In 2008, New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board allowed landlords of rent-subsidized apartments to raise rents by 4.5 percent for one-year leases and 8.5 percent for two-year leases.

Last week, the Appellate Division First Department affirmed an earlier decision, which ruled in favor of City Council and advocates for New York’s lower-paying tenants, stating that the rent increase was a “poor tax.”

Professor Stefan Krieger reports that the ruling in the original case was based directly on a Second Department decision in a Law Reform Advocacy Clinic case: NY Tenants & Neighbors Coalition v. Nassau County Rent Guidelines Board, 53 A.D.3d 550; 861 N.Y.S.2d 766 (2d Dept. 2008).

“The theory in this case – which was newly developed by our students – is having a big effect” said Krieger.

New York City’s Law Department now plans to ask the state’s highest court to review it. Should the ruling stand, approximately 300,000 rent-stabilized tenants could receive rebates and small reductions in their rent.

For more details, read previous stories in the New York Daily News, New York Times, and Blogstra.

Professor Camille Nelson has been named dean of Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts effective September 1, 2010.

Professor Nelson will be the first woman and the first person of color to hold the position of dean in Suffolk Law School’s 104-year history. Professor Nelson is a widely recognized scholar in the field of critical race theory and cultural studies. Her writings are respected for both their insights and creativity.

Before joining Hofstra Law in fall 2009, Professor Nelson was a visiting faculty member at Washington University in Saint Louis School of Law where she was the Dean’s Distinguished Scholar in Residence. From 2000-2009, she was a faculty member at Saint Louis University School of Law.

To read more about Professor Nelson’s new role, read news articles from The National Law Journal and the Boston Globe.

Professor Roy Simon has been appointed by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to play a key role in a proposed settlement of lawsuits filed by people who believe they were sickened during rescue and cleanup work at the World Trade Center site.

"I am going to look at [the letters] and make sure that the lawyers fairly and accurately describe what the lawyers' interests are [and] what the lawyers' conflicts are," Simon said. "I'm not there to convince any plaintiff to accept it or convince any plaintiff not to accept it."

To take effect, the proposed settlement requires approval by 95 percent of plaintiffs, who have until Sept. 30 to decide whether to accept it.

To read the Newsday feature outlining Professor Simon's new role, click here.

For Charter, it's all in the timing
Eric Lane
Crain's New York
June 6, 2010

A major question that the new City Charter commission must address is whether it will put any issue on the ballot this coming November. If the commission concludes after its hearings, discussions and study that the current Charter needs only a tweak or some uncontroversial changes, it might be able to prepare such changes in time. But if it decides that there is serious work to do, it should give itself time to study the issues, prepare solutions and publish them to provide an opportunity for public response, and finally allow time to consider the response. Three summer months is not enough time.

Serious work would include changing the balance of power among elected officials or the important processes of decision-making, which the 1989 Charter defined after an intensely public process.

For example, some people have raised concerns about the city's land-use decision-making process, known as Ulurp. Should the Ulurp process be shortened? Should the city Planning Commission (not Department) be eliminated? Should the borough presidents or community boards be given more power in this process? Has the City Council's power to review all land-use decisions allowed council members to exercise vetoes over projects within their districts? Another issue that clearly falls within the serious work category is nonpartisan elections, particularly since it was defeated only several years ago. Answering these questions demands real deliberation.

One controversial question that the commission seems ready to resolve in time for a November referendum is what to do about term limits. Mayor Bloomberg promised to address the question in response to the public outcry over his endorsement of the local law that extended the number of terms from two to three. The question of the numbers of terms is discreet, simple and the subject of extensive discussion and study over the past decade. For example, see my own work, “The Impact of Term Limits on Lawmaking in New York,” Election Law Journal (2004), concluding that more terms would result in a better council.

One note of caution on this point: It is not the number of terms that triggered the angry public response, but the use of local law to overturn a referendum. Whether the commission has the authority to address that issue is an open question. Deciding if the commission should, as a policy matter, propose limiting the council's ability to affect term limits established by a referendum needs careful thought. Creating any precedent that prohibits the Legislature from addressing referendum-created law can lead to the same type of problems that have crippled governance in California. My own solution would be to limit council members from changing term limits for themselves, but not for members of a future council.

Placing a question on the ballot this year raises another issue. By law, such placement ends a commission's tenure. If the commission wants both to address term limits this year and continue with serious work next year, the mayor must agree to reappoint it. We can only wonder if he would be willing to commit to this.

Eric Lane is a professor at Hofstra Law School and senior fellow at the Brennan Center. He was the executive director of the 1988 and 1989 Charter Revision Commissions.

David B. Feldman '82, an attorney with Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC, was recently elected President of the NYC Chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA).

Read the full press release at bsk.com.