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Mayor Adams is in the Dominican Republic, so his controversial deputy is running NYC
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Apr 14, 2025
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Mark Sagliocco / Getty Images for National Geographic
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Apr 14, 2025
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Newly appointed First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro is in charge of New York City’s government for two days as Mayor Eric Adams travels to the Dominican Republic to honor the victims of a deadly nightclub collapse in the Caribbean nation’s capital.
The city charter empowers the first deputy to temporarily take the reins at City Hall whenever the sitting mayor is out of town. Adams said he was taking the trip to express condolences for the more than 200 people killed in the disaster, and was scheduled to return Tuesday.
“New York City has the largest Dominican population outside of the Dominican Republic,” he said in a video posted on social media Sunday. “It’s important to show our support.”
A spokesperson for Adams confirmed Mastro — whose bid to be the city government's top attorney failed last year amid pushback by lawmakers — is acting mayor while Adams is abroad.
An estimated 1.2 million Dominicans lived in the New York metro area as of 2020, according to CUNY’s Dominican Studies Institute, which has called the city the “hub of the Dominican population in the U.S.” Adams’ office said Friday that city Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, who was born in the Dominican Republic, would travel with the mayor.
Adams appointed Mastro as first deputy mayor less than a month ago, after four of Adams’ deputies stepped down following allegations by a former federal prosecutor that the mayor planned to assist with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda in exchange for the U.S. Department of Justice dropping his criminal corruption charges.
Adams denied the charges and the accusations of an improper bargain. A federal judge in Manhattan dismissed the case in early April, saying he could not compel prosecutors to pursue it and that continuing the case “would create the unavoidable perception” that Adams’ freedom depended on his carrying out Trump’s immigration priorities.
Last year, Adams nominated Mastro to serve as the city’s corporation counsel, or top lawyer. But he soon withdrew from consideration after a confirmation hearing where members of the City Council grilled him on his record as a former top aide to Mayor Rudy Giuliani and attorney with several controversial clients, including oil giant Chevron and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
In a statement at the time, Julia Agos, a spokesperson for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, said Mastro’s nomination reflected “unnecessary conflict and divisiveness” at City Hall. “His withdrawal letter demonstrates why so many lacked trust that he would be a suitable lawyer for all city officials, rather than just for the mayor," she said.
Unlike the corporation counsel position, Mastro’s appointment as first deputy mayor did not require Council approval. He replaced Maria Torres-Springer, who was one of the four aides to resign in the fallout of the alleged quid pro quo between the mayor and Trump administration.
Adams has already deferred some of his powers to his new appointee. Last week, Mastro issued an executive order in Adams’ stead that allows federal immigration officials to work out of offices on Rikers Island for the first time in a decade. Politico reported that the mayor had Mastro issue it to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest over Adams’ corruption case.
Trips out of town by previous mayors have stirred controversy. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio was campaigning for president in Iowa in July 2019 when Manhattan’s West Side experienced a sprawling power outage. In 2010, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on vacation in Bermuda when a blizzard buried the city in snow.
Elizabeth Kim contributed reporting.
Tagged
new york city
Politics
eric adams
dominican republic
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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