Some City Council members are criticizing Mayor Eric Adams' Charter Revision Commission as a "sham" after its final ballot proposals blocked their own advice-and-consent proposal.
"The mayor wants to do it his way—but it’s a City Council and a mayor and they are supposed to be equal parts of government," Councilwoman Gale Brewer said during an interview on "Mornings On 1" Wednesday.
Adams' commission, formed just two months ago, presented five ballot proposals for voters in November. The proposals, which cover a range of topics from street cleaning to business to public safety, now leave no room for additional proposals on the ballot.
"The law is that anything that comes from this commission, it trumps anything that the City Council would do,” Brewer said.
The advice-and-consent proposal sought to give council members oversight over mayor-appointed commissioners for 20 additional city agencies. The legislation did pass the Council with a veto-proof majority, but was left unsigned or vetoed by Adams, leading the Council to seek public opinion.
However, with the Charter Revision Commission's proposals finalized, the advice-and-consent question is likely excluded from the November ballots, though Brewer remains optimistic about the proposal's future.
“If in the near future, there's a special election—you never know, somebody could die, somebody could change their jobs—then this advice-and-consent could go on the ballot," she said.