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Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post
Mayor Eric Adams is looking to set up a commission that could rescind the city’s sanctuary status – and Zohran Mamdani may not be able to stop him, The Post has learned.
The outgoing Hizzoner is expected to hand-pick another independent Charter Revision Commission that would also look again at changing the deeply blue city’s primary elections so that scores of unaffiliated voters could cast ballots, according to sources.
But a top issue that has been floated in closed-door conversations about convening a new commission is reviewing the city’s sanctuary city laws which limit how city law enforcement works with immigration officials.
The temporary commission, filled with handpicked Adams appointees, would have the authority take on whatever changes its members see fit even after Mayor-elect Mamdani and a new City Council take office. Any of its recommendations to amend the city charter would then have to be put up for public vote as a measure on a future election ballot.
“As a one-term mayor, Eric Adams has nothing left to protect,” one insider said. “He hates the system and is going scorched earth, including taking shots at Zohran Mamdani on the way out, and we’re all here for it.”
Another took a shot at Adams for setting the commission with vast power to propose changes to the charter as he leaves office as “undemocratic.”
“Gratuitously screwing over an incoming mayor is monumentally pathetic,” they said. “Imagine the kind of meltdown Eric would have if the same were done to him.”
No other prior mayor has set up a Charter Review Commission in their last days in office to carry over to the next administration.
Mamdani would seemingly be helpless to prevent the commission from putting forward any ballot measure he disagrees with and would face steep legal hurdles if he tried to dissolve the group.
The last Charter Commissioner, which was set up by Adams and had 13 members, also recommended changing the primary process at first in an attempt to woo more voters to the polls.
One proposal from the group was to allow independents to vote in one of the two primaries and cast their ballot for their choice of the Democratic or Republican nominee.
The other was to open the primary to include all candidates, and the top vote-getters move on to the general election in November.
In its final report, though, the commission decided not to put the proposed charter changes on the ballot.
Primaries, especially since ranked-choice voting was implemented, have been a point of contention for Adams. The system allows party members to vote for multiple candidates on a ballot.
A rep for City Hall did not respond to questions.
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