Int. No. 1206
By Council Members Vallone and Halloran
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the neighborhood parks alliance.
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Chapter 1 of title 18 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 18-142 to read as follows:
§18-142 Neighborhood parks alliance. a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
"Conservancy arrangement" shall mean any license or other written authorization allowing a conservancy to operate any park or portion of any park under the jurisdiction of the commissioner.
"Contributing conservancy" shall mean any not-for-profit entity, pursuant to a written conservancy arrangement, that operates any park or portion of any park under the jurisdiction of the commissioner and contributes no less than twenty percent of its annual operating budget to the neighborhood parks fund, provided that "contributing conservancy" shall not include any not-for-profit entity that operates in three or more boroughs.
"Neighborhood parks fund" shall mean a fund administered by the neighborhood parks alliance where revenue generated from contributing conservancies is deposited.
"Recipient park" shall mean any park under the jurisdiction of the commissioner that is not managed by a conservancy and has received an unacceptable park inspection rating in each of the preceding two years from the department.
b. There shall be a neighborhood parks alliance established within the department for the purposes of administering funds contributed to the neighborhood parks fund from any contributing conservancy for the benefit of recipient parks. The alliance shall include a board of nine members and be composed as follows:
(1) one member shall be the commissioner of the department;
(2) one member shall be appointed by the Mayor;
(3) one member shall be appointed by the speaker of the Council;
(4) one member shall be appointed by the public advocate;
(5) one member shall be appointed by each borough president.
b. Each member of the board shall serve for a term of four years without compensation and at the pleasure of the appointing official and any vacancy shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment, except that the commissioner of the department shall serve on the board during his or her appointment as commissioner.
c. The commissioner or his or her designee shall serve as chairperson of the board and shall schedule at least one annual meeting before February 1 of each year with members of the board and staff of the neighborhood parks alliance. The chairperson may schedule additional meetings of the board on twenty calendar days notice to all members of the board. Such notice to the members of the board shall be by electronic mail and via facsimile as available or via certified mail to the last known address of such member if neither electronic method nor facsimile is available.
d. Powers and duties of the board. The board:
1. shall adopt, amend and rescind rules to govern the procedures of the board, the neighborhood parks alliance and the neighborhood parks fund.
2. shall appoint an executive director and staff to manage the neighborhood parks alliance and the neighborhood parks fund who shall act in accordance with policies adopted by the board;
3. shall determine the criteria for eligibility for certain parks to be classified as recipient parks for the purpose of receiving monies from the neighborhood parks fund; and
4. shall publicize the amount of funds allocated to recipient parks and the amount of funds received from contributing conservancies pursuant to this section on the department's website and update such information on a quarterly basis.
e. Contributing conservancies shall:
1. be required to contribute annually no less than an amount equal to twenty percent of its annual operating budget to the neighborhood parks fund;
2. to the extent practicable, share park management best practices with recipient parks; and
3. attend the annual meeting of the neighborhood parks alliance board and to the extent practicable, any other meeting scheduled by the chairperson of the neighborhood parks alliance board pursuant to subdivision c of this section.
f. The neighborhood parks fund. i. The neighborhood parks fund shall consist of all amounts received by the alliance from contributing conservancies and all other monies appropriated, credited or transferred from any other source for recipient parks. Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the alliance from receiving grants, gifts or bequests for the purposes of the fund as defined in this subdivision and depositing such grants, gifts or bequests into the fund;
ii. No monies from the fund or the alliance shall be transferred to the general fund or any other revenue fund;
iii. Monies in the neighborhood parks fund shall be used for the sole purposes of funding the operations of the neighborhood parks alliance and maintaining and operating recipient parks;
iv. No monies from the fund shall be used for any purpose other than the purposes set forth in this section and;
v. Monies received in to the neighborhood parks fund shall be deposited in a bank or other federally insured depository located within the state of New York.
§2. This local law shall take effect ninety days after its enactment.
KS
LS #4857
8/28/12