Adams elected speaker of the City Council
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City Councilmember Adrienne Adams was sworn in as Speaker of the city council on wednesday, jan. 5, 2021. Photo by John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
By Jacob Kaye
The first-ever female majority New York City Council elected the first-ever Black woman to serve as the legislative body’s speaker Wednesday – and she’s from Queens.
Beginning its new legislative session on Jan. 5, the new class of councilmembers, most of whom are freshman lawmakers, voted to install Queens City Councilmember Adrienne Adams as the speaker of the City Council.
Forty-nine of the council’s 51 members voted in favor of Adams’ nomination – Brooklyn Councilmember Charles Barron and freshman Manhattan Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan voted no on Adams.
Born and raised in Queens, Adams will set the agenda for the most diverse City Council in the city’s history for the next two years.
“We might come from different neighborhoods, but at the end of the day, we are one big family that always gets the job done,” Adams said. “My friends, history has its eyes on this City Council.”
Adams’ ascension to the seat required her to first beat out Mayor Eric Adams’ pick for speaker, Queens City Councilmember Francisco Moya. As the race began to heat up in December, the two simultaneously declared victory. Less than a week later, Councilmember Adams announced that she had received the necessary votes to secure the seat and Moya conceded.
On Wednesday, Moya said that he “100 percent” supported Speaker Adams.
“I am so proud to nominate and really stand next to someone who has just been truly a great friend, someone who we've always leaned on each other's shoulders through some tough times in the past four years,” Moya said. “I think we are a better city when we have leaders like Adrienne Adams.”
Several other top council positions were doled out Wednesday – Manhattan and Bronx Councilmember Diana Ayala was named deputy speaker, Manhattan Councilmember Keith Powers was named majority leader and Queens Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who was the first to nominate Adams for the speakership Wednesday, was named majority whip.
“Today I'm immensely proud to be nominating my friend and colleague, Councilmember Adrienne Adams, to serve as the next City Council speaker,” Brooks-Powers said. “All of us have a major responsibility that lies before us – tackling a public health crisis, guiding the city through an economic crisis, addressing the long-term challenges facing our city and nation and being a leader on all the issues that come to our front door.”
“Now more than ever, the City Council needs a strong and experienced leader who is ready to lead us as we tackle those unprecedented challenges,” Brooks-Powers added. “Someone who can bring people together, deliver results and help us build back a better New York that is stronger and more just than ever before. I am immensely confident that this is my friend and colleague, Councilmember Adams.”
Speaker Adams takes over a council that is ideologically split and has been called the most progressive in history. A handful of its most progressive members, including Queens Councilmembers Tiffany Cabán, Shekar Krishnan, Julie Won, Nantasha Williams and Brooks-Powers, have already begun sparring with the mayor, who, in December, said he wanted to bring back solitary confinement.
Mayor Adams also recently questioned the passing of the immigrant voting bill, which would allow noncitizen New Yorkers the right to vote in municipal elections. The mayor, this week, said he had qualms with the provision that allows noncitizens to vote after living in the city for 30 days. The bill was passed at the end of December by the previous council. Speaker Adams was in support of the bill.
In laying out her priorities Wednesday, Speaker Adams first mentioned COVID-19, which continues to spike in New York City.
“New York is at the crossroads of multiple crises, each one competing for our full attention,” Speaker Adams said. “The cracks in our economic and public health systems widened to massive gaps during the pandemic – the people who elected us demand our government take action. They're exhausted as they stagger into year three of this pandemic, they want to feel safe, and they want to be treated with respect and dignity.
“We can show the rest of the nation that people from all walks of life, on all points of the political spectrum can listen to one another, deliver solutions and do what is best for New York City – that begins by coming together to overcome this awful pandemic,” she added.
Queens leaders past and present were on hand in the chamber of the City Council Wednesday to witness Speaker Adams’ election. They included Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, former City Councilmembers I. Daneek Miller and Elizabeth Crowley, and Rep. Gregory Meeks, who leads the Queens County Democratic Party and was behind the push to get Speaker Adams elected.
“It’s an historic moment for the Queen's delegation and the people of Queens County, but most importantly, for the entire body of the City Council,” Meeks told the Eagle. “She's the right person at the right time to bring this body together and this challenging time in which we are living.
“The work begins today and I think the right person is at the helm, so that our city can overcome the crises that it’s currently in, in a collective manner,” he added.
Adams was first elected to represent Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Rochdale Village and South Ozone Park in 2017. Prior to holding elected office, she served as the chair of Community Board 12 in Queens and worked as a corporate trainer. Adams also previously worked as a child development associate instructor.
