New York City's recent municipal elections provided Baruch with yet another role in its long tradition of service to the city: assuring voters of continuity and quality of leadership among their elected officials. Baruch's School of Public Affairs (SPA) has dedicated significant resources over the past two-plus years to ensure ease of transition in the January 2002 change of municipal leadership in New York City. The motivating factor in this case was term limits, which threatened unprecedented disruption and discontinuity in city government.
The still-active SPA initiative, entitled Project on Transition and Leadership 2001, includes several components, each designed to maximize the effectiveness of every individual who prevails in City Council elections held over at least the next decade. At present, these elements are the City Council Seminar Series, publication of A Council Member's Guide to New York City Government, and the City Council 2001 Retreat.
In the city elections of November 2001, 36 of the council's 51 seats were up for grabs. In addition, population data drawn from the 2000 Census will necessitate the redrawing of electoral district boundaries, so that many council members elected in 2001 will find themselves campaigning to new constituencies in 2003. Turnover numbers for subsequent elections will depend on both term-limit restrictions and decisions made by individual incumbents.
Publicity about the "free-for-all" nature of the 2001 elections brought a wave of novice politicians into the arena. People who had never even thought about running for political office were suddenly encouraged to do so. Since it goes without saying that New York's municipal government is a minefield of complicated political realities, it seemed logical that only the most sophisticated (or naive) would consider running for the council without some serious preparation.
And, beyond the rigors of running are the demands of actually serving. Beginning in 2002, councils will often be composed of high numbers of junior members. These successful novice candidates will accept the mantle of municipal leadership without the benefit of long years of experience in a complex government environment.
In recognition of this need for basic training in municipal government—and the realities of participating in its election process—the School of Public Affairs has undertaken a comprehensive initiative designed to ensure that City Council candidates are fully briefed on the campaigning and election processes, including both primary and final elections; help successful candidates prepare for the duties of office; and provide ongoing education and support for newly elected council members, beginning with the freshmen of 2002 and continuing through future elections.
The first chapter of this years-long commitment began in January 2000 with SPA's City Council Seminar Series, a weekend program of four daylong sessions. With a faculty that included City Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone, Council Republican leader Thomas V. Ognibene, and Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, the 2000 seminars were open to all but designed for potential council candidates. Participants were given a choice of two Saturdays and two Sundays to receive a crash course in campaigning and then (in some cases) serving. The series was organized as a collaborative effort between SPA and the NYC 2001 Political Education Leadership Coalition, an organization formed by the New York Women's Agenda, which represents 85 women's associations in New York City. Since first organizing the seminar series, SPA has created the Center for Transition and Leadership in Government to house this and other programs with similar goals.
On a typical weekend, more than 100 potential candidates gathered to hear speakers and ask questions. As individuals, they provided a microcosm of New York at large, fully reflecting the City's ethnic and economic diversity and representing all boroughs and all cohorts of age, occupation, and political persuasion. Their questions and concerns ranged from elementary to sophisticated, from political to administrative, from parochial to universal.
The second phase of the Project on Transition and Leadership 2001's approach to preparing the novice City Council is the publication of A Council Member's Guide to New York City Government, a primer on the workings of New York City government, the role and responsibilities of City Council membership, and the political realities of being an effective council member. Written by SPA faculty members and other experts in municipal government, the guide has been published in both print and CD-ROM format and is available on the SPA Web site at www.baruch.cuny.edu/spa.
The 11 chapters cover basic information, all of which must be mastered by new council members and by appropriate staff and support personnel.
The final educational element provided by the Project on Transition and Leadership 2001 was the three-day City Council 2001 Retreat, held Sunday through Tuesday, Dec. 2–4, 2001. Open to all 51 City Council members (newly elected and incumbent) and one staff person each, the retreat was designed with help from such successful models as those conducted by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.
The basic "text" for the retreat was the aforementioned guidebook for council members, and facilitators included faculty from Baruch and other academic institutions, as well as former council members and veteran staffers. Key topics reflected the priorities faced by the City Council: the budget process, land use, contracting, and oversight. Also covered were rules and procedures of the council, as well as enacting local laws and providing service to constituents. A special session on "hot-button" issues focused on such matters as the World Trade Center tragedy.
Although the city elections of 2001 were an especially tumultuous event for New York, encompassing as they did both the predicted high turnover of elected officials and the unpredicted calamity of a terrorist attack on the very day of the primary vote, it can already be foreseen that several elections in the near future will also result in City Councils with large numbers of freshman members. It can also be safely predicted that Baruch will step to the plate to fulfill its mission of public service by preparing some of the individuals who will deliver that service.

—Thomas Grant