NEW YORK — City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is calling on Mayor Eric Adams to resign amid the impending departure of four top aides who are leaving over his handling of immigration matters.
“It has become clear that Mayor Adams has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government, and New Yorkers,” Speaker Adams said in a statement Monday. “He now must prioritize New York City and New Yorkers, step aside and resign. This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor.”
Her words marked a culmination of an increasingly fraught relationship that has deteriorated in recent years.
Speaker Adams, who attended high school with the mayor and endorsed him in the crowded 2021 primary, has been at odds with him for years. The mayor unsuccessfully backed one of her opponents in the internal speaker’s race that year, and the two have fought over legislation in the intervening years.
First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker all plan to step down, Adams’ office confirmed on Monday.
“These resignations are the culmination of the mayor’s actions and decisions that have led to months of instability and now compromise the City’s sovereignty, threaten chaos, and risk harm to our families,” Speaker Adams continued. “We have endured enough scandal, selfishness and embarrassment, all of which distract from the leadership that New Yorkers deserve. This is the opposite of public service.”
Adams was defiant at an event earlier Monday at a church in Brooklyn, surrounded by supporters in the clergy.
“Go back and do an analysis from the day that I was indicted, to what we have accomplished,” he told reporters on his way out of the event. “That is my ability to lead through turmoil and I’m going to continue to do that.”
City Comptroller Brad Lander sent a letter to the mayor on Monday asking him to present a “detailed contingency plan” on how he plans to manage the city amid the departures, while threatening to convene a committee that could potentially remove Adams.
“Should your office be unable or unwilling to formulate such a plan promptly, I will seek to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee,” Lander continued, referring to a five-person body that he would be a member of that could remove Adams from office. Lander is running for mayor this year.
And Justin Brannan, who chairs the council finance committee and is running for comptroller, called on Adams to resign Monday.
“We cannot afford a mayor who has chosen fealty to Donald Trump to avoid prosecution for a bribery indictment,” he said in a statement. “It’s time to turn the page and restore integrity at City Hall. There is too much at stake and we’ve got too much work to do.”
