The legal fight over New York City’s first-ever two-year rent freeze for roughly 1 million stabilized apartments grew heated Tuesday as the city’s top attorney threatened to call his adversary former First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro to the witness stand, and as Mastro asked the judge to grant him more access to city officials’ phones.
New York City Corporation Counsel Steven Banks raised the possibility of questioning Mastro under oath after Mastro – who now represents a group of landlords attempting to overturn the rent freeze – argued that City Hall’s communications with the board responsible for the rent freeze decision were “not normal” and evidence of an influence campaign.
“The allegations that Mr. Mastro is the arbiter of what is normal is going to result in us asking for a hearing to examine Mr. Mastro about what was normal during his tenure as the first deputy mayor and the contacts between his administration and the [Rent Guidelines Board],” Banks told Manhattan Judge Brendan Lantry…