New York Civic

Beating the Third Term Blues

As Others Measure the Carpet

Henry J. Stern

Henry J. Stern is the founder and president of New York Civic.

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

The imminent approach of the mid-point of Mayor Bloomberg's third (and presumably last) term makes this an appropriate time to review his tenure and to scan the prospects of his successor who will be sworn in on January 1st, 2014 - unless something unexpectedly good or bad happens before that day.

Tradition and experience have cast a cloud over mayoral third terms. Public officials inevitably accumulate enemies over their tenure. There is no necessary correlation between competence and popularity. The better the mayor, the more s/he will attempt to accomplish, and the greater the chance of failure. The more often a mayor rocks the boat, the more opportunities for the passengers and crew to jump ship.

Our Government Bumblers

Edward I. Koch

Edward Koch served as New York City Mayor from 1978 to 1989.

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Here we are at the end of 2011. Our Congress, made up of bumblers who are interested only in their reelection and the Republican leadership's publicly-stated goal of preventing the President Barack Obama from being reelected as their first priority, rather than providing solutions to America's huge economic problems, particularly the unemployment rate. Notwithstanding this crew of bumblers, America is bouncing back. Our stock market has substantially recovered from losses brought about by the Great Recession. Even the unemployment rate is starting to go down from a high of 9.1 percent to the current rate of 8.6 percent. The commentator who said "91.4 percent of our workforce is employed" was inspired.

Courting Claims, Then Cutting Them

The Past, Present and Future of New York City's Small Claims Court

Arlene S. Kayatt

Arlene Kayatt is a divorce attorney and former newspaper editor

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

It’s known as the Small Claims Court, and has been popularized on TV as the People’s Court where New York’s own Mayor Ed Koch presided from 1997 to 1999, and New York’s former Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin has reigned supreme as “Judge Judy” for the last 15 years.

Small claims “court” is actually a part of the Civil Court of the City of New York and was founded in 1934 as part of the Municipal Court. In 1962, in response to Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s Tweed Commission, which issued its recommendations in 1958, there was a statewide court reorganization and the City Court and the Municipal Court were merged.

The Bigger They Come

Winners Are Sinners

In Too Many Cases

Henry J. Stern

Henry J. Stern is the founder and president of New York Civic.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

The recent flurry of criminal trials and convictions of public officials for a variety of offenses causes one to think of why it is that people who are elected to represent their communities in city, state and federal government appear so often before the bar of justice.

While it is true that only a relatively small portion of elected officials are criminals, still the frequency of arrests and indictments of members of the political class causes people to doubt the integrity and validity of the legislative process, and to suspect many office-holders who have not in fact committed crimes or used their offices to enrich themselves personally. This is part of a larger distrust of government by individuals who see the state as a growing and intrusive presence, rather than as a guarantor of the liberty and security of the people.

Was Justice Done?

Seabrook, Boyland

Escape Conviction

On Fraud Charges

Henry J. Stern

Henry J. Stern is the founder and president of New York Civic.

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Reading the newspapers in recent weeks has become an exercise in exploring one scandal after another. In our field, watching the performance of public agencies and elected officials, we have been following the case of City Councilman Larry Seabrook, a city or state legislator for 27 years, and William Boyland, a Brooklyn Assemblyman and member of a political dynasty.

Seabrook is also an entrepreneur in providing a variety of social services to the public, for which he and the organizations he controls are handsomely rewarded by the government. For example, he collects rent for office space, said to be exorbitant in a 2010 Federal indictment, from nonprofits for which he helps to secure public funding. At the same time, some of those same taxpayer-funded nonprofits employ senior people who happen to be relatives of the Councilman.