Originally Published: May 7, 2007
Calls on Elected Officials to perform periodic self-evaluations
Citizens Union urges officials to report to voters on how well they perform against campaign promises
On the occasion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg issuing another one of his self evaluations to the voters, Citizens Union of the City of New York today announced a new effort aimed at increasing accountability in the actions of government by calling upon city and state elected officials to provide voters periodic self-evaluations of how they have performed against the promises they made during their campaigns for office. Tied to its historic work of evaluating candidates for elected office, Citizens Union also announced that it would begin to include as part of its overall evaluation of candidates whether incumbent officials conducted such an examination of their actions against their promises and reported how well they did to their voters.
Richard J. Davis, Chair of Citizens Union, said “Over the past several years, CU has more clearly defined the reform and policy issues, and the criteria, we use in evaluating candidates for elected office. Our actions today are but just one more step in our efforts to hold elected officials accountable for the promises they make. The issue is not whether one agrees with the promises made by a candidate or with what they have done to implement them. The issue is public officials making information available to the pubic to enable the public to evaluate their performance. We commend Mayor Bloomberg for his leadership in reporting back to voters how well he thinks he has done to fulfill his campaign promises so that voters have a more informed basis for judging him.”
In fulfilling its mission to provide information to the voters of New York about candidates running for elected office, Citizens Union since 1910 has evaluated and supported candidates who seem most capable of successfully addressing issues of particular importance at the time and advancing the public interest of good government and political reform. CU has made its views known through its nearly century old practice of publishing a voters directory weeks before each primary and general election. Recent practice has also led CU to evaluate elected officials on how well they have worked to address the issues and achieve political reform, and now will include in its evaluation whether or not elected officials have conducted a public self evaluation.
Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizens Union, said, “Holding elected officials accountable for their pledges and actions has been a mainstay of Citizens Unionís century long work on behalf of the public interest. By now calling upon elected officials to also hold themselves publicly accountable by conducting their own self-evaluations, we hope voters will have more information to better judge them against the promises made during previous campaigns. We believe that these self evaluations will serve as an effective tool in bringing greater integrity to the actions of elected officials and go a long way toward building stronger public trust in the affairs of government.”
Citizens Union of the City of New York is an independent, non-partisan civic organization dedicated to promoting good government and political reform in the city and state of New York. For more than a century, Citizens Union has served as a watchdog for the public interest and an advocate for the common good.