Changing the Rules of New York City: A Guide to the 2019 Charter Review

Every so often, New York City's politicians decide that the rules and parameters of local government need to be tweaked through a charter revision.

"The city Charter is basically the New York City version of the Constitution," said City & State reporter Rebecca C. Lewis to WNYC's Jami Floyd. "It's just much easier to change it."

New York City mayors have traditionally been the driving force behind revisions to the city charter, sometimes for explicitly political reasons. Other proposals have been drafted in response to a mandate from City Hall, such as Mayor Bill de Blasio's 2018 push to improve democracy and civic engagement.

This year, the Charter Revision Commission was formed by City Council members and former Public Advocate Letitia James. The group is currently finalizing 20 charter changes for voters to consider in November, some of which could substantially transform life in the five boroughs. One of the most radical is ranked choice voting, a new approach to how local elections are decided.

"When you go into the ballot box, instead of just putting one person's name down, you rank your choices," said Lewis.

If a winner is not declared in the initial round of tallying up first choices, the lowest vote-earner is eliminated. The ballots that listed that candidate as their first choice are redistributed to the second or third-preference candidates until a winner is decided.

"It's supposed to ensure trust in the process," said Lewis. "Instead of just saying my person didn't win, you can say, well, my second choice won. I had a voice in that."

The commission is also considering changes to the Civilian Complaint Review Board (the NYPD watchdog agency), the land use process and how various budgets are decided. 

The final public meeting for the 2019 Commission is 6 p.m. Thursday, July 24 at City Hall.