At least one prominent good-government advocate does not feel it should. “The next charter commission could seriously examine its importance and its need,” says Citizens Union executive director Dick Dadey. “I am not convinced that it serves an important enough purpose to continue as such into the future. I hope the charter reform commission will seriously consider whether it should continue.”
City Limits Magazine
Spring 2009:
A Week in the Life of the New York City Council
News Topics
Housing and Development
Government
Author
Jarrett Murphy
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Gotbaum acknowledges these shortcomings: “You're supposed to be their watchdog. But the person you're watching controls your budget." That’s why she and others who want to preserve the role would like the charter changed to give the advocate an independent budget based on a percentage of the Council’s own funding, as well as the ability to issue subpoenas to compel city agencies to turn over information.
For his part, NYPIRG’s Russianoff believes New York needs an advocate. “My general world view is we have an extremely strong-mayor form of government. The mayor is the Sun King and everyone else is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,” he says, referring to the two courtiers who end up as pawns in Hamlet. “Where do groups like mine go if City Hall says, ‘Drop dead?'”
This is the first in a series of articles about the race for public advocate; successive stories will profile each of the four top candidates. Next week: City Councilman Bill de Blasio.
Correction: The article has been corrected to reflect that a successful fundraising effort in 2008 raised Gotbaum’s foundation fundraising to $2.8 million, not $1 million as originally reported. The 2008 results were not yet publicly available in tax documents reviewed for the original article. 5/18/09
