Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 22/strong>
Gothamist: Republican Joe Borelli, the minority leader of the New York City Council, will resign at the end of the month, he told Gothamist on Saturday.
“ I can’t run for office again. So the right opportunity did come along and it was the right time for my family and I to take the plunge,” Borelli said. “ I feel very comfortable leaving Staten Island in the capable hands of the present and future elected officials and I wish everyone in City Hall luck going forward.”
The Staten Island lawmaker, who has represented the borough’s South Shore in the Council for nearly a decade, first told the New York Post he would resign months before he was set to be term-limited from his office at the end of this year. He said he will become a lobbyist with Washington D.C.-based Chartwell Strategy Group and will open the firm’s New York office.
In the Council, Borelli began with a three-member Republican delegation that has since grown to include six of the Council’s 51 members. Those small numbers mean he could not advance much legislation.
“ It was tough to lose the overwhelming majority of policy battles,” Borelli said. “Being a Staten Islander, you know we’re already on our back foot, so I’m just one of those believers in the idea that it’s great to pass the baton to people who are fresher and younger and have different ideas about how to accomplish things.”
The conservative lawmaker voiced concern about the future of the city’s finances, and whether spending levels and the current tax burden on New Yorkers were sustainable. But he also said he’s pleased to see the city’s electorate shift rightward, and added that he sees that shift as part of his legacy.
