Letter BOE 2014 04 02 BK 2014 FINAL
Letter BOE 2014 04 02 BK 2014 FINAL
Letter BOE 2014 04 02 BK 2014 FINAL
BENJAMIN J. KALLOS
CHAIR Governmental Operations COMMITTEES Land Use State & Federal Legislation Womens Issues SUBCOMMITTEE Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses
April 2, 2014 Mike Ryan, Executive Director New York City Board of Elections 32 - 42 Broadway, 7 Floor New York, NY 10004 Dear Executive Director Ryan,
Thank you for your exhaustive response to the recommendations in the December 2013 Department of Investigations Report on the New York City Board of Elections' Employment Practices, Operations and Election Administration. It is further appreciated that this response was completed prior to the preliminary budget hearing of the Committee on Governmental Operations on March 25, 2014. The Board of Elections response, however, appears to be a written response and not the corrective action plan you agreed to provide within one month during the February 28 joint hearing of the Committees on Governmental Operations and Oversight and Investigation on the Department of Investigations report. The response substantially falls short of what was promised. Instead of addressing the committees extensive and serious concerns, your response defensively refutes the need or utility of many recommendations and fails to provide a compliance plan. While the New York City Board of Elections indicates it is already addressing a number of items in the DOI report, please provide a compliance plan for each individual recommendation, including a strategy and timeline with specific milestones by which to measure your progress. Because it fails to provide corrective action, your response was fundamentally non-compliant. To ensure each item in the DOI report is being addressed within a reasonable time frame, I hereby require that you and your agency appear before me as Chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations each month to report on compliance. Enclosed please also find a list of items you and your agency have agreed to address at the February 28 and March 25th hearings of the Committee on Governmental Operations. Please offer a corrective action plan as discussed during the hearing within one month. Thank you for immediate attention. Regards, Council Member Ben Kallos Chair, Committee on Governmental Operations
BENJAMIN J. KALLOS
DOI's requested Corrective Action Plan to be provided within one month Regular performance evaluations (Already underway) Subscription to Social Security Death Master File (Already underway) Readable font size on ballots (Already underway) Standardized hiring and screening process and providing this publicly and to community Commissioner consideration of Civil Service Exams for employees Report on Ballot Security in Manhattan and corrective actions Commitment to investigate and terminate within rules any employee found to be requiring or punishing political activity Regular updates to committee on progress Posting of all openings Estimate on using DOI background checks Already Proposing Plan to Eliminate Buff Cards Commissioner Determination on Dropping Voters BOE to Provide Dates Certain on: o Improvement to BOE time keeping o Professionalization of training o Hands-on/role play training for poll workers o Privacy screens o Filtering write-in votes
The committee further requested action to move towards: Posting all positions currently posted as PDFs on website in computer readable format Printing Arabic Numeral Birth Date on Voter Roll Cancellation of Deceased Voters Upon Provision of Social Security, Date of Death and Location Ballot Printing in New York City or at DCAS Poll worker certification by task Voter education against "vote down the line"