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Mayor Eric Adams’ administration went on the offensive Tuesday as he prepares to nominate Randy Mastro, an attorney with a long and controversial career, to be the city’s top lawyer.
Despite opposition by the City Council, Adams’ administration has confirmed it is considering Mastro, a partner at King & Spalding and former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani, to replace Syliva Hinds-Radix as the city’s corporation counsel. But members of the City Council, who could reject his nomination, have begun voicing objections about Mastro’s work, which has included representing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the “Bridgegate” scandal, helping Chevron avoid paying a $9 billion pollution fine — and, currently, representing New Jersey in its lawsuit against congestion pricing.
But Adams mounted a defense of Mastro during a press conference on Tuesday, calling it “a slippery slope to go after attorneys for representing their clients.”
The job of corporation counsel is rarely the subject of political squabbling, and it’s unusual for the controversy to play out so publicly before a nominee has even been announced. But the dayslong debate adds another chapter to the mayor’s sometimes-messy dealings with the City Council, which included lawmakers overriding Adams’ vetoes of two public safety bills in January.
Trying to reframe the Mastro debate, Adams’ chief counsel Lisa Zornberg talked up the attorney’s qualifications during Tuesday’s press conference. Zornberg, who advises the mayor on legal issues, rattled off Mastro’s service on the boards of Citizens Union and the Legal Aid Society, and noted that he represented Black Lives Matter protesters who sued the federal government over their 2020 dispersal near the White House.
“Randy’s an incredibly top-notch, world-renowned lawyer who’s given tremendous service already in the past,” Zornberg said. She likened Mastro’s more controversial cases to Founding Father John Adams’ famous work representing British soldiers accused of murder following the Boston Massacre.
The administration’s defense came hours after another ominous sign for the nomination. The council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus , which comprises nearly two-thirds of the 51-member body, announced their opposition to Mastro in a Tuesday morning statement, citing his past work “against a number of Council priorities” — including his efforts to block homeless shelters in Midtown and the Upper West Side.
Adams is looking to replace the current corporation counsel, Hinds-Radix, due to disagreements over how to handle some of the legal challenges confronting his administration, the Daily News reported. (Adams denied any discord on Tuesday, calling Hinds-Radix “a longtime friend.”)
Those legal issues include the federal investigation into whether his campaign conspired with the Turkish government, a lawsuit accusing the mayor of sexual assault in 1993, and multiple investigations into the conduct of his aides Timothy Pearson and Winnie Greco. The city is also trying to fend off a potential federal takeover of the Rikers Island jail complex, and a tangle of legal issues surrounding the ongoing migrant crisis. The corporation counsel defends the mayor, the city and its agencies in civil cases, leading the city’s Law Department.
The Mastro skeptics are not limited to antagonists of the mayor’s. Shaun Abreu, a Manhattan Democrat not known as an Adams foe, told the Daily News last week that he did not expect Mastro’s nomination to even advance past a committee vote.
One council member, who requested anonymity to discuss the body’s internal dynamics, told Crain’s on Tuesday that there appears to be a solid majority ready to vote against Mastro’s nomination.
“It would have been a smarter approach to better understand the council politics before putting the name out there in public,” the lawmaker said. “Because it’s going to both damage Randy Mastro’s reputation having to go through a failed process, and damage the mayor’s position bargaining with the council to have a notable public loss.”
Mastro did not respond to a request for comment.
Mastro, who has donated to Adams’ campaign, served in the 1990s as chief of staff and later deputy mayor to Giuliani, where he was known for his aggressiveness — and his work to rid the Fulton Fish Market of organized crime. Despite Mastro’s work for a Republican mayor, Adams officials noted Tuesday that Mastro was one of the Giuliani administration’s top-ranking Democrats.
Mastro’s other clients in recent years have included fast-food franchisees seeking to block the state’s minimum-wage hike, landlords who challenged the state’s 2019 tenant protection laws, and Brooklyn residents who opposed a bike lane on Prospect Park West. He was known for fighting Michael Bloomberg’s administration on its proposed West Side stadium and efforts to expand taxis to the outer boroughs — prompting Crain’s to label him a “maestro of mischief” in 2013.
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Nick Garber , 2024-04-23 21:11:11
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