Former NYPD Commissioner William J. Bratton

Adapted from remarks given by former NYPD Commissioner Bratton at a CityLaw Breakfast on October 7, 2016.

I would like to talk to you about the practice of policing over the last fifty years, not only in this city, but this country. New York City can rightfully claim to be the safest large city in America and, I would argue, probably one of the safest large cities in the world. And it’s something that didn’t just happen. It took a lot of collaboration, a lot of partnership: private sector, public sector, government leadership, community leadership, police leadership. It was a collaborative effort and we continue to collaborate going forward. (read more…)

David Goldin, Administrative Justice Coordinator

The 2005 City Charter Revision Commission proposed a Charter amendment to require the Mayor and the Chief Judge of the Office of the Administrative Trials and Hearings to create a code of ethics for the over 500 administrative law judges and hearing officers in the City’s administrative tribunals. At the time it was unclear to what extent the State Code of Judicial Conduct applied to and could be enforced against ALJs. The proposition passed, and in 2006 Mayor Bloomberg created the Office of the Administrative Justice Coordinator and appointed David Goldin as its head. Working with the Law Department and the Conflict of Interest Board, Goldin oversaw the creation of rules of conduct that ALJs use today. (read more…)

The Municipal Art Society launches a dynamic database for searching city-owned and leased property. On November 21, 2016, the Municipal Art Society of New York (“MAS”) issued a report entitled Public Assets: City-Owned and Leased Properties (Public Assets) which aggregated information on city-owned and leased properties and how they relate to the environment, infrastructure, landmarks, population, and local rezonings. The report was accompanied by the first-ever interactive city map that compiles information for more than 14,000 city-owned and leased properties. The interactive tool categorizes properties into four groups: properties with no current use, with a residential use, with a current use that is not residential, and property used for parks and open space. (read more…)

On August 24, 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Chapter 286 of the Laws of 2016 which amends the State’s ethics laws. The legislation is not a transformational game changer in the ethics arena, but does make significant changes in the State’s laws. The new law vests the Attorney General with authority to disclose sources of funding for various not-for-profit entities, expands the disclosure of all sources of funding by those engaging in lobbying, and codifies certain process rights that could have a profound impact on the ethics climate in New York State.

The amendments will impact how the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) regulates lobbying and public ethics. This article examines fundamental changes to the Public Officers Law, Legislative Law (Lobbying Act), and Executive Law and their impact on the regulation of public ethics in New York State especially by JCOPE. (read more…)

Professor Arthur S. Leonard. Image Credit: New York Law School

Arthur Leonard for 40 years has been one of the most important and most-read chronicler of the LGBT rights movement. In 1979, as the founder and president of the City’s Gay Lawyers Association Leonard began reporting judicial decisions involving LGBT rights and slipping them in the monthly mailer—this was the start of LGBT Law Notes. Originally a two-sided photocopied sheet of paper, LGBT Law Notes is now a monthly newsletter with a circulation of thousands. Leonard remains the Editor-in-Chief of the newsletter and performs the bulk of the writing. (read more…)