Mayor Adams responds to criticism of new meeting form for elected officials

NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) — Mayor Eric Adams responded on Friday to criticism of his new communications directive between leaders of city agencies and elected officials.

The Adams administration recently set up a webpage with a form for elected officials to request meetings with agency commissioners or their executive teams, Politico reported on Tuesday.

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The form was met with some opposition, particularly from City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who told lawmakers to ignore the form. Speaker Adams also said City Hall provided “no official communication” on the new communications initiative before it launched, the New York Post reported.

Adams told PIX11 the form should reduce redundancy and allow elected officials with similar concerns to meet with an agency head in a group setting.

“You don’t just walk into a council person’s office, there is a process. You don’t just walk into a doctor’s office, there’s a process to meet with them,” Adams said. “I’ve been using this form for 10 years. When people stop me on the street and say ‘Mayor I want to meet with you,’ I give them a link, they fill it out, we analyze it and make sure to coordinate a meeting within a two-week period of time.”

The mayor later said that he is “not at odds” with Speaker Adams. He also explained why the new form had not yet been formally announced.

“Once we train our internal team, then we will go to all the elected [officials]. This is not a City Council initiative, this is for all of our elected officials, so I can produce a product for them as well,” Adams said.

Charline Charles is a digital journalist from Brooklyn who has covered local news along with culture and arts in the New York City area since 2019. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.

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