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Policy - Additional Roles of the
Public Advocate
Among the Public Advocate’s many responsibilities is her
role in the City Planning Commission (CPC).
The CPC is comprised of twelve members: six mayoral appointees
and one appointee of each of the five borough presidents and the
Public Advocate. The members—all real estate, design, and
construction professionals—make decisions about all land
use and development matters that require action from the City
government. The projects that the CPC evaluates range from the
very large—such as the rezoning of the Far West Side or
Greenpoint Williamsburg—to the relatively small—such
as the granting of special permits to individual buildings.
The Public Advocate’s appointee on the CPC is Karen Phillips.
In addition to her work on the Commission, Ms. Phillips provides
professional consulting services in community development to private
planning and development firms, community development corporations,
and municipalities. She was the 2002-03 Mid-Career Community Development
Fellow of the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy
at the New School University. Ms. Phillips also serves on the
Fannie Mae North East Regional Office Housing and Community Development
Advisory Board, the State Farm Bank Community Reinvestment Advisory
Board, and is on the coordinating committee of New York 2050.
In June 2003, the New York State Legislature passed amendments
to State education law, establishing the Citywide Council on Special
Education (CCSE). Members of the CCSE are charged with
- Advising and commenting on educational or instructional policy
involving the provision of special education services in District
75, which is comprised of City schools serving the severely
disabled
- Issuing an annual report on the effectiveness of special
education services and make recommendations
- Holding monthly meetings with the public
The CCSE consists of twelve members, eleven voting and one non-voting.
Nine of the voting members are parents of students in District
75 schools. The remaining two—appointed by the Public Advocate—are
leaders in educating, training, or employing individuals with
disabilities.
The Public Advocate’s appointees to the CCSE are Ellen McHugh
and Maria Garcia. Ms. McHugh has been involved in special education
issues for the past two decades in both as a parent and as an
advocate. As Lead Coordinator for Parent to Parent of New York
State, Ms. McHugh provides parents of special needs students with
a wide range of information and resources, trains them to support
other parents of children with similar needs.
The Public Advocate sits on the Board of Trustees of the New York
City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), along with ten
additional members: the Mayor's representative, the City Comptroller,
the heads of the three unions with the largest number of participating
employees (The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees; The Transit Workers Union; and The International Brotherhood
of Teamsters), and the five Borough Presidents. The Board’s
responsibility is to make sound investments so that pension funds
are available to City employees when they retire. In addition,
the Board appoints the Executive Director, who manages the day-to-day
operations of the agency.
In her capacity as a NYCERS trustee, the Public Advocate has fought
to ensure that the City invests in companies that support principles
important to New Yorkers, such as equal rights and fair treatment.
She has insisted that NYCERS not invest in companies that tolerate
discrimination against their gay and lesbian employees. Sixteen
companies, including Goodyear, JC Penny, FedEx, and Lockheed Martin
have changed their policies as a result of NYCERS intervention.
She has also focused on companies doing business in Ciudad Juarez,
Mexico, where women are targets of sexual violence, kidnapping,
and murder, working to see that these companies adopt additional
security measures to protect their female employees.
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