Speaker Menin is a three-time City Commissioner and former regulatory attorney with a history of strengthening consumer and worker protections<\/p>\n
NEW YORK, NY \u2014 The New York City Council voted today during its 2026 Charter Meeting to elect Julie Menin as Speaker. Speaker Menin will lead the City Council during a pivotal moment, when the lawmaking body will address the affordability crisis, an affordable housing shortage, and other key issues. Speaker Menin has laid out a bolder, more proactive vision for the Council to confront New York\u2019s challenges, including building more affordable housing; lowering skyrocketing health care costs; slashing fines and bureaucratic red tape for small businesses; and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse from city government.<\/p>\n
Speaker Menin is a three-time City Commissioner and former regulatory attorney. The daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, she is the first Jewish Speaker to lead the City\u2019s legislative body. Speaker Menin will preside over a continuing women-majority City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am deeply honored and humbled that my City Council colleagues have elected me as Speaker,\u201d said Speaker Julie Menin. \u201cNew York has a long history of turning moments of challenge into moments of opportunity. Together, we will forge a new City Council that takes a more forceful and proactive approach to New York\u2019s shared goals. That includes enacting universal child care, lowering skyrocketing health care costs, building more affordable housing, and slashing fines and bureaucratic red tape for small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julie Menin\u2019s first speech as Speaker, as prepared for delivery, will soon be made available, in addition to images<\/a> from the Charter Meeting. Prior to the vote, Speaker Menin was nominated by seven Council Members: Kevin C. Riley (Bronx), Shaun Abreu (Manhattan), Farah N. Louis (Brooklyn), Linda Lee (Queens), Kamillah Hanks (Staten Island), Shekar Krishnan (Queens), and Eric Dinowitz (Bronx).<\/p>\n \u201cCouncil Member Julie Menin brings deep experience, steady leadership, and a strong understanding of how this city works and how our decisions impact New Yorkers\u2019 daily lives,\u201d said Council Member Kevin C. Riley. \u201cShe is a proven bridge builder who leads with fairness, transparency, and equity, and understands the responsibility this Council has to step up during moments of uncertainty. I\u2019m confident she will lead this body with integrity, collaboration, and a clear sense of purpose, and I\u2019m proud to support her nomination as Speaker of the New York City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCongratulations to Julie Menin on becoming Speaker of the City Council,\u201d said Council Member Shaun Abreu. \u201cFor years, Julie Menin has been one of the city\u2019s most effective champions for consumers and workers, returning hundreds of millions of dollars to New Yorkers and standing up for working families. I saw that up close when I worked under her at DCA and later alongside her in the Council, where she has led with clarity and urgency as Chair of the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection. As members came to know her even better throughout the speakership race, our confidence in her values and her leadership only deepened. I am proud to stand with my colleagues in support of her speakership and excited to work together over the next four years to move our city forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am proud to have nominated Julie Menin as Speaker of the New York City Council,\u201d said Council Member Farah N. Louis. \u201cHer record as a public servant speaks to the kind of values-driven leadership this moment demands \u2014 a commitment to affordability, women\u2019s equity, and building an economy that works for all New Yorkers. I am confident that under Speaker Menin\u2019s leadership the Council will deliver meaningful results and guide our city into a new era of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJulie has spent her career fighting for New Yorkers \u2014 from her time as community board chair, to her current role, where she brings that same passion and determination to her work on the Council,\u201d said Council Member Linda Lee. \u201cAt a time when our city grapples with the issue of affordability, Julie Menin has displayed her commitment to economic mobility, starting with our youngest New Yorkers through her work at NYC Kids RISE, and leading in the push for universal childcare. As we confront the challenges facing our city, I am confident that Julie is the innovative leader our Council needs to deliver real results for families across New York City, which is why I am proud to nominate her to be our next Speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an honor to nominate Julie Menin to lead this body as our next Speaker at the inaugural charter meeting of the City Council today,\u201d said Council Member Kamillah Hanks. \u201cThroughout my tenure as a council member, I have had the distinct pleasure of collaborating with Julie, whose extensive experience across various levels of government positions her uniquely to address the complexities of our city during these unprecedented times. Her profound understanding of municipal challenges, coupled with her impressive resume, underscores her capability to lead effectively. I am genuinely excited to stand alongside her in this pivotal moment, confident that she will serve as a Speaker who represents the interests of all New Yorkers! Mazel Tov Julie!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m proud to have nominated and voted for Julie Menin to be the next Speaker of our New York City Council,\u201d said Council Member Shekar Krishnan. \u201cUnder Speaker Menin\u2019s leadership, the Council will work to deliver a truly affordable city by investing in programs that matter to New Yorkers. We will improve our parks, hold greedy billion-dollar companies accountable, and protect tenants. I\u2019m confident that with Julie Menin as Speaker, we will be a bold City Council, with a clear vision, that fights for all New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJulie Menin is a thoughtful and principled leader with a proven ability to move complex policy forward while centering the needs of New Yorkers,\u201d said Council Member Eric Dinowitz. \u201cHaving worked alongside her in the City Council for the past four years, I know she is uniquely prepared to lead a collaborative and effective Council that delivers real results for our city. I look forward to partnering with Speaker Menin to advance meaningful progress in every neighborhood, strengthen support for our city\u2019s students, confront the affordability crisis, and ensure the Council remains a strong champion for working families, older adults, and people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n About Speaker Julie Menin:<\/p>\n Speaker Menin has proudly represented District 5, which includes parts of the Upper East Side and all of Roosevelt Island, in the Council since January 2022. During her first two terms, the Council passed her legislation to advance universal child care, create an Office of Healthcare Accountability to rein in excessive prices, ease burdens on small businesses by creating a one-shop-stop web portal for city licenses, codify the right to reproductive health care services, and more. Speaker Menin most recently served as Chair of the Consumer and Worker Protection Committee and Co-Chair of the Women\u2019s Caucus.<\/p>\n Speaker Menin previously served as Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Commissioner of Media and Entertainment, and the city\u2019s 2020 Census Director. She is also an attorney, former small business owner, and former adjunct professor at Columbia University who taught on city government. Read Speaker Menin\u2019s full biography here<\/a>.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaker Menin is a three-time City Commissioner and former regulatory attorney with a history of strengthening consumer and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-225853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}