The city’s Board of Elections on Tuesday approved putting housing measures to fast-track development on the November ballot, after Gov. Hochul — who has the power to remove BOE commissioners — got involved in the matter.
The ballot proposals, which were pushed forward by Mayor Adams’ Charter Revision Commission, have been at the center of a fight between the Council and the mayor, as the Council would stand to lose some authority over new housing developments if the questions are adopted by voters.
Council leadership had pushed for the BOE to stop the questions from appearing on the ballot, arguing they were misleadingly worded. Among other reforms, the mayor’s ballot proposals would allow developers of some housing projects to bypass Council review in the city’s land-use process.
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, members of Gov. Hochul’s staff called BOE commissioners directly, urging them to approve the mayor’s ballot questions, according to sources directly familiar with the outreach.
Specifically, the sources confirmed Karen Persichilli Keogh, Hochul’s top aide, spoke to Frank Seddio, the BOE’s Democratic Brooklyn commissioner who had previously voiced concern about the mayor’s ballot proposals being worded in a “misleading” way.
After speaking to the Hochul adviser, Seddio voted to approve the ballot proposals at Tuesday’s meeting. The proposals passed by a vote of 7 to 1 overall, with two BOE commissioners absent.
“I’m glad the Board of Elections listened to the voices of New Yorkers — myself included — who want to see these critical initiatives brought to voters in November,” Hochul said in a statement after the vote.
Nonetheless, late Monday night, Seddio adamantly denied to the Daily News that he had spoken to Persichilli Keogh. He said The News could instead write about the size of his manhood.
New York Daily News
Frank Seddio. (New York Daily News)
During Tuesday’s board meeting, Seddio repeated the same denial to reporters, saying he hadn’t spoken to anyone from the governor’s office about the ballot questions before the vote.
“Trying to deceive voters into giving away their power in a democracy through misleading ballot proposals that hide their true impact is fundamentally undemocratic,” Julia Agos, a spokesperson for the Council Democrats, said in a statement after the meeting.
Mayor Adams called the Council’s push for the killing of the proposals an “illegal attempt to usurp democracy.”
“New Yorkers prevailed,” Adams said in a statement. “I am pleased that the Board of Elections did not bend to pressure and did the right thing by following the law, allowing New Yorkers to vote on important proposals to address our city’s historic housing crisis.”
Ahmit Singh Bagga, director of YES on Affordable Housing, a PAC formed in support of the proposals, said housing advocates scuttled a “Trumpian, too-cute-by-half attempt to rob democracy from the hands of New Yorkers” by the BOE.
