A New York City watchdog group is suing Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 administration for failing to release a plan for addressing racial disparities in the city, across a range of topics, as required under a voter-backed initiative three years ago.<\/p>\n
The city Commission on Racial Equity, an independent city agency also established by a 2022 charter change overwhelmingly backed<\/a> by voters, filed the lawsuit<\/a> on Tuesday in state court. It notes the required racial equity plan is over 500 days overdue.<\/p>\n \u201cIn short, the entire racial equity planning process required by Chapter 78 of the New York City Charter has been stalled by the mayor\u2019s conduct,\u201d the lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n \u201cNo lawful reason has been offered for the mayor\u2019s refusal to release and publish the preliminary plan \u2014 and none exists,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for the mayor\u2019s office, said in a statement that the lawsuit was \u201cincredibly misguided, short-sighted and jeopardizes the well-being of the vulnerable communities it claims to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n Garcia added: \u201cThe Adams administration will always protect communities of color from the challenges they currently face on the federal level, and remain focused on going through the responsible protocols for this review.\u201d<\/p>\n The Adams administration was required to publish the draft of the racial equity plan on Jan. 16, 2024, under a provision of a City Charter change approved by voters in the aftermath of racial justice protests in New York City and across the nation in 2020. The plan would list goals and strategies for addressing racial disparities in education, health and other facets of city life.<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, city officials have said that the plan is finished \u2014 and publication is the last step remaining.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office has previously released multiple revised timelines for the draft plan’s publication. In July 2024, when the City Council probed<\/a> the delays, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Equity and Racial Justice stated on its website<\/a> that the preliminary racial equity plan would be published in September to October 2024.<\/p>\n Last Jan. 17, Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Ana Almanzar wrote that the mayor was finalizing the plan to release in February, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n In February, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Equity and Racial Justice posted another updated timeline on its website, stating the plan would be released by June, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The Commission on Racial Equity is calling upon the court to order the mayor\u2019s office to release the racial equity plan, declare that the mayor\u2019s delay in releasing the plan is illegal, and require the city\u2019s legal department to approve the Commission\u2019s decision to retain outside counsel and pay them with public funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City watchdog group is suing Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 administration for failing to release a plan…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":163620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-163619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115066464038948541","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}