Governor meets with key city leaders on mayoral crisis

February 18, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Donovan Richards, Queens borough president. Photo by Wayne Daren Schneiderman

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ALBANY AND CITYWIDE — THE NAMES OF SEVERAL KEY NYC POLITICAL AND CLERGY LEADERS have emerged as having met with Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday morning, as she ponders whether to use her authority granted by sections 9 and 10 of the New York City Charter to remove embattled Mayor Eric Adams from office.

Those meeting with her were House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who serves the 8th District in Brooklyn, Congressmember Gregory Meeks (D-06/Queens); Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, City Comptroller Brad Lander, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has over the years remained active in the city’s political life.

While Governor Hochul has the authority vested in her in the New York State Constitution and the City Charter to remove Mayor Adams from office, she is still considering whether to take this unprecedented action. Tuesday’s meeting was to discuss “a way forward” for the city. If she chooses to remove Adams from office, she would first provide him with a “copy of the charges and an opportunity to be heard in his defense,” explains a Time Magazine article published on Feb. 17.

Sections 9 and 10 of the City Charter also provide an alternate way of removing Mayor Adams that does not involve the governor. This option would call for the organizing of an Inability Committee, whose members represent specific parts of city government: a deputy mayor, the City Council speaker, the metropolitan corporation counsel, the comptroller, and the borough president with the longest time of service in this role, who is currently Queens BP Richards.

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