In vying to become the City Council’s next speaker, Julie Menin has in private conversations floated bringing back use of the chamber’s subpoena power, a tool that could be a potential check on incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration , according to three sources familiar with the matter.

It’s not unusual for city agencies to refrain from providing all the information and documents requested by the Council — an issue that has become especially pitched under Mayor Adams , whose outgoing administration has several times refused outright to show up to Council hearings. Nonetheless, the Council has in recent decades rarely used its subpoena authority. Outgoing Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, for instance, hasn’t once issued a subpoena under her four years as the chamber’s top leader

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