Ex-Giuliani deputy Randy Mastro drops bid to become NYC’s top attorney and rips council after brutal hearing
Randy Mastro has pulled his nomination to serve as the Big Apple’s top attorney — and ripped the City Council after a brutally long hearing that came after members seemed to have already decided not to give him the job, The Post has learned.
“New Yorkers have a right to expect more from their elected officials,” Mastro wrote in a letter to the mayor and obtained by The Post.
“But unfortunately, as much as I respect the City Council’s role and looked forward to representing it with the same professionalism and responsiveness as the rest of City government, I will apparently be denied that opportunity, based on a hearing that was anything but fair.”
The longtime lawyer’s bid for corporation counsel appeared to be an impossible task out of the gate — with council members lining up to oppose the nomination weeks before he was formally put forward.
Mastro, who formerly served as deputy mayor to Rudy Giuliani, tried to make the case to council members, pitching himself to them in closed-door meetings for weeks.
But after a nearly 12-hour council hearing last month, it was clear the Adams admin had nowhere near the votes to get Mastro confirmed.
“Council members grilled me for eight-and-a-half straight hours, reading speeches off of prepared scripts and trying to deny me the opportunity to respond,” Mastro wrote in his letter.
“So at the end of the day, I had a hearing, but most Council members weren’t listening,” he continued. “They’d already made up their minds for reasons unrelated to the merits.”
Council sources told The Post that they told the administration before the hearing that there was no chance that Mastro would make it through the nomination process.
“It’s unfortunate that politics has seeped into this process and, as a result, will deprive New Yorkers of one of the most qualified candidates for this office our city has ever seen,” Adams said in a statement, adding, “I want to thank Randy for his willingness to serve the city he loves and his time and effort over the last few months.”
Council Member Bob Holden (D-Queens) slammed his fellow lawmakers for how they handled the nomination, calling it “a politically motivated inquisition.”
“We lost an excellent opportunity to have one of New York’s top attorneys representing the city, and this spectacle was a disservice to New Yorkers who expect professionalism and fairness from their elected officials,” he said.
Mastro was first floated for the job in April as the relationship between City Hall and then-top attorney Judge Sylvia Hinds-Radix had soured.
Hinds-Radix had butted heads with the administration over a number of legal strategies, including how to handle the closing of Rikers Island and having the Law Department rep the mayor in a decades-old sexual misconduct suit.
The decision comes two days before the full council was set vote on the nomination of Mastro.
“From the outset, Council Members raised concerns about (Mastro’s) record and the ability to trust that he would be a lawyer for the Council and entire City. Mr. Mastro offered no real accounting or accountability for the areas of his record during the Giuliani Administration and afterwards that many found harmful to Black, Latino, and marginalized communities, while also showing him to be politically loyal,” Council spokesperson Julia Agos said in a statement.
“We look forward to working with the Administration to advance a nominee who is unifying rather than divisive, has the trust of all city elected officials, and can secure support from the Council.”
