New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has assembled a small group of Democratic lawmakers to study ways to make state government more transparent. The Bronx Democrat announced the appointments to the 12-member panel Friday.
Heastie says the panel, led by Assembly members J. Gary Pretlow of Mount Vernon and Brian Kavanagh of Manhattan, will recommend changes to encourage more openness and public participation in the legislative process, while looking for ways to better harness technology, including improvements to the Assembly's website.
When he was elected speaker earlier this year, Heastie vowed to address longstanding concerns that rank-and-file lawmakers and members of the public were too often left out of legislative decision making.
© 2015 AP
