Talk:Government of New York City

Political Culture

This is all very formal and does not make any reference to, or link to information about, political machines or even that (for example) Brooklyn was once a city in its own right. It would seem that there ought to be a corresponding and linked Politics of New York City. Is that out there somewhere and I'm just not finding it? -- Jmabel | Talk 21:23, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)

No mention of the elected District Attorneys, 1 for each of the 5 boroughs. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Matthew238 (talk • contribs) 2 Nov 2005.

Jmabel, you make a good point. A "Politics of NYC" subsection should be included here (not in a seperate article). Info on the machines would be interesting. Someone with authority on the city's politics should write it up. Wv235 18:54, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Much of this information is in History of New York City and in the daughter articles referenced therein for more specific time periods. For example, Tammany Hall (the pre-eminent machine) is covered in History of New York City (1855-1897). The article on Government of New York City is thus freed up to cover only current information. JamesMLane t c 21:49, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Even if it's just "see also" material that lets people follow it up, that would be useful. And, admittedly, I haven't lived there in over 25 years, but I can hardly imagine that (in Brooklyn and Queens, especially) machine politics is a purely historical matter. - Jmabel | Talk 18:39, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I think this is a useful section, having tried (without knowing enough or having enough of the right references to back me up) to provide the minimum background (for New York City mayoralty elections) in Characteristics of New York City mayoral elections. I'd be glad to hear from anyone who'd like to collaborate in combining these small (sub-)articles into a start upon which a deeper, richer, more informative treatment can be built. We're slowly building up the statistics, but what those names and numbers mean (e.g. the history of Fusion or the Reform movement) is still pretty sketchy to those not already steeped in the subject. Shakescene (talk) 01:17, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Wards

At some point the the city (or at least Manhattan and Brooklyn) were divided into Wards (3rd Ward, etc). Does anyone have any info about when these were abolished? Sylvain1972 20:13, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Major changes - 7/26/06

I have spent several hours this evening overhauling this article. It needs more work, but it has finally been arranged more coherently. Please refine with detail as you see fit. The daughter articles linking from here need more work in particular. Wv235 00:43, 27 July 1456 (UTC)

Criminal Court System

The page is self-contradictory. In the opening section it says there are separate DA's and separate criminal court systems in the five counties. But in the Judicial Branch section it says there is a single unified criminal court system for the whole of NYC. So which is it? TomH 01:35, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Public Advocate

Was there a charter revision to replace public advocate as next in the line of succession below the mayor? I remember back during Rudy's first rumored Senate run, there was talk that Mark Green would become mayor if Rudy resigned or got elected to Congress. Wl219 14:17, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Do NYC councillors have two year terms or four?

in the second para we are told "Councilors are elected to two year terms"

later on in Government of New York City#Legislative branch we are told "Council members are elected every four years".

Furthermore in New_York_City#Government we are told "councilors are limited to two four-year terms" and in New York City Council we have "Council members are elected every four years, except for two consecutive two year terms every twenty years (starting in 2001 and 2003 and again in 2021 and 2023)".

So what is it?

--Xorkl000 04:20, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

They aren't 'councillors," as this isn't the UK, and it is the last, the second in the main article for the sake of simplicity. The two year term was ended in 1989.HarvardOxon 04:29, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Nearly coterminous?

I thought they were absolutely coterminous. I searched for a few hours for a reference to any sort of overlap between the boroughs/counties as well as Nassau and Westchester and couldn't. Unless anyone disagress and has a source, I'm going to remove the "nearly."Armandtanzarian 22:23, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:22, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

List of Departments and Agencies

There should be mention about the number of agencies and departments the city has (Police, Fire, Correction, HR, Parks, Homeless Services, etc). NYC's government apparatus is massive. An infobox linking to the wiki pages of each of the agencies/departments would organize this page much better. Arnabdas (talk) 15:35, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

My bad, already exists! Maybe an infobox would be good tho at the top of the page. List the current Mayor, City Council, approx employees, budget, and other pertinent info. Arnabdas (talk) 15:45, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Qualifications for serving as mayor?

The article is currently lacking any information on who may run for mayor--are there age limits, residency requirements, etc? The NYC Charter appears to be silent on this. If the answer is there aren't any, that should be stated in the article. Postdlf (talk) 15:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

"Aggressive" public health policy?

I think that the term "aggressive" is rather POV here. Any objections to a change?Jimjamjak (talk) 08:40, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I think maybe a couple of points come into consideration

1. It's possible that "aggressive" might be an attempt at Neutral POV language for "intrusive" or "authoritarian" (sometimes necessary as in Dr Walter Reed's fight against yellow fever and malaria), but
2. this begs the question of how broadly "public health" is construed (in the early 20th century, it meant drastic improvements in housing, sanitation, etc. which were rather different from simple Prohibition), especially if you look at
3. a striking drop in infant mortality I noticed in the Bronx between 1995 and 2005, for which several people, including the past and present mayors, might plausibly claim credit.

This isn't to start a political controversy 11 months before the next municipal elections, but just trying to figure out what the fairest description of Mayor Bloomberg's public-health policy (or sliver of public-health policy) might be. —— Shakescene (talk) 10:11, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Public Advocate

This page currently says "The current Public Advocate is Betsy Gotbaum, a Democrat. She was elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2005." Wasn't Bill deBlasio elected to the position in 2009? I know the public advocate website still says its Gotbaum...but, am I crazy here? I remember that happening. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.225.213.162 (talk) 22:54, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, and Bill de Blasio isn't scheduled to take office until New Year's Day. But the election certainly deserves a mention; thanks for pointing this out. We have pages for New York City Public Advocate and even for the New York City Public Advocate election, 2009.

(Now that the New York City Board of Elections has finally released the borough-by-borough final returns, I plan to download them and convert them to a new table, as I have for the primary elections and for the New York City mayoral election, 2009). —— Shakescene (talk) 23:47, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Executive Branch?

As far as I understand it, the meaning of the term "executive branch" means that every member serves at the pleasure and discretion of the chief executive. The Comptroller and Public Advocate are citywide, like the mayor, but not appointed to him nor do they answer to him. In fact, they basically serve as their own single-body checks to the mayor's policies and the executive agencies. I can't think of an elegant way to break up the structure of the article's sections, but I will suss those out from the bit about the mayor. JesseRafe (talk) 16:55, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Departments still needing articles

• New York City Assessor of the Board of Assessors — Preceding unsigned comment added by Richard_Arthur_Norton_(1958-_) (talk • contribs) 19:26, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

• That would be the New York City Department of Finance. int21h (talk · contribs · email) 02:21, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the redirect! --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 02:48, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

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Budget Charts

Where would be the appropriate place (if any) for the budget charts that show the change in the budget and tax levy, etc?

Such as:

New York City Total Expenditures ($ in millions) (values from https://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/RevenueSpending/RevandExpSummary.xls)

New York City Property Tax as a percent of Expenditures (values from https://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/RevenueSpending/RevandExpSummary.xls)

Thanks Ryozzo (talk) 20:03, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

I don't think it's necessary here, as this approaches news coverage and this article is about the form/function of the government of NYC, not what happens under any given administration. Also, those charts are probably property of the IBO, are you sure you have the permission/right to either post them here or attribute them as your "own work" on Wikimedia? JesseRafe (talk) 20:19, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

Thanks JesseRafe, but the charts are my own creation based on the numbers from their speadsheet. I've asked NYC Independent Office to publish charts instead of requesting users to download a speadsheet (not many people do that :) I believe the information is public and the charts are my creation so I believe I have the right to publish them. If it is not appropriate here, that is fine, but we ought to show it somewhere. Look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:Total_Revenues_and_Outlays_as_Percent_GDP_2017.png as an example. Thanks again for the reply. Ryozzo (talk) 00:20, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

I don't think there is any relevant section of this article that concerns the finances of the city government. I think if there were, these graphs may (or may not, as the case may be) provide illustration, but as it stands, I don't think they would help illustrate anything currently here. I understand that writing a section on the ins and outs of city finances may not be your goal, but I think it's a necessary precursor to these charts. Otherwise there is no context in which to interpret the relevance of these graphs, of which I assume there are hundreds if not thousands from which to choose. We have a section on heraldry (very much outside the scope of the government's form or organization, or even function), so a section on finances would be welcome indeed. int21h (talk · contribs · email) 14:52, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Merge Child Welfare Board

Recommending that Child Welfare Board be merged somewhere, possibly here. I'm not that familiar with the structure of NYC government, so another article may be a better target. -Apocheir (talk) 16:03, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

If there was one board for each county of the state, as the article suggests, it might fit better in a New York State related article. Station1 (talk) 18:52, 17 October 2021 (UTC)