Upper East Side Councilwoman Julie Menin is expected to be elected the NYC Council’s speaker on Wednesday and, as a moderate Democrat, could be the city’s last line of defense against a far-leftist majority body that critics fear could turn the Big Apple into a Leninist commune. During a wide-ranging, 20-minute interview Friday with The Post’s Rich Calder, Menin, 58 — the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a vocal Israel supporter — outlined her plan to navigate a working relationship with Socialist, pro-Palestine Mayor Zohran Mamdani and lead the Council as its first Jewish speaker.
Q: As speaker, what will your goals and objectives be?
A: I’m really looking forward to the next four years and making sure the City Council is more proactive. I feel that we have been reactive a lot . . . We’re going to put forward a proactive, affordable housing plan that looks at the 215 public library branches to see which ones would be suitable to build additional affordable housing. We’re going to look at 1,000 city-owned sites — we have a number of underutilized buildings and land that could be repurposed to build more housing. . . . And then legislatively, we, first of all, want to focus on universal childcare. That’s something the council has been working on for years. . . . I want to look at lowering fines for small businesses and cutting through the red tape. We want to crack down on waste fraud and abuse that has been happening for the last four years at City Hall, and by that, I mean, for example, no-bid contracts. No-bid contracts had been utilized, not just by the past administration, but by many administrations, quite frankly, and it has meant billions of dollars in spending that is really wasteful and not necessary. . . . Then procurement reform. There is no reason that it should cost the Parks Department $4 million to build a bathroom in a city park, or take up to 10 years simply to renovate a park.
Q: You’ll be the City Council’s first Jewish speaker. How will you, a moderate Dem who supports Israel, and Mamdani, a pro-Palestine socialist, navigate around topics like the War in Gaza and others that you’ll likely disagree on?
First of all, I’m deeply proud to be the first Jewish speaker of the City Council. Certainly at a time of rampant antisemitism, this is a time to bring the city together. I’m the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and I’ve spent years fighting anti-Semitism. . . . At the same time, I had stood up against all forms of hate. I served as a seven-year community board chair in Lower Manhattan after 9/11, where I stood up for the Islamic cultural center and mosque [near Ground Zero]. . . . Right now, the city is very divided. And so to have the first Muslim mayor and the first Jewish speaker is historic. It is incumbent upon us to make sure we’re bringing communities together, to obviously protect every single community throughout New York City.
Q: But are you confident you can work with him?
A: Yes, I am because at the end of the day the City Council is not an international body. We are going to focus on issues that affect the City of New York. With that said, there is so much we can do to combat [hate] in the city. And part of it is about the rhetoric; part of it is by making sure that communities feel safe. . . . I’m going to move forward bills to protect houses of worship and schools and create a safe perimeter of protests around them, so that what happened at Park East Synagogue never happens again.
Q: What are your thoughts on Mayor Mamdani during his first day in office revoking or reworking executive orders put in place by ex-Mayor Eric Adams supporting Israel and combatting antisemitism and also scrubbing pro-Israel posts Adams previously put up on the official NYC Mayor X account?
A: I called the mayor [Friday] morning because I was extremely concerned about the repeal of the executive orders and other matters, and I expressed my concerns to the mayor directly about that. He indicated that he had issued a new executive order, which continues the Office to Combat Antisemitism and that also directs the police commissioner to look at protests around houses of worship. [There] will obviously be continued conversation around this. What I’m focused on with the Council is what the Council can do to ensure that we are protecting New Yorkers.
Q: Do you feel that you’ll have a good working relationship with City Council members who openly opposed your speaker candidacy?
A: I definitely do. I want to be a speaker for all. And at the end of the day, I’m honored and humbled by the support that I have … We all have more in common than we have in terms of disagreement.
Q: Will members who opposed your candidacy have to worry about getting snubbed when it comes to getting discretionary funds for their districts or popular committee assignments? This is an issue that came up with previous speakers.
A: No, not at all! There should not be any kind of retribution in that regard. Every council member is equal; every council member needs to ensure that they are delivering services for their constituents, for their respective communities, so the answer is unequivocally no.
Q: Do you support a bill that would boost salaries for the mayor, City Council and other city elected officials, and will you bring it to the Council floor for a vote?
A: I believe the proper way to focus on salary raises is to do this through an independent compensation commission, so I have discussed that directly with the mayor. It’s been a decade since pay was raised for [district attorneys], borough presidents, citywide elected offices, for council members. . . . This process promotes transparency, and at the same time it ensures fair compensation.
Q: Ex-Mayor Adams issued vetoes on 19 bills Wednesday on his last day in office. Do you plan to bring any of these bills back to the Council floor, including legislation like the controversial Community Opportunity to Purchase Act that puts restrictions on how private residential buildings are sold and that you previously didn’t support?
A: We’ll surely be doing [veto] overrides on many bills, including bills on [combatting] gender-based violence, [assisting] street vendors, corruption on contracts. There are other bills that did not have the super majority of support, so we are going to take a hard look at every single bill and then make a determination.
Q: Do you see the COPA bill coming to the floor again this session?
A: Obviously there are a range of perspectives on COPA. I abstained from voting for COPA. COPA did not pass with a supermajority of support . . . and so again for each and every bill there will be discussion with [Council] colleagues as we determine the next step.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Somali migrant, child-care fraud scandal that has rocked Minnesota, which Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is under scrutiny for? Do you fear NYC or New York State might have similar problems with such contracts?
A: The Minnesota fraud scandal really shows what happens when systems meant to help people are instead exploited. . . . It’s totally unacceptable. And so here in New York, as I said earlier, I’m very laser-like focused on combating waste fraud and abuse. It’s a top priority of mine, which is why in the next Council, I want to lead procurement reforms to clamp down on no-bid contracts and uncontrolled emergency spending that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars in the past. I introduced a bill last year that would prohibit no-bid contracts beyond 30 days. And that’s so important, because, for example, during the asylum-seeker crisis, the Adams administration spent $4 billion a year on housing asylum seekers, and one of the reasons the price was so high is because of no-bid contracts.
Q: Mamdani nominated Steven Banks – a self-proclaimed “social justice attorney” — as the city’s next corporation counsel. When Randy Mastro was nominated by Adams, the Council put him through the wringer because he wasn’t progressive enough for many of them? What kind of treatment should we expect for Banks?
A: I care very deeply about the Law Department as a place that not only represents the city agencies, but also represents the City Council in legal matters. And so for any position where we have advice and consent, as we do with corporation counsel, we will do a fair, unbiased hearing. …And so that’s what we will do with this nomination of Steve Banks.
Q: Do you support Mamdani’s free bus plan?
A: I support the idea of making buses faster, and I support obviously reducing fares for those who really need it.
Q: Do you support the mayor’s city-run grocery store plan?
A: That is something that doesn’t require City Council approval, so we’d need to look at the plan before we comment on it. I’m very supportive of small businesses and bodegas, so we want to ensure we’re always supporting bodegas and small businesses and that any kind of competition to them is fair and balanced.
Q: Do you support closing the Rikers Island jail complex?
A: This is something that should happen. . . . Clearly, we have some concerns around the fact that there have been enormous delays in the construction of the borough-based jails [that will replace Rikers’ jail facility]. They’re way behind schedule, and so that’s something that we’re going to have to address.
Q: There’s been a longtime push by Staten islanders to have the city’s most conservative borough leave NYC — and that has heightened with Mamdani becoming mayor. Would you support letting Staten Islanders decide through a referendum if their borough should secede and be its own city?
A: I love Staten Island. I spent a ton of time on Staten Island as a commissioner [of various city agencies]. We really want to continue Staten Island as part of New York City. I know I have colleagues from Staten Island who might feel differently, but I personally love Staten Island, and I really would hope that they would want to stay a part of our great city.
