Mayor Eric Adams, Fined For Rats on His Property, Takes on City Hall - The New York Times

They accidental you can’t combat City Hall. But what if you are City Hall?

For Mayor Eric Adams, the question is not theoretical. On Tuesday, helium recovered himself successful a virtual tribunal hearing, engaged successful a detested ritual of New York City life: contesting a summons.

That the summons was astir the infestation of rats astatine a spot helium owns successful Brooklyn lone made the concern easier to subordinate to.

So soon aft hosting a quality league to present his caller archetypal lawman politician and main of staff, Mr. Adams dialed into a metropolis administrative tribunal to contention the determination by a metropolis wellness inspector to good him $300 for allowing rodents to overrun a spot helium owns successful Brooklyn.

He began by telling the proceeding serviceman — technically an worker of the metropolis and thus, of Mayor Adams — that helium was thing of an adept astir warring rats, giving a little statement of his efforts arsenic politician to combat the rat horde.

And arsenic a landlord, helium asserted that helium spent astir $7,000 successful March battling rats astatine the property, connected Lafayette Avenue successful Bedford-Stuyvesant, promising to email an invoice to beryllium it. He said that helium had adjacent deployed the infamous “Rat Trap” helium erstwhile showcased arsenic Brooklyn borough president, a grisly objection that progressive ladling drowned rats retired of a vat.

Finally, arsenic a citizen, helium noted however metropolis laws were “designed to penalize homeowners for failing to instrumentality steps to forestall and power rodents.”

“I took those steps,” helium added, “and volition proceed to bash so.”

The proceeding serviceman said helium would see the grounds and render a verdict wrong 30 days.

But Mr. Adams’s tangles with the Rattus norvegicus precede his mayoralty. During his tally for mayor, he told The New York Post that his puerility location was truthful overrun by rats that helium and his siblings decided to support 1 arsenic a pet.

Mr. Adams adjacent worked arsenic a transit constabulary officer, a breed of officers erstwhile known colloquially arsenic “tunnel rats.” And then, of course, determination was the nationalist objection of the caller rat-killing exertion helium said helium has since deployed astatine his ain home.

Now, during his archetypal twelvemonth arsenic mayor, Mr. Adams has made rats, and their eradication, a cardinal constituent of his argumentation agenda. Last week, helium announced the instauration of a caller job, “director of rodent mitigation,” a City Hall-based presumption that the occupation posting said volition beryllium filled by idiosyncratic with the “stamina and stagecraft” to termination a batch of rats.

But connected Tuesday, his rat concerns were much parochial. On May 10, astatine 3:03 p.m., a wellness inspector issued a summons to Mr. Adams for violating the wellness codification astatine the Lafayette Avenue property. In describing the violation, she wrote, “Active rat signs beryllium successful that caller rat droppings were observed adjacent the meters and adjacent the neighboring staircase astatine beforehand right.” The minimum penalty: $300. The maximum: $600.

Mr. Adams chose to combat City Hall successful a mode not suggested for non-mayors. First helium failed to respond to the summons, and past helium failed to look astatine the proceeding scheduled for that summons.

The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, the tribunal that adjudicates specified matters and is known arsenic OATH, recovered Mr. Adams successful usurpation of the summons by default.

New Yorkers tin contention specified findings by filing an online signifier that OATH rules accidental is simply a question to vacate default judgments. Instead of utilizing a backstage lawyer, Mr. Adams did 1 better: He had Rahul Agarwal, a lawman main counsel successful the mayor’s office, grip the matter. Mr. Agarwal filed a question to vacate connected the mayor’s behalf connected Sept. 8, according to an OATH authoritative and a transcript of the question that a metropolis authoritative shared with The Times.

In the motion, Mr. Agarwal says Mr. Adams archetypal learned astir the summons connected Sept. 1, due to the fact that helium present lives successful Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence connected the Upper East Side.

After the question was granted, a caller proceeding was scheduled for Nov. 10. Mr. Adams was again a no-show.

Mr. Agarwal stepped successful again.

“I americium really not appearing officially connected his behalf,” Mr. Agarwal said during that technically nationalist hearing, which was conducted by telephone and to which the hearings bureau gave The Times dial-in information. “But I americium appearing simply to petition an adjournment due to the fact that helium is unable, owed to scheduling issues, to marque today’s hearing.”

Fabien Levy, the mayor’s spokesman, said erstwhile Mr. Adams learned of the summons, his engaged docket prevented him from handling it himself. He declined to remark connected the usage of a City Hall ‌lawyer successful the proceedings, but to accidental that the politician had ever intended to correspond himself.

“Mayor Adams has made nary concealed of the information that helium hates rats — whether scurrying astir connected the streets oregon terrorizing gathering tenants,” Mr. Levy said. “He spent thousands of dollars to remediate an infestation astatine his residence successful Brooklyn earlier this year, and was blessed to look earlier OATH contiguous to authorities arsenic much.”

OATH adjudicates a wide scope of cases, including those involving worker subject and bureau summonses. The bureau has nary peculiar protocol erstwhile it comes to handling summonses issued to City Hall officials, but described itself arsenic a wholly autarkic entity, adjacent though Mr. Adams successful March appointed Asim Rehman arsenic OATH commissioner and its main administrative instrumentality judge. The proceeding serviceman who presided implicit the mayor’s lawsuit has lone constricted civilian work protection.

“OATH proceeding officers are professional, autarkic determination makers who bash not instrumentality into information who the idiosyncratic named connected the summons is, erstwhile issuing a determination successful a lawsuit that comes earlier them,” said Marisa L. Senigo, the office’s lawman commissioner for nationalist affairs.

The Lafayette Avenue spot owned by Mr. Adams drew attraction during the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary. As questions astir Mr. Adams’s superior residence grew intense, helium offered reporters a guided circuit of the building’s basement apartment, asserting that it was his superior residence.

On a rainy precocious Tuesday afternoon, the gathering appeared escaped of rats, but an adjoining spot had bags of trash piled up against a stairwell. The neighborhood, however, seemed good acquainted with rodents: The section councilman, Chi Ossé, took bureau successful portion connected a run committedness to “talk astir rats.”

Sean Piccoli contributed reporting.