Born in Brooklyn and raised in Park Slope, Kathryn Garcia joined the New York City Sanitation Department as an intern at 22. She worked in the private sector, but returned to New York City Government in 2006, where she worked in the Department of Finance and the Department of Environmental Protection. Mayor de Blasio appointed her to be the Commissioner of Sanitation in March 2014. She left the position in September 2020 over disagreements about budget cuts and management. Shortly after, she announced her bid to replace her former boss. She has never held an elected office.

In her quest to become the City’s next Mayor, Garcia has articulated a vision that many find appealing after the last eight years — namely, that City government needs to be managed effectively to solve problems. She promises to identify the programs that work, eliminate redundancy in government operations, and invest in the programs that bring results. She is known as a strong manager who leads by organizing and steering teams through to completion. It is these capabilities that led Mayor de Blasio to ask her to assume leadership positions during times of crisis. She was appointed temporary interim CEO and Chair of NYCHA amid the lead paint scandal, and a “food czar” in charge of food distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garcia’s priorities for recovery include supplying the most vulnerable New Yorkers with meaningful economic relief and pathways for economic mobility, and providing support for small businesses by increasing access to credit, streamlining regulations, and cutting red tape for permits. She also has an ambitious climate plan. She wants to electrify 10,000 school buses and install 3,000 electric car chargers citywide.

Although reform issues do not take center stage in her campaign agenda, she does promise to prioritize transparency as a pillar of her administration. She wants to make measurements and performance data public to hold agencies accountable and keep residents informed. And she promises to maintain tough and fair discipline at the NYPD, touting her experience managing a uniformed, largely male agency. A public servant most of her life, she lacks the political ties that bind many elected officials who attempt to push for reforms.

While an accomplished manager, Garcia is not as inspirational as some of the other candidates. If elected, she will need to develop a leadership style that reaches beyond City Hall, that lifts New Yorkers and brings them together post-pandemic.

Garcia’s proven track record of managing City agencies through crises and her common-sense approach to the challenges facing the City coming out of the pandemic are the reasons why Citizens Union prefers her in this race.

Eric Adams is currently Brooklyn’s Borough President, a position he has held for the last eight years. He served in the State Senate between 2006 and 2013, representing Central Brooklyn. Citizens Union supported his elections to both of those positions. Prior to becoming an elected official, Adams served for 22 years in the New York Police Department, leaving the force as a Sergeant after he was targeted in a shooting. He has a compelling personal story and is considered by many to be an inspiring leader.

Adams emphasizes public safety and economic recovery as his priorities. He plans to battle what he calls the dysfunctionality of the City, which he sees as “the root of all its problems.” He wants to balance the public safety needs of all communities, while assuring that the NYPD becomes a role model for accountability, and believes that as a former police officer of color he can accomplish that ambitious agenda. He promises to make the current discipline process in cases of police misconduct fairer and faster, and to recruit well-skilled, professional investigators. He seeks to move investigations conducted by the Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) to an outside body like the Department of Investigations. To improve community-police relations, he wants community members to have a say in the appointment of precinct commanders.

On the economy, Adams promises to eliminate fees and reduce fines for small businesses, to provide direct cash assistance for New Yorkers in need, and invest significantly in green jobs. As Brooklyn Borough President, he has proven track record of advancing economic development in his borough, while responding to the needs of communities affected by new development.

Adams might have ranked even higher in our preference poll but for the questions that have hounded him around fundraising and conflicts of interest. For example, as Borough President, he set up a nonprofit, One Brooklyn Fund, to solicit funds from donors who did business with the City and, in doing so, was able to raise money in higher denominations than would otherwise have been permissible to a candidate under local campaign finance laws. While legal for Adams to do so, it was reminiscent of Mayor de Blasio’s Campaign for One New York, which Citizens Union criticized and became the subject of multiple investigations. Adams claims he has been unfairly scrutinized, and says he intends to establish a compliance team at City Hall, if elected.

Adams’s inspiring leadership and vision for our City promoting public safety and economic recovery are the reasons Citizens Union prefers him in this race. Citizens Union urges him to embrace its good government agenda with the same passion he brings to so many other areas where he has succeeded in public life.

Scott Stringer is currently the New York City Comptroller. He served as Manhattan Borough President prior to that, and before that, served as an Assembly Member for 13 years, representing Manhattan’s West Side. Citizens Union has supported him in multiple election cycles as he ran for these three positions. 

Stringer takes pride in his long career as a reformer. He was instrumental in ethics reforms in the State Assembly to end empty seat voting and abolish rules that gave lobbyists special access to lawmakers. In his role as Manhattan Borough President, he changed the process for appointments, ending patronage and implemented an independent screening panel to vet Community Board candidates. 

In his bid for mayor, Stringer has focused on police accountability and ethics reform. On police accountability, he wants to create independent oversight by stripping the NYPD of its power as the sole arbiter of discipline, and empowering the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) and the Office of Administrative Trials and  Hearings (OATH) to have final authority to impose discipline. He also supports a thorough review and reform of the Patrol Guide, with a process of public review. His ethics plan includes proposals to tighten campaign finance restrictions on people doing business with the city and lobbyists, and appointing an Ethics Czar. 

His other priorities include housing. He wants to construct a “new generation” of social housing using the 2,900 vacant lots already owned by the city. He also wants to create a tenant bill of rights to ensure the safety and fair treatment of all tenants in NYC. 

For decades, Stringer has served in state and local government, been a constructive force, and developed pertinent experience, including, now, as City Comptroller. However, allegations about his personal conduct decades ago have adversely affected his campaign at this critical time. Taking all of these factors into consideration, Stringer ranked third in Citizens Union’s preference polling.

Art Chang, a former JPMorgan Chase managing director, has worked to promote civic participation and improve the City government for many years. He helped build Queens West with climate change infrastructures in mind, which was one of only two waterfronts to not lose power during Hurricane Sandy. He helped develop a software platform called CaseBook for child welfare services. He was one of the creators of NYC Votes, the city’s voter engagement program, and was appointed to the Campaign Finance Board. Citizens Union honored Chang at the 2012 Spring for Reform.

Chang plans to focus his policies on health reform, policing, and housing solutions. He wants to provide immediate relief for the homeless and those that are affected by mental illness by creating a mental health crisis management team and creating 10,000 beds in supportive housing. He also plans to cut $1.3 billion from the NYPD by cutting wasteful spending on unproductive training. 

To improve police accountability, he proposes structural changes: moving final authority over discipline to a newly created Office of Police Discipline, with authority over CCRB and IAB cases, and merging the CCRB into a new Office of Police Accountability, which would include OIG-NYPD and the Mayor’s Commission to Combat Police Corruption. The new offices would receive new investigation powers. 

Citizens Union was impressed by Chang’s experience and the breadth of his policies, and appreciates his commitment to serve the City.

Shaun Donovan served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Prior to that, he worked for five years as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s housing commissioner. He led HUD from 2009-2014 during the worst housing crisis in decades, where he helped reduce veteran homelessness by half.

Donovan points to his successes as HUD Secretary as well as his role as OMB Director as key points of experience that will help him lead New York City government. Using his relationships with the previous administration, he says he will provide a strong voice for New York City in the White House. 

His plans for office include improvements on housing, education, and climate change initiatives. Donovan plans to launch a downpayment assistance program to offer prospective homeowners assistance, as well as the establishment of a security deposit guarantee program to help low income individuals secure the funds, which are large hurdles in the search for homes in NYC. On police accountability, Donovan proposes moving authority over discipline from the NYPD to the CCRB. 

Dononvan has made a strong case for his ability to navigate and lead city government, get buy-in from Albany powerbrokers, the City Council, and the White House, and achieve practical solutions for recovery. Citizens Union believes he is well-prepared for the job, and would be an effective Mayor.

Ray McGuire is a former Vice Chairman at Citigroup, a position he held for 15 years. He left his job – one of the most important positions on Wall Street – to run for Mayor.

His platform focuses on economic recovery. He proposes bringing back 50,000 jobs through wage subsidies, a large infrastructure program, and low interest loans for businesses that need an infusion of capital to remain open. 

McGuire shares many of Citizens Union’s positions on police reform. He is the only candidate among those interviewed who promises to appoint a Deputy Mayor for Public Safety with direct oversight of the NYPD. He says that if the police commissioner is not in sync with CCRB recommendations, he will be prepared to come in and “take additional actions,” though the nature of those actions remain unclear. McGuire stresses that he would be accountable to any issue under his command. 

McGuire brings to the campaign extensive management experience and an ambitious agenda. Citizens Union commends him for seeking to serve the public as an elected official, and hopes he will continue to be involved in government, but remains concerned that what the City really needs right now coming out of the crisis of COVID-19 is someone who has a proven track record of success managing within City government.

Maya Wiley is a professor at The New School and a former MSNBC legal analyst. She chaired the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) from 2016 to 2017 and, prior to that, served as Mayor de Blasio’s Counsel. 

Wiley is running on a progressive agenda, with a signature plan she calls New Deal New York. It would invest billions of dollars in a public works program covering anything from infrastructure to art. 

She proposes one of the most ambitious police reform agendas in the race. Her plan to improve police accountability involves creating a Commission on Public Safety Oversight and Accountability, which will make binding decisions on priorities for policing, review NYPD procedures, and ensure the information coming to the mayor is comprehensive and neutral. That commission would also have the final authority on discipline over cases coming in from IAB (NYPD Internal Affairs) and the CCRB. 

Wiley also dedicates part of her platform to ethics, promising to expand the ban on “revolving door” lobbying, and to prohibit staff from being paid to do personal or political work for electeds, among other suggestions. But Wiley’s record in office counseling Mayor de Blasio on ethics issues is troubling. She was involved in devising and implementing the protocols regarding fundraising for the Mayor’s Campaign for One New York, which Citizens Union criticized and multiple investigations probed. And she counseled Mayor de Blasio when he refused to disclose communications with his outside political consultants and was then ordered by courts to do so. Wiley has since contended that her advice was not followed—a curious claim on multiple levels—yet she continued to serve in the de Blasio Administration. Thus, her actual record on ethics issues remains concerning.