{"id":349182,"date":"2026-09-17T11:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349182\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:02:10","slug":"judge-orders-city-hall-to-turn-over-communications-in-rent-freeze-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349182\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders City Hall to turn over communications in rent freeze lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">NEW YORK CITY (WABC) &#8212; A judge has ordered City Hall to turn over written communications between the Mayor&#8217;s Office and the Rent Guidelines Board that took place before the board approved a historic rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments last June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The order stems from a lawsuit filed by a group of landlords seeking to overturn the rent freeze. The landlords argue the board&#8217;s decision was the result of improper influence from Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani&#8217;s administration and claim the vote <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/post\/final-rent-guidelines-board-vote-thursday-east-harlem-increase-freeze-hanging-balance\/19378211\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fulfilled a campaign promise rather than an independent review of the data<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">According to court filings, the judge directed the city to produce &#8220;all written communication&#8221; between Jan. 1 and June 26, the day the board voted to freeze rents on one- and two-year leases for more than one million rent-stabilized apartments. Lawyers for the city had argued the communications were not necessary for the court to decide the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Randy Mastro, representing the landlords, said the records request &#8220;goes to the heart of our position that this was a sham process with a predetermined outcome&#8221; and argued communications between the mayor&#8217;s office and a board that is supposed to operate independently could be relevant to the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The city has denied allegations that it improperly influenced the board&#8217;s decision. The lawsuit, which was filed after the board approved the rent freeze in June, remains pending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The vote froze rents for both one-year and two-year leases for the city&#8217;s one million rent-regulated apartments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">*<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/newsletters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Get Eyewitness News Delivered<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">*  <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/new-york\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">More New York City news<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">* <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/7ny.tv\/submitnewstip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Send us a news tip<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">* <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/apps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">*<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/apps\/?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Download our connected TV app<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><br class=\" \"\/>Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? 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All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK CITY (WABC) &#8212; A judge has ordered City Hall to turn over written communications between the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[130522,98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-349182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-130522","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}