Next Speaker of the City Council the Race is On

written by Roseanna Delgado

Last nite the second public forum of th “NYC Council Speaker” Series was held in a packed room at New Settlement Community Campus in Mt. Eden section of the Southwest Bronx.  This series was created by four newly elected members of the city council which are Antonio Reynoso and Carlos Menchaca in Brooklyn, Helen Rosenthal in Manhattan and our Richie Torres from the Bronx. This series was created in the spirit of transparency since the 51 members of the city council, not the voters, will decide on January 8th, 2014 our new City Council Speaker.

City Council Members Jimmy Vacca , Annabel Palma and Melissa Mark-Viverito are three of the six council members running for Speaker and represents districts in the Bronx. The other three candidates are Inez Dickens and Daniel Garodnick in Manhattan and Mark Weprin in Queens.  CM Mark-Viverito’s district is in Manhattan as well as in the Bronx.

Some key differences among the candidates:  CM Melissa Mark-Viverito was the only one who endorsed the newly elected Mayor Bill DeBlasio. CM Weprin, Palma and Dickens endorsed the current speaker Chris Quinn for Mayor and CM Vacca endorsed Bill Thompson. Also CM Inez Dickens and Jimmy Vacca voted in 2009 against a public referendum on term limits and for overturning term limits to 3 terms. While CM Melissa Mark-Viverito. Dan Garodnick and Annabel Palma voted yes for a public referendum and no to overturning term limits.  Mark Weprin was not in the city council in 2009.  Another difference is that Inez Dickens and Jimmy Vacca were not endorsed by the Working families party unlike their other 4 colleagues.

These candidates for speaker are running on their position on members items which is currently distributed by the speaker with no methodology except his/her discretion.  Under the current Speaker Chris Quinn, the members items were used to a reward and punish members.  CM Mark Weprin, Dan Garodnick and Melssia Mark-VIverito support the proposal to give out members items equally or a needs-based formula.  However, CM Jimmy Vacca, Inez Dickens and Annabel Palma do not support taking the Speaker’s funding power but speak of more transparency and fairness.

Even though the voters do not select the new Speaker next year, the open veil in this year selection process is refreshing and informative.  The third forum will be held tonite in Brooklyn at 6pm and the  fourth and last of the series will be televised in Manhattan.  Anyone interested in meeting our next speaker can join either event by clicking on this link here:

http://www.transitforward.org/cc_speaker_series

Update: Jumaane Williams from Brooklyn just twitted his entrance into the race and will attend the Brooklyn forum tonite as a candidate for Speaker

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