Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Thursday that she would not exercise her authority to remove Mayor Eric Adams from office for now, but would seek to impose strict new guardrails on his administration of New York City.
While Ms. Hochul’s actions, if enacted by state and city legislators, would fall far short of the removal some have demanded, they would curtail Mr. Adams’s independence as he battles accusations that he entered a corrupt agreement with the Trump administration to drop federal bribery charges against him.
In remarks at her Manhattan office, Ms. Hochul said she understood why New Yorkers were outraged by the actions of Mr. Adams, a fellow Democrat whom she has worked with as an ally for years. She framed her approach as part of a broader fight to protect the city from President Trump’s influence.
“The Trump administration is already trying to use the legal jeopardy facing our mayor to squeeze and weaken our city,” she said. “I call it the Trump revenge tour, and I have to stand in its way.”
The governor then laid out a suite of new oversight measures designed to empower other state and city officials to keep careful watch over Mr. Adams’s team at City Hall and potentially challenge Mr. Trump if the mayor would not.
The proposed changes included creating a new state deputy inspector general focused on New York City’s operations; establishing a fund for the city comptroller, public advocate and City Council speaker to hire outside counsel to sue the federal government if the mayor is unwilling to do so; and granting additional funds for the state’s comptroller to scrutinize city finances.
The governor said she also wanted a legal change to bar the mayor from firing the head of the city’s Department of Investigation without the approval of the state inspector general. The agency worked closely with the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors to build their case against Mr. Adams.
Ms. Hochul said she had spoken to leaders of the City Council and the State Legislature and made clear she intended for the special provisions to expire at the end of 2025, when Mr. Adams’s first term expires, with the potential for renewal. She called them “a first start in restoring trust” but urged Mr. Adams to take his own steps to regain the city’s confidence.
A spokesman for Mr. Adams, who maintains he has done nothing wrong, did not respond to a request for comment. Parts of Ms. Hochul’s plan were first reported by NY1.
The announcement was the result of days of deliberations by Ms. Hochul over how to handle the conundrum of Mr. Adams’s situation. Growing numbers of fellow Democrats have called for his resignation or for her to use her constitutional authority to remove him from office.
No governor in New York’s 235-year history has removed a mayor whom the voters elected, and Ms. Hochul made it clear she had grave concerns about the precedent that could be set by doing so now. Mr. Adams has insisted he will not quit voluntarily.
“My strong belief is that the will of the voters and the supremacy and sanctity of democratic elections preclude me from any other action at this time,” Ms. Hochul said.
She was referring to the city’s regularly scheduled mayoral election later this year, when Mr. Adams is expected to be on the ballot.
Ms. Hochul also said she had concerns that beginning removal proceedings would bring additional “disruption and chaos.” Though she said she could revisit her decision if facts changed, the governor declined to say whether she believed the mayor should resign.
It remained to be seen whether the governor’s approach would placate those who fear Mr. Adams has been compromised into doing Mr. Trump’s bidding — or if she could persuade fellow Democrats to enact them.
Many of Ms. Hochul’s proposals would require approval from the City Council and the State Legislature. That could well set off a fight with Mr. Adams’s allies in Albany, or with lawmakers wary of letting the state take a greater role than it already has in the city’s affairs.
New York City and the state have been engaged a long-running power struggle, typified by regular disputes over the mayor’s ability to control the city’s school system. Within minutes of Ms. Hochul’s plans becoming public, Democratic state lawmakers began privately complaining that she was trying to make substantial changes to that balance of power without consulting them.
Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the Brooklyn Democratic chairwoman and an ally of Mr. Adams, said she was glad that Ms. Hochul would not try to remove the mayor. Yet she viewed the governor’s proposal to limit his powers as “a big overstep” and said it had a “bit of a racial tone,” referring to the appearance of a white governor acting against the city’s second Black mayor.
“For our governor who I love dearly to come out with this plan for overtaking New York City is worthy of concern of many legislators,” she said.
Questions around Mr. Adams’s independence have been growing for months as he sought to curry favor with Mr. Trump and maneuvered for a pardon from his charges. They came to a head last week, after the Justice Department said it intended to dismiss the indictment and forgo a trial to allow Mr. Adams greater ability to help implement Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda.
Mr. Adams was indicted on federal bribery and fraud charges in September. The accusations included accepting more than $100,000 in flight upgrades and airline tickets as part of his relationship with Turkish officials.
The mayor insisted he was innocent of the charges and swore under oath in court on Wednesday that he had not entered into any sort of agreement with the Justice Department to drop the case.
But the prosecutor who was overseeing the mayor’s case has asserted just the opposite: that Mr. Trump’s appointees at the Justice Department and Mr. Adams entered into a quid pro quo. Those accusations have disturbed New York Democrats. So have the terms of the deal, which would let the department resurrect the charges at its discretion and could create leverage over Mr. Adams.
A judge is still considering whether to approve the motion to dismiss the case.
Other leaders of the city have not waited to act. Four deputy mayors announced their resignations on Monday over Mr. Adams’s cooperation with Mr. Trump.
The city comptroller, Brad Lander, has threatened to convene a committee to remove Mr. Adams on the basis of his inability to govern unless the mayor quickly released a “detailed contingency plan” outlining how he would manage the city. (Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker who would serve on the committee, cast doubt on that path, however.)
Carl E. Heastie, the speaker of the State Assembly, said in an interview on CNN on Thursday that he had a “very heightened sense of concern” over the mayor’s leadership but did not back his removal.
“Overturning the will of the voters is something that’s very serious, so I’m not there yet about him being removed or resigning,” he said.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the State Senate majority leader, said the mayor’s troubles were a distraction from governing, and it was “probably time that he move aside.”
Both Ms. Stewart-Cousins and Mr. Heastie, whose support will be critical for the governor’s proposals to move forward, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Adams reiterated in two television interviews on Wednesday evening that he was innocent of the criminal charges and would not resign. He said on NY1 that he was disappointed by the resignations of the four deputy mayors, but he argued that the city would be fine and said his “bench is deep.”
