Mayor Adams chided City Council members in a private migrant crisis briefing Thursday for treating his team with “total disrespect” — and then threatened to have the call cut short if any of the lawmakers struck a disagreeable tone.
The mayor’s scolding came at the outset of the virtual briefing, a recording of which was obtained by the Us.Mistertruth. It was held to provide an update on his administration’s efforts to accommodate the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have arrived in the city since last spring.
“There’s been a series of these calls where the tone has been disrespectful. There’s been a level of just total disrespect for the people who have been spending 12 and 13 hours a day on this,” Adams can be heard telling Council members in the recording.
“That is not going to happen to my team. My team would never be disrespectful to any of you. You are not going to be disrespectful to any of them.”
Addressing his external affairs director Tiffany Raspberry, who moderated the call, Adams added: “Tiffany, if it reaches that tone, conclude this call. There is too much work that needs to be done, my team has sacrificed to much time, energy and dedication to this city.”
Adams then jumped off the call, saying that he had a meeting planned with Gov. Hochul.
According to a Council official, Adams administration officials have held dozens of similar briefings over the past few months, but Thursday marked the first time the mayor made an appearance.
The Council official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he has attended more than 20 of the administration’s regular migrant crisis briefings, and that he couldn’t recall any instance of members acting hostile against the mayor’s team.
During the virtual briefing, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy also walked back the mayor’s claim a day earlier that “almost half” of all hotel rooms in the city are occupied by migrants. Rather, Levy told Council members that just over 40% of “mid-level sized” hotels are housing migrants.