NYC Council leaders want to drastically expand their oversight of top Adams appointments

City Council leaders are pushing to drastically expand their oversight of top mayoral appointments — a proposal that promises to be the latest clash between lawmakers and the Adams administration, The Post has learned.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, during a closed-door meeting with fellow Democratic members, floated new legislation that would require Mayor Eric Adams obtain approval for commissioner-level spots in the administration, according to council sources.

Sources described the exchange as a “preliminary conversation” about adding broadening the “advice-and-consent” section of the city charter.

It comes as the mayor, no relation to the speaker, is trying to push through the confirmation of veteran litigator Randy Mastro to take over as New York’s top lawyer.

The Adams administration has been quietly trying to gain support from members of the council before announcing Mastro as its pick as corporation counsel — replacing Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, who was pushed out after raising issues about the city representing the mayor against decades-old sexual assault claims.

At the same time, some council members have been whipping votes to shoot down the confirmation of Mastro when it is put forward.

The city charter currently gives Big Apple mayors broad authority to name agency heads in their administrations — but the bill being mulled would significantly curb that power.

Still, it wasn’t immediately clear which mayoral appointees would now be subject to council oversight.

Sources said they did not expect all commissioners to be subject to a confirmation process.

Initial discussions included having all but three of any administration’s top appointments — police, fire and correction commissioners — require the council’s approval, one source said.

The only top-level appointees that require council sign-off currently are the commissioner of the Department of Investigation and the head of the Law Department, aka the corporation counsel.

The rift between the mayor and the council has grown increasingly larger over recent months following the administration’s refusal to implement sweeping changes to the city’s housing voucher program.

Adams had originally vetoed the housing package, but the council overrode the veto, automatically putting the law into effect early this year.

The council then gave Hizzoner another loss, overriding a pair of his vetoes in January on the ban of solitary confinement and the How Many Stops Act.

Speaker Adams put forward similar legislation back in 2021, while serving as Public Safety Committee Chair, requiring the confirmation of the NYPD commissioner but that bill never made it into law.

In addition to the Law Department leader and DOI head under the City Charter, the council also has to approve board members of various city agencies, including the Art Commission, Board of Health and Taxi and Limousine Commission, as well as a handful of others.