Mayor Eric Adams will pack the Big Apple’s rent board on the way out the door — and is mulling appointing a real estate, reality TV star pal to a seat — in a bid to foil Zohran Mamdani’s key “rent freeze” campaign promise, The Post has learned.
Hizzoner is planning to appoint at least six new members to the Rent Guidelines Board, completely remaking the majority of the nine-person board ahead of the socialist front-runner’s expected mayoralty, according to sources.
One of the candidates for those seats is Adams’ pal Eleonora Srugo, a reality TV real estate agent who nabbed her own Netflix show, “Selling the City,” sources said.
“It’s not about just freezing the rent,” one source said. “It’s making sure that landlords can afford to own rent-stabilized buildings. It’s about affordability. You have to be able to afford that, energy cost maintenance.
“You need these buildings standing up.”
Mamdani — a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the heavy favorite to win come November — has made freezing rent for the city’s roughly one million rent-stabilized units the cornerstone of his upstart campaign.
But the plan has been met with fierce opposition from the real estate community, arguing that capping rent increases on those apartments will lead to buildings falling into disrepair, citing the rising costs in the economy across the board.
“The mayor cares deeply about ensuring that his efforts to support working-class New Yorkers and promote the creation of as much affordable housing as possible continue beyond this administration,” said press secretary Kayla Mamelak. “As with any potential appointments, we would announce them if and when they are final.”
Mamelak, while not confirming the move, defended the mayor’s ability to appoint new members at any time.
A mayor can’t unilaterally enact a cap on the monthly costs landlords charge rent-stabilized tenants. But they have outsized influence over the RGB, which is made up of various mayoral appointees expected to represent the interests of the public, owners and tenants.
The last-minute move by Adams, who has repeatedly criticized the proposed freeze, would handcuff Mamdani when it comes to the makeup of the board for at least the first two years of the Democratic nominee’s hypothetical first term.
Of the eight members with set terms, two serve four-year terms, while the other six are split with two-year and three-year appointments. The ninth seat is held by the chair and serves at the pleasure of the mayor.
Currently, six members are serving on expired terms, some holdovers from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, and can be replaced at any time. A seventh appointee, who was appointed by Adams, is set to leave come Dec. 31.
The move was hinted to by independent candidate Andrew Cuomo in the final mayoral election debate this week, when the former governor took a shot at his socialist foe, saying it would be impossible for Mamdani to fulfill his promise about rent since he doesn’t control the board.
Adams handpicked members who raised the rent on stabilized units by 3% this year, though he publicly urged the board to take into account the high cost of living for tenants.
De Blasio exerted public pressure and sucessfully got the board to repeatedly enact rent freezes for stabilized apartments.
Mamdani has repeatedly pointed to an RBG report from early this year, claiming landlords of those buildings are raking in 12% in profits.
But that figure doesn’t paint the full picture, only capturing revenue after operating costs and fails to include what the owners have to pony up for mortgage payments.
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