BENJAMIN J. KALLOS COUNCIL MEMBER, 5TH DISTRICT

244 East 93rd Street

New York, NY 10128 (212) 860-1950 Voice (212) 980-1828 Fax

BKallos@BenKallos.com

THE COUNCIL OF THE

CITY OF NEW YORK

CHAIR Governmental Operations

COMMITTEES

Land Use State & Federal Legislation

Women’s Issues SUBCOMMITTEE

Landmarks, Public Siting & Maritime Uses

April 2, 2014 Mike Ryan, Executive Director New York City Board of Elections 32 - 42 Broadway, 7 Floor New York, NY 10004

Re: New York City Board of Elections Corrective Action Plan Dear Executive Director Ryan, Thank you for your exhaustive response to the recommendations in the December 2013 “Department of Investigations Report on the New York City Board of Elections' Employment Practices, Operations and Election Administration.” It is further appreciated that this response was completed prior to the preliminary budget hearing of the Committee on Governmental Operations on March 25, 2014. The Board of Election’s response, however, appears to be a “written response” and not the corrective action plan you agreed to provide within one month during the February 28 joint hearing of the Committees on Governmental Operations and Oversight and Investigation on the Department of Investigations report. The response substantially falls short of what was promised. Instead of addressing the committees’ extensive and serious concerns, your response defensively refutes the need or utility of many recommendations and fails to provide a compliance plan. While the New York City Board of Elections indicates it is already addressing a number of items in the DOI report, please provide a compliance plan for each individual recommendation, including a strategy and timeline with specific milestones by which to measure your progress. Because it fails to provide corrective action, your response was fundamentally non-compliant. To ensure each item in the DOI report is being addressed within a reasonable time frame, I hereby require that you and your agency appear before me as Chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations each month to report on compliance. Enclosed please also find a list of items you and your agency have agreed to address at the February 28 and March 25th hearings of the Committee on Governmental Operations. Please offer a corrective action plan as discussed during the hearing within one month. Thank you for immediate attention. Regards,

Council Member Ben Kallos Chair, Committee on Governmental Operations

BENJAMIN J. KALLOS NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBER DISTRICT 5, MANHATTAN

February 28 and March 25th hearings of the Committee on Governmental Operations New York City Board of Elections Reform Punch List

DOI's requested Corrective Action Plan to be provided within one month

Regular performance evaluations (Already underway)

Subscription to Social Security Death Master File (Already underway)

Readable font size on ballots (Already underway)

Standardized hiring and screening process and providing this publicly and to community

Commissioner consideration of Civil Service Exams for employees

Report on Ballot Security in Manhattan and corrective actions

Commitment to investigate and terminate within rules any employee found to be requiring or punishing political activity

Regular updates to committee on progress

Posting of all openings

Estimate on using DOI background checks

Already Proposing Plan to Eliminate Buff Cards

Commissioner Determination on Dropping Voters

BOE to Provide Dates Certain on: o Improvement to BOE time keeping o Professionalization of training o Hands-on/role play training for poll workers o Privacy screens o Filtering write-in votes

The committee further requested action to move towards:

Posting all positions currently posted as PDFs on website in computer readable format

Printing Arabic Numeral Birth Date on Voter Roll

Cancellation of Deceased Voters Upon Provision of Social Security, Date of Death and Location

Ballot Printing in New York City or at DCAS

Poll worker certification by task

Voter education against "vote down the line"