The New York City Council was accused of abruptly nixing the public’s opportunity to deliver remarks ahead of Tuesday’s vote to nix Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of the controversial cop-stops bill.
Multiple community leaders said they had intended to speak at the public meeting to back Adams against the “How Many Stops Act” after submitting applications via the council’s website in the lead up to the vote.
But at the last-minute, they claim the council backtracked and informed them that all public testimony had to be submitted in writing instead.
“This is messed up. They said we could speak and then they pulled the rug out from under us,” Raymond Tsang, president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, told The Post.
“Everyone I know in the community was going to speak in support of the mayor and against the veto override.”
The council did end up rejecting Adams’ veto of the bill, which will force cops to document nearly every interaction they have with the public — which Hizzoner had argued will only drown officers in paperwork and red tape. It also voted to override Adams’ veto of a bill banning solitary confinement in Big Apple jails.
Some who signed up to give comments said they received an email from the council late Monday explaining that the switcheroo was because the council meeting had “inadvertently” been listed as a “hearing,” instead of a “vote.”
“The New York City Council does not routinely accept oral public testimony for meetings. There will be no opportunity to testify orally at the aforementioned Committee on Public Safety meeting,” the emailed note read.
The council did, however, permit oral testimony from the public when members overrode the first veto of Adams’ tenure, of housing voucher legislation in July last year.
Reps for the council didn’t respond when asked why in-person testimony was allowed for the veto override on the housing bill — and not for the cop-stops legislation.
Tsang claimed the move this time around was proof that lawmakers were concerned about public backlash tied to their vote.
“The opposition to the override is something they’re worried about. That’s why they cancelled live testimony,” Tsang argued.
The head of the jail officers union added to the pile on, accusing Speaker Adrienne Adams of being a “dictator.”
“As one of the largest stakeholders in our city’s criminal justice system, we arrived at City Hall today planning to testify against the reckless legislation that would ban punitive segregation in our jails,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correctional Officers Benevolent Association.
“However, City Council Dictator, Adrienne Adams, decided to shutdown any public testimony in order to stifle any public opposition to her personal political agenda.”
Meanwhile, Jeanne Nigro, of TakeBackNYC, a coalition backing small business owners, said she was told an hour before the hearing that she could no longer deliver remarks.
“The mayor’s office contacted me an hour before to let me know city council had called the right of the public to give a public testimony at the public safety committee hearing,” she said.
“I was going to speaking on the ‘How Many Stops Act’ and how that would take away the incentive to enforce the law at anti-Israel protests.”
Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks