Government of New York City
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This article discusses the government of New York City.
Like most governments within the United States, New York City's government structure is divided into separate executive, legislative and judicial branches.
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Boroughs
The five boroughs are coterminous with their respective counties, but the counties do not have actual county governments. Each borough elects a Borough President, but under the current city charter, the Borough President's powers are limited—he or she has a small discretionary budget to spend on projects within the borough. (The last significant power of the borough presidents—to appoint a member of the Board of Education —was abolished, with the board, on June 30, 2002.) Currently, borough presidents serve as ex officio members of various boards and committees.
Executive Branch
The executive branch of New York City is responsible for all city services, police and fire protection, enforcement of all city and state laws within the city, prosecution of crimes, and administration of public property and all public agencies.
The Mayor
The executive branch is headed by the Mayor of New York City, who is elected by direct popular vote by the people. The current mayor is Michael Bloomberg, a Republican. Though he was a lifelong Democrat, he chose to run on the Republican ticket to avoid the contentious Democratic primary.
Deputy Mayors
The Mayor of New York City appoints several Deputy Mayors to head major offices within the executive branch of the city government. Deputy Mayors report directly to the Mayor. They are:
- Deputy Mayor for Operations Susan L. Kupferman
- The Deputy Mayor for Operations heads the Office of Operations and oversees more than forty city agencies, including the Department of Transportation, Department of Homeless Services, Department for the Aging, Office of Labor Relations, Department of Buildings, Taxi and Limosuine Commission, Department of Sanitation, and the Department of Corrections, among others.
- Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff
- The Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding oversees several city agencies responsible for governing construction and local business, including Department of Consumer Affairs, The New York City Economic Development Corporation, Department of City Planning, Department of Small Business Services, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, among others.
- Deputy Mayor for Policy Dennis M. Walcott
- The Deputy Mayor for Policy oversees the Department of Education, the School Construction Authority, and the New York City Housing Authority, and sits on the board of the City University of New York.
- Deputy Mayor for Administration Patricia E. Harris
- The Deputy Mayor for Administration oversees the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Art Commission.
- Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs Carol A. Robles-Roman
- The Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs oversees various agencies dealing with the city's legal and justice system, and also serves as the mayor's official counsel. The Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs oversees the Commission on Human Rights, the Office of Immigrant Affairs and Language Issues, the Office to Combat Domestic Violence, the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, and sits on the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Other Elected Executive Officials
In addition to the mayor, there are several other elected executive branch officials in New York City:
The Public Advocate
The Public Advocate is a directly elected executive official and heads the Office of the Public Advocate. The Public Advocate's primary responsibility is to ease public relations with the government, investigate complaints regarding city agencies, mediate disputes between city agencies and citizens, serve as the city's ombudsman and advise the mayor on community relations. The current Public Advocate is Betsy Gotbaum, a Democrat. She was elected in 2001.
Comptroller
The Comptroller is the city's chief financial officer. In addition to managing the city's $80 billion pension fund, the Comptroller advises the mayor and the City Council on all financial matters, fiscal policy and financial transactions. The Office of the Comptroller is empowered with limited investigational power over all city expenditures and finance, and is responsible for auditing the finances of all city agencies. The current Comptroller, elected in 2001, is William C. Thompson, Jr., a Democrat.
Borough Presidents
The Borough Presidents are elected by direct popular vote from each of New York City's five boroughs (see below.) Though they were powerful in the past, today, borough presidents have little influence. The last major responsibility of the borough presidents was their power to appoint a member of the Board of Education, which was abolished in 2002. Currently, their responsibility is to advise the mayor on issues relating to each borough, to administer a small discretionary budget for projects within each borough, to make certain political appointments for intra-borough offices, to appoint Community Boards (see below), chair the Borough Boards (see below) and to sit as ex officio members on various other boards and committees. The current Borough Presidents are:
- Bronx: Adolfo Carrión, Jr., a Democrat,
- Brooklyn: Marty Markowitz, a Democrat
- Manhattan: C. Virginia Fields, a Democrat
- Queens: Helen Marshall, a Democrat
- Staten Island: James P. Molinaro, a Republican
Finally, the chiefs of the NYPD, FDNY, Department of Investigation, and the Office of Management and Budget report directly to the mayor.
Legislative
New York City's legislative power is vested in the New York City Council, a unicameral body consisting of 51 Council members, each representing a district of approximately 157,000 people. Council members are elected every four years. The head of the City Council is called the Speaker, and is currently Gifford Miller, a Democrat.
Like most legislative bodies, the City Council has several committees with legislative oversight over various categories of legislation. Each council member sits on at least three standing, select or subcommittees. The standing committees, listed below, meet at least once per month. The Speaker of the Council, the Majority Leader, and the Minority Leader are all ex officio members of every committee.
City Council Standing Committees
- Aging
- Civil Service & Labor
- Consumer Affairs
- Contracts
- Cultural Affairs, Libraries & International Intergroup Relations
- Economic Development
- Education
- Environmental Protection
- Finance
- Fire & Criminal Justice Services
- General Welfare
- Governmental Operations
- Health
- Higher Education
- Housing & Buildings
- Immigration
- Land Use
- Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse & Disability Services
- Oversight and Investigations
- Parks & Recreation
- Public Safety
- Rules, Privileges & Elections
- Sanitation & Solid Waste Management
- Small Business
- Standards & Ethics
- State & Federal Legislation
- Technology in Government
- Transportation
- Veterans
- Waterfronts
- Women's Issues
- Youth Services
City Council Partisan Makeup
- 47 Democrats
- 3 Republicans
- 1 Working Families
Borough Members
- 16 Brooklyn
- 14 Queens
- 10 Manhattan
- 8 Bronx
- 3 Staten Island
Leadership information
| Position | Name | Party | Borough | District | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| <tr bgcolor=#DDEEFF> <td> Speaker | A. Gifford Miller | Democratic | Manhattan | 5 (http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nydc/pdf/final_plan/dist05.pdf) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| <tr bgcolor=#DDEEFF> <td> Majority Leader | Joel Rivera | Democratic | Bronx | 15 (http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nydc/pdf/final_plan/dist15.pdf) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| <tr bgcolor=#FFE8E8> <td> Minority Leader | James Oddo | Republican | Staten Island | 50 (http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nydc/pdf/final_plan/dist50.pdf)
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Members of the City Council
Borough BoardsEach Borough has a Borough Board consisting of the Borough President, the City Council members from the borough, and the chair of each of the borough's Community Boards. The Borough Boards meet monthly to serve the needs of the local communities. They may hold public hearings, make inquiries into the performance of public services, and make recommendations about city owned land use and sales within the borough. Community BoardsCommunity Boards are local representative bodies that serve as advocates for New York City communities. There are 59 Community Boards throughout the city, some consisting of as many as 50 members. All Community Board members are appointed by the Borough President of their borough, with half nominated by the Councilmember for their district. Community Board members serve terms of one year without term limits. JudicialThe court system of New York City differs from that of the courts of other counties in New York State. Rather than County Courts, New York City has a special New York City Civil Court, which functions much like the civil jurisdiction of the County Court in other counties of New York State. The difference is the reach of the New York City Civil Court in each county; the court's jurisdiction is extended to the other counties of New York City so that a resident of one county does not have to use the Civil Court of another county. The New York City Civil Court generally has jurisdiction of controversies up to $25,000 and also supervise small claims and housing cases. Each county in New York City also has a Criminal Court that handles lesser criminal cases and family related domestic violence offenses (a shared jurisdiction with Family Court). Unlike other New York State counties, Family Court judges in New York City are not elected, but appointed for terms of ten years by the Mayor. Like all other counties, each New York City county has a sitting Supreme Court. In New York City, Supreme Court handles criminal cases on indictment, which in other counties of the state are handled by the County Court. As in the rest of the state, Supreme Court also handles larger civil cases. Grand juries sit in each of the counties as well. Manhattan and the Bronx are in the first appellate department of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The First Department sits at the Court House on Madison Avenue and 25th Street. Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island (as well as the rest of Long Island and Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland and Orange County) being in the second appellate department. The Second Department sits in Brooklyn at the Court House on Pierrepont Street and Morgan Place. The borough of Brooklyn is also home to the Red Hook Community Justice Center, which opened in 2000 as the nation's first multi-jurisdictional community court which was built with city, state, and federal assistance in an attempt to alleviate the chronic lack of access to justice services in the isolated Red Hook area in Brooklyn. The court combines family court, civil and housing court and minor criminal court functions and takes a community development approach to justice through such programs as the Youth Court where teenagers are trained and act as mediators to help their peers resolve disputes. See also: New York City, History of New York City |