Heard Around Town

Zohran Mamdani has done a lot in his first year as mayor, but anti-corruption efforts haven’t been a focus. Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on sweeping out the dust of corruption from the Adams administration. But government reform groups like Citizens Union and Reinvent Albany are worried the mayor left the windows open – and think he isn’t doing enough to address systemic ethical threats, nine months in.

“You have not advanced any new policies or laws to address long-standing, systemic corruption risks, and have done little to restore the strength of the city’s internal watchdogs at the Department of Investigation or Conflict of Interest Board,” reads a letter sent to the mayor last week signed by leaders of seven good government groups. 

“It’s business as usual for New York City’s lobbying industry, with no changes to the city’s rules regarding contacts with employees’ former clients,” the letter adds, linking to City & State’s coverage on how lobbyists are still feeling good about life in the Mamdani administration.

The watchdogs are calling on the mayor to issue executive orders requiring administration officials to recuse themselves from matters related to former clients and bring back a de Blasio-era practice encouraging the disclosure of written COIB ethics guidance. They are also calling for the mayor to tie the budgets of DOI and COIB to a fixed percentage of either another agency’s budget or the city expense budget to give the agencies more fiscal breathing room.      

Mamdani’s “Commission on Government Efficiency” charter revision commission briefly touched on ethics and oversight in its final report but determined it was “beyond the scope of this Charter revision process,” and recommended future commissions to tackle the issue. 

City Hall spokesperson Dora Pekec defended the administration. “The Mamdani administration is deeply committed to transparency and was proud earlier this year to add $4.5M to DOI’s annual budget,” she said. While the city did increase its share of DOI’s budget for fiscal year 2027, overall spending is expected to be $4 million less than the previous year, due to a reduction in federal funds.