Six weeks ago, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the creation of COGE, the Commission on Government Efficiency. While the commission's name might sound like Elon Musk's now-dead federal DOGE and conjure up an image of a chainsaw-slashing, afuera-style attack on the city's $125.8 billion budget, the commission has thus far been a typical governmental task force.
Before proposing changes to the city's charter, COGE is holding a series of 11 meetings to gather input from elected officials and the public about improving government efficiency. On Wednesday evening, I went to the penultimate COGE meeting in the auditorium of the historic Riverside Church in Morningside Heights to witness COGE in action. The meeting started about 20 minutes late. When the commissioners finally took their seats, a lone audience member began clapping, and the rest of the attendees tentatively joined him.
