Mamdani’s Administration Scrambles On Key Appointment

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is scrambling to shore up support for a key appointment whose fate rests with the New York City Council — another twist in the mounting tensions between the mayor and the body of lawmakers meant to be a check on his power.

Mamdani’s team has been working behind the scenes to set up one-on-one meetings between Council members and his pick to lead the Department of Investigation, Nadia Shihata, according to four people with knowledge of the outreach granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The hope is the meetings will assuage lawmakers' concerns about her past political support for the mayor.

The administration’s overtures — which come just days before lawmakers are set to vote on the nomination next week — indicated to at least one Council member that the mayor and his staff are worried about Shihata’s path to confirmation for the DOI commissioner post.

“Otherwise they don’t call,” said Councilmember Gale Brewer, who was among at least four lawmakers who received offers to meet with Shihata.

The sudden obstacle for Shihata’s nomination lands in Mamdani’s lap amid a broader and increasingly pitched budget feud between Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin, as the mayor grapples with a $5.4 billion funding gap with few palatable options to close it. The tug of war over Shihata also comes as the Department of Investigation is probing allegations that a city employee was unlawfully fired for blowing the whistle on a romantic relationship between a high-ranking Mamdani appointee and her subordinate, an inquiry first reported by POLITICO.

The DOI commissioner plays a crucial role in probing city government by conducting audits and pursuing corruption cases against city employees suspected of graft — the latter kept the office especially busy during the tenure of former Mayor Eric Adams.

In February, Mamdani nominated Shihata, a former federal prosecutor whose experience at the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York’s public integrity section made her a logical pick for the job. However, the Mamdani team’s lobbying push comes after Shihata’s appearance at a Monday confirmation hearing where Council members grilled her on her independence from the administration.

Shihata donated $700 to Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral run and spent a day canvassing for his campaign. In addition, she has maintained a friendship with the mayor’s top legal aide, Ramzi Kassem, for more than two decades — and applied for the job after Kassem asked if she’d be interested.

Because the Department of Investigation is tasked with rooting out corruption in city government, including in the mayor’s office, Council members questioned Shihata on whether she could, as the agency’s commissioner, maintain independence from Mamdani given her political involvement and relationship with one of his top aides.

Shihata pushed back, saying she and Kassem are not close friends — and that her long experience in law enforcement has shown she pursues cases without regard for the subject of a particular probe.

“I have investigated people I have supported in the past,” she said at Monday’s hearing. “That has not affected my ability to investigate them and reach conclusions driven by the evidence of the law.”

The Council is expected to vote on Shihata’s nomination Thursday, giving Mamdani’s team a tight window to whip support for her. It’s unclear how widespread pushback to Shihata’s nomination is and whether it could seriously jeopardize her confirmation.

But overall, it is an unusual dynamic.

The Department of Investigation commissioner is one of the few top officials in city government whose hire requires Council approval. Typically, a DOI nominee sails through the confirmation process with little opposition.

The battle over Shihata’s confirmation is playing out against the broader backdrop of deteriorating relations between Mamdani and Menin. Earlier this week, the mayor accused the Council speaker of misleading New Yorkers by arguing his favored tax increases aren’t necessary to address a multibillion-dollar budget deficit this year. Mamdani even released a social media video in which he called out Menin by name for being “unrealistic,” a move that unnerved members of the body, including Council Finance Committee Chair Linda Lee, who called his jab “inappropriate.”

Menin, in turn, has been highlighting Mamdani’s threat to increase property taxes, which would soak middle-class homeowners across the city, including in politically potent Black communities in Brooklyn and Queens.

All of it together makes the DOI confirmation process just one more headache Mamdani has to deal with at a time when he’s scrambling to address a budget gap that has thrown a major wrench into his expensive policy agenda.

The Department of Investigation has gone without a permanent head since its former commissioner, Jocelyn Strauber, resigned in mid-January after she learned Mamdani was considering replacing her.

Brewer, who said she hasn’t made up her mind yet about whether to meet with Shihata or support her nomination, told POLITICO she remains frustrated that Mamdani didn’t retain Strauber — though it’s common for mayors to nominate their own pick for the job.

“She’s the only one who should be having this job,” said Brewer, a member of the Council’s Progressive Caucus who previously served as chair of the committee with jurisdiction over DOI. “This is a really important job, with all due respect to other jobs.”

A spokesperson for Mamdani declined to comment on the pushback against Shihata’s nomination and referred POLITICO to the mayor’s comments about Shihata and his “confidence in her integrity, in her independence and, frankly, in her track record where she has served for years holding those accountable who have flouted the law.”

In addition to Brewer, Councilmembers Oswald Feliz, Kamillah Hanks and Lynn Schulman were among the lawmakers approached by Mamdani’s staff about a meeting with Shihata, according to two people with direct knowledge of the entreaties. Feliz and Schulman declined to comment Friday, while Hanks confirmed she plans to meet with the nominee in the coming days.

“Everyone deserves to be heard,” Hanks said.

In a potentially worrisome sign for Mamdani’s team, Councilmember Tiffany Caban, a fellow democratic socialist, said at a private conference meeting after Monday’s hearing that she understands why there is concern about Shihata’s nomination, according to two people with knowledge of her remarks granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door session. Caban, a former public defender, said during the conference that she would ultimately vote to confirm Shihata, though, telling colleagues she believes she has the chops for the job. Caban declined to comment for this article.

Councilmember Elsie Encarnacion, a Progressive Caucus member, also voiced concern about Shihata’s nomination during the conference meeting, according to one of the people with knowledge of her remarks.

Encarnacion could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesperson for Menin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Council member, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Mamdani’s strategy, said it’s not unusual for a mayor to set up meetings between nominees and Council members. However, the member said such meetings usually take place before a confirmation hearing, not after, and suggested the timing indicates Mamdani’s team was caught off guard by the blowback.

“Doing this post-hearing is weird,” the member said.