Your city council is the group of people who make decisions for your town or city — and they’re usually in charge of all sorts of things, including setting taxes, approving the budget, and legislating. They might also go by the names of councilmembers, aldermen, selectmen, freeholders, and trustees, depending on where you live. They’re usually elected for four-year terms.
In New York City, the 51 members of the city council — also known as the legislative body of the city of New York or the mayor-council government model — have a lot on their plates. The council’s legislative agenda includes a host of issues, from tackling the housing crisis to addressing systemic racism, and it also has sole responsibility for approving the city’s budget.
During the current two-year session, which is twice as long as a normal four-year term, the council has passed 231 bills. In previous four-year sessions, former speaker Corey Johnson and Mark-Viverito overseen the enactment of more than 700 bills each.
Some of the biggest policy items that the council has dealt with this session include addressing homelessness, passing a law to increase the number of affordable units built on city land, and convening a hearing on the city’s asylum-seeker response. The council has also pushed for increased transparency from the administration, even going as far as to issue subpoenas.
While the council has a Democratic majority, it still includes Republicans. But they don’t have a strong presence, as only three of the council’s 51 members are Republican (Steven Matteo, Joseph Borelli and Eric Ulrich). The Council does not operate as a partisan house, but its members are divided into seven caucuses: Black, Latino and Asian Caucus; Common-Sense Caucus; Jewish Caucus; Irish Caucus; and LGBTQ Caucus.