the city controller and public advocate with oversight power over the mayor.  To Restore NYC Democracy we need make charter changes to reconnect New Yorkers to their local government and elections. New Yorkers have stop voting because they feel that there vote does not make a difference and they think their government is corrupt.  We need to simplify how governments works, create neighborhood City Hall as a genuine means of contact with public life and reform the public finance and election laws to give the public more power.

As City Proceeds with Two Charter Revision Commissions, A Cautionary Tale from Los Angeles

The Brief, Half-Serious, and Sort of Visionary Political Career of Jimmy Breslin



1.  We need to expand the City Council to one hundred members and Community Boards into 100 neighborhood Town Hall.

2.  We should change the way Community Board Member are chosen. Right now the 50 members to the board are chosen by the local councilmember and borough president.  

3.  We should make any County Committee member from any political party a voting member of their local Community Board.  Those who are not a member of a major party can become a member of a community board by submitting 25 signatures of registered voters who live in the community board district.

4.  NYC needs to change the present redistricting of elected officials districts, judicial district and municipal functions—schools, police, etc.—which was designed for the convenience of various central departments or the political machines into 100% overlapping cohere districts. 

5.  Independent Neighborhood City Halls need a share of the city's budget to hire its own professionals and budget on its own.  

6.  Local City Halls will work a a genuine means of contact with public life, we average citizens can go to complain about issues like homelessness, get help in organizing tenant or block party organizations and give suggestions on how to improve city services. 


7.  End the political bosses control of the Board of Elections.  Party Boss and District Leaders Should Be Term Limited. NY Needs Early Voting, Same Day Registration and Party Changes.   

8.  Reforming the campaign finance law and adopting Seattle’s ‘Democracy Voucher’ system of public financing of campaigns.  Public financing for all state and judicial elections.

9.  New York City residences should have a recall option to remove corrupt citywide elected officials or those not doing their job. 18 states have recall election (also called a recall referendum or representative recall) is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before that official's term has ended. Recall elections, or the possibility of them, extend the democratic procedure as they mean that local (and some state) elected officials need to be continuously responsible and responsive to public opinion.

New England Town Meetings | Participedia

New England or 'Open' Town Meetings are public forums that promote participation in local governance. Town meetings allow residents to voice their opinions on public issues and deliberate and vote on laws and budgets. "Proponents of the town assembly emphasize that it is the purest form of democracy

  Join Fix New York To:

Join Fix NYC, run and get your friends to run for a party position to bring about change of NYC's government.  Its time for New York to increase its appalling low participation rates by implementing easier voting laws such as Internet voting, used by many other cities.  To increase local participation in government, Fix NY wants to give everyone a vote on every important issue their neighborhood is facing by changing the way members are chosen for the Community Boards.  Fix NYC believes that anyone who becomes a county committee member should automatically become a member of their local community board.  People living in their communities should be able to vote directly on all important community issues over the Internet.   Fix NYC wants to give the power back to the county committee to elect district leaders and judicial delegates.  We believe that elected officials should not monopolize local government by also serving as district or county leaders or judicial delegates.  Party Bosses and District Leaders should be term limited.  Did you know that because of the low voter turnout for local party elections, district leaders and other political bosses have life time appointments?  We can do better!  Fix NYC goal is to restore competition in political parties and local elections.  Many of today's party leaders and elected officials are re-elected without a primary.  We need more people to get involved in the local political parties, learn the system, to get more people to run for public office.  

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