That Was Fast: Early Tensions Flare Between Mamdani And Council Speaker

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin have been stoking an increasingly contentious feud that could end up hampering the mayor’s agenda.

When Mamdani announced a plan to build a city-owned grocery store Sunday, Menin released a statement saying she would need to get input from local businesses before getting on board. She implicitly criticized the administration for scrubbing mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion from a draft racial equity report. And she blasted Mamdani’s threat to raise property taxes — particularly toxic in Black communities — at an event hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton and attended by the mayor.

The Council has raised questions about the mayor’s nominee for the city’s Department of Investigation. And a previously unreported internal union memo shows Menin helped plan a protest outside the mayor’s 100-day speech in Queens on Sunday — an unusual and major escalation of tensions — though both she and the labor organization denied any plotting took place, chalking the counterprogramming up to a misunderstanding.

And that was just last week.

Earlier this month, the two city leaders — both Democrats — clashed over a Council budget proposal that sparked a sharp rejoinder from the mayor and attacks against the speaker from his supporters.

"I’m expecting this kind of behavior, unfortunately, to be front and center at this stage of the process because that's just how the budget works," said Diana Ayala, who served as deputy Council speaker under Adrienne Adams. "But within a month or two, if things haven’t stabilized, that would be very troubling.”

Speakers are supposed to act as a check on the mayoralty. And they have many ways to make a city executive’s life difficult: They can hold oversight hearings, gum up land use projects, fight over the budget and imperil key appointments. That Menin feels comfort in doing most of those things just three months into the term, however, indicates that Mamdani could be in for a difficult four years.

The mayor, a democratic socialist who rode a wave of far left energy to City Hall last year, has quickly become the country’s most closely watched city executive — both for his ambitious progressive agenda and the questions around how it will hold up under the pressures of governing.

While Adrienne Adams eventually made life hellish for her governing counterpart, then-Mayor Eric Adams, for example — suing the administration, overriding vetoes and tanking a high-profile nominee — the two were largely cordial through their first budget process.

Menin’s office said she continues to work productively with Mamdani and that the two still talk or meet at least once a week.

“We both love our city and we share a deep commitment to tackling the affordability and fiscal challenges ahead,” Menin said in a statement. “We won’t agree on every issue, and that’s part of the nature of city government, but we remain focused on working together and delivering for New Yorkers.”

Mamdani’s team had a similar message.

“As we address a $5.4 billion inherited budget deficit and confront the affordability crisis head-on, the Mayor looks forward to working with Speaker Menin and all of our legislative partners to build a more affordable and livable New York City,” spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.

The recent shift in tone has been marked, though. And the harder Menin goes against the mayor, the more risk she takes on.

Mamdani, despite having a relatively low job approval rating compared to some of his predecessors, is still broadly popular, especially among Democrats. He maintains a firm grip on the city’s purse strings and projects like parks and street repavings in Council members’ districts. He has a far bigger bully pulpit. And he enjoys the outside support of an army of devoted fans.

Looking back, the signs of tension presented early.

After winning the general election in November, Mamdani’s team botched an effort to blunt Menin’s rise in the speaker’s race. She quickly declared victory that same month and, shortly after being formally elected by her peers in January, announced an antisemitism task force and proposed legislation to establish buffer zones around houses of worship after a contentious demonstration outside a synagogue.

They were issues that delineated Menin’s liberal Manhattan politics from the mayor’s democratic socialism. They also provided an immediate jab at one of Mamdani’s biggest vulnerabilities from the campaign — his critical views on Israel, his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” and his support for Palestinians amid a Middle East war.

Still, Menin and Mamdani took pains to emphasize their collaborative working relationship. At least until this month.

On April 1, the Council released a budget plan that argued the city can fill a nearly $6 billion budget gap without major tax increases from Albany — the mayor’s main goal for right-sizing the city’s finances. The backlash from Mamdani was sharp and immediate.

Since then, Menin has dialed up the rhetoric herself in multiple statements and, in what would be an especially hostile act, appeared to help plan a small protest that occurred outside Mamdani’s 100-day speech.

An internal union email obtained by POLITICO indicates Menin asked the United Federation of Teachers to send around 20 people to the Knockdown Center in Queens to highlight proposed legislation — opposed by the mayor and backed by the union — that would give a pay hike to teaching aides known as paraprofessionals. Mamdani believes any pay hikes should go through the contract negotiation process.

“Speaker Menin is asking for 20 people to be outside with Para Respect signs, so the mayor and others can see them as they enter,” read the email, which urged members to sign up to rally outside the venue for about two hours before Mamdani’s event started.

The email, which indicated Menin put in the last-minute request to UFT President Michael Mulgrew, was sent to dozens of paraprofessionals and looped in two high-ranking union officials — Michael Sill, the secretary of the UFT and a top aide to Mulgrew, and Priscilla Castro, the chair of the UFT’s paraprofessional chapter — according to a person with knowledge of the message who was granted anonymity to discuss the private communication.

“Please when responding, rely [sic] all so that Michael and Pricilla [sic] will know of your reply,” the message specified.

Neither Menin nor the United Federation of Teachers denied the authenticity of the email. However, they said there were no discussions about protesting Mamdani’s 100-day speech and insisted the missive was a miscommunication.

“This is patently false. Neither the speaker nor anyone in our office had any communication with the UFT regarding this event, and we’ve had no knowledge of it,” Council spokesperson Henry Robins said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the UFT said the rep who sent the message was misinformed and likely confused the Sunday protest for a larger pro-pay raise bill rally that’s supposed to take place in the coming weeks.

“There was no conversation between Speaker Menin or her office with UFT President Mulgrew or the UFT about a protest,” spokesperson Alison Gendar said in a statement. “Any allegation of that is untrue.”

She went on to say the legislation has widespread support and that UFT members were at the Knockdown Center to support the mayor.

While helping to stage a protest would mark an especially contentious course of action, even taking on the mayor in more traditional ways carries risk for the speaker.

A March Siena poll found Mamdani with a 61 percent job approval rating. And while only 48 percent of registered voters told Marist the same thing weeks later, Mamdani scored high marks in other areas, like 61 percent of respondents ranking him as a good leader who understands the problems facing New Yorkers. And his job approval numbers were higher among Democrats and those who voted in November.

“This mayor is popular right now and he has an energized and loyal base that will not hesitate to inflict damage,” said one Democratic strategist granted anonymity to discuss tensions between two prominent elected officials. “I’m surprised it has been this hostile this early.”