Farah Louis Gets Council Seat & Community Boards Get More Time To Review Land Use Projects

New York City — Last night the city held a general elections for city civil court, supreme court, and the District 45th city council seat tomorrow. On the ballot were also proposed revisions to the New York City Charter, legislation proposals built on public meetings and hearings throughout the city that provided insight on community issues.

City Officials

NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was reelected: he formerly served as a member of the New York City Council from the 45th district, which includes East Flatbush, Flatbush, Flatlands, Marine Park, and Midwood in Brooklyn. He won against Republican Joseph Borelli and Libertarian Devin Balkind with 78% of votes.Democrat Farah Louis won with a whopping 93.1% of votes for City Council for the 45th district in a race against Libertarians Anthony Beckford and David Fite.

Ballot Questions

New Yorkers voted “yes” for all five proposals to the NYC Charter:

Question 1: Elections, bringing ranked-choice voting to primary and special elections for Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council.

Question 2: Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), bringing more transparency from the Police Commissioner about police discipline and more power for the CCRB to investigate false statements given by the NYPD.

Question 3: Ethics and Government, requires Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise  program report directly to the Mayor and  be supported by a mayoral office. It will also prohibit City officials and senior appointed officials from appearing before the agency they served in for two years after they leave City service.

Question 4: City Budget, NYC will now have a “rainy day fund” and set minimum budgets for the Public Advocate and Borough Presidents.

Question 5: Land Use, will require require the Department of City Planning (DCP) to give a detailed project summary to the affected Borough President, Borough Board, and Community Board at least 30 days before the application is certified for public review, and to post that summary on its website for projects subject to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). Meaning Community boards will have more time to make decisions on rezoning and development proposals.