AR Bernard, a prominent Brooklyn pastor appointed to Mayor Adams’ latest Charter Revision Commission, resigned from the panel Friday after the Daily News pressed questions about whether he was legally able to serve on it.
The resignation came after The News asked Adams’ office late Thursday for comment about the fact that Bernard, who leads the city’s largest evangelical church, maintains a residency on Long Island. Under city law, members of Charter Revision Commissions must be New York City residents.
“Reverend Bernard has informed the commission that he will be stepping down due to the time commitment that serving would require,” Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the commission, said in response to the inquiry. “The commission is grateful for his initial offer to serve. A suitable replacement will soon be named.”
A News review of voter rolls, property documents and other records raised questions about whether Bernard met the residency requirement. He is actively registered to vote as a Republican in Suffolk County, listing a one-family, six-bedroom home in St. James as his home address in Board of Elections paperwork.
Property records show Bernard, 71, and his wife, who have six children, bought the home for $1.4 million in 2021. They took out a $1.1 million mortgage on the sprawling 2.3 acre property that they finished paying off in March 2024, records show. On his personal Facebook page, Bernard lists a PO box near the St. James home as his mailing address.
Conversely, The News found no record of Bernard or his wife owning property in the city since the mid-1990s. One of the questions The News asked Adams’ office was whether he maintained a residence within the five boroughs that was not reflected in property records, such as a rental apartment.
Bernard didn’t respond to calls and texts this week.
He and his wife have owned and sold several properties on Long Island over the past few decades, records show. A New York Times profile of Bernard from 2009 said he and his wife “live with three dogs on Long Island.”
A former-city Law Department attorney who served as a counsel on one of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Charter Revision Commissions said the residency requirement exists with good reason.
“The charter is the city’s constitution and any amendments to it will have the force of law, so the requirements are there to make sure someone who doesn’t have a stake in the city can’t change [the charter],” said the attorney, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bernard, who’s known as the “power pastor” for his political connections and has more than 32,000 parishioners at his Christian Cultural Center church in East New York, was among 14 people picked by Adams in December to be part of his second revision commission, which he tasked with crafting City Charter amendments that could boost housing production.
Bernard was one of only two members on Adams’ new commission absent from the panel’s first meeting this past Tuesday. At the outset of the meeting, commission members introduced themselves by stating which of the city’s five boroughs they reside in.
Bernard’s resignation comes after Adams’ first Charter Revision Commission launched last year also include the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, who sparked residency concerns over his New Jersey home. At the time, Adams’ office said Daughtry was able to serve on the commission because he’s registered to vote in the city and splits his time between Brooklyn and New Jersey.
The goal of Adams’ latest commission is to formulate referendum questions to get onto the November 2025 general election ballot. In announcing the panel last month, Adams’ office said he wants it to come up with questions that’d amend the Charter to “combat the city’s generational housing crisis.”
The launch of the mayor’s panel came after Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced plans to roll out her own revision commission. One of her top charter revision priorities has been to give the Council more oversight of city government appointments the mayor can currently make unilaterally.
Due to a quirk in state law, the Council can’t advance referendum questions onto a ballot that includes questions crafted by a mayoral commission. Speaker Adams and her Democratic colleagues have accused the mayor of launching his latest commission in a deliberate bid to block their effort — a charge he denies.
In spring 2024, Adams launched his first commission, which also ended up blocking the Council from advancing their own set of referendum questions onto this past November’s ballot.
That commission got several questions onto the November ballot that proposed placing more restrictions on the way the Council drafts laws, especially ones related to public safety. All of the questions except one were approved by city voters in November.
With Josephine Stratman
Originally Published:
