A pair of lefty state pols are pushing new legislation that would provide the City Council immense power to remove a sitting mayor from office.
The bill introduced Thursday by state Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) would put the screws to the Big Apple’s “strong mayor” form of government by allowing the Council to oust a mayor with a three-fourths majority, or 39 of its 51 members.
The bill is in direct response to Gov. Kathy Hochul refusing to bow to pressure earlier this year from far-left Democrats and remove Mayor Eric Adams from office after President Donald Trump’s Justice Department dropped the mayor’s corruption case.
Brisport and Epstein claim the move left Hizzoner beholden to the Republican president, which Adams has adamantly denied.
“It makes no sense that we have had to wait around for a governor from Buffalo to make a decision about our city,” Brisport said.
Adams spokesperson Kayla Mamelak ripped the new bill, saying Brisport and Epstein “are smacking democracy in the face and making it abundantly clear that they do not care at all about the will of the voters.”
“The nearly 8.5 million New Yorkers who call this city home are the only people who should ever be able to decide who their mayor is, and Jabari and Harvey should be ashamed for trying to usurp the will of the people,” she said.
Epstein has added incentive for the bill to pass: he’s running for a City Council seat representing the Lower East Side.
Adams, a registered Democrat, is running in November for a second four-year term, but as an independent.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the favorite to win the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary, whose crowded field also includes Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.
Reps for Cuomo and the speaker — who is not related to the mayor – declined to comment.
