NYC Mayor de Blasio's Latino Appointments: An Update
The NiLP Network on Latino Issues (May 19, 2014)
After close to Five months in office, Latinos continue to be the most underrepresented group in NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's Administration. As of May 16th, Latinos made up 19 of the 124 Mayoral appointments (15 percent of the total) that we could identify, while making up 29 percent of the city's population. The ratio of this percentage to their share of the population starkly illustrates the disparity.
In comparison to the city's other major racial-ethnic groups, Latinos find themselves underrepresented in terms of both their share of the population and city government work force.
At this point, Latinos have only been appointed to eight city agencies of the 39 or more that exist.
In terms of policymaking titles, Latinos were best represented as Boardmembers, Chiefs of Staff and Deputy Mayors, but most underrepresented as Commissioners/Chancellor, Directors/General Managers, and none in the positions of Chairs, Presidents and Senikor/Special Advisors.
On the positive side, the Latino appointments are the most female of the major racial-ethnic groups, addressing the long-term problem of the underrepresentation of women in policymaking positions in the Latino community.
The following tables lists the publicly-announced Latino appointments made to date by Mayor de Blasio.
Discussion
In order to address the issue of Latino underrepresentation in the de Blasio appointment process and in the general municipal work force, the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) convened a citywide briefing of Latino community leaders on April 8th to discuss the problem and strategies for addressing it. The result was the formation of a Working Group for Fair Latino Representation. This Working Group has been working on a series of recommendations for improving the appointments process and the city government's general equal employment opportunity policies and practices to promote greater Latino inclusion at all levels of the municipal work force. This has involved a process of consulting with key members of the de Blasio Administration and the Latino members of his Transition Team, as well as with the office of the NYC Council Speaker on the issues involved. The Working Group has designated a Negotiating Team that will be calling for a meeting personally with Mayor de Blasio and his senior staff to discuss our concerns and propose solutions. This Negotiating Team includes: Janet Alvarez, Angelo Falcón, Miguel A. Garcia, Jr., David Lopez, Anthony Miranda, Antonio Rivera, Jr., and José R. Sánchez.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
The NiLP Network on Latino Issues is an online information services provided by the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP). NiLP has been regularly monitoring and reporting on NYC Mayor de Blasio's appointments process since his election last year. For further information, visit our website at www.latinopolicy.org.