New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been in office for ten months. In that time, he has put his signature on exactly one bill passed by the City Council.
According to the New York Post, the only bill Mamdani has signed is his August law letting restaurants keep outdoor dining going all year. The roughly 90 other bills the council passed on his watch still took effect, but through a “returned unsigned” process: a council-passed bill automatically becomes law once it has sat on the mayor’s desk for four weeks without a veto.
His predecessors were far busier with the pen. At the same point in their terms, Eric Adams had signed 30 bills, Bill de Blasio 47 and Mike Bloomberg 28.
Asked about it Thursday, Mamdani shrugged. “I think the most important thing is that New Yorkers can see pieces of legislation becoming law,” he told the Post. “Whether we sign that legislation or it lapses the law, the impact is the same to New Yorker’s across the city.”
Then came the defense. Former New York Sen. Jabari Brisport took to X to spin the empty signature record as a feature. “No need to sign. As long as he doesn’t veto, the bills become law anyway,” Brisport wrote. “His approach is actually more efficient. That’s why he gets more done than other Mayors.”
More efficient? Mayors usually let a bill lapse into law unsigned when they want to protest it or keep their name off it. Mamdani has done it with measures that line up with his own progressive agenda, the Post found, including a bill from socialist ally Alexa Aviles requiring that sanctuary rules barring ICE be posted at schools and city-owned buildings.
Others never got his signature either: a bill ordering checks on older New Yorkers during heat above 95 degrees, one expanding free child care, which is a key Mamdani initiative, and one creating a rent-assistance program.
“I haven’t seen anything he’s disagreed,” former City Council member Diana Ayala said. “Those are his initiatives.”
A source who works regularly with City Hall told the Post that Mamdani and his team are “obsessed with becoming a content farm,” pushing aside routine government meetings to pitch social media videos. “The mayor gets pitched comedy sketches more than Lorne Michaels,” the source said. “There are lots of laughs, and there is very little work.”
Another City Hall insider called it “lazy government.” City Hall did not respond to the Post’s request for comment on that report.
None of this is new for Mamdani. During his five years in the state Assembly starting in 2020, the Post noted, he passed just one law, and he skipped the vote on it.
One signature in ten months, and his allies are calling it efficiency.
Source: nypost.com
