The City Council is trying to pass a law that would repeal a policy from Mayor Eric Adams requiring them to fill out a form in order to meet with department heads in his administration.
The bill, introduced Thursday, marks the latest round in the two branches’ ongoing power struggle.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn), who is sponsoring the legislation to repeal Adams’ policy, argued it only serves to politicize government operations.
“In order for elected officials to work with city agencies to solve neighborhood problems and address critical and emergent health and safety concerns, we must fill out forms so that the mayor’s political operation can decide who they want to assist and why,” Restler railed in a council hearing Thursday.
The bill would also clarify that the city charter “fully empowers agencies to advise and assist elected officials without any prior approvals,” Restler said.
He added that 37 councilmembers have signed on to co-sponsor his bill, giving it a “veto-proof supermajority.”
“I believe that’s the first time in council history,” Restler said during the Committee of Governmental Operations State and Federal Legislation hearing.
Council members bristled when City Hall rolled out the form-filling requirement in April, calling it “bureaucratic BS.”
The Adams administration said the policy would help streamline requests and communication and improve efficiency in city government.
A spokesperson from the mayor’s office said Thursday that Restler’s bill was too broad, and claimed it would end up barring many written requests, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Law.
“No one wants government to exist in a vacuum — that is why the ‘Elected Official Engagement Form’ has been so successful in coordinating agency responses and establishing collaboration across government bodies and representatives at every level of government,” the rep said.
Nearly 450 requests have been filled out by council members and their staff so far — amounting to about 1.5 asks a pol per month, according to City Hall.
But Restler argued that number doesn’t reflect the number of times the council’s 51 members have actually spoken to city agencies — meaning there’s no point to the form.
“I bother city agencies and need information from city agencies one and a half times every 15 minutes, right? It means that nobody’s completing this form, that it’s not working,” Restler said.
“What’s clear is that some elected officials who are cozy with the administration don’t need to submit the form and other elected officials are been directed to submit,” he added,
The two-page Google form asks 14 questions to elected officials, including the purpose of the request, their office address and phone number before they can speak with city agencies.
When the form was announced, the mayor’s office was butting head with the council over legislation and the city’s budget.
Tiffany Raspberry, Adams’ director of intergovernmental affairs, said in written testimony submitted for Thursday’s hearing that the “Elected Officials Engagement Request Form” was merely about “efficiency” and not a power grab, as some in the council suggested.
Her no-show came after she dramatically stormed out of another council hearing in June on a bill to give lawmakers more oversight on mayoral appointments.
“Maybe she’s sick of us,” Restler quipped, while calling Raspberry’s claims of greater efficiency “disingenuous.”
“This form has just plain and simple gotten in the way. Any claims for efficiency are disingenuous and bogus,” Restler said.
