City Hall made an 11th-hour push to torpedo planned Council lines

NEW YORK — On Wednesday, a top City Hall aide contacted several appointees of the local redistricting commission with a message: New York City Mayor Eric Adams opposed a revised draft map of new City Council boundaries set for a vote the following morning. The commissioners, appointed by the Democratic politician, were therefore urged to give the plan a thumbs down.

The outreach was conducted by Adams’ deputy chief of staff, Menashe Shapiro, via phone and text message, according to six people familiar with the overtures, including one who said the call came after hours Wednesday evening. And the following afternoon, the New York City Districting Commission narrowly voted to reject the set of proposed lines in a surprise decision led by mayoral appointees and those from the Republican Party, who together constitute a majority in the body.

The unusual outcome has scrambled plans laid by the commission, which redraws Council boundaries each decade to account to population changes identified in the national census.

Thursday’s vote was supposed to send the lines to the Council, where lawmakers would have weeks to mull over the maps before either approving them or — in the more likely scenario — sending them back for additional public hearings and revisions. The final iteration must be submitted by Dec. 7, a date that now seems too close for some observers.

“[Thursday’s] vote by the NYC Districting Commission comes as a surprise,” nonprofit Citizens Union said in a statement. “Should the Council reject the commission’s next revision, we are concerned that by delaying the process, there will be limited time for public input on the maps.”

The 15-member commission is composed of seven people appointed by the mayor, three appointed by Republican Council Member Joe Borelli and five appointed by Democratic Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. The lines they come up with will stand for the next decade. And because of how the process is timed, the Council’s typical four-year term has been split in half, and members must run under the new configuration next year.

The districting commission released its first draft in July, following numerous mapping sessions. It held hours-long public hearings in each borough, and overall, the commission has taken in around 10,000 pieces of testimony.

Several of the mayoral appointees criticized the process Thursday and said the maps would have negative impacts on Latino voters. One mayoral pick also wanted the commission to consider rezonings in their deliberations.

But Yovan Collado, a Council speaker appointee from the Bronx, said many of the mayoral appointees' criticisms Thursday had never come up during months-long process — or did not seem to be deal-breaking qualms.

He took issue with the mayoral appointees' notion the new maps disenfranchised Dominican voters.

“I had not heard many of these objections prior to today,” Collado said in an interview. “I am Dominican myself, so it is a community I would obviously protect.”

The world of municipal commissions, blue ribbon panels and task forces is often closely choreographed. A public vote, for example, would typically be scheduled only if it were expected to be successful. Signs that formula may have been in jeopardy emerged days ago.

Late last week, Shapiro, the City Hall official, walked into the districting commission office at 253 Broadway looking for the executive director, according to four people familiar with the interaction. At some point afterward, the latest version of the maps were shared with the mayor’s office.

The commission declined to comment. But chair Dennis Walcott previously told POLITICO the body takes input from the public, its appointees and a voting-rights expert on staff. It doesn't harbor political considerations, he said.

It was unclear what piqued the interest of Adams’ team, which did not respond to questions about Shapiro’s involvement but offered a statement praising the commission’s work.

“The Commission heard public testimony from different communities across the city who were concerned about the dilution of their voting power and the risk of diminished representation in city government,” mayoral spokesperson Fabien Levy said in a statement. “We applaud the independent redistricting commission for their willingness to continue their great work and address these concerns now, while the public process continues to move forward.”

Four of the mayor’s seven appointees voted against the plan this time around. In July, they largely approved an earlier iteration of the maps.

The July proposed maps created a majority Asian district in southern Brooklyn that pitted fellow Democrats Alexa Avilés and Justin Brannan against one other — two incumbents who have won little favor with the mayor’s office. The proposed lines kept three districts locked on Staten Island, something Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli wanted — and improved Republicans' chances of gaining seats in upcoming elections.

The maps that Adams' appointees panned on Thursday, however, eliminated the potential Avilés-Brannan match-up and instead carved up the nearby district of fellow moderate Democratic Ari Kagan — whose politics are much more aligned with Adams than Democratic Socialist Avilés. Brannan earned top City Hall officials' ire during last year’s Council speaker race.

The newer maps also drew part of Brooklyn into a Staten Island district — a proposition all three of Borelli's appointed commissioners voted against.

“I’m happy the commission voted it down. I’m happy they will go back to the drawing board,” Borelli said in an interview. “The real deadline [in December] is not for some time. We have time to work things out, and if we can actually build a better mousetrap, that’s a lot better than just passing what we have just to get this done with.”

The Council speaker’s appointees — except her Staten Island pick — voted in favor of the revised plan, which fixed several points of criticism that emerged during public hearings. A district that was set to be split between the Upper East Side and Queens was reversed, for example, and Hell’s Kitchen was no longer slated for division among three seats.

Sally Goldenberg contributed to this report.