‘Retirees’ Champion’ Chris Marte Introduces Plan to Reform Autocratic NYC Council and Become Next Speaker

New York City Council Member Chris Marte [r] rallies with municipal retirees on the steps of City Hall earlier this week. Could he be the next City Council Speaker?

By Joe Maniscalco

Council Member Chris Marte [D-1st District] announced today that he wants to succeed Adrienne Adams as head of the New York City Council—but Marte doesn’t just want to be the next Speaker, he wants to free the entire legislative body from the corrosive grip of autocratic rule presently subverting the will of New Yorkers. 

“I want to reform the City Council to make sure there is transparency, actual democracy and accountability,” the Lower Manhattan legislator told Work-Bites Thursday morning. “Right now, when you look at the Speaker position it’s one person making all the decisions.”

Indeed, in 2023, Labor and Civil Service Committee Chair Carman De La Rosa [D-10th District] admitted to Work-Bites that City Hall “protocol” demands that Council Members do not cross the will of the Speaker—no matter how loud constituents yell.

Marte, in contrast, says that as the next New York City Council Speaker he would  “empower” his fellow City Council members so that they can “do the job they were sent to City Hall to do.”

To that end, he’s introduced a 26-point reform package aimed at doing just that. Council Member Marte’s “26 for ’26” reform platform covers values, committees & legislation, the budget, land use, personnel & resources, and press & publications.

Number one on his list is putting an end to the kinds of punitive actions taken against outspoken and independently-minded City Council members.

“Currently, Council Members are stripped of Committee Chairships, have funding withheld from nonprofits and public works projects, or legislation blocked based on their relationship with the Speaker,” the “26 for '26” reform package states.

“Council members know if they choose to be outspoken they will lose funding or lose a chairship,” Marte further told Work-Bites. “That stunts the performance of the City Council.”

Speaker Adrienne Adams’ tenure as head of the New York City Council has been marked by her dogged opposition to bills with strong constituent support—including Marte’s own two bills protecting both municipal retirees from being pushing into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan and marginalized home care workers subjected to institutionalized wage theft and mandatory 24-hour shifts.

“Historically,” Council Member Marte said, “special interests have called the Speaker and stopped bills in their tracks.”

Advocates for New York City home care workers forced to work round-the-clock shifts at roughly half the pay jeer Speaker Adrienne Adams’ opposition to Council Member Chris Marte’s “No More 24” bill during a rally outside the gates of City Hall in 2023.

A spokesperson for the No More 24 PAC—advocates for home care workers fighting rampant wage theft and 24-hour shifts in their industry—told Work-Bites this week that “New York City needs a leader in the City Council like Council Member Marte who is unafraid to stand up to special interests to fight for our communities.”

“The Speaker of the City Council wields significant power over what legislation becomes law in NYC, and we are confident Council Member Marte will continue his efforts to make the City a better place for working people as he has done when standing with home care workers to end a brutal 24 hour workday, or when working with communities taking on luxury real estate developers,” he said.

Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees described Council Member Marte as “a champion for us on Intro. 1096.”

“We hope the other council members will see the same thing and support him running for Speaker of the City Council,” Pizzitola told Work-Bites. “I and the New York City Retirees wish him the best of luck.”

If elected to succeed Adams as Speaker in January, Council Member Marte says both Intro. 1096 protecting retiree health care from Medicare Advantage and the “No More 24” effectively ending round-the-clock shifts in the home care industry will get a hearing—and will be passed.

“I think we’ve gotten a lot of support and I’ve met with a majority of the Council,” he told Work-Bites. “Even those supportive of Speaker Adams understand that reform has to happen.”

The Lower East Side Project has also come out strong against the so-called public/private model of development that includes the demolition and reconstruction scheme poised to decimate the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses on the west side of Manhattan.

“Some of the best housing we’ve built in this city has been done through the government,” Council Member Marte added. “I believe the government should be building affordable housing.”

Council Member Marte is proud of his labor record fighting for workers’ rights and protections “across the board” and in “every single industry.”

“Labor will have a trusted and transparent partner with me [as Speaker],” he said.