A City Council Coup
NEW York’s City Council wants to weaken the powers of the mayor by requiring its approval for top mayoral appointees. This is a direct threat aimed at the very essence of what makes New York City work: mayoral accountability.
New Yorkers count on the mayor to lead a city that supplies one billion gallons of clean drinking water every day, educates more than 900,000 public school students and responds to more than one million medical emergencies each year.
New York City residents speak more than 175 languages and depend on 330,000 public service professionals to maintain 30,000 acres of parkland and 878 bridges in all five boroughs.
And when the garbage is not picked up or the snow is not removed from our 6,000 miles of city streets, New Yorkers hold their mayor accountable.
The snowfall of 1969 famously endangered then-mayor John Lindsay’s re-election, forcing him to confess in a TV commercial that he “made a mistake” in the botched cleanup effort.
The current City Charter, adopted by New Yorkers in November 1989, created a 51-member City Council. Each council district has approximately 172,000 residents, giving most ethnic and racial groups some representation.
But the charter gives the mayor the right to appoint the deputy mayors and commissioners who manage major municipal agencies — making the mayor ultimately responsible for their competency and performance.
In contrast, the City Council’s power is diffuse. The body only meets as a whole twice a month, and rarely in July or August.
Council members have a strong role in reviewing and adopting the city’s $110 billion budget, and a direct voice in approving or rejecting land-use plans and physical projects.
But naturally, its members want to expand their authority — largely because their roles do not provide an easy path to higher office.
Council members are term-limited, and proposing and passing legislation takes serious time. Meanwhile, contentious public hearings challenging mayoral appointments could make any council member into an instant television star.
No City Council speaker has ever succeeded in winning a more powerful electoral position: not Peter Vallone, Gifford Miller, Christine Quinn, Corey Johnson or Melissa Mark-Viverito. This is not an accident.
Current Speaker Adrienne Adams ran unopposed in her last primary election, and won the general election with just 6,521 votes. Council members often win their party’s nomination with even fewer votes than that.
Many districts have no serious two-party competition, since Democrats overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans in the city: Some 66.8% of registered voters here are Democrats, while only 10.3% are registered Republicans.
Ironically, the state Legislature wields far more power than the City Council does over basic city services: New York State controls the subways, teacher certification, high school degree requirements and penalties for committing most crimes.
Most New Yorkers understand the mayor must balance all the competing values and interests of 8.3 million New Yorkers. But City Council members must only satisfy the voters in their own districts.
Just as the United States Constitution specifies that all powers not assigned in the document revert to the state governments, the New York City charter vests all unspecified powers in the office of the mayor.
That’s why talented and ambitious individuals vie to be mayor of New York City. It’s a job that has the power to make a difference in the lives of every New Yorker.
Weakening the office, as the City Council is seeking to do, would do more harm than good.
Mitchell L. Moss is a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University.