New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on sweeping out the dust of corruption from the Adams administration. But government reform groups like Citizens Union and Reinvent Albany are worried the mayor left the windows open \u2013 and think he isn\u2019t doing enough to address systemic ethical threats, nine months in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have not advanced any new policies or laws to address long-standing, systemic corruption risks, and have done little to restore the strength of the city\u2019s internal watchdogs at the Department of Investigation or Conflict of Interest Board,\u201d reads a letter<\/a> sent to the mayor last week signed by leaders of seven good government groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s business as usual for New York City\u2019s lobbying industry, with no changes to the city\u2019s rules regarding contacts with employees\u2019 former clients,\u201d the letter adds, linking to City & State\u2019s coverage on how lobbyists are still feeling good about life in the Mamdani administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n The watchdogs are calling on the mayor to issue executive orders requiring administration officials to recuse themselves from matters related to former clients and bring back a de Blasio-era practice encouraging the disclosure of written COIB ethics guidance. They are also calling for the mayor to tie the budgets of DOI and COIB to a fixed percentage of either another agency\u2019s budget or the city expense budget to give the agencies more fiscal breathing room.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n