With less than three months left in office, Mayor Eric Adams is preparing to overhaul New York Citys Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) a last-minute power play that could complicate socialist front-runner Zohran Mamdanis top campaign promise to freeze rents for the citys roughly one million rent-stabilized units.
According to multiple sources, Adams plans to appoint at least six new members to the nine-person board, a sweeping move that would shift control of one of City Halls most influential bodies just as Mamdani appears poised to win the November mayoral election. Among the possible appointees: Adams longtime ally and real estate reality TV personality Eleonora Srugo.
Its not just about freezing the rent, one source close to the discussions told The New York Post. Its about making sure landlords can afford to own and maintain these buildings. You need these buildings standing up.
The maneuver, while legal, would effectively lock in Adamss influence over rent policy for the first two years of his successors term, since most RGB members serve staggered two- to four-year terms. Six of the current members are serving on expired appointments holdovers from the de Blasio era and a seventh is set to leave at years end, giving Adams near-total power to reset the board before departing.
The mayors eleventh-hour reshuffle appears aimed squarely at undermining Mamdanis pledge to impose a citywide rent freeze a plan that has electrified his progressive base but alarmed real estate interests and moderate Democrats alike. Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens, has made the policy central to his campaign, arguing that landlords profits have soared even as tenants struggle with rising costs.
Industry leaders, however, warn that a rent freeze could cripple the citys housing stock, driving buildings into disrepair and deterring new construction. Freezing rent may sound catchy, but its bad policy short-sighted and harmful to tenants, Adams said in June, after the RGB voted 5-4 to raise rent-stabilized leases by 3 percent for one-year terms and 4.5 percent for two-year terms.
Adams publicly urged restraint during that vote calling for a smaller 1.75 percent hike but ultimately defended the increases as necessary to keep buildings solvent.”
The plan was foreshadowed during this weeks final mayoral debate, when Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent, jabbed Mamdani for promising a rent freeze he couldnt deliver. You dont control the Rent Guidelines Board, Cuomo quipped, alluding to Adamss appointment powers.
Mamdani fired back that he would stack the board with his own allies, much as former Mayor Bill de Blasio did to secure multiple rent freezes during his tenure.
But if Adams fills the six vacant seats before leaving City Hall, Mamdani would be handcuffed from reshaping the board until midway through his first term. Of the eight non-chair members, two serve four-year terms, and the remaining six are split between two- and three-year appointments. The chair serves at the mayors discretion.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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