Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Thursday acknowledged moderate Councilmember Julie Menin is slated to be the next City Council speaker, but said he plans to work closely with the lawmaker in steering the government.
After volunteering at a Thanksgiving meal giveaway in Harlem with Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Mamdani told reporters that Menin shares his “excitement at fulfilling the shared agenda of affordability.”
His comments came a day after Menin announced she’d secured enough support among the next City Council to be its next speaker. The Upper East Side lawmaker did not endorse Mamdani in the general election. Some political observers have said she could act as a check on the mayor-elect’s democratic socialist goals.
“I am looking forward to working with Councilmember Menin and the entire City Council to fulfill the agenda that New Yorkers are desperate for: an agenda of affordability in the most expensive city in the United States of America,” he said.
Mamdani sidestepped questions as to whether he could have done more to back other speaker candidates who supported his campaign, like Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson.
The Council speaker has broad influence in negotiating the city’s budget, and has control over how legislation moves through the chamber. Current Speaker Adrienne Adams has repeatedly been at loggerheads with Mayor Eric Adams over the last four years, repeatedly using supermajorities to override mayoral vetoes.
“ We are speaking about a co-equal branch of government and also a branch that represents the same set of New Yorkers that I do,” said Mamdani. “And those are the New Yorkers who are asking all of us to do the work of fulfilling an affordability agenda.”
Both Mamdani and Menin said they spoke over the phone Wendesday.
"I greatly appreciated the mayor-elect's call yesterday and look forward to the future partnership to enact universal childcare, build more affordable housing and lower costs for New Yorkers," Menin wrote in a statement on Thanksgiving.
Menin's statement did not express any support for Mamdani's plan to create a new Department of Community Safety that would deploy social workers to some mental health calls instead of police officers.
