BILL NUMBER: S4367

SPONSOR: MAYER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to expanding the
public's ability to observe public bodies' meetings

 
PURPOSE:

To clarify that members of the public have a right to view meetings in
real time and observe in public spaces but do not have a right to be in
the homes of meeting participants.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Clarifies the public officer's law with respect to where
members of the public can observe meetings of a public body where
participants of the meeting are remote.

Section 2 sets the effective date.
              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In 2020 with the rise of COVID-19, public bodies were required to meet
with the use of video conferencing technology as the health and safety
of the members of these bodies were at risk when meeting together. In
the Town of Rye, the board received an inquire to know if a member of
the public could attend the meeting at the home of the Town Supervisor
in person. While the request was eventually withdrawn, this experience
led to a request for clarification of the Public Officer's Law. While it
is critical that members of the public have the ability to view meeting
in real time and in person at public locations, members of a public body
should not be subjected to the health or privacy concerns of requiring a
member of the public body to admit individuals into their home.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S4367A

SPONSOR: MAYER
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to expanding the
public's ability to observe public bodies' meetings

 
PURPOSE:

This bill imposes penalties on property owners who fail to file a proper
or timely rent registration statement.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the opening paragraph of paragraph 1 of subdivision a
of section 12 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974, consti-
tuting the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four, as
amended by chapter 116 of the law of 1997, to increase the penalty for a
rent overcharge of a rent-stabilized apartment from three times the
amount of the overcharge to up to five times the amount.

              

Section 2 amends the opening paragraph of subdivision a of section
26-516 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by
chapter 116 of the laws of 1997, to increase the penalty for a rent
overcharge of a rent-stabilized apartment from three times the amount of
the overcharge to up to five times the amount.

Section 3 sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

According to a recent investigation by ProPublica, close to 200,000
units of rent-stabilized apartments are not properly registered with the
state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), putting
hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of being overcharged on their
rent or illegally evicted.

The investigation noted that "data provided to ProPublica by (DHCR3
which oversees rent-stabilized apartments shows that, as of 2014, New
York City had 839,797 rent-stabililzed apartments registered with the
state." Over the same time period, the New York City Department of Hous-
ing Preservation and Development (HPD) published a survey estimating
that there should be 1,029,918 rent-stabilized units in the city - a gap
that dwarfs the survey's 34,000 unit margin of error.

According to ProPublica, HPD's survey methodology attributes the gap
between their estimate and the number of registered rent-stabilized
units in part on the reduced penalties against landlords who treat
apartments that should be rent-stabilized as market rate.

This bill would increase the penalty for overcharging a rent-stabilized
tenant to up to five times the amount of the overcharge. As under
current law, a landlord could mitigate the civil penalty by demonstrat-
ing by a preponderance of the evidence that the overcharge was neither
willful nor attributable to his or her negligence.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.6454 of 2016 (Hoylman): Died in Housing, Construction & Community
Development

A.9192 of 2016 (Rosenthal): Died in Housing

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Undetermined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill shall take effect immediately; provided that a. the amendments
to the opening paragraph of paragraph 1 of subdivision a of section 12
of the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four shall
expire on the same date as such act expires and shall not affect the
expiration of such act as provided in section 17 of chapter 567 of the
laws of 1974; and b. the amendments to section 26-516 of chapter 4 of
title 26 of the administrative code of the city of New York made by
section two of this act shall expire on the same date as such law
expires and shall not affect the expiration of such law as provided
under section 26-520 of such law.