Mayor Eric Adams is resisting calls for his resignation. Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Dear Commons Community,
Earlier this week, four New York City deputy mayors resigned due to the growing calls for Mayor Eric Adams’ resignation as a result of recent events involving his relationship with Donald Trump and a judicial pardon.
Yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul presided over a series of meetings to discuss one of the most consequential decisions of her tenure: whether to remove Mayor Adams from office. As reported by The New York Times.
Gov. Hochul solicited opinions from Brad Lander, the city comptroller, and Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker. She shared coffee and tea with the Rev. Al Sharpton and talked to others over the phone or video chat.
She gave no indication that she would come to a quick decision on the mayor, who was only a dozen blocks away, declining to answer questions about his future. He brushed aside reporters as again he has found himself in a state of crisis.
The Justice Department’s move to drop his five-count federal indictment probably eliminated the prospect of a trial while he seeks re-election, but it may have deepened the mayor’s political damage.
The prosecutor overseeing the mayor’s case accused Mr. Adams late last week of agreeing to a quid pro quo with Trump administration officials. In exchange for leniency in the criminal case, she said, the mayor would help the president with immigration enforcement.
The suggestion that Mr. Adams would do Mr. Trump’s bidding, which the mayor has denied, brought widespread condemnation. Calls for his resignation or for the governor to remove him have escalated. Talk of empaneling a committee of mayoral inability has surfaced.
And on Monday, Mr. Adams’s first deputy mayor, Maria Torres-Stringer, and three other well-respected deputy mayors announced their resignations. The deputies did not directly cite the mayor’s cooperation with the Trump administration but alluded to “the extraordinary events of the last few weeks.”
The officials were government veterans who served as the backbone of the administration, leading a vast bureaucracy of roughly 300,000 city workers and key initiatives to build urgently needed housing and to improve public safety. Gov. Hochul said that the four officials’ resignations raised “serious questions about the long-term future of this mayoral administration.”
“This is an unmitigated disaster,” said Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, on X. “Each one of these leaders is a seasoned, talented professional. Their loss will leave New York City government in a truly precarious position.”
Their departures raised alarm over who was running the city and whether Mr. Adams could attract qualified candidates given the chaos surrounding him and his re-election campaign.
To say the least, it will be difficult for Adams to continue as mayor.
Tony
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