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Good Government

As founder of WikiLaw.org, I believe that the Government and its body of law should be transparent for the people it governs. As founder of VoterSearch.org, I believe that protecting your right to vote is essential to an accountable government. As former Co-Chair of Community Board 8's Communication Committee, I worked to open the community board by announcingcommunity board membership applications and ensuring they were widely available at meetings. I have continued my work with Community Board 8's Communication Committee and we have made its television show "Community Board 8 Speaks" available online.

As your City Council member I will continue the work of making City Hall transparent by making its business available online through the web, PDF, podcast, and YouTube like videos. I will openCity Hall by creating NYC.OpenLegislation.org, a local version of OpenCongress.org, where anyone will be able to share their views on all business, in support of the mission of theParticipatory Politics Foundation. City Hall will become accountable to you the people as NYC.OpenLegislation.org, will let you track business before City Hall and how your representative voted on issues of importance to you.

City Council Introduces Resolution Seeking Adoption of Voluntary Reforms by Council and Borough Presidents

 Council Members Ben Kallos, Jimmy Vacca and Mark Levineintroduced a resolution today adopting sweeping reforms to the recruitment and appointment process for community boards and calling on borough presidents to do the same. Resolution 164, co-sponsored by Council Members Danny Dromm, Antonio Reynoso, Carlos Menchaca, Brad Lander, Ydanis Rodriguez, Ritchie Torres and Debi Rose, includes recommendations for instituting member term limits, instituting independent screening panels for applicants and requiring conflict of interest forms of applicants.

Tech Experts Suggest Reforms to NY City Council

New York, New York – Today, technology experts and open data leaders Andrew Rasiej, Noel Hidalgo, John Kaehny and David Moore testified before members of the City Council on innovative technology reforms that will improve the transparency, openness and accountability of the legislative body. The reforms focused on improving legislative transparency, constituent services and the discretionary funding process using technology. 

New York City Council Holds Hearings on NYC Department of Investigations report on the Board of Elections

New York, NY – The New York City Council committees on Governmental Operations and on Oversight and Investigation held a hearing yesterday on the Department of Investigations (DOI) report that opened the public's eyes to the extent of the institutional dysfunction and patronage at the New York City Board of Elections (BOE). That report, New York City Department of Investigation Report on the New York City Board of Elections’ Employment Practices, Operations, and Election Administration, made more than thirty recommendations for the Board to adopt.