Menin: ‘I want to be a speaker for every member’

Julie Menin has been running for speaker of the New York City Council for years. She’s built relationships with members, fought for legislation favored by influential unions and donated to incoming new members. She’s made the case that her years of experience in government have prepared her to lead the body at a time when city government feels for some like a brave new world, with a relatively inexperienced Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the helm.

Despite all that, the Upper East Side council member’s early declaration of victory in the competitive speaker race last week had the feeling of an overnight or surprise success. (Calls to members from Menin’s county and labor surrogates urging them to get on board occurred late into Tuesday night, until a commanding majority of 36 members publicly announced their support the next morning.) Though there’s still more than a month before the vote to elect the speaker takes place on Jan. 7, Menin’s public coalition effectively ended the race weeks earlier than many expected. Assuming it all holds together, Menin will make history as the first Jewish speaker of the City Council.

Menin is a relatively moderate Democrat who has some areas of agreement with Mamdani (like universal child care) but has been seen as the candidate who would act as the strongest counterweight to Mamdani, who is a democratic socialist. 

City & State caught up with Menin in between a marathon of post-victory meetings with council members on Wednesday to talk about how she’ll lead the body.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

This is the earliest any speaker candidate has declared victory. Why was it so important to you to lock this race up early?

Well, I really listened to the members, and the members felt very strongly that they wanted to announce the support early. We had the support, and members felt that they wanted to be public about that support early. And so since we did have the votes, we decided that we would announce it publicly. I’m very gratified and honored and humbled by the colleagues’ support, and look forward to having a very productive four years that is focused on uplifting the members and having a really strong agenda for the council.

Does it help set the agenda for January earlier, to get the race of it all out of the way?

Certainly, it allows us more time to be able to plan, to be able to work collaboratively with members on what their priorities are, in terms of legislation, in terms of committees, in terms of projects in their district, and in terms of priorities.

Discussions about who will be in other leadership positions or chair major committees typically come up during the speaker race, and I imagine are continuing now. Who do you have in mind for big committees like finance and land use? What about deputy speaker or majority leader?

Well, those decisions are all being made in conversation with colleagues. I will say that just as last time, four years ago, those announcements are made after the Rules Committee meets, because under the City Charter, first we have to assemble the Rules Committee. So on Jan. 7, on the day of the vote, we would then announce who is on the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee then subsequently has to meet on the committees. So all of that will be announced in January.

The coalition that you delivered – and we talked to pretty much all of them last week – is far above the 26 votes you need to win. But still being a few weeks away from Jan. 7, do you have any concerns about your ability to keep that coalition together?

I am incredibly confident in our coalition. This is a coalition that has had conversations for many, many, many months, if not years. We’ve all worked together for four years. We know each other incredibly well, and then we have the added benefit of the new members, who we are thrilled to have as part of our coalition. 

I know (speaker candidates) Selvena Brooks-Powers endorsed you, and Chris Marte endorsed you. Have you spoken with the other speaker candidates or the members supporting them since last week?

Yes, I’ve met with all of the other speaker candidates, and I started meeting on Monday with any member that was not in our original announcement. And I will be finishing those meetings this week. So I’ve been sitting down with every member, and I’m really excited about those conversations. So again, to be clear, I want to be a speaker for every single member.

How are those conversations going? Do they give you confidence that you can kind of start fresh and set behind any of the election feelings?

Absolutely. Incredibly positive, productive conversations about shared agendas, shared interests, shared priorities. And so I’ve been really gratified and excited about those conversations, and looking forward to a very productive four years with each of the members.

Aside from administrative stuff like convening the Rules Committee, what will be your first policy or leadership oriented priority on Jan. 7?

We want to lay out a really strong agenda for the first 100 days, both from a legislative priority, from a budget perspective, and from a land use perspective. One of the things that I have been saying throughout the speaker's race is that I believe the council has largely been too reactive and not proactive enough. And so one of the things that I think we have a real opportunity to do is set out an agenda of what we as a body want to be able to accomplish, and working with the mayor-elect on the affordability agenda. So first and foremost, on affordable housing: There are many opportunities moving forward where we can look within each member’s respective districts to see where are those opportunities to build more affordable housing? Looking at city-owned assets, whether they be vacant land, whether they be under-utilized or under-purposed buildings, and utilize them to build affordable housing. … The council office spent the last couple of years working on trying to enact universal child care. We passed numerous bills. We did a whole legislative package. I had five bills in that package that was supposed to put New York City on a path to universal child care. Many of those bills were not implemented by the current administration, and so we need to change that. …  Medical debt is the leading cause of debt for New Yorkers, and so we have now a new office that was created under my legislation, the Healthcare Accountability Act. That office is up and running, we now need to affirmatively lower skyrocketing health care costs – not only for New Yorkers, but for the city of New York, because we are currently spending $11 billion a year, or approximately 10% of our New York City budget, on public sector health care. And so now that this office is up and running, and we know what hospitals are charging for every single medical procedure, we need to harness our purchasing power to drive down costs. It is estimated that we could save $2 billion a year through this new office, and that’s the money that we sorely need to fund vital social service programs and to focus on high priorities such as universal child care.

Council Member Chris Marte ran for speaker on a reform platform, including a commitment to not take punitive action against members, such as lowering discretionary funding or blocking legislation. Is that an idea that you think has merit? Would you commit to that kind of not punitive style?

Yes, we shouldn’t have a punitive style. We have to remember that we’ve got to work collaboratively as a body, and that means working with every single city council member to move their legislation forward, to make sure that the capital and discretionary needs are being met. I think Council Member Marte had some excellent ideas, and I agree with those ideas. I also think that there are a number of important opportunities to focus on collaboration. For example, one (thing) that’s currently utilized in the Council on the legislative side is “first in time,” where the member that is first in time with the idea (for a piece of legislation) then gets that bill. I fully support first in time, and I’d like to reform it so that the member that is first in time is disclosed. Right now it’s not disclosed, so no one really knows who is first in time. And the problem if you don’t know who’s first in time is it prevents collaboration between members who might all be interested in a particular policy area. And so I want to be able to foster that collaboration between members. … The other reason to open up and make transparent first in time is so first in time can’t be used to block legislation from being introduced. In other words, you’re not sure who has it or not, (so) it just isn’t introduced. So I really, again, am committed to reforms within the council to make the body more transparent and more accessible to each and every member.

I see that this council is moving forward with the pay raise bill, which I think will need to be voted on next year. Do you support the pay raises across the board for elected officials? Is that something that you would move forward?

I look forward to talking to my colleagues about that. There’s a lot of support in the council for the pay raise bill. The reason I didn’t sign onto the bill is because of the issue that was raised about the (City) Charter, that violation of the charter. But I know that council members really want to see a pay raise, so that’s something that I want to make sure that members are supportive of.

Rapid fire: Yes or no on Mayor-elect Mamdani’s three primary campaign promises – rent freeze, free buses and universal child care?

We have to absolutely lower the rent. That’s something that is very important. The council doesn’t have a role in that. That’s something that he has the power to appoint all the appointees to the Rent Guidelines Board. So that is not something that’s in the council’s purview. What we are going to do is we’re going to look to build more affordable housing and find areas where we can build more affordable housing. On universal child care, as I mentioned, we’ve been working on universal child care for several years. We’re deeply committed to it as a body, and we will continue to be deeply committed to it. And I think it’s an area of absolute agreement and partnership that we can move forward. I didn’t hear the last?

Free buses.

Yes, I do support that. I would note that I actually have a district that has the highest (bus) ridership, not only in New York City, but in the country. … And so anything we can do to make buses more accessible, less costly and faster is something that I fully support.

City Council speakers tend to run for mayor at some point. Would you rule that out in the future?

I’m not running for mayor, I am running to be the council speaker. I’m 100% committed to being the council speaker, and that is what I am focused on, not anything else.

Are you ruling out a run in 2029?

Absolutely.