Mayor of New York City
The Mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the Government of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.
The budget, overseen by New York City Mayor's Office of Management and Budget, is the largest municipal budget in the United States at $92 billion a year. The city employs 325,000 people, spends about $21 billion to educate more than 1.1 million students and levies $27 billion in taxes. It receives $14 billion from the state and federal governments.
The mayor's office is located in New York City Hall; it has jurisdiction over all five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens. The mayor appoints numerous officials, including commissioners who head city departments, and his deputy mayors. The mayor's regulations are compiled in title 43 of the New York City Rules. According to current law, the mayor is limited to two consecutive four-year terms in office but may run again after a four-year break. It was changed from two to three terms on October 23, 2008, when the New York City Council voted 29–22 in favor of passing the term limit extension into law. However, in 2010, a referendum reverting the limit to two terms passed overwhelmingly.
The current mayor is Democrat Bill de Blasio, who was elected on November 5, 2013 and reelected to a second term on November 7, 2017.
History
In 1665, Governor Richard Nicolls appointed Thomas Willett as the first mayor of New York. For 156 years, the mayor was appointed and had limited power. Between 1783 and 1821 the mayor was appointed by the Council of Appointment in which the state's governor had the loudest voice. In 1821 the Common Council, which included elected members, gained the authority to choose the mayor. An amendment to the New York State Constitution in 1834 provided for the direct popular election of the mayor. Cornelius W. Lawrence, a Democrat, was elected that year.Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of the mayor since Fiorello La Guardia's administration in 1942. Its main floor is open to the public and serves as a small museum.
The mayor is entitled to a salary of $258,750 a year. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of the city from 2002 to 2013 and one of the richest people in the world, declined the salary and instead was paid $1 yearly.
In 2000 direct control of the city's public school system was transferred to the mayor's office. In 2003 the reorganization established the New York City Department of Education.
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, which evolved from an organization of craftsmen into a Democratic political machine, gained control of Democratic Party nominations in the state and city in 1861. It played a major role in New York City politics into the 1960s and was a dominant player from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the era of Robert Wagner.Deputies
The mayor of New York City may appoint several deputy mayors to help oversee major offices within the executive branch of the city government. The powers and duties, and even the number of deputy mayors, are not defined by the City Charter. The post was created by Fiorello La Guardia to handle ceremonial events that the mayor was too busy to attend. Since then, deputy mayors have been appointed with their areas of responsibility defined by the appointing mayor. There are currently five deputy mayors, all of whom report directly to the mayor.Deputy mayors do not have any right to succeed to the mayoralty in the case of vacancy or incapacity of the mayor.
The current deputy mayors are:
- First deputy mayor: Dean Fuleihan
- Deputy mayor for housing and economic development: Vicki Been
- Deputy mayor for health and human services: Raul Perea-Henze
- Deputy mayor for operations: Laura Anglin
- Deputy mayor for strategic initiatives: J. Phillip Thompson
Notable former deputy mayors
- Lilliam Barrios-Paoli 2014–2016, Anthony Shorris 2014–2017, under Bill de Blasio
- Daniel L. Doctoroff, Stephen Goldsmith 2010–2011, Patricia Harris 2002–2013, Robert K. Steel, Dennis M. Walcott, Howard Wolfson—under Michael Bloomberg
- Joe Lhota—under Rudolph Giuliani
- William Lynch 1990s—under David Dinkins
- Herman Badillo 1977–1979—under Ed Koch
- Robert W. Sweet 1966–1969
Offices appointed
- New York City Police Commissioner
- New York City Fire Commissioner
- New York City Criminal Court judges
- New York City Marshals
- New York City Schools Chancellor
- New York City Mayor's Office of Management and Budget
- Commissioner of Health of the City of New York
Board member
- American Museum of Natural History
- Brooklyn Academy of Music
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden
- Brooklyn Children's Museum
- Brooklyn Museum of Art
- Brooklyn Public Library
- Carnegie Hall
- El Museo del Barrio
- Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Museum of Jewish Heritage
- Museum of the City of New York
- National September 11 Memorial & Museum
- New York Botanical Garden
- New York Hall of Science
- New York Public Library
- New York Shakespeare Festival
- Public Design Commission
- Queens Borough Public Library
- Queens Botanical Garden
- Queens Museum of Art
- Snug Harbor Cultural Center
- Staten Island Botanical Garden
- Staten Island Children's Museum
- Staten Island Historical Society
- Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences
- Staten Island Zoo
- Wave Hill
- Wildlife Conservation Society
In popular culture
Spin City, a 1990s TV sitcom, starred Michael J. Fox as a deputy mayor of New York under Barry Bostwick's fictional Mayor Randall Winston.
Several mayors have appeared in television and movies, as well as on Broadway, most notably in The Will Rogers Follies. In the 1980s and 1990s, mayors Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani appeared on Saturday Night Live on several occasions, sometimes mocking themselves in sketches. Giuliani and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have both appeared, as themselves in their mayoral capacities, on episodes of Law & Order. Giuliani also appeared as himself in an episode of Seinfeld, titled "The Non-Fat Yogurt". Giuliani has made cameos in films such as The Out-of-Towners and Anger Management. Bloomberg has appeared on 30 Rock, Gossip Girl, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Horace and Pete.
In "Recycled Koopa", an episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, King Koopa is dumping his garbage into New York, causing New Yorkers including the mayor to transform into mindless "Koopa Zombies". Although the episode aired during the term of Mayor David Dinkins, the mayor in the episode does not seem based on him.