Brian Lair on WNYC.

We'll come back to the Trump verdicts and more of your calls on that later in the show with Andrea Bernstein.

But it's not the only thing going on in the world.

And we want to talk for a few

minutes now about a local political situation that is growing more intense, the bad blood

and competition for power between Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council. Over the last

month, there have been several contentious city council hearings with representatives of the Adams

administration, culminating in a bill that council was now considering that would grant the council

powers to approve many more mayoral appointees. Central to the division is city council member

Lincoln Wrestler of District 33,

Borum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York, Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Fulton Ferry, Greenpoint,

Vinegar Hill, and Williamsburg.

What am I leaving out?

Earlier this month, he grilled chief citywide equity and inclusion officer Sylvia Montal Bond

on the mayor's handling of two sexual harassment

allegations against Tim Pearson, a longtime advisor and friend to Adams.

Wrestler particularly questioned the role of Melody Ruiz, the chief equal opportunity officer

for the mayor's office.

We're going to play a 50-second

clip of this because this became such a point of contention between the Council and the mayor.

It's run by Ms. Melody Ruiz. She makes $201,071. Oh, pardon. She's the chief EEO officer of the mayor's office.

Okay. Longtime former Borough Hall staffer. So, um, Chair Ressler, uh, we know that to be the EEO Officer of the Mayor's office, long-time former Borough Hall staffer. So, Chair Ressler, we know that to be the EEO office for the Mayor's Office entities, is how we at DECAS see it.

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