Here’s the quick history of the charter reform proposals that will be put on the November city ballot: The City Council tried to seize some power from Mayor Adams; it cut him off, threatened to cut him off advice power — then backed down, clearly proposing a ceasefire.
Left-wing city councilors won a “veto-proof” majority in the 2022 election, which emboldened Speaker Adrienne Adams and her ultra-progressive team to treat Adams like a punching bag: passing the insane Count All Stops bill over his veto and burdening cops with ridiculous amounts of paperwork, then imposing housing vouchers, and finally requiring a veto on all of the mayor’s commissioner appointments.
Oh, and progressives are using the limited veto the council already has (thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sabotage of his successors) to prevent the mayor from appointing city government veteran Randy Mastro as the city’s top lawyer in the Law Department.
Since the council’s veto of more than two dozen major appointments would require a revision of the city charter, Mayor Adams was able to block it by appointing his own charter reform commission.
And now the 13-member panel was about to offer voters a chance to control the council, curbing its ability to interfere in public safety issues and hand unfunded mandates to city agencies.
House Speaker Adams railed against Mayor Adams for seeking to become a “king,” that is, to enrich himself from a woman who sought to make him a puppet.
But in the end, the commission’s final recommendations were much more moderate, covering only modest changes to strengthen public safety, fiscal responsibility, and so on: an obvious offer of a ceasefire.
He doesn’t want war, but he can implement stricter reforms next year vote if the council does not withdraw.
Oh, and for the record, the mayor’s right to point out that the council already has “significant checks” on the mayor’s authority through its budget, land use and agency oversight responsibilities.
His quest for peace also left out some interesting ideas: it would have been a good opportunity to let voters have their say on the council’s desire to legalize non-citizen voting, Gotham’s sanctuary city status, and even the “rights” of the homeless.
Next year’s mayoral commission should at least push to change the city’s sanctuary laws so that the NYPD can cooperate with ICE agents on migrants accused of serious crimes.
And if the city council persists in its destructive ways, consider reorganizing it. completely.
As we’ve noted: Where the mayor is elected citywide, council members are elected only in their own districts – with the real race usually taking place only in a low-turnout primary; most average New Yorkers don’t even know the final outcome. name of their representative on the council.
The city would function much better if the pseudo-democratic city council had much less power to block construction.
New York Post
