Press Coverage
Residents as young as 16 would be able to take seats on the city’s 59 community boards if a movement in the State Legislature to lower the age of eligibility is successful.
This week, the City Council’s Governmental Operations Committee voted unanimously to approve a resolution introduced by Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Upper East Side) at the suggestion of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer that calls on the full council to support a bill in the State Legislature that would amend the state’s Public Officers Law and would allow for a change in the City Charter to allow young people to serve.
The City Council passed a resolution Wednesday urging the state legislature to allow 16 and 17-year-old New Yorkers to serve on community boards.
"Twenty percent of our city is under 18, and our youth deserve a voice on their local community boards," Councilman Ben Kallos, lead sponsor of the resolution, said.
While the resolution passed, it doesn't actually allow the youngsters to be able to serve as appointed members of community boards yet - it simply urges the state Assembly and Senate to pass legislation.
The issue has bi-partisan support in Albany, Kallos noted, where a bill in the senate is sponsored by Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island).
Aspiring policy wonks as young as 16 could serve on their local community boards under a resolution passed Wednesday by the City Council.
The Council is asking Albany to let 16- and 17-year-old serve on the local boards, which weigh in on zoning changes, liquor licenses, and sidewalk cafes in their neighborhoods.
Currently, the minimum age for the 51 local panels representing neighborhoods across the city is 18.
“Youth deserve a voice on their local community boards. These boards deal with issues that affect their daily lives and the neighborhoods that they live in,” said Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), the sponsor of the resolution.
El Concejo Municipal también evalúa una propuesta de ley del Concejal Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), que busca centralizar el proceso.
Actualmente las solicitudes FOIL son dirigidas por escrito a cada agencia municipal.
La iniciativa de Kallos está inspirada en un portal central, conocido como RecordTrac, que actualmente usa la ciudad de Oakland en California para procesar pedidos FOIL de todas sus agencias.
“Cuando los neoyorquinos no pueden acceder a los documentos comúnmente solicitados a través de una búsqueda simple, eso es un problema”, expresó Kallos en un comunicado.
New York City spends $20 million a year on responding to Freedom of Information Law requests from the public, but it can save up to $13 million by centralizing all of the requests on a single website, according to a report released on June 6 by Reinvent Albany, a non-profit promoting government openness and transparency. The report was released in advance of a City Council hearing on a bill that would create a centralized FOIL website for New York City...
Kaehny was involved in drafting the bill, which is sponsored and by Council members Ben Kallos and James Vacca, and supported by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.