New York politicians are warning voters about the city's ballot questions as a power grab by Mayor Adams

As the exodus from Mayor Eric Adams' administration continues, several New York City elected officials are urging voters to reject a series of ballot proposals that they say would give Adams' office more power.

A group of 40 representatives from city, state and federal offices announced Wednesday their joint rejection of five proposals to revise the city charter. The questions will appear on the back of all New York voters' general election ballots next month.

The city charter is the basic governing document of the city of New York and is similar to the state or federal constitution. It defines the structure of city government and enumerates the powers of the executive and legislative branches.

The group argues that the proposed measures developed by Adams' hand-picked Charter Revision Commission over the summer would undermine the City Council's role and give even more authority to the already powerful mayor's office. They also argue that the way the commission was formed by the mayor, who faces federal charges of bribery and fraud, was an abuse of his office by shifting executive power over that of the duly elected legislature.

“These proposals would amount to mayoral control of the City Council,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams told Gothamist on Tuesday. “The same City Council designed to be the city’s independent legislative body, tasked with providing checks and balances to the mayor’s administration.”

Other elected officials speaking out against the measures include Rep. Nydia Velázquez, City Attorney Jumaane Williams and City Comptroller Brad Lander; Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, 18 City Council members, seven state senators and eight Assembly members.

The group was organized by No Power Grab NYC, a coalition of civil rights and community groups that is urging its members to oppose charter changes proposed by the Adams administration. The group is funded by New Yorkers Defending Democracy, a 501c4 nonprofit and ballot initiative committee.

“The mayor is actually trying to defraud New Yorkers,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, a spokesman for No Power Grab NYC. “He’s betting that most New Yorkers don’t know these ballot proposals even exist, and we can’t let that happen.”

Diane Savino, executive director of the Charter Revision Commission, pushed back against the criticism.

“The Charter Revision Commission has put forward thoughtful voting proposals that reflect New Yorkers' desires for clean streets, fiscal responsibility, public safety, transparency in the city's capital planning process, and support for minority- and women-owned businesses,” she said, noting, that the commission collected input from 750 people in the five counties and received 2,300 written comments. “Now New Yorkers have the power to flip their ballots and vote on these proposals in November.”

The current proposals, listed as ballot proposals two through six, would introduce a number of changes to shift power between agencies. The wording of the proposals on the ballot itself was simplified to comply with the state's plain language law.

But opponents say the wording does not clearly convey the potential impact of the proposals.

“Some of this is just ridiculous,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, dean of New York’s congressional delegation and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. As an example, Nadler cited the proposal listed on the ballot as Proposal 3, titled “Additional Estimates of the Cost of Proposed Laws and Updates to Budget Deadlines.”

Nadler said that what that really means is that “if the mayor didn't like a bill in the City Council, he could kill it simply by having his (budget office) not provide an estimate.”

“This is a violation of the separation of powers,” he said.

In addition to a charter revision commission, changes to the charter can also occur through legislation passed by the city council.

In May, the City Council released plans to expand its own authority to approve certain agency head nominations. As Speaker Adams prepared to introduce the legislation, Mayor Adams announced the creation of a charter revision commission, which ultimately killed the council's proposals.

The council already has approval authority, known as advice and consent, for a handful of mayoral appointments, including the appointment of the city's corporate counsel. That threatened Adams' nominee for business consultant Randy Mastro, who ultimately withdrew from consideration after being targeted by the council during an 11-hour hearing over the summer.

In June, the council passed the measure to expand its advisory and consent authority to other positions, which voters then had to approve in November. But the mayor's five proposals to revise the statutes removed the question from the vote.

“This was something the mayor wanted to do to thwart our advice and consent legislation,” spokesman Adams said Tuesday, calling the commission’s work “rushed” and “rushed.”

Joseph Viteritti, a public policy professor at Hunter College, has served on several charter revision commissions, including the 1989 historical commission that abolished the city's Board of Estimates.

He is not involved in any of the organized efforts against the current changes. But he agreed that recent efforts could not be as deliberate and scientific as those he has worked on in the past.

“You can’t do that in seven weeks,” Viteritti said of the latest order. “So that leads to speculation about what the motivation is here.”

According to Nadler, the answer is simple. “(The proposals are) a power grab by the mayor and an unhealthy situation for the city.”

Nadler, the highest-ranking New York elected official who called for Adams' resignation in the wake of the federal charges, said any suggestion that his opposition to those ballot measures was a political move to hurt Adams' re-election chances was “ridiculous.”

“Without me saying a word,” Nadler said, “this mayor will clearly not be re-elected.”

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the timeline of the City Council and mayor's proposals.