NEW YORK — In a move that provoked harsh backlash last week, New York Mayor Eric Adams called on City Council members to fork over half of their discretionary funds to help pay for the ongoing migrant crisis that has plagued his administration for months.
But in a letter to the Council making that request, Adams neglected to mention that he and several officials in his administration were previously staunch defenders of letting local lawmakers have full discretion over how to spend their so-called member items.
“Member items impact people on the ground, and we can’t starve people on the ground,” Adams was quoted by City & State as saying in January 2013 while a state senator. “No one knows better about the services needed in the community than the representative in that community.”
