Mayor Adams’ charter-reform proposals are a bid for cease-fire with City Council

Here’s the quick back story to the Charter-reform proposals that will be on the November city ballot: The City Council tried to grab some power at Mayor Adams’ expense; he cut it off, threatened to cut the council’s power — then backed off in a clear cease-fire offer.

Council lefties achieved a “veto-proof” majority in the 2022 elections; that emboldened Speaker Adrienne Adams and ultra-progressive crew to treat Adams like a punching bag: passing the lunatic Count All Stops bill over his veto and so slamming cops with ridiculous amounts of paperwork, then mandating housing vouchers and finally demanding a veto over all mayor’s commissioner-level appointments.

Oh, and the progs are using the limited veto the council already has (thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sabotage of his successors) to block the mayor from naming city-government veteran Randy Mastro as the city’s top lawyer at the Law Department.

Since the council’s grab for a veto over more than two dozen top appointments would require revising the City Charter, Mayor Adams was able to block it by naming his own Charter Reform Commission.

Lo and behold, that 13-member panel was closing in on offering voters a chance to rein in the council, putting the brakes on its ability to interfere in matters of public safety and to saddle municipal agencies with unfunded mandates.

Speaker Adams fumed that Mayor Adams was looking to become a “king,” which is rich from a woman who was looking to make him a puppet.

But, in the end, the commission’s final recommendations were far milder, covering only modest changes to boost public safety, fiscal responsibility ad so on: an obvious cease-fire offer.

He doesn’t want war — but he can put the tougher reforms on next year’s ballot if the council doesn’t stand down.

Oh, and for the record the mayor’s right to note that the council already has “significant checks” on mayoral authority via its budget, land use and agency oversight responsibilities.

His quest for peace, by the way, left some worthy ideas on the cutting-room floor: This would have been a fine chance to let voters weigh in on the council’s drive to legalize noncitizen voting, Gotham’s sanctuary-city status and even homeless “rights.”

Next year’s mayoral commission should at least push to modify the city’s sanctuary laws so the NYPD can cooperate with ICE agents over migrants accused of committing serious crimes.

And if the City Council sticks to its destructive ways, look to revamp it completely.

As we’ve noted: Where the mayor is elected citywide, council members are elected only in their own districts — with the real race typically only in a low-turnout primary; most average New Yorkers don’t even know the name of their council rep.

The city would run a lot better if the pseudo-democratic City Council had a lot less power to gum up the works.