NYC Council introduces bill to expand oversight of mayoral hires amid City Hall power struggle

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams introduced a bill Thursday aimed at expanding her chamber’s ability to weigh in on top mayoral appointments — a measure that has touched off a battle with Mayor Adams, whose team earlier this week unveiled an effort that could short-circuit the move.

The speaker’s legislation would add 21 agency commissioner positions to the list of top city government roles that the mayor can’t make hires for without first securing support from the Council.

As it currently stands, only a handful of commissioner-level posts are subject to that “advice-and-consent” requirement. That includes the Department of Investigation commissioner and the corporation counsel, who leads the Law Department.

A copy of the bill obtained by the Daily News ahead of the speaker’s introduction of it at Thursday afternoon’s full Council meeting proposes expanding the advice-and-consent list to include the heads of the Departments of Buildings, Parks, Sanitation, Transportation, Social Services, Homeless Services, Aging, Housing Preservation and Development, Environmental Protection, Children’s Services and Emergency Management, among others.

Commissioners at uniformed agencies like the NYPD and the FDNY would not be subject to advice-and-consent under the bill. Asked why some agencies were prioritized in the legislation over others, the speaker responded that “this is a start for us” and “the start of a conversation.”

As the bill involves amending the City Charter, it can’t become law simply via Council adoption, according to an internal Council memo. Rather, city voters would need to vote on it via a ballot referendum after a potential Council adoption.

Asked about the proposed advice-and-consent expansion at a press conference Tuesday after The News first reported on details about it, the mayor said he opposes such a move because he believes in a “strong executive system.”

Later Tuesday, his office announced the launch of a Charter Revision Commission to look into modifying the City Charter so it “can contribute to public safety and provide opportunities for greater community input and transparency when legislation is proposed that would impact public safety.”

The mayor’s office hasn’t released more specifics about how he envisions altering the Charter to that end.

Louis Cholden-Brown, an attorney who used to serve as former Council Speaker Corey Johnson‘s chief lawyer, noted the mayor’s Charter Revision Commission may serve a dual purpose, though. Any Charter changes advanced by a Revision Commission would need to be approved by city voters via ballot referendum.

If the mayor’s commission gets to work quickly, any such proposed Charter revision could make it onto this November’s general election ballot as a referendum question. If that happens, that would preclude the Council from getting its advice-and-consent proposal onto this November’s ballot, Cholden-Brown said.

“The state municipal home rule law prohibits any other question related ‘directly or indirectly’ to Charter revision from appearing at the same time as a question proposed by a mayoral Charter Revision Commission,” Cholden-Brown told The News.

Though he noted the Charter Revision Commission could likely serve other purposes, Cholden-Brown argued it’s “an added bonus” for the mayor that it could stand to block the Council’s advice-and-consent proposal.

Speaker Adams described the timing of the mayor’s announcement as “convenient” Thursday and said such a commission should be focused on “good government and improving democracy.”

“If that’s the focus of this commission, I wouldn’t want to stop it, I wouldn’t want the Council to stop it,” she said. “If it’s a commission that is going to be focused on retribution however, then we’re looking at something totally different. Quite frankly, I would hope that would not be the case in spite of the rumblings we’ve heard.”

Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the mayor, disputed the idea that the commission is an attempt to disrupt the Council’s advice-and-consent push.

He said the impetus for the commission came out of a private meeting the mayor held on May 2 with clergy and community advocates who had raised concern to him about the “How Many Stops Act,” a Council bill enacted earlier this year that imposed new transparency requirements on NYPD officers.

“After a group of working-class New Yorkers came to us and laid out many of the problems they saw with city government, we took their meeting and subsequently started to form our Charter Revision Commission,” Levy said.

“Anyone saying otherwise doesn’t know what they are talking about and is simply discounting the opinions of the people they were put in place to represent.”

The mayor’s Charter Revision Commission is being chaired by Carlo Scissura, the head of the New York Building Congress and a longtime political ally to Adams who was once under consideration to head his Economic Development Corp.

In a Wednesday statement announcing the commission’s full makeup, Adams’ office said his picks — among whom are also his ex-First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo, former NYPD Detective Ken Ngai, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, Brooklyn Pastor Gerald Seabrooks, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz as well as community advocates Stephanie McGraw and Jackie Rowe-Adams — have the relevant backgrounds to make the Charter “more responsive and transparent to the city’s residents.”

“Their mission to explore innovative ways for the public to contribute to our city’s governance will be critical in moving our city forward,” the mayor said in an accompanying statement. “Together, we will work to make New York City safer and more inclusive for all its residents.”

But Mara Davis, a spokeswoman for Speaker Adams, pointed to some of the members’ political ties to the mayor.

Six of the commission’s 13 members are Adams campaign donors: Scissura, civil rights leader Hazel Dukes, SEIU32BJ union head Kyle Bragg, former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., retired Department of Correction Capt. Christopher Lynch and ex-New York Congressman Max Rose.

Rose, as well as Diaz Jr. and Scissura, are also registered lobbyists actively involved in lobbying members of Adams’ administration on behalf of private interests from various business sectors, including real estate. Rose works for Oaktree Solutions, a lobbying firm founded by Frank Carone, the mayor’s former chief of staff who’s expected to lead his 2025 reelection campaign.