A city council is a legislative branch of government responsible for proposing bills, conducting votes, and passing laws to help run the local municipality. The specifics of the council’s role vary, depending on whether a city uses a council-manager or mayor-council governance model and its statutory authority. In general, the council acts as a parliamentary or presidential style legislature with broad policy-making powers and oversight duties.
In the case of NYC, Council Members are elected to represent seventeen neighborhoods in the City’s district system and serve four-year terms. Members of Council work together in caucuses, groups of Members with shared interests, to ensure that their unique perspectives are heard in the larger body. The Council also passes ceremonial resolutions, non-binding resolutions to support, recognize, or show appreciation for individuals, organizations, and causes.
New York City’s Council, led by Speaker Adrienne Adams, has made clear in recent months that tackling homelessness and the City’s housing crisis is one of its top priorities. The Council passed a number of bills that will expand opportunity, including the Fair Housing Framework (which sets housing production target goals for every neighborhood) and legislation that requires the City to provide supportive housing for former Rikers inmates. The Council also overrode the mayor’s veto of a package of bills expanding eligibility for CityFHEPS housing rental vouchers.
The Council’s main legislative tool is the budget. Each year the Council approves the City’s annual budget, and some budget amendments throughout the year. The Council also enacts ordinances, orders elections, levies taxes, authorizes public improvements, approves contracts, and prescribes the duties of officers not otherwise defined in the City Charter.