The City Council has seen a shocking drop-off in productivity, with its 51 members this year introducing 86% fewer bills than in 2024, The Post has learned.
Council members have introduced only 114 prospective “local laws” since Jan. 21 — the day it created a Charter Revision Commission to review ways to diminish the mayor’s authority.
Last year, the body produced 858 bills during the same period.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams – who is not related to her adversary, Mayor Adams — has stretched the Council’s key central staffers thin by having some work for the commission, taking time away from their duties helping to draft bills.
Compounding this is the Democratic speaker’s longshot mayoral run announced in March – since she’s relying on longtime staffers to run her campaign, also taking them away from their legislative duties, pols and operatives told The Post.
“We’re definitely understaffed, and the leadership is really distracted,” said a Democratic councilmember.
“When you’re pulling staff to help with the Charter Commission and other projects like that, you’re stretching Council resources, and it seems like it’s taking a long time to get bills done and back in our hands. In fact, our stated meetings lately feel pointless.”
Council resolutions – such as non-binding “home rule messages” – are also plummeting, with 155 introduced since Jan. 21, down 61% from 394 during the same period in 2024.
The creation of a bill or resolution typically begins with a coucilmember presenting the idea to central staffers — lawyers and policy analysts in the Council’s legislative division — who produce a draft.
The process usually took 60 days — but this year the legislative division has requested more time on many requests, council members and aides said.
“It’s ironic when I’m trying to get a simple bill drafted but the speaker is infringing on her own democratic institution by taking away valuable resources,” said a Democratic council aide.
Four council members – Kristy Marmorato (R-Bronx), Darlene Mealy (D-Brooklyn) Francisco Moya (D-Queens) and Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn) – have yet to introduce a single piece of legislation this year.
Moya said he’s still waiting on drafts of four bills he requested earlier this year, but declined to theorize what caused the delays.
He said he’s “aggressively pushing” for legislation he introduced last year to finally get a public hearing — a necessity before reaching the full Council for a vote — including some tackling quality-of-life issues like prohibiting food vendors from operating under bridges and elevated train routes.
Marmorato said she believes her time is better suited being hands-on in her district rather than drafting legislation, including working with law enforcement and educating constituents on city services.
Vernikov said her constituents aren’t looking for her “to pass more bills that appease an unhinged, majority Democrat City Council.”
“What they do want is for me to continue pushing back against the bills that the radical left tries to shove down our throats, to keep fighting their Marxist agenda, and to stand up against the red tape and constant government overreach,” she added.
Mealy didn’t return messages.
“Now that she’s running for mayor, you’d think [Adrienne Adams] would use a speaker’s main super power and do big-policy platforms through the legislative division like [former Speaker Corey Johnson] did, but there’s been no flurry of activity,” said a Democratic councilmember.
The Council’s legislative activity also plummeted during the pandemic, yet the 114 bills introduced since Jan. 21 this year barely exceeds the 96 and 113 introduced during those periods in 2020 and 2021.
During the same periods in 2022 and 2023, under Adams a speaker, there were 369 and 152 bills introduced, respectively.
Council spokesperson Julia Agos insisted the speaker “has significantly staffed up its divisions that had previously languished, including by tripling the number of bill drafters.”
Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for Mayor Adams, said the mayor “looks to work with the City Council every day to better the lives of New Yorkers because that’s what they elected all of them to do. It’s a shame Adrienne Adams doesn’t feel the same.”
Councilman Robert Holden, a moderate Queens Dem who usually sides with Republicans, found a silver lining in the plummeting productivity.
“It’s clear to everyone that the speaker and her staff are focused solely on politics — governing isn’t even an afterthought,” he said. “Frankly, that might be a blessing in disguise, because the less this City Council does, the better off New Yorkers are.”
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