An attorney hoping to overturn a rent freeze for tenants in roughly 1 million stabilized apartments is asking a judge to order top city officials and members of the Rent Guidelines Board to sit for interviews after communications they turned over to the court failed to produce clear evidence that they colluded to reach the decision not to raise rents.<\/p>\n
Attorney Randy Mastro, who served as a deputy mayor under previous Mayor Eric Adams, is representing a group of landlords suing to block the rent freeze for new two-year leases, which took effect Thursday. The landlords accuse the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board of conducting a \u201csham\u201d process meant to deliver on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s campaign pledge to \u201cfreeze the rent.\u201d They have asked a judge to block the freeze and require the board to vote again.<\/p>\n
The mayor appoints the members of the nine-person Rent Guidelines Board, but the panel is supposed to function as an independent body that considers data on landlord and tenant expenses and listens to public testimony before making its decision.<\/p>\n
The rent freeze took effect Thursday, Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
Manhattan Judge Brendan Lantry last week ordered 13 top city officials, including Mamdani, nine members of the Rent Guidelines Board and four board staff members to turn over email and text communications to Mastro and landlords who filed the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Mastro submitted several email and text communications as exhibits in the case Thursday. They largely show officials from the mayor\u2019s office coordinating with prospective members about their appointments to the board and confirming board meeting times and agenda items.<\/p>\n
In one text message exchange, Mamdani greets a new member of the board, Brandon Mancilla. In another, the director of Mamdani\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants, Cea Weaver, encouraged Mancilla to take a position on the board in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m saying yes,\u201d Mancilla responded to Weaver.<\/p>\n
Other messages show City Hall staff members arranging times to present a report on the \u201cTrue Cost of Living\u201d to the board \u2014 material the board had not considered as part of its data reviews in prior years. Another shows a board member invited the Mayor\u2019s Office of Equity and Racial Justice to give a presentation.<\/p>\n