The NYC Council is expected to let Bally’s casino bid proceed. Is it a blow to member deference?

New York City Council leaders have fumed about attempts to kill the time-honored (and sometimes controversial) tradition of member deference over land use issues in the legislative body. But one council member argued a recent decision over a casino proposal by the body is already going against that tradition. 

Council Member Bob Holden, a conservative Democrat from Queens, said that the council’s decision not to block a casino bid in the Bronx goes against the wishes of Council Member Kristy Marmorato, the local Republican elected official who has opposed the Bally’s Corp.’s casino proposal in her district. 

Holden raised those objections at a private conference of Democratic council members on Monday. That meeting is where the conference determined they likely wouldn’t hold a vote to override Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of the council’s earlier rejection of Bally’s land use application for the casino. The council would have to schedule a meeting to do so ahead of a tight deadline next week, and it’s unclear that they’d have the votes to pass the override.

“Member deference is the only real power we have as council members,” Holden told City & State, recalling his comments during Democratic conference. The term refers to the council’s practice of allowing council members to unilaterally decide the fate of land use approvals in their own districts, which can clear the way for new housing and other development projects. While Holden acknowledged that going against member deference isn’t always bad – mentioning as an example a vote in the last council over the New York Blood Center (which notably did not kill the tradition) – he said a proposed casino doesn’t pose the same potential benefit to the city at large. “Many people feel, and I feel the same way, that a gambling establishment or casino would be harmful to a district.”

Two people with knowledge of the discussion on Monday, who were granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting, said that the council didn’t have the appetite to take up a veto override fight over a casino, particularly when the ultimate decision to grant a casino license lies with the state Gaming Facility Location Board. 

Marmorato and her spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

When vetoing the council’s initial rejection of Bally’s land use application last week, Mayor Adams said in a statement that he wanted to give the proposal the same shot as other bidders to compete for a license. (It also wasn’t the first time he intervened on behalf of the project to help clear council hurdles.) Critics of the mayor have pointed to Mayor Adams’ friendly relationship with President Trump – whose Trump Organization would benefit from Bally’s winning a casino license – and two people in his inner circle who have worked for Bally’s. 

“If the mayor wants to do the casino applicant’s work for them and carry their water with all his conflicts of interest, that’s his decision and the state can investigate,” council spokesperson Benjamin Fang-Estrada said in a statement. City Hall has insisted the mayor’s earlier intervention on Bally’s had nothing to do with his relationship to Trump.

Though Marmorato has twice voted against allowing the Bally’s casino proposal to proceed through initial local approval votes, other members of the Bronx delegation in the City Council have argued that it should have a shot. Council Members Rafael Salamanca and Kevin Riley both called on Mayor Adams to issue the veto of the council’s land use rejection. 

Council Member Diana Ayala, whose district stretches into the South Bronx, said that while the decision not to override the mayor’s veto may go against the tradition of member deference, members of the Bronx delegation saw this proposal as one with the potential to affect more than just Marmorato’s district. “This is one of those projects where the delegation feels really strongly that the Bronx at least deserves the opportunity – as does any other borough – to apply and be competitive,” Ayala said, noting she is personally indifferent to casinos but is aware of their potential to bring jobs and other investments.

Ayala also noted that the council allowing the mayor’s veto to stand doesn’t automatically get Bally’s a casino license. It clears the hurdle of their land use application, but the company would still need to receive approval from a board appointed by local elected officials and then be chosen for one of three available downstate licenses by a state board.

The council’s decision not to further stand in Bally’s way comes as a Charter Revision Commission convened by Mayor Adams threatens to take an axe to the tradition of member deference as a whole. One proposal coming out of that commission and appearing on voters’ ballots this November would create an “appeals board” with the power to override City Council land use decisions that pertain to development proposals with “affordable” housing units.

The proposal, and others from the commission set to appear on voters’ ballots, have prompted more across-the-board opposition in the council, including from Speaker Adrienne Adams’ office. “This commission’s misguided proposals would undermine the ability to deliver more affordable housing, homeownership opportunities, good-paying union jobs, and neighborhood investments for New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” Speaker Adams and other council leaders said in a joint statement last month.