Adams’ hand-picked commission bumps Council proposal off the ballot

Mayor Eric Adams’ Charter Revision Commission on Thursday released five ballot proposals, culminating a contentious process which succeeded in bumping an alternate City Council proposal off the November ballot.

The Council’s alternate proposal would have given Councilmembers the right to vote down the mayor’s appointments of 20 agency commissioners.

According to The New York Times, Adams filled his commission with “allies and donors,” including three lobbyists with business before the city.

A group of 72 national and local organizations from Housing Works to the Civil Liberties Union, along with numerous members of the City Council and state Assembly, had slammed what they termed a power grab by the mayor.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in a statement said the mayor’s move would “make government less responsive to New Yorkers.” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said, “The mayor sent this commission hurtling toward foregone conclusions to advance his agenda. A rushed process of poorly attended hearings has ensured that the mayor’s voice is the loudest echoed in these proposals.”

The Mayor’s Office countered in its own release that the CRC had received testimony from more than 240 people at public hearings over two months, and more than 2,300 written comments.

“On behalf of 8.3 million New Yorkers, I want to thank the distinguished members of this Charter Revision Commission for volunteering their service to our city,” Adams said in a statement Thursday.

Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Greenpoint, Brooklyn Heights) called Adams’ hand-picked commission a “total farce.”

“Never have we had a charter revision commission convene so late in the year with so little public engagement and input,” Restler told the Brooklyn Eagle on Thursday. “It is clear that their sole objective is to undermine the Council’s legislative authority. The mayor has been upset that we have overridden multiple…