Menin voted speaker of City Council
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Manhattan Councilmember Julie Menin was unanimously elected speaker of the City Council on Wednesday at the body’s first full meeting of the year. John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
By Ryan Schwach
Manhattan Councilmember Julie Menin was unanimously elected to be the next speaker of the City Council on Wednesday.
Menin, who locked up the speaker’s vote in December, became the first Jewish speaker of the City Council, succeeding its first Black speaker, Queens’ Adrienne Adams.
“I pledge to be a speaker for each and every single member and your respective communities,” said Menin, who thanked her colleagues and acknowledged the other members who had sought the speaker’s role, including progressive Crystal Hudson and Queens member Selvena Brooks-Powers.
Menin’s first speech as the Council speaker was preceded by a parade of praise from her colleagues, including from Queens members and those on both sides of the political spectrum.
“We need a leader who is willing to back us up and fight right next to us, who has taken on Donald Trump, big corporations and anyone who stands between New Yorkers and justice and who has won in those fights, Julie Menin is that leader,” said Queens Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, a member of the Council’s progressive caucus and one of the first progressive members to support Menin. “She has a clear and bold vision for the job, and the proven track record to execute on that vision.”
Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, arguably the most left-leaning member of the Queens delegation, supported fellow progressive Hudson for speaker, but voted for Menin on Wednesday and praised the Manhattan member.
“My community sent me to City Hall to serve and fight for workers, for immigrants and for queer and trans community and every one of our beloved neighbors, and I can't wait to do that together,” said Cabán.
The Council’s Republican caucus also supported Menin, including Councilmembers Joann Ariola and Vickie Paladino.
Paladino, who recently had colleagues call for her expulsion from the body after she made Islamaphobic comments on social media and in an op-ed, said she hopes Menin “steers this ship on a very centrist course.”
Queens not only lost leadership in the majority with Menin’s replacement of the term-limited Adams, but also in the minority.
Ariola lost her fight to maintain the minority leader role, when the Republicans voted to elect Staten Island Councilmember David Carr to the seat.
Ariola had a tumultuous fight for the role last year following the resignation of former Minority Leader Joe Borelli. In that election, she was supported by Paladino and then-Bronx Councilmember Kristy Marmorato.
The new City Council was sworn in and selected their speaker, Julie Menin, on Wednesday. Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit
When Marmorato lost reelection in November, Ariola no longer had the numbers in the small Republican caucus in the Council.
Carr was supported by himself, Brooklyn Councilmember Inna Vernikov and Staten Island’s other Republican member, Frank Morano.
“The Minority Leadership is, like everything else in politics, a numbers game and in this case Councilman Carr had the numbers,” said Ariola. “That said, a title does not make a leader, and I will continue to lead for my city, my borough, and my district, and work hard every day for the people I represent.”
In his first remarks as leader of the Republicans in the Council, Carr called out Mamdani and socialism.
“History has proven socialism to be a formula for tyranny, misery and economic failure,” he said. “It will not only serve to divide our city, it will obstruct any progress we can make for our five boroughs, because it runs counter to that most basic principle that has made our city and indeed our country great.”
The Council also voted to appoint a temporary Committee for Rules, Privileges and Elections, who will aid Menin in selecting the Council’s committee members and chairs in the next week.
Queens Councilmember Sandra Ung was elected to chair that temporary committee, joined by Krishnan.
Menin has represented neighborhoods in lower Manhattan since 2022, and prior to that worked in the Bill de Blasio administration as the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs. She also chaired her local community board.
She was also commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and director of the city’s census efforts.
A descendant of Holocaust survivors, Menin was in lower Manhattan during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and her small business – a restaurant – was decimated in the aftermath.
“I think about what that honor means, I think about what brought me to this moment and what, frankly, brought all of us here today,” she said. “That is a story of America, which is the story of New York, and that is a story of immigrants.”
There have been questions about how Menin will serve as speaker, and whether or not she would act in opposition to the progressive Mamdani administration, or if she would be more willing to work with the new mayor.
“This moment is truly historic,” said Menin, referring to herself as the city’s first Jewish speaker and Mamdani as the city's first Muslim mayor. “But what will write this interfaith leadership into the history books is if it can act as an opportunity for all of us to come together, to calm tensions, to bridge divides, and to recognize we are one city, no matter the religion we practice or the language we speak.”
She had already signaled support for Mamdani’s universal childcare platform, but there are likely to be many issues that separate the leaders on either side of City Hall.
Among those potential disagreements; Mamdani’s plans to create a department of community safety and recent moves that undid measures by the Adams administration which were intended to address antisemitism.
Right after the meeting, Menin told reporters that while she does expect disagreements between her and the mayor, she hopes they sit down and discuss them “in a respectful way.”
