Mamdani’s Charter Revision Commission schedules a flurry of meetings

The Charter Revision Commission recently launched by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will convene for its first three public hearings on consecutive days next week. 

While the 15-member panel technically meets for the first time on Thursday, June 4, that’ll be a logistical meeting, not a hearing, with commission chair Patrick Gaspard expected to address listeners and share the group’s goals for the weeks ahead. Public testimony, which will form the basis of whatever ballot questions the commission ultimately moves to put before voters in November, will officially kick off on Tuesday, June 9 at 5 p.m. at New York Law School. The following two hearings will take place on June 10 at Fordham University in the Bronx and June 11 Brooklyn Law School.

Each of the upcoming hearings will be based around their own theme, according to a notice shared by the mayor’s office with City & State. True to the title Mamdani gave the group, the Commission on Government Efficiency’s meetings will focus on proposals to smooth longstanding bureaucratic frictions. The first hearing will center on “streamlining government for infrastructure projects and public realm improvements,” the second on “streamlining government for small business and community organizations” and the third on “modernizing government and streamlining government technology.” 

News of the first set of hearings comes less than a week after Mamdani announced he’d be forming the group, which he’d staffed with a bevy of people from across the city’s political ecosystem. There’s been a lot of questions about what the panel will ultimately focus on, spurred in large part by the ongoing battle between the Mamdani administration and the Charter Revision Commission convened by former Mayor Eric Adams on his final day in office. 

Using a new provision passed by state lawmakers in the state budget deal, Mamdani disbanded the zombie-like commission the night before calling his own. The move has so far had little effect on the group, at least not in the eyes of its remaining members, many of whom are allies to the former mayor. 

With former first deputy mayor Randy Mastro at the helm providing pro bono legal representation, the group has continued to insist that it has a legal right to exist. Whether it does or doesn’t remains to be seen – Mastro hasn’t sued yet.The group is lumbering forward in the meantime, meeting for its second public hearing Tuesday night. Only one person from the public showed up to testify. With only seven members in attendance, less than a quorum, the commission was unable to take any official actions.