After Vacation, Subpoena May Be in Mamdani’s Future

New York City councilmembers say failure to answer a raft of written questions they plan to send to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration will result in a subpoena, after denouncing the mayor for refusing to send a representative to answer for the bungled rollout of the city’s new tax on second homes. Councilmember Gale Brewer was among a group of lawmakers representing the Upper West Side and Staten Island who told reporters assembled outside City Hall ahead of Tuesday’s oversight hearing that if the administration dismisses lawmakers’ calls for accountability, the council will escalate its authority.The council will compel the administration to answer for its confusing and aggressive treatment of homeowners, which included a highly publicized list of all of the city’s residential property owners and notices that initially gave 17,000 homeowners one month to prove their residency in the city or face property surcharges starting at $40,000. While the mayor has said publication of the list was required by the state law that created the pied-à-terre tax, Ms. Brewer and Councilmember David Carr said Tuesday they could not find such an obligation in the law.Ahead of the hearing, Councilmember Kamillah Hanks endorsed Ms. Brewer’s readiness to compel the mayor to appear.Lawmakers would press the administration to take responsibility “by any means necessary,” Ms. Hanks told The New York Sun, emphasizing the need for the council to be “exacting” in order to rebuild public trust in response to the sloppiness of the rollout.“A PDF can’t answer follow-up questions,” Councilmember Frank Morano told reporters, referencing the written testimony the Department of Finance Commissioner Robert Lee submitted instead of appearing. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told the Sun on Monday that the testimony would reiterate the administration’s position that revenue from the additional property tax will be “essential to funding safer streets, cleaner parks, and other critical investments that New Yorkers across all five boroughs deserve.”The mayor’s office on Monday confirmed to the Sun that no representative would attend the oversight hearing, citing ongoing litigation over the rollout against the city brought by disgruntled homeowners, including Mr. Morano’s wife and father. That lawsuit seeks to block implementation of the surcharge, claiming harm caused by the city’s high-profile publication of homeowner data and failure to conduct basic vetting before issuing surcharge letters. A judge on New York’s Supreme Court briefly blocked the rollout before the city successfully appealed that order earlier this month. Mr. Morano was the architect of Tuesday’s joint hearing between the council’s Committee on Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation and Committee on Finance. The hearing was proceeding to allow homeowners the opportunity to speak directly to the council. Mr. Mamdani is spending the third week of August on vacation in upstate New York with family members.

After Vacation, Subpoena May Be in Mamdani’s Future

After Vacation, Subpoena May Be in Mamdani’s Future

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