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A Plan to Make the Public Advocates Office Essential for New Yorkers in Need

MAKING THE OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC ADVOCATE ESSENTIAL FOR NEW YOKERS IN NEED ______________
For the office to have any meaning, the Public Advocate must have a function that is distinct from New York Citys other public officials. The City Council legislates and enacts a budget. The Comptroller audits, implements financial controls and manages assets. The Mayor administers municipal services. Whats left? It is the job of the Public Advocate to adopt those causes and concerns that are not served by existing political structures. The Public Advocate can become a vehicle that delivers meaningful results for the families, communities and even businesses that get left out by powerful interests and bureaucracy. To accomplish these results, the Public Advocate must be a voice, an organizer and an entrepreneur for everyday New Yorkers with limited ability to move City policymakers on their own. New Yorkers who can write large campaign checks dont need much help; neither do those who can hire well-connected lobbyists. But those without resources, without organization and without power, too often have no place else to turn. They are poorly served by the political process, which responds to money, influence and well-organized factions. In political science terms, this is public choice theory in action to the detriment of those whose voices are drowned out in public life. As New Yorkers, were famous for seeing ourselves at the center of the universe (the magazine that bears our name captured this in

the famous cover). But it is useful to look at the role of ombudsperson offices in other countries. In many cases, the office is charged with protecting human rights especially those of women and racial, religious and ethnic minorities and the rights of children. This makes sense. Democratic government automatically responds to majoritarian interests. But as the founders of our country warned, without thoughtful balancing structures, democratic government fails to meet the needs of less-organized minority interests. I have thought hard about how to organize the office and focus its limited resources to deliver results for those who most need them. As Public Advocate, I would divide the office into four areas each of which represents real needs and causes that are too often orphaned, part of a system that is huge, and supported by powerful interests, but not sufficiently accountable to the families, communities and businesses whose lives are profoundly influenced by it. Each of these offices within the Public Advocates office would have a dedicated internal team, as well as an external board of advisers. This focus would enable it to build partnerships with experts and advocates, and develop issue credibility over time. Advocate for the Most Vulnerable. From the national level to the local, our governmental systems tend to fail those who need them most. While election

cycles have become dominated by promises for reform, our entrenched political system often leaves the most vulnerable with nothing more than sound bites. The Advocate for the Most Vulnerable will be a defender of human rights on issues ranging from stop-andfrisk and jail reform to the safety and welfare of immigrant laborers. Childrens Advocate. The greatest failure of American democracy is its bias toward over-serving those with the most influence both those who give the most money and those who vote the most at the expense of those who give the least and vote the least. People who are unable to vote are served the least well of all. That is why perhaps the most important role of the Public Advocate is to focus on the services the City provides to children in need and at risk. That will be the charge of the office of the Childrens Advocate. Accountability Advocate. The actual functioning of much of government goes under the radar of rigorous oversight and review. Some would say that nothing is less sexy than managing bureaucracy and holding it accountable for performance. But anyone who has ever suffered a Kafkaesque interaction with a City agency a small business filing with the Department of Buildings or a family trying to access homeless services knows that bureaucracy is where government meets real lives. The mission of the office of the Accountability Advocate will be to give the public a voice in making the day-today work of City government more responsible, more transparent, and more oriented toward long-range needs instead of daily inertia. Our political system is
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much better at criticizing change and at addressing issues that are right in front of us, than at dealing with issues that are equally high stakes but have become the status quo or appear as if they are off on the horizon. Housing Advocate. Landlords have the numbers and money to lobby effectively for their interests at City Hall and in Albany. Tenants geographically dispersed and seemingly impossible to organize in a meaningful way across the city do not. The office of the Housing Advocate will be a voice for tenants in both public and private housing.

My plan is infused with a degree of realism and humility. I have met with the three New Yorkers who were elected to this office (and I am proud to have earned the support of Mark Green and Betsy Gotbaum). From those conversations, I understand what the Public Advocates office is not. With a budget of under $2.3 million, and (in its current configuration) a staff of approximately 30, it cannot take on every issue, not if it hopes to be thoughtful and constructive. Its hard power is in most respects quite modest. The authors of the 1989 City Charter didnt create this office1 to have a 52nd member of the City Council, a second consumer affairs commissioner or a back-up to the state attorney general. I have dedicated my career in public service to making a difference not only in the district that I currently represent, but across our city. As someone who has gotten results, I know that the scale of our city government, and the powerful forces that drive it, make it seem as much a small country as a local municipality. I have taken on tough fights gun control, before Newtown; ethics reform in a corrupt capital; the abuse of stop-and-frisk by the police on behalf of individuals and constituencies

without armies of lobbyists or deep pockets. Those are the type of causes I will adopt as Public Advocate. While in the state legislature, I have used a broad set of tools and approaches to get the job done: I mediated between advocates and the administration to win an agreement to end the outrageous policy of charging rent to homeless families in City shelters; I led a coalition of public housing residents and allies that helped win new federal funding for NYCHAs capital and operating needs; I worked closely with policy advocates and small businesses to create a new type of business in New York State, which can pursue social and environmental benefit, not just profit; I did something very unusual I partnered with the usually impenetrable MTA to conduct the first-ever full-line reviews of three subway routes that run through my legislative district, a model that the new chairman says should be applied across the system; and Even as a member of the Senate minority, I convened public forums that highlighted issues from transgender civil rights to the far-right American Legislative Exchange Council.

The offices power to secure information from the administration to dig deep into the functioning or dysfunction of government; The bully pulpit to turn concerns into causes; Relationships with external advocates to share their resources, insights and research, and to build coalitions that are broader than the ones that most New Yorkers have learned to ignore because the Public Advocate cannot accomplish its mission alone; Convene public hearings to ask hard questions and shine a light where its needed; The power to apply for a summary inquiry by the State Supreme Court into allegations of neglect of official duty2, in extreme cases; And most of all I will use my passion for reform to get results.

Over the next four years eight years if the job is done well enough to earn a second term I want to persuade New Yorkers that this office is not just useful, but essential: essential to correct the inevitable structural failings of our municipal democracy and essential to making a difference in the lives of New Yorkers who have no place else to turn. Sincerely,

As Public Advocate, I will use every lever of power both formal and informal the office has at its disposal to deliver results: The complaint intake function to identify patterns of problems in City government;
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ADVOCATE FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE


Daniel Squadron believes the government should work best for those who need it most, and will task the Advocate for the Most Vulnerable to ensure that happens.

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The political system works for those with some reasonable measure of power those whose interests are shared by a critical mass who vote regularly or those who contribute to political campaigns. Mayors and City Council members can be counted on to protect schools in good neighborhoods and do what they can about the broad municipal economy. But they have little to gain, structurally, from talking about much less getting results on the central concerns of those who vote less (or are not even permitted to vote) and donate only as much as they can (which may be nothing at all). Put simply: the system fails those without power. And it is the job of the Public Advocate to address that failure. That is the charge of ombudspersons in many reforming the marijuana laws that have given the NYPD license to abuse their power to stop-and-frisk young men of color; revamping the Citys policy of collecting rent from homeless families; sponsoring legislation to end the practice of finger imaging food stamp applicants; and ending discrimination against transgender New Yorkers.

The system fails those without power. And it is the job of the Public Advocate to correct that failure.
democracies across the world3 and is at the core of Daniel Squadrons vision: to get results for those with no place else to turn. Giving voice to the voiceless has been a cornerstone of Daniel Squadrons time in the State Senate. As a State Senator, Daniel has made core priorities of issues like:
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As Public Advocate, Daniel Squadron will create a unit dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable constituencies, which that are too often forgotten or shut out of public debate and discourse figuratively and, often, literally. SPECIFIC INITIATIVES: The imperatives to protect the human rights of disempowered and disenfranchised New Yorkers change over time but three issues are looming before us that are likely to be initial focuses of the Advocate for the Most Vulnerable within the Office of the Public Advocate under Daniel Squadrons leadership: (1) the consequences of the transformation of the adult home system; (2) ongoing problems in the treatment of detainees in City jails; and (3) risks to

moderate-income New Yorkers in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in New York. New Yorkers in Adult Homes. Hundreds, if not thousands, of mentally ill New Yorkers are soon going to be relocated out of adult homes and into supported housing. The Public Advocates office will monitor this enormous transition, which would otherwise occur largely without public scrutiny, for the well-being of New Yorkers and affected individuals. A recent consent decree requires the State to help 4,000 New Yorkers currently in institutional adult homes to exit those homes for more independent accommodations, if they choose.4 In doing so, the State must create a minimum of 2,000 supported housing units (more if demand dictates) and dedicate staff to assist individuals with transition planning. The changes are well-intentioned, given the difficulties that many homes have had in managing large groups of special-needs New Yorkers and the mandate of court decisions. But, they also pose potential risks for the care of the mentally ill. The Public Advocate will work with the independent reviewer designated by the consent decree, and other public and nonprofit agencies, and monitor the transition and ensure that the needs of adult home residents and former residents are being met. Detainees in City Jails. More than 85,000 New Yorkers enter City jails each year. Most of them are taken to Rikers Island the nations largest jail, sitting on a 413-acre island in the East River that is off the Citys grid in every possible sense. What happens there?
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Recent lawsuits and investigations have raised troubling questions about the treatment of New Yorkers detained in City jails. A complaint filed by the Legal Aid Society alleges that officials have condoned beatings, the use of solitary confinement has risen without proper scrutiny, and advocacy groups have documented the neglect of mental health needs among City jail inmates and detainees. Any one of these issues, by itself, is cause for concern about the quality of management and oversight of the Citys correctional system. Taken together, they are grounds for major alarm. The Legal Aid Societys lawsuit, brought in federal court last year, alleges a deeplyentrenched pattern of brutality documented in five previous, separate class action lawsuits in the preceding 25 years. The City pays out millions each year to settle complaints of beatings by guards. Legal Aid says the cause is a culture of institutionalized violence.5 Over the last few years, the City appears to have ramped up its use of solitary confinement as a correctional tool expanding solitary confinement capacity by 27% in 2011 and another 44% in 2012, according to the NYC Jails Action Coalition.6 The trend is contrary to the national policy direction of diminishing reliance on solitary, and the City does not readily provide data on actual use a problem in and of itself. Why is this problematic? Solitary confinement heightens the risk of mental health problems,7 including suicide; contrary to lore, it increases levels of inmate and detainee violence; and, as Sister Marion Defeis, a Rikers chaplain for 23 years, recently wrote, prolonged solitary confinement is a

cruel form of punishment [that] people of faith and conscience must work to abolish.8 One out of three Rikers residents suffers from mental illness up 26% since 2005.9 At the same time, a respected advocacy group flatly asserts, The mental health treatment program in the City jails is not effective.10 The growing incidence of mental health issues may be a driver behind the policy decision to create more solitary cells. The Department of Health and Mental Hygienes medical director at Rikers said last year that the solitary units have become parking lots for people with mental illness.11 The City has recently announced that, beginning in July, mentally ill inmates will be provided psychiatric treatment as an alternative to solitary confinement. This is a laudable first step, but it is just that: a first step. It remains to be seen whether mentally ill inmates will be properly identified among the larger prison population and appropriately treated. The Advocate for the Most Vulnerable will: use its special information request powers to obtain data on the use of solitary confinement; review accounts of deaths and injuries in City jails using the same methodology that the office currently uses to regularly review fatalities of children under ACS supervision; and Use this information along with other tools of the office to improve the system.

Public Advocate, Daniel will fight for more humane and effective City jails. Worker Centers for Day Laborers. By the best estimate, more than 8,000 day laborers work in New York City12 congregating in areas like the South Bronx, Central Queens and South Brooklyn. Even with the welcome prospect of national immigration reform before us, concerns about the relationship between day laborers and the communities in which they work will not rest. While conditions are better than in the suburbs, immigrant laborers in the city are too often exploited and put at risk, forced to operate in a system that raises quality-of-life complaints among residents of communities where they work. Wage theft remains a serious problem for day laborers in the New York area. A recent Seton Hall study found that roughly half of workers interviewed were cheated out of pay at least once in the preceding 12 months.13 Construction work remains among the most dangerous occupations, especially at the kind of non-union worksites that typically employ day laborers. Residential and mixed-use neighborhoods continue to greet the men (and sometimes women), who literally build their homes and workplaces, with mixed reactions. A man in the Bronx assaulted outside a paint store.14 A Brooklyn man beaten to the point of brain injury.15 Claims of harassment in Queens.16 Despite a Temporary Commission on Day Laborer Job Centers created by the City Council in 200517 an effort with so little lasting impact, its final report seems to be no longer available on the internet our city has only two open worker centers. The Advocate for the Most Vulnerable will work with neighborhoods and advocates to
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New Yorkers in jail do not tend to vote to choose the Citys leadership, but how they are treated says a lot about the kind of city in which we all choose to live; thats why as

identify locations and build support for several new worker centers in the city to protect the rights and safety of this vulnerable community. Implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The creation of a statewide Healthcare Exchange is a welcome result of the landmark enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Going live in 2014, the Exchange will transform the way hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of New Yorkers interact with our health care system. The opportunities for covering the uninsured and more rationally addressing health care costs will be met by new risks for consumers, particularly the moderate-income New Yorkers most likely to interact with the Exchange. In California, a state that is further along in development of the Exchange infrastructure than New York, the State Insurance Commissioner is warning of the very real probability of immense consumer fraud.18 Families USA, a leading pro-consumer health care advocacy group, has written of its concern that brokers and agents hawking new products to new consumers with new modes of marketing must be carefully monitored.19 We know that existing programs such as the Earned income Tax Credit and immigration visas have become magnets for fraud, and we must ensure that changes to the health care

system do not open up new opportunities for those who prey on vulnerable populations. At the same time, the Community Service Society of New York has identified the need for a vigorous consumer protection system to ensure eligible New Yorkers are able to access the health coverage to which they are entitled.20 But the State has not yet acted. Protecting and expanding access to public benefits whether longstanding benefits like food stamps or new ones like the right (and, now, responsibility) to purchase affordable health insurance falls squarely within the mission of the Public Advocates role as a watchdog of City services and as an advocate for those who need one. The office will: actively monitor consumer complaints about new forms of fraud related to the exchange; review existing regulatory mechanisms for protecting consumers and propose new tools if they are not up to the task of the new marketplace; and conduct an ongoing study of the need for new consumer protections in the unique public-private mix of consumer experience created by Affordable Care Act implementation to find areas to drive improvement.

THE CHILDRENS ADVOCATE


By focusing on the absolutely most vulnerable----our children----the Childrens Advocate can protect those who typically have no recourse in the political or governmental process.

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The greatest failure of American democracy is its bias toward over-serving those with the most influence both those who give the most money and those who vote the most at the expense of those who give and vote the least. People who are unable to vote are served the least well of all. Around the world, public officials like the Public Advocate are focused on protecting the rights and interests of children.21 That is why perhaps the most important role of the Public Advocate is to focus on the services the City provides to children in need and at risk. That will be the charge of the Office of the Advocate for Children within the Public Advocates office. In the state legislature, Daniel Squadron has a history of standing up for our childrens future. As the former chair of the New York Senate Social Services Committee, Daniel Squadron successfully fought to expand critical programs including: summer youth employment; settlement houses; and the Nurse-Family Partnership, a proven home visitation program for vulnerable first-time mothers and their infants. the City provides to children in need and at risk. Tracking Changes in the Juvenile Justice System. New York is in the midst of a quiet overhaul of parts of its juvenile system, under the rubric of Governor Cuomos Close to Home initiative. The initiative transfers responsibility for youth under supervision from the State, in facilities upstate, to the Citys Administration for Childrens Services in facilities within the five boroughs. Hundreds of juveniles in non-secure placements have been moved downstate already. The next step in the initiative is the relocation of youth under limited-security supervision. Close to Home has a strong policy basis. Young people will be closer to their families; they are being provided with more community supports; and savings are expected. But the changes pose new challenges for a City agency with an already tough docket and for the welfare of the children being brought under its oversight. Some advocates believe that being closer to their native urban environment may be harmful, with proximity to old problems and temptations. Other advocates have complained about a lack of information from the agencies involved.22 Still others are concerned about the public safety risk to New Yorkers.23
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SPECIFIC INITIATIVES: Perhaps the most important role of the Public Advocate is to focus on the services

The Childrens Advocate will work to make data from the implementation of Close to Home public and ensure that the agencies involved adapt their practices to learn from the results. The initiative is well-intentioned breaking the cycle of incarceration must be one of our highest priorities. But is it achieving its desired outcome? Are families being engaged? Are City providers up to the task? Today we do not know the answers to these questions and the effect on the welfare of vulnerable children who in many cases have only made a single, simple mistake. Shining Sunlight on School Discipline. From the most recent year for which data is available, we know that our Citys public schools imposed nearly 70,000 suspensions. We know these suspensions are imposed on students of color and students with disabilities in numbers disproportionate to their share of the student population.24 We know too little about student discipline in public schools, and have cause for concern. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the pressure on school leaders to show quantitative performance gains leads some to try to weed out undesirable students. Some suggest the increased presence of police in schools has escalated some disciplinary situations that otherwise might have been handled more informally. And public health groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics have begun to criticize zero-tolerance policies.25 The Childrens Advocate will work with the Department of Education, advocates and other stakeholders to make disciplinary data more transparent. Today, the DOEs reports are heavily redacted and do not provide a clear window into actual schoolhouse practices. With institutional pressures
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working against them, we must make sure both that (1) all children are provided an environment that promotes learning and (2) that the children with the greatest need for attention are not being unfairly punished to make adults lives easier.26 The Resource for New Yorks Children. Children who live in abuse- and neglect-free environments have much better chances of succeeding in school and in life.27 But too often, children and families with the fewest resources get lost or become overwhelmed by the myriad of services to help children in this city to access basic healthcare, public education, and other essential services. In connection with the Public Advocates Office of the Accountability Advocate, the Childrens Advocate will publish an annual report on The State of New Yorks Children. Modeled after the Childrens Defense Funds annual report on The State of Americas Children,28 and UNICEFs report on The State of the Worlds Children,29 the report will be a comprehensive compilation and analysis of data on population, poverty, family structure, family income, health, nutrition, early childhood development, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and gun violence. The report will aim to highlight the number of New York City children deemed at risk, and, where appropriate, propose solutions. Citizens Committee for Children has published an outstanding resource, Keeping Track of New York Citys Children, every two to three years since 1993. The Childrens Advocate office will build on that important body of work collaborating with advocates and experts to provide needed information.

The most important information in the report, as well as more comprehensible explanations of available services, will be made accessible to parents, not just experts searching the web. The Office of the Childrens Advocate will provide parents a place to turn when no other resource has succeeded, work to ensure that 311 is delivering correct and useable information, and partner with community-based organizations to disseminate useful information and meaningful data. Oversight of Children at Risk and Family Court. The Childrens Advocate unit will follow the practice of past public advocates and closely review data on child welfare provided by the State Office of Children and Family Services. The Childrens Advocate will also examine the OCFS for trends that may indicate systemic problems. Where appropriate, the Childrens Advocate will recommend legislative solutions at both the city and state levels. Historically, one challenge has been looking at child welfare agencies in the context of other parts of city and state government that profoundly impact vulnerable kids. After the Nixzmary Brown tragedy, the City increased coordination among the Administration for Childrens Services, the school system and police department. But our approach to child welfare remains too siloed. In many cases, abuse of children is linked to adult domestic violence or drug abuse. Advocates for children have a growing concern that gaps between public and private agencies that address childrens issues and those that address adult issues undermine ACSs mission to protect children. The Childrens Advocate will work with all of these agencies to strengthen the connections between the systems that are
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intended to deal with adult issues and the agencies that work with childrens issues. Family courts are an integral part of how we respond to the problems of children in foster care and situations of abuse and neglect matters at the center of our collective responsibility for the welfare of New Yorks children. But several waves of reform have not fully fixed the Citys family courts. Parallel studies last year by City Limits magazine and by a task force of the New York State Bar Association found a system overwhelmed and under-resourced.30 No new Family Court judgeships have been created in over 20 years, and the consequences are real: child abuse and neglect petitions can take months or more to resolve exacerbating difficult foster care placements.31 How bad are the delays? According to City Limits:
Of the 80,000 Family Court cases in 2010, nearly 17,000 were active for longer than 180 days. Six months may be a drink of water in judicial time, but 180 days is a lifetime for an infant or the better part of an academic year for a grade-schooler.32

Insiders report that court calendars are disorganized and so variable as to seem almost random to even experienced practitioners making a horrible experience for children and families that much worse. The system has become such a backwater that periodic reports have found court employees even refusing to allow public access legally required public access to open courtrooms.33 The Childrens Advocate unit will work with advocates and agencies to monitor the effectiveness of Family Court and its effect on children at risk and in need. The stature of a citywide elected official is necessary to make the case that the system is in need of resources and more effective management.

Reform of Community Education Councils. Created with little thought as a replacement for local school boards when school governance was overhauled a decade ago, Community Education Councils have not lived up to their potential or fulfilled the need for an independent parental voice in our school system. A 2011 report published by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and current Public Advocate de Blasio noted that CECs were intended as a way to give parents and guardians a voice and role in shaping the policies of the Citys schools, but they have not met their goals for a variety of reasons, including mismanagement by the Citys Department of Education, which has led to low parent interest and participation.34 The 2011 report (as well as earlier reports in 2006 and 2009 by Borough President Stringer, which led to legislation that was proposed by Daniel Squadron) recommends a number of changes that the Childrens Advocate will work to realize, including more effective outreach to parents and others in school communities, to increase participation in CECs. The Childrens Advocate will become the elected partner for CECs, taking on some of the roles that borough presidents play in supporting Community Boards. By providing increased outreach, improved training, citywide forums for CEC members, and shared initiatives, the Public Advocate can make CECs more independent and more effective. In addition, the Childrens Advocate will work to shift responsibility for training CECs from the DOE to the Public Advocate and the five Borough Presidents.
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Mayoral control, and the accountability it brings, must not also mean voiceless parents. A partnership between the Public Advocate and CECs will help parents have a stronger role in the system, however the system looks.

Children with Special Needs. Our city is in the midst of substantial reforms in special education. This past fall, the Department of Education began encouraging most special education students to enroll in their neighborhood zoned schools (mainstreaming). Students with the most significant special needs are still routed to special classrooms and schools. The Childrens Advocate will continue the work of the current Public Advocate in monitoring the implementation of special education reform. The DOE must increase transparency as it continues forward with reporting measures of success, respecting parental rights and preventing misplacement of students with disabilities. Following up on recommendations from the August 2012 report published by the current Public Advocate,35 the Childrens Advocate will: hold a citywide Special Education Reform Summit to explore the implications of the reform on equity and access for all students, in which key stakeholders are provided opportunities to examine and explore actions planned to improve and sustain special education reform, with the goal of increasing the number of students who graduate high school and are prepared for success in college and careers;36

survey parents, teachers and students to evaluate implementation of the reform;37 and ensure that out-of-school-time programs are also monitored to ensure that they are serving children with special needs giving them the same chances for enrichment as other youth.

thousands of people who depend on Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, in Queens, the former home of the Worlds Fair, now marred by graffiti, broken drainage and pervasive litter? Disparities between parks around the city are continuing to grow. How can we level the playing field and help ensure that every neighborhood gets the parks it so desperately needs? Daniel Squadron has proposed a Neighborhood Parks Alliance, which would create partnerships between a well-financed conservancy, a contributing park, and member parks in need of more money and support. A contributing park would commit 20% of its conservancys budget to member parks with which it is partnered. A park in need would become a member park by gathering signatures from local residents, establishing its own conservancy group and receiving a City commitment, from the Parks Department and local council members, to maintain current government financing levels. Under Daniel Squadrons leadership, the Childrens Advocate and the non-profit Fund for Public Advocacy will bring together stakeholders to create and help grow this citywide mechanism which will ensure that more of our kids have access to clean, safe open space, and that the citywide imperative to roll back cuts to parks gains momentum.

The Childrens Advocate will also encourage the City to build on proven, costeffective programs to assist children with disabilities, for example, the well-regarded Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Nest Program that currently operates in 31 schools throughout the city, but which is still not able to serve all the children who it would benefit.38 Parks Equity. In a city as dense and expensive as New York, parks are not a luxury or an amenity; they are our backyards, our oxygen and, for our kids, essential refuges for play, exercise and exploration. The marquee jewels in the system like Central Park and Prospect Park are extraordinarily well maintained. What about the kids who depend on St. Marys Park, in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx, where the baseball bleachers dont have seats and the cracked tennis court has no net? Or what about the

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THE ACCOUNTABILITY ADVOCATE


By giving everyday citizens the information and tools they need, the Accountability Advocate can strengthen government by and for the people.

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The Public Advocate is the watchdog for the people of New York City and, as such, must identify problems with City services and respond with real solutions. As Public Advocate, Daniel Squadron will form the Office of the Advocate for Accountability (the Accountability Advocate), which will push City Hall and its agencies to serve the needs of New York City families, communities, and businesses. While previous public advocates have made local level as a cause for the decline in civic engagement and trust in institutions over the last twenty years.40 And, in a place as tough as New York, bad government simply makes things impossible. If the Public Advocate merely identifies problems and points fingers at public hearings, the office becomes irrelevant. The Accountability Advocate can be a bridge between the identification of problems and the introduction of thoughtful solutions. By making citizens and stakeholders partners in the assessment process, mixing quantitative analysis with qualitative studies, pushing for the public availability of information in easily digestible formats, and comparing governmental measures with the outcomes experienced by everyday New Yorkers, we can empower people to be part of creating more accessible, transparent and accountable City services. Daniel Squadron has long been a champion for accountability in government. While some politicians talk about accountability, Daniel Squadron has actually done something about it. Throughout his time in the State Senate hes sought creative ways to increase transparency: introduced legislation that would force disclosure on Super PACs;41

The Accountability Advocate can be a bridge between the identification of problems and the introduction of thoughtful solutions.
strides in holding City government accountable to its citizens, the actual functioning of much of government still slips under the radar of rigorous oversight and review. This is particularly problematic given the decline in local newsroom budgets and staffs over the last decade. While much time and effort is expended wooing citizens at the polls, New Yorkers take a backseat when it comes to the actual day-to-day functioning of government, leading to a wide gulf between the expectations associated with democratic theory and the practice of democracy in community governance.39 Political scientists have identified the lack of accountability at the
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convened community conventions for citizens to articulate their priorities;42 and helped the New York State Liquor Authority fund and launch an ambitious mapping project.43

SPECIFIC INITIATIVES: The Accountability Advocate in Daniel Squadrons office will help connect what citizens need with what government actually does.44 This will include looking at whether government processes are fair and transparent, data is readily available to citizens, new policies and programs are accurately characterized, citizen views are properly canvassed, citizen complaints are rapidly assessed, and the City is held accountable for providing services effectively. Elected officials are quick to tout their accomplishments, but getting them to honestly assess failures is a more difficult proposition. Moreover, the interests of bureaucracies and politics are often best met by hiding information from the public, and defending the status quo. The Accountability Advocate will bring sunlight45 and transparency to the workings of government to help improve services in a variety of ways. Open and Accessible Data. The Accountability Advocate will proactively measure how City agencies share information and data with the public, giving each City agency an annual grade that is backed up by qualitative assessments that include best practices from other cities, ease of web access, proactive transparency and accuracy of information. There will be a particular focus on the continued rollout of the Open Data Portal (ODP),46 with the Accountability Advocate working to ensure that all City data posted in compliance with
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City Law 1147 is in machine-readable form so that software developers, journalists, advocates and businesses can easily repurpose it into their own work (no more data dumps in PDF form in the name of compliance!). The Accountability Advocate will ensure that government data is used as an asset that is easy to find, accessible, and usable throughout its life cycle48 and that data from all agencies, including the NYPD, are included in the ODP with no exceptions. As technology changes, the Public Advocates work in this area will provide the credibility to propose and move amendments to existing City law to keep pace with cutting edge standards. Daniel Squadron will set an ambitious goal of putting 99% of the information the City collects and creates online within five years in user-friendly formats. The Accountability Advocate will monitor the Citys progress toward that goal. Further, it is crucial that the City consistently complies with Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests from journalists, researchers, and everyday citizens who deserve better than the roadblocks of delay and obfuscation that currently mar the system. The City is now failing to live up to its disclosure obligations in a full 10% of all FOIL requests, with agencies like the NYPD and the Housing Authority failing nearly one-third of the time.49 The Accountability Advocate will build on Public Advocate de Blasios efforts50 and regularly measure and publicize the Citys performance in complying with its legal requirements to open its books to the public. Peoples Performance Report. The Accountability Advocate will also focus on how well government is performing. The City Charter requires the administration to

issue an annual Mayors Management Report (MMR) assessing the performance of City agencies and articulating mayoral plans and priorities. The Bloomberg Administration has created an interactive website displaying the MMR results and restructured the report to focus on agency success in meeting articulated goals.51 But too often, the results of this report are disconnected from the reality on the street and in neighborhoods, touting success where average citizens feel the daily impact of inertia or failure. The Accountability Advocate will create a peoples response to the MMR to assess the performance of City government from the perspective of its real boss: the consumers of its services. This will include feedback from the public, on the neighborhood and aggregate level, to determine if agency performance is aligned with real experiences on the ground. Through feedback and local partnerships, the Accountability Advocate will report specifically on whether agencies are defining goals too broadly, measuring performance too narrowly or focusing on the areas that most affect everyday New Yorkers. For example, should the Department of Correction be measuring efficiency only by looking at the capacity utilization of its cells, 52 or also by other criteria that reflect the cost of mental health treatment, disciplinary proceedings, legal liability for excessive use of force and other consequences of inadequate conditions? What about the Department of Housing Preservation and Developments boast that it started 117% of its planned new affordable housing units in 2012, after initiating 102% and 109% in 2010 and 2011 respectively?53 Can this performance metric be linked to
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the overall supply of affordable housing that hit the market? And shouldnt we be looking to how other cities and states are meeting the challenge of affordable housing and judging New Yorks efforts on a relative scale? The Peoples Performance Report will assess questions like these while also including information on the performance of important agencies that directly impact New Yorkers, but are excluded from the MMR, like the dysfunctional Board of Elections.54 The Accountability Advocate will introduce citizens surveys as conducted in cities as large and small as San Francisco55 and Shawnee, KS56 on the perceived quality of services such as parks, sanitation, and libraries.57 The Accountability Advocate will also convene citizen focus groups; these will help inform new qualitative metrics that can be used to judge performance. What will matter to the Accountability Advocate is results, as defined by the people who are served by the government, rather than by the government itself. Emergency Preparedness. Our political system is much better at addressing issues that are right in front of us or immediately behind us issues that are urgent today or were so yesterday than those that are equally serious, but are on the future horizon. Sandy provided a stark reminder that bureaucracies are structurally ill-equipped to adequately prepare for unprecedented emergencies the type that are an inevitable consequence of climate change and the increased ability for individuals to cause significant damage. Power was lost at hospitals and emergency shelters. Thousands who should have been evacuated were not. There was no plan for delivering essential services during a prolonged blackout. Gas shortages caught government by surprise and lasted weeks.

Thirty-five years ago, state elected officials actually did, for a few moments, look beyond the immediate horizon of their twoyear terms to pass a law that required regular meetings of a Disaster Preparedness Commission and a regularly updated plan for restoring vital services after a storm, providing oversight to the bureaucracies that do the planning and provide services. Despite the momentary foresight of 1978, the Commission did not meet regularly, nor was a reliable plan updated regularly.58 In the months since Sandy, the Bloomberg Administration, to its credit, has marshaled scores of experts and working groups to address many of the problems that the storm laid in relief. But the administration will soon turn over; the likelihood of the fierce urgency of now receding onto the weak backburner of later is substantial. The Accountability Advocate will not let planning for the next disaster recede with the memory of the most recent one. The office will issue annual report cards on the progress of preparedness, across multiple dimensions and push for improvements in areas that are found to be weak, including: evacuation plans; preservation of the supply chain for essential commodities; energy backups and resilience of the broader grid; and contingency plans for vulnerable populations. Turning Complaints Into Solutions. One of the Public Advocates Chartermandated tasks, defined more than two decades ago, in a world before 311, is to receive complaints about City services.

Today, 311 has transformed how complaints are received by the City. But, for all its virtues, the 311 service cannot be counted on to identify systemic issues within the current administration or serve as a leverage point to change broader policies bureaucracies just dont work that way. The Accountability Advocate will work with the Public Advocates complaint bureau to identify patterns of complaints that suggest larger problems. In tandem with 311s publicly available information, the office can raise concerns about how issues are being addressed, and about issues that 311 is not equipped to deal with at all. Are there significant complaints about the difficulties of obtaining permits for small jobs from the Department of Buildings and why are expediters nearly essential to the process? Are there a large number of tenant complaints about landlord activity that is problematic but technically lawful, and therefore outside of 311s purview? Do noise complaints reflect growing zoning needs in changing neighborhoods? How are delays in processing food stamp and cash assistance applications addressed systemically? The Public Advocate does not have the resources to effectively handle constituent issues for 8.4 million New Yorkers. But, in addition to providing basic guidance to those who call, the Accountability Advocate will link individual complaints to citywide policy failures. In doing so, the Public Advocates office will increase accountability and push agencies to create better solutions for the citizens they serve.

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THE HOUSING ADVOCATE


Through the office of the Housing Advocate, Daniel Squadron will be a voice for tenants----in both public and private housing.

______________
Our city has undergone dramatic changes over the last two decades: lower crime, better transit, and a growing population. These changes combined with policy failures at the state and local level, as well as broad external forces have created a new threat to affordability, along a broad economic spectrum. In the private housing market, wellorganized building owners and landlords have the concentration of power and money to lobby for their interests at City Hall and Albany, 59 while geographically dispersed tenants with diverse needs and incomes have proved a challenging group to organize effectively. Things arent any better for public housing residents. The tools needed to create an adequate supply of quality housing that is affordable for every family in our city are outside the scope and power of the Public Advocate. But there are ways in which a dedicated Housing Advocate within the office can make a difference for New Yorkers trying to make a life here. Daniel Squadron has been one of the fiercest advocates for tenants in New York. Organizing for NYCHA Tenants. Daniel Squadron has represented more than 26,000 NYCHA residents in his district. He co-founded the Save Our Underfunded NYCHA Developments (SOUND) Housing Campaign alongside dozens of
17

colleagues in Federal, State, and City government, public housing residents, and tenant advocates. The campaign was a coordinated effort to ensure that NYCHA got the funding it needed to stay afloat, and that funds were properly spent on basic maintenance and repairs, safer and more reliable elevators, security cameras, and other measures to keep buildings and hallways safe and clean. Winning New Funding for NYCHA. Daniel Squadron was able to secure millions of dollars of federal funding for public housing in the city when he sponsored and passed legislation in Albany to federalize 21 NYCHA developments. As a result, these developments were eligible for an immediate infusion of $400 million in capital funding and the Housing Authority will also be able to draw approximately $75 million in additional federal funds each year in perpetuity. Keeping Regulated Apartments More Affordable. In 2011 Daniel Squadron was also able to secure key rent reforms, including a provision he sponsored to curb a provision that allowed individual apartment improvements to be used to take apartments out of stabilization.

Ending the Citys Policy of Charging Rent to Families in Homeless Shelters. Only once in the history of the Bloomberg Administration has it joined with Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society to hold a victory event. That happened when Daniel Squadron was able to forge a deal among the City, homeless advocates and the State to have families in the shelter system begin saving in advance of their re-entry into the housing market and end the Citys outrageous policy of charging rent.60 Helping Broker the Agreement to Enable Community-Driven Redevelopment. Daniel Squadron helped broker the compromise that was central to winning approval for facilitating the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. Since 1968, over a million square feet of vacant land have sat empty in the heart of the Lower East Side. Without a properly community-driven process, the City was unable to get agreement on the land use from a diverse range of communities in the area, leading to four decades of failed government policy and bitter community Daniel Squadron infighting.61 helped to facilitate a successful collaboration between the local community, local elected officials and the City. Now, over six acres of underutilized land will be transformed into a vibrant, mixeduse space with 50% permanently affordable and 50% market-rate housing, commercial space, a new Essex Street Market, and new open space.

SPECIFIC INITIATIVES: The office of the Housing Advocate will be a voice for affordability in both public and private housing. Organizing to Reform NYCHAs NYPD Financial Obligation. While NYCHA housing represents 8.2% of the city's rental apartments and is home to 4.9% of the citys total population,62 NYCHA residents, who are disproportionately poor and of color, lack political power commensurate with their numbers. Four hundred thousand New Yorkers with strong common interests are spread among 324 developments across the five boroughs. While some developments have strong tenants associations, they are not joined together in a meaningful citywide confederation. There are nine separate Citywide Council of Presidents districts and a nine-member citywide Resident Advisory Board. It is as if NYCHA itself had designed the system to disempower tenants. A 1994 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) requires that NYCHA provide a significant proportion of its federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding over $70 million a year to the NYPD for ongoing law enforcement to NYCHA residents through Police Service Areas. NYCHA is the only residential landlord in the city required to pay for police protection and tenants pay the price. This decades-old administrative agreement really a City budget decision has locked NYCHA into perpetual financial crisis and imposes what is essentially a regressive tax on NYCHA tenants. As Public Advocate, Daniel Squadron will partner with local leaders, from Highbridge to Red Hook, to build a lasting citywide
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coalition of NYCHA tenants to mobilize for a solution that relieves NYCHA of its unique financial burden without sacrificing the safety of residents by rolling back the MOU. Senior Housing and Senior Service Mapping. Aging in place nearly always comes with a fixed income, even as costs rise around, and even within, your home. The Public Advocate cannot tackle all of the challenges of aging in place, but it can help make sure the City better plans as communities age. Residential clusters of senior citizens, known as naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs), are one way to make it easier to age in place. From making buildings more physically accessible to ensuring the availability of health and social services, NORCs strengthen quality of life for older New Yorkers. According to one study, NORC-based services reduce health risks, promote civic engagement and increase awareness of community resources.63 But there is no need to wait for NORCs to occur to start planning for them. Through the careful combination of demographic analysis and real estate market analysis, we can begin to see the need for NORC-based services as populations age. The State Plan on Aging mandates this kind of planning on a county-by-county level.64 The urban density of New York City requires this kind of work down to the neighborhood level. As Public Advocate, Daniel Squadron will map the soon-to-be elderly populations in the city so that we can see where future needs for services are soon to occur. This mapping will be overlaid by the findings of an audit of existing services available across the city, to evaluate where service increases
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will be needed over time. As individuals age, it is always advisable to plan. As Public Advocate, Daniel Squadron will push the City to heed that advice, by planning ahead for communities that age, as well. New Neighborhoods. There is enough vacant space in the city to house the current homeless population sleeping in the municipal shelter system.65 Out of the 38,670 units developed by the Citys affordable housing plan between 2009 and 2011, only one-third were economically within reach of households making the median income or less for the typical household in their neighborhood.66 The affordable housing crisis in the city is not a crisis of capacity or space but a crisis of community engagement and collaborative development processes. A major question that City government must address is how to move forward with projects to build new neighborhoods to expand the availability of affordable, middle-income and market-rate housing without tearing down existing communities. Many developers are dissuaded from building not because of red tape or the requirements to provide affordable housing, but because of the concern that projects will get held up with lengthy battles with communities and the City. And many communities feel powerless, drowned out by big money and deep connections, and ridiculed as NIMBYs, when they try to fight back against ill-conceived proposals. Through the Office of the Housing Advocate, Daniel Squadron will establish the role of a New Neighborhood Organizer: a housing specialist dedicated to locating areas throughout the city both City and private land that are ripe for

development, but require community engagement. Daniel Squadron knows from his experience with the Seward Park redevelopment initiative, that by engaging the local community early and working with the City throughout the process, it is possible to build sustainable projects with significant affordability that are welcomed by communities as a way of revitalizing and expanding neighborhoods. And the office of Public Advocate is uniquely suited to working with local leaders on these projects no other public official combines a role as the peoples representative with a perspective that is citywide. Prevention-Based Budgeting. The way the City budgets for homeless services helps to perpetuate homelessness rather than reduce and prevent it. The next administration will have to deal with a crisis of homelessness in the city with a shelter population that has grown to a record 50,000 people, including 21,000 children.67 Through the office of the Housing Advocate, Daniel Squadron will campaign to create Prevention-Based Budgeting for homeless policy, which would, for the first time, link proven homeless prevention strategies including housing subsidies and eviction prevention legal services with the savings they create by reducing the demand for shelter. This does not mean that every proposal to prevent homelessness should be scored during the budget process based on unproven claims of reducing the demand for homeless shelters. But, today the opposite is true: the City and State budgets ignore any programs effect on shelter system demand. That is one reason that the City and State allowed the Advantage rent subsidy program to be discontinued. Advantage cost about $140 million a year and served more than
20

10,000 families at a time. The subsidy was less than a third of the cost of housing a family in shelter. But the cut $65 million in state funds and nearly $50 million in City funds was considered a total cost savings.68 In other words, the budget forecasters predicted that none of the more than 10,000 families that lost a subsidy of up to $1,000 a month overnight would end up in shelter. Advantage was a flawed program. On a separate track, legal services for eviction prevention do not lead to long-term housing solutions in all cases. But evidence shows that both strategies keep people out of much more costly homeless shelters.69 As Public Advocate, Daniel Squadron will build a coalition to change budgeting policy, which makes most eyes glaze over, by linking it to the homelessness crisis on the ground. While there is no silver bullet to combat homelessness, creating an environment in which increased shelter demand leads to increased investment in proven prevention programs, instead of the opposite, would be a big step. Housing Quality. The current Public Advocate, Bill de Blasio, has published and maintained the Landlord Watchlist, an online database of the citys worst landlords. What could have been just a smart gimmick making City records available in a user-friendly format has become a useful tool for apartment seekers, incorporated into Craigslist listings, and an organizing tool in the fight for housing quality. But the Landlord Watchlist could be made even more useful. The Housing Advocate unit within the Public Advocates office will strengthen the online reporting tool, including the incorporation of some

important suggestions made by tenant advocates,70 by: connecting commonly-owned landlord entities, so that landlords cannot shield their records by use of different LLCs or holding companies; clearly explaining where landlords

with bad records are in the process of taking documentable efforts to repair and rehabilitate neglected properties; and creating action tools so that the Watchlist can be used directly by tenants and their allies to campaign for repairs.

ENDNOTES
1

The 1989 charter redefined the responsibilities of an office known as City Council President; the office was renamed Public Advocate in 1993.

This rarely-invoked power, contained in Section 1109 of the City Charter, was last used successfully by Public Advocate Mark Green in his investigation of Mayor Giulianis alleged disclosure of remarks by a crime victim which were contained in a sealed indictment. Matter of Green v Giuliani (187 Misc 2d 138 [2000]).

See, e.g., the charges of the Defensor del Pueblo de la Nacin in Argentina; the Human Rights Defender (a/k/a Ombudsman) in Armenia; the Commissioner for Human Rights (a/k/a Ombudsman) in Azerbaijan, in Kazakhstan and in Ukraine; the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman/Ombudsmen in Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Ombudsmen of Bulgaria and Guyana; the Defensoria de los Habitantes in Costa Rica; the Procurador para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (a/k/a Ombudsman) in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua; the Public Defender (a/k/a Ombudsman) in Georgia and in Peru; the Ombudsperson Institution in Kosovo; the Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich, usually translated as the Commissioner for Protection of Civil Rights, in Poland; the Protector of Citizens of the Republic of Serbia (a/k/a Ombudsman); the Defensor del Pueblo in Spain; the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman in Tajikistan; the Ombudsmans Office in Turkey; and the Institute for Human Rights and Ombudsman (Instituto para los Derechos Humanos y Defensoria del Pueblo) in Uruguay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombudsman Mosi Secret, Ending Long Battle, Cuomo Agrees to Plan to House Mentally Ill, The New York Times, July 23, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/nyregion/cuomo-agrees-to-plan-for-housing-mentally-ill-ending-legalbattle.html 5 Benjamin Wiser, Lawsuit Accuses Citys Jails of Condoning Inmate Abuse, The New York Times, May 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/nyregion/suit-says-new-york-citys-jails-condone-guards-beatings-ofinmates.html
6 4

Josey Bartlett, Bill aims to reduce solitary confinement, Queens Chronicle, April 25, 2013, http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/bill-aims-to-reduce-solitary-confinement/article_45a63073-4949-51eea404-72d7816288c0.html New York Civil Liberties Union, Boxed In: The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New Yorks Prisons, 2012, http://www.nyclu.org/files/publications/nyclu_boxedin_FINAL.pdf Sister Marion Defeis, The crime of solitary confinement, New York Daily News, June 4, 2012, http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/crime-solitary-confinement-article-1.1088507?pgno=1#ixzz2WJwy7arl Maura R. OConnor, Sick and in Solitary, The New York World, February 6, 2013, http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2013/02/06/rikers-mentally-ill/
9 8 7

21


10

The Legal Aid Society, Testimony of The Legal Aid Society to the New York City Council in Response to the Agency Report of the New York City Department of Correction, March 8, 2012, http://www.legalaid.org/media/153798/031212_testimony.pdf
11

Maura R. OConnor, Sick and in Solitary, The New York World, February 6, 2013, http://www.thenewyorkworld.com/2013/02/06/rikers-mentally-ill/

12

Camille Bautista, More day laborers are homeless, Queens Courier, March 16, 2010, http://queenscourier.com/2010/more-day-laborers-are-homeless-30474/ Immigrants Rights/International Human Rights Clinic at the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice, All Work and No Pay, January 2011, http://law.shu.edu/ProgramsCenters/PublicIntGovServ/CSJ/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=177699

13

Douglas Montero, Protect & offend: Disgust over cops beat coverup, The New York Post, November 2, 2011, http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/protect_offend_W9K8zACZyzQIMYGp4csshP
15

14

John Del Signore, Attack On Mexican Laborer Being Investigated As Hate Crime, Gothamist, October 16, 2009, http://gothamist.com/2009/10/16/attack_on_mexican_laborer_being_inv.php
16

Sam Goldman, Woodside HartBurn, Times Newsweekly, April 7, 2011, http://www.timesnewsweekly.com/news/2011-04-07/Front_Page/WOODSIDE_HARTBURN.html

17

Larry Tung, City Council Passes Bill to Establish Commission on Day Labor Centers, Gotham Gazette, October 10, 2005, http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/civil-rights/3014-city-council-passes-bill-to-establishcommission-on-day-labor-centers
18

Chad Terhune, Call for screening of healthcare enrollers meets resistance, Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2013, http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/15/business/la-fi-insure-criminal-checks-20130315 Families USA, Brokers and Agents and Health Insurance Exchanges, September 2012, http://www.familiesusa2.org/assets/pdfs/health-reform/Exchanges-Brokers-and-Agents.pdf

19

20

Samuel Salganik, et al., Making the Affordable Care Act Work for New Yorks Consumers, Community Service Society of New York, October 2012, http://b.3cdn.net/nycss/dc35662a7590c21108_9um6befdp.pdf

21

In countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, El Salvador, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Netherlands, public officials holding the title of Ombudsman are charged specifically with advocating for children. Other countries have created specific childrens ombudsmen or childrens commissioners, including Australia, Austria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

22

Dominique Lemoine, New York Brings Juvenile Justice Close to Home, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, June 13, 2013, http://jjie.org/new-york-brings-juvenile-justice-close-to-home/

23

Oren Yaniv, Barry Paddock & Larry McShane, Close to Home juvenile reform program creating threat to public safety: judge, Daily News, May 2, 2013, http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/juvenile-reform-programcreating-threat-public-safety-judge-article-1.1332726
24

Johanna Miller & Ifetayo Belle, Testimony Before The New York City Council Education, Public Safety and Juvenile Justice Committees on School Climate and Safety, New York Civil Liberties Union, April 15, 2013, http://www.nyclu.org/content/testimony-new-york-city-council-education-public-safety-and-juvenile-justicecommittees-scho

22


25

American Academy of Pediatrics, School Suspensions and Expulsions May Create Unforeseen Problems, February 25, 2013, http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/School-Suspensions-andExpulsions-May-Create.aspx
26

New York Civil Liberties Union, NYCLE Urges City Council to Improve Transparency in School Discipline, April 15, 2013, http://www.nyclu.org/news/nyclu-urges-city-council-improve-transparency-school-discipline

Emilie Stoltzfus & Karen E. Lynch, Home Visitation for Families with Young Children, Congressional Research Service, October 23, 2009, http://www.preventchildabusesb.org/crshomevisitreportoct2009.pdf; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, A Comprehensive Crime-Fighting Strategy for New York, 2009; Healthy Families, New York, HFNY Demonstrates Enduring Effects on Parenting and Child Well-Being in the First Seven Years of Life,; Avon Foundation for Women, Realizing the Promise of Home Visitation: Addressing Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment, 2010, http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/userfiles/file/Children_and_Families/Realizing%20the%20Promise%20of% 20Home%20Visitation%202-10.pdf
28

27

Childrens Defense Fund, State of Americas Children, http://www.cdfca.org/research-library/state-of-americaschildren.html


29

UNICEF, The State of the Worlds Children, http://www.unicef.org/sowc2012/

30

Helen Zelon, Courting Crisis, City Limits, May-June 2012, http://www.citylimits.org/magazine/309/may-june2012; New York State Bar Association, Task Force on Family Court: Final Report, November 2012, http://www.nysba.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&ContentID=110387&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm
31

Vera Institute of Justice, Child Welfare Case Processing in New York City Family Courts, http://www.vera.org/project/child-welfare-case-processing-new-york-city-family-courts

32

Helen Zelon, When Delays Dominate, Kids Lose, City Limits, May-June 2012, http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4584/when-delays-dominate-kids-lose

33

William Glaberson, New York Family Courts Say Keep Out, Despite Order, The New York Times, November 18, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/nyregion/at-new-york-family-courts-rule-for-public-access-isntheeded.html; Alan Finder, Chief Judge in New York Tells Family Courts to Admit Public, The New York Times, June 19, 1997, http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/19/nyregion/chief-judge-in-new-york-tells-family-courts-to-admitpublic.html.
34

Scott M. Stringer, et al, A Vote for Change: A Blueprint for Reforming Community and Citywide Education Councils in New York City and the Department of Educations Approach to Engaging Parent Leaders, Community and Citywide Education Council Task Force, September 2011, http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/67304084?access_key=key-v0k05m20bbz5udvbxs8

35

Office of the Public Advocate for the City of New York, Educating All Students Well: Special Education Reform in New York City Public Schools, August 2012, http://advocate.nyc.gov/sites/advocate.nyc.gov/files/NYC-PASpecialEd-Report-8-31-12.pdf
36

Id. Id. ASD Nest Support Project at NYU Steinhardt, http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/asdnest/

37

38

Pamela D. Gibson, Donald P. Lacy, & Michael J. Dougherty, Improving Performance and Accountability in Local Government with Citizen Participation, The Innovation Journal, 10(1), http://www.innovation.cc/volumesissues/gibson1.pdf

39

23


40

Id.

Hunter Walker, Squadron Pushes to Keep Anti-Super PAC Legislation Alive, Politicker, March 5, 2012, http://politicker.com/2012/03/squadron-pushes-to-keep-anti-super-pac-legislation-alive/
42

41

Cobble Hill Association, http://cobblehillassociation.blogspot.com/2012/04/squadrons-communityconvention.html Michael Virtanen, NY Liquor Authority Maps Licenses Bars, Restaurants, NBC4, April 9, 2012, http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NY-Liquor-Authority-Map-Liquor-Licenses-Violations-Bars-Restaurants146712435.html Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, Local Government Political Accountability, http://closup.umich.edu/research/projects/past-projects/accountability/accountability.php
45 44 43

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." Louis D. Brandeis http://www.law.louisville.edu/library/collections/brandeis/node/196 NYC Open Data, https://nycopendata.socrata.com/

46

47

NYC Local Law 11 of 2012 Publishing Open Data, http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/html/open/local_law_11_2012.shtml

48

For a similar approach, see Executive Order of the President of the United States, Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information, May 9, 2013, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-pressoffice/2013/05/09/executive-order-making-open-and-machine-readable-new-default-government49

Bailey McCann, New York City Falls Behind on Transparency Report, CivSource, April 24, 2013, http://civsourceonline.com/2013/04/24/new-york-city-falls-behind-on-transparency-report/

50

Office of the Public Advocate for the City of New York, De Blasio Issues Failing Grades to 2 Agencies in Transparency Report Card, Finds Most Departments in Breach of Law, April 2013, http://pubadvocate.nyc.gov/foil/report NYC Mayors Office of Operations, Mayors Management Report, 2013, https://data.cityofnewyork.us/report

51

52

NYC Mayors Office of Operations, Preliminary Mayors Management Report: Department of Correction, 2013, http://www.nyc.gov/html/ops/downloads/pdf/pmmr2013/doc.pdf NYC Mayors Office of Operations, Preliminary Mayors Management Report: Department of Housing Preservation and Development, 2013, http://www.nyc.gov/html/ops/downloads/pdf/pmmr2013/hpd.pdf

53

54

Brigid Bergin, Board of Elections Opts for Incomplete in Mayors Management Report, WNYC, September 23, 2012, http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2012/sep/23/board-elections-opts-incomplete-mayorsmanagement-report/
55

City of San Francisco, CA, City Survey Database, https://data.sfgov.org/browse?tags=citizen+survey

56

City of Shawnee, KS, City Survey 2012, 2012, http://www.cityofshawnee.org/Web/ShawneeCMS.nsf/vwContent/CitizenSurvey2012?OpenDocument City of New York Independent Budget Office, Testimony of the New York City Independent Budget Office On the Structure and Content of the Mayors Management Report Before the New York City Council Committee on Governmental Operations, April 11, 2002, http://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/MMRApril2002.pdf

57

24


58

Michael Gormley, NY Mostly Ignored Reports Warning of Superstorm, Associated Press, December 8, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=17912958&sid=81

59

Adam Pincus, NYC Real Estate Pumps Up DC Lobbying, The Real Deal, July 31, 2009, http://therealdeal.com/blog/2009/07/31/nyc-real-estate-pumps-up-dc-lobbying-senate-office-of-public-recordstishman-speyer-properties-forest-city-ratner-arverne-east-development-sl-green-related-companies/
60

Cara Buckley, City Drops Plan to Charge Rent to Shelter Residents, The New York Times, June 4, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/nyregion/05homeless.html

61

Laura Kusisto, Developers Set to Bid On Seward Park, The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324326504578465232832426920.html New York City Housing Authority, NYCHA Factsheet, March 28, 2013, http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/about/factsheet.shtml

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