New York City

Eric Adams unapologetic for lack of transparency in his public schedules

The self-described “9-to-9” New York City Mayor said he never knows how his whereabouts and actions might change while doing city business.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams briefs the media Tuesday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams briefs the media Tuesday. Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ public schedule isn’t a waltz – one, two, three, one, two, three – it’s a boogaloo, or a salsa, filled with improvisation. That was the mayor’s excuse for his administration’s lack of good record keeping about the meetings, calls and events he attends as mayor. And Adams made no apologies for limiting the amount of information released with his public schedules – an egregious rollback of the transparency provided by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio.

City & State wrote the first in-depth report on Adams’ public schedule for the first six months of his mayoralty – which were released this month in response to a Freedom of Information Law request. The reporting found that the calendar entries provided by City Hall fall short of even the bare minimum of transparency. Some entries were vague, withholding the name of who Adams was meeting with, and where. In other cases, the calendar was formatted in such a way that entries were cut off. Other meetings that Adams was known to have – such as dinner with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo – were left off the schedules entirely. 

At an unrelated press conference Tuesday in Inwood, City & State asked the mayor about the lack of transparency, and whether the public should know more about what he’s doing in his capacity as mayor. Adams dodged the question, pivoting to a point of pride – that he works hard, and will sometimes do site visits late into the night. 

Keeping a schedule is “very difficult on how I flow. I'm out, I have dinner, I leave the dinner, I'm going to hit the train stations. You can't plan for that,” he said. “I'm going to a NYCHA development and walk through. I want to see what it's like at 1 a.m. in the morning. Are we doing patrol? I mean you just can't plan for that. I'm going to visit a homeless shelter when I finish in City Hall at 2 a.m.”

If previous mayors were “9 to 5 guys” Adams is a “9 to 9 guy,” he said. “I think that you've had a lot of mayors that did the waltz. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. I do the boogaloo. I salsa. So if you want to get through these next three years and three months, don't try to script me, because I told you all this when I was elected. If you try to script me, you're not going to get it right.”

Could his office just write that down retroactively, as de Blasio’s administration did, rather than provide a calendar that doesn’t reflect everything he does? Adams dodged again. 

“I don't know what I'm doing every night. I don't know what I'm doing after dinner. I don't know what I'm doing after having a cigar. I don't know what I'm doing,” he said. “I feel like, ‘you know what, Eric, I still feel like going and seeing the city. I feel like going and driving into Washington Heights and seeing, do we have a motorcycle problem?’ This is how I flow.”

A former press secretary to de Blasio, Bill Neidhardt, thought Adams was overstating his case. “The mayor travels with a professional security detail, and therefore nothing is done on the fly,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of work, foresight in getting someone to a gym across town, for example.” Neidhardt, now a progressive political consultant, said that even when things do happen on short notice, that’s no excuse for not reporting it on the schedule afterwards. “It’s either a deliberate lack of transparency, or incompetence.” Adams’ advance and communications teams are talented, and they “have a lot on their plate, but basic transparency should be (on it).”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.