Mayor Adams is attempting a new, undemocratic ploy to shield the NYPD from reform and make it harder to hold police and correction officers accountable.
He has propped up a rushed and compromised Charter Revision Commission.
This innocuous-sounding body is tasked with recommending changes to New York City’s Charter, essentially our city’s constitution. These recommendations then go to the ballot this November and could have a major impact on how city government works — including checks on mayoral and police power.
Any changes to the city’s founding document should be the result of a careful, open, and deliberative process. But that is not what’s happening, by Adams’ design. We must all demand it be scrapped.
This new Adams commission was born out of his power struggle with the City Council. Upset that he couldn’t stop the Council from overriding his veto of key police transparency legislation earlier this year — the How Many Stops Act — and angry at the Council’s attempt to gain more of a say in mayoral appointments, Adams called for a Charter Revision Commission in May. The late announcement means a compressed timeline with little chance for public input.
Adams then packed it with his political allies.
Recently, and after only a few weeks, the commission issued preliminary recommendations that amount to an undemocratic attack on the City Council’s role in police oversight. The commission has suggested adding more process — requiring more time and more review — that slow-walks any City Council action on public safety with red tape. The effect would be to further insulate the NYPD and Department of Correction from checks on their power.
For no other important city responsibility — from housing to health care — does the commission seek to shift the Council’s power like this. Why? The commission’s rationale is silly. They say public safety functions are too uniquely important not to have more deliberation.
Really? It’s already hard enough to pass legislation that furthers police transparency or accountability. Ask any advocate and they will tell you the NYPD has long exerted outsized influence on the legislative process, with a well-documented record of successfully watering down or outright killing bills it opposes.
No one can seriously claim that the How Many Stops Act breezed through. Advocates worked for years on the bill and the mayor and NYPD launched a full court press with the Council and the media. Then the mayor added even more process by vetoing the bill, requiring Council members to again deliberate and vote to override.
Ultimately, it passed because Council members know that New Yorkers want accountable policing.
The real issue is not a cavalier process at the City Council. The real problem is that the mayor and NYPD are unwilling to accept the democratic process when it produces a result they don’t like.
And when it comes to public input and deliberation, this Charter Commission reeks of hypocrisy.
Charter revision is a big deal. A Charter Revision Commission is meant to carefully review the entirety of the City Charter and engage experts and the public in open, informed, and nuanced conversations about improving city governance.
That’s not what’s happened. The Commission was announced on May 21, held its first input session on June 5, accepted public comment through July 12, and has a deadline of Aug. 5 to finalize ballot questions on proposed charter amendments. That means just over two months, start to finish.
That the commission issued its preliminary report on June 24, after only five hastily announced and poorly attended public input sessions, raises serious questions about the mayor’s interest in public and expert input. After all, the commission that put forward proposals for the 2019 ballot held more than 20 public meetings between July 2018 and July 2019 to consider potential changes.
That deliberative process stands in stark contrast to today.
Mayor Adams is again ripping a page out of the Giuliani playbook. Our disgraced former mayor openly acknowledged his use of rushed commissions, stacked with allies, as a political tool against his opponents.
New Yorkers should not be fooled by the spin coming from the mayor’s office. He’s attempting to rewrite the rules of democracy after losing a political fight. If he succeeds, the NYPD and DOC will be even more unaccountable than ever and the mayor will have grabbed even more power.
All New Yorkers should see the commission for what it is and demand it be shelved. The City Charter is too important to change through a hurried, cynical, and politically-motivated process.
Lieberman is executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.