Why to vote NO the Charter Commission ballot questions

raulism

Bloomberg set up a Charter Revision Commission that spent a few months creating ballot questions that will be on the November 2nd ballot.

There will be two questions- the first restores term limits... but won't apply until 2021. The logic is that the people elected in 2009 ran because they thought they could stay in office for three term. I guess the Commission thinks some candidates would not have run if they didn't think they could be in office for 3 terms.

The second question lumps together SEVEN (7) separate issues. Some sound good, but even the good ones are not as good as they seem. For instance, one of these 7 (yes, seven) proposals strengthens the powers of the Conflict of Interest Board. But the COIB is exclusively appointed by the mayor. What if the Mayor has a conflict of interest? Don't expect the COIB to stand up to him.

My club, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats oppose both questions. (Our new club, Prospect Heights Democrats for Reform, started too recently to make an endorsement.)

Here are some interesting links:

http://www.owensforchange.com/press/39-vitowatch/95-objections-to-november-2nd-ballot-provisions

http://dailygotham.com/mole333/blog/morereformvoicesurgeanovoteonbothnyccharteramendments

boygabriel

Thank you for this. Will look into it.

chuleta

Thanks Raulism. I was going to vote yes, now I'll vote no.

Sneaky.... I hate manipulative proposals that sound like they make sense, but cover some complicated crap we don't know about.