Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.
Credit score: Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit
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A Constitution Fee invoice handed Wednesday marks the newest chapter within the endless feud between the Metropolis Council and Mayor Eric Adams.
Amid the continuing discord between itself and Metropolis Corridor, the speaker and different Metropolis Council sponsors of the invoice see it as a technique to right the 5 proposals superior by the mayor’s unexpectedly convened Constitution Revision Fee earlier this yr. Speaker Adams has criticized each the method by which the mayor’s fee drafted its proposals and the measures themselves, two of which is able to give Metropolis Corridor an even bigger hand within the lawmaking course of.
Moreover, the speaker charged on Nov. 13 that the mayor’s fee used deceptive language for its proposals on the poll that hid their true affect from the voters.
“New Yorkers deserve more transparency and respect for democracy than was characterized by these proposals and the commission that created them,” the speaker mentioned. “My bill to establish a Charter Revision Commission is aimed at restoring these democratic norms that were undermined last summer, as well as the trust in city government that has been harmed by the events of the past several months.”
The measure was accepted by almost each lawmaker within the 51-member physique; Brooklyn Council Member Kalman Yeger, a conservative Democrat, was the one ‘no’ vote, and Brooklyn Council Member Darlene Mealy was absent from the vote. Yeger mentioned he was voting in opposition to the invoice as a result of he doesn’t imagine the council needs to be “outsourcing” its work to a separate appointed physique.
The laws has sufficient help to override a possible Mayor Adams veto.
Beneath the laws, the panel will encompass 17 members appointed by the speaker, mayor, public advocate, comptroller and every of the 5 Borough Presidents. Registered lobbyists shall be barred from becoming a member of the fee, and people with enterprise earlier than the town want approval from the Conflicts of Curiosity Board.
The physique shall be charged with conducting an “extensive” public engagement marketing campaign to solicit concepts from New Yorkers on the way to enhance metropolis authorities. It might have eight months to submit its first draft of proposals for the 2025 election cycle or 20 months for the 2026 cycle, which stands in distinction to the mayor’s fee finishing its work in two months.
Queens Council Member James Gennaro, who fiercely criticized the mayor’s fee, mentioned the speaker’s invoice is an “opportunity to right a really horrendous wrong.”
Whereas the mayor insisted his fee was shaped in response to issues from some neighborhood advocates over the council’s dealing with of points, together with public security, it additionally labored to dam Metropolis Council laws that he disagreed with from going earlier than New York voters. That invoice would have subjected almost two dozen extra mayoral appointees to council approval.
The mayor was in a position to in a position to cease that laws from going earlier than voters as a result of any proposals superior by a mayoral constitution fee take precedence over these superior by the council beneath state regulation.
Adams may repeat the identical transfer to dam the proposals drafted by the speaker’s fee. Metropolis Corridor didn’t instantly reply whether or not the mayor would set up one other fee.
Whereas the speaker referred to as that situation hypothetical, when requested about it on Wednesday, she blasted any try by the mayor to halt the council’s fee as “political weaponization.”
“It would be a great mistake for the mayor to attempt to repeat an abusive and undemocratic use of another Charter Revision Commission that is entirely self-serving,” the speaker mentioned. “I think that he’ll face the consequence of the voters. The voters are advised now; they’re aware.”
