Before he leaves office in less than a week, Mayor Adams is likely to veto a bevy of City Council bills that carry significant policy implications for issues ranging from housing development and street vending to immigration and police accountability, sources with knowledge of the matter tell the Daily News.
Adams, who ceases being mayor at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, is anticipated to veto around 20 bills in his final days, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One of the sources said Friday that several vetoes may not be issued until New Year’s Eve. The same source also cautioned the list of bills set to be vetoed is still being finalized.
But a large number of vetoes are expected, with the sources referencing 19 bills in particular that are likely to be targeted, all of them passed by the Council during its final 2025 meeting on Dec. 18.
Among the measures the mayor is seen as likely to veto is a bill that would prohibit federal immigration authorities from maintaining offices for any purposes on city Department of Correction property, an issue that has become especially fraught amid the Trump administration’s hardline crackdown on undocumented New Yorkers.
Other bills facing likely vetoes include ones that would:
- Grant more street vending licenses
- Prohibit for-hire vehicle companies like Uber from deactivating drivers without cause
- Secure minimum pay standards for security guards in the city
- Create new ethics rules aimed at rooting out corruption in the city’s municipal contracting processes
- Mandate that landlords provide tenants with cooling systems
- Require the NYPD to provide the Civilian Complaint Review Board with access to all of the department’s body-cam footage
Additionally, the mayor is expected to veto a slate of bills passed Dec. 18 that would put local nonprofit groups at the front of the line for certain building sales, deepen affordability requirements in city-financed housing developments and require that more two- and three-bedroom units be included in building projects subsidized by the city.
The mayor’s office signaled he was likely to veto the housing-related bills after they passed, issuing a statement lambasting the measures as misguided. Adams’ successor, incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani, has also voiced skepticism about some of those bills.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News
New York City Council members are pictured during a budget hearing in the City Council Chamber at City Hall on Monday, March 4, 2024. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)
The expected new vetoes come after the mayor late on Christmas Eve vetoed a bill that, if passed, would open up an 18-month window for victims of gender-based violence to sue their perpetrators, even if statutes of limitations on their claims have expired.
Incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin responded to the Christmas Eve veto by declaring the Council will promptly vote to override Adams when the chamber reconvenes in early January. Two-thirds of the Council’s 51 members need to support an override for it to be successful.
Asked about the additional vetoes the mayor is considering issuing, Menin told The News the Council “will take a close look” at them “as we determine our next steps on each.” She also took a shot at the outgoing mayor for what she characterized as his refusal to work with the Council in good faith.
“It is unfortunate that instead of working with the Council to shape legislation on the front end, the mayor is opting for a more acrimonious approach in his final days in office,” Menin said. “The last few years have been marked by a disregard for the legislative process, whereby (agency) commissioners would routinely skip hearings, the most rudimentary agency data would not be provided to the Council and bill negotiations would often be delayed until the last minute.”
Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit
City Councilwoman Julie Menin, the Council’s incoming new speaker. (Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)
Spokespeople for the mayor, whose first and only term was marred by his corruption indictment and other scandals, did not deny that vetoes are forthcoming, but declined to comment directly on any particular bill.
Instead, the mayor’s office referred to a statement Fabien Levy, Adams’ top spokesman, issued about the housing development-related bills after they were first passed last week.
“Irresponsible actions like these demonstrate the importance of Mayor Adams’ efforts to modernize the housing approval process through the ballot measures that passed this November,” Levy’s statement said. “Fortunately, Mayor Adams is in office until December 31 and we will be reviewing our next steps regarding the bills passed.”
