Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has scored a victory over the City Council before he even takes office – and he has Gov. Kathy Hochul to thank.
Earlier this month, Hochul vetoed legislation that would have revoked the mayor of New York City's prerogative to bounce any City Council-proposed changes to the City Charter off the ballot. If Hochul had signed it into law, Mamdani would have faced new complications enacting his ambitious agenda.
The Albany measure emerged after Mayor Eric Adams blocked proposals by the Council to change what is essentially the city's constitution — proposals that have to be approved by voters.
Stephen Louis, counsel for the Center for New York City and State Law at New York Law School, saw Hochul’s veto as an example of one executive making sure power remains in the hands of another executive.
The veto raises the likelihood that a series of measures proposed by a City Council commission may never make it onto voters’ ballots. The updates stemmed from Council members’ alarm at the corruption scandals that engulfed Adams’ administration.
One measure would ask voters whether to create a process to remove a mayor who is found to have committed misconduct. Council members also wanted more power over high-level mayoral appointments.
“ There should be equal time and equal opportunity for ballot proposals from the co-governing branch of the city,” Speaker Adrienne Adams said. “There is no reason to withhold that authority. So, it's disheartening that the governor saw fit to veto.”
Mayor Adams bumped the Council’s questions off the ballot this year through his own charter commission, which released a series of questions meant to expedite housing development.
Those measures passed and with them came substantial new limits to the Council's authority over land-use decisions, one of its most important powers.
Political observers said it’s likely Mamdani will look to present voters with ballot questions tied to his agenda, just as Adams did.
“The governor's veto also makes it highly likely that Mayor Mamdani, who we believe backed the veto, will create his own charter commission and bump the City Council's charter proposals for the third time in three years,” John Kaehny, head of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany, said.
Spokespeople for Hochul and Mamdani declined to comment on whether the two had communicated about the bill.
One policy that might prompt Mamdani to convene his own commission is his proposed Department of Community Safety, which would respond to certain mental health emergencies instead of the NYPD.
“The goal has always been to stand it up as a department, which requires a City Charter change,” said Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and proponent of the change.
“In the meantime there are a few options for setting up something short of a Department immediately,” Vitale added.
Others have suggested a commission may not be necessary. Councilmember Julie Menin, who is expected to be the next Speaker, suggested at a recent New York Law School panel that the department could be created through executive order.
Hochul justified her veto by citing how the law would affect the state’s 61 other cities.
“This bill — eemingly prompted by concerns regarding New York City's charter revision process — could reshape the relationship between the branches of government in cities throughout the state,” Hochul wrote in her veto message.
