Oh wow! The Times keeps calling Corey Johnson, the new Speaker of the City Council, the second-most powerful man in City government. I asked Erik Bottcher, Corey’s Chief of Staff, “How come?” and this is what I got…
Like the federal government, city government is divided between the ‘executive’ (the Mayor) and the ‘legislative’ (the City Council), and Corey now speaks for the City Council.
So, let us say that the City Council votes to sell the public housing apartments to its tenants so that it can fund its own up-keep and repairs and let the taxpayers off the hook, and the Mayor says, “No.”
I’m not sure what happens then but it does illustrate the legislative division.
—George Capsis
