"First of all, the office itself is a worthless appendix of municipal government: Vested with no real power, it serves only to waste taxpayer money in the service of its occupant's political ambitions.
Second: What sort of a person would even want such a job?"
The office of public advocate is the only such office in the United States, at least that is what all the candidates running for office claim. However, on the face of it, it is true that the Public Advocate has no specific duties that are exclusive to the office. For all intents and purposes, individual council members are available to field constituent concerns or develop city-wide issues through legislation.
To the defense of the candidates, all gave professional responses during debates and interviews when asked what exactly the office does and what they would do with the position should they be elected. One candidate in particular, civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel, even directly addressed concerns of the Public Advocate job description by producing a 14 point approach to the Office of the Pubic Advocate:
"No New Yorker would have to ask “what does the Public Advocate do?” if I were in charge of the office. The City Charter specifies in section 24g, “The public advocate shall establish procedures for receiving and processing complaints, responding to complaints, conducting investigations, and reporting findings, and shall inform the public about such procedures.” Accordingly, I’ve outlined fourteen procedures and approaches I would use to make the office more dynamic and accessible:"
Whether the office should exist or not is a moot point. The election will be held and the job will be filled, but the New York Post should be applauded for shining light on the fact that this office needs to either be remodled and granted more offical powers or eliminated to save money.
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