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.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3744
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 29, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sens. CLEARE, JACKSON -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations,
Authorities and Commissions
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 2830 to read as follows:
3 § 2830. 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.
LBD08091-01-5
S. 3744 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) To the extent practicable, persons shall be recommended for
13 appointment, appointed or reappointed to any state or local authority
14 only if that recommendation, appointment or reappointment is gender
15 balanced as provided by this 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-five, in a manner which, to the
19 extent practicable, will ensure a gender balanced appointment or reap-
20 pointment for each public 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, 2025 and shall expire and be
41 deemed repealed August 1, 2035.
