Ariola challenges Carr’s victory as NYC Council minority leader

The New York City Council Republican caucus may be tiny, but the battle to lead it is not so tiny anymore.

The Council Minority caucus on Tuesday elected Council Member David Carr as its new leader ahead of Council Member Joe Borelli’s early departure from the chamber come Friday – but without half of the six-member minority caucus present. 

Carr, Borelli and Council Member Inna Vernikov cast their votes while Council Members Joann Ariola – who has been pushing hard for the role – Vickie Paladino and Kristy Marmorato did not attend. 

Ariola quickly said she’d challenge the vote on the grounds that it was taken without a quorum, and that she was conferring with “our legal advisers” on the matter. “It is not a legitimate vote,” she said.

She, along with Paladino and Marmorato, penned a letter to Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to that effect Tuesday afternoon, asking her to hold off on recognizing or acting on the vote and that it be addressed at the Council’s next stated meeting – on Feb. 13 – should the caucus be unable to resolve the matter by then. 

Carr – who served as Borelli’s chief of staff when he was in the Assembly – said, however, that a quorum was not necessary, and that absences are equivalent to negative votes. Only Carr was formally nominated in the end. Caucus bylaws do not mention the need for a vote to be scheduled. “This is a bunch of straw arguments to avoid (what) the bylaws say,” Borelli said via text. The outgoing minority leader told City & State he’d back Carr over the weekend.

While Ariola portrayed the matter as a scheduling issue, Carr characterized his peers’ absence as a calculated move. “We have three who were there, and three who, I guess, decided not to come because they didn't like the outcome that was going to take place,” he told City & State. 

According to Ariola and her chief of staff, Phyllis Inserillo, the lawmaker was unable to attend due to an appointment, and that the vote was not officially scheduled until Monday evening, at which point, Ariola encouraged Borelli to reschedule, per emails shared with City & State. In them, she also said two other members – Paladino and Marmorato – were also unable to attend. Paladino and Marmorato did not respond to several inquiries asking for confirmation on why they did not attend, though the letter to Adams says they could not be there.

The caucus bylaws say that the most senior member becomes minority leader in the event of a tie. Behind Borelli, that’s Carr by a few months, having taken office early after his predecessor left the council in November 2021. So, if Paladino and Marmorato are backing Ariola as she says they are, had all six members taken part in a vote before Borelli’s departure, Carr would be minority leader by default. With the support of two of her peers, it would be to Ariola’s advantage for the vote to be after Borelli’s departure, when the minority shrinks to five. 

To that end, Ariola took issue with Borelli’s scheduling of the vote prior to his departure. “You have to ask yourself: Why is Joe Borelli so intent on doing something that he knows can be overturned, when he’s leaving to be a lobbyist, unless it is so important to him to have his agent sitting in that chair while he can’t lobby the City Council?” she said. “This seems extremely self-serving.” 

Asked about that, Borelli said, “Ad hominem attacks are beneath members of the council.”