New York Law Blog

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to stick around for another term, and now he’s considering a new law that would lengthen the term limits for elected city officials. As it stands now, city officials are limited to two terms, eight years, of office. Support for the new law came down from several city council members when the New York Times conducted a telephone survey of members.

In the survey, The Times interviewed 38 of the Council’s 51 members, most of whom spoke on the record. Twenty-seven of them said they could support extending term limits, even though city residents have voted twice, in 1993 and 1996, for the existing laws. Eight members opposed altering the rules, three said they remained undecided and the 13 others could not be reached this week.

But members said that the decision to alter term limits — and allow them to seek a third term — would largely rest with the mayor. If he signals his support, many said in interviews, the Council will quickly change the law.

The new law would add another four year term to that which many feel would give those in office more opportunity to pursue legislation they were working on during their current term. It would also allow the public to vote for someone they believe has been effective in the past instead of moving on to someone new.

Besides eliminating the difficulties of looking for a new job, members of the Council said that extending term limits would give voters a chance to re-elect battle-tested leaders, allow members to complete unfinished work and bring stability to city government as New York enters a financial downturn.

Is it such a good idea though? Some believe that the downsides of the new proposed law far outweigh any benefits that may come of it.

“The day we change the term limits is the day we take a step toward dictatorship,” said Tony Avella, a Democrat from Queens who opposes changing the law and is running for mayor. “We seem to have someone in the mayor’s office and speaker’s office who think they can change the law to stay in office.”

Would the vote on the new law be fair however? Is it the will of the people or just the members of city council?

“The issue at hand is not term limits, it’s who decides,” said John C. Liu, a Democrat from Queens who is considering running for comptroller. “Is it 52 people — 51 council members and the mayor — or is it 8 million people?”

“Voting to legislate this could be a kiss of death for decades to come,” Mr. Liu added, “because it becomes an issue that every future campaign opponent can use: unilaterally overturning what the people have very clearly stated is their intent.”

In our ongoing series of posts surrounding topics that fall outside of our practice areas here at TGL, we’d like to point out the Department of Family Assistance. The DFA is split into two factions…the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and the Office of Children and Family Services. Here is a breakdown of each and what they are responsible for:

The Office of  Temporary and Disability Assistance:

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) is responsible for supervising programs that provide assistance and support to eligible families and individuals.

OTDA’s functions include: Providing temporary cash assistance; providing assistance in paying for food; providing heating assistance; overseeing New York State’s child support enforcement program; determining certain aspects of eligibility for Social Security Disability benefits; supervising homeless housing and services programs; and providing assistance to certain immigrant populations.

The Office of Children and Family Services:

The New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) was formed on January 8, 1998 by merging the former State Division for Youth with the family and children’s programs administered by the former State Department of Social Services. The agency was created to improve the integration of services for New York’s children, youth, families and vulnerable populations and to promote their development and protect them from violence, neglect, abuse and abandonment. The Commissioner of OCFS is Gladys Carrión.

OCFS has numerous responsibilities including: foster care, adoption and adoption assistance, child protective services, preventive services for children and families, services for pregnant adolescents, child care and referral programs, and protective programs for vulnerable adults. OCFS is also responsible for the functions performed by the State Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped (CBVH), and coordinates state government response to the needs of Native Americans on reservations and in communities.

The agency operates 31 residential facilities, two reception centers, six community residential homes, and eight day-placement centers for juvenile delinquents and juvenile offenders placed in the custody of OCFS by family and criminal courts. OCFS works closely with municipalities such as the local social services districts and county youth bureaus to ensure that adequate youth development services and programs are available at the local level.

Programs within the OTDA include food stamps, home energy assistance, homeless housing, refugee and immigrant assistance, and temporary assistance. There are also various other forms of support services included such as child support enforcement and fair hearings.

The Office of Children and Family Services runs the gamut from adoption and child care assistance to protective services for adults. Any further forms or information that you may need on the topics can be found through each division’s website.

Many veterans of the Iraq war are finding themselves being misdiagnosed with a variety of ailments instead of the one they really have: some form of Traumatic Brain Injury. Also known as varying level of concussions, soldiers are being told they have varying forms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder instead of being diagnosed with the debilitating brain injury they more than likely have. Along with the misdiagnosis comes the incorrect disability payment leaving some of these soldiers out in the cold when in fact they need help for the brain injuries they have suffered.

Mr. [Kevin, injured in a roadside bomb attack] Owsley is part of a growing tide of combat veterans who come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with mild traumatic brain injuries, or concussions, caused by powerful explosions. As many as 300,000, or 20 percent, of combat veterans who regularly worked outside the wire, away from bases, have suffered at least one concussion, according to the latest Pentagon estimates. About half the soldiers get better within hours, days or several months and require little if any medical assistance. But tens of thousands of others have longer-term problems that can include, to varying degrees, persistent memory loss, headaches, mood swings, dizziness, hearing problems and light sensitivity.

These symptoms, which may be subtle and may not surface for weeks or months after their return, are often debilitating enough to hobble lives and livelihoods.

To this day, some veterans — it is impossible to know how many — remain unscreened, their symptoms undiagnosed. Mild brain injury was widely overlooked by the military and the veterans health system until recently.

Mr. Owsley’s request for a Purple Heart, given to troops wounded or killed in action, was denied by the military, a devastating blow. Others say that their mild brain injury entitled them only to low disability payments, or, if the diagnosis was inconclusive, to none at all.

Army scientists are working on understanding brain injuries better so that they may diagnose any issues more easily, but it may be too little too late for soldiers who have suffered severe personal injury at the hands of bomb blasts in Iraq. Misdiagnosis is also leaving many veterans unable to work, pay their bills, and provide for their families. Veterans Affairs has now stepped in for better screening procedures for those going overseas as well as those coming home.

It was not until 2006, three years into the Iraq war, that the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs began to pay close attention to mild traumatic brain injuries. The Pentagon last year opened the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, a clearinghouse for treatment, training, prevention, research and education. This year it is spending a record $300 million on research for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We are more attuned to brain injuries now,” said Lt. Col. Michael Jaffee, the director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. “There has not been as aggressive an effort before.”

That effort begins with screening. As of May, service members who deploy longer than 30 days will undergo neurocognitive testing before leaving, to establish a baseline for changes that may occur later, and again upon returning. At the same time, soldiers in battle who lose consciousness or feel dazed after a blast or other event must be screened by a medical provider and are either approved for duty in the field, told to rest for several days on base or sent to Landstuhl for further evaluation.

And what to do if the military is neglecting some of these soldiers? Some are considering going to federal court over the issue.