Bill Text: NY S02595 | 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 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-08-03 - PRINT NUMBER 2595B [S02595 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S02595-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                         2595--A
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                    IN SENATE
                                    January 28, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  Sen.  BIAGGI -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed 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
    19  or to appoint or reappoint a person or persons to the board of  a  state
    20  or local authority.
    21    (c)  "Board" means the governing board or governing body or other such
    22  governing entity of local and state authorities.
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01324-03-9
        S. 2595--A                          2
     1    (d) "Preference" means the act of favoring  one  person  over  another
     2  that  is  inversely  proportional, provided however, such favoring shall
     3  not be dispositive.
     4    (e) "Inversely proportional" means the greater the percentage of women
     5  on  the  board  the lower the weight of the preference and the lower the
     6  percentage of women on the board the greater the weight of  the  prefer-
     7  ence.
     8    3.  (a) All appointive state and local authorities heretofore or here-
     9  after established by law or resolution shall  have  recommendations  for
    10  appointments, appointments or reappointments that are gender balanced as
    11  provided by this section.
    12    (b)  Persons  shall be recommended for appointment, appointed or reap-
    13  pointed to any state or local authority  only  if  that  recommendation,
    14  appointment  or  reappointment  is  gender  balanced as provided by this
    15  section.
    16    4. An appointing power shall make  recommendations,  appointments  and
    17  reappointments  to  state  and local authorities created prior to, on or
    18  after August first, two thousand nineteen, in a manner which will ensure
    19  a gender balanced appointment or reappointment for each public  authori-
    20  ty.
    21    5.  The  appointing  power  shall  undertake  all efforts necessary to
    22  obtain lists of names of qualified  candidates  to  be  recommended  for
    23  appointment  to  state  and  local  authorities,  in  furtherance of the
    24  advancement of the policy of this section  to  achieve  gender  balanced
    25  appointments  and  reappointments  to  state  and local authority boards
    26  pursuant to subdivisions three and four of this section.
    27    6.  Multiple  appointing  powers  charged  with  the   recommendation,
    28  appointment  or  reappointment of individuals to the same state or local
    29  public authority shall consult each other in order to  comply  with  the
    30  requirements of this section.
    31    7.  Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an individ-
    32  ual from completing a term for which the person was appointed, prior  to
    33  the effective date of this section.
    34    8.  Each  state  and  local  authority  shall  include  the  number of
    35  appointed or reappointed board members in the last year, the  number  of
    36  women  board  members  appointed  or  reappointed  in the last year, the
    37  current number of board members on the board  and  the  gender  of  such
    38  board  members in the annual report required pursuant to section twenty-
    39  eight hundred of this article.
    40    § 2. This act shall take effect August 1, 2019 and shall expire and be
    41  deemed repealed on and after August 1, 2029.