Eric Adams’ Zombie Effort To Change Nyc Charter Roars To Life With First Public Hearing

NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ Frankenstein-like Charter Revision Commission is set to hold its first public hearing next week, giving the legally dubious entity an official platform even as questions remain about whether it will be able to propose changes to the city charter during Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tenure.

On his last day in office, Adams launched the commission and tasked it with studying whether to advance ballot referendum questions to allow for open primaries in local New York City elections. If approved by voters, such a change could make it harder for Mamdani to win reelection in 2029, as a broader, potentially more conservative pool of New Yorkers would get a say in that year’s Democratic mayoral primary.

The commission’s first hearing will take place Monday afternoon at the Midtown Manhattan law offices of Randy Mastro, Adams’ former first deputy mayor who’s hoping to do pro-bono legal work for the commission. A notice for the hearing is expected to appear Thursday in the City Record, the municipal government’s official journal. The notice, obtained by POLITICO ahead of its publication, says members of the public are welcome to attend, though they won’t be able to testify, with only commission members permitted to speak at the session.

“We welcome public input every step of the way,” said Kayla Mamelak, one of several former Adams aides serving on the commission. “We will take a thoughtful look at how we can continue to modernize city government and increase public involvement in our local democratic process.”

Plenty of questions remain about the practicality of Adams’ commission. The body has no municipal funding stream — Mamdani didn’t allocate money to it in his first city budget proposal — and any election-related ballot question it advances would need sign-off from New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a staunch Mamdani ally. Legal experts have also said the question of whether a former mayor can keep a Charter Revision Commission alive is so unusual that it’s likely to prompt a court case.

Still, with the first hearing penciled in, the commission is shaping up as a serious headache for Mamdani, who appears to have few legal options to abolish the panel outright. The commission’s creation was among several 11th hour actions Adams took on his way out of office to stymie Mamdani and his agenda. And its activation sets into motion a remarkable dynamic: Adams — despite being long gone from City Hall — can potentially exert his will over how local elections are administered moving forward.

A person with direct knowledge of Monday’s planned hearing said commission members are expected to discuss whether Mastro and his law firm, Dechert LLP, can under city law represent the panel on a pro-bono basis, given that Mamdani’s Law Department isn’t planning to do so. The person, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Mastro has been in communication with the Law Department about that issue.

At Monday’s meeting, members are also expected to discuss Mastro’s proposal to fund the commission with money raised from private sources. It’s not clear if Mastro has started raising funds yet, though POLITICO previously reported he tried soliciting cash in December from deep-pocketed business and real estate interests.

Asked about next week’s commission hearing, Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said Thursday that the Law Department “is currently reviewing this matter.”

In establishing the commission on Dec. 31, Adams’ administration said in a statement that the panel would “examine whether open primaries and non-partisan elections will make New York City’s municipal government more inclusive, accessible and democratic.” The idea was for the commission to quickly get to work on studying referendum questions so that they could potentially be added to ballots in this year’s New York elections.

The ramifications of allowing open primaries are significant. Beyond Mamdani, democratic socialists in general could have a harder time winning local elections under an open primary structure.

The charter commission in question is composed primarily of former Adams staffers and political loyalists.

One of them, Mamelak, said Wednesday that the former mayor’s first two charter revision panels proved effective on “delivering real results for New Yorkers” on housing development and public safety.

“This commission will be no different — we will review the entire City Charter and potentially put forth ballot proposals,” Mamelak told POLITICO. “We specifically intend to build on our predecessors’ work by reviewing a proposal to implement a non-partisan, open primary system for our local elections, like many other major cities in this country.”

Besides Mamelak, members of Adams’ zombie-like commission include Menashe Shapiro, his former deputy chief of staff; Peter Koo, a former official in his Community Affairs unit; and Gilford Monrose, his former faith adviser.

Though the commission is moving forward with a public hearing, legal experts have said there are ways for Mamdani to kneecap it.

For starters, two members of the body, including the chair, never filed the requisite paperwork by a Jan. 31 deadline, leaving two vacancies that Mamdani could ostensibly fill with appointees who could gum up the panel’s work. Adams also failed to name a vice chair or a treasurer, giving Mamdani another two picks who could help torpedo the operation.

Perhaps an even more serious threat for the commission is the fact that it will get nullified by default if five of its members resign. Mamdani hasn’t said whether he will try to convince members to resign, but Pekec affirmed in January that the mayor’s team was exploring ways to hamper it.

“The Charter Revision Commission is yet another ploy from the Adams administration to circumvent the voice of New Yorkers who elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor,” Pekec said at the time. “We’ll continue to review all available options.”

There’s also a more permanent potential fix in the works for Mamdani: State Sen. John Liu introduced a bill in mid-January that would allow him — and any other mayor around the state — to nix commissions created during a previous mayor’s lame-duck period. Liu dubbed that legislation, which remains pending, the Election-Related Requirements for Initiating Charter Commissions — or ERIC — Act.