(Note: These Are NYC Voter Initiative Subjects Being Considered
911PetitionTopics090307C.doc F Dr. 10pm
Petition Topics – draft C
(Note: these are NYC Voter Initiative Subjects Being Considered
by Attorney Carl E. Person and the NYC 911 Initiative for
Voter Adoption as NYC Statutes – the Underlying Idea Is
to Have 30 Different Voter Groups Get Behind Their Own
Petition and then Get Help from the Other 29 Groups – pursuant to
the Idea Underlying “e Pluribus Unum” (or “From Many Comes One”)
1..NYC is prohibited from adopting or operating under any type of “Congestion pricing” plan for charging drivers or owners of trucks, automobiles or other vehicles, or of individuals, to come into any one or more defined areas of Manhattan or any other borough, and is further prohibited from participating in any plan involving NYC adopted or administered by any federal or regional agency or port authority or any regional planning association. Any plan for “Congestion Pricing” appears to be an unconstitutional tariff, head tax, charge or fee for the movement of goods and people in interstate commerce and an unconstitutional denial of equal protection to enter and use publicly-owned space and facilities on terms equal to individuals and corporations already living or having their location in such area.
2..NYC is prohibited from requiring any license or liability insurance coverage for any one or more persons, acting individually or as a group in, in a period of less than 24 hours at any one location (in an area not exceeding 1 square mile), in exercising their First Amendment rights in any of the following ways: (i) by using video, film, camera, sound, lighting or other devices in the making of any feature film, documentary, news clip, music video, or other film, video or sound work, whether for radio, television, cable, satellite, Internet, blog, street or street fair distribution or other way of distribution of the resulting work; (ii) by public demonstration; (iii) by gathering in any theatres, assembly halls, churches, schools or other private or public places where people can gather to exchange ideas; (iv) by marching, parades; motor vehicle, taxicab, bicycle, motorcycle, pedicab, truck, human or other group amassing or moving in demonstration of one or more common ideals or purposes; and (iv) any other demonstrations or attempts to exercise the right to free speech and petition government for a redress of grievances.
3..It shall be unlawful to withdraw any driver’s license, chauffeur’s license or other license or permit issued to a taxicab driver or other professional driver (such as a truck driver or black car driver or private chauffeur) if the number of points for moving violations (or the number of points for non-moving violations) against the driver is (a) less than 3 times the number of points at which a license or permit would be terminated or suspended for a typical non-professional driver or (b) x times such number of points where x is equal to the driver’s annual driving mileage for the past 36 months divided by 25,000, whichever number is greater. Thus, professional drivers are to have 3 times as many points (or if they drive 250,000 miles per year – 10 times as many points as non-professional drivers before they can lose their driver’s license and right to earn a living.
4..No taxi cab or black car driver or owner operating in any part of NYC shall be required by NYC or any agency thereof to buy, lease, install, operate or use a global positioning system in any taxicab, black car or other livery vehicle. Any such use shall be permitted and the driver or owner shall be allowed to advertise the availability of a GPS device and to advertise and charge a premium for one-ride use (not to exceed $1.00 for the ride or 10% of the total fare, whichever is greater, to be added to the total amount displayed on the meter. Taxi drivers and owners are encouraged to use a GPS device to identify potholes in the NYC streets and work with independent Repairers to have the potholes repaired under any pothole repair compensation program of NYC described in a different voter initiative.
5..No eminent domain for non-public use
6..Create elective attorney general for each borough
7..Decrease space between parking meters to increase number of parking spaces and to encourage motorists to buy smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, and reduce the number of large parking spaces to require an increased number of users of large, fuel inefficient vehicles to park in commercial parking lots.
8..Decrease space at hydrants from 15 feet to 3 feet, to increase the number of parking spaces in New York City by several hundred thousand.
9..Allow voters to ticket police, tow trucks, and other NYC officials for parking violations
10..Require prosecutors to be subject to random audit by NYS attorney general or any NYC or borough attorney general
11..Post all expenditures by each NYC agency on a NYC website including date of payment, agency and person authorizing payment, payee, person controlling payee, amount of payment, contract under which payment made, total amount paid to such person during past year, and total amount paid under such contract
12..Deem all licensing applications automatically approved if not rejected in 21 days and an automatic evidentiary hearing in the civil court for the applicant’s county in NYC no later than 14 days after any rejection, with all court filing fees to be paid by NYC
13..Eliminate all maximum age requirements for hiring by any NYC governmental agency
14..Require City Council to give equal vote and say to each City Council member
15..Appoint Intersection Controllers and Intersection Ticketers for each of approximately 500 most important congestion-creating intersections in Manhattan
16..Permit cigarette smoking in NYC bars and restaurants in designated areas not exceeding 25% of the area for customers
17..Permit any retail stores in any county in NYC to install and operate one or more “non-profit” slot machines and/or video lottery terminals (hereinafter, “gambling devices”) as long as the payback is set for 100% or higher, with a 12-month licensing fee payable to New York City of $1,000 per machine, earmarked for industry regulation (with any excess to be used to set up and operate centers in the revenue-producing area for senior citizens, pre-natal services and after-school sports facilities and other services), with usage restricted to individuals who can prove (with appropriate identification card) they are legally permitted to purchase tobacco products in NYC . Also, no machine shall be installed or operated within 250 feet of any public or private high school. No one individual, corporation or other person shall have ownership or control, directly or indirectly, of more than 100 such Gambling Devices.
18..Authorize any individual or corporation residing or located in NYC to qualify for a NYC license as a “NYC Pot Hole Repairer” (the “Repairer”) to the newly-created NYC Pot Hole Repair Agency (“Agency”), upon payment of a $100 annual license fee, and to report to the Agency the Repairer’s intention to repair one or more specific pot holes or sidewalk defects (described by borough, nearest street intersection, GPS address in latitude and longitude, dimensions of the pot hole or sidewalk defect, and the dollar amount to be charged for the repair; and the Agency has 7 days (168 hours) to effect the repair, after passage of which time without repair the Repairer may make the repair and bill the Agency for the Repair, with the Agency being required to verify the repair and make payment within 14 days from the date of receipt of the Repairer’s invoice (by fax, email, hand-delivery, U.S. mail or otherwise). The Agency is authorized to create an auction market to encourage bidding by licensees for designation by the Agency as the Repairer to make the repair upon winning an auction for that right. The Agency shall set up databases and software designed to detect any fraud, such as the deliberate creation of defects for one or more knowing licensees to report and fix for the illegal profit by the group.
19..The NYC Department of Consumers Affairs is to create a ”NYC Junk-Fax Removal Service” (the “Service”) with a website address, telephone and fax number for NYC residents and businesses to use for the listing of names of fax list owners and users (“Junk Faxers”) and the Junk-Faxer telephone numbers (if known) as to fax lists for which the Complainant wants to have his/her fax and/or telephone number(s) removed. Complainants will be required to pay $1.00 for each complaint, to offset Service expenses, and the Service will charge the Junk Faxers a mandatory fee of $100 per hour (or quarter parts thereof) for the time spent obtaining relief for Complainants. The Service is to set up an interactive website enabling Complainants to list their complaints and for Junk Faxers to use these listings for pre-faxing screening and removal of all listed numbers.
20..The City Council is required to set up a website to list each contact with any City Council members starting on the date of enactment of the statute underlying this petition, including the date of contact, method of contact (e.g., mail, email, telephone, hand-delivered communication, in person meeting or other contact, names of persons having the meeting or contact), the matter(s) involved, identification of any pending legislation or legislative activity involved.
21..The City Council is required to set up an email address (the “All-Council Email Address”) which enables anyone to communicate with each City Council member by email by sending a single email to the All-Council Email Address. The City Council is required to print out and hand-deliver each day a copy of all such emails to City Council members who have no email address. All emails to this All-Council Email Address will be required to identify the name and organization of the person sending the email, as well as the NYC address of such person or organization. Persons using the Single Email Address will not be permitted to use such address more than once during any 24-hour period, which the City Council will enforce by appropriate software to delete or reject any emails violating this limitation. Automatic receipt for such emails by City Council members will not be required.
22..Any of the top 100 retailers (including specialty retailers) in the United States (other than fast-food retailers such as McDonalds, Starbucks and Wendy’s and stores having total inside sales space of less than 5,000 square feet) are required apply to the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs (the “DCA”) for permission to open up a new store, expanded store, or newly-located store anywhere in NYC, pay a $2,500 application fee together with the filing of the application, and in connection with such application to make the following representations and warranties under oath (to provide competitors and New York City a basis for obtaining judicial relief, if injured, by reason of any failure by the retailer to live up to the representations and warranties):
a.. A description of any promises or payments or special deals made or offered to anyone with respect to the proposed store, its location or any possible store or its location in NYC;
b.. Information about the retailer’s dealings with other municipalities, including any projections of tax or other payments to be made to the municipality and the actual payments received by the municipality, and about any projections of municipal costs relating to the project and the actual costs incurred by the municipality, both as to construction and as to the post-construction period;
c.. Identification of each person who has had contact with any governmental officials of NYC (including the DCA) during the preceding 3 years on behalf of the retailer or the proposed store or the owner of the store’s proposed location;
d.. A copy of any studies showing the criminal rate in a municipality before and after the opening of a new store of the applicant retailer;
e.. Study of local property values before and after the opening of a new store by the applicant retailer;
f.. Information about the annual number of suppliers which went into bankruptcy after starting to deal with the retailer and any procedures with which the applicant retailer tries to avoid bankrupting its suppliers;
g.. Information about the total number of retail buildings which have been vacated by the applicant and the status of such building at the end of 1, 2 and 5 years. NYC has the authority, under regulations to be promulgated, to require a performance bond to ensure that if the building is vacated and not put back into full use by the end of 12 months that the performance bond can be used to either demolish the building or make it more presentable for new use, whichever is more suitable;
h.. Information about the retailer required to be assembled under the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance statute, especially concerning the prices at which the major retailer is purchasing its goods from its manufacturer suppliers (with such information to be provided in confidence and used only as permitted in the agreement under which the information would be supplied); and a description of the controls used by the applicant to ensure that it is not purchasing its goods at discriminatory or, worse, below-cost prices in violation of the Robinson-Patman Act or Sherman Act;
i.. Information about the community healthcare costs for employees of the applicant;
j.. Information on whether female employees and employees over 40 years of age are given equal opportunities;
k.. Information about the average wage for the lowest-paid workers and the average number of hours worked per week;
l.. Information about the average benefits, if any, paid to the lowest half of the applicant’s employees;
m.. A description of any promises made by the applicant to municipalities that sales taxes would revert to the municipality after so many years, where the applicant moved out of the town within a year or two before or after such provision was to kick in for the municipality, thereby depriving the municipality of its expected sales tax revenue.
n.. A list of each location in the United States the retailer has been unable to obtain approval from any federal, state or local agencies or authorities to open up a store at such location, together with a statement of the reasons given by the agencies or authorities for denial or withholding of approval.
o.. A “Wage and Hour Schedule” in which the applicant sets forth job titles, brief job descriptions, estimated number of employees to be hired for each such job title, benefits for each employee by class of employee (and the anticipated number of employees in each class); the gross weekly wages for each class of employee within a job title (and the anticipated number of employees in each class); and the average number of hours of weekly employment for each class of employee within a job title (and the anticipated number of employees in each class).
p.. A log showing all applications for approval to the DCA or any other NYC agency or official made by or for the retailer applicant for any proposed store, expanded store, or new or expanded location for the retailer during the past 5 years, and the disposition of each such application.
q.. A schedule showing the dollar amount of subsidy, broken down by category (such as sales tax, real estate tax, municipal improvements, waiver of requirements) for each new store or new store location of the retailer anywhere in the United States for the preceding two years.
r.. A description of each of the claims for a refund, repayment or “clawback” made by any municipality or state in the United States against the retailer during the past five years, including the date of the claim, name and state of the municipality, the dollar amount of the claim (by category of claim), and the disposition of each of the claims.
23.. Require any tickets or summonses for sidewalk or curb litter in front of a building to be issued only upon the existence of two dated color photographs (by digital or other process) taken at least 24 hours apart, showing in the 2nd photograph a substantial part of the letter depicted in the 1st photograph, and a written statement of the ticketing official that he/she (at the day and time of the taking of the 1st photograph) left a Notice of Potential Violation with someone of suitable age and discretion at the building or under or attached to the front door of the building.
24.. Each police precinct in NYC shall maintain a register of the name, address, apartment number, ZIP Code and telephone number (if any) for each child age 6-12 who does not have in his/her home (proof of which will be a signed statement to such effect by a parent or guardian of the child) a working computer in the child’s home, and a log of each working computer in the precinct to be donated by any person or business in the precinct, together with the name, address, telephone number and email address of the donor, together with a description of the computer; and the precinct shall arrange for any needed pickup or delivery to ensure that the donated computers are delivered to the registered children on a first-come, first-served basis. The precinct is authorized to compensate locate residents for assistance in picking up and delivering the computers; and exempt any vehicle used for delivery from receipt of any parking tickets while actually making a computer delivery. The desk sergeant or other official of the precinct shall have the authority and duty to issue a receipt to the donor with a description, estimated value and serial number of the computer. The precinct shall maintain records of the computers and participants involved for at least 7 years, to assist in fraud prevention and to help prove computer ownership in the event of theft.