Julie Menin always gets her way

It was the first major snowfall of the year and Julie Menin wasn’t going to sit back and wait.

The newly elected speaker of the New York City Council left her Upper East Side home before dawn, heading to Hell’s Kitchen to greet sanitation workers as they prepared to battle the Jan. 25 storm. Clad in a puffer jacket and knit hat, she paced down the street in West Harlem to see how snow was piling up on the roads. At Isaacs Houses back on the Upper East Side, she distributed hot meals to residents of the public housing complex. In the evening, she was in University Heights in the Bronx, visiting New Yorkers who’d been displaced from their apartments by a fire. Later that night, she offered her assessment on the Mamdani administration’s efforts to respond to the storm: cleanup was a mixed bag. While city workers deserved credit, there were real gaps in emergency response efforts.

Menin rivaled Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s own blitz across the city, looking more like an executive than a typical legislative leader. Political insiders speculated, inevitably, that she was laying the groundwork for a future mayoral run.

Allies and colleagues of Menin described her snowstorm response as Julie being Julie. “I think she has a bias toward action,” Assembly Member Keith Powers said. “She’s not one to sit on her hands when there is something to do.”

Menin has embraced the reputation. “It’s the least we can do. It’s our job as city government officials to provide those rapid-fire services,” she said. “Being on the ground is how you see. If I’m not seeing and feeling, then we don’t know.”

Interviews with more than two dozen people across city government and politics, including Menin’s former and current coworkers, painted a picture of a savvy operator – someone who hopes to steer the council with a firm hand, notching real accomplishments. Like many successful leaders, she’s tenacious, a quality that’s earned her friends and foes, respect and even a measure of fear.

As speaker, she’ll be a structural counterweight to Mamdani and his fledgling administration. The two have appeared together often in their first weeks in office, emphasizing shared goals like expanding free child care and building more affordable housing. Still, there’s widespread agreement that should she choose, Menin, a liberal Democrat and former registered Republican, could throw up considerable obstacles for the democratic socialist mayor. This is a 58-year-old woman who entered the City Council with a résumé already surpassing most top city officials – including the 34-year-old mayor. She’d steered the city’s census efforts through a global pandemic, been commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the Department of Consumer Affairs, chaired Manhattan Community Board 1 for seven years in the aftermath of 9/11, founded a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing Lower Manhattan, owned a restaurant and worked as a high-powered corporate attorney. As the first Jewish speaker, she’s proud of her roots. Her mother and grandmother survived the Holocaust by hiding in a cellar in Hungary, later coming to New York City to settle in Yorkville.

Those who know Menin see big things ahead. While she firmly insisted leading the council is her sole priority, that she has never considered running for mayor, Menin goes after what she wants. 

The Menin era

It was Thursday evening, roughly two weeks after the initial storm, and City Hall was unusually still. A single pendant light hung overhead in the speaker’s office, casting the space in shadows. Wind lashed against the dark windows.

Seated at a circular table, Menin wore all black, her voluminous hair akin to something you’d see in a beauty magazine, tall suede boots miraculously devoid of salt stains after a day trekking around the frozen city. Her new office was sparsely decorated, still in the throes of transition. The smell of fresh paint lingered in the air. Staff recently redid the walls, covering the sunset orange shade selected by former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams with light blue. Call it a metaphorical turning of the page infused with a touch of practicality, Menin said she’d selected the color from what City Hall had on hand. Since taking office fewer than two months ago, she’s taken great strides to separate her tenure from the past. Even if it means subtly trodding on her predecessor’s legacy.

Anyone who's been paying attention to what Menin has been saying since becoming speaker would instantly recognize the words proactive and productivity. They’ve been the drumbeat guiding her vision. On land use, she wants the council to be less “reactive,” starting with assessing the city’s public library branches and city-owned sites to see which could make space for new affordable housing. On the budget, Menin wants the council to push priorities that are part of its “big-picture vision” rather than getting bogged down fighting for funding restorations. On oversight, she wants to wield the council’s subpoena power to investigate private businesses and city agencies and increase scrutiny of no-bid contracts.

Within the council’s operations, Menin sees ample room for improvement. She’d told her team after taking office in 2022 that if someone came into a restaurant and their food was two hours late, they’d never come back. Constituent services are no different. She has the same approach as speaker. Meetings will start on time. Democratic conferences and stated meetings will be scheduled months in advance. Legislation should move swiftly through the pipeline. Budget materials will be disseminated to all members early. She has an open door policy and holds regular office hours. Members should keep up a steady stream of communication with the speaker’s office. She, in turn, must be ready for deployment as needs arise.

“At the end of the day, it is my job to make sure that the council is functioning at the highest level and to be responsive to the members,” Menin said. “That means when there’s an issue in their district, I want to know about it right away, and I call them right away.”

“We’re going to value your time in this space and treat you like a professional,” Majority Leader Shaun Abreu said. “That level of order and expectation and respecting of colleagues' time is something that’s already changed the culture of our body.”

Menin has never publicly called Adams out by name, but her emphasis on productivity hinges on the implication that the council has legitimate need for change. Some of Adams’ allies have taken issue with the characterization, but declined to comment on the record out of concern of upsetting the new speaker. Now running for lieutenant governor, Adams declined to be interviewed, simply saying, “I’ve turned the page also.”

Some have also argued that Menin’s quest to forge a new era has been insensitive at times. She fired over a dozen staffers on her first full day in office. While it’s customary for a new speaker to make room for handpicked staff – and others have let go far more employees – her predecessors typically waited longer to shake things up.

But most observers acknowledged there’s been a tangible shift in productivity – with the caveat that while most of Adams’ members were new, Menin took charge with a more experienced council. “She is already miles and miles away more organized and productive than Adrienne ever was,” one Democratic council member said. “This is a woman who is just a machine when it comes to work.”

Managing members

Like former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, there was an air of inevitability to Menin in the speaker race. Well-connected and well-resourced with campaign cash, she’d worked the city’s political class for years, courting unions and wooing colleagues. Unlike Cuomo, she actually won. Handily and with distinction. Her declaration of victory on the eve of Thanksgiving came weeks earlier than any other council speaker. Members unanimously elected her on Jan. 7.

The win was years in the making, dating back to when she won her council seat in 2021. “From the moment she was elected, I think she wanted to be speaker,” said Valerie Mason, the chair of Manhattan Community Board 8. “I think she’s been pretty directed in that way from the beginning.”

Manny Pastreich, president of building service workers union 32BJ SEIU, described Menin as a powerful ally. She’d proven herself as such to the union by sponsoring legislation that created an Office of Health Care Accountability to force hospitals to disclose how much they charge for procedures and again when she helped champion the Aland Etienne Safety and Security Act, named in honor of the 32BJ SEIU union member killed while guarding the lobby of a Midtown building last summer.

“She was the one that had delivered for us,” Pastreich said. “She clearly had a résumé where you’re like ‘OK, well why wouldn’t I be with this person?’”

The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council also rode hard for Menin after she delivered union members several high-profile legislative wins – including a hotel licensing law so opposed by certain hotel owners that an industry leader likened it to a “nuclear bomb” for the business.

So Menin stirs strong feelings. But she can’t stand being viewed as the enemy. After securing the speaker race in a divided field, she sat down with each member. Council Member Chris Marte, one of her former opponents, said he’s already met with Menin one-on-one twice since she took office – which is how many times he met with Adams throughout her entire tenure. “It feels like night and day honestly,” Marte said. “She wants to figure out everyone's agenda and really work with them to push it.” New members also noted Menin’s willingness to offer a helping hand.

“She’s always been accessible even before I officially took the role,” first-year Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry said. “There hasn’t been anything I’ve called her for that she hasn’t gotten me an answer, that she hasn’t responded to – nor has there been anything I’ve invited her to that she hasn’t shown up for.”

Council Member Shekar Krishnan said Menin is collaborative and strategic while approaching issues, often doing so through her lens as a lawyer. “Not only does she have the vision, but she has the skills to execute on it,” he said. “That’s as crucial.”

After years of seeing colleagues miss out on hearings because they couldn’t find someone to watch their children, Menin is creating a new child care center for council members. She’s still working out the details, but it’ll likely be through an existing facility a few blocks from City Hall. “We’re a woman-majority council. We need to lead by example,” said Menin, a mother of four. “We’ve got to actually walk the walk.”

People who’ve worked with Menin said she holds herself to an incredibly high standard – and in turn she expects much from those she works with. Her hands-on style has ruffled feathers at times. “She had a reputation for real bird-dogging and micromanagement. Maybe anxiety-inducing for some, simply annoying for others, but probably useful in trying to get big and complicated things done,” said a former City Hall official who served with Menin in the de Blasio administration. Several political players refused to discuss Menin on the record, citing the speaker’s influence – and her reputation for being thin-skinned when it comes to criticism.

"The microscope that is on her has been very telling in the way that she deals with criticism by reprimanding people and making sure that everybody’s on message and has a positive outlook towards her,” a Democratic strategist said, referencing conversations they've had with council members and staff. “They are trying to keep everything inside by using a heavy hand.”

But a legislative leader can’t be everyone’s friend. After Council Member Vickie Paladino tweeted a stream of Islamophobic remarks, Menin only assigned the firebrand Republican to two committees. In a press conference, she attributed the decision to Paladino’s “unacceptable” rhetoric. And Republican Council Member Inna Vernikov issued an apology for inflammatory social media posts directed at Mamdani, after a discussion with Menin. The council’s Jewish Caucus had just elected Vernikov co-chair of the council’s new Task Force to Combat Antisemitism – a decision that Menin, a member of the caucus, also garnered flack for. 

Menin said the council needs a “far stronger” standards and ethics committee, and said she’d make that a priority, along with strengthening the body’s harassment policy. “I think there was immense frustration in the past four years that certain conduct was just accepted and there seemed to be no consequence,” she said. A spokesperson for Menin said the speaker has directed the ethics committee to meet “as soon as possible” to begin the discipline process for Paladino.

“I never got anyone to apologize,” former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. “It speaks to that connection she has and to the degree to which people trust her and want to be part of her team.”

New neighbors

After getting into politics by chairing the lower Manhattan community board in the wake of 9/11, Menin ran for Manhattan borough president in 2013 and lost to Gale Brewer in the Democratic primary. She spent eight years in the de Blasio administration before running for office again, winning a seven-way race for an open council seat on the Upper East Side. 

As speaker, her background has prompted some questions from critics about whether she can adequately understand the needs of working-class New Yorkers – like the fact that her husband, Bruce, is a powerful real estate developer who co-founded Crescent Heights. The implications are also not lost on some of her colleagues that a wealthy, well-connected white Upper East Sider is now the head of a predominately people of color City Council.

Some, like former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, said they’ve been pleasantly surprised by the diverse leadership team Menin has assembled. “The representation there is important and she has really had an inclusive way of approaching things – the people that are around her, the people that she’s conferring with,” Mark-Viverito said.

In terms of her ability to take on issues for working-class New Yorkers, Menin’s supporters argue her record speaks for itself. Years before Mamdani pledged to expand free child care, she sponsored several council bills aimed at setting the city on a path to universal child care. As consumer affairs commissioner, she launched a significantly expanded Earned Income Tax Credit initiative that resulted in over $260 million being returned to low-income New Yorkers, and led the rollout of the city’s paid sick leave law. In 2015, Menin earned praise after she rounded up volunteers for a sprawling door-to-door outreach campaign distributing informational packets to nail manicurists about their workplace rights.

While Menin was helping to establish a program to create a college savings account for public school students called NYC Kids RISE, Menin dug in her heels insisting that it be opened to all children, regardless of immigration status. “Operationally, it would have been easier not to do that, but I remember vividly her advocacy around that to other parties,” said Debra-Ellen Glickstein, who worked with Menin at the Department of Consumer Affairs and now leads the program. 

And while Menin ran the city’s census efforts, she played a prominent role fighting the Trump administration’s attempts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Democrats feared it would have had a chilling effect in immigrant communities and suppressed the population count for cities like New York. The Supreme Court ultimately blocked the question on procedural grounds, but left the door open for it to be added in the future. Anticipating the looming legal fight that’ll accompany the 2030 census, Menin recently sponsored legislation create a new office dedicated to maximizing local participation in the next census.

Menin and Mamdani are neighbors now. Gracie Mansion is just a few blocks away from the speaker’s home. While they’ve yet to bump into each other at the local bagel shop, they had dinner at the mayor’s residence on Feb. 10.

The pair have had a bit of a rocky history. They met properly for the first time last August. Menin hadn’t endorsed anybody in the mayoral race, and didn’t even back Mamdani when he became the Democratic nominee, arguing it would have been improper for a speaker candidate. Mamdani, for his part, made a last ditch, half-hearted, failed effort to elect Menin’s main rival Crystal Hudson instead. Despite that, Menin said they get on well. They’ve discussed their shared desire to move away from petty squabbles and tit for tat back and forths between the two wings of City Hall. Both want to restore faith and trust in government, which had deteriorated significantly under former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. And they are acutely aware that as the first Jewish speaker and first Muslim mayor, they have an opportunity to “turn down the rhetoric.”

“We’re meeting on a very regular basis, which really was not happening in the last four years. There wasn’t that dialogue,” Menin said. “It’s so important for us to be constantly speaking.” 

“Julie’s very much in the vein of keep talking till we figure something out,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “I think she understands the one thing that the council will be most judged by is do they produce – and producing aligns with working with the mayoralty."

The upcoming budget dance will be perhaps the first big test of the relationship. Menin has already criticized Mamdani for engaging in what she’s described as unnecessary budget tricks. The mayor put out his preliminary plan for next fiscal year on Feb. 17. Now comes months of budget hearings and negotiating with the council.

If anyone were to break the long-standing curse that’s doomed all speakers from making the leap to mayor, it would be Menin, or so thought Kathy Wylde, the recently retired head of big business advocacy group the Partnership for New York City. New Yorkers also still haven’t elected a woman mayor. 

“She’s somebody that sees a path to what she wants to do then clears the obstacle. Depending on how the next couple of years go, which are going to be rough, I do think that she’s somebody with a political future,” Wylde said. “I would say she’s indomitable.”

Indomitable or not, Menin has firmly denied that she has any plans to run for mayor – past, present or future. She says that she’s very happy being speaker. That is her sole focus and sole priority at this time.

But Menin’s term runs out in four years. A returning Democratic council member scoffed at the notion that Menin doesn’t have higher aspirations. “She’s an operator,” they said, citing the speaker’s “vindictiveness” for why they won’t talk on the record. “I mean I thought she’s going to run for mayor in four years, some people think she’s running for public advocate in four years. But she’s running for something.”

Is that such a bad thing?

“Anybody in the political world knows Julie is ambitious. For women, that’s such a loaded word,” said Ester Fuchs, a professor of public affairs and political science at Columbia University. She’d taught Menin, then an undergraduate student in 1986, and the two have grown close in the years since. Of all the people she’s taught, Menin stood out. And she expects her to stand out as speaker. It’s what she does. “She’s ambitious, yes, but so what?”