Borough President
Borough President (informally BP, or Beep in slang) is an elective office in each of the five boroughs of New York City.
Reasons for Establishment
Prior to May 4, 1897, the city was conterminous with New York County, which at that time included all of Manhattan, and the Bronx. As of that date, the Boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx and Richmond (Staten Island) were created. Brooklyn was coterminous with Kings County, the Borough of Queens with Queens County, the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx with New York County, and the Borough of Richmond with Richmond County. At that time, Queens County included all of what today is known as Nassau County.They assumed most county functions, but did not replace them[1].
The offices of borough president were created by charter in 1898 with the formation of the City of Greater New York, to preserve (in a later writer's words) “local pride and affection for the old municipalities” after consolidation[2].
On January 1, 1899, Queens County was partitioned. The easternmost Vorlage:Convert was transferred to form Nassau County, which terminated its connection with New York City[3].
On April 19, 1912, the New York State Legislature separated the County of Bronx (which began separate activity in January 1914) from the County of New York, which now became coextensive with the Borough of Manhattan. [4].
Role of The Borough President
To balance local authority along with the centralization of government, the Office of Borough President was established with a functional administrative role derived by having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. The Board of Estimate consisted of the Mayor, the Comptroller and the President of the New York City Council, each of whom were elected citywide and had two votes, and the five Borough presidents, each having one vote.
In 1989, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris declared the New York City Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that the city's most populous borough (Brooklyn) had no greater effective representation on the board than the city's least populous borough (Staten Island), this arrangement being an unconstitutional violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision (Reynolds v. Sims). [5].
The city charter was revised in 1990 and the Board of Estimate was abolished. The Office of Borough President was retained but with greatly reduced power. The borough budget reverted to the mayor or the New York City Council. A Borough President has a small discretionary budget to spend on projects within the borough. The last significant power of the borough presidents—to appoint a member of the Board of Education —was abolished, with the board, on June 30, 2002.
The two major remaining appointments of a Borough President are one member of the city Planning Commission and one member of the Panel for Educational Policy. Borough Presidents generally adopt specific projects to promote while in office; but, since 1990, Borough Presidents have been seen mainly as the ceremonial leaders of their boroughs. Officially, they advise the Mayor on issues relating to each borough, comment on all land-use items in their borough, advocate borough needs in the annual municipal budget process, appoint Community Boards, chair the Borough Boards, and serve as ex officio members of various boards and committees They generally act as advocates of their boroughs at the mayoral agencies, the city council, the New York State government, public corporations and private businesses.
Borough presidents are elected to four-year terms.
As of 2007, the borough presidents are:
- The Bronx : Adolfo Carrión Jr. (D)
- Brooklyn : Marty Markowitz (D)
- Manhattan : Scott Stringer (D)
- Queens : Helen Marshall (D)
- Staten Island : James Molinaro (R/C)
Borough Boards
Each Borough has a Borough Board consisting of the Borough President, the City Council members from the borough, and the chair of each of the borough's Community Boards. The Borough Boards meet monthly to serve the needs of the local communities. They may hold public hearings, make inquiries into the performance of public services, and make recommendations about city owned land use and sales within the borough.
Community Boards
See also:
- Bronx Community Boards
- Brooklyn Community Boards
- Manhattan Community Boards
- Queens Community Boards
- Staten Island Community Boards
New York City is divided into 59 administrative districts, each served by a Community Board. Community Boards are local representative bodies that serve as advocates for New York City residents and communities. Each board has up to 50 voting members, with one half of the membership appointed each year for two-year terms; there are no term limits. Additionally, all city council members whose council districts cover part of a community district are ex-officio board members and may participate in all board activities. However, council members may not vote on board issues. Borough presidents appoint the voting Community Board members, with half of the appointees nominated by council members representing the district in proportion to the percentage of the community board's population they represent. Broadly assigned by the city charter to "Consider the needs of the district which it serves," the boards have been limited in their ability by ineffective local communication channels, minuscule budgets and archaic technology. As a result, many residents have concluded that they have little impact on the operation of their communities or their lives. The BeyondVoting Wiki and the Community-Based Planning Task Force have begun to address the limitations. See Queens Community Board 3's website for an example of a typical board's operation and efforts to improvement neighborhoods.
List of Bronx Borough Presidents
| # | Name | Party | Term † |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vorlage:Right | Louis F. Haffen (1854-1935) | Democratic | 1898 - August 1909 |
| Vorlage:Right | John F. Murray (1862-1928) | Democratic | August 1909 - 1910 |
| Vorlage:Right | Cyrus C. Miller (?1867-1956) | Democratic | 1910 - 1914 |
| Vorlage:Right | Douglas Mathewson (?1870-1948) | Republican/Fusion | 1914 - 1918 |
| Vorlage:Right | Henry Bruckner (1871-1942) | Democratic | 1918 - 1934 |
| Vorlage:Right | James J. Lyons (1890-1966) | Democratic | 1934 - 1962 |
| Vorlage:Right | Joseph F. Periconi (1910-1994) | Republican/Liberal | 1962 - 1966 |
| Vorlage:Right | Herman Badillo (1929- ) | Democratic | 1966 – 1970 |
| Vorlage:Right | Robert Abrams (1938- ) | Democratic | 1970 - 1979 |
| Vorlage:Right | Stanley Simon | Democratic | 1979 - April 1987 |
| Vorlage:Right | Fernando Ferrer (1950- ) | Democratic | April 1987 - 2002 |
| Vorlage:Right | Adolfo Carrión, Jr. (?1961- ) | Democratic | 2002 - |
† Terms begin and end in January where the month is not specified.
List of Brooklyn Borough Presidents
| # | Name | Party | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edward M. Grout (unknown) | Democratic | 1898–1901 |
| 2 | Edward J. Swanstrom (unknown) | unknown | 1902-1903 |
| 3 | Martin W. Littleton (1872-1934) | Democratic | 1904–1905 |
| 4 | Bird S. Coler (1867-1941) | Democratic | 1906-1909 |
| 5 | Alfred E. Steers (unknown) | Democratic | 1910-1913 |
| 6 | Lewis H. Pounds (1861-1947) | Republican | 1913-1917 |
| 7 | Edward J. Riegelmann (1870-1941) | Democratic | 1918-1924 |
| 8 | Joseph A. Guider (unknown) | Democratic | 1925-1926 |
| 9 | James J. Byrne (unknown) | Democratic | 1926-1930 |
| 10 | Henry Hesterberg (?-1950) | Democratic | 1930-1933 |
| 11 | Raymond V. Ingersoll (1875-1940) | Democratic | 1934-1940 |
| 12 | John Cashmore (1895-1961) | Democratic | 1940-1961 |
| 13 | John F. Hayes (1915-2001) | Democratic | 1961 |
| 14 | Abe Stark (1894-1972) | Democratic | 1962-1970 |
| 15 | Sebastian Leone (unknown) | Democratic | 1970–1976 |
| 16 | Howard Golden (unknown) | Democratic | 1977–2002 |
| 17 | Marty Markowitz (1945-) | Democratic | 2002– |
List of Manhattan Borough Presidents
| # | Name | Party | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Augustus Peters (unknown) | unknown | 1898-1899 |
| 2 | James J. Coogan (unknown) | unknown | 1899-1901 |
| 3 | Jacob A. Cantor (1854-1921) | Democratic | 1902–1903 |
| 4 | John Ahearn (1853-1920) | Democratic | 1904–1909 |
| 5 | John Cloughen (unknown) | unknown | 1909 |
| 6 | George McAneny (1869-1953) | Fusion/Democrat | 1910–1913 |
| 7 | Marcus M. Marks (1858-) | unknown | 1914–1917 |
| 8 | Frank Dowling (unknown) | unknown | 1918–1919 |
| 9 | Edward F. Boyle (unknown) | unknown | 1919 |
| 10 | Michael Loughman (unknown) | unknown | 1919 |
| 11 | Henry H. Curran (unknown) | Republican | 1920–1921 |
| 12 | Julius Miller (1880-1955) | Democratic | 1922–1930 |
| 13 | Samuel Levy (unknown) | Democratic | 1931–1937 |
| 14 | Stanley M. Isaacs (unknown) | Republican | 1938–1941 |
| 15 | Edgar J. Nathan (-1965) | Republican | 1942–1945 |
| 16 | Hugo Rogers (1899-1974) | Democratic | 1946–1949 |
| 17 | Robert F. Wagner, Jr. (1910-1991) | Democratic | 1950–1953 |
| 18 | Hulan E. Jack (1906-1986) | Democratic | 1954–1961 |
| 19 | Edward R. Dudley (1911-2005) | Democratic | 1961–1964 |
| 20 | Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005) | Democratic | 1965–1966 |
| 21 | Percy Sutton (1920-) | Democratic | 1966–1977 |
| 22 | Andrew Stein (1945-) | Democratic | 1978–1985 |
| 23 | David Dinkins (1927-) | Democratic | 1986–1989 |
| 24 | Ruth Messinger (1941-) | Democratic | 1990–1997 |
| 25 | C. Virginia Fields (1946-) | Democratic | 1998–2005 |
| 26 | Scott Stringer (1960-) | Democratic | 2006– |
List of Queens Borough Presidents
- Frederick Bowley 1898-1901
- Joseph Cassidy 1902-05
- Joseph Bermel 1906-08
- Lawrence Gresser 1908-11
- Maurice E. Connolly 1911-28
- Bernard M. Patten 1928
- George U. Harvey 1929-41
- James A. Burke 1942-49
- Maurice A. FitzGerald 1950-51
- Joseph F. Mafera 1951
- James A. Lundy 1952-57
- James J. Crisona 1958-59
- John T. Clancy 1959-62
- Mario J. Cariello 1963-68
- Sidney Leviss 1969-71
- Donald Manes 1971-86
- Claire Shulman 1986-2001
- Helen M. Marshall 2002-
List of Richmond/Staten Island Borough Presidents
- George Cromwell 1898-1913
- Charles J. McCormack 1914-15
- Calvin D. Van Namee 1915-21
- Matthew J. Cahill 1922
- John A. Lynch 1922-33
- Joseph A. Palma 1934-45
- Cornelius A. Hall 1946-53
- Edward G. Baker 1953-54
- Albert V. Maniscalo 1955-65
- Robert T. Connor 1966-77
- Anthony Gaeta 1977-84
- Ralph J. Lamberti 1984-89
- Guy V. Molinari 1990-2001
- James Molinaro 2002-
See also
References
- ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1897, 120th Session, Chapter 378; Section 2; Page 2.
- ↑ Kenneth T. Jackson: The Encyclopedia of New York City. The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press, New York, NY 1995, ISBN 0-300-05536-6, S. 129–130.
- ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1899, 121st Session, Chapter 588; Section 1; Page 1336.
- ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1912, 135th Session, Chapter 548; Section 1; Page 1352.
- ↑ Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, accessed June 12, 2006