Suit Reveals Texts Between Mamdani Administration, RGB

Discovery has begun in landlords’ lawsuit against New York, trying to show the city’s rental board engaged in a sham process.

That suit, filed after the city’s Rent Guidelines Board approved a rent freeze for one- and two-year leases for rent-stabilized units, has now revealed text messages and emails between members of that board and the Mamdani administration.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on a rent freeze in rent-stabilized apartments. Rent levels for those apartments are controlled by the board, which approved a freeze in June. Landlords are hoping to persuade a judge that the board’s vote for a freeze was a “sham process” with a “predetermined outcome.”

Randy Mastro, an attorney for the landlords, is arguing that the messages are “not only

substantial, but also shocking, in that they show coordination and collaboration throughout the

RGB’s process.”

The coordination and collaboration shown in the messages appear to mostly be logistical. The messages don’t refer to a freeze or a predetermined outcome.

The revealed messages come after Gothamist reported Wednesday that Mastro himself, in his previous role as first deputy mayor under Mayor Eric Adams, called the RGB chair last year to advocate that the board adopt an allowable rent increase on the lower end.

The communications revealed in the current suit do show frequent communication between RGB chair Chantella Mitchell and Arvind Sindhwani, a liaison to the board from the Mayor’s Office. Sindhwani frequently asked for details on the board’s public meeting and vote schedule and data from the board’s prospective reports, while Mitchell provided updates on who was set to testify at specific meetings. The two appear to have met or held calls to discuss the board’s data reports and invited speakers. Sindhwani also asked to be kept “in the loop” in order to coordinate with the communications team.

Mitchell also sent Sindhwani a draft of the board’s explanatory statement on June 16, before the deadline to submit evidence and testimony to the board. However, the draft, unlike the final version, did not include the order for a rent freeze.

Mitchell additionally shared with Sindhwani a draft version of her own statement that was presented at the final vote, although that written statement did not refer to freezing the rent or a specific rent level, only to the importance of preserving affordability in the housing stock.

Mastro elsewhere highlighted that Mamdani himself communicated with a newly appointed board member before his appointment was finalized. That board member, Brandon Mancilla, had already supported a rent freeze publicly.

But the messages provided between Mamdani and Mancilla appear to be only an introduction.

“Hi Brandon, this is my new work number — Mayor Mamdani,” the mayor appears to have texted.

“Hey Mr Mayor good to have it – Brandon mancilla,” Mancilla responded.

Mancilla asked if he should give the mayor a call, which Mamdani declined. The two exchanged pleasantries before Mancilla concluded the interaction.

“And appreciate the appointment. Honored to serve,” he texted.

Texts between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Brandon Mancilla

Another text exchange shows Mancilla communicating with Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. Weaver describes Mancilla’s public member on the board role as “critical” for the administration.

“Hi! As of right now – I think they want you to serve as public member, not

chair. That okay? (Probably easier for you tbh and still very very critical for us so please

say yes!!),” Weaver appears to have texted.

“I’m saying yes,” Mancilla responded.

Sindhwani later organized a group meeting with the prospective and soon-to-be-appointed or reappointed members, held the day before the appointments were publicly announced.

“While we are still finalizing final vetting and appointments process, we’d like to connect with you ahead of the scheduled announcement on Wednesday to prepare,” Sindhwani wrote in an email to one now-member of the board. “Would you be available Monday at 6 pm or Tuesday at 2 pm to meet with me and other prospective RGB members?”

Texts between Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants director Cea Weaver and Brandon Mancilla

The city previously said in court documents that the landlords’ “wild claims about the RGB process are baseless.”

City attorneys noted there were 101 emails between RGB Chair Chantella Mitchell and Sindhwani. But that compares to 228 emails between the chair and liaison during the Adams administration.

Gothamist reported Wednesday that Mastro confirmed he spoke with the previous RGB chair last year to advocate for a lower allowable rent increase.

“I have publicly acknowledged that then-RGB Board Chair Doug Apple and I had conversations at the end of the RGB’s process last year in which he informed me the board was going to propose rent guidelines with which Mayor Adams had publicly disagreed. I responded telling him why we disagreed with the board,” Mastro said in a written statement, reported by Gothamist. He added that there is a “world of difference” between that note of disagreement and what he called the Mamdani administration’s “sham process with a preordained outcome.”

Neither Mitchell nor City Hall immediately responded to a request for comment Thursday morning.