NEW YORK — Two top candidates challenging Mayor Eric Adams for reelection are backing different plans to remove him from office amid turmoil in City Hall.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is demanding that Adams provide a plan to keep government running after four deputy mayors resigned Monday. Lander also threatened to convene a committee that could remove the mayor if Lander isn’t satisfied with Adams’ stabilization plan.
Rival candidate Scott Stringer held his own press conference Tuesday calling Lander’s move “a bureaucratic mess that will result in nothing.”
“There has never been a leadership vacuum like this at New York City Hall in living memory,” Lander said at his press conference Tuesday. “And in the weeks beyond this one, we’re going to face new challenges and crises.”
Lander wants Adams to resign, which would trigger the temporary placement of his longtime political ally, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. In that scenario, the comptroller said he hopes the deputy mayors would change their decision on resigning.
And if Lander doesn’t see what he considers an adequate plan of action from the mayor by Friday, he will call a meeting of the “inability committee” — an ad hoc group of five city officials that could determine whether Adams is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office of mayor.”
Lander would sit on the “inability committee,” along with the City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant and a deputy mayor designated by Adams.
Meanwhile Stringer, the former city comptroller who’s running in the same lane as Lander in the Democratic primary for mayor, is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to begin the process to remove Adams from office — and says Lander’s plan is foolish.
“We give the governor authority for a reason,” Stringer said at his own press conference Tuesday morning. “I think we need bold leadership from our governor, and I really believe she is bold and will act in the best interests of New York City.”
Per the City Charter, at least four out of the five members of the “inability committee” would need to declare the mayor unable to do his job. Then two-thirds of the council would need to agree to oust the mayor and put Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who’s next in the line of succession, in charge.
Such an outcome seems unlikely — Adams appointed the corporation counsel and his deputy mayors, so one of his own would need to turn on him. Furthermore, the committee was added to the City Charter after former Mayor Ed Koch suffered a stroke, suggesting it was meant to be used in situations of physical or mental malady.
That’s a position held by Speaker Adams. “It is inapplicable for the situation. the name in itself tells us, it means that someone is unable to fulfill their duties in their capacity,” she said to reporters Tuesday afternoon. The mayor, “is still very much breathing, thank God, mobile, thank God. So that committee does not apply to this situation.”
Lander conceded the Charter Revision Commission that convened in 1986 “did not envision this particular set of circumstances” with Mayor Adams. “But they said, what if the mayor is not able to do the job? And there are five people whose responsibility it is to figure out answers to that question.”
City Hall did not respond to a request for comment on Lander’s proposal — which he also shared in a Monday night letter.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Adams on corruption charges in September. He pled guilty and was set to take trial in April, two months before the Democratic mayoral primary, but he got a legal reprieve from President Donald Trump last week that is costing him dearly politically.
The dueling press conferences between Stringer and Lander came as Hochul held meetings with top political leaders — including Lander — in her Midtown Manhattan office to discuss the mayor’s fate. Hochul has the power to immediately suspend Adams, then remove him after he gets a chance to defend himself against her charge.
Other mayoral candidates, including Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, state Sen. Jessica Ramos and former Assemblymember Michael Blake, have called on Hochul to remove Adams. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie has called for Adams to resign, but has not demanded his removal.
Adams’ allies have countered that removing the duly elected mayor would be undemocratic. More than 200 religious leaders signed onto a letter released Tuesday calling on Hochul to reconsider.
“We urge you to proceed with reasonable caution and not allow the political winds to interfere with the democratic process that allows only the People of New York to have the right to decide whether to remove the Mayor,” the letter says. “Any other action would be rash and set a dangerous precedent.”
Half of Adams’ eight deputy mayors — Maria Torres-Springer, Anne Williams-Isom, Meera Joshi and Chauncey Parker — tendered their resignations Monday, saying they needed to leave to stay faithful to their oaths.
They all showed up to work at City Hall Tuesday, however. Emphasizing that she was still on the job, Williams-Isom even met in public view in City Hall with City Council Member Lynn Schulman, to discuss an upcoming oversight hearing on responding to public health emergencies.
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