Mayor Adams introduced early Thursday he’s convening one other Constitution Revision Fee to advance referendum questions onto subsequent 12 months’s native election poll — and similar to his first one, this initiative is ready to dam a plan by Metropolis Council leaders to launch their very own effort to amend town’s structure.
The mayor’s new 14-member fee will look into proposing poll questions for the November 2025 poll that may amend the Metropolis Constitution to assist “combat the city’s generational housing crisis,” based on a press launch from Adams’ workplace. The transfer comes on the heels of the Metropolis Council passing the mayor’s “City of Yes” plan that seeks to spice up housing manufacturing within the metropolis.
The Council presently holds massive sway within the ULURP course of, which proposed actual actual property developments and different massive land use modifications should bear earlier than shovels can hit the bottom.
It wasn’t instantly clear how the mayor want to see the Council’s ULURP powers amended. Spokespeople for the mayor didn’t instantly reply to questions.
In addition to housing, the sources stated the mayor’s staff have engaged in discussions about tapping the fee to look into repealing parts of New York’s “sanctuary city” standing.
The standing bars metropolis assets from getting used to assist federal authorities with deporting immigrants, besides in instances involving people convicted of significant or violent crimes.
Adams has lengthy lamented modifications made underneath the de Blasio administration that strengthened protections for town’s undocumented inhabitants. His curiosity in rolling again these modifications comes as incoming President Trump has vowed to launch mass deportations of immigrants throughout the nation, no matter whether or not they’ve been convicted of any crimes moreover crossing into the U.S. illegally.
Metropolis & State first reported Wednesday night the mayor was anticipated to quickly launch one other Constitution Revision Fee.
The brand new fee shall be chaired by Richard Beury, the CEO of Robin Hood who was a deputy mayor underneath Mayor Invoice de Blasio. Different members of the panel embody Partnership for New York Metropolis’s Kathy Wylde, homeless advocate Shams DaBaron and Adams adviser Diane Savino.
Adams’ first Constitution Revision Fee, shaped this previous spring, superior 5 poll questions onto this 12 months’s presidential election poll.
4 of the questions handed, together with the 2 most significant ones — which positioned new necessities on how the Metropolis Council drafts and assesses the price of new laws.
The mayor launched that fee after Council Speaker Adrienne Adams stated her Democratic majority was planning to advance their very own poll referendum questions that may have given the Council extra energy to dam sure prime metropolis authorities hires that the mayor can presently make unilaterally.
Due to a quirk in metropolis legislation, referendum questions superior by the Council can’t seem on a poll that options questions superior by the mayor. Thereby, the mayor’s fee this 12 months derailed the Council’s effort.
That dynamic prompted Speaker Adams and scores of her Democratic colleagues to accuse the mayor earlier this 12 months of intentionally launching his fee to stifle their initiative. The speaker stated in July the mayor was behaving like an autocratic “king” and added: “We don’t want a king in New York City.”
Identical to this 12 months, the mayor’s second constitution revision effort will seemingly infuriate the speaker and her colleagues because it stands to dam an introduced plan by them to roll out their very own Constitution Revision Fee for subsequent 12 months’s election.
Final month, the Council overwhelmingly handed a invoice launched by the speaker that may convene a 17-member Constitution Revision Fee tasked with trying over the complete constitution to seek out methods to enhance it.
The speaker hasn’t floated any explicit poll questions she would possibly need her fee to advance however sources have indicated there might be a push to resurrect the blocked initiatives to increase the Council’s oversight of mayoral appointments.
Regardless, with the mayor launching his second fee, the speaker’s panel might be lifeless within the water, not less than because it pertains to the 2025 election poll.
The speaker’s workplace didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon the mayor’s announcement.
Initially Printed: December 12, 2024 at 9:10 AM EST
