Bill Text: NY A00587 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relates to gender balance on boards of state and local public authorities.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 25-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2020-07-20 - REFERRED TO RULES [A00587 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A00587-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                         587--A
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                       (Prefiled)
                                     January 9, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  M. of A. ROZIC, AUBRY, BLAKE, DE LA ROSA, D'URSO, GALEF,
          JAFFEE, JEAN-PIERRE, NOLAN,  SEAWRIGHT,  EPSTEIN,  RODRIGUEZ,  TAYLOR,
          CRUZ,  SIMON,  GRIFFIN, PICHARDO, ORTIZ, DICKENS, ARROYO, COOK -- read
          once and referred to the Committee on  Corporations,  Authorities  and
          Commissions  --  committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted
          as amended and recommitted to said committee
        AN ACT to amend the  public  authorities  law,  in  relation  to  gender
          balance  in  state and local public authorities; and providing for the
          repeal of such provisions upon the expiration thereof
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section  1.  The  public  authorities  law  is amended by adding a new
     2  section 2829 to read as follows:
     3    § 2829. Program promoting women to state and local  authority  boards.
     4  1.  The  legislature  finds  that  there  is a need to promote women for
     5  recommendation and appointment to state and local authority boards in an
     6  effort to reverse a long history  of  discrimination  against  women  on
     7  boards of public authorities. The program proposed by this section would
     8  provide  for  the  use of gender as a factor when making recommendations
     9  and appointments to state  and  local  authority  boards.  This  section
    10  serves to achieve the benefits that come with the important governmental
    11  objective  of  attaining  gender  diversity on state and local authority
    12  boards.
    13    2. For the purposes of this section, the following  terms  shall  have
    14  the following meanings, unless the context otherwise requires:
    15    (a)  "Gender  balance" means providing women candidates with a prefer-
    16  ence when appointing individuals to boards;
    17    (b) "Appointing power" means an individual or government  or  legisla-
    18  tive  body  charged with the responsibility to recommend for appointment
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01324-02-9
        A. 587--A                           2
     1  or to appoint or reappoint a person or persons to the board of  a  state
     2  or local authority.
     3    (c)  "Board" means the governing board or governing body or other such
     4  governing entity of local and state authorities.
     5    (d) "Preference" means the act of favoring  one  person  over  another
     6  that  is  inversely  proportional, provided however, such favoring shall
     7  not be dispositive.
     8    (e) "Inversely proportional" means the greater the percentage of women
     9  on the board the lower the weight of the preference and  the  lower  the
    10  percentage  of  women on the board the greater the weight of the prefer-
    11  ence.
    12    3. (a) All appointive state and local authorities heretofore or  here-
    13  after  established  by  law or resolution shall have recommendations for
    14  appointments, appointments or reappointments that are gender balanced as
    15  provided by this section.
    16    (b) Persons shall be recommended for appointment, appointed  or  reap-
    17  pointed  to  any  state  or local authority only if that recommendation,
    18  appointment or reappointment is gender  balanced  as  provided  by  this
    19  section.
    20    4.  An  appointing  power shall make recommendations, appointments and
    21  reappointments to state and local authorities created prior  to,  on  or
    22  after August first, two thousand nineteen, in a manner which will ensure
    23  a  gender balanced appointment or reappointment for each public authori-
    24  ty.
    25    5. The appointing power  shall  undertake  all  efforts  necessary  to
    26  obtain  lists  of  names  of  qualified candidates to be recommended for
    27  appointment to state  and  local  authorities,  in  furtherance  of  the
    28  advancement  of  the  policy  of this section to achieve gender balanced
    29  appointments and reappointments to  state  and  local  authority  boards
    30  pursuant to subdivisions three and four of this section.
    31    6.   Multiple  appointing  powers  charged  with  the  recommendation,
    32  appointment or reappointment of individuals to the same state  or  local
    33  public  authority  shall  consult each other in order to comply with the
    34  requirements of this section.
    35    7. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an  individ-
    36  ual  from completing a term for which the person was appointed, prior to
    37  the effective date of this section.
    38    8. Each  state  and  local  authority  shall  include  the  number  of
    39  appointed  or  reappointed board members in the last year, the number of
    40  women board members appointed or  reappointed  in  the  last  year,  the
    41  current  number  of  board  members  on the board and the gender of such
    42  board members in the annual report required pursuant to section  twenty-
    43  eight hundred of this article.
    44    § 2. This act shall take effect August 1, 2019 and shall expire and be
    45  deemed repealed on and after August 1, 2029.