{"id":331007,"date":"2025-10-25T07:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T07:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331007\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T07:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T07:07:17","slug":"mamdani-camp-already-in-talks-with-nyc-council-allies-over-new-public-safety-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331007\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani camp already in talks with NYC Council allies over new public safety agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even with the election nearly two weeks away<\/a>, Democratic mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign has started lobbying City Council members on his proposal to launch a new agency that would take over certain responsibilities, such as mental health calls, from the NYPD, the Daily News has learned.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s campaign manager, Elle Bisgaard-Church<\/a>, led a virtual briefing Thursday afternoon about the candidate\u2019s proposal to establish the so-called Department of Community Safety.<\/a>\u00a0The call included a small group of supportive progressive Council members, including Tiffany Caban of Queens and Sandy Nurse of Brooklyn, according to sources familiar with the private call.<\/p>\n

Justin Sanchez, the Democratic candidate for a Bronx seat currently held by Councilman Rafael Salamanca<\/a>, was also in attendance, as was a rep for Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, sources confirmed. An Albany lawmaker, Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, attended as well, according to the sources.<\/p>\n

\"ZohranZohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign manager, Elle Bisgaard-Church, speaks at Mamdani\u2019s Democratic victory party Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Queens, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unusual \u2014 though not unheard of \u2014 for mayoral candidates to begin substantive policy discussions with lawmakers before being elected. The fact that Mamdani\u2019s camp is hosting such a meeting points to his confidence as he polls as the heavy favorite to win the Nov. 4 mayoral election against independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.<\/p>\n

Mamdani will need Council approval in order to launch his proposed Department of Community Safety, potentially even requiring a member of the chamber to introduce a bill to establish it.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s call was, in part, focused on \u201csetting the foundation for co-governance\u201d with the Council so that a plan can be formulated for \u201creal implementation\u201d of the new agency, a Mamdani campaign source said.<\/p>\n

\"Speaker<\/p>\n

Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. (Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

There was also a presentation about the agency itself featuring details about the role it would play in trying to combat gun violence, homelessness and the city\u2019s mental health crisis, the insider said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s campaign has previously said it envisions the civilian agency having a $1 billion annual budget<\/a> and being responsible for responding to mental health calls that cops currently handle while also playing civilian functions in trying to fight the homelessness and gun violence crises.<\/p>\n

The thinking would be that such a division of labor would free up NYPD officers to deal with more serious violent crime, justifying Mamdani\u2019s proposal to keep police funding flat.<\/p>\n

Some critics of Mamdani have questioned the viability of the plan, arguing civilian employees wouldn\u2019t be able to absorb some of the functions currently handled by the police department.<\/p>\n

The Mamdani campaign\u2019s discussion with Council stakeholders also came on the heels of his announcement that he intends to ask Jessica Tisch<\/a>, Mayor Adams\u2019 NYPD commissioner, to stay on if he\u2019s elected. Adams is not seeking reelection as he dropped out of the race<\/a> last month amid record low approval ratings.<\/p>\n

Tisch has been criticized by some of Mamdani\u2019s left-wing allies for embracing public safety solutions seen as too aggressive. For instance, she has called for rolling back the \u201cRaise the Age\u201d law<\/a> that prevents juveniles from being prosecuted as adults \u2014 a suggestion Mamdani affirmed this week he\u2019s opposed to even as he says he wants Tisch to stay on as police commissioner.<\/p>\n

Tisch hasn\u2019t said whether she\u2019d accept Mamdani\u2019s offer to remain NYPD commissioner under his potential administration.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also unclear how much appetite there could be in the Council next year to sign off on the creation of Mamdani\u2019s proposed new agency if he\u2019s elected.<\/p>\n

A number of Council members, including Speaker Adrienne Adams, are leaving office at the end of the year because of term limits. It\u2019s not yet clear who might replace Adams, but whoever does will have large sway over whether the chamber will prioritize helping Mamdani with launching the agency.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even with the election nearly two weeks away, Democratic mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign has started lobbying City…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":331008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5310,13239,164236,164237,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-331007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-city-hall","11":"tag-department-for-community-safety","12":"tag-elle-bisgaard-church","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115433547103004753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331007","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=331007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}