Watchdog Testimony to NYC Council on 89 Reports and Task Forces to Be Eliminated or Changed

Reinvent Albany is providing written testimony for the New York City Council Governmental Operations Committee as it considers eliminating outdated reporting requirements, task forces and commissions, and considers waivers proposed by the Report and Advisory Board Review Commission (the “Commission” or RABRC). 

We advocate for transparent and accountable government in New York. We were instrumental in passing the city’s Open Data Law and subsequent amendments, as well as advocating for OpenFOIL legislation which led to the creation of the City’s OpenRecords platform.

Reinvent Albany supports the Council’s ongoing work to update New York City’s laws to remove outdated reporting requirements, as well as eliminate task forces, boards, and commissions that are no longer necessary. However, if you truly want the interested public to opine on your proposal, you need to make it easier to review. 

Prior to a vote of the full City Council, we request that the Council publish on your website:

1. A tabular listing of all the reporting requirements and government bodies proposed for elimination or modification, including:
   1. the sections of law being eliminated or modified;
   2. justification for the changes; and
   3. history of consideration by the City Council or RABRC.

In total, the introductions and resolution under consideration by the Committee today would eliminate, or in a few cases amend, a whopping 89 sections of city law. Please note that we have not reviewed each and every one of the 89 changes before the Committee today, though we weighed in on the waivers proposed by RABRC earlier this year.

As we testified in 2018 to RABRC, which was approved by the voters after being placed on the ballot in 2010 by the City Charter Revision Commission, we support improving city government by eliminating outdated reporting requirements and task forces or commissions. Continuous improvement is crucial for effective government. It is good policy to periodically review reporting requirements to determine if they are relevant, useful, and/or have been supplanted by open data, and therefore a waste of taxpayer dollars and government staff time.  

New York City government needs to shift away from writing “reports” and toward “reporting” information, especially by automatically updating datasets published in the City’s Open Data portal. The more that open data becomes a normal part of government reporting, the more time and money agencies and the public will save by not needing to produce episodic reports or handle FOIL requests.

The Committee report prepared by Council staff for today is somewhat helpful to show the public what specific changes the Council intends to make to clean up the City Charter and Administrative code, but it does not clearly show specific justifications for each change to the law. A catch-all sentence is provided for each introduction, which contains numerous possible reasons for the Council’s actions (this text was provided for Intro 3177 regarding eliminating government bodies – similar language is provided for the other intros regarding reporting requirements): 

“Such provisions would be repealed for at least one of the following reasons: the body no longer convenes and has been dormant for a substantial period of time; the provision establishing the body calls for the submission of a one-time report and no further activity; the body no longer provides any useful function; the duties assigned to the body are duplicative of the functions of other City bodies; or the provision was waived by the Report and Advisory Board Review Commission.”

It is likely that Council staff have a single spreadsheet of all these proposed changes, including the history of consideration, and justification for each. If this document exists, we ask that you publish it to your website prior to a vote of the full City Council on these items. 

Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions, please contact Rachael Fauss, Senior Policy Advisory, at rachael [at] reinventalbany.org. Below is a list of the 89 proposed changes to eliminate or modify reporting requirements and city government bodies that Reinvent Albany has compiled from the proposed Intros and Resolution, which we hope is useful to the Committee and the public.

Intro 3174

City Charter:

1. subdivision b of section 314, concerning a report on small purchases; 
2. section 613, concerning a report on transitional housing inventory; 
3. subdivision c of section 1063, concerning a proposal for cablecasting council proceedings; 
4. subdivision b of section 1075, concerning directory assistance calls; 
5. subdivision c of section 1075, concerning service request calls; 
6. paragraph 5 of subdivision e of section 1304, concerning an annual report of the commissioner of small business services about the division of economic and financial opportunity; 

Administrative Code:

7. paragraph (d) of subdivision 1 of section 3-706, concerning a report of the campaign finance board on expenditure limitations; 
8. section 4-207, concerning an assessment and report of certain clean on-site power generation technologies; 
9. section 5-102, concerning the comptroller’s annual statement of funded debt of the city; 
10. section 5-605, concerning the director of management and budget’s annual report on year-end spending of the criminal justice account; 
11. paragraph 3 of subdivision c of section 6-139, concerning a report on development of worker cooperatives; 
12. section 16-316.2, concerning a food waste composting study; 
13. subdivision b of section 16-428, concerning a report on electronic waste; 
14. subdivision i of section 17-196, concerning an advisory panel and report on an electronic death registration system; 
15. paragraph 2 of subdivision b of section 19-177, concerning neighborhood slow zones report; 
16. section 19-178.1, concerning a study of truck driver compliance with truck route rules;
17. section 19-179, concerning a study on the feasibility of installing traffic calming measures; 
18. section 19-180.1, concerning safety audits of crash locations involving pedestrians; 
19. section 19-192, concerning a study of pedestrian and bicyclist safety on truck routes; 
20. paragraph (vii) of subdivision a of section 19-305, concerning a report on expansion of Staten Island ferry service; 
21. subdivision j of section 19-307, concerning a report on fuel used in city ferries; 
22. section 20-9017, concerning shipboard gambling report;
23. section 22-226, concerning seafood distribution areas/fulton fish market report; 
24. section 22-269, concerning report on other wholesale markets; 
25. section 24-504.1, concerning a study of medical debris in the sewerage system; 
26. paragraph 4 of subdivision b of section 24-526.1, concerning a report on a sustainable stormwater management plan;
27. section 28-214.1.6, concerning article 214 closings report; and 
28. section 28-420.5, concerning a report recommending criteria for commencing a proceeding to suspend, revoke or refuse to renew a safety registration number

Resolution 3176

29. the Shipboard Gambling Report as required by §20-9017 of the administrative code of the city of New York; 
30. the report on Other Wholesale Markets as required by §22-269 of the administrative code of the city of New York; 
31. the Seafood Distribution Areas/Fulton Fish Market Report as required by §22-226 of the administrative code of the city of New York; 
32. the report on Directory Assistance Calls as required by §1075(c) of the New York city charter; 
33. the report on Service Request Calls as required by §1075(b) of the New York city charter; 
34. the Small Purchases Report as required by §314(b) of the New York city charter; 
35. the Article 214 Closings Report as required by §28-214.1.6 of the administrative code of the city of New York; and
36. the Neighborhood Slow Zones Report as required by §19-177(d)(2) of the administrative code of the city of New York;

Intro 3177

City Charter:

37. subdivision f of section 1403, concerning the resource recovery task force; 
38. subdivision j of section 2704, concerning the mayor’s task force on service delivery; 

Administrative Code:

39. section 3-111, concerning the mayor’s drug enforcement and drug abuse task force; section 10-117.1, concerning an anti-graffiti task force; 
40. subdivision c of section 10-160, concerning a temporary task force on limited access entry door requirements for automated teller machines; 
41. chapter 3 of title 15, concerning an arson strike force; 
42. subdivision h of section 17-196, concerning an advisory panel and report on an electronic death registration system; 
43. section 17-349, concerning a dangerous dog advisory board; 
44. section 17-361, concerning a tattoo advisory board;
45.  subdivisions c, d and e of section 18-136, concerning an advisory committee on surfacing materials used around play equipment; 
46. section 19-101.5, concerning an electric vehicle advisory committee; 
47. section 19-306, concerning a temporary citywide boater safety and wake reduction task force; 
48. section 20-521, concerning an interagency advisory council on tow truck licenses; section 21-118, concerning a commission for the foster care of children; 
49. section 21-120.3, concerning a temporary task force on child care funding; 
50. section 21-123, concerning a temporary commission on childhood and child caring programs; and 
51. chapter 8 of title 21, concerning day laborer job centers
52. section 3-202, concerning council districts; 
53. section 6-108.2, concerning contract awards to small business enterprises; 
54. section 6-111.3, concerning a pilot program for online reverse auctions; 
55. section 6-115, concerning contracts with entities with business in Burma; 
56. section 6-124, concerning procurement of apparel or textiles from a responsible manufacturer; 
57. section 6-126, concerning equal employment benefits for employees of city contractors; 
58. section 16-325, concerning temporary emergency recycling requirements; 
59. section 24-163.10, concerning a pilot program for use of auxiliary power units in ambulances; 
60. subdivision i of section 24-168.1, concerning clean heating oil; 
61. subdivision c of section 24-518.1, concerning food waste disposals; and 
62. chapter 23 of title 11, concerning a surcharge on off-track winnings

Intro 3178

City Charter:

63. subdivision b of section 314, concerning a report on small purchases; 
64. section 613, concerning a report on transitional housing inventory; 
65. subdivision c of section 1063, concerning a proposal for cablecasting council proceedings; 
66. subdivision b of section 1075, concerning directory assistance calls; 
67. subdivision c of section 1075, concerning service request calls; 
68. paragraph 5 of subdivision e of section 1304, concerning an annual report of the commissioner of small business services about the division of economic and financial opportunity;

Administrative Code:

69. paragraph (d) of subdivision 1 of section 3-706, concerning a report of the campaign finance board on expenditure limitations; 
70. section 4-207, concerning an assessment and report of certain clean on-site power generation technologies; 
71. section 5-102, concerning the comptroller’s annual statement of funded debt of the city; 
72. section 5-605, concerning the director of management and budget’s annual report on year-end spending of the criminal justice account; 
73. paragraph 3 of subdivision c of section 6-139, concerning a report on development of worker cooperatives; 
74. section 16-316.2, concerning a food waste composting study; 
75. subdivision b of section 16-428, concerning a report on electronic waste; 
76. subdivision i of section 17-196, concerning an advisory panel and report on an electronic death registration system; 
77. paragraph 2 of subdivision b of section 19-177, concerning neighborhood slow zones report; 
78. section 19-178.1, concerning a study of truck driver compliance with truck route rules; 
79. section 19-179, concerning a study on the feasibility of installing traffic calming measures; 
80. section 19-180.1, concerning safety audits of crash locations involving pedestrians;
81. section 19-192, concerning a study of pedestrian and bicyclist safety on truck routes; 
82. paragraph (vii) of subdivision a of section 19-305, concerning a report on expansion of Staten Island ferry service; 
83. subdivision j of section 19-307, concerning a report on fuel used in city ferries; section 20-9017, concerning shipboard gambling report; 
84. section 22-226, concerning seafood distribution areas/fulton fish market report; 
85. section 22-269, concerning report on other wholesale markets; 
86. section 24-504.1, concerning a study of medical debris in the sewerage system; 
87. paragraph 4 of subdivision b of section 24-526.1, concerning a report on a sustainable stormwater management plan; 
88. section 28-214.1.6, concerning article 214 closings report; and 
89. section 28-420.5, concerning a report recommending criteria for commencing a proceeding to suspend, revoke or refuse to renew a safety registration number

Click here to view the testimony as a PDF.

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Resources

• Reinvent Albany’s Testimony to the NYC Report and Advisory Board Review Commission on Review of and Elimination of Reports (January 2023)
• Reinvent Albany’s Testimony to the NYC Report and Advisory Board Review Commission on Review of and Elimination of Reports (December 2018)