Amid growing public dissatisfaction with Mayor Eric Adams’s job performance, the New York City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, was about to make a power play.
Ms. Adams was preparing to introduce legislation on Thursday that would require the mayor to obtain Council approval on 21 commissioner-level appointments, according to a draft of the bill that the speaker’s office shared with The New York Times.
The move would significantly curtail the mayor’s authority by adding a level of Council oversight.
It would require a citywide voter referendum, because it proposes to curb the power of the mayor. The only way Mr. Adams could stop such a referendum is if he were to create a Charter Revision Commission that would have the power to decide what, if any, ballot initiatives might be placed before voters.
Sure enough, a few hours after The Times sought comment on Tuesday from the mayor’s office, it put out a news release announcing the formation of a Charter Revision Commission, which would consider changes in the governing document that is equivalent to a city constitution. Only one member was named; other names, the release said, would be forthcoming.
The maneuvering underscored how the relationship between the Council and the mayor’s office has reached a new low during a time of acute vulnerability for the mayor. Mr. Adams is up for re-election next year while facing a federal criminal investigation and historically low poll numbers. He already faces two likely challengers in the Democratic primary.
The proposal, which a spokesman for the speaker said she still plans to introduce on Thursday, also underscores concerns about the mayor’s tendency to put a priority on personal loyalty when filling important positions.
A legal memo prepared by the City Council cites several rationales for the proposed approval system, including that it would give commissioners more independence, make them more responsive to the City Council and make it “more likely that the administration puts forth qualified candidates, as opposed to commissioner appointments being used for political patronage.”
Christine Quinn, a former City Council speaker, described the proposal as “very unheard-of.”
“Obviously this suggests that there is a very significant rift between the speaker and Eric Adams,” she said. “It also sends the message that the speaker is prepared to stand up aggressively for the needs and opinions of her members and the institution.”
Though they are not related, Mr. Adams and Ms. Adams share the same last name, and they attended the same high school in Bayside, Queens. But their political paths began diverging when Mr. Adams backed someone else for City Council speaker, and the Council ended up choosing Ms. Adams.
In the ensuing two-and-a-half years, Ms. Adams has emerged as one of the mayor’s most powerful critics, overriding his vetoes of legislation banning solitary confinement in city jails and requiring the police to record more information about their interactions with the public. More recently, she has tangled with Mr. Adams over the Police Department’s use of social media to attack journalists and public officials, and over the mayor’s insistence that council members seeking meetings with commissioners first submit request forms to City Hall.
Her push to require the Council’s “advice and consent” on the 21 mayoral appointments signaled a new phase in her opposition to the mayor. The Daily News and the New York Post reported about the rough contours of the proposal last week. On Tuesday, Mr. Adams said he had yet to speak with Ms. Adams about the idea, but said he dislikes it, and contended it had nothing to do with him personally.
“This was something she was passionate about when she was a councilperson,” he said. “And so I don’t think this is about Eric Adams.”
A Council spokesman did not dispute that Ms. Adams has long been interested in requiring Council approval for more commissioner-level appointments. He did not comment on the second part of Mr. Adams’s assertion.
If the mayor carries through with his sudden pledge to create a Charter Revision Commission, the City Council could, in theory, wait until after the general election and request a special election for a voter referendum on its proposal.
The mayor could then create another Charter Revision Commission to delay that vote. But the act of perpetually creating charter revision commissions would be likely to invite legal scrutiny.
“We have a strong executive system in New York, unlike others,” the mayor said on Tuesday. “And I like that executive system, because people should know who they blame if the streets are not clean, if the commissioners are not delivering.”
The mayor appoints more than 80 commissioner-level positions.
The 21 positions over which the City Council would like to exert more control include the commissioners of the departments of Buildings; Cultural Affairs; Finance; Environmental Protection; Homeless Services; Parks and Recreation; Sanitation; Transportation; Health and Mental Hygiene; Housing Preservation and Development; and Social Services.
The proposal would also apply to the commissioners of the Administration for Children’s Services and NYC Emergency Management.
Dozens of lower-level positions on various boards and commissioners already require Council approval. That is also true of three high-level appointments: the commissioner of the Department of Investigation, the corporation counsel and the chair of the Taxi and Limousine Commission. At the moment, the mayor is seeking to replace his outgoing corporation counsel with Randy Mastro, an attorney whose legal record has incited opposition in the City Council.
Joseph Viteritti, a public policy professor at Hunter College who was involved in the effort that established the current structure of the New York City government, said that at the time, “the hope was that the City Council would become the check on the mayor.”
“It’s never happened,” he said.
Now, he suggested, it might.
“This is a very pivotal moment,” Mr. Viteritti said. “This is a watershed moment in the history of governance in New York City.”
