City Council Speaker Julie Menin plans to tap Eric Dinowitz, Oswald Feliz, Shaun Abreu and Shekar Krishnan as chairmen of the Council’s Education, Public Safety, Transportation and Oversight committees, handing four of the chamber’s most prominent posts to key political allies, the Daily News has learned.
By contrast, sources said Menin is also expected to pick her main opponent in the recent speaker’s race, Brooklyn Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, as the next chairwoman of the Council’s General Welfare Committee, which has oversight over the city’s homeless shelter system and other social safety nets.
Menin, an Upper East Side Democrat who’s seen as a centrist counterweight to Mayor Mamdani’s administration, is expected to make the appointments at a Council meeting Thursday where picks for all of the body’s other committee chairpersons will also be announced, the sources said.
Hudson and the other members in line for the new committee assignments didn’t immediately return requests for comment late Wednesday. A Menin spokesman declined to comment.
The selection of Hudson, a progressive Democrat, for the General Welfare Committee appears to be an attempt by Menin to extend an olive branch after a speaker’s race that at times turned bitter. The committee used to be led by ex-Bronx Councilwoman Diana Ayala, who left office at the end of last year due to term limits and was openly critical of Menin’s candidacy for speaker.
Feliz, Abreu, Dinowitz and Krishnan were big backers of Menin’s bid for speaker, and they are set to replace members currently holding those chairs who either supported other candidates in the race or weren’t as vocally supportive of her.
Per the sources, Dinowitz, a former public school teacher who represents parts of the Bronx, will replace Brooklyn Councilwoman Rita Joseph as chairperson of the Council’s Education Committee, which has oversight of the city’s sprawling public school system. Joseph was a supporter of Hudson for speaker.
The pick of Dinowitz comes after City & State reported earlier this week that more than 200 parents, nonprofit heads and education leaders issued a letter urging Menin to keep Joseph as the Education Committee chairperson, citing her work in securing more funding for city schools, among other achievements. According to sources, Joseph is expected to get to lead the Council’s less prominent Committee on Higher Education, a post Dinowitz used to have.
Meanwhile, Feliz, who also represents the Bronx, is expected to replace Harlem’s Yusef Salaam as chairman of the Committee on Public Safety. Salaam, a member of the Central Park “Exonerated 5,” has as Public Safety chairperson helped shepherd through significant police accountability legislation over the past few years, including the “How Many Stops Act” that placed new transparency requirements on NYPD officers.
Sources said Abreu — who’ll also be the body’s majority leader — is taking over the reins of the Council’s Transportation Committee from Queens’ Selvena Brooks-Powers, who mounted a back-of-the-pack campaign for speaker. Krishnan is taking over as chair of the Council’s Oversight and Investigations Committee from Manhattan Councilwoman Gale Brewer, and Brooklyn’s Lincoln Restler is expected to be the new chairman of the Council’s Contracts Committee, per the sources.
Also on Thursday, Menin is expected to install several other political allies in prominent posts. That includes Queens’ Nantasha Williams, who’s set to become the chamber’s deputy speaker, Queens’ Linda Lee, who’ll be Finance Committee chairwoman, the Bronx’s Kevin Riley, who’ll be Land Use Committee chair, and Farah Louis, who’ll chair the Zoning Subcommittee, according to reports.
