Former city Comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer is raising alarm bells about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed guardrails for Mayor Eric Adams, warning in a Friday letter that the measures “risk complicating” city government and setting “problematic precedents” for the state exerting its influence over the city.
In his missive, Stringer commended Hochul for attempting to reign in Adams’ authority. This follows a former Manhattan US Attorney’s accusations that the mayor’s attorney made a deal with President Trump’s DOJ to do the administration’s bidding in exchange for dropping his corruption case. Adams, his attorney, and top DOJ officials have all denied the accusations from the former federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon.
Hochul introduced the legislative measures, which would increase state oversight of the city and give more power to other citywide officials, as a step toward stabilizing City Hall in the wake of four deputy mayors resigning over Adams’ alleged pact with Trump. She unveiled the proposals last week instead of using her power as governor to boot Adams from office.
All three of the measures must be approved by the City Council and state legislature. If passed, they would sunset at the end of the year, at which point they must be renewed.
However, Stringer argued in his letter that Hochul may be going too far in her effort to keep Adams in line. He cautioned that her proposals could hamstring future mayors unnecessarily when Adams himself is the problem.
“The problem we face is not a lack of effective and robust oversight mechanisms for New York City,” Stringer wrote. “It is the unqiue and unacceptable situation created by Adams’ malpractice, his overt willingness to put his own interests ahead of the safety and functioning of the city.”
Stringer took issue with two of the three proposals.
One would add a new deputy state inspector general for New York City and require that the mayor seek approval from that office to fire the city Depatment of Investigation commissioner. The other would give citywide officials — including the comptroller, public advocate, and City Council speaker — the ability to bring their own lawsuits without having to go through the city’s Law Department, which reports to the mayor.
The former is aimed at giving the state more oversight of the mayor’s actions, while preventing them from ousting a DOI commissioner for political reasons. The latter would allow citywide officials to bring lawsuits against the federal government, currently the Trump administration, in the case that a mayor like Adams is not willing to.
But Stringer said there are already strong watchdogs in place for the city, including the state Attorney General’s office, which often works with DOI and the city comptroller on probes. He contended that adding another oversight arm could create a “needless layer of buearocracy.”
On top of that, he said taking away the mayor’s ability to fire the DOI commissioner could diminish mayoral authority going forward.
“Removing a DOI commissioner is an extraordinary step, but it is one that the mayor must be empowered to take when the situation calls for it,” Stringer said.
Regarding the other measure, Stringer said he believes it is not necessary because the Law Department has shown itself to act independently of the mayor.
“The possibility of three sets of officials and lawyers engaging in potentially competing and overlapping litigation would seem to open the door to additional chaos and confusion,” he said.
Stringer said he supports Hochul’s third proposal to boost funding for the state comptroller’s office in order to strenghen its scrutiny of the city’s finances.
Adams, for his part, claims there is “no legal basis” for the governor to place limits on his executive power.
“I stated there’s no legal reason to do this because some of what she’s asking it must pass a law,” Adams said during a Tuesday news conference. “And if you have to pass the law, that means right now, it’s not legally in place.”
