City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called on Mayor Adams to resign Monday, becoming the latest top-ranking city official to demand he step down as a push for his forcible removal also began taking shape.
The speaker, who stopped short of demanding the mayor’s resignation after he was indicted on corruption charges in September, said in a statement the last drop for her was Monday afternoon’s shocking resignations of four of Adams’ deputy mayors over concerns that he’s beholden to President Trump instead of city residents.
“With the resignation of deputy mayors, it has become clear that Mayor Adams has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government, and New Yorkers. He now must prioritize New York City and New Yorkers, step aside and resign,” said the speaker, marking a remarkable turn from her endorsement of the mayor’s 2021 campaign.
“This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor,” she continued. “These resignations are the culmination of the mayor’s actions and decisions that have led to months of instability and now compromise the City’s sovereignty, threaten chaos, and risk harm to our families.”
Shortly before the speaker’s missive, Comptroller Brad Lander sent a letter to the mayor demanding that by Friday he present “a detailed contingency plan” for how his administration will operate without his four resigned deputies, including his second-in-command Maria Torres-Springer.
If he doesn’t provide such a plan, Lander said he will “seek to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee,” a municipal panel that can be used to forcibly remove the mayor.
An Inability Committee, which under the City Charter can remove a mayor deemed “unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office,” must involve the comptroller, the Council speaker, a deputy mayor, the corporation counsel and a borough president.
“The resignation of four or more deputy mayors, and the chaos created by the Justice Department’s actions regarding indictments against you, may well constitute inability to govern,” Lander, who’s running against Adams in June’s Democratic mayoral primary, said in a statement.
Besides the Inability Committee, the governor has authority to remove a mayor. Gov. Hochul is facing growing calls to use that power, though she has yet to say whether she’d be prepared to take such a step.
Before submitting their resignations, Torres-Springer and three of her fellow deputies told the mayor they are concerned about his ability to lead the city after President Trump’s Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss his case late Friday with political considerations in mind, according to sources familiar with the conversations.
The motion, which the DOJ filed after several Manhattan federal prosecutors refused to do it and resigned instead, asks a judge to drop the case immediately, but allow the department to resurrect it as early as November. In the interim, the DOJ wrote it expects Adams to help Trump’s effort to deport undocumented immigrants, an unusual caveat in a court proceeding that both critics and allies of the mayor say makes him a “hostage” to the president’s agenda.
“There is too much at stake for our city and New Yorkers to allow this to continue,” the speaker said in her statement. “We have endured enough scandal, selfishness and embarrassment, all of which distract from the leadership that New Yorkers deserve. This is the opposite of public service. Our city needs a leader totally committed to protecting New Yorkers and improving their lives.”
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