Let the record show that many members of the New York City Council oppose the “n” word, are horrified by the killings in Darfur, Sudan, and that at least one wants super-skinny fashion models banned from Fashion Week.

Arguably the most provocative rhetoric to come out of City Hall last week didn’t concern bills politicians actually tried to introduce or get passed, such as new rules for builders, an incremental broadening of domestic-partner benefits, and the closing of a disclosure loophole for lobbying disclosure. Instead, it was publicity surrounding three resolutions that made news around the globe.

The subjects the council members are addressing with the resolutions — body image, racism, and genocide — are confounding social and political problems, but does the 51-member body that meets between Broadway and Centre Street wield the power to control these issues? Absolutely not.

Nevertheless, supporters say the resolutions fulfill lawmakers’ unwritten duties to be civic leaders, channeling Gotham’s zeitgeist into declarative written statements.

“It helps put issues on the agenda,” a teacher of public administration at Columbia University, Steven Cohen, said.

While two of last week’s resolutions, to “ban” the use of the “n” word and jettison skinny models, are largely symbolic, the Darfur resolution calls on city and state public pension funds to divest money from the war-torn region.

Critics call them a waste of valuable political time, largely divorced from the council’s legislative mandate.

Even though most concede the latest resolutions serve a laudable purpose, some say the bureaucratic maneuvering involved in resolutions — committee hearings, debate time, printing, organizing — can waste time and taxpayer dollars and have little direct impact once they ‘re passed.

“They do nothing. They just sit on the shelf,” Council Member Tony Avella of Queens said, adding, “When you think about it, we should be concentrating on things that the council has control over.”

While Mr. Avella said the issues his colleagues introduced last week are important, he said he hopes to reform the resolution process by at least making sure resolutions don’t just gather dust once they’re passed.

But his changes could require more than a resolution.

YEAR PROPOSED COUNCIL RESOLUTIONS

2007

• Abolishing the “n-word” symbolically during Black History Month

• Calling on Fashion Week sponsors to ban models with a body mass index of lower than 18.5 from walking the runways

• Asking city and state pension funds to divest investments connected with Sudan until the genocide in Darfur ends

2006

• Expressing outrage about President Ahmadinejad of Iran’s comments that “Israel must be wiped off the map”

• Demanding President Bush withdraw American troops from Iraq and Congress reject the president’s war funding request

2005

• Resolving to ask the government to “cease portraying [cop killer] Assata Shakur as a terrorist, and … grant her clemency.”