Mayor Adams is sticking with Randy Mastro.
Mastro, Adams’ controversial corporate counsel pick, passed a brutal confirmation hearing this week where his professional record was picked apart by a long line of city councilors – but the mayor confirmed on Friday that he will not 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. “It’s up to the city council, and after that we’ll make a decision about the next step in the process.”
Several council members have privately told the Daily News since Mastro appeared on his behalf confirmation hearing on Tuesday that he will all but definitely not be confirmed when the full body votes next month on his nomination to be corporate counsel, a post responsible for overseeing the city’s legal department and representing the mayor and other city employees in various legal matters.
It is one of the only posts in the municipal bureaucracy that the mayor cannot appoint without the consent of the council.
During the grueling, 11-hour confirmation hearing, Democratic members weighed in on Mastro’s history of working as a top official in Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration and defending various conservative causes in court as a private practice attorney. Many took particularly sharp issue with Mastro’s role in and defense of Giuliani’s Republican administration, which they claimed was “racist” and harmful to New Yorkers.
In an appearance on PIX11 later Friday, Adams argued that Mastro is an “extremely qualified” lawyer and cited support for his nomination from government veterans, such as former New York Gov. David Paterson and former corporate lawyers.
“We had a candidate who was extremely qualified,” he said. “And we shouldn’t sit back and say, ‘Well, let’s try to find a way to do something that’s frictionless.’ We should try to do what is right in the city – he was the right person.”
Dozens of the council’s 51 members pledged back in April, then it came first Adams considered 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 increased concern for Mastro and that his path to confirmation looks even darker now than it already did.
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