Randy Mastro is a bad pick for NYC’s top lawyer

As soon as it was reported that Mayor Adams is considering nominating Randy Mastro to serve as New York City’s corporation counsel, I was shocked and outraged.

As CEO of Housing Works, a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, I’ve seen firsthand how vindictive and uncaring Mastro can be toward vulnerable New Yorkers. And I’m not alone: Mastro’s uniquely toxic career, from his time as a high-ranking Giuliani administration official to his subsequent corporate work, has already prompted the City Council’s LGBTQ Caucus and Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus to oppose his nomination.

Housing Works’ experience shows clearly why Mastro cannot be allowed to serve in this critical public role.

In the 1990s, while HIV/AIDS devastated New York City at now-unthinkable levels, Mastro served as chief of staff and later deputy mayor to Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In response to our city, state, and federal elected officials largely neglecting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I co-founded Housing Works with other members of the housing committee of ACT UP NY. Housing Works’ mission was, and continues to be, to end the twin epidemics of HIV/AIDS and homelessness.

We also committed to continuing our relentless advocacy while providing essential services, like health care, dignified housing, and syringe exchange services.

When Giuliani attempted to cut and restrict essential services and benefits for low-income people with HIV and AIDS, Housing Works used demonstrations and litigation to instead call for improvements to the city’s critical HIV/AIDS Services Administration.

In response to our heartfelt advocacy, Mastro orchestrated a campaign against Housing Works that was so malicious that two federal court decisions found it to be “vindictive and retaliatory.” As part of this campaign, the Giuliani administration terminated contracts with Housing Works that provided housing and other essential services to more than 200 individuals and families living with HIV. It didn’t stop there: The Giuliani administration also prevented our agency from securing any additional funding under municipal, state, or federal grants.

The city eventually paid $4.8 million to settle our lawsuit, asserting facts the federal court found were sufficient to support our claims that the Giuliani administration “acted with vindictive and retaliatory motives because of Housing Works’ vigorous First Amendment activities.” Significantly, had the case not settled, the court found that Housing Works “had alleged facts sufficient to support intentional conduct” by individual plaintiffs, including Mastro, that might leave them liable for punitive damages.

The New York Times reported at the time that we were but one of “a series of settlements, including a limousine driver, a police inspector and a jail warden, who said that senior officials in the Giuliani administration illegally retaliated against them for criticism.”

More recently, Mastro and his corporate law firm have opposed Housing Works in two cases against landlords who discriminated against tenants utilizing housing vouchers. Unsurprisingly, Mastro represented landlords who engaged in discriminatory conduct. Fortunately, we successfully asserted the rights of these potential tenants, but New Yorkers deserve better than a hired gun unconcerned by the impacts of his actions on the public.

Mastro’s toxic record against the public’s interest is not limited to New York. He also served as an attorney for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the “Bridgegate” scandal, in which the former governor was accused of orchestrating traffic congestion on the George Washington Bridge as political retaliation. Mastro also represented Chevron, helping the company avoid a billion-dollar judgment in a pollution case against the Ecuadorian government despite evidence of environmental damage.

Mastro’s involvement and tactics in these cases, from spitefully undermining Housing Works to defending environmental exploitation, raise serious concerns about his ethics and integrity.

The public must also question why Adams would revert back to the Giuliani administration for recruitment choices. The current corporation counsel, Sylvia Hinds-Radix, is stepping down, reportedly due to clashes with Adams administration officials. The mayor and his administration are struggling to govern while contending with several significant legal challenges, from a sexual harassment allegation to the ongoing investigations into his campaign’s fundraising.

The corporation counsel has a Charter-mandated responsibility to act as the chief legal officer of the City of New York, representing dozens of city agencies and the hundreds of thousands of municipal workers they employ. This official is not appointed to be an attack dog for the mayor’s personal legal woes and vendettas.

Throughout his career, Randy Mastro has shown a shocking disregard for the public’s interests. Our representatives in the City Council must do their duty and reject Mastro’s nomination should it come to before them.

King is the co-founder and CEO of Housing Works.