Bill Text: NY A05212 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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; provides that all appointive state and local authorities heretofore or hereafter established by law or resolution shall have recommendations for appointments, or reappointments that are gender balanced.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 15-0)

Status: (Engrossed) 2024-03-27 - REFERRED TO CORPORATIONS, AUTHORITIES AND COMMISSIONS [A05212 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A05212-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          5212

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      March 6, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. WALLACE, AUBRY, JEAN-PIERRE, SEAWRIGHT, EPSTEIN,
          TAYLOR, CRUZ, SIMON, DICKENS, COOK, OTIS, REYES, COLTON --  read  once
          and referred to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commis-
          sions

        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.
                                                                   LBD03891-01-3
        A. 5212                             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,  or reappointments that are gender balanced as provided by
    11  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 twenty-three, in a manner which will
    19  ensure a gender balanced appointment or reappointment  for  each  public
    20  authority.
    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, 2023 and shall expire and be
    41  deemed repealed August 1, 2033.