In his final hours as mayor, Eric Adams moved to install a new member on the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, seeking to revive his push to derail one of Mayor Mamdani’s core campaign promises, the Daily News has learned.
As of Friday afternoon, however, it was unclear if Adams’ 11th hour appointment would actually stick, with the fate of Mamdani’s rent freeze promise hanging in the balance.
The thorny issue dates back to mid-December, when Adams made four new appointments to the RGB with the apparent goal of getting those members to block Mamdani’s campaign pledge to freeze rents for the city’s 2 million stabilized tenants.
Adams’ sabotage mission was hurled into doubt when one of his new RGB picks, Merril Lynch financial advisor Lliam Finn, declined the appointment on Tuesday, the day before Adams left office, a development first reported by the RealDeal.
Adams found a workaround to Finn’s withdrawal, though, sources familiar with the matter told The News on Friday.
On Wednesday at some point before his mayoral term expired at midnight, Adams appointed Christie Peale, the CEO of Center for NYC Neighborhoods, to take Finn’s post on the RGB instead, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Peale’s appointment would mean five of the board’s nine members are Adams picks. Mamdani can’t easily replace any Adams picks until their terms expire 2027 due to rules barring RGB appointees from being removed without cause.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signs executive orders during a press conference in Brooklyn on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
That breakdown on the board could mean Mamdani will have a hard time convincing the RGB to enact a rent freeze this year, as such a move can only happen if a simple majority of the panel’s members support it. The board convenes every summer to set the permissible rates landlords can increase rents by on stabilized apartments.
However, Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said after web publication of this story that Peale hadn’t as of late Friday afternoon formally accepted Adams’ appointment to become an RGB member.
“If she doesn’t accept, we can fill the position,” said Pekec.
If Mamdani gets to fill the Peale post, his appointees could make up a majority this year, as there are four other seats he can already name picks for, including the board’s chair.
Peale and spokespeople for her declined to immediately comment Friday.
It’s unclear where Peale stands on the issue of a rent freeze. Her organization provides legal assistance and other services for low-income homeowners in the city with the goal of ensuring New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet, especially in Black and Latino communities, do not end up in foreclosure.
Sources close to Mamdani said they’re more optimistic about Peale than they were about Finn, citing her longstanding commitment to fight for affordability for both renters and homeowners.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends a press conference in Brooklyn on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
In 2017, Peale provided a quote for a press release from then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office that praised his housing plan, which, among various other programs, touted he had secured rent freezes for the city’s stabilized tenants in two of his four years in office. In her quote, Peale said her group “strongly supports innovative models that ensure permanent affordability, such as community land trusts, that can protect homeowners and their renters from the volatility of the real estate market.”
At a press conference Thursday night, Mamdani appeared unaware Adams had tapped Peale to the board. “We’re going to make the appointment soon,” Mamdani told Gothamist when asked for an update on his plans for Finn’s seat.
Mamdani — who promised on the campaign trail he would see to it that the RGB enacted 0% increases in each of the four years of his first mayoral term — also said at the press conference he remains hopeful he’ll be able to make good on his pledge despite any last-minute Adams appointments.
“I continue to be confident that the Rent Guidelines Board will assess the landscape for tenants of rent-stabilized units across the city and find that they are in dire need of relief,” he said. “What we have seen in the last year is that they found that while the profits of landlords of rent stabilized units went up by 12%, the median household income for those same tenants was $60,000 a year.”