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

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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. New York City Council Speaker Adrienne 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 Comptroller Brad Lander, and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, among others. If elected, Adams would be the first woman, first Black woman, and 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. WNYC's Jimmy Vielkind reports.

Jimmy Vielkind: The US state Department canceled resettlement contracts that help newly arrived refugees find housing, jobs and basic necessities. Marwah Alobaidi is with InterFaith Works of Central New York in Syracuse.

Marwah Alobaidi: 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.

Jimmy Vielkind: 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 US 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.

Jonathan Rivera: The truth is that there is not a better program for upstate New York to reinvigorate neighborhoods the way that this program has.

Jimmy Vielkind: Funds would come from a state budget that's due by April 1st.

Janae Pierre: Governor Kathy Hochul's plan to place guardrails on Mayor Adams is stuck in neutral. More on that after the break.

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Janae Pierre: Governor Kathy Hochul is the only elected official who can unilaterally remove a sitting mayor in New York State, for example, Mayor Eric Adams. Questions swirled around whether or not Hochul 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 Hochul decided she would not remove the mayor, but she did want to put extra guardrails on the Adams administration. The governor's plan has drawn concern from even some of Adams' harshest critics, and now the proposals seem to be stuck in a legislative logjam. For an explainer on all of this, my colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's Jon Campbell from the State Capitol.

Michael Hill: Let's take a step back here. Remind us what the governor is proposing and why she says it's necessary.

Jon Campbell: Sure, Michael. 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. 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.

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 comptroller, to sue the Trump administration if Mayor Adams and his office refuse. All of that requires approval not only from the state legislature here in Albany, but also from the City Council. So far, that's really been a struggle for Hochul.

Michael Hill: Where do those proposals stand now, Jon? What's holding them up?

Jon Campbell: 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. Are the proposals dead? Are they stalled? Here's what she said.

Andrea Stewart-Cousins: 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. I have not, frankly, heard where that is.

Jon Campbell: 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."

Michael Hill: Jon, what's the governor's plan to break this logjam?

Jon Campbell: So far, Governor Hochul 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. She also seemed to allow for the possibility that lawmakers won't go along with her plan at all. Listen to this.

Governor Hochul: Now, if people don't want to do it and they 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.

Jon Campbell: All of that is to say it's very much in the air whether any of this gets done.

Michael Hill: Jon, the governor's talking about potentially restricting the powers of the mayor or more oversight of someone like it. Speaker Adrian Adams, who aspires to be mayor, of Zellnor Myrie, who aspires to be, Lander, who aspires to be mayor. If they were elected and these proposals that the governor is thinking of actually went into effect before they became mayor, that would have an impact on them.

Jon Campbell: It would, but the governor's proposals, she says they would only last through the end of the year, subject to renewal. 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.

Michael Hill: 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 phrase, government bureaucracy?

Jon Campbell: I don't know that everyday New Yorkers are worried about another state inspector general or could even name the current state inspector general. That being said, this does have an effect on, say, immigrants who are in New York City right now. That's where this concern is coming from. The governor is responding to accusations from federal prosecutors that Mayor Adams cut a deal to cooperate with President Trump's immigration crackdown.

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. On some level, there is an element of bureaucracy. The governor says she's responding to real anxiety on the ground, and this is supposed to give New Yorkers a feeling of calm.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Jon 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 defara's pizza or Jacob's pickles? 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 Neir's 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 Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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