"Next to the mayor, the City Council speaker is arguably the most influential citywide politician in the Big Apple. Menin will direct the legislative agenda and work closely with the Mamdani administration on hammering out a budget in June. For the past four years, the speaker and mayor had an incredibly fractious relationship. Adrienne Adams, the progressive Queens speaker, and Eric Adams (no relation), the moderate Brooklyn mayor, clashed numerous times on issues from police procedure to affordable housing and cooperation with ICE."
"Worse, over the last several years, then-Mayor Adams created charter revision commissions to push through reforms via ballot referendums that the City Council likely would not have approved. Then-Speaker Adams seethed and charged that the mayor had essentially usurped the legislative branch of city government. Such an acrimonious relationship need not exist between the new speaker and the new mayor. Menin and Zohran Mamdani are moderate and socialist, respectively, but in politics, ideology isn't everything."
Julie Menin of Manhattan was elected the City Council's presiding officer after securing colleague support before Thanksgiving. The presiding officer will set the legislative agenda and work with Mayor Zohran Mamdani on negotiating the June budget. The prior four-year relationship between the council's presiding officer and the mayor was highly fractious, with clashes on police procedure, affordable housing, ICE cooperation and charter revision commissions used to push ballot reforms. Menin and Mamdani, moderate and socialist respectively, can form a productive partnership if they prioritize affordability and fiscal prudence amid a $118 billion budget and a potential up-to-$8 billion gap.
Read at www.amny.com
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