STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2595--B
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 28, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. BIAGGI -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities
and Commissions -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- recommitted
to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions in
accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill
amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit-
tee
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
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01324-07-0
S. 2595--B 2
1 or to appoint or reappoint a person or persons to the board of a state
2 or local authority.
3 (c) "Board" means the governing board or governing body or other such
4 governing entity of local and state authorities.
5 (d) "Preference" means the act of favoring one person over another
6 that is inversely proportional, provided however, such favoring shall
7 not be dispositive.
8 (e) "Inversely proportional" means the greater the percentage of women
9 on the board the lower the weight of the preference and the lower the
10 percentage of women on the board the greater the weight of the prefer-
11 ence.
12 3. (a) All appointive state and local authorities heretofore or here-
13 after established by law or resolution shall have recommendations for
14 appointments, or reappointments that are gender balanced as provided by
15 this section.
16 (b) Persons shall be recommended for appointment, appointed or reap-
17 pointed to any state or local authority only if that recommendation,
18 appointment or reappointment is gender balanced as provided by this
19 section.
20 4. An appointing power shall make recommendations, appointments and
21 reappointments to state and local authorities created prior to, on or
22 after August first, two thousand twenty, in a manner which will ensure a
23 gender balanced appointment or reappointment for each public authority.
24 5. The appointing power shall undertake all efforts necessary to
25 obtain lists of names of qualified candidates to be recommended for
26 appointment to state and local authorities, in furtherance of the
27 advancement of the policy of this section to achieve gender balanced
28 appointments and reappointments to state and local authority boards
29 pursuant to subdivisions three and four of this section.
30 6. Multiple appointing powers charged with the recommendation,
31 appointment or reappointment of individuals to the same state or local
32 public authority shall consult each other in order to comply with the
33 requirements of this section.
34 7. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an individ-
35 ual from completing a term for which the person was appointed, prior to
36 the effective date of this section.
37 8. Each state and local authority shall include the number of
38 appointed or reappointed board members in the last year, the number of
39 women board members appointed or reappointed in the last year, the
40 current number of board members on the board and the gender of such
41 board members in the annual report required pursuant to section twenty-
42 eight hundred of this article.
43 § 2. This act shall take effect August 1, 2020 and shall expire and be
44 deemed repealed on and after August 1, 2030.
