Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro says Council Speaker Adrienne Adams ‘misused her city position’

In a perfectly tidy and ethical world, elected officials who are running for political office would do their campaigning in a remote, vacuum-sealed bubble, far out of reach of the levers of power of their government offices.

In reality, it’s a lot messier than that.

On Friday, a top lieutenant of New York City Mayor Eric Adams (who is running for mayor) accused City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (who is running for mayor) of misusing her position by punishing colleagues who have endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (who is running for mayor). City & State first reported on Thursday that Council Members Selvena Brooks-Powers and Lynn Schulman were recently removed from the council’s powerful budget negotiating team after endorsing Cuomo in the mayoral race. Brooks-Powers, who had previously been a close ally and friend of the speaker’s, also had her seat in the council chamber moved. She used to sit directly next to Speaker Adams, but as of Thursday sat one seat over. A spokesperson for the speaker said only that the council’s leadership team had “lost confidence that these members shared their values.” As of now, Brooks-Powers remains the council’s majority whip and Schulman still chairs the council’s Health Committee.

But removing the two Cuomo-endorsers from the speaker’s trusted budget team crossed the line for Mayor Adams’ new first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro – for stated reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that Speaker Adams wants to replace Mayor Adams in 2026. “We are about to enter an extremely important budget negotiation, made even more challenging by recent federal cuts. And now Speaker Adams has fired two experienced council budget negotiators simply because they endorsed someone else for mayor besides her,” Mastro said in a statement. “The speaker has misused her city position for her own personal interest. This is not the way responsible parties should be conducting themselves.”

The City Council promptly fired back, criticizing Mastro’s own (waiver-approved) conflict of interest, and accusing him of trying to distract from the council’s fight against City Hall’s attempt to reopen an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Rikers Island. “If Randy Mastro wants to distract from that by turning the office of First Deputy Mayor into a political attack machine while representing special interests like (Madison Square Garden) – that’s fine,” council spokesperson Mara Davis said in a statement. “We’re not backing down. And we’ll pass on taking advice about council matters from an administration already on its fourth round of deputy mayors.”

How much does Mayor Adams and his team really care about missing the two members from the budget negotiating process? Or the fact that Brooks-Powers’ seat in chambers was moved two feet to the right? Mastro’s statement alludes to the moves by the speaker as wrong because the “appearance of impropriety” shouldn’t have a place in the budget process. 

But the action also struck some observers in the council as blatantly retaliatory. “For someone whose tagline in her campaign is no drama, it sure feels like every time you open up the news there’s new drama inside the City Council on her watch,” one council member told City & State on Thursday.

For Reinvent Albany's John Kaehny, Speaker Adams’ apparent act of political retribution doesn’t cross the line. “As a government watchdog, what we ask is how does an action affect the public and the public welfare, and how does it affect taxpayers? Does it break any law or rule?” Kaehny said. “It’s pretty far away from the line.” 

If the speaker retaliated in a way that affected the projects or funding for another member’s district, that might be different. A council member removed from the budget negotiating team could argue that they’ve lost a front-row seat to advocating for their district, of course.

Officially, New York City Conflict of Interest Law bars a public servant from using their position to “obtain any financial gain, contract, license, privilege or other private or personal advantage, direct or indirect.”

Plenty of elections are rife with blurred lines between government and political action, and the 2025 mayoral race is no exception. Government staffers frequently volunteer for their boss’s campaign – it becomes a problem when the staffer is ordered to do so, Kaehny said. And Mayor Adams and Speaker Adams aren’t the only candidates whose day jobs spill over to the campaign trail; Comptroller Brad Lander’s oversight role also affords him plenty of opportunity to criticize the mayor and then use it to his campaign’s advantage.

Mayor Adams is still finding that balance himself. He has at certain times tried to draw a distinct line between political and government work – refusing to answer questions about his involvement in presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign – and at other times pointed to work promoted as part of his official City Hall schedule as among his campaign activities.

“I can't get into this whole political stuff, because Fabien is going to have a fit,” Mayor Adams said last week, referring to Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy, when asked about his campaign fundraising. 

Asked minutes later about why he hasn’t been campaigning much, he pointed to activities like town halls that he’s long advertised on his mayoral schedule. “Give me your definition of campaigning,” Mayor Adams said. “Going to houses of worship? I do that. Going to town hall meetings? I do that. Going into the streets and (shaking) hands with people? I do that. Kiss babies? I do that.”

Is Speaker Adams’ retribution the messiest move we’ll see this campaign cycle? It’s only April.