Gov. Hochul made the right call in declining to initiate the removal process of Mayor Adams, but her three temporary measures hemming in the mayor aren’t needed, won’t work and infringe on home rule and should not be adopted by the City Council and state Legislature. Soon enough, the voters of the city will make the decision about who should be running the city. Hochul and legislators should stay out of it.
As to removing the mayor, Hochul wisely backed away. Such a step is not like President Trump firing a government official. It is a complicated and never used procedure that should be reserved for a mayor who cannot govern due to severe sickness or absolute proof of criminality. Neither situation applies to Adams.
He has been indicted on serious charges by the Manhattan U.S. attorney, but the Trump Department of Justice wants the indictment suspended. It is that motion, now before Judge Dale Ho, that has caused the crisis around Adams, with his four most important deputy mayors all resigning and growing calls for Adams to resign himself or for Hochul to yank him. From a criminal justice point of view, the DOJ should not have used political expedience to drive a prosecutorial decision.
But working with the Trump administration on immigration or anything else should not trigger removal by either the governor or the so-called inability committee. Political considerations should be dealt with politically, by voters at the ballot box in a few months time.
The removal road Hochul is not taking runs through the state Constitution, state law and the City Charter. The Constitution says only there shall be a statute for “removal for misconduct or malversation.”
The Public Officers Law §33(2) states that: “The chief executive officer of every city may be removed by the governor after giving to such officer a copy of the charges against him and an opportunity to be heard in his defense.”
And the Charter’s Section 9 says the same, adding that: “Pending the preparation and disposition of charges, the governor may suspend the mayor for a period not exceeding 30 days.” There are no more details.
Hochul was correct to leave that emergency glass unbroken. But the three changes in law that she does want don’t add much and constitute unnecessary overreach from Albany. Creating a new special inspector general for New York City within the state IG and protecting city Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber from being fired are unnecessary. Strauber helped bring federal charges against Adams last fall and he’s left her alone.
The other two measures are granting the public advocate, city comptroller and council speaker the right to sue the federal government if the mayor doesn’t and beefing up the deputy state comptroller for New York City. But there will undoubtedly be strings attached, which means the decision-making likely will run through Albany.
That all three changes expire at the end of year, as does Adams’ term, makes it too personal. If these are good safeguards, they should apply to whomever is the mayor, from Mike Bloomberg to Bill de Blasio to any future occupant of Gracie Mansion, not just Eric Adams.
