Adams’ Last-Day Charter Commission Poses Early Test for Mayor Mamdani

Overview

• Hours before leaving office on Dec. 31, Eric Adams created a legally insulated Charter Revision Commission, stocked largely with loyalists, to examine shifting New York City to open, nonpartisan primaries.
• The commission operates for up to two years, cannot be dissolved by Mayor Zohran Mamdani before it completes its work, and prevents the City Council from placing its own charter question on the ballot during that period.
• Mamdani’s team is weighing tactics to blunt the panel’s impact, including withholding funding or pursuing legal challenges, and an Albany bill has been floated that would allow the mayor to disband it.
• Columbia law scholar Richard Briffault and Citizens Union’s Grace Rauh condemned the maneuver as hostile to transition norms, and a Mamdani spokesperson said it seeks to circumvent the will of voters.
• Reporting also highlights Adams’ last-minute changes to press credential rules, the appointment of a pro-police ally to an NYPD misconduct board, and a parkland designation that the coverage says would block a planned affordable senior housing site.