Gov. Kathy Hochul is meeting with key city officials on Tuesday at her Midtown office to discuss Mayor Eric Adams and his future at City Hall.
The embattled mayor’s tenuous hold on power frayed even further Monday after four deputy mayors submitted their resignations over his cooperation with President Trump on an immigration crackdown and the ongoing fallout from the Trump Justice Department moving to dismiss the criminal campaign fraud indictment against Adams.
Adams has repeatedly insisted he is “going nowhere” in rebuffing calls for him to resign from officials who fear the mayor engaged in a “quid pro quo” with federal prosecutors, agreeing to help Trump with deportation efforts in exchange for having the charges dismissed. Though Adams maintains that no such deal was made, critics are concerned that because the charges were being dismissed “without prejudice” — meaning they could be resurrected at any time — the mayor may be coerced into cooperating with Trump on executing his agenda in New York.
On Tuesday, while entering Bellevue Hospital to visit with a cop shot on the Lower East Side, the mayor lashed out at reporters, saying “You’re all liars,” when they asked him why he would not take questions from the press about the crisis at City Hall. Adams did not answer questions about why he said that about members of the press.
‘Serious questions about the long-term future’
In the wake of Monday’s mass resignations at City Hall, Hochul issued a statement that evening expressing grave concern over the state of affairs at City Hall, saying, “If [the resigning deputy mayors] feel unable to serve in City Hall at this time, that raises serious questions about the long-term future of this mayoral administration.”
That motivated Hochul to schedule Tuesday’s meetings with various city officials. Though the Governor’s office has not formally said who will attend, published reports indicate the invited parties include Rev. Al Sharpton, House Minority Leader and Brooklyn U.S. Rep Hakeem Jeffries, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, City Comptroller Brad Lander, and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.
The last three names on the list are particularly notable because Richards, Lander and Speaker Adams could potentially be part of a city-run “Inability Committee” to weigh whether Mayor Adams is still able to discharge the duties of his office.
Speaker Adams called for Mayor Adams to resign Monday in the wake of the deputy mayors’ resignations. Lander, meanwhile, issued an ultimatum Monday to the mayor demanding a contingency plan for City Hall operations by Friday, or he would submit a request to form an Inability Committee.
‘Crisis without parallel’: Stringer
Meanwhile, former City Comptroller Scott Stringer, one of seven Democrats challenging Mayor Adams in the primary, issued a public letter to Hochul urging her to oust Adams from his office. He wrote that the situation was a “crisis without parallel” that threatened to send the city government careening into a “devastating crash.”
“A nearly $115 billion budget and a more than 300,000-member municipal workforce have effectively been left without anyone at the steering wheel,” Stringer wrote. “I have seen leadership tested before, but never have I witnessed such a leadership vacuum at the highest level of city government.”
An unprecedented decision looms
Depending on how Tuesday’s meetings go, Hochul may choose to exercise her City Charter authority to remove Mayor Adams from power herself. It would be an unprecedented move in more than two centuries of cooperation between city and state governments — and a decision the governor says she is not taking lightly.
“In the 235 years of New York State history, these powers have never been utilized to remove a duly-elected mayor; overturning the will of the voters is a serious step that should not be taken lightly,” Hochul said on Feb. 17. “That said, the alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored.”
If the mayor resigns or is removed from office before March 26, the public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor until a special election determines a successor to fill out the remainder of the current term. Such a change of the guard would not impact the timeline of the regularly scheduled 2025 mayoral election this year, as voters will choose in November the person who will serve as mayor for the following four years.
Mayor’s light Tuesday schedule
While Hochul discusses the mayor’s future Tuesday, Mayor Adams’ schedule appears light. His daily agenda showed just two events: an 8 a.m. meeting with senior administration members, and a 6:30 p.m. Black History Month event at the NYPD Academy in Queens.
After a police officer was shot and wounded on the Lower East Side Tuesday morning, the mayor’s office announced that Adams would discuss that situation at an 11 a.m. press conference at Bellevue Hospital with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
His weekly off-topic press conference, which generally happens on Tuesdays, was off the agenda for the second consecutive week.
Updated on Feb. 18 at 12:33 p.m.
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