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June 19, 2010
Should the Public Advocate be in charge of overseeing CBAs? Or is some more general oversight needed?
Atlantic Yards Report
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has issued several proposals for reforms of the City Charter, and a couple involve oversight of Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs).
(He believes that the Charter Revision Commission should only place questions regarding term limits on the 2010 ballot, and to reserve action on all other issues until 2012.)
His proposals include:
• Increasing disclosure by making more government operations and decision-making available online including capital and discretionary funding requests, Requests For Proposals, Community Benefits Agreements, the responsiveness of City agencies to Freedom of Information Law requests, lobbyists visits, and other aspects of City government;
• Granting subpoena power to the Public Advocate’s office to strengthen its oversight role and empowering the office to track compliance with Community Benefits Agreements;
It certainly makes sense to put all CBAs--at least those in which the government is involved--online.
But empowering the Public Advocate to track CBA compliance is hardly a reform to inspire confidence, considering de Blasio's failure to do due diligence on Atlantic Yards and its CBA.
Posted by steve at June 19, 2010 8:27 AM