Mamdani’s rent-freeze meddling crossed the line — and these texts prove it

On Thursday, the day Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze took full effect, the property owners suing to overturn it revealed some startling evidence.

Their attorneys released hundreds of texts and emails that top Mamdani aides exchanged with members of the Rent Guidelines Board, which the court forced the city to produce.

Mamdani ran explicitly on delivering 0% rent adjustments on rent-stabilized apartments for four consecutive years.

The power to set stabilized rents rests wholly with the RGB — not the mayor.

Yet Mamdani promoted his signature promise with various social-media stunts, including a New Year’s Day polar plunge off Coney Island.

He vowed to appoint only RGB members who understood landlords are “doing just fine.”

After taking office, he named six of the board’s nine members, including Chair Chantella Mitchell.

Mamdani then started repeatedly referring to the RGB as an “independent board” — a tacit admission that City Hall has no business meddling in its deliberations.

Even as he touted the board’s independence, however, at least eight top administration officials were communicating with RGB members and staff, according to the evidence produced in court.

Chief among them was Arvind Sindhwani, deputy chief of staff to Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg, who was in touch with the RGB more than 100 times — with Mitchell as his main contact.

On Feb. 28, Sindhwani asked the RGB chair to move the date of the board’s preliminary vote from April 30 to May 7.

Days later, Mitchell reported that “all members are good for 5/7,” and the vote occurred on that date.

On March 9, Sindhwani asked to review the list of speakers and groups invited to testify before the board.

He asked Mitchell to discuss it with him before she finalized the list, and she kept him updated.

Why would an independent board run its speaker list past City Hall?

Then on June 16, the public’s last day to submit testimony and hours before the final public hearing, Mitchell emailed Sindhwani a draft of the board’s explanatory statement — which wound up being essentially the same as its final statement.

In other words, the board’s findings were written before all the testimony was received.

Meanwhile, Mitchell offered special treatment to the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice, allowing it to submit additional evidence beyond the June 16 written-testimony deadline.

She asked to receive the office’s written testimony by June 19, but it didn’t even submit its materials on the “True Cost of Living” until June 24 — the day before the vote.

A truly independent RGB wouldn’t need such extensive collaboration with the mayor’s team.

After all, the board has its own budget and its own staff, including an executive director and two full-time researchers.

Its legal structure is designed to shield it from political pressure, to ensure its decisions balance the interests of owners, tenants and the public at large.

The mayor may appoint the members, but he can only remove them for cause (except the chair, whom he can fire at will).

The city’s administrative code requires the RGB to weigh operating costs, property taxes, financing, vacancy rates and other economic factors.

The idea is to set increases that give owners enough capital to keep buildings in good repair and assure tenants they won’t face dramatic rent hikes, while accounting for broader economic conditions.

Mamdani ran on a promise to turn that careful balance into a sham process that he controlled.

Christina Smyth, an Eric Adams appointee who resigned from the RGB in protest the morning of the vote, called this year’s deliberations “theater.”

The record, she wrote, was “being built to fit a decision that was made before the first hearing was held.”

These court documents back her up.

In the end, the RGB never explained why a freeze was justified.

Its explanatory statement lists data, studies and testimony — but doesn’t offer a rationale for setting a 0% increase despite mounting owner costs.

A biased, prejudged and unreasoned decision shouldn’t receive the deference that courts usually give administrative bodies.

If the court allows the freeze to stand, mayors will control future rent adjustments.

Left-wing mayoral candidates will promise rent freezes until the owners of rent-stabilized buildings go bankrupt, placing the privately owned regulated housing stock at grave risk.

Instead, the court should invalidate the rent freeze and order the RGB to produce a new decision — along with a written rationale justifying whatever increase it adopts.

Doing so would restore the board’s lawful independence and ensure that future rent adjustments rest on evidence and reason, not on campaign promises the law doesn’t allow a mayor to keep.

John Ketcham is director of cities and a legal policy fellow at Manhattan Institute. MI is funding DiFiore Realty LLC’s intervention in the rent-freeze lawsuit and has sought leave to file an amicus brief.