A city council is the main law-making body for a town or urban area. It can enact ordinances (laws) as diverse as putting in a new stoplight or banning DIY guns. It can also adopt budgets, set taxes and fees, appoint members to city boards and commissions, and approve ceremonial resolutions that support, recognize or show appreciation for people or causes. It can also override the mayor’s vetoes.
In cities with at-large voting systems, every member of the council represents all residents and can be held accountable by everyone. In other cities, the council is divided into districts or wards. One councilmember represents each district or ward. In the latter case, each elected official is more directly accountable to constituents.
During the current session, the council has weighed legislation on a wide range of issues affecting New Yorkers. Some have been long-term goals, such as a bill that would require the city fleet to be made up of zero-emissions vehicles or legislation that would expand residential curbside composting across the city. Other issues have been more urgent, such as hearings that examined the administration’s response to the mental health workforce crisis and the city jail’s use of solitary confinement.
Most legislative work happens in committee meetings and hearings, where councilmembers discuss proposed laws and hear updates from agency representatives as well as feedback from New Yorkers like you. The council has 35 standing committees and four subcommittees with oversight of various functions of city government. Each councilmember sits on at least three of the standing or select committees, and the speaker and majority leader serve as ex officio members of all committees.