Tweed
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010
NYC Elections Head Dumped
Celeste Katz of the Daily News is out early with the story that the Executive Director of the NYC Board of Elections, George Gonzalez, has been dumped by his board after just a few months on the job. And what a few months it has been -- primary day chaos, accusations of improper placement of a Council candidate on the ballot in Queens, incorrect instructions for the November ballot, and most recently the acquisition of 200k in new furniture after protesting to the city council that the agency does not have enough money to operate. Why is this story of even greater interest to Bronxites? It was Bronx County boss Carl Heastie (and his pal Jeff Dinowitz) who put George there. Out of 1.4 million people in our borough, we could not come up with someone more competent?
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Remember that Mayor Bloomberg called the Primary Day chaos “a royal screw-up.” I say that the real royal screw-ups are the guys that put Gonzalez there in the first place: Carl Heastie & Jeffrey Dinowitz!
ReplyDeleteConan O'Brien just announced his first week of guests for his upcoming TBS late-night talk show.
ReplyDeleteThe Bronx Dems should now get rid of Stanley Schlein, then Jeffrey Dinowitz, and then Ruben Diaz (both Jr. and Sr.).
ReplyDeleteI’m from Washington State, and I think that the NYC Board of Elections should be replaced with the system that is used by many cities in the Pacific Northwest.
ReplyDeleteFor example, create a 7-member city election commission and select the members as follows:
[A] 3 members appointed by the mayor subject to confirmation by the city council;
[B] 3 members appointed by a two-thirds vote of the city council;
[C] 1 member (the seventh member) appointed by the other 6 members, subject to confirmation by the city council.
[D] The mayor selects the chairman of the commission from among the 7 members.
Hi Anonymous from Washington State:
ReplyDeleteI don't see how your suggestion is much better than the Board of Elections we currently have in New York City (10 commissioners appointed by the City Council upon the recommendation of the two major political parties in the 5 boroughs).
The problem isn't really the method of appointment. The problem is that the people who get elected to the City Council are such knuckleheads. If we elected better Council Members then we would have better appointees to the Board of Elections.
LOL ..... How about former CA Governor George Deukmejian for Executive Director of the NYC Board of Elections? We could get real west coast, real 1980s and real Republican.
ReplyDeleteAt least the Washington State example would give the mayor more influence, and therefore more responsibility, in the way things go at the board of elections.
ReplyDeleteI thought Tony had the market cornered re: incompetent appointments!
ReplyDeleteQuestion for The Honorable Anthony P. Cassino, Commissioner, NYC Charter Revision Commission: Did the charter commission ever consider things like revamping the way the NYC Board of Elections is appointed and administered???
ReplyDeleteAll you people always complain that the politicians are horrible (and they certainly are), but none of you ever come out in enough numbers to vote the bastards out of office. If the electorate doesn't bother to show up, they can't legitimately complain about the choices made by the tiny minority that does vote. Let's face it, if you don't bother to vote then politically you don't really matter.
ReplyDeletegood question anon at 8:34--but the charter commission did not consider changes to the nyc board of elections because it is entirely within the purview of the state. city charter has no control over the appointment process and its administration at the BOE. so that cesspool up in Albany has to address the problems there and it never will because the BOE is the last great patronage mill.
ReplyDelete