NY politicians warn voters city ballot questions are a Mayor Adams power grab

As the exodus from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration continues, a number of New York City elected officials are urging voters to reject a series of ballot proposals that they say would give Adams' office more power.

A group of 40 representatives from city, state and federal offices on Wednesday are announcing their unified opposition to five proposals to revise the City Charter. The questions will appear on the back of all general election ballots for New York City voters next month.

The City Charter is New York City's foundational governing document, and is not unlike the state or federal constitution. It defines the structure of city government and enumerates the powers of the executive and legislative branches.

The group argues that the proposed measures, which Adams’ handpicked charter revision commission crafted over the summer, would subvert the City Council's role and grant the already powerful mayor's office even more authority. They also argue that the way the commission was formed by the mayor, who is under federal indictment for bribery and fraud charges, represented an abuse of his office by advancing executive power over that of the duly elected legislative branch.

“These proposals would be tantamount to mayoral control over the City Council,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams told Gothamist on Tuesday. “That same City Council which is designed to be the independent legislative branch of the City, charged to enact checks and balances on the mayoral administration.”

Other elected officials opposing the measures include Rep. Nydia Velázquez, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, city Comptroller Brad Lander; Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, 18 city councilmembers, seven state senators and eight Assembly members.

The group was organized by No Power Grab NYC, a coalition of civil rights and community groups that are urging their members to oppose the Adams administration’s proposed charter changes. The group is funded by New Yorkers Defending Democracy, a 501c4 nonprofit organization and ballot initiative committee.

“The mayor is actually trying to run a con on New Yorkers,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, a spokesperson for No Power Grab NYC. “He's banking on the fact that most New Yorkers don't know that these ballot proposals even exist and we can’t let that pass.”

Charter Revision Commission Executive Director Diane Savino pushed back on the critiques.

“The Charter Revision Commission put forth thoughtful ballot proposals reflecting the desires they heard from New Yorkers for clean streets, fiscal responsibility, public safety, transparency in the city’s capital planning process, and support for Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises,” she said, noting that the commission collected input from 750 people across the five boroughs and received 2,300 written statements. “Now, New Yorkers will have the power to flip their ballots and vote on these proposals in November."

heading

Elected officials urging New Yorkers to vote no on charter revision proposals:

image

image

None

caption

body

Rep. Jerrold Nadler
Rep. Nydia Velázquez
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
Comptroller Brad Lander
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso
Councilmember Alexa Avilés
Councilmember Chris Banks
Councilmember Carmen de la Rosa
Councilmember Chi Ossé
CouncilmemberChristopher Marte
Councilmember Crystal Hudson
Councilmember Diana Ayala
Councilmember Erik Bottcher
Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez
Councilmember Julie Won
Councilmember Kevin Riley
CouncilmemberLincoln Restler
Councilmember Pierina Sanchez
Councilmember Sandy Nurse
Councilmember Shahana Hanif
Councilmember Shaun Abreu
Councilmember Shekar Krishnan
Councilmember Tiffany Cabán
Councilmember Gale Brewer
State Sen. Gustavo Rivera
State Sen. Jabari Brisport
State Sen. Jessica Ramos
State Sen. Julia Salazar
State Sen. Liz Krueger
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez
State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal
Assemblymember Emily Gallagher
Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein
Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani
Assemblymember Bobby Carroll
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal
Assemblymember-elect Claire Valdez

The current proposals, which are listed as ballot proposals two through six, would make a host of changes to shift power between agencies. The language describing the proposals on the ballot itself has been simplified to conform with the state’s plain language law.

But opponents say that wording does not clearly convey the proposals' potential impact.

“Some of them are just ridiculous,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the dean of New York's congressional delegation and the House Judiciary Committee's ranking member. As an example, Nadler cited what’s listed as proposition 3 on the ballot, titled “Additional Estimates of the Cost of Proposed Laws and Updates to Budget Deadlines.”

Nadler said that really means that “if the mayor didn't like a bill in the City Council, he could kill it just by having his [budget office] not submit a cost estimate.”

“That's a violation of separation of powers,” he said.

Besides a charter revision commission, changes to the Charter can come through legislation passed by the City Council.

In May, the City Council publicized plans to expand its own power to approve certain agency-head nominations. While Speaker Adams prepared to introduce the legislation, Mayor Adams announced his charter revision commission — which eventually nullified the Council’s proposals.

The Council already has approval power, known as advice and consent, for a handful of mayoral appointments, including the city’s corporation counsel. This threatened Adams' corporation counsel nominee Randy Mastro, who ultimately withdrew from consideration after he was grilled by the Council during an 11-hour hearing over the summer.

In June, the Council passed the measure to expand its advice-and-consent power to other positions, which voters would have then had to approve in November. But the mayor’s five charter revision proposals knocked the question off the ballot.

“This was something that the mayor wanted to do in order to thwart our advice and consent legislation,” Speaker Adams said on Tuesday, calling the commission’s work “rushed” and “hasty.”

Joseph Viteritti, a professor of public policy at Hunter College, has worked on multiple charter revision commissions, including the historic 1989 commission that eliminated the city’s Board of Estimate.

He is not involved with any of the organized efforts opposing the current amendments. But he agreed that it was not possible for the most recent effort to be as deliberative and scholarly as the ones he’s worked on in the past.

“You can’t do that in seven weeks,” Viteritti said of the most recent commission. “So that leads to the speculation of what the motivation is here.”

According to Nadler, the answer is simple. “[The proposals are] a power grab by the mayor and an unhealthful situation for the city.”

Nadler, who is the most senior New York elected official to call for Adams' resignation in the wake of federal charges, said any suggestion that his opposition to these ballot measures was a political move to hurt Adams re-election chances was “ridiculous.”

“Without my saying a word,” said Nadler, “this mayor is clearly not getting re-elected.”

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the timeline of the City Council's and the mayor’s proposals.