Having been elected City Council speaker unanimously yesterday by her 50 colleagues, Julie Menin got off exactly right in giving the back of her hand to a ridiculous pending bill to grant retroactive pay raises to elected officials and for calling for full disclosure of city records related to the disastrous health impact at the World Trade Center after 9/11.
Brava, times two!
On the pay raises, Menin was correct that it must be done via a special panel of outside experts who make a recommendation for any pay hikes for the Council and mayor and other electeds. That’s been the practice since the first such Quadrennial Advisory Commission for the Review of Compensation Levels of Elected Officials was established in 1987. The problem is the dereliction to follow the “quadrennial” part as two mayors, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams, both failed to act as required, in 2020 and 2024, and set up the panel.
The last such panel was in 2015 (and the last pay raise was in 2016) so a review is long overdue, but a Council bill to grant a 16% pay raise backdated to Jan. 1 and then have a commission later in the year is completely backwards. It should panel first, then any raise, not a raise followed by a panel.
The new speaker made it clear right after being elected that she’s for the normal course, using an outside panel and said he spoke to Mayor Mamdani about it. Should a panel recommend a raise, it must not be backdated, but set for Jan. 1 of next year. And then this must be the last time a Council and a mayor raise their own pay. All pay raises should be for the subsequent session only, as both the U.S. and New York State Constitution mandate.
On the much more serious matter of the secret city records from the WTC, Menin wants them published, as do we. The Council already voted to order Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber to produce a report on the documents. Strauber, who Mamdani should keep in office, needs full funding for the job.
But the raw files must also come out in their entirety and here Menin and the Council should use their confirmation power over Mamdani’s nominated corporation counsel, Steve Banks, to get him to agree. The Law Department that Banks would run has been sitting on the files for nearly 25 years. They should have been published long ago. A huge number of people exposed to the airborne WTC debris developed cancer and died, including Menin’s own mother.
Banks must also be pressed to have the Law Department tell the public about its use of mayoral zoning overrides (MZO). MZOs stem from a 1988 ruling from the state’s highest court on Rochester’s airport where the government can bypass local zoning laws.
The Law Department refuses to say when, how and where MZOs are used, even a memo and other other written guidance on MZOs is kept secret, under the ruse of attorney-client privilege. The mayor should waive any attorney-client privilege at the advice of the corporation counsel. Let’s see the MZO rules and create a complete searchable database of each time a MZO is proposed and is enacted and give New Yorkers a chance to comment.
Menin had the Council actually start on time yesterday, a novel idea that she must maintain. We happened to notice that sitting on the Council floor yesterday was the person who won the landmark lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court that gave the Council real power. Menin has to use that power smartly.
We also urge Menin to reform the outdoor dining rules, which the last Council messed up and, to finally work with the mayor’s office and create a new department overseeing the chaotic and dangerous delivery e-bikes. Both failed during the last Council when fighting with the mayor seemed to be the priority, instead of improving life for all New Yorkers.
