City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is facing her first widespread fight with members, nearly three months after winning the job.
The burgeoning discontent has been prompted, most recently, by the speaker's appointments to the body's "budget negotiating team," or BNT.
Several members, including some of her allies in the Progressive Caucus, are furious they were left out of the group, and recently held a conference call to air their concerns, multiple sources told Capital.
Other members are upset they were not informed directly by the speaker or her aides about the makeup of the team, which reviews the city's budget and determines the Council's priorities before it is adopted on July 1.
Mark-Viverito promised to be more approachable and inclusive than her predecessor, Christine Quinn, who was often criticized for ruling the Council with a heavy hand. But between the delayed consultation over the paid-sick bill, which members learned about from the media, and the new appointments to BNT, some of her colleagues are growing skeptical of that campaign commitment.
Several of the members interviewed for this article said they felt Mark-Viverito, so far, has been less inclusive than her predecessor.
