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?
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
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.
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.”
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 Seddio * Tammany 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 News * In 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.
Corrupt Money Pours Into Incumbent Pols
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
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 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
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.
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.
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
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
“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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
