a. There shall be a districting commission consisting of fifteen members appointed as provided in this section.
1. The council delegation of the political party which has the largest delegation in the council shall, by majority vote, appoint five members of the commission, no more than one of whom may be a resident of the same borough.
2. The council delegation of the political party which has the second largest delegation in the council, shall, by majority vote, appoint three members of the commission, no more than one of whom may be a resident of the same borough.
3. If only one political party has a council delegation, then the chairpersons of the county committees of the political party with no council delegation which, at the time of the general election last preceding the time at which such appointments are required to be made, had the largest number of enrolled voters in the city, shall each submit three nominations to the mayor, in order to provide a list of fifteen nominations from that party. The mayor shall appoint three members from such list, no more than one of whom may be a resident of the same borough.
4. The mayor shall appoint seven additional members, but the party enrollment, if any, of these additional members shall be such that individuals enrolled in a single political party shall not be a majority of the total number of members of the commission.
5. Officers and employees of the city or any city agency, lobbyists required to file a statement of registration under federal, state or local law, the employees of such lobbyists, federal, state and local elected officials, and officers of any political party shall not be eligible to be members of the commission.
6. The members of the commission shall elect one of the fifteen members to serve as the chair of the commission.
7. For purposes of this section, a member of the council who was elected to the council upon the nomination of more than one political party shall be considered to be a member of the council delegation of the political party on whose ballot line he or she received the largest number of votes in his or her last election to the council.
b. 1. The commission shall have among its members (a) at least one resident of each borough, and (b) members of the racial and language minority groups in New York city which are protected by the United States voting rights act of nineteen hundred sixty-five, as amended, in proportion, as close as practicable, to their population in the city.
2. The mayor, no later than twenty-two months before the general election of the council to be held in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-three, and every ten years thereafter, shall convene one or more meetings of all of the appointing and recommending authorities specified in subdivision a of this section for the purpose of establishing a screening and selection process for ensuring that the racial and language minority groups in New York city which are protected by the United States voting rights act of nineteen hundred sixty-five, as amended, will be fairly represented on the commission.
c. Each council delegation authorized by subdivision a of this section to make appointments to the commission shall make such appointments no earlier than one year and ten months before, and no later than one year and nine months before, the general election of the council to be held in the year nineteen hundred ninety-three, and every ten years thereafter. In any case in which the chairpersons of the county committees of a political party are authorized to submit nominations to the mayor, such nominations shall be submitted no earlier than one year and ten months before, and no later than one year and nine months before, the general election of the council to be held in the year nineteen hundred ninety-three, and every ten years thereafter. The mayor shall make appointments to the commission after each council delegation authorized to make appointments has done so but not later than one year and eight months before such a general election of the council. The commission's term shall end sixty days after the day of the first general election of the council following the commission's adoption of a districting plan, as set forth in section fifty-one.
d. In the event of a vacancy by death, resignation or otherwise, a new member enrolled in the same political party from which his or her predecessor was selected shall be appointed in the same manner as the member whose departure from the commission created the vacancy to serve the balance of the term remaining.
e. No member of the districting commission shall be removed from office except by the person or persons who appointed such member and only for cause and upon notice and hearing.
f. The members of the commission shall serve without compensation except that each member shall be allowed actual and necessary expenses to be audited in the same manner as other city charges.
g. The commission may hire or contract for necessary staff assistance and may require agencies of city government to provide technical assistance. The commission shall have a budget as provided by the mayor.
(Am. L.L. 2019/215, 12/11/2019, eff. 12/11/2019)