I just heard that Governor Cuomo is threatening to remove Mayor DeBlasio; does he really have that power under New York law? Has any governor ever done it before?
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Yes, where did you hear this is the question.
Last July the question was raised with respect to a campaign visit DeBlasio made to Iowa.
Based on this, the answers seem to be:
He can suspend the mayor for thirty days; whether he can remove him is unclear.
The process for removing a mayor is less than clear, with the governor having the legal authority to suspend a mayor for 30 days, but not much is written beyond that in terms of how to remove them, beyond outlining a vague process.
FDR was considering suspending Mayor Jimmy Walker for corruption, but Walker resigned before he could do so.
You have to go back to 1932 the last time a sitting governor attempted to remove the city’s mayor from office. Then-Governor Franklin Roosevelt was seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and there were calls for him to remove Mayor Jimmy Walker over a corruption scandal that even involved a murder. Walker resigned before he could be removed.
BREAKING: NY Governor Cuomo threatens to ‘displace’ Mayor de Blasio and bring in the National Guard
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that given the failure of Mayor Bill de Blasio to get control of New York City last night, he may take action to remove the mayor from his post.
BREAKING: NY Governor Cuomo threatens to "displace" NY Mayor Deblasio and bring in the National Guard. Says the Mayor and the NYPD failed last night.
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 2, 2020
From last year. (Jul 15, 2019)Cuomo Declines to Use Power to Suspend de Blasio as Mayor
In three separate media appearences on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo was asked a variation of the same question about his one-time rival, Mayor Bill de Blasio: Will he use his emergency powers as governor to suspend the mayor from office?
That was the case outlined in a front-page editorial in the New York Post, which said de Blasio needs to be relieved of his responsibilities as mayor immediately for campaiging in Iowa, while the blackout unfolded.
While Cuomo certainly indulged that question being asked, he stopped far short of pledging to take action against the mayor.
For any non-New Yorkers in the audience, a vital bit of context here is that Cuomo and de Blasio have been engaged in mutual dick-measuring bitchfests since the day de Blasio was elected.
As others have said, the governor’s authority to suspend municipal executives is limited. Changing the city charter or taking over the city government would require an act of the state legislature.
If de Blasio is suspended for thirty days, who takes over the protest response?
The line of succession goes to the NYC Public Advocate, then the NYC Comptroller. I’m not sure if there is any defined order after that.
The governor of Michigan may remove mayors in that state; there were public hearings as to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit in 2008, but he was criminally indicted and resigned before Gov. Jennifer Granholm had to take the grave step of actually removing him from office.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has opened a historic hearing in Detroit to determine whether Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, right, committed misconduct and should be removed from office. (AP Photos)
• Read the story
On March 24, 2008, Kilpatrick was charged with eight felony counts, including perjury, misconduct in office, and obstruction of justice. On May 13, 2008, the Detroit City Council approved a resolution to request that Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, remove Kilpatrick from office. On August 8, 2008, Michigan's Attorney General, Mike Cox, announced two new felony counts had been filed against Kilpatrick for assaulting and interfering with a law officer.
On September 4, 2008, Kilpatrick anno...
what’s kind of funny is that the actual law laying out the process for doing so was written in 1954, and lists “habitual drunkenness” as one of the possible justifications for removal.