New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, oversees the performance of city agencies' land use decisions, and legislates on a variety of other issues. It also has sole responsibility for approving the city budget. Members elected are limited to two consecutive four-year terms in office but may run again after a four-year respite.
The head of the city council is called the speaker. The current speaker is Julie Menin, a Democrat from the 5th district and the first speaker of Jewish descent. The speaker sets the agenda and presides at city council meetings, and all proposed legislation is submitted through the Speaker's Office. Majority Leader Kamillah Hanks leads the chamber's Democratic majority. Minority Leader David Carr was elected to lead the five Republican council members on January 28, 2025, however the vote was disputed due to a quorum not being present.
As of 2025, the council has 35 standing committees and 4 subcommittees, with oversight of various functions of the city government. Each council member sits on at least three standing, select or subcommittees. The standing committees meet at least once per month. The speaker of the council, the majority leader, and the minority leader are all ex officio members of every committee.
Council members are elected every four years. The exception is two consecutive two-year terms every twenty years to allow for redistricting after each national census.
Composition
An asterisk next to the election year denotes a special election. A double asterisk next to the election year means the member took office after certification to fill the remainder of an unexpired term.| Borough | Population | Total | Democratic | Republican |
| Brooklyn | 2,648,771 | 15 | 14 | 1 |
| Queens | 2,358,582 | 14 | 12 | 2 |
| Manhattan | 1,664,727 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 1,471,160 | 7 | 7 | 0 | |
| Staten Island | 479,458 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 8,008,278 | 51 | 46 | 5 |
Salary
Council members currently receive $148,500 a year in base salary, which the council increased from $112,500 in early 2016. The salary raise came with new ethics guidelines and restrictions; most outside income is prohibited, and members no longer receive additional compensation for serving on committees.Law
The New York City Charter is the fundamental law of the government of New York City including the council. The New York City Administrative Code is the codification of the laws promulgated by the council and is composed of 29 titles. The regulations promulgated by city agencies pursuant to law are contained in the Rules of the City of New York in 71 titles.A local law has a status equivalent with a law enacted by the legislature, and is superior to the older forms of municipal legislation such as ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations. Each local government must designate a newspaper of notice to publish or describe its laws. The secretary of state is responsible for publishing local laws as a supplement to the Laws of New York, but they have not done so in recent years. The New York City Charter, the New York City Administrative Code, and the Rules of the City of New York are published online by the New York Legal Publishing Corp. under contract with the New York City Law Department.
History
The history of the New York City Council can be traced to Dutch colonial times when New York City was known as New Amsterdam. On February 2, 1653, the town of New Amsterdam, founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island in 1625, was incorporated as a city under a charter issued by the Dutch West India Company. A Council of Legislators sat as the local lawmaking body and as a court of inferior jurisdiction. During the 18th and 19th centuries the local legislature was called the Common Council and then the Board of Aldermen. In 1898 the amalgamation charter of the City of Greater New York renamed and revamped the council and added a New York City Board of Estimate with certain administrative and financial powers. After a number of changes through the ensuing years, the present Council was born in 1938 under a new charter which instituted the council as the sole legislative body and the New York City Board of Estimate as the chief administrative body. Certain functions of the council, however, remained subject to the approval of the board.In 1938, a system of proportional representation known as single transferable vote was adopted; a fixed quota to fill seats|quota] of 75,000 votes was set, so that the size of the council fluctuated with voter turnout. The term was extended to four years in 1945 to coincide with the term of the mayor. Proportional representation was abolished in 1947, largely from pressure from Democrats, who played on fears of Communist council members being elected. It was replaced by a system of electing one council member from each New York State Senate district within the city. The Charter also provided for the election of two council members-at-large from each of the five boroughs. In June 1983, however, a federal court ruled that the 10 at-large seats violated the United States Constitution's one-person, one-vote mandate.
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Board of Estimate's structure was inconsistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because, although the boroughs had widely disparate populations, each had equal representation on the board. In response, the new Charter abolished the Board of Estimate and provided for the redrawing of the council district lines to increase minority representation on the council. It also increased the number of Council Members from 35 to 51. The council was then granted full power over the municipal budget, as well as authority over zoning, land use and franchises. In 1993 the New York City Council voted to rename the position of president of the city council to the public advocate. As the presiding officer, the public advocate was an ex officio member of all committees in the council, and in that capacity had the right to introduce and co-sponsor legislation. However the city charter revision of 2002 transferred the duties of presiding officer from the public advocate to the council speaker; the public advocate remains a non-voting member of the council.
In 2022, the composition of first female majority City Council included the first Muslim woman, the first South Asian members, and the first openly gay Black woman.
Term limits
A two-term limit was imposed on city council members and citywide elected officials in a 1993 referendum. The movement to introduce term limits was led by Ronald Lauder, the heir to the Estée Lauder Companies|Estée Lauder] fortune. In 1996, voters turned down a council proposal to extend term limits. Lauder spent $4 million on the two referendums.However, in 2008, under pressure from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the council voted 29–22 to extend the limit to three terms; the council also defeated a proposal to submit the issue to public referendum.
Legal challenges to the extension of term limits failed in federal court. The original decision by Judge Charles Sifton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York was upheld by a three-judge panel of the United States [Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit], and a proposal in the New York State Legislature to override the extension was not passed.
Voters voted to reinstate the two-term limit law in another referendum in 2010. However, according to The New York Times, incumbent members of the city council who were elected prior to the 2010 referendum "will still be allowed to run for a third term. People in office before 2010 were eligible for three terms."
Presiding officers since 1898
Through several changes in title and duties, this person has been, together with the mayor and city comptroller, one of the three municipal officers directly elected by all of the city's voters, and also the person who—when the elected mayor resigns, dies, or otherwise loses the ability to serve—becomes acting mayor until the next special or regular election.Until 1989, these three officers, together with the five borough presidents, constituted the New York City Board of Estimate. Political campaigns have traditionally tried to balance their candidates for these three offices to appeal as wide a range of the city's political, geographical, social, ethnic and religious constituencies as possible.
Standing committees
- Committee on Aging
- * Subcommittee on Senior Centers and Food Insecurity
- Committee on Children and Youth
- Committee on Civil and Human Rights
- Committee on Civil Service and Labor
- Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection
- Committee on Contracts
- Committee on Criminal Justice
- Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries & International Intergroup Relations
- Committee on Economic Development
- Committee on Education
- Committee on Environmental Protection, Resiliency & Waterfronts
- Committee on Finance
- Committee on Fire & Emergency Management
- Committee on General Welfare
- Committee on Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation
- Committee on Health
- * Subcommittee on COVID & Infectious Diseases
- Committee on Higher Education
- Committee on Hospitals
- Committee on Housing and Buildings
- Committee on Immigration
- Committee on Land Use
- * Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings, and Dispositions
- * Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises
- Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addictions
- Committee on Oversight and Investigations
- Committee on Parks and Recreation
- Committee on Public Housing
- Committee on Public Safety
- Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections
- Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management
- Committee on Small Business
- Committee on Standards and Ethics
- Committee on Technology
- Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
- Committee on Veterans
- Committee on Women and Gender Equity
- Taskforce to Combat Hate
Caucuses
- Black, Latino and Asian (BLA) Caucus
- Common-Sense Caucus
- Irish Caucus
- Italian Caucus
- Jewish Caucus|Jewish Caucus]
- LGBT Caucus
- Progressive Caucus
- Women's Caucus