New York City Speaker candidates make their pitch to incoming New York City Council members

The eight New York City Council speaker candidates have been making their pitch to the public for a month, but they’ll get a rare opportunity Friday to speak to some of the actual people who will be voting: fellow city council members. 

The 11 newly elected City Council members have been invited to City & State’s new council member retreat on Dec. 1, an all-day event featuring off-the-record presentations on navigating the budget, dealing with the media and more.

But while the discussion will be geared toward the inner workings of the council, and only invited guests will be able to attend in person, the debate will be streamed online on City & State’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

At 12:30 p.m., the speaker candidates will take part in the one-hour debate in front of the new council members. Former City Councilman Ken Fisher, now with Cozen O’Connor, and City & State Editor-in-Chief Jon Lentz will moderate the discussion.

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The candidates have been invited to more than a dozen public forums in the past month focused on topics like criminal justice, affordable housing and racial justice. But with the unique crowd of new city council members, the moderators plan to ask some questions about management of the council and the legislative process.

Overwhelmed by the amount of public forums, four of the candidates collectively committed this week to only attending certain forums in the coming weeks. Those candidates – Council members Robert Cornegy, Corey Johnson Mark Levine and Ritchie Torres – said they would attend Friday’s event. The other four candidates – Council members Donovan Richards, Ydanis Rodriguez, Jimmy Van Bramer and Jumaane Williams – are also expected to attend.

The event is private, but you can follow the debate live on Twitter and Facebook from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.