Councilman Ari Kagan, who turned down crime-promoting Democrats, is punished by New York City Council Speaker

The Democratic City Council Leader is punishing Brooklyn City Councilman Ari Kagan for moving to the Republican Party by stripping him of his committee chair and downgrading him, The Post has learned.

Kagan said Council Speaker Adrienne Adams was behind the decision to remove him as chair of the Sustainability and Coastal Commission after he announced in December that he had abandoned the Democrats because of their far-left soft-line policies on crime, which are despised by many of the his supporters. – law enforcement voters in South Brooklyn.

“This shows pettiness! Nothing happens on the New York City Council without the speaker’s permission. Of course, this is the speaker’s decision,” Kagan told The Post.

Kagan said he was also removed from the land use, finance, housing and construction committees, and that the sustainability and coastline committee he chairs was disbanded and merged with the environmental committee.

He was transferred to other committees: fire prevention and control, technology, and veterans’ affairs.

“In January, December, I didn’t hear anything, and today I find out that they are voting for the dissolution of this committee. This shows the hypocrisy of the leadership of the council and the Democratic Party,” Kagan said.

“They say they take care of hurricanes and storm preparations, but they don’t! They forced me to step down as chairman in December and never appointed a new chairman!”

He said he was also told he had to move from his larger excavations to a smaller, windowless office at 250 Broadway, opposite City Hall.

Following the redistricting, Kagan, if he wins the GOP primary, is expected to face Democratic Councilman Justin Brennan, who is part of Speaker Adams’ leadership team and chair of the influential finance committee, in November in November.

The new 47th District covers parts of Brannan’s base at Bay Ridge to parts of Coney Island, Gravesend and Sea Gate currently represented by Kagan.

In recent years, voters in south Brooklyn have turned against the Democrats, with GOP councilor Inna Vernikov and Republican Assemblyman Lester Chang taking the once-safe Democratic seats in the past few years.

Adrienne Adams’ office immediately commented on the situation. Brennan too.

But in December, Speaker Adams issued a statement calling Kagan a defector, suggesting a reckoning was in the works.

“Voters sent Council member Kagan to the Council as a member of the majority conference, and this drastic reversal seriously calls into question his commitment to the political priorities of our conference, which will affect his role on the committee, especially his chairmanship, given the fact that he is joining the party that denies climate change,” Adams said at the time.

“New Yorkers expect their representatives to carry the values ​​they have chosen to take precedence over politics. Our Democratic Conference will continue to consistently put the public interest of our city ahead of politics without Council member Kagan.”

Explaining the party switch in December, Kagan said: “The Democratic Party in New York was moving towards [the] left at such a speed that I did not have time, ”Kagan said.

“It’s not me leaving the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party started to leave me very quickly.”

“I believe right now the Democratic Party is doing everything they can in New York to make everyone less safe,” he said.