Both in 2011 and 2014, The East Brooklyn neighborhoods of East New York, Cypress Hills, Bushwick, Ocean Hill, and Brownsville had no representation in the New York State Assembly.
In 2014, there was a point that three adjacent assembly districts—54, 55, and 60—had no one in office. Constituent services ground to a halt as the district offices remained closed for many months. No special elections were called that year, and over 375,000 residents had no representation in the Assembly.
Fortunately, the State Legislature is bicameral, so constituents still had recourse by turning to the area’s state senators, who had no choice but to pick up the slack. State senate office staff had to deal with the increased demand for services, all from within their own budgets as they were separate from the Assembly.
The New York City Council is unicameral, so when a council seat is vacant, that’s it—there is no representation in the city’s sole legislative body. Adjacent council districts, where possible, can (and do) help, but that’s a challenge in “normal” times, and these are anything but normal times, right?
So when Gov. Cuomo postponed the April 28 special election for the 37th Council District, and then canceled the rescheduled special election outright, it effectively left the seat vacant through the balance of 2020. That’s because the special election, once certified, would have filled the seat through December 31, 2020. As it stands now, the winner of the November 2020 general election for the seat takes office on January 1, 2021 and will serve until December 31, 2021, when the regular election cycle resumes for the district.
These events call into question so many things:
- Who is making decisions regarding discretionary funding, and how can the district be sure its priorities are being met without having a single person to hold accountable?
- All remaining staff of the council district’s office were terminated recently. Who exactly will provide those services? Are they familiar with the local need? Are they bilingual?
- Well over $150,000 was allocated to constituent services. If the speaker is providing constituent services with his own staff, will it be equal to the amount of hours that were budgeted for the 37th District, or will it be piece-meal, part-time services, meaning just enough to say, “the district needs were covered”?
It’s easy to blame the council speaker and governor, isn’t it? But this isn’t the Council Speaker’s fault for leaving the district without dedicated staff to provide advocacy. It’s also not the Governor’s fault for canceling the special election. These are both symptoms of a greater problem. The fault lies in the laws that allow this level of discretion, underrepresentation, and denial of services in the first place.
Our state and city need laws to force special elections to be rescheduled, not canceled, and that if a crisis happens (like it did now), provisions in the law should allow for appointments. Just like how the governor has the power to appoint a US Senator when there is a vacancy, why can’t a similar legal process be replicated for times like this?
It’s applaudable that the special election of April 28 was rescheduled. It was the right decision at the right time. What no one really understands is why the rescheduled June 23 special election was canceled outright, when poll sites were already scheduled to be open, and there was nothing preventing the special election from happening. Had the special election taken place June 23, we’d be looking at a council member sworn in sometime in the next few weeks to keep the district represented in the council for the latter half of 2020.
The governor was right to put safety first, however, we must find ways for district needs to be met, particularly in a unicameral legislative body like the NY City Council. It’s time to legislate and expand executive powers to allow interim appointments to be made when a special election isn’t practical. Special election laws were amended a decade ago to improve voting opportunities. Let’s see them amended again.
Also, our laws have no guidelines at all for providing constituent services, and too many times the neighborhoods of East Brooklyn have been short-changed. This must change. It always seems like the districts with the most need are the ones that this happens to the most. We need laws that force the office of a legislative body’s leader to maintain an equal level of constituent services, provided in the district itself. No one should have to travel further than that to get services. This doesn’t cost government extra money, because money for these services is (supposed to be) already budgeted. Is it easy? No, remote management of staff always has challenges. We are living through these challenges right now. But that doesn’t make it okay to offer partial services when even full-time service staff could barely keep up with the pervasive needs of this district.
For now, with the special election canceled, the best the 37th Council District can hope for is a compassionate council speaker that sees how severe the need is here, and will rise to the task to provide the same level of service that existed before.
State and city lawmakers need to look at the 37th Council District as a rallying point to protect constituents’ right to representation and adequate delivery of services.
Manny Burgos is CEO of By the Numbers Consulting Services Corp., a leading provider of outreach, compliance, advisory, and data gathering services. BTN Consulting is located in the 37th Council District and serves the tri-state area with offices in New York and Puerto Rico.
