James F. Brennan

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Assemblymember Jim Brennan (born April 17th, 1952) was elected to the Assembly in 1984 from the 51st Assembly district and the neighborhoods of Park Slope and Sunset Park. He has served more than 23 years and has chaired three committees during his career. They include six years as Chair of the Assembly Standing Committee on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities; one year as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Oversight, Analysis, and Investigation, and,since January 2005, the Assembly Committee on Cities.

There are 61 Brennan laws on the books of the State of New York and Mr. Brennan has won two national awards as a State legislator, The first, in 1996, was given by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill for Jim’s leadership in the fight for Parity in Mental and Physical Health Benefits. The second was given by the National Conference of State Legislators in 2007 for an investigative report directed by Jim as Chair of the Committee on Investigation. The report concerned how the Pataki administration undermined services for the severely disabled as a result of the closure of a Medicaid office serving those clients in the fall of 2004.

In 1998 and 1999 Mr. Brennan led the fight to win the New York New York 11 and the Special Needs Housing programs, funding 5000 new units of housing for the mentally ill in New York State. Another Brennan bill, the Work and Wellness Act, allowed the disabled to return to work and keep their health insurance and passed as part of a broader Health Care package in 2002. As Chair of the Cities Committee, Jim authored two new laws in 2007 to improve public health and safety in construction and development in New York City- one cracking down on the filing of fraudulent building plans to the New York City Department of Buildings, and the other compelling the acquisition of insurance for excavations that might damage adjacent properties.

Mr. Brennan also helped create the Restore New York program, a statewide effort to help distressed areas in cities by having the State pay to clear abandoned or vacant residential or commercial property with $300 million in funding.

Other notable legislation enacted during Mr. Brennan’s career include the 1991 Tax Expenditure Report, which requires the Governor to disclose all special tax breaks in the State tax code with every budget;the Security Breach Notification Act of 2005, which requires companies and government agencies to inform persons in their databases of breaches that could lead to identity theft. Mr. Brennan is also the author of the Expansion of the Real Property Partial Tax Exemption to low and moderate-income senior citizens in co-ops and condos.

In 1992, during the legislative redistricting, Mr. Brennan’s district radically change and he ran in the 44th Assembly district, including the neighborhoods of Flatbush, Kensington, and Park Slope, and won. In 2000 Mr. Brennan made proposals to create a democracy in the governance structure of the State Assembly and was the first legislator in the City and State to force disclosure of hitherto secret funds under the control of the legislative leaders and the Govenor. For these actions Mr. Brennan was removed from a committee chairmanship. Four years later Mr. Brennan and the incumbent Speaker,Sheldon Silver, reconciled and Mr. Brennan was appointed Chair of the Ovesight Committee.

A full time Assemblymenber, Mr. Brennan maintains two constituent service offices. He is an attorney, a graduate of Yale University and Brooklyn Law School, and has twelve credits toward an M.B.A. degree from Baruch.

Brennan has plans to run for New York City Comptroller in 2009. He began to raise money for such a run for the 2005 election, but withdrew his candidacy when the current Comptroller, William Thompson announced he would run for re-election to the position instead of running for Mayor. Because of term limits, Thompson will be prohibited from running for a third term.

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Preceded by
Joseph Ferris		 New York State Assembly, 51st District
1985–1992		 Succeeded by
Javier Nieves
Preceded by
Joni Yoswein		 New York State Assembly, 44th District
1993 – present		 Incumbent