A couple of Cuomo endorsers in the City Council lose budget negotiation roles

New York City Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers had a new seat in the chamber at the City Council stated meeting Thursday. Previously, the majority whip sat at the right hand of Speaker Adrienne Adams. Thursday, she had moved one seat over, and her old seat was occupied by Council Member Diana Ayala, who is deputy speaker.

Brooks-Powers, along with Council Member Lynn Schulman, were both also recently removed from the council’s powerful budget negotiating team. The team includes allies of the speaker and members of council leadership, and is responsible for hashing out the city’s $112 billion budget with the mayor’s administration in City Hall.

“Members of council leadership lost confidence that these members shared their values,” the speaker's Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Mandela Jones wrote in a text. Both Brooks-Powers and Schulman endorsed Andrew Cuomo over Speaker Adams for mayor. The endorsements were a blow to Speaker Adams’ base of support in Queens, particularly in Southeast Queens, where Brooks-Powers, a neighboring member, was a close ally in her bid for speaker. Both Schulman and Brooks-Powers’ districts directly hug Adams’ district.

“For someone whose tagline in her campaign is no drama, it sure feels like every time you open up the news there’s new drama inside the City Council on her watch,” said one City Council member.

Another council member suggested that the moves by the speaker weren’t as simple as petty politics, given Brooks-Powers’ previously close relationship with Speaker Adams. “The way that things happened left a lot of hurt feelings between the two,” the council member said. Had Speaker Adams elected to be more retributive, they suggested, she could have stripped Brooks-Powers’ role from leadership or Schulman’s committee, which did not happen.

Brooks-Powers and Schulman were not immediately available to comment for this story.