This Tuesday, July 22, at 11:00 a.m., on the steps of City Hall -- Democracy for NYC is holding a press conference to announce that the "Clean Money, Clean Elections" act will be introduced into the New York City Council.

Please join us at City Hall for the press conference; we need everyone who can make it to show support for real campaign finance reform.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at dan@danjacoby.com.

Josh Skaller, who is a friend of mine, has reported his recent fundraising results for the 2009 City Council race to replace Bill deBlasio:

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—Officials from Josh Skaller's City Council campaign announced today that the candidate had exceeded fundraising targets for the filling period ending July 15 and is eligible for matching funds from the City.

Skaller, who is running to replace term-limited Councilmember Bill de Blasio in the Council's 39th district, raised nearly $55,000 to date. He is eligible to receive an additional $90,000 in matching funds in 2009.

"We've exceeded all of our goals for this period," said campaign treasurer Aaron Rudelson. "Josh has already qualified for the full amount of matching funds from the city, both in money raised and in in-district donations."

The campaign noted that many of the donations were raised in small amounts from voters throughout the 39th district, which stretches from Cobble Hill in the north to Borough Park in the south, and includes such diverse Brooklyn neighborhoods as Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens and Kensington.

Two years ago, I lived through the nine-day blackout here in western Queens. Little did I know that there was a bill in the City Council, introduced by Gale Brewer, that could have helped us avoid that mess. What's worse, even though the bill is a virtual no-brainer, here we sit two years later, and the bill is still on the ash heap.

Well, I'm taking it off the ash heap.

It is "Intro 264" (you can see the text here, it's very short). Basically, the bill would require businesses to keep their doors and windows shut while the air conditioner is running. That's it!

What would be the effect? The major effect is that demand for electricity, which stresses Con Ed to the limit, would drop -- and would drop the most during times of peak demand, when we most need the help.

Okay, there are some details that need to be worked out so that small businesses don't get hit too hard while large retail stores don't care. But we're fixing that. Meanwhile...

When Councilmember Dennis Gallagher resigned in disgrace, it set up a special election for his seat. The district encompasses much of west-central Queens.

Under the rules, the special election is officially nonpartisan, and party affiliations are not listed on the ballot, but the party affiliations of the candidates are well known. Four candidates qualified for the ballot, two Republicans and two Democrats.

The Republicans are: Tom Ognibene, who held the seat in the 90s before being term-limited out; and Anthony Como (the party favorite), a City Board of Elections commissioner and aide to Serphin Maltese. Both have considerable baggage.

The Democrats are: Elizabeth Crowley, who ran in 2001 and is a cousin of Congressmember and Democratic county leader Joseph Crowley; and Charles Ober, president of the Ridgewood Democratic Club and a long-time community activist.

Five weeks ago, the New York Post broke a story that millions of tax dollars were officially earmarked by the City Council to nonexistent accounts so that they could be allocated later to legitimate nonprofit organizations. The idea was that since all funding is required to be made at the beginning of a fiscal year, and many groups don’t know how much they’ll need six, eight, or ten months in advance, some system needed to be created to make that money available.

There’s not much new. Different kinds of phony allocations have been used for decades for the same purpose. It is becoming clear that there was never any intent to deceive, or to send money to groups that don’t meet whatever set of official criteria is in place for such “member items.”

Of course, the widening investigation has turned up a number of these earmarks that have at least the appearance of favoritism or conflict of interest, and two City Council staffers have been arrested for stealing some of this money. But that’s not the real problem, and until we identify and fully address the real problem, what we’re seeing now will reappear again and again.

The real problem is

With the resignation of Councilmember Dennis Gallagher after pleading guilty in a sexual assault case, a special election for the 30th District seat (Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale, Richmond Hill) will be held on June 3. In a special election for city offices there are no primaries and no nominations, and all candidates are on the ballot as themselves alone, with no official party affiliation.

But...

Both parties have made it clear whom they are supporting. Of the three Republicans in the race, the party is supporting Anthony Como, a Board of Elections commissioner and aide to state Senator Serphin Maltese. Former Councilmember Tom Ognibene is running for his old seat (he was term-limited out in 2001). Also in the race is Joseph Suraci, who is pissed off at the party for passing over him for a Civil Court judgeship five years ago.

Read on for where it gets ugly...

When I was growing up, I was taught that a legislative body made up entirely, or almost entirely, of members of one ruling party, whose leaders are chosen by a few unelected party "leaders," was the kind of bad thing they did in the Soviet Union.

Welcome to the New York City Council!

With today's expected resignation of Dennis Gallagher, the special election that will be held in May may reduce the Republicans to two seats out of 51. Granted, in New York City, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5.5 to 1, it stands to reason that a truly representative legislature will be overwhelmingly Democratic. But when all but two or three of the 51 seats are one-party, there is no chance for an opposing viewpoint to be heard.

But wait, there's more!

There's a pothole on my block.

Okay, that's not news. There are potholes all over the city, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) isn't doing much to fix them. What makes this one special is that tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 20) at 1:00 pm we're going to have a press conference about this particular pothole.

Some local residents, who were sick of being awakened in the middle of the night when a truck would hit the pothole and make a racket, and who complained over and over with no result, decided to take matters into their own hands. They bought some cement and filled in the pothole by themselves. The job wasn't exactly professional, but everyone was able to sleep at night. Meanwhile, potholes all over the city are causing noise and damaging cars and trucks, costing a LOT of money.

Council Member Darlene Mealy has a bill (Intro 614) that would require the DOT to fill every pothole within three days of being informed that it exists. Currently, over 1/3 of potholes aren't fixed in a month. Anyone interested in attending the press conference should e-mail me; I'd love to have a big crowd.

While most of the country thinks 2008 is THE BIG YEAR for elections, New York City knows the really, REALLY big year will be 2009. Term limits is forcing out many city council reps, and all those term limited reps are looking to mob the runs for mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, etc. Some may be eyeing the Congressional seats that might get freed up when Congressional reps run for the Senate seat Clinton will vacate if she wins the Presidency.

But there is another mob of candidates: those trying to replace those term limited City Council candidates.

To date I have met scattered candidates for various City Council seats, including Costa Constantinides (who is on the steering committee of the Democratic Lawyers Council working on voting rights and is running in Astoria, Queens...with the name to match the district) and Steve Behar (running in district 19 in Queens).

But to date I have yet to have the chance to review the whole field running for a seat.

Last week Joy and I had a fundraiser for our friend, Josh Skaller. He actually had two parties that night, raising some $1500 that night, I am told. I suspect my party was the lesser of the two...but sounds like a good night overall for a solid grassroots candidate. For those who missed it, here is ANOTHER chance to meet Josh:

Come to a House Party for Josh Skaller, a Progressive Voice for City Council

Host: Wayne Brooks
Location: Wayne's apartment
262 Court Street #2/Butler Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 US
When: Sunday, January 27, 3:00PM
Phone: 347-645-0581

Dear Friends,

I'm having a house party at my apartment for my good friend Josh Skaller, who is running for City Council in Brooklyn's 39th District in 2009.

Josh is running for what will be an open seat now held by Bill de Blasio. The district covers much of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens, along with parts of Windsor Terrace and Kensington.

Josh is President of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), one of the most dynamic and influential political reform groups in New York. He also serves as a board member and field director for DFNYC (Democracy for New York City).