Campaign Finance Board Welcomes New Chair Frederick Schaffer
March 1, 2017
The New York City Campaign Finance Board welcomes today's appointment by Mayor Bill de Blasio of Frederick Schaffer as its new Chair. Schaffer succeeds Rose Gill Hearn who resigned from the Board in December 2016. He will serve the remainder of the current five-year term, which ends in 2018.
Schaffer comes to the CFB with a distinguished record of public service. For sixteen years, he served as General Counsel and Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs at the City University of New York (CUNY). He retired from the position in 2016. Schaffer also served as counsel to the 2010 New York City Charter Revision Commission. Notably, that Commission crafted the City Charter's requirement for disclosure of independent expenditures in city elections, which are administered by the CFB. Those rules require transparency for special interests that want to influence elections and are widely considered to be among the strongest in the country.
Prior to joining CUNY, Schaffer served as Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York and as Chief Litigating Assistant Corporation Counsel and as Counsel to Mayor Ed Koch. Additionally, he was a director of the Legal Aid Society for 10 years, serving as its chairman for two years. Since 2010, he has served as a director on the board of Citizens Union.
Board Chair Frederick Schaffer said, “I am pleased and honored that Mayor de Blasio has appointed me as Chair of the Campaign Finance Board. New York City’s public campaign financing system is a model for states and cities around the country that want to reduce the influence of big money in politics. I look forward to working with the Board to make the City’s program even stronger in the coming years.”
“For nearly 30 years, the Campaign Finance Board has stood for integrity and independence and the appointment of Frederick Schaffer today continues that tradition. Mr. Schaffer has an exemplary track record of public service as a former prosecutor, a city attorney, and at CUNY, and we look forward to his leadership. On behalf of the other members of the Board and CFB staff, I welcome him to the CFB,” said Executive Director Amy Loprest.
As mandated by the City Charter and the New York City Campaign Finance Act, the CFB is composed of five board members: two are appointed by the mayor, two by the speaker of the City Council, and the chair is appointed by the mayor after consultation with the speaker. The Board is strictly nonpartisan, and the mayor’s and the speaker’s two appointees must not be affiliated with the same political party. Board members serve staggered five-year terms.
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