Council Speaker Julie Menin is only letting Queens Councilwoman Vickie Paladino serve on two committees this session due to her “abhorrent” social media posts about Muslims and other minorities.
Paladino, one of the Council’s most far-right Republicans, is only going to serve as a member of the Council’s committees on Veterans and on Fire and Emergency Management, according to new assignments released Thursday. That’s a significant downgrade from the seven committees Paladino served on last year.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Menin said she’s restricting Paladino’s responsibilities to the Fire and Veterans panels specifically because of offensive posts she has made on X, including one last month that called for the “expulsion of Muslims from Western nations.” Menin noted that Paladino has also been referred to the Council’s Ethics Committee, which is investigating her over the missives.
“There are numerous, numerous, too many to count content on her social media that is abhorrent and is unacceptable, and so I made that decision about the committees with that in mind because we are not going to tolerate that kind of conduct and that kind of divisiveness within the body,” the speaker said.
Paladino, who represents Whitestone and other eastern Queens neighborhoods, didn’t immediately return a request for response to Menin’s remarks.
Paladino has faced committee reprimands before over her rhetoric. In 2023, she was removed from the Council’s Health Committee after she claimed Drag Queen Story Hour events in New York City amount to “child grooming.”
Besides demoting Paladino, Menin on Thursday announced new makeups for all of the Council’s 36 committees and four subcommittees.
Many political allies who backed her successful bid for speaker ended up securing some of the chamber’s most prominent committee chairperson posts, including Education, Public Safety and Transportation, as first reported by the Daily News late Wednesday.
Menin, a moderate Upper East Side Democrat, is seen as likely to be a centrist check on Mayor Mamdani’s administration. Many of the members she selected for top committee chairs and spots on her leadership team did not endorse the democratic socialist mayor’s campaign last year.
Talking to reporters, Menin disputed the notion that there were ideological motivations behind her committee picks. Rather, she said she made them guided by a need to restore trust.
“It’s not about ideology. Again, it’s about trying to restore faith in city government, which I think honestly after the last few years hit an all-time low around corruption, around fraud, around waste, around abuse,” Menin said, referring to corruption scandals that unfolded during ex-Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. “We’re going to reform that.”
