Friday, March 20, marked the 79th day of Zohran Mamdani’s time period as mayor. New York News is following Mamdani round his first 100 days in workplace. We’re carefully monitoring his progress on fulfilling marketing campaign guarantees, appointing key leaders to authorities posts, and managing town’s funds. Right here’s a abstract of what the mayor did.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed three members to a fee that may assessment pay for New York Metropolis elected officers, after practically a decade with out raises and after lawmakers final yr pursued wage hikes via laws as an alternative.
Carl Weisbrod, a former metropolis planning official and founding president of town’s Financial Improvement Company, will chair the Quadrennial Advisory Fee. The opposite members are Dr. Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, a former deputy mayor for well being and human providers, and Larian Angelo, a former first deputy director on the Mayor’s Workplace of Administration and Price range and former New York Metropolis Council finance director.
The appointments full a fee that Mamdani and Metropolis Council Speaker Julie Menin introduced on Jan. 23 as a substitute for proposed laws that will have routinely elevated compensation for elected officers. The panel is anticipated to assessment salaries for Metropolis Council members, citywide elected officers and district attorneys and difficulty suggestions for consideration by the mayor and speaker.
Any pay adjustments would nonetheless require Metropolis Council approval.
“Carl, Lilliam and Larian have each spent their careers serving this city with integrity. I am confident they will approach this responsibility with the seriousness and independence it demands, and I look forward to carefully reviewing their recommendations,” mentioned Mamdani, who has beforehand mentioned he wouldn’t take a pay enhance. Menin has agreed to do the identical.
“The Quadrennial Commission plays an essential role in ensuring that any compensation decisions are made independently and transparently,” Menin mentioned in a press release welcoming the appointments.
The transfer comes after years with no charter-mandated assessment of elected officers’ salaries. The final such fee was convened in 2015, and the final full assessment occurred in 2016.
That lapse grew to become extra politically charged final yr, when the Metropolis Council thought-about laws to lift pay for its members and different high officers. Underneath that proposal, Metropolis Council members, the mayor, the general public advocate, borough presidents and the comptroller would have acquired 16% raises, whereas district attorneys would have gotten a 6% enhance.
For Council members, that will have meant a increase from $148,500 to $172,500 — their first enhance since 2016. The council members mentioned the proposed determine mirrored the rising value of dwelling, the rising calls for of the job, and wage will increase within the personal sector, nonprofit world, and amongst elected officers in comparable cities reminiscent of Chicago.
Discussing the laws in December, authorities watchdog teams, together with Residents Union and Frequent Trigger, mentioned they weren’t against raises themselves however criticized the Council’s try to maneuver them via laws moderately than an impartial fee.
At a listening to on the proposal, Residents Union Govt Director Grace Rauh mentioned the method broke with longstanding metropolis observe. She mentioned the Metropolis Constitution requires the mayor to convene an impartial fee each 4 years to check and make suggestions on elected officers’ salaries — one thing Mayors Invoice de Blasio and Eric Adams each did not do.
Rauh additionally argued that shifting the laws throughout the lame-duck interval between Election Day and Jan. 1 risked undermining public belief and will invite authorized challenges. As that debate continued, the Council moved to formalize a timeline for future opinions.
On March 10, the Council authorized Introduction 502-B, launched by Deputy Speaker Nantasha M. Williams, which might require the mayor to convene a quadrennial fee in 2026, then between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15 of 2030, and each 4 years after that.
Underneath the invoice, every fee would have 75 days from the date of its convening to make suggestions on compensation for metropolis elected officers and to ship them to each the mayor and the Council. The mayor may approve, disapprove, or modify these suggestions earlier than transmitting them to the Council, however wouldn’t be required to take action. The Council would retain the authority to change compensation ranges earlier than adoption.
“Today’s vote advances the Charter-outlined process for reviewing elected official compensation,” Williams mentioned after the invoice handed. “The last full review took place in 2016, and this legislation provides the structure for the Council to revisit that question in a clear and transparent way.”
New commissioner: Mamdani nabs council’s finance boss
Earlier on Friday, Hizzoner appointed Richard Lee as commissioner of the New York Metropolis Division of Finance, efficiently luring away the Metropolis Council’s high finances negotiator throughout a fraught finances season.
Lee’s appointment lands in the midst of tense negotiations between the mayor and Speaker Julie Menin over a preliminary finances clouded by a significant fiscal hole. As head of the Council’s Finance Division, Lee had been central to the physique’s finances technique at the same time as Mamdani defended a spending plan constructed round reserve drawdowns, a proposed property tax hike, and hoped-for assist from Albany.
The Council wasted little time changing Lee. On March 19, Speaker Julie Menin appointed Nathan Toth as finance director, handing finances technique, negotiations, and planning to a veteran metropolis fiscal official who beforehand spent 15 years within the Council’s Finance Division earlier than leaving for the Division of Design and Building.
The hiring of Lee comes as Mamdani faces rising scrutiny over his method to closing town’s finances gap. The mayor has argued that Albany ought to do extra to assist, together with by elevating taxes on rich New Yorkers and enormous firms, and recalibrating how a lot cash town receives from the state.
That technique has drawn skepticism from a number of instructions. Moody’s just lately revised town’s outlook to adverse, citing persistent finances gaps, a transfer Mamdani dismissed as untimely. Council leaders have additionally pushed again on his reliance on reserves, deepening the divide between Metropolis Corridor and the speaker’s workplace as negotiations intensify.
Previous to his position with the council’s monetary division, Lee was finances director for the Queens borough president and beforehand labored in finances and legislative affairs for then-Council Member Leroy Comrie.
In saying the appointment, Mamdani pointed to Lee’s expertise with town finances at a time when New York is dealing with mounting fiscal stress.
“His command of the City’s budgeting process makes him uniquely qualified to lead the Agency and ensure that our City continues meeting New Yorkers’ needs,” mentioned Mamdani.
Lee known as the appointment an honor and mentioned he sees the job as a part of a broader struggle over affordability, and mentioned town’s monetary system ought to work for working-class New Yorkers, immigrants, small companies, and outer-borough communities.
Lee replaces Jeffrey Shear, who had served as appearing commissioner since Jan. 1 after beforehand holding the division’s quantity two submit as first deputy commissioner.
