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Yetta Kurland Responds to Proposed Legislation to Eliminate the Office of Public Advocate
Seems Simcha Felder wants to eliminate the office of Public Advocate. Because, you know, the people of NYC don't really need someone like, ADVOCATING for them in light of just how honest and fair all our politicians are.
This response comes from Yetta Kurland's campaign for City Council:
Kurland condemns efforts to eliminate Office of Public Advocate calling on New Yorkers to stop these efforts by voting for new leadership to create local change in City Government in the Democratic Primary on September 15th
New York, NY. July 29, 2009. Yetta Kurland running to unseat Christine Quinn in the 3rd District in the upcoming Democratic Primary with a message of restoring the voice of her community to local government, blasted legislation proposed today to eliminate the position of Public Advocate from New York City Government.
"This is yet another insult to New Yorkers who deserve advocacy and public service in their government. It is also a serious blow to the democratic process in this City which has already been compromised by an uncomfortable closeness between the Mayor and the City Council Speaker. The Mayor represents the executive branch and the Speaker should represent the legislative branch. There should be a checks and balances between these branches, and the Public Advocate Office is another important check in the much needed balance of power in City Hall.
"It is no coincidence that this effort comes from the very same people who extended terms limits for their own self interest in stark opposition to public opinion last Fall."
The sponsor of the bill, Simcha Felder, is a close ally of Speaker Christine Quinn who led the vote to extend term limits. Felder also voted to extend term limits. Betsy Gotbaum the current Public Advocate opposed the extension and then came out publicly to claim that the unprecedented cut of her budget by 40% was political retaliation for her stance on the term limits debate.
I am not surprised that Quinn is helping Bloomberg (who never liked ANY checks or balances on his power) to eliminate one of the few even small check on mayoral control of everything under the sun.
Re: Yetta Kurland Responds to Proposed Legislation to ...
I was very pleased that Democracy for NYC gave a big endorsement to Yetta's campaign. She's doing an excellent job of getting around the district (something the current incumbent hasn't done much over the past few years).
Yetta's "State of the District" address - actually a list of things she wants to do for the district once in office - was quite good, and since she did hers I've seen a number of other candidates announce similar speeches.
This announcement shows Yetta's understanding of the "bigger issues" that elected officials also have to deal with. It will be good to have more elected officials who, once in office, spend less time trying to claw their way up the political power ladder and more time helping their communities.