Mayor vs. Speaker: The advice and consent ballot battle
The ongoing rivalry between City Council and City Hall, long an open secret progressing toward common knowledge, continues to quietly rage on with another decree dividing the two public entities.
Speaker Adrienne Adams moved to file the advice-and-consent law with the Board of Elections (BOE) last week so it can appear as a question on the ballot for New Yorkers to vote on in the general election this November, while Mayor Eric Adams concluded his charter revision hearings this week.
The advice-and-consent law, introduced May 23, allows the City Council to approve mayoral appointments for agency commissioners. It was adopted after a majority of councilmembers passed it June 6. Shortly after the law’s introduction, Mayor Adams convened the Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) to change the city’s constitution with a particular emphasis on public safety and “fiscal responsibility.” The commission’s first meeting was held May 29. The last CRC convened in 2019 to review the city’s charter through a racial justice lens and took nearly a year to hold public hearings.
The final commission report was released July 23, before the last meeting. The CRC received more than 2,300 written comments and its 12 meetings were attended by more than 750 people in-person and virtually, said the city.
The mayor’s CRC ballot proposals include amendments to expand the sanitation department’s authority over city property and trash cans; assess the fiscal impact of proposed local laws and address “inefficient budget deadlines”; improve the city’s capital planning process; improve minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs); and establish requirements and a prior vote for City Council laws centering around public safety.
The latter amendment dicates that if the City Council moves to pass any future legislation applying to the NYPD, FDNY, or Department of Correction (DOC), it would have to first give notice of an intention to hold a hearing and vote to the public, the mayor, and relevant agency heads at least 45 days in advance; allow agency leadership to testify and file a “public safety impact statement”; and give an additional 50-day advance notice before the vote of the public, mayor, and agencies, said the report. The mayor and city agencies would also be allowed to hold their own public hearings on city laws during the period between the notice and the ultimate vote.
Speaker Adams, councilmembers, and some advocates speculate that the CRC ballot proposals are being “rushed” to block voters from voting on advice and consent. Regardless, the law currently authorizes the City Council to practice that process until November 2025.
“The Council is filing the ballot question for voters to decide on the advice-and-consent law in this November’s general election, so voters can exercise their democratic right to vote on this existing proposal,” said Speaker Adams in a statement. “The Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission should refrain from blocking New Yorkers’ ability to decide on advice-and-consent by rushing to create new proposals, because that would be undemocratic. Advice-and-consent strengthens representative democracy and government by ensuring we have the most qualified and ethical commissioners to effectively deliver the services that New Yorkers deserve.”
On July 22, councilmembers in the City Council Progressive and Black, Latino, and Asian Caucuses held a press conference ahead of the CRC meeting in Queens to double down on slamming the mayor’s commission as “undemocratic.”
“The mayor initiated this charter review commission as a very blatant effort to block our ballot proposal that we passed earlier this year that should and must be on the ballot this November,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse.
“We should be questioning the necessity and legitimacy of this entire process right now,” Councilmember Chi Ossé said. “The council passed the advice-and-consent bill to expand oversight of the city’s executive branch—of the mayor’s work, that he does uphold our Democratic process. Immediately thereafter, the mayor initiated this Charter Revision Commission, clearly as a cynical ploy to force the council’s measure off of our November ballots. Whatever proposals ultimately come from this commission, we know that they are secondary to the commission’s purpose of existence to undercut the Democratic process and the New York City Council.”
Ossé went so far as to liken the mayor’s “power grab” to the authoritarian and furtive political tactics of ex-President Donald Trump. “We do not want a mayor within the City of New York to do that same thing with the process that is undergoing right now,” he said. “We have an obligation to call this out for what it is.”
After the release of the final report, numerous advocacy groups, including Housing Works, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), Make the Road New York, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Muslim Community Network, and the Immigrant Defense Project, signed a letter demanding the mayor’s CRC proposals stay off the ballot.
“New Yorkers deserve nothing short of a thoughtful City Charter that creates a city that works for all New Yorkers. This report from the Charter Revision Commission stands in stark contrast to these values, prioritizing political gamesmanship over safeguarding our city’s guiding principles,” said Michael Sisitzky, assistant director of policy at the NYCLU. “This harried, disorganized, and opaque revision process has led to final recommendations that would undermine our local democracy in the service of making agencies like the NYPD even less accountable to New Yorkers. We urge the Commission to keep those dangerous measures off of the November ballot.”
In his usual Tuesday morning briefing, Mayor Adams said that he was impressed with the commission’s job so far and disagreed with the idea that anything was done in haste.
“No: being rushed is introducing legislation in a week. That’s what’s being rushed,” Mayor Adams said. “We allowed New Yorkers to come in and speak. Part of the recommendation that people are saying [is] before you do these changes in law, people should have a right to come in and speak. That’s ironic. It’s all going to work itself out. It is all part of the process. All we need to do is take a deep breath, meditate, drink a green smoothie, and just be fine.”The final public hearing will take place Thursday, July 25, at Brooklyn Public Library Central Library at 2 p.m. The CRC will vote to adopt the final report proposals then. If adopted, they will be placed on the November general election ballot for people to vote on.
The post Mayor vs. Speaker: The advice and consent ballot battle appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.