New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is building out a new city office that will pay more than a dozen activist-oriented staffers six-figure salaries — nearly $2 million in taxpayer money — to bring the Democratic Socialists of America’s grassroots mobilization model directly into City Hall, the New York Post reported.

The Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement is seeking to fill 14 positions, with job descriptions that read like a blueprint lifted from the NYC-DSA ground operation that helped propel Mamdani to the mayoralty. The roles include campaign directors, borough directors, community liaisons, and a deputy director of “co-governance” — a term drawn directly from DSA organizing philosophy.

“The Soviet politburo called, they want their job announcement back,” one Democratic strategist quipped to The Post.

The office will be led by Tascha Van Auken, a longtime DSA member who served as Mamdani’s field director during the mayoral campaign. Her commissioner salary exceeds $250,000. The office is broadly described as being responsible for “strategizing, coordinating, and executing on engagement that reaches the masses of everyday New Yorkers.”

Among the listings drawing the most criticism is the campaign director post, which pays between $140,000 and $150,000 and tasks the hire with developing strategy and metrics for “scalable campaigns” to drive New Yorkers to town halls, canvasses, and training events. Political insiders said the role is virtually indistinguishable from the work of a political campaign staffer.

“Why doesn’t the mayor just call it the ‘Director of Re-Election Political Get Out of the Vote Using Government Money’ and just get it over with?” one Democratic operative said.

The newly created deputy director of co-governance position, also paying $150,000, raised particular eyebrows. That hire will be responsible for building “interagency understanding of co-governance best practices” and training communities to “engage and drive mass governance projects and campaigns.”

The Post noted that the language closely mirrors a manifesto published last year by NYC-DSA co-chair Grace Mausser titled “Building Municipal Socialism in New York With DSA,” in which she wrote: “We have a model for winning mass campaigns; we have a model for true co-governance with legislators; now we will bring our experience to city hall.” Mausser explicitly called for the DSA to embed itself in the city’s political infrastructure.

The remaining positions include two deputy borough directors, three borough managers, three borough leads, two community liaisons, and two campaign managers. Borough leads carry the lowest salaries at $80,000 to $90,000. Borough managers would potentially represent City Hall during emergencies, including blackouts, fires, high-profile crimes, and infrastructure failures — a function critics said duplicates existing city roles.

“There are already people overseeing city services throughout the five boroughs: they’re called commissioners and deputy commissioners,” said Democratic strategist Ken Frydman. “Why would a ‘campaigns director’ be on the city payroll, paid for by taxpayers? Mamdani should pay the ‘campaigns director’ from his own campaign funds.”

The office has already drawn comparisons to former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s taxpayer-funded media operation, which produced more than 250 YouTube videos in its first two years using former campaign workers and was criticized as a vehicle for personal political promotion. Former President Barack Obama created a similar organizing apparatus to advance his policy agenda, but funded it through a nonprofit rather than putting staffers on the public payroll.

The new spending comes as Mamdani is pressing Albany for tax increases on the wealthy, citing a $5.4 billion city budget gap.

It is unclear whether the office will be capped at 15 total employees or whether Mamdani plans to expand it further. City Hall did not comment.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)