The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, oversees the performance of city agencies' land use decisions, and legislates on a variety of other issues. It also has sole responsibility for approving the city budget. Members elected are limited to two consecutive four-year terms in office but may run again after a four-year respite.
The head of the city council is called the speaker. The current speaker is Julie Menin, a Democrat from the 5th district. The speaker sets the agenda and presides at city council meetings, and all proposed legislation is submitted through the Speaker's Office. Majority Leader Kamillah Hanks leads the chamber's Democratic majority. Minority Leader David Carr was elected to lead the five Republican council members on January 28, 2025, however the vote was disputed due to a quorum not being present.
As of 2025, the council has 35 standing committees and 4 subcommittees, with oversight of various functions of the city government. Each council member sits on at least three standing, select or subcommittees (listed below). The standing committees meet at least once per month. The speaker of the council, the majority leader, and the minority leader are all ex officio members of every committee.
Council members are elected every four years. The exception is two consecutive two-year terms every twenty years to allow for redistricting after each national census (starting in 2001 and 2003 for the 2000 census and again in 2021 and 2023 for the 2020 census).
Composition
An asterisk (*) next to the election year denotes a special election. A double asterisk (**) next to the election year means the member took office after certification to fill the remainder of an unexpired term.
DistrictMemberPartyResidenceBoroughElectedTerm limitedMap1DemocraticLower East SideManhattan202120292DemocraticEast VillageManhattan2025**20333DemocraticHell's KitchenManhattan2026*20374DemocraticLenox HillManhattan202520335DemocraticUpper East Side Manhattan202120296DemocraticUpper West Side Manhattan202120297DemocraticManhattan ValleyManhattan202120298DemocraticEast Harlem The BronxManhattan202520339DemocraticCentral Harlem Manhattan2023203310DemocraticInwood Manhattan2021202911DemocraticRiverdaleThe Bronx2021*202912DemocraticCo-Op CityThe Bronx2020*202913Shirley AldebolDemocraticThroggs NeckThe Bronx2025203314DemocraticFordham HeightsThe Bronx2021202915DemocraticFordhamThe Bronx2021*202916DemocraticMorrisaniaThe Bronx2021202917DemocraticMelroseThe Bronx2025203318DemocraticSoundviewThe Bronx2021202919RepublicanWhitestoneQueens2021202920DemocraticFlushing Queens2021202921DemocraticEast ElmhurstQueens2025203322DemocraticWoodside QueensThe Bronx2021**202923DemocraticOakland GardensQueens2021202924DemocraticJamaica EstatesQueens2021*202925DemocraticJackson Heights Queens2021202926DemocraticSunnysideQueens2021202927DemocraticCambria HeightsQueens2021202928 Tyrell HankersonDemocraticSouth Ozone ParkQueens2025203329DemocraticForest Hills Queens2021202930DemocraticElmhurstQueens2025203331DemocraticRockaway BeachQueens2021*202932RepublicanHoward BeachQueens2021202933DemocraticGreenpoint Brooklyn2021202934DemocraticWilliamsburg BrooklynQueens2021202935DemocraticProspect HeightsBrooklyn2021202936DemocraticCrown HeightsBrooklyn2021202937DemocraticCypress HillsBrooklyn2021202938DemocraticSunset ParkBrooklyn2021202939DemocraticKensingtonBrooklyn2021202940DemocraticFlatbush Brooklyn2021202941DemocraticBedford StuyvesantBrooklyn2021202942DemocraticEast New York Brooklyn2023203343DemocraticBensonhurstBrooklyn2023203344DemocraticBorough Park Brooklyn2025*203345DemocraticFlatbush Brooklyn2019*202946DemocraticCanarsie Brooklyn2021202947DemocraticBay RidgeBrooklyn2025203348RepublicanSheepshead Bay Brooklyn2021**202949DemocraticStapletonStaten Island2021202950RepublicanGrasmere Staten IslandBrooklyn2021**202951Frank MoranoRepublicanEltingvilleStaten Island2025*2033
MembersBoroughPopulation (2017 est)TotalDemocraticRepublicanBrooklyn2,648,77115141Queens2,358,58214122Manhattan1,664,727101001,471,160770Staten Island479,458312Total8,008,27851465
+Council leadersPositionNamePartyBoroughSpeakerJulie MeninDemocraticManhattanMajority LeaderShaun AbreuDemocraticManhattanDeputy SpeakerNantasha WilliamsDemocraticQueensMajority WhipKamillah HanksDemocraticStaten IslandMinority LeaderDavid CarrRepublicanStaten Island & BrooklynMinority WhipInna VernikovRepublicanBrooklyn
Salary Council members currently receive $148,500 a year in base salary, which the council increased from $112,500 in early 2016. The salary raise came with new ethics guidelines and restrictions; most outside income is prohibited, and members no longer receive additional compensation for serving on committees.
Law
The New York City Charter is the fundamental law of the government of New York City including the council. The New York City Administrative Code is the codification of the laws promulgated by the council and is composed of 29 titles. The regulations promulgated by city agencies pursuant to law are contained in the Rules of the City of New York in 71 titles.
A local law has a status equivalent with a law enacted by the legislature (subject to certain exceptions and restrictions), and is superior to the older forms of municipal legislation such as ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations. Each local government must designate a newspaper of notice to publish or describe its laws. The secretary of state is responsible for publishing local laws as a supplement to the Laws of New York (the "session laws" of the state), but they have not done so in recent years. The New York City Charter, the New York City Administrative Code, and the Rules of the City of New York are published online by the New York Legal Publishing Corp. under contract with the New York City Law Department.
History The history of the New York City Council can be traced to Dutch colonial times when New York City was known as New Amsterdam. On February 2, 1653, the town of New Amsterdam, founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island in 1625, was incorporated as a city under a charter issued by the Dutch West India Company. A Council of Legislators sat as the local lawmaking body and as a court of inferior jurisdiction. During the 18th and 19th centuries the local legislature was called the Common Council and then the Board of Aldermen. In 1898 the amalgamation charter of the City of Greater New York renamed and revamped the council and added a New York City Board of Estimate with certain administrative and financial powers. After a number of changes through the ensuing years, the present Council was born in 1938 under a new charter which instituted the council as the sole legislative body and the New York City Board of Estimate as the chief administrative body. Certain functions of the council, however, remained subject to the approval of the board.
In 1938, a system of proportional representation known as single transferable vote was adopted; a fixed quota of 75,000 votes was set, so that the size of the council fluctuated with voter turnout. (Chapter 43 §1007:g) The term was extended to four years in 1945 to coincide with the term of the mayor. Proportional representation was abolished in 1947, largely from pressure from Democrats, who played on fears of Communist council members being elected (two, Peter V. Cacchione and Benjamin J. Davis Jr., already had). It was replaced by a system of electing one council member from each New York State Senate district within the city. The Charter also provided for the election of two council members-at-large from each of the five boroughs. In June 1983, however, a federal court ruled that the 10 at-large seats violated the United States Constitution's one-person, one-vote mandate.Andrews v. Koch, 528 F.Supp. 246 (1981), aff’d sub nom., Giacobbe v. Andrews, 459 U.S. 801 (1982).
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Board of Estimate's structure was inconsistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because, although the boroughs had widely disparate populations, each had equal representation on the board. In response, the new Charter abolished the Board of Estimate and provided for the redrawing of the council district lines to increase minority representation on the council. It also increased the number of Council Members from 35 to 51. The council was then granted full power over the municipal budget, as well as authority over zoning, land use and franchises. In 1993 the New York City Council voted to rename the position of president of the city council to the public advocate. As the presiding officer, the public advocate was an ex officio member of all committees in the council, and in that capacity had the right to introduce and co-sponsor legislation. However the city charter revision of 2002 transferred the duties of presiding officer from the public advocate to the council speaker; the public advocate remains a non-voting member of the council.
The City Council's website includes a Legislative Resource Center, powered by Granicus's Legistar software, which allows the public to browse and search legislation, hearing calendars, and related documents. In 2017, after several years of requests from local activists and from Councilmember Ben Kallos, the City Council started allowing members of the public to access its Legistar instance's data via a web API.
In 2022, the composition of first female majority City Council included the first Muslim woman, the first South Asian members, and the first openly gay Black woman.
Term limits A two-term limit was imposed on city council members and citywide elected officials in a 1993 referendum. The movement to introduce term limits was led by Ronald Lauder, the heir to the Estée Lauder fortune. In 1996, voters turned down a council proposal to extend term limits. Lauder spent $4 million on the two referendums.
However, in 2008, under pressure from Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who, like many Council members, was facing the end of his two-term limit at that time), the council voted 29–22 to extend the limit to three terms; the council also defeated (by a vote of 22–28, with one abstention) a proposal to submit the issue to public referendum.
Legal challenges to the extension of term limits failed in federal court. The original decision by Judge Charles Sifton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island) was upheld by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Vermont, Connecticut and New York), and a proposal in the New York State Legislature to override the extension was not passed., p. A24, p. A26Appeals Court Upholds Term Limits Revision, New York Times City Room Blog, April 28, 2009 (retrieved July 6, 2009).
Voters voted to reinstate the two-term limit law in another referendum in 2010. However, according to The New York Times, incumbent members of the city council who were elected prior to the 2010 referendum "will still be allowed to run for a third term. People in office before 2010 were eligible for three terms."
Presiding officers since 1898 Through several changes in title and duties, this person has been, together with the mayor and city comptroller, one of the three municipal officers directly elected by all of the city's voters, and also the person who—when the elected mayor resigns, dies, or otherwise loses the ability to serve—becomes acting mayor until the next special or regular election.