Vernikov was elected to the City Council as the Republican Whip

City Councilman Irina Vernikov, who represents The 48th constituency of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, was elected Party Whip of the City Council this week.

In addition, Republican City Councilman Joe Borelli, who represents Staten Island's 51st district, was elected minority leader.

The new New York City Council meets this week, and Queens Democratic City Councilor Adriene Adams officially takes over as the new speaker. In addition to Vernikov and Borelli, there are Vickie Paladino from Constituency 21 of Queens, Joan Ariola from Constituency 32, and David Carr from Stanton Island.

Although there are only 5 Republicans in the city council, their leaders in parliament need to be elected according to the procedure, and Vernikov, who was elected in last year's election to represent Sheephead Bay, was elected as the party whip. The duty of the party whip is to supervise the law enforcers of the party's parliamentarians, to ensure that the party's deputies vote unanimously, and to ensure that the decisions made by the party's deputies on the voting positions of the party on proposals and other votes in parliament do not deviate from the party's consistent principles.

Vernikov, 37, of Ukrainian descent and is now a practicing lawyer, represents constituencies of 48 including Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend and Midwood, which have large chinese populations. She defeated the Democratic candidate in last year's city councilor election, successfully turning the district from blue to red, from a traditional Democratic constituency to a Republican red district.