As a rent freeze on stabilized units took effect Thursday to the delight of housing advocates and tenants of the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments, a legal mess that could challenge the freeze continued to unfold.
A group of landlords suing the city over the rent freeze on Thursday published pages of correspondence between city officials and members of the Rent Guidelines Board, claiming the communications proved Mayor Mamdani used the board to execute his political will.
“The contacts between City Hall and the RGB were not only substantial, but also shocking, in that they show coordination and collaboration throughout the RGB’s process,” attorney and frequent Mamdani antagonist Randy Mastro wrote in a letter to the court.
Mastro is a former first deputy mayor under ex-Mayor Adams and an attorney who has filed at least five actions against the Mamdani administration.
Mamdani made a rent freeze one of his signature issues on the campaign trail, but has backed away from making many public statements about it as mayor, under the threat of legal action. The RGB in a June vote declined to raise rents for both one- and two-year leases, citing the city’s historic vacancy rate and a cost-of-living crisis.
If the judge sided with the landlords, the freeze would be canceled and RBG would have to restart its process.
“I am confident in the Rent Guidelines Board’s decision, their independent decision, and the Law Department’s continued defense of what they have done and the fact that they made that decision on the basis of all the information that they had in front of them,” Mamdani said at a press conference in Brooklyn.
The communications were released after the judge, in a rare move last month, granted the plaintiff’s request for the city to turn over any communications about the board’s decision. The resulting 3,000 pages of texts, emails and screenshots appear to be largely logistical back-and-forths about public meeting schedules, announcements and data from the board’s reports.
Nothing in the papers uploaded to the court docket shows members of the administration pushing for a rent freeze.
Among the materials Mastro claimed proved coordination between City Hall and the board was a text message exchange between Mamdani and a newly selected RGB member, Brandon Mancilla, in February, shortly before Mancilla’s appointment was announced.
“Hi Brandon, this is my new work number — Mayor Mamdani,” the mayor wrote. Mancilla responded, asking if the mayor wanted to call him back.
Mamdani replied: “No need my man but thank you! Hope you’re well.”
A spokesperson for the mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Corporation Counsel Steve Banks wrote in a letter on Thursday that the communications showed the RGB acted with the “utmost honesty, integrity, and independence.”
“Throughout this invasive and extensive search on this expedited timeframe, nothing improper or untoward was uncovered,” Banks wrote, adding that the discovery order, from Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Brendan Lantry, amounted to a “fishing expedition.”
The suit had originally been filed on Staten Island, but the city successfully advocated for a venue change to a potentially more friendly, less politically conservative audience in Manhattan state court. However, the Manhattan judge assigned to the case is a former Staten Island GOP chairman.
The freeze took effect on Thursday, meaning that any lease renewals through October 2027 must remain at the same rent price as last year: “You know, Fat Joe once said, ‘Yesterday’s price is not today’s price.’ This is one of the places where it’s not correct,” the mayor added.
Thursday’s filings also come after Gothamist/WNYC reported that a former board chair claimed Mastro himself attempted to interfere with last year’s RGB process.
Former RGB Chair Doug Apple told the outlet the then-first deputy mayor contacted him and “advocated for a low vote” ahead of the board’s decision, when the panel chose to enact a rent increase.
Mastro acknowledged in a statement that he had conversations with Apple during the RGB’s process last year, but said that he had simply told Apple that Mayor Adams disagreed with what the board’s anticipated decision. Board chairs serve at the pleasure of the mayor.
“I responded telling him why we disagreed with the Board,” Mastro said. “There is a world of difference between conveying to the Board Chair that the Mayor disagreed with the Board’s decision and orchestrating a sham process with a preordained outcome to do exactly what the Mayor dictated and promised in his campaign. That never happened in the Adams administration. That is exactly what has happened in the Mamdani administration.”
Mamdani said that Mastro’s potential attempt to influence the board was “ironic.”