Dear Lucas,
Government is designed to serve you, not to make your life more difficult. That is why I have spent time as a legislator trying to make the behemoth of city government work better - from disclosing important information, to making it easier for people to get answers that they need.
We have made some progress recently, and I wanted to share that with you:
Making City Licenses and Permits Scannable With a Smartphone
Imagine if you could scan a city permit or license with a smartphone and get more information about what is going on. If you see a restaurant grade of a "B," you (and the restaurant) may want to know what happened in its last inspection. Or, if you see construction work going on late at night, perhaps you want to confirm that such activity is allowed by the permits. The Department of Buildings already has this feature, but we should expand it to all publicly posted permits.
In many cases, there is value for New Yorkers to be able to access information that the city has available right on site. I have a bill (Intro 771) which would require a QR, or "quick response," code on all City-issued permits and licenses that need to be posted publicly. Those QR codes (a box with squiggly lines) can be read by smartphones, and give access to all of the relevant information. The Technology Committee heard the bill on Monday - and we hope to move it for a vote in the City Council. Here is a recent story on this bill.
Tell Mayor Bloomberg that you support transparency, and Intro 771 here .
Why Isn't the City Disclosing the Names of Its Bureaucrats?
Since 1918, New York City has published "the Green Book," an official directory of the people who work in government, including employees in many Mayoral agencies. 90 years later, in June 2008, the Bloomberg Administration simply stopped publishing it without any explanation, but promised that it would be coming soon. Four years later, we still do not have an updated Green Book (which lists George W. Bush as president, and inaccurately lists 23 of the 51 Council Members). I have been pushing the Administration to update the book so that people who need it can have this important resource.
The City this week pledged to not only update the book this spring, but also to make it infinitely more useful by moving the content online.
The New York Times covered this issue on Monday. You can read about it here .
Moving Campaign Finance Reform at the State Level
Equally important to making the day-to-day operations of government more transparent is making sure our elections remain free from abuse. With all of the attention that is being given to independent redistricting, it's important to stay focused on the related issue of campaign finance reform.
Last week, a majority of my colleagues in the City Council joined me in sending a letter to Governor Cuomo in support of his pledge to create a public funding option for New York State elections. While we still don't know how the redistricting debate will turn out, comprehensive campaign finance reform is one way we can protect our elections from abuse.
Here is a recent story about our letter to Governor Cuomo.
Sincerely,
Daniel R. Garodnick
211 East 43rd Street, Suite 1205
New York, NY 10017
(212) 818-0580