Exclusive | Q & A with Julie Menin: first Jewish NYC Council speaker ready to take on Mamdani

Upper East Side Councilwoman Julie Menin is expected to be elected the NYC Council’s speaker on Wednesday and, as a moderate Democrat, could be the city’s last line of defense against a far-leftist majority body that critics fear could turn the Big Apple into a Leninist commune.During a wide-ranging, 20-minute interview Friday with The Post’s Rich Calder, Menin, 58 — the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and a vocal Israel supporter — outlined her plan to navigate a working relationship with Socialist, pro-Palestine Mayor Zohran Mamdani and lead the Council as its first Jewish speaker.Q: As speaker, what will your goals and objectives be? A: I’m really looking forward to the next four years and making sure the City Council is more proactive.

I feel that we have been reactive a lot ..

.We’re going to put forward a proactive, affordable housing plan that looks at the 215 public library branches to see which ones would be suitable to build additional affordable housing.

We’re going to look at 1,000 city-owned sites — we have a number of underutilized buildings and land that could be repurposed to build more housing..

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And then legislatively, we, first of all, want to focus on universal childcare.That’s something the council has been working on for years.

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.I want to look at lowering fines for small businesses and cutting through the red tape.

We want to crack down on waste fraud and abuse that has been happening for the last four years at City Hall, and by that, I mean, for example, no-bid contracts.No-bid contracts had been utilized, not just by the past administration, but by many administrations, quite frankly, and it has meant billions of dollars in spending that is really wasteful and not necessary.

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.Then procurement reform.

There is no reason that it should cost the Parks Department $4 million to build a bathroom in a city park, or take up to 10 years simply to renovate a park.Q: You’ll be the City Council’s first Jewish ...