In February 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Frederick Schaffer as the Chair of the City’s Campaign Finance Board. The Board, which will be thirty years old next year, is responsible for enforcing New York City’s campaign finance law, monitoring campaign contributions and disclosures, overseeing the public matching funds program and enforcing the rules. Schaffer takes the reigns as the Board heads into the 2017 mayoral campaign.
Schaffer was born and raised in Brooklyn. One … <Read More>
Council Member’s lawsuit over non-profit park alliance’s structure and funding continues after the City attempted to squash the claim. On February 16, 2017, the New York Supreme Court denied the City’s motion to dismiss a suit against the Mayor regarding the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Alliance.
In July 2016, Council Member Rory Lancman brought a suit against both the Mayor and the Alliance in New York State Supreme Court. In the complaint, Lancman alleged that … <Read More>
The City’s Planning Department withdraws its proposal to increase contributions to the Theater Fund, which supports local, off-Broadway theater productions. On February 27, 2017, the Department of Planning withdrew its application to raise the contribution rate for air rights sales within Manhattan’s Special Theater Subdistrict right before the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee was set to vote on the issue. The proposed text amendment would have instituted a higher contribution rate, established a floor sale price, … <Read More>
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 … <Read More>
Vicki Been stepped down as Commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to return to academia. On January 17, 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that Commissioner Vicki Been would step down to return to teaching at New York University as the Boxer Family Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Furman Center. Prior to her appointment, Been served as the Director of NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, … <Read More>
Carl Weisbrod stepped down from Chair of the City Planning Commission to Chair the Trust for Governors Island. On January 4, 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his new appointment to Chair the Trust for Governors Island, Carl Weisbrod. Weisbrod has served as the Chair of the City Planning Commission and Director of the Department of City Planning since de Blasio’s election in 2013. For Weisbrod’s two latest discussions at CityLaw’s Breakfast Series, click … <Read More>