{"id":387592,"date":"2026-10-30T07:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/387592\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T07:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:30:30","slug":"nyc-council-members-back-linda-tigani-amid-mamdani-plans-to-replace-her-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/387592\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Council members back Linda Tigani amid Mamdani plans to replace her"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cRacial equity is law, hands off CORE.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHands off Linda, she\u2019s our choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters of Linda Tigani, chair of the New York City Commission on Racial Equity since 2023, cried out the chants on the steps of City Hall Wednesday afternoon. Minutes later at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that Tigani\u2019s term would be extended through next summer, at which point he still planned to replace her.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s rally followed The New York Times\u2019 reporting<\/a> that Mamdani wants to replace Tigani, who has been a vocal critic of how he has handled the city\u2019s racial equity plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A judge found that both Mamdani and former Mayor Eric Adams violated law<\/a> by not meeting mandated deadlines to produce the inaugural report. The plan\u2019s draft also cut out language that referenced diversity, equity and inclusion programs, or DEI.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

While chairs can serve up to three three-year terms, Mamdani\u2019s comments Wednesday seemed to reaffirm that Tigani will only serve an extended single term. \u201cAlongside the City Council, we have agreed to extend her term to next summer, and we\u2019re excited to work with the same council to put forward Christopher Alexander as the next commissioner to pick up the mantle,\u201d Mamdani said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both the mayor and City Council Speaker Julie Menin have to approve new leadership of the commission. Menin had shown resistance<\/a> to replacing Tigani, in line with the council\u2019s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus coming out in support of her.<\/p>\n

Several council members spoke up in Tigani\u2019s defense at Wednesday\u2019s rally, including Council Members Farah Louis, Althea Stevens and Carmen De La Rosa. \u201cWork like this depends on continuity,\u201d Louis said. \u201cChanging leadership midstream risks losing institutional knowledge and the community\u2019s trust. It risks delaying and derailing a process that Black New Yorkers have waited generations to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Tigani supporters also criticized Mamdani\u2019s intended replacement, Christopher Alexander, the executive director of the state conference of the NAACP.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Black organizer, I have never been able to call the NAACP to help me help anyone. You know who I have been able to call? Linda Tigani,\u201d said Tanesha Grant, executive director of Parents Supporting Parents NY and Moms United for Black Lives NYC. \u201cShe is also our contact to pull other agencies when we can\u2019t reach them on the ground\u2026 Linda is the one who makes the connection and makes sure that the people are getting what they need in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cRacial equity is law, hands off CORE.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHands off Linda, she\u2019s our choice.\u201d Supporters of Linda Tigani, chair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-387592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}