City council, or the city board or board of aldermen — depending on your town’s system — is the main legislative body in your town. It can enact ordinances (like putting in a new stoplight or banning DIY guns) and decide how your tax dollars are spent, if they should be spent at all. It’s also responsible for hearing from residents — even those who don’t vote for them — and making policy decisions on a variety of issues, like zoning (can you build apartments in that old factory?) or whether to have sidewalk cafes.
If you live in a city with a borough council system, your local council members may work with a city manager or mayor to make these kinds of decisions. But it’s still important to know what each candidate plans to do once elected, and that means tuning into debates, attending town halls, and reading their campaign materials.
Council members are assigned to committees — through a voting process by all of them — and these panels handle the bulk of the council’s day-to-day work, hashing out the details of legislation and holding hearings to hear feedback from New Yorkers like you. In addition, open meeting laws require the council to release its agenda for every meeting at least 24 hours in advance.
Councilmembers are a mix of Democrats and Republicans, though the majority is Democratic. They’re led by the speaker of the council, Corey Johnson, who’s been in the role since January and has a proven track record of working with the large, diverse conference.