Higher East Facet Councilwoman Julie Menin is anticipated to be elected the NYC Council’s speaker on Wednesday and, as a reasonable Democrat, might be the town’s final line of protection towards a far-leftist majority physique that critics worry may flip the Massive Apple right into a Leninist commune. Throughout a wide-ranging, 20-minute interview Friday with The Publish’s Wealthy Calder, Menin, 58 — the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a vocal Israel supporter — outlined her plan to navigate a working relationship with Socialist, pro-Palestine Mayor Zohran Mamdani and lead the Council as its first Jewish speaker.
Q: As speaker, what’s going to your targets and goals be?
A: I’m actually trying ahead to the following 4 years and ensuring the Metropolis Council is extra proactive. I really feel that we’ve been reactive quite a bit . . . We’re going to place ahead a proactive, inexpensive housing plan that appears on the 215 public library branches to see which of them can be appropriate to construct further inexpensive housing. We’re going to take a look at 1,000 city-owned websites — we’ve numerous underutilized buildings and land that might be repurposed to construct extra housing. . . . After which legislatively, we, to begin with, wish to give attention to common childcare. That’s one thing the council has been engaged on for years. . . . I wish to have a look at decreasing fines for small companies and reducing by way of the crimson tape. We wish to crack down on waste fraud and abuse that has been taking place for the final 4 years at Metropolis Corridor, and by that, I imply, for instance, no-bid contracts. No-bid contracts had been utilized, not simply by the previous administration, however by many administrations, fairly frankly, and it has meant billions of {dollars} in spending that’s actually wasteful and never crucial. . . . Then procurement reform. There isn’t a cause that it ought to price the Parks Division $4 million to construct a toilet in a metropolis park, or take as much as 10 years merely to renovate a park.
Q: You’ll be the Metropolis Council’s first Jewish speaker. How will you, a reasonable Dem who helps Israel, and Mamdani, a pro-Palestine socialist, navigate round subjects just like the Conflict in Gaza and others that you just’ll seemingly disagree on?
To begin with, I’m deeply proud to be the primary Jewish speaker of the Metropolis Council. Definitely at a time of rampant antisemitism, it is a time to deliver the town collectively. I’m the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and I’ve spent years preventing anti-Semitism. . . . On the similar time, I had stood up towards all types of hate. I served as a seven-year neighborhood board chair in Decrease Manhattan after 9/11, the place I stood up for the Islamic cultural middle and mosque [near Ground Zero]. . . . Proper now, the town could be very divided. And so to have the primary Muslim mayor and the primary Jewish speaker is historic. It’s incumbent upon us to ensure we’re bringing communities collectively, to clearly defend each single neighborhood all through New York Metropolis.
Q: However are you assured you may work with him?
A: Sure, I’m as a result of on the finish of the day the Metropolis Council isn’t a global physique. We’re going to give attention to points that have an effect on the Metropolis of New York. With that stated, there’s a lot we are able to do to fight [hate] within the metropolis. And a part of it’s concerning the rhetoric; a part of it’s by ensuring that communities really feel secure. . . . I’m going to maneuver ahead payments to guard homes of worship and faculties and create a secure perimeter of protests round them, in order that what occurred at Park East Synagogue by no means occurs once more.
Q: What are your ideas on Mayor Mamdani throughout his first day in workplace revoking or remodeling govt orders put in place by ex-Mayor Eric Adams supporting Israel and combatting antisemitism and in addition scrubbing pro-Israel posts Adams beforehand put up on the official NYC Mayor X account?
A: I known as the mayor [Friday] morning as a result of I used to be extraordinarily involved concerning the repeal of the chief orders and different issues, and I expressed my considerations to the mayor straight about that. He indicated that he had issued a brand new govt order, which continues the Workplace to Fight Antisemitism and that additionally directs the police commissioner to take a look at protests round homes of worship. [There] will clearly be continued dialog round this. What I’m centered on with the Council is what the Council can do to make sure that we’re defending New Yorkers.
Q: Do you’re feeling that you just’ll have working relationship with Metropolis Council members who brazenly opposed your speaker candidacy?
A: I positively do. I wish to be a speaker for all. And on the finish of the day, I’m honored and humbled by the help that I’ve … All of us have extra in frequent than we’ve when it comes to disagreement.
Q: Will members who opposed your candidacy have to fret about getting snubbed in the case of getting discretionary funds for his or her districts or standard committee assignments? This is a matter that got here up with earlier audio system.
A: No, in no way! There shouldn’t be any form of retribution in that regard. Each council member is equal; each council member wants to make sure that they’re delivering providers for his or her constituents, for his or her respective communities, so the reply is unequivocally no.
Q: Do you help a invoice that may increase salaries for the mayor, Metropolis Council and different metropolis elected officers, and can you deliver it to the Council ground for a vote?
A: I imagine the correct strategy to give attention to wage raises is to do that by way of an impartial compensation fee, so I’ve mentioned that straight with the mayor. It’s been a decade since pay was raised for [district attorneys], borough presidents, citywide elected places of work, for council members. . . . This course of promotes transparency, and on the similar time it ensures truthful compensation.
Q: Ex-Mayor Adams issued vetoes on 19 payments Wednesday on his final day in workplace. Do you propose to deliver any of those payments again to the Council ground, together with laws just like the controversial Group Alternative to Buy Act that places restrictions on how personal residential buildings are offered and that you just beforehand didn’t help?
A: We’ll absolutely be doing [veto] overrides on many payments, together with payments on [combatting] gender-based violence, [assisting] avenue distributors, corruption on contracts. There are different payments that didn’t have the tremendous majority of help, so we’re going to take a tough have a look at each single invoice after which make a dedication.
Q: Do you see the COPA invoice coming to the ground once more this session?
A: Clearly there are a number of views on COPA. I abstained from voting for COPA. COPA didn’t go with a supermajority of help . . . and so once more for every invoice there will probably be dialogue with [Council] colleagues as we decide the following step.
Q: What are your ideas on the Somali migrant, child-care fraud scandal that has rocked Minnesota, which Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is below scrutiny for? Do you worry NYC or New York State might need related issues with such contracts?
A: The Minnesota fraud scandal actually exhibits what occurs when methods meant to assist persons are as a substitute exploited. . . . It’s completely unacceptable. And so right here in New York, as I stated earlier, I’m very laser-like centered on combating waste fraud and abuse. It’s a high precedence of mine, which is why within the subsequent Council, I wish to lead procurement reforms to clamp down on no-bid contracts and uncontrolled emergency spending which have price taxpayers billions of {dollars} previously. I launched a invoice final 12 months that may prohibit no-bid contracts past 30 days. And that’s so necessary, as a result of, for instance, in the course of the asylum-seeker disaster, the Adams administration spent $4 billion a 12 months on housing asylum seekers, and one of many causes the worth was so excessive is due to no-bid contracts.
Q: Mamdani nominated Steven Banks – a self-proclaimed “social justice legal professional” — as the town’s subsequent company counsel. When Randy Mastro was nominated by Adams, the Council put him by way of the wringer as a result of he wasn’t progressive sufficient for a lot of of them? What sort of remedy ought to we anticipate for Banks?
A: I care very deeply concerning the Regulation Division as a spot that not solely represents the town companies, but in addition represents the Metropolis Council in authorized issues. And so for any place the place we’ve recommendation and consent, as we do with company counsel, we are going to do a good, unbiased listening to. …And in order that’s what we are going to do with this nomination of Steve Banks.
Q: Do you help Mamdani’s free bus plan?
A: I help the thought of creating buses sooner, and I help clearly decreasing fares for individuals who really want it.
Q: Do you help the mayor’s city-run grocery retailer plan?
A: That’s one thing that doesn’t require Metropolis Council approval, so we’d want to take a look at the plan earlier than we touch upon it. I’m very supportive of small companies and bodegas, so we wish to guarantee we’re all the time supporting bodegas and small companies and that any form of competitors to them is truthful and balanced.
Q: Do you help closing the Rikers Island jail complicated?
A: That is one thing that ought to occur. . . . Clearly, we’ve some considerations round the truth that there have been huge delays within the development of the borough-based jails [that will replace Rikers’ jail facility]. They’re approach not on time, and in order that’s one thing that we’re going to have to handle.
Q: There’s been a longtime push by Staten islanders to have the town’s most conservative borough depart NYC — and that has heightened with Mamdani turning into mayor. Would you help letting Staten Islanders resolve by way of a referendum if their borough ought to secede and be its personal metropolis?
A: I really like Staten Island. I spent a ton of time on Staten Island as a commissioner [of various city agencies]. We actually wish to proceed Staten Island as a part of New York Metropolis. I do know I’ve colleagues from Staten Island who may really feel in a different way, however I personally love Staten Island, and I actually would hope that they’d wish to keep part of our nice metropolis.
