Jumaane Williams: Voting and Legislative Record
Jumaane Williams has a more substantial legislative record than most New York City elected officials, having sponsored landmark bills both as a City Council member and as Public Advocate, an office that retains the power to introduce legislation in the City Council. This section examines what he has actually passed, how he has voted on contested measures, and how his record compares to the claims he makes about it, with citations to primary or strong secondary sources.
A note up front: legislative records can be measured in different ways, and the gap between bills passed into law as prime sponsor and broader counts that include resolutions and co-sponsorships is significant. This section tries to be precise about which is which, in keeping with capturing the actual record rather than only the messaging around it.
City Council record (2010 to 2019)
Williams's most consequential council legislation was the Community Safety Act, a package of policing reforms passed in 2013 over a veto by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg 1,2. The act:
Created the NYPD Office of Inspector General, the department's first independent watchdog.
Made it easier for New Yorkers to sue in state court if they were victims of bias-based police profiling.
Addressed the abuse of stop, question, and frisk, a practice a federal court found unconstitutional in 2013 1.
He also sponsored the Fair Chance Act, known as "Ban the Box," which prohibits public and private employers citywide from asking job applicants about criminal convictions or arrest records before extending a job offer 1.
As Co-Chair of the council's Task Force to Combat Gun Violence, Williams helped launch New York's Crisis Management System, which funds Cure Violence groups using a community-based, public-health approach to reducing shootings 3.
A notable council vote against his own party
One of the most revealing votes of Williams's council tenure was his 2016 vote against Mayor Bill de Blasio's Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, a centerpiece of de Blasio's affordable housing agenda. Williams was one of only three council members to oppose it, arguing from the left that it did not guarantee deeply enough affordable units 4. The vote demonstrates that his record includes opposition to mainstream Democratic measures he viewed as insufficiently progressive.
Public Advocate record (2019 to present)
The Public Advocate has the unusual power to introduce legislation in the City Council despite not being a council member. Williams has used this power more actively than his predecessors.
His signature Public Advocate legislation is the ban on solitary confinement in city jails. He introduced the bill, Intro 549, in June 2022, framing solitary confinement as a practice the United Nations defines as torture 5. The legislative path was contentious:
The City Council passed the bill, Intro 549-A, in a December 2023 vote, with a veto-proof majority 6,7.
Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the bill in early 2024, arguing it would endanger safety in city jails 8.
The City Council overrode the veto.
In July 2024, Adams issued an executive order suspending parts of the law shortly before it was due to take effect, prompting Williams and the City Council to consider legal action to force implementation 9.
The solitary confinement fight became emblematic of Williams's adversarial relationship with Adams and of the limits of the Public Advocate's enforcement power: he could pass a law but struggled to compel the mayor to implement it.
Other Public Advocate legislation has included a requirement for dyslexia screening in city jails and a range of bills on public safety, environmental protection, housing safety, and services for veterans and homeless New Yorkers 10,11.
Examining the bill-count claims
Williams's campaign materials state that he has passed "more than 100 bills and resolutions into law," describing himself as one of the most accomplished active legislators in the city and claiming a total exceeding all prior Public Advocates combined 10. This claim deserves careful parsing.
His own office's official press releases provide a more precise picture. As of the end of 2023, his office stated that he had passed 26 pieces of legislation as prime sponsor since taking office as Public Advocate, including 11 in 2023 alone, and described that total as "more than all previous officeholders combined" 11.
The reconciliation appears to be that the broader figure of more than 100 bills and resolutions spans his entire career (council plus Public Advocate) and includes non-binding resolutions and co-sponsorships, while the count of 26 pieces of legislation reflects only laws passed as prime sponsor during his Public Advocate tenure through 2023.
Both can be accurate depending on what is counted; readers should understand which metric is being cited. The comparison to prior Public Advocates is plausible given that the office was long considered a relatively weak platform with limited legislative output before Williams.
Statewide positions versus voting record
Williams has never held a state legislative office, so he has no Albany voting record. His statewide policy positions, articulated during his 2018 lieutenant governor and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, were advocacy platforms rather than votes cast. Those platforms called for passing stalled progressive bills including Good Cause eviction, the New York Health Act, the All-Electric Building Act, and the Build Public Renewables Act, among others 12.
How the record reads
By the conventional measure of bills passed into law as prime sponsor, Williams has a stronger record than most New York City officials and a notably stronger one than prior Public Advocates, with the Community Safety Act, the Fair Chance Act, and the solitary confinement ban as genuine landmarks. The solitary confinement saga also illustrates the gap between passing a law and seeing it enforced, a limit inherent to the Public Advocate's office.
The honest assessment is that Williams's legislative record is real and substantive, but that his broadest self-description, the claim of more than 100 bills and resolutions, blends categories in a way that can overstate the count of binding laws passed as prime sponsor.
Supporters point to the landmark bills as evidence of genuine impact; critics note that some of his highest-profile measures, particularly the solitary confinement ban, faced sustained resistance to implementation. Both observations are accurate, and together they capture a record that is more consequential than most while also subject to the structural limits of the office he holds.