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2021 Candidates Hammer De Blasio’s “Treadmill Of Incrementalism” As More Top Administration Officials Resign
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Oct 14, 2020
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By
Brigid Bergin
Published Oct 14, 2020
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As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio faces an ongoing exodus of high level members of his administration, his would-be successors lined up Tuesday night to distance themselves from the two-term incumbent who still has more than a year left in office.
Some of the sharpest criticism of the first virtual mayoral forum featuring seven potential mayoral candidates, which was hosted by the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, came from former de Blasio administration officials.
“I resigned that post because I saw firsthand a mayor who was unprepared to deal with this crisis, who responds to headlines, and who made budget cuts that hurt our city, its people and its very foundations,” prospective candidate Kathryn Garcia said. Garcia left her position as Sanitation Commissioner last month, but she had served as the mayor’s interim NYCHA Chair, Lead Czar, and COVID-19 Food Czar.
“We need an experienced hand on the wheel,” said Garcia. “And the fact is you won't find a candidate with more executive and crisis management experience than I have.”
De Blasio’s former legal counsel Maya Wiley also pulled no punches when talking about her old boss, describing the “treadmill of incrementalism” that she said defines the administration.
When pressed about one of her most controversial decisions at City Hall, labeling five of his outside advisers as “Agents of the City” whose emails were protected from public disclosure but were ultimately released after a lawsuit filed by NY1 and the New York Post, Wiley blamed de Blasio.
“Those emails should have been made public. The reporters should have never had to sue to get access to them,” Wiley said, adding she only had the ability to advise her client. “You offer options. You give advice. And the client makes the decision. In this case, the mayor makes the decision.”
Almost all the candidates said they would neither ask for nor accept an endorsement from de Blasio.
“I'm not going to seek his endorsement and I'm probably the least likely candidate to get it,” said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who has often been a critic of de Blasio on issues like affordable housing and policing even before officially launching his mayoral campaign last month.
The one hold-out was Brooklyn Borough president Eric Adams, who only said he couldn’t commit to that.
Ahead of the June 2021 mayoral primary, the event offered a preview of the types of attacks and ideas each of the candidates will offer in the coming months.
Shaun Donovan, a former Bloomberg and Obama administration official, managed to talk about his experience as HUD secretary, including work he’d done with Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Beau Biden, all while answering a question about his main policy disagreement with Mayor Bloomberg (he said it was stop-and-frisk).
On the city’s rebuilding, Donovan implicitly criticized the mayor when he said the city needed a more ambitious response to helping small businesses weather the pandemic.
“What I would do is put in place for small businesses and retail the ability to more creatively use the space that we have,” said Dononvan. “Why are we just allowing restaurants to use street space when we could effectively create outdoor markets and other ways that retail and small businesses could do better?”
Current City Council member Carlos Menchaca, who just set up his campaign account last week, and Dianne Morales, a nonprofit leader, each offered more advocate and community driven visions for city government.
“We're living in an unprecedented time that really calls for a radical reimagining of what is possible. And I think it's critical that our leadership be reflective and representative of those of us who have struggled the most and not those who are tied to the old ways of operating New York City,” said Morales, who introduced herself as an Afro-Latina born and raised in Brooklyn, who has navigated the city’s public education and public health systems on behalf of her family and the organizations she’s led.
Menchaca, who represents parts of Red Hook and Sunset Park, critiqued the way the city budgets have come together during his seven years in the council. “There's so many dark spaces in this budget,” said Menchaca, who was one of the leading voices calling for defunding the NYPD and reinvesting that money back into communities. “We need to have the courage to actually remove funding. We're gonna have to fire people. And that's not an easy question and thing to grapple with,” he added.
The one de Blasio administration official turned candidate who was not at the forum was former Veterans’ Affairs Commissioner Loree Sutton, who the club did not invite to the because of her stated position that all New Yorkers wishing to protest should first obtain a permit. Sutton, who departed the de Blasio administration in 2019 after five years, was among the first to announce her plans to succeed him.
Since she was left out of the event on Tuesday, she tweeted her own message to voters.
On Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio disputed suggestions that the recent departures— including NYPD Patrol Chief Fausto Pichardo and head of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, Liz Glazer—were related to disagreements or his leadership style. De Blasio claimed that he has a “deep bench” of talent to fill these vacancies, and that they will give others, “their opportunity to shine.”
He also said he did not tune into the mayoral forum because he was focused on “getting this city back on track to recovery.”
“I understand that people running for office all come up with their game plan and all try to create a message or project a reality that they think will help them get elected. And I think it's smart for us to take it all with a grain of salt,” the mayor said.
Tagged
mayoral election
bill de blasio
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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