Question 1 — Charter Change
OFFICIAL TEXT
Issued by the Charter Revision Commission.

Should the changes to the City Charter, as proposed by the Charter Revision Commission, be adopted? Among these changes are:

• creating “gun free” school safety zones within 1000 feet of every school in the City, and requiring people purchasing or obtaining firearms to purchase or obtain safety locks for all firearms and to use safety locks when storing all firearms;
  
• creating a budget stabilization and emergency fund out of City surpluses to fund emergency needs or other needs as determined jointly by the Mayor and the City Council and, if not spent, to prepay debt; limiting City government spending increases generally to the rate of inflation; and requiring a two-thirds vote of the City Council, instead of a simple majority, to increase taxes or impose new taxes;
  
• establishing the Commission on Human Rights as a Charter agency to protect civil rights;
  
• protecting immigrants’ rights to access City services, and establishing the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and Language Services as a Charter agency;
  
• effective as of January 1, 2002, requiring a special election within 60 days of a mayoral vacancy, requiring a run-off if no candidate receives at least 40 percent of the vote in a special election to fill a vacancy for Mayor, Public Advocate or Comptroller, and eliminating the Charter language that the Public Advocate “shall preside over the meetings of the [City] Council”;
  
• simplifying the City’s procedures for awarding contracts and centralizing vendor integrity review; and
  
• reorganizing City government to establish the Administration for Children’s Services as an independent agency, to form an Organized Crime Control Commission, to consolidate City agencies to create a Department of Public Health and Mental Hygiene Services, and to require executive coordination of City services to prevent domestic violence.

Introduction
Official Text
Official Summary
History and Description
Highlights of the Major Arguments
Pro and Con Statements Received from the Public
New York State Ballot Proposal