Politics & Government Reviewed July 2026
Who actually runs New York City
One charter, five kinds of elected official, and a lot of confusion about who does what. The document itself is blunter than any civics class.
The numbers that matter
- The Mayor
- Chief executive: runs the agencies (NYPD, schools, sanitation, housing) and proposes the budget (NYC Charter, Chapter 1, Section 3)
- The Council
- The city's legislature: 51 members, holds the city's full legislative power, adopts the budget and land-use changes (NYC Charter, Chapter 2, Sections 21–22)
- The Comptroller
- Independently elected auditor of every city contract and dollar (NYC Charter, Chapter 5, Section 93)
- The Public Advocate
- Citywide watchdog for complaints about city services; first in line if the mayoralty goes vacant (NYC Charter, Chapter 1, Section 10; Chapter 2, Section 24)
- Borough Presidents
- One per borough: advisory on budget and land use, with hearing and appointment powers, not command of agencies (NYC Charter, Chapter 4, Sections 81–82)
The Mayor: the shortest job description in the Charter
The entire constitutional basis for the most powerful municipal job in America is one sentence:
The mayor shall be the chief executive officer of the city.
Everything else flows from that sentence: the Mayor appoints the commissioners who run the NYPD, the schools, sanitation, housing, health, and dozens more agencies, and can fire most of them at will. When your trash isn't picked up, this is the office that owns the problem.
The City Council: the legislature people forget
The Council is not an advisory board. The Charter hands it the whole legislative power of the city, and it writes the local laws, adopts the budget, and holds the effective veto over rezonings that decides what gets built where:
There shall be a council which shall be the legislative body of the city. In addition to the other powers vested in it by this charter and other law, the council shall be vested with the legislative power of the city.
The council shall consist of the public advocate and of fifty-one other members termed council members.
Fifty-one districts, each around 170,000 New Yorkers, which makes your Council member the closest thing the city has to a neighborhood-level elected official. The Public Advocate sits with the Council but, as you'll see below, cannot vote.
The Comptroller: the auditor with subpoena-grade teeth
Independently elected, which is the point: the Comptroller audits the same government the Mayor runs, and the Mayor cannot fire them. The Charter's grant is sweeping:
The comptroller shall have power to audit and investigate all matters relating to or affecting the finances of the city, including without limitation the performance of contracts and the receipt and expenditure of city funds
The office also manages the city's pension funds, registers every city contract, and settles claims against the city. It is the best-documented perch in city government, which is why Comptrollers keep running for Mayor.
The Public Advocate: the watchdog and the understudy
The job confuses everyone because it has no agencies to run. The Charter makes it two things at once. First, the city's complaint department with a citywide mandate:
the public advocate shall serve as the public advocate and shall (1) monitor the operation of the public information and service complaint programs of city agencies and make proposals to improve such programs
Second, and the part that matters most in a crisis, the understudy. If the mayoralty falls vacant, the Charter is explicit about who steps in:
the powers and duties of the office of mayor shall devolve upon the public advocate
The Public Advocate also sits in the Council and, per Section 24, 'shall have the right to participate in the discussion of the council but shall not have a vote.' A voice, a bully pulpit, and a place in the line of succession: that is the whole office.
Borough Presidents: the megaphones
Since the old Board of Estimate was abolished and its vote over budgets and land use redistributed, the five Borough Presidents hold influence rather than command. The Charter's list of their powers reads accordingly:
Have power to recommend capital projects. ... Have power to hold public hearings on matters of public interest. ... Make recommendations to the mayor and to other city officials in the interests of the people of the borough.
Recommend, hold hearings, make recommendations. A Borough President's real levers are appointments (community boards, seats on the Panel for Educational Policy and the City Planning Commission), a formal advisory role in land-use review, a small capital budget, and the megaphone. Used well, that is genuine power. It is just not an army.
So who actually runs it?
Day to day: the Mayor, overwhelmingly. The law and the money: the Mayor and the Council together, since the Council must pass both. The receipts: the Comptroller. The complaints: the Public Advocate. The borough's case: the Borough President. And hovering over all of it, Albany, which controls the MTA, the rent laws, and a long list of things City Hall gets blamed for. That split is its own explainer, linked below.
The questions New Yorkers actually ask
What does the Mayor of New York actually control?
The executive branch: the Charter names the Mayor the city's chief executive officer, which in practice means appointing and firing the commissioners who run the NYPD, the public schools, sanitation, housing, health, and the rest of the agencies, plus proposing the budget the Council adopts.
What is the difference between the Public Advocate and the Comptroller?
The Comptroller is the city's elected auditor: contracts, spending, pensions. The Public Advocate is the elected watchdog for complaints about city services, sits in the Council without a vote, and is first in line if the mayoralty goes vacant. Neither runs any city agency.
Do Borough Presidents have any real power?
Real but soft. The Charter gives them recommendation and hearing powers, appointments to community boards and citywide panels, an advisory role in land-use review, and some capital money. They command no agencies; their influence is appointments plus attention.
Why does Albany decide so many New York City issues?
Because the city is legally a creature of the state. The state runs the MTA, writes the rent laws, and sets much of the criminal, education, and tax law the city lives under. Plenty of things New Yorkers blame on City Hall are decided three hours north.
The documents
The public records this page draws on. Read them yourself:
This is the background. The brief is what’s happening now.
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