This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has sponsored more bills that have passed the City Council this session than some actual members of the council. That includes a handful of bills that passed this week amid strong opposition from Mayor Eric Adams. In the days leading up to the passage of a ban on solitary confinement and legislation requiring more reporting on police investigative encounters with civilians, Williams and the bills’ supporters in the council defended the legislation against criticisms from the mayor. Williams’ work on the legislation may not be over, however, if Adams decides to veto the bills, testing the veto-proof majorities with which they passed.

Discussions around reparations for slavery are almost always tense, but thanks to the efforts of Assembly Member Michaelle Solages  and state Sen. James Sanders Jr., New York will officially start those talks. The governor signed their legislation that will create a commission to study the lasting impacts of slavery and come up with solutions today. It’s not an immediate fix for decades of disparities, and if California is any indication, recommendations won’t necessarily result in immediate action. But the two lawmakers undeniably wracked up a major victory by successfully starting the conversation.

Political advocacy organization For the Many’s executive director Jonathan Bix is riding high after his organization successfully pushed for the City of Newburgh to opt into the Emergency Tenant Protection Act. After it was expanded to include all of New York in 2019, the act enabled municipalities to stabilize rent prices for tenants. Bix is planning to roll this win into even more housing action in upstate New York with Poughkeepsie next on the docket. Other cities are eyeing similar moves and as the state Legislature remains unable to find a housing compromise, his 2024 could be busy as For the Many hopes to fill the void.

This entry will be a compliment sandwich: Jobs are up and crime is down. But the mayor did get sued by another major public employees union this week over future budget cuts, and he made a pretty weird comment about 9/11. And the City Council passed a few bills he really doesn’t like with their veto-proof majority. But! Jobs are up and crime is down.

There will be no relief for Rudy Giuliani. Just one day after a federal judge ruled he must immediately pay $148 million to the two Georgia women he falsely accused of helping to steal the 2020 election, he’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York. That filing will likely give Giuliani a little bit of time to attempt pursuing an appeal, but declaring bankruptcy is very unlikely to get him out of paying up.

Even George Santos got a head’s up, that’s more than outgoing state Board of Elections Democratic Co-Chair Doug Kellner can say. Kellner got a surprise call from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office that he was being replaced at the elections agency, just after Kellner became the sole dissenting vote on electronic voting machines. Maybe the Board of Elections could give Kellner a gold watch, an engraved silver tray or at least a cake to say goodbye.