Mayor Eric Adams has long valued loyalty, keeping his allies close as he rose through New York City’s political ranks to become mayor, and rewarding them with top administration jobs.
So this week, as the mayor quickly sought to fill out a powerful commission that could reshape city government, possibly for generations to come, he predictably turned to a cadre heavy on loyalists.
Roughly half are campaign donors, three are lobbyists with business before the city, and several are longtime allies, including three women who publicly defended the mayor after he was accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit still making its way through the court system.
The roster of the Charter Revision Commission was released on Wednesday, just 24 hours after Mr. Adams announced he was creating one. The move may foil an effort by the New York City Council to exert more control over the mayor’s high-level appointments. And although the announcement came as a surprise, the mayor’s spokesman said the commission has long been in the making.
“Today marks a significant step forward towards enhancing transparency, responsiveness in city government, and further civic engagement as we appoint all 13 dedicated members of the Charter Revision Commission,” the mayor said in a statement.
The formation of the commission and its members outraged some civic leaders and the New York City Council.
“A Charter Revision Commission that seeks to change the city’s constitution should be a serious undertaking, not something arbitrarily constructed in response to a Council bill being introduced and announced at 6 p.m. with serious ethical questions about some of its members,” said Mara Davis, a Council spokeswoman.
Mr. Adams is not the first mayor to be criticized for stacking the charter commission with allies. The last three mayors who preceded him — Bill de Blasio, Michael R. Bloomberg and Rudolph W. Giuliani — were all accused of choosing members who were too closely aligned with them and too narrowly focused, sometimes with the goal of pushing pet projects or seeking policy changes that would have been more appropriately handled as legislation by the City Council.
The people Mr. Adams named “do not seem like outliers for charter revision commissions,” said Richard Emery, a civil rights attorney who, in 1981, filed a lawsuit that would transform the structure of New York City government through a charter revision commission.
But he also noted that “none of them have the stature” of prior commission chairs, including Richard Ravitch, the onetime giant of government who helped rescue the subway system, or Frederick A.O. Schwartz, Jr., the chief counsel of the Brennan Center.
Carlo Scissura, the new commission chair, said in an interview on Wednesday evening that he had served on charter commissions under Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Bloomberg who had different ideological backgrounds and “weren’t exactly BFFs” — best friends forever.
“I wouldn’t call myself a loyalist — I’d call myself a civic-minded New Yorker who enjoys serving on these types of commissions,” he said.
Any recommendations the charter revision commission makes would have to be approved by voters in a referendum.
Here are the members of the commission:
Carlo Scissura: The president of the New York Building Congress, a major construction group, he was reportedly considered for a job in the Adams administration, but remained in the private sector after the news outlet The City raised ethical concerns about his work. He is also a registered lobbyist with business before the city and was a donor to Mr. Adams’s first mayoral campaign. Mr. Scissura said on Wednesday that the issues raised by The City were “old news” from “two-plus years ago.”
Hazel N. Dukes: The president of the NAACP New York State Conference, she is a loyal ally of the mayor’s and has defended him in the past, including in response to the sexual assault lawsuit. She served in the David N. Dinkins administration and has argued publicly that Mr. Adams is held to a different standard than white mayors. She has donated repeatedly to Mr. Adams’s various political campaigns. “Charter revision is nothing for people to be emotional about it; it’s really about good government,” Ms. Dukes said.
Ken Ngai: The mayor’s office described Mr. Ngai as a “law enforcement professional” with more than two decades of public safety experience and said that he had a background in “high-risk global financial crimes” and “cyber environments.” A spokesman for the mayor said that he was a former member of the Police Department, and there is an officer with his name who served from 1992 until this year, according to a database of police records.
Kyle Bragg: The former president of the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, he and his union were key endorsers of Mr. Adams during the competitive 2021 Democratic primary for mayor. He is a repeat donor to Mr. Adams’s current mayoral campaign and retired from union leadership after serving as president from 2019 to 2022.
The Rev. Herbert Daughtry Sr.: A prominent Black minister and longtime activist, he was an early mentor to the mayor, encouraging him to join the police force to combat misconduct from within.
Ruben Díaz Jr.: The former Bronx borough president, he is a key political ally of the mayor who encouraged Latino voters to support Mr. Adams in the 2021 primary. He is now a registered lobbyist with business before the city and has also donated to the mayor’s re-election campaign.
Lorraine Grillo: A former first deputy mayor to Mr. Adams, she has remained in the mayor’s orbit and now works as a consultant and serves as the chair of a construction firm.
Christopher B. Lynch: A substitute teacher for the New York City Department of Education, he previously worked for the city’s Department of Correction, according to the mayor’s office. A Department of Education employee with his name is listed in campaign finance records as a small donor to one of Mr. Adams’s campaigns for borough president.
Stephanie McGraw: The founder of a domestic violence group in Harlem called “We All Really Matter,” she also defended the mayor from the sexual assault lawsuit. She was quoted in a news release about Mr. Adams’s gun violence plan in 2022 and appeared at a campaign event for him in 2021.
Max Rose: A former congressman who has worked with Mr. Adams’s former chief of staff, Frank Carone, Mr. Rose is a registered lobbyist who has had business before the city. He also donated to the mayor’s current mayoral campaign. In an interview, Mr. Rose said he does not know what the administration’s priorities are for the commission. “I would not join anything like this if the request of me were that my decisions were preordained,” he said. “I see this as an opportunity to serve the city in a small way.”
Jackie Rowe-Adams: A former Parks Department employee, Ms. Rowe-Adams rose to prominence as co-founder of a group dedicated to ending gun violence, which claimed the lives of two of her sons. She has been an outspoken supporter of Mr. Adams, backing him following the sexual assault allegations and in his effort to stop legislation that required the police to record more about their interactions with the public.
Bishop Gerald G. Seabrooks: The pastor of the Rehoboth Cathedral in Brooklyn, he served on the mayor’s transition team in 2021 along with other clergy leaders. The mayor’s office highlighted how he had “actualized ‘the holistic approach’ by servicing humanity both spiritually and socially.”
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz: The senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan, he serves on the board of the UJA-Federation of New York, which helped fund the mayor’s trip to Israel last year.
