Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at a proposal to give voters the power to remove the mayor of New York City — something that can now be done only by the governor. We’ll also get details on a stop at the State Capitol by a Trump loyalist who may decide to run for governor next year.
Right now, only one person in all of New York State can remove New York City’s mayor from office — Gov. Kathy Hochul.
A commission appointed by the City Council says that 5,126,009 other people should have a say.
That is the total number of registered voters in New York City. Last week, the commission suggested creating a new legal option to kick out a mayor — a ballot proposition to decide whether the Council should be given the authority to begin removal proceedings.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, was indicted last year on federal corruption charges. There was a drumbeat of calls for him to resign or be removed. He did not resign, and in February Hochul decided not to push him out. “My strong belief is that the will of the voters and the supremacy and sanctity of democratic elections preclude me from any other action,” she said. Hochul, a Democrat, also said that she was concerned about the “disruption and chaos” that removal could bring, even as she outlined new oversight measures to keep a closer eye on City Hall.
The Council moved to set up the commission soon after Adams was charged. Danielle Castaldi-Micca, the commission’s executive director, told my colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons last week that there was “frustration among the public about the existing means of removing the mayor.”
“There isn’t a means of local control over this,” Castaldi-Micca said. “What we’re looking at is creating a means of local control” — through a process that would be used only in “extraordinary circumstances.”
The commission proposed that the City Council be given the power to bring charges of mayoral misconduct. If the measure passed — by a supermajority vote — the Council would hold a hearing, and the mayor could respond.
Then the Council could vote to put a removal proposition on the ballot. For the mayor to be ousted, a majority of voters would have to approve the measure.
Proposals to change the way government works can be fraught. This one comes less than a month before the Democratic primary for mayor, which Adams has skipped; he is running as an independent in November.
Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said last week that the commission was a “politically motivated waste of millions of taxpayer dollars.” She said the proposal reflected the political motivations of the City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, who is running for mayor in the Democratic primary.
“A mayor candidate running against the sitting mayor is spearheading a proposal to remove the sitting mayor,” Garcia said. “This type of self-serving politics is exactly what leads Americans to lose faith in their leaders.”
But Citizens Union, a watchdog group, applauded the proposal. “This is not about politics; it’s about protecting the public trust,” the group said on the platform X. Its new executive director, Grace Rauh, said that New York was “one of the only major U.S. cities without a clear mechanism to remove a mayor for misconduct.”
But in a report this year, Citizens Union noted that “recall elections have a mixed track record” and “are too often influenced by special interests and substantial outside spending.” The report also said that the city probably couldn’t adopt a recall system without authorization from Albany.
The Council-appointed body is one of two commissions that have been working on possible revisions to the City Charter. The other, appointed by the mayor, has focused on housing. His commission’s ballot questions would get precedence over any from the Council’s commission.
Letting the City Council start the process for removing a mayor could sharpen the tensions between a mayor and the Council. The current mayor and the Council speaker have sparred often during their time in office, including over the two charter commissions.
How many voters would actually weigh in if a removal proposal were on the ballot? Voter turnouts for municipal elections are notoriously low. And some election watchers worry that putting a removal measure on the ballot will confuse voters.
One possibility is almost mind-boggling: What if a mayor is on the ballot twice — once as a candidate for re-election, and again in a proposition for his or her removal?
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Stefanik makes rare Albany appearance
Representative Elise Stefanik stopped by the State Capitol yesterday. She was not there to talk about concerns in her upstate congressional district, which reaches from the Canadian border to north of Albany, but to stoke the drama surrounding who will challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul next year.
Stefanik denounced Hochul as the “worst governor in America” whose “pro-criminal agenda” made New Yorkers less safe by “putting violent criminals and illegals first and law-abiding New Yorkers last.”
Stefanik, a Republican and self-proclaimed “ultra MAGA” warrior, did not stop there. She called the legislative actions of New York Democrats “anti-worker, anti-family, anti-farm, anti-small business, anti-manufacturing and anti-law enforcement.” Her appearance appeared to outline themes she could use if she runs against Hochul.
President Trump nominated Stefanik to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, only to withdraw the nomination after she had gone on a “farewell tour” of her district and had made plans to move into the $15 million penthouse that comes with the job. Trump and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, were concerned that her departure might put the Republicans’ hold on the House at risk.
My colleagues Benjamin Oreskes and Grace Ashford write that in her appearance in Albany yesterday, Stefanik misrepresented Hochul’s views on criminal justice and taxes, claiming that Democrats had rejected common-sense reforms to the bail laws and refused to lower taxes. Hochul has repeatedly strengthened the state’s bail laws, expending considerable political capital to do so.
Hochul’s budget increased taxes on businesses with payrolls of $10 million or more a year to fund public transit infrastructure. But it cut taxes for smaller businesses and households making less than $323,000. The budget also drastically expanded the state’s child tax credit.
METROPOLITAN diary
Family Affair
Dear Diary:
I was on the N to Brooklyn. Across the car sat a woman with two young children. The way they giggled and grappled while climbing all over her, I assumed they were hers.
At one stop, an older, slightly disheveled man wearing headphones boarded the train, noticed this family and walked toward them deliberately.
For some reason, I was worried as I saw him approach them. “Please don’t be weird and ruin it,” I thought to myself.
He stopped in front of the family, pulled out his phone, scrolled quickly and held it out to show the mother something.
“My sister and me, 1968, roughhousing, same as these two,” he said, pointing to the children.
He turned to walk away, but the mother grabbed his sleeve. He took the headphones out of his ears.
“Where is she now, your sister?” the woman asked.
“We see each other every week,” he said.
Everyone smiled as the kids continued to wrestle. He hadn’t ruined it at all.
— Bob Wood
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Makaelah Walters and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city.
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