A quartet of conservative City Council members turned a hearing on the municipal government’s soaring vacancy rates into an anti-vaccine mandate spectacle Friday amid buzz that Mayor Adams could be on the brink of peeling back some of New York’s remaining coronavirus restrictions.
The hearing in the Council’s Civil Service and Labor Committee featured testimony from members of Adams’ administration on what they’re doing to improve the city government’s job vacancy rate, which stands at 8.3% — more than five times higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Once their time came to grill the Adams officials, the three Republicans on the panel, joined by likeminded moderate Democratic Councilmember Bob Holden, focused exclusively on the city’s municipal workforce coronavirus vaccine mandate.
Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) claimed the government “would not have a job shortage” if it wasn’t for the mandate, which was implemented in November 2021 and requires city workers to be vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 41,000 New Yorkers.
“Enough with all this malarkey,” Paladino said before calling on the city to rehire any workers who got laid off for flouting the vaccine requirement, drawing cheers from a group of rowdy anti-mandate protesters in the Council gallery.
Paladino’s fellow GOP members, Inna Vernikov of Brooklyn and Joann Ariolla of Queens, followed up by demanding that Deputy Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Barbara Dannenberg tell them how many city workers have been fired as a result of the mandate.
“DCAS would not have this information, but we could certainly circle back,” Dannenberg said to boos from the hecklers in the gallery.
Holden, meantime, spent his allotted time laying out why he believes the city does not need a municipal vaccine mandate anymore.
“We’re not in 2020, we’re not in 2021, the city should get back to normal,” he said. “The city should lift everything.”
Despite their focus on the mandate, only 1,761 city employees had gotten fired for refusing to get vaccinated as of Aug. 30 — a fraction of the more than 330,000 posts across all municipal agencies, according to data from the mayor’s office. Another 583 unvaccinated workers remain on unpaid leave while waiting on the city to review their applications for exemptions to the mandate, the data shows.
Friday’s hearing came one day after the Council’s five Republicans issued a statement with Holden and conservative Democratic Councilmember Kalman Yeger saying they left a recent meeting with Adams “optimistic that some positive changes” are forthcoming as it relates to the municipal and private workforce vaccine mandates.
Staten Island Councilmember Joe Borelli, the GOP minority leader, declined to explain what exactly Adams said in the sit-down. But he told the Daily News that the mayor’s willingness to meet is a good sign.
“Just the fact that he’s willing to meet on the issue shows that he’s willing to consider changes,” Borelli said.
Adams spokesman Fabien Levy also declined to say what Adams talked to the Republicans about, but stressed he’s “always willing to sit down with elected officials and members of the community and hear their concerns.”
