New York City Council Passes Bill To Increase Say In Oversight, Despite Mayoral Opposition

NEW YORK — The City Council overwhelmingly passed legislation to give itself greater oversight of top mayoral appointments — the latest move in a power struggle with Mayor Eric Adams.

The bill would subject 20 positions to confirmation hearings and a vote by the 51-member legislative body, including commissioners of the buildings, transportation and sanitation departments.

“Advice and consent works,” council Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a press conference before the Thursday vote. “Advice and consent is a safeguard (against) … a Tammany Hall-like environment where commissioner positions are doled out simply because of their political allegiance to one person or another.”

The council vote is a major step in a longer process.

Mayor Adams is expected to veto the bill, having said the council is overstepping its powers. But the speaker’s staff has already instructed members to be in town for their scheduled July 18 meeting to override the veto, and the 46-4 vote on Thursday all but ensures the lawmakers can comfortably override him.

But that alone wouldn’t make the bill law. The expansion of powers would still need approval from voters in a citywide election, since it requires a change to the City Charter.

A referendum of that sort is unlikely to happen this November, since the mayor convened a Charter Revision Commission last month to preempt the council by putting his own proposals on the ballot.

Some council members including the speaker, perceived that as a way to block the unwanted bill, and in turn change the charter to place new limits on the council.

The speaker said she wanted the council’s proposal to be ready, in case the Charter Revision Commission failed to get its own questions on the ballot. But she said there were no plans to sue to stop it — as the council attempted in a 1998 breach between then Mayor Rudy Giuliani and lawmakers over using tax dollars on a new Yankee Stadium.

"There have been no discussions on that, and there was no intention to do that,” Speaker Adams said. “We do intend to go forward with this presentation on the November ballot.”

After a top City Hall aide antagonized the council by refusing to take questions at a hearing last week, the mayor and other aides came down hard on the bill in a press availability on Tuesday, arguing the council’s bureaucratic inefficiency and political contempt would undermine the function of executive agencies. Adams said last month that New Yorkers should “know who to blame.”

“The seemingly innocuous system of advice and consent turns into a system of gridlock and stalemate and delay,” Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer said. “Intro. 908, in our opinion, is a complete and utter dereliction of that duty.”

But those arguments found few supporters in the council. That even included support from conservative members such as Joann Ariola, Bob Holden and David Carr, who often side with the mayor.

It was a clear political blow to the mayor, but spokesperson Fabien Levy said it’s business as usual at the mayor’s office.

"While the council continues to focus on rehashing a 140-year-old political battle that’s already been debated,” he said in an emailed statement after the vote, “our administration will continue to focus on the working-class people of this city who want us to focus on how we can protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make this city more livable.”

Supporting council members said New York City is “an outlier,” noting Chicago and Los Angeles already give their city councils appointment oversight.

The advice and consent tensions come as the city Law Department works under an acting corporation counsel. The mayor has declined to officially nominate his top pick for the job, Randy Mastro, as he tries to build support for the choice despite widespread opposition to the controversial lawyer within the council.

The battle over appointments is happening amid negotiations over the city’s $111.6 billion budget, which is due by the end of the month, and as the mayor tries to usher a controversial housing proposal through the council. Both give the lawmakers leverage over mayoral priorities.

Asked Thursday, Speaker Adams said each issue is separate.

“We act and react with every piece of the pie,” she said ahead of Thursday’s vote. “We don't take a look at the entire pie as one ginormous thing that we're all lumping together. Everything that we do is compartmentalized very, very precisely.”