Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability March 3, 2025 NY City HallMayor Eric Adams: Like those boys behind us, it’s good to see some of you. Nice to be here on a Monday. [Crosstalk.] No, some jokes never get old. Good morning. You know, we are doing off-topics here on Monday because I will be taking care of the duties tomorrow, so we wanted to make sure we didn’t push it off later, but to do it earlier. And, you know, our goal is clear. We put it up all the time, making New York City the best place to raise a family, keeping New Yorkers safe, and making it more affordable. And public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity. I should coin that phrase.And last month, the CompStat numbers as shooting numbers are record level, and year-to-date shootings in 2025 are at their lowest level in recorded history. Lowest level. That means fewer shooting incidents from January 1st to February 28th of this year than any year since the beginning, keeping our records. And major crimes are also down almost 15 percent overall. That gives us three straight months of double-digit decreases in overall crime. And that is also below ground. You know, we thought about last year in January, we saw a significant spike in crime below ground.The governor and I did the subway safety plan, and we have continued to see safety in our subway system. 4.6 million daily riders, about six felonies a day. That is something that all New Yorkers should be proud of. And we’re seeing a 15 percent decrease in transit crime last month. Two months in a row with double-digit decreases in our subway.In February, we also saw a 32 percent decrease in homicides, a 21 percent decrease in shootings, as well as decreases in other major crimes, including robberies, burglaries, grand larcenies, auto theft, and felony assaults. You know, somebody said the City’s in crisis? I wonder, who was that guy? Hats off to Commissioner Tisch and all the brave men and women that are keeping us safe. 20,500 guns off our streets.You know, these guys and ladies are really doing their job. And the number that really shows how much we’re dealing with the quality of life issue, over 80,000 illegal vehicles, cars, mopeds, dirt bikes, etc… over 80,000. And so we’re going to keep doing that. And we also committed to creating a more affordable city for working New Yorkers.Really proud last week when we announced that our career and technical education program has helped our students earn over $18 million through apprenticeships and work-based learning since the start of our administration. And those young people are really excited about these jobs, that they’re being offered.The Future Ready NYC program, our administration, signature initiative available in 135 schools and reaching 15,000 high school students, putting them on path to economic security through good jobs. You know, I shared with one of them, to be Cisco qualified is a good qualification certification that will lead you on the pathway to real employment. And we’re going to stay mission focused to ensure that we can carry that out. And so, can I open up? Kayla?Question: Have you seen Andrew Cuomo’s campaign launch video?Mayor Adams: No.Question: You have not seen it?Mayor Adams: No.Question: In the video, sir, he says New York City needs to be saved. What do you think? Does the city need to be saved?Mayor Adams: Yes, I do believe we need to be saved from him, but I can’t campaign from this place. And so, we are clear. You go to 2020 and you look at what was happening in this city in 2020 and look at where we are now. Crime was through the roof. A lot of laws were passed that had a major impact on our public safety, but in spite of that, look what we were able to accomplish. And we’re looking forward. We’re going to run on our record, but, you know, my council is stringent. Eric, deal with your job here, and we’ll see you guys on the campaign trail when it comes down to dealing with other issues. But we’re focused. We’re focused on the city, and we’re focused on making sure we continue to do what we’ve done, like putting $30 billion back in the pockets of working-class people.Question: I just want to make it clear, sir. He said the city needs to be saved. S-A-V-E-D, not safe. I’m sure he feels the city needs to be saved, but he’s saying the city needs to be saved, essentially saved from your leadership.Mayor Adams: Okay. Again, again, I say this over and over again. Look at the crime stats in 2020. Look at the crime stats in 2020 and what you saw in transit crime, what you saw alone. We’re down 50 percent from transit crime in 2020. Think about that for a moment. And leadership is significant. You know, what I learned in the role as mayor, I don’t think there’s ever been a mayor that had to deal with so much noise. And what happens when you’re faced with not only professional crisis, but personal crisis? Do you step down or do you step up? What have I done? I stepped up. I delivered for the city. No matter what was going on in my life, I put the lives of New Yorkers first.And I think that that is a real way to identify real leadership, is that are you able to navigate out of COVID? Are you able to navigate out of 230,000 migrants and asylum seekers? Are you able to navigate out of crime? You saw real leadership over the last three years. People may disagree, but look at where we are and where we were. We’re in a good place. Broke the records for jobs eight times. Dropped the cost of childcare. What we have done around public safety, no one thought we can do it, but we’ve done it. Breaking records on housing. With all that’s going on, I never lost focus for the people of this city. And I’m never going to lose focus for them.Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.Mayor Adams: J.R., how are you?Question: I am well. Good, good.Question: Mayor Adams, we all know there are nine candidates in the race.Mayor Adams: I lost count, brother.Question: The latest being former Governor Andrew Cuomo. According to reports, he raised like $8 million to your $4 million. And of course, you’re not getting any matching funds. Are you concerned about that? That’s one. And secondly, what are you running on this year?Mayor Adams: Listen, we’re going to fight. We thought the matching funds removed from us was incorrect. We’re going to fight to get them back. But I think what I’m running on is clear. I’m running on my record. You can’t dispute records. You can’t dispute what we have done. And there are naysayers, yaysayers, and everything in between. But at the end of the day, no one can dispute the records. The records don’t lie. That’s what we’re going to be running on.Question: I want to ask you another thing about what the former governor said over the weekend. He said that there is a lack of intelligent action in the decision-making from City Hall. Do you have any response to that about the decisions that are being made by you and your deputies?Mayor Adams: No, not at all. At debate times, we could go over the intelligent actions that we’ve taken and intelligent actions that he took as the governor.Question: I remember about two years ago in here, we were all asking you about how you could have dinner with Andrew Cuomo shortly after he had resigned. And you said you’d have dinner with anybody, you’d be willing to meet with anybody. I’m just wondering, when you were having dinner with Andrew Cuomo two-and-a-half years ago, did any part of you think, this guy’s coming back, this guy’s going to run for my job? And when he did announce he’s running for your job, was your reaction in your head like, game respects game? Or was it more like, that guy was never honest with me?Mayor Adams: First of all, I don’t go into private conversations. And anyone who understands elected officials, for the most part, many are looking for their next job. They want to stay in the game. This is how elected officials identify themselves. I had a career prior to this, and it was a very, very fruitful career. And so we knew back then that there was a desire that he had and he wanted to come back. And people have a right to too. Being mayor is, if people are not wanting to compete to be the mayor of the greatest city on the globe, something is wrong. And so there’s nothing wrong with nine, was it nine people, J.R.?Question: Yes.Mayor Adams: There’s nothing wrong with nine. There are going to be people who are going to come in, there are going to be people who are going to drop out. How many did we have last time? Ray McGuire, Maya Wiley, Andrew Yang, Donovan, Scott Stringer, Eric Adams, who? Kathryn Garcia, that’s seven. Who was the other young lady named? Dianne. Paperboy Prince, who was just a real suitable candidate. So we had nine, I think we had nine back then. And so there will only be one person emerging as the mayor, and the people of the city will make the decision. And that is why it’s insulting when anyone wants to take that right away from New Yorkers.New Yorkers should make the determination on who they want. And so whatever his desires were, whatever his plans were, as we spoke, there were things in the conversation that indicated there was a desire to get back in the game. But I’m not going to go into those private conversations. And it really doesn’t matter. People need to present their case to the voters. And many people who are running don’t have a record to present. I have a record to present.Question: I didn’t mean [inaudible] your private conversation, I just meant, did you think this guy’s coming for my job?Mayor Adams: Any time I sit down with anyone, when I’m on the train and someone stops and says that, hey, I could run the police department better, I walk off the train and say, that guy’s going to try to take my job, you know?Question: Mr. Mayor, when are you planning on signing the executive order on putting ICE on Rikers Island? That was my first question. And the second question, February was the month of the record low crossings at the southern border. Thousands of illegal criminals were deported. Could you update us on the numbers of these illegal criminals deported from New York City recently? Because we’ve heard a month ago of the big week for ICE. But how is it recently? How was the last week, let’s say? Thank you.Mayor Adams: So let me peel that back. One, corporation counsel is handling any EOs that we do. Let them do their job, and they will let us know. The southern border, hats off to the Homeland Security secretary. Hats off to ICE — the border czar, I should say. Hats off to what I was calling for prior to the election, I should say. Wrecking numbers, I think they’re down by 90%. We’re seeing a real impact here in the city. We’re seeing the numbers of people that are transitioning out, and so the things I called for last year, I am seeing those results.And so I’m pleased with the Homeland Security secretary’s action. I’m pleased with the border czar’s action. We need to secure our borders. We need to deal with immigration. There’s no dignity in allowing people to come into the country with no place to go, no sponsorship, unable to work. And the cost is passed on to city workers, the cities and their citizens. Hats off. I’m glad we’re getting results at our southern border. And we should get it at the northern border also.Question: Do you know the numbers? For example, last week, how many people were arrested and deported from the City of New York?Mayor Adams: No, I don’t.Question: So just following up on the ICE being put back on Rikers. I mean, you had this conversation with Border Czar Homan back in December, a follow-up three weeks ago with him. What is the holdup here? We obviously can’t ask the corporation counsel because she doesn’t appear anymore at these press conferences. So what is the delay? And what timeline were you given with the border czar to get this done?And then secondly, in the last few weeks of the flurry of filings from Alex Spiro and the DOJ, part of the reason why your case is moving to be dismissed is that you didn’t have the proper security clearance because of this ongoing case. But you’ve repeatedly said to New Yorkers, that this does not hinder you from doing your job. So which is it? Were you able to do your job, or you weren’t able to do your job?Mayor Adams: Okay, first, if you ever dealt with attorneys, you know that they take their time. They’re not going to allow you to rush them. And they’re going to do it to make sure that everything is done correctly. In particular, Muriel, who’s over at our corporation counsel, she’s very thorough. She’s very professional. And when she’s ready to roll out, she’ll roll it out. The question that you just asked about the security clearance, I answered that last week. I don’t know if you missed it. You should look at the recording of it. But I answered it.Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. Good morning.Mayor Adams: What’s happening? Lots happening, right?Question: Sorry?Mayor Adams: A lot is happening. You know, I told you guys when I got elected, this is going to be the most exciting time to be a reporter.Question: Okay, so just yesterday, Brad Lander was here in front of City Hall doing a press conference. And he said, among other things, I love the D.R.E.A.M. motto for mayor, don’t rank Eric or Matthew. And so what is your response to this?He said, I love the D.R.E.A.M. motto. I guess he was turning it into an acronym, like D-R-E-A, don’t rank Eric or Matthew for mayor. Don’t rank Eric or Matthew. So do you have any response to being thrown together with Cuomo by your opposition as a candidate to avoid? And also, I know you aren’t too crazy about the ranked choice system in general, but are you considering any cross-endorsements with other candidates this time around?Mayor Adams: Okay, let’s peel that back. First, I’m not sure who Matthew is. I don’t know if he had to make up a name for the M. But what I want all of you to start looking at, how everyone is running on my platform, how he’s switching to become more moderate. I think he put something out about shoplifting. Duh, where have you been?Look at all of their platforms now. They’re more and more sounding like Eric Adams, you know, more and more. And if you do an analysis of it, you’ll realize they knew all the time I was right. And so Brad, I’m going to hire Eric Adams’ police commissioner. It’s just another signature that people realize I navigated the system, city. I knew what I was doing. And so I can’t. This is going to be– you’re going to hear Eric Adams’ platform all over the place.And so his little acronym, I don’t know what that is about. It’s not even worth, you know, what to look for. I think the acronym we need to know is D-E F-U-N-D. Defund the police Brad. That’s what we need to remember.Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to ask you, you recently in the wake of Cuomo jumping into the race talked about people coming out of the shadows to be scrutinized. I wonder, it seems like you’re still in the shadows. You haven’t gone to any of the mayoral forums, your case could drag on for a while. You brought up the March 14th. When are we going to see you also go to these forums and be scrutinized by the public? That’s going to weigh in on whether you get a second term.Mayor Adams: Tell me if any of the candidates that run in, do they do off topics to take your–[Crosstalk.]Mayor Adams: That’s news to me. I sure enough don’t see them. Second. I went to the CLC’s screening. I went to 32BJ’s screening. And I go to the screening front of the membership. I do town halls all the time. I see you there. And the town halls, they ask me questions. You know, I go to senior town halls all the time. I do my youth questionings all the time. I’m questioned all the time.What I was not going to do is to allow people to run campaigns in the shadows, rolling out endorsements without being announced, not being questioned. And then you want me to be questioned on a debate stage. And what I’m asking, get everyone that’s in the race to come and answer the same questions. Don’t have them sitting on the sidelines. So I’m not running a shadow office. I am doing the role of mayor. They are moments for campaigning. And I look forward to doing that, but I am probably one of the most accessible because I’m on the ground and people.And I see some of you there, you’re there in these rooms. You know, there’s no one covering me, guarding me. We take those questions straight from the public. And you know what, when you’re there, be honest. They don’t ask a lot of these questions about all this other stuff. They ask about stuff that impacts their community, safety, holes in their ceiling, school issues, affordability. They ask me real issues. And that’s why I enjoy being among the people.Question: I had a follow-up question. You made a comment last week that got a lot of criticism about Negroes asking you to step down. May God forgive them. I wanted to know why you felt you had to make that comment publicly and not speak to those Black leaders in private about your feelings towards what they had been saying about you.Mayor Adams: Well, those Negroes knew they were wrong. You know, who are we kidding? And why are we trying to classify the term Negro as being a derogatory term? You got the Negro Improvement Lead Organization. You got the United Negro College Fund. You have the National Council of Negro Women. That’s not a derogatory term. I call myself, I say to myself sometimes, Negro, you dropped the ball.You know, what people should have been really insulted about is, here is a person that did nothing wrong, was not convicted of any criminal action, but heard the optics of people and starts saying we should usurp the power of the voters. That’s what everyone should have been angry about.Second Black mayor in the city. We’re saying because of the optics, he should be removed from office. I mean, that is, just think about that for a moment. That is not our system of justice. That’s not our system of how we operate in this country. Either we have democracy or we don’t have democracy. Democracy states the voters choose.And so when I’m hearing those who are elected in office, who are aware of the rules, are saying he needs to be removed. He needs to step down. That’s what we should be angry about. Where is the process that we’re supposed to follow instead of this sort of lynch mob mentality? That’s what we should be angry about. We have witnessed the lynch mob mentality before.Question: Mr. Mayor, back on the subject of the mayoral forums, you know, with DC 37, you talked about your counsel advised not going, you know, I think [Kelly] referenced the court case could still be going on for a while. Could this come up again and again and stop you from doing other events where you would be face to face with other candidates, forget about screening behind closed doors where you’re not with anyone else?Mayor Adams: Listen, I look forward to the debate. Go back. I like to always go back. Go look at the last debates when I ran in 2021. Each debate, I think just about every debate I won. When your colleagues did an analysis of the debates, I think each one of them, I thought was number one or two. That’s when I didn’t have a record to run on. Now I have a record to run on.I am not intimidated by standing in front of hostile people, asking me difficult questions. You know, I’m used to that. I do it every Tuesday. I’ll do it on Monday. You know, so we look forward to it, but everyone should be on the stage. And that was my conversation with Henry.Question: I wanted to follow up actually on something you said a couple of minutes ago about everyone running on your platform. It’s kind of what I wanted to ask you about. You have a lot of people out there saying with the former governor announcing that he is, de facto, running for your second term because of his positions.So I’m wondering how, I know they mean in a more derogatory way. You mean it in a sort of self-promoting way, with all due respect. Do you feel that former governor Cuomo is ripping you off?Mayor Adams: This is politics folks. And being, first of all, being mayor has been the greatest privilege of my life. My picture is going up in City Hall. I walk around at night and look at these pictures on here and I only see David Dinkins. My picture will be in City Hall. I’m 110. That’s been the greatest thrill of my life to get here. And that was the meat and potato. Term two is the gravy. I have a full stomach with the meat and potatoes. I’m going to show New Yorkers why I should be term two.And New Yorkers make the decision. But I want you to do the analysis. Look at what I ran on and what I completed. And look at what they now are shifting to run on. All I’m saying to all of them…Get an OI. An original idea. Get your originality. Don’t run on what Eric ran on and accomplished and say you’re going to continue what I’ve done.You’re going to continue bringing down crime. Did it. You’re going to continue to bring back our economy. Did it. Did you see the bond raters reinforced their belief in our ability? You’re going to continue to deal with housing. Did it. You’re going to continue to deal with child care. Did it. You’re going to continue to put money back into the pockets of New Yorkers. Did it. All they can do now is say we’re going to continue what Eric has done.This has been a successful administration with all the drama. We never lost sight of the people of this city.Question: They’re ripping you off?Mayor Adams: I think that all of these candidates are running on my issue for the most part. Probably one or two, I don’t even know what they’re running on.Question: Running on your record. Former Governor Cuomo has a 10-year record as governor. I wanted you to assess that record and tell me if you think there’s something or some things in that record that you feel disqualifies him from being a good mayor.And then secondly, I wanted you to address your upcoming testimony in D.C. on Wednesday. The House Oversight Committee put out a video saying that sanctuary cities are a portrait of lawlessness. How are you preparing for that?Mayor Adams: Just to be truthful and to be honest, the role [that] immigrants play in this city. I always felt that immigrants played an important role, but nothing really codified that thought more than during COVID. During COVID, many in this room, you were able to cover your stories from home. Immigrants were out there.When I went to the hospitals, I saw first and second generation immigrants in the hospitals, nurses managing the crises, who were stocking our shelves, who was delivering your Uber Eats. And I want to really show why it’s important, this concept of a sanctuary city. Why this concept, there’s a reality. I was looking over some of the numbers, the billions of dollars in infusion of taxes.So I think it’s important to tell the real story and also to be very clear. It’s a privilege to be in this great country. If you come here to violate our crimes and abuse people after you serve your time, you should not be in this country. And I’ve been very clear on that. I was clear on that prior to this presidential election. And I’ve been clear on that my entire life. Public safety is at the top of my agenda. So when people try to say, you’re shifting, you’re changing, this is the same Eric, same Eric that I have been for over 40 years, protecting people and fighting for those who want to abuse them. It doesn’t matter to me if you’re documented or not.Question: Can you talk about Cuomo’s record?Mayor Adams: We’re going to do that on the trail.Question: I was hoping you could address, you said earlier that you can’t campaign from this place and you’ll deal with this on the campaign trail. You said that again.Where is the campaign trail for you? You haven’t gone to any debates, as other reporters have said. Who’s your campaign manager? Who’s your campaign spokesperson?Mayor Adams: Yeah, a couple of things. One, where I am now in 2025 was not where I was in 2021. I was not known. I had to spend a whole ton of information on infrastructure. I had to have a heavy staffing. There are very few people in the city who don’t know Eric Adams. And if you do an analysis of the money I had to spend, the bulk of it was name recognition, getting my name out. I don’t think that’s the problem right now.And so this is right now, I like to say, this is the season. Those of you who are sports fans, this is the season. The playoffs are different. Petitions are on the street. We are now getting ready to go into the playoffs. And you’re going to see a whole lot of people drop off in the final four. That’s just the way it is. There’s a lot of strategies that are going to be put in place. And we are going to move towards our strategy. And let the best person become the mayor for the city.Question: I have a follow up. We reported last week that a senior OMB official left his job after refusing to get involved with the city’s lawsuit against Trump and his administration over that $80 million funds. Is there anything you want to say to the thousands of city employees who may be fearful of speaking out against Trump in this moment? Can you reassure them that their jobs are safe if they do so?Mayor Adams: Yeah, and I want to give some accuracy to that, because that is not what happened. The individual wanted to go back to his previous assignment. While he was in OMB, he was asked to sign the affidavit because he was in charge of the area that the lawsuit was based on. Jacques Jiha signed the affidavit. That person went back to the previous assignment that he wanted to go back to.He didn’t lose his job because he didn’t want to sign it. He wanted to go back to his previous assignment. He was allowed to do that. But any employee is required to do their job. And if there was a reason he was not going to do his job, then that’s insubordination. But that was not the case here. He went back to his previous assignment. He’s still a New York City employee.Question: Have you locked down the three individuals who you are going to appoint as your next deputy mayors? Can you share a timeline on the process and when you’re hoping to announce?Mayor Adams: Said it over and over again, our bench is deep. Not only in the city, our bench is deep in the city. And we had a number of people, as soon as the news came out, they said, listen, we want to come on board. We have each one of the positions identified, and we’re going to be making an announcement in the next few days.Question: Thanks. Turning again to your upcoming testimony on Wednesday, how do you plan to get across to the members of Congress your message, especially given the nature of this hearing, the political environment around the term sanctuary city? How do you plan to explain what you want to do and what you have to do under the law in New York City?Mayor Adams: I’m going to do what I’ve always done, just be candid and honest. I have sat on the other side of people giving testimonies, and I have sat giving testimonies. And so I know that interaction very well. And the goal is just to be very honest and candid.Now, there are those who are going to have their own views on both sides of the issue. That’s not my job. My job is to be honest, forthright, and truthful and give my personal observation on what we’re doing here and why we do what we do.If you don’t manage 232,000 people that come through our city, if you didn’t have a real system in place to do so. And so I don’t have any false sense of belief that there’s something I would say or do that everyone is going to agree with or disagree with it. I just hope that we could have a very civil conversation around a very complex topic that many cities have inherited.And I just think it’s unfair for cities to inherit national problems. And when you do do that, you have to step up. And I think that’s what we did in the city. And I’m going to share that. I’m going to share my observations. Now, hopefully, we could walk away with some of the good things that we have done and some of the successes that we have done.Question: Excuse me, I wanted to ask about ICE enforcement down the road. A few weeks ago, the acting director, acting deputy director, I forget which one, of ICE was reassigned because they weren’t getting enough numbers.Now, for everything I understood, and I don’t know if this is still the case, but if enforcement numbers in New York City are not to the levels that the White House or that the border czar wants them to be, if they wanted you to go a little bit further than the laws allow, perhaps put in another executive order to go even further, what would you do?Mayor Adams: That’s a hypothetical I can’t even dig into. I want to be very clear. The federal government is responsible for immigration enforcement, and they have to do it within the Constitution and within the laws. And when you come down to places like areas that they can go into or can’t go into, the law is very clear. And so if there’s a specific action they want to do and it falls within the Constitution and the law, they have the authority to carry out immigration enforcement. And that’s just the way it is.[Crosstalk.]Question: I was curious, I know you’re talking about all these people in the shadows running. One name that’s been floated is your police commissioner, Jessica Tisch. I don’t know if that’s someone you’ve discussed, and I don’t know if you’d support her if you found that she’s someone who could defeat Andrew Cuomo. You might say that you will defeat Andrew Cuomo.And my second question, it’s a catch-up on something you said last week. You made a, I don’t know if it was a joke, about people quitting news organizations because they weren’t, quote, stealing U.S. aid money. That’s not true at all. It’s something that’s been debunked. You’ve called reporters, including myself, liars. Why would you share a lie like that in a forum like this without any chance to follow up?Mayor Adams: First of all, just as you rib me, I rib you. If you take it too seriously, then you can’t, you know, you can’t. It was a partial joke, you know?Question: But it’s 100 percent false. So what’s the partiality?Mayor Adams: We’ll find out when we finish on [inaudible] thoroughly reviewed where all that U.S. aid money actually went. I was surprised at some of the places that it went to.[Crosstalk.]Mayor Adams: What was your second question?Question: About Jessica Tisch, police commissioner, potentially running for mayor. Do you think you–would support her if she could potentially defeat Cuomo?Mayor Adams: Listen, when people announce they’re running, that’s when you know who you’re running. One of the worst things that I learned in competition that, don’t prepare yourself for opponents that are not your opponents. Know who your opponents are.I think Jessica is doing the job that she wanted to do. I heard her say it was a dream job in the Police Department. If she decides to do something else in her career, that is up to her. I don’t make that determination on what she wants to do in her career. She’s doing a great job there. You know, I think that mayor and police commissioner are probably the top two jobs in the city, if not the country. I mean, they’re both dream jobs.Question: So, I was hoping to ask you two questions because you said that you wanted Cuomo to be scrutinized. So, I was hoping to ask you two questions about some of these controversies. I believe you’ve answered maybe one in the past, but hoping to get an updated response from you.One, I was wondering, do you believe the attorney general’s report that substantiated 11 women’s claims that they were sexually harassed by Cuomo? And two, do you believe that undercounting the number of COVID-related nursing home deaths disqualifies Cuomo from running for mayor?Mayor Adams: I don’t believe in this thing called disqualifying a person unless I can weigh my opinion if somebody does something that’s really despicable. I met with some of the nursing home family members and advocates. There’s some things that we want to do with them, but he has to answer that question on the trail. Should that be an automatic disqualification? No, I think it needs to be answered on the trail exactly what happened, and I think some of those family members are going to be looking forward to that.And when it comes down to the AG’s report, the AG’s did a report. I read over parts of that report, and if those allegations are true, he said they were not true, he has to answer that on the campaign trail. You know, I believe the women made the allegations. Respect what they stated. I believe what they said based on the investigation, and he has to answer that on the trail.Question: In July of 2024, we had it out at Police Plaza about the crime stats. You said they were down. I said they were up in the 49th, and then you congratulated me for being on the precinct council. I want to tell you that the crime stats are down, way down. The new commanding officer has done a terrific job.However, I’ve been removed from the precinct council without due cause, as you said, for questioning where the money was spent. It was being sent downtown, $25,000, from the councilmanic grant, and we had no accountability of the money. So, when the new councilwoman came in, Councilwoman Marmorato, I was part of it that got her to put the grant up into the precinct in a local conduit.Now, how can I get my position back on there? I was given a letter from one of the officers of the community affairs that I’d done nothing wrong. I would have a meeting downtown, which never happened. I received a call on a Saturday evening that I was off the board two days before our meetings, or three days before our meeting. How can I get my position back? I’ve done nothing wrong.Mayor Adams: I’m sorry, how did they, why did they remove you?Question: I don’t know.Mayor Adams: Okay, let me–Question: For questioning where the money went downtown. I have information here I’d like to give you.Mayor Adams: When we leave here, let’s pop into [the] office, let me just learn more about it, and let me– because you should not be removed for asking questions. And let me just, I just want to get to particulars, and let me find out what was the process, because it should be a process. You definitely should not be removed just because you ask questions.But I’m glad you acknowledge that crime is down in the precinct, but as we walk, let’s go into the office, and let me find out exactly what happened, okay?
March 3, 2025 Manhattan, New York
Sources: NYC..gov , Midtown Tribune