The New York City Council’s bipartisan Common Sense Caucus has two fewer members after Republicans Joann Ariola and Vickie Paladino left during a tense first meeting Tuesday.
There are now only six members: Democratic Council Members Phil Wong, Darlene Mealy and Susan Zhuang, and Republican Council Members Frank Morano, David Carr and Inna Vernikov. Wong and Morano were named co-chairs, with Mealy getting the title of caucus dean.
Paladino and Ariola’s departures are a big loss for a caucus that sought to pool the voices of the council’s few Republicans with its most moderate Democrats. While technically either could choose to rejoin in the future, the group’s membership is a mere quarter of the Progressive Caucus, which recently voted in 24 people – the group’s biggest number in years.
Ariola announced her departure in a statement on X. “When this caucus was formed in December, 2021, its purpose was to bring members together around practical, bipartisan solutions and give a voice to those who felt City Hall was becoming focused more on ideological grandstanding than on actual results,” Ariola wrote. “Sadly, I believe that the caucus has strayed from those principles.”
Paladino did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an additional statement to City & State, Ariola took issue with the new leadership, calling the caucus’ Staten Island contingent an “old boys club.”
“When I learned that they had previously dismissed Councilmember Mealy’s request to be co-chair in favor of a first year member, and then had written up the agenda with absolutely no input from Councilmember Paladino or myself, I realized this was not the kind of Caucus I wanted to be a part of,” she said.
After Ariola and Paladino left the meeting on Tuesday, the remaining members of the caucus voted to elect new leadership. A City Hall source said Mealy was given the dean position after she threatened to leave the caucus if she was not named co-chair.
Ariola and Paladino’s departures come less than two months after Ariola was voted out as chair of the council’s minority caucus in a protracted power struggle between herself and Carr.
In a statement on the caucus’ new leadership, Morano and Wong did not address the drop in caucus membership, but said they “look(ed) forward to continuing to pursue practical solutions to the problems facing New Yorkers.”
