Today we received by mail New York Department of State’s Proposed Rule Making for the Apartment Information Vendor law.

By way of background — State laws can have two components — the portion which is legislated by the State and the “Rules and Regulation” section which is changeable by state officials through a process such as a Proposed Rule Making process.

In this case, the NYDOS seeks to amend the Rules and Regulations of the AIV law. In fact, their proposed changes make no sense. Particularly in the context that every licensed Apartment Information Vendor does not comply with any of the AIV Rules and the DOS does not enforce compliance by any licensed AIV, this Proposed Rule Making is totally ineffectual.

Here is the CURRENT Apartment Information Vendor Law.

Here is the Proposed Rule Making with proposed changes in brackets.

Here are our Comments to NYDOS on Proposed Rule Making.

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The New Yorker’s Ben McGrath writes that there are nine candidates for Public Advocate and observers “And yet the Public Advocate’s office holds so much promise! …The public advocate, basically, is the city’s ombudsman, a watchdog to monitor city services and, according to Gotbaum’s Web site, “to cut through government red tape.â€?

Over the course of the least three years, we tried to contact P.A. Gotbaum at least six times to ask for an appointment to discuss how the New York Division of Licensing’s selective enforcement against myself and MLX for allegedly operating an “unlicensed” Apartment Information Vendor was depriving consumers of choice and lesser fees and squelching innovation. We couldn’t get through to Gotbaum. But her assistant remarked to us, “Of course you are not an AIV. But we can’t get involved because we get contributions from the real estate industry.”

When you vote for Public Advocate, vote “NO” to Betsy Gotbaum.

Around City Hall: The Public?

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