The New City Council Lineup

From the new Speaker, Christine Quinn, comes the new chairmanships for committees and subcommittees as well as leadership positions within the City Council. From her statement (PDF), releaed on Wednesday:

STATEMENT BY SPEAKER CHRISTINE C. QUINN

Re: Committee and Leadership Appointments

I am proud to name a leadership team and committee chairs who reflect the strength of our diverse city and
ensure that New Yorkers in every borough are well represented.

We’ve named a leadership team unmatched for its depth and breath of experience and quality. We’ve
increased the number of women in leadership and heading committees from 13 in our last Council to 15.
We’ve named 21 Council Members of color Chair of committees including three committees that the
Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus identified as most critical - Education, Health and Housing. And
we’ve named the Republican leader to head a Council committee, the Task Force on Buildings.

At the same time, this Council has expanded our leadership team and the number of full committees while
keeping the overall stipend that the Council spends the same.

I look forward to working with all of my colleagues in the Council to effectively advocate for the people of
our city, and tackle issues from the bottom up to make New York a better city and improve the daily lives of
our constituents.

SUMMARY OF COUNCIL COMMITTEE AND LEADERSHIP ASSIGNMENTS

Changes to Committee Chairmanships:
AGING – Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo
CONSUMER AFFAIRS – Council Member Leroy Comrie
CONTRACTS – Council Member Yvette Clarke
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – Council Member Tom White
EDUCATION – Council Member Robert Jackson
FIRE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE – Council Member Miguel Martinez
GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS – Council Member Simcha Felder
HEALTH – Council Member Joel Rivera
HOUSING AND BUILDINGS – Council Member Erik Martin-Dilan
MENTAL HEALTH – Council Member Oliver Koppell
RULES, PRIVILEGES AND ELECTIONS – Council Member Diana Reyna
SMALL BUSINESS – Council Member David Yassky
STANDARDS AND ETHICS – Council Member Inez Dickens
STATE AND FEDERAL LEGISLATION – Council Member Maria Baez
WATERFRONTS – Council Member Michael Nelson
WOMEN’S ISSUES – Council Member Helen Sears
SUBCOMMITTEE ON DRUG ABUSE – Council Member Annabel Palma
SUBCOMMITTEE ON LANDMARKS – Council Member Jessica Lappin
SUBCOMMITTEE ON PLANNING, DISPOSITION AND CONCESSIONS – Council Member Dan Garodnick
SUBCOMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HOUSING – Council Member Rosie Mendez
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SENIOR CENTERS – Council Member James Vacca
SELECT COMMITTEE ON LIBRARIES – Council Member Vincent Gentile

New Standing Committees (formerly subcommittees):
CIVIL RIGHTS – Council Member Larry Seabrook
JUVENILE JUSTICE – Council Member Sara Gonzalez
LOWER MANHATTAN REDEVELOPMENT – Council Member Alan Gerson

Leadership Positions:
MAJORITY LEADER – Council Member Joel Rivera
DEPUTY MAJORITY LEADER – Council Member Leroy Comrie
ASSISTANT MAJORITY LEADER – Council Member Lew Fidler
ASSISTANT MAJORITY LEADER – Council Member Bill de Blasio
MAJORITY WHIP – Council Member Inez Dickens

Leadership positions increases by two; Number of standing committees increases by three; Total amount
allocated in stipends remains unchanged.

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Those committee chairs not mentioned here are retained posts from the previous Council term.

The Assistant Majority Leaders were obviously the two Brooklyn contenders for the Speaker's chair and Leroy Comrie was awarded Deputy Majority Leader as well, probably stemming from the deals made by the Brooklyn and Queens county leaders to install Quinn as the Speaker. Joel Rivera retains his post as Majority Leader while freshman Council Member Inez Dickens takes on the role of Majority Whip.

Further, these Assistant Majority Leader positions are likely a feeble attempt to reward Brooklyn, which is still not united as the powerful borough it can be.

So who lost?

The Republicans (all three of them) are nowhere to be found. Neither is the sole Working Families Party representative, Letitia James of Brooklyn. When one party controls 47 of the 51 seats in the Council, this is expected, even if it isn't building bridges to those Council members or to their parties.

Additionally, by extension, Staten Island lost. Staten Island is the home of two of the three Republican members and the third member, Democrat Michael McMahon, only retains his post as the chair of the Sanitation & Solid Waste Management Committee.

What will change?

Well, it is business as usual thus far in the Council, with some realignment and a few more members. However, as we enter this term of the Council, things seem to be roughly the same as they were in the beginning in 2002, minus the questions surrounding a mostly brand-new Council. A Manhattanite is Speaker. Queens wins big, the Bronx is strong, Brooklyn is divided (perhaps more than it was then), and Staten Island is...well...Staten Island. Will this mean that the Council will be more or less like the Council of the last term? I predicted after Election Day that things will be mostly the same, but it may turn out to be vastly different, though the chances are slim.

We will just have to wait and see.