I have long found it perplexing and borderline nonsensical that New York City mayors appoint the head of the Department of Investigation, the agency charged with ferreting out corruption within their administrations. How is this relationship not inherently subject to skepticism? Does it not disregard the nature of all but the noblest of individuals to believe that DOI commissioners will put their all into possibly taking down the person to whom they owe their jobs? Yes, I know that the president… [More]

There were major changes afoot in the New York City Council today with the assignment of committee chairmanships and leadership positions by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. The Speaker elevated Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who bucked the Queens delegation to support Mark-Viverito’s bid for Speaker, to be the new majority leader and chair of the cultural affairs committee. Additionally, under a new hierarchical structure, the Speaker named seven deputy leaders—one from Manhattan, three from Brooklyn, one from Staten Island and two… [More]

1,786,166. That is how many New Yorkers, based on the figures used in the most recent round of redistricting, are currently without a representative in either the state Assembly or the Senate. With the recent felony bribery conviction of Eric Stevenson and resignation of alleged serial sexual harasser Dennis Gabryszak, the number of open seats in the Legislature rose to 11—nine in the Assembly, two in the Senate. One would think that with roughly one out of every 11 New… [More]

Melissa Mark-Viverito was elected New York City Council Speaker with an unanimous vote of all 51 members, but there was drama up until minutes before the vote took place, and the wounds from the fight for speaker may still take some time to heal. Morgan Pehme has more in this video report.… [More]

This past year, I husbanded all of my vacation, personal and sick days, and combining these with two weekends, managed to string together 18 days away from work—by far the longest consecutive amount of time I had been able to take off in well over half a decade. The sweetest part of this time off also made stark my greatest sadness. You see, those 18 days were the longest continuous stretch that I had gotten to spent with my five-year-old… [More]

Profiles by Jon Lentz, Morgan Pehme and Nick Powell Photos Courtesy of Council Members’ Websites and Facebook Pages Steven Matteo Vanessa Gibson Carlos Menchaca Ritchie Torres Helen Rosenthal Laurie Cumbo Mark Treyger Daneek Miller Andrew Cohen Antonio Reynoso Chaim Deutsch Corey Johnson Rafael Espinal Robert Cornegy Jr. Costa Constantinides Alan Maisel Paul Vallone Rory Lancman Ben Kallos Inez Barron Mark Levine… [More]

The last thing I want is for our elected officials to fail. On the Contrary, I depend on them to succeed, writes City & State¹s Morgan Pehme… [More]

WEATHER: Rain in New York City and Albany; rain and snow mix in Buffalo. New York City, high 61; Albany, high 46; Buffalo, high 35.   NEW THIS MORNING: * While New York City’s teacher evaluation program has been embraced in theory, implementation has fundamentally reordered the rhythm of the school day and week, The New York Times writes: http://nyti.ms/1fAdPeV * The Moreland Commission has referred its findings about a Brooklyn charity with ties to New York politicians to U.S. Eastern… [More]

Open City: A Q&A with Ignazio Marino… [More]

The Moreland Commission on Public Ethics’ report was intended to be preliminary, and there is still a lot to be done, writes City & State’s Morgan Pehme.… [More]