Power struggle between Adams, NYC Council heats up with dueling meetings over mayoral picks, city charter changes

The power struggle between Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council is heating up — with the latter discussing a bill Wednesday that would drastically expand lawmakers’ oversight of mayoral appointees.

The fiery hearing took place just hours before Hizzoner’s new “Charter Revision Commission” convened for the first time in a seemingly hurried effort that could short-circuit the council’s proposed move.

The timing of the dual meetings, which City Hall was “just a coincidence,” comes as tensions between the mayor and council members have intensified in recent weeks.

Speaker Adrienne Adams, no relation to the mayor, proposed legislation in a closed-door meeting last week that would give the council veto power over 20 commissioner-level gigs in City Hall — including the heads of the transport, health and mental hygiene and social services’ departments.

Currently, the council only has the power to shoot down a few top mayoral appointees, such as the Department of Investigations commissioner and the Corporation Counsel, who acts as the city’s top legal officer.

“This bill is certainly not about curbing the power of any particular mayor but instead is focused on improving government,” Speaker Adams said during Wednesday’s hearing.

“Advice and consent is not a new concept or practice,” she added. “Since the founding of our democracy, advice and consent has been used to protect against the abuse of power in our government.”

The bill, if passed by the council, would then have to be voted on via a ballot referendum — a move Mayor Adams’ administration is expected to try to thwart.

After details of the bill dropped last week, Hizzoner announced his own 13-person commission — filled with a number of close allies — to review and advise on revisions to the city charter.

The group could attempt to ꧅supersede ballot any potential changes put forward by the council if it moved quickly to get its proposed charter amendments on the November ballot.

Diane Savino, a senior adviser to the mayor who was voted in as the commission’s executive director Wednesday afternoon, set an aggressive schedule for the panel — saying their work would be a “short sprint.”

“We have to complete the work of this commission in a very quick period of time in order to be ready to present our final report by the end of July, no later than August 5,” she said during the commission’s first meeting, held at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s former home on the Upper East Side.

Some council members flagged concerns over the “convenient” timing of Adams’ commission, arguing the move was payback for floating the initial charter change to expand its “advice-and-consent” section.

City Hall, however, shot back that talks for the panel had been in the work𝔉s for months.

Councilman Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) ripped the mayor’s office near the start of Wednesday’s hearing after a City Hall r♓epresentative failed to show up until two hours in.

“Despite the mayor publicly expressing concern about this legislation, his administration decided to not engage in the legislation process,” Councilman Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) told the hearing as he accused Adams of just trying to “delay this legislation.”

“The mayor’s dismissiveness and disrespect of this city council and his administration’s refusal to engage directly, on the record, on the speaker’s legislation is disappointing.”

Tiffany Raspberry, the mayor’s head of intergovernmental affairs, later showed face to read a statement from Adams, arguing that the council already has “significant checks on the mayor’s power, including budget, land use and oversight.”

“Expanding that oversight to having final say on the mayor’s choice of who they want to lead agencies to carry out the policies that city voters elected them to carry out wo🤪uld be a disservi🦹ce to New Yorkers,” the statement read.

“Any uncertainty or delay in appointing 🙈agency leadership creates the real possibility for harm from delayed service delivery,” the statement continu⭕ed.

Raspberry refused to take questions from lawmakers because she claimed City Hall hadn’t been “formally” invited to the hearing.

Restler and council sources slapped down the claim, insisting h🀅e’d gone back and forth with Adams’ staff for several days 🃏via phone and text until City Hall informed the councilman late Tuesday they would be a no-show.

Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy told The Postܫ when asked that the council should have emailed the invitation to the hearing, instead of communicating via text💧.