Council’s new GOP 5 vow to make it ‘right’
They’re “The Anti-Squad.” The City Council’s five Republicans — the legislative body’s largest GOP conference in decades — vowed to be a vanguard against soft-on-crime progressives who mirror the politics of left-wingers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her “Squad” in Congress.
“There are now five Republicans in the council who are going to be the voice countering the progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” said newly elected Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Trump die-hard from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.
Councilman Joe Borelli (R-SI), the new minority leader, said, “We have an obligation to speak up for the 565,000 registered Republicans in this city.”
Borelli, whose seven years in the council makes him the longestserving member, says a “commonsense caucus” is forming, with the five Republicans joined by five or six moderate Democrats such as Councilman Bob Holden of Middle Village, Queens, and Kalman Yeger of Borough Park, Brooklyn.
Property taxes and crime are on the immediate agenda.
“Our property taxes have gone so through the roof that people are saying they can live in Manhasset or the Gold Coast of Long Island for the property taxes they are paying to live in Queens,” said Councilwoman Vickie Paladino of Whitestone, Queens.
Staten Island’s new councilman, David Carr, said: “During the campaign, I called for the hiring of 6,000 new police officers over next five fiscal years. So that is something we’re definitely going to try to pursue.”
And Councilwoman Joann Ariola of Queens added, “We lost a lot of good officers” during the De Blasio years.
The team is so far brimming with confidence, and see Mayor Adams as a natural ally to their efforts, if not a fellow traveler. They approved of his decision to restore punitive segregation to city jails and say he has already moved to rectify the city’s race-motivated COVID response.
“We’re all giving him the benefit of the doubt,” Paladino said.
It’s not all peaches and cream, though. The group, which opposes vaccine mandates, expressed disappointment over Adams’ decision to keep de Blasio-era vaccination restrictions on private employers and city workers.