Question

4. What's the process in proposing changes to the NYC Charter? In your own words, please do not copy and paste.

Answer 1

Answer:-

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The charter document is a legally planned and agreed document which outlines the planned activity for any particular aspiration. This document governs the framework within which the city operates. It defines organization, power, functions and aspects that are required to run the city successfully in a sustained manner. The city charter document has been used since early days to capture all the ideas from the public and document the proposal which will be implemented as part of the municipality. If we look specifically at NYC charter we can see that there have been multiple revisions to the same under guidance of different senior stakeholders.

The NYC charter revision committee reviews the charter and holds discussions with the general public to carry out the implementation of successful ideas. During this discussion, inputs are taken from the members in a public hearing and all the major initiatives or proposed changes are put down to ballot. If the voters approve any of the suggested changes the same is put for approvals. The public hearings can be done in multiple rounds and based on the recommendations from the public only the best initiatives that are agreed by majority of the participants are put down to ballot. The hearings can be done in many forms- recently community boards were used to jot down ideas in NYC.

Another way of proposing changes is through submission of charter amendments petitions. The amendment petition is direct lawmaking done by local voters to request in making changes to charter documents. After an amendment petition is made, it can be adopted only after majority of the qualified voters agree on amending the clause, statue or proposal. In few regions, if there is a minimum number of votes already pre-approved then it can be considered for direct amendment rather than going through a detailed voting process. Most of the amendment petitions have placed certain restrictions stating that the charter can be altered or amended once every two years. If the minimum required votes are obtained, the voting will be done in presence of city council and if majority approves it, changes are made in the city charter.

Another method to submit petition for change in city charter is by submission of citizen petition for submittal directly to the voters at an election. If the petition receives a certain percentage of the total registered voters, then it can processed for passing directly. If such a petition is submitted, the City Council can either adopt or pass the proposed change as requested by the petitioners or they can call a special election in accordance with the city rules and legislations, submit the proposal to the voters for consideration.