Eric Adams escalates war with City Council

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams fired another volley in his escalating war with the City Council.

City Hall’s chief counsel on Friday demanded Council Speaker Adrienne Adams open an ethics investigation into a member for conduct the mayor’s team deemed “harassing and inexcusable” during a hearing this week.

In exploring the administration’s handling of sexual harassment complaints, Councilmember Lincoln Restler raised questions about recent lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct against the mayor’s friend and adviser, Tim Pearson.

City Hall’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, responded Friday with a letter to the council speaker accusing Restler of using the hearing to “defame and harass city employees.”

“The Councilmember’s conduct was so outrageous that he even engaged in character assassination,” Zornberg wrote in the letter addressed to Speaker Adams and shared by City Hall.

“It is disrespectful to non-political public servants to request their views on serious topics, only to have the Councilmember flip the script, constantly interrupt them, and convert an oversight hearing into a political spectacle,” she added — describing scores of council hearings past.

Her request for an investigation was quickly denied by the council.

“We’ve received the Administration’s letter,” council spokesperson Shirley Limongi said in a statement. “The Council takes its oversight role seriously, and we have an obligation to thoroughly examine how the City handles allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct targeted at city workers.”

The letter marked escalating tensions between Mayor Adams and the council.

The council this year has opposed the mayor’s budget cuts that he has begun to reverse, overrode his vetoes on a pair of law enforcement-related bills and, most recently, shown resistance to his anticipated appointment to head the city’s Law Department.

And there’s particular tension between Adams and Restler, who is the exact kind of wealthy, white progressive from North Brooklyn who the mayor loves to use as a foil . Restler aggressively questioned a senior adviser to the mayor, Tiffany Raspberry, at a council hearing on Wednesday over City Hall’s new, controversial requirement that elected officials communicate with commissioners through a request form. That earlier hearing wasn’t mentioned in Zornberg’s letter.

City Hall officials contend that Restler was unfair on Thursday in suggesting the city’s Chief Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, Melody Ruiz, may not be impartial in judging cases of alleged workplace harassment since she is a longtime employee of Adams. Restler noted Ruiz got a pay raise and promotion when he became mayor.

Restler was specifically asking in the context of two sexual harassment lawsuits filed against Pearson by employees at the Mayor’s Office of Municipal Services Assessment that he oversees. One plaintiff said her complaint about Pearson was brought to Ruiz’s office, but no action was taken.

City Hall has said the internal complaint against Pearson couldn’t be pursued because the plaintiff stopped cooperating. Pearson has not been disciplined, and Adams has defended him.

“I’m concerned that we’re not as effective as we should be,” Restler said in the hearing. “That the situation that we’ve all read about in the newspaper, day after day, involving Tim Pearson, should embarrass us all, that this is happening right now, across the building, right here at City Hall.”

Restler also asked Adams administration representatives how many other city employees were given free legal representation in lawsuits filed under the Adult Survivors Act — as is the case with the mayor, who was accused of sexual misconduct while he was a city employee more than 30 years ago. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The decision to have the city represent him has raised concerns of special treatment.

Zornberg’s letter says Ruiz was not invited to the hearing, and council staff had assured the mayor’s team there wasn’t any plan to ask about ongoing legal matters, like the Pearson case. Restler did it anyway, and Ruiz "was devastated” by having “her name dragged through the mud.”

The letter also defends Pearson, arguing Restler’s comments were nothing but “regurgitation of the unsubstantiated allegations of two pending, related legal complaints” and that Pearson is “entitled to due process to evaluate the allegations.”

Restler said he briefed the Adams administration on topics he intended to cover at the hearing, including Pearson, as is customary.

And he defended his line of questioning.

“Every City worker deserves a workplace free of harassment — that was the focus of yesterday’s hearing. Tim Pearson’s alleged actions are incredibly troubling and the handling of his case has raised a very long list of questions,” he said in a statement provided to POLITICO.

“I would hope the Chief Counsel and the administration would direct their focus on trying to get to the bottom of this case and addressing those questions to ensure all City employees are protected,” he added. “When any administration fails to act, it is the job of the Council to provide rigorous oversight and we will continue to do so.”

The letter managed to draw far more attention to an under-the-radar hearing.

Media coverage appeared to be limited only to a short piece on News 12, a local cable channel. Restler’s questioning hardly seemed to go beyond that of typical oversight hearings, and fell far short of the theatrics regularly seen in congressional hearings.

In fact, the Adams administration has defended government officials’ right to speak freely, and even to offend — most recently regarding tweets from NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell.

When elected officials criticized Chell for bullying Council Member Tiffany Cabán in a letter Friday, City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak accused them of hypocrisy.

“We encourage these elected leaders to practice what they preach, and join us in truly supporting free speech, even when it’s not politically convenient for them,” she said in a statement.

Hours after Zornberg’s letter was made public, Speaker Adams fired back at the administration, requesting a formal investigation into the NYPD social media use.

Recent posts have been “dangerous, unethical and unprofessional,” she said in a statement. “New Yorkers rely on agency officials to provide essential information, and these latest activities diverge from the department’s core mission and responsibilities.”