Legislative Histories for
New York City Local Laws

(also known as Local Law Bill Jackets,
similarly named after the Governor's Bill Jackets)

Most people are unaware that any legislative history exists for NYC Local Laws. 

The City Council and the Mayor each have folders of material related to each Local Law, but there is no formal compilation.  The folders usually contain multiple copies of whatever is in them and it is in no particular order. The folders may contain text of the Intro, the Committee Report from the Stated Meeting, Memo of the Mayor, agency memos, Council memos, inter-governmental correspondence, letters from concerned parties, and newspaper articles. Even if you know who to ask, it can be days or months after your request before these folders are made availble to you.

Because of the difficulty and time required to obtain all of this material, and then sort it out, New York Legislative Service, Inc. continues to build their collection so that we can have complete legislative histories readily available. In addition to material that we may obtain from the Mayor and the City Council, we also supplement them wherever possible with public hearing transcripts, reports, press releases and news clippings.