NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Speaker Adams Announces Mayoral Run, Refugee Groups Seek Help from Albany and a Legislative Logjam

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams joins a crowded field that also includes Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, among others. Plus, New York lawmakers are calling on the state to double its funding for refugee resettlement. And finally, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to place guardrails on Mayor Eric Adams is stuck in neutral.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. New York City Council Speaker Adrian Adams has officially entered the race for mayor. She joins a crowded field that also includes current mayor Eric Adams, former governor Andrew Cuomo, city controller Brad Lander, and assembly members Zoraamamani, among others. If elected, Adams would be the first woman, first black woman, the first city council speaker to become mayor of New York City. New York lawmakers are calling on the state to double its funding for refugee resettlement. They're hoping the money will make up for

federal cuts. WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine reports. The U.S. State Department canceled resettlement contracts that helped newly arrived refugees find housing, jobs, and basic necessities. Marwa al-Aubayeti is with interfaith works of central New York in Syracuse. The Department of State decision to terminate all 10 national resettlement contracts has put our organization and the refugees we serve in a state of uncertainty. The Trump administration says the United States doesn't have the resources to welcome refugees. Many refugees face persecution in their home country and wait years to enter the U.S. legally. Last week, a federal judge ordered the administration to restart refugee resettlement.

But agencies say the government hasn't immediately complied with the ruling. Assemblyman Jonathan Rivera represents Buffalo. He says refugee resettlement has stabilized upstate cities in his district as well as Utica, Rochester, and Binghamton. He wants the state to spend $15 million on refugee services, which would roughly double the current funding level. The truth is that there is not a better program for upstate New York to reinvigorate neighborhoods the way that this program has. Funds would come from a state budget that's due by April 1st. Governor Kathy Hokel's plan to place guard.

rails on Mayor Adams is stuck in neutral. More on that after the break. This is NYC No. Governor Kathy Hockel is the only elected official who can unilaterally remove a sitting mayor in New York State. For example, Mayor Eric Adams. And questions swirled around whether or not Hockel would actually do that after Adams was indicted for corruption, but also after the Department of Justice moved to have those charges dropped. Two weeks ago, Governor Hogle decided she would not remove the mayor, but she did want to put extra guardrails on the Adams administration. But the governor's plan has drawn concern from even some of Adams' harshest critics, and now the

proposal seemed to be stuck in a legislative logjam. For an explainer on all of this, my colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's John Campbell from the state capital. Let's take a step back here. Remind us what the governor's proposing and why she says it's necessary. Sure, Michael. I mean, this all came about after the Trump administration moved to dismiss those pending bribery charges that you referenced against Mayor Adams. You might remember that led some prosecutors to quit and they accused the mayor of cutting a deal with Trump officials. Basically, you dismiss the charges. I'll cooperate with the president's immigration crackdown. The mayor denies that. And the governor could have removed the mayor from office, but she chose not to. She suggested that would be

anti-democratic. Instead, she said she wanted to increase state oversight of city hall. And she still wants to do that in a few ways. For one, she wants to create this new inspector general on the state level. That person would be able to direct investigations of the mayor and his administration. She also wants to make it easier for other city officials like the city controller to sue the Trump administration if Mayor Adams and his office refused. But all of that requires approval not only from the state legislature here in Albany, but also from the city council. And so far, that's really been a struggle for Hogle. So where do those proposals stand now, John?

What's holding them up? Well, Michael, to this point, the governor hasn't even put those proposals into bill form. And that's because she's been negotiating behind the scenes with lawmakers. She's trying to come up with a bill that's palatable to the city. Council, to the state legislature, and to her. I asked Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins about that this week. You know, are the proposals dead? Are they stalled?

Here's what she said. It's, I guess, to use your word stalled, I know the governor is trying to work something out with New York City. And obviously, these guardrails would have to be agreed to by New York City. And I have not, frankly, heard, you know, where that is. So what she's referring to there is what's known as a home rule message. In order for the state to approve the governor's plan, the city council has to basically approve a bill saying, hey, we support this, we want it. So, John, what's the governor's plan to break this logjam? Well, so far, Governor Hockel seems to have been focusing on the city council first. She says her team has been in talks with Speaker Adams team. And she characterized those talks as a normal part of the democratic process.

But, you know, she also seemed to allow for the possibility that lawmakers won't go along with her plan at all. I mean, listen to this. Now, if people don't want to do it and they're basically saying we're satisfied with the status quo, that's also a possibility. But I want to say, I did what I could to just calm down the anxiety, get to a level of normalcy, just like I had to do last fall, when there's a lot of chaos and we calmed it all down. So all of that is to say it's very much in the air, whether any of this gets done. John, the governor is talking about potentially restricting the powers of the mayor or more oversight of someone like a speaker Adrian Adams who aspires to be mayor, of Zellner-Mirey who aspires to be a lander who aspires to be mayor. And if they were elected in these proposals that the governor is thinking of actually went into effect before they became mayor, that would have an impact on that.

It would, but the governor's proposals, she says, they would only last through the end of the year, subject to renewal. So this is really only on the Adams administration unless the city council and the legislature, the state legislature, were to decide to re-up them for another year or another period of time after that. Would these proposals the governor's thinking of have any real effect on New Yorkers or is it just more, I hate to use this. praise, government bureaucracy. Well, I don't know that everyday New Yorkers are worried about, you know, another state inspector general or could even name the current state inspector general. But that being said, you know, this does have an effect on, say, immigrants who are in New York City right now.

That's kind of where this concern is coming from. You know, the governor is responding to accusations from federal prosecutors that Mayor Adams cut a deal to cooperate with President Trump's immigration crackdown. And she says this is needed to help protect the people of New York, including perhaps some of those immigrants who are afraid about this coming immigration crackdown. So, you know, on some level, there is an element of bureaucracy. But the governor says she's responding to real anxiety on the ground. And this is supposed to give New Yorkers a feeling of calm. That's WMYC's John Campbell talking with my colleague, Michael Hill.

Before we go, quick question. Have you ever landed back in New York from a long trip and really craved a local favorite, like DeFar's Pizza or Jacob's Pickles? Well, soon you can get your fix at both stops before you even leave the terminal if you're at JFK's Terminal 5. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey inked a deal to bring lots of local vendors and a redesigned concourse to the terminal, which primarily serves JetBlue customers. Other faves include the Halal Guys and Niers Tavern, which is a Woodhaven Queen staple

and one of the oldest bars in the country. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.