STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9026 IN ASSEMBLY January 12, 2018 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. ROZIC -- read once and referred to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions AN ACT to amend chapter 154 of the laws of 1921, relating to the port authority of New York and New Jersey, in relation to establishing a gender balance in the port authority The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Article 4 of section 1 of chapter 154 of the laws of 1921 2 relating to the port authority of New York and New Jersey, as amended by 3 chapter 419 of the laws of 1930, is amended to read as follows: 4 ARTICLE IV 5 1. Commissioners. The port authority shall consist of twelve commis- 6 sioners, six resident voters from the state of New York, at least four 7 of whom shall be resident voters of the city of New York, and six resi- 8 dent voters from the state of New Jersey, at least four of whom shall be 9 resident voters within the New Jersey portion of the district, the New 10 York members to be chosen by the state of New York and the New Jersey 11 members by the state of New Jersey in the manner and for the terms fixed 12 and determined from time to time by the legislature of each state 13 respectively, except as herein provided. Each commissioner may be 14 removed or suspended from office as provided by the law of the state 15 from which he shall be appointed. 16 2. Gender balance in the port authority. a. For the purposes of this 17 subdivision, the following terms shall have the following meanings, 18 unless the context otherwise requires: 19 (1) "gender balance" means an equal number of women and men appointed 20 as commissioners of the port authority; 21 (2) "appointing power" means the individual or body charged with the 22 responsibility to appoint others as commissioners to the port authority. 23 b. (1) All appointments of commissioners of the port authority shall 24 be gender balanced. 25 (2) No person shall be appointed or reappointed as a commissioner if 26 that appointment or reappointment would cause the number of commission- 27 ers of one gender to be greater than one-half plus one. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11182-01-7A. 9026 2 1 c. (1) An appointing power shall make appointments of commissioners in 2 a manner which will ensure that women comprise approximately fifty 3 percent of appointed commissioners. 4 (2) The appointing power shall appoint a person from the gender which 5 has fewer appointees to any vacant position whenever the number of 6 persons of one gender appointed as commissioners exceeds the number of 7 persons of the other gender. 8 (3) In making appointments of commissioners, the number of appoint- 9 ments by an appointing power of one gender may not exceed by more than 10 one the number of appointments from the other gender. When an unequal 11 number of appointments has been made from each gender, a vacant position 12 shall be filled by a person from the gender with fewer appointees. 13 (4) In the event of an uneven number of positions, the appointing 14 power shall fill a vacancy with a member of the gender whose represen- 15 tation was of a lesser number when an opening occurs. 16 d. The appointing power shall undertake all efforts necessary to 17 obtain lists of names of qualified candidates to be recommended for 18 appointment, in furtherance of the advancement of the policy of this 19 subdivision to achieve equal numbers of appointments of men and women as 20 commissioners pursuant to this subdivision. 21 e. Multiple appointing powers charged with the appointment of individ- 22 uals as commissioners shall consult each other to avoid a violation of 23 this subdivision. 24 f. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to prohibit an indi- 25 vidual from completing a term for which the person was appointed, prior 26 to the effective date of this subdivision. 27 § 2. Article 4 of section 1 of chapter 154 of the laws of 1921, relat- 28 ing to the port authority of New York and New Jersey, as amended by 29 chapter 559 of the laws of 2015, is amended by adding a new subdivision 30 2-a to read as follows: 31 2-a. Gender balance in the port authority. a. For the purposes of this 32 subdivision, the following terms shall have the following meanings, 33 unless the context otherwise requires: 34 (1) "gender balance" means an equal number of women and men appointed 35 to the board of commissioners or as officers of the port authority; 36 (2) "appointing power" means an individual or body charged with the 37 responsibility to appoint others to the board of commissioners or as 38 officers of the port authority. 39 b. (1) Appointments made to the board of commissioners or appointments 40 of officers of the port authority shall be gender balanced. 41 (2) No person shall be appointed or reappointed to the board of 42 commissioners or appointed or reappointed as an officer of the port 43 authority if that appointment or reappointment would cause the number of 44 members of such board of commissioners or number of officers of one 45 gender to be greater than one-half plus one. 46 c. (1) An appointing power shall make appointment to the board of 47 commissioners or the appointment of officers of the port authority in a 48 manner which will ensure that women comprise approximately fifty percent 49 of the membership of the board of commissioners or the number of offi- 50 cers of the port authority. 51 (2) The appointing power shall appoint a person from the gender which 52 has fewer appointees to any vacant position whenever the number of 53 persons of one gender appointed to the board of commissioners or as 54 officers of the port authority exceeds the number of persons of the 55 other gender.A. 9026 3 1 (3) In making appointments to the board of commissioners or as offi- 2 cers of the port authority, the number of appointments by an appointing 3 power of one gender may not exceed by more than one the number of 4 appointments from the other gender. When an unequal number of appoint- 5 ments has been made from each gender, a vacant position shall be filled 6 by a person from the gender with fewer appointees. 7 (4) In the event of an uneven number of positions, the appointing 8 power shall fill a vacancy with a member of the gender whose represen- 9 tation was of a lesser number when an opening occurs. 10 d. The appointing power shall undertake all efforts necessary to 11 obtain lists of names of qualified candidates to be recommended for 12 appointment, in furtherance of the advancement of the policy of this 13 subdivision to achieve equal numbers of appointments of men and women to 14 appointive positions pursuant to this subdivision. 15 e. Multiple appointing powers charged with the appointment of individ- 16 uals to the board of commissioners or as officers of the port authority 17 shall consult each other to avoid a violation of this subdivision. 18 f. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to prohibit an indi- 19 vidual from completing a term for which the person was appointed, prior 20 to the effective date of this subdivision. 21 § 3. Sections one and two of this act shall take effect upon the 22 enactment into law by the state of New Jersey of legislation having an 23 identical effect with this act, but if the state of New Jersey shall 24 have already enacted such legislation, section one of this act shall 25 take effect immediately; provided, however, if chapter 559 of the laws 26 of 2015 shall not have taken effect on or before such date then section 27 two of this act shall take effect on the same date and in the same 28 manner as such chapter of the laws of 2015 takes effect; provided that 29 the state of New Jersey shall notify the legislative bill drafting 30 commission upon the occurrence of the enactment of the legislation 31 provided for in sections one and two of this act in order that the 32 commission may maintain an accurate and timely effective data base of 33 the official text of the laws of the state of New York in furtherance of 34 effectuating the provisions of section 44 of the legislative law and 35 section 70-b of the public officers law.