{"id":87738,"date":"2026-01-02T22:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/87738\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:57:10","slug":"adams-made-late-move-to-salvage-bid-to-block-mamdanis-rent-freeze-with-rent-guidelines-board-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/87738\/","title":{"rendered":"Adams made late move to salvage bid to block Mamdani’s rent freeze with Rent Guidelines Board pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his final hours as mayor, Eric Adams moved to install a new member on the city\u2019s Rent Guidelines Board<\/a>, seeking to revive his push to derail one of Mayor Mamdani\u2019s core campaign promises, the Daily News has learned.<\/p>\n

As of Friday afternoon, however, it was unclear if Adams\u2019 11th hour appointment would actually stick, with the fate of Mamdani\u2019s rent freeze promise hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n

The thorny issue dates back to mid-December, when Adams made four new appointments<\/a> to the RGB with the apparent goal of getting those members to block Mamdani\u2019s campaign pledge to freeze rents for the city\u2019s 2 million stabilized tenants.<\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 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<\/a> by the RealDeal.<\/p>\n

Adams found a workaround to Finn\u2019s withdrawal, though, sources familiar with the matter told The News on Friday.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday at some point before his mayoral term expired at midnight, Adams appointed Christie Peale<\/a>, the CEO of Center for NYC Neighborhoods, to take Finn\u2019s post on the RGB instead, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Peale\u2019s appointment would mean five of the board\u2019s nine members are Adams picks. Mamdani can\u2019t easily replace any Adams picks until their terms expire 2027 due to rules barring RGB appointees from being removed without cause.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signs executive orders during a press conference in Brooklyn on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo\/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s members support it.\u00a0The board convenes every summer to set the permissible rates landlords can increase rents by on stabilized apartments.<\/p>\n

However, Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said after web publication of this story that Peale hadn\u2019t as of late Friday afternoon formally accepted Adams\u2019 appointment to become an RGB member.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she doesn\u2019t accept, we can fill the position,\u201d said Pekec.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n

Peale and spokespeople for her declined to immediately comment Friday.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear where Peale stands on the issue of a rent freeze. Her organization<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Sources close to Mamdani said they\u2019re more optimistic about Peale than they were about Finn, citing her longstanding commitment to fight for affordability for both renters and homeowners.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends a press conference in Brooklyn on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo\/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)<\/p>\n

In 2017, Peale provided a quote for a press release from then-Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s office that praised his housing plan, which, among various other programs, touted he had secured rent freezes for the city\u2019s stabilized tenants in two of his four years in office. In her quote, Peale said her group \u201cstrongly 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a press conference Thursday night, Mamdani appeared unaware Adams had tapped Peale to the board. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make the appointment soon,\u201d Mamdani told Gothamist<\/a> when asked for an update on his plans for Finn\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

Mamdani \u2014 who promised on the campaign trail he would see to it that the RGB enacted 0% increases in each of the four years<\/a> of his first mayoral term \u2014 also said at the press conference he remains hopeful he\u2019ll be able to make good on his pledge despite any last-minute Adams appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his final hours as mayor, Eric Adams moved to install a new member on the city\u2019s Rent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,302,4048,36610,9,24,63,6205,15021,42213,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-87738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-city-hall","12":"tag-mayor-adams","13":"tag-mayor-mamdani","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-rent-freeze","18":"tag-rent-guidelines-board","19":"tag-rgb","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87738","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=87738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}