The Charter Revision Commission took its road show to Queens as more than 100 people and 40 speakers filled the auditorium at LaGuardia Community College to give their suggestions about what changes they’d like to see made to the City Charter.
During the roughly two-and-a-half hour hearing, elected officials, community activists and residents addressed topics including codifying the Department of Education in the City Charter, adding a moratorium on development when an area is going through rezoning and taking away lulus from councilmembers for chairing committees that could cause a conflict of interest.
In addition, many of the speakers focused their attention on community boards. Chairs of three community boards in Queens made their case for giving baseline budgets to community boards in order to allow them to properly function and other speakers talked about having community boards be elected positions instead of appointed by the borough presidents and city councilmembers.
Perhaps the most unique request came from Astoria resident Matthew Bishop who asked the commission to make all of the pronouns in the City Charter gender neutral instead of the male form it currently uses.
While many of the speakers shared areas they would like to see the commission tackle, a number of people also urged the commission to slow down the process and not rush things onto the ballot in time for the 2010 election.
“I think the folks before us here tonight should do everything within their power to make sure that we don’t rush this through and that we do not in haste put something on the ballot in November simply for the sake of putting it on the ballot,” said City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the area where the hearing took place. “Too much is at stake and any changes that we make will be long lasting.”
A handful of speakers, including Barbara Glassman, a lifelong resident of Queens who had served as teacher for 42 years, spoke out against what she termed Bloomberg’s “hijacking of the term limits vote,” and the powerful role the mayor has in selecting the commission.
“The Charter should firmly prohibit the overturning of legitimate election results by a governing body or person,” said Glassman, who wore an I Love New York T-shirt to the hearing.
City University of New York (CUNY) Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who chairs the 15-member Charter Revision Commission, told those in attendance that the commission would have additional hearings in May and June and “we are taking our time to do this in a delicate and thoughtful manner.”
