Council Passes Mayoral Oversight Bill That Has to Compete for Ballot Space

The New York City Council on Thursday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a ballot measure that would increase their power over the mayor’s commissioner picks, with the hopes of putting it up for a city-wide vote in November.

The advice and consent bill , which passed with 46 votes out of the 51-member body, would require the Council to approve the confirmation of 20 additional commissioners, including those who head up the sanitation, parks, social services and buildings departments.

It expands on the 88 other appointments the Council already has sway over in the offices of the mayor, comptroller, and public advocate, including the head of the Department of Investigation, the corporation counsel , and the chair of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Mayor Eric Adams and his team have forcefully spoken against the bill, saying it will cause a logjam of government and that agencies would be left without a commissioner. The mayor’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, on Tuesday harkened back to the late 1800s and invoked the infamous Tammany Hall as a reason to halt advice and consent.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens), however, argued it just expands transparency.

“Advice and consent works,” she said at the start of Thursday’s stated meeting. “This legislation does not usurp the mayor’s power to appoint city officials.”

Instead, she contended, the bill “adds transparency and democratic accountability by requiring a confirmation process that again already happens with dozens of positions. Advice and consent moves the appointment process out of the shadows.”

Councilmember Sandy Nurse, a Democrat from Brooklyn, said the process could help root out corruption.

“Advice and consent will advance better public officials but also limit the common threads of fraud, corruption, and political favoritism that has plagued our city for generations,” she said.

Council members who opposed the bill include Kalman Yeger, a Brooklyn Democrat who said it was being rushed through.

He also noted that the bill likely won’t even make it onto the ballot this year because the mayor’s own Charter Review Commission — and whatever ballot provisions could come out of that — would knock it off.

“This is all a show, it’s not real,” said Yeger before his “no” vote. “We’re passing a bill today that’s never going to see the light of day. And I don’t really want to vote for something like that.”

Familiar Drama

The CCouncil’s move points to a worsening relationship between the mayor and the city legislators his team shares a building with. Mayor Adams has downplayed any issues, comparing their relationship to family squabbling.

“Those of you who have spouses, you don’t debate with your spouses from time to time, and don’t you still love them?” he quipped Tuesday at his weekly press briefing.

“You debate what you disagree on, but the same way you pointed out our disagreements back in ‘22, we landed the budget. You pointed them out in ‘23, we landed a budget. You pointed out them again, we’re still able to resolve this.”

The council speaker’s office, though, said the mayor’s charter review commission — which held its second public and sparsely-attended meeting Thursday on Staten Island — was formed solely to block their previously announced advice and consent bill from getting on the ballot.

“A Charter Revision Commission that seeks to change the city’s constitution should be a serious undertaking, not something arbitrarily constructed in response to a Council bill being introduced and announced at 6 p.m. with serious ethical questions about some of its members,” spokeswoman Mara Davis said on May 21 after the mayor’s announcement.

The bill now moves to the mayor. While he can, and likely will, veto it, the Council can overwrite that with a two-thirds vote.

“While the Council continues to focus on rehashing a 140-year-old political battle that’s already been debated, 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,” Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said in a statement.

Davis, said there is still a chance this could make it to November’s ballot, even though a mayoral city charter initiative would usurp a Council provision.

Both the Council and the mayor’s charter review commission would have to submit any ballot initiatives by Aug. 5.

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