Gov. Hochul flexes power while pushing Mayor Adams to clean house

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is preparing to ramp up its public presence in New York City – and the governor herself is privately pushing indicted Mayor Eric Adams to rid his office of aides who have come under the gaze of federal investigators, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the effort.

In several conversations since Adams was indicted Thursday, Hochul has pressured the mayor not only to banish his aides who remain the subject of ongoing investigations, but also replace them with what one source called “trusted civil servants.”

Hochul has significant leverage, with state law granting her the power to remove Adams from office. Adams aide Timothy Pearson, a longtime friend of the mayor who was the subject of multiple lawsuits and investigations, abruptly announced his resignation this week. On Wednesday, Hochul called it a “good first step.”

Meanwhile, top members of Hochul’s administration — including Communications Director Anthony Hogrebe and Homeland Security Commissioner Jackie Bray, a trusted confidant — held a virtual meeting Tuesday with dozens of state agency commissioners and communications officials to discuss the mayor’s situation.

They encouraged state agencies to bolster public efforts within the five boroughs in an attempt to assuage New Yorkers’ concerns that the mayor’s indictment could impair the government’s ability to function, according to three sources who were in the meeting but not authorized to speak publicly.

“I’m watching the situation closely,” Hochul told reporters Wednesday. “[Pearson’s] departure is a good first step and we’re watching to see what unfolds over the next few days.”

Adams, meanwhile, has sought to assure New Yorkers that he can still run the city effectively – while nodding at the governor’s oversight authority.

“I'm going to continue to move the city forward and I'm communicating with her to let her know some of the things that we are doing,” he said Tuesday.

CNN first reported that the governor was pressuring Adams to clean house.

Although the governor hasn’t given Adams a specific list of mayoral aides she’d like to see removed, she's made it clear that she wants the mayor to install civil servants with strong reputations within his office, according to one source with knowledge of the talks. Several Adams aides' phones have been seized or homes have been visited by federal authorities as part of ongoing investigations in recent weeks, including First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks.

On Wednesday, Hochul said it would be “irrational” for her to give the mayor a “litmus test” with a specific number of individuals she wants him to remove.

“I'm working to make sure that the key positions, working with the mayor, are filled with people that are going to be responsible, but it is ultimately his decision to make those,” she said. “And I'm just letting him know that we're monitoring the situation. We expect changes, that’s not a secret, and changes are beginning.”

State law empowers Hochul to remove many public officials from office for wrongdoing, including the mayor of any city. That power — which has been on the books for more than a century — is often threatened, but rarely used. In fact, no governor has even attempted to invoke it since 1974, when an upstate sheriff abruptly resigned after then-Gov. Malcolm Wilson tried to remove him.

But invoking that power would force the governor to navigate a series of minefields.

For one, her authority to remove Adams — which is also in the New York City Charter — is remarkably vague. The law allows the governor to remove the mayor after providing him with a “copy of the charges against him and an opportunity to be heard in his defense.” But the law doesn’t define what it means by “charges,” nor any process for the mayor to lay out a defense.

That means it would likely be up to the state’s court system to interpret the law and whether the governor appropriately followed it — a potentially risky endeavor for Hochul, according to Vin Bonventre, an Albany Law School professor.

“The governor has to be concerned about ending up with egg on her face by proceeding to exercise these powers,” Bonventre said. “You could have the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, step in and say, ‘No, no, no, no.’ So that would be pretty embarrassing for the governor.”

Then there are the political minefields.

Adams, the city’s second Black mayor, has so far received significant support from some of the city’s top Black leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP New York President Hazel Dukes, who have emphasized that the mayor remains innocent until proven guilty.

If Hochul were to remove Adams from office without the support of Black and Latino leaders, she would risk alienating important communities within the city, according to Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor and former executive director of the state Democratic Party.

That’s a serious risk for the governor, who faces very low approval writings across both the state and the city.

“If she [removes Adams] and it doesn’t appear as though she has the support of a lot of the Black and Latino leaders, I think the voters will feel as though she usurped their power and that would be problematic for her when she decides to run for re-election,” Smikle said.

In an interview with Gothamist, Dukes said she has not spoken to Hochul about the mayor’s situation. But she believes Adams should be able to remain in his job while he fights to prove his innocence, Dukes said. She took the same position when now-former Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced various allegations in 2021.

“The Black and brown communities — I can tell you, every day there’s a group coming out supporting the mayor because they feel that he should have due process,” Dukes said. “They think he has done a good job of giving opportunities to people who have been excluded out of the system, such as women and Black and brown people.”

In order for Hochul to successfully use the removal law as leverage, Adams has to believe she’s willing to trigger it if he doesn’t comply with her demands. That’s a tall order, according to Smikle.

“She can try to use anything she wants as leverage, but the mayor is going to do whatever he wants,” Smikle said. “He's proven that he's been able to do that so far and still enjoy the support of a lot of his base.”

Hochul, meanwhile, has maintained a steady presence herself in New York City since Adams’ indictment.

On Wednesday, she held a news conference at her Manhattan office to announce an effort to combat domestic violence. On Tuesday, she visited the site of a new terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The day before, she appeared at five events in the boroughs, including an appearance with Sharpton at an awards ceremony that also served as his 70th birthday celebration.

She and Adams also received a joint security briefing Tuesday on potential threats ahead of the Jewish high holidays and the Oct. 7 anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“I want to reassure New Yorkers that my priority is to maintain and ensure the continuity of services,” Hochul said Wednesday. “People expect us to work together on law enforcement and we are doing that.”

Update: This story has been updated with a comment from Hazel Dukes.