Mayor Adams is sticking by Randy Mastro.
Mastro, Adams’ controversial corporation counsel pick, underwent a brutal confirmation hearing this week where his professional record was picked apart by a long line of City Council members — but the mayor affirmed Friday he won’t withdraw the nomination.
“We’re going to let the process play out … They’re going to vote,” Adams said on Fox5, referring to the Council. “That’s up to the City Council, and after that, we’ll make a decision on the next step in the process.”
Several Council members have privately told the Daily News since Mastro appeared for his confirmation hearing Tuesday that he all but certainly won’t be confirmed when the full body votes next month on his nomination to become corporation counsel, a post responsible for overseeing the city Law Department and representing the mayor and other city employees in various legal matters.
It is one of the only posts in the municipal bureaucracy the mayor can’t appoint without Council consent.
During the grueling, 11-hour confirmation hearing, Democratic members laced into Mastro’s history of working as a top official in Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration and championing various conservative causes in court as a private practice attorney. Many took took especially sharp issue with Mastro’s role in and defense of Giuliani’s Republican administration, which they argued was “racist” and detrimental to New Yorkers.
In an appearance on PIX11 later Friday, Adams argued Mastro is an “extremely qualified” lawyer and cited support for his nomination from government veterans, like former New York Gov. David Paterson and past corporation counsels.
“We had a candidate that was extremely qualified,” he said. “And we should not sit back and say, ‘Well, let’s try to find a way to do something that’s frictionless.’ We should try to do what’s right in the city — he was the right person.”
Dozens of the Council’s 51 members pledged back in April, when it first emerged Adams was considering nominating Mastro, that they would work to block any nomination of him.
A Council member familiar with internal negotiations told The News this week that Tuesday’s confirmation hearing only heightened concerns about Mastro and that his path to confirmation looks even bleaker now than it already did.
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